Recent Events

On Thursday 28th January dedecated parishioners gathered in the Old Schoolhouse at Ballycran to continue the tradition of preparing St Bridget's crosses for the feast of St Brigid on Monday 1st of February. The finished crosses were blessed at Mass on Monday with holy water and with the words: May the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost be on these Crosses and on the place where they hang and on everyone who looks on them. The cross should be hung on the front doors of homes and left in place all year, to be burned and replaced with a newly-woven Cross on the next St. Brigid's Day.

The story of St Brigid tells that during one of her travels, St. Brigid went to visit a dying pagan chieftan. As she sat near his bed, she picked up some rushes on the floor and began weaving a Cross. He asked her about what she was doing and, in explaining, she told him about Christ and the meaning of the Cross. He came to faith and was baptized.

There was a good turnout of local and visiting dancers to the Parish of Ardkeen Christmas family Ceili in the McKenna GAC Community Center on Tuesday 29th December which was held in memory of Fr Paddy Burns. Cap on the Wall Ceili Band provided the entertainment the and as usual the social committee pulled out all the stops when it came to the delicious supper. Proceeds from the event will be given to Fr Paddy's mother Mrs Margaret Burns.

St Joseph's

St Mary's

 

On the Feast of the Holy Family the annual Carol Service was held in the barn/stable of Rubane Farm on the Gransha Road generously hosted by Fergal and Lucy Watson. On a cold, winter's night, parishioners gathered to sing favourite carols in the presence of a living Crib including sheep and donkeys. Paddy and Caroline Savage and their new baby Annie took the part of the Holy Family with friends playing the Shepherds and Wise men. It was a very enjoyable event enhanced with mulled wine and refreshments afterwards.
A big thank you to everyone who braved the cold to make this event a success and thanks also to everyone one who had roles to play in making it a very pleasant evening.

Fr Neeson treated the choirs from our churches and the Society of St Martha to lunch over the Christmas period as an appreciation of the committment they have to their work in the Parish. The choirs from St Mary's Church and the Society of St Martha enjoyed great food in Finnegans Bar and Restruant whilst the choir from St Joseph's Church were entertained in the Portaferry Hotel.
The choirs play a very important role in the life and liturgy of the church community. New members are always welcome so come along if you would like to join any of the choirs.The Society of St Martha are the unseen heros of the Parish ensuring our churches are kept clean and tidy.

On Sunday 6th December, the Senior Citizen's of Kircubbin and surrounding districts enjoyed their annual Christmas Lunch at McKenna Community Centre. As usual many hands made light work and the quality and quantity of beautiful food was a credit to all who participated in the preparations or helped in any way to make the day a success.

Rev Fr Pat Neeson, Rev Avril Stevenson, Rev Roy Taylor & Rev Jill Withers joined their parisioners for a great afternoons craic. Some115 guests were catered for and the opinion of all was that they could not have asked for better. Everyone enjoyed an afternoon of good food and company with musical entertainment provided by "Country Breeze".

This year was very special with the organising committee celebrating their 30th anniversary of this very important event. The cakes were cut by six founder members of the planning committee; the "Twins", Rita and Maureen, whose entertainment was missed in the kitchen this year, Mrs Margaret Breen & Mrs Isobel Gilmore who baked the Christmas cakes, Mrs Eileen Arthurs & Mrs Josie Gilmore,who all attended as guests on the day.

The organisers wish to thank everyone who helped in any way to make the event such a great success, and special thanks to Santa and all his little helpers who managed to take time out of their busy schedule to pay an early visit to McKenna.

"Time" was called around six o'clock and for those who needed a lift home, Margaret McCarthy and Stephen Bell were on hand to ferry everyone home.

 

The Annual Bazaar took place on Sunday 29th November in McKenna Community Centre.
As in all previous years the organising committee ensured the stalls looked really well with great variety and quality available for the many parisioners and friends of our parish who came along to give thier support, pick up a bargain and hope to win one or more of the many great prizes available on the new Parish of Ardkeen rickety wheel.
A complimentary glass of Punch and Mince pie went down well with all takers and the social committee ladies provided much welcomed refreshments throughout the afternoon.
Fr Neeson was kept busy all afternoon and he won the prize for "seller of the most winning tickets". His tickets were the most sought after all afternoon! The star prize of a top of the range LCD TV was won by Bridie Kearney and Maura Gilmore of Manse Rd was the lucky winner of Bridie Ennis's crisp £100 note.
Thanks must go to the team for all their hard work in preparation for the event and the ticket sellers and bankers who turn up and work hard every year.
Special thanks to everyone who supported us with many donations and for coming along on the day itself. Another very successful afternoon for our parish. Have a look at the pictures below you never know who you might see!

