Grangecon say thanks  (From "The Wicklow People"21 Nov 2002)

    The Parents' Association in Grangecon would like to thank
everyone who supported and helped out with the Halloween disco
and table quiz which was held in Moore's pub last Friday night. Des
Coyle did a brilliant job as quizmaster and over €900 was raised by
the quiz.
The funds raised will go towards the cost of swimming lessons
for the national school children.
The Parents' Association is now on a fundraising roll and so the next
event is a flower arranging demonstration.
The date is 4^th of December, the venue is the village hall and
the time is 8:30 PM. Admission is just €10 and, as there will be a
cheese and wine reception, this could be the ideal opportunity to
catch up with old friends.
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School Christmas Concert.
   The pupils, teachers, and parents of Grangecon National School put on their annual Christmas concert last night 18^th Dec 2002. The venue was the village hall and a capacity crowd was in attendance.
                 First up was a nativity play with all the junior classes taking partin a very well prepared production. This was followed by a group of Irish dancers who performed brilliantly. These children were a credit to the people who trained them in preparation for last night's event. To bring us up to the interval the senior classes put on a play called Christmas Porridge which again was a very fine performance and a credit to all involved. Set in a Prison it told the story of a dispute between the staff and prisoners coming up to the millennium celebrations and of course, as is traditional, the good (or not so bad) guys came out on top.
                  The school choir entertained the audience with a musical interlude in the interval during which a draw was held for a host of festive prizes from cakes, sweets, biscuits, and toys to bottles of wine and whiskey to the rather more unusual prize of a ladies handbag. We wont disclose who won this latter prize for fear of embarrassing anybody but we hear it is being worn with pride around the village today by the proprietor of one of the localshops. (Sorry Paul).
                 School principal Micheál Moloney addressed the gathering and expressed his gratitude to all the people involved in putting on the show. This included the school staff, parents' association and all who donated prizes for the draw. In view of the late hour he granted the school children an extra hour in bed today with school starting at 10 am instead of 9 am.
                   The final act of the evening was the parents contribution to the show and was a competition to find the "Rose of Grangecon". This was loosely based on the rose of Tralee contest. Des Coyle took the place of Marty Whelan interviewing the local beauties in a series of scenes which saw much of the village population slandered especially the long suffering "escorts". Needless to say many of these "ladies" were of doubtful femininity but however a winner was eventually declared. In time honoured fashion proceedings were brought to a close with a fine rendition of the rose of Tralee, or was it Grangecon, by none other than wee Daniel himself. Well done Martin! All present enjoyed a great night's entertainment.

19^th Dec 02.

Grangecon School excels in quiz.

     Two teams of children from Grangecon National School took part in the Irish League Of Credit Unions National schools quiz in Baltinglass on Saturday Feb 1^st 03. The event was contested by sixteen schools in the region with the winners to go on to contest the national final. The junior team was unlucky not to finish in the top placings while the senior section provided an exciting finish for the Grangecon team.
It was a neck and neck contest all the way with Grangecon, Baltinglass, and Talbotstown always in close contention. Approaching the final round Grangecon edged into the lead with Baltinglass and Talbotstown close behind. At the end of the final round Grangecon and Baltinglass were tied in joint first place and the event went into a tiebreaker round. At the end of  this round Baltinglass came out the winners with Grangecon second and Talbotstown third.
Congratulations to the Grangecon team on such a brilliant performance against very strong opposition and remember there is always next year when lady luck may not be so cruel. Well done to the students, teachers, parents and everybody involved.


Our thanks to the author of this report.  02-02-03

O'Hara seeking relatives.



We have recently received a request from a Mr. Brendan O'Hara, whose family
originated in Grangecon, to help in tracing any relatives he may have in the area.
We have set up a page for this purpose with an old family photo and some details.