Search Results for 'Washington'

Galway man Peter Mannion had one hell of a summer job, one that culminated in him meeting president-elect Barack Obama on the steps of Capitol Hill.

A new film from the Coen brothers is always greeted with deserved anticipation, and their latest, Burn After Reading is no exception, as evidenced by a packed cinema last Friday.

When Barack Obama made his victory speech after last week’s US presidential election, he said: “Change has come to America”.

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.

The Old Athlone Society has announced that production of Dr Patrick Murray's book on The Aidan Heavey Book Collection, with photography by Lawrence O'Neill and printing by Temple Printing, is now complete. This is the same team that produced the magnificent book on the Church of SS Peter & Paul which was very widely acclaimed.

World-travelling street minstrel and poet, Felix Sonnyboy Wilson, comes to Skelly’s, Ballymahon for a free gig this Sunday November 29.

Although I have never actually seen the original of The Day The Earth Stood Still, word has it that the remake, which is in theatres now, could have been worse, but that it also could have been a lot better. Robert Wise's 1951 original, based on the Harry Bates short story Farewell to the Master, saw a lone spaceship landed in President’s Park in Washington, DC on “a mission of goodwill”. It was ground-breaking in its day and in that era of curiosity, became an instant classic. In the remake, a massive futuristic globe (kudos go out to the computer-generated techies who worked on this version of the film) descends upon New York's Central Park and out pops a representative of an alien race named Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) and his trusty sidekick robot, an Oscar-esque titanium figure who is eventually given the acronym name GORT (Genetically Organised Robotic Technology). Immediately we know we’re about to embark on a film that, having long surpassed its sell-out date in the believability department, can only be described as cheesy.

Could Ireland ever produce a Barack Obama? Someone who can inspire hope, not only in his own country, but throughout the world?

Kieran Goss, the acclaimed singer/songwriter whom country legend Don Williams calls "one of the most gifted performers around today" is visiting Kilkenny as part of his Irish tour.

Pucker up those lips lads and lassies and get out the lip balm. Yes, make those lips as big as our leader’s. Now, get down on one knee, and then the others. And get practising at something we haven’t done for a while. Ass-kissing is back. In a big way.