Well yet again we had a very busy week in Roundstone and this week coming will be no exception, what with the starting as from this Thursday the Summerfest with a packed programme up until Sunday evening.

So the best of luck to the three organizers, Mark Forsyth, Thomas King and Simon Ashe.

Tour de Bog: 7th August
We had a very successful tour de bog (Photos on the website taken by Mark Wilkinson) family ride from Roundstone to Ballyconneely and along the Bog road and back to Roundstone, with three hundred and twenty five riders of all ages. As it was a fund raiser for the community we actually raised just over €2.500 which will go to refurbishment of the community Hall, and point of interest the Tour de Bog is in its 15th year. My thanks to Ted Sherwood for all his hard work plus the distribution of the medals, Kevin Browne as lead car and Traffic controller in the village by O’Dowd’s, trust me no mean feat, the attitude of some of the drivers was just incredibly rude, Max Anderson, Ann Connelly for selling all the Tee shirts, and of course our sponsors, Barry and Geraldine Smith, Nicky Griffin and to the one man who wanted to remain anonymous for the Tour de Bog shirts, to all that had water stops, I also have to thank Thomas King he did a hell of a job on the design of the tee shirts and to have them brought to me from Galway, just in the nick of time for the day

Walk about Councillor Jose Conneely:
A few of us had a walk about the village Josie Conneely, to see if he could help us improve on the village, such as.

(1) O’Dowd’s Wall needs urgent attention

(2) New Quay, removal of a wreck of a boat

(3) Church Car Park, Extra bins during the summer months, and mark out parking spaces, CCT cameras

(4) Advise on the Flag Poles

(5) To arrange Collection of litter bins around the cottages

(6) Garda control during the summer

(7) Speed ramps in the village

(8) Ervallagh Harbour, a danger of motorized boats within the Harbour while the kids are swimming

(10)The upgrading of street bins and bins placed within the Community Hall Grounds

(11) Repair the Road to the new slip way on Innishnee and Yellow lines in the Village

Clean sweep of the beaches:
We had a clean up on the Beach yesterday, i.e. Dogs Bay, even in the pouring rain we were able to pack up into black bags the rubbish, I have to say its the very first time along the beach was immaculate, so it just proves that if we have one person who picks up a bag of rubbish and leaves it in an allocated spot for the eventual collection, every body follows suit, it was amazing the cleansings, so my thanks to as usual to Cathal Mullen with his side kick Cormac Mongan with the quad bike and trailer, and to Stephan Blades who just happened to came onto the beach for a walk, Stephan gave us hand to get out of the rain as fast as possible, all in all it just took one hour to have it all bagged and lifted to the car park ready for collection on Monday, my thanks also to Tommy Sullivan, the community Warden, and the GCC, with the help this afternoon from John Conneely, who brought his truck down, loaded up and took the rubbish to Clifden.

All Ireland Dog show:
For the first all Ireland Dog show held yesterday on the Pony show grounds, was all in all a great success, at a guess there were probably over three hundred dogs had entered into the 20 classes, and it has to be said the judging was very fair and througher, great weather and a great crowd with masses of children. As an added bonus Paddy had a friend of his Margo who used to sing with Brendan Bowyer, he called her out into the rings and asked her to sing a Ballard for the crowd, this went down very well. The supreme champion was Paul Brady from Tuam with his magnificent Great Dane, and the reserve champion Mary Pat and Michael Killeen’s Golden Retriever. Then some of the dogs were paraded through the village amongst the mayhem of traffic, which caused quite a stir, a few pints had to be taken too wined down from the day’s work. All in all a wonderful day, and congratulations to Paddy the yank to make all this possible, which I am sure will become an annual event, by the way some photos of the winners will be up on the Roundstone website in a few days.

