The Dublin Pride event, which celebrates gay and lesbian rights, will be held this weekend. With that in mind it’s worth noting that its Dundalk equivalent is only around the corner.
The Dundalk Pride event will be launched on Friday July 19th by Sinn Féin president and local TD Gerry Adams at the Dundalk Outcomers Centre in Roden Place in Dundalk.
The night before a table quiz will take place in McGeough’s Bar in Roden Place from 9pm.
Thanks to local digital artist Paul Connolly for sharing this superb shot from the top of Slieve Gullion, looking down on County Louth.
A wonderful photograph.
Source: Paul Connolly Digital Artist (Facebook)
Geraldine’s School of Speech and Drama will be hosting Stage Camp Summer Performance Workshops from July 22nd to 26th in the Louth Creative Community Hub in Muirhevnamor.
The workshops run from 10am to 1pm each day and is suitable for children between the ages of seven and 12.
For further information call Geraldine on 087-1914076 or visit www.geraldinesschoolofspeechanddrama.com
Louth’s Ciaran Byrne celebrates his goal against Antrim today
Louth saw off Antrim by six points on a 1-17 to 1-11 scoreline in Drogheda today but the victory was nowhere near as comfortable as the scoreline might suggest.
Aidan O’Rourke’s side looked like they were on the way to a comfortable victory when they led by six points in the first half and seven in the second, only for the Ulstermen to battle their way back into contention each time.
In the end a strong finish ensured that the Wee County advanced to the next round of the Qualifiers but they will know that there is plenty of improvements to be made before their next outing.
The home side were quick out of the blocks and raced into a 1-4 to 0-1 lead on 15 minutes after Ciaran Byrne squeezed a shot under Chris Kerr having collected a Derek Maguire pass at the edge of the square.
Antrim responded well to the setback, however, with Paddy Cunningham hitting three successive points. Indeed, they could have been level on 19 minutes only for a fine save from Neil Gallagher, who turned a Sean Kelly shot around the post.
In the end though a stoppage time free from Shane Lennon gave the Wee County a 1-7 to 0-6 lead at the break.
Louth quickly built on that advantage on the restart as they scored five of the next six points to lead by 1-11 to 0-7 after 48 minutes.
Frank Dawson’s side refused to throw in the towel though and when Michael Pollock’s goal a minute later was followed up with two further points from Cunningham, suddenly the deficit was back to three.
Louth finished the stronger of the two sides, however, with Lennon adding to his advantage in a late rally from the home side. The one downside was a late red card for goalkeeper Neil Gallagher after he verbally abused an umpire but it mattered little as the Wee County marched on to the next round.
Louth: N Gallagher; P Rath, D Finnegan, J Bingham; C McGuinness, D Crilly, A Reid; P Keenan (0-1), B Donnelly; C Rafferty (0-2), B White (0-2, 1f), C Judge (0-1); D Maguire (0-1), S Lennon (0-5, 1f), C Byrne (1-2) Subs: R Finnegan (0-1) for C McGuinness, 16 mins; R Carroll (0-2) for B Donnelly, 30 mins; D Clarke for C Byrne, 50 mins; P Smith for C Rafferty. 67 mins; J Flanagan for N Gallagher 69 mins.
Antrim: C Kerr; K O’Boyle (0-1), P Doherty, R Johnson; A Healey, S Kelly, J Carron; S McVeigh, J Crozier; C Murray (0-1), M Sweeney, M Herron (0-1); M Pollock (1-1), B Herron (0-1), P Cunningham (0-6, 4f). Subs: P McBride for A Healey, 53 mins; R Murray for S McVeigh, 58 mins; D McAleese for M Herron, 62 mins; N Delargy for B Herron, 66 mins.
Referee: Ciaran Branagan (Down).
Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny
Dundalk’s bid to force their way into the Airtricity League title race suffered a major setback at Thomond Park last night as they squandered a two goal lead at the break to lose 3-2 to Limerick FC.
The Lilywhites appeared to be cruising when Kurtis Byrne’s ninth minute strike was followed up with a second from Dane Massey seven minutes before half-time.
However, Limerick fought their way back into the game on 55 minutes when Shane Tracy pulled a goal back from a free kick before substitute Rory Gaffney levelled matters with his first touch on 74 minutes.
Craig Curran then struck a dramatic 81st minute winner to shock Stephen Kenny’s side – leaving them with a must-win visit to the Brandywell next week to face Derry City.
Limerick FC: Barry Ryan; Shaun Kelly, Robbie Williams, Stephen Folan, Shane Tracy; Danny Galbraith, Joe Gamble (Rory Gaffney, 73), David O’Leary, Axel Bossekota; Darragh Rainsford; Craig Curran.
