ALSOINSIDE: INSIDE: Music memories at Draiocht P10 TRAVEL: P22 & 23 August 18, 2011 Rugby: Coolmine tag season comes to an end Hurling: Local players propel Dubs to minor final place HEARTLESS thugs went on the rampage twice last week, smashing a shrine at a Castleknock church as they attempted to steal from a money box. The first incident at St Thomas the Apostle in Lau- LAURA WEBB RECYCLE THIS COPY. KEEP DUBLIN TIDY. Full Story on Pages 6-7 Page 28 Page 32 Picture: Paddy Barrett
YOUR COMMUNITY • YOUR PAPER August 18, 2011 ALSOINSIDE: GALLERIES ................ 8-10 MUSIC ........................... 14 MOTORS ........................ 18 BUSINESS ..................... 21 ENTERTAINMENT ......... 24 CLASSIFIEDS ............... 26 Rugby: Coolmine tag season comes to an end Page 28 Hurling: Local players propel Dubs to minor final place Page 32 RECYCLE THIS COPY. KEEP DUBLIN TIDY. INSIDE: Music memories at Draiocht P10 TOAST OF THE TOWN: Moore new president of Toastmasters See Page 3 Vandals smash up shrine in robbery Heartless thugs twice attempt to steal money box LAURA WEBB HEARTLESS thugs went on the rampage twice last week, smashing a shrine at a Castleknock church as they attempted to steal from a money box. The first incident at St Thomas the Apostle in Lau- rel Lodge occurred on Friday, August 12 at approximately 6.40pm and again on Tues- day, August 16 at 2.30pm. Speaking to the Gazette, Parish Priest Michael Cullen said: “They caused damage again yesterday; they smashed away at the shrine again. It is going to cost us a few bob to get it sorted out. “We are one of the few churches that stay open dur- ing the day unattended; we have never had problems like this before. We just have to be able to get these identified, let the Guards talk to them and tell them it has to stop,” Fr Cullen said. Horse sense: Garda Mounted Division on show SARGEANT Brendan Duffy and his four-legged friend, Don- nagh, were well turned out and on display recently when the Gazette went to find out more about the Garda Mounted Divi- sion based in Phoenix Park, where we learned about the intensive training and great care that goes into the making of a police horse, as well as the history of the Division. Picture: Paddy Barrett Full Story on Pages 6-7 FREE GAZETTE GAZETTE Castleknock Discovering Limerick’s hidden treasures TRAVEL: P22 & 23
Transcript
YOUR COMMUNITY • YOUR PAPER August 18, 2011
ALSOINSIDE: GALLERIES ................8-10
MUSIC ...........................14
MOTORS ........................18
BUSINESS .....................21
ENTERTAINMENT ......... 24
CLASSIFIEDS ............... 26
Rugby: Coolmine tag season comes to an endPage 28
Hurling: Local players propel Dubs to minor final placePage 32
RECYCLE THIS COPY. KEEP DUBLIN TIDY.
INSIDE: Music memories at Draiocht P10
TOAST OF THE TOWN: Moore new president of Toastmasters See Page 3
Vandals smash up shrine in robberyHeartless thugs twice attempt to steal money box
LAURA WEBB
HEARTLESS thugs went on the rampage twice last week, smashing a shrine at a Castleknock church as they attempted to steal from a money box.
The first incident at St Thomas the Apostle in Lau-
rel Lodge occurred on Friday, August 12 at approximately 6.40pm and again on Tues-day, August 16 at 2.30pm.
Speaking to the Gazette, Parish Priest Michael Cullen said: “They caused damage again yesterday; they smashed away at the shrine again. It is going to cost us a few bob to
get it sorted out. “We are one of the few
churches that stay open dur-ing the day unattended; we have never had problems like this before. We just have to be able to get these identified, let the Guards talk to them and tell them it has to stop,” Fr Cullen said.
Horse sense:Garda Mounted Division on showSARGEANT Brendan Duffy and his four-legged friend, Don-nagh, were well turned out and on display recently when the Gazette went to find out more about the Garda Mounted Divi-sion based in Phoenix Park, where we learned about the intensive training and great care that goes into the making of a police horse, as well as the history of the Division.
Picture: Paddy Barrett
Full Story on Pages 6-7
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2 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 18 August 2011
A €19 million loan acquired by Fingal County Council on land for housing that was not developed on, has been paid off by the Government.
That’s according to new fig-ures from the Department of Environment and Local Gov-ernment, which show that, under the Land Aggregation Scheme, €67 million has been spent to date on approved applications from various local authorities under the
scheme. According to figures, Fingal
County Council has had the largest loan paid off so far at €19,227,765 for a 24.28 hec-tare plot at Hampton in Bal-briggan.
As of the end of June, the scheme received applications in the region of €219 million from 22 housing authorities across the nation since it was set up last year.
The scheme, under the
approval of the Department of Environment and Local Government, allows housing authorities to transfer lands on which there are outstand-ing loans from the Housing Finance Agency to the Hous-ing and Sustainable Commu-nities Ltd (HSC) on the basis that there is no shor-to-medi-um-term plan for the develop-ment of the land. Funding to pay off the loans is provided by the Department of Envi-
ronment. The HSC Ltd is then responsible for the manage-ment and maintenance of the lands transferred under the scheme.
The second highest loan paid off for a Dublin local authority is Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County council at €10,257,875 for a 2.8 hectare site at Enniskerry Road.
Two more sites in Fingal County Council have been approved but are currently
under the schemes “pending” list until further funds become available.
The loans are for €1,488,658 for a 2.69 hectare site in Gar-ristown. A further €7 million for Hampton in Balbriggan is pending as the site was the subject of two loans, one of which has been redeemed under the scheme. All the land will be transferred to HSC Ltd. although the second loan has yet to be redeemed.
Meanwhile, another FCC application being assessed in consultation with HSC Ltd include a 7.3 hectare site at Hackettstown, Skerries for €7,087,156.33.
Meanwhi l e , in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council two other sites being assessed include a 8.84 hec-tare site at Ballyman Rd, Rath-michael for €10, 433, 425 and a 3.64 hectare site in Lehaun-stown valued at €6,113,445.
LAURA WEBB
THE HSE has denied claims that they plan to turn the accident and emergency service at Connolly Hospital into a daytime only service.
The health authority was responding to con-cerns raised by the Social-ist Party that the Connolly Hospital was under threat of having a daytime only A&E service. Accord-ing to local Councillor
Government pays off €19m Fingal council loan FIGURES Land for housing was not developed on
HSE denies daytime only plan for A&E
CONNOLLY HOSPITAL: HEALTH AUTHORITY RESPONDS TO RAISED CONCERNS
200 new jobs with PaypalTHE president of the D15 Chamber has welcomed the latest jobs boost for Blanchardstown follow-ing the announcement of 200 new jobs at PayPal.
Global online pay-ments company, PayPal, recently announced it will expand its workforce at its European Centre of Excellence located in Blanchardstown with 200 new jobs in areas of customer service and operations.
Welcoming the news, D15 Chamber President, David Donnelly said it’s a major step in the eco-nomic recovery of the Fingal region.
“This announcement will I am sure be seen as a major step in the continu-ing economic recovery of this area,” said David.
Ruth Coppinger (SP) the HSE is currently costing a daytime-only accident and emergency service for Connolly.
Councillor Coppinger said she was now calling on the HSE to clarify its plans for the A&E service at Connolly Hospital.
When contacted by the Gazette, a HSE spokes-person said: “(The) HSE Dublin North East must comply with its statutory obligations and remain within its allocated budget.
“Every effort will be made to do that in a way that has the least impact on patients and clients.”
Management at Con-nolly Hospital are exam-ining all options to ensure they remain within budget by year end.
“There is no plan to change the role and func-
tion of the Emergency Department at Connolly Hospital.”
Representatives of the Socialist Party in Dublin West, including Joe Higgins TD and Cllr Ruth Coppinger, say any attempt to downgrade Connolly Hospital will be “resisted by the commu-nity who depend on it”.
“Staffing of the A&E and hospital generally has been run down to intoler-able levels.
“There are now only half the number of reg-istrars required for casu-alty, with nursing levels pared back and all locum recruitment banned by a formal instruction to hospital management in a threatening letter of July 22,” said Cllr Coppinger.
“If the HSE is allowed to downgrade to an 8am-8pm A&E, the entire hos-
Local Councillor Ruth Coppinger of the Socialist Party
pital would effectively be downgraded. It would also place huge pressure on the A&E at Mater, Beaumont and other Dublin hospitals, already under strain.
“Savage cuts in the order of €20 million have taken place in the hos-pital’s budgets in recent years. This is in the con-text of a greatly-increased population in greater Blanchardstown and the wider catchment.
“Wards and beds have been closed. Nothing more can be skimmed,”
she added.Meanwhile, local TD
and Minister for Trans-port, Sport and Tourism Leo Varadkar accused the Socialist party of “exploit-ing concerns over Con-nolly Hospital’s Emer-gency Department”.
“The HSE has con-firmed that there are no plans to ‘change the role and function’ of the emer-gency department in the hospital.
“This hasn’t stopped the Socialist Party from running to the barricades and stoking up concerns
for its own political ends. Instead of trying to find practical solutions to the deep problems afflicting Ireland, time and again the Socialist Party pre-fers to indulge in cheap rhetoric.
“Fortunately, the Government prefers to take a more level-headed approach. I will be meeting with Health Minister James Reilly to discuss the finances at Connolly Hospital, and to highlight the need to safeguard critical serv-ices,” he said.
18 August 2011 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 3
EVENT Castleknock Toastmasters 25th anniversary
Straight in at the deep end for Ciaran
LAURA WEBB
HE’S the newly elected President of the Castle-knock Toastmasters and already Ciaran Moore has had a more hectic start to his role than his predeces-sors.
The club, which pro-motes public speaking, personal development and leadership skills, is celebrating its 25th anni-versary.
“It has been fairly hec-tic, because I came into office on July 1 and that night we actually had our 25th anniversary party, so it was straight in at the deep end; the previous 24 holders of the office didn’t have that on their first
day,” joked Moore.“We are busy because
there was a lot of behind-the-scenes work to be done in preparation for the new season, which starts in September. I am also involved in the area council, which is dealing with the next level of the hierarchy of the toastmas-ter. Behind the scenes we are preparing competi-tions, meetings and dif-ferent things.”
The area council involves six toastmasters’ clubs, including Navan, which is new to the area this year; Clondalkin, Lucan, Phoenix Tower from Dunboyne, Castle-knock and Glasnevin.
Moore has been
with the Castleknock Toastmasters s ince January 2009 and has been involved in public speaking since he was at school.
“The main reason I wanted to join was to improve and keep up this skill level in public speak-ing. I was lucky that I had some experience in it [public speaking] before I joined, where many peo-ple have no experience whatsoever. They might have something coming up, could be a best man speech or some presenta-tion in work, they have no experience and they are terrified. Apparently pub-lic speaking is one of the biggest fears in the world.
Newly elected President of the Castleknock Toastmasters, Ciaran Moore
“They come in, have a look at what we do; they see we are normal peo-ple just like everyone else progressing. We have a structured learning pro-gramme. Everybody starts at the same level and eve-rybody progresses in the same way, and as they progress they get better and better. You might not see a huge difference between the first and sec-ond speech, but speech number 10 – there is a big difference. It is personal development,” he says.
But for Moore, the Toastmasters is not just about public speaking, it is also building confi-dence within a person’s own life: “There are other things we pro-mote. We also promote leadership skills, we do that by various office roles.
“The fact that I am president means, in effect, I am the leader of the club, so, therefore, I am developing leader-ship skills along the way as well. I would also say
we develop manage-ment skills because we have to plan and organ-ise meetings, and vari-ous things, so they are management skills.
“There is also a great social aspect to the club. You make new friends, and meet new people. There is also a network-ing opportunity in toast-masters.”
Castleknock Toast-masters start back on September 1 and meet in Myo’s, Main Street, Castleknock.
Coghlan says no to electionCASTLEKNOCK native and former world champi-on runner Eamon Cogh-lan has ruled himself out of the race as a candidate for the forthcoming by-election in Dublin West.
