The community of Carraroe honoured students in Scoil Naomh Éanna on Tuesday for their work highlighting graffiti and litter.

Pupils from junior infants right up to sixth class were presented with awards for their contribution to Carraroe Tidy Towns Anti Litter and Anti Graffiti Art Competition. It was organised by CADRA – the Carrraroe and District Regeneration Association.

The competition was set up to raise awareness and help ensure that the Carraroe area is kept litter and graffiti free.

COSTA Coffee and McDonald’s were also behind the event with the winners’ art works set to be used in both restaurants for children to colour.

Cathoirleach of Sligo County Council, Rosaleen O’Grady gave a speech to the pupils in which she paid tribute to their contribution to the Carraroe community.

“Protection of our environment is one of the most important of the many challenges facing our society. It is heartening to see a group come together with such commitment, energy and drive to make a positive contribution to their local community,” Cllr O’Grady said.

Deasún Lyons, principal of Scoil Naomh Éanna also highlighted the achievement of the school’s pupils.

“It is something which is very close to my own heart which is looking after your own place and making your own place look tidy. You can do this starting in your own garden or street and then move into you own area. It is about being proud of where you live. The organisers of the competition were delighted and thrilled to see the lovely art work coming in. There was beautiful artwork throughout the school,” he said.

Pat Benson, Secretary of CADRA, also gave praise to the pupils and outlined what CADRA does for the Carraroe community.

“CADRA is an umbrella organisation which covers Tidy Towns, CPR, Text Alerts and regeneration of this area.

“The idea of this project was raise awareness. You [the pupils] are the future of the Carraroe are and we want you to act as ambassadors to this area,” he said.

Pupils from the school together with teachers ended the presentation event with a song in Zulu entitled “Marching in the Light of God”.

Prizes were awarded to each pupils from each class with the overall winners being split into two categories- Overall Poster Design and Overall Car Sticker Design.

The Poster Design winner was Oliwia Zarzycka while Roan Tully won overall Car Sticker Design.

Next week’s Sligo Weekender will feature more presentations from this event. Don’t miss it.

Sligo student Ryan Feehily and his friend Hugh Lennon set off on the “Beg Borrow Steal” race to Berlin, Germany yesterday, Wednesday.

Team ‘Yunting Berlin’ as they are known features Ryan and Kilkenny man Hugh. They are just one of the over 100 teams from DCU taking part in the event, the idea being they have to to make their way from Dublin to Berlin by any means, other than actually paying.

The event is not just for fun. Funds raised by all the teams in advance will go to the Movember Foundation. Already for this event, €50,000 has been raised by the competing teams.

You can follow the progress of Ryan, Hugh and the other teams with the social media hashtag #DCUBegBorrowSteal.

A man has been sentenced today (Thursday) for the theft of an ATM in Tubbercurry in 2014.

Bernard Quigley (43) was convicted of stealing an ATM from the Bank of Ireland in Tubbercurry this week and sentenced to 7 and half years in prison with two years suspended.

He was found guilty of three charges which included criminal damage, theft and possession of a stolen item with the intent to commit a crime.

After a trial lasting three weeks, a jury of seven men and five women found Bernard Quigley guilty on three charges relating to the theft of the automatic teller machine in the early hours of the morning of January 29, 2014.

Quigley, a single man, for whom addresses at Branchfield, Drumfin; Teeling Street, Tubbercurry and a flat at Lisnaskea, Co Fermanagh were given, had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

He was charged with the theft of the ATM containing cash; with causing criminal damage to the front wall of the bank and the ATM and with possession of a stolen Komatsu digger at Teeling Street, Tubbercurry.

The trial had heard how a tracked digger, stolen from Reilly’s quarry at Chaffpool on the Tubbercurry-Gurteen road, was used to dig the cash machine out of the front wall of the bank and to load it onto a trailer.

Following reports from a number of witnesses, gardai were able to follow the trail of the van and trailer and the ATM was discovered still on the trailer, when it and the van used to tow it were found abandoned.

Judge Patrick Comerford sentenced Quigley to seven and half years for theft with two years suspended, four years for possession of a stolen item and seven and a half years for criminal damage caused to the Bank of Ireland in Tubbercurry with two years suspended.

The sentences will run concurrently and have been backdated to August 2014 when Quigley was first brought into custody.