Subs not used: Shane Cusack (GK), Val Feeney, James McGrath, Barry Sheedy, Shane Costelloe, Brian O’Callaghan.
Dundalk: Peter Cherrie; John Sullivan, Andy Boyle, Mark Rossiter (Stephen McDonnell, 27), Dane Massey; Richie Towell, Chris Shields, John Mountney (Tiarnan Mulvenna, 78); Darren Meenan, Vinny Faherty, Kurtis Byrne (John Dillon, 62).
Subs not used: Aaron Shanahan (GK), Sami Osobi, John McKeown, Eoghan Osborne.
Referee: Tom Connolly (Dublin).
Anyone over a certain age in Dundalk will surely recall the old Pa’s Bar upstairs in the Dundalk Shopping Centre.
It must be closed for well over a decade at this stage but many people still have fond memories of nights there, whether it be for a drink, a dance or a bite to eat.
Some of those memories came flooding back recently when Colin Martin shared the above pictures of the old Pa’s menu. Certainly, you’d do well to find prices like that around these days.
The people behind InstaDundalk are organising a photo walk of Dundalk this Friday.
InstaWalk will gather at the courthouse square in Dundalk on Friday evening at 7pm, with the walkabout expected to last until about 9.30pm.
The idea of the meeting is to bring local Instagram users together offline. The plan is to take a walk through Dundalk town centre, photographing as they go. The evening will be then rounded up with a bit of banter in Riva Brasserie for anyone interested.
All are invited to attend and the activity is suited for those with any type of camera, from a mobile phone to a DSLR.
Louth boss Aidan O’Rourke will be going head to head with his former Armagh team-mate Kieran McGeeney when the Wee County take on Kildare
Louth will face a trip to Newbridge the weekend after next to face Kildare in the next round of the Qualifiers.
This morning’s draw on TV3 paired the Wee County with a Kildare side that was heavily beaten by Dublin in Croke Park on Sunday.
The match will also pit former Armagh All-Ireland winning team-mates, Kieran McGeeney and Aidan O’Rourke, against each other.
While Kildare will undoubtedly start the match as favourites, it cannot be discounted that Louth have an extremely good record against the Lilywhites. As well as various league wins in recent years, the Wee County beat Kildare in the 2007 Qualifiers and again in the Leinster Championship quarter-final of 2010.
The CCCC will confirm an exact date and time for the game later today.
Previously: Louth make tough work of seeing off Antrim
A LOCAL man with family connections to politics in the area has lost his job at US financial services firm Northern Trust’s Dublin office after the company uncovered a rogue scheme, which saw over €200,000 vanish.
According to a report on Sunday, a senior Sinn Féin figure is thought to have helped in uncovering the operation.
In a statement to the Sunday Independent at the weekend, the company said: “Northern Trust can confirm that An Garda Siochana is investigating an alleged fraudulent action. The action affects a small number of individuals and, based on our understanding, at present amounts to approximately €200,000.”
Sources told the newspaper that the money was invested by a number of individuals and that Sinn Féin-connected businessmen have also been approached by the “lone wolf” businessman.
Files obtained by the Sunday Independent show that the Northern Trust employee persuaded a number of businessmen to invest in an unsanctioned scheme.
This scheme was marketed as a basket of different shares, funds and index trackers. Projections for the scheme forecast returns of up to 180 per cent over a year. It is understood that at least one of the investors paid over large sums in cash to the rogue trader.
The paperwork for the scheme was laced with charts and projections and financial mumbo jumbo. The fund’s strategy was to “actively avail of market movements such as global timing, index futures tracking and index constituent additions and removal”.
Investors in the scheme were kept updated on its performance via emails from an official Northern Trust account and through correspondence sent out through the Northern Trust postroom. The monthly investor updates showed enormous returns with the most recent note from April 30, 2013, detailing how a €50,000 investment was worth €69,351.58, up 38.7 per cent in less than a year.
Source: Sinn Féin link to Northern Trust rogue trader’s scam (Sunday Independent)
Rosemary Gibson, winner of the most recent round of the women’s league, being presented with flowers by Eve McCrystal
Following the success of the national championships in Carlingford the previous weekend, local cycling action was back in focus last Tuesday.
First up was the Women’s League, with another great turnout recorded as over 20 riders signed on before being split across five different groups.
The time gaps made for great racing & ensured everyone from beginner to former national champion (Bohermeen’s Geraldine Gill) all raced a competitive event. First off in group one was Rosemary Gibson, who is a relatively new cyclist. She started under the tutelage of Pat Kilboy on the Saturday morning “coffee spins”.
