On Saturday a table Quiz was held in the Roundstone House Hotel, courtesy of Siobhan Vaughan and her family, in fact Siobhan arranged all the questions, and was very active to make sure that we had at least 17 Tables, Siobhan got them the questions were very good, but still required some careful thinking for the answers

The idea of the quiz was to raise enough money for the Kids fun Community Games which is due to be held on the last Sunday of August, ie the 31st  the event was highly successful, and was as always good fun, the whole atmosphere was electrifying with all the outrageous banter. Johnny Sheehan over the years has paid out of his own pocket for the said games, so thank you every body that supported the event and Johnny. There is now enough money in the kitty, with out Johnny having to put monies out of his own pocket for the next community games. The winning team was Michael Harty’s team, “Bring back the Baileys cheese Cake” with 66 points “ 2nd was Our own Josephine Roaches Team “ the Ballyrubick Brestrokers”, The loosing team was the “Owen Chucks”, Maureen Cadmus, Emelda and Geraldine de Courcey, and Rose O’Rielly, they were given a bottle of whisky (To drown their sorrows), and I think they won something for the best team title, all in all a cracker of a night well done to all those in the Roundstone House Hotel, great Craic, perhaps they might consider in doing it again before the end of the season.

Dogs Bay:
At long last the huge pile of rubbish was taken off the beach on Dogs Bay last Friday, my thanks to the beach committee, James Conneelly in helping us to have access with a tractor and Trailer to go directly on to the beach to load up the pile, It was Frank O’Donnell at the helm of his tractor to help clear it and dump it at the Dogs Bay Car park, it took two hours in the early hours of the morning to complete the work, my thanks to the Galway County Council, through our Community Warden Tommy Sullivan, to finally have it all taken away. Hopefully this will never happen again to allow another pile up on the beach of this level again, now that we have better access it will make life a lot easier to have regular clean ups.
Defibrillator:
A public Meeting will take place at the Roundstone House Hotel Tuesday 29th July 9pm, for an update on the Village Defibrillator project, and to discuss CPR training and Defibrillator training, at the same time impute for the placing of the machines some where in the village. To date we have in the Defibrillator account with the post office the sum of €4,650, a little short of the target, but we will get there. The most important part of this particular public meeting is that we must have minimum of six people to do half day training in certified CPR, as back up for the Defibrillator Volunteers

Roundstone Regatta:
Ann gave a run down on last Sundays Regatta, but was unable to mention that the under 14s two oar was won by Allan Conneely and partner Cormac Mongan, and talking about Allan, it was his birthday, and therefore was born on Reggatta day 7 years ago, how very meaningful to have won his race with Cormac and the second was Cian Conneely and Ian McDonagh, so well done lads from Roundstone. In fact next Tuesday FEILI 2008 will actually feature this years Regatta on T.G.4 Tuesday night next at 8pm.

Birthday Wishes:
We also had Ronan Creane and Shauna Lowry reached their 3oth birthday last week, so happy birthday guys, I am sure you celebrated the event in good style, in fact I know you did.

Roundstone ladies to the Galway Races:
A message to say to all our glamour lady’s from Roundstone, enjoy your outing to the Galway races, the girls before leaving Roundstone started the festival with a glass of Champagne in the hotel this afternoon, the ladies were Geraldine Coyne, who incidentally thought she was going dog racing, Michelle and Lorraine, from Eldon’s, Anne Delapp, Martina Conneelly, Elaine Connolly and Shirley.  I took a nice photo of the departure, including the bucket of ice with more Champagne with them in Richards Taxi, what style, god I thought I was good, oh boy they put me to shame, actually in fact there is quite a contingent going racing from Roundstone, I feel sure a lot of fun will be had, So, watch out Galway, Roundstone is on its way to take you by storm.

Errisbeg House Bats:
I was telling you the story some months back of how I lost my bats from the house, owing to roof repairs last year, however, I was lent a bat detector from Melinda Swan and yesterday, walking around the grounds, I found them not so far away, still within the perimeter of my grounds, now is the dilemma of how to bring them home, a nice little challenge, perhaps they will come home to roost on their own. There was supposed to be a bat walk here during this year’s arts week, but had to cancel that event, no bats, so for next year it’s a go.

Stable Gallery:
A note for the Diary, for the last time this year I will be holding a serious exhibition of paintings by Fionntan Gogharty and Sea Oak Sculpture’s by Robert Jocelyn, with an by opening by Mary Banotti, we will also have a food and wine reception this Saturday 2nd August 6pm, so if anybody wants to have a look and enjoy the last exhibition at my place, you would be most welcome.
Well, that all from me this week.
Keep smiling, and to remind you it’s the last week to get your pet poodle or other types of dogs in shape and groomed for the forth coming dog show on the 4th August.

