Sunday, May 25, 2008

The Puchestown Festival Queen Competition takes place in Poulaphouca House on Saturday April 19th, doors open 7.30. The place will be jammed so get there early.
The Judges, Frances Ward Jones from Angel Eyes, Matt Browne, Kildare person of the Year supremo, and Laura Coates from the Leinster leader will have their work cut out.




The Michael Ward Prize
For creative writing

In recognition of the huge contribution made by Michael Ward to the Bugle
A competition for writers of prose of any age.
A piece of not more than 1500 words.
Closing date 30th June 2008.
Please submit your piece to the address or e-mail address below.
If you submit a hard copy please ensure that you also copy it to us electronically.
The winner will receive 250 euro.
Judging Panel headed by Michael Ward.


The Billy Evans Memorial Prize
For local poets

Billy Evans was a great exponent of poetry in Ballymore, this prize is in memory of him.
A competition for poets of all ages.
A poem of not more than 500 words.
Closing date 30th June 2008.
Please submit your piece to the address or e-mail address below.
If you submit a hard copy please ensure that you also copy it to us electronically.
The winner will receive 250 euro.
Judging Panel headed by Rose Barrett O’Donoghue

The Chris Dennison Prize
For local photographers

In recognition of the contribution made by Chris to the Bugle and village life in general.
A competition for photographers young and old.
Theme: Village life in Ballymore Eustace
Closing date 30th June 2008.
Please submit your photos to the address or e-mail address below.
We ask you to submit a print as well as an electronic copy.
The winner will receive 250 euro.
Judging Panel headed by Chris Dennison

Terms and Conditions:
The works submitted should be previously unpublished.
By entering the competition you agree that the submissions may be published in the Ballymore Bugle or any of the associated websites.
We regret that we cannot guarantee to return any submissions.
Please include you contact details especially a contact phone number.
The decision of the Judges is final.
The Ballymore Bugle, Barrack Street, Ballymore Eustace, Co.Kildare. ballymorebugle@eircom.net

WASHED OUT -AGAIN!
Well, every woman likes to be ‘swept off her feet’ but not if it literally means being carried out of her home by the fire brigade! That’s exactly what happened to Kathleen Edgeworth recently during another horrific ‘flash flood’ on the Truce Road. Sadly, Kathleen’s little terrier, Sam, was trapped in the garden shed and did not survive. But where on earth is the flow of water coming from??

In sixty years living at the foot of “The Season’s” wood, Edgeworth’s house was only flooded badly once (thirty eight years ago) until January of this year when the yard was engulfed in water but the house, at least, was not badly damaged. Less than three months later, heavy rain resulted in the worst ever flooding for Kathleen (86) and my sister Laura’s house was just as bad.

In January, Laura’s ground floor and yard was flooded, sofas destroyed, floors and skirting board ruined, storage and electrics in the garage all rendered useless by the excess water. Worse still, her courier van and car were water-logged. Proper insurance is vital but it’s a poor comfort when you have two months of ‘drying out’ the house, ripping up flooring, having new plaster board applied and then re-painting. No one can re-pay you for your time spent sourcing new electrical equipment, new furniture and curtains or worse still, those personal ‘non replaceable’ items, little family souvenirs or treasured gifts.

Mrs Daly at the crossroads suffered severe damage too, carpets and furniture utterly destroyed, never mind the mess.

Truce Road
On the 31st March, I called down to Laura’s to see the yard in muck and the house much the same; heavy potted containers were swept from the back of the house along with bags of peat moss to the front gate. The Truce Road looked like a broken sheet of pastry, with repaired patches of tarmacadam simply lifting up and disappearing with the water.

Betty Cremins and Fiona Rigney’s experienced flooding – how could they not as the waters travelled down the road like something you’d see in a flood warning in South Asia..…
How do we prevent this happening again?? And where is the excess water coming from?? The Truce Road has always had problems with surface water and God knows, Eric Firth and Jimmy Pearse of the Tidy Towns have pointed this out in written and photographic submissions over the years on numerous occasions. Oddly enough, although the building of Scoil Mhuire didn’t flood this time, one half of the yard was covered in mud and the front lawn was again water-logged. Yet, the stream in Smith’s Laneway didn’t seem to have been affected and certainly didn’t burst its banks as one might have expected.

So where has the water gone or more to the point, where is the excess flow of water coming from??? I am forty eight years old and I don’t ever recall Tinnycross House being flooded.

The Brook of Donode
Anne Geddes on the Naas Road has had years of trying to cull the flooding from the Brook of Donode, from physically clearing the stream from behind her own backyard, past the bridge and further upstream. “I ring Kildare County Council about five times a year to clear surface debris and growth that gathers in the stream and Shane Roche in KCC has been very helpful.” This time, Anne’s backyard was for the most part underwater again but happily her dogs are kept in ‘higher accommodation” – “Still, when I let the dogs out on Monday 31st March, they just floated past me…….” Despite having a little paddock to the side of her house, Anne says the constant flooding is too dangerous for her to keep small farm animals.
The bridge at The Brook of Donode finally crumbled under the water pressure – and I can’t say I’m sorry about that after the all the ‘Mickey Mouse’ repairs it has undergone in recent years. Maybe now, the issue of the bridge being dangerous will be addressed and a new structure built? Mag Reilly’s new offices took a drowning too….

Sign of the times, sign of our changing climates and damage to the OZONE layer?? I don’t know but if I had to see my home gutted twice in three months, I’d be gunning for someone or something! You can argue about underground piping, re-routing the natural water flow but I must remind you that never in my lifetime did Tinnycross go ‘under water’ and Mrs Edgeworth only recalls serious flooding once in sixty years prior to 2008. Something amiss somewhere…….

Rose B O Donoghue 31/3/08

Further flooding affected both the school and the Coughlanstown areas. The Coughlanstown road was closes for a time. The road resembling the Grand Canal, the wooden timber seen being the newel post from a wooden deck.

TR

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