The Independent Sena-tor was nominated by the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny to the Seanad in May but speculation has mounted in recent weeks that he would become a possible candidate for Fine Gael in the forthcoming byelec-tion in Dublin West, where he currently resides.
However, in newspaper reports, Senator Coghlan, who lives in Porterstown in Dublin 15, said he wanted to squash rumours that he is to run for Fine Gael in the byelection. He said Fine Gael had not approached him on the matter and that different parties had approached him as a possible candi-date, but each time he turned them down and always said “no”.
CANDIDATE
4 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 18 August 2011
SUMMER Many politicians planning staycations
TDs divulge their plans for a holiday
HIROMI MOONEY,
LAURA WEBB AND PAUL
HOSFORD
WITH everyone tighten-ing their belts and count-ing the pennies, most TDs are planning staycations this summer.
This week, the Gazette chats to them about their favourite holiday spots and how they plan to relax over the summer break.
Tourism Minister and TD for Dublin West Leo Varadkar is also joining the staycation clan with a holiday in Ireland this summer. However, he does hope to spend some time in either New York or Spain too: “I’m taking at least one holiday in Ire-land this year, and would encourage everyone to do the same. There are some great deals to be had in Ireland, even at this late stage. All the signs sug-gest the tourism industry is picking up this year, which is great news for our economy. I also hope the Jobs Initiative, which focused heavily on the tourism sector, will help to kick-start economic recovery and create jobs.
“For myself, I intend to take a few days in Kerry. I’ll be staying near Killar-
ney, where the Tourism & Sport sections of my Department are located. But I intend to get plenty of time off to explore the county.”
Meanwhile, Dublin North Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell says that he will not be holidaying abroad this year due to “the immi-nent arrival of my first child”, but says that he may visit his sister’s fam-ily in Louisburgh, County Mayo.
“I regularly visit Lou-isburgh, both off-peak and during the summer months, and, is an ideal place to relax after busy periods in political life,” he says. “I would certainly encourage people to holi-day at home and spend their money in the Irish economy.”
Minister for Children and Dublin Mid West TD, Frances Fitzgerald, is a huge fan of West Cork and says she plans to visit friends in Schull and spend time in Connemara this August.
“This summer I will be spending time in Conne-mara, which is one of my favourite places in Ire-land. I plan to revisit West Cork as I have had some fantastic family holidays
there in Schull over the years.”
One of the two women in the Cabinet with a sen-ior portfolio, the Minister also plans to catch up on some books: “I have been inundated with recom-mendations from friends so I have a nice pile accu-mulating. I am looking forward to reading Room, by Emma Donoghue and also A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan.”
But the mum of three says it will be a shorter break than usual, adding: “My summer break won’t be long as I have a lot of work going to do in the Department of Children and Youth Affairs so most of my time during the Dáil recess will be spent work-ing in our new office in Mespil Road.”
Meanwhile, In Dun Laoghaire, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore also plans to holiday in Ire-land while Dublin South TD, Olivia Mitchell, who recently became a grand-mother again, said she plans to spend as much time as she can with her grandchildren.
Fellow Dublin South TD, Alex White, says that he was going to Portugal
with his family during the last week of July and spending the rest of his time in Ireland.
“During August I’ll be spending time in Wex-ford, Kerry and in County Sligo. I plan to bring my bike and to enjoy long summer evenings cycling the country roads of rural Ireland,” he says.
Independen t TD Shane Ross says he plans to holiday with his fam-ily by travelling by boat from Rosslare to Fish-guard in Wales, drive south and then take the ferry to France. He goes to France almost every year, and says that he also hopes to travel to the west of Ireland this year.
And Fine Gael TD for Dublin South, Peter Mathews, also hopes to spend some time on the west coast of Ireland. He says that he is looking forward to his summer break. “I enjoy the west coast. We’ve been up in Galway, Mayo, Sligo, and maybe this year, we might go down towards Kerry,” he says. “We hope to enjoy the local countryside and the people and any of the events that might be hap-pening in the areas that we’re going to.”
Minister Leo Varadkar would encourage everyone to holiday in Ireland while Minister Fitzgerald TD plans to spend time in Connemara
18 August 2011 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 5
JUMPSTART Safefood 360 receives €25,000 prize
Dublin 15 firm wins business competition
LAURA WEBB
A DUBLIN 15 company has been given a major business boost after winning the 2011 Jump-Start Competition.
L o c a l b u s i n e s s , Sa fe food 360 , was announced the winner of the annual competi-tion recently at a special ceremony with judge and Dragon Den star, Gavin Duffy, presenting them with their award.
The winners of the competition, organ-ised by The LINC, ITB, received a prize worth €25,000.
Safefood 360 is a web-based safety management system. It allows food processing businesses manage all aspects of food safety in one fully integrat-ed solution. Owners and
co-founders Philip Gil-len and George Howlett are both experienced in the technology and food industry. The company was launched in April 2011 and the software application has received a very warm welcome from the food industry globally and has already received interest from plants on all five continents.
“Clearly the winners, Safefood 360, showed the benefits of start-ups being well supported in an incubator pro-gramme like the LINC. The Special Award to Woods Whelans is mer-ited because Brendan Woods demonstrates all the qualities of an entre-preneur driving a start-up with great potential,” said Duffy.
Meanwhile, Lucia
O’Riordan, Regional Retail and SME Man-ager, AIB added: “AIB is delighted to be the lead sponsor of JumpStart for the second year. The standard this year was very high, which made the judges’ job difficult. Safefood have made great strides in develop-ing their business model to-date – this was clear-ly demonstrated in their presentation and they deserve this recogni-tion. Brendan Woods, o f Woods W helan , shows clear determina-tion in developing his software and I am sure we will hear more about Brendan in the future.”
The four companies shortlisted for Jump-Start 2011 were Woods Whelan Ltd., 2020feed-back.com, Safefood 360
George Howlett (left) and Philip Gillen, directors of Safefood 360, winners of the
LINC JumpStart 2011 Annual Business Competition, pictured with Lucia O’Riordan,
Regional Retail and SME manager of AIB
and ZUP Manufacturing and Distribution Ltd.
Each company was judged by a panel of well-known entrepre-neurs, including the Dragon Den’s Gavin Duffy, Lucia O’Riordan, Regional Retail and SME manager, AIB, yourlocal.ie managing director, Emer Jame-
son, bizstartup.ie edi-tor Sorcha Corcoran, Oisin Geoghegan, Fin-gal County Enterprise Board and Assumpta Harvey, manager,The LINC.
Oisin Geoghegan, CEO Fingal County Enterprise Board, said there had been a par-ticularly high quality in
this year’s entries: “The quality of applications for JumpStart 2011 was very high and it ensured a lively and thorough discussion among the judges.”
Jump Start 2011 is proudly supported by AIB and, Fingal County Enterprise Board and Enterprise Ireland.
Sweet time for Musical SocietyR E H E A R SA L S f o r the Coolmine Musi-cal Society’s next big stage production are to begin next week dur-ing an information and enrolment night for new members.
They will be bringing the show, Sweet Char-ity, to Draiocht this November but, before the big event, prac-tise must make perfect and rehearsals are set to begin this Monday, August 22.
Sweet Charity is a show that captures the rhythm, sounds and fun of 60’s New York.
Sweet Charity will run from November 15 to 19 in Draiocht. Rehearsals for the show will start on Monday, August 22 with an Information and Enrolment Night in Scoil OIlibhéir, Cool-mine at 7.45pm.
For further informa-tion contact the soci-ety’s secretary at [email protected]
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6 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 18 August 2011
Irish lore inspires a modern horse unit
HIROMI MOONEY
DISBANDED in 1919 due to civil unrest, it would be almost a centu-ry before a new mounted unit was established by the Gardai in the grounds of Aras an Uachtarain, in the Phoenix Park.
While there had been numerous attempts to re-establish the unit, it would only be when the North Yorkshire disbanded, allowing the Gardai to acquire the horses and equipment, that Garda Commissioner at the time, Pat Byrne, decided to set it up as a national unit in May, 1998.
The facilities include a 15-horse box stable, with a yard, tack rooms, a wash room, paddocks and an all-weather training sand arena that is used for pub-lic order training.
They operate as an operational support unit, alongside the air, dog and water support units.
Today, the mounted support unit comprises 14 indigenous Irish Draught geldings, two civilian sup-port staff, 12 Gardai, and
Sergeant Brendan Duffy.All of the horses are
named after Irish folklore figures – Cumhall, Deag-lan, Lir, Connall, Conn, Donagh, Fiachra, Cian, Embarr, Setanta, Fionn Rua, Ruairi, Lorcan and Finn.
The horses serve on average up to 13 years in the unit before retiring, with 15-year-old Lir cur-rently the largest horse, measuring 19 hands.
Four-year-old Embarr is the newest, having joined the unit in June, and is sponsored by Horse Sport Ireland.
And, although Embarr’s the new kid on the block, Sgt Duffy says he has been getting on well since join-ing the unit.
“He’s still a baby, so we’re not going to rush him. He’s still doing patrols in the park, and kind of getting used to meeting and greeting peo-ple,” he says.
The mounted unit has a variety of duties, but shares the same duties as their colleagues on the ground. They operate based on both proactive deployment (which is self-determined deployment), and reactive deployment (which is deployment when requested).
“Our main duties are high-visibility proactive policing, dealing with crowd control at major events, and public order events on occasion,” says Sgt Duffy.
“We do open ground and rough terra in searches, on occasion, for missing people, or for evidence, and we tend to do a lot of community engagements as well, with community schools, com-munity group visits and special needs visits.”
When joining the Force, the horses must be between four and six years
of age, be even-coloured, pass a vetting, be a mini-mum of 16.3 hands and have a six-week trial with the unit.
The trial will determine whether they are temper-amental, and are capable of facing various obstacles without panicking. This means that only one in every 10 horses that are trialled is chosen.
The in-house train-ing is a slow process that involves gradually introducing the horses to various hazards, and building confidence in dealing with smoke and other obstacles that they may be faced with whilst on duty.
“With a young horse, what we start doing is lunging them – circling them around with a long reign – and eventually we start riding them in our all-weather arena, slowly introducing them to walk-ing over tyres, plastic – let them see different things – and drape flags over their heads,” says Sgt Duffy.
“Then, we slowly start to introduce them to slow traffic – you know, it’s not
Heroes of old provide fitting inspiration for a thoroughly modern Garda support unit
POLICING The Gazette learns all about how Garda horses
‘Our primary function is to police on the horses, but we do everything else as well’- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Sgt Brendan Duffy- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Mounted Gardai officers, Richie Owens and Lisa Halligan, going out
Garda horses, Fiachra and Cian. Pictures: Paddy Barrett
busy in the Park.“If you see that they’re
getting fearful of some-thing, you don’t keep pushing them. You back off, and you try again the next day, and you try and encourage them.
“Eventually they build up this level of trust – that’s the theory, anyway.
“Sometimes, they just don’t get it, but we should have that identified dur-ing the six-week trial.
“At the end of the day, they’re horses. They’re ‘fight or flight’ animals – that’s their two instincts, and they’re prey animals, so they think that every-thing bigger than them is going to eat them, and their first reaction is they want to go.
“You have to try and
get over their natural instinct to flight, and to try and build up this level of trust, that they start get-ting accustomed to it and start getting happy with it; that there’s no major threat here.
“Then, with the younger horse, we bring them out with older, more estab-lished horses, and they draw confidence from the other horse.
“Horses work particu-larly well in public order situations, or with big-ger numbers [of people], because they have reas-surance – they’re back in the herd.
“That’s the way you have to think about it. You have to try and get into their heads and see,” says Sgt Duffy.
The horses are at work every day, whether they are on patrol or crowd control duties. They have an 8am to 4pm shift, a 2pm to 10pm shift, and also a night shift, on Fri-day and Saturday nights.
They also work accord-ing to particular events, such as outdoor concerts, when required.
“Our primary function is to police on the horses, but we do everything else as well. It’s all hands-on, then. If something needs to be done we’ll do it – it’s not selective.
“The main emphasis is that the horses are being worked, that they’re not flighty, that they’re ready for patrol, and that they’re well turned out,” says Sgt Duffy.
