Sunday, October 12, 2008

BABY news!
Congrats to Wendy (Quinlan) and Tomaz on the birth of their second baby?
And to Theresa and Tom Kelly on the birth of their baby boy.

Birthdays galore!
Shockin’ lot of birthdays over the months and a lot of birthday girls shocked at reaching ‘mature’ milestone birthdays…….. I am probably going to be shortlisted on everyone’s Christmas card list but what the hell, here goes……. Last month, I refered to Mary H, Angela’s twin sister who was a tad sensitive about a recent birthday; for a woman who didn’t want her birthday recognised, she certainly got a lot of mileage out of the ‘non-existent’ birthday - a night out in the Ballymore Inn with several of De Perfectos, collected by Seanie Deegan in a classic MG, a trip to Barcelona and other nights out – “Hello”, remind me not to celebrate a birthday in the same fashion as yer woman from Boleybeg…………
Trish G wasn’t sensitive about reaching the Big 40, thank God and Tony Rooney picked her up in a Vintage Austin whilst Der Reilly collected Tony’s missus, Bridget up in a Red Mercedes; I don’t know whether Bridget is sensitive about her birthday so I will play it safe – it wasn’t either her 40th nor her 60th.
To Lisa Crowe (sister of the non celebrating twin) who also reached a milestone birthday.

Disclaimer: The Bugle wishes to advise Readers that the collection of the afore mentioned Ladies in Vintage Vehicles in no way insinuates the Ladies fall into the Vintage Category and is purely co-incidental.

To Holly Pallister, best pen pal in the world on celebrating a special birthday this year
To Jackie McNulty (Deegan to most of us) and to Esther (Reddy) Dooley on reaching their 40th – and still looking as glam as ever, sicken you they would………..
To Kathleen Toner from Scotland on celebrating her birthday, the one that falls between 40 and 60….
To Bernie Barrett on the celebration of a similar birthday – there goes my Christmas Day Dinner….
To Jim Kelly on celebrating his 70th Birthday recently with friends and family in The Thatch – see photo.
To Lillian M, who celebrated a milestone birthday during the summer and damn it, looks more like a school kid than a school principal.
To Michael H, keen head for figures, who reached a notable figure this year himself.
To Johnny Davis on celebrating his 80th birthday recently with friends in Mayo


Get well wishes are not needed for Seamus O Brien who recently underwent a hip transplant but has recovered quickly and is flying around like a young buck already!

Well done to all the Youth who recently received their exam results and to all who celebrated their debs night out.





Wedding bells Congrats to former Festival Queen, Orla Lennon and Lorcan O’Rourke on their recent marriage and to Dr Becky Keenan (daughter of the late Jennie Macdougald) on her marriage to Mark Godfrey in Hertsfordshire, an occasion shared by several friends from Ballymore who travelled over for the event


Congratulations to May and Eddie Whelan of Chapel Street, Ballymore and the UK on celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary at Avon Ri, Blessing ton with a special mass officiated by Fr Breen


In Reverse print, please:

Condolences to John Flynn on the death of his brother, Frank Flynn, late of Castledermot. Frank is survived by his wife, Mary and sons, David, Ray and John and extended family.

To Dora O’Brien and family on the sudden death of her brother John Creighton, late of Kill who is survived by his wife Anne, daughters Imelda and Mary; sons Peter, Alan and John Paul; sisters and brothers and extended members of the family.

To the McCarthy family on the sudden death of Geraldine McCarthy. Those of you who frequent The Elms Antique Furniture Showrooms at The Elms, Punches town will have met Geraldine, a strikingly tall, elegant woman. Formerly of Kill, her sudden passing was a shock to the family, husband Dennis, daughters Helga and Naomi; sons Fergal and Aubrey..
Condolences to Joe Evans, his son Billy and daughter Colette, grandaughters Miranda and Isobel on the tragic death of Anne Evans as a result of an accident on Sunday September 7th. Joe is a son of the later Molly and Billy Evans whose brother Liam we featured last year in The Bugle.
The Late May Dennison
The community was saddened to learn of the death of Mrs May Dennison (88), Liffey Bridge, Ballymore Eustace over the weekend.
An extraordinary woman, May ran a guest house at her home for over half a century, catering for Bed & Breakfast, Teas or Full Board. Long before The Ballymore Inn or The Thatch were established as reputable food houses, May’s reputation for fine hospitality saw her secure repeat bookings from families returning home for summer holidays or Punchestown Races – some for over three decades and more! Even last year, Paul Lambe and The King Snakes who were billed as the lead musical act during Carman Fair, chose to stay with May over local hotels and more upmarket facilities ‘because Mrs Dennison looked after us when we hadn’t a brass farthing….”
Even after the death of her late husband Christy, May continued to run the guest house aided by her family and was always the first to give a donation to the local Annual Festival Week in conjunction with National Hunt Week. Always interested in local events, May was quick to praise local enterprise and individual achievements. She will be remembered as a cheerful, good natured woman and she will be missed by the many annual guests who remained loyal to Dennison’s B & B over the decades. Predeceased by her husband Christy, May is survived by her daughters Anne and Catherine, sons Christy, David and Paul, sister Kathleen, grandchildren, daughters and son-in-law and extended family members. The late May Dennsion, an astute but generous hearted business woman – may she rest in peace, amen.

