It was just by chance that we found a public notice placed in the village re for the removal of the public phone booth and to withdraw the service, Roundstone is on the war path again re this outrage, if this removal goes ahead, this will be another link particularly during the summer gone with the outside world, if you have any views “friends of Roundstone”, please submit your views, either to me of which I will pass on or write directly to the Address below. We in Roundstone have circulated a petition in protest for the community to sign, plus some written letters to safe guard this Payphone Service here in Roundstone. In the past we have fought for many things, such as a dispensary, Post office etc, if we had not Roundstone would be in the dark ages, its time to fight again to keep what we have, your help would be appreciated Public Notice: 23 01 2009 Eircom proposes to withdraw the public Payphone from Roundstone on the 16 March 09, the nearest alternative payphone is located at Market square, Clifden, interested parties are invited to submit their views in relation to the proposed removal, in writing to J.Hargadon, Regional Payphone Manager, Eircom HQ, Rathedmond, Sligo Town, Co, Sligo, (T) 0719174174, E.mail: jhargadon@eircom.net before the 16th March 2009. All views received will be taken into account before any decision is taken

I hope everybody had a good Valentines day over the week end, certainly Roundstone did in more ways than one the Shamrock held a disco and a competition for the finest Roundstone man and women, the women was Trina Keane which resulted in a tie breaker between Robin Woods and Johnny Sheehan, for the tie breaker Bob Woods was asked the question “If Trina was a piece of cake what piece would you take”?, quick witted Bob replied, “I don’t care I just want a piece of cake” guess what Bob won, and I heard also that Sam Reynolds was dancing romantically, when he slipped and did himself an injury dislocating his elbow putting himself in plaster, what can I say I know that romance was in the air Sam, but obviously being romantic  has its pit falls. Sam ,I feel dancing lessons are in order for you.

At last the weather is getting a little warmer, which brings me to a situation that happened to me just a few days ago, that I would like to pass this on which could be a useful piece of information, this relates to Bee stings and its potential dangers of which I was totally unaware of, whether you are a bee keeper or not, while feeding mine, stupidly without my bee suit, got stung just above the eye and in the throat, thought nothing about it as I had been stung so many times without any reaction, but within five minutes, I was starting a reaction, sweating hot and cold, itchy skin, swelling for a short time in the throat and a slight tightening in the chest, some hours later my right eye and brow and throat was completely swollen, the nearest doctor on that day was half an hour away, so I had to ride it out, I called my neighbour Geraldine Coyne just to sit with me to hold my hand so to speak for a while, when she arrived she found me on the floor, the point I am trying to make, I normally I keep anti histamines in the house, I had run out in fact in my case the antihistamines would not have helped as I found out the next day with our doctor, that in fact I was suffering from anaphylaxis from the sting, I now have to carry a Anapen, what’s interesting until that day I had never heard of an Anapen, Anapen is an injector with Adrenaline to be injected into the thigh straight away if I was to get stung again, I was apparently incredibly lucky, next time I may not be, therefore its advisable if anybody does get stung by a bee, don’t wait for a reaction, inform the doctor straight away, by the way a reaction can come some hours later, go to your doctor or call him as a precaution, its for this reason what happened to me why I am passing this on.

Tidy Towns and Brochure:
Work around the village in preparation for the tidy towns competition is coming on very well, three new flower beds in allocated places within the outskirts of the village are now completed and awaiting planting, the national school wall and surrounding area is nearly completed, the new Roundstone brochure is going to print on Monday, you can by the way, see the new brochure and the Three year draught Tidy Towns plan on the Roundstone website, my thanks to everybody who paid their 09 subscription, the rest of the subscribers I will catch up with before the end of February.

Pastoral Council:
Members of the Roundstone Pastoral Council met up with Father McCarthy, in relation to a draught document from the Archbishop of Tuam with proposals for the future serving of Parishes, in other words the role that the lay volunteers can play if gods forbid we have no priest, therefore Monday 23rd February after 8pm Mass, we would like to gather all those that are already involved in the church, such as readers, Ministers of the Eucharist, and anybody else for that matter for a short brain storming session, in preparation for a training with “The place of the Pastoral Council in the life of the parish” on March the 30th from 8pm to 10pm.Between Ann and myself we will keep you updated as to what is involved, and what roles we could play within the parish.

Christenings:
Congratulations to the Sullivan Family of Innishnee on the christening of their son, Master Francis, last Sunday and to Ashling and Maurice Ryan who had their son christened yesterday. Congratulation’s to the parents, and long life to the kids

To end off, just to wish a very happy birthday next Saturday to Marion McDonagh who will have reached her 21st Birthday, Marion is having a family dinner that night, then all her young and my age group friends will be celebrating a drink with her in the Shamrock later on that night, another ex. youth club member now 21, where does the time go, those few years with Marion and her contemporary’s in the youth club were fun, mind you they still are.

Prepared by the Roundstone Tidy Town’s Committee
Roundstone, Connemara, Co Galway
Submitted to Tidy Towns Unit
Dept of the Environment

Introduction

Roundstone is situated on the west coast of Ireland, 48 miles west from Galway City. Nestled amongst the Twelve Bens and bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, it is an area of great natural beauty offering some of the most spectacular coastal scenery in Europe. The 2002 Census of Population identifies a population of 239 persons for the area.

Originally founded in the mid 1820s by renowned Scottish engineer Alexander Nimmo, Roundstone quickly developed into a thriving fishing village. Farming, fishing, forestry and quarrying were once carried out extensively in the area. Nowadays, farming and fishing are still carried out on a smaller scale, while industries such as tourism and crafts (pottery, furniture and instrument making) have developed.

The vicinity is rich in points of historical, geological and scenic interests. As well as being the birthplace and inspiration of many artists, it has been described many times as a “botanists delight” as many wild flowers, rare to this country, are found in the area known as Errisbeg to the west of the village, which rises to a height of almost 1,000 ft.

Dogs Bay lies two miles south west of the village. Here, winds and tide have piled up dunes of fine white sand between the mainland and a small island half a mile off-shore. The sand is pure white as it is not formed of quartz grain but of shells. Two beautiful beaches lie below the dunes, one facing southeast, and the other northwest overlooking Gurteen Bay. These beaches are one of the main attractions for summer visitors to the area.
The Tidy Towns Committee

Roundstone’s Tidy Towns committee was formed in March of the year o4 with the aim of improving Round stone’s position in the Tidy Towns competition and to involve more of the community in the development of the village. There are 35 people represented on the committee in total. These people come from various backgrounds including 3 representatives from the Roundstone Development Committee, a resident town planner, a youth club representative, numerous business people and various other members of the public.

The committee held a public meeting in April which was very well attended. The meeting was in the form of a workshop, with the community working in groups of 5 around tables brainstorming ideas through a SWOT analysis (i.e. identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the village). The feedback from this meeting has formed the objectives set out in this plan.

The community decided on a 2 /3 year plan, some of whose objectives have already been met and have been described in previous Tidy Town applications.

 To view the entire plan please click here >>