Concert Cancelled

Regretably the concert with Agustin Maruri has been cancelled due to his illness and will be rescheduled to a later date. Patrons who have purchased tickets may return them for refund or keep them for the next performance. Apologies for any inconvenience

Nothing on this weekend??

It seems that Athy’s schedule of activities seems to enlarge each week-end with this Bank holiday weekend being a prime example. From Friday night athletes for the TriAthy triathlon will arrive in our town for the main event on Sat. Saturday promises to be an active day for the town with approx 1500 athletes taking part in the triathlon.

Sunday will see a year of Castlefarm with Darina Allenas guest at their barbeque at 2pm.

Later on Sunday at 8pm Agusta Maruri, the legendary Spanish guitarist will perform in the Methodist Church.

On Bank holiday Monday, Tara Redmond will take part in the Women’s Mini Marathon to raise funds for defibulators for the town.
So – nothing on this weekend?? Then come to Athy.

Summer Rugby Camps

Athy RFC will host two different summer camps in the club this summer. The first camp is run by Leinster Rugby and is for boys and girls between 6 and 12 years of age. This will be held in Athy RFC from the 21st July to the 25th July and takes place from 9:30am to 1:30pm. The cost is 99 euro per child and each child receives exclusive camp kit. The booking form can be accessed by visiting http://www.athyrugbyclub.com/ .

The second summer camp being held in Athy RFC this summer is run by the club itself and follows on from the hugely successful summer camp last year where 140 kids attended over the 2 weeks. This years format is slightly different where the first week (18th-22nd August) is for boys aged between 12 and 16 years of age and the second week (25th-29th August) is for boys and girls aged between 7 and 12. Again this camp runs from Monday to Friday, 9:30am - 1:30pm. The booking form for this camp can also be downloaded by visiting http://www.athyrugbyclub.com/

Spanish Strings

Agustin Maruri the legendary guitarist will perform in the Methodist Church on Sunday 1st June and promises to be a most engaging night. Tickets are available at the Gem, Winkles and Gargoyles at €10 and the performance begins at 8 pm. This is the first event organised by the Town Arts Subcommittee in this venue which is hoped to be the future location for artistic presentations.
Suggestions for future artistic events are welcome. I will forward any suggestions to the committee.

Darina is the Barbi Girl at Castlefarm

Darina Allen is the guest at Castlefarm next Sun 1st June at the barbeque to celebrate the first year of business. An organic spit roasted pig, lots of other yummy local food, old fashioned party games, a cheese making demo by Elisabeth Bradley of Carlow Cheese.
Price 20 euro per adult, 15 euro for under 15s and under 5s for free. Contact Jenny at Castlefarm for details

Let's Tidy Up

Next weekend our town will be showcased to several thousand competitors and spectators for what is now one of the major sporting events in the country. With in excess of 1500 competitors our river and town wil be filmed and photographed by hundreds.

This Saturday the Tidy Towns committee are beginning a massive clean up which is a call to all of us to do our bit. All schools, residents associations, sports clubs and organisations can help to promote our town by taking an area on any given evening over the coming week and doing a clean up.

A tidy town attracts investment and tourism

On the Ball

Athy Town (Soccer Club) are playing in the final of the Polikoff Cup against Glenville in Glasnevin Dublin on Friday evening.
This is the second time in 60 years that they have been in the final.
Bus leaves square at 4.15 but it is ticket only (see committee members for tickets asap)
Kick off 7.15

Fly the Flag for Tri Athy

In conjunction with the Triathy event at the end of this month, the Chamber is involved in two intiatives that they hope will benefit the town

The first is they are encouraging all business in the town, particularly in the town centre to 'Fly The Flag For Tri Athy' . There are 100 Tri Athy flags on order, and they are looking to get them flown outside as many businesses as possible in the town. The flags will be sold at cost ( approx 30 euro each to be confirmed) and they will be approaching the businesses the week before the event to encourage them to partake.

