Entitled motorists ignoring the law in Boyle
Last Saturday, Boyle Gardai put out yellow ‘No Parking’ cones in key areas around the town in advance of a funeral and later in the evening, the arrival of Santa. Cones were strategically positioned at a key point on Main Street and each side of the road on St Patrick Street – all on double yellow lines (in reality there should be no need to place cones as it is illegal to park there!). There were also cones on the Crescent for Santa’s arrival. But on St. Patrick Street and Main Street, some able bodied motorists were observed getting out of their cars, moving the cones on to the footpath and parking their cars illegally on the double yellow lines! You have to wonder what these motorists think gives them the right to do this when there are free car parks off Green Street and An Rioga?
Forest Park is the county’s most instagrammed locations
Boyle’s Lough Key Forest Park has been named as Roscommon’s most Instagrammed locations according to new research by Virgin Media. To uncover the country’s most photographed hotspots, the Virgin Media data team reviewed Instagram hashtag volumes for Ireland’s best-known locations. The findings highlight the sites that are generating the most posts, photos and reels from visitors. In Roscommon, Lough Key Forest Park came out tops with 17,338 tagged posts. The team analysed Instagram hashtag usage for five well known landmarks or places of interest in County Roscommon. For every location, the most commonly used related hashtags were identified and counted. The total number of tagged posts for each set of five locations was then combined to calculate the overall Instagram activity for the county.
We dodged a bullet with Storm Bram
We really seemed to have dodged a bullet around Boyle during last Tuesday’s Storm Bram. Maybe it’s because we are still scarred from Storm Eowyn and Darragh, but in comparison, Storm Bram seemed tame. Granted there were some severe gusts but no major damage or power outages were reported locally as the track of the storm moved further east than was anticipated. A number of trains between Dublin/Sligo/Dublin ran about 30 minutes late, but we have become used to that by now – even on calm days. Despite all the warnings, life went on as normal around Boyle on Tuesday in the busy run up to Christmas, with the supermarkets yet again winning out as people panic bought food and supplies on Monday night – another example perhaps of the scars from Darragh and Eowyn!
Lack of rural night time public transport to the fore every Christmas
The call for more taxis and hackneys in rural Ireland will echo once again this Christmas as people head out to socalise. Many will say we do not have an adequate number of night time taxi’s or hackneys in Boyle with calls going out nationwide for Uber to be allowed operate in rural Ireland especially at busy times like Christmas. When Minister Jack Chambers visited Boyle last September, the Town Team took the opportunity to raise the lack of adequate night time public transport in the town with him and suggested that an Ridesharing/Uber type service would be great for the night time economy in Boyle.
Another option for Christmas transport would have been increased night time frequency and routes on the Local Link bus around Boyle or indeed a number of business in the hospitality industry coming together to organise a bus service for the town, but with less than two weeks to go until Christmas, all of the above would seem unachievable this year.
The need to eliminate vandalism and petty crime in our town
During the week we published on request, a supplied clip from private CCTV of a person entering the grounds of a house in Boyle without permission and taking a bicycle valued at €500. Earlier on Saturday we were contacted by a viewer telling us that they had “witnessed three young lads running away after wrecking the beautiful wooden tree made by the men’s shed, smashing all the baubles into the ground”. This was followed by another person telling us that the wheel of their car was stolen recently! As per our article here last week in the Boyle’d Pot, we advised all of the above viewers to report the crimes to An Garda Siochana. These petty acts of theft and vandalism in our town are becoming all to frequent and need to be stopped before the perpetrator(s) think they are above detection and progress to larger crimes.
News snippets from around Boyle
Join pianist Kieran Quinn and special guests Michael Rooney, Aileen Concannon, and Steve Wickham for a magical Christmas concert filled with reimagined Theme Night favourites and seasonal classics, all in the stunning surroundings of King House on Saturday December 13th at 8.00pm. Tickets €20 on 087 144 4739……….Enjoy an hour of Christmas Songs in Ballinameen Community Centre on Sunday December 14th from 4pm. Songs by Ballinameen Folk Choir and Sean Morris…….The Annual Ecumenical Carol Service will be held in St. Joseph’s Church on Thursday 18th December at 8p.m. A collection in aid of Mayo/Roscommon Hospice will take place on the night………A viewer has been in touch to vent their anger at people walking dogs (that are fouling) on the main and training pitches in the Abbey Park…………Abbey College Young SVP students in Fifth Year will be assisting the local Boyle Conference of SVP in a Bag Pack in Super Value on Friday. All money goes directly to St. Vincent de Paul Boyle…….You could have ventured out in your shorts last Tuesday in advance of Storm Bram with air temperatures in Boyle at 7.30am measuring a balmy 15 degrees……..A big well done and thank you to Omar and Elena who made and erected Christmas art pieces for the Crescent Plaza during the week, that really brightens up the area. Omar and Elena are valued members of the Tidy Town committee and regularly help out at the Wednesday clean ups around the town………..Your support is appreciated for the Abbey Primary School Christmas Raffle which is taking place on Wednesday December 17th.
And finally……!
A boy comes home and proudly announces to his parents: “Mum, Dad, the teacher asked the class a question today and I was the only one who knew the right answer”.
The parents beam with delight: “That’s amazing Tommy!”
“And what was the question?”
Sticking out his chest with pride, the boy answers “Who farted?”
