{"id":530996,"date":"2026-07-03T11:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T11:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530996\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T11:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T11:26:09","slug":"askea-celebrates-golden-jubilee-in-glorious-sunshine-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530996\/","title":{"rendered":"Askea celebrates golden jubilee in glorious sunshine\u00a0 &#8211; Community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\"> SUNBURN, the Sam McGuire and community spirit were the order of the day on Sunday 21 June when the Church of the Holy Family in Askea celebrated its golden jubilee with a special Mass and field day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Bernard Horahan, chairman of the organising committee, said there was a \u201cfull house\u201d for the Mass, which was led by bishop Denis Nulty and attended by 12 celebrants. The Askea, Bennekerry and Tinryland choir also sang at the Mass.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3857453_4_articleinline_3.jpg\" alt=\"Therese Dooley, Nina Cassin and Lisa Brooks from the The Forge Women's Shed\" title=\"Therese Dooley, Nina Cassin and Lisa Brooks from the The Forge Women's Shed\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Therese Dooley, Nina Cassin and Lisa Brooks from the The Forge Women&#8217;s Shed<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The parish includes 95 estates, five national schools, two secondary schools and Askea Day Care Centre. \u201cIt\u2019s a great community and great parish to be involved in,\u201d said Bernard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">After the ceremony, they played a video of Bishop Patrick Lennon opening the church in 1976 where there were photos of the building of the church displayed in the building, too \u201cwhich went down really well with the parishioners,\u201d said Bernard. He said there were around 50 people in the congregation who were there on the day it opened, 50 years ago.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3857451_4_articleinline_1.jpg\" alt=\"Enjoying the music at the Holy Family Church, Askea Golden Jubilee Parish Picnic were Marie, Katie, Remi and Karen Kavanagh\" title=\"Enjoying the music at the Holy Family Church, Askea Golden Jubilee Parish Picnic were Marie, Katie, Remi and Karen Kavanagh\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Enjoying the music at the Holy Family Church, Askea Golden Jubilee Parish Picnic were Marie, Katie, Remi and Karen Kavanagh<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The crowd of over 1,000 people then spilled out onto the lawns around Askea church for a field day in the 25 degree weather.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Fr Tommy Dylan, who roped Bernard into a committee role, had \u201cone job\u201d on the day, said Bernard, which was to look after the weather. \u201cHe did a good job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3857457_3_articleinline_2.jpg\" alt=\"The Sam Maguire cup was in safe hands with Bishop Denis Nulty, right, and Fr Liam Morgan during the parish picnic\" title=\"The Sam Maguire cup was in safe hands with Bishop Denis Nulty, right, and Fr Liam Morgan during the parish picnic\" class=\"card-img\"\/>The Sam Maguire cup was in safe hands with Bishop Denis Nulty, right, and Fr Liam Morgan during the parish picnic<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">For children and adults alike, there were refreshments, bouncy castles, loads of games, face painting, a science show, and prizes and hampers to be won, said Bernard. For nearly two hours, the Horahan Brothers and Helter Skelter provided musical entertainment and people got up dancing. Carlow Vintage Club brought 20 cars down and \u201cpeople had a great interest in that,\u201d said Bernard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Local parish priest Fr Tom Little and Bishop Nulty acted as stewards for the kids\u2019 sack race and the Sam McGuire cup made a special appearance for an hour or so.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3857458_3_articleinline_4.jpg\" alt=\"Pictured at the Holy Family Church golden jubilee parish picnic were Ber Horohan, Liz Donnelly, Lisa Kenny, Sonny Kennedy, Vickey Horohan and Tyler Moore\" title=\"Pictured at the Holy Family Church golden jubilee parish picnic were Ber Horohan, Liz Donnelly, Lisa Kenny, Sonny Kennedy, Vickey Horohan and Tyler Moore\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Pictured at the Holy Family Church golden jubilee parish picnic were Ber Horohan, Liz Donnelly, Lisa Kenny, Sonny Kennedy, Vickey Horohan and Tyler Moore<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Bernard thanked all those who gave up their time to make the event happen in the weeks leading up to the day and the 30 or so volunteers who helped on the day. \u201cThere was a great sense of community in the weeks leading up to it, with people helping each other,\u201d reflected Bernard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt was an extraordinary day, it was a great celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SUNBURN, the Sam McGuire and community spirit were the order of the day on Sunday 21 June when&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80],"class_list":["post-530996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}