117 companies confirmed for Skipper Expo

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

117 companies from the Irish fishing industry will exhibit at at Skipper Expo Int at the Galway Bay Hotel on 4 and 5 March.

Motorway construction must not exacerbate flooding warns Connaughton

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

Construction of the new N17/18 Tuam to Gort motorway “must not exacerbate flooding in north and south Galway”, as householders and land owners need to be “reassured” that flood risk is given “proper recognition” in the motorway’s design.

Tenant Purchase Scheme will ‘increase home ownership in Galway’ says Nolan

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

Local authority tenants who want to buy their own homes will be able to do so under the new Tenant Purchase Scheme which one Galway TD has described as “a very progressive step”.

The Tenant Purchase Scheme, which was introduced on January 1, allows tenants to buy a home provided they satisfy a range of criteria, such as having a minimum reckonable income of at least €15,000 per annum. The scheme also involves a discount, for any tenant purchasing his/her house, of 40 per cent, 50 per cent, or 60 per cent, depending on the income coming into the house, and is specifically focused on assisting tenants in local authority houses to become homeowners.

Changes abound for lots of TV viewers in Galway

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

A large number of householders in Galway have been forced to seek a new TV supplier after receiving notification from Virgin Media (formerly UPC) that the company is discontinuing the provision of MMDS TV. The reason behind the move is that the licence which allowed the company transmit TV in the area will expire on April 18.

Local residents oppose ‘privatisation’ of community centre

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

A group of residents from the Ballinfoile Mór-Castlegar area demonstrated outside City Hall last Monday afternoon in advance of a Galway City Council meeting to voice their opposition to any effort by the local authority to privatise a new community centre in the area.

In a statement the group said that, after campaigning for 30 years for proper interior sports and community facilities, “the local community will not allow it to be lost to private enterprise whose priority understandably will be profitability rather than fulfilling social needs”.

UHG staff help Nepalese quake victims

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

A Galway woman who spearheaded a fundraising drive for the victims of the earthquakes in Nepal visited the country recently to distribute aid.

Feet tapping in Claregalway for Strictly Come Dancing contest

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

Claregalway GAA Club are hosting a night of Strictly Come Dancing as a club fundraiser for the coming year in The Claregalway Hotel on Friday January 29 2016 at 7.30pm. This event promises to be a night of high quality entertainment and craic with 34 dancers dusting off their dancing shoes for a night on the floor.

Unemployment figure rose in Galway in December, says Charity

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

Despite a steadying economy and unemployment dropping to nine percent, the number of unemployed in Galway city and county rose again last month by 346, with a total of 16,000 people now out of work.

Poetry, music, sadness, and stories — funeral for golfing great mirrored his life

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

Galway bade farewell to its favourite golfing son Christy O’Connor jnr this week when thousands of mourners paid their last respects to this iconic sporting hero.

Cllr Pearce Flannery to represent Galway City Council on NUI Galway governing authority

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

Cllr Pearce Flannery has been elected to the NUI Galway governing authority.

Hospice thanks Gort man whose climbs raised thousands

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

Galway Hospice has this week paid tribute to a Gort man whose mountain treks around the region have raised thousands of euro for their fundraising efforts.

Health Minister responsible for ‘flawed policies’ claims General Election candidate

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

Health Minister Leo Varadker has been accused of presiding over “bad budgets and flawed policies”.