It has been a very busy week in Roundstone, with all sorts of activities, and obviously the high light of the week was the

Roundstone Pony Show:
Rain before seven, fine by eleven… so the saying goes and as the morning of the Pony Show dawned and we looked out at the rain, I’m sure that many of us were offering it up with great optimism for the day ahead, even though we know only too well that in this corner of the world four hourly troughs can so often be followed by another!
At the showground ‘the team’ were putting the very last finishing touches for the day, to what must be the most spectacular and beautiful Pony Show venue in the world, where the noble Connemara Pony blends naturally into its surroundings of mountains, sea and bog, from whence it was first born. You could sense too, the encouragement and passion of those involved with the first ever Pony Show in Roundstone back in 1924, echoing down the ages.
By 9.45 all was ready for the 10.00 prompt start. We pride ourselves on our time-keeping! The judges, Msr. Louis Philibert from France and Mrs. Olivia Haslett from England stepped into the ring to begin the judging and as they did so the heavens parted as the rain blew away.
The total number of entries this year was up by 10%. All classes were stronger than ever before, with entries from all over the country. Most pleasing to see was the extremely well supported Young stock classes, in particular, the foals, which took some deft management from the ring stewards.  One visitor from England commented on the very high standard of ponies entered and also on the size of the classes which are very much “recession hit” across the water. But it seems that not even the threat of recession here can part the man and his passion for the Connemara Pony.

In the other rings we had the sheep judging with Michael Madighan and Roger Walsh, commentator Damien Connolly, Sir Roger Thompson was the Judge for the dogs, with Mary Banotti as commentator. All in all the   ponies, sheep and the dogs drew a huge crowd, the ringsides were packed, it was a real family day out with plenty for everyone to see and enjoy.
All the class results with various photos will be put up on the website in a day or two.
But suffice to say that the Supreme Champion of the show was won by Padraic Heanue, Ballinaboy, Clifden with “Grange Ruby Surf”.
Then the winners and the Supreme and Reserve Champions were paraded through the village, to end off a great day
I feel sure that Paddy the Yank would like to thank everybody who played a part in its preparation and to those who helped out on the day. It has to be said, the community in so many ways benefits from this extraordinary event, good job Paddy.

Church Repairs.
Yesterday Nora King and her team had a sale of work to go towards the church repairs, they raised a staggering €4’380.03cents, this will certainly put a smile on Father McCarthy’s face, now there were 21 Raffle prize’s, don’t worry not going through the whole lot, just the first three, the Brown envelope, was won by Justin Dixon, the luxury Hamper, Shauna Lowry Prenga, a painting from Kings Gallery, Michael Sullivan Innishnee. Nora particuley wanted me to thank everybody who made items and donated items for the sale, and as Eileen said to me this morning don’t underestimate women power, trust me I don’t. Its wonderful how the community comes together when we have to fight for some thing, well done ladies.

Mass on the Pier:
Next Sunday i.e the 20th July, Father Mc McCarthy will be holding mass at 12pm down on the pier and at the same time will bless all the boats, talking about the Pier, well done to all those that did a massive clean up, and freed the pier of all the rubbish, having now had the clean up we hope to bring back the Corpus Christie procession for next year

Tegolin’s Tales:
Don’t forget that every Tuesday during the summer in the lower Community Hall we have for adults and children the Tegolin’s Tales; these are Fairy tale plays with masks, enacted out with Sean and Roslyn Coyne at 7.30 pm

Roundstone Summer Camp:
The summer camp in Roundstone came to a close last Friday, there was a very good attendance, I must say its great having events like this for the Kids, they truly love it, and it’s great to have Forum behind us. So well done to all the forum staff for keeping this camp active

Kings Gallery:
Our thanks to Yvonne King of the Kings gallery, who gave 25% on the sale of paintings towards the Deffribulator during the arts week, Yvonne managed to raise the tidy sum of €420, so thank you Yvonne. Talking about Defibrillator, we have just reached just over €4’ooo, we will reach the five before the end of the month. We will be calling a public meeting next week to decide what volunteers want to come forward, and discuss the training for the CPR, this week we are getting some quotes as to the cost for the CPR training from various qualified agencies

Table Quiz:
Another date for the diary Saturday 26th July Johnny Sheehan will be holding a table quiz to raise yet again more funds, this time for the Community Games which will be held at the end of August, the venue for the table quiz, this time will be at the Roundstone House Hotel 9pm, there will be all sorts of prizes and surprises etc. so we need tables of four, so get your teams together, and lets have some fun

Birthday wishes,
To David Jameson, from all his neighbours around Errisbeg and also to congratulate him on winning the Gelding class with “Tommy’s Pride” at the pony show yesterday. David has always been a great supporter here in Roundstone, and has always supported me re the arts Week. Happy Birthday David
Well that all from me for this week, our next big event for this weekend is the annual Regatta, therefore good luck to the committee, and we will pray for fair winds.
Be happy and keep smiling. R