Ahascragh Fohenagh GAA Club’s fundraiser Toughest Townland is putting townlands from all around the club against each other to find out which is the toughest! The club are running this event to celebrate their 20th anniversary and to raise funds for the development of their club facilities and for East Galway and Midlands Cancer Support. The hope is to promote fun community events that everyone can get involved in and launch their new Healthy Club initiative The event sees teams from 17 townlands from the parishes of Ahascragh, Fohenagh and Caltra forming teams from their own areas and organising a fundraising event. The teams will then compete in a series of physical, mental and teamwork challenges on June 25 in Fohenagh pitch. Paul Lohan one of the organisers of the event stated: “In addition to raising money for the club we will be making a donation to East Galway and Midlands Cancer Support. This important local charity provides a very important and valued service to our community and we as a club are delighted that they have come on board with us. The club had a representative from the charity speak to club members at a recent coffee morning fundraiser in Ahascragh and this was valued by all present.”
There has been a wide variety of fundraisers being held by the townlands, so far, Fohenagh, Ballydoogan and Kilgerril have put on a play in Fohenagh Community Centre, Clooncannon have held a coffee morning in The Old Mill Café in Ahascragh and Clonbrock have held a fun run/walk. Killure ran a golf classic in Ballinasloe Golf Club, Castleblakeney held a quiz in Gerry McDonaghs pub, and Pallas/Kinclare are hosted a tractor run in Caltra.
Ballyglass held a quiz night on May 28, Eglish are holding an auction on June 5, there is progressive 25 on June 10 in Fohenagh and Castlegar are hosting Hurling on the Road on June 11. On June 25 the big event will take place in Fohenagh, there will be a number of events for the teams to compete in, including a tractor pull, hang tough, teamwork course and the final obstacle course. Each event will be timed and points awarded based on the best time. And the eventual Toughest Townland winner will be crowned at the club’s 20th Anniversary celebration that night in Fohenagh Community Centre.
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The Directors of B.A.C.D .have formally appointed local Martina Flanagan as the Company’s first new Administration Manager.
With the new Innovation Hub building (Bank Chambers on Society St.) coming on stream over the next few months and the company’s’ ambitious developments with the 10-year plan, additional resources were deemed necessary by the board to allow the company to pursue and expand it’s development reach. Following strong interest for the position and subsequent rigorous selection process, Martina Flanagan was offered the new position. She began last April, supporting and working alongside General Manager Lyn with the growing complex admin needs of two buildings, 29 current enterprise clients, 10 project / event teams, 14 stakeholders and of course the wider community and members to cater for. Martina is no stranger to town, born and raised in Mackney the second youngest of six was educated locally, with both parent’s Psychiatric nurses and like all children worked in the hospital during school holidays, (St. Enda’s). So, in essence it’s full circle - back walking the old Parka Floors again.! Not following the parental nursing route, she did a Secretarial Course in Roscommon, moved to London and started her 1st Secretarial role to a customer service director for a computer company in the heart of London. During her time in London, she met her husband Barry from Dublin in a London Irish Centre, returning back to town in the early 90’s marrying and having 2 sons, David and Brian. She spent the past 25 years working for Barna Waste and JJ Rhatigan Builders. She is now putting over 30 years’ experience in administration management working in customer service and the construction industry to use for B.A.C.D. “I always enjoyed the efforts of BACD from a community point of view and am thrilled with the opportunity to work alongside Lyn. Already a couple of months in I am thoroughly enjoying the busy working environment and it’s diverse range of roles and responsibilities. Since starting work for B.A.C.D. I am amazed at the huge amount of work that Lyn and the volunteer Board of Directors have undertaken in the past number of years, mostly behind the scenes, for the benefit of the town and the community, I am looking forward to working with the team and allowing them more time to focus on the 10-year plan and the development of Bank Chambers”, states Martina. Seamus Duffy, Chair stated “We are delighted to have Martina on board, she brings a massive amount of experience and skill to the team, which will be a huge help to groups and individuals in the area to help fulfil our ambitious 10 year plan." Ballinasloe Enterprise Centre: The Ballinasloe Enterprise Centre is currently 100% occupied, with 29 Enterprises employing 172 people. There is currently a waiting list of clients for both the Enterprise Centre and the new hub building, Bank Chambers on Society Street. The Training Room (catering up to 20 people) and The Board Room (catering for up to 8 people) is available to rent on an hourly or daily basis and can be booked through the connectedhubs.ie platform or by contacting the Ballinasloe Enterprise office on 090 96 46516
The 2022 edition of the annual horse fair & festival is scheduled to commence on Sunday 2nd with equine competitions continuing on Monday 3rd & Saturday 6th October.
