18th April, 2002
Notice
Board
ENHANCE THE BEAUTY OF YOUR HOME
According to
Estate Agents all our homes could do with some improvements on
the outside. It may not be a necessary improvement but its
something each and every homeowner desire’s. Yes we would
certainly love to enhance the appearance of our homes, especially
if it makes them more pleasing to the eye, and which of course in
turn adds a lot to the value of our property.
Windows are probably one of the main architectural feature of any
house, something most people take for granted. But if the windows
are not really in peak condition then your home may loose some of
its appeal. We all know the feeling. Taking care of it is another
issue. It’s not a problem; it’s just a chore. If only
we had time to study it and explore all the possible solutions.
Now there is a very simple way to enhance the appearance of you
home and improve its value; Fit shutters. Shutters enhance the
beauty of your home. They are used to ‘dress a house up’
by adding some colour and relief to an otherwise plain façade.
The effect can be dramatic.
Shutters are not new, they have long been a stylish and pleasing
feature to add to any house or home, so much so that during the
18th Century Georgian Architects incorporated them into their
original design to the extent that today we consider shutters a
classic feature of Georgian Architecture. But Georgian shutters
were made from timber and the high maintenance cost of these
decorative features and the increasing replacement costs led to a
decline in homes boasting of this characteristic. Until now that
is.
Esteem Shutters are manufactured from high quality UPVC. They are
made in four different widths and have a variety of styles and
colours. They are maintenance free and quick and easy to install
and remove. Once in place they will add charm and character to
your property and increase the overall appeal of your home;
something Americans aptly call “Kerb Appeal”
SKATEBOARDING PARK FOR DOUGLAS ...
Since writing my letter to the Weekly in March, with regard to
the children who “ live to breathe” skateboarding. I
would like to take this opportunity to let people know what has
developed since then.
A group of parents kindly responded to my letter. They were
Margaret McKeogh, Pat Murphy, Brenda Comerford, Eilish and
Frances Murphy of the Douglas Weekly. We contacted Deirdre Forde
who thoughtfully took time out of her busy schedule to lend us
her support.
Our main aim is to set up a facility or area either public or
private in Douglas where our children can enjoy this much-loved
sport. So far we have had two meetings. We have discussed
financial and area allocation for this facility.
Louisa Heckett owner of Primetime and the ‘Skatepark’
on Patrick’s Quay came along to the second meeting. Louisa
has been very helpful in offering her expertise to us with regard
to outlays and costs of such a facility.
We very much appreciated Louisa giving us her advice and time.
Also at the second meeting were Grace O’Sullivan, Sheila
White, Colette McCarthy, Brian Murphy B.Civ.Eng and Eilish
Tollman.
We are at present investigating the County Councils Public
private partnership Enterprise scheme as well as looking for a
site / warehouse which could be used for this project. We will
also be speaking to the Douglas Community Association re-the
possibility of putting some small ramps into Douglas Park. We
would be delighted is anyone can help us along the way in this
venture. We are a large population here in Douglas and I feel we
owe it to our children especially our Teenagers who have nowhere
to go to enjoy this much-loved activity. As parents we have the
responsibility to provide a safe and friendly environment in
their own community. I will let you know when the next meeting
will be.
Thank you for your attention
Regards, Patsy Smith
BATT O'KEEFFE WRITES ...
Douglas – A Pilot Transport
The traffic situation in Douglas is on the lips of every resident
in the area and while we will be spending € 330,000 in
improving traffic flow in Douglas this year. It is noteworthy
that when schools are closed, traffic moves much more freely in
Cork City and it's environs. This must mean that the transporting
of children to schools is having a detrimental effect on traffic
congestion at peak traffic times. There have been suggestions of
changing school opening times but this would affect parents who
are working and who can at present synchronise work and school
times. There must be a better way. I call for a pilot project to
be undertaken between Cork County Council, Bus Eireann and
private bus operators and schools in the vicinity of Douglas to
establish a transport service to the various estates in Douglas
which would transfer school children to their respective schools
and which would reduce dramatically the enormous numbers of
additional cars in the early morning in particularly.