On a beautifully clear day the Air Cadets from Regent House School in Newtownards and some of their officers joined Fr Patrick Neeson and parishioners for the Annual Service of Remembrance on Saturday 7th November in in the Graveyard at Mount St Joseph's.
After the short prayer service, Crosses and flowers were placed on the Graves of the servicemen who lost their lives while based in the parish during the Second World War. Afterwards everyone returned to the Old School for much welcomed refreshments.

On Sunday evening 26th July the rain stayed away long enough to enable the many dedicated treasure hunters who turned out to tour the parish and search for the answers to the clues set by Joe Gilmore. Afterwards everyone returned to the School House at Ballycran to discover the correct answers, find out who had won and enjoy a cup of tea and some "sticky buns"
The over all winner was Bobby Adair with Francis Gallagher, Paul O'Prey, Alistair Higgins and Jim McNamara the runners up. Well done to everyone who took part &thanks for your support.
Thanks also to the Social Committee and their catering helpers who as always provided a very welcome supper.

The winner is..........!

The entries for the Parish Gardening Competition were all judged at the begining of July by the guest judge, Eamon McNamara (HND Amenity Horticulture) from Portaferry. Whilst entries were slow to come in by the closing date there were entries in every class. Standards were very high and Eamon had a job deciding who would win and who had to be the runners up.
Thanks to Eamon for taking the time to carry out this important task we really appreciate the time and attention to detail he took in this role.

"It took a lot of hard work but was worth it" Fr Neeson was heard to say! Winner of the Water Feature catagory

The man with the unenviable task of judging the entries Eamon McNamara

Jimmy Fowler recieves his prizes for Best Front Garden and Best Over All Entry from Josie Crawford and Mary Magee

Mary presents Freda and Gerry Monaghan with their Guest Entry prize

Anne Doherty receives her two awards for best window Boxes and Best Hanging Baskets

Gretta Kelly among her peas, winner of the Best Vegetable Garden catagory receiving her prize.

Joan Gilmore winner of the Best Back Garden prize receives her prize

The last Sunday in June saw Fr Neeson officiate at his first annual blessing of the graves ceremony at the parish graveyard in Ballycran. The sun came out to help show off the hard work that had been done in the preparation of the graves and everyone should be proud of how well the everything looked on this special day. Fr Neeson was assisted by Fr Paddy Burns who had come from Ballygalget for the afternoon.
After the ceremony the social committee provided welcome refreshments for everyone on what was a very warm day.

Below are a selection of photos take on the day.

 

 

 

Bishop Antony Farquhar visited the Parish on Sunday 21 June to officially install Fr Neeson as Parish Priest. Fr Paddy Burns returned to the parish and members of Fr Neeson's family also travelled to St Joseph's for this very special occasion. Light refreshments for parishioners and a special sit down lunch for Fr Neeson and his guests were provided by the Parish Social Committee afterwards in the old school house. Bishop Farquhar spent time meeting and greeting the many parishioners who had turned out in support.
Congratulations to Fr Neeson and best wishes for a long and happy stay in the Parish of Ardkeen.

Members of the Social Committee together with local doctors from the Community Medical Centre proudly display new medical equipment which was purchased from the proceeds of last autum's 'Style in the Village' fashion show.

 

 

 

A Special Treasure Hunt left McKenna Hall on Sunday 26th April starting at 6.30pm. Thanks to everyone who supported the evening even the weather didn't put the hardened hunters from heading out around the parish to search walls of houses, sheds, hedges and roadsigns for the most obscure yet obvious answers. Thanks to Joe Gilmore who compiled a very challenging ‘hunt’. A big thanks to Ballycran GAC for the use of the Hall, the Parish Social Committee who provided a very welcome supper, Joe and Marie Fowler for organising the ballot and those who donated prizes for same. The grand total of £1180 was raised for Fr Paddy Burns Mission Project. Congratulations to the winners: Jim McNamara, Seamus Dorrian, Dermot O’Prey, Brendan McCarthy and Christopher Lennon.   

