Carrick jobs are no saviour of Boyle
While there has been justified welcome for last Monday’s job announcement in Vistamed in Carrick, the news does not take from the need to get jobs into Boyle. Many from the town are currently employed in Vistamed and no doubt additional locals will get some of the 163 new posts, but it does not replace the need for Boyle to have it’s own good news story. We cannot sit back and believe that jobs in Carrick are the saviour of Boyle. The jobs are indeed a benefit, but not a saviour and should not take from the fact that we have to continue to pressurise state agencies and to keep personal contacts alive in our endeavours to assist in getting a large scale employer into our town.
Busy sporting Sunday in Boyle
There will be plenty of sporting activity around Boyle this Sunday. Apart from usual soccer and gaelic matches, the annual Lough Key Sprint Triathlon takes place in Boyle’s Lough Key Forest Park, commencing at 10am. The Triathlon is always an enjoyable sporting spectacle and with a number of athletes from the town taking part, it would be great if as many as possible made the short trip out to Rockingham to show support. Up to 400 triathletes will take to the water and roads around Boyle in what is now one of the biggest sporting events of the year in the vicinity of town.
Time to get involved in our various clubs
From Monday on, evening activities and clubs and organisations will all start to reopen after the summer break. Many activities in the Family Life Centre bounce back into action and the autumn schedule of evening classes will soon be available in the various venues around Boyle. There is no reason for anyone locally to be bored this autumn and winter. The trick is getting involved. Remember to check out the events section here on Boyletoday.com for daily updates of what’s happening around Boyle and go out and join in!
Ministerial visit provides an opportunity
Next Wednesday Minster for Health Simon Harris will pay his first official visit to Boyle to turn the sod on the Primary Care Centre. Work is well underway on the project which has a completion date of September 2017. Any day you get a Minister to visit your town is a good day. Time constraints will no doubt ensure local civic organisations will not get to meet the Minister which is a shame. While a Minster in the Department of Health cannot assist our local economic situation, Simon Harris does sit at the cabinet table and when he hopefully hears others speak of our need for state intervention in the area of employment, he will remember his first visit to Boyle on Wednesday September 7th.
The dangers of the sea at Strandhill
Our proximity to Strandhill makes it a popular venue for people from Boyle during warm weather. Many from the town flock to the sea side village for it’s spectacular scenery and because it is only less than half an hour from Boyle. But some visitors are unaware of the dangers of swimming in Strandhill waters. While there are signs along the promenade warning of the dangers of bathing, it would seem the signs are being ignored as families and groups of young people have been witnessed paddling and even swimming in the sea in recent days. Strandhill is a beautiful place to visit but it’s waters are extremely dangerous. Memories are still fresh in our minds of the May 1998 drowning of three teenagers from Gurteen in the sea at the popular Sligo venue. So if you go to Strandhill in the late summer sun, do not go anywhere near the water.
Wedding days in Boyle
The sound of wedding car horns blowing on Thursday afternoon around Boyle brought back memories of weddings in the town in times past. With two hotels then in operation – The Forest Park and Royal, chances are there were two if not three weddings in the town most weekends during the eighties and nineties. The resultant benefit to the economy was immense. People stayed in the B&B’s and pubs did a great trade between the meal and speeches as guests “snuck” out for a “quick one”. Another tradition that has become a victim of time on weddings days is the tying of cans, shoes, boots and other items to the car of bride and groom as they left on honeymoon. Once the happy couple had made it a mile or so outside Boyle, the items were discarded, left along the side of the road for the council to clean up – all happy memories that flooded back yesterday afternoon as Boyle’s latest married couple celebrated the start of their future together.
Going gold for September
Boyle’s King House is one of a number of landmarks across Ireland that will shine in gold light this September to raise awareness of childhood cancer. Belfast city hall, Trim Castle, Shannon Airport and St Patricks Cathedral will also have their exterior lighting changed to gold for the month. The childhood cancer foundation will hold candlelit vigil walks in Dublin on 3rd September, Galway 4th September and other parts of the country to recognise the bravery of children in treatment for cancer ,honour the survivors and to remember all the children whose young lives have been tragically taken by this disease. More information available on www.childhoodcancer.ie
We have reached the final
Blog Ireland Awards update….Great news for The Boyle’d Pot. The blog has reached the final three in the Marketing & Comms category of the Blog Ireland Awards for 2016! We received a large public vote and have passed the latest judging criteria to reach the final. Fingers crossed now for the September 15th awards night. And keep the fingers crossed a bit longer for two Boyle websites – Boyletm.ie and Boyletoday.com – who are moving through the ranks in the prestigious 2016 Realex Web Awards which will be announced on September 28th.
And finally…..!
Three women die together in an accident and go to heaven.
When they get there, St. Peter says, “We only have one rule here in heaven: don’t step on the ducks!”
So they enter heaven, and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place.
It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, the first woman accidentally steps on one.
Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest man she ever saw.
St. Peter chains them together and says, “Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to this ugly man!”
The next day, the second woman accidentally steps on a duck and along comes St. Peter, who doesn’t miss a thing. With him is another extremely ugly man. He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first woman.
The third woman has observed all this and, not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly man, is very, VERY careful where she steps.
She manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St. Peter comes up to her with the most handsome man she has ever laid eyes on … very tall, long eyelashes, muscular, and thin.
St. Peter chains them together without saying a word.
The happy woman says, “I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?”
The guy says, “I don’t know about you, but I stepped on a duck!”
