13th September, 2001
Tuesday 11th Septemeber will forever stay in our
minds. The attack on the USA was not war, it was a massacre of
the innocents. This act of evil will not further any cause. One
of the saddest sights on the television were the scenes of
people, young and old, dancing with joy in the Middle East. When
the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour one Japanese admiral said,
"we have only awakened a sleeping giant". As the days
unfold I am sure we will learn of an Irish dimension to this evil
deed. Many years ago a previous Israeli premier Golda Mayer said,
"You cannot shake hands with a person showing a fist".
Neville Chamberlain learnt that in 1939. Our sympathy to the
people of America in your time of sorrow.
Congratulations to all involved in the Douglas Tidy Towns
committee, coming back from Dublin with an award was a nice touch
to the past year of hard work everybody put in to making Douglas
a brighter, cleaner and attractive place to live and work in.
Well done to shop front winner Sean Fitzgerald of Dailys, the
O'Connor family of the South County and Peter Collins of Barrys
Pub ... all worthy winners.
I took two lovely wedding photographs last week. Just by chance I
was passing St. Columba's Church, I saw the crowd and the bride
and groom. I stopped, took my camera out, and the picture is in
the 'Weekly.
The next day I was driving on the Rochestown Road and I saw a
wedding limo pulling in to the Rochestown Park Hotel. I followed
it in, and another wedding photograph was taken. If any member of
your family is getting married in the Douglas area, give me a
call, and if I can I'll drop up (or down) to the Church, of, if
you have a photograph of a wedding you would like to see in the
Douglas Weekly, drop it up to the office and leave the rest to us.
I dropped down to the Touchdown last Thursday night for the
launch of their new menu. This time Don and the staff have come
out on top. The Touchdown has one of the busiest food trades in
Cork, from breakfast to lunches, and now the introduction of
their new menu will ensure that patrons will be pleasantly
surprised when they call to the Touchdown for a meal. P.S. Don,
the chicken starter was lovely, I'll be back!
The saga of the Kinsale Road "Dump", and it is a dump,
not a landfill, not a garbage disposal unit, but a great big ugly
mountain of rubbish, which one would expect to see in San Paulo
or some third world country. The promise was that the dump would
close in October 2002. Now that has been put on hold (or so I'm
told) until 2005. Last week I spoke to a resident who lives near
the dump. She told me that there is a lot of frustration and
anger mounting due to the feeling that residents are being lied
to and that eventually they will have to use 'people power' to
get their point across, which is "Close the dump now!"
I'm sure I speak for everybody when I offer our deepest sympathy
to the Long family on their tragic loss. Being a parent and a
grandparent we all believe our children will come home safely
when they return from playing with their friends. May God comfort
you in your sorrow.
Good luck to Douglas Hall ladies football team in the final on
Sunday. Bring the cup home girls!!
Bye for now,
Michael O'Hanlon.
