Flags flying at Port Beach in Clogherhead
The County Louth Committee of Irish Water Safety are running a summer week from July 13th to 18th.
Courses in swimming, water safety, rescues and CPR will take place all week at Port Beach in Clogherhead.
Registration on Monday morning is at 9.30am with classes starting at 10.30am.
For further details email clogherheadwatersafety@gmail.com
There are currently 277 personnel in the Louth Garda Division.
That’s according to figures from the Garda Commissioner, as of April 30th 2015.
There are also 45 Garda Reserves and 22 civilians attached to the division.
There are also 16 Community Gardaí in the Louth Division, with six in Dundalk, five in Drogheda, three in Dunleer and one apiece in Clogherhead and Ardee.
The figures were requested by local TD Gerry Adams who has also requested the current budget for Gardaí in Dundalk and north Louth and how it compares each year since 2010.
Gerard Smyth collects his Louth Poc Fada title from County Board chairman Des Halpenny last night
Pearse Óg’s Gerard Smyth last night clinched the Louth Poc Fada title for the second year running on Clogherhead beach.
Smyth will now go forward to the Leinster finals to compete for a chance to represent the county in the All-Ireland Poc Fada finals on Annaverna on the August Bank Holiday weekend.
The senior camogie title was also won by Aoife Gregory of St Kevin’s.
Darren Geoghegan of Naomh Moninne won the U-16 event while the camogie U-16 event was won by Sarah McArdle.
Fibre broadband will be available in Louth Village later this month.
Eircom have revealed that the first Live Fibre Services are estimated to be available from Wednesday June 24th.
The updage of the exchange in the village will enable people to achieve speeds of up to 100Mb/s.
Fibre broadband will also be made available in Inniskeen, Togher, Clogherhead and Collon throughout the summer months.
Fibre services are also planned for Hackballscross, Ravensdale, Omeath, Carlingford, Riverstown and the Racecourse Road for early/mid 2016.
The first of the clean-up events takes place in Carlingford on Wednesday
The Louth Tidy Towns’ committee has drawn up a programme of street sweeping for village and towns.
The fortnight of events are aimed at encouraging local people to come out and tidy up their communities ahead and everyone who has some spare time is encouraged to take part.
The schedule is as follows:
Wednesday May 27th
Thursday May 28th
Tuesday June 2nd
Wednesday June 3rd
Thursday June 4th
Monday June 8th
Tuesday June 9th
Wednesday June 10th
Thursday June 11th
aking the Polar Plunge with Dave Kearney, Colm O’Shea and Kane Douglas (Leinster Rugby) are Garda Patrick Sheridan (Drogheda), Garda Eugene Mulligan (Drogheda), Sargeant Anne Byrne (Clogherhead), Garda Pat Merrick (Castleblaney) and Garda Mark Kirwan (Clogherhead) during the launch of the Special Olympic Polar Plunge on Clogherhead Beach see http://www.specialolympics.ie for more details Pic: Thos Caffrey/Newsfile
People are being urged to get freezin’ for a reason this Saturday by signing up for Special Olympic’s Ireland icy Polar Plunge.
Leinster Rugby players Dave Kearney, Australian international Kane Douglas and Collie O’Shea were on-hand to support the launch of this unique event recently. It will see plungers brave the icy waters at Clogherhead beach Saturday in the hope of raising thousands of euro for Special Olympics athletes.
Separate plunges are also taking place in locations around the country this December as part of a fundraising drive to support athletes with intellectual disabilities.
The Clogherhead Polar Plunge is being spearheaded by local garda Patrick Sheridan from Drogheda Garda Station along with colleague Patrick Merrick, who is based in Castleblaney, Co Monaghan. Members of the RNLI, whose life boat station is based at Clogherhead, were also involved in the launch.
The event is being run as part of the Gardai’s role with the Law Enforcement Torch Run, an organisation that has been in partnership with Special Olympics for many years. Gardaí said they are hoping to attract up to 150 plungers on the day with the first plungers due to take their icy leap of faith at 11am.
Leinster player Kearney said signing up to take the plunge is a great way to support some of Ireland’s most inspiring athletes.
