Waterford Natural History is full of humourous anecdotes about encounters with animals and one of these concerns the Banán Buí of our folklore, the Bittern. It was late in the August of 1962 when a certain man, having had just one over the top at the Grand Hotel in Tramore, was driving his car to Waterford at about 12.30am. It was a warm balmy night and he was a bit mesmerised by the many moths that could plainly be seen in the beams from the car's headlights. The moths were denser in the Kilbarry Bog area after passing the Black Rock, "when suddenly, the biggest moth he ever saw came out of nowhere and crashed into the windscreen – it must have been four feet across!" He arrived home a bit more sober and went to bed. However, the incident played on his mind, so much so that he went back to the Tramore Road the following morning and found a large dead bird by the side of the road. He later brought it to Flanagan's Poultry...
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Photo exhibition
As part of the celebrations to mark the 50th Anniversary of the opening of Scoil Lorcáin, an exhibition of old school photographs and memorabilia is taking place this week from Monday 30th November to Friday 4th December. Viewing times are 4.00pm to 8.00pm daily. Former pupils and members of the general public are invited to attend this exhibition and to take the opportunity to view the new school.

Calming techniques at Ardkeen Library
Would you like to learn some calming techniques before the Christmas chaos arrives, if so then come along to Ardkeen Library on Saturday 5th December at 3.00pm where Kundalini Yoga mentor Eileen Power will pass on some of her techniques.

Kundalini Yoga is an ancient system of yoga from India which combines postures, breathing techniques and hand positions to awaken inner knowledge. Kundalini Yoga is a non-stressful way to promote ...
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Household Budget Scheme

Question: Before I lost my job earlier this year I received my wages monthly. I'm now getting a social welfare payment weekly and find that this is making it more difficult for me to manage my household bills which come every two months. Is there a way to make more regular payments for my ESB and phone bills?
Answer: If you are getting your social welfare payment through the post office, you can take part in the Household Budget Scheme. Under the scheme, you choose a fixed amount to be deducted from your payment each week and this goes towards paying your bill from the ESB, Bord Gáis or Eircom. You can also use it for local authority rent or mortgage payments. It is intended to extend the scheme to include other telecom and utility bills.

You can take part in the Household Budget Scheme if you are getting Jobseeker's Benefit, Jobseeker's Allowance, Back to Work En...
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Visiting EU officials to assess flood damage in the south
A delegation of EU officials is due to visit flood-affected areas across the south and west in the coming weeks to determine if Ireland qualifies for emergency funding to cope with the aftermath of the flooding crisis. Irish MEPs have urged the government to apply immediately for up to €26 million in aid under the EU Solidarity Fund, set up in 2002 to help countries deal with severe flooding and other natural disasters.

However to be eligible for funding, the cost of the damage must exceed 6 per cent of a country's Gross Domestic Income - in Ireland's case, €972 million. Munster MEPs MEP Brian Crowley, Alan Kelly and Sean Kelly have called on the European Commission to be pragmatic and lower the eligibility threshold for Ireland. 'It's impossible to put a cost on the damage at this stage, but in Cork alone it must be in the region of &eur...
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Ballybeg Community Development Project (CDP) is one of over 180 locally managed and locally developed community resource centres operating in Ireland. Ballybeg CDP has been funded for its core running costs through the Government funded Community Development Programme since its commencement in 1991.

Despite receiving a 12% cut to its budget from the Community Development Programme administered under Minister Eamonn O'Cuiv's Department of Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Ballybeg CDP continues to attract another €5 for every €1 it gets from O'Cuiv's budget. All of our work over the last 30 years is now under threat.

Ballybeg CDP, like others across the South East Region p...
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Recycling at Christmas
Christmas is a time of giving and receiving. It is only when Christmas presents are unwrapped that most people begin to realise how much packaging has been generated. From wrapping paper to styrofoam, packaging can be a problem.

What can you do with excess waste at Christmas?
1. Remember, leftover food can be wrapped in paper or put in a biodegradable bag and disposed of in your brown bin. Flowers can also be put in the brown bin.

2. Paper, cardboard, biscuit tins, plastic bottles, drink cans, juice & milk cartons and food tins can be placed in your green bin.

3. Large cardboard boxes, cans, glass, batteries, oil, cooking oil, clothes and waste electrical equipment can be recycled free of charge at Kilbarry Civic Amenity Site. If you have mixed waste that cannot fit into your grey bin, bags of waste can be brought to Kilbarry Recycling centre...
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Hasbro Ireland has confirmed that it will be seeking 22  redundancies from its core workforce of almost 250 at its Waterford plant as part of a plan to improve competitiveness and reduce costs.