I am pleased that my colleagues in the Carrigaline Area Committee
endorsed my proposal unanimously and the matter will now go
before the full Council for ratification. I am hoping for a very
positive public response to the suggestion and in particular, I
am seeking a proactive response from Bus Eireann.
CROSSHAVEN - DEVELOPMENT DILEMMA
The prospect of the immediate initiation of the Crosshaven sewage
scheme and Square enhancement received a major jolt yesterday,
when it was revealed that even though tenders have been received
from the project it may not be able to move ahead.
The sale of Crosshaven House and the adjoining land, part of
which was to be taken over by Cork County Council, has been sold
according to Asst. County Manager, Donal Barrett. This may mean
that negotiations which were ongoing between the Development
Association in Crosshavon and Cork County Council are at an end
and the Council may now be faced with negotiating with the new
owners to obtain the necessary land which is an absolute
necessity as it forms part of the enhancement at the Square
programme.
How could this be allowed to occur? Why did Cork County Council
not indicate to the Development Associaton that the section of
the land required for the enhancement of the square should not be
sold? This is ridiculous as it may delay a badly needed upgrading
of Crosshaven and could prove very costly for the Council In
trying to acquire the land from the new owners.
There would be immediate contact with Crosshaven Development
Association to establish if contracts have been signed and if
not, to try and ensure that the section of land required would be
taken out of contract pending agreement between the association
and the CouncIl.
The County Manager Donal Barrett put a sting in the tail when he
declared that the € 5O,O00 given towards the re-roofing of
Crosshaven House would be reclaimed from the proceeds of the sale
of the house.
Carrigaline Youth Initiative
The Carrigaline Youth initiative which was co-ordinated by the
Gardal with local voluntary groups is to receive € 66,487
under the Cork Local Drugs Taskforce. The money will be used to
divert young people in Carrigaline from involement or risk of
involvement in drugs or alcohol abuse. It will focus on changing
attitudes on the acceptability on drugs and drink with young
people and will provide a counselling service for young people
involved in the project, for their parents and families and will
also develop supports for young people at risk.
The Initiative will involve the employment of a Project Worker as
Co-Ordinator. This is an extremely welcome development., Working
closely with Mr. Barry Cogan M.C.C., Carrigaline in obtaining
this funding we had been at pains to point out to the Minister
the importance of such supports within the community and I am
delighted that the consultation process which has involved the
Garda Siochana, the Schools, the Community Association and other
voluntary organisations and local businesses will bring a
partnership approach which will guarantee the success of the
project
In a town which has a population of up to 6000 young people, it
is important that intervention by professionals would be in place.
I am delighted to be part of the initiative.
Frankfield Flower & Garden Club
The second spring meeting will be
held on April 24th at 8PM in the Grange / Frankfield Community
Centre. The club will host Mrs Kay Ronayne as the demonstrator
for the evening. Kay will give a talk and demo on flower
arranging including ideas for weddings and home décor. Members
please note change in schedule.
A.O.I.F.A News
At the AGM it was announced that € 110, 913.10 was given to
the last charity nominated be members of 104 Flower Clubs
throughout Ireland, namely the Arthritis Foundation. € 900.00
from Frankfield.
This year the charity nominated by clubs for 2000 – 2002 is
the Irish Heart Foundation. Frankfield will be holding various
demos in aid of the above charity.
Come along on Wednesday 24th and enjoy an evening of complete
enjoyment. Visitors welcome. Refreshments available
NOTICE BOARD
Music in Carrigaline Library
The monthly Gramophone Recital will take place in Carrrigaline
Library on Thursday April 18th. at 11.00 a.m. Mr.Eddie Hogan will
present his selection of music and a very pleasant morning is
guaranteed. Admission is free and refreshments are provided. All
are welcome .
