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A Tipperary student joined forces with his Dublin colleague to take gold at the gala final of the 2014 DARE2BDRINKAWARE.ie competition, held in the Smock Alley Theatre Dublin this week.
The project “Don’t Lose Sleep Over Where You’ll Wake Up,” by DCU students Mr Sam Pearson from Roscrea, Co Tipperary and Miss Aisling Sinclair from Dublin, was championed by Miss Caroline Twohig.
Their campaign which reached audiences of over 165,000 on Facebook and also included a number of elements, including a website, interactive drinks calculator, animation piece and viral video, focused on the real-life consequences arising from excessive alcohol consumption. Their extensive marketing and PR campaign supporting the project resulted in significant coverage across all social media in recent months earning them the gold prize of €3,000 for their efforts and skill.
Perhaps the video above is worth remembering, under the heading “Stay Safe,” when we are out and about enjoying this Bank Holiday Weekend!
The DARE2BDRINKAWARE.ie competition which is organised by drinkaware.ie, saw seven teams short-listed in the competition, each receiving up to €2,000 each to implement their proposed campaigns.
Borrisoleigh Historical Society will continue their successful series of historic lectures in the Community Hall Borrisoleigh, on Wednesday night next, April 30th, at 8.00pm sharp.
The title of this months lecture is “Holycross Abbey & the Medieval Treasures of Holycross,” and same will be delivered by historian and retired school principal Mr. Tom Gallagher, Ballycahill, Thurles. Refreshments as usual will be served.
Holycross Abbey, as most people are aware, is a beautifully restored medieval monastery on the banks of the River Suir here in central Tipperary and since its restoration has now returned to its original roll as a parish church.
Visitors to Holycross Abbey today experience rich history, heritage, folklore and legend, as well as breathtaking art and architecture. A Relic of the Cross has attracted millions of pilgrims from far and wide, since its foundation in 1182 AD. In the Abbey Cistercian art can be observed in the form of the rare ‘Sedilia’ and ‘Waking Bier’ found here, carved in stone. The old bell, called Michael, hangs in the tower and is reputedly the oldest church bell in Ireland, originally cast some 800 years ago. The beautiful outdoor Stations of the Cross are the work of Enrico Manfrini, who also designed His Holiness Pope Francis’ ring.
Here also can be observed the widest range of window patterns and tracery of any medieval building and today boasts the only surviving medieval chapter house doorway in Ireland.
Then of course there is the “Whispering Arch” – but enough from me, instead do drop in on Tom Gallagher’s lecture and prepare to be fascinated by his extensive and detailed knowledge of this great Irish treasure that is, after all, Holycross Abbey, Co Tipperary.
Within effect from May 1st 2014 all Irish motorists caught accessing information on their phones, in particular ‘Texting’ while driving, could face a fine of up to €1,000.
Under these new rules this mandatory fine will rise to a maximum of €2,000 for a second offence, and a possible three-month jail sentence, along with a €2,000 fine, for three offences or more within any one year period.
Please note some people may find this video hereunder upsetting.
Under Irish law it is already illegal to ‘Text’ while driving, however the changes will close off a loophole which could allow people to escape fines and penalties if they were operating a phone resting in a cradle or via a hands-free kit.
Minister for Transport Mr Leo Varadkar has signed this new amendment to existing legislation which will come into effect on May 1st of this year. A spokesperson for the minister stated he wanted to close a possible loophole which could meant that a driver caught ‘Texting’ on a phone resting in a cradle could potentially take a challenge through the Irish court system.
A Department of Transport spokesperson said ‘Texting’ while driving is now considered so serious that no penalty points will be immediately applied to those caught, resulting instead with the offender being summonsed to appear before the courts.
The Road Safety Authority has welcomed the tightening up of this legislation.
“Be bound to one another by the bond of love, respecting, helping, bearing with each other in Jesus Christ.”
(St. Angela Merici, Foundress of the Ursuline Religious Order)
The Ursuline Religious Order (Ursulines of the Roman Union) were and remain a Roman Catholic religious institute for women, founded at Brescia, Italy, by Saint Angela de Merici in November 1535. Their aim was primarily dedicated to the education of girls, while also caring for the sick and needy and bringing about a Christianising influence in existing homes and in the homes which those they came into contact with, would subsequently establish.
