Year: 2002

Buy your Currane Calendar 2003


A calendar has been produced to raise funds for Féile Fáilte Abhaile Pobal a’Chorráin 2003. The calendar is in the format of a large poster (610mm deep x 430mm wide) and is printed full colour on high quality stock. As well as practical information about the festival there is also a usable calendar and there are many photographs depicting life in Currane etc.
The calendar will therefore make an excellent christmas gift, giving owners a reminder of Currane to hang on their walls and take pleasure out of every day.
The design work for the calendar was donated free of charge by Currane.net. Special thanks go to Micheál Joyce at Waugh Print, Dublin for printing the calendars. All proceeds go directly to the Fáilte Abhaile committee.
The calendar will be on sale at Currane church following mass on Sunday December 15th.

Ann Sweeney – 14th December 2002

From: Ann Sweeney 14th December 2002
Hi All,

Hope you are all keeping well!!,

Well, what a mad 2 weeks we’ve had. I’m in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory at the moment. Perth was brillant we got to meet and know so many people. The first day we arrived in Perth was roasting we weren’t used to it with our Melbourne weather. We went to see the Perth Mint and how gold is heated down into gold bars, very interesting! The following day we went horse-riding, we had such a laugh my horse was a bit like me, doesn’t like to be controlled!!, He took off in a trot and of course your’e meant to be holding onto the saddle but being so excited my arms ended up around the horses neck and my right foot up in the arm!!, everyone was in the stitches laughing!!, the 3rd trot I was expert at horse-riding ready for show jumping next!!.

We went to check out the famous Irish bar here called the Bog, a great nite was had by all, we never left the dance floor.

The following day we took a ferry to Rottnest Island, we hired out bikes and cycled around the Island, there were some fantastic beaches there, white sand, blue and green waters beautiful scenery, we stayed the nite. We had our own BBQ and camped out . We had great fun.

On the Monday we booked a tour (Easyriders ) to bring us down South of Perth, we had an absolutely great time. We met so many people mostly Irish and Scottish girls. We saw lots of cute little towns along the coast and stopped to sample a few wineries along the way. The wines over here are lovely!!! To top off the evening we had a little champagne as we watched the sun go down, heaven!!! We stopped in a place called Denmark to do some canoeing it was really nice, we managed to see the Solar eclipse here it was amazing, we could see it so clearly.

By Friday we had made it down to a place called Albany to try our luck at surfing. It was the best craic ever, we looked the part anyway!! All I managed was to get to my knees, I tell ya its not easy!!!. I will definitely do it again!! Our instructor was great craic he couldn’t stop laughing at us. Well at least we were some entertainment for somebody. The harder I tried to get on the board the worse I was getting!!!!

We flew back to Melbourne and while on our flight they had a prize for someone who could either sing, or tell a joke so after persuading Helena we went up and sang “Leaving on a jet plane” – Well low and behold, we won the prize which was a nites accomodation in the Darling Harbour in Sydney, so that was a nice surpise so thats where we’ll be over a nite at xmas, its meant to be lovely with a great view of Sydny Opera House, happy days!!!

Came back to Melbourne on Sunday nite and went to work for 3 days. Wednesday, we took an 8 hour bus journey to Adelaide, we took the famous Ghan train to Alice Springs which was 20 hours, so here we are ready to do this big climb of Ayers Rock. Its absolutely roasting here at the moment so tomorrow we’re going on a 3 day tour to see Ayers Rock both at Sunset and sunrise. So looking forward to that. We’re leaving here on Tuesday for that famous 20 hour train journey and then on the bus back to Melbourne so its all go here at the moment . So, thats enough from me your’e probably all tired of reading at this stage!!!

All the best from very hot Alice Springs,

Ann
XX

Ann Sweeney – 25th November 2002

From: Ann Sweeney 25th November 2002
Hi All,

Hope all is well, gees I can’t believe its another week again. Time is going by so fast – I wish I could put a stop watch on it!! Had a great time last weekend, 14 of us went out for dinner, we had a great nite and the following day we spent with our adopted Aussie Family drinking some cold beer in their local pub, we finished off the evening listening to Christy Moore, it was grand!! we had as they say over here an awsome day!!

