April Edition 2007
 
 
 
 

 

Two Wheels and the Truth

By Enda Mullen
Sister Helen takes the controls of Ryanair’s East Midlands’ cabin crew Boeing 737-800 trainer with the assistance of Sister Sabina
Among some of the more unusual sights at this year's St Patrick's Day Parade were a couple of motorcycling priests.
Looking more like a pair of Hell's Angels than men of the cloth the unusual duo were signed up by Midlands Irish band - The Holy Show Band - to help promote their appearance later that day at The Forge Tavern.
The band were booked to play not long in advance of the parade day and landlady Pat, who has recently taken over running the Great Barr Street pub, was worried people might not know about it.
Bob Brolly gave a helping hand to point people in the right direction on his BBC Radio WM show the week before but the band decided to do their bit too.
Singer Michael Callaghan said: "We promised Pat we'd do our best to let people attending the parade know we were on at The Forge afterwards, as it's a bit away from the main drag.
"We then hit on the idea of recruiting a couple of people to dress as priests and follow the Cara Irish Housing Association float on which we were playing on a motorbike handling out leaflets - a pair of hell-raising padres if you like.
"After we had found a couple of willing recruits we thought we'd better make a bit of an effort ourselves too, so we all ended up dressing as priests.
"At one stage we were even thinking of getting hold of
some nuns' outfits to have a contrasting religious theme.
"The bike was a Triumph Bonneville T100 and it certainly seemed to catch people's attention - even The Mayor came up to admire it."
As things turned out Pat needn't have worried and The Forge was swamped with post-parade revellers.
Michael added: "We had a great afternoon. This year's parade was brilliant fun and though swapping an audience of nearly 100,000 for a hundred or so was a bit weird the atmosphere in the pub was great."
To find out more about the
Holy Show Band you can
phone 07939 408174 or visit www.myspace.com/holyshowband.


Galway’s water polluted
Co. Galway suffered from severe pollution of its water mains in March.
The parasite Cryptosporidium is believed to have affected the water mains of Lough Corrib by seeping in from an adjoining farm.
The pollution is believed to have affected up to 1 million people and everyone was advised to boil water before consumption. It was predicted that the situation could continue for a number of weeks and major investment was required to prevent this happening in the future. The parasite caused a gastro-intestinal illness which saw sufferers experience dehydration, fever, stomach cramps and vomiting.
Cannabis in Dublin
A large haul of cannabis resin was seized in Finglas, Dublin during a house raid.
The drugs have been estimated of having a street value of €750,000. The investigation was ongoing at the time of print.
A farmer’s life
The farming authority Teagasc conducted a survey that revealed that the majority of Irish farmers still think that their occupation is the best way of life.
The down side of farming can be the low income, long working hours, implementation of legislation and feelings of isolation yet the benefits are that of working to ones own schedule in personally constructed time frame is a definite plus of
the job.
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