Bishop Fintan Monahan with picnic goers Fr Arnold Rosney
On a beautiful warm May bank holiday Sunday, the Killaloe diocese jointly with the diocesan youth team and the World Meeting of Families hosted a wonderful Family Picnic Day.
This was the first time the diocese hosted such an event. The event took place in the Showgrounds, Ennis which provided excellent facilities both indoor and outdoor to enable us to host such a day.
With a great deal of planning and organising under the leadership of Cora Guinnane and many others, the day proved to be a great success with over 2,000 people attending free of charge.
We had the presence of Bishop Fintan Monahan and the newly crowned Clare Rose to add to the day.
We were blessed to have the presence of so many who brought their own picnic, and it gave a great sense of family spending time together and enjoying the day.
Some things you just can’t buy and spending time with family at a picnic day is one!
The day was full of fun with bouncy castles, face painting, fittest family, tug-o-war, activities, vintage cars, stands, sacred space, a blessing of the picnics, a flypast from the RNLI, and the most popular of all was the ice-cream van on such a warm day. It was wonderful to see so many taking part, not least the bands and many young groups who sang and provided entertainment from 2-6pm.
We had spot prizes which included afternoon tea with Bishop Fintan, a hurley signed by the Clare hurling team, Sunday family lunch vouchers, and many more.
Great credit also goes to the Killaloe Youth Team and the young people who put a lot of work into such a great day.
They had wonderful ideas, rolled up their sleeves, and ensured the venue was left clean and tidy. A big thank you to all who made it such a success – celebrating family in preparation for the World Meeting of Family in less than 100 days.
‘Mol and oige agus tiocfaith siad’.