Hope every body is keeping warm, as it is so cold out here, I have two coats on, a woolly hat, big boots, well its not necessary to tell you what else I am wearing, the point that I am trying to make is to keep an eye on those senior citizens that are living on there own during these cold days.

News is a little scarce at this time of the year; however I have a few bits and pieces to relate.

Roundstone Play Ground:
We mentioned over the last few weeks the progress of the possibility of a new play ground in Roundstone, well work has started two days ago. So congratulations to Theresa Welsh and Yvonne Keane who spear headed the project with their other colleagues from the Roundstone Parents Association. The parents association raised with their fund raising efforts the sum of €10,000, therefore the Local Roundstone Lotto matched funded with the sum of €5,000, the balance will come from the Galway Rural Development. What was interesting there were I gather 25 Applications sent out for Tender for the work, the only person who responded was with a letter of apologies from P. Ratighan, stating that they would love to work this project, but owing to other commitments were unable to take the Job. Therefore
“GO PLAY” has the task, in fact this company has already built or building two play Grounds one in Cashel and the other in Recess, so here is something nice for the year 2007.

Community Hall:
The local Lotto also matched some funds to have the completion of the Kitchen in the lower Community Hall, so that we can get the place ready for the Senior Citizens Club. Work is expected to start within the next few days.

Ferrons:
Michael Reynolds has now got a full blown lotto machine installed in the shop, because he had only quick pick, so there you are again another little asset for the village.

Roundstone Youth Club:
The dates have now been set for the annual trip to our Twin village Noyelles Sous Lens with a few members of the youth Club for the 30th March to the 8th April, this time we will have a few extra days in Paris on a site seeing tour of the various museums and galleries. This time it was the guys who wanted to go on an educational tour, as it will be their last time for them with me.

Ronnie O’Neil:
The community and of course myself wish to give our condolences To Bridie our post lady on the passing of her mother Ronnie O’Neil a few days ago.

Bon Voyage:
Finally I would just like to bid Bon Voyage to Patrick Mullen and Josep Conneely who are off to South America on Wednesday for a few months, good for them, I have been to South America on a few occasions, they are going to love it, I must say I would not mind going again, also Ann Conneely departed today for a couple on months, to join up with Orla, her daughter. Good luck and have fun.

Father Breen:
A gentle reminder as Ann mentioned on behalf of Fr Breen last week, Wednesday i.e. the 24th there is a Padre Pio mass in Recess at 8pm, and also the pilgrimage to Lourdes 9th May to the 16th May, should anybody want to go just get in touch with Father Breen on 34605.

Well that’s all from me for this week, thanks for listening, speak to you next week, and as Ann has gone on Holidays for a few weeks, I am going to need everybody’s help in search of news for the next few weeks, not just for the local radio but so that I can keep the website up to date for all our local people and potential visitors alike, with news from Roundstone.

Roundstone News January 8th 2007

It seems an age since we last spoke on the radio, and I am not sure about you, but I am quite glad that the Christmas season is over; don’t get me wrong it was fun, but now its also nice to get back to work, so Happy New Year to everybody out there.

Roundstone was very brisk during the festive season, enhanced by the opening of Eldon’s Hotel, the B/B’s, shops, pubs etc and one time it felt like the summer Season, apart from the weather. Eldon’s Hotel is now closed until the 4th March with the opening of a wedding.

New Year:

Errisbeg House hosted a New Years Eve party, with a remembrance ceremony for all those that have passed over in 06 with a candle lit as there names were called out, it was a moving moment, particularly for me as my own mother passed on in August, and the loss of many friends I had known. Jean Anne Crowley who was one of my guests spoke about the Ellen McDonagh this vibrant lady whose son was killed in a car crash in Boston just before Christmas aged 21; Ellen does such great work on her News paper the Connemara Press which has become so much part of north Connemara. I sometimes often wonder what your man upstairs is thinking about with the loss of this young man’s life, oh well that’s part of the mystery.

It goes with out saying that our hearts goes out to the immediate family, and especially to Ellen.

Youth Club Raffle:

First prize of the Hamper went to Collette King, Second Prize of a handmade wooden Clock went to O’Dowd’s, and the third prize of a huge home made cake went to Gerald and Trish c/o the Mannions in Murvey.

So thank you to all that supported the youth club raffle.

Ferrons:

Saturday the 30th December we had the draw of the Christmas Window Competition, but before the votes were sorted and Counted there was a voter’s draw and this was won by Denise King, who received some bottles of wine.

The winning window out of 26 windows, with 259 votes was window 21, Mrs Sarah Nee, who won €100 of groceries.

Certainly this competition enhanced the village, and so our thanks to Michael Reynolds who sponsored this competition, and hopefully this will be an annual event.

The Christmas street lights are also coming down tonight as we speak again huge thanks to all those that helped in one way or another putting up and the taking down of the lights.

Teddy Bear Raffle:

This was a giant Teddy bear which was won by young Cian Conneely and all the monies that were raised were sent to the homeless in Galway.

Baptism:

Our congratulations to Grand Parents Martin. J and Bridie Connelly on the baptism of there first grand child Mathew Connolly, who was christened just a few days ago and of course we must congratulate the mother Sheena and father Padraic and so we wish Master Mathew long life.

Roundstone Brochure:

To kick off the New Year in conjunction with the Roundstone Website we will be having a new brochure made up about Roundstone and all its amenities and accommodation etc. We hope to launch the draft of the brochure on the 28th January, with the idea to finally complete it once we now who wants to remain on the website re their accommodation and to include the properties within the brochure.

A good deal of work on the part of Julian Matz (NetLink) and Robert Bate (The Roundstone.ie webmaster) has gone into the creation of this brochure.

Joanne Conneely:

Our congratulations to Ann’s daughter, Joanne who just become engaged to Pat O’Toole, Pat who hails from Cleggan.

So congratulations to you both!

Some of you have asked for a sports section on the Roundstone website - more specifically to track progress of the local rugby team, The Connemara Blacks.

We have now added a “Sports” category to the Roundstone News site, located here:

http://news.roundstone.ie/news/category/sports/

Anyone who is willing to write their articles in this category and write match reports are most welcome. Please sign up for an editor account here if you are interested. After registering, please update your full name so that an admin can activate your account.