Search Results for 'Robbie Henshaw'

Outgoing President, Gordon Ballantyne, welcomed a good attendance to the recent Buccaneers Rugby Football Club AGM in The Bounty. The club had mixed success on the playing fields, winning another Connacht Senior League and Cup double but being relegated in the All-Ireland League. Off the playing fields he was pleased to report that the club had “got control of its financial shortfall”, which was one of his key priorities in office.

BUCCANEERS 24 QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY 30

I’m going to begin this column with really interesting creative and exciting news. Last Friday night I was invited to launch a book called Tales from the Heart – New Creative Writing from Athlone Institute of Technology. Now, this is a compilation by Mick Donnellan of nineteen writers who attended his creative writing course for the last number of months. The course is conducted under the aegis of the Department of Lifelong Learning in Athlone IT.

Ten inspirational young sports persons from the Athlone environs who all have excelled in their chosen field were introduced to the public at an Ambassador launch night held in Athlone Regional Sports Centre.

If you are looking to join us in the St. Patrick’s Weekend Celebrations we have the perfect weekend planned. On Saturday Night our bar will be in full swing at 7.30 we have Irish dancers commencing the night followed by Robbie Henshaw’s family playing traditional music. If you are lucky enough to be named Paddy or Patricia you can receive a free Pint!

Well I’m only coming together now after a very packed weekend. On Saturday, I had been invited to speak at the 30th Colmcille Winter School. The man in charge of it, Martin Egan, had emailed me in early December asking would I speak, and I agreed long before I knew the date of the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis which was also last Saturday. Anyway, I had given my confirmation that I would be there, so of course I couldn’t break that.

Maybe not a meteoric rise, but something of a slow and determined slog, Jack Carty, now 26, seems to have been around Connacht Rugby for a long time.

Well, what do we make of the weather? Last week it was completely spring-like, mild temperatures, lots of sunshine, and one would really think that spring had arrived. In contrast, this week started off with cold, showery, shivery type of weather and low temperatures. So it is the old story; we think spring has come but really it hasn’t. And yet, the daffodils are out, not quite in abundance yet but they are out with their yellow blooms. In my back garden I have a small magnolia tree. Now, it is called a dwarf magnolia, but because of political correctness you are not allowed any more to say that word with regard to anything, and so it is a small magnolia. The buds are already on all of the branches of that magnolia tree, which would indicate that it is soon going to flower. But somehow I don’t think so if this weather continues. Be that as it may, well at least so far we’ve been spared the snow and wild winds which were very much the climate of 12 months ago. So let’s hope the benign days continue – and more daffodils please, and more buds turning to flower please, in everyone’s garden!

We are truly fully back when the old problems continue to assert themselves. Brexit has assumed a central role again on the political stage, with the usual chaos and parliamentary pantomime evident at Westminster. And yet no one has come up with an alternative to Theresa May’s Brexit plan. There will be a vote next week in the UK parliament, and as the Prime Minister herself has said, who knows what will happen next? It’s really unsettling all round and very difficult for government departments, agencies and so on to make any plans as they are facing into the unknown.