Part of the perfectly-kept setting of the Garda stables
18 August 2011 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 7
are prepared for their support roles on the Force
on patrol with their
Some of the Garda horses look out from their immaculate stables
Sgt Brendan Duffy and Donnagh
The littlest member of the team, Fred, leads out Cumhall
An old photograph showcasing an event of historical note in the Dublin 15 area, with
an exhibition at Blanchardstown Library highlighting other fascinating events
FINGAL South West Heritage Society asked yours truly to
gather and select a col-lection of prints and pho-tographs of the Fingal South West area – which is, essentially, greater Blanchardstown/Castle-knock – with a view to exhibiting them for Her-itage Week.
I have a large collection of pictures and photo-graphs dating back to the time I was researching and writing A Candle In The Window – A History of the Barony of Castle-knock.
Many of these images appeared in the book, but many didn’t, owing to pressure of space, and some appeared in black and white where full colour would have been better.
Some of my favourite pictures have now been selected, cleaned up, where necessary, and
enlarged, where possible, and will go on display in the foyer of Blanchards-town Library next Sat-urday, August 20, until the following Saturday, August 27.
The official launch of the exhibition will take place on Monday, August 22 at 6.30pm, when Labour councillor Gerry McGuire, the Mayor of Fingal, will perform the official opening of the exhibition.
The exhibition consists
of 62 images, including paintings and photo-graphs – the work of Fr Eugene Kennedy, who greatly assisted me when I was writing my book, which I am now delighted to present in the full col-our that these beautiful works of art deserve.
There are the magnifi-cent landscape paintings of this area, executed by Gabriel Beranger in the 1760s and 1770s.
I also sourced images relating to this area from
THE Castleknock Lions recently elected Alan Halford as their new
president. Alan, a member of Castleknock Lions since 1994, when the club was first char-tered, previously served as president in 2005.
He has held many senior positions in Lions Club Ire-land, and is a former Vice-Dis-trict Governor for Lions clubs in Ireland.
The Lions District Cabinet
presented him with the Bert Mason Humanitarian Award in 2010.
Alan has selected the Mes-sage in a Bottle project as his major project for his term of office.
This is an initiative that will be of great benefit to elderly and vulnerable people in the community.
The initiative is aimed at providing crucial information to emergency services when
they call to a household in dif-ficulty.
It entails placing a particular bottle in a fridge, containing all relevant medical details, such as their medication, allergies etc, relating to the occupants of the household.
ParticipantsInside the front door, beside
the lock, there will be a sign indicating that the household are participants in the scheme
and, on the front door of the fridge, there will be a similar notice.
The immediacy of the access to the medical information can save lives – but more of this in September, when the initiative is being launched.
Last week, the club sent 10 local children to Birr Activity Centre for an introduction to outdoor pursuits.
The club have been doing this for many years, and it has
been a great help to youngsters who might otherwise not get a summer break.
This year, for the first time, it included a photographic competition, also funded by the Lions.
So, there’s a busy time ahead for Alan and his colleagues in their work for Lions projects that support the community.
We will hear more of their work over the next few months.
Local Lions appoint Alan Halford as new president
FATHER Mick Cullen, PP St Thomas the Apos-tle Parish Laurel Lodge, is off on his annual walk to Santiago de Compost-ella again this year, in aid of St Francis Hospice, Blanchardstown.
It will be Fr Mick’s fourth walk on the Cami-no for the charity – a subject that readers will have seen many times in The Gazette.
This year, he is doing the final section – but with a change. This time, he will be approaching Santiago from the south – the Old Portuguese Pil-grim Trail.
Gruelling sunHe will be walking
22kms per day for six days, so it is a fairly stren-uous undertaking under a Spanish sun, and requires plenty of stamina.
The new St Francis Hospice is up and run-ning now, but still needs our continual support to help provide the services that are so important to its patients and their families.
Fr Mick is pragmatic; he knows that people are finding it tough in the present economic cli-mate, and says he will be glad of any sponsorship whatsoever.
SupportTo support Fr Mick’s
efforts, and to subscribe to a really worthwhile cause – St. Francis Hos-pice, Blanchardstown – contact the Parish Office Church of St Thomas the Apostle, Laurel Lodge in Dublin 15.
Alternatively, contact Fr Dan Joe O’Mahony in the Oratory, Yellow Entrance, Blanchards-town Shopping Centre.
You can also tele-phone the Parish Office at 01 820 8112, or 087 634 4248.
Fr Mick to walk again for Hospice
Exhibiting fascinating views of a bygone era
other collections in the National Gallery and the National Library.
Many of the old pho-tographs on display date back to the early 20th Century, and are the work of anonymous pho-tographers and, perhaps, this exhibition will help to reveal their identities.
The Fingal South West Heritage Society,
of which I am a member, gave much support, but so did many local people, such as Norah Comiskey, Sheila Browne, Maureen O’Rourke, Marie Cum-mins, Fr Eugene Kennedy, Gerry and Loretta Tynan, Celia Burke and Mary Eustace.
The National Gal-lery of Ireland, and The National Library, were
most kind in allowing me to exhibit pictures in their collections.
Finally, I want to thank the management and staff of Blanchardstown Library, who have always been unfailingly helpful.
So, come along next week and visit the exhibi-tion, and I feel sure that you will enjoy the images on display.
‘The exhibition consists of 62 images, including paintings and photographs. Many of them date back to the early 20th Century, and are the work of anonymous photographers and, perhaps, this exhibition will help to reveal their identities.’- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
R1
18 August 2011 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 9
A fashionable way to help outS
TUDENTS from Castleknock Com-munity College staged a highly-suc-cessful fashion show at Castleknock
Hotel as part of their continuing fund-raising efforts in aid of a number of the school’s staff and students who are heading to Calcutta to support the work of local charity, BeKind Ireland.
More than €3,000 was raised from the night’s proceeds, helping to boost the already very impressive figure of €70,000 raised by the students since September.
People of all ages from across the com-munity came together to help support the worthy cause, with the funds helping to support a number of orphanages.
Lauren Mahon, Claudia Jones, Lisa Gentles and Eilish Mulcahy
Karen Comerford and Emily
McLellan
Lorraine and Niamh Melia,
who organised the show
Linda and Besa Rakipa
Kate O’Melia and Ruth Tracy
Chloe Sheils, Cladia Jones and Melissa Goodman
PICTURES Gazettephotos.com Spot anyone you know here?
R1
10 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 18 August 2011
www.gazettephotos.comwww.gazettephotos.com
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Showing off their musical talentsA
S excitement built for Castleknock School of Music’s 16th annual concert series at Draiocht, our photographer
was there to witness the young musicians going through rehearsals for their big night. And all the hard work obviously paid off as the concert was a huge success and a very memorable occasion for all involved. The concert featured the Ready, Steady, Go choir and various ensembles and solo-ists performing on a range of instruments, including piano, flute, clarinet, violin, guitar and vocals. Special performances were given by teachers from the school, and Irish dancing was accompanied by Mexi-can violinist, Antonio Garcia Lopez, who specialises in traditional Irish fiddle, as well as Polish pianist Julia Miller, who are both teachers at the music school.
Katie MullenAlex Griffin
Ellen Murphy
Bronwyn Boyle
Alannah Best. Pictures: Peter Doyle
PICTURES Gazettephotos.com Spot anyone you know here?
18 August 2011 GAZETTE 11
12 GAZETTE 18 August 2011
PEOPLE Singer a Byrne natural to star in the hit musical
A delighted Mary’s up to her eyes in Grease
LAURA WEBB
MARY Byrne captured our imagination with her amazing singing voice when she starred on the multi-award-winning show, The X-Factor.
Now, she is taking cen-tre stage with a different role, as Teen Angel in Grease – The Musical, at the Grand Canal Theatre, a role she hopes she can make her own.
The Dublin mother-of-one has seen her life turned upside down – for all the right reasons – after appearing on the hugely popular TV show last year.
Since becoming a household name, Mary has gone on to achieve the kind of accomplish-ments that most sing-ers and artists can only dream of.
Speak ing to the
Gazette before the show started on August 9, Mary said she was excited about her new venture.
“I am excited and quite nervous as well. It is really the first time to do anything like this in my life, but I am absolutely looking forward to it, big-time!” she said.
Mary plays Teen Angel, a role that was played by a man in the original film, but, despite this, she
Despite her lack of experience, Mary byrne told The Gazette she was “delighted” with her role in the hit show
is determined to make it her own.
“There was only one other woman who played Teen Angel; a South Afri-can woman.
“I went over to see the show in Bedford, Leeds, and when I watched the show, I just thought: ‘God, I am not going to be able to do this’.
“Then, you realise the person that goes into the show puts a bit of them-selves into it, so I am
going to have to put a bit of me into it,” she said.
Being a huge fan of the film, Grease, Mary says it’s like a dream come true to be part of the show.
“I remember when it first came out; I dragged my nieces to see it so many times!
“I also bought the vinyl album, and the video when it came out first, and then I got the DVD, so I have always been a big fan. It is a dream
come true. I am really so honoured to be asked to do this.
“The show is just great. It has everything and more that the film has; it works so well on stage. People will just have so much fun – it’s great.”
If someone had told Mary five years ago that she would perform in front of millions on TV, sing for Queen Elizabeth II, and support a Neil Diamond concert in Ire-
land’s biggest stadium – the Aviva – Mary said she would have laughed at them, and asked: “What planet are you on?”
“I would have never dreamt anything like this would have happened. This is the stuff that fairy-tales are made of.
“You are expecting somewhere, along the line, that the Fairy God-mother will come along and say: ‘Okay, wake up now’.
“I am so grateful for the way my life has changed since I went on The X-Factor,” she said.
Acting as a future career for Mary is some-thing she might look at. “I said to someone the other day: ‘I would love to do a play or musical’.
“I have never had any experience in it. I have no training, but people put challenges up to me, and it is only in the last five years that I am really accepting the challenge and, when you accept the challenge, whether you can do it right or not, it makes you feel alive.
“Life is all about trying stuff. We can sit back and be bored out of our heads, or we can get up there, face the challenges and enjoy them – that is what I love doing,” she said.
Grease the Musical runs until August 27 at the Grand Canal Theatre.
For further informa-tion, see www.grandcan-altheatre.ie. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster.
18 August 2011 GAZETTE 13
14 GAZETTE 18 August 2011
GazetteMUSICMUSIC
Rap regency roll ROB HEIGH
COLLABORATIONS are the current corner-stone of most modern music, whether it be a “featuring” credit or a guest appearance from either a legend or someone completely unknown who the lead artist wants to propel into the spotlight.
Seldom is it the case that legends of a genre come together to cre-ate an entire project — although this is the month that Superheavy, which features the stel-lar talents of Mick Jag-ger, Joss Stone, Dave Stewart and son of Bob, Damian Marley, release the first music from their association — but
that is exactly what rap superstars Jay-Z and Kanye West have done on their new release. Finally, eight months after HAM, the first fruit of the collaboration that would come to be known as The Throne, comes the gold-plated, beat-encrusted Watch The Throne.
With Jay and Kanye insisting that this would be “no ring-in”, where most collaborations see artists recording in opposite sides of a coun-try, or even the planet, and their product being married together in a studio in another time zone, both these colos-sus of the rap game were in the same studio at the same time — something
that makes it a stronger, more coherent, album from start to finish.
And, to start at the beginning of the begin-n ing , when Kanye dropped the tempo on the Jackson 5’s I Want You Back to cre-ate the beat under Izzo (HOVA), a track that began to push Jay-Z into legend status, a marriage of minds was born.
Kanye provided pro-duction duties to some of the best tracks on The Blueprint , the album that defined, and still defines, Jay-Z’s career, and Hov return-ing the compliment later on that record, that “Kanyeeze you did it again, you a genius!”.
In return, Jay provided verses and suppor t throughout West’s still immense debut album, The College Dropout, these two giants of music coming together to create something more monolithic than their individual careers have delivered to date was inevitable.
