Athlone Road, Roscommon, is expected be a hive of activity this Saturday afternoon, 6th February, when a massive furniture and floor covering auction takes place at Roscommon Furniture & Carpet Centre. Viewing of lots to be auctioned will commence from 9 am on Saturday morning until 1 pm. For further enquiries contact Padraig Burke of Sherry FitzGerald P. Burke, Goff Street, Roscommon on (090) 66 27200 or email info@pburkeassociates.com more»

A proposal by Roscommon County Council to purchase two water tankers in lieu of a fire appliance allocated under the 2009 fire services programme, has been sanctioned by the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr. Michael Finneran TD. more»

Details of the rollout of Síolta quality engagement initiative by Roscommon County Childcare Committee were revealed this week. more»

Generous response to Haiti The generosity of the Irish people knows no bounds. Over the past few weeks Mid West Radio have been advertising and promoting a car boot sale that they ran as a fundraiser for the people of Haiti last Saturday in Knock. more»

There was widespread sadness in Roscommon town and surrounding areas at the untimely death last week of Ann Costello of Cloonbracka Court, Roscommon. more»

Cllr. John Naughten has expressed his disappointment at the decision by Bus Éireann to reduce the frequency of its Monksland service. more»

Frank Feighan TD has asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when will a jobs facilitator be appointed for Castlerea, and has been advised that in relation to the Department’s Job Facilitation Service, Castlerea is currently part of the catchment area covered by the Job Facilitator in Athlone. more»

Barrie Harris Walk on Valentine’s Day The annual Barrie Harris Walk will take place in Creggs on Sunday, February 14th. The Walk had been scheduled to take place on St. Stephen’s Day, 2009, but had to be cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. Part of the funds raised in the walk on Valentine’s Day will be donated to the relief fund in Haiti. more»

President Mary McAleese opened a new respite centre for people with a visual impairment in Cootehall, on Tuesday. more»

Organisers of the protest outside the head shop in Castle Street, Roscommon, say that they need more help in coming days. more»

Treat yourself to the best that music has to offer this Valentine’s Day with a unique once-off performance in Roscommon. The concert takes place in St. Coman’s Church of Ireland, Roscommon, on Sunday, February 14th, 2010 at 7 pm. more»

Search and rescue The Roscommon Underwater Search and Rescue Unit will hold their annual Church Gate Collection next weekend. All monies collected will go towards the upkeep and maintenance of the unit. Organisers would like to thank you for your generous support in the past and hope that you will be able to support this collection. more»

At the request of Bishop Christopher Jones, Justin Harkin, Director of Pastoral Development with the Elphin Diocese, is to make a presentation on the permanent diaconate at a series of meetings around the Elphin diocese. The request follows Bishop Jones’ decision to restore the permanent diaconate in the Elphin diocese in May 2008. more»

Bus Éireann’s move to axe routes and jobs shows it’s high time that private operators were given a fair chance to provide alternative services, according to Deputy Frank Feighan. more»

The reinstatement of a teaching post for St. Ronan’s NS, Taughmaconnell, has been welcomed this week by Deputy Michael Finneran. more»

The Gateway Development was named as the ‘best mixed development’ at the Local Authority Members’ Association awards, which were held in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin on January 30th, 2010. more»

A new tourism strategy for County Roscommon, which aims to increase the tourism spend in the county by fifty percent, was launched this week. more»

Following the publication of the Central Bank’s quarterly bulletin, local TD Frank Feighan warned that Irish banks are still being propped up by the European Central Bank. more»

A picket outside a head shop located at Castle Street, Roscommon, is continuing this week. more»

A letter from local businesman Aidan Murray apologising to people for the fact that the head shop in Roscommon had been established in a premises owned by him, was read to a public meeting in the town last week. more»

Local TD Denis Naughten has once again raised the lack of action shown by the Government in banning the sale of dangerous chemicals in head shops. more»