Pat and his group mix their cycling with the quest for a great café with cake and coffee. Rosemary rapidly progressed to a point where she is now a winner of a round of the Women’s League, when she had the strength to win the sprint when the first three groups on the road merged. Michelle Dolan was second, Hazel Hall of Bohermeen was third and Sinead O’Hanlon of Newry Wheelers was fourth.
On top of the leader board sits Fiona Rogers, holding off Newry Wheeler’s Louise O’Hagan in second and Hazel Hall in third.
The FPM Accountants League was also back on the menu during the week. This round, at 50km, was the longest event in the league as it ran from Oriel Park to Carrickmacross, across to Ardee and home.
In the B League Gary Shiels finished ahead of Karl Dolan and Alan Bingham for the win. All the groups had come together on the run into the finish from Ardee. As the bunch geared itself up for a sprint Shiels took the initiative himself and jumped with just over a kilometre to go. With no one wanting to waste their energy chasing him he got a small gap and powered to the line for a win with a few bike lengths to spare over those behind.
The Louth County Museum in Dundalk is amongst five museums to have been awarded interim accreditation by the Heritage Council under the Museum Standards Programme for Ireland at a ceremony in Dublin Castle.
Speaking about the Programme, Michael Starrett, Heritage Council Chief Executive said, “This is an important initiative, which sets out to improve all aspects of Ireland’s museum practice and in particular raise the standards of care for collections across Irish museums and galleries.
“Accreditation under this Programme offers quality assurance to visitors that the museums they are visiting are adhering to a high set of standards in the management of the museum, care of collections and visitor services. In tough economic times, where visitor numbers are crucial to the viability of many attractions, the value to the museum and local area of this Programme cannot be underestimated”, added Mr. Starrett.
The Museum Standards Programme for Ireland (MSPI) aims to benchmark and raise professional minimum standards in the museum sector. Within the Programme, there are seven categories consisting of 34 standards, 25 of which are interim standards and nine are full. A voluntary programme, it has attracted involvement from across the cultural spectrum — from national institutions to small, volunteer-led organisations.
An application for interim accreditation takes three years to complete, while full accreditation takes five years. There are a total of 47 museums currently participating in the Programme, with seven museums fully accredited and seven museums now at interim accreditation.
Along with the local museum, the GAA Museum, the South Tipperary County Museum, the Limerick City Gallery of Art and the Cavan County Museum have also been awarded interim accreditation.
Thanks to local digital artist Paul Connolly for sharing this sneaky shot of the new look Bellingham Castle, which was scheduled to open in June but has been delayed slightly.
The Castlebellingham-based castle was bought last year by the Corscadden family, who are best known in this area for running Cabra Castle in Kingscourt. Their hope is to transform Bellingham into an equally as impressive wedding venue and extensive renovation work has been going on for some time to transform the historic property into a 22 bedroom, 4 star boutique style castle, with exclusive wedding hire.
It might be a while yet until it opens but it’s certainly looking the part based on Paul’s picture.
For all enquiries relating to Bellingham Castle please tel: 042 9679930.
Source: Paul Connolly Digital Artist (Facebook)
It’s summer time and the weather isn’t bad. That’s all of an excuse that a lot of people need to hit a beer garden.
One of the best in the area is undoubtedly Kennedy’s on the Carrick Road. Little did they expect though that someone would take up residency there after liking it so much.
Well, not so much someone as something. Yes, a rooster of all creatures has been spotted in the beer garden in recent days. If only owner Eugene McGeough could get it cock-a-doodle-doodling at closing time…
Thanks to Sharron McQuaid for sharing this old snap of Clanbrassil Street outside the Bank of Ireland premises. Plenty of businesses might have come and gone in between but not much has changed on Dundalk’s famous old street and in the distance you can still see the big ‘chemist’ sign that still adorns the upstairs of Leavy’s Chemists, beside the Post Office.
A new type of bin will become more visible along Dundalk streets from this week, as it becomes compulsory for households to use.
The brown bin is for disposing of household food waste in large urban areas and as well as Dundalk, it will also be introduced in Drogheda and Navan.
The new ‘Household Food and Bio-Waste Regulations, which came into effect for these areas yesterday, require that all householders in the likes of Dundalk must separate their food waste and make it available for conversion into compost.
Although these regulations will apply to those urban areas with populations greater than 25,000 persons first, there will be a phased-in approach, with the service also becoming available to those in smaller urban centres over the next three years.
This was the topic for discussion at a recent meeting of the waste collectors in the North East region with Louth and Meath County Councils.
