The statistics for drink driving arrests continue to amaze all of us. The figure of 422 arrested over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend is astounding. The superintendent arrested in Galway did not help the Garda’s cause much either.
We are like a second rate nation when it comes to this problem. A zero alcohol limit may help what is already a bad situation.

Easter next year will be the earliest possible date. Falling on the 23rd March. So it’s the Palm on the Sunday and the Shamrock on the Monday.

When the green jacket for the U.S. Masters is presented to the winner, the ceremony takes place in Butler’s Cabin. Now if that wasn’t a tip in itself, so there was no huge surprise to see J.P.’s horse of the same name romp in at Fairyhouse the day after the Masters. Full credit to the training team as given this horse’s difficulties, it was a good performance all round.


Nice to see the Greg Lawler bred, Fourty Acers back to winning ways at Exeter recently. Small field, small price but a win is a win and he will only improve.

Sherry Fitzgerald O’Reilly are putting a big push behind this weekends Walking Sunday in Punchestown. Fair play. It’s great to see someone trying to revive what is a great tradition. If you are down listening to the Breener on the morning say a little prayer for kind weather for the week.


Christy Dennison’s photos from the Bugle and beyond are attracting great interest on the Interweb. To date we have over 300 photos up on
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ballymorebugle/
With almost 500 views this is a valuable archive of events in the village.
It’s free. Use it. Tell you friends, especially your overseas contacts.


http://ballymore.blogspot.com is growing at slower pace. We put up the Bugle articles a month in arrears. Again your support is appreciated.

Some of my colleagues are in dispute with the government to progress their claim for a 10% pay increase and a thirty five hour week. The latter is to ensure that they have the same working conditions as the rest of the health service employees. It’s a bigger fairytale than Cinderella to say that we only work thirty five hours a week. Paid for thirty five hours sure, but only work that amount, I don’t think so.

Listening to all the green debates raging at the moment about global warming, water quality and recycling surely some simple solutions could be applied. The combination of driving kids to school combined with the problem of weight in children could be partially solved by walking to school in summer. If KCC and other local authorities would collect the recycling bins on a more regular basis then that would help the recycling issue. And finally given the water quality problems in Galway a friend of mine says that a simple solution would be to boil the lake.

David Quinn’s agency carried out a survey on religious knowledge recently.
Some of the results are interesting
Less than half of people in the 65+ brackets knew the first book of the Bible.
Only one in four know the First Commandment.
Only 10% know what the Immaculate Conception means.
Surveys fascinate me. Have you ever, or do you know anyone whose has ever been, surveyed. I just think that they are asking the wrong people.

Staying with Quinn’s,
Big Niall is top of the pile.
That has a nice poetic ring to it. The Irish sponsor was a surprise though, with Dundalk firm Boylesports on the shirts. From bottom of the Championship to the top in a very short space of time.

My brother Mick is a great man for the crosswords and quizzes. A story of a night out in the Penny Black gave me this idea.
You will have heard some of them before, some not. It’s based around famous fives. We’ll give 5 tenners, €50, to the nearest correct. If you are interested POST to Ballymore Bugle Barrack Street Ballymore Eustace.

Name Enid Blyton’s Famous Five
Five racecourse names in Ireland and the U.K. containing all the letters R A C E
And five that don’t contain any of these letters
Five Irish counties ending in H.
Five Ballymore townlands ending in town.
Five Dublin Placenames ending in O
Five Dublin placenames that contain a musical instrument.
Five English league teams whose name contains a building.
The last five Irish Ministers for Finance.
The Five colours in snooker that must be potted in order between the reds and the black.

Good Luck.