IT WAS a mixed weekend for Kilkenny players involved in the Airtricity National League. Former Manchester City player Garry Breen scored for Dundalk in their 3-0 win over UCD. In goal for College was former Evergreen player Billy Brennan.
Former Kilkenny City U21 player David Grincell was taken down for a penalty in Waterford United’s 2-1 win over Limerick FC. Another Kilkenny player in the Waterford squad was Timmy Purcell.
It was a weekend to forget to remember for another former Kilkenny City player Davy Mulcahy as his to then high flying St Patrick’s Athletic were beaten 1-0 by Alan Matthews struggling Drogheda United.
THE IRISH Water Safety Association held their National Swimming teacher Course in the Watershed recently.
This was the first national course to be held at the Kilkenny venue and the Water Safety Organisers were most impressed with the venue and the range of facilities available. Hopefully, this is the first of many national courses to be held in the Watershed..
The picture shows the tutors and student teachers who successfully completed the course.
THE SECOND edition of Kilkenny's new newspaper, The Kilkenny Reporter, is being delivered to shops throughout the city and county of Kilkenny today, Monday.
Staff are delighted with the positive response to the paper. Over 20,000 copies of the first edition were elivered to homes in Kilkenny last week. Deliveries began on Monday and continued until Wednesday.
This week's edition includes a preview of the Senior Hurling Championship with Pat Treacy. There is camogie, hurling and soccer action, with full colour pictures.
OH WHAT a beautiful Monday morning. Kilkenny is dressed in its best finery today as the sun splashes down on our people. The recession is now seen in a different light - sunlight!
But despite the warmth and the resultant good cheer, it is not easy to disguise the fact that business is rather quite in our city. Then there is the one-way system. That should get a good airing later on this evening when Kilkenny Borough Council meets at City Hall. The meeting is to be attended by a good sprinkling of traders.
City centre traders blamed a 50% fall off in business on the traffic experiment. The weekend was rock bottom for local trade, according to a spokesman for traders.
O'LOUGHLIN Gaels GAA Summer Camp, organised by Niall Bergin and his team, goes ahead again this year.
It will be run over two weeks. Week One runs from Tuesday, August 3 to Saturday, August 7. Week Two begins on Monday, August 9 and ends on Friday, August 13.
The camp is open to all club members and children interested in joining O'Loughlin Gaels, aged between six and 13 years.
FREEBOOTERS U10s played two very competitive and sporting games against city rivals Evergreen on the Kells Road. In the first match man of the match Ross Whelan scored the only goal of the game, with TJ Steins & Ciaran Walsh getting the Blues goals in the second game.
KILKENNY'S new newspaper, The Kilkenny Reporter, has been delivered to homes and businesses throughout Kilkenny City and County. Staff are delighted with the enthusiastic response to the paper.
The 48-page full colour compact newspaper is staffed mainly by former employees of the Kilkenny People.
It is backboned by two of the country's longest serving journalists, Sean Hurley and Jim Rhatigan who between them have 97 years experience in provincial journalism. Sean is a former editor of the Kilkenny People while Jim is a former editor of the Kilkenny Voice. In charge of advertising sales is Peter Seaver.
A GALLANT effort by the brilliant TJ Reid to grab a late, late equaliser for Kilkenny failed by a whisker as the Cats fell to their third defeat in the Allianz National League.
In a pulsating tie in front of a crowd of over 7,000, Kilkenny started sluggishly, rallied brilliantly but in the end were pipped by Galway on a scoreline of 1-23 (26 points) to 2-21 (27 points).
Nobody headed for the exits as the match went into a rather lengthy period of injury time following the stretchering off of the Galway goalkeeper following an accidental clash.
A SMASHING Kilkenny woman celebrated her 50th birthday in style at the weekend.
Marie Shah, aka Marie Cummins, formerly of Irishtown, Kilkenny, is not 50 for another few days but she chose last Friday to celebrate in style at Langton’s Set Theatre.