From Italy through Europe, this religious order began to expand, eventually spreading to Canada by 1639 and to the New Orleans French Quarter by 1727. (Latter quarter founded on May 7th, 1718, by the French Mississippi Company). Here they became affectionately known as the “Filles du’ Casket,” (Tranlation: “Casket Girls.”) because of the wooden cases which they hauled enthusiastically around, containing their meagre possessions, while in transit from Rouen in northern France to this new colony in the Americas.
Faith and education have been the very cornerstones of Ursuline philosophy since their humble beginnings and those two pillar virtues are as evident today, as they first were when the Order was first established here in Thurles. Former students from the Ursuline Convent in Thurles, today, populate the globe and their achievements in life as academics, as business people, as sporting icons, as musicians and performers, as parents, as wives, as partners and as Sisters, are as many as to quote 1 Kings 4:20 from the Bible; “as numerous as the sand on the seashore.”
The Ursuline Order first arrived in Thurles back in 1787, sixteen years after they were established in Cork. On that date 227 years ago Anastasia Tobin came back to her native Thurles having been professed as Sr. Clare Ursula in the Ursuline Convent, Cork. She took up residence in a little crude thatched cottage on the site of the present convent. Assisted by her sister Mary, she got the required permission from the Protestant Vicar General of the diocese to begin a school, thus establishing the first Catholic School in the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly.
Since then, through changing history, their work of education has continued and expanded. Efforts to be faithful to what is best in their tradition have not prevented them from moving forward as required by a constantly challenging environment.
The aims of the Ursuline Order here in Thurles, over these 227 years, still remain constant as they continue to develop primary and second level students to gain their full potential both academically, physically, socially, and spiritually.
“Glory looking day, glory day, glory looking day,
And all its glory, told a simple way, behold it if you may.”
Lyrics Neil Diamond (Album: Jonathan Livingston Seagull.)
Rural Ireland and in particular Co Tipperary continues to be seen as the ‘Poor Relation,’ or ‘The Lower Order,’ and unworthy of Dublin’s well healed bourgeoisie when it comes to Fáilte Ireland and the fair distribution of taxpayer public funding.
We learn in recent weeks that well over half a million Euro (€620,000 to be precise) is to be spent on developing a number of tourist attractions in our capital city, latter aimed at our discerning International visitors who are only encouraged to stand at the gateway to Ireland. These funded projects are to be part of “Dubline,” a proposed heritage trail which will run across Dublin from East to West along a route roughly selected from College Green to Kilmainham. Proposed tourism projects here in Thurles will once again go unrewarded, not for the first time, with not one single cent of our nations central funding being spent for future tourism promotion.
Amongst these five funded Dublin restoration projects is the repair of a bell, at a cost of almost €18,000, supposedly the first Catholic bell to ring in Dublin in nearly 300 years, breaching the then existing penal laws of the 16th and 17th centuries (same laws were largely ignored in the 18th century) while also providing secure exhibition space for a few miserable artefacts found on the Smock Alley site, latter which will now move from where they are currently housed in the National Museum.
(Note: Despite a meeting in January last, to present date and some nine weeks later, Thurles cannot yet get clarification on the possibility of returning the Derrynaflan Hoard back to its native county, same being required on loan for just two months, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of its finding.)
Here in Thurles, during the years 1804-1862, Archbishop Thomas Bray and later Archbishop Patrick Leahy had no problem ringing the bell at the Big Chapel here in Thurles. The cracked bell at the Smock Alley Theatre, latter which only reopened in 2012, was built originally as a Theatre Royal and now in 2014 lends itself to the myth that Daniel O’Connell rang it to celebrate Catholic Emancipation in 1829. Natives here in Co Tipperary are being now asked to augment this ‘Freedom Bell’ myth, which will be acclaimed as the Dublin equivalent of America’s also cracked ‘Liberty Bell,’ latter that iconic symbol of American Independence, and in the case of the former, therefore worthy of €18,000 of Irish public funding just to remove a few splatters of pigeon poop with a power washer.
Continue reading Thurles History Decays In Favour of ‘Dubline’
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