"They tell me Fr McBride loved this bit!"

The Spring Ceili and Old Time dance took place on Sunday 3rd May in McKenna Hall. There was a great turnout to appreciate the music from the Oriel Ceili Band and it gave the dancers who had attended the recent ceili dancing classes a chance to exercise their skills to the direction of Ban a ti Mary Pollock.
As usual the Social Committee and its circle of helpers provided a great supper at the interval boosting energy levels for the second half of the night.

Following on from the restoration work started last year on the wall between the old graveyard and the 'new', Colm and Thomas McManus continued to work on other areas of the graveyard perimiter in need of repair.
Father and son finished the restoration of the wall in early Spring of 2009. A section at the bottom of the old graveyard had been pushed outwards by tree roots and a corner had to be taken down completely before being rebuilt. Its a great piece of work employing the skills of our own parishioners which should stand for another 50-100 years or more.?

Some photographs of the work done are attached below to let you see what was done. Better still, take a walk down through the graveyard sometime soon and see for yourself what as been done. It will do your heart good!

 

Every good youth group has to adapt to the situation they find themselves in - so when the weather is hot & sunny it was time to get out the bbq and flip some burgers.  The Joey's Sunday Night Group have been meeting every week since October and a bbq night, with footballs and parachutes is just one of the many things that this group has been getting up to. 

As usual a lot of hard work was put into preparation of our two churches for the Easter Ceremonies. Below are a some photos from both churches showing the skills of the flower arrangers and how the flower arrangements complement the churches and make our celebrations of the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Masses so fulfilling. Father Neeson and Fr Burns would like to pay a special thank you to the everyone who worked long hours to prepare the churches for all the Easter Ceremonies and to everyone who attended and had a role to play in making the ceremonies very special.

After 11am Mass on Easter Sunday the now traditional Easter Egg Hunt attracted a large number of participants both young and old. The Easter Bunny didn't have any eggs left by the time it was over.

The Ardkeen Players represented Ballycran G.A.C. in the Novelty Act section of the Scór Sinsear 2009 with a short play entitled: 'One Good Turn' written, directed and produced by Belle Corr.
Having been sucessful in the East Down Semi Final in Teconnaught, we went on to be runners up in the East Down semi. Next up, we went on to the County Down final which was won by Clonduff. Adjudication for Ballycran included praise for the originality and variety of the sketch, its action and stage setting and, most important its truly Irish Cultural Theme.
We hope to present the sketch in our next concert in McKenna Hall. We all agreed that it was an enjoyable experience and we were delighted to get through several stages of the competition. Good luck to Clonduff who will be carrying the Novelty Act flag for Down to the Ulster Semi-final.

Above: The Cast before they went on stage in Teconnaught.

Above: The successful Adkeen Palayers with their winners medals the East Down Semi Final in Teconnaught
(L-R) Christopher Lennon, Ellen-Mary Woods, Belle Corr, Gerry Corr, Sean Lipfird.

 

Sunday 22nd February saw another great social event in the parish as parisioners gathered in McKenna Community Centre to honour Fr Colm McBride and thank him for his guidance and support over the last three and a half years.

Fr McBride arrived to a full house and rousing round of applause before making his way around the hall to greet parisioners and receive good wishes from everyone.

Before Mathew Gilmore presented Fr McBride with his gift everyone was entertained by three young musicians, Lauren Fox, Elish Ennis and Ruth Clarke, who played a series of traditional Irish music tunes on their violins and Finnoula Branniff sang "Sally Gardens" accompanied by Maura Lipfird on piano.

Following the presentation to Fr McBride the Social Committee pulled out all the stops and served a superb afternoon tea to everyone. This gave parisioners another chance to wish Fr McBride a fond farewell before he made his way back to Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish Belfast.

The parish held its second 'Rush Party' on Thursday 29th January. Fr Patrick Neeson, PP, who had arrived in the parish just a few hours earlier, came to lend a hand. The St Brigid's Crosses will be blessed at Masses on the feast of St Brigid (February 1st) and then taken home by parisioners and placed in the roof space or above the doors of homes or animal houses, invoking God's protection on all who abide there in the coming year. Thanks to everyone who came to help and to the Social Committee for providing welcome refreshments.