A fine crowd at the Festival

Looks like there was a grand crowd at the festival. Pic from their Facebook site.

Pavesi at the Donegal Festival

Thanks to Jimmy Gallagher for the video



And more at their YouTube page.

Donegal Town Music Festival 2009

Don't forget the Music Festival is on this weekend!


More information on their Facebook page and at DonegalTown.ie.

• Calendar of Events
• Calendar of Enterainment

Lough Eske.

A lovely pic of Lough Eske from Siobhan and Eamon:

Boarding

Everytime I'm home I've listened to Jordan practicing his boarding across the street from the Mother's, now he's on YouTube showing off his skills, with a soundtrack from the Chemicals, and video by Rory Sweeney:



Happy boarding.

Bluestacks Jam Club

Greg provided an update on the Bluestacks Jam Club, looks like it's wile craic, and it'll be something I'll show up for next time I'm home.

Its now official; Monday is the new Saturday night in Donegal Town.with The Bluestacks Jam Club just a month old and drawing crowds form all over the North West and beyond who get tuned into a night of Blues, Rock, Funk. and Reggie and original material...all live and FREE in the Abbey Hotel Monday nights @10pm. Musicians of all ages are jockeying for the mic, as the popularity of the club grows and grows.The night started with The Live Register Blues Band, who are turning into a regular feature at the event. Next up were the very talented duo "Acoustic Breaks" with a wealth of experience behind them. Singer songwriter Jim Carbin and Paul 'Skippy' Meehan, entertained the crowd with some excellent slide guitar sounds, combining their own materiel with a Bluegrass , Flamenco style . They set a mellow groove for the remainder of the first half of the night. The lads will hopefully be featuring many times again before the end of the summer. Our in house D J Kieran "funky old school" Cambell was not around this time as he was competing in the annual Coolshannon stone spreading championship were he came first and win for the first time.ever. Stage Director Jimmy Gallagher was doing an excellent job organising the various artists so the sets flowed continuously for the entire night. Indeed Jimmy made an impromptu performance of his own playing a set which included Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing'. Damien Edwards 'IBO Acoustics' again provided the sound and did the desk. His expertise is much appreciated which frames the Club with a professional sound. Also worthy of thanks are the latest sponsors; The Abbey Hotel, Simple Simon's Health Shop, the Blueberry Restaurant, Peter Dunnion Motor Services, Beleek Co Fermanagh . O' C. Bookmakers, the Diamond Donegal.and Denis Gorman's Barber shop Donegal town €1,150.00 has been raised to date from our sponsors, which will be donated to a local charity later this summer. Part two of the night kicked off with Daniel Vito Kelly's excellent band with both Rosa Byrne and Eoin Travers on Guitars . Daniel proved what a versatile musician he is by drumming as well as playing guitar...and doing vocals. Guitar man Andrew Begley played an impromptu blues set with a very smooth clean style with Morgan Ferriter on Bass and myself on drums. Its great to see young talent carrying Blues Music to their generation because they know that its the roots to all modern music. If you can play the Blues you can play anything.

The penultimate act of the night was provided by Oisin Cannon from the Mirenda Rosenberg Band who was on the same stage two weeks ago. Oisin on vocals and acoustic guitar with Bluestacks Backers by the Ferriter brothers Morgan on bass guitar and Enda on keyboards, and Brian "sticks" Cannon on drums, he performed Pinball wizard among others. He has become a regular feature on Mondays and is one of the most popular artists performing, with very strong vocals and acoustic guitar joined by Skippy and James Carbin, the lads played on much to the delight of the audience. The Final set proved to be the biggest surprise of the night when the young and very talented Emma Hughes from Laghey took to the stage. Singing songs by Led Zeppelin, the Doors and Eric Clapton, she had the crowd eating out of her hand with her huge stage presence. She was then joined by the equally talented Ryan Mc Closkey on lead guitar with some serious soloing which made the hair stand up in the back of my neck , "yes that one hair I have there" It was hard to believe it was their first performance in the club as they took to the stage like seasoned veterans and thats what we are all about. We would like all Musicians to come down any Monday nite for 9.30 .play a few tunes and have a bit a craic. On behalf of the Club I would like to thank all the Musicians who have joined us in giving their time and skills to this. By Greg Gorman Doors open @10pm FREE entry. Abbey Hotel Donegal Town Send an email to BluestacksJamClub@ymail.com or join Bluestacks Jam Club on Face Book or Bebo.

Looks like there was a decent turnup too (thanks to Danel V. Kelly for the pic on Facebook).

Pavesi on the Balcony

The lads do an acoustic set on BalconyTV in Dublin:

Dunkineely Windfarm Denied

Proposals for a windfarm near Dunkineely were turned down due to landslide fears:
http://www.donegaldemocrat.ie/donegalnews/Wind-farm-turned-down-over.5376776.jp
... Among the objections were the proximity of the windfarm to domestic dwellings and the devaluation of homes with one home just 600 metres from the proposed windfarm.

An Bord Pleanála was asked to examine the decision in the light of article eight of the European Human Rights Convention which addresses the right to privacy in home and family life.

Accepting the appeal the board referred to the findings of the Peat Slide Risk Assessment which found that there was a significant depth of peat on the site and that the consistency of the peat was extremely weak across the site.

The board said construction of the proposed development could pose "an unacceptable risk of peat failure and landslide in the area of the site, with consequential risk of water pollution in the area".

A windfarm in a bog may have been related to a landslide in Kerry last year:
http://www.kerryman.ie/news/locals-believe-windfarm-is-linked-to-bog-slide-disaster-1465060.html
And perhaps in Galway in 2003:
http://www.monasette.com/archive/000252.html

Sandhouse is back in business

In October it was reported that the Sandhouse Hotel in Rossnowlagh was on the market. The General Manager, Paul Diver, is taking over the running of the hotel and saving the 50 jobs associated with the hotel. Good luck Paul and staff, maybe you have a successful 50 years.

http://www.rte.ie/business/2009/0622/hotel.html

The general manager of the Sandhouse Hotel in Rossnowlagh, Paul Diver, and his team are to take over the running of the hotel. They say this management contract will secure the future of up to 50 jobs.

Mr Diver said he aimed to ensure that the Sandhouse retained a reputation for quality and high standards and identified the wedding market as a potential growth area for business.

The Sandhouse was originally built in the early 1950s as a fishing lodge.

Sand House Hotel Rossnowlagh
Originally uploaded by madamaubergine

Trains return to Barnes

Neilr recorded an historic event of the first trains to pass through the Gap in over 50 years.



In case you can't tell these are very well made scale-models! :)