Both Jay and Kanye are undoubtedly at the pinnacle of their careers; it would be debatable whether they were both at the top of their games. Jay’s Blue-print 3 featured some tracks that define him as a recording artist in the wider cultural hori-zon (Empire State of Mind, Run This Town) it was a sprawling and,
NEW RELEASE: JAY-Z AND KANYE WEST COME
Diamonds up: Kanye West and Jay-Z
18 August 2011 GAZETTE 15
out regal new release TOGETHER TO PRODUCE OFFICIAL COLLABORATION ALBUM
Meanwhile, Kanye comes into this project on the back of one of the best records of the last decade, My Beauti-ful Dark Twisted Fan-tasy, that saw his imagi-nation as an artist and his production skills rise above any negative criticism thrown at him over recent years (“Even if it goes through Taylor Swift, tell her this”)
Watch The Throne, therefore, is an act of alchemy, the melting of minds and styles and skills to create some-thing more, but the same things said about the previous recordings by the pair ring true once again, still present
in the mix.It is an epically well-
produced record, taking some inspired samples (Otis Redding, Nina Simone, and the inevi-table James Brown) and beats to create another widescreen collage.
It’s a record so know-ing as to allow Kanye to drop in a Will Ferrell quote (“It doesn’t actu-ally mean anything, it’s provocative”) to lighten the tone with a self-deprecating moment, something Mr West would not previously be noted for.
But under the sur-face is the feeling that Kanye is the one push-ing the envelope, while Jay only sporadically provides the quality of
rhymes and verses that his long-time fans know he is capable of.
But when the fates conspire and the light hits the throne right, there are some mag-nificent moments here, and you remember why every release by the two kings remain an occa-sion deserving of a pub-lic holiday.
There are more ideas than only one record can contain, and that’s maybe why it feels as though there are bet-ter things to come. And the ongoing sense that when Jay-Z and Kanye West work togeth-er, something really inspired and historic will appear. Long may they reign.
The opulent cover of Watch the Throne, by Italian
designer Riccardo Tisci
Models Teo Sutra and Angelica Salomao were pictured indulging in Afternoon Tea with a stylish twist as Carton
House, one of Ireland’s most luxurious hotels, officially opened the doors of the most fashionable café in the
heart of Dublin – Browns Bar & Cafe by Carton House, which is housed within the iconic department store
A fabulous new cafe for Brown ThomasBROWNS Bar & Cafe by Car-ton House will be housed on the lower ground level of the Brown Thomas flagship store on Grafton Street.
Cathal Kavanagh, executive chef and creative mind in the kitchen at Carton House, has chosen a selection of some of the most popular and mouth-water-ing dishes from Carton House for the new menu, along with a wide range of coffees created by the Carton House barista.
The cafe will also sell products from the gourmet Carton House food range such as dressings, sauces and seasonal offerings, including Christmas and Valen-tine’s Day products.
The indulgent rest stop will offer visitors a selection of gourmet sandwiches, including Smoked Salmon Croque Mon-sieur, Rare Roast Irish Beef, Pear and Blue Cheese; a selection of salads, including Carton Cae-sar Salad and Seasonal Mixed Salad; Anti Pasti and Afternoon Tea by Carton House, including mini scones, finger sandwiches, fruit cake and pastries with clot-ted cream, a hot beverage of your choice and a glass of chilled champagne for €14.90 per per-son
It’sTreasure Island, but not as you know itFOR five fun-filled days from August 22 to August 26, Ballet Ireland’s Annual Summer School will be running workshops on art, mime and dance. This will lead to the main event on Friday, August 26, with their take on Robert Louis Stephenson’s classic, aptly renamed Treasure Island, The Bal-let! The performance takes place at the Pavilion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire at 4 pm.
The ballet will be a culmination of the efforts put in by two separate workshops, one for Dance and Art and the other for Arts and Craft, which will be running from Mon-day to Thursday of that week.
Ballet Ireland’s Annual Summer School is now into its 11th year and is open to all ages and competency levels. The company mounts two major new productions a year.
For more information on the workshop and performance, con-
tact the box office on 01-2312929 or visit www.paviliontheatre.ie.
Let’s hear it for our RoseDUBLIN is rooting for its very own Rose to do well in this year’s Rose of Tralee festival this weekend.
Clondalkin native, Siobheal Nic Eochaidh, was picked from hundreds to represent Dublin in the world-famous festival that is watched by nearly every household in Ireland every year, whether they like to admit it or not.
Her self-taught dance moves, and her bubbly personality bowled over the judges at the Dublin Regional finals recently and it is hoped that she can win over the festival judges again this weekend.
The festival begins this Friday, where Siobheal will take centre stage with 31 other international Roses from around the world in front of an audience of thousands. Siobheal will be joined by Darragh McGrath, who was deemed the 2011 Dublin Escort of Year.
Tune into RTE 1 on Monday, August 22 and Tuesday, August 23 for a live broadcast from the Festival Dome at 8pm and support our own Dublin Rose – Come on Siobheal!
DIARY
SNAPSHOT The stories of the day
Time for a spot of tea at Time for a spot of tea at Browns Bar and CafeBrowns Bar and Cafe
Disappointed with attitude of some dog owners
GazetteContactsBlock 3A, Mill Bank Business Park, Lucan Tel: 01 6010240 Fax: 01 6010251
I HAVE had two expe-riences recently, which made my regular Sunday
walk particularly unpleasant, a walk on which one, or both, of my grand-daughters frequently accompany me.
The first experience took place a few weeks ago when I chose to walk to the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire to enjoy the views of the north city and coastline. On approaching the pier, a sign, which is clearly displayed and mounted on the wall, informs peo-ple walking their dogs that they must keep their animals on a lead at all times. They are also advised to clean up after their pets or risk a fine, and possible prosecution, if they fail to do so.
Despite this, dog owners repeated-ly and blatantly ignore this law and, as a result, the pier has become an unpleasant place to walk. I believe this selfish disregard of the law by many dog owners, not all – I hasten to add – should be addressed by the authorities. In all the times I have walked on either of the piers, which is usually once a week, I have never once seen a warden or port official patrol the area.
The second experience I refer to is when I went walking recently through Killiney Hill Park, where the same problem exists. An even
higher number of dog owners let their pets loose here, where fouling on the paths and grass areas is very much in evidence, despite the fact that children run, play and roll in the grass. Again, despite visiting the park frequently, I have never seen a park warden on patrol.
The recent protests by Dogs Unleashed Group in Dun Laoghaire show how many dog owners think their animals should be treated like humans. Expecting them to be allowed run free in public seems to be acceptable to them, despite the fact it is against the law, outside the safe confines of the owner’s proper-ty. Most people like animals, to some degree, but a great many are nervous of dogs and should not be made to feel frightened or uncomfortable by such animals running loose in our parklands, beaches, open spaces or any public place.
I do agree that many more of the larger parks should follow the excel-lent example of Marley Park and Shanganagh Park and introduce dog pens. I have a lovely Labrador and use the dog pen in Marley Park and find it very successful. Also, the park is very well maintained, with regular patrols and enjoys a strict adherence to park laws, making it a pleasure to visit.
Name and Address with the Editor
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
18 August 2011 GAZETTE 17
GazettePETSPETSBrought to you by Miriam Kerins of
the DSPCA
THE FACTS: A POOR DIET AND LITTLE EXERCISE CAN PUT YOUR PET’S HEALTH AT RISK
Pets can pile on the pounds, but what may be the cause? You!W
OULD it sur-prise you to k n o w t h a t approximately
53% of cats, and 55% of dogs, are overweight?
Well, they are, accord-ing to the findings at the fourth annual Association for Pet Obesity Preven-tion (APOP) which, in my opinion, clearly suggests we’re placing our pets at a serious risk of dying early.
So, I hear you ask: “What constitutes an overweight animal?”
Overweight animals, or pet obesity, sees an excess of body fat that’s enough to impair the health, wel-fare and lifestyle of the animal.
To put it simply – and setting all lame excuses aside – your pet is taking in more calories than he requires, and any excess weight in an otherwise healthy animal is very likely to be due to overeat-ing.
When experts speak about humans being obese, they usually define it as being 20-25% above ideal body weight.
However, in animals, the degree of obesity that impairs health, welfare and quality of life has not been fully defined, and will vary from one indi-vidual animal to another, but it’s more likely to be similar to that seen in people.
Still, it must be stressed that obesity is a serious health issue in pets for several reasons:
• It causes suffering, and can be disabling for the animal.
• It can affect an ani-mal for a long period of its life.
• It’s preventable.What are the causes of
obesity?
The main reason is the type of food being fed to the animal. This is some-thing that’s controlled by you – the owner. If your dog eats too much and doesn’t exercise enough, he can become obese.
Let me explain a typical scenario. A lovely pet par-ent visits the clinic, and the dog is clearly over-weight, so I very politely and respectfully suggest that, err, perhaps Fido could do with losing a few pounds. Here are just some of the replies...“Ah, but you don’t
understand – he barks
all night if I don’t give
him his choccie bic-
cies.”
No, he barks all night because he’s copped on
that the more noise he makes, the more he gets attention.
You give in, and reward him with a biscuit. You’re training a beggar!“But he never eats
a thing, and I worry
about him, so I give him
some of my own din-
ner.”
He does eat; he’s just a grazer who goes back and forth to his food to nib-ble during the day. That’s normal.
However, when the humans eat, they feed him from the table, which fills him up, leaving no room for his dog food.
This means his total calorie intake is excessive, and now he’s a roly-poly! What are some of the
health risks of obesity?
• Diabetes mellitus, or sugar diabetes.
• Complaints in joints and bones.
• Heart disease.• Problems with breath-
ing. • Heat intolerance.• Surgical risk.• Risk giving birth.• Constipation. • Cancer.The link between obes-
ity and certain forms of cancer is unknown.
There have been studies suggesting that obese dogs tend to have an increased risk of developing certain types of cancers.
A recent study has found that dogs who are obese at one-year-old are at a greater risk of developing mammary tumours.
How do you tell if your
animal is obese?
Here are just a few tell-tale signs:
• Excessive panting, particularly in hot weath-er.
• Lagging behind dur-ing walks.
• Sluggish behaviour.• Reluctance to exercise,
resulting in fewer calories being used up, thus being stored as fat.
• No visible waist. When viewed from above, your pet should have slight curves; as in a gentle dip after the ribs, turning to a gradual slope to the hips.
If he hasn’t these curves, perhaps he’s over-weight.Steps in avoiding obes-
ity:
• Only offer food rec-ommended by your vet.
• Offer no snacks/scraps.
• Measure food intake carefully.
• Increase exercise; this is easier for dogs than cats. Put your cat’s food upstairs, thus encourag-ing her to walk up to get it; play with her more, and rotate her toys.
• Ensure everyone who plays a part in your pet’s life understands how important his health is.
Remember, these are only guidelines, and there are some diseases that can cause obesity in your pet – so, if in doubt, check with your vet.
For more information log onto www.dspca.ie or email me at [email protected]
Miriam warns that, in many cases, Fido’s obesity can be blamed on one thing – the
owner, who may be failing their pet’s care in a number of areas, from diet to exercise
‘Your pet is taking in more calories than he requires, and excess weight in an otherwise healthy animal is very likely to be due to overeating’- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
GazetteMOTORSMOTORS
SEAT is back in strength with new model designs that aim to boost
the company’s image. Seat is part of the
Volkswagen group so naturally we can expect lots of Volkswagen bits and performance from the new Seat range.
And that’s just what I found with the new Seat Alhambra that I’ve been driving. This is designed as a family MPV with seven seats and lots of comfort. The car has all of the VW bits under the skin in terms of things mechani-cal, while the Seat badge means that the price is more competitive.
Look closely and you’ll find that the body styling is also similar, more so than with the previous Alhambra models.
Seat provided me with the 2.0-litre, turbo-diesel, entry-level Reference
version for my test drive. While it sports the Seat badge front and rear, in every other sense it’s almost the identical in terms of dimensions to the related Volkswagen Sharan.
The test car came with seven-seat capacity. The third row of rear seats on the test car folded eas-ily out of use to give a big boot, five-seat car if needed. Seat also offers a
slightly cheaper five-seat version.
For the test car, the rear row of two seats was easy to use. I found that the seats folded into action in seconds and with ease. This rear space is adequate for children, not adults, while there is great room in the middle row for your bigger pas-sengers.
When the third row of seats is tucked away, the boot is very sizeable. You can pack loads in there, and the floor is level with the boot rim.
