Roundstone News 2nd May 2005
I feel like saying “sorry, no news is good news, say good night Dick”.But such as it is, this is what I have for you. Even after all the rain we have had this weekend, I gather locally that the village was busy with a lot more strangers I noticed this time, with of course our regulars, so hopefully this is a good sign for the rest of the season.
Broadband:
Another meeting was held in Roundstone last Wednesday, to try and bring the project of a Community broadband Scheme a step nearer, without going into too much detail, it’s a lot more complicated than we thought, not only technically because of our geographic situation, the set of the equipment is high, there is a lot of red tape and the workings of a co operative for a small village like ours would require a real commitment.But don’t get me wrong, the project is not going to abandoned we just need to get together with other communities, who are already up and running and to get information on how they went about it, in other words much more home work is needed before there is any commitment for the village
Ailbhe Creane:
Daughter of Joe and Betty Creane is about to go out to Ethiopia as a volunteer worker teaching English some time in late June early July for a minimum of three months.Even though its voluntary work Ailbhe has to pay her own expenses out, and a teaching course with “Teffel”, so that at the end of the course this new skill will stand her in good stead to carry out her voluntary work in Ethiopia, so what I am getting at, is that all her friends in Galway have got together and have booked a room at the Black House Hotel in Doughiska, Galway for the Friday of the 6th May for a table Quiz, now the cost of the table is €25 for a table of 4, inclusive there will be finger food prizes for the top three tables and lots more spot prizes, sounds like a good night. So if any of Ailbhe’s local friends want to support her and have not heard of this forthcoming event on the 6th May, either ring the Hotel for details 091 746666, or better still, Betty and Joe will be going up for the event, therefore you can make direct contact with Betty to fill you in on this worthy event.
Killary Adventure Centre:
Eight members From the Youth club went to the adventure centre on Saturday to take part in various activities where they were given various obstacles to work out as a team. Some very surprising elements in their characters showed up re leadership skills and teamwork, well maybe the word surprising is not quite the word to use, certainly I saw teamwork and other skills I had not seen before, anyway it was a thoroughly enjoyable day for all of us.We also had a Paddy Buckley who was our Instructor for the day, his specialities are in Hill walking, and Kiacking, and after talking to him as one does he was telling me that he is very keen to be able to take adults and young people alike to hill walk but with a difference, as an instructor he is qualified to teach compass readings, first aid and the art of camping, its an intriguing idea to work on that one Paddy is going to scout the area a bit just to see if we could put something into place, this idea could be interesting to work on, anyway its just an idea to kick around either for a day of instruction or one could make a weekend of it Photo events page has a few photos of the outing, they are not very good, but it will give you an idea of the outing.
Fire Engine;
Do you remember the fire engine we had some time ago, well news of it has come to my ears again, now get this its on its way to Africa, quite how useful it going to be out there, I have no idea what for, but the name Roundstone is written on the truck now being shown off some where in Africa, lets hope someone out there will pick up on the name and Email the Roundstone Website of a siting of the said engine.
Art O’Briain
:And now for something quite different, well at least for me, the Connemara Community Radio held Auditions this afternoon (Bank holiday Monday) for a new Radio Drama.The name of the Drama is called “Rosie Daly” the brainchild of Mary Ruddy and Art o’Briain which is being supported by the Broadcasting Commissions “New Adventures in Broadcasting” a scheme which Connemara Community Radio has participated for the past five years, winning overall prizes on three occasions.The drama “Rosie Daly” will be recorded over the summer and hopefully broadcasted in the autumn.Myself, Lyn Hill, Valerie Joyce and Brian Whelan went up for the auditions where we each had to do a small reading for Art, funnily enough I had to read one of Paul Durcons poems, you may remember Paul is the same poet who wrote about Father McCarthy and his fast mass’s, as the fastest priest in the west, any wayArt O’Briain, by the way is the artistic director, he is a man of enormous experience as he was the former series director with RTE’s Glen Roe, and more recently was director with TG4’s Ros no Rún, I hope I have pronounced that right, thinking about pronouncing Irish words of which I find quite difficult some times Mr O’Briain asked me if I was able to do a cork accent, you must be joking says I, I would need at least a few pints to even attempt an Irish one, I think at that moment I was dead, however it was an interesting experience, and to meet such a man of his calaba, and for Art to direct this drama by using local writers of the area, makes it all the more interesting and so to all those that auditioned this afternoon the best of luck.As we are on the subject of plays a few of us did a radio play which went on air a few weeks back called “Tea and Trickery” with Eithne Hannigan as director, Eithne is now going to direct Oscars Wilds play “The Importance of being Earnest” starting rehearsals next Tuesday, with myself, Lyn hill, Brian Whelan and Bill Mather as part of the caste, I have no idea who the other members of the cast are as yet, but it will be a fun play, so watch this space.
Animal Story:
After I had read out the news with the community radio this evening my telephone rang, and it was a call from one of my neighbours telling me that he saw one of my possible female mallard ducks leading 12 little ducklings along the road side, I was in the process of explaining exactly what was happening, and was thrilled to hear about this, because there is a vermin problem and have always maintained nature has a way of recuperating, mean while out of the corner of my eye as I was talking a drama was unfolding, my small little terrier was moving very slowly towards one of my pens where I have small fruit bushes with netting to protect them from birds, however a pigeon had found its way into the pen, Finn my terrier had spotted this, the pigeon tried to fly up and out, my terrier had launched himself in to the air caught the pigeon, and to my even more surprise brought it out of the pen and half way back to me, I am now wondering why I have a Labrador as a gun dog, when Finn could be great.Through the news on the website these humble stories take a life of their own, for example a friend of mine Kevin Browne sent me some photos that he took of Brent geese, that had come to Gurteen in February, when normally the Brent geese are on a migratory flight they do not come to the beaches, to my knowledge the islands around the coast are their landing spots. I just love this new dimension of the web, keep it coming nature is wonderful in its own confused way.
-Richard de Stacpoole
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