Pope’s coming to Sligo
The Chartered Accountants North West Society’s Christmas lunch will take place on December 9 at the Glasshouse Hotel and the keynote speaker this year has been announced as Brent Pope.
The former Rugby player and coach, and current entrepreneur and media personality is coming to Sligo for the dinner, which has been generously sponsored by AIB Bank.
Kathya Rouse, Chair of the Society, says: “we are excited to have secured Brent Pope as our keynote speaker and he promises to be an entertaining and uplifting choice of after dinner speaker.”
Speaking about the event, Barbara Taylor, Head of AIB – Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon said “we are delighted to support the Chartered Accountants Christmas Event again this year. We know that SMEs are the backbone of the Irish economy and we recognise the importance of being involved with local business groups and farmers so we can back them, support jobs and continue to provide credit to these businesses that make up this backbone of the Irish economy”.
Tickets for the dinner in The Glasshouse Hotel are on sale now from charteredaccountants.ie or contact the Regional Events Executive at arlene.gibbs@charteredaccountants.ie for more information.
Fun festival promises to bring science to life for all ages
Sligo Science Festival, taking place as part of Science Foundation Ireland’s 21st Annual Science Week, promises to bring science to life for young and old.
The event begins on Monday, November 13 and will run until November 20. For the Sligo side of the week, events will be taking place across the county.
The Sligo Science Festival will provide people with the opportunity to explore and discover how science is a part of their everyday lives – from the science of the food we eat, concussion in sports, and the challenges of climbing Mount Everest.
Science Foundation Ireland is encouraging people to get involved with the nationwide celebrations of Irish science and technology during Science Week 2016 by logging on to www.scienceweek.ie for details of the events taking place near you.
Dr Ruth Freeman, Director of Strategy and Communications at Science Foundation Ireland, said: “Science Week is a wonderful opportunity to explore the world of science and technology around us. Taking science out of the classroom and highlighting how it impacts and transforms the world allows people to become fascinated with the wonders of science in the everyday.
“This year we have lots of events that will allow you to explore the science behind your coffee in the morning; how athletes reach their ‘Peak Performance’; how we can all sleep better and; whether there’s a science to how Shakespeare can ‘Make you fall in Love’!
“I would encourage everyone to take part in any of the hundreds of events happening nationwide and to prepare to be dazzled by the advancements and discoveries that have been made by the Irish scientific community.”
During Science Week, regional science festivals are being held across the country; Sligo, Cavan-Monaghan, Cork, Kerry, Galway, Waterford, Mayo, the Midlands, Limerick and with a series of events also held in Dublin City.
Aiming to highlight the exciting world of science and how it shapes the world around us, these festivals feature a wide range of events including family open days, evening events for adults, and schools outreach events – all exploring the science behind our everyday lives.
For a full list of the thrilling science shows, hands-on workshops and talks across the country, visit the Science Week website www.scienceweek.ie.
This Side Up launch debut album this week
Sligo hip-hop group This Side Up will this week launch their debut album, ‘Full Fat!’.
This latest milestone in the blossoming career of the local trio has come to fruition following a year of recording but they are now excited to be returning to the live stage.
“We have been flat out, we have spent the last year recording this album so we can’t wait to get it out there and start gigging,” said MC Shaool (AKA Shane Leonard).
“We haven’t played live that much recently and we haven’t had a gig in Sligo since March so we really can’t wait to play again.”
The album launch will not be an exclusively local affair and is perhaps a testament to their growing popularity as they also perform in Galway, Dublin and Cork in the coming weeks.
“We have been based in Dublin the last few years and have been putting on a few gigs there. We are heading to Galway then to gig with a band called The Clandestinos in The Loft and then we are in Cork on November 19 with a band called The Cutting Heads Collective, they are good pals who have been putting on Hip-Hop gigs down there for the last year and we can’t wait to get down there and playing with them again.”
The members of This Side Up have virtually put the rest of their lives on hold in order to focus entirely on the album but they are enthusiastic about bringing their first launch back home where it all began.
“We abandoned all real life for about a year and just focused on the music at a studio in Dublin and have been recording there ever since. We got stuck into it and we are glad with the way the album has turned out,” Shaool said.
“Sligo is the best gig for us, we have been playing here for about eight years at this stage. We started out at the Clarence Hotel back in the day then Tricky gave us a regular night in McGarrigle’s and we have been building from there ever since. We started as a live act and it took us quite a while to get down to recording but it feels like a real achievement to have one out.”
