Ballybay Monaghan Ireland

Three St. Brigid and two Latton Ladies footballers will be in action on Saturday next for the Ulster Schools side at an Inter-provincial tournament in Kinnegad. St. Brigid’s trio Lorna Mc Guirk, Jayne Drury and Michaela Linden will be joined by Latton duo Jane Duffy and Ciara Mulligan. All five girls have come through a series of trials to make the provincial squad.

It has been brought to the attention of the Ballybay news that a number of election posters in the town are poorly located. Some are at very low level while others are obstructing the new heritage banners. One local commented, “I see they are quick to put them up with no consideration as to where they put them. I hope they are as quick to take them down”.

Dolores and Katie Maguire are delighted with the response for clothing and sleeping bags for homeless charities ‘Friends Helping Friends’ and the ‘Simon Community’. The girls have delivered all to Dublin and the charities have asked that their thanks be passed on to everyone who donated. They now have enough clothing and sleeping bags for the foreseeable future and have requested no more donations until later in the year. Dolores and Katie would like to thank everyone who was so kind.

The Pearse Brothers Dinner Dance will take place on Saturday 1st February in the clubhouse. On the night the club will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1969 county final victory. On the night there will be a mass for the deceased members in St. Patrick’s at 6-30pm and following that the presentation evening will commence. On display on the night will be the American Cup, the trophy presented to the county champions 50 years ago. The Owen Ward Cup medals for 2019, reserve league division two medals along with the Senior and Reserve player of the year awards will all take place. The AGM will take place the evening before (January 31st).

On the 27th December a group of lads from Latton played a charity match with all the proceeds being donated to the Ballybay Cancer Society. The amount raised was €3506. On behalf of the Ballybay Cancer Society Sally Mc Aviney received the cheque. Speaking at the presentation Sally said, "On behalf of Ballybay Cancer Society a big thank you to Shane Coyle, Hugh McElroy, Christina Weldon and all involved in yet another fantastic fundraiser for our society, it is community efforts like this which helps us to continue helping people as best we can so thank you to all who took part and supported this event".

Voter registration and Information event - see PDFhere >>

Over the last few weeks a number of heritage banners have appeared in Ballybay. These banners carry old pictures of Ballybay and the words ‘Ballybay Heritage’. The banners are the brainchild of Rory Mc Atavie who also sourced the funding and arranged for their production and erection. Rory has a wealth of research on Ballybay and for years had been toying with the idea of sharing a little of it. He made an application to the Town and Villages Renewal Fund and secured €3000 for his banner proposal. Ten different banners were produced and over the next few months the Ballybay News will provide the backstory to each of the images used. Speaking about the project Rory said, “This project would not have been possible except for the hard work and efforts of a number of people. I would like to thank each and everyone of them. Paddy Rutledge from the Ballybay Heritage group provided the pictures and some of the research. Fiona Mulligan at Monaghan County Council helped with the funding process. The banners were made by Coyles in Carrickroe. The banner supports were made by Ivan Armstrong from Armstrong Engineering. The banners were erected by Padraig Lennon. The overall project cost €3165 and the €165 above the grant was kindly paid by Martin Gleeson and Olivia Duffy from Ballybay Tidy Towns. A massive thanks is due to each and everyone of them”.

It is with deep sadness that we report the death of Sr Francis Levett, Sacred Heart Convent, Ballybay and late of Lewisham, London, Wimbledon and St John Fisher Parish, Merton, London which took place on Thursday 9th January 2020. The friendly nun was 104 years old and died peacefully at St Anne’s Nursing Home, Ballybay. Her funeral mass took place in St. Patrick’s last Monday and she was buried in the adjoining graveyard afterwards.

Over the weekend the new changing facilities at Loch Mor were vandalised. Muckno Triathlon Club who have invested a lot of time and money into the facilities are very disappointed that a few mindless youths have caused the damage to the changing rooms which were used by numerous groups. If anyone is aware of who the culprits are could they either contact the local Garda or private message Muckno Triathlon Club.