Search Results for 'Bobby Molloy'

Organised water safety in Ireland really began in Milltown Malbay, Co Clare in the 1930s when a lady drowned there. This galvanised the local community into forming a Water Safety Association to help swimmers who got into trouble. The idea spread through Co Clare and eventually to the whole country. The national water safety section, set up by the government, was run by the Red Cross.

Sixty six years ago this week, on June 16 1957, Pearse Stadium opened.

This is the first column of 2021 and I share all of your hopes that this year will be a better year than 2020.

Tuesday November 20, 1984, was a sad day in Galway. It was the day Jimmy Cranny died, and though he had no family, his extended family of many thousands of people he had taught to swim mourned him and marked the passing of a legend. He could be seen at the seashore virtually every evening of the summer for many, many, years teaching children the basics of swimming, and as some of them progressed to competitive swimming, he provided early morning training sessions for them at the canal on a daily basis.

With a general election expected in the coming months, there is much frenzied speculation about the prospects of the various parties across the constituencies. A curious feature of the discussions of Galway West is how little Fianna Fáil features in the conversation.

Fifty years ago the Gaeltacht Civil Rights Movement was founded, inspired by developments in the Six Counties, the USA, and France. To mark the occasion, hour-long programmes were broadcast on Raidió na Gaeltachta and TG4; it was discussed at the Galway History Festival; and a book is also being published.

So much to talk about, so little space.

The first people to sell produce along the Promenade were women who carried buckets of cockles and mussels and sold them to tourists. They would sit on the concrete seats and announce their wares. I don’t know if they sang “Alive alive oh” in a Galway accent or not.

Come the next General Election, could Noel Grealish be in danger of losing his seat? The answer is yes, but ONLY if Fianna Fáil gets its act together and learns a valuable lesson from the 'auld enemy' - Fine Gael.

Hello and a Happy New Year to all the readers of the Athlone Advertiser.