The new Alhambra is powered by a 2.0-litre Volkswagen turbo-diesel engine. This engine has some eco features to allow it to compete in fuel econ-omy with the Volkswagen Sharan, which has similar Blue Motion technology.
These features include stop-start systems, gear selection indicator and
low-rolling resistance tyres.
In power terms, this 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine produces 140bhp and 320Nm of torque. That’s a perfect match for the performance of the Volkswagen Sharan. It’s also a match for Ford’s Galaxy when fitted with a similar size engine.
The Sharan is margin-ally more economical than the Seat; you’ll get an extra kilometre for your litre of diesel, while the Galaxy is, economy, similar to the Alhambra. All three use six-speed gearboxes which, on the Alhambra, was very smooth to use.
I found the Alhambra an easy car to drive as I quickly got used to the electronic handbrake and stop-start system. That economy perform-ance was almost matched with my driving style, so I
came close to the official figure of 17.8 km/litre (5.6 l/100km).
I covered over 900km on the test drive and there was enough fuel to bring that nearer to 1,000km before a re-fill of the 70-litre fuel tank. The safety fittings are a match for the competition with seven airbags, iso-fix seating in the rear and a recent Euro NCAP crash test rating of five-stars.
The car comes with a Volkswagen-type car computer system that’s easy to use and under-stand. The radio is also clearer than that fitted to other Seat models, which is a welcome change.
Because of the brand relationships you just have to compare the Alhambra to the Volkswagen Sharan because it simply offers more value.
Volkswagen re-sale prices are still holding up
higher than those of Seat and that alone may be a factor that’s putting some buyers off the Seat brand. The features and the equipment levels on the new Alhambra model will change that a little.
At €38,130 before deliv-ery charges, the entry price for the Alhambra is nearly €4,000 cheaper than the Volkswagen Sharan and almost €4,500 cheaper than the equivalent Ford Galaxy, with equal driving performance and some additional features.
On the figures, the Seat deal may well be more competitive than either Volkswagen’s or Ford’s where you pay that bit more for the brand image. That means that you’ve a little more room for a lower valuation when the trade-in day looms in the future. In the meantime you’ll be impressed with what’s on offer from Seat.
New Seat Alhambra arrivesSeat’s new Alhambra MPV is a big family car with a similar design and almost identical fittings to the Volkswagen Sharan. The entry price for the seven-seat version is
more competitive at €38,130 before delivery charges
CRASH avoidance technology is noth-ing new. Car manufacturers, such as Mercedes-Benz and Volvo, have already implemented collision-avoidance sys-tems on select vehicles, such as the sys-tem used on the new Volvo XC60.
Toyota is the latest company to
announce a new offering along these lines. Unlike the others, Toyota is devel-oping technology that will both slow the car and steer it away from an impact with another vehicle or pedestrian.
Toyota’s system claims to use both cameras and sensitive “millimetre-wave”
radar to detect objects in the vehicle’s path. It then calculates the amount of both braking and steering necessary to avoid a collision. If steering away from a pending crash is an option, the system takes control of the vehicle’s steering and executes an avoidance manoeuvre.
Toyota has defined an idealised goal of zero injuries and zero fatalities. Other safety systems under development at Toyota include a pop-up hood, and shaded high-beams, which reduce glare from high-beam lights for oncoming traffic.
Toyota develops its own crash avoidance technology
5-Star (2010) Warranty: 2 years Entry Price: €38,130
SPECS: SEAT ALHAMBRA
Seat has upgraded its range with the new Alhambra model, which MICHAEL MORONEY took for a drive
18 GAZETTE 18 August 2011
DEALERS CLAIM CHAIRMAN’S AWARDS: DUB-LIN Ford Dealers, Ashley Ford, North Circular Road and Finglas Ford have both claimed prestig-ious Ford of Europe Chairman’s Awards.
Ashley picked up the award for its out-standing customer service last year whilst Finglas Ford collected their award for parts sales and aftersales performance.
The Ford of Europe Chairman’s Award programme is based on direct feedback from customers who have purchased a vehicle from the deal-ership and is in rec-ognition of a dealer’s performance in meet-ing those customers’ expectations.
Extensive research has been carried out by Ford in assessing these expectations and providing guide-lines to dealers to satisfy them.
RoadRoadSignsSigns
18 August 2011 GAZETTE 19
OPEL IS NOT FOR SALE, SAYS GM CHIEF: GENERAL MOTORS CEO, Daniel Akerson, has weighed in strong-ly to say that Opel, its European business, is not for sale.
Speculation about Opel’s future was mooted back in June by German media as they reported that Opel could be sold and that possible buyers included Chi-nese automakers or Volkswagen.
I n 2 0 0 9 , G M dropped plans to sell Opel to the Cana-dian Magna Interna-
tional after months of negotiations. GM stopped the sale of its Opel brand in 2009, and it has been rumoured that some GM management had concerns Russian car companies would gain access to Opel’s tech-nology and patents.
Since then GM has launched a restruc-turing Opel, which lost $1.6 billion last year and brought it back on track.
GM Europe posted a profit in the first quarter and the com-pany claims that Opel had gained market share this year.
RoadRoadSignsSignsNew Honda CR-V – a first lookHONDA has the first photographs of the new CR-V Concept, providing the first official glimpse of styling direction. The new, fourth-generation CR-V is set to go on sale in the United States by the end of 2011, and in Europe in autumn 2012.
The new CR-V Concept embraces a new styling direction. Compared to the previous generation, the concept-model Honda claims that the new model takes on a more aggressive stance, with deeper sculpting of the body lines and a bolder front fascia. The lower front bumper wraps smartly upward to convey SUV capability. The overall, lower front-bumper design now integrates more smoothly into the fascia for improved aerodynamics. The CR-V’s vertical tail lights remain for the next model with a more three-dimensional style that wraps further into the design of the vehicle. Honda claims that the new CR-V will be equipped with more efficient engines compared to the current model. The new CR-V is expected to deliver a significant improvement in fuel economy.
The CR-V is one of the top-selling SUVs, sold in more than 160 countries throughout Europe, Asia, North America, South America and Africa.
The new Honda CR-V Concept will be on first
public display in California next month and will be
on sale in Ireland during 2012
The new-look 2012 Toyota Hilux will go on sale in Ireland towards the end of the year
Hilux builds strength with new design
CASSETTE tapes that once revo-lutionised in-car audio entertain-ment were driven out of the dash-board by the compact disc revo-lution. Now in-car CD players are poised to follow a similar path as Ford and other car companies respond to customer demand for all-digital systems with increased connectivity.
With the new Ford Focus, Ford has scrapped once-popular multi-disc CD changers, while a USB connection and Bluetooth are standard equipment in the UK – both of which cater to the increasing popularity of iPods
and other digital music players.Music industry studies show
that sales of CD albums have fallen by more than 35% between 2006 and 2010, while the number of digital album sales increased more than seven-fold.
As music-lovers relocate their CD catalogues to digital storage and move to digital download purchasing of music, Ford plans a targeted move towards “all-dig-ital” in-car entertainment.
Across Europe, Ford currently offers USB and Bluetooth audio connectivity, as well as auxiliary inputs for MP3 devices, to sup-
plement the existing CD player. But as CD usage becomes less prevalent, these digital devices will become the norm.
“Ford will obviously continue to offer CD players while there is demand,” said Ralf Brosig, multimedia manager, Ford of Europe. “However, over time we expect customer preferences will lead us quickly into an all-digital approach to in-car audio enter-tainment.”
Ford will take a big step for-ward with the arrival of the advanced SYNC with MyFord Touch system in Europe, arriving
first in the Ford Focus.The system will cater directly to
the demands of Ford’s tech-savvy customers, offering a sophisticat-ed multimedia infotainment hub providing connectivity options, including multiple USB inputs, SD card ports, RCA inputs and Bluetooth connectivity.
The system also will act as a password-protected wireless hotspot for up to five devices, providing connectivity through USB or mobile phone broadband modems. Ford expects two mil-lion SYNC equipped vehicles to be on the road by 2015.
Fords moves to digital as CD sales drop
TOYOTA’S “inde-structible” Hilux has been given a
new look and some addi-tional hi-tech features for 2012.
The pick-up has been given a re-style from the A-pillar forwards, with a new bonnet, radiator grille, headlamps and bumper, plus new wheel designs and new side bars and steps for the top-of-the-range Hilux models.
The interior has been given a new look, too, with new upper dash-
board design and hori-zontal instrument clus-ter that emphasise the breadth and roominess of the cabin.
The revised lay-out incorporates the new Toyota Touch multime-dia unit with a full colour 6.1-inch touchscreen. The Touch package, fit-ted as standard to the high-end models, also includes Bluetooth and a USB port for connecting digital music players.
The quality feel of the cabin has been improved with new, uniform dark
finishes and new chrome surround for the instru-ment binnacle on the Invincible.
The 2012 Hilux car-ries forward its current engines, the 142bhp 2.5-D-4D and 169bhp 3.0-D-4D units, but these now comply with the Euro 5 light commercial vehicle emissions stand-ards ahead of their intro-duction at the beginning of next year, thanks to the adoption of a diesel particulate filter (DPF).
With these engine changes the CO2 emis-
sions for the 2.5 D-4D (Double Cab) have been cut by more than 10% to 194g/km, becoming best in class, and combined fuel consumption has also improved by more than 10% to 13.7km/litre (38.7mpg).
The emissions figure for the 3.0-litre D-4D Double Cab automatic has fallen to 227g/km and the manual to 203g/km. Combined fuel consumption figures are improved from 31.7 to 32.8mpg and 34.0 to 36.7mpg respectively.
The standard five-speed manual transmis-sion and the optional five-speed automatic for the 3.0-litre D-4D engine, exclusive to the Invinci-ble, are also retained.
From launch, Hilux will be available with a comprehensive choice of accessory packs to tai-lor the vehicle to suit the needs of both business users and those owners who need to use Hilux for more everyday driv-ing duties, or want to give their vehicle an extra dash of style.
‘If you bought your property after 1st January 2004 and up to 31st December 2011, you are entitled to TRS on mortgage interest paid up to €10,000 per annum for single people, and €20,000 for married couples. By 1st January, 2013, all mortgage relief will be withdraw’- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
18 August 2011 GAZETTE 21
New look for Argos to mark 15 years
MIMI MURRAY
ARGOS has launched 21 revamped stores through-out Ireland this month as part of a €4 million refur-bishment and develop-ment project.
The new layout and format was unveiled on August 6 in 21 stores across the country.
Celebrating 15 years in Ireland and securing more than 1,300 jobs, the refurbishment of the stores comes at an excit-ing time for Argos as they enjoy the 15-year mile-stone, while continuously updating their services, stores and catalogue to ensure customers have a satisfying shopping expe-rience.
Speaking about the launch, Alison Evans, Argos Regional General Manager for Ireland, said: “This extensive refurbish-ment shows that Argos is
committed to developing and improving its stores in Ireland.
“We are dedicated to continuing our invest-ment in Ireland, and increasing the number of stores across the coun-try, in order to give our customers more choice, value and convenience when shopping.”
The refurbished stores include a new format with updated jewellery and watch galleries, allowing customers to try on items before pur-chasing.
New dedicated tech-nology display areas showcasing cameras, video cameras, plasma TVs, mobile phones and satellite navigation sys-tems will also give cus-tomers a chance to view and handle technology products before purchas-ing.
Each store has benefit-
REVAMP: TOP STORE RINGS THE CHANGES
Models Pippa O’Connor and Rosanna Davison unveil the newly-designed Argos
store in St Stephen’s Green as part of the company’s €4 million revamp
ed from new lighting and eye-catching displays, giving them a more con-temporary look.
New state-of-the-art touchscreen browsers have been installed in each store, enabling cus-tomers to browse and search easily for items to buy.
All of the stores have new quick pay kiosks, where customers have the option to pay for their items electronically rath-
er than queuing up for a cashier.
“Our new-look stores have a fresher, more contemporar y fee l , which we hope our cus-tomers will enjoy, and the new facilities such as the computer systems and payment kiosks, will make their shopping experience much easier and more convenient,” Evans said.
