LOCAL NEWS

LOCAL NEWS

PAGE LAST UPDATED 08/11/09 17:09

KEATING’S LONDIS WINS NATIONAL AWARD
Keating’s Londis Plus, Cobh was presented with the inaugural Londis “Store of the Year” award at the recent Londis Retailing Excellence Awards 2009 held at The Heritage Golf and Spa Resort, Killenard recently.
These prestigious awards, hosted by well known TV personality, Grainne Seoige recognise stores that maintain exceptional standards in-store and who received outstanding results during the Retailing Excellence store audits.
Commenting on this year’s Awards Stephen O’Riordan, Chief Executive ADM Londis said,
“I would like to pay particular tribute to Ray and Maura Keating and their team in Keating’s Londis Plus, Cobh for a stellar performance this year. Their dedication to the needs of their local customers has served them well over the years. They are very deserving winners of the Londis Store of the Year 2009 accolade”.
The store was well represented at the event with Ray and Maura delighted to collect the thoroughly deserved award.
On collecting the award, Maura paid tribute to the store’s fantastic staff and in particular their exceptionally strong team ethos which contributes significantly to the success of the business in the local Cobh community. Maura also thanked Londis Retail Development Manager, Leo Jones for his enthusiasm and dedication to supporting their business.
The Londis Group is very proud of this Cobh store, the range of products, the quality of fresh foods and exceptional in-store standards clearly mark Keating’s as a flagship store within the Group.
Store Manager Dave Cussen together with Eileen Griffin and the wider team give their customers a unique shopping experience day in and day out.The people of Great Island also recognise the quality of Keating’s Londis and the store’s emphasis on customer service is rewarded by their very loyal, local customer base.
It is important that we support our native businesses, they are the ones who give employment to our fellow citizens, support the many fundraisers and community events, and show their customers care and respect. These shops are part of the fabric of our rich community life. Mary O’Connor

“GOSSIP SPICE, WHO’S UP TO WHAT ON GREAT ISLAND”
# Birthday wishes to Mark Ryan, Coolamber, who will be 18 on November 7. Also, congratulations to his brother Andrew Michael who graduates as a Civil Engineer from CIT. Love from Mam, Dad and Geoffrey.
# A little boy aged lost his black Nintendo DS with a Super Mario game in it. It was lost between the Coffee Stop and the Promenade on Wednesday 28th of October. If you found it please call 087 7686277.

CHANGE OF DEADLINE FOR G.I.C.N
New DEADLINE - FRIDAY at 6pm.The change is due to new printing times.
We regret any inconvenience caused to our subscribers. Only Lotto results will be accepted after Friday.

Christmas Arts and Crafts Fair
Great Island Community Centre is holding an Arts and Crafts Fair on Sunday December 6 from 11am - 6pm.
This is an unique opportunity for local artists to display and promote their crafts along with those form outside Cobh.
As great interest is being shown in this event, early booking is advisable.
For application forms and more information contact 086 8409355 / 4815904.

FABULOUS FASHION SHOW AT COLAISTE MUIRE
The Colaiste Muire Fashion Show, which was held at the Community Centre recently, was a resounding success.
The students of the TY Class modelled like professionals and the teachers were a big hit with the audience as they strutted their stuff on the catwalk. Compere for the evening and mentor to the students was Cobh’s Lady of Fashion, Claire Cullinane.
The event showcased the fabulous fashions on offer here in our stores in Cobh, and proved, once again, that you do not have to leave the island to find quality and good value. Mary O’Connor

SINEAD CALLS FOR SUPPORT FOR LEISURE CENTRE
“I would like to bring to your attention 2 items on my agenda which are coming up on a regular basis both by phone and at my door. These issues are ongoing at the moment and I wanted to share my views with the public.
Firstly, to rewind the clock a little to canvassing for the elections, there was so much going on with the closure of the leisure centre-Swimming Pool that at every door I knocked on it was top of the list. As many were aware, there was so much support at the time with many meeting in order to save the facility. As a member of our new Coral Leisure Centre/swimming pool, I feel that the people need to continue this support, especially with the run up to Christmas.
Many offers are available for people with single & family memberships, fantastic lunch time offers and tailored classes running daily with pay as you go options etc. I feel that with such a fight to keep the centre open people now believe that things will run smoothly and closure will not happen again but to do this they need to be guaranteed the support of the local people.
I have discussed this matter with them and currently they are not receiving enough support. If it should happen that the centre should close again we will all be out on the roads running and not in the comfort of our beautiful centre with the experts to guide and support us.
This brings me on to NOT the roads we run on, but the roads we are parking on. Parking issues in Cobh are being re-negotiated and I strongly believe that the one hour parking has to stay as it will be detrimental to our local businesses should it go.
There have been many proposals over the last few weeks and the 1 hour FREE parking is the one thing that has to remain with no clauses attached. This is not only for the public but for the businesses of the town centre to thrive, and move through this recession that is hitting all communities in Ireland. Firstly we have to begin to shop local and keep the locals in their jobs by not forcing people to drive to neighbouring towns for their shopping for their shops to thrive due to no parking fees.” Councillor Sinead Sheppard