Senator Terry Leyden this week asked the Leader of the Seanad to arrange for an urgent debate on the opening of head shops all over the country. more»

Fine Gael’s Cllr. Domnick Connolly has written to National Drug Strategy Minister John Curran asking him to ban mephedrone, a drug which is currently being sold legally in the country’s head shops. more»

A mother of a 15-year-old youth who ended up in intensive care after smoking a €6 product purchased in a head shop in Athlone, told guests at last week’s public meeting in Roscommon of her experience. more»

Huge crowds attended the removal of the remains of popular Four Roads man Niall Coyle in Athleague yesterday (Wednesday). more»

The proposal by Fine Gael to create one central authority to manage water infrastructure is hypocritical and has been labelled as ‘another political stunt’ by Minister for Housing and Local Services Michael Finneran TD. more»

In last week’s issue we inadvertently referred to the annual Ballintubber Goal Walk as the Ballinlough Walk. Apologies to the hard working committee in Ballintubber! The recent Ballintubber Walk raised funds for the victims of the recent earthquarke in Haiti. more»

Roscommon County Council is to provide one new pedestrian crossing this year, in Elphin, a fact welcomed this week by Cllr. Tom Crosby. more»

The allocation of €6,360,200 for the roads programme in County Roscommon was welcomed this week by Minister Michael Finneran TD and Senator Terry Leyden, but was heavily criticised by Deputy Denis Naughten, who said it was “totally inadequate”. more»

Castlerea electoral area Fianna Fail Cllr. Paschal Fitzmaurice said that he wished to welcome the allocation. “News of this allocation is very welcome indeed and I want to acknowledge the work of Minister Michael Finneran in helping to secure it. The funding and resulting works will be much appreciated.” more»

Pavement works, road safety measures, lighting and routine maintenance are all provided for in the allocation of €6,360,200 for the roads programme in County Roscommon for 2010. more»

County Librarian Richie Farrell welcomed guests to the launch of the Healthy Reading Scheme and extended a special welcome to the library’s partners in this project, the staff of the HSE psychology department located at Abbey Street in Roscommon. more»

Major community groups, such as the GAA and the IFA in Roscommon are being asked to row in behind the campaign to have the head shop in Roscommon closed. more»

Mountbellew Agricultural College is the only agricultural college in the west of Ireland and is a vital training and information resource for the farming and rural community in the west. more»

Castlerea 500 cattle on offer this week. A good attendance of buyers were present, with trade similar to previous weeks. Bullocks: Ch 485 kgs €875, AA 500 kgs €832, Ch 540 kgs €955, Lim 555 kgs €980, Ch 640 kgs €1140, Sim 625 kgs €985, AA 600 kgs €895, Lim 615 kgs €980, Ch 550 kgs €850. Heifers: Ch 410 kgs €740, B Blue 450 kgs €840, Ch 590 kgs €990, Lim 470 kgs €795, AA 390 kgs €692, Lim 395 kgs €685. Dry Cows: AA 560 kgs €640, AA 620 kgs €665, Ch 630 kgs €700, Lim 685 kgs €950, Ch 690 kgs €840, Ch 825 kgs €975. Cows with calves at foot made from €750 to €1100 per head. Springers made from €620 to €1260 per head. Calves: Ch bull €360, Ch heifer €280, AA bull €260, AA bull €200. Weanlings bulls: Ch 180 kgs €400, Lim 255 kgs €745, Ch 410 kgs €820, Lim 280 kgs €585, Ch 280 kgs €520, Lim 260 kgs €532. Weanlings heifers: Ch 295 kgs €565, Lim 295 kgs €532, Sim 290 €525, Lim 320 kgs €590, Lim 380 kgs €595, Ch 265 kgs €495. more»