To celebrate Argos being in Ireland for 15
years, every month from August 2011 through to January 2012, Argos is giving Irish consumers the opportunity to win €1,500 of Argos vouch-ers to spend on whatever they want.
The competition went live at midnight on July 30 and to enter all you have to do is go online at www.argos.ie/15years .
For more information on Argos, please visit www.argos.ie
HARVEY Norman has revealed that worldwide sales from its Australian, New Zealand, Slov-enian, Irish and Northern Irish businesses totalled a whopping €4.45 billion for the 12 months to June 30, 2011.
The company said that, when compared to sales for the same period in 2009, this was an increase of 1.7 per cent.
The Republic of Ireland operation managed to stabi-lise sales with only a slight decrease of 0.2 per cent for the same period, while sales in Northern Ireland increased by
3.2 per cent. Both Irish divisions grew
sales for the second half against last year, with the Republic of Ireland operation growing sales in quarter three by 1.9 per cent and quarter four by 4.6 per cent.
“It was really a year of two halves for us, with sales flat before Christmas, and then some encouraging growth in the six months to June,” said Blaine Callard, chief executive of the Irish operation.
“Consumer sentiment con-tinues to be very weak, and
shows no signs of recovering soon.
“Big ticket retail sales in furniture and electronics have been hit the hardest, so it’s about getting a bigger slice of a smaller pie.
“We will continue to improve our operation, investing in our people, our service and our stores.
“The strategy for us is to focus on growing market-share. Revenue growth in the second half is very positive for us against such a difficult eco-nomic backdrop,” he added.
Harvey Norman takes in almost €4.5bn
On the mend: Harvey Norman
has stabilised its Irish interests
No. 1 Pery Square was launched two and a half years ago and is in a quiet area of Limer-ick beside the People’s Park.
A stylish old Geor-gian building, it houses a restaurant, an under-ground spa, a bar and is all very compact.
After a quick drink we headed out towards O’Connell St and our destination that night, the Corn Store.
This was a real find, with some delicious seafood on the menu.
After dinner we were happy to discover there was a live jazz band set up to play for the rest of the evening.
We fell in with a fun crowd who took us on a tour of some of Lim-erick’s choice venues, including The Sin Bin, where we danced the night away to some sus-pect 90’s music.
One thing I will say about Limerick – eve-ryone is exceptionally friendly and helpful, and, at one point when we appeared a little lost, a very nice young lady offered us direc-tions without us having to ask.
The following day the underground spa allowed us to rejuvenate and our weary bones and feet that had taken a battering the night before got some much needed pampering.
Next it was off to pic-turesque Adare, which really is worth a look.
It has some stunning boutiques offering top-end designer labels. Many are perfect for bridal and mother-of the-bride outfits.
We spied a wedding about to take place at the stunning local church and waited around to see the bride step from her vintage car and wave at the gathering crowds.
After gorging on all things bridal we headed back to the city for din-ner.
The restaurant staff were very well versed in Brasserie One and
our friendly waiter rec-ommended a bottle of Slovenian wine, which was perfect on a sunny summer’s day.
The menu was slight-ly wintry for the time of year but was tasty none-theless.
B e e f c h e e k a n d
Onglet steak were inter-esting, as was the pork belly.
There was one fish dish but more could be added and, having dined on hake the night before, I didn’t want to go for the same again.
The Milk Market is worth a look on Satur-day and Sunday morn-ings and all the locals gather to catch up over coffee and peruse the many stalls on offer.
So, back to that bad rap: Limerick is a cool city with plenty of inter-esting people and is def-initely worth a look.
Limerick’s hidden treasures and lovely people make it a cool trip
MIMI MURRAY
LIMERICK, bless it, gets a bad rap. Howev-er, when asked to sam-ple the county recently I jumped at the chance, having never been and being easily accessible from Dublin, we headed off on a Friday evening.
We were eager to sample both a country and city location and decided to stay in the Mustard Seed at Echo Lodge which is just past the quaint village of Adare.
The place is a charm-ing old country house painted in deep, rich colours and is kitted out with comfy antique furniture.
The staff couldn’t be friendlier and on arrival the owner, Dan, gave us a warm welcome.
We ate in the charm-ing dining room that evening, which was quite busy.
Our French waiter was attentive and we thoroughly enjoyed the fresh country kitchen cuisine, much of it com-ing from the garden that morning.
The next day, after a comfortable night’s sleep, I was treated to a Thai massage.
Having been to Thai-land recently I know only too well the merits of this type of massage if done right, and this one didn’t disappoint.
I was lef t feel ing relaxed and rejuvenated as we set off for Limer-ick city.
‘No. 1 Pery Square was launched two and a half years ago and is in a quiet area of Limerick beside the People’s Park. A stylish old Georgian building, it houses a restaurant, an underground spa, a bar and is all very compact ’--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FastTravel
GazetteTTRAVELRAVEL
60th anniversary of The Quiet Man honoured at Ashford CastleIN 1951, John Ford’s greatest movie; The Quiet Man starring John Wayne and Irish-born actress Maureen O’Hara, was made in the beautiful landscape of the west of Ireland. John Ford’s award-winning comedy has been both reviled and celebrated for its larger-than-life portrayal of Ireland. The Quiet Man outdoor scenes were shot in various locations in coun-ties Galway and Mayo - mainly around the scenic Maam Valley on the shores of Lough Corrib, Ashford Castle and the nearby village of Cong.
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the making of the movie, the five-star Ashford Cas-tle Hotel is offering two unique and luxurious Quiet Man packages, which will be available until September 30, 2011.
Package one consists of two nights accom-modation in a Corrib View room; full Irish breakfast for two people each morning; five-course dinner for two people in the George V on one evening; one-hour tour by Gerry Collins visiting five local sites that were featured in the film in the village of Cong; entry into the Quiet Man Museum in the village of Cong. It also includes dressing up in the costumes in the Museum and allowing pictures to be taken. This package costs €415 per person.
Package two consists of two nights accom-modation in a Corrib View room; full Irish breakfast for two people each morning; five-course dinner for two people in the George V on one evening; half-day tour visiting most of the locations used in the film capturing the splendour of Connemara, Galway and Mayo. This costs €500 per person. For reservations contact 094 954 6003/ www.ashford.ie
22 GAZETTE 18 August 2011
Above and below; images from Echo Lodge
Pery square, Below, right: The hotel’s underground spa
Beaches by day and nightlife provide fun and sun in equal measureIT HAS great beaches by day and great action by night. Tenerife’s Playa de las Americas is rightly famed as an all-round attraction for holiday-makers seeking sun and fun in equal measure. For those itching to get away this month, Direct Holidays has online offers from just €469.
All-inclusive packages, with meals, drinks and entertainment, includ-ed in the price, are flavour of the season this year, and the 3-star Playa Olid in Costa Adeje, with its multiple swimming pools and bars, is a real bargain at just €569 per person for seven nights departing Dublin on August 20.
Playa Fanabe, close to the exclusive Playa del Duque, offers a relax-ing stay but with a great choice of restaurants and nightclubs. Alongside its great location, the 4-star Sunwing Resort Fanabe features exciting shows several nights a week. Departing August 20, Direct Holidays are offering seven nights at the resort for just €469 per person on a self-catering basis. All prices are based on two sharing.
Packages or flight-only holiday deals this
month along Bulgaria’s stunning coastlineBULGARIA’S Sunny Beach resort on the stunning Black Sea is famous for its beautiful beaches, sunny climate and safe, warm sea.
Concorde Travel are currently offering package holidays or flight only deals at great prices.
Concorde Travel Self Catering Packages at the 3-star Golden Dreams Apartments start from €385 based on six sharing a two-bedroom apart-ment; €399 based on four sharing a one-bedroom apartment and €494 based on two sharing a studio apartment.
Hotel prices start from €564 in the 3-star Grand Hotel Sunny Beach on a B and B basis. Packages include return flights, transfers, seven nights accommodation, rep services and all taxes and charges. Flights operate every Monday from Dublin and Cork. Visit www.concordetrav-el.ie for more details.
Cyprus calling for sun and relaxationESCAPE to the stunning birthplace of Aphrodite, the ancient goddess of love this August.
Concorde Travel has the ultimate romantic escape to Paphos in Cyprus. The beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site combines historical sites with the warmth of the Mediterranean Sea where relaxing and sunbathing will be an unforgettable experience.
Stay at the 4-star Hotel Avanti on a B and B basis from only €699pp, which has been reduced from €974pp.
Package includes direct flights from Dublin to Larnaca, return transfers to the Hotel, rep assistance and seven nights accommodation on a BB basis, based on two sharing. Visit www.concordetravel.ie for more details.
BeachTravel
Edited by
Mimi Murray
18 August 2011 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 23
The perfect sun getaway awaits in Tenerife
24 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 18 August 2011
GazetteENTERTAINMENTENTERTAINMENT
Some japes with apesAs suitably bananas as anything Hollywood usually reheats,
this franchise reboot looks to ape the success of its forebears KATE CROWLEY
WITH serendiptous tim-ing – or perhaps with one film seeking to ape the likely success of another – there are not one, but two films starring our simian sidekicks on release this week.
One is a fascinating glimpse at the efforts to humanise a monkey, in a documentary about a half-forgotten project, while the other is a glimpse at how the worm could turn and enslave us all.
By “worm” I mean “monkey”, of course, as Rise of the Planet of the Worms sounds rather less menacing than Rise of the Planet of the Apes – which comprises most of this week’s review.
First, as an entree, it’s worth mentioning Project Nim; a new documentary about Nim Chimpsky – a chimpanzee raised from birth with humans, and which was studied exten-sively (in controversial
circumstances) to see if he could learn language skills, thus shedding light on how humans develop language and rationalisa-tion abilities.
The late Nim, who died in 2000, would possibly conclude that humans are all bananas, on the basis of this fascinat-ing film, which is more a study of human ambition and vanities than about whether well-meaning projects with chimpan-zees are doomed.
Then again, I imag-ine that “bananas” was rarely far from Nim’s mind, much as “bananas”
comes to the forefront when faced with Rise of the Planet of the Apes – yet another Hollywood re-imagining and reboot of an old franchise.
Will Rodman (James Franco) is a well-meaning research scientist working away in San Francisco on developing a cure for Alzheimer’s, with the lab performing tests on lots and lots of monkeys, or one species or another.
An exc i t ing new “cure” – which I’ll call the McGuffin – is given to an ordinary chimpan-zee, called Caesar (Andy Serkis), whose mental
powers begin to rapidly accelerate and develop.
Caesar’s growing intel-ligence is a marvel – and a menace, as the McGuffin has given him The Smarts to realise that – wait a minute – all the humans want to do is monkey around with him and his kind, with a nice little trip to the Dissection and Autopsy labs awaiting him, down the road.
Caesar’s new-found self-awareness, and his realisation that he, and the other test subjects, serve only to serve the humans’ experimentation needs, lead him to rebel against his role.
Will believes that the McGuffin is of enormous importance, and that it’s the breakthrough that the lab have been looking for – but he’s deeply troubled by the ethical questions and consequences of their playing God in this way.
However, all hail Cae-sar – as the chimpanzee follows the well-worn
phrase of monkey see, monkey do.
He decides to put the boot on the other paw, spreads the McGuffin to many of his peers, and, suddenly, instead of there being just one smart ape, there’s an army of fast and angry apes going bananas in San Franciso.
Banana skins or not, it’s possible that human-ity faces a slippery slope, with an ape army on the loose. But what can a bunch of not-so-dumb apes really do? (Hint: what’s the name of the film, folks?)
Held back as a summer blockbuster, it’s likely to do swingingly well at the box office, despite being a little more thoughtful than Transformers, et al.
Not quite as ridiculous-ly entertaining as Troy McClure’s showboating role in the musical, Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want to Get Off!, it’s the best film about monkeys around, bar one.
All hail Caesar (a motion-captured Andy Serkis), a chimpanzee given a giant intelligence boost by well-meaning scientists looking for a
cure for Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately, Caesar’s new-found self-awareness will lead him to spark a rebellion against humans ...
