Roundstone News 28th August 2006
Its time to take up the banner again re news from Roundstone, I know that there has been regular viewers wondering what has happened not getting any news on the site, well for me its been a strange and busy time, mostly going over to England to my ailing mother, who eventually died three weeks ago.
Well the summer season is fast coming to an end in Roundstone, so I thought I would give a little run down and assessment of the past few months.
All the events that were held to promote the village and to use the events as a fund raiser for the community worked well, helped of course by the great weather.
Four big weddings held on my grounds also helped to bring more people into the village.
Tour de Bog:
We had just over two hundred riders, which raised a staggering €1’000, by just going around with buckets considering we have not had any tee shirts to sell for the last two years. The year 2007 will bring in a new sponsor Susan Cruise Callaghan who has very kindly offered to take on the sponsorship of the tee shirts.
Irish Nights:
Held every Wednesday during the summer, in the community hall, hosted with Christina Lowry, these nights were very well attended.
Last year there were no Irish nights for some reason or another, so it was great to have them back again for this year to show our visitors what traditional music and singing is all about.
Community Games:
This is the one event that ends off the season, it’s a community event for all the parents and the children to come together sponsored by Johnny Sheehan, for games, face painting, Bouncing Castle, B/Que and Disco and then in the evening we had a table quiz and raffle in Ryan’s Bar to raise funds for a new play ground for the village, which roughly raised the sum of €500. The weather was a little inclement, however, it was fun and everybody was still smiling. Well done Johnny.
Roundstone Marina:
Since Jan 2006 the Directors have worked very hard to keep the Marina project alive. We were holding fortnightly meetings mostly in Galway where we met with our advisers.
We had meetings with our accountant Blaney / Murnane & Nolan, and with Galway County Council to negotiate the possibility of them taking on the car parking etc around the hall.
In March the directors attended a meeting in the dept of the Marine Dublin and since then we have had numerous letters with the department but the final answer from them is that according to EU our allocation of 75% funding have been slashed to 55% which bring us to the dilemma which now faces us, 20% of a shortfall.
However, during the summer ourselves and some of the investors who holiday in Roundstone were convinced that the project could and should go ahead therefore we held an informal meeting with some of them to work out a plan of campaign to bring the project on track again, the following items was discussed, a thirty year lease, an extra €15’000 per berth, more flexibility in the contract and the importance of the very survival of the village.
Therefore we have informed the Department of Marine of the revival of negations for a Community based Marina and not a private enterprise.
That basically is it in a nut shell, stage one has been completed by sending out letters to all investors informing them of our new plan, we also sent out copies of a letter sent to us by the Department outlining their thoughts of the old project
Roundstone Pony Show, Champion of Champions:
On Monday a small get together was held in Roundstone at Nicky Griffiths coffee shop to officially launch the Champion of Champions show for the 24th September 2006. Senator Dodd was the guest speaker, he spoke very eloquently about Paddy the yank and the gift that has been given to Roundstone by holding this event, and now known as the “Innishnee man” the Senator was very enthusiastic about the future of these now two shows and what it could do for Connemara and Roundstone for the future.