HASTINGS CUP FINAL Roscommon 1-12 Cavan 0-10 Shane Reynolds The Roscommon U21 team retained their Hastings Cup title with a hard-fought win over Cavan in Longford on Saturday afternoon last. Despite the fact that five points separated the teams at the final whistle, Roscommon endured a number of nervous moments during the final exchanges where a post and a couple of important saves from Darren O’Malley were required to keep Cavan at bay more»

Tommy Carr will be returning to familiar ground on Sunday in Hyde Park where he enjoyed a lot of success during his tenure as team manager in Roscommon. Indeed Roscommon were operating at a much higher level in the league when Tommy was in charge and when I spoke to him on Tuesday morning he was looking forward to starting the new season at Hyde Park. more»

Another year and another national league season about to start and Roscommon manager Fergal O’Donnell is looking forward to the campaign. He says that he will be hoping to finalise the team to face Cavan on Thursday after he sees how a couple of players get on in the Sigerson Cup games (which are on Wednesday). more»

Roscommon play in Division Three of the league again this year. The other teams involved are Cavan, Offaly, Fermanagh, Louth, Wexford, Antrim and Sligo. Roscommon’s fixtures are as follows – This weekend (Sunday) home to Cavan; February 13th (Saturday) away to Fermanagh (under lights); 7th March (Sunday) v Offaly (away); 14th March (Sunday) v Antrim (home); 21st March (Sunday) v Louth (away); 28th March (Sunday) v Wexford (home); 11th April (Sunday) v Sligo at home. The top two teams will be promoted into Division Two and will play in the final for the Division Three title. The bottom two teams will be relegated in Division Four. more»

Allianz National Football League Division Three: Roscommon v Cavan (on Sunday in Dr. Hyde Park at 2.30 pm) Seamus Duke There is always huge anticipation at the start of another football season and this week is no different as Roscommon begin another campaign with a home game against Cavan in Division Three of the National Football League. more»

Seamus Duke FBD CONNACHT SFL ROUND 3 Mayo 1-9 Roscommon 0-8 This four-point defeat at Ballinlough ended any lingering hopes that Roscommon had of reaching the FBD league final this year, but there were plenty of positives for the team management and fans to take from this display as they prepare for the national league campaign which starts against Cavan in Hyde Park on Sunday next. more»

Roscommon footballers have been dealt a serious long term injury blow with the news that ace attacker Senan Kilbride has been ruled out of the entire national football league campaign with a groin problem. more»

KEOGH CUP QUARTER FINAL Carlow IT 1-15 Roscommon 1-12 Tommy Connolly For the second week in a row Roscommon’s hurlers produced a confident and polished performance in this Keogh Cup quarter-final played in Carlow last Sunday. more»

Junior 1B League NUIG 0 Creggs 23 Creggs first team took on NUIG in Dangan on Sunday and emerged with an important victory. more»

Students from Coláiste Mhuire in Ballygar tasted success over Garbally College on the rugby pitch for the first time in eight years last week. more»

Ireland’s U20 side will kick off their Six Nations campaign this Friday, February 5th, at 7.35 pm, when they play Italy at the home of Buccaneers RFC, Dubarry Park in Athlone. Ireland plays Wales on Friday, March 12th and Scotland on Friday, March 19th. Ireland will again be coached by Allen Clarke, assisted by Nigel Carolan. They are joined by a new Manager, Michael Kearney. more»

Premier Division In the Ruby Oil Premier Division of the Roscommon & District League, leaders Shiven Rovers came from 2-0 down with twelve minutes to play to draw 2-2 away to Cloonfad United. Frank Ronayne and David Keavney scored for Cloonfad in the second half. Shane Harkin pulled one back for the Newbridge side before an own goal near the end of the game won a valuable point for the league leaders. more»

Athlone Nissan Division Two Castlerea Celtic v Moylough 79 FC: Moylough to win. Glen Celtic v Ballymoe FC: Away win for Ballymoe. more»