FILM OF THE WEEK: Rise of the Planet of the
Apes (12A) 106 mins
OUR VERDICT:THOSE looking for one smart monkey would do well to catch up with a fascinating documentary, Project Nim. However, the big release offers an interesting version of how the well-known film franchise’s back-story could have started out, telling of how the first apes came to rise up against Man. So, your box office choice is: a cute chimp in a red jumper, or angry apes out to seize the planet. Over to you ...
Director: Rupert WyattStarring: James Franco, Andy Serkis, Tom Felton, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, one smart monkey
GoingOUTGoingOUTPAVILION THEATRE 01 231 2929Treasure Island
BALLET Ireland’s annual summer school sets sail for the Pavilion Theatre with a twist on the classic tale of Treasure Island, which will be presented by the participants of the summer school.
Four highly-skilled dancers from Ballet Ireland’s core company will lead the participants, preparing and training everyone for the grand finale. Running from Monday, August 22 to Friday, August 26, the week-long course costs €90. For full details, see www.paviliontheatre.ie
THE HELIX 01 700 7000Panto Camp
A WEEK-long course for children aged from 6 to 13 will give children a wonderful experience to remember, as they all have the chance to work with the production team to participate in the Christmas panto production of Aladdin, which will run during the Christmas period.
With a choice of two week-long panto camps to take part in, there’s something for all children to enjoy. Running from 10 am to 2.30pm daily, the course costs €120. For full details, see www.thehelix.ie.
Summer Films
AS PART of its summer season of family films, The Helix has a number of favourites for all to enjoy. Running at 2pm, and priced €6, €4 conc, or €20 season ticket (phone booking only), James and the Giant Peach plays on Saturday, August 20; Matilda on Wednesday, August 24; Fantastic Mr Fox on Saturday, August 27; and Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory on September 3.
18 August 2011 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 25
ENTERTAINMENT
ADAM MAGUIRE
ONLY a few years ago, a fierce battle raged between two new video formats, both of which were vying to replace the DVD.
Both offered better quality video and audio, more flexibility and plen-ty more space; eventually, Blu Ray won out.
However, since it became the de facto next generation of video for-mats in early 2008, the format has struggled to really gain a foothold in the market.
This is despite the cost of Blu Ray players and discs plummeting in the past few years, and despite the migration of viewers to high-defini-tion TV sets that suit the format perfectly.
So, what barrier has
impeded the brand’s march to dominance?
To some degree, people were put off investing in Blu Ray because they were only just getting over the switch from V H S t o DVD; the prospect of another e x p e n s i ve upgrade was more than a little unpalatable.
However, the real rea-son for the slow growth of the Blu Ray has been the hesitance of the early adopters – those who buy
into technology before it goes mainstream.
For them, technology has moved passed the disc format, and there is no reason for them to invest in equipment that they no longer need. They have gone the digital download route instead.
What made this pos-sible was a perfect storm
of ele-ments; hard drives have got bigger and cheaper, internet connections have got faster, and the computer has become a part of the sitting room,
instead of the bedroom.Just as the iPod made
CDs less necessary, the vast improvement in computer technology is making the DVD (or Blu Ray, as the case may be) redundant.
Companies such as Apple have seen the way the wind is blowing. A few years ago, they released
the MacBook Air; a super-slim,
super-light laptop with
no d i sc drive.
L a s t w e e k , t h e y
released a new version of their Mac Mini desktop, one that dropped the disc drive, too.
They also made the lat-est version of their oper-ating system (reviewed
below) download-only, meaning you could not buy a disc version of it, even if you wanted to.
The attraction for com-panies such as Apple to do this is obvious. They now have tighter control on software, so it is hard-er to pirate, and they do not have to waste money printing and distributing discs to send out to shops around the world.
For the user, it also makes sense – it is quick-er, less messy and often cheaper than physical discs.
However, there are downsides, and we are likely to hear plenty about how having a dig-ital film is not the same as a physical one.
That said, this is the way the trend is going, and it is only a matter of time before people will
have to go out of their way to find a computer with a disc drive.
Mac IS X Lion
THE latest release of Apple’s OS X – the oper-ating system used on Mac computers – show a company clearly trying to blend its desktops and laptops with the iPad.
Following the big cat theme of previous OS X releases, this latest ver-sion is called Lion, and is arguably the most blatant upgrade from the compa-ny in a long time.
Many new features are now in place, includ-ing Mission Control and LaunchPad, which make it easier to see what is running and open to applications respectively.
The latter is effectively
the same as the iPad and iPhone home screen, and there is no doubt that Apple has applied a lot of its learning from those devices here.
If you are not used to gestures, this can take a bit of getting used to, but in many ways it can be handy.
Overall, the same can be said for Lion – it has plenty to like, but a lot of things that existing and even new Mac users may feel uneasy about.
Expect some of these creases to be ironed out when the first tweak is released in the weeks ahead.
Mac OS X Lion is available on the Mac App Store, for €24.
Visit teic.ie for the lat-est tech news, reviews and views.
The physical disc’s long, slow death
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PET MINDERSSafe, Cosy, Pet Boarding. 5 minutes from Castleknock,Blanchardstown, Lucan.Call now for early booking.Call 086 8126387/01 8223690. Reasonable rates.
FINGAL COUNTY COUNCIL
Permission sought for a detached, two bedroom, single storey dwelling plus attic conversion for habit-able accommodation to the side garden area, velux windows to the front and side, off street parking for 1 car for the new house and 2 cars for the existing house, new relocated 2m high boundary wall to side and associated site works at 154 Briarwood Avenue, Mulhuddart, Dublin 15. For Ian Farrell. This plan-ning application may be inspected or purchased at a fee not exceeding the reasonable cost of making a copy at the offices of the planning authority during its public opening hours and a submission or obser-vation may be made to the authority in writing on payment of the prescribed fee (20 Euros) within the period of 5 weeks beginning on the date of receipt by the authority of this application.
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FINGAL COUNTY COUNCIL
Permission sought for retention of the following items: (A) Fire escape stair-well from first floor area to rear, (B) additional disabil-ity access doorway from café area to the side and (C) additional single storey floor space with retail use to rear of building all at St. Brigid’s Cottages Shop-ping Centre, Main Street, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, For Patrick Molloy. This planning application may be inspected or purchased at a fee not exceeding the reasonable cost of making a copy at the offices of the planning authority during its public opening hours and a submission or obser-vation may be made to the authority in writing on payment of the prescribed fee (20 Euros) within the period of 5 weeks beginning on the date of receipt by the author-ity of this application.
PLANNING NOTICE
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18 August 2011 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 27
GazetteSportSport
28 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 18 August 2011
Coolmine TagEnd of the summer of rugby fun
Daff Taggers team were all smiles
THE Coolmine-organised summer of tag rugby came to an end recently when the final of the competition was held in
Barnhall’s Parsonstown grounds. Fifty teams from all over the country took part in the one-day competition. This year, three teams from Coolmine RFC were invited to play in this prestigious competition, Super Injunction, 3 Girls 1 Tag and Odd Shaped Balls. Each side played exceptionally well, with Odd Shaped Balls reaching the final of the Bowl competition.
Doyler’s Dreamboats in action
3 Girls 1 Tag
Odd Shaped Balls reach the final of the Bowl competition but they lost to Raging Hormones
Mary Callaghan heads for the linePaypal untouchable in attack
Super Injunction were not to be put under wraps Aoife of Odd Shaped Balls
in association with
18 August 2011 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 29
Local triathlete Irene Walsh on her way to victory in the Focus Ireland triathlon in Dun Laoghaire
THE Borough of Dun Laoghaire Kingstown was once again host to this year’s Focus Ire-land sprint Triathlon last week.
Local lady Irene Walsh stormed home to take the women’s title for the third time in four years, just missing out on the tri hat-trick last year by coming in second place.
Having undertaken her first Ironman in 1989 in a time just over 14 hours, she is one of Ireland’s longest-competing female athletes, well known and respected by her peers.
Her winning time of
1:14:25 secured her top spot on the podium, along with the male top performers from Pulse Tri, who put on an impressive show.
King for the day was John Connolly with a win-ning time of 1:06:39. The shorter tri distance male and female event was won by Brian McCann, in 1:16:05, and Alexandra Birney in 1:15:21 respec-tively.
The early start for vol-unteers, marshals and the 200 competitors was taken in good spirits. Accord-ing to Joyce Loughnan of Focus Ireland, “91 cent in every €1 goes towards providing core services
for the homeless charity. The triathlon event alone has raised over €490,000 since 2005, with a target of €100,000 for 2011.”
The multi-sport event of swimming, cycling and running attracts many new competitors, as well as experienced athletes and weekend warriors, training up for more chal-lenging events later on in the season.
After a quick bike check by local husband and wife team, Eddie and Monica Roe, of Mike’s Bikes, the first wave set off at 8.15am.
The swim conditions for the 350m or 750m distances in the East Pier
were close to ideal with, a bit of a pull needed on the way out, and somewhat easier on the turnaround.
The closed road and no drafting on the bikes made it safe and achieva-ble for all levels, while the two loop run of the pier made perfect viewing for the many spectators who had gathered to join in the atmosphere and cheer home the entrants.
The cost of hosting the event is made possible by donations from the main sponsor, KBC Bank, pro-motion through Q102 and the participants, who raise sponsorship and train to compete in the event.
TRIATHLON: CHARITY RACE SEES LOCAL WINNER
STARof theMONTHSHEENA MCELROY
GRANGE golf club’s Sheena McElroy
secured her third Irish senior title
at Adare Manor when she defeated
Pauline Walsh in the final of the
national event, another accolade in
what has already been a success-
ful year, continuing to underline her
dominance of this event in recent
years by closing out the match on
the 13th green. This win came on the
back of her international success
earlier in the year.
AUTUMN has more than arrived, well ahead of schedule, and the sporting success of our teams and individuals continues to impress.
Sheena McElroy continued the form that saw her lead the Irish Sen-iors Team at the European Senior Team Championships in Berlin last August and winning the Portuguese Senior Ladies’ Golf Competition at Vilamoura in the Algarve in January, with her success in the Irish senior competition.
Insaka FC are attracting to soccer children from all sorts of different backgrounds, building a capacity for integration. Their coach said: “We
can encourage them to go on and join clubs in their locality, like Hart-stown or Corduff. They develop their skills through us and then go off to play for the local clubs.”
Let us know!Let us know about your achieve-
ments in sport, so that the Gazette can tell the rest of Dublin — and give you, or your team, a chance of being one of our monthly stars.
Contact us on 01 601 0240 or [email protected] to tell us all about your successes, and follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/gazettesport.
INSAKA FC
THE fledgling club’s
maiden double arrived in
style when they claimed
the Ronnie Bradshaw Cup
and U-18 NDSL Premier
titles this season, vin-
dication of the manage-
ment’s faith in their
abilities and commit-
ment to soccer, moulding
Blanchardstown-based players from Angola, Congo, South Africa,
Nigeria, Poland, Romania and Serbia into a cohesive unit.
TEAMof theMONTH
U C D A F C h a v e announced recently that they will host two friend-ly matches at the Belfield Bowl against Scotland’s St Johnstone FC on July 10, and Spain’s Villarreal CF on July 16.
St Johnstone finished eighth in the SLP last season, and have a long tradition in Scottish football. Former players include Sir Alex Ferguson and Ally McCoist.
Villarreal finished fourth in last seasons La Liga and so are qualifiers for next season’s Cham-pions League. As well as this, they have a wide range of talented foot-ballers at their disposal with Barcelona target and former Manchester United player, Giuseppe Rossi, on the top of the list.
GazetteSport and UCD are giving lucky
readers the chance to win pairs of tickets to these matches.
Simply answer the fol-lowing question:
Where was Villarreal striker Guiseppe Rossi born?
Send your answer, together with your name, address and mobile phone number, to [email protected], with “UCD Friendlies” in the subject line of the mail.
Win tickets to see UCD in friendlies
UCD’s Robbie Benson
Big winner: Hession reward for performanceATHLETE Paul Hession of Athenry Athletic Club is presented with a cheque after the best perform-ance of the weekend at the Woodie’s DIY AAI Senior Track and Field Championships at Mor-ton Stadium, Santry.
