15th August, 2002
Notice
Board
Cork Comfort for Cancer Support Group
The Annual fundraising Ceili of the Cork Comfort for Cancer Support Group was held in the Carrigaline GAA Pavilion on Thursday August 8th last. There was a fabulous crowd turned up on the night for a most enjoyable evenings entertainment laid on by the Owenabue Valley Traditional Group and the Kiely Walsh Academy of Dance. There was a special presentation made to Finbarr O'Leary who raised almost €600 of the €1500 raised in total for which we are deeply indebted. Our prayers and thanks go out to all of you that contributed or helped in anyway.
Boyhood Days of Yore
by Ger O'Regan - Part 11
By Ger O’Regan.
Halfway into my teen years, I was invited to partake of a 3 week
tour of middle Europe, this was to be the first of many 'outside'
trips but the head always belonged to Ireland and to Cork and
always, even when on holiday a longing to see home again and
Ballinlough.
The 3 week tour was for the main a camping trip with 11women 4
guys and 4 priests. It began with the crossing to Swansea a drive
through the night to Ramsgate in Kent and then the following
morning, the hovercraft to Calais. What a machine!, every bone in
my body shook. Then on to' Ypres' to see its World War I battle
damaged cathedral. We slept somewhere but don’t ask me where.
Next stop for 3 nights was "The Racing Club of Paris”,
visiting all the sights including the Eiffel tower and Tivoli
gardens. From Paris to Taize where I was astounded by the size of
the tents.
To Grenoble then Eastwards and climbing for the French-Italian
Alps with temperatures in the high 20’s. Camped by the side
of the road just below the summit on the Italian side and above
'Susa', it was then downward all the way to Pisa and its famous
tower before continuing towards the 5 day stopover in Rome. I
loved the Eternal City. We camped in the grounds of the Irish
college near St. John Laterno and close to the Collesium. With
temperatures soaring to the 30’s, the college had its own
outdoor swimming pool, which was well used. Vatican City is a
most beautiful place with priceless artefacts and its here that I
stop recollecting to make a personal statement - every day in
this fair city of ours and on the TV, the box is always out for
donations, the same applies to church gate and inside church
collections. I have also seen the priceless artefacts on display
in St. Peters and in its vaults. It is a well known fact that
when we die, we cannot take any treasures with us, my faith is
strong thankfully and my belief in prayer is even greater but in
order to save the starving people of this world why not sell 2 or3
or these priceless artefacts, but then that’s only my
opinion. I saw pope Pius at his residence in Castle Gondolfo and
visited the tombs or St. Francis and St. Teresa north or Assissi.
We arrived in Switzerland through 'The Great St.Bernard Tunnel’
from Milan and camped on the shores or Lake Geneva near Charlie
Chaplins home in ‘Vey-Vey'. We were there when President
Eamon de Valera died in l975.
From Switzerland it was back to Cork via Lichtenstein, Calais,
Holly Head and Dublin - great to be home from a huge adventure. l984,
1985, I989 and I992 saw me in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma,
Massachusetts, Pennysylvania, Indiana and Kentucky.
BUSINESS WEEKLY
Hi There,
On account of the continued success of the Douglas Weekly and the
progressive expansion of it's readership base,I have been asked
by Michael to put together a regular column to look at the
general Business environment for the benefit of our readers.I am
happy to do this and I hope that you will enjoy it also.
My own background has been in Electronics Manufacturing and I
have worked for a number of Multinational Companies in the area
over the past number of years.For the past 3 years I have been
operating as a Business Consultant which has provided a good
opportunity to see both sides of the Manufacturing landscape.I
have also travelled to and worked with Companies in Eastern
Europe,in particular Hungary and the Czech Republic and in future
articles I will discuss our competitive position in relation to
these lower cost Countries.
As the second largest City in Ireland we are fortunate to have a
large representation among all of the major business sectors ,and
the accompanying diagram illustrates this. We will look closely
at these sectors and the Companies that represent them.
Many of the Electronics Companies have had a presence for over 20
years and some of the major players in this sector would be EMC,
Apple, Flextronics, Sanmina-Sci and Sensormatic.
