News from Ann Conneelly 16th October 2006

The Roundstone Marina directors attended a meeting with Jr Minister Frank Fahy and members of the Department of the Marine office, in Dublin, to discuss the future of the marina for Roundstone.

It was a very successful meeting they came away very happy but there is lots of work to keep this project alive that still has to be done.

Organic Gardening:

Arrangements are been made through forum Letterfrack to organize an

Organic gardening information meeting soon, here in Roundstone, if you would like to be part of this could you contact either Christina Lowry or myself , we need about 15 people to make this happen.

Playground:

The committee of the potential new playground project held a sponsored walk on Sat morning last, they were blessed with a beautiful day, 7 mothers walked and between them they raised the guts of €1000, to date they have raised 10.000

Their target is €70,500 and this is to match funds from Galway Rural Development and other departments.

Anne Duchess de Stacpoole:

The ashes of the later Dorothy Ann Duchess de Stacpoole (Nee Dease), mother of Richard, was laid to rest yesterday in the family vault in Rath, Abbeyleix, Co Loaise

There was a lovely turn out, with her relations over from England, friends from Roundstone & Dublin, and lots of local people who remembered her from the time she lived there before her marriage to the Duke. 

A lovely luncheon was served by her cousins the Bland family at their most wonderful stately home. 

The late Ann is the last of the Dease family 

Eight members of the Dease family have already been laid to rest in the vault and as of yesterday, it will be finally closed for good. The people of Rath spoke so kindly of the Dease families and of how Important they were to that community in those hard times, with at least one from most of the families there employed by them. The were also responsible for building the Catholic Church in the village in which the mass was said yesterday. My memories of Ann were in the recent years when she came to visit Richard from England, she was always great fun and boy she kept Richard on his toes. May she rest in peace?

John King (Jaffa) was once again the overall winner in the poker game in Eldons which takes place each Friday night

That’s two in a row. 

Roundstone News 23rd October 2006

Vermin Shoot:

I have spoken before about the project of releasing Pheasants into the wild, around our locality, as a result of this you will find in bold red

“No Shooting, Game Reserve” this is just to warn people not to shoot them this year as we are trying to introduce them to the wild and in time we are going to try Partridge and Grouse, so that we can concentrate on the vermin problem with cage traps etc, so with this in mind we will have our first vermin competition Shoot on a points system on the 29th October 10am to 6pm.

Derek Gordon:

Ann mentioned last Monday about the pending burial of Derrick Gordon, of which he was laid to rest last Tuesday, the reason why I am bringing this up, Meg his wife was over whelmed by the generosity of the local people, considering Meg and Derrick have only lived in the west for the last three years, but having said that they do have a small cottage on the island of Innishlaken for the last 30 years therefore were regular visitors.

Meg’s family were unable to come straight over until after two days of Derrick passing, but funeral arrangements had to be made, and as she was on her own, help was asked for, every body rallied, particle Martin Nee, who helps Michael Ferron on occasions when Michael is unavailable. I have to say he was fantastic, its was difficult for me when you are dealing with a non member of the family on occasions like this, also the fact that within the

two days I had to bury my own mother up in Loaise, anyway Martin came up to the house, sat in a chair with the hat on, very slowly pulled out his book of telephone numbers, within an hour Meg become more relaxed as the ball was rolling, the rest is history, there were many more people who helped out by offering their help, the Gordon Family just wanted me to express their appreciation of their incredible support.

Roundstone Youth Club:

It’s the time of year again to get the youth club up and running therefore we will reconvene Friday the 27th October 8pm to 10pm, funny it seems only yesterday that we stopped for the summer, however for the first time in a good few years an x youth member Katrina Keane who has been involved with the club has volunteered to become now a youth leader, alongside Geraldine Coyne and myself, and as the saying goes

“All good things come to those that wait” at last we have a young youth leader; Katrina will receive some training that will secure the future of the club after we go.

Roundstone Pony Show:

On the 27th October there will be a Race Night held in Griffiths Bar at 9pm.

€20 a horse with 8 to 9 Races, the idea is to raise funds for the 2007 Roundstone Pony show.

The card are all in the shops in Roundstone should you want to buy a horse. I might also mention that there will be also be a raffle for some fantastic prizes

Dogs Bay:

This weekend there was a big clean up on dogs Bay, between 20 to 30 bags and rubbish of almost the same amount that could not be bagged, this was done by Claude Tourmanoff, husband to Sue, who sponsors one of the classes for the Roundstone Pony Show, Claude had spent eight hours, between bagging, and with the help of the Mullen Family to carry it up to the Dogs Bay car park for collection.

Claude actually left me a note saying “it was a joy and a privilege to be able to share in the communities caring for the beaches; he only regretted that he could not stay longer to do the rest of the beaches, and so do I. so there you are a good job done on dogs Bay, all that remains now is Gurteen and

Trá Gharbh which we will do after the Bank Holiday.

Kevin & Eileen de Courcey:

Our Congratulations from the community as well as myself to Kevin and Eileen de Courcey on the birth of their first born, daughter Neive, who came into the world last Thursday.

Cira King:

Cira King Daughter of Paddy Joe and Denise graduated some days ago, well done Cira, the world is now your oyster and we wish you every success for the future.