Should Boyle schools have to close on Polling Day?
A viewer has been in contact with us asking could we get the public’s view on the location of the Polling booths in Boyle: “I would like to voice my concern with the location of the Polling Stations for the General Election in Boyle. The voting takes place in the local Primary school – Abbey Primary school, Carrick Rd campus. It has been held here for as long as I can remember, however, with a variety of other public buildings available in the town, it seems ridiculous that students would have to lose a day of education while voting takes place when other buildings are available to host the process. Surely voting could take place in available alternatives such as An Rioga, St. Josephs Hall or St. Josephs Resource Centre and allow the local Primary school to stay open.
The holding of voting in the Carrick Road campus of Abbey Primary School, also means that the Abbeytown campus of the school is closed on the 29th. I’ve contacted the Electoral Commission in Dublin and wonder if anyone else feels the same as I do?”
New way finding signs installed around town
Last weekend a number of new ‘way finding’ signs were erected throughout the town. Following consultation with the Town Team, Roscommon County Council undertook a report on all current signage in Boyle with plans to gradually remove unwanted signs and replace, if necessary, with new signage. The way finding signs are strategically located at Boyle Abbey, the Foot Bridge, Pleasure Ground, Shop St/Bridge St junction, King House entrance, Carrick Road/Abbey Terrace Bridge and Crescent area. The signs are not for use by motorists but are designed to guide pedestrians to various locations around town and are similar in size and colour to other way finding signs throughout the country and are in both Irish and English.
Eleven candidates vie for three seats in this constituency
Eleven candidates have put their name forward for election in the three seater Roscommon/Galway constituency. They are: Vincent Beirne (Independent), Cormac Ó Corcoráin – Aontú, Martin Daly – Fianna Fáil, Dympna Daly-Finn – Fine Gael, Aisling Dolan – Fine Gael, Michael Fitzmaurice – Independent Ireland, Claire Kerrane – Sinn Féin, Andrew Mannion – People Before Profit Solidarity, Eugene Murphy – Independent, Martina O’Connor – The Green Party and Alan Sweeney – The Irish People. The Roscommon-Galway constituency covers all of County Roscommon and also extends to the eastern parts of County Galway, including Aughrim, Kilconnell, Killan, Oatfield, Scregg, Mountbellew, Clonbern and Dunmore South. Voting for the 2024 General Election will take place on Friday November 29th.
Public Realm Road Overlay works continue in Boyle
You have to hand it to Callington’s – the Offaly firm contracted with the ongoing pavement overlay in Boyle. They were on the job as expected at 8am Monday morning and by 5pm that evening, they had the first coat of tarmacadam laid on Bridge Street with the road way temporarily open again to the public by 6pm – all as advertised. By last night – Thursday, most of the road surfacing on Bridge Street and Shop Street is nearly complete and attention turns on Monday to An Rioga car park. While the Monday-Friday 8am-6pm road closure is an inconvenience, shoppers always had the option to park in the Green Street, An Rioga and Crescent car parks, along Military Road and on Main Street if they needed to get to businesses on Bridge Street and Shop Streets. Pedestrian access also remained open at all times. The big difference was that motorists could not park directly outside the shop they need to go to nor could they have put on their ‘double flashers’ and park on the footpath. Hat’s off also to the traffic management crew who have kept vehicles flowing through town all week in freezing cold conditions.
But a few queries and comments have arisen that need clarification (1) The work could not be done at night due to the non availability of quarries to supply at this point in time, along with the cost involved in a project that was tendered for (2) This work is not part of the general RCC roads programme, it forms part of the ongoing Boyle Public Realm project and in fact is nearly the last piece of the project – hence why it needs to be done now (3) The resurfacing has been planned for a long period of time – Callington’s didn’t decide last Friday that they would rock up to Boyle on Monday morning and resurface the street and finally, Roscommon Co Co did not ‘close off half the town before Christmas’ as some have suggested. Access was available as outlined above. Every town in Ireland is traditionally quiet these few weeks with any surge in shopping happening after the 8th of December. If the work was done in January there would surely be some who would say the road works were hitting businesses who were trying to keep their heads above water in the quiet post Christmas period.
As a community, we should not try and pick the negatives on this job but look at the positive result we will get from the Boyle Public Realm enhancement project where the bottom end of town will have new footpaths, new lined out roadway, new street lights with all overhead cabling gone, a newly floodlit bridge, a newly surfaced and newly laid out redesigned car park (An Rioga) which will also include additional parking spaces and more car charging points. And when the paths get a cleaning and the new planters are put in place to stop illegal parking, then the inconvenience of these past few days should become a distant memory.
