February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Patrick Markey
Passion for sports went a little too far recently when pupils from one Rathfarnham boys school took a leaf out of Pink Floyd’s book and went on strike, warning their teachers to leave the kids alone.
More than 100 pupils at Colaiste Eanna staged a walkout onto the
school football pitch when it was announced that the annual school
sports day was canceled by the school principal, reported the local papers.
School Head Brendan Vaughan canceled the event after a number of students were involved in an incident last year with Sancta Maria Convent School, the neighboring girls school.
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Several Colaiste Eanna boys invaded the grounds of the convent and attacked some of the girls with eggs. One girl got a black eye when she was hit in the face by one of the missiles. The Convent sports day was also canceled.
The walkout was organized by the Students Rights Committee who felt that the cancellation was unfair to the students who had nothing to do with the egging incident.
Fatal hurling fanatics
A drinking binge turned fatal recently when two men who had been drowning their sorrows started fighting after watching their hurling team lose in a regional final match.
A Galway court recently heard that 23-year-old Sean Walsh admitted to fatally kicking Thomas Coen, 37, at The Hill pub in Kiltormer, the Connacht Tribune reported.
The two men had been drinking away their troubles after their local team was defeated by Meelick Eyrecourt in the final of the Galway Intermediate Hurling Championship.
The night of the tragedy, the drinking crowd started to get out of control, Gardai told the court. About 2 a.m. the manager of the local team persuaded eight young men to take part in a “full monty.”
In the meantime, Coen and Walsh got into a fracas at the bar. Both men were drinking heavily that night: Walsh was thought to have drunk about 15 pints of beer; Coen had downed 17 pints and 3 or 4 vodkas.
When Coen left the bar at around 3 a.m. Walsh was waiting for him outside. After punching him to the ground, Walsh kicked Coen while he was unconscious on the floor, the paper reported. Coen died of traumatic hemorrhage.
Coronation in Clare
County Clare got a share of soap opera celebrity recently when “Coronation Street” actress Tina Hobley got married at the Pro-Cathedral.
The soap star had tried hard to keep a tight lid on the secret location of her wedding to Steve Wallington. However, soap fans gathered outside the church over an hour before the ceremony to greet Tina and other “Street” cast members, the Clare Champion reported.
In scenes more in keeping with Hollywood, screams and camera flashes greeted the arrival of the Rolls Royce that brought Tina to the church.
Tina, who is known to “Street” fans as Rovers Return barmaid Samantha Failsworth, needed a Garda escort to get to the church doors, which were then closed shut by security staff to keep out the frenzied fans.
Throughout the ceremony, fans continued to pour in through a side doorway, filling up the wings and the galleries, where they stood by the railings peering down at the altar.
The couple received the same rapturous reception when they emerged from the church at the end of the ceremony, to travel the short journey to the _220-per-night Dromoland Castle Hotel for the wedding reception.
The guests – many of them from Liscannor, the home of her
grandparents – enjoyed a champagne reception followed by the meal and the sounds of the Kilfenora Ceili Band.
According to John Lynch, the band leader, the jigs and waltzes “went down a bomb”.
He said: “They loved it, they never got off the floor. The Street stars really took to it, I told Jim McDonald that the leg must be coming around. We played for one and a half hours, playing the two hand reels and waltzes.”
Whale’s a real stinker
Stinky, a dead 48-foot long Fanad whale that has been rotting on
the shoreline near the Great Arch at Pollaid for more than a month, defied the best efforts of high tides and strong currents recently as desperate local officials wait for it to get washed away.
But rather than getting carried out to sea, Stinky has now been driven farther ashore. And, reports the Donegal Tirconaill Tribune, the next high tides are not due until the end of September.
Council officials had hoped the late June tides would have taken the carcass out of sight and avoid a costly rescue operation for its disposal.
Now local authorities will have to revise their plans to remove the rotting beast, which has rapidly become an eyesore and an embarrassment to the “Make Donegal Glitter” campaign.