On the 9th July, at Ballykealey Manor Hotel, the paris – Ballon and Rathoe – united in a fund raising venture for rewiring Ballon church. A capacity crowd of about 220 supporters joined in the ‘cheeky’ concept of the American Tea Part

The organisers cajole friends into hosting a table and leave it to them to provide the food for the party. Everyone joins in, and there is the food of your choice with a lot of ‘behind-the-scenes discussion of who brings what. This gets the atmosphere growing early on. The hotel provides the venue, obviously, and the drinks and food to order if needs be. So for a night out for an entry fee of €10, it’s good value and good fun. The band was “Undercover” who recently regrouped with local artist Ray Butler and Philip Scott from Kildare. A lively mix to suit all age groups was played, and they got the people dancing. There was a very generous donation of raffle prizes with ‘brown envelopes’ for the contribution. The organisers thank the table hosts, the food providers, those that gave raffle prizes, the band, the hotel and all that came along and lent their support. Oh! and the cameraman…..

……whose pictures can be seen below.