Congratulations to Nicky and Clare Nugent on the birth of Mark on the 2nd March weighing in at 8lbs 01Ounces.
Glad to see Tony Ellis and daughter Caroline at the weekend. Tony was telling us that the Fish Specimen Awards were on at the weekend and an angling journalist from England was presenting the Awards. Tony and Paul Burke are taking them for a bit of pike fishing on the River Barrow this week.
A visiting angler was telling us that he was fishing the Hot Water stretch at the power plant recently and his young son caught a 16-pound pike. He sent a photo to the Sun newspaper.
Great to hear that Joseph and Donna McCaul from Athlone survived the elimination heats to select someone to represent Ireland in this years Eurovision Contest which is the 50th contest..
Fred Hamm was telling us that swallows often nest in his home which is a barge based in Shannonharbour. Fred welcomes this and says that when the young chicks hatch out that they are not able to find the exit but fly around the inside of the barge, hitting against windows and so on. They rest on a clothesline and Fred helps them find the exit by holding the point of a brush handle near the line. The birds jump onto the handle and Fred carefully removes them to freedom.
Mark Breslin is getting married. Mark lived for many years in Shannonbridge before the family moved to Ferbane. Mark celebrated his birthday in Ferbane on Saturday and combined it with an enjoyable stag party in Hineys. This was one in a series of stags and two of his Scotch friends and a Welsh friend -m Colin, Ely and Gethin travelled over for the occasion. Our own Colin gave them a lift from the airport and cooked a meal for them. One of the trio refused the fish that went with the pasta. Ely told us that when he was in China he ate dog. Moby was listening and he immediately left his box and went out into the yard to hide.
Mothers Day was celebrated yesterday and many a mother was taken out to dinner on Saturday night and yesterday. The Fort was absolutely jammed and hundreds had to be turned away on Saturday night Yesterday Fergal arranged a number of lunch sittings to meet the demand.
Met Tom Egan from Boora Parklands who told us that Cormorants are a nuisance on the lakes and that he saw eight of them on one lake one morning. They create an amount of damage to fish stocks.
Paddy Kavanagh was in Shannonbridge yesterday showing some visitors the attractions of the area and it was like seeing the first swallow. Summer must be near.
Yesterday was beautiful and sunny and two couples from Copenhagen who were on a weekend package trip to Dublin came along to visit Clonmacnois. Kim and his wife had been to Ireland once before and had seen Clonmacnois so they brought along Ole and his wife for a visit. They were based in the Radisson hotel in Dublin. A sign for an award winning wine caught Ole's eye and we found two bottles in presentation wooden boxes for them. I was explaining that the boxes make ideal birdhouses and he wanted to post back the boxes from Copenhagen. Wonder what the custom people would think.?