Business Evening

Athy Chamber are hosting an evening next Wednesday 2nd April in the Carlton Abbey Hotel, commencing at 6.30. The event is aimed at the business community in Athy, and will include 3 presentations:

Margaret Connaughton: Introduction to the Building Energy Rating Assessment'
Martin Mullins: General Insurance'
Dave O Reilly:Underused Tax Saving ideas for Business People'

The presentations will be followed by a networking opportunity for everybody, giving business people the opportunity to promote their own businesses with likeminded people from the area.

Athy Chamber are encouraging all current chamber members, and indeed all business people in the area to attend, particularly people who have recently set up in business in the area. This will be a very effective way of promoting their own business locally.

There is no cost to attend , and they look forward to meeting as many people as possible there on the night.

Heritage Past and Present

Athy Heritage Centre-Museum is open after its recent renovation and is already in preparation for the Medieval Festival which will take place on Sun 20th (full details later). http://www.athyheritagecentre-museum.ie/news/details.php?article_id=7 The centre is well worth a visit. Learn about our history, Shackleton, Gordon Bennett, and more.

National Spring Clean also begins this week. April is the month for tidying up your community. If there isn’t a group in your area why not take this opportunity to get to know your neighbours and help to beautify your locality. Athy has the most magnificent amenities and resources and WE can make them look good. A tidy town is YOUR responsibility and April is the month we start.

Cowboys and Corner Boys

This week end it is all happening at the Athy Rugby Club with diverse events. On Friday night there is a Cowboy and Cowgirl night which includes a bucking bronco!!!

And then on Sat night….. it’s back!! The Corner Boys. The show has just returned from it’s tour (almost nationwide) and is doing a Benefit Night in the club for Noel Cross. Tickets are 20 euros and our available from organiser Charlie Hughes on 087 95 91 473. If you haven’t seen the show this is a golden opportunity.

Also on Sat night Athy Model School hold a Table Quiz in the Golf Club

The Writing is on the wall

Under the RAPID programme, Athy is sent to benefit from funding to begin graffiti removal work
The new programme will see a ring fenced allocation of €30,000 made available to the town under the RAPID programme. This should allow Athy to carryout short term graffiti removal works and should also put the town in a position to apply for further long term funding under phase 2 of the scheme where a more comprehensive approach to graffiti will be undertaken.

Athy is now invited to participate in the programme under its RAPID status and the first steps will be to identify the most affected areas in the town
http://www.athyrapid.blogspot.com/

Playing in the Park

Over €60,000 has been allocated for the installation of further equipment into the People’s Park The grant of €66,000 will be used to expand the facilities available in the People’s Park and will aim particularly at the older age group, the over twelves. The People’s Park has become particularly popular in recent years and expansion of the facility will allow for increased participation by all.

This weekend saw a large number of people in the park and it is lovely for a town to see its main parkland being used to its fullest

Athylive and well

Athylive daily posting go out to over 300 local e-mail addresses each day and the site contains links to just under 100 local interest and business web sites. The site contains a calendar of any local events of which I am made aware and has an associated “blog” which contains a record of all postings for the past six months.
It receives up to 50 additional “real” hits each day. Most of these are local but France and England are very regular visitors.
It is run on a voluntary and absolutely free basis. Please let me know if there are any local websites which I have overlooked and all suggestions for the sites improvement are welcomed.

Egg-citing Day on Monday

Add a bit of the Easter spirit to your life and go on an egg hunt. This annual event organised by the Athy Rowing Club has proven to be great fun for the children and the family. Entry is just €5 and you turn up in the Peoples Park (behind the current swimming pool) between 2 and 4 on Easter Monday (24^th) Everyone is guaranteed an egg and lots of fun. Toddlers and under 12s welcome. Face Painting. Raffle. See you there.

Not Just a Farm

Limited places left at tonight’s vegetarian cookery demo at Castlefarm. This evening will be especially geared towards anyone with a vegetarian in their family. It will concentrate on how to balance a vegetarian diet and how to substitute meat. Louise O Hare (of “What’s Cooking”) will demonstrate a number of recipes that all the family can enjoy. Let me know if you are interested. The cost will be €15 pp to include food and refreshments. It will start at 8pm sharp. www.castlefarmshop.ie

Minutes of February meeting of Athy Town Council are now available at www.councilmatters.blogspot.com

The Snapper

Congratulations to Luke Wynne on developing a new web site of photos of local events, places and people. Luke is a freelance photographer who can be seen at most events and whose work can be seen in the regional and local papers. Because only a fraction of his photos are used in the media he is using the website to share his work with his “subjects”. Well done to Luke. You can visit his site at http://www.lgwphotos.com/

St. Patrick’s Day in Athy

Athy will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day a day early on Sunday 16th. Not a parade but a celebration of our town and it is open to all. Activity will take place between 2.30 and 4.30 and will give everyone an opportunity to make his a family event. Musicians, dancers, singers and much more will have the opportunity to make this an event. All are welcome to participate to create the festival atmosphere. We hope to see boats on the river and families in the square. The day will be as great as we want to make it.