It turned out to be a colourful fancy dress affair in a brilliant setting and friends turned up in big numbers to make it a memorable night for Marie and indeed for the entire Cummins family.
Treasured guests included Marie’s mother Josie and her 14 year old daughter Nailah.
THE NEW girl in school, Ella, befriends you and tells you she’s a vampire, 200 years old and has survived by drinking human blood. Do you believe her? Of course you don’t. But what about when people start to disappear…?
FORMER Minister for Enterprise, John McGuinness, has effectively called on Brian Cowen to step down as Taoiseach.
While he didn’t actually use the word ‘resign’ he said that Mr Cowen would have to seriously consider his position.
He said that in his ministerial reshuffle, Mr Cowen had acted in the interests of tribalism and the party rather than in the best interests of the country and he felt it was his duty to speak out about that.
This is not the first spat between Mr Cowen and the outspoken Deputy McGuinness.
A FREE rail scheme, developed by Fáilte Ireland in conjunction with Iarnród Éireann, is now available for all over 66s visiting Ireland.
The scheme, announced by the Government as part of Budget 2010 last December, is designed to increase overseas visitor numbers to Ireland.
Overseas visitors aged 66 or over can reserve free rail travel by accessing www.discoverireland.com or calling a local LoCall number to arrange for a Golden Trekker Reservation that can be used to book their free Golden Trekker Tickets when in Ireland.
SINÉAD CONNERY (Conahy) has been selected as captain of the Munster Senior Hockey team for the Inter provincial Championships in Dublin next weekend.
Sineád plays centre field for the C of I Cork first team and they are currently in a tight play-off with Cork Harlequinns & UCC for top honours in Munster.
Sineád has won international caps with Ireland at U16, 18 and U21 level. Sineáds current form has been rewarded with the captaincy and her team face stiff opposition in Ulster, Leinster and Connaught.
COLIN DONOVAN, Mount Juliet Golf Club and member of Fáilte Ireland’s Golf Forum, attended an industry briefing for golf courses in Carton House, Co Kildare.
Thirty two Golf Clubs collected an award under the new Fáilte Ireland National Standards Framework for Golf Clubs, developed in conjunction with the Golf Quality Assurance Group.
These industry standards are the first of their kind for golf courses in Ireland and offer a guarantee of good service to all customers of clubs that hold the accreditation.
IT DOESN’T happen very often but when it does it creates a real buzz in a local community. When the Highview Athletic ‘A’ team was drawn against the Highview Athletic ‘B’ team in the McCalmont Cup, the teasing started in Graignamanagh.
The ‘B’ team showed that they meant business as they were quicker off the mark than the club’s ‘A’ team when they asked local publican Liam O’Shea to sponsor a set of playing gear for the match.
So before a ball was kicked the pressure was on the ‘A’ side as the ‘B’ team would certainly win any best dressed award.
FOLLOWING Kilkenny County Council's very successful 2009 Writer in Residence Programme, the Arts Office and Library Service are now launching a writers' mentoring scheme.
THE girls’ team at Kilkenny Rugby Club will be one of the best dressed in the game – thanks to the generous sponsorship of a pub that was once a bank, The Left Bank at the Parade in Kilkenny City.
The Left Bank became the official sponsors of the girls’ team at a social evening in the luxury pub on Friday. Rugby enthusiasts and their friends enjoyed complimentary food and drinks as pub and club announced what both believe will be a happy marriage.
The Left Bank will sponsor the team kit that will carry the name of one of Kilkenny's newest hostelries.
THE BRAVE hockey girls of Loreto, Kilkenny finally ran out of steam in Galway on Friday when they were beaten in the Kate Russell All-Ireland Schools' Cup.
But they still came home winners as they had done their school proud and Coon girl, goalkeeper Ciara Shortall, was voted the player of the competition.