Are You A North Pres Girl ?
The Past Pupils Union of the North Presentation Secondary School
have organised a meeting in the school on Thurs. 25th April. If
you are interested in meeting friends from your schooldays please
come along to the meeting in the School Library of north Pres,
Farranree at 8.PM.
John O’Riordan, Principal, 021-4303330
Garden Plant Sale
A garden plant Sale in aid of St Lukes Home takes place on
Saturday 27th April from 10.00 to 12.00 at St Lukes Home , Castle
Road, Mahon. Raffles etc. Tea / Coffee € 2.
50 Years of Scouting
17th –51st Cork Blackrock C.S.I. are hosting a Supper Dance
in the Country Club Hotel on Friday 26th April. Music is by The
Diamonds with plenty of entertainment and spot prizes. The
starting time is 8.30. The are a number of ticket outlets, if you
want to make enquiries ; ring Kay ( Leader) ‘ 021 429 4635.
Approximately 7,000 members have enjoyed scouting in Blackrock in
the last 50 years, all are welcome.
Gaelscoil Fundraiser
Image and Style Night presented by Claire Cullinane as seen on R.T.E.'s
"Off the Rails" (colour and style analysis, make-up,
hair etc.) on Thursday, April 25th, 2002 at 8.00p.m. in
Rochestown Park Hotel.Tickets at 10 euro available from Gaelscoil
an Athar Tadhg Murch South Douglas Rd. Tel. 4364193 or at door on
night. All proceeds in aid of school extension.
Coffee Morning
In St, Columba’s Hall on Friday 19th April @ 11 AM. Proceeds
in aid of Brothers of Charity Bungalow 8, for a minibus. Music by
Steve Goodman. Spot prizes galore.
East Cork Choral Society
East cork Choral Society will present mozart’s vespera,
haydn’s nelson mass and a Viola and organ Concerto by
michael Haydn in Sy Finbarres’s Cathedral on Saturday April
29th @ 8PM. Tickets from Pro Musica and St Finbarres’s
cathedral Society members.
The Ileostomy, Colostomy and Internal Pouch Support Group
Meeting first Tuesday of each month at the Garda Sports &
Social Club, Penrose Wharf. 8.30 PM -10.00 PM Everyone Welcome.
Contact Rose 021 887281 after 6.00PM
National Symphony Orchestra in Cork City
The current tour offers a rare opportunity to see the renowned
Russian conductor Alexander Anissimov at City Hall on tonight
Thursday 18th April at 8 p.m. He will conduct the National
Symphony Orchestra in a work that has become famous in the
history of the former Soviet Union.
ARMY WALK FOR LIFE
The Walk for Life was started in
1995 from Youghal to Cork. The project was to provide safe
shelter for street children of Brazil who otherwise would have
been involved in prostitution and drugs. This was co-funded with
Trocaire.
The Second walk was in 1997 was for a drop-in centre for orphaned
children in Gikongoro town, Rwanda. This project was chosen
because members of the Defence Forces from Collins Barracks, Cork
had worked with these children in co-operation with Trocaire,
after the 1994 genocide.
Third walk in 1998 was from Macroom to Cork. The projects were -
Grinding Mills for a rural women’s development project in
Honduras and a leadership-training centre in Nigeria, which is
run by Sr. Colette Corvin.
Fourth walk in 1999 was from Crosshaven to Cork for emergency
relief projects in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch devastated that
country. The second project was for Sr. Ann Tully who works with
children who have AIDS, in a Nairobi slum in Kenya.
Fifth walk on the 15th July 2000 was for a proposed treatment
programme for Burkitts Lymphoma, which is a curable form of
cancer that attacks young children throughout Africa. In Tanzania
a pilot project was run which enabled 367 children to receive
treatment for this horrific disease. The second project was to
provide blankets, sheets, two rocking chairs, two camp beds,
three (sound of nature baby eggs) - all specific items for the
Special Baby Care Unit at St. Finbarrs Hospital, Cork.
