Following on the success of the two previous live web broadcasts with the James McGrath band from Midleton and ‘Little Big Man’ with Brian O’Glanby from Cobh, YoughalOnline are now delighted to present the fabulous alternative rock group ‘Ladydoll’ from Cork City live on the web from Claycastle Recording Studios in Youghal tonight(Thur. 26th Feb). at 9pm. The show will begin with a brief live interview with the band by YoughalOnline music reporter Lisa Jones and then straight into the music! Great credit is due to Claycastle Recording Studios sound engineers Warren Tivy and John Burke for hooking up with the YoughalOnline team and to Shane Supple in co-ordinating this unique event. It is a fantastic output for musicians and artists to show the cultural and artistic talents of the area in an entertaining way. This particular show feat. ‘Ladydoll’ will now have a ‘live’ audience which will add to the occasion and YoughalOnline.com hope to reach out to an even larger audience at home and abroad. People will also be able to comment about the band on the moderated text box as the show goes out live to add to the occassion. So tune into www.youghalonline.com tonight and enjoy da music! Read more

Report from the february meeting of the Youghal Town Council -Report Christy Parker

Mayor Olly Casey congratulated Youghal Athletic Club’s Nikita Savage on her recent achievements. The PobailScoil na Trionoide student was the youngest medallist at the National Senior Indoor Championships in the Odyssey Arena Belfast over the previous weekend. The athlete took bronze in the pole vault, equalling her personal best of three minutes in an event that saw gold medallist Zoe Brown set a new national record. Cllr Sammy Revins congratulated author John Stack of Summerfield for his debut novel Ships of Rome.
Cork County Council Items:
Cllr Sandra McLellan asked that signs be erected at the entrance to St. Mary’s College gardens, outlawing the consumption of alcohol. She said young girls with buggies were amongst those drinking there. Read more

Mayor Casey said residents in  South Main Street would like to be added to the subsidised, house-painting heritage regeneration project pertaining to the North Main Street. Report Christy Parker/Photo Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)

The Town Clerk said the scheme would be reviewed in August. In due course, depending on its success or otherwise, even may streets could be included. Cllr Savage congratulated the Town Clerk on the initiative and was confident of its success. He said a similar project in Westport had been hugely successful with knock-on tourism, tidy towns and economic success. He hoped private and business residences would join the scheme. The Town Manager asked that the councillors and Chamber of Commerce would encourage participation. Cllr Savage asked if local contractors are being employed and Mr. Ryan said that was a matter every householder to decide. Read more

Cllr. Linehan Foley, speaking at the february meeting of the Youghal Town Council, said the new €3 gate fee at the civic amenity site was unfair and counter productive. She said it would exacerbate illegal dumping, whereas the original concept of free recycling was to educate and encourage responsible waste disposal. Report Christy Parker

The Town Manager said Cork County Council provides both residential and recycling services. She said the costs are extremely high, with the Council providing facilities for the authority’s customers and non-customers. She highlighted glass disposal as one example of this. Recyclable material had the to be taken away, which incurred further cost. Cllr Hennessy said a flat fee should replace the ‘pay-by-weight’ system. She said an annual €400 or six-monthly €200 charge would encourage people to avail of Cork County Council’s services instead of private firms. Ms Power said the County Council will soon undertake a comprehensive review of waste management policy and meanwhile is offering an introductory of €250 per annum for new customers. When told by Cllr Hennessy that this isn’t very wel advertised, she said leaflets will be published. ‘We are the owners of our own rubbish and Read more

Re: Indoor film screening of ‘The Sea, The Boat & Me: the continuing story of the Kathleen & May. Report Christy Parker/ Photo: Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)

At the february meeting of Youghal Town Council, members were circulated with a letter from filmmaker Brendan Ahern (Amsterdam) regarding to stage an indoor screening of the above documentary. Mr. Ahern wishes to offer the film to RTE but would wish to have it screened at the Mall Arts Centre first. However, the estimated screening cost is €10,000, inclusive of technical support and travelling expenses, etc. Town Clerk Liam Ryan said the Kathleen & May Fund currently holds €2, 500 and the remainder might need to be accumulated through sponsorship and/or donations. Mayor Casey pledged a €200 donation. Cllr Linehan Foley suggested it form part of a festival funding project, before Mr Ryan considered it be past to the Kathleen & May committee, of which he remains secretary. Cllr Murray proposed that, whatever the outcome, the Council acquire a copy of the film for any future heritage projects or such. This was unanimously agreed. Read more

YoughalOnline.com offices remained empty last night as all the crew headed to the Cork International Airport Hotel for the 4th Irish Blog Awards. By Shane Supple

YoughalOnline.com was nominated, out of the thousands of blogsites online from Ireland in their category – Best News/Current Affairs Blog. To even reach the final was a massive achievement considering the website is only in existence a very short time indeed. It’s the first time that YoughalOnline has been nominated for an award and to be nominated for such a prestige’s award was fantastic.