Friday’s Rural Transport Service, Walterstown – Ballymore – Cobh
Earlier this year a new rural transport service was started operating in the rural areas of Walterstown and Ballymore into Cobh on Friday each week. It departs at 10am and returns at circa 12.30 currently. Unfortunately current passenger numbers are too low to sustain this service going forward. However if additional people are interested in using this service please contact our office by Wednesday 11th November to find out more (021-4613432 or rlennon@secad.ie).
This service is open to people from both the existing rural areas covered already and other rural areas on the Great Island. Anyone with a Free Travel Pass can travel free. It is with regret that if there has been no further passenger uptake by 11th November we will have to cease this service from 13th November onwards.
We would like to thank all of those who have supported this service thus far, Ballymore Community Association for their work, Butlers Buses for operating the service on our behalf and the passengers who have used the service.
All passengers are registered with SECAD and seats are booked in advance.

Scoil Iósaef Naofa – School Walk
Our Annual School Walk took place on Sunday 11th October. A large crowd turned out on what was a lovely morning for a walk! We would like to thank all the walkers, the sponsors and the following people who helped out on the day –Bryan Ryan, Matt McCarthy, Br. Athanasius, Stephen & Gavin Minihane, Aine Farrell, Tina McKeown & Pat Bransfield.
Thanks also to the following drinks companies for providing much needed refreshment during the walk! – Pepsi & Nash.
Here are the results of the sponsors’ draw – 1st (€60) Yvonne Roche, 2nd (€40 Shopping Voucher) Rory Galvin, 3rd (€25 Petrol Voucher) Gretta Lynch, 4th (Large Box of Chocolates) Tom Doyle, 5th (Bottle of Wine) Grace O’Driscoll. The money raised will be of great benefit in furthering the education of all the pupils. Míle buíochas.

SABRINA RETURNS TO HOME
Cobh audiences were surprised last week when Cobh native, Sabrina Piggott returned to Sirius Arts Centre to wow audiences with her talent on the 10 of October. Her performance included an astounding collection of talented original compositions that left the audience speechless but filled the gallery with resounding applause.
This was one of those special nights that will be talked about for years to come leaving future fans disappointed that they missed their chance to experience Sabrina’s magic in the intimate environs of the Sirius. This girl is destined for much bigger audiences and future acclaim. Many in the audience were familiar with Sabrina from her beginnings in Cobh, but identified her only as the family “bodhran whiz” and were stunned upon hearing her collection of simple but powerful original compositions.
Fusing her traditional background with the primal djembe drumming of Mark Taylor and the heavy Metal cello of David Hornberger, her performance grew in power over the evening’s performance.
Sabrina Piggott was performing at Sirius to celebrate the launch of her new CD “Sunny spells & Scattered showers” (available for purchase at the Roaring Donkey pub). Raised in Cobh Sabrina left for England in 1996 to continue with her teaching career and is currently chairperson of the Irish Arts Foundation in Leeds. Her performance at Sirius was a special treat which will hopefully be repeated again in the not too distant future.

DEATHS: John O'Grady Manchester and late of Spike Island. Ceclia Murphy (nee Carson), 60 Belmont Pl. Robert Ward, Beausite, Rushbrooke.

Darts Results on Friday 30th October
Gilmore’s A (2:5) Jack Doyle’s B (2:5), Tarrant’s (1:6) Village Inn B, Quarry Cock B (6:1) Gilmore’s A, Village Inn A (3:4) Mauretania A, Ballymore (5:2) Rob Roy Bar, Jack Doyle’s A (2:5) Quarry Cock B.
Standings: Top: Village Inn B(37 pts), Jack Doyle’s B(32 pts), GAA(27 pts), Gilmore’s B(20 pts), Tarrant’s(10 pts).
Middle: Pirates(30 pts), Quarry B (29 pts), Village Inn A(25 pts), Mauretania(21 pts), Gilmore’s A (21 pts).
Bottom: Quarry A(25pts), Ballymore(22pts), Jack Doyle’s A(20pts), Rob Roy(17pts).
Darts News: Impressive 5:2 wins for both Ballymore and the Quarry Cock A over the Rob Roy and Jack Doyle’s A respectively, saw them both progress to the final of their section and secure promotion to the Middle section of Cobh Darts. Congratulations to both teams.
The Final of the Village Inn Shield will be played on Saturday 7th November at 8:30pm.

COBH HOCKEY CLUB
Only Div 4 were in action last weekend when they travelled to take on Ashton. Cobh really took the game to the home side in the first half and put together some great moves. One of these paid off when some great passing between the forwards lead to new team member Katie Murphy scoring her first goal for the team. Cobh continued to take it to Ashton but just could not put it away with the Ashton goalie pulling off some great saves.
Ashton however equalised just before half time with a well taken short corner. The second half saw Ashton come into the game a bit more but with the Cobh defence so strong they could not score. Despite Cobh's best efforts and some very frustrating umpiring from the inexperienced Ashton umpire the game ended 1-1.

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