by Niamh Bn. Uí Loinsigh & Jackie O’Shea
A Merry Christmas and a Nollaig Shona from Julianstown & District Community Association to all our residents.
Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in the old man’s hat, if you haven’t got a penny a ha’penny will do, if you haven’t got a ha’penny, God Bless you. …… Just one of the very old sayings handed down from our forefathers, and it’s with joy Christmas carols remain the same and are always well loved, but it’s also a stressful time for some people. So, do think about giving! We can support food collections in supermarkets, toy collections, old age pensioners, the homeless. I’m sure we can all do something to help, or know of someone who needs it, or maybe a small gift voucher through a letterbox .
What a week it has been for Julianstown Tidy Towns! Our Volunteers in Julianstown are thrilled and delighted to have received a 3rd An Taisce Green Flag Award and a Biodiversity Ireland Pollinator Award. In feedback from the Biodiversity Ireland Judge – ‘This is a really excellent application. You can see that you have made the gardens genuinely pollinator friendly. What you are doing is both wonderful for you and your community and for your local biodiversity.’ This is fantastic recognition of all the work undertaken by our volunteers and those on the local Community Employment Scheme who help maintain the garden throughout the year.
Community Garden gets a facelift! We have some exciting new ideas coming up, you may have noticed the fences and rocks at the garden have been removed at our request by Meath Co. Co. (The rocks are being re-cycled and will be used for flood defences at our nearby beaches of Seafield, Laytown & Bettystown) We are planting very attractive hedging such as native holly, guilder rose, fuchsia, whitethorn, wild rose, hazel( can’t remember them all) which will give all year colour, good habitats for birds and insects, a natural barrier, and good soakage from the roadside heavy rain. We will need to cover an area of 250 metres and if you would like to donate towards this very worthwhile project please contact julianstowndca@gmail.com or 086 3477283.
Thanks, as well to Meath Co. Co. who always come to our assistance when a JCB or extra manpower is needed.
We , unfortunately, must remove the golden Ash trees because of the Ash Dieback disease and will be replacing them with native and unusual trees. We would advise against planting any sort of ash tree and if you do have ash trees under the age of 30 years, we suggest you remove them a.s.a.p.
Christmas Tree, lights, and Colourful Christmas Posters will soon be erected in Julianstown Village to give us some extra cheer. Thanks to our Volunteers and Meath Co. Co. for making this possible. We have new Santa and snowman posters beautifully printed by Van Gough signs going up through the village and our Christmas tree will be situated near Whitecross (lights courtesy of a resident for electricity ) and hope to make Julianstown as festive as possible.
Sincere Sympathy – Julianstown & District Community Association would like to extend sincere sympathy to the family and friends of Martin Alioth of Rosemount, Duleek Road, Julianstown who recently passed away. R.I.P.
Winter Street Sweeping – Meath Co. Co. is now working on its winter schedule and road sweeping will be carried out every 2 weeks in Slane, and once a month in Duleek, Julianstown, Laytown, Bettystown and Mornington. Additional sweeping is carried out when necessary.
Whitecross National School 4th class enjoyed exploring the Nano Reid exhibition at the Highlanes Gallery Drogheda. This is the start of their sessions working with the artist Claire Halpin!
St. Mary’s Catholic Church
Safeguarding children in our Parish
Our Parish Safeguarding representatives are Stephen Leonard and Carol McKiernan. If you have a child safeguarding concern, please do not hesitate to contact Stephen or Carol through the Parish Office
Don’t forget that when attending mass to sanitize hands, keep a distance where possible, wear a mask, approach for communion by the centre aisles and return by the side aisles. The advice is still to avoid close contact.
St. Mary’s Church of Ireland
This Advent and Christmas, the charity appeal will be to help the Drogheda Lions Club with their hamper appeal. The Lions collect items and then work in conjunction with St. Vincent De Paul to provide the hampers to the neediest people in the community. If you would like to contribute, please bring items on Sunday 5th December so that they can be added to the main collection in good time for distribution to those in need. If anyone in the parish is suffering financial hardship, please do not hesitate to speak to me in confidence. Protestant Aid is often able to help with small grants available.
Christmas Carol Service will be on Sunday 19th December at 4.00pm.
Christmas Day services will be at 8.30am and 10.30am. Advance bookings essential for all services.
The County Meath Pride of Place awards were held in the Solstice Arts Centre on Thursday 18th November 2021, with 144 attendees present and 135 tuned in virtually.
The evening was emceed by Sinead Brassill from LMFM and everyone was thoroughly entertained by Leah Barnaville from Ratoath in Co Meath.
Cathaoirleach of Meath County Council, Cllr Sean Drew, warmly welcomed the guests and those watching online who represented the groups taking part in the initiative this year “this is a great night of celebration and I would like to acknowledge your hard work and congratulate everyone here this evening, including those at home, on their achievements over the last 12 months, despite the challenges presented, it did not stop the wonderful work around the County” he said.
Meath County Council Chief Executive, Jackie Maguire, thanked the groups for the vital work undertaken out of dedication to their communities and commented that the county had been recognised at national level again this year in the Tidy Towns competition, with an overall increase of 650 points for the county “We fully appreciate your work and your commitment to making our county look so well and showcase Meath as the best place to live, work and do business and the Council will continue to support your ongoing efforts to create strong, vibrant and sustainable communities” said Jackie Maguire.
Julianstown were finalists in the Pollinator Section and Best Youth project and well done to our neighbours in Bettytown, Laytown, Gormanston, Mosney, Slane, Lobinstown and Broomfield in the Laytown/Bettystown Municipal District.
Three Cheers for all the Volunteers in Meath who have made such a fantastic job of showcasing the county as the best place to live, work and enjoy the outdoors.