Local lights display to draw crowds this Sunday

It's open house in Mount Temple this weekend as local man Johnny Conlon illuminates the locality with his annual Christmas lights display and crib for charity. He is inviting people from the village and surrounding area to his home at Nahad, Mount Temple, just off the M6, this Sunday, December 16 at 5pm, for the blessing of the crib by Fr Pat Kiernan and the switching on of the Christmas lights for the eighth year running. Refreshments will be provided and Tom Curtin will act as MC at the event which will also feature local musicians and performers. All proceeds from the display and raffle will go the local Mount Temple Lourdes committee, who send people from all over the parish and neighbouring districts to the French pilgrimage site every year. Last year the committee raised over €5,000 from the event which has become a bit of a Christmas tradition and social occasion in the Mount Temple area in recent times, enough to send up to ten people from the parish to Lourdes and Johnny hopes to at least equal, and hopefully, better that total this time around. A donation box is provided at the house for people to give whatever they can afford. Tickets for a raffle to coincide with the event are on sale locally and the winners will be drawn at a function Egan's pub in Mount Temple immediately after the conclusion of the blessing ceremony.