News
Showing below articles from the Saturday February 4th, 2012 issue of The Southern Star.
Protesters to greet Taoiseach
UP to 3,000 people from communities all over West Cork are expected to stage a protest in Bantry this Friday night over controversial changes which they warn could force the closure of small rural schools. The Save Our Small Schools West Cork group protest is targeted at Taoiseach Enda Kenny – himself a former principal of a small school – who is due to attend a retirement function for former TDs PJ Sheehan and Jim O’Keeffe in the town. ‘We want to have a...
Search crews go above and beyond call of duty
‘YOU can hold back from the suffering of the world. You have permission to do so, and it is in accordance with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could have avoided.’ These words, written by the Czech writer Franz Kafka, come close to accounting for the overwhelming response to Caitlin Ní Aodha’s call for divers to join in the search of Glandore Harbour for her husband, Michael Hayes, and his colleague, Saied Aly...
Job seekers’ resource centre open in Kinsale
THANKS to a civic-minded group which forms part of Kinsale Parish Assembly, there’s some good news and hope for many of the 1,489 unemployed persons on the live register in the town and its catchment area with the opening recently of Kinsale Job Seekers Resource Centre. Situated in the Red Cross building at Church Lane, a welcome awaits persons looking for a job as well as prospective volunteers who are needed to help run it. Darren Priest, who resides...
All of us did not go mad borrowing
TAOISEACH Enda Kenny needs to choose his words much more carefully when speaking about what caused the economic boom here to come to a shuddering halt, so as not to offend the sensibilities of those who did not lose the run of themselves financially during the Celtic Tiger era. The off-the-cuff sweeping statement he made at the economic forum in Davos last week that ‘what happened in this country was that people simply went mad borrowing’ was hurtful to the...
Taoiseach put his two big feet in it at Davos!
PICTURE this totally imaginary scene: The best paid political advisors in the world recoil in horror as months of careful tutoring, spoon feeding, rote learning, programming, coaching and cramming on how to answer questions on the Irish economic crisis go down the tube, flushed into the nearest septic tank – no, not Big Phil’s tank, but the one in the picturesque Swiss town of Davos. Taoiseach Enda Kenny has just told billionaires and bankers at the World...
Perseverance pays off!
MAKING his second movie, The Pier, was only half the battle for screenwriter, director and actor Gerard Hurley, a native of Skibbereen who has been based in New York for most of his adult life and has the accent to prove it. In spite of good reviews, getting the film into Irish cinemas has proven difficult, however Hurley has persevered where many others would have given up and The Pier will have screenings this month the length of the country from Sligo...
Tillage seminar evokes keen interest in Bandon
THE production of quality cereals was emphasised at a most interesting tillage seminar organised by both Bandon and Barryroe Co-ops, in conjunction with Teagasc, at the Munster Arms Hotel on Wednesday January 18th. Presiding at the seminar was Gerard McMahon, CEO Cork/West, who welcomed all present before touching on the theme of the night – identifying the most suitable varieties for the area and the need for soil testing to identify the type and quantity...
Focus of parish life for almost two centuries
A community hall in the Lee Valley has been at the centre of community parish life for almost two centuries. Inchigeela parish hall has lived life as a church, a school and a community hall from 1818 to the present day. Committee member Fr Bernard Cotter says the hall was the site of a church in Inchigeela before the present church was built. ‘That’s how the parish owned the site because the church was here,’ Fr Cotter outlined. At that time the walls were...
Time runs out in bid to save Cork-Swansea ferry
West Cork Tourism Co-op, owner of the Fastnet Line has announced that despite trojan efforts and regional support, it has been unable to raise adequate funding and consequently its Cork-Swansea ferry service is going into receivership. ‘The funds were there, private and public, to allow us to continue but, despite the best efforts of all involved in Ireland and Wales, state aid rules and red tape choked off the ferry’s chances of sailing again...