Thee was a great turn out for the Family Cycle for Fiadh on Sunday 26th June from Ballinasloe Cycling Club! Many thanks to everyone for getting involved and a big thank you to the following businesses and organisations for supporting:
Slimming World Loughrea Croffys Launderette and Dry cleaners, Ballinasloe St. Brendans Ladies Gaelic football FLIX C & L Cinema, Roscommon Uppsie Daisy, Roscommon
Secondly - Just 3 weeks to go until the cycle from the Birchgrove Bar on Saturday 16th July . 100km or 20km. Refreshments during the long cycle and after both. Showers available too. All participants get a free ticket for the draw with first prize a racing bike, helmet and Ballinasloe Cycling Club membership. Fancy Dress Barn Dance with lots of prizes during the evening, music, dance, food and fun. Not to be missed!! For more details call 085 123 7878
Also for your diary remember Ballinasloe Cycling Club will be having their own charity spin on Sunday 28th August. This year it's aid of St Theresa's special school here in Ballinasloe, so get your bike out and get ready for the summer of cycling here in Ballinasloe!
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Weather has so often been the enemy on Athlone CIC events and Lough Ree can cause some to stay away rather han get involved but on this occasion Peter and Rosemary got that sorted in style. On the morning of Friday 3rd of June in the brilliant sunshine many were involved in the boat trip and social event for St Hildas and what a pleasure it was to be there. The CIC fleet assembled at the jetties at Coosan and with music by Bernard and Patrice Coyle in the Lough Ree Inn and finger-food was provided by the venue. We should acknowledge Creta O’Leary of Lough Ree Inn who is a good friend to the branch for such occasions. It wasn’t a late night. On Saturday morning there was a move to Athlone and final stocking up before most got through the lock before lunch and then on to Shannonbridge. Some stopped for snack but some pressed on towards Ballinasloe. We are all so familiar with the trip on the Shannon to Shannonbridge but we are not so often on the absolutely fabulous journey up the river Suck and through the lock at Ballyboy and on to Ballinasloe. At Ballinasloe Peter and Rosemary had arranged for a walking historical tour which some availed of and then the real fun started at about 7.00pm with a little cheese and wine and “adult games” on the lawn at the marina. The so called “adult games” was mentioned on the itinerary but when Peter introduced a tray of eggs it was clear that this was only going one way. Couple pairings were drawn from a bowel and the egg and spoon relay race was first off and with eggs crashing all round we quickly had mass eliminations. Then we were on to the egg throwing and with the ladies throwing this too saw a high rate of attrition and the eventual winners were so slick that there was stewards enquiry as to whether the egg was boiled or not and this could only be confirmed by one method and so the egg was tested on the head of the winner to Peters announcement that “yes this and the winners are all good eggs”. Cleaning egg out of your hair is another matter however. Then we had some bondage where the couples were required to undo their entanglement from ropes around their wrists and with some slick moves this was won in about 10 seconds with the rest struggling till they gave up defeated. The adult games concluded, as anticipated by most, with some indiscriminate egg throwing and Peter Lee, best prepared with a tray of eggs, coming out a clear winner. This was a fun if not a clean event and warmed everyone up for a night in An Tain pub. An Tain had arranged food, as ordered, and after we had music and a great night all round and retiring to boats saw the group engage in a few late parties on board before retiring close to daylight. On Sunday morning we had the option of a treasure hunt and traditional music at An Tain. The treasure hunt brought many around the town of Ballinasloe engaging in some banter along the way but also was a learning experience of the features of this historic town. Word has it the Adam Lee and company won the event which was open to town residents and all comers as well as those on the Athlone CIC. The music was a nice way to end our visit to the town. The Ballinasloe business community had prepared well for the arrival of 24 boats on this CIC event and the harbour looked spectacular with such a fleet and was a source of major interest to locals, many coming specially to see the fleet in the harbour. Security was provided but was a light presence only and there was not even a suggestion of interference as Ballinasloe once again welcomed use of their lovely though underused harbour. We will be back! As there was an early closing time on the lock most made the trip away from the harbour at lunch time and through the lock at Ballyboy where lock keeper David Coyne, ever courteous as he is, was in attendance. David will soon vacate this position as this lock is being automated in similar fashion to the locks on the Shannon Erne waterway. On arrival back at Shannonbridge there was a donkey derby in progress and lots of loud music and Lukers was rocking. Most cooked on board and later one hell of a pontoon party struck up on the new floating jetties. This went on well into the night and once again daylight was beckoning by the time some called a halt. Mondays on Athlone IWAI cruises are for recovery without any organised events and while some of us stopped at Clonmacnoise most travelled all the way to Athlone and back to marinas. Many thanks go to Peter and Rosemary Lee for a thoroughly enjoyable and well organised weekend and for organising the fantastic weather. Thanks too to the business community at Ballinasloe for their assistance and arrangements and to the Lough Ree inn at Coosan. And of course these events cannot succeed without the cruising members of Athlone IWAI and this list is growing, though not everyone can make it to all events. See more pictures here. Kevin Clabby The first ever crematorium in the West of Ireland will be set up in Ballinasloe and it is hoped that it will be up