Search Results for 'army'

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).

Donall MacAmhlaigh was one of those tens of thousands who took the boat to Holyhead during the 1950s. Born in Knocknacarra, Galway, in 1926 into an Irish-speaking family, he worked in a series of jobs after leaving school aged 15, before joining the Army in 1948. Unable to find work after three years in the Army he emigrated to Britain where so many of his friends and neighbours had gone before him. His first job was a live-in stoker in a hospital in Northampton until low pay tempted him to swap security for the higher wages of life as a navvy.

The Columb Barracks/ Mullingar Hospital Ladies/Family Fun Run was launched last Friday at Mullingar Hospital.

Joe Togher was born in Headford on September 8, 1898. His father was a shopkeeper and his mother was from Carlow, and they had three more sons and a daughter. His father died when he was very young, so in 1910 his mother moved the family into Francis Street in Galway where she opened a small hotel (see photograph) to support them. She was very busy with the business so it was Joe’s sister Nell who looked after him. He went to ‘The Mon’ where a nationalistic Brother Leo was a major influence. Joe was a good oarsman, a champion sculler.

Because merchant ships were regarded as targets during World War II, the island of Ireland was, to an extent, cut off from the rest of the world, and many products that would normally have been freely available became scarce. Rationing was introduced and each household was given a ration book. Basic foodstuffs such as bread, butter, flour, wheatmeal, sugar, and tea were sold in small amounts... tea was reduced to a half ounce per person per week, which represented hardship for many. There was a black market for this and many other ‘luxuries’, while others tried making their own substitutes like dandelion tea or carrot tea. Some would recycle the tea leaves by taking them from the teapot, drying them, and reusing them. Necessity became the mother of invention.

Over 800 students from Westmeath are expected to take part in Engineers Week. 

It’s beginning to get really exciting now as election fever takes over.

Have you ever wanted to have a gun in your house? Well now you can. Weapons, the exhibition, is opening on August 7 in MacDonagh Junction in the former ZAVVI unit (next door to TK Maxx).

The weather forecast is looking promising and it’s all systems go for Mullingar’s biggest and best St Patrick’s Day Festival yet.

Kilkenny soldiers lined up for duty for inspection by the Mayor of Kilkenny Malcolm Noonan at the weekend prior to their journey to Chad this week.