“The purpose of the Regulations is to divert food waste, which is biodegradable, away from landfill, where it causes odour and nuisance, to facilities which are authorised to treat it and turn it into a high quality compost”, according to Aisling Sheridan, Environmental Awareness Officer with Louth County Council, “Apart from being the ‘right’ thing to do, this is a necessary step for Ireland Inc. in order to achieve compliance with the EU Landfill Directive and to prevent onerous financial penalties being imposed by the European Union”.
For the householder, this means that they must separate their food waste and ensure that it is not placed in the ‘black’ bin or residual waste collection. A ‘Brown’ bin, for food waste, will be offered to all householders in Dundalk, Drogheda and Navan, by their relevant waste collectors, over the next few weeks, but if for any reason, they are not contacted, it is important that these individuals contact their waste collector themselves to find out what arrangements are in place for their area. Each householder should also receive a letter from their local County Council outlining these requirements, which will be issued via their individual waste collectors.
“Under these regulations, those who place their food waste in the residual ‘black’ bin or use a macerator or other shredding device to dispose of food waste, will be deemed to be in non-compliance with the legislation and may be subject to a fine of €4000 or court proceedings”, according to Raymond Mc Kenna, Senior Engineer with Louth County Council.
“In any event, the Local Authorities, as the enforcing bodies for this legislation, will be active in making sure that all householders in the designated areas comply with the legislation,” he said.
Over the next three years, the service will be extended to all those living in the urban areas of Louth and Meath, with those in population centres of greater than 500 people being the last groups to benefit by July 2016.
Anyone with queries on the introduction of the service should contact either their own waste collector or their local County Council. Information is also provided on both local authority websites, www.louthcoco.ie and www.meathcoco.ie.
Over 28% of people with second homes in Co Louth have yet to pay the NPPR charge –despite the passing of the deadline for payment on Sunday.
Over 6,800 people in the county registered for the second home tax in 2012 but by Monday morning, over 1,900 of those had yet to pay up for 2013.
The €200 annual charge on non-principal private residences is paid directly to county councils. The payment is being replaced by the property tax but owners had to pay both in 2013.
Last year, Louth County Council took in €1,285,760 from the charge but so far this year they have received just €899,860 – leaving a deficit of €385,900.
Nationally, Louth’s figure is slightly higher than the 27% of owners yet to pay the charge. To date 255,000 have registered, compared to 351,000 last year.
The Green Party’s Mark Dearey
Dundalk Town Council has been urged to use its CCTV cameras to help combat open-drug dealing in the town.
Sinn Fein’s Kevin Meenan and the Green Party’s Mark Dearey both told the local authority’s recent monthly meeting, that they’d been contacted by people concerned about the extent of dealing in broad-daylight in council and private estates.
Officials assured them that the CCTV footage can be made available to the Gardaí and that the Town Council has a zero-tolerance policy in relation to dealing taking place in local authority housing.
The meeting heard that a case is already ongoing in relation to securing an exclusion order.
Cllr Meenan says that at the moment some parents aren’t able to pay their bills, including their rent, because they’ve to find the money to pay off their children’s dealers.
Cllr Dearey told LMFM on Monday that he’s glad that the message is getting out there that the council will take action.
Have you spotted dealing going on in broad daylight in Dundalk?
The One Way Summer Camp will return to Dundalk for an eighth year at the end of the month.
The biggest children’s summer camp in town, One Way caters for between 150 and 200 children between the ages of four and 12.
This year they have changed location to allow the camp to grow more with it scheduled for Oriel Park between July 29th and August 2nd.
The camp claims to be the cheapest in town at only €30 for early registration (€35 for late registration), which covers you for a full week.
The camp will run from Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 3pm each day. There will also be a parent’s evening on the Friday.
Throughout the camp, children will get to take part in a range of activities including sports, dance, drama, games, arts and crafts and many more.
For further details check the camp out on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OneWaySummerCamp
A protest march against austerity will take place in Dundalk this Saturday from 1pm.
The gathering will meet at the Fair Green before marching up Clanbrassil Street to the Market Square.
Everyone is invited to attend the event on the day to let their feelings be known about the current state of the economy and the performance of the government.
Sean O’Mahony’s will host a community day at their pitch on the Point Road in Dundalk this Saturday from 1pm.
The proceedings will get underway with a sponsored underage 5k walk, with a sports day taking place between 2pm and 6pm. The entertainment will continue that evening in Tom Clarke’s from 7pm with music and food provided.
There will also be bouncy castles, face painting and much, much more on the day.
All are invited to attend.
