Waterford Today | Waterford's free weekly newspaper

Pictured at Children's Group Link where Deputy John Halligan announced the 15 local charities who would benefit from his expenses as a TD.

Waterford's Independent TD John Halligan this week honoured his pre-election pledge to donate a sizeable proportion of his Dail expenses and salary to local charities.

Deputy Halligan has nominated 15 local charities, community and sporting groups who will share the €41,152 party leaders allowance allocated to him for this year. Furthermore, he has used a portion of his own TD's salary to create part-time work for two people who were on Waterford's unemployment register. The two will be based in the city and Tramore and will work closely with Deputy Halligan, liaising with and assisting constituents on local cases and issues that arise on a

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Queen Elizabeth II has viewed the earliest known contemporary portraits of a medieval king of England, King Edward III, (1327-1377) on her State Visit to Ireland.

On Wednesday 18th May during the Queen's courtesy call to the Taoiseach Mr Enda Kenny at Government Buildings in Dublin, the Queen viewed the Great Charter Roll of the City of Waterford. Dating from 1372 and measuring some 4 metres in length, the parchment roll contains portraits of five medieval kings of England - Henry II, John, Henry III, Edward I and two contemporary portraits of King Edward III.

One of the illustrations shows King Edward III in armour, carrying a sword and shield and on horseback. In the second illustration the king is wearing a crown and a gold belt and is

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The ECCE scheme is a scheme designed to give children access to a free preschool year of appropriate programme based activities in the year before they start primary school. The scheme provides for three hours of pre-school per day, five days a week for 38 weeks of the year or two hours fifteen minutes per day, five days a week over 50 weeks of the year. Every child in the state is entitled to a free pre-school place for one year which is paid for by the Government. Children who are born between 2nd Feb 2007 & 30th June 2008 will be eligible for a free place from September 2011.

Waterford City Childcare Committee will host an information evening for parents of preschool children in relation to the ECCE and other government funded childcare schemes in the Ramada Hotel on Wednesday

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A 'Minding Yourself as a Parent' Talk for Parents will be held in St. Brigid's Family and Community Centre. The Directory of Parent Supports and Services in Waterford City will be launched by John Martin, HSE on the same evening. This directory was commissioned by Waterford City Childcare Committee in partnership with St. Brigid's FCC and Waterford Area Partnership, prepared by Community Consultants Ltd and funded by FAS.

The 'Minding Yourself as a Parent' talk will be presented by Parent Mentor Sheila O'Malley.

Sheila is a parent of three daughters who is a regular Parenting correspondent for Irish newspapers and magazines as well as a regular contributor to Radio and TV3 on parenting topics. The Practical Parenting Talk will take place on Wednesday 25th May from 7pm to 9pm in St. Brigid's Family and Community Centre which is located on 37 Lower

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On Friday 27th May, stage six of the 2011 An Post Rás will have a dramatic uphill finish on Tramore Main Street. The Department of Health, Sport and Exercise Science at WIT, in conjunction with Cycling Ireland, will be hosting a free Talent ID / Have-a-Go session in Tramore on the day, where you can have your peak power measured on a

Wattbike http://www.wattbike.com.

A simple 6 second test will determine how much power you can generate while sprinting... have you got power to match the top cyclists? This free activity is open to anyone who wants to take part and we are particularly interested in young athletes, regardless of whether they cycle or not. You can find us on the day at the top of Main St, about 50m from the finish line. We will be there from 12pm

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As part of the 2011 Bealtaine Festival for over 55s, Waterford City Council Library Service will host two free talks on composting and water conservation by Ella Ryan, Environmental Officer. The talks take place in Central Library on Friday 27 May at 10.30am and in Ardkeen Library on Tuesday 31 May at 3pm. The talks will last approximately an hour and are in association with ENFO.

Booking is essential as places are limited. To reserve your place, call into your local library or phone Central Library on 051-849975 or Ardkeen Library on 051-849755.

Bealtaine is a National Arts Festival celebrating creativity in older age. It takes place countrywide during May and involves hundreds of events in every art form. There is a month long programme of events running at Central, Ardkeen and Brown's Road Libraries.

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Her Worship the Mayor, Colr. Mary Roche and members of the City Council are to confer the Freedom of the City of Waterford on both Val Doonican and Brendan Bowyer in City Hall on Friday 17th June, 2011 at 7 p.m.

Both entertainers have achieved international status as entertainers and regularly return to their native Urbs Intacta to visit with family.

The conferring ceremony will be immediately followed by a reception in the Large Room, City Hall.

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EU wants your views on online gambling

A public consultation on online gambling launched recently by the European Commission is being seen as Brussels' first attempt to open real political dialogue on this rapidly-growing business.

Members of the public, industry and consumer stakeholders have until the end of July to submit opinions on a broad range of issues surrounding online gambling including licensing, payments, fraud, money laundering and support for public charities from gambling revenue.

Launching the Green Paper public consultation, EU Internal Markets Commissioner Michel Barnier said the process was being done "with an open mind.” "It's not about liberalisation of the market, it's about ensuring that the market for online gambling services within the EU is well-regulated for all,” he said.