and running early in 2017. And already there has been considerable interest from local undertakers – which is hardly surprising given that the developer of the crematorium says that 1,000 bodies from the west have been brought to Dublin for cremation over the past year alone. Planning permission has been granted for the development which will represent an investment of some €3.5 million in the town. It will also create several jobs in the process. The new crematorium will be constructed at Garbally Demesne and will be the first of its kind in the West of Ireland. It is hoped that construction will commence at the end of July as contractors are already in place. The old Ballinasloe Town Council granted permission to Kevin Tuohy of BKT Construction for a single-storey crematorium on a greenfield site close to the N6 on the Galway side of the town. At present people along the western seaboard have to use crematoriums in Cork or Dublin, so the facility is being viewed as being much needed. The Ballinasloe facility comprises a reflection room, ceremony room, cremator and other ancillary rooms and services as well as a memorial garden and is subject to 14 conditions being complied with. Mr. Tuohy said that he conducted a survey of 135 funeral directors in the West of Ireland and discovered that around 1,000 bodies were sent from the region for cremation in Dublin. It will be a major investment in the town of Ballinasloe as well as creating a number of jobs. It will also take pressure off some rural graveyards which are struggling with space at the moment. Kevin Tuohy has said that the crematorium would be up and running in early 2017 at the latest. He has already received inquiries from undertakers from Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Galway and Clare about the facilities that he will be providing. “We will commence construction at the end of July and it will take around eight months to build. It is a much-needed development for the region and we have put a lot of work and research into it.'' “Studies have found that there are a lot of bodies that are being brought from the West of Ireland to Dublin for cremation and we believe that there is a need for such a facility in the region”, Mr Tuohy added. At the moment meetings of Galway County Council as well as local municipal councils are preoccupied with discussions over the lack of graveyard space throughout the county and the difficulty in acquiring additional lands in which to bury local people. This Friday promises to be a special evening with 'The Sarah Corcoran School Of Singing' proudly presenting a magical evening of song and music in Hayden's Hotel with all proceeds going to Cystic Fibrosis Ireland! The admission to this event is €10 per adult, and children are free (16 and under). There will be a donations box on the night for Cystic Fibrosis Ireland and a raffle with some beautiful prizes including singing lesson vouchers. To find out more information or to book your tickets message Sarah Corcoran at 085 1178405. See you there! US life sciences technologies company Surmodics is to create 100 new jobs in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. The move follows the company’s acquisition of Creagh Medical in November 2015. Surmodics, which operates in medical devices and in vitro diagnostics, plans to develop the Ballinasloe operations by investing more than € 7 million in facility development, including the recently acquired building, and creating 100 new jobs above the current base of 32 over the next five years. The company will invest a further € 9.5 million in two significant research and development (R&D) projects in its new Galway facility. The company will continue to be located in Creagh Medical’s existing 30,000 sq. ft. facility in Ballinasloe. Tom Greaney, former chief executive of Creagh Medical, has joined Surmodics as vice president of global operations and general manager of the Ballinasloe operation. “Surmodics is proud of our talented team of employees and our new state-of-the-art facility for medical device R&D and manufacturing in Ballinasloe,” said Gary R. Maharaj, president and chief executive officer of Surmodics. “We are pleased to have established a presence in a location where we can hire and develop highly skilled medtech personnel as we continue to invest in our vision of developing highly differentiated product solutions. We value and appreciate the support we have received from IDA Ireland for those developments.” Surmodics are already in the process of recruiting for R&D and manufacturing in Ballinasloe: for more information visit www.creaghmedical.com/careers Aptar in Creagh are also recruiting staff at the moment:https://www.aptar.com/en-us/careers.html Local girl Aideen Monahan recently raise €543 for East Galway & Midlands Cancer Support by getting her hair cut! Aideen gave her story to us here!''People ask me where did I get the idea to cut my hair. I saw some videos on the internet and decided to look into it myself. I heard of the Rapunzel foundation so I googled it to find out exactly what I had to do. I could donate 7 or 14 inches. I decided to go for the 14 inches. At that time my hair was 12 inches but my hairdresser Jacinta, from Talking Heads, Ballinasloe suggested I should let it grow to 16-18 inches before cutting it or it would be very short. While I was waiting for my hair to grow I decided to try and raise some money for a local charity. My mom suggested The East Galway & Midlands Cancer Support Centre, because they offer so much help and support to all people affected by cancer. Jacqueline Daly, Centre Manager, told me that the money I raised is going directly towards the new gym that is being built at the centre. Finally on March 23rd my hair was the correct length. I was nervous but excited at the same time. I had raised €543 and presented it to Jacqueline Daly, Centre Manager, & Liam Loughrey, Chairperson, at the centre. I also wanted to cut my hair in memory of my nanny Pat (McAdams) that passed away from cancer before I was born.'' |
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January 2024
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