Work is going is great, finally got to meet this millonaire Yank with all the dollars called Steve!!, I got the shock of my life, he’s sooo not what I imagined!!, he’s so casually dressed, old jeans, t-shirt, abit overweight!!, so down to earth, money has not gone to his head, its nice finally to put a face behind the man but no I won’t be trying to charm him!!,

Really looking forward to seeing Perth, we fly next Tuesday at 6am in the morning for 10 days, I’ve got a contact already, one of the guys in the office has a cousin who lives there so I shall be ringing him, my long lost friend!!, so the next time you hear from me I shall be reporting back from Perth so stay close to your computers for some breaking news around the 8th of December, your not allowed to even go shopping on that day!!!

Friday nite I’m going to check out this niteclub that I work for called Zos, they put me on the guest list (VIP treatment only me!!) ya got to have some perks with the job!!, apparently theres only 2 niteclubs in Oz with special dance speakers and this niteclub is one of them so I must “check it out”!!, and don’t worry girls I’ll carry out the sound investigation for ye!!

Saturday we’re going to Phillip Island, its about 2hrs away from Melbourne, we’re going to see some penguins and all that touristy stuff, its meant to be really nice, and Sunday morning we’re all going canoeing in Albert lake, for all you grand prix fans (motor racing!!) this is the lake you will see in the centre of the race track, its really pretty so you can imagine me out rowing on it!!!

Anyway guys thats my plans for the weekend, I’m sure yours are just as good, take care and hurray I’m off to Perth. Sorry!!! I’m just so excited!!!

all the best
Ann from down unda!!

Ann Sweeney – 12th November 2002

From: Ann Sweeney 12th November 2002
Hi Everyone,

Hope you are all well. Sorry I haven’t emailed in a while but I’ve been very busy what with work and going out. Life is tough over here!!! Well my temporary job is going great, the people I’m working with are lovely. The guy who actually owns the Company is filthy rich – he only ownes a niteclub, his own plane, has his own indoor pool and a few companies in Melbourne but I know he’s not happy, he can’t be!!!

Well, on Tuesday we went to the famous Melbourne Cup that everyone talks about. Imagine a Country that takes a bank holiday for a 3 minute horserace? It’s great, its no wonder we’re here!!! We had the best day and craic!! We all wore our County jerseys. There were 2 from Kerry, 2 from Mayo, 1 Donegal and 1 from Galway and a poor unfortunate dub!! We never got so much attention in all our lives!! We must have met every Irish person at the Melboure Cup. It started off on the tram getting to the races, it was so funny!! We could have worn $2,000 suits but no one would have noticed us!!, The very first race, my horse came in 1st. I nearly lost my life! I won $66 and on the main race my horse came in but the odds weren’t the best god bless him so I won $40 not bad for a total beginner!! We took some great pictures of us all with sailors, cops people dressed as Vikings, you name it they were there!!! Of course we had to sample the champagne to celebrate our win!! I would highly recommend this day to anyone – brillant!!,

It’s all go here at the moment, we’re all going away this weekend to the Great Ocean Road about 2 hours from Melbourne, staying in holiday house which 2 girls from Melbourne parents own. I tell ya we have it sorted so looking forward to that!!

The weather is beautiful here at the moment. Today its 31. It was so hot inside. Hopefully our Summer is here at last!!,

Well, I have to go now and pack for the weekend, god its tough!!!,

take care everyone

Ann

Minister Éamon Ó Cuiv visits Currane


On Monday 21st October, Minister Éamon Ó Cuiv visited Currane to officially open the Enterprise Centre, Casadh an Taoille. He also launched the brochure produced by Comhlacht Forbartha Áitiúil Acla (Achill Local Development Company) and met with several community groups.
Minister Ó Cuiv was presented with a watercolour – “Daybreak in Currane” – by a local artist, in recognition of his visit.
After the formal part of the visit, Minister Ó Cuiv met with Muintir a’Chorráin (Currane Development Company) who raised several issues including telecommunications, FÁS Schemes, roads, piers, planning permission and development of changing facilities at the community pitch, Griffin Park.
A successful evening was rounded off with a plentiful supply of refreshments provided by the Ladies Club.

