St. Patrick's Day Wishes to All:

ONE COMMUNITY: G/B GAA, Ladies Football & Camogie Clubs along with Granagh & Ballingarry Dev. Associations, would like to offer their help in this time of Covid 19. If anybody in the community needs their medicines, groceries, fuel, collected from the Shop, Pharmacy or Creamery and delivered to their door, please contact one of the following co-ordinators. They will organise with one of the many volunteers to carry out the collection and delivery. Steven Stapleton; 086-1960301, Theresa Noonan; 085- 8875585, Anne O'Grady; 087-8561898, Andrew Holmes; 087- 9429228.

SANITISER: If you would like to make up your own hand sanitiser, here is a recipe. Dettol antiseptic is safe to use on skin when diluted. One teaspoon of dettol added to one pint of water and add to a little spray bottle and this can be used as an alternative to hand sanitiser. It can kill up to 99% bacteria.

PHARMACY POLICY: At this trying time we all need to work together to protect the most vulnerable in our communities. As we face into an uncertain few weeks, O'Riordans Pharmacy, Ballingarry will operate a closed door policy from Monday the 16th, until further notice. This means that patients will still get their medicines but we will only allow one or two people into the shop at any one time. You will be met at the door and your hands sanitised before entry. These measures are necessary to protect our staff and our customers. There are a few things you can do to help us. 1. Please phone ahead to order your prescription. 2. We will only accept card payments. 3. At this time there will be no children allowed in the pharmacy unless the child is unwell and you're seeking advice. 4. Between 1.00pm and 1.30pm, closed for lunch. 5. If you think you have had contact with anyone with the Covid 19 virus, please do not come to the pharmacy. Phone us instead. 6. Do not request your prescription unless it is due. There are no medicine shortages. 7. We would ask young healthy people to check on their elderly relatives and friends and collect their prescriptions for them if necessary.

ON-LINE MASSES: Bishop Leahy will celebrate the 12 noon Mass each Sunday at the Cathedral and people can tune into that on the St. John’s Cathedral webcam https://www.churchservices.tv/limerickcathedral. Also, in St. John's the Saturday evening Mass at 6p.m. or the Sunday Masses at 10:30a.m. Redemptorists: - You can use your computer or phone to go online and watch mass at 8am, 10am and 7.15pm This is the link - https://www.redemptoristslimerick.ie/web-cam/ Kilmallock Church - on Facebook or just google Kilmallock Church.

CHURCH AFFAIRS: Re Covid 19: All public celebration of Masses suspended until further notice. All non-essential pastoral gatherings and Confirmations postponed. As regards Funerals, Baptisms and Weddings - limited to immediate family or less than 100 people. The Churches will remain open from 9am to 5pm daily for private prayer.

TRÓCAIRE: As we are faced with the threat of the Covid-19 virus, it reminded me of hearing about the Ebola virus outbreak a few years ago, in Africa. It was in the news for a while, then we heard no more. It happened in 2014-16 in West Africa and was the largest outbreak since the virus was first discovered in 1976. It affected Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. When Ebola struck, families who had sick relatives were quarantined for twenty one days. In many cases in Sierra Leone, entire communities were cut off for weeks. People couldn’t leave for food or water or tend to their farms. They had no way to grow their food and were isolated and panicked. At local level where Trócaire works, our partners were the first responders to these families. They often provided interim food supplies before the international support arrived to deliver food rations. Our partners also provided extra essentials like vegetables, water, firewood for cooking, soap, toothpaste etc. This helped families to keep going throughout their quarantine. Families also received wind-up radios and mobile phones so that they could keep in contact with public service announcements and sick relatives who were in the treatment centres. ‘Labour groups’ were organised to work on the land of quarantined farming families so that they wouldn’t lose months of food on top of everything else. This support provided much needed comfort to families during the darkest days of Ebola. In 2016, over 28,000 people were infected by the virus and over 11,000 people died. There was another outbreak in 2018-19 in the north eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo. Other organisations in DRC are facing a high level of community resistance and a lack of trust towards medical teams, clinics, and in general toward the Ebola response. Trócaire is supporting 150,000 people affected by this recent outbreak since Sept '18. One of their successes so far is that they have not experienced the same community resistance that is happening elsewhere because their local partners (Caritas) have been working with these communities for years and because their response is led by these communities. Comparing both outbreaks - we are not badly off over here at all !!

DAFFODIL DAY: Just to note, as Mary Morrissey's daffodill day had to be cancelled, she will hold a Coffee morning at a later date.

Children with Disabilities: TK Maxx’s '' Give Up Clothes for Good '' campaign. Support this great campaign by simply dropping a bag of quality clothes, accessories or homeware into any TK Maxx store. Your donated items will be sold in Enable Ireland charity shops, and money raised from the sale of these items will help to fund our vital disability services for thousands of children across Ireland. Find out more at www.enableireland.ie/even…/give-clothes-good-tk-maxx.