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 Fine Gael Deputy Noel Coonan broadly welcomes the new BT Ireland scheme which greatly assists in narrowing the Digital Divide.
Deputy Coonan is urging registered charitable organisations throughout North Tipperary to avail of a new BT Ireland award scheme where such organisations can apply for a laptop and a year’s free broadband Internet connection.
Deputy Coonan, Spokesperson on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, said the application is open to organisations working in any field of community benefit that can portray how an award would benefit their group.
The Deputy speaking to Thurles.Info stated:
“This initiative aims to narrow the digital divide in local communities and give more equal opportunities. Organisations will be given the chance to access new information and advance their operations thanks to this scheme. BT Ireland will be empowering local groups and I warmly welcome the scheme as the need for efficient broadband availability increases daily.”
The scheme runs over an 18 month period, with two rounds in June 2009 and January 2010, offering a total of up to 80 award packages.
BT Ireland in the past have had winners from a diverse range of organisations including cultural dance groups, conservation organisations, mountain rescue teams, family support groups, healthy living clubs, arts and music groups, sports teams and youth groups.
For more information or to apply log on to www.btcommunityconnections.com
Shannon Development recently organised a special business function for Dublin based companies and influential management representatives from the accounting, legal, banking and venture capital sectors. The event was designed to forge new business contacts for the Birr Technology Centre, and Shannon Development’s four other Knowledge Network business and technology parks at Thurles, Tralee, Ennis, and Limerick.
Dr Vincent Cunnane, Chief Executive, Shannon Development, and acclaimed Offaly businessman Ray Leonard from Romaquip Ltd, a company based at Shannon Development’s business park in Birr which won a £45stg million UK contract, were key speakers at the event.
Demonstrating to the Dublin business audience that it is possible to work locally in the Shannon Region and still operate globally, Dr Cunnane said:
“Shannon Development’s knowledge network of five business and technology parks in Birr, Limerick, Tralee, Ennis, and Thurles are a vibrant and growing cluster. In 2008 over 20 new companies established businesses at our knowledge network, which employs over 3,000 people. These locations offer a great quality of life, access to third level research and development facilities and a pool of highly skilled graduates, as well as world class business infrastructure and facilities. We made a conscious decision to promote our knowledge network business locations and we are delighted with the response we have received.”
Romaquip Ltd located at Shannon Development’s Syngefield Business Park in Birr Co Offaly, is a manufacturer and supplier of road maintenance equipment, including salt spreaders, snowploughs to Ireland, the UK and continental European markets. They hit the headlines last year as one of two companies that secured a £45stg million contract to supply a new fleet of winter service vehicles to the UK Highways Agency – the largest contract ever awarded by the agency.
 The Easter egg, distributed widely to children at Easter time, symbolises the start of new life, just as when a chick hatches from it’s shell, a new life is born.
The western name for the festival of Easter derives from the Germanic word Eostre. The pre-Christian Saxons had a spring goddess called Eostre, whose feast was held on the 21st March, the Vernal Equinox. Some believe that Eostre was associated with eggs and hares symbolising the rebirth of the land in spring and the more modern introduction of the Easter bunny.
The ancient Persians painted eggs for Nowrooz, their New Year celebration, which falls on each Spring equinox. The Nawrooz tradition has existed for 2,500 years. The decorated eggs are one of the core items to be placed on the Haft Seen, which is the Persian New Year display. The sculptures on the walls of Persepolis show people carrying eggs for Nowrooz, to their king.
It was St. Gregory or Pope Gregory the Great who first ordered his missionaries to make use of old religious sites and festivals, and absorb them into Christian rituals where possible. The Christian celebration of the Resurrection of Christ was ideally suited for merging into the Pagan feast of Eostre, and many of the pagan traditions were then adopted into the Christian Easter festivities, thus encouraging pagans to turn to the Christian faith. It is through this folklore, the association between hares, and eggs originated.
The modern world has seen the introduction of the ‘Virtual Easter egg‘. Latter is an intentional hidden message, which can be secreted into movies, CDs, DVDs and computer programmes. With the rise of cybercrime and the increase in malware, many companies and government offices now forbid the use of software containing Easter eggs for security reasons, as there is now genuine concern that programmers could hide undocumented code, thus making it easy to access stored personal or confidential information.
A happy Easter to all our readers.
Shannon Development have announced the appointment of the Galway based Glenman Corporation Ltd to undertake their €3.5m expansion at the Tipperary Technology Park in Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
Glenman Corporation Ltd was first established in 1994 by brothers Michael and Albert Conneally. The company is widely regarded as one of Ireland’s most progressive General Building and Civil Engineering Contractors with over a decade’s experience of complex and high value projects in a variety of sectors across the building industry. Currently employing 180 permanent employees and a turnover in excess of €70m they have experienced strong steady growth over the past 10 years which they attribute to their ability to complete projects to the highest quality standards within the specified budget and on target.
Announcing the project, the Chief Executive of Shannon Development, Mr Vincent Cunnane stated:
“In turbulent economic times, it is critical that we continue to invest in high-quality infrastructure to entice all potential investors. We must send an unequivocal message to all developers, investors and entrepreneurs that Ireland is still an attractive and competitive business location, with a skilled, highly educated, and flexible workforce. This is why Shannon Development is undertaking this €3.5 investment at our Tipperary Technology Park and by doing so, we are sending a clear message that we are open for business.”
Since the first opening of the Tipperary Technology Park in 2000, Shannon Development has invested approximately €3.8m in developing two buildings presently at the park, thus providing property solutions for indigenous and foreign direct investors. The third building will now bring total investment at the Park to €7.3m.
UPDATE! The IMC Cinema is now open! To see cinema times, pricing and facilities offered by the IMC Cinema in Thurles, please visit our latest article here.
April 9th next, will see the opening of the new five screen IMC Cinema in Thurles, situated at the newly revamped Thurles Shopping Centre
Irish Multiplex Cinemas (IMC), one of Ireland’s leading innovators in the film entertainment business, and RealD, the world’s leading outfitter of 3D-enabled theatres, announced today that IMC will add RealD 3D capabilities to this multiplex location in Thurles. The rollout will begin immediately with completion of all RealD 3D installations expected in April in time for the release of Monsters vs. Aliens (Dreamworks Animation).
Paul Ward, director of IMC said,
“The RealD 3D technology being installed in all IMC Cinemas shows IMC’s commitment to providing not only the best in customer service, but also the best customer enjoyment of the cinema going experience by the early introduction of the newest technological advances available.”
Bob Mayson, managing director of RealD Europe Ltd. said,
“Ireland is an important market for us in Europe and we’re extremely pleased to be working with IMC to outfit all of their multiplex locations. Paul Ward and his team understand the potential of RealD 3D and are grasping the opportunity with both hands.”
RealD uses a single projector that alternately projects the right-eye frame and left-eye frame, and circularly polarizes these frames, clockwise for the right eye and counter clockwise for the left eye, using a liquid crystal screen placed in front of the projector lens. Circularly polarized glasses make sure each eye sees only “its own” picture, even if the head is tilted. The very high frame rate, which is 72 frames per second per eye, makes sure the image looks continuous. In RealD Cinema, each frame is projected three times to reduce flicker.
RealD’s next-generation technology is deployed across the world’s largest 3D platform in more than 34 countries with over 8,000 screens under contract and nearly 2,600 RealD 3D screens today. RealD is the global leader in 3D, bringing the most advanced and realistic digital 3D experience to cinemas worldwide.
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