“Rugby players like myself are well used to taking ice baths but the Special Olympics Polar Plunge at Clogherhead beach on Saturday is a much more fun way to get freezin’ for a really good reason. I’d encourage everyone to sign up for the event at specialolympics.ie/polarplunge and help support some of Ireland’s most inspiring athletes,” said Kearney, who hails from Willville in north Louth.
Garda Patrick Sheridan is also hopeful that the people of Louth, Monaghan and Meath will get behind the event: “This is a fantastic way to raise much needed funds for Special Olympics athletes. All of the money raised will go towards supporting athletes in this region and ensuring that they continue to get access to sporting opportunities through competitions, leagues and interclub competitions. On top of that it promises to be good fun so sign-up today!”
A number of other local organisations have also pledged their support to the event.
Those interested in signing up for the Polar Plunge can do so at www.specialolympics.ie/polarplunge. Registration costs €15 and plungers are asked to raise a minimum €50, which goes directly to supporting athletes with intellectual disabilities through sport and competition. Plungers who raise more than €50 will also receive a complimentary ‘Ice Cool’ t-shirt.
St Patrick’s GFC and the Dreadnots will meet this Sunday in the Cardinal O’Donnell Cup final having come through their respective Anchor Tours Division One League semi-final ties last night
The Pat’s booked their place in the final with a 1-14 to 1-9 win over the Newtown Blues last night while the Clogherhead men seen off Kilkerley Emmets by 1-11 to 1-7 to set up a repeat of this year’s County Final.
The game is fixed for Sunday at 2pm in Clan na Gael Park, Dundalk.
St Patrick’s came from behind against the Dreadnots in the second half in Drogheda yesterday to claim their sixth Louth SFC title in 12 years on a 1-10 to 1-8 scoreline.
Eoin O’Connor set the Lordship side on their way as his 17th minute strike gave them a 1-4 to 0-3 lead.
However, with James Califf’s kicking accuracy keeping the Dreadnots in touch, they managed to claw themselves level a minute before the break when a Paraic Smith free on the right crept in under the crossbar.
Anthony Williams then fired over a superb score in stoppage time to leave the Clogherhead men 1-6 to 1-5 in front at the interval.
A Karl White point within two minutes of the restart then brought the sides level before two Eoin O’Connor scores in quick succession gave the Pat’s a two point advantage by the 37th minute.
Califf eventually found the Dreadnots’ first score of the second half two minutes from time to close the gap back to a single point but a late brace from Paddy Keenan and Daragh Lafferty gave Fergal Reel’s side some breathing space despite another late score from Califf.
St Patrick’s: S Connor; K Toner, D Finnegan, D O’Hanlon; R Finnegan, C Goss, O Zamboglou; P Keenan 0-2 (0-1f), P Mallon; A McCann 0-1, E Lafferty, K White 0-2; E Carroll 0-1 (0-1f), D O’Connor 0-1, E O’Connor 1-2 (45). Subs: D Lafferty 0-1 for E Lafferty, 49 mins; P Mallon (BC) for E White, 58 mins.
Dreadnots: C Cunningham; D Shevlin, P Rath, B Gargan; A Williams 0-1, C McEvoy, B Faulkner; J Califf 0-6 (0-6f), D Campbell; P Lynch, P Kirwan, P Smith 1-1; C Campbell, L Shevlin, D O’Brien. Subs: R Kirwan for B Gargan, 41 mins; L Judge for D O’Brien, 60 mins.
Referee: K Carroll.
Templetown Beach
Louth County Council yesterday evening lifted the Bathing Prohibitation Notice that had been affecting the water quality at Clogherhead, Templetown and Shelling Hill beaches.
Poor water quality had resulted in a no swim warning being issued but the local authority insists it is now safe to return to the water.
Templetown Beach
The water quality problem that had been affecting beaches in Dublin and Meath is now affecting coastal areas of Co Louth.
Louth County Council chief executive Joan Martin issued a notice to local councillors yesterday evening to say that poor water quality results for Clogherhead and Templetown had resulted in Bathing Prohibitation Notices being issued.
Shelling Hill is also affected by the water quality.
This means that members of the public are asked not to enter the water at these three locations until further notice.
Talk of the Town 