Video « Thurles Information

A Message For Leaving Cert Students

Irish Leaving Certificate Students got their long awaited results last week.
Helplines were very busy over the past few days as nervous students and their parents called to consult with guidance counsellors manning telephones and offering future hope and assistance.

Per reports approximately 4,000 ordinary level student callers have failed mathamatics. This has left them with very limited college options in 2010.

Another huge issue of concern for many other callers was the level of points needed for all hoped for courses next Monday. Points are set to increase for many courses, particularly in the medical and other related areas. But points are also set to fall for courses linked to the building industry, for architecture and for law.

However for many, an anxious few days lie ahead, as they await the publications of the college place offers from the CAO,expected next Monday morning at six o’clock.
For those of you who are anxious or feeling let down by life take a look at this video.

Sometimes, in life, it is necessary for a man with no shoes to meet a man with no feet.
So if you don’t attain, immediatly, your hoped-for expectations, don’t worry, pick yourself up and give it another go.
You will succeed if you follow that which you hold passionate, so dream big.

Where There’s A Will There’s A Way

Hello you animal lovers out there. Meet ‘Missy‘ the tiny eight week old pup from Thurles, who thinks she is a cat.

The Great Escape (One Dog’s Interpretation) from G Butler on Vimeo.

Highly intelligent ‘Missy’ is the only daughter of a female Cocker Spanial called ‘Sandy’ and was conceived following a one night unscheduled liaison with an unidentified black Labrador Retriever.

Abandoned by her mother, at just four weeks, for continuously acting the pup, Missy was hand reared by her owner and now prefers the human touch to those of the canine variety.

Just like most women, Missy has a mind of her own and as you saw from this video clip, is very head strong when it comes to being caged, in her four foot high wired dog compound.

I wonder if we had a word with her could she help us find a solution to our present economic problems.

Phoenix Productions Recipe – Oliver Highlights

Phoenix Production – Oliver Highlights 2010 from George Willoughby on Vimeo.

The recipe for any outstanding musical performance, guaranteed to pack a theatre every night, is really quite simple.

Ingredients:
1 X Aishling Doyle (Director/Choreographer). 1 X David Wray (Musical Director). 1 X Gerard O’Brien (Producer). 1 X Trevor Killeen (Production Manager). 1 X Gerry Taylor (Lighting Designer). 1 each X Siobhan King and Mairead Hackett (Dance Captains). 1 X John O’Donoghue (Stage Design). 1 each X Alan Butler and Jack Rossiter (Stage Managers). 1 X Star Systems (Sound). 60 X 1 X Talented Youngsters (Cast)

Directions:
Mix the above ingredients together into a fine paste.
Sprinkle with a fine mixture of locally trained, talented and dedicated Make Up Artists, Stage Constructors and clever General Go – Fors, and stirr well and continuously for six weeks.
Cook’s note:
The result is an outstanding musical theatre production called “Oliver” worthy of playing in London’s West End or on New York’s Broadway.
Our video above, prepared earlier, demonstrates a few of the personalities and highlights and out sincerest congratulations to all those talented individuals involved.

Peter Sutcliffe To Remain In Prison

Peter William Sutcliffe, better known as ‘The Yorkshire Ripper‘, whose great grandfather Edward Coonan came from Tipperary in Ireland and who was jailed in 1981 for the murders of 13 women, will live out his life behind bars.

The British High Court has now ruled that the infamous serial killer will never be released despite having served 29 of his 30-year sentence. The courts believe that he remains a menace to society.

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Just last year Peter Sutcliffe changed his name to Peter Coonan, in an effort to show off his Tipperary roots. Aged 63, Sutcliffe has now served 28 years of a 30 year imposed sentence and is eligible for parole next year. At the time, British police thought the Yorkshire Ripper was Irish because several of his targeted victims who escaped stated he spoke with an Irish accent. It was because of this claim that several Irish men were actually arrested in England during the manhunt in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Irish TV presenter Garry MacDonncha who investigated the allegations as part of a documentary for RTE, Ireland’s national broadcaster, stated:
“Sutcliffe’s great grandfather, Edward Coonan… came over from Tipperary in the 1860s. We did track down his branch of the Coonans to around Ardcroney and Cloughjordan in Tipperary.”

River Suir – Water Lilies And Mute Swans

Our local water ways, namely the river Suir, which flows through the town of Thurles and the Cabragh Wetlands on the outskirts of the town, are particularly attractive at this time of year.

The native White Water Lily (Nymphaea alba) and the invasive Yellow flag Iris (Iris pseudacorus) are in full bloom in Cabragh Wetlands, while on the river Suir our year round resident Mute Swans (Dan and Doris) have finally introduced their surviving three cygnets, hatched in mid May, to the local residents.

The male (called a Cob), and the female (called a Pen) birds, usually attempt to mate for life, although it is not true to say that if one of the birds were to die, that the other would necessarily pine away. It is very possible for an adult bird to find an alternative mate.

Their nest is a huge mound of mixed material, normally assorted vegetation, consisting of sticks dried grasses and rushes, are constructed at the water’s edge. The nest is built by the female, while the male supplies the materials.

The female lays up to seven eggs between late April and early May. Both sexes incubate the eggs, which hatch within 35-41 days. The young birds (called cygnets) sometimes ride playfully on their parents’ backs as seen in this video clip.

June On The River Suir, Thurles, Co Tipperary, Ireland. from George Willoughby on Vimeo.

The youngsters remain with the adult birds for four or five months before being driven from the breeding ground in mid Autumn.

Swans normally find enough food in the wild without supplementary feeding. It is only in freezing weather that extra food can be helpful. Many people like feeding bread to swans and while this is unlikely to do them any real harm in the long term, it is no substitute for the proper diet that the birds themselves will seek out. Grain, such as wheat, and vegetable matter, especially lettuce and potatoes, can be fed to swans.

Food should be thrown into the water to avoid encouraging the young birds onto the bank, thus putting their lives in danger.

A visit to Cabragh Wetlands is such a peaceful experience and for those who enjoy a closeness with nature, it is well worth a visit, particularly in the evening time.

Music used in the video clip is by Johannes Brahms, entitled “The Cradle Song”.