Village Green Gardening Club

The 2007 gardening year got off to a blooming great start in the Village Green Garden Club, with a talk on trees by Sally McCaffrey who runs a nursery in Calverstown.

Sally who is well known to those who frequent the Saturday Farmers market in Naas for her wonderful specimens of trees, shrubs and wonderful varieties of hard to get flowers, talked to the club about her ten top trees.
Sally's brief was to keep both the small and large garden in mind and this she did admirably with many wonderful suggestions for trees and how to cultivate them and prepare the ground. Most importantly she steered away from trees which would swamp a small garden or even undermine paths and house foundations.
It was a wonderful night and everyone went home with lots of fruit for thought.

The March meeting will feature Frances MacDonald talking about 'Stealing from the Garden'. Not it’s not an invitation to a life of crime but Frances has some great thoughts on how you can adapt other people's ideas to enhance your own garden. The Talk starts as usual at 7.30 sharp and will be followed by tea, coffee and edibles and a chance to talk with the guest speaker.

Mr. Patrick Dunne, late of Broadleas Commons was a Teacher and Head Master of Ballymore Eustace School for many years. His wife Catherine taught in Hollywood School for many years also. They had one son, Dr. Willie Dunne, who died on 30th July 1918, when the area was plagued by Spanish Flu. Both Mr & Mrs Dunne died on Good Friday 1922. They left their estate in Broadleas Commons to their niece Mrs. Eleanor Dunne, mother of the late Paddy O’Neill, Broadleas. Their house property in Ballymore Eustace was left to their other niece, Mrs. Cis Doherty. In 1918, when Dr. Willie Dunne died, his Mother and Father donated a beautiful marble altar and tabernacle dedicated to his memory, located on the left hand side of Ballymore Eustace church. The same tabernacle can be seen today in the church in Ballymore Eustace. It would be nice to know what happened to the donated altar. I don’t think marble is easy to burn… The Dunne Family are buried in Hollywood Cemetery.

Barbara O’Neill
Broadleas

POETRY CORNER if you would like to submit a poem, please email ballymorebugle@eircom.net or drop it into the Notes Box in Elizabeth Hair Salon
or at the Resource Centre


MEMORIES OF THE RIVER
Recently I went for a stroll in Ballymore, down Kellys lane
along by the stream to the banks of the river Liffey,
following the path through to Dorans Park, my favorite spot by the river.
I sat on the bank recalling with nostalgia the happy childhood days I spent there, during the summer holidays, with my friends.

We played in the river, splashing each other
laughing and shouting, we had such fun. We tried to swim and
believed we could, but none of us knew how,
A good thing the waters were shallow and none of us drowned.
We thought we were great sunbathing and swimming
with our sunburnt faces…it was our Riviera

I hope the children in the village these days
enjoy the river in the same carefree way.
I heard Dorans Park has been sold, could it come to pass
that one day I will go there and see a big sign
saying PRIVATE NO ENTRY?

Fishing on the river was another great pleasure
many a late evening I spent there with my brother Dan and cousin Dan
watching them casting their lines and patiently awaiting a bite,
no talking, no noise, silent and still, not to frighten the fish,
what joy when they would reel in a big trout,
more often then not it was a little sprat.

I would sit on the river bank gazing across to Mount Cashel,
the sun setting behind the trees, casting a red hue across the sky
reflecting on the river, giving it a bright red glow.

- Teresa Murphy Tsouros


MAN, THE MASTER MIND
Achill, Israel, Eire,
Blots with their contours melting.
Marginless, timeless, season changing clay,
Mountains not risen in a day,
Picturesque, rugged, sober or serene,
Mystical, beautiful, barren or green,
Wet winds, rock splitting suns never setting,
Northern lights – a dichotomy of dawn.


But man has come to torture the earth.
He walks its fields and surveys for a post;
He rules nature’s rivers and draws men apart
And holds them to their loyal honour
That they’ll culture a greener envy,
Grow a stronger hate.
And the world is left with a stubble of love,
A stunted effort to overcome.
Man has hedged the tangled earth
But left the thistles tall.

- Free FitzG.


RAGUSA
To all you noble sporting fans a story I will tell
About this Mullions family I am sure you all know well.
They own a stud at Ardenode and more across the sea
And won the Irish Derby here in 1963.

Paddy Prendergast the trainer and jockey was Bougoure
Who did their part to win this race as Mrs. Mullions told.
When they ran him up at Epsom, the horse he was not fit,
But down here at the Curragh, sure they knew that this was it.

It was the 29th June, a very misty day,
But over at the Curragh sure everyone was gay,
The stands and course were crowded, the best for many years
And with the horses on the sod up went those Derby cheers.

When the horses paraded to the start, there was a great delay.
Relko pulled a muscle is what the vet did say.
The jockey he dismounted and went down to the phone,
Michael O’Hehir said from the stands – “Relko is not going”.

The next time parading for the start, the first time they got off,
Up along that Derby course where the going it was soft.
It was Christmas Isle who took the lead and there he meant to stay,
Chased well by The Tiger who tried to make his play.

Down unto the hollow and up that little hill,
Where a horse was tried for fitness and a jockey for his skill,
When they came out on the straight out went Mhic Mo Chroi
Well watched by Jockey Garnet Bougoure, all the stand could see.

He kept his horse well outside where safe it was the going,
And put Ragusa to the front one furlong from home.
They all did try to chase him, especially Mhic Mo Chroi,
But Ragusa won the Derby in 1963.


- Bill Evans