Pat Gilhooly, Head of Global Manufacturing, said: "We regret having to seek these job losses given the current economic climate in Ireland but it is absolutely necessary that we reduce our costs now in order to protect as many as possible of the remaining jobs at the Waterford plant.

"The competitiveness measures we are seeking are necessary due to the imbalance between costs in Ireland and in the countries in which our products are sold. The continued weakness of the US dollar has also had a negative impact on our competitiveness.

"The redundancies we are now seeking are designed to align the core workforce with the anticipated level of market demand during the off-peak period and avoid short-time worki...
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Q. Are you card player enough to know if "52!" is a very big or a very small number?
A. Let's make that a mathematical card player, because the ! symbol after the 52 denotes not surprise or excitement but the concept of "factorial." For example, "5 factorial" is the quantity 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1, which equals 120; 10! is 10 x 9 x 8... x 1, or 3,628,800. Many calculators in fact have a factorial button labelled "n!" Factorials are useful for computing the number of ways a group of things can be arranged or ordered, such as 11! telling you how many different lines could be formed when a football team's 11 starting defensive players queue up for a beefing up at the buffet table after the game, amounting to about 40 million different permutations.

Finally, the card player's shuffle works to randomize the order of the 52 different cards, with the top one being any one of the 52, then the second card any one o...
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With John D Owens M.V.B. veterinary surgeon.

Does my dog have epilepsy?

Q: I have a three year old female German shepherd dog. Every couple of months or so, she falls down and has a convulsion where she is apparently unconscious and her legs move uncontrollably. After a couple of minutes, she returns to normal but is very tired afterwards. Do you think she is an epileptic and does she need medication?

A: What you are describing with your dog is a seizure which is caused by excessive electrical activity in the brain. Seizures are not always generalised and dramatic like the one you describe. There are also seizures where the dog stares blankly and blinks and is unaware of what is going on around them - t...
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Aries: March 21 – April 20
Somebody once said; 'The harder I work, the luckier I get' – and that is the sort of feeling that is around you this week as the rewards for work completed seem to flow in your direction. On the other hand of course, there is always the chance that the fall-out for that which has not been done could also land in your lap. Believe that your life is worth living and then give yourself time to make that belief a reality.

Taurus: April 21 – May 21
Don't be afraid of taking a big step in life, after all, as the old saying tells; 'You cannot leap over a river by taking two small steps.' Be patient too, as decisions taken earlier in the year appear to be taking longer to materialise than initial planning indicated. Christmas is approaching faster than you had hoped, but there is still time to get serious about that diet if you want to get in to shape for...
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Waterford News March 1930 killed by his income tax
When Otto Eulitz, aged 62, went to pay his taxes in Berlin on Saturday, he was told that his 1930 tax bill was much higher than that of 1929. The shock was so great that he collapsed and died almost immediately from a paralytic stroke.

Charge against army reservist
Before Mr. McCabe D.J. Sergt. Moynihan, Carrick-on-Suir, charged John Joseph Drohan, a native of that town, a Free State army reservist, with failing to report quarterly as required to the military authorities and failing to attend for training as a Reservist. The Justice made an order to have the defendant handed over to military authorities.

victoria slate quarries
In connection with the point raised by Mr. J. Babington at the last meeting of the Carrick-on-Suir Urban Council advocating the use of slates from the Victoria Slate Quarries near Carrick-on-S...
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Where does your energy want to go?
Did you ever wake up in the morning and feel you had no energy for the day? Where your heart sank at the very thought of getting out of bed? Sound familiar?

Everyone gets times like the above but if you feel that you are getting more than your fair share of them perhaps it is time to take stock and see where your life is going.

There are many things we do in a day out of habit,necessity and responsibility. However, take a look at your day and see if there are more 'have to do' than 'want to do'. Perhaps you have fallen into a familiar routine and what is familiar brings a certain amount of comfort. Familiarity though as the old saying goes may also brings a certain amount of contempt. If you are one of those who would rather be bored and negative about your day than stretch your comfort zone,...
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Alcohol liver related diseases have increased fivefold in past 15 years states leading consultant

The new President of the ISG, Professor John Hyland, Consultant Colorectal Surgeon, St Vincent's University Hospital urged medics to work together in the interest of the patient. "The management of gastro diseases of the colon, pancreas and liver have become increasingly complex and a multidisciplinary approach is essential to improve patient care" he said.

Speaking at the Irish Society of Gastroenterology (ISG) winter meeting in Trim, Co Meath, he said lifestyle issues such as obesity, poor diet and alcohol consumption are impacting in a major way on hospital admissions. Professor Aiden McCormick of the National Liver Transpl...
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General Practitioners have welcomed the HSE's announcement that HSE pandemic vaccination clinics have now commenced inviting children from 6 months to under 5 years of age and people aged 65 years and over to be vaccinated against 'swine flu'.