Current regulation of online gambling is massively inconsistent, differing widely from country to country. Of almost 15,000 active gambling sites in

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Colortrend, the Irish paint and wallpaper specialists recently celebrated the relocation of its Waterford store to new premises on the Inner Ring Road (opposite Superquinn).

Celebrating 10 years in Waterford, Colortrend, Waterford, marked this double celebration with entertainment for the kids in the form of a stilt-walker, balloon modeller and face painter. Colortrend colour consultants and Waterford interior designer, Maura Culbert, were on hand to give customers plenty of advice and tips on the day for decorating their homes.

Stephen Davis, Retail Manager, Colortrend, Waterford, said "we are absolutely delighted with the new store, which has certainly exceeded our expectations – it's very bright and spacious and really showcases our wonderful array of premium quality paints as well as our amazing selection of wallpaper

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New laws being brought forward by the government will help to speed up investigations into white collar crime and bring those guilty of banking offences to justice, according to Cllr. Jim D'Arcy. The Fine Gael city councillor says that the public has been left frustrated and bewildered over the last few years by the length of time it takes to bring white collar criminals before the courts. "We have seen our ecomony decimated by reckless actions and yet it seems that no one is being held responsible. People understandably feel as if those behind the crimes are untouchable. The government is determined to put an end to that situation.” Cllr. D'Arcy says Fine Gael has long been calling for reform in this area and now, in government, is delivering on its pre-election promises. He says the recently published Bill will

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Labour Party Councillor Seamus Ryan has welcomed the news that 2 new pedestrian Crossings will be completed by mid Autumn. The new crossings are to be located at Ballybeg Drive near St Saviours GAA Club and on the Cleaboy Road. According to Cllr Ryan, who is the current chairperson of the Waterford City South Area Committee, both of these roads are particularly busy roads in the city with high volumes of traffic using the roads on a daily basis.

"The crossing at Saint Saviours GAA Club will assist the many users of both the GAA Club and St Saviours Parish Centre while the crossing on the Cleaboy Road will also make the use of that road safer for pedestrians."

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One of Ireland's leading photographers Lili Forberg and three of our TOP "calendar girls” Georgia Salpa, Nadia Forde and Karena Graham are calling on the final Waterford entries for this year's TOP amateur photography competition. Waterford was particularly successful last year, claiming one of the winning pictures selected for the TOP Calendar. Waterford was represented by John O' Neill; with John capturing a beautiful image of a giraffe in Fota Wildlife Park.

Lili and TOP are calling on all budding photography enthusiasts in Waterford to get snapping and enter the sixth annual TOP Photo Competition. This annual initiative held by TOP, one of Ireland's leading fuel importers, aims to find 12 winning pictures for the TOP 2012 Calendar. The winning shots will be chosen by Lili and printed in the 2012 calendar, with 40,000 copies being printed and distributed throughout Ireland.

To

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Last week's speculation that Waterford Airport was part of a number of regional airports in danger of closure has been clarified by the Department of Transport. It has since been confirmed that Waterford Airport is not in danger by Minister Varadkar's Department.

The Irish Times reported on Saturday, May 21 "In the southeast, Waterford was reported to be in danger, but Varadkar's department says that it is not.”

A value-for-money review of regional airports completed for the Department of Transport last year recommended continued support of Waterford Airport which does not have internal flights and has never received PSO (Public Service Obligation) subsidies for services to/from Dublin.

Waterford Airport continues to manage its finances tightly and to work with Aer Arann on maximising passenger numbers on scheduled services to and from the UK and France. The airport is also the location for the

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Stradbally guides with Irish Girl Guide President, Maureen Dillon.

Over 243 Ladybirds, Brownies, Guides, Senior Branch Members and Leaders from Waterford travelled to Thurles, Co, Tipperary on Saturday the 7th of May 2011 for the Irish Girl Guides' huge fun day which saw over 6,200 members gather to celebrate 100 years of our organisation. The main organiser of the day was Jenny Power, a volunteer Leader from Dungarvan, who has extremely worked hard on this huge event for long time. Also present was Regional Commissioner, Rosemary O'Driscoll, also from Dungarvan.

The day was started by our Gold Award Ceremony where 78 teenage girls, including the following 4 girls from Stradbally, Co. Waterford - Danielle Crowley, Lynn Crowley, Jodie Carberry and Angela Flynn, each of whom received the prestigious Gold Award,

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Clancy Festival 2011

From Carrick to Broadway, many have dreamed it, few have achieved it. But one such group who did achieve it was the famous Carrick group, The Clancy Brothers. They had the distinction of playing Broadway, what a thrill that must have been, the home of theatre in America.

So, to coincide with the Clancy Brother Festival, Carrick on Suir Musical Society at the request of the Clancy Festival Committee will perform "Best of Broadway” on Friday 3rd of June in the Strand Theatre. We cannot afford to go to Broadway, so we will bring a flavour of it to you.

This production will be a mix of musical numbers from shows that have appeared on Broadway. The production will contain hits from such celebrated composers as Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jule Styne, and Bob Fosse. Featuring shows such as Phantom,

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