John Wayne - 'The Duke'MOVES are gathering pace to twin Cong, with the town of Winterset, Iowa, in the United States, where John Wayne was born.
The proposal is understood to have met with the approval of screen legend Maureen O’Hara who considered Wayne, whose nickname was ‘Duke’, her best friend.
She starred in a number of other movies with Duke’ including McLintock (1963), Rio Grande (1950) and The Wings of Eagles (1957), but The Quiet Man, shot here in 1952, was her favourite collaboration.

A special committee has been set up in Cong to erect a life-size statue of Wayne in the village and have it in place for celebrations to mark The Gathering in October.
Also, following approaches from civic leaders in Wayne’s birthplace, Winterset, where there is a John Wayne museum, there are plans for a formal twinning between the two locations.
Councillor Damian Ryan has a motion down for discussion at the Claremorris electoral area meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) asking Mayo County Council to make future financial provisions for the twinning. “Such links would boost tourism and cultural
links in south Mayo,” according to Councillor Ryan.
O’Hara and her family will be in Winterset later this month (May 24 and 25) for the annual John Wayne birthday celebrations and, in a public farewell to her legions of fans, will discuss her lifelong friendship with the iconic film star.

Pictured at the launch of ‘When Crowbar & Bayonet Ruled’ by Michael and James O’Connor, from left: Sean Nestor, Belcarra, speaker, Michael O’Connor, speaker and co-author, Jackie Biggins, Belcarra, and Jim O’Connor, speaker and co-author.YEARS of research and ceaseless questing for information about a dark and forbidding 30-year period in Mayo history - the Land War on the Belcarra Estate of Harriet Gardiner and Susanna Pringle (1879 to 1910) - has finally borne fruit.
Two scholarly brothers, Michael O’Connor and James ( Jim) O’Connor, have produced a handsome hardback book on the subject, ‘When Crowbar & Bayonet Ruled’, meticulously researched and beautifully written.
Some 200 people, many of them descendants of Gardiner and Pringle’s tenants, gathered in Breaffy House Hotel for the launch of what is likely to be a bestseller.
Indeed there has to be a chance that in future the book, which catalogues three decades of eviction, assault, attempted murder and forced emigration, will be made into
a film.
At the very least, I imagine that the likes of TG4, which specialise, in documentaries with an Irish historical flavour, would be interested. 

Speaking at the launch, Jim O’Connor outlined how the whole project began in October 2009, partly by accident, while he and his brother were looking at their family history.
Jim explained: “After a short period going through the various articles on microfilm at the library in Castlebar, it became apparent that there was a largely if not almost
completely forgotten period of local history with a greater interest and relevance to be addressed. 
“Events had occurred which we both concluded would be of interest to a broader audience.” 
Newspaper coverage of the events on what became known as the Belcarra Estate proved to be extensive, both in the local and international press, thanks in no small measure to the coverage given the issue by James Daly, then owner of The Connaught Telegraph.
In the words of the O’Connors, Daly was the ‘Sky News of his time’, writing with power and pungency about the trials and tribulations of the impoverished tenants.
“A good landlord is as rare as a white blackbird,” he wrote.

Tunnelling begins for the Corrib gas on shore pipelineTUNNELLING for the Corrib gas onshore pipeline has started successfully, Shell E&P Ireland (SEPIL) confirmed yesterday (Monday).

After 17 months of preparatory works, ‘Fionnuala’, the specially-designed tunnel boring machine (TBM), installed the first concrete ring in the segment-lined tunnel under Sruwaddacon Bay on Sunday morning last.

Construction of the 4.9km tunnel, which will carry part of the Corrib onshore pipeline, is expected to last approximately 15 months.

The tunnel, which is longer than Dublin’s Port Tunnel, is being built by BAM/Wayss & Freytag, a joint venture company which brings with it international tunnelling expertise and experience in the Irish construction sector.

Paul Hughes, SEPIL Tunnel Construction Lead, paid tribute to the team for their efforts in recent months.

He said: “It has taken an enormous effort on the part of the whole team – BAM/Wayss & Freytag and the SEPIL team – to get to the point where we are ready to commence. We are pleased that everything has gone safely, smoothly and according to schedule.

“We have an excellent team in place, made up of German tunnelling experts, a significant number of local workers and existing SEPIL staff for the long phase of work that lies ahead.”

Tunnelling will stop over the Christmas holidays and resume in early January.

There are currently 900 people working on the Corrib project overall, with over 56 per cent of these coming from Kilcommon, Erris and Mayo combined.

PATRONS arriving for the ballet performance of The Nutcracker in Castlebar last week were advised to enter the Royal Theatre by an alternative entrance.

This arose because of a dispute over a car park at the front of the theatre being private property controlled by a property trust.

Fencing had been erected around the disputed area of car park. The issue of the ownership of the car park arose over six months ago during negotiations after the receiver KPMG had been appointed.

It is claimed the car park has been held in trust on behalf of the Jennings children since 1995.

On Tuesday, the car park was secured ‘on behalf of the trust’.

Patrons were able that night to enter and exit the theatre for The Nutcracker ballet.

Gardaí were at the scene. However, there were no incidents and the performance went ahead as planned.

The fence surrounding the car park was later removed.

On Tuesday evening, a spokesman for of one the joint receivers, Kieran Wallace of KPMG, expressed his ‘disappointment’ at the action taken by the family members of the former owners of the well-known venue.