General Practitioners are making steady progress towards completing their direct involvement in provision of vaccine to those in the initial at risk groups. These included pregnant women and people aged under 65 years with long term illnesses.

Dr. Ronan Boland, Chairman of the IMO GP Committee said: "Where General Practitioners have been vaccinating, they will be completing their efforts to vaccinate the highest risk groups and will thereafter, at the request of the HSE, be using any surplus vaccine to immunise practice staff and other patients opportunistically. This is to minimise wastage of the pandemic vaccine "

In order to avoid queues at clinics, ...
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You can heal your body!

Why do some people heal more readily than others? Why is it some people can successfully beat cancer against all the odds? And why do some people seem to catch every bug going, whilst others seem to be fit and healthy all the time?

The human body is a miracle, but what is also miraculous is its ability to heal itself. Now I am not for one minute suggesting there is no place for medicines in helping us to heal – of course there is! – but I strongly believe that our capacity to heal is also dependent on many factors which are directly under our own control. It's my experience that many people seem to be unaware of the amazing healing properties in their own bodies.

I would love to see patients sign a consent form when they visit their health practitioner, stating that they take full responsibility for their body – no...
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A Taste of Christmas at Ardkeen, the Food & Wine Event of the festive season, will take place at Ardkeen Quality Food Store on Thursday 3rd December from 7-10pm with guest appearance by one of Ireland's top chefs Kevin Dundon of Dunbrody House.

Showcasing the finest food & wine producers Ardkeen Quality Food Store has to offer, all you discerning gourmets can mingle under the mistletoe for three full hours of wondrous winter feasting. Discover the best wine accompaniments for your Christmas dinner, stock up on the finest festive food and check out cookshops' seasonal menu – all under one roof.

Santa knows Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a drop or two of whiskey! Discover all about his favourite tipple – and wines too. Visit the Wine Shop afterwards to check out its exclusive offers on the night, meet the producers and pick up a bottle or three for Christmas day. For those of you ...
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Food lovers from Tramore and the rest of Waterford city and county are being encouraged to mark the Supervalu 'Commitment to the Community' event in their diaries. A pre-Christmas charity cookery evening hosted by renowned chef Michael Quinn and Quish's Supervalu, Tramore will be held on Wednesday, December 9 at Tramore Golf Club.

The festive evening will be held in support of Waterford Hospice Movement and Tramore Meals on Wheels.

Michael Quinn is Head Chef at Waterford Castle and was recently described by Bridgestone Guide author John McKenna as "producing the best food in Waterford city right now".

The pre-Christmas entertainment will commence at 7.45pm with music from the talented students of the loca...
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Ireland's curviest woman announces details of 25% discount on the Simply Be range just in time for Christmas

Model Brianna Connaughton, who was recently crowned Ireland's curviest woman at the final of Simply Be Curvy 2010, today announced a fantastic 25% discount on Simply Be's entire range just in time for Christmas!

Simply Be.ie, Ireland's only dedicated on-line home shopping company for curvy women, appreciates how busy today's modern woman is and offers a no fuss, stress free shopping experience - no communal changing rooms or unflattering lights and mirrors, just the comfort of their very own home!

Simply Be's Winter catalogue has a range of the very latest trends for real woman from sizes 14- 32. If you are looking for the very best festive party dresses, a casual look for relaxing with friends over the Christmas period or simply want to treat yourself or family and friends, log ont...
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The world-famous Harlem Gospel Choir returns to Forum Waterford on Saturday, December 5th for an extraordinary evening of foot-stomping and hand-clapping blues, jazz and gospel spirituals.

From the heart of Harlem in New York City, the Harlem Gospel Choir travels the world as the ambassadors for African-American culture, and is loved for its joyous music.

"The choir is foremost a ministry. We do benefits for children's organizations all over the world. We're not entertainers. People call us and ask us if we're entertainers. We're missionaries for Christ. We're a non-profit organization. We donate our profits."

The reason people might think they're entertainers first is because of the areas the choir has been know...
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Free Psoriasis Information morning in Tramore next Tuesday, December 8th

Psoriasis patients are invited to attend a free psoriasis information morning in Boots Chemist, Tramore between 10am and 1pm next Tuesday, December 8th

Dermatology nurse, Carol Collins will explain the different types of psoriasis, management of the condition and compliance with treatments.

An estimated 3,200 people living in Waterford city and county have the skin disease. Psoriasis is a debilitating, chronic, skin condition, characterised by dry, red patches and thick silvery scales on the skin. While the condition is incurable people should not suffer in silence but visit their doctor or dermatologist as there are very good treatments available, according to the Psoriasis Association of Ireland (PAI).

For more information about psoriasis visit www.psorinfo.ie