The Sixth Walk in 2001 funded the same projects. The Burkitts
Lymphoma Project in Tanzania and equipment for the Special Baby
Care unit of St. Finbarrs Hospital. In addition funding went to
Uganda which has been one of the worst hit countries in Africa
for the AIDS epidemic and Masaka Diocese in particular. It is
estimated that there are one million children in Uganda who have
lost one or both parents as a result of this disease. These
children help have been cruelly treated by fate and as such are
the most vulnerable, living in conditions of extreme poverty, so
are excluded from the educational system (education in Uganda is
not free).
Last years walk raised in excess of €26,000.
FILM REVIEW by Aoife Barry
CROSSROADS
Those popstars, eh? Not content
with attempting to rule the airwaves, they have to go and try and
break into the world of acting too – and usually with
variable results. Some of their thespian antics will stay
confined to the bottom shelf in your local video store (notable
singer-turned-actor no-nos: Madonna, Vanilla Ice), while some
have managed the transition from stage to screen with certain
panache (Ice Cube –now in Law and Order: SVU, Whitney
Houston –well, even if she couldn’t act, the film did
well!). Ms. Britney Spears is, of course, the latest of these
wannabe actors, and it was not without a smirk and sceptical mind
that I toddled along to the cinema on Monday night to watch her
effort, the girly chick-flick, Crossroads.
The idea for the film, which is basically a ‘coming of age’
story about three teenage girls who go on a road-trip, with a (not
very ugly) young man, and along the way rediscover their
friendship, was thought up by Britney herself, although it was
not written by her. The three young girls in question, all-time
good girl (surely no type-casting then…) Lucy, played by
Britney herself, her heavily pregnant pal Mimi and homecoming
queen and ex-‘fat-camp’ attendee Kit, hitch a ride with
bad boy Ben (Anson Mount) to Hollywood, each with their separate
reasons for leaving the small town they grew up in. The trip
comes about after the three girls meet at midnight on graduation
night to dig up a ‘wish box’ they buried when they were
ten. In the eight years since they buried the box, the girls have
grown apart: over-achiever Lucy feels stifled by her father; Kit
is engaged and has become the most popular girl in high school;
Mimi is with child and ostracised by her peers as a result. So,
no prizes for guessing that their deciding to road-trip together
is not without the occasional spat – and sentimental
reconciliation, of course.
With a plot that is unlikely to make Scorcese quake in his boots,
Crossroads is still able to redeem itself by not trying to be any
more intelligent than it already is. The subplots concerning Lucy
and her absent mother, Kit’s shaky engagement and Mimi’s
impending childbirth are handled sensitively and in a simplistic
manner, the age of the average viewer (my friends and I not
included!) taken into consideration. Acting is not half as bad as
I expected it to be – in fact, if anything, Britney is the
most credible and competent actor among the three girls, while
Anson Mount (Ben) is an accomplished actor in his own right, and
admittedly quite easy on the eye, even with the silly name.
The first three-quarters of the film is good, not The Godfather
by any means, or even ‘Now and Then’ (how I worshipped
that film when I was 15!), but it goes along at a nice, even pace.
But then, just as you’re beginning to warm to the chirpy
crew and their N*SYNC-loving ways, it happens. The film enters
The Cheese Zone. As Lucy sits next to scruffy old Ben at a
campfire they’ve constructed for the night, the film begins
to whiff of old, gone off Stilton. For most of the film, we have
seen Lucy scribble away in a notebook, what we hoped were her
thoughts on Sartre’s existentialist beliefs, world peace or
even how cute Ben’s legs were. But, of course, Ben has to
ask her what she’s been writing, and our illusions are
shattered when she replies it is ‘just some poetry’ -
and goes on to read her latest work, ‘I’m Not a Girl,
Not Yet a Woman’, which goes along the lines of ‘I’m
not a girl, not….’ – I think you get the picture.
