Wednesday 15th July Jon Anderson and his wife Marilyn nee Matylinsky from Reno Nevada stopped by.
the Anderson came from Denmark originally. Jon plays Saxaphone and has been a member of the same group for 17 years.
Their group is called "Guitar Woody and The Boilers" and they have a website called
guitar-woody.com
Their signature tune is called Its Always Something.
When Mick Killeen produced a saxaphone Jon said that he had his own mouthpiece with him in the car.
Marilyn told us that she is a librarian in Sparks, which is four miles from Reno.
On their travels they came to Longford and found that Sparks is twinned to Longford. Students from the banjo class
in Sparks are visiting Longford in September.
Marilyn.s grandmother was a Byrne who was born in Drumlish
Her grandfather was an Ivors from possibly Roscommon.
The Andersons have been to France on four occassions but this is their first trip to Ireland.

Wednesday 15th July Last evening Eddie and Brian Cranmer walked in to Shannonbridge.
They had walked from Cleggan in Connemara and were walking to Cleggan Road in Dublin where they live.
At Ballinasloe they branched off the main route heading for Shannon-harbour.
They plan to finish their walk to Dublin by walking alongside the Grand Canal.
Their walk is in aid of the charity Women's Aid which was founded in 1974.
Women's Aid work is mainly a helpline for women that have been molested or sexually abused.
They have collected 1,200 Euro to date, mainly through the website www.clegganchallenge.wordpress.com
Eddie and Brian have travelled with small backpacks containing camping tents.
They play the guitar and gave it a rattle after Paudge Bennett had finished.
Rory Green befriended them and offered them a place to pitch their tents.
Wishing them the best of luck in their fund-raising for Women's Aid.

The brother John from New Jersey arrived home yesterday. He finds it easier to travel to Dublin Airport
and catch a Citylink or Bus Eireann bus from the airport door that drops him in Ballinasloe.
After a few hours sleep he was up to hear the music and have a look at the late night filming
for "Pure Mule".

Wednesday 15th July Swiss artist Paddy Steiger arrived in Shannonbridge with two writer friends
Manuela and Kdtjd for a few days break in Grouse Lodge. Paddy and Manuela are frequent visitors
to the area.

Met a party from Malta on a cruiser holiday yesterday 15th July. They had booked their holiday
with the group that operate Emerald Starline. It was a bit unusual to meet people from Malta
on a cruising holiday. They told us that they had gone on a cruising holiday with the firm last year
on the continent and had enjoyed it. So this year they were enjoying a boating holiday in Ireland.
They live in Valetta and they told that a soccer team from Valetta was playing in Dublin this weekend.
They had plans to go to that game and also the Real Madrid v Shamrock Rovers game.
They were disappointed to hear that the tickets for the Real Madrid / Rovers game sold out in five minutes.
One of the men had Irish connections. A Irish lady called Stone married into the family but he had no details.
Bet they are enjoying being away from the Malta heat which was 39C yesterday.

On Wednesday Christina Mueller and Marianne Jackels from Prague visited Shannonbridge with their husbands.
Christina told that she last visited Shannonbridge in 1986 and it was her friends first visit.
Good to see them returning after so long a time.

Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Eric Dilworth from Ard na Ri, Clonmacnois
on the birth of their baby daughter Sarah Jane last week.

Glad to see Eamon and Katherine Lyons pay a brief visit to Shannonbridge this week looking so well.