A Sligo-based singer and musician who was given the rare privilege to play live on Sir Terry Wogan’s BBC radio show has described the broadcaster as a “warm character” and a “pure gentleman”.

Limerick-born Wogan died after a short illness on Sunday, January 31, surrounded by his family. He was 77. In a career spanning half a century, Wogan was most famous for his various stints on BBC Radio 2, the last of which, a weekend radio show, he retired from last year.

Dubliner Miles Graham, who has called Sligo his home now for a number of years, was asked to come on Terry’s weekend show in January of last year to play two of his own songs. He said the brief encounter with this veteran broadcaster left a lasting impression.

“When I met him, the man was as bright as a button,” Miles told the Sligo Weekender. “He was a real warm character, real warm, bubbly, smiles, just very welcoming.

“He brought these little cakes in and he was giving all the little cakes to the band and was just saying ‘Keep the blood sugars up boys!’ ..He just made you feel very at home and made me feel much more relaxed.”

For more see this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper. In shops now.

Shore Shots, Ireland’s only combined surf and film festival is set to move west to County Sligo for 2016. The event takes place over the weekend of April 15-17.

Now in its fourth year, Shore Shots features surf films and video edits from the world of surf’s leading artists and athletes, with a special emphasis on the art and creative work inspired by the cold and ferocious waves around Ireland’s west coast.

Key film screenings will take place at The Model with various fringe events taking place throughout the weekend including surf photography exhibitions, food and surf trails, a surf market and beach yoga.

Key surfers, content producers and music makers who will be in Sligo as part of the festival include: George Karbus, Tim Nunn, Liquid Therapy, Easkey Britton, Barry Mottershead, Peter Clyne, Peter Conroy, DJ Donal Dineen and February & Mars.

The festival is now accepting submissions for this year’s event, and in celebration of being invited to the #AdventureCapital that is County Sligo, a new competition is being added to the film festival; Best Adventure Film, with short films from outside the world of surfing set to be accepted for the first time.

Commenting on the move to Sligo, Shore Shots Festival Director Aidan Ellis said: “The festival is in its fourth year, and having had a hugely successful run in Dublin, with many sold out shows during our time at the Lighthouse Cinema, we’ve decided to move the event to Sligo which is very much considered the natural home for surfing in Ireland.

“Many of Ireland’s leading surf videographers are based here, and Mullaghmore continues to be a subject in much of their work. We also have perfect surf breaks in Strandhill and Easkey.”

Allan Mulrooney, Sligo native and co-founder of Shore Shots welcomed the announcement: “This year’s festival is a really immersive weekend for fans of surf on the big screen.

“There will be screenings held at The Model centre’s cinema on Saturday, live music gigs, and a programme of creative happenings from art exhibitions and workshops taking place around Sligo town and county over the weekend. We will have additional programme announcements over the coming weeks.”

Further details on the programme and how to book tickets, from €30pp, are available from www.shoreshots.ie or by following
@ShoreShotsFilms on social media.

If her mum, the late Maisie McDaniel, was the queen of Irish country music, then Lisa Stanley could rightly be considered her successor.

The talented Sligo singer, who is now based in the UK, has followed in her mother’s footsteps into a life of music and performing.

And now Lisa is to embrace television the way her mother did 50 years ago. Lisa will host “The Lisa Stanley Show” on Keep It Country Music TV (SKY Channel 261).

Lisa grew up singing in her native county and throughout Ireland. Her fantastic voice meant she was in demand as a performer, touring with some of the biggest names in Irish country music throughout the island of Ireland and all over the UK.

Lisa moved to England a few years ago, setting up home in Bilston near Wolverhampton with her parter Stuart and daughter Sofia.

She previously co-hosted the Phil Mack International Country Show for five years, but now has her own programme.

Lisa is the daughter of Maisie McDaniel and Fintan Stanley. Maisie was one of the first female superstars of the Irish music industry, featuring regularly on TV and enjoying huge success at the height of the showband era.

Of her new show, she said: “Both my parents were very successful in the Irish music business so it only seemed natural for me to go into the business also.

“We started a country music TV show called The Phil Mack International Country Show. Within a years of starting, the show had become so popular that we started running country music weekends in England, Ireland and then tours to Nashville.” Her new show, she added, “will feature top class videos of all the country stars from the USA, UK, Ireland and further afield, from the newest chart toppers of country music to the all-time legends. “I’m very excited, it seems like the natural next step forward for me. I’m hoping it will prove to be popular and that people will enjoy the show.”

