Roundstone News 10th May 2004

Roundstone News 16 th May 05 RDC News letter:
At the last Development Council committee meeting a few weeks back the committee decided that it would be a good idea to publish a quartley newsletter re the workings of the Development Council to keep the community informed of works done and on going projects, within the community so the first letter for April, May, June will be published in a week or two

Fire Engine:
Do you remember two weeks ago, I mentioned about the Roundstone fire engine going out to Africa, well three days ago I got an Email from a chap from Madougou in Africa, asking me and I quote “I do hope you can enlighten me, I have been searching the web for the word Roundstone as I have seen it on our local fire Engine, did this engine come from you? Naturally I responded and asked him for a photo.

Tom and Michael Sullivan:
Congratulations to two Roundstone Youth Club members Tom and Michael Sullivan (Innishnee) did it again by winning the under 18s 3 Ore Curragh race in Westport against 6 other teams, well done you guys, actually I am not surprised, after watching them kiacking a couple a weeks ago at Delphi, I was struck by their natural ability of handling a paddle and to manoeuvre a boat, also let us not forget the third oar lad Sean Mulkerrins, then a few days ago another rowing challenge at peacocks, this time they came in third

Tidy Towns:
Roundstone has now officially entered for the tidy towns competition as from last Friday, so it is now hoped that we will call a general meeting next week to put together a plan of action and work force to prepare the village for the judicators. Meanwhile folks some flowers would not go amiss in front of your houses, we were the top village in our category last year with a score of 221 out of 300, so lets see what we can do this year. Which reminds me there is this year another special award in the Tidy Towns Competition for new landscaping projects, the Fair Green comes into that category and talking about landscaping members of the FAS team are doing a wonderful job stone facing a wall up at the Church Car Park by the bottle bank, when the wall is finished its going to give us a few brownie points which will be very much in our favour for the competition good job lads

Snippets:
This is just little snippets of casual news, for example a white line has appeared on our road on the Ballyconneely direction, which took me by surprise, because we are so used to not having one, just a little strange as to why from Ellistrin to Gurteen no line at all, any way its great to have it, and will be helpful for our forigean visitors and us alike to stay in the side of the road and not in the middle

Matchmaker:
Will re open on the first of June, I was talking to David yesterday he was telling that he has a whole new collection of clothes and furniture to everybody’s taste.

The Summerfest
has been nominated for the AIB Galway County Council Arts Award 2004, win or not it’s a good incentive for the lads to carry on their good work. We will keep our fingers crossed for them. Another little snippet, we now have a flower lady from Kildare stopping in Roundstone every Wednesday with her van full of cut flowers for sale, in fact she supplies nearly all the hotels etc around Connemara, so there you are anybody who wants cut flowers, she stops with Anne at Eldon’s late morning.

Sara Mc Donagh:
Congratulations to Sara Mc Donagh who has reached her 90 th Birthday yesterday, Christopher Sara’s grandson asked me to come over to the house, which is almost next door to me to take a few photos of the occasion, it was a lovely occasion with four generations of Mc Donaghs and I have to say, Sara was in remarkable form and looking very well, which says a lot about St Anne’s anyway Sara seemed very pleased to be with all the family down to the great grand babies, nice gathering, and congratulations Sara on behalf of myself and of course the community. The photographs by the way will be up on the Roundstone Website, under the events page www.Roundstone-connemara.com The reason why I mentioned the website and the photos is that there are a lot of relations out there who would love to see them.

Carmel Keane:
Who has been postmistress of the Roundstone Post Office for thirty years, in fact it was on the 19 th January 1972 when Carmel started work, and now she has decided to retire at the end of July of this year, for a well-earned rest, and to be able to spend more time with Gran children, Carmel would like to express her thanks to her customers and of course her colleagues and to wish her successor every good wish. Therefore should any one be interested in applying for the position, all the contact details are displayed on the post office window. So behalf of us all Carmel, enjoy your retirement and have fun.

Christening:
While we are on the subject of the keanes, a double christening took place last week with Father McCarthy, Carmel’s daughter Ann and her son in law Dermot McCarthy had their new baby Colm christened with Carmels son, Denis and daughter in Law Pauline had their new baby daughter Aoife christened at the same time, so congratulations to both sets of parents, I think Carmel you are going to retire just at the right time to help out these busy parents and at the same time enjoy your gran children.


-Richard de Stacpoole