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£133,000 Info Age Payout!
Castlebar's Digital Park moved a step nearer this week with the single largest payment
yet from Telecom Eireann to Castlebar. Following Richard Wynne's starring role in this weeks
Sunday Business Post profiling Castlebar's Information Age plans, Pat Jennings was interviewed
by CRC and the Connaught Telegraph. Pat outlined the benefits of this further boost to Castlebar's Information
Age hopes. (It should be remember that the voluntary committee, formed
originally in early 1997 to prepare Castlebar's submission for the Telecom
competition, - is still meeting on a weekly basis.)
Part of the money will go towards the further planning of the Digital Park which aims to
bring in high tech, Information Age jobs to Castlebar. All those who availed of the
discount computer scheme before Christmas also
received handsome cheques in the post early this week as a rebate towards training and
establishing e-mail connections. The payment also covered some 500 ECDL Training CD-ROMs
which are being rented for £5 (plus refundable £40 deposit).
A non-profit company has been established,
Castlebar Information Age Town Ltd, to handle the £1 million winnings
from the Information Age Town Competition.
The remainder of the £1 million is earmarked for a range of projects aimed at bringing jobs
into Castlebar and enhancing community life in the town. One of these projects is the establishment of
a town server and major expansion of the present www.castlebar.ie web domain which has been run on a
voluntary basis to date. Other projects at the planning stage now will be revealed as they are brought to fruition.
Cinema Wars!
Castlebar UDC approves a third cinema for Castlebar! The recent opening of £1M Mayo
Movie World provided four new screens (plus two more due to be added in 1999 to the
Moneen complex) in addition to the existing three screens at the County Cinema,
Spencer Street. Can Castlebar support a further six screens? Time will tell.
The Ward Anderson Group have received planning permission from Castlebar UDC
for their new cinema close to Dunnes Stores, Knockcroghery. This £2.3M investment
will provide another six screens for Castlebar movie fans. Mr. Leo Ward hopes to
have the new cinema up and running within six months.
Death of Cinema
Following the item above from earlier this week, it now appears that the County Cinema
will close its doors for the last time on Thursday 14 January 1999. Thus, the listings given
this week are the final showings for the venerable old County Cinema. The light over the foyer
seen in our photograph (which has graced the weekly cinema listings on the Castlebar Domain since early 1997)
will be extinguished for the last time. Very sad indeed, but perhaps inevitable when compared
to the luxury of modern cinemas. Does anyone have any stories they would like to tell about
the County Cinema?
Lots of couples must have got their lifelong relationships off to a good start sitting in the
back row of the County Cinema. Whether they saw any films or not is another matter.
Anyone remember the crowds in the aisles for ET - the black hole of Calcutta wasn't in it.
Why did they replace the seats with boards? If we get a response we will run a few obituaries for
the grand old dame that was the County. Already Anon (that famous poet and writer) remembers with great fondness
obviously the smell of Jeyes Fluid - I love the smell of Jeyes Fluid in the mornin to quote Apocalypse Now,
- the Green Cinema in Dublin was even worse than the County though.
The modern disinfectants used in public buildings are more refined altogether.
On the bright side - the notice in the Connaught does state, however,
that the operators of the cinema
will be back in business in September with a new 4-screen Cineplex with
'Stadium Style Cinemas'. It is not clear whether this will be on the current
Spencer Street site or a part of the new complex mooted for the Dunnes Stores
site at Knockcroghery. What's on in the cinema this week anyway?
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