We have had one of the busiest weeks in Roundstone, what with the great weather and of course the Summerfest which started last Thursday and finished up yesterday, yesterday saw the largest gathering I have ever seen in the village with all the games for the kids and the revival of sheaf tossing which was brought in by the Sullivan Family, anyway it has to be said, that Mark Forsyth, Thomas King and Simon Ashe have yet again done a hell of a job with all the events that took place, The litter in the streets could have got out of control but the lads were out early each morning to clear up the best they could, it also has to be mentioned that thanks to our John Conneely he came in for a few hours over the weekend, voluntarily I might add for a few hours just to keep our streets clean. I also noticed that there was a lot more voluntary help to make it work, I had the impression this year that the trio had more fun owing to the extra help, I am glad because it can be some times a thankless task to implement a program of this sort so, hopefully they were pleased enough to be spurred on to prepare for I think their fifth Summerfest for 2006, any way congratulations to them and to all those that gave their support to the RNLI and of course to all those that gave their time to make the events run smoothly.

I had a quick word with Simon this afternoon while they were all clearing up around the place re the fund raising for the RNLI, no total as yet as it is still on going, but would let me know in a few days time of the amount raised.

Colette King

Was the Roundstone / O’Dowds representative for the selection of a beauty Queen for the Clifden Pony show which was held in the station house in Clifden yesterday, I gather from a good few friends of Colette did a good job all the same as a representative for our area, good one Collette

Stable Gallery

There was a wine reception with an opening of new mixed media paintings in the stable Gallery with artist Sibéail Ní Chumin from Galway her works are refreshingly different depicting Bulls, actually the paintings are on the ROUNDSTONE ART GALLERY should you want to have a look at them also that same evening, the launch of a collection of paper backs written by authors that have an affinity with the area, for example the history of the donkey, and Humanity Dick just to name a few, in other words all the books written on different subjects relating to Connemara will be put on sale in the gallery.

Community Games

As the season is slowly coming to a close we have one more event to happen in Roundstone and this is the Community Games, which will be held on the 4th September on the green field with activities for all age groups. Posters giving all details will be out over the next few days.

Johnny Sheehan will sponsor the Community Games; Johnny in his own quite way has given a lot to the village, so like last year it should be a fun day. We will have Bouncing Castles, Tug of war etc, disco for kids and the Adults also a table quiz to raise some money for the Parents Ass.

Dogs Bay / Gurteen Beach

The Roundstone Beach Committee, i.e. Pat Mullen, Joe Rafferty and James Conneely were nominated by the Galway County Council some time ago to have a DVD recording of the work and progress of the control of the banks from both sides from erosion, this recording happened on Monday with camera man Stephen O’Brien from Westport, the filming was done in two stages, the first part was with Louise Purten who is an expert on the Flora and Fauna and the second part was with members of the youth Club for the litter clean up, making a special reference to the fact that if the erosion was not controlled there would be no beaches for our visitors, so my thanks to Cahill Mullen, and his friends Shane Rooney, Andrew and Adam McCaffery and Oaísian Kenny for the clean up that morning.

Just to go back abit it was in 1988 that work started on the beaches with voluntary fund raising, then it was in 1990 that grants became available, and then came on board were three Galway County Council engineers who have contributed so much to the project, John Noone, Michael Dolly and John Wynn, also Ross Melville of Owen Precaste, played a part during the various surveys, he donated his Helicopter as part of the beach project.

The committees work after all these years is now finally being recognised as one of most important projects in the name of conservation, anyway the said DVD is hoped to be out in early November.

While we are on the subject of Gurteen, I have just heard that after two years of objections to a sewage plant for the camping site Pat has just received notice that, the Galway County Council have granted permission for a state of the art for a new plant, as more and more visitors are coming to the west with their mobile homes etc this has got to be good for the camping site and for Roundstone.

Roundstone Pony Show

A little update a new committee will be elected on Monday the 21st. I was talking to Paddy the Yank this morning and he was telling me that the last show in Roundstone was 1981 and he was hoping to find out if anybody has any old catalogues or old cups and trophies of the Roundstone days Paddy the yank would like to hear from you, and talking about Paddy, his mere “Roundstone Mary” became champion of the show in the Murloch Show in Clare.

Circus 

One of the events that we had was the circus over the weekend held up on Pat Mullins Caravan Park at his own expense for his clients as well as for the village. I have to admit the acts were really good the kids and I might add adults alike had a great time. Fair play to Pat for arranging this and hopefully he will be able to bring the circus back on an annual basis, its always nice to have something different brought to the village during the holiday season. What was amazing, was the ease and quickness of putting the big top up and down and I might add the grounds were really clean, not a speck of Rubbish. Good one Pat!

Starraic Gallery

Had an exhibition of new works from Scott Free who is an Australian, actually Scott is no stranger to Roundstone as he took part in last years Arts Week as one of the artist in Residence and was responsible for this years arts festival poster. Scott Titled the collection “Remembering” and what was different is that each canvas had a story to tell about ancient myths and legends, on the whole a very refreshing Exhibition and well supported. Roundstone Pony showI was talking to Paddy the yank this afternoon re the progress for next years Show up on Farrell’s road, he informs me that so far its all on track, and he is in negations with a major sponsor, as we speak, naturally enough he could not tell me who the sponsor is, any way we will keep our fingers crossed that this sponsor will be fruitful. Paddy also told me that he got a first prize with “Roundstone Lady” in Corafin and a second in Tuam last week, I wonder how his mare will fair out at his show next year June.

Tour de Bog

The annual tour de bog family bicycle ride takes place on the 4th i.e. Thursday, If there is anybody from the village to give me hand for a couple of hours, ie to sell the T-shirts out of the back of the car, lead driver to stay ahead of the posse to warn on coming traffic. Last year we had well over 200 riders so it is nessary for a back and front car, we also need a few water stops, so any help available would be most welcome on the day.

Community Hall

I think Ann mentioned that work had started on the lower community Hall for its refurbish ment, well it certainl has the lads are really moveing, there is no doubt about it it will be completed by September, and at last it will be a space very multi functional, kitchen, Confrence Room, new bathrooms for the whole community to benfit from.

Barbara Keane

Our congratulations to Barbara, who is the daughter of Josephine and Michael Keane, Barbara was married Saturday the 16th to Patrick Thornton in Roundstone, so on behalf of myself and of course the community, have a great life together.