Municipal district name is misleading
With the local elections only a matter of weeks away, canvassing has commenced and current and potential councillors will be calling to your door over the next number of evenings requesting your ‘number one’. These candidates will be seeking election in the Boyle Municipal District which covers a large geographical area including Rooskey, Strokestown, Elphin, Ballaghaderreen, Boyle, Cootehall, Ballyfarnon, Keadue and outlying areas. With such a large area, the name “Boyle Municipal District” is in fact misleading. It has been suggested that it would have been more appropriate to call it the “North West Roscommon Municipal District” or something more relevant. In any case you will have the chance to elect six councillors to the district on polling day May 24th who will represent you in this area for the next five years.
Trolley watch high again in Sligo
Yet again our local hospital in Sligo made headlines on Tuesday last for the wrong reasons, with 50 people waiting on a bed at the facility, second only to Limerick, where the number stood at 55. The fault of course does not lie with the staff who are working at full capacity with limited resources. The problem lies further up the ladder with Sligo urgently needing the new wards that were promised in addition to the filling of a number of posts. On Wednesday Deputy Eamon Scanlon commented, “There was a commitment twelve months ago to increase bed numbers in Sligo University Hospital. These beds have yet to materialise. We do not have a capital plan for 2019 which is disgraceful four months into the year. I put it to the Taoiseach today that alternatives must be sought if no beds are incoming. One such solution is to increase home help funding in the region. It is a far cheaper option, frees up hospital beds if supports are in place for those awaiting discharge from hospital, and various studies have shown that growing old in your own home is better for physical and mental health” he concluded.
Having 632 people waiting in A&E and on corridors to get a bed in hospitals across the country in this day and age is not acceptable.
Maintaining The Shambles area in good order
The transformative work that took place earlier in the year at The Shambles in Boyle has been the subject of favourable comment by the majority of those who take time to study the work. Some soft planting is now needed to brighten up the area and it is understood this will happen over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, vehicles are now using the area to park in with the result that tyre marks and dripping oil are already leaving marks on the decorative stonework. There is plenty of free parking on street and in local car parks without driving onto the Shambles area which should in reality be for local access only.
N4 work could have spin off for Boyle
Older viewers will recall the spin off the construction of the Curlew By pass gave to the town. Between 1995 and 1998 many workmen and contracts spent some of their hard earned money in the town’s shops and bars (we had very few restaurants or coffee shops then). Fast forward a little over twenty years and we will soon have construction commence on the €150m 15k Castlebaldwin to Collooney N4 project and with it an estimated 250 jobs. There will be massive spin offs for the local economy during the construction stage and Boyle should benefit in some shape or form. Of interest, the said Curlew Mountain Road project involved the construction of 16.5km of roadway and cost €24m. The new road replaced the old N4, which involved a torturous ascent and descent over the Curlew Mountains.
Congratulations to Mavis and Agnes
There was a great response to the story here on Boyletoday.com on Thursday of the 90th birthday celebrations for Agnes Harrington and Mavis Stewart. Both ladies look a lot younger than their age suggests and have been the recipients of favourable comment both on this website and Boyletoday Facebook page. Not only do both Agnes and Mavis look so well but they are both 100% active physically and mentally. Perhaps it is the very same group that honoured them on Wednesday night that has helped them remain sprightly. Boyle Bridge Club is many years in existence and both ladies, along with many others male and female, enjoy playing their cards every Wednesday night here in Boyle and at other tournaments. Staying physically active, testing oneself mentally and remaining positive seems to be the trick to remaining youthful. Congratulations once again to both ‘Ladies’ as everyone has described Agnes and Mavis since they made local headlines.
And finally….!
A German lorry driver is in a pub in Newcastle, shouting off how lazy British truck drivers are.
He’s bragging that he drives his load from Hamburg, goes through Holland and Belgium up to Newcastle and back to Hamburg in two days.
This old Geordie man mutters up “Ah, way ay, I used to pick you me load in Newcastle, drop it off Hamburg and be back in Newcastle for a fish and chip supper the same day.”
The gobby German trucker says “Oh yah, vot rig were you driving then?”
After taking a long swig of his Newcastle Brown. the old fell replies: “A Lancaster Bomber!!”.