You can catch “The Lisa Stanley Show” on SKY Channel 261 on Friday evenings at 10.30pm, repeated on Saturday afternoons at 2pm.

Over 365 poems, over 365 readers, but 365 days with one poet. The poet of course is Yeats and the venue was Hargadon’s on O’Connell Street.

Brainchild of Joe Grogan and a number of others who frequent Hargadon’s, the daily readings were a ritual that author, journalist and broadcaster Kieran Devaney was to the forefront of, organising readers and poems in the place he refers to as ‘the office’.

“It was Joe Grogan’s idea. A few of us wanted to mark the occasion of Yeats’ 150 birthday so we said why not do a poem a day for the whole year?” Kieran said.
Despite being heavily involved in the running of the daily readings, Kieran believes it was a team effort.

“It wasn’t just me. Joe asked a few people to help out like the bar staff here, Eileen Monaghan, Morgan who took over from Joe, Annie
West as well was a great help and kindly provided illustrations for where the readers read from,” Kieran said.

Some of the more notable readers included movie star Joanna Lumley, Táiniste Joan Bruton, politician Eamon Gilmore, writer Theo Dorgan, playwright Malcolm Hamilton, government minister Brendan Howlin and many more.

However, the readers were more diverse than just those in the public eye.

“We had everyone, from people walking around Tesco, to the bar staff, to poets laureate of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We also had artists like John Beehan the sculptor and Kevin Barry the writer so there was no shortage of volunteers,” Kieran commented.

The delivery was not always in just the spoken form. Some readers decided to act out the poem or sing it according to what poem they chose.

“We had people singing them, acting them and we had one guy who did the ‘Song of Wandering Aengus’ who brought a trout he had bought in Tesco! We had poems read in French, Japanese and Chinese so there was a real mix,” Kieran said.

On the final Day of the Yeats’ readings, it was fitting that Damien Brennan, a Yeats’ connoisseur who regularly hosts Yeats themed dinners, read on the final day.
And all of it was documented in the Yeats Diary.

Musican and activist Bob Geldof is in County Sligo today, Thursday, to film scenes for a new two-part documentary on W.B. Yeats and the Easter Rising.

The documentary series, called “WB Yeats by Bob Geldof”, will explore Yeats’ poetry in the context of the Irish War of Independence. One of his most famous poems “Easter 1916” explored the rising, ending with the iconic line “A terrible beauty is born.”

Geldof has long been a fan of Sligo’s most famous writer and has often talked about the influence it has had on his own art. The former Boomtown Rats frontman even recited several of Yeats’ poems in recordings for the British Library.

As part of the Yeats150 celebrations last year, Geldof told Discover Ireland: “I can’t imagine my life without travelling around with one of [Yeats’] books and he’s always stood me in good stead. When words fail, his words will do.”

The 64-year-old has written this new documentary series with the help of Yeats historian and scholar Roy Foster. It is a joint RTE-BBC production and will consist of two hour-long episodes.

Geldof arrived in Sligo yesterday, Wednesday, having earlier visited nearby Lough Key in Boyle, Co. Roscommon. He is expected to visit Yeats grave in Drumcliffe and a number of other sites related to the Nobel poet today.

The documentary is part of an extensive line-up of programming from RTE revolving around the centenary of the 1916 rising. Their big-budget period drama series “Rebellion” debuted on RTE One on Saturday night, January 2.

A broadcasting date for “WB Yeats by Bob Geldof” has not yet been announced by RTE.TextBut he said that the money they had got this week does not address the damage to roads caused by the floods.

“We have put in an estimate of €1.75m for work needed to repair mostly regional and local roads.”

He said that the council would be hoping that they would be receiving extra to cover this when they get their allocation of money for roads maintence at the end of this month or early February.

Mr Kilfeather said they would also be looking at submitting applications for flood prevention schemes, such as the dredging of the Owenmore river, to the OPW.

“There are certainly flooding problems arising from the Owenmore but you would probably be looking at spending half a million euro to do anything major with it. However, I don’t know how far up the national priority list schemes like that will be.”

He said the same would probably apply in other situations throughout the county where a small number of houses were affected.

A Monster Table Quiz fundraiser for independent Cllr Marie Casserly’s General Election campaign which was due to take place in the Sligo Park Hotel and be hosted by Eamon Dunphy tonight, has been cancelled.