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Still, life in in this town went on, and on, and on, something
Mae & Lucky proved the deserving winners of Me & My Pooch 2019, podcaster extraordinaire Andrea Splendori reminded everyone that it is very, very good to talk, Burnaby resident Sean FitzPatrick had a little trouble with his outhouse plans, award-winning caterer
Cairn got the go-ahead for another 354 houses up Glenhoren way (to add to their recently-granted 426), Charlesland suffers
With Covid-19 beginning to make itself very present in the world (even Ciara Kelly got the fecker!), we put out the call for people to check on their more vulnerable neighbours, and a week or so later, we took the town’s Paddy’s Day Parade online. We also put out the Save Our Shops beacon across the sky, calling on people to choose Greystones over Bezos, local movie producer Sarah brought the story of St Patrick to the screen, we rounded up all of Shay
The Holy Rosary Church services moved online, St Laurence’s did it again by going Full Diddley-Aye Potatoes for Paddy’s Day, Greystonian
Local filmmaker Alan McCarthy captured the silence of Greystones in lockdown whilst Jake McKone took us back to the 1990s
Amanda Sweeney went Full Sinead O’Connor for charity, Google took a look at how habits are changing in Wicklow, there was a spot of overcrowding bother at Kilcoole beach resulting in the closure of all local car parks, Thank You Thursdays began, as we gave a weekly round of applause to the nation’s frontline workers, Enniscorthy eejit Denis Constantin was jailed for violating lockdown restrictions whilst Garda grabbed a Greystones ganja gangsta, Harris warned of easing the Covid-19 restrictions too early (he was right), Bernard’s high-end and very high harbour restaurant was still off the menu, IarnrĂłd Eireann ruled out a second track for
Carita Bramhill knitted up some woolly hearts too, whilst budding rock god Dylan E. Crampton talked about playing the long
Greystones took a knee for George Floyd as America’s race war took another nasty turn, there was a momentary and perhaps misguided protest as Greystones’ tallest tree got the chop, Boots opened up a safe room for anyone suffering domestic abuse, we talked to landscaper Dermot Davis about helping people’s
The comically-named property gurus Schnittger Bourne moved into that long-
The month started with a sense of communities adapting to this new reality, with the Kilmacanaogue Artisan Farmers’ Market taking the weekly shop back outdoors, and the likes of Ciara’s Kitchen moving online, whilst our growing
As Covid-19 took an ever-firmer grip on the country,
Those Grove groovers organised a protest over their disintegrating, dangerous and illegal North Beach access,
We caught Noel’s Redford house party as young Bollard completed his
Something Nice once again won Greystones’ PĂłg Mo Cone vote, we unearthed a bobsleigh Olympian from Greystones, after a political and social media campaign, swimming teachers John Murphy and Lucina Howley were able to continue their classes on the
Every August 16th, we raise a glass to mark the passing of The Patron Saint of Greystones, Mr Ronnie Drew, his 2008 final
The month started with our annual search for Greystones’ Yummiest Takeaway, won in 2020 by a very deserving Daata, Katie Taylor added yet another belt to her, eh, notch, carpenter Vincent McDonnell continued his protest outside the new Greystones Community National School over non-payment of his €11,000 bill, and we finally pulled together
Mark Boggins and his buddies went for a hop, swim & a jump in aid of MND, Seanie went back to the drawing board as his Burnaby plans were rejected once again, Cllr Derek Mitchell
Greystones’ and Bray’s rowing clubs came together for a little fundraising
Talking of Greystones chipper, overnight, Guilio’s was no more, and Moretti’s would soon take its main street place., whilst we officially crowned Daata’s as this Greystones’ Yummiest Takeaway 2020. Elsewhere, we launched our
The Tyners up at Minmore Farm in Shillelagh raised over €60,000 for Wicklow Hospice and the Irish Cancer Society with their 120,000 fundraising sunflowers, whilst on a slow news days, we reported on Greystones’ Climate Solutions
Brooke & Shoals were up for yet another award, Hozier offered himself up for a coffee date in support of Irish Hospice, the long and winding search for cyclist Chris Duff had a very welcome happy ending, Greystones’ councillors were given a WCC walk through our new harbour park, Temple Carrig got a Covid scare, and Greystones Rugby Club