The importance of hosting this international event to the economy of town and its hinterland cannot be underestimated; proof enough was provided with the two year absence during the Pandemic and the Year of the Foot and Mouth. As a heritage event is has no equal. a point underscored and acknowledged by President Higgins in his opening address in 2018 when he pronounced the Great October Fair being worthy of UNESCO status. With the cooperation of local authority there is no reason why this cannot be achieved. However with some 4 months left on the planning cycle there is frustration on the part of the Festival Organizers on how some of the undertakings given last Autumn will ever be put in place. With practically six months of the year behind us, commitments and assurances given to meetings of the MDC and full County Council about significant resources being deployed and the early appointment of an Event Co-Ordinator, assistance with Insurances have yet to be finalized. “We have been looking for a follow up meeting with the Council Executive to discuss plans and production for 2022, in its absence it is extremely frustrating and difficult for our voluntary committee to plan for this year’s event. To coincide with the Horse activities the festival committee are currently busy putting together a program of events to ensure visitors to town over the first two weekends in October have an enjoyable experience. The second weekend focused on Country Fair Day has become a huge annual gathering of local diaspora. Fireworks are scheduled for the Friday night, with the Country Fair Day spectacle in the town centre and the Mare and Foal Fair taking place on the Green on Saturday. The closing Sunday (9th October) the festival dog show, food and craft market, children’s bakery competitions, children’s tractor race and vintage display are again all being planned. With 90 % of all the events / activities staged being are free, the bulk of the revenue needed to pay to produce the Festival or Carnival activities requires sponsorship and support from the towns business and commercial sector. The lifeblood of the festival is our loyal sponsors and we are indebted to the local business’s that contribute towards our running costs which are in excess of €50,000. If our festival is to continue then we need more sponsors underwrite the investment”, urges Mal. The Queen of the Fair selection night is scheduled for early September and any girls over 18 interested in taking part this year should contact the festival secretary. For more information log-on to http://ballinasloeoctoberfair.com,email info@ballinasloeoctoberfair.com. or call the Fair HQ on 087 2071869. Follow the festival activities through their Facebook Page below:
Ballinasloe library are currently giving out Little Library Book Bags to children due to start school this September, there are still some available for parents to collect.
The library also celebrated Bike Week recently which was all about the promotion of the benefits of cycling. There was an exhibition "The Story of the Bicycle" by Brendan Smith, which showcased the history of the bicycle in Ireland and also featured a display of vintage bicycles loaned by Barry Taylor. The library’s Crochet & Knitting Group continues every Wednesday between 11am-12.45pm and the Women’s Group every Thursday from 11am-12pm. The library is open from Wednesday to Sunday from 11:00 - 1:00 PM and 2:00pm and 5:00pm. If you have any questions on how to get involved in any of the activities, or what events are coming up you can email the library on ballinasloe@galwaylibrary.ie and follow their Facebook and Twitter pages @EDBallinasloe for updates. Garbally Past Pupils’ Union, an organisation representing former students and staff of Garbally College, is back up and running following a successful AGM.
Former students from afar as Queensland, Australia, and Boston, USA, were among the 30 or so past pupils who joined the event, which was held in Gullane’s Hotel, and live stream. Arguably Garbally’s oldest past student, centenarian Val Martin (Class of 1940) opened the event with some reminisces on how he ended up attending the college despite the lure of Roscrea in his native parish of Portumna. Following the approval of a new constitution, the AGM proceeded to elect Paddy Feehily (Class of ’72) as the PPU’s new president. Paddy, who was the last secretary of the PPU’s Dublin branch until it petered out in the late 1990s, said he was honoured to have been nominated for the role. He received his chain of office from Gary Hynes, whose father, Pat, was the PPU’s last elected president. Martin Nunan (Class of ’93) was elected chairperson and Aidan Ryan (Class of ’86) vice-chairperson. Secretary is Damian Mac Con Uladh (Class of ’93) while Alan Harney (Class of ’14) is treasurer and Colm Croffy (Class of ’87) PRO. Mike Sheil (Class of ‘84) is a committee member. Projects that they will be focusing on include assisting with class reunions and other social events, marking the centenary of the move from the Pines to Garbally in 1923 and digitising old issues of the college annuals Gearrbhaile and the Fountain. Originally originally established in 1929, almost 150 past pupils have already signed up to the PPU via the online registration form. The PPU can be reached on social media here Over 450 locals set off from The Emerald Ballroom, at 4.15am on the sixth Darkness Into Light Walk . They joined the 18 other venues in the county and the thousands of walkers at home and abroad in annual flagship fundraiser for Pieta House.
