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On the evening that France and Britain declared war on Germany, September 3 1939, the 13,500-ton liner SS Athenia, chartered by the Cunard Line, and bound for Montreal with 1,418 passengers and crew was torpedoed, without warning, 250 miles northwest of Malin Head in the North Atlantic*. The following day the Norwegian vessel, Knute Nelson, was steaming towards Galway with 367 shocked and injured survivors, and asked that the city be prepared to receive them. Other survivors were picked up by British naval vessels and brought elsewhere for treatment, but in total 112 passengers and crew were killed in the attack, 28 of them Americans sailing for home as war was declared in Europe.

Many west of Ireland members of the army will spend Christmas overseas and were delighted to get a visit from An Taoiseach Brian Cowen yesterday (Monday).

Local election candidate Sean O’ hArgain is an ambitious man. Already he is a sitting local Labour Party councillor on Kilkenny Borough Council, the principal of the city’s Gaelscoil, a father and husband.

An injection of freshness to local politics seems more and more likely this week with the news that local newspaper editor, Eugene Deering, is to announce his independent candidacy for Athlone Town Council on June 5.

There can only be two reasons why music highbrows are still a bit ‘iffy’ about the Welsh composer Karl Jenkins. One is probably a comment on his unusual route into classical music. A talented music scholar from Cardiff University and the Royal Academy London, he founded a jazz group Nucleus, which won first prize in the Montreux Jazz Festival. Then to keep bread on the table, he made a series of TV advertising jingles. One of them, called ‘got off the ground’, was for an airline. But it became so popular and catchy, that people were clogging the airline’s phones demanding what was that amazing music. Jenkins developed the theme and, extending its African and Arabic sounds, it became the energetic Adiemus. It topped the pop charts across the world.

THE GALWAY Film Fleadh is celebrating its 21st birthday this year and from Tuesday July 7 to Sunday 12, it will host world premieres, special tributes, Irish and international features, documentaries and shorts, with a prestigious array of actors, directors, and filmmakers in attendance.

Custume Barracks will host its annual family open day on Sunday September 13.

When the problems of Chad became a human rights issue, and the UN asked for Irish troops to help, the Government said yes.

COMING NEXT week to the Town Hall is Jane’s Hero which relates the remarkable and at times hair-raising experiences of Galway’s Lt Col Eamon Colclough during his service overseas with the UN.

Speaking on the second stage of the Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009 in the Seanad this week, Fine Gael Longford/ Westmeath Senator, Nicky McFadden, said any cut to the Defence Forces’ budget, which allows troops to be adequately trained and facilitates them with the most up-to-date equipment, must be avoided at all costs.