From the Rector

On 23^rd November following on from the ITT Remembrance Service earlier in the month I attended the Mount Seskin Community College Remembrance Service remembering past staff and students.

We held our annual Christmas Sing Along on Friday 2^nd December. The evening was a great success; we opened the evening with one of our Indian children playing the piano and closed with an African child parishioner also playing the piano. In between we were entertained by our own Music Group, the ICA Choir, ‘Now and Then’ and a new addition to the line up, the Dominican Active Men’s Social (DAMS). Now and Then performed some of the numbers from their up coming production of The Messiah, which will be performed in The Priory, Tallaght, in the week before Holy Week. We had our usual mince pies, wine, tea and coffee along with a gift stall and raffle. The evening was well attended with numbers up on last year. Thank you to Ronnie Scott and all his helpers for all their work in organising the evening a good night was had by all and people were home in time to watch the Toy Show on RTE+1!

The following evening we were delighted to welcome the Leinster Singers for their annual Christmas Concert, they were joined by three pupils from Alexandra College and the CIE Male Choir. The concert was followed by refreshments in our small hall where the participants and the audience had a chance to meet.

I was invited as a guest to the South Dublin Chamber of Commerce Christmas lunch on 9^th December. I am very grateful to the Chamber who managed to find warehouse space for us to sort out the Christmas Shoe Box Appeal this year. I’m delighted to say we were up a third on the number of Shoe Boxes donated this year to 3,500 for the area.

We have a ‘Christmas’ Tree of Angels in the church yard (our common graveyard is used by the local community). Mark Luttrell and his daughter Melisa (who lost a baby through miscarriage) are raising awareness for the need to have a means to remember those have had infant loss, people can come to the churchyard and hang a little angel in memory of their lost loved one. Mark and Melisa set up ‘Light Up the Sky’ to help families talk about babies who died and to remember them. Christmas is a happy time but for some people, who have suffered loss, it is a time tinged with sadness.

On 11^th I attended St. Martin de Porres 40^th anniversary Mass and former priests lunch. St. Martin’s in the Aylesbury area of Tallaght was originally Dominican but was handed over to the Diocese around the time I arrived in St. Maelruain’s. It was a lovely chance to meet up with former priests of the parish over lunch.

As we go to print we would like to wish parishioner Canon Patrick Comerford every blessing as he takes up new positions as both Director for Education and Training in the Diocese Limerick and Killaloe and also Rector of Rathkeale Group of parishes in the New Year.

There was a very interesting programme on RTE 1 on 14^th December ‘Miss Nigeria Ireland and me: Reality bites’ which will be available on the RTE Player until Friday 13^th January. The programme looks at the return to Nigerian of a young man who grew up in Ireland returning to his roots whilst exploring the Miss Nigeria competition (not unlike our Rose of Tralee) and life in Nigeria. I found it very insightful with regard to the comparison of Nigerian church practice to the Irish experience of church.

May all the readers of the Church Review have a happy and healthy 2017.

God bless William.

Mother’s Union

On November 14^th Amy gave us a very interesting talk on her experience of walking the Camino in the summer. She brought along her rucksack packed for her walk and had carried it each day rather than have it delivered to the next destination. Contrary to what you might think Amy said she had found it liberating to carry her rucksack from place to place and not be reliant on anybody else. They reached their destination by early afternoon each day as they started early in the morning to avoid the intense heat of the mid day sun, having started later in the morning the first day and found the heat too much by early afternoon. When they finally reached Santiago de Compostela on the final day they were all delighted but still had about hour to go to reach the cathedral which is the final destination of all the pilgrims on the Camino. We would like to thank Amy for taking the time and trouble to give us a most interesting talk and maybe encourage some of us to take to the high road of the Camino.

Our pre- Christmas night was a trip to Tallaght Leisureplex for ten pin bowling. This was a great success and we had great fun with some of us being more successful than others! We had a good few bowlers and a few people joined us for supper afterwards. With all the exercise we had worked up an appetite and we had a lovely supper of various finger foods and some festive sweet treats. All in all we had a great night's fun and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. So thank you to everyone for coming along and making a most enjoyable evening.

Boys Brigade

The Boys Brigade finished up for the Christmas holidays on Friday 16^th December with some festive fun in Leisureplex. We will be starting back on Friday 20^th January at the usual times. We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Bowls Club

We are busy with our club competitions and our league matches and well done to the Hope and Miller who are into the next round of matches. We thank Ann Kane for organising our Bowling Club dinner in Lucan Golf Club .

  

Whist Drive

The January Whist Drive takes place on Monday 16^th  in the Small Hall, all welcome!

Crafty Chatters

We will be returning on  3rd Tuesday in January which is the 17th from 2 to 4pm.   Wishing everyone a very Peaceful, Healthy and Happy 2017.

Bible Study

Bible study of the reading for the following Sunday continue on Tuesday evenings at 8.00pm upstairs, Parish Hall.

Parish Coffee Morning

Happy New Year to one and all!  We must record our special thanks for all the support, generosity, and kindness we have received from everyone.  Thank you so much!  We look forward to seeing everyone back with us again for the first of our 2017 Coffee Mornings.  We meet on Friday, 27th January 2017, 10.30am to 12.30pm in the old hall.  All welcome to join us for a cuppa and a chat.