<p> Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians Ethel Kennedy Division Newsletter November/December, 2013</p><p>Dear Sisters, I hope this finds everyone in good health! Happy Thanksgiving and Christmas to every Christmas Dinner one of you. May it be peaceful and fun! Clare We are having our Christmas Dinner at Camp Ticonderoga, 725 Rochester Rd, Troy, MI 48084 on December 2nd starting at 6:30pm with dinner served at 7:00pm. We need to get a headcount by the November meeting if you plan on attending. Please contact Sue Walsh at (313) 886- 6618 or email her at [email protected] if you would like to attend but will not be at the November meeting. If we have less than 30 attendees we will be able to order off the menu for dinner. Our next meeting will be November 4th, Social at 6:30pm and Meeting at 7:00pm at K of C Hall. Hostesses will be Chris Gorsline and Mary Ochab. We will be collecting non- ~~REMINDER~~ perishable items or you may make a ELECTION OF monetary donation for the Annual Famine OFFICERS Walk. Election of officers will be held at the November meeting. We ask members to step up to taking an office as we are in dire need. Those of us who have been in the higher offices are getting burnt out, and/or have several other jobs. We are always available to help those in new offices. Please do not hesitate to call any of us for information or help. We are always there to support each other. THREE DIGIT LOTTERY RAFFLE TICKETS REMINDER</p><p>Please bring any returns to the meeting along with stubs and monies, or mail them to Theresa Sands, 3746 Nash We will be adopting a family for Christmas. Drive, Troy, MI 48083. Make checks We will have a family name and more payable to Ethel Kennedy Division. information at our November meeting from St. Vincent DePaul Society.</p><p>Maureen Shelton’s Testimonial Dinner Maureen’s Testimonial Dinner and Interim Board Meeting are on November 1st and 2nd. Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting on Saturday at 9am. If anyone is interested in attending Dinner, please contact Agnes Gowdy at [email protected]. In memory of the wonderful poet Seamus Heaney from Derry who passed away recently, the following is one of his poems that really shows the passion Irish people have for the land they live in.</p><p>Digging</p><p>Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. LAOH/AOH Mass Under my window, a clean rasping sound The State sponsored AOH/LAOH Memorial When the spade sinks into gravelly ground: My father, digging. I look down Mass will be held on Saturday, November 9 at 5:00pm at the AOH Hall, 25300 Five Mile Road, Redford. There will be Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds refreshments served after mass. Check with Bends low, comes up twenty years away members in your area to carpool. Stooping in rhythm through potato drills Where he was digging.</p><p>The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft Please mark on your Calendar: Against the inside knee was levered firmly. He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep . Nov 1&2 – Maureen Shelton’s Testimonial To scatter new potatoes that we picked, and Interim Board Meeting Loving their cool hardness in our hands. . Nov 4 – November Member Meeting & Election of Officers . Nov 9 – AOH/LAOH Memorial Mass at By God, the old man could handle a spade. 5:00pm Just like his old man. . Dec 2 – Christmas Dinner, Camp Ticonderoga at 6:30pm My grandfather cut more turf in a day Than any other man on Toner's bog. Once I carried him milk in a bottle Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up To drink it, then fell to right away Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods Over his shoulder, going down and down For the good turf. Digging.</p><p>The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap Of Cúpla Focal as Gaeilge soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge Through living roots awaken in my head. But I've no spade to follow men like them. Nollaig shona daoibh go léir (nullug hona divh gu lair) Between my finger and my thumb Merry Christmas to you all! The squat pen rests. I'll dig with it. Seamus Heaney LAOH HISTORIAN’S REPORT FOR September 9, 2013 By Cynthia Canty</p><p>While many of us here in Michigan this weekend may have had our attention focused on what Michigan is doing at The Big House in Ann Arbor…or MSU at Spartan Stadium…or the Lions losing to the Packers in Green Bay, in recent weeks in Ireland, all eyes have been on Croke Park in Dublin.</p><p>September brought one of the two top sporting events in Ireland: the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. It was Cork versus Clare. The M7 into Dublin was at a gridlock Sunday morning, stuffed with cars flying their red and white Cork colors OR blue and yellow Clare colors. Over 81-thousand fans packed “Croker” to cheer for Cork or Clare. When all was said and done after the two sides clashed September 8, it was a draw…a great game which neither team deserved to lose. So they met again for a re- match September 28th…and the victor wore blue & yellow: it was Clare over Cork.</p><p>The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final was listed in second place by CNN in its list of “10 sporting events you have to see live”, after the Olympic Games and ahead of the soccer World Cup.</p><p>The big match was the culmination of a series of games played starting in late May…determining which two counties will see their teams play in Croke Park.</p><p>Hurling has been played in one form or another for over three-thousand years. It’s believed to be the world’s FASTEST field game in terms of game play. It used to be, the men of one village would play the men of another village and they would head to the open field. The match would last for hours. These days, under the Gaelic Athletic Association, hurling is played on a pitch (the field) bigger than a football field, 15 players a side, all flailing away with this wooden stick, the HURLEY ( in Irish, caman).</p><p>The object of the game is for the players to use the HURLEY to smack this little ball, called a sliotar, between the opponent’s goalposts. Hitting the ball over the crossbar gets you a point. Hitting it into the net UNDER the crossbar is a goal, worth three points. So at the end of the game, after you convert those goals to points, the team with the most points wins the game.</p><p>You may catch the sliotar in your hand and carry it for no more than FOUR steps…struck in the air…or struck on the ground. If you’re brave and are willing to risk broken fingers, you can slap the sliotar with your open hand for short-range passing. And if you want to move that ball more than four steps you have to juggle the sliotar on the end of your hurley…as you run. The skilled players can run at full speed with the ball bouncing at the end of the hurley.</p><p>Despite the flying hurlies and the sliotar rocketing up and down the pitch, players wear NO protective padding. They now must wear protective helmets with faceguards, but that was only made mandatory in 2010. So, if you are like my husband, who was a hurler from the time he was a little fellow, chances are very good that your teeth or your nose were rearranged by “the clash of the ash”…or at the very least, you’ll have plenty of bruises on your hands and your legs.</p><p>The COUNTY teams are like All-Star teams. They’re made up of players from local clubs that are basically drawn from the local parishes. The clubs also have their championships, just like the county teams… battling for the top club in the COUNTY…then on to the PROVINCE…and then to the ALL-IRELAND CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP. So there are countless opportunities to cheer for your teams through the season. </p><p>Players start when they are very young. Each year they keep competing and the best players eventually wind up playing for the club’s best team: the seniors.</p><p>It’s worth noting: hurling (and Gaelic football, the other sport of the Gaelic Athletic Association), has been described as a “bastion of humility”: NO players names on jerseys…and the player’s number is decided only by his position on the field. And all of the players…club and county…are unpaid amateurs, playing for the pride of their parish, their county and of Ireland. And THAT is exactly what the founding fathers of the Gaelic Athletic Association wanted when they created the GAA in 1884. Nearly 130 years later, its goal is to strengthen the National Identity in a 32 County Ireland through the preservation and promotion of Gaelic games and pastimes.</p>