Search Results for 'Castlebar'

A major conference “Ireland: A New Vision and Direction” will be held in the Castlebar Campus of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) on Saturday April 4.

Are you an employer or do you run a business? Do you have staff or sub-contractors? It doesn’t matter if you employ two or 200 people, employment legislation affects you.

Paul Brady, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, is one of Ireland's most enduringly popular artists. Born and raised in Strabane, he was into a wide variety of music from an early age. A fifties child, his first sounds were the swing, jazz, and show tunes of his parents generation, then fifties rock 'n roll, sixties pop and Motown, blues, R’n’B, and country and western. Through all this ran the potent flavour of Irish traditional music and song.

If friendship was to be measured by the number of times I called to John Naughton’s house to say hello, I was not John’s friend at all, for I never called to his home, nor he to mine and this despite the fact that he only lived over the road from me here in Castlebar. But I have known John all of my adult life because he played in goal for the Crossmolina senior football team for years. Unfortunately John lost his brave battle with cancer and passed away last week. John was a very clever, gifted, man who knew things that others didn’t. He was interested in predictable things like Gaelic football, his farm and livestock, and loved his work with the HSE in Castlebar Hospital. He always struck me as being a wise man. He remained passionate about the Crossmolina football team even after he stopped playing. When I made my way on to the senior team in Crossmolina John was already the well established custodian, having played in goals for years prior to my arrival. He took his game seriously and was never shy in making a suggestion as to how the opposition would be beaten, or offering his point of view on what was going awry in a game. John had notions of grandeur for the club. He wasn’t content with the junior medal won in 1975 or the intermediate title won in 1980. He wanted the team to be the best it could be, to be up there with the top teams competing for the county senior title annually. He was one of the real leaders in the dressing room during my indoctrination. At that time I was a young naive defender on the team and John often pulled me aside before, during, and after games to offer encouragement and advice, for which I was most grateful for. What I loved about those words was the fact that they were delivered in the language of the plain man. In other words, there was no doubt in my mind about the content of the message delivered! John’s manner was genial, his humour easy, and his mind acute. He was enormously proud of the achievements of his native Crossmolina, particularly the All Ireland club victory in 2001. On big match days, whether it was Mayo or Crossmolina that was involved, John would have the field in front of the house bedecked in the Mayo and Crossmolina colours. The display of a variety of paraphernalia, bunting, and flags signalled the fact that a serious follower of the GAA lived in the house behind the field. An enormous crowd of old GAA friends and colleagues, from as far away as Co. Tyrone, turned out for his funeral last weekend to bid farewell to a good man who loved his sport. John would have been immensely proud of his son Kieran who bravely took to the field last Sunday to assist his club, Castlebar Mitchell’s, get through their quarter-final replay vs Shrule/Glencorrib successfully. It can’t have been easy.

Music Machine and The Royal Theatre and Event Centre Castlebar present The Priests in concert on Sunday March 29. The Priests, Father Eugene O’Hagan, Father Martin O’Hagan, and Father David Delargy, are currently taking the world by storm. Their debut album entered the Irish charts at number one and the UK charts at number five, making the Priests’ debut album the 'fastest-selling UK debut for a classical act' as certified by Guinness World Records.

The Mayo Christian Centre, Old Hat Factory, Newport Road, Castlebar, will celebrate on Sundays at 11am.

A show of a different nature comes to the Royal Theatre Castlebar on Wednesday April 8. Castlebar man Oliver Kelleher, celebrity from RTE’s HEAT cooking programme, and Paul Claffey from Mid West Radio will entertain us in a charity cook off with mentor head chefs from Days Harlequin Hotel and the TF Royal Hotel to assist. Host and compere on the night will be funny man Conal Gallen and he will get things heating up in the room.