There were over 300 people from all over Ireland at the International Airport Hotel in Cork last night, the first time these awards were held outside of Dublin. The night was hosted by MC Rick O Shea from 2fm with video clips introducing each category. With over 20 awards being presented for each of the categories it was going to be a tough night for the judges. Read more

Youghal Town Council is to seek a delegate meeting with Cork County Council in regard to the ongoing obnoxious odours emanating from the county authority’s landfill site at Foxhole. February’s council meeting heard that despite a 90% reduction in waste intake since late last year, the obnoxious smells continue to plague the town.
Report Christy Parker/Photo: Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)

An ambience of threadbare patience permeated the sitting with councillors vented their anger behalf of their constituents. Cllr Michael Beecher was particularly vociferous as he said “people are getting physically sick” from the stench that regularly wafts into their homes. The EPA must also be getting sick, he said, from the daily complaints being registered by both he and the townspeople. He said, caustically, it was “lovely” to hear a caller on a Cork radio station advising motorists to “wear a mask” when approaching Youghal.
Cllr Barbara Murray believed much of the waste is collected after up to two weeks stagnating and should properly be brought to an aerobic digester. She said it “is frightening” that the odours persist even though the site is currently processing only 10% of the volume previously accepted. Read more

The award winning film ‘The Iron Wall’ was screened at the joint Trocaire/Amnesty film night held in the Victoria Hotel last  Monday night (Feb 16th.) The film vividly outlines the effect of settlements and the wall on the daily lives of the Palestinian people -Photo Michael Hussey(YoughalOnline.com)

Speaking on behalf of Trocaire, Sheila Dillon emphasised the humantarian relief required, and that it will take years to rebuild Gaza. She also mentioned that it can take weeks for relief to arrive by sea or land. By logging on to the trocaire.ie site a person can make a donation to buy an olive tree or anything else they would like to donate. Youghal native, Jay Flavin, Amnesty Cork leader, told YoughalOnline.com that Amnesty does not support or oppose any political party or support or oppose any religon, our sole vision is to seek the benefits of the universal declaration of human rights for every individual, regardless of ethnic origin, gender or sexual orientation. We do not support ” boycotts” because they are a form of collective punishment against a people. Read more

Figures released by the RNLI on RNLI SOS day, show that last year Irish lifeboats launched 863 times and rescued 993 people. Despite a disappointing summer the demand on Irish volunteer lifeboat crews remained high, with 19 people a week being brought to safety after getting into difficulty on the water.-Photo Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)

These figures show once again how busy Irish lifeboat crews are and how important the service is that these brave volunteers provide in their communities. With the poor weather last year we expected to see a drop in the number of callouts but this has proven only slight. A close examination of the type of callouts our crew respond to shows the three most common calls for help are machinery failure/damage; stranded vessels/people; and medical emergencies at sea or on islands. Of the types of incidents we attend to there has been a marked decrease in callouts to fishing vessels – down 39 on the previous year. Callouts to power pleasure craft remain high, but are slightly down on the previous year to 237, while there has been an increase in callouts to sail pleasure craft – up 11 on 2007 to 168 last year.’ Read more

The biggest oil slick to threaten Ireland for more than 10 years was today being tracked as it moved closer towards the South East Irish coastline.

Malachy Harty, Green Party’s representative for East Cork, told YoughalOnline.com“Latest reports are that the oil is thinning and breaking up naturally. However, any amounts of oil reaching our shores will seriously effect the spectacular wildlife and habitat of our coastline. It is essential that appropriate efforts are made to mitigate the threat of oil pollution. I understand that the Irish Coast Guard have sea and shore based oil recovery equipment should they be required.”
“There is a large store of faith in our technological ability to master our control of hazardous materials. We must not be complacent with environmental safety and protection. The polluters should be made accountable for this accident.” Read more