Gort

AN East Galway TD is to raise concerns with the Ministers for Communications and for Social Protection, calling for a “coherent plan” for the future of the post office network.Reports in the media over the weekend have indicated that changes to payment methods by the Department of Social Protection could result in the closure of up to 400 rural post offices.The Irish Postmasters Union (IPU) have indicated they have no objection to people being given the option of receiving payments electronically but they believe people should still have the option of collecting them from their local post office, if they wish.Any move to make all payments electronic would result, the IPU claim, in a catastrophic drop in the earnings of rural postmasters and make many rural post offices no longer viable.“It is critical that in dealing with our current fiscal difficulties that we remember that the calculation of the cost of any reforms must include social or environmental costs. In …

Kinvara is gearing up for its 20th Fleadh na gCuach or Cuckoo Fleadh which organisers say “will be one of the biggest and best yet”. The festival, which takes place from Friday to Monday,  was the brainchild of local man, Tony Moylan.

LITTLE did two men from South Galway realise that more than 80 years after they were photographed for one of the most iconic images of this era, they would feature in a documentary in Japan. Two workers from Shanaglish, near Gort, are sitting at either end of the ­photograph. On the extreme left, ­lighting the cigarette, is Matty O’Shaughnessy, while Patrick ‘Sonny’ Glynn is holding the bottle on the extreme right. Proudly displayed in Whelan’s pub, Shanaglish, it has become a huge visitor attraction since it was discovered that two of the people on the steel girder were from the area. Sónta Films will present IFTA 2013 award-nominated Men at Lunch, a feature-length documentary during the European Film Festival in Japan next month. Director, Seán O’Cualain was also invited to go to China in the second week of June but was unable to go because he is filming the history of the GAA in the US at the same time. …

THE Irish team to compete in the Lough Cutra Castle Triathlon in Gort on Sunday, May 26 has been announced.

Kilcuan Retreat Centre in Clarinbridge will receive a windfall in the coming weeks after more than 700 people came out to support a fundraising event recently.

A public representative has called on Galway County Council to pursue the National Roads Authority in relation to improving an area left in a terrible condition after the completion of the M18 from Gort to Ennis.

A Fianna Fáil councillor has pledged to request a comprehensive progress report concerning the proposed development of a new primary health centre in Gort.

A new website aimed at increasing tourists to South Galway by emphasising the area’s links with Lady Gregory and WB Yeats, will be launched next week.