There is likely to be around 4000 people plus in the town in relation to the event , with 1500 competitors, and their helpers and also spectators who will come to the event. This is a great opportunity to showcase the town, with the biggest Triathlon event in Ireland this year, which includes competitors from 22 countries and includes former world champions along with the cream of Irish athletes on the brink of Olympic qualification.

The second initiative is for the hospitality industry, who we believe can benefit a lot from the day. They are putting together a high quality booklet (A5 size approx) for distribution free to all the competitors, and also to spectators at the transition area on the day in The Square. This booklet is primarily aimed at ensuring the many visitors to the town know where to go for food and drink on the day, and also for entertainment later if they are staying in the town. The booklet is being produced by the Chamber in conjunction with Data Print in the town. Again there is a small cost to be included, to cover the cost of printing.
Already they have had a big response to this, and there are only a few spaces left to fill at this stage. One of the best ways to make the most of the additional visitors to the town on the day is to show the diverse range of quality eating and licensed establishments in the town, as part of encouraging as many as possible to return to visit the town again in the future.

If any business would like to be included, they can contact Dave O’Reilly on 087 9297888.

Who took the horse to France?

ATHY’’s delegates visit
9/12 May 08


Some 40 visitors from Athy arrived on past 9th in Grandvilliers, our twin town in France .
The delegation was led by Mrs Helen Dowling, Brian O’Gorman and the younger councillor, Tony Egan.
This May visit was due to the 25th anniversary of Grandvilliers-Bockenheim (Germany) twinning.
Two days with major events highlighted this week-end :
- Sat 10th - Conference about sustainable energis, specially windmills
- European Market with german wines, irish and local products.
- Meeting between French and Irish diabetics
- Musical afternoon, with Modern Sound Big band (Bockenheim) Kelly family and Evelyn McFadden (Athy) , Irish dancers from Athy, François 1er Renaissance group and local Feuquieres brass band which played at the end the three national anthems as well as the European one .
- Sunday 11th , for Athy’s delegates , visiting Chantilly .
- In the evening, after many speeches, translated in the 3 languages, took place the gala dinner . Food, Music are good things to get people (youngs and others) closer from each one and it was easy to see Irish, German and French dancing altogether late.
- On Monday , Athy’s visitors were dropped at Beauvais airport by bus and each one was rather sad to leave friends…..till next visit.
Nothing has not been possible without our European spirit…. JP Vasseur

Africa Day - Athy and Laois

South East Laois Arts Network is among the 51 organizations which have been funded around the country this year to celebrate Africa Day.

The event planned by South East Laois Arts network will take place during the week of 19th May 2008 and will comprise of

Drumming Workshops with Dave Day in Ballyadams, Ballylinan, Wolfhill and the Swan National Schools
Dave will also facilitate ' Talk and Video on the Nation and Peoples of Africa ' with the school children.

Wed 21st May at 4 pm in Ballylinan Hall we will host a drumming workshop for anyone interested. This workshop will be given by Motema a fine Congolese Percussion Band who will perform a concert at later on that night at 8 pm.
There will also be Taste of Africa organized by Women's Integrated Network
The final event of the week will be an African Dance workshop on Saturday 24th May at 2 pm

These events will be open to all members of the public and are free of charge but booking is essential

Details of Athy Africa Day on www.athylive.com/win

Showing a good heart

The owner of Zebbles Hair Salon on Convent Lane Tara Redmond is
running with her team in the Womens Mini Marathon on June 2nd to start a campaign to bring life saving Defibrillators to Athy

The first one will be for Ardscoil Na Tríonóide which has over 700 students and 50 staff

Cards are available from zebbles on 059 8641988

Pplease support this worthwhile event by filling in a Card/ Line at Zebbles.

Bon Voyage

This Friday sees the twinning contingent head off for Grandvilliers. The French town will also be celebrating 25 years of twinning with the German town of Bockenheim. Anybody interested in future twinning events can contact athylive@rdaly.net and it will be passed on.