Athboy

But as someone who sat on the committee for a community soccer club for seven years, I know how hard it is to raise money, and some of the stories here, you've got, like, Kilkenny GAA, a small exposure, but you've got two clubs mentioned in the piece here by Sean Pollock.

You have Athboy, uh, which is run by Mr. Bernard O'Byrne, actually former chief executive of FAI, who raised 107,000 euros and gave a deposit, obviously including grants, of over nearly 220,000 euros, and there's no sight nor sound of if they're gonna get that back.

And, like-

Yeah

It's a landmark place, uh, to me, across the road from Padiccy's and right beside, uh, the Black Stone.

This is in Athboy?

In Athboy, yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, and, uh, the crowds were huge there, and the food was brilliant.

You know, I have watched them, Fran, for the last couple of years, and they're definitely a team on the move.

Uh, they have more or less given up football, although still playing it, but really the hurling is the number one game.

And they, and to the huge crowd, even when you watched it on television, they're r- from Athboy, but I presume anybody else that watched it on the telly, as you come down over the bridge, uh, in Holycross, and you look onto the pitch, the people even 10, 12 minutes into the match, wherever they parked, a lot of them had to park in Holycross itself due to the crowd.

Yeah.

I think it showed the value of bringing the finals around all the different clubs, and Kiltale, Athboy, and Bordesmill were unbelievable in their meticulous preparations for the Senior B, Intermediate B, and Intermediate finals.

And the car parking and the stewarding and the pitches were unbelievable.

Uh, and, and all accommodated the big crowds that were at those games really, really well.

But you do know it's Climate Action Week, and each day on the show, we're featuring, featuring an aspect of climate action.

Mary Flood is a member of the TRIM Climate Action group, and she's also a very active member of Athboy Tidy Towns, and she joins me this afternoon.

Hello, Mary.

Hi, Gerry.

Not at all.

You're very welcome to the show.

I believe you're a, a stalwart of keeping Athboy looking its best.

Well, we tr- we d- with a lot of help from others.

We're gonna have different people coming on.

Tomorrow we have an older member of our community coming on, the, uh, the amazing Mary Flood from Athboy, who's mid-70s, but she's still an absolute powerhouse.

She's involved in the Tidy Towns there.

We have Martin Heaney coming on from Meath IFA on Wednesday to give the farmers' perspective.

Did a lovely project on providing nest boxes for sand martins so that they still have their local habitat.

The swifts are looked after locally.

So, you know, you have other Tidy Towns groups in, around the county, Dunshaughlin, Athboy, Ashbourne, to name but a few, who are doing great things for their environment as well, not just keeping it tidy.

Absolutely.

What? [laughs]

... "Atboy student Amy Bracken was among 25 candidates handpicked from over 150 hopeful applicants nationwide to partake in the Youth Media for Europe project." Do you remember that?

[laughs] It was a long time ago, Gerry-

[laughs]

But going forwards, with the LEO supports, um, I'm looking to develop new areas of business, so, um, doing more talks.

I'm giving a talk, uh, in Bohermeen, uh, near Navan in November.

I've done a few talks around Atboy and Trim over the past, uh, few months.

Um, encouraging more people to get involved, that's the whole idea, you know-

But look, it won't take away from the spectacle that will be that senior hurling final between Clemest and Kiltail.

And of course, earlier that day in Athboy, it's going to be Wolfe Tones and Boardsmill.

Wolfe Tones looking for a double of their own this year as well, which we'll get to in a little while.

Davey, on to the LGFA finals.

Two passengers were injured, one critically.

In county Meath, a motorist in his 50s died when his car crashed into a premises on Connock Street in Atboy at around two o'clock this morning.

And now the weather.

RTE Radio 1 Weather

In the eighth year after Clontarf, the summer of 1022, the Dublin Danes once again ventured on a foray into East Meath, and the aged monarch marched to meet them.

At Athboy he encountered the enemy, and drove them, routed and broken, out of the ancient mensal land of the Irish kings.

Thirty days after that victory he was called on to confront the conqueror of all men, even death.

He had reached the age of seventy-three, and he prepared to meet his last hour with the zeal and humility of a true Christian.

the o'brien himself was banished into ulster where from murkertach prince veliach he received the hospitality due to his rank and his misfortunes not without an ulterior politic view on the part of the ulster prince in this battle of moanmore dermod macmurrogh king of leinster of whom we shall hear hereafter fought gallantly on the side of the victor In the same year, but whether before or after the Munster campaign is uncertain, and Ulcerforce having marched into Sligo, Thorlaug met them near the Curlew Mountains, and made peace with their king.

A still more important interview took place the next year in the plain, or Moy, between the rivers Urn and Drowse, near the present Ballyshannon.

On the Bakhal Issa and the relics of Columkill, Thorlaug and Murkertach made a solemn peace, which is thought to have included the recognition of o'conor's supremacy a third meeting which was had during the summer at meath where were present besides the ard-rig the prince of aileach dermod of leinster and other chiefs and nobles at this conference they divided meath into east and west between two branches of the family of melitlin Part of Longford and South Letrum were taken from Tiernan O'Rourke, lord of Breffney, and an angle of Meath, including Athboy in the hill of Ward, was given him instead.

Earlier in the same year King Thorlog had divided Munster into three parts, giving Desmond to McCarthy, Ormond to Thaddeus O'Brien, who had fought under him at Moanmore, and leaving the remainder to the O'Brien, who had only two short years before competed with him for the sovereignty.