Guth & Tuairim, Lúnasa/Meán Fómhair 1981

Loch An luir Not ~n l i ving meuor y has anyone seen the level of Loch an Iuir la.l;;:e as high this time of year as it has been this sum.i.Jer. The cat-walk has been completely sub– merged a.."ld the 1mter came onto the car park, a rare occurence even in the 11inter mon~hs. This of course is a God-send to allglers as the flood in the Crolly river will bring the sal;aon up. The theor-y that any salr..on that gets up to Loughanure, must have come up on the bus will not aHlY this year. 3 111101111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 For the Festival opening the sun shone as never before. Briefly, all speakers including Denis Doyle (who recently discovered that Dungloe is in his area), in Irish and in English, complimented the Comnittee and wished the Festival every success. But of Hr. Harte it was expected that he should alDo speak on a matter which concerns us all - the old telephone system. While he spoke at great length, what he said could be summarised as follows) Since 1947 the Garden has been neglected. Noo a weeding campaign has begun and one can be assured that all will be rosy after a few good seasons. In fairness he did not promise aqything overnight-or within a week. Ta an dara clirsa gaeilge faoi lan tseoil arais agus corradh maith le dl'.~- cnead mic leinn ag freastal air. Ilhi daoin. an tsasta le scolairf mhf Iuil mar go rabh siad macanta coir. Tathar ag suil go mbeidri moran de ~ scolairf sinnsireach ag pilleadh i Hean F'norrJ1air don Eigse. Dila an sceil, traoslamid le scolairfmh1 Iuil a bhuaidi1 Corn Jhri"'de i llann na Feirsde ag d1ospoireacht ~ 11 An bhfuil barr:locht eagrafochtaf Gaeilge ann?". Minutes after that official opening, our own man, Mayor Hanlon was cutting the tape to mark the opening of a new car park on Quay Road. Unlike Mr. Harte, the Mayor was more optimistic in that he predicted immediate results. Within 7 days he declared, many Ill Never has there been so f e1J around Loch an Iui r duri ng £. the Glasgow ,Fair" as this year. I--robably t!le bad weatner coupled with the scarcity of r.1oney is responsiole. Even though the attractive rate for sterling here s hould ent.ice visitors, it did not seem to have the desired eff ect. It would /appear that we get more visitors at Christmas now thalk in the sumi'!er. , The visitors now go where they get gu~teed weather. Gura slan leis an tsea.n a.-u nuair a bhf achan sarnhradh maith agus achan gheimhreadh olc, agus acllan rud saor. N1 fheicear nfos mo na laethe oreatha sin faraor. Deir an sean ar.J1ran, "Cad e. dheanfaidn r•uid feasta gan adhmad, tr.f deireadn ir gcoillte ar lar 11 ach sl:i a dhalta sin ag an mhoin i mbliana e, ta ai' go foill ar lar. Deirtear gur dhtiirt. Colmcille gur i gcloich an bhac a thiocfadh an chead ghor·:.a a.,:rus ill cosuil le sin anoia e. Ar scor ar oith ta an cas ag eiri gruaq~a rn'lr go bhfUil go leor a bhfuil a gcuid sean mhona rai te. Is mor an gar do na ;iafain nach bhfuil uiad ag do aoil anoia. The Loch an Iuir childrens band travelled to Omagh recently to te.Jte par~ in Fl.eadh Cheoil Uladh run by CoLlhaltas Ceoltoiri Eirea.nn. They took part in t he Industrial fare.de from the Dromore Rdl, to St. Fatrick 1 s Park where the Liuch delayed competition tbok place. Junior band corru;-.itt ees are not too happy tnat junior bands are asked to compete against senior bands including Drass :.>ands axxl Fipe Llama. This situation was not at county level, ~~d is considered by rnall7 most unfair. It must also make judGing very difficult. Ho11ever in spite of all that the Loch an Iuir band co~nit~ee are delighted that the band did so wel l, in that they were only one point behi nd the band placed t!lird. l any ueople were ver-,t unhappy wit the delay in getting the band competition organised, which left children 11 fea up 11 and very late getting back to their homes. "An 3aca<ch". Sharon ,?,: Rosaleen Gall~her from Derryconnor are t''fo!ins (no kidding). Ta siad 7 mbliana d 1 aois agus teann siad go scoil Dhoire Chonnaire. Pity the poor teachers though. They must have problems figuring out which is Sharon and whi ch is Rosaleen, ~ cups and trophies will have found new homes here on ;i1 • this road. How right he was~ To Mary ~·lard of <ll ~ Cnocnagrearagh went t he parish Waltzing Trophy: to ~3 Pa Ward (the Bookie), the Fubs 1 Quiz Troph;r; to John .~ to. & Ann Connors, _the festival 9ld Time 'vlaltzing a; :g- Perpetual Cup; to Christine Connors, a trophy tor ..<:: 111 being placed in the "Mary" Donke;r Derby; and to Pakie ::...., -0 Donnell for his donkey; Final.ly on crowning night, for the Dungloe Mary, there was another trophy and for the Mayor himself there was the biggest cup of all - to mark his dedication and lo;ralty to the Festival since its foundation. Crwn' D£ Cabaret From where I was seated (beside the wife) I had an excellent vi,ew of the entire show, and with the taU ot 1Jt3' -e;re, I got an occassional glimpse of W.J. Cunningbam and M.Mo G. 0' Donnell who were among the V.I.P.'s. Also, t here were the Guinness, Carrells and Tbor Hi~. On stage there vu the Dermot o• Brien Trio, and, for the greater part ot the night& we had the 11 pleuure 11 of PeuUne Clarke "in person • I umerstand that Paullne vas representiag the firm Black & Son LW, who are leading tights manufacturers and exporters. pPJwl Qai:a One of the more difficult questions with which I was confronted was "what does one have to do to get the Nobel Prize?" Now being a Kerryman, it immediately occured to me that here was a trick question. So, having hesitated briefly I replied, "To get the Nobel Prize, one must be out standing in his own field." Tqe applause was such that I felt confident that I had cbaulked up another 6 points. However, when the laughter di4ki dawn, says the Quizmaster to me, "why don't ;you go out and stand in ;your own field and see what happens~" Honest]J', I felt aw:f.'ul. One of the simpler questions was, "If you didn't have a watch, how vould you check the time?" To which I replied, "Stop the Lights." !3ut the requi,.ed an~r was, "check the clock." Honestly, I felt worse. On the whole, it was a great week. Most people share the view that this was the beat Festival to-date, while I don't doubt their word, I would not be in a position to make such a comment. Why? Well, the fact is I am too young to have vivid memories of the early festivals. Pleasant Sutprise For Pat the Cope, opportunity knocked early one morning last week. As he looked out from his window, he was delighted tf.l see, parked on .hi s lawn a sparkling black "State" car. Naturally, being in opposition there was no driver supplied. By now all the election talk has died down (in most places~. But only recently (due to the gentle budget) I siftE•d through the results. In doi ng so, it occured to me t hat C.J. must have been pleased with this constituency's verdict. I mean -two out of three ain' t bad~ One could say t hat it was just what the doctor ordered. Now before some "smart alec 11 says, "What Doctor?," lets be clear, i t's just a very old saying, or as the gaeilgeoir would say a sean-f'hocal. Well until ne~ month, take caree Indeed for that matter take care always: "The Kerryman"