The news is a bit of a mixed bag tonight

John Mullen:
Our condolence to Kathleen Mullen (Nee Folan) on the loss of her husband John Mullen brother to Pat and Tom and Bridgie. John died in the states a few days ago, and of course our thoughts go to all the immediate members of the Family, I gather John will be brought back to the west on Thursday and possible buried on Friday but this has yet to be confirmed. I had the privilege of knowing him. May John rest in peace?

Our condolences to Ursula Maloney on the loss of her husband Paddy, who died just a few days ago. Paddy and Ursula have been coming to the west for many years starting with a time share house in Renvyle before buying a place in Roundstone and therefore they were very much regulars to Roundstone, Paddy was a great supporter of all that goes on within our community, and so our thoughts to all the immediate family members. May Paddy rest in peace?

Jackie O’Toole:
On a completely different, congratulations to Jackie O’Toole sister to Pat O’Toole, husband to Joanne Conneely, Jackie celebrated her 40th Birthday in Eldon’s on Saturday evening, with the music to Pats band, I must say I never heard Pat’s band play they were very good a great night all round during these quiet times.

Imigan Laffy:
While we are on Birthdays, Happy Birthday to Imagine Laffy who reached her tenth Birthday today, daughter of Sophia and Martin Laffy, the party was held in Ryan’s with a magician, unfortunately I never got his name, but my goodness he new how to call order to all our exuberant Kids, golly I would love to this man as a youth leader for the youth club, he pulls no punches, and thinks nothing of using his whistle for their attention, it certainly worked

Ann Conneely:
Ann was made a minister of the Eucharist last Monday by Father McCarthy and to join the pastoral team, just to welcome her on board; Ann will also now help us with our weekly prayer service on the Wednesday and any thing else to safe guard our faith and the Church.

Christopher McDonagh:
I would just like to say well done to our own Christopher McDonagh, Paddy Shoulders and Mary’s son, Chris has just completed college last Friday in Dublin and has also been selected for the National Skills competition which started today, he will be competing for the next two days, so we wish him luck for this competition, another Beola Crafts trainee, Chris will be going back to Beola Crafts after the competition to carry on with his training, its been a long haul, but he will get there, so good luck Chris for the next few days.

Santa’s Pending visit:
As we come into the Christmas period we have a good few events that will take place arranged for Kids and Adults etc by the Roundstone Development Council, in fact the committee is meeting as we speak to tie up dates, therefore Ann next week will pass them on. However, I do have one date Maurice Ryan is organising Santa's visit to the hall on Sunday 13th December at 1.30pm. Santa is arriving at the community hall around 1.30pm. Adults enter free with the charge for children being €5 per child. This includes a Santa visit with present (if you are good!),
there will also be fun and games with bouncy castle, Kids disco, free
sweets and crisps and a surprise visit from a mystery guest! There will be also a raffle with tickets on sale in the hall.
The prizes are: 1st prize: €200 voucher for Westport Plaza hotel or Castle Court Hotel, 2nd prize: Bottle of Whiskey 3rd Prize: Bottle of baileys
Contact Maurice Ryan for more details at 086-8104514

Roundstone Development Council:
Meet on the first Monday of each month in the lower community hall, Roundstone. We are in regular contact with Galway County Council and our elected representatives with
regard to issues that affect the village. If anybody wants Roundstone
Development council to discuss an issue that is of concern to them please contact one of the following members; Nicholas Griffin, Michael Reynolds, Martin Conneely, Diarmuid Vaughan, Maurice Ryan, Joe Creane, Michael Conneely, Michael King, Thomas King, Bridie Davis, Oliver Coyne, Joe Mongan, Feichin Welsh and Pat Conneely. Roundstone Development Council has a number of
projects ongoing at the moment.

1) The Lower Community Hall.
December 2008 Minister E. O'Cuiv officially opened the lower community
hall. It was a project that took four years to complete with the help
of €75,000 in funding from two different government departments and 10%
funding from RDC with help from the Roundstone Lotto. It is now an
excellent facility with a modern community office which is open to the
public two days a week, Wednesday and Thursday 9.30am to 5pm. There are
new wheelchair toilet facilities and a new kitchen with seating
facilities for 26 persons. There is a conference room with seating
facilities for 60 persons and all of the facilities are available to
rent. During 2009 we had a variety of groups renting the facility
including: The local Youth Club, The Summerfest committee, The Arts
Week, The Huston School of Music and the John Dinan Painting School.
If there is any individual or group out there who would like to view
the premises with regard to holding an event or running a class, then
contact Maurice Ryan (35701) or Diarmuid Vaughan (35864).

2) The refurbishment of the Upper Community Hall and the Landscaping of Car Park and Surrounds. The Community Hall committee, which is a sub-committee of RDC, are working on a new project with the help of Forum in Letterfrack to upgrade the Upper Community hall and to landscape the surrounding area. At the moment the project is in the planning stage but we hope that we will be
in a position to put the project out to tender in the next six months. We hope to receive leader funding of up to 90% of the total cost with the Development Council having to raise 10% locally.

 3) The implementation of a Traffic Management Plan for Roundstone.
We are currently in contact with the Roads Department of Galway County
Council for them to produce a realistic Traffic Management Plan for the
village once and for all. There is a lot of uncertainty from year to
year with regard to traffic lights, double yellow lines etc. The
producing of a traffic management plan would allow all interested
parties to make submissions, the council would then consider all the
options and views of the public and then would come up with a viable
traffic management plan that would include provisions for Parking,
Pedestrian safety, Road and Village signage. We believe this would make
the village more attractive to visit and less stressful for all
concerned.

4) The removal of the ESB and Telephone Poles and Cabling.
We are actively involved in campaigning for the removal of all poles from
the main street as we believe it is unattractive and dangerous. The
ducting to carry the cables was put in place under the pavements when
they were replaced a number of years ago. It is now just a question of
persuading the council and the ESB to come together and agree to finish
the job.

5) The provision of a Sewerage Treatment facility for Roundstone.
We have been many years campaigning for a new treatment facility. Now that
our pressure to provide a new drinking water system has been
successful it is time that we re-double our efforts for the provision
of a treatment facility.  It is a disgrace that raw sewerage enters one
of the most beautiful bays in Ireland. We have indicated to the council
in written and verbal correspondence that there are three sites that we
think could be suitable. Unfortunately the Council are slow to make an
engineer available to examine the three options and they have stated
that Roundstone is not regarded as a priority but we will continue
to liaise with them on a regular basis on this issue.