It was the first time since 2019 that in-person walks took place from organised centres. Individuals, couples, and families all joined together creating a wave of yellow as they all wore their iconic yellow t-shirt with pride. They moved silently and respectfully through the street, up Brackernagh and Mackney before entering the darkened Ard Scoil Mhuire avenue reflective section. They paused at the lantern and candlelit display before continuing through Garbally. Here the area was bedecked with lanterns, with Paul Drysdale and Frank Kennedy providing background music as the walkers filed past, before turning into the Garbally Avenue lined with the iconic yellow tealights as far as the Garbally exit before returning via Brackernagh, some tired, others invigorated, and some a little overwhelmed. The walk is meant to be symbolic of the journey a person makes from the darkness of despair into the light of hope and wellness. It also serves to raise awareness and vital funds for the free life-saving services that Pieta House provide in its centres nationwide. Brian Derrane, Chairman of the Oranizing Group, reported that Pieta received around 100,000 calls and texts last year, up 40% from previous. The charity’s telephone and video therapy services had also seen an increase in demand, up 20% on this time last year. “ A huge thanks is owed to the committee members, local voluntary groups and individuals who assisted with the stewarding and other aspects of the event ensuring the walk was a safe experience for participants, as well as the local businesses who contributed ensuring the event was cost neutral with approximate €6,500 locally raised going directly to Pieta House” , he continued. A motion having the Ballinasloe Townparks inner relief road inserted as specific project under named road projects, was carried recently and will also be in the County Development Plan which is a higher order plan than the Ballinasloe Local Area Plan.
The council are now enabled to support the delivery of the Inner Relief Road and to explore appropriate land uses adjacent to the road and River Suck harnessing the potential for recreation and related activities in association with the River. The motion that was put forward by Cllr. Evelyn Parsons can now be progressed to form the basis to seek planning and a co-funding applications as it’s listed as a road project in the CDP for the first time ever. Cllr Evelyn Parsons stated: “It was an issue the Ballinasloe townspeople and business community repeatedly brought up with me. They wanted to open up the town and backlands towards the river and there are many fine commercial, tourism and local recreational benefits to doing so and from the Town being more river centric.” “It could include a possible accessible swim and water recreation area and that would improve drinking water status and ensure higher quality water for the area with more rigorous standards and frequency of testing having to be applied to bathing status water,” Cllr. Parsons added. There were funds allocated for the project in 2014 from the old landfill fund, however when the town council dissolved the Galway CoCo took over with the commitment of delivering the road and Amenity area, nothing had happened since. There never was and there is currently no planning permission for the road or amenity Townparks area. “I put it forward to zone that Townparks area amenity, community facilities, open space and insert a link road to emerge also at the new Scoil Croi Naofa School. This was not feasible as planners were adamant putting a zoning use of open space or amenity or community facilities on that area would completely preclude and jeopardise the development of any road or route in that zoning and leaving it unzoned gives it the best possible chance of getting through environmental hurdles as it is area of constrained land use which will be subject to stringent high level environmental assessments,” Cllr. Parsons concluded. Now that the motion has been passed and included in the CDP and the LAP, the Council in accordance with proper planning and sustainable development and environmental considerations will finally have both plans solidly backing delivery of the long-awaited Inner Relief Road. Damian Mac Con Uladh our Corinthian Correspondent awoke me to the Bloomsday connection to our fair town and indeed one of its prominent public worship buildings as well as the Holles Street National Maternity Hospital some years ago. Bloomsday (16th of June when James Joyce first met his lover and wife – Galway-based Nora Barnacle) whilst celebrated the world over has muted acclaim in town even though the web of time and 117 years has brought us back full circle to the plot of Ulysess (celebrating its centenary year of publication) and the romantic wanderings around Dublin of the protagonist – Leopold Bloom . For those unfamiliar with the novel "Oxen of the Sun", chapter 14 of Ulysses, mentions a Dr “Horne” no less than ten times. That refers to Sir Andrew J. Horne, who was born in 1856 in Ballinasloe, the son of Junius and Frances Horne of Society Street, who owned a number of buildings on the street, from the old Convent secondary school at No 2 (where they probably lived. Dr Rossitor later lived there) up to what was McCullagh's at No 5. Horne was the founder and first Joint Catholic Master of the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street. He studied medicine in Dublin and Vienna , was joint Master for 30 years, he was active in the Foundation of the Women’s National Health Association as well as the Society For The Prevention of Cruelty To Children. He became President of the Royal College of Physcians in 1907 and died in 1924. It is suggested that Horne represents Helios, the Greek sun god, and also oxen (Horne=horn). Playing around with his name, Joyce wrote: "Send us bright one, light one, Horhorn, quickening and wombfruit." Referring to the hospital, Joyce continued: "Of that house A. Horne is lord. Seventy beds keeps he there teeming mothers are wont that they lie for to thole and bring forth bairns hale so God's angel to Mary quoth. Watchers tway there walk, white sisters in ward sleepless. Smarts they still, sickness soothing: in twelve moons thrice an hundred. Truest bedthanes they twain are, for Horne holding wariest ward." In 1915, Horne had a stained glass window erected in memory of his parents in St. Michael's Church, which also contains windows erected by his father, Junius who died in 1907.
