Gort

THE Department of Education and Science has robustly defended its record on school prefabs in Galway after an Opposition TD in the county claimed the €1.8 million annual spend is “wasteful squandering of scarce financial resources”.Fine Gael TD Ulick Burke stated that the annual expenditure by the Department of Education and Science of €1.84m per year on 154 pre-fabricated buildings at primary schools in Galway “must be seen as a wasteful squandering of scarce financial resources.”A number of South Galway schools currently have prefabs on site. Ballinderreen National School has two prefabs at an annual cost of €23,882, Kilbeacanty National School has one costing €11,370 per year while Kilchreest National School and Kilnadeema Natioanal School have two and one respectively, according to the figures released. Both of these schools are have prefab rental costs of €13,899. Also on the list is Kilrickle National School, where €9,628 is spent on prefabs. Galway has the third highest number of prefabs in the …

Spring is nearly here and one South Galway group is urging people to “dump the gym membership and get into the garden”. Kinvara Sustainable Living, a non-profit organisation, is offering a range of classes and courses for budding gardeners, allotment holders and backyard farmers.

Well-known singer songwriter Julie Feeney and sean nós dancer Emma O’Sullivan are some of the headline acts that will perform in this year’s Coole Park Spring programme.

Galway County Council is urging Gort residents to conserve water after consumption shot up by nearly 30% and a number of homes were left without water since before Christmas.

A Kinvara company last week launched a major initiative, which will see trade-ins taken on hurling helmets.MARC Sports launched its novel scrappage scheme for hurling helmets, which is due to be rolled out nationwide over the coming weeks, in Croke Park where the company also unveiled current Galway hurler and All-Star Joe Canning as its newest brand ambassador.

A young Gort woman is set to become the new face of one of Ireland’s best-known retail brands. Sarah Jane Waters from Shanaglish, Gort was recently revealed as the winner of the Carraig Donn/Ireland AM Carraig Donn Woman competition.The competition had been running on Ireland AM, in the Sunday World and in all the Carraig Donn shops nationwide. The object of the competition was to find the typical Irish women who personifies the brand, Carraig Donn.Carraig Donn Woman wanted to find a woman who is interested in clothes and fashion, who has a busy life and yet makes an effort with their appearance. Hundreds of entries were received and 10 women nationwide reached the final.However, Sarah Jane, who is a primary school teacher in Gort, didn’t enter the competition herself. It was her proud mother who filled out the entry form and submitted it.The finalists were from a range of age and size profiles to reflect modern life but it …

Fifteen families in the South Galway area who have been out of their homes since before Christmas due to flooding are now faced with further delays in getting to grips with the damage as ice and snow further compound the situation with the current cold snap.County Councillor Bridie Willers, who herself was affected by the flooding and had to leave her home, has highlighted the plight that residents in South Galway affected by floods late last year now have to endure.“We are still out of our houses and in fact following the floods, the frost has made the roads more treacherous and our homes are not accessible so it makes it harder to get back in. It really has compounded our problems. Having said that, the floods are receding but the flood waters that remain there are freezing over. We’re at a dead end really and we are all just hoping that the weather improves,” Councillor Willers acknowledged.She explained that …

  A Kinvara-based entrepreneur with a fresh approach to the recession scooped a prize worth €60,000 at an awards ceremony held in Limerick recently.Tom Hayes of Talent Tank was unveiled as the Galway winner of this year’s Impact Media Elevate Award. The prize includes an advertising package, full marketing, design and PR services, print services, legal advice and a photographic session.Tom’s unique online service, TalentTank.ie, links people who are looking for job opportunities with employers who need fresh talent.This novel answer to the country’s financial woes made a big impression on Elevate judges Pat McDonagh of Supermacs, Tom Murphy of Total Shaving Solution and Niall McGarry of Impact Media, who chose Talent Tank over strong competition from Grab Radio and iBuyVochers.com.Talent Tank will now benefit from the fund designed to elevate emerging entrepreneurs to a whole new level.Tom told The Clare Champion, “Up until August 2009, we were inundated with users, so we know that the concept is massive. We …