Considering the weather has been a little inclement, Roundstone certainly seemed to be busy this week.

Noyelles sous Lens:
For the last week we had a group of young people from our twinned village in France Noyelles – Sous - Lens staying in my house as part of the youth exchange, we had a programme of events to keep them busy and to guide them around Connemara. The week went well for them apart from the one day when it was too wet do anything, but that is Connemara for you.

Ballynahinch Castle:
Last Thursday the Ballynahinch Castle hosted a launch of a book titled “Walking drawing a Ballynahinch sketchbook making memory by David Lilburn, with guest speaker Aidan Dunne as the quest speaker and with Peter Fallon, both these guys I hope will play a role for next years Arts Week, its great to have the Ballynahinch castle open their doors to the arts and have functions like this.

Waxathon:
Michael Reynolds and his family had a waxathon fund raiser in the Shamrock to raise funds for a 10 year old boy who desperately needs treatment for cancer, and the after care. The lads father is Emmer Reynolds godfather, and life long friend of Michaels. It was a fun night if not a little painful, yours truly had one of his legs waxed, to my horror while rolling up the trouser leg, I had forgotten that I had long John’s on, much to my embarrassment, but amusing to the others, oh well it was for charity and earned another fifty euro. Trust me I will never show my legs in public again, ouch!!! It was a very well organised affair, with terrific raffle prizes, one of the prizes was a 36inch LCD television screen which was won by Paul Delapp, the crac was mighty and fair play to all that participated . So far I gather just over €4’000 was raised with monies still coming in, so lets hope the little lad will get the help he needs and wish him well for the future. Any body on face book get a load of the photos, not quite so sure about the Roundstone website.

Deffribulator:
As everybody is aware the two Defibrillator’s that were placed in the village, one is at Wood’s and the other in O’Dowd’s café, what I am getting at is the one from the O’Dowd’s café has now been sent up to the Gurteen Caravan Park.

Dates for the Diary:
A few dates for the next few weeks Thursday 30^th July 9.30pm A Table quiz will be held in the Shamrock, as part of the Summerfest fund raiser, of which by the way the Summerfest is under a new committee, its set for the 13^th to the 16^th August, and as usual all the funds will go the RNLI.

Saturday 1^st August at Errisbeg House, the exhibition of Philip Morrison’s new works 6.30 pm with wine reception, opened by Mary Banotti. Philip was the artist that did this years Arts Week poster. This will also be the last of Exhibitions of paintings in the stable Gallery; sculptures will now be shown for the future. All are most welcome to attend Philips exhibition on Saturday.

Then of course we have the Roundstone Dog Show for the large tall, small, on the Monday 3^rd August, commencing 12pm sharp, golly where is the summer going.

After the bank holiday i.e. the 7^th August we have the annual Tour de Bog. Delighted to say we have a new sponsor a Mr Derry Shaw who is a regular visitor and has a house in Ballyconneely and a supporter of the Tour de Bog, it’s a promotion through the de Bog shirts for his nephew who has opened in Dublin a bicycle company www.2wheels.ie. All proceeds from the shirts will go towards stage 2 of the refurbishment of the Top part of the Community Hall.

So there you are that’s August sorted, the September events will be announced later on. Keep Roundstone Busy for the summer

Tidy Town’s:
The second part of the adjudication for the tidy towns competition come up in August, so lets keep up the good work of keeping our area tidy and clean, if we all do our bit in one form or another, we could earn a few more points, I take my hat off to Mary McDonagh, Paddy shoulders wife, Mary goes on long healthy Walks every day, but always comes back with a sack full of litter, I must not also forget Mary King, and Peggy who pick up litter from the surrounding area’s of Roundstone, and to John Conneely who tirelessly keeps the street bins clear, a thankless task, well done everybody. On that point as from tomorrow small plastic box’s will be placed in all the business asking for small change to build some cash for next year to have more improvements to the village, we got a small grant for this year, but it is a one off and it was match funding.

Ronan Henderson:
Our condolences to the immediate relations and the immediate family on the passing of Ronan Henderson who passed away a few days ago, he will be leaving Oughterard around five forty five pm to be in Roundstone between 6.45pm, with the funeral Mass on Thursday at 11am and finally laid to rest in Gurteen Cemetery.

Ronan was an interesting man being skipper on various types of ships, his last one was on a research ship, he was a good man for sea faring stories on Dowd’s Wall, Ronan was originally from Clontarfe, and eventually retired in Roundstone in 1976. For the last four years he had to have dialysis treatment, eventually his heart gave out, I know its not much of a consolation but at least he saw his children grow up, he had grand children and just two months ago a great Grand child. I just heard of his courage up to the last, he apparently was in a cooking mode last week his specialty the most enormous and the heaviest brown bread ever baked, & I gather it was quite a job to get it out of the oven. Anyway Ronan was always very nice to me, he is now gone home, and may he rest in peace. I should express also our condolences to the family of Martin Joe Keane originally from Innishnee / Tuam. Martin was a brother to Michael Keane and uncle to Amanda and Katrina. May he also rest in Peace?

Have a good week and keep smiling and keep Roundstone Tidy.