Star of the Sea: As part of the Tidy Towns, a great deal of work is in progress in the tidy up and landscaping of the church grounds, the place is full of gorse, Ivy and brambles, and I am told that it is nearly 50 years since there was a grass lawn. My thanks to Donal Nee the FAS supervisor to allocate three of his lads, John Joyce, Tony Loughnan and Joe Achem who were able to help me start the clean up, boy we moved mountains. We hope next week to have a small digger to skim the top and dig out the gorse roots and re seed the area; and to re landscape the site, with the idea to create a peaceful and tranquil place to sit and enjoy the peace on the church grounds.

Forum: As Martin O’Malley who was the care taker of the Community Hall Grounds for the last few years is due to finish his term on the Scheme, we have been very lucky to have him replaced through forum a Owen Donnellan, but has an added bonus through his particular scheme Owen, won’t just be tied to the Hall grounds, he is allowed to help us on other community projects. If you think about it Roundstone is lucky to have these schemes, we have John Conneelly and Paul Keaney on the TUS Scheme, now we have Owen Donnellan to work with the Tidy Towns and RDC committee and lets us not forget we also have the FAS scheme.

Tidy Towns Committee: Will be meeting tomorrow evening to get a work plan in place in preparation for the Tidy Towns Competition and do some necessary fund raising for plants etc, as we hope next week the new wall in front of the play Ground will be filled in with soil and prepare it for the planting of, Bio Diversity shrubs.

Events Committee: Thursday 19^th the Events committee will be meeting to discuss various possible events, such as a triathlon, and as the Tour de Bog has become hugely popular and too big, it will have to run on a different level its no longer a one man team, hence it is great to have an events committee / team, so that the community can now be very helpful what ever events we have in the village

Failte Ireland - Place on Plate Roundstone: Is oversubscribed for the 2^nd February but for those who would like to attend there is another opportunity in Clifden, at the Clifden station House on February the 29^th from 9.30am to 1pm with no costs. There are also a few places still available on the Customer Service Course in Roundstone Lower Hall on 3 February 9:30-12:45. I also gather that Failte Ireland the B&B Development course in Lough Inagh commencing 13 Feb-17 Feb five consecutive days.  Places are limited to 15 and must be Failte Ireland registered to participate in this course.  Participants will be covering marketing and all aspects of B&B management.  These courses’s are for anyone working in the hospitality industry and retail sector. Further details can be sought from This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Grainne will also take the names of those who would like to attend.

North West Adult Education Classes’: The adult education classes are starting again, for Roundstone registration will take place in the community Office between 2pm to 4pm on Monday 24^th January. However, if you can not be available to register on the 24^th January, you can register direct as from now on the register form which you will find in all the shops in the village

Connemara Rugby Club: The Connemara Rugby club hosted a lunch at the Station House in Clifden inviting all those from Roundstone that helped out on the day for the “Rugby Kick off” that was held on New Years Day, down on the pier, at the lunch a cheque for €1,050 was presented from Johnny Sheehan on behalf of Roundstone to the Connemara Rugby Club. As I said before this event will now become an annual event

Imelda de Courcey: Tomorrow Tuesday there is a community meeting in the Roundstone dispensary, called by our local doctor Aonghus Flavin at 7.30 pm to discuss, the retirement of Imelda as district nurse, as it seems there will be no allocation of a district Nurse from the HSE for this very important role, Imelda covered, Recess, Cashel, Ballyconneelly and of course Roundstone, “so everybody we have another fight on our hands to have our voice heard” of the possibility of no district Nurse. We encourage as many people to turn up tomorrow to work out where we go from here. We wish you well in your retirement Imelda.

Dogs Bay / Gurteen Beach’s:

Finally, if any body has any spare time next Sunday afternoon at 2pm, we need helpers to clear the rubbish off the beaches, they are in a terrible mess, so as usual, gloves and bags will be supplied, a couple of hours work will make all the difference

Well, that’s all from me this week, it seems that spring is well on its way, I am sure everybody has noticed, that the Daffodil’s are up, my Azaleas are in bloom, poppies are bursting and the rock rose’s are all flowering, even my hens are laying like no body’s business, its all far to early, not sure what’s going on with the climate, but, hey! It is nice to see a bit of colour in the garden at this time of the year. Oh well go with the flow. Thank you for listening. Have a great week.