The Roscommon squad has been announced for the Oscar Traynor Cup game against the Sligo/Leitrim League in Ballinasloe on Sunday February 7th (at 2 pm). more»

Tully’s men need to win by two This Sunday Roscommon take on Sligo/Leitrim in their long-awaited group game to decide which of the three teams in the group (Donegal being the other) will go through to the quarter-finals of the Oscar Traynor Cup. more»

Roscommon manager Gerry Tully has paid tribute to his management colleagues. “Tom (Cunningham), Pat (Campbell) and Henry (Loughnane) have worked very hard this season and it is only right that they get the credit they deserve. more»

On Saturday 16th January, Roscommon’s Luke McCabe travelled to the Munster Open at Limerick University arena. Competing in men’s 90 kgs, weighing in at 83 kgs, Luke was giving away seven kilos. He fought with massive strength and skill to bring back gold for Roscommon and qualifying for the North West open in Merseyside, the gateway to the European Championships. He won two medals in all. The first four fights were won with ease. The final fight however was tough against an old adversary from Cork. more»

Members of Coman’s swimming club are preparing for the first long course competition of the season, the Dave McCullagh Gala, which will be held over three days in Limerick, from February 5th to 7th. more»

Despite lifting the Division 3 title against Wicklow in Kiltoom in 2009, Roscommon ladies footballers find themselves back in Division after the restructuring of the league. more»

SECOND YEAR A BOYS WESTERN LEAGUE Castlerea Community School 38 Calasanctus Oranmore 34 It took a long time, but it was worth the wait. This was Castlerea’s first victory against Oranmore in any grade of basketball as the second years won in a thriller. more»

The AGM of the Roscommon GAA Supporters club took place last Friday night in Hannon’s hotel, Roscommon. The meeting, which was very well attended, laid out the plans for the year ahead. more»

There were two local winners at the recent PTAA All-Ireland finals in Carrickmacross recently. more»

The following are the outstanding results from Group A of the Guinness Pool League: Station A 6 Canny’s 2. Group B results: Silver Eel 5 Lifebelt 3. Week 14 results Group A Railway Bar 3, Station A 5; Tower Inn 7 Canny’s 1; Station B 8 Kenny’s 0; Winning Post 6 Horse & Jockey 2. Group B: Sissy’s 4, Lifebelt 4, Widows Pat 3 Cosy Bar 5; Kate’s Bar 6 Cheers 2, Red Parrott 4 Hagan’s 4. more»

This week Tote Ireland announced that it will be sponsoring the centre piece of the Galway Summer Festival, the Galway Plate, for the next three years, following the withdrawal of sponsorship by the bookmakers William Hill following last year’s handicap chase, the most famous race at the seven-day festival. more»

Carrick on Shannon The most overworked piece of signage on course this winter is the ‘course closed’ sign. Last weekend again frozen out both Saturday and Sunday, which scuppered the V Par competition on Sunday. Next weekend the spring league starts, check online for groups and teams. Saturday, February 6th and Sunday, February 7th sees the start of Centenary Spring League, groups and teams online at www.carrickgolfclub.ie. The League will run for month of February, weather permitting, if matches lost through weather it will extend into March. As part of our fund raising drive this year, the club is running with the popular Race Night, on Friday February 19th in the Clubhouse starting at 8 pm. All members are encouraged to sell or buy their race cards they received in post with sub demand. more»

Soccer results Connacht Junior Cup 4th round Athenry 3 Strokestown United 0 Skyvalley 1 Boyle Celtic 3 Ballina v Ballinasloe Town postponed Loughglynn United v Ballyheane postponed more»

FOOTBALL BOYLE The competitive season is nearly upon us with the Feelystone Junior team due to commence their Tansey Cup campaign with a home game against Oran on 14th February and the McGovern Directional Drilling team due to travel to Strokestown on 28th February for their first O’Rourke Cup game. Expressions of interest have been received regarding participation in Scór. The closing date for receipt of entries is 17th of February and all who wish to participate should contact Martin Dolan at 086-2413529 immediately. more»