It is terrible, cringe-making, nausea-inducing stuff, only made
worse when musician Ben goes on to –I kid you not- compose
the piano part for the song, which Lucy, of course, sings along
to while pretending she’s never heard it before. Awful!
But I can say that the karaoke scene, where Lucy and co. sing
Joan Jett’s eighties classic ‘I Love Rock and Roll’,
and the scene following Lucy’s reuniting with her mother are
good enough to take our mind off the cheese for a little while.
Of course, no review of this film is complete without the
obligatory reference to the fact Lucy also spends a lot of her
time in her underwear, in what appears to be an attempt to
convince the world that obesity is not rife in the US – or
it could be all in the aid of increasing the audience numbers, I’m
not too sure. But I can assure you that her ‘perfect’
body didn’t decrease my interest in my popcorn and pick
’n’ mix sweets, although I can’t say the same for
the rest of the audience, many of whom I saw prodding their
stomachs on the way out. Even though it is plainly clear that no
real teenagers are the bearers of bodies quite like the girls in
this film; it’s nigh on impossible to separate Lucy from
Britney Spears, (the end scene particularly concreting the belief
that the film was used to boost record sales), and even bearing
in mind the dreadful over-dubbing of some of the dialogue and
singing, the film still has its charms. It’s fun, light-hearted
and will not be in any way detrimental to Britney’s career.
So go see it and you’ll enjoy yourself – but know that
you may feel the need to renew your gym membership afterwards.
Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.
6/10
MINI-MUSIC COMES TO CARRIGALINE
It can make you excited and make
you want to jump and dance, or maybe tranquil, making you want to
sit and reflect. Music has no language barriers and what a
wonderful way to communicate with babies who haven't yet learnt
to speak. Val Davin's MINI MUSIC is designed specifically for
babies and toddlers, and it brings all the magic, and the
benefits of music to very young children. Val, who was running
MINI MUSIC for more than five years in London, has just recently
moved to Carrigaline, and these wonderful sessions are now
available for One ¼ hours a week to infants (0 - 15 months) and
toddlers (15 months - 4 years).
Each session combines singing (and Val has a wonderful voice -
very appealing to young children) with actions, movement/dance
and rhythm. Val also plays the flute, which fascinates even the
youngest of listeners.
The magic of MINI MUSIC is that babies can learn so much without
even being aware that they are learning. Music has been proven to
relax people who are distressed, as well as stimulating those who
are unresponsive. Music helps to extend concentration and memory,
to increase co-ordination between hand and eye, and through
clapping, dancing and action songs, to speed up
balancing and movement skills with hands and feet. Music also
teaches timing, rhythm, the difference between loud and soft and
quick and slow. This increases awareness, patience and the
ability to learn.
Even tiny babies respond to music - often at first by being
soothed to sleep. After a few weeks they prefer to be awake and
gradually become aware of the other babies, and at a few months
the baby, now more aware and alert, may start to 'sing' and move
with the music. When they start to crawl, some come up close to
hear the flute playing, and try to mimic the actions of
favourite songs.
Somewhere between 13 and 17 months, the toddler is ready to move
on to a more active environment, and the older group encourages
them to respond to the music and songs in their own way (they're
not restricted to sitting still). It won't be long now before
they are able to remember the actions and words to many songs and
rhymes.
One mother commented, “What I love about MINI MUSIC is that
it is completely child-centred, a time and space especially for
children. This reminds me to slow down, and do things at the
baby's pace for a while.”
Another exclaimed, “I knew my son would love it, but I had
no idea that I’d have so much fun too!”
An important element of MINI MUSIC is the time for mums/carers as
well. After each 45 minute class, there is 30 minutes for
refreshments and time for the adults to talk. Conversations are
always very animated.
The infant sessions take place on Wednesdays, the toddler
sessions on Mondays (including 4 Bank Holidays a year, when dads
and older siblings are able to join in the fun) at Carrigaline
Community Complex, Church Road from 10am to 11.15.
