A building with many changes and bright future
The removal of the Roscommon Herald sign last Wednesday from the building on the site that the company had occupied on St. Patrick Street for the last 146 years marked the end of an era. The newspaper, which was once one of the largest employers in Boyle with nearly all the work force from the town and contributing to the town, was established in 1859. It moved to St Patrick Street from Main Street in or around 1870, to a building that was a former spool factory. The next major milestone in the building’s history occurred on March 10th 1965 when the offices were destroyed in a major fire. Rebuilding work took place soon after and the “new” offices opened in 1967. The final completion of the new offices was marred by the sudden death of the newspapers managing director Paddy Nerney who passed away on Saturday 18th May, two days before he was due to move into his new office. In 2006 the current owners of the building (Brian and Helen Nerney) commenced the next major remodelling of the premises, knocking everything but the front wall and rebuilding on the site footprint a 10,000 sq ft state of the art office block. With the Roscommon Herald newspaper no longer a tenant, plans are advanced for another use for a building that has been described as “one of the finest office blocks in County Roscommon”.
Time to run some Wren Boys
As predicted last week in this blog, there were a few Wren Boys out and about on St. Stephen’s Day and while there were a handful of “legitimate” singers and musicians, one particular group of youngsters were note wordy for the wrong reasons. They went into a number of pubs in the town, with no masks, no colourful clothing or no instruments and asked patrons “If I sing for ya will ya give me some money”. There were approximately four in the group and all from the one family with each child going to different tables in the bars in what was a well orchestrated manoeuvre. The children were not from Boyle but from a neighbouring county. They did make a few euro from a number of revellers who it seemed gave them money in the hope they might go away! It is debatable whither you could call their efforts an act begging or an effort at entrepreneurship!
FBD League game in the Abbey Park
It is great to see a big football game of sorts coming to Boyle when the Abbey Park plays host to Round 1 of the FBD League encounter between Roscommon and Sligo IT on Sunday January 8th. Throw in at the scenic Boyle grounds is 2pm. Roscommon will take on NUI Galway the following week in Ballyforan at 2pm and on Sunday January 22nd they play Mayo in Kiltoom.
The mild weather didn’t make it feel like Christmas
Christmas seemed different this year. A balmy Christmas day with temperatures of 14 degrees celsius didn’t help matters. In addition, there did not seem to be as many home as in previous years. Perhaps the exorbitant cost of flying at Christmas and the utilisation of flash flight sales throughout the year also had an effect. Three events that have become synonymous with the festive season in Boyle did see a number of visitors turn out. The Treasure Hunt and 5k runs in Lough Key and the GAA quiz in the Hall are always great opportunities to meet acquaintances. The St Stephen’s Day football match in the Abbey Park was also a nice outing. Masses attracted the usual large attendance but some church goers on Christmas Eve queried the showing of a clip over the altar of dying children in Syria as not very appropriate for what is traditional a joyful time of the year. Now our thoughts move to the New Year and what 2017 holds for us all. Despite the propaganda and efforts to get debate started from certain quarters in the media, Boyle will have a bright 2017 and will build on the seeds that have been sown in the months leading up to Christmas, including our newly obtained title of the most enterprising town in Ireland.
New Year wishes from Boyletoday.com
As this is the final Boyle’d Pot for 2016, it only remains to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. Thank you for your support in voting this blog to winning silver in the Blog Ireland Awards earlier in the year and for logging onto Boyletoday.com. Here’s to a great 2017….
And finally….!
No one has ever been able to satisfactorily define the difference between “complete” & “finished.”
However, during a recent linguistic conference attended by some of the best linguists in the world, Samsundar Balgobin, a Guyanese linguist, was the presenter when he was asked to make that very distinction.
The question put to him by a colleague was this: Some say there is no difference between complete and finished. Please explain the difference in a way that is easy to understand.
Mr. Balgobin’s response: When you marry the right woman, you are complete. If you marry the wrong woman, you are finished. And, if the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are “completely finished”.