Concert: 25th August
Paddy the yank again has yet again on the show grounds a huge concert coming up on the 25th August, with head liner Frankie Gavin, and lots more happening during the day for all ages, and then finally a parade through the village, which promises to be very unusual

Pat McDonagh RIP:
To end off on a sad note Paddy Shoulders Father Pat McDonagh passed away on Friday, and was buried on Gurteen today, so on behalf of the Community and myself of course, we send out messages of sympathy to all the immediate Family, especially to Chris, who I feel had a special relationship with his Gran Father. Pat was a bit of land mark in Roundstone, one could always see him sitting on various walls watch the world go by, and having a chat with Seamus Lowry in the shop on numerous occasions and as far as I am concerned, his sense of humour was quite something. May Pat rest in peace

We have had quite a busy weekend in Roundstone, with the various happenings relating to the Arts events in preparation for Ann and myself to bring it back for the year 2008. With a great day today, so here is a little run down

Nimmo Plaque:
As part of the Arts week weekend, last Friday we had the Blessing of the Nimmo Plaque which is now placed on the Triangle, just below O’Dowd’s, the plaque is set into a large stone, admitted we had to almost rent a crowd to give an explanation of the reason why Roundstone was given the Alexander Nimmo Plaque. As an added bonus, departing from Kinsale a certain number of Ribs, I think they were on a fund raiser had just entered Roundstone, stayed the weekend and departed back to Kinsale, so the whole event worked rather well.

My grateful thanks to Brian and Frank McDonald, Donal Nee senior and junior, for helping me to have it placed in time for the blessing.
John Moriarty:
We had also a celebration of John Moriartys life, with Tim and Mairaid Robinson in their home, I must say it was an incredible turn out, the whole evening was just people remembering stories of the life and times of people that had been in contact with John, enhanced by lovely music on the Harp from Lynn Soaise and Jean McAvoy from America who sang a wonderful haunting song accommenpied with the Harp. Then a letter was written to us to be read out at the gathering written by Marie Hughes, with a lovely quote that summed up johns death, and I quote “Death is not extinguishing the light, it is only putting out the candle because the dawn has come. We are here this evening to celebrate John’s dawn”.

My thanks to folding landscapes and theRobinson family

Stable Gallery:
Then last night we had the opening of the Ben Schonziet exhibition here at my place, Ben had specially flown over from New York to be present at the exhibition. A very large crowd came to see his water colours, so in turn we had a party atmosphere and again Lynn and Jean played for us, of course the whole thing was enhanced by the good weather we have at the moment.

Children’s Treasure Hunt.
Thanks to Ann Conneely with Michael O’Malley, we had a very successful humble treasure hunt with questions relating to the village of roundstone, the winning team was the Roundstone Pirates, four in the team, with Eamon, Clara, Cira and Helen in other words, the Mongan Family , Then DJ Mike entertained the troops on the playground field with some wild disco music, and the last event of the day will be the Bat Walk at my place just watch the Bats come on by one, with recorders so that everybody will be able to hear them as they fly around, we will have Carol Reynolds from the National Park to give a talk on them as they fly around

As we are coming up to the Bank holiday, we will be kicking off on the Saturday 4th August a concert in St Marys Church at 5pm with the Malone – Brady Family, naturally all are welcome but their will be a small charge of which will go to a charity for Children.

Note for the Diary;
Just a reminder, the all Ireland dog show will be held on the 12th August, people have been asking about applications for the 20 classes, do it on the day, or contact Paddy the Yank, another date relating to Paddy up at the show grounds, is Saturday 25th August starting at 12 noon, Roundstone will hold the first ever live concert a “Blue Grass Festival” (American style) on the Roundstone Pony show grounds with head liner Frankie Gavin with a few other live band plus a disco, actually, point of interest here, Frankie has just got back from a concert with the rolling stones, and it is quite possible, a member of the stones might make an appearance, just thinking is there no stopping Paddy, good on yer.

Paddy has also arranged for the concert bouncing castles etc, and a super Mac truck, so watch this space folks, there is some thing for everybody so remember the date Saturday 25th August kicking off at 12am

Mink:
The bloody mink have struck again this time in Ervallagh, there is good news and bad news, the bad news is 12 of our young pheasants, almost ready to be released into the wild have been slaughtered, the good news is that well done to Michael John Folan, with the aid of a trap he was able to catch a female, these are more deadlier than the male, so please people be vigilante.

John T-bone Nee:
And to end off on a really nice note, John Nee affectioaly known as John T – Bone , with his girl friend Gloria, sister Eileen, with husband Don arrived at Errisbeg all the way from Chicago for a holiday in Connemara, yesterday thank to Michael John he loaned them a boat to go over to Innishlaken for a picnic with their Aunt Bridgie, now hears the best part John surprised everybody, yes you have it he proposed to Gloria and produced a beautiful engagement ring, two points here, did he go on his knee, I wonder and did Gloria say yes, of course Gloria said yes, so congratulations to you both and may you have a long life together