Singing the praise of beautiful Boyle
Unfortunately the weather was not favourable last Monday to see the beauty of Boyle for the eighty or so delegates at the Energy Conference in King House. Indeed, if Minister Naughten had his way, they would all have travelled to Lough Key and Boyle Abbey such was his praise for the town and it’s tourism assets to the media and the assembled audience. The majority of those in attendance had travelled to Boyle that morning, many by car, some by train which led to the event commencing at the later time of 11am (first train into Boyle from Dublin arrives at 10.27am). Others stayed the night in B&B’s with the lack of a hotel being mentioned on more than one occasion. King House was an ideal venue for the conference and it also came in for positive comment by the attendees. Earlier, it was interesting to hear the Minister state that Boyle winning the national Enterprising Town award was a catalyst for the conference being held here. The status that the title holds will no doubt bring other benefits to Boyle in 2017 through the ongoing efforts of the Town Team and Chamber of Commerce.
So much happening in small town Boyle
If an example was needed of how much happens in a small town like Boyle, you only have to look here on this website. In the last seven days, Boyletoday.com has uploaded 187 images of various events from around the town, including the Abbey College Musical, the Election of the Snows commemoration, the great win by Boyle Celtic and the Energy Conference. For a town of it’s size, Boyle certainly has a lot going on – that’s if you go and look for it. All of the above events, added to by some news worthy stories resulted in one of the biggest weekly audiences for the website in recent times with over 15,000 page views in the last seven days alone.
No cry from the curlew around Boyle
Birdwatch Ireland have recently commented on the decline of the Curlew in rural Ireland. They say it is likely that increased afforestation and agricultural improvement are responsible for the decline of the bird. They also estimate that around 80% of the Curlew breeding population has been lost since the 1970’s alone, and perhaps only a few hundred pairs remain. While there is no documented listing of a Curlew population in Boyle, one can assume the bird was once popular here considering we have a mountain on our doorstep called the Curlew’s. Writing recently in the Irish Times, Tim O’Brien, a regular visitor to this area, said “Native curlews can be found in the Stack’s mountains near Tralee, Co Kerry, parts of Lough Corrib and the midlands around Halothane. But even the Curlew mountains in Co Sligo can no longer guarantee the cry of the bird on a summer’s evening”. And no doubt Tim the same is the case on the Curlew Mountain on the Roscommon side!
High fares putting train travel out of the reach of many
A viewer has contacted Boyletoday.com asking that we again highlight the “exorbitant” price of travelling by train to Dublin. A monthly adult return ticket now costs €47.10. The viewer says that if two adults wanted to use the train to head for a weekend to the city it would cost them €103.20 including the car parking charge, which they say is “exorbitant” and “putting the use of the train out of the reach of the adult passenger”. On investigation, the fares for adults come in at €34.50 for a day return, €32.70 for a single and €47.10 monthly return. Discounts apply for students and there is a family rate available. The problems in Irish Rail have been well documented and it seems the company are following the ridiculous example of what happens in the newspaper business – when sales fall, do what the accountants tell you and increase the price of the product. Of course this is counter productive and instead of increasing revenue it results in less people buying the product (and in this case using the train service) with a continued sales decrease. It would seem the only people who can travel by train nowadays are students and OAP’s.
And finally…..!
A touring golf professional was having a drink at the golf club bar, when he was approached by a bloke with a white cane and dark glasses, who introduced himself as a golf champion.
“I’m Champion of the Blind Golfers Association, and as one Champion to another, I’d like to challenge you to a match which could be a fundraiser for the blind”, he said.
The blind gent said he didn’t want any favours or special treatment and told the pro, he’d be happy to play for €500 a hole.
The embarrassed pro tried to avoid the challenge, but the blind gent was very insistent and finally, the pro agreed.
“O.K.”, said the pro, “When would you like to play?”
“Oh, you can pick the night – any night at all, will do”.