An innocuous press release about ‘Covid mobility measures’ being installed on Church Road went unnoticed – and then, 1.6m complete and utter bollards popped up overnight – whilst the annual Declan Clarke Golf Classic raised €3,300 for Greystones Cancer Support, and Yvonne Sinan upped her Designer Xchange dream into the little shop that
There
Elsewhere, the winner of this year’s Greystones Rocks 2020 was Ann McInerney and her beautiful Cove shot In Flow, whilst as we all got deeper into lockdown mode, we decided to pull together 10 Things To Do About Nothing To Do, and put together the new reality for Greystones businesses by listing their new hours and online options, we spoke with Alan and Joellen about
Wicklow libraries flew the rainbow flag for the LGBTI community, those wacky Catholic overlords decided it was time to expel the Siblings First policy, Holly Pereira wrote that Bray Love battle-cry larger than life on the Harbour Bar wall, a tidy €280,000 was allocated to neuter Chapel Road as a Scaletrix run, Jodie Neary launched a South Beach Playground clean-up club, and
IarnĂłd Eireann announced they were
Gary Paine took a few leaves out of his fine Pictorial History Of Greystones 1760-2018 book as
The bould Kate O’Brien’s eight-line poem Before got the thumbs up at the Foyle Young Poets Of The Year 2020 awards,
Temple Carrig deserve a prize all of their
Irish Rail promised to do something about the always-flooded Noah’s Arch down at the South Beach, the phantasmagorical Pip transmogified into a possessed pumpkin mutator, a bunch of St David’s girls ran circles around the town for Greystones Cancer Support, whilst Felicity O’Dowd and her fellow school secretaries finally got
The month’s big story was a long-overdue award for one Joseph Mary Bartholomew Elvis Sweeney, as we finally crowned the
On the other end of the life cycle, we began our search for this year’s Most Beautiful Baby (which turned out to be the irresistible Isobelle) whilst a dramatic sea rescue by
Our 7.54 Dart got a last minute reprieve, Temple Carrig’s Emily Roe and Colaiste Chraobh Abhann’s Brooke Mullen wowed the judges at this year’s Texaco Children’s Art competition, the Dublin Array wind farm took a step closer to Greystones’ shores, we addressed the fact that the bulk of Greystones revenue goes to our Wicklow relatives, Dylan E. Crampton rocked out for
11-year-old Lucy Finnegan’s Christmas card design made onto the Dogs Trust’s very nice list, pupils at Greystones Community
Delgany residents held a virtual meeting over the Carmelite Colossus
An Post sweetly introduced free postage to care homes, and sisters Yazmin and Jemima jumped on it, Theatre Lane offered up the perfect lockdown hideaway, with
Elsewhere, Fiona Lang did indeed secure victory for Saint Joseph’s Shankill in this year’s
The
Young Lucy O’Leary’s clay creations became the hit of the season, Ali Gibbons brought her online baby boutique into the 3D world with a pop-up on Theatre Lane, Fiona Roche made Irish Pharmacy News’ annual list of Top 100 Frontline Heroes of 2020, teenager Niamh Gurrin received an Outstanding Achievement gong at the virtual Climate
We spoke to truly bright spark Fiachra Cooke about converting his beloved Audi 80 into an electric car, the
There was also the little matter of Delgany being ruled out for that new N11 corridor, Tom Fortune walking out on the vote for social housing
Andrea Splendori produced a documentary on the recent Mindful West run to Galway Bay to highlight mental health awareness, Shoe Lane Coffee were confirmed as the new downstairs residents of Waverly House as we rounded up the town’s latest Monopoly moves, Greystones garda delivered some Christmas logs to some new lockdown friends, there was widespread consternation when a pensioner-bashing certified scumbag got an early prison
The Thompsons
And we rounded up this year’s Reasons To Be Cheerful and some groovy tunes for a lockdown party
Safe trip, Bridie…
1 comment
Some early comments from our social media…
Susan Brambell
That’s just fabulous. SO much happened in the year that I would have forgotten about – brilliant round up.
Dylan E. Crampton
Great read, thanks Paul
Paula Gilbert
Wow ! Now go have a long rest Pablo ….. I’m exhausted just reading it ! Here’s to 2121
Angela Chambers
Excellent synopsis Paul & enjoyed reading through it all.Thanks for all your hard work & Happy new year!
Suzanne Hackett Cox
Wow, brilliant. I’ll have to go through it again tomorrow. Well done
Siobhan Hanley
Well done Paul, brilliant synopsis, thank you.
Joan O’Hanlon Roche
Amazing Paul. Thank you so much. Happy 2021
Greg Dalton
That took a lot of work, fair play Paul
Siobhan Byrne
Good job!