Today Olav Bjorshol and Marieanne Behn from Norway called in after visiting Clonmacnois.

They told about a friend named Haakon Melberg who at one time came to Ireland and stayed in Cork. Haakon wrote a number of books on the origin of language.

Back home in Norway they have fairies like in Ireland. Haakon collected a great number of Irish stories, many of them about fairies. These were very popular in Norway. Haakon is now dead and Olav told us that a group from Ireland went to Norway and accepted the collection of stories collected by Haakon. Olav believes that they are on display somewhere in Dublin.

I told them about our local fairies at Cloniffeen and hope that they find The Cloniffeen Fairies that was in The Shannonbridge Star years ago.

Olav once sailed around Ireland and told that when he was in Dingle Bay he got lost and was afraid of hitting rocks. He remembers that the dolphins escorted him out of the bay to safety on the sea.

Marieanne has warm hands and they were enquiring if I knew the name of the mineral that gives relief to warm hands.

They were on their way to Galway and Connemara.

Notices have been distributed telling of that Shannonbridge Power Station is presently being demolished by Robinson and Birdsell.

The first boiler will be collapsed on 11^th February 2009 @ 11.00am.

An exclusion zone will be put in place. There will be a short loud crack when the explosives are detonated.

The Offaly Independent January 31^st 2009, see www.offalyindependent.ie under Entertainment has a story titled World premiere at Abbey for Offaly playwright.

Martina Carr from Banagher new play ‘Marble’ will have its world premier on February 10 at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Carr has written twelve plays to date. She has been Writer-in-Residence at the Abbey Theatre and Trinity College, Dublin and is a member of Aosdana.

Marble is a compelling study of marriage, friendship and the power of the subconscious.

The local paper also tells that a pottery class has been set up to take place in the studios attached to Belmont Mill. See under five things to do. Remember www.belmontmill.com

Mark Donegan celebrated his birthday at the weekend. Home for the bash was his brother Daithi Rua and his girlfriend. Daithi is looking forward to working on a long tour of Britain. See details under his website www.daithirua.com Daithi is a son of Martin and Dolores and is looking forward to meeting many anglers that he met when they fished in Shannonbridge. All the venues are listed in the website,

Also home for the weekend was Rory Quinn. Rory told us that he may be performing in a play in Mountbellew during Lent. He promised to give us more details nearer the time so that you can go and see the play.

Shannonbridge Mid-summer Festival takes place this year on the weekend of 28^th June 2009.

River is in full flood and the forecast is for snow for the next few days.