Golly what a mixed bag of weather conditions we have had last week, however with the various events last week we got through it, therefore the news tonight is a bit of a mixed bag

The all Ireland Dog Show:
Sponsored by Clifden Kennels, took place in Roundstone on the bank holiday Monday. The show steward was Sir Roger Thompson and the judging of the dogs were David Connaughton and Marion Tarpley.

The show began shortly after midday to a cloudy but dry start.

The weather remained dry until the latter part of the day, when a heavy shower put paid to the intended parade, of winners, through Roundstone. The relatively substantial crowd had a good time, all in all.

With 20 classes of dogs being judged in the show, competition was stiff, however, in the end a Boxer type dog was awarded the title "Supreme Champion of the show owned by Patricia Coniry from Killimor, Co Galway and is named Ruby.

Another novel idea came about during the show was Frank McDonalds Donkey and foal were on show on the grounds and for a euro was to guess the age and date of the baby foal, incredible turn out and great fun, the winner would receive €50 Euros, this was actually won by a four year old, to young to buy me a pint with the winnings, however I have to confess, that 20 minutes later, to my horror they were in fact not the winners, an international incidents nearly occurred, however the real winner little Innes Kennedy with her hoards of friends, were pacified with a brown envelope job and pony show tee shirt, so alls well and ended well, I must say little Innes was very graceful over this potential volatile situation. Photos are now up on the Roundstone website.

Dillon King:
Dillon king’s grand mother was telling me a rather nice little story that Malcolm the Irish International rugby player who was in Ballyconneely during the bank holiday but was in Roundstone and gave Dillon King a signed rugby ball from Malcolm O’Kelly, that’s some thing that will be treasured for some time to come, Dillon also showed my little dog Finn in one of the Dog show classes

Tour de Bog:
Was a great success this year with 340 riders and from the sale of the T. shirts €2’800 was raised to go towards the refurbishment of the top part of the Community Hall. The record for the circuit was broken from 1 hour 20mins 2008 to 1 hour four minutes 2009, even though its not meant to be a race, everybody has their own agenda as to what they wanted to do.

I would like to thank Derry Shaw for his sponsorship for the tee shirts; this was a gesture on Derry Shaw’s part for his nephew Brian McDermott and business partner Kevin Hillier, who only five weeks ago went into business together with a Bicycle Shop in Dublin. Point of interest, the two lads while they were still in Trinity went on a cycle tour in June 09 to cycle the entire length of the worlds longest road “The Pan American Highway, then from Alaska amidst the worlds worst Mosquito’s, grizzly bears and 24 hours of daylight. It was a 25,000 Km journey. Next years sponsorship from www.2wheels.ie is secured, which by the way will be the 20th year.

To also thank Jim Mulcare for the “Caution Cyclists” signs of which he donated to me, also to Brian Hunt, who was incredibly helpful to me re sale of T shirts in the Caravan Park and also helping me to put the caution cyclists sign’s in various spots. In fact a huge thanks to all the participants for their generosity.

Playschool:
Well done to Margaret O'Malley who raised €770 by doing a sponsored climb of Croagh Patrick for Roundstone Playschool.  Margaret is playgroup leader at the playschool and the money raised will go to buy new equipment for the playschool. The playschool is now enrolling for September so anyone interested please contact Margaret on 095-23887 or Jennifer Nee on 087-9724027.

Summer Concert, St Mary’s Church:
Saturday Ted Sherwood had arranged a Concert in St Mary’s church at 5pm as a fund raiser for some restoration work which is badly needed, in the church with a string Quartet called “Trtur Connemara” accompanied with Ether and Rick Hannigan “Some like it hot”, sort of gypsy, blues, and a lovely concert. The total sum raised was just over fifteen hundred Euros, that’s a staggering amount and well done to all concerned

Ballinhich Castle:
Yet again the Ballinahinch Castle hosted another launching of works, this time it was a collection of poems from Robert Jocelyn, who by the way hails from Cashel, his new works of poems called “When the Dowser came to Doon” was launched by Mary Banotti. Huge crowd, I have to say I am not a great one for poems; however these were quite different, its their interpretation that are related from events and situations of Roberts own life in Connemara, nice easy reading and some very amusing.

Notes for the Diary:
Keeping Roundstone on a role, just a few notes for your diary, this coming Thursday is the 8th Summerfest, I don’t have time to go right through the events, but I have the program in front of me, it looks really good and some thing for everybody, these can be found all over the village. I just want to wish the committee luck, and hope the weather holds out for them, also the summerfest being hugely popular, it would be appreciated that people locally help out to see that the village is looked after in any way you can.

Also for the end of August or early September we will be having the Annual Community Games of which the date is not quite set yet, but to raise a few funds for this fun event for the kids we will be holding another Table Quiz in the Roundstone House Hotel on the Wednesday of the 19th August 9pm, it was such fun last year, tables of four €5.00 a head and all are really welcome to take part, Johnny Sheean has some amazing prizes for the Raffle and for the community Games. It’s costly to create entertainment for the Kids, so your support would be appreciated for the Table quiz.

As September is soon upon us, there are still a few more events to come, such as the Champion of Champions pony show.

Condolences:
Our sympathies once again to Linda Nee who has just lost her father Tom Antony Coyne, he was buried today in Carna, Linda after just loosing her aunt also what with her husband Donal having lost his mother Sara, its been a tough few weeks, May they all rest in peace and of course condolences to all the immediate relations.

Ann Marie O’Donnell:
Life goes on, congratulations to Ann Marie O’Donnell and Noel Gorham, they both tied the knot in Roundstone on Saturday, more good news my old friends, Dermot McDonagh and Ann Marie Lydon, unto them was born master Alex, John McDonagh on the 5th August, we wish all three of you well, and specially long life to young master Alex and while we are on the subject of the McDonagh family young Ian will reach his 16th birthday tomorrow, he will properly kill me for putting this out, but Ian you will have to get over it, can’t buy you a pint yet, but my day will come, Happy birthday man.

One last thing, Martin & Ellen O’Donnell has asked me just to welcome back from Hong Kong their Daughter Ann with her husband Andy Coughlan and their two children who are on holiday in Sunny Roundstone for a few weeks, talking about Martin, he made me aware of some playful mink at his cross roads, yesterday at 6am so be vigilant people, they are too close to me for comfort.