The dangers of entering the Royal Building
With work to commence hopefully in the next few weeks on the restoration of the old Royal building, it is inevitable that there will be some who want to take photographs and see the interior of the premises before part of it is demolished. But accessing the building could be deemed a criminal offence – equivalent to ‘breaking and entering’- as the property is in the ownership of Roscommon County Council and not a place where you can enter at will. In addition, the building is in a dangerous condition internally and it is unsafe to access without authorisation. There will, no doubt, be plenty of professional photographs taken before and during the restoration project which will go on display. Until then please do not enter this building.
Chinese delegation visit Boyle
A Chinese delegation paid a visit to Boyle and Lough Key Forest Park last Friday morning. The group, from the Henan Province, were briefed on all that is planned for the town and enjoyed the beauty of the Park which looked fabulous in it’s autumn glory. The group then travelled to Kilronan Castle for lunch. Close links have now been forged between the county and Henan Province which should hopefully see inward investment into Roscommon, including the Boyle area.
Boyle houses feature in new book
Rockingham House and King House are among 12 ‘Big Houses’ in County Roscommon that feature in a new book that is due to launch this Saturday night. ‘The Landed Estates of County Roscommon’ is written by south Roscommon man Paul Connolly and features a number of photographs of the two Boyle house. It also gives details of 86 other significant houses in the county including a number around Boyle. Many will be familiar with the Facebook page of the same name – ‘The Landed Estates of County Roscommon’ where previously unseen photographs of the interior of some of the big houses have been published. The book launches in Gleeson’s at 6pm and will be available to purchase in Una Bhan Craft Shop in Boyle.
Big vote for Michael D in Boyle
The recent Presidential Election saw Boyle voters massively endorse Michael D Higgins for the position of President of Ireland. President Higgins received 205 votes in one polling booth in Boyle town – the highest number of votes the President got in any booth in the county and one that represented just over 50% of the votes cast in that box. In the same station (Boyle Convent Number One) Peter Casey received 138 votes or a little over 30%. Gavin Duffy polled the lowest of all the candidates in the Boyle boxes.
Leveraging funding that will assist Boyle redevelopment
Last week’s meeting of Roscommon Co Co heard that the local authority is to seek a loan of €10m to enable it match funding for major projects in the county, including phase one work on the Royal building and associated work in Boyle. Match funding will also be required for other projects that are contained in Boyle 2040. Having got approval from the elected members, the council now have to get the loan approval signed off by the Department of Local Government. Should the application be successful, Roscommon Co Co could be in a position to access €40m in funding, with many projects in Boyle ‘shovel ready’ and awaiting the required finance.
And finally….!
A father put his 3 year old daughter to bed, told her a story and listened to her prayers which ended by saying, “God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy, God bless Grandma and good-bye Grandpa.”
The father asked, ‘Why did you say good-bye Grandpa?’
The little girl said, “I don’t know daddy, it just seemed like the thing to do.”
The next day grandpa died. The father thought it was a strange coincidence.
A few months later the father put the girl to bed and listened to her prayers which went like this, “God bless Mommy, God Bless Daddy and good-bye Grandma.”
The next day the grandmother died.
Thought the father, “this kid is in contact with the other side.”
Several weeks later when the girl was going to bed the dad heard her say, “God bless Mommy and good-bye Daddy.”
He practically went into shock. He couldn’t sleep all night and got up at the crack of dawn to go to his office. He was nervous as a cat all day, had lunch and watched the clock.
He figured if he could get by until midnight he would be okay.
He felt safe in the office, so instead of going home at the end of the day he stayed there, drinking coffee, looking at his watch and jumping at every sound.
Finally midnight arrived; he breathed a sigh of relief and went home.
When he got home his wife said, “I’ve never seen you work so late. What’s the matter?”
He said, “I don’t want to talk about it, I’ve just spent the worst day of my life.”
She said, “You think you had a bad day, you’ll never believe what happened to me. This morning my golf pro dropped dead in the middle of my lesson!”