Ann Sweeney – 21st October 2002

From: Ann Sweeney 21st October 2002
Hi Everyone, Greetings from Melbourne!

Hope you’re all well and happy.
Wasn’t that terrible about the Bali bombing? Just to think we were there in that bar 2 months ago and in the Irish bar Paddies across the road.  Well, 2 friends of ours are so lucky they are still alive. They were the 2 girls we met in Vietnam, both from Melbourne. They were actually in Kuta and planning to go to that nite club on Saturday nite but Lou’s ankle was hurting her or they would have been there. They came home to Melbourne yesterday so we’re meeting them at the weekend, they’re very lucky girls!!

On Sunday we hired out 2 cars. I hadn’t driven in 6 months and driving an automatic was pretty different. God, you’d get so lazy driving them!! We decided to get out of the city for the day, we had a great time. We went the Dandenong Mountains, wow, the view was lovely! The city looked tiny from miles away. From there, we went to Healesville Sanctuary and finally got to see some Kangeroos, Koalas and flying fox!!! The foxes were scary looking, hanging upside down. They stared you out of it just like bats!!! From there we drove to Williamstown, very much like St Kilda, the main interest was to cross over a massive bridge called the West Gate Bridge. Seeing it every day at the Rialto buildings I was dying to cross over it. On the way back it was dark and the city looked amazing at nite from the bridge!! It really was a great day, 6 Irish (of course we’d have the larger gang!!!, 1 English and 1 Scottish girl on the road great fun!!,

Still working away but we moved office, really missing the Rialto and view but this place is actually nice as well!!, the offices are way bigger. This job we’re working on has a deadline of Friday week, so we’re all working both Saturday and Sunday over the weekend.

The weather today is beautiful, its 29 degrees and would you believe I’m wearig a pair of shorts for the first time in Melbourne so lets hope it keeps up!!!

Well I hope ye all have a great weekend!!, its nearly there for ye all, hang in there!!

well that’s all for the news for now

take care
Ann

The Ruddy Report – 11/10/02


This Week….
Well Sports fans!

This week I will talk about Achill’s Promotion Crushed!

At Davitt Park last Saturday evening, Achill took on local rivals Islandeady in a very important League clash. For Islandeady nothing was at stake only pride, but for Achill a win would mean a huge step towards Promotion to Division 2.

However, for the second week running, the Mayo GAA failed to send down a Referee to the game and with Achill becoming very impatient a deal was struck between Islandeady and Achill to play the game that night with a referee from Islandeady. This was cleared with the County board and the game went ahead.

Achill started very slow with Islandeady getting the first number of scores, Achill battled back into the game and were just a few points behind but then in a matter of 5 minutes, Islandeady struck twice with to very well worked goals which just cut straight through the Achill defence.

Achill were stunned and a number of rushed substitutions were made immediately. Although the substitutions did settle the team Achill were still failing to get a grip on things. The game proved as in years gone by to be a very physical and dirty game with one Achill player in particular coming out worse in a malicous challenge.

At Half time there were 6 points between the teams and Achills’ hope was fading slightly but there was still optimism there and Achill went out in the second half with hearts full of fire.

Islandeady cooled that fire down almost immediately with the first score of the second half. After swapping points Achill started to pull themselves closer to Islandeady and at one stage were just 2 points behind, until a bit of an incident happened in the middle of the park resulting in the dismissal of an Achill Player.

Achill seemed to be finished but deep runs from Darren Lavelle and Ray McNamara from the middle of the field, almost resulting in goals kept Achill’s hopes alive. Shane Gallagher and Barry Dever swapped points with the visitors before a goal mouth scramble in the Islandeady box saw Achill robbed of a Penalty.

After that it was all down hill. Islandeady ran up the field and scored a goal which was the killer blow for Achill and shortly afterwards the whistle blew. So close but yet so far. Achill play their final game of the campaign this weekend but the game will serve only as a challenge as Ardnaree are already 4 pts ahead of Achill going into the game.

In other news the County Football Intermediate Final takes place this Sunday in Garrymore between Shrule/Glencorrib and close neighbours Balinrobe which will prove to be a very close match.