Happy birthday to Boyletoday.com!
It is hard to believe, but it has been a quick eleven years to the day and date (Friday November 22nd 2013) since this website commenced operation. In that time the website has gone from strength to strength winning a number of titles including being voted one of the top ten daily websites in Ireland. Boyletoday.com’s biggest audience is obviously in Ireland with the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal and France making up the top ten countries who log on daily. Boyletoday.com is Boyle’s local news and information website and the ‘go to’ place for locals and visitors to find out all that is happening in the town and area. Viewer numbers suggest that more and more people are logging on daily to get up to the minute, factual news which is what you will continue to receive here on Boyletoday.com. Thank you to all our viewers, and especially our advertisers, as the website could not continue to viably operate if it did not get the support it needs from the people and businesses of Boyle.
News snippets from around Boyle
Join Boyle Film Club next Thursday 28th November in Daly’s Bar from 7pm for a Club Meet and Greet and talk all things cinema and exciting plans for next year…….A public meeting will be held on Thursday, November 28th, at 8.15pm in St. Joseph’s Resource Centre to establish a community committee dedicated to the upkeep of Assylinn Cemeteries. According to the organisers : “The cemeteries are in significant disrepair, and unfortunately, there is currently no dedicated council funding allocated for their maintenance. By coming together as a community, we can form a committee that will enable us to apply for funding and create a plan to address the essential work needed to restore and care for this important place”……..While we dodged a snow bullet on Wednesday night, many secondary and side roads around Boyle were in a treacherous condition on Wednesday morning last and seem the same way again this morning (Friday). For the few days we get such low temperatures, surely the local authority could stretch the budget to ensuring all roads are salted……..A great evening of music with Cathy Jordan and Feargal Murray – A Winter Blessing Tour – in King House, Boyle on Sunday December 1st at 8pm. Tickets €20 on 087 144 4739………Boyle Family Resource Centre will host a community information morning (as part of Roscommon County Council Social Inclusion Week) on Thursday December 5th. This is a great opportunity to find out all about local groups and clubs in the town and learn about all our wonderful community has to offer. If you are part of a local club and would like to attend, please give Boyle FRC a call to book a place………If anyone needed a reminder of the natural beauty that lies around us here in Boyle, they only had to tune into the TV programme ‘Moving West’ on Tuesday evening last. Boyle looked superb and those who participated in the programme did Boyle proud and showed why we are all so lucky to call this town our home. If you missed the programme it will be repeated this evening (Friday) on TG4 at 5.30pm or you can see it on the TG4 Player here…….Congratulations to octogenarian Abbeytown native and Sligo resident John McDermott who was this week named Athletics Ireland ‘Masters Athlete of the Year’. John won 3 gold medals and set a world record in the 300m hurdles at World Masters T&F Championships in Gothenburg, adding to his medal haul from the European Indoors earlier in the year. He also set a World Record in the 200m Hurdles in a phenomenal time of 36.06 seconds while also setting a European Record in the 400m of 71.08 seconds. John also dropped down two age group categories to compete against athletes 10 years younger to be part of the Irish team that won 070 bronze in the 4x200m relay. What an example to us all!……..The Courtyard Market in Boyle now has an opening for a cheese stall and for a refrigerated fish stall. If you are interested in joining the team at the popular weekly market in Boyle every Saturday please call 071 966 30 33 or email [email protected]………It’s great to see the new Christmas Lights Committee bringing back the ‘Official Switching on of the Christmas Lights’ and a visit from Santa to Boyle on Saturday December 7th. Keep the afternoon free and more details here on Boyletoday.com closer to the event. You can still donate to Boyle Christmas Lights here…….Final thought, in a little under four weeks time, the day’s will start to get longer once again and in no time at all there will be a grand auld stretch in the evening!!
And finally…..!
An elderly man lay dying in his bed.
While suffering agonies on his way to his final moment, he suddenly smells the aroma of his favourite scones wafting up the stairs.
He gathered his remaining strength, and lifted himself from the bed.
Leaning on the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, gripping the wall; he slowly makes it to the kitchen.
There, piled on a tray are his favourite scones.
Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of love from his devoted wife of sixty years, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man?
Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself towards the table, landing on his knees in rumpled posture.
His aged and withered hand trembled towards a scone at the edge of the table, when suddenly his wife smacked it with a wooden spoon…
“Feck off” she said…..”They’re for the funeral”
(There will be no Boyle’d Pot on Friday November 29th)