Tony for Council

Tony Egan is to be proposed as the replacement for the late Noel Scully on Athy Town Council. At a recent meeting of the Labour party Tony won a hotly contested competition for the nomination. As Tony prepares to take his seat all of us who knew Noel are once again reminded of the loss to the community of a man who loved the town and fought so hard to make it a better place. He will be a very hard act to follow and is remembered with the greatest of affection by all of his colleagues.

Tegral Plans to Stay in Athy

Although moving 3km from the centre of the town Tegral has lodged plans to stay in the Athy area. The €75m investment sees Tegral last week submitting a planning application for production plants for Tegral Building Products and Tegral Metal. The 38 acre site at Srowland could see site work commence this year. Tegral currently employs 369 people and this new move secures the future of the company in the locality.

You are invited on Wed

TriAthy - Ireland's Fastest Triathlon - will return to Athy on 31st May next.
To celebrate the return of this exciting sporting occasion the organising team are hosting an

official launch of

DOOLEY TRIATHY 2008

at the Carlton Abbey Hotel

on Wednesday 12th March from 8pm.

If you are interested in finding out more about TriAthy, want to take part, or even be a volunteer on the day then we would be delighted if you could join us. We will briefly review our 2007 event and then share our exciting plans for the 2008 event.
The countdown has truly begun to one of Ireland's showcase triathlon events here in Athy! Full details are available at http://www.triathy.com/

Fighting fit

Congratulations to Athy boxer, Eric Donovan who won gold in the Senior Multi-Nations in Croatia on Saturday night. Eric had failed to take a national title earlier this year and was defeated in the national final. Hopes of qualifying for the Olympics in Beijing are back on the cards after his recent victory over his Russian and German opponents. Roy Sheahan, Tommy Sheahan, Oliver and John Joyce will be Athy’s hopes for qualifying for the games with neighbouring Ross Hickey also being claimed as our own. Watch this space as the Games approach.

Out of Bounds

Work has started on the wall dividing Kingsgrove from the new estate being constructed on the adjacent site. The controversial joining of the two estates was a source of annoyance for residents who felt their estate would suffer complete loss of privacy and the construction of a separating wall was arrived at as a solution

Friday is Daffodil Day

Tomorrow – Friday is Daffodil Day. Throughout the town in most of the workplaces and in the villages around South Kildare daffodils are sold to aid in the battle against cancer. Few of us have not been touched by the illness and Daffodil Day gives an opportunity to lend your support to the battle

Patrick’s Day Reminder

For your diary. Athy will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day a day early on Sunday 16th. Not a parade but a celebration of our town and it is open to all. Activity will take place between 2.30 and 3.30 and will give everyone an opportunity to make his a family event. Musicians, dancers, singers and much more will have the opportunity to make this an event. All are welcome to participate to create the festival atmosphere. We hope to see boats on the river and families in the square. The day will be as great as we want to make it.

Just Around The Corner

Don’t miss Mackenna’s latest play which is “passing through” Athy on its tour of the country. Three nights in Athy – this Mon, Tue and Wed in the Town Hall. It’s called Corner Boys and comes from the stable of a tried and tested author/playwright. Athy is establishing a tradition and culture of performing arts which reflects life and often challenges the audience. 8.30 Town Hall. Maybe someone will write a review for Athylive!!!!!

Meeting Macra

Great to see that there is a meeting of Macra na Feirme taking place in the town this week. The Macra organization was founded in Athy in 1944 by teacher Stephen Cullinan who was a teacher in what was then Athy Vocational School and its first meetings were held in Athy Town Hall. The organization has played an important role in the lives of so many young people not all of whom were directly working on the land and it is wonderful to see it being revived in the town of its birth. To mark the importance of the organization Athylive has posted a piece on its website detailing the life of Stephen Cullinane. See it on http://www.athylive.com/

Macra is meeting this Tue night in the Dominican Hall at 8.30