Connacht Tribune
Garden Festival hopes confusion over rival show doesn’t hit charity event
Organisers of the eighth Galway Garden Festival are hopeful that gardening enthusiasts will not confuse their event with a commercial exhibition bearing the same name planned a week before. Owner of Claregalway Castle Dr Eamonn O’Donoghue said he had been inundated with queries about whether they were moving their hugely successful festival which donates all profits to charity to Ballybrit this weekend.
The Galway Garden Festival, which takes place July 1 and 2, has grown from a small affair to a massive family day out, with big name entertainers and horticulturalists, attracting 9,000 people to the picturesque castle painstakingly renovated by Eamonn for over a decade beside the River Clare. He has sent legal letters to the organiser of the Galway Home and Garden Festival exhibition taking place in the racecourse, pointing out that they had trademarked the name, Galway Garden Festival, and urging him to either change names or the date.
So far, those pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
“I wish anyone well in any enterprise I just wish they wouldn’t try to create confusion and take the name of our event. It’s a registered name, our event is a not-for-profit event so if you started going to court you’d have nothing left to give to charity,” he remarked.
“There must be 500 posters up all over the place advertising their exhibition. It’s a shame there has to be this element of confusion. We take place the same weekend as Seafest at the docks which I think nicely compliments each other, I know families who are coming to Galway to attend both events.”
Eamonn says the festival is getting bigger every year due to the quality of both the gardening stands and talks as well as the family fun activities.
“I think out festival is directly responsible for changing the nature of gardens in the west of Ireland – there’s a lot more exotic gardens and plants. We have amazing people to give advice about plants which work in gardens blown away by the Atlantic winds,” he enthused.
“In fact, we’re not trying to make it bigger but rather make it a really good quality event. A lot of the gardening people say it’s one of the few events in the country where children are delighted to attend as there’s so much for them here.”
On Saturday, the speakers’ programme will feature Jimi Blake, who will talk about his famous Hunting Brook Garden. Dr Marina Levitina, author, filmmaker and educator, will speak about the seven wonders of the hedgerow, Ireland’s native wild plants and their medicinal qualities, while columnist Anne Byrne will focus on garden design.
Alan Whetham will give advice on roses and Dr Phil Havercroft, secretary of the Irish Specialist Nursery Association will talk about garden perennials.
On Sunday, there will be presentations by Bloom gold winner Oliver Schurmann of Mount Venus who will talk about going from show gardens to real gardens while botanic artist and author Jane Stark will focus on heritage Irish plants.
Connacht Tribune gardening columnist Pat Dunn will give a talk on garden planning and how to stay chemical free, with Mies Stam of Caherhurley focusing on wildflowers.
Musical guests include folk group Scullion, the folk duo Four Shillings Short, St Patrick’s Brass Band, Strictly Dixie Trad Jazz Band, Nuada and award-winning singer-songwriter Roesy. For the smallies, the festival will feature real fights between knights in armour from Medieval Armed Combat Ireland, the Fanzini Brother Circus, Youth Ballet West and Yer Mans Puppets.
A range of freshly cooked foods, handmade crafts and assorted wares will be on sale.
Many of the paintings at the Claregalway Botanical Art Expo are for sale, along with limited edition prints and cards.
The festival takes place between 11am and 6pm. Entry is €10 and children go free, with all gate profits going to support the charity Christian Blind Mission Ireland. There is free parking close by and a free bus courtesy of Bus Éireann running regularly from Ceannt Station in Galway City and providing a link to and from Seafest.
■ For all information see the Galway Garden Festival website.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
