Gort

A UNIQUE ecotourism project in South-East Galway was awarded €200,000 under the Rural Development Programme this week.Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan announced he has sanctioned Galway Rural Development Co Ltd to approve funding of up to €200,000 to the Slieve Aughty Centre, Loughrea. This money will provide the necessary financial support to allow Esther Zyderlaan, T/A the Slieve Aughty Centre, to complete an accommodation unit, which will enable the centre to expand its ecotourism facility. The centre offers a sustainable tourism amenity that aims to work in harmony with the local environment, while simultaneously offering a unique eco-friendly option for home visitors and tourists alike.“This project represents a way forward for rural tourism in Ireland by combining the need to provide interesting and healthy activity options with the need to ensure that such activities are environmentally conscious. The project will not only provide direct support to the project promoter as a local entrepreneur but will …

HUNDREDS of parents, teachers, trade union officials and public representatives met in Galway on Monday to discuss the cuts affecting education and those expected in next week’s Budget. The conference, titled Give Kids a Chance, was organised by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation as part of the series of Schools Week events that are currently being held across the country. The conference was addressed by Joe Killeen, local Central Executive Committee representative and principal of Lough Cutra National School, who warned of the perils of increasing pupil numbers (an additional 25,900 by 2014) while there is a lack of teachers. Mr Killeen emphasised the European average class size is 20 pupils per teacher, while Irish pupils are in classes averaging 24.2 pupils or 20% higher than their European counterparts. He outlined the cuts that have been implemented to date including cuts in resource teaching hours, reduction in English as additional language teachers, the end of the rural co-ordinators’ scheme, the …

KINVARA-based soprano, Maeve Cairney, will perform a series of concerts in Galway over the next five months. In conjunction with renowned pianist, Morgan Cooke, the concerts will take place in different venues in the city at 8pm on one Sunday in every month from December through to April. Each concert will have a theme and special guest performer.“I did a concert back in March called A Voice in Bloom, that was my first solo professional concert and lots of people came up to me afterwards to ask me when I was doing something similar again. I sing throughout the summer in Dunguaire so every winter, I like to have a project. I had a brainwave one night at about three in the morning, to do a concert series for one night each month. I decided to run the series to increase my own repertoire and to have the opportunity to perform and also I suppose to give audiences the opportunity …

SOUTH Galway’s parents, teachers and public representatives are being urged to attend a public meeting on Monday next to discuss difficulties facing schools and the “severe effects” of expected cuts in education as part of this year’s Budget. According to one well-known local educator, children will be forced to learn in “super-size classes” if the Government changes the pupil to teacher ratio from 27:1 to 30:1 as part of Budget 2012.“This meeting will explore the effect of budgetary cuts on the value of education that can be offered by schools and will feature a wide-ranging panel of educators, experts and professionals. It will focus on the situation in the education system today and the results of the cuts to date. It will outline what is to be expected in the future and will be of interest to teachers and parents,” explained Joe Killeen, INTO district representative for Galway and Roscommon. Mr Killeen, principal of Lough Cutra National School, believes any …

COLM O’Gorman, executive director of Amnesty International Ireland, visited South Galway on Thursday  last and spoke to students in Gort Community School. Over the past two decades, Gort CS students have worked both inside and outside the classroom to take action and speak out about fundamental human rights concerns. “Working with Amnesty is something we have been doing for a period of time,” explained Junior Certificate student Leanne O’Toole. “This was part of our CSPE project for Junior Cert. We did it as a class,” added Leanne O’Toole, who is from Ardrahan.The Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees each person protection for our rights and Gort students have always been at the forefront of tackling both local and global concerns.“In raising awareness of human rights, we looked up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and learned about all the different rights and how people are deprived of their rights,” explained Leanne. As well as addressing the students, Mr O’Gorman viewed …

SEVEN brave triathletes, including some from Galway and Clare, braved the 10oC lake waters of Lough Cutra Castle, Gort, last Friday to launch the first Lough Cutra Castle Triathlon, which will take place next June.

THE Government cannot give a date for commencement of work on the Gort to Tuam motorway, the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar said last week, while a spokesperson for the National Roads Authority (NRA) told The Clare Champion it is in a “holding pattern” ahead of any announcement by the Government on the future of the project.

GORT is on course to be the number one destination for triathlons in Ireland according to organisers of the the first Lough Cutra Castle Triathlon.