Search Results for 'Christmas Day'

The annual COPE Galway Christmas Day Swim is 28 years in existence this year and the local charity is calling on all in Galway on the day to don the togs and the t-shirt and hop into the sea at Blackrock, Salthill to raise much needed funds for COPE Galway services.

Following the many relieved and anxiety-free diners populating the Barna area and further afield last year, this year The Twelve Bakery shop at The Twelve Hotel continues to take much of the stress and hassle out of your Christmas dinner, with a series of life-changing, time-saving, and delicious offers.

The Christmas festive season is in full swing on Taylor's Hill with festive lunches and dinners available in The Ardilaun hotel. Award winning head chef Ultan Cooke and his team have introduced a sumptuous three course Christmas menu for the month of December, to include a glass of wine and mince pies, all for €25 per person.

Samaritans volunteers in Galway will be among those on hand for a staggering 12,500 hours over the festive season to listen to anyone having a tough time.

Cara Cunningham, MINDI, Community Dietitian

A sell-out audience of over 3,000 people from all over Ireland, the UK and further afield attended an epic performance of Handel’s Messiah on Saturday last at the Knock Basilica. In attendance were both His Excellency Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, Papal Nuncio and the Most Rev Michael Neary DD, Archbishop of Tuam.

This is it, the last Friday before Christmas. Just two days to go, and no doubt you are busy completing Christmas time chores like whitewashing your house or making a three branched tallow candle. The way we celebrate, observe or mark Christmas has changed and will continue to change. That is not a criticism of modern life, that is life. Traditions and customs evolve, they always have done, they always will. How did you mark St Martin’s Day on November 11 last? Did you kill a rooster and sprinkle the four corners of your house with its blood to keep all danger and trouble away? Rightly considered bizarre today, but that was a custom in Mayo some 100 years ago. Recognising that those long established traditions were in danger of being forgotten to an albeit slowly modernising Ireland, the Irish Folklore Commission developed a recording scheme that ran between 1937 and 1938 and which invited Irish Free State primary schoolchildren to compile and submit folklore from their local area. The children responded in their tens of thousands with folktales, customs and crafts, gleaned from their extended families and written down by their own hands. Thankfully, schoolchildren from across Mayo participated and their returns document our county’s not too distant Christmas beliefs and practices. 

Gardai are investigating a series of burglaries which took place in the city and county over the last few weeks. Between 4.30pm and midnight on December 21, a house in Frenchpark, Oranmore, Co Galway was broken into and cash, jewellery and personal belongings were taken.

What wonderful Christmas weather we have had this year. I know I said it before, but it bears further repetition. Everyone could travel; everyone could go out; everyone could walk or drive wherever they wanted to. It was just marvellous, thank God, and eased the load for so many.

The CEO of the Midlands Simon Community Tony O’Riordan says there has been an unprecedented demand for their services, and those of other local agencies and the local authority.