We published a snippet on the Facebook page last summer and I got a call from a former Portnick based Horne inlaw who thought I might be interested in meeting a descendant of the Hornes - the Great Grandaughter of Junius and Grandaughter of Andrew – Margret – a sprightly ninety something year old – still living a fiercely independent life in south Dublin in the Horne residence. The appointment was arranged and I over stayed my welcome by some 2 hours – she was utterly engaging – she had unique memories of her childhood before the war and her father’s recollections of visits to Ballinasloe. The sitting room and dining room walls were bedecked with photos and souvenirs of her family tree – and she showed me wonderful scrap books of picnics at Garbally’s 40 steps, Clonfert Abbey, The River Suck in the thirties and forties. Margret’s father Andrew , like his father born in Society St who gave his residence to the Sisters of Mercy for their School – studied medicine in Trinity and when the bugles sounded in 1914 he volunteered for service with Royal Army Medical Corps. He served with distinction and his photographs and watercolour sketches of his time on the front and tending to the wounded are fascinating. As a Lieutenant he was one of the very last cohort of officers with the wounded evacuated from Gallipoli. The story of the fledging state and the Catholic natives finding their way through education and sacrifice – sometimes with huge support from the church and betimes frustrated by the same institution is etched into this family’s tree. Andrew eventually became Assistant Master of Holles St. and was married to Delia Moclair it’s first ever assistant female Master! Margret herself studied and trained for Almoning ( modern day Social Services) she was the Chief Almoner to the Adelaide & Meath Hospital and was a pioneering voice in the early days of getting social workers accepted into the trade union movement . She also served in a variety of Catholic third world lay missionary activities. A connection with Sean Mc Bride (who famously was near killed in a road accident and nursed back to life by the FMDM sisters in Portiuncula –and became Chair of the Board of Trustees) saw her develop a friendship with Monsignor Louis Page. Sadly she was one his last visitors to Arus Vianney before he died in 1999. The erudite, loquacious and very hospitable Margret was able last summer to get about to visit her since deceased twin sister , attend her religious duties – as a car driver but railed at the injustice of COVID having to stop her playing her GOLF !! Ballinasloe had significant input into the Annual National Joycean Bloomsday Celebrations last year when, local Classical guitarist John Feely actually got to play Joyce 's original guitar for the President Michael D and his wife Sabina and acclaimed local author Nuala O Connor was flat out with oodles of live radio programmes and TV broadcast - discussing indepth Nora Barnacale who she profiled in her latest Bio Fiction Novel “Nora” . Her Novel was selected by Dublin city Council for “ One Dublin One Book Read and featured recently on the RTE’s Book On One “ ‘I’m honoured and humbled that Dublin City Council has chosen Nora as its One Dublin One Book read for 2022, the Ulysses centenary year. I imagine Nora Barnacle would be as pleased as I am to see her contribution to the life and work of James Joyce celebrated in this way. I’m a proud Dub and this wonderful opportunity has me really looking forward to engaging with library users and readers, all over my home city, in 2022.’ stated Nuala. NORA has been shortlisted for two awards - Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year at Listowel and Irish Novel of the Year at the Dalkey Literary Awards. |
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May 2024
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