Search Results for 'Declan Varley'

Sure it’s no wonder we are the way we are these days. The Chinese have a saying ‘may you live in interesting times,” but they never thought there’d be times that would be just too bloody interesting. Not a day goes by without something intertesting happening — the likes of which would only ever happen in a blue moon.

In the same way that pre-Michelle Smith, the Irish Olympic swimming team used to hail a competition a success if none of them was drowned, let’s be honest, weren’t we glad when both the Queen and Obama got out of Ireland alive? Not that there was ever a serious threat to their respective healths while they were here, but there was always the fear that a member of the South Offaly-North Tipperary branch of Al Qaeda might attack him with a hurl or that that dissy-dent republicans might savage the Queen with a Turbot snatched from the shelves of the English Market. We all breathed a sigh of relief when their planes left the ground and rose into that part of sky that Cork radio presenters know as non-indictable international airspace out of our jurisdiction.

The political events and the economic fallout from the past few months have led to a situation where the general public is now less accepting of any posturing or gombeenism. They have all been through the mill financially at the start of this new year and there is no appetite for the sort of political games that might have taken place in more affluent times. The only thing that the public want of their politicians now is that they go in, do their job, be as respectful and accommodating as possible and that in return the public servants work with them to ensure the services that we all need are provided to the highest standard.

The Galway Advertiser’s online coverage of the twists and turns of both Galway constituencies this week was viewed more than a million times in three days, according to data published last evening by Facebook.

At this difficult economic time, many businesses are closing, and many local jobs are under threat. What is our response to be? Will we sit, moaning about the recession, and accepting it as a fait accompli which is out of our control? Will we wait for someone else to do something? Will we satisfy ourselves by criticising the developers, bankers, government and various others who have brought us to this doom laden place? And when we've done that, and apportioned the blame, what then? Will we sink further into the morass, or will we look for a solution?

The trials and tribulations of finding a teaching job in today's cut-throat market are to be aired in a brand new radio drama on Galway Bay FM next Tuesday, Augist 31.

VETERAN footballer and coach and fundraiser extraordinaire Billy Carr of Mervue was named as the Galway city Volunteer of the Year at the annual Mayor’s Awards which were presented on Tuesday night.

There is no family in this county that has not been taken aback at the brazenness of the person or persons who are carrying out the attacks on women in the Athlone area at the moment.

A new play penned by Declan Varley and a Neil Simon classic will form the highlights of the annual Autumn Theatre being presented by Compantas Lir in Carnmore next week.