News
St Patrick’s Day Parade to put focus on fun and frolics
Tomorrow’s St Patrick’s Day Parade will be led by Little John Nee whose prominent role in the arts highlights this year’s theme celebrating the cultural and artistic life of the city over the past 30 years ahead of Galway’s bid to become European Capital of Culture 2020.
Around 70 community groups, schools and clubs will take part in the parade, which will feature the Macnas Young Ensemble who are promising to create magic, mayhem and buffoonery.
There is a particular emphasis on cultural icons in recognition of the theme – there will be a giant puppet of the Taibhdhearc man, the emblem of the national Irish language theatre company, a puppet of St Patrick himself and representations of Manannan Mac Lir and St Francis, patron saint of ecology and environment.
Groups set to ramp up the entertainment will be the Dirty Circus, the Salsa Latin Dancers Community Group, Galway Egypt Belly Dancers, Les Hot Culottes and the dancing troupe from Lorient, Galway’s twinned city, Bugale An Oriant.
Music is being provided by Gamelan Na Gaillimhe’s Indonesian gongs, local band Cúla Bula, the Patrician Brass Band, St Patrick’s Brass Band and the Funky Drums.
Two circuses will take part – Duffy’s and Galway Community Circus.
Badóirí an Cladaigh (Claddagh Boatmen) have arranged for a hooker to be place in Eyre Square where a band will provide music before the parade makes its way to Eyre Square.
A spokesman for Galway City Council said performer, writer and musician Little John Nee was invited to lead the parade as he was a pioneer of street performance in Galway and Ireland.
“Little John Nee is the Godfather of the Street, a modern day seanchaí, a musician of some note and a brilliant theatre maker and story teller,” he enthused.
“The invitation to lead off the Galway St. Patrick’s Day Parade is recognition of the role that Little John Nee has played in the creative and cultural life of Galway over the past 30 years and ties in neatly with the theme of this year’s parade as Galway heads toward the bid to become European Capital of Culture 2020.”
For many years, Little John had a key role in the Macnas summer parades in the Galway Arts Festival. This time he leads the parade in a horse drawn Victorian carriage.
A long-time Galway resident, the Donegal native has won critical acclaim and awards at home and abroad for his informal, engaging style of theatre with its unique mix of storytelling and song, humour, poignancy, and lyricism.
The parade’s reviewing stand will not feature Cllr Pearce Flannery, who has given up his place for a representative from the special school Ábalta. He invited other councillors other than the Mayor to follow suit.
“It really is an unedifying sight when one sees the elected body wearing their red capes up on a covered viewing platform absolutely removed from the public while others with special needs or disabilities view from unsuitable places often in the rain,” the Fine Gael councillor stated.
Cllr Anna Marley said she had been contacted by people working in the disability sector who were outraged by what they termed “an opportunistic, empty gesture” while government cutbacks continued to impose additional suffering on an already beleaguered section of society.
“Broadly speaking, Sinn Féin can see some merits in this but it was never our intention to be on the reviewing platform anyway. But, more importantly, marginalised groups in society must never be used in a tokenistic manner.”
A City Council spokesman said in line with a practice that has continued for many years, there will be a viewing area for disabled people. Following a safety audit, this has been moved beside the main stage.
The Gardaí have urged motorists to leave their cars at home if they intend to drink over the bank holiday. Additional resources will be deployed across the Western Garda Region during the weekend with a series of mandatory alcohol testing checkpoints in place.
The parade kicks off outside the Fire Station at the end of Dominick Street at 11.30am before entering Shop Street, William Street and Eyre Square and finishing on Prospect Hill at around 1pm.
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.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
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.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
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