The Editors extend our deepest sympathy to the Flynn, Creighton, McCarthy and Dennison families . May they rest in peace.
___________________________________________________________________





6 OUT OF THE 9 PRESENT CDA COMMITTEE MEMBERS
ARE STANDING DOWN !!


Hi all,
I regret to inform you that at the most recent Ballymore Eustace Community Development Association (CDA) meeting, two thirds of the current 9 strong CDA committee, including myself, stated that we would be standing down at the end of our current term (end October ‘08). I would like to point out that in no way has there been any ‘falling out’ or disgruntled committee members, simply that some members have other strong commitments which they feel requires more of their time, whilst others simply felt that they had been on the committee long enough and believed that others should have an opportunity to be on the CDA committee for Ballymore Eustace. We now urgently need 5 or 6 new people to contact me to register their interest in becoming a committee member – even if you are not entirely sure that it is for you – please ring me and we can have a chat and maybe with some aspects clarified, it will be easier for you to make a decision.

To give you an idea of the range of activities the CDA is involved in, I will give you a run down of what we have been working on since I took over chairmanship at the end of last year.

Street signs for the village
Designing the new ‘Community Development Centre’and seeking planning permission for same at the site of the Old Council library (corner of Assumpta Terrace)
Liasing with Dublin City Council to create mapped walking routes around the village
Offering support to the CDA sub committees (Tidy towns, Punchestown festival, Community playgroup, Meals on wheels, Friendship club, Bingo/hall, Bugle, Community Alert), the youth club and Scoil Mhuire national school
Investigating options for sporting grounds/hall for the people of Ballymore Eustace
Obtaining grant funding for friendship club for flower arranging classes
Lobbying KTK Levies committee for community funding
Investigating options for a playground in Ballymore Eustace
Liasing with village Fás workers supervisor
Liasing with Fás to try and fill positions locally
Liasing with local Kildare County Council crew tasked with cleaning village
Meeting local area engineer re: footpaths, kerbs and bollards
Lobbying KCC on behalf of local people re: flooding and state of the roads
Working closely with the CDA’s Planning Advisory Sub Group (PASG) to put in submissions on the Water Treatment plant, Wastewater Treatment plant, various and numerous Residential and Commercial applications
Working with the PASG in trying to encourage property developers to consider appropriate developments for Ballymore Eustace and ensure maximum community gain.
Lobbying local politicians to try and reverse the decision to change the council electoral areas
Garda policing plan

The CDA is the owner of the River Walk and the Resource Centre and has a long term lease of the old council library site (and future building).

The CDA have made submissions on the County Development Plan and will take a primary role in the Local Area Plan and in doing so, along with other projects, works to ensure the village grows in a sustainable and attractive manner.

This is our community – your community, it is your Community Development Association and should be working in a way to develop the community in a way that you feel is beneficial and positive to the people who live in Ballymore Eustace.

If you were not aware of all the work that the CDA is involved in, you may not have been fully aware of how disturbing the news that two thirds of the committee are standing down truly is.

However, we are looking at this in a positive manner – hoping that this will be the opportunity for huge change in the CDA – a large change in the make up of the committee and indeed in the way the CDA is organized and operates. There is also the opportunity to perhaps change the focus and direction of the work of the CDA.

Perhaps you are looking at the list of activities above and thinking why isn’t ‘such and such’ on that list or I am not interested in the activities that are listed above. Perhaps you feel that the CDA should establish……. an active retirement group, host an annual field day for the people of Ballymore Eustace, host social occasions and English language classes for the foreign nationals who live in our village (to be more inclusive and give them the language skill to become more included in community life), hold ‘new to the area’ social occasions for people who just that, establish a local business chamber, create a teenagers ‘play’ area, set up a samba band …whatever!

If this is the case, then this is your chance to make something wonderful happen and improve the village of Ballymore Eustace and the quality of life for its inhabitants – become a committee member and put your ‘such and such’ on the list – the CDA is open to all new suggestions all of the time – the CDA works on YOUR behalf!

Last year at the AGM we felt it worked well not to put pressure on people during the AGM to publicly state in front of the large crowd that they would like to become committee members and simply asked that people came up at the end of the meeting to a committee member to register their interest.

This year we are hoping to do it differently again – always trying to improve the way we do things. What we want is to have 5 or 6 new committee members ready to be simply announced at the AGM. Anybody with an interest in Ballymore Eustace and it’s people are asked to volunteer to become committee members – there are no prerequisites of being of a certain age group, being from a local family who have lived here for generations, having previous community work experience, having been on local committees before (though of course, we would be more than delighted to have people who have been on the CDA committee in the past or indeed any other local committees) etc. Alternatively, if you know of someone you think may be interested in joining, you could suggest a name and we could contact them to see if they would in fact be interested.

If we do not get enough new committee members the CDA committee will not be able to function and this will have a detrimental effect on the village – just imagine for a moment if you will, if all the projects and issues the CDA has worked on since it was set up in 1996 were not – it’s not worth imagining!

Please take a chance and get involved – meetings only occur once a month and you only have to commit for one year.



Fiona Breslin
Chairperson
Ballymore Eustace CDA

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