It’s a very busy sporting weekend with Gaelic games, rugby, horse racing, soccer and golf the featured sports. more»

Code of ethics In conjunction with Roscommon Sports Partnership, Roscommon Coaching and Games Development are delighted to announce that they are running code of ethics and best practise courses over the next few weeks. All GAA coaches who are currently attending football and hurling foundation courses will be able to avail of these courses. The first course will take place in the Roscommon VEC office on Monday night, February 8th at 7 pm. All club coaches, both male and female, who wish to avail of the code of ethics course, are asked to contact GAA games manager Willie Hegarty ASAP. Full list of all venues here next week for all code of ethics courses. more»

Marianna Rushe (UCD) retained her Third Level Ladies Open Singles title at Kingscourt over the weekend. Back to back Open Singles titles are never easy to win and as such it is an exceptional achievement for the St. Coman’s star. On the way to her win she played a number of matches that included a win over Kerry’s Catriona Casey 21.14, 21.4, Leona Doolin (NUIG) 21.6, 21.8 and in the final beat Shauna Hilley (UCC) the current world 19 and under champion 21.18, 21.8. Marianna is also the U.S. Collegiates Ladies Open Singles champion and between February 24th-28th will be defending the title in Houston, Texas. more»

‘Unstable’ in Jack’s Live Venue Carrick-based band ‘Unstable’ are to appear in Rockfords on Saturday night, February 20th. more»

New York appointment Mr. John C McGuire, brother of Dr. Constantine J McGuire, New York, and of Mr Jas P McGuire, of Rooskey, Roscommon, has been appointed head of the new Civil Service Commission, instituted by Major Gaynor, of New York to remove the city departments of that city from the grip and corruption of political influence, Mr J C McGuire was Surveyor of the Port and Register of Arrears in New York, and has been prominent since 1880 in politics and public life. more»

The next session of the South Roscommon Singers Circle takes place in Murray’s Lounge, Knockcroghery, on this Saturday 6th February. The session will be starting at 9 pm, a little earlier than usual, since we have some very special guests lined up as well as being joined by our friends from Ballinasloe Singers Circle. more»

Suaimhneas Choral Singers are currently recruiting in the counties of Roscommon, Longford, Leitrim and surrounding areas. There are vacancies in soprano, alto, tenor and bass sections of the choir. For more details, contact the director directly on (086) 3052204. more»

A new publication by Roscommon County Council and Create containing interviews, essays, images and video from the 2009 art@work programme will be launched in King House, Boyle, at 3 pm on Tuesday 9th February next. more»

Cinemobile will be returning to Castlerea on Saturday and Sunday, 6th and 7th February and will be parked at the Mart Yard Car Park. more»

A quality bungalow at Ardsallaghmore, Roscommon town, is currently for sale with Property Partners Earley, Roscommon, with an attractive price tag of €180,000. more»

A spacious bungalow at Funshinagh, between Rahara and Four Roads, is currently for sale with auctioneer Ivan Connaughton, priced in the region of €165,000. more»

The first land auction of 2010 will take place in the Widow Pat’s, Knockcroghery, at 4 pm on Friday, February 26th, by Sean Naughton Auctioneer. more»

An extremely rare opportunity has arisen to purchase one of the finest properties to come on the market within the Roscommon Town area in recent times. more»

An imposing home at Ardmullen, Kiltoom, is currently for sale with Ivan Connaughton Auctioneer, priced in the region of €350,000. more»

If it’s superb value you’re after, then look no further than this large four-bedroom bungalow at Carrownalasson, Fourmilehouse, currently for sale with Sherry FitzGerald P. Burke in Roscommon, reduced to €225,000. more»

Have you land to rent, with or without maps? Then you have to talk to auctioneer and valuer Padraig McNeill, who has lots of clients on hand to rent land. more»