For the full interview, see this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper, in shops now, or subscribe to our digital edition, available on our homepage.
Sligo photographer goes to extremes for perfect shot
A Sligo-based photographer climbed some of Ireland’s highest peaks to get a unique perspective on the island’s mountains for his new book.
“The Mountains of Ireland” – a landmark collection of imagery showcases the Irish mountains at their very best – has been nearly two decades in the making.
It was delayed when photographer Gareth McCormack developed psoriatic arthritis in his knees, which seriously curtailed his ability to get into the mountains for a number of years.
Undeterred, he went to extraordinary lengths to capture Ireland’s summits in the wildest, most dramatic light, hauling heavy camera equipment up and down Ireland’s most rugged terrain.
“I clocked up more than 50,000 metres of vertical ascent and descent and several thousand kilometres of walking,” the Co. Tyrone native explains.
“For some shoots I bivouacked on summits to capture the first light of dawn. At other times I targeted the sunset, to descend precarious ground alone in the dark.”
Often he returned empty-handed, the possibilities ruined by the fickle mountain weather (the lowest temperature he experienced was -15 °C).
The images bear witness to a labour of love that transcends physical and creative challenges. Gareth has created a body of work encompassing all the major ranges of Ireland. Some are shot from well-known vantage points; many others from remote locations rarely visited.
For more on this story, see this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper. In shops now!
Sligo man urges people to get themselves checked for COPD
It’s the fourth biggest cause of death in this country but there is still a huge lack of awareness about it and many people with the disease remain undiagnosed.
We are talking about COPD, or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, probably more commonly known as bronchitis and emphysema, from which one person in Ireland dies on average every six hours.
In fact, COPD affects approximately 380,000 people in Ireland and is the most common cause of emergency admission to hospital. Indeed, Ireland has the highest COPD hospitalisation rates of all OECD countries and the North West has particularly high numbers.
One man who knows all about COPD is Michael McGloin from Cartron Point in Sligo town.
Michael, who is now 66, was diagnosed with COPD in 1999 following a respiratory arrest but he had started to have difficulty much earlier than this.
“In 1979 I got out of bed one morning and collapsed. I came to and went to work but I wasn’t well and went to the doctor, who sent me straight up to the hospital. They discovered I had a collapsed lung.”
Over the next while he suffered four lung collapses before he had to go to Dublin to have it repaired.
But his problems continued with numerous infections before he was discovered to have a growth at the back of his throat and it was while in hospital having tests on this that he had a respiratory arrest and was diagnosed with COPD.
“I had never heard of it and they had no great information on it in the hospital at the time”, Michael recalls.
“I then started looking up information on it but I found there was very little information in Ireland, with no website and no support groups. So I made a decision that I would set up my own website and support group”, he said.
And so the Benbulben COPD support group was born. It now has around 36 members from Sligo, Leitrim, south Donegal and north Roscommon.
For more on this story, see this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper – in shops now.
IT Sligo graduations streamed live
TextAll five of this year’s Graduation ceremonies at IT Sligo are being streamed live on the IT Sligo website today and tomorrow, Thursday November 3 and Friday November 4.
Over 1,500 new graduates will be conferred over five ceremonies, held at the Institute’s Knocknarea Arena.
The live webcast link for Graduation 2016 appeared on the Institute’s homepage (www.itsligo.ie) on this morning at 9am.
The ceremony for the School of Engineering and Design took place earlier this morning at 9.30am.
The schedule of Ceremonies is as follows:
Thursday, November 3
13.00 hrs
– School of Engineering and Design – (Department of Computing & Creative Practices)
16:30 hrs
– School of Science – (Department of Environmental Science and Department of Life Sciences)
Friday, November 4
09:30 hrs
– School of Business and Social Sciences – (Department of Marketing, Tourism & Sport; and Department of Social Sciences)
13.00 hrs
– School of Business and Social Sciences – (Department of Business)
Saint Sister are special guests at Rodrigo Y Gabriela
SAINT SISTER have just been announced as Special Guests to Rodrigo Y Gabriela this Friday night at Knocknarea Arena for Sligo Live.
‘Alice In Wonderland’
Blue Raincoat’s new production of “Alice In Wonderland” opened last night, Wednesday, October 26 and continues until Saturday, November 5.