Many of the Pharmaceutical Companies have been in operation for
close on 30 years and the worldwide players here would include
Pfizer, Novartis, FMC and Pharmacia & Upjohn. Pfizer has a
serious worldwide presence now since the recent acquisition of
Warner Lambert. The Bio-Medical sector are represented by De Puy
(division of Johnson & Johnson),Amersham and Boston
Scientific. We are starting to build up a presence with Call
Centres such as Merchants Group, RCI,Assurant and I have heard
through the grapevine that another major player will be coming to
Cork shortly. The SME sector (Small to Medium Enterprises) is
vitally important and I intend to spend some time on these. In
the majority of cases these Businesses are Irish owned and
managed and provide services for the larger Companies.
We also have an amount of Companies offering Business Consultancy
and Training such as Leading Edge and Flexible Learning .Cork is
also well represented in the Recruitment sector by most of the
major players .Recruitment is often viewed internationally as a
good barometer of the economy and recent reports indicate that 60%
of companies are planning more hiring in the next six months than
the previous six.
On a Weekly basis we will look at International and National
events and distill them down to a Cork relevance.We will feature
on a particular sector/company and will also cover Plant openings
and expansions. We would also be delighted to receive regular
comments from our readers and we are looking forward to this
interaction.Issues may be thrown up from time to time which may
become controversial and we will do the best we can to provide a
balanced forum for these.
On a regular basis also I intend to take a look at the more human
side of commerce by interviewing a number of the personalities
involved in Cork business.As well as business insights and
opinions we will look at the people behind these positions in a
personal context also. So watch out, that next telephone call
could be from me to arrange an appointment!
That's it for now, and looking forward to your company as we go
on.
'It's strange how unimportant your job is when you're asking for
a raise, but how important it can be when you want to take a day
off' (Mathes)
"The Man with the Hat since 1999"
By Aoife Barry
It’s not often you meet a musician whose moniker tells it
like it is. While most trade themselves on children’s-rhymes
nicknames like Bonny Prince Billy and the like, there are those
around who like to do things a little bit different. Take The Man
With The Hat, for instance. He’s a man. And by golly, look!
He wears a hat. But the name belies the act, the Man With The Hat
experience, if you like. For rather than trading himself on
lonesome songs sung about/to/at his hat, or on childish tunes
about his younger days, Ronan Leonard, as he is called when he is
without hat, waxes lyrical on everything from cowboy dreams to
broken romances and the rocky road back again.
A firm fixture on the Cork music scene (he founded the Open Mic
nights at Fred Zeppellins), and an accomplished performer in his
own right, Ronan has been, as he says himself, “The Man With
The Hat since 1999”, when he and his hat found each other in
Leader’s on North Main St. Having cut his teeth through
supporting various acts such as Josh Ritter, Hawksley Workman,
Damien Rice and The Frames, (you may have seen him pop up on
stage during Frames gigs in Cork with a Dictaphone in his hand!,
now it seems it is Ronan’s turn to take centre-stage as he
is welcomed back from a brief hiatus to a headlining gig in The
Lobby next Thursday. And this time, it is he who has the honour
of having his own support acts, who appear in the shape of local
Cork musician, Barry Twomey and Dublin duo Old Man Polka, made up
of Steve Fanagan and Paul O’Reilly.
The gig itself promises to be as unique an experience as any
other TMWTH gig, with homemade videos of Cork, impromptu
singalongs, stories and faux-cowboy accents galore. One could
term the gig a multi-media experience, but someone else has would
have gotten there before you. The unique thing about TMWTH
experience is that each gig is totally unlike any that came
before or will come afterwards. But while the main purpose behind
this gig is, if course, to entertain, there is also the serious
business of getting down and promoting Ronan’s new website,
www.themanwiththehat.com. Set up after many hours of toiling over
the computer, the site boasts lyrics, pictures, a biography,
message boards, (“where opinions and typing combine to
create...stuff”), and, of course, a diary, which may not be
updated regularly but which he thinks regularly of updating.
The Man With The Hat is one of those rare entities – a
musician who doesn’t always take himself too seriously, but
when he does, he takes himself very seriously indeed. As he says
himself, he is a man who loves to rant, but who will take any
excuse to tell a joke, crap or not. Some love him, some hate him
and some simply think he’s whiny and out of tune. But make
up your mind for yourself, and pop along to the Lobby on the 22nd
of August to see with your own eyes, and while you’re at it,
buy yourself a pint and use some of the change to buy his new
live EP which will be launched on the night. And if you need any
more of an excuse, Ronan tells me that his links with Douglas
include some relations, an off-licence, and two bottles of cider…but
the less said about the latter two, the better!
