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EU Commissioner, Carna native Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, is to be honoured by NUI Galway.

A programme looking at the first forced emigration scheme on the Mahon Estate in Strokestown, County Roscommon during the Great Irish Famine, is to broadcast on Shannonside Northern Sound.

THIS WEEKEND sees the big-screen release of Sonny and Skye production’s romantic comedy, Songs For Amy, much of which was filmed in and around Galway city and county.

Bernie O'Connell and the Board of Galway FC have been announced as Galway City Council Volunteers of the Year at the 11th Annual Mayor's Awards for Galway City on Tuesday night.

SONGS FOR Amy, the independent Irish film about a musician desperately trying to win back the love of his life, is to be screened in the IMC Galway.

Tom Grealy, the well known Galway accountant and music aficionado, remembers as a schoolboy the day John Wayne rode into the town. In 1951 Wayne, probably the best known cowboy actor of his day, was in Cong filming The Quiet Man. The film, somewhat surprisingly, remains a world -wide favourite. More than half a century later, it is still regarded by many film makers as the ‘perfect told story’. The involvement of local people among its star studded cast, which included Maureen O’Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Victor McLaglen, and Arthur Shields, all at the peak of their careers at the time, won their lasting affection. The occasion is still celebrated in Cong today.

Early morning July 17 1938, Douglas Corrigan, a young aviator, climbed into a small and rather battered nine-year old Curtiss Robin monoplane, at Brooklyn airfield New York. He was cleared to fly to California. It was a misty overcast morning. Instead of turning east, he headed out over the Atlantic. Twenty-eight hours later, surviving on two chocolate bars, two boxes of fig bars, and a few gallons of water, he landed in Baldonnel airport, Dublin, to everyone’s amazement. He was immediately christened ‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan, and the world press loved him. The New York Post printed its headline back to front to join in the fun. Especially as it emerged that Corrigan’s plane had many modifications made to it, including two large petrol tanks strapped in front of the cockpit, allowing him to only see out sideways. One of the tanks leaked on the way over. He had to slash a hole in the floor to allow the fuel out.

The word ceili means a gathering of neighbours in one house, which emphasised the social nature of the gathering. This inevitably led to music, singing, and dancing, to people doing their party pieces. There were a lot of ceilis in Mick and Maisie Hession’s household on Kingshill in Salthill. Mick Hession was an uileann piper who played a number of other instruments as well, and he regularly had other musicians visit the house for sessions.

ONE OF the most praised novels of recent years was Patrick deWitt’s highly original western tale The Sisters Brothers, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won a number of prestigious awards in deWitt’s native Canada.

Songs For Amy, the independent Irish film which was shot around the Kinvara area, with a soundtrack featuring Galway musicians Ultan Conlon and Jim McKee, will open in selected IMC Cinemas on May 2.