They’re coming to get your vote

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

We’re nearly there, any day now. Enda will sup tay with Michael D, slap him on the back and say ‘howya lad, I’m thinkin’ of going to the country so will ya sign this pieceen of paper so I can turn the car wesht and start the canvassing’…the knocking on doors. But I’m ahead of him. I’ve been on the canvass for a month now. Getting the face out there. Pressing the flesh. Meeting the great unwashed. With their flus and their colds. And the smell of dinner of them. Every night I’m at it and every day. With my team. Up the path shuffle, ears open for fear the bloody dog would wake, but there’s no dog so there’s a soft cough and a rattle of the knocker and a figure coming up the lit hallway…Howya Maam is himself at home? Oh sure yourself will do. I’m running in the election so I am so I’d be hoping you’d give me your number one or two or anything at all…sure I know yer local man has looked after ye well down here with the new light above at the church and all that but I’d look after ye too so I’d take a two too so I would when you’re scratching your numbers down at the school next month…Oh ya well that’s great so it is…and here’s me card and me email address. I’ve an email address now that people can email me from their email machines on their computer thingys…or you can twitter me or like me or poke me on Facebook, so if you’ve any potholes or potheads or anything you want rid of, I’m your man. I’m your man. I’ll do everything I can, to get meself elected…thank ya ma’am thank ya… Too aisy, this is. The public love me, can’t get enough of me, but will they vote for me. D’ya think she’ll vote for me? She will in her…whole month now I’ve been doing this patch, scratching away at the list all week…patting snottynosed kids and spitting at snottynosed dogs…giving me opinion on everything and anything under the sun…’cos I’m well read…Get the Times so I do…Vote for me. I’m your man. I’ll do everything I can, to get meself elected…Repeal the eighth is it? Jaysis that’s wimmens’ matters now so I’m not too up to speed on these but sure if you want me to repeal it, whatever it is I will, and the Ninth and Tenth as well if you that’s what you want. And I’ll plead the Fifth. I will, sure I will if you’ll vote for me…I nod a lot and what’s the word, empathise. That’s the one. It means pretending I feel like they do…I tut tut. Yeah the floods and the hospital…shocking stuff shocking…you were 78 hours on a trolley…jaysus that’s terrible so it is. Well if I get elected, I’m banning trollies so there’ll be none of them. They can sleep on the floor. They’ll be glad they had trollies then, so they will…and the homeless, yeah I think about them, but sure you don’t have to think much about them when you’re knocking on doors, ‘cos they don’t have doors and you’re not going to meet one, so you nod and tut tut…and blame the government…Vote for me. I’m your man. I’ll do everything I can, to get meself elected…I dream of the guts of a million spondoolicks over five years. I dream of standing on the plinth outside the Dail in March. A plinth is just a big step, ok. One big step for “I’m ur man”kind…“what d’ya mean I’ll have no power. Sure I will. I’m me own man. I won’t be whipped. Sure I haven’t been whipped since herself came home from Fifty Shades in the village cinema last year full of bullock’s notions, so she was. I keep walking and knocking. They love me. Can’t get enough of me. I’m giving them everything they want. Another door, another mangy dog, where are all the cat lovers when you’re canvassing?… they send the kid out ‘cos they’re watching Operation Transformation and the state of them all sitting on the couch atin’ pizza and drinking Coke and laughing at the fat feckers on the telly. Father waddles out eventually…I shake the hand and he tried to catch me out. “Sure I’m a nationalist too, yeah the right kind, not the kind that kills ya, the other kind. We’re five weeks out now from the big day…don’t forget the face now or the name…got the new suit for when they lift me on their shoulders and throw me up and down…and my speech done, two of them, wan for if I’d ever lose, and another one where I thank Mammy for making me the man I am, and for making me breakfast for nigh on 50 year.

GRETB Training Centre launches its 2016 courses

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

GRETB Training Centre prides itself on offering intensive training courses to all ages. The training centre has successfully established itself within the marketplace as an exceptional training choice with notable success rates.

Free card-making open day at Cregal Art

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

Cregal Art will host a free card-making demonstration day this Saturday, January 16, between 10am and 4pm at the Cregal Art premises on Monivea Road.

It’s never too late to learn – beginner bodhran courses starting soon

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

Most households around the country have an old bodhran lying around in a closet somewhere or hanging on a wall. Most people don’t know how to play it, but would love to. Well that is all about to change with the Funky Drums city centre bodhran classes.

Learn sean-nós dancing at Club Áras na nGael

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

Monday January 25 will see the return of Club Áras na nGael’s popular sean-nós dancing classes under the expert and patient tuition of Connemara sean-nós dancer Pádraig Ó hOibicín.

Unleash your inner artist with award winning Beechmount Art Studio

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

Beechmount Art Studio is back with a bang in 2016 with a huge range of art classes for the spring term and an expansion of its hugely popular cocktail and painting nights.

Production management and basics of supply chain management courses

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

If you want to work in manufacturing or are currently in a production or inventory management role then you should consider the internationally recognised APICS Certificate in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM). The course runs in Western Management Centre Galway, an approved APICS education provider. Over the last 20 years hundreds of students have achieved their certification and can now use the designate CPIM after their name.

New Spanish classes starting soon at the Spanish Institute

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

The new term at The Spanish Institute for adults and teenagers starts on February 1 and will offer a variety of Spanish classes for beginner, improver, intermediate, and advanced levels. The institute also has courses available for children that will start on January 16. You can check the new schedule by searching for The Spanish Institute Galway on Facebook.

E-paper

Read this weeks E-paper. Past editions also available from within this weeks digital copy.