Picture credit: Pat Murphy / SPORTSFILE
2011 DUBLIN SPORTS AWARDS JULY WINNERS
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
GazetteSportSport
30 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 18 August 2011
Home and away: Castleknock Under-11s tripCASTLEKNOCK GAA club arranged their own Trip to Tipp recently to see Dublin’s hurlers beat Limerick in Semple Stadium, meeting a few friends along the way. Fifty-five club members travelled to Tipperary and played a friendly match against local team, Upperchurch-Drombane GAA club near Thurles. The Tipperary side visited Somerton last weekend for the rematch as Tipp travelled to Croke Park to take on Dublin.
A LEINSTER side featur-ing four North Dublin Eagles’ players claimed the province’s first ever interprovincial success, wrestling the title from Munster in Limerick last week.
Conor McNally put in a player-of-the-match performance, and he was joined in the panel by clubmates Peter Carr, Mick Fitzmaurice and Stephen Boyle as they edged home in a hum-dinger of a match.
In what would turn out
to be a nail-biting clash, Brian O’Brien took just three minutes to open the scoring when he slipped in down the right-hand side to put Leinster ahead.
Munster gathered themselves and came straight back at the cham-pions-elect when they won possession and, after sustained pressure, Joe Keane crossed over to put his side back in the game.
Shane Mullally failed to add the conversion, leav-ing Leinster in front by just two points, but it was a margin that was over-turned when a 20-yard break from Brendan Guilfoyle gave them the perfect platform.
Prop Aaron McCloskey pushed towards the Lein-ster try line and touched down for Munster’s sec-ond try of the game.
It pushed into an 8-6 lead with the half-time whistle looming. It left Munster looking to kick on in the second half as they needed to win by 22 points if they wanted to retain their interprovin-cial title.
And they did just that when what appeared to be a loose kick from Mullally found its way in behind the Leinster defence was chased by wing Mark Tuohy, who outpaced everyone field to touch down.
This time Mullally added the extras as Mun-ster took a ten-point lead.
The Blues needed to rally, and forcing a mis-take at scrum time, Wayne Kerr gathered possession and crashed over to pull his side back to within two.
Munster bounced back, thanks to Lemaki Veipulu rounding his opposite man to touch down in the corner, leaving the score at 18-12 to Munster.
Stephen Mullhall found his way over the line to make the game 18 apiece.
Mullally slotted over a drop goal to give his side a one-point lead going into the closing moments
of the game.True to their form Lein-
ster bounced back once more, thanks to substitute Peter Carr who put them 24-19 up with just one minute left in play.
All Leinster had to do was gathered the kick-off but great work from Mun-ster meant they were back on the front foot. After getting into the Lein-ster ten-yard line, a swift back-line move put Alan McNamara into the cor-ner to set up a nail-biting finale.
Luckily for Leinster Mullally missed for the fourth time on the day to hand Leinster a hard- earned win.
Locals shine as Leinster win
RUGBY LEAGUE: TENSE INTERPROVINCIAL ENCOUNTER NETS CUP
Leinster, featuring four North Dublin Eagles players, brought home the province’s first ever provincial title last week
FastSport
CLONEE Cricket Club, with the support of group of local people, organised a T-20 cricket match at the new Porterstown Park to raise funds for the Imran Khan foundation.
A number of food stalls were set-up in the park where it was estimated over 250 people attended during the day.
Special guest on the day was the Minister of Transport, Tourism and Sports, Leo Varadkar along with Cllr. Eithne Loftus and the chair-man of Cricket Ireland, David Williams, also attended the event.
A special thanks to Fingal Co Co for their continued support in developing cricket in West Dublin.
Clonee host debut T20 match at Porterstown
in association with
. CLUB NOTICEBOARD
HARD luck to the Dublin senior hurl-
ers on their semi-final defeat. You
did us proud, lads. Well done to the
Dublin minors and particularly the
three Castleknock lads involved on
reaching the All-Ireland final.
Our U-11s hosted Tipperary club,
Upperchurch Drombane, in Somer-
ton, while our U-12s and U-13s
hosted Armagh side, Keady. Thanks
to all who made this possible. Spe-
cial mention to Brian McCann and
St Mochta’s parish for use of the
community centre.
Well done to Anton O’Cleirigh who
represented the club on the RTE1
radio show, Make Your Point, after
the hurling semi-finals.
Hard luck to our adult hurlers
who went down to Lucan, but can
still clinch promotion from their
last game.
Our last Summer Camp takes
place this week and all the kids
are sure to have a great time while
learning the skills of Gaelic games.
Best of luck to Fr Mick from Lau-
rel Lodge who sets of on his Camino
de Santiago trek in aid of St Francis
Hospice.
Juvenile teams are back train-
ing and will always welcome new
players interested in giving Gaelic
games a go.
Contact our club coach Brendan
on 085 1329397.
Tickets for Dubs v Donegal need
to be ordered ASAP from Charlie on
085 110 1008.
Lotto last week was not won with
the jackpot at €3,000 with the draw
this week in Myo’s.
CASTLEKNOCK
18 August 2011 CASTLEKNOCK GAZETTE 31
GARDA/WESTMANSTOWN GAELSINTERMEDIATES have two very
important league f ixtures this
week away to St Pat’s Donabate and
a home fixture on Sunday, August
21 against Ballymun Kickhams at
10.30am.
Junior 1s also return to action on
Sunday at midday in a league match
against Clontarf.
The Ladies do not have a match
this week, but training continues
on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fri-
days at 7pm.
Mick Ahern, Gaels GPO, is running
a series of football master classes
on Wednesday, Thursday and Fri-
day in Westmanstown from 7 to
8.30pm and Saturday in Westman-
stown from 10.30am to 12pm. There
is a €5 charge per training session.
The sessions are for the follow-
ing groups: U-12s, U-14s (boys and
girls) and U-16 girls.
Everyone at the club wishes Kil-
lian Slater (U-8s) a speedy recov-
ery from his recent unfortunate
accident.
The next Gaels committee meet-
ing is scheduled for Monday, August
22 at 8pm.
THE final summer camp week will
run from August 22 to 25. Get your
application form from www.stbrig-
idsgaa.com.
Congratulations to Paul Winters
and the Dublin minor hurlers on
their superb win over Waterford to
reach the All-Ireland final.
Hard luck to Alan and Daire on
their defeat to Tipp. Best of luck to
Daire vs Antrim this Saturday in the
All-Ireland U-21 semi-final.
Well done to Eoin Kennedy who
advanced in the 60x30 All-Ireland
handball s ingles. Eoin faces a
quarter-final showdown vs Ducksie
Walsh this Saturday.
Best of luck to Aisling McKenna,
Colleen Barrett, Sorcha Furlong,
Elaine Kelly and Noelle Healy in their
All-Ireland quarter-final vs Cork
this Saturday.
Senior footballers face Plunkett’s
on Sunday at 10.30am in Martin
Savage Park. Senior 2s face Per-
egrine’s in Blakestown on Sunday
at 10.30am.
Junior A and B footballers also
play league games on Sunday at
12pm in Russell Park.
Club lotto is on its summer break
and will resume on September 1
with a jackpot of €15,000.
Club night at the dogs will take
place on Friday, October 21 in
Harolds Cross.
ST BRIGID’S
Follow GazetteSport on Facebook and Twitter and online at www.gazettegroup.com
LUCAN Sarsfields set up a tasty final series of games in AHL5 when they inflicted the first defeat of the campaign on Castleknock at the 12th Lock, leaving three sides in contention for the title.
Indeed, for ’Knock, their seemingly impreg-nable position after nine successive wins now has the first whiff of vulnerability as they face third-placed Scoil Ui Chonnaill in the final round of games with this defeat open-ing the door.
On a grey evening in Lucan, they were out-battled by a side in
do-or-die mode, Aidan Glover striking a series of second-half frees that ultimately carried the decision.
Both sides had their oppor tuni t ies in a keenly contested game, a double figure count of wides for each team, but it was the hosts who eventually took the game by the scruff of the neck.
Brian Fagan’s 18th- minute goal had given them the early impetus after Dermot Donnel-lan’s effort was bril-liantly saved by Brian Lawlor. Castleknock were unable to clear their lines under duress and Fagan profited from the hassling to mop up the second phase.
After a pair of Ronan Callaghan frees, Castle-
knock retook the lead with three points on the bounce – Conor Cor-coran, Ciaran O’Brien and Dougie Cormican on the mark – to nudge back into a 0-5 to 1-1 lead by the 25-minute mark.
They were caught once as a long ball was swatted in at the right post by the lively Don-nellan.
Bu t Cas t l eknock responded instantly with a major of their own, a predator’s effort as a point effort clat-tered the post and Gerry Mulryan was on hand to first-time to the net.
Defensively, Lucan had been forced to with-stand plenty of pres-sure, Jerome Twomey using his power to clear
the lines on numerous occasions and it helped his side hold the lead into the break at 2-3 to 1-5 despite being sub-ject to plenty of pres-sure.
It was a lead they were to develop to four points as Colm Cuggy came off the bench to score inside three minutes while Glover’s third and fourth free also hit the mark.
Defensively, Lucan continued to be superb despite the darkness closing in, conced-ing just two scores in the second half, Mark Geaney ending an 18- minute scoreless run for the visitors.
But they were still in touching distance going into the final ten min-utes as Brian Lawlor got down well to save Cuggy’s goal-bound shot.
A Callaghan point left two in it before Glover made it more comfort-able with a pair of frees. Mulryan might have ensured a nervy finish but his daisy-cutter was dealt with and Lucan moved closer to promo-tion.
That will be achieved w i t h v i c t o r y ove r Naomh Mearnog while any Castleknock slip-up would open the door to the overall title, too.
HURLING: SARS INFLICT LEADERS’ FIRST DEFEAT
’Knock blow as Lucan open up title run Castleknock were in action at 12th Lock against Lucan
Sarsfields last week
ALL OF YOUR CASTLEKNOCK SPORTS COVERAGE FROM PAGE 28-31 AUGUST 18, 2011
PLUNKETTS’ man Shay Boland managed the Dublin minor hurlers to a spectacular 6-19 to 5-13 victory over Water-ford to see his side reach their first All-Ireland final at this level since 1983.
A stunning first-half per-formance saw them build a 4-12 to 0-7 lead at the inter-val and, while they stumbled toward the finish, there was enough of a gap to never truly be threatened.
Boland admitted afterwards that managing the players’ atti-tude after such an incredible first-half was a major task.
“The biggest job at half-time was getting the players to real-ise that the game was still wide open,” he said afterwards.
“The number of goals and scoring chances we created was pleasing. Up to now, I think we only got one goal
against Wexford, one against Westmeath and maybe two against Kilkenny. We worked really, really hard.”
Boland’s son, Cian, made a late appearance from the sub’s bench, while Castleknock star, Ciaran Kilkenny, produced some breathtaking hurling.
He ended with a tally of 1-5 from play, winning huge amounts of ball in the half-forwards, from where plenty of attacks were sparked.
Indeed, he began the rout with the first of a half-dozen raised green flags when he arrowed through the centre of the Deise defence in the fifth minute for a big opening goal.
After the break, Kilkenny produced a string of fine catch-es to set up his own solo scores in an immaculate display.
St Brigid’s man, Paul Win-ters, was another to feature prominently, weighing in with 1-3, but the day’s star was Cor-
mac Costello, who scored a first half halt-trick and brought his personal total to 4-2 in the encounter.
Seven minutes after Kil-kenny’s opener, Costello clini-cally finished and, by the 22nd minute, it was 3-8 to 0-6 after Winters was on hand to goal after O’Conghaile’s origi-nal effort had been parried by Waterford keeper, Paddy Cooke.
By the break, Costello’s 30th-minute goal, when he got a touch to a Kilkenny point effort dropping short, ensured the Dubs led by 17 points at half-time.
Costello’s fourth helped extend the lead to 5-14 to 0-8 with 20 minutes left on the clock, before Waterford ral-lied in decent fashion with five goals which brought the mar-gin back into single figures, but Waterford were never likely to threaten a comeback.
Locals the heroes Locals the heroes in minors’ victoryin minors’ victory
Ciaran Kilkenny, centre, was one of the local stars from St Oliver Plunkett’s, St Brigid’s and Castleknock on the Dublin minor hurlers last weekend
