Ballyhaunis Blog

This SAturday and Sunday sees the annual Ballyhaunis Festival back again for 2011

Party In The Park
All new “Party in the Park” will take place at the Friary fields in Ballyhaunis, on Friday 3rd June. Come and see the amazing local bands who will showcase their talent on the night. You may already know of them but if not you will get to hear them for the first time, we will have Whiskey Dancers, Spitfyre, Nevernoodz, SevenEven and more.

The evening starts at 6pm, and there will be food so chill on the grass with a burger while you take in the great atmosphere of Ballyhaunis’ first Party in the Park. Everyone is welcome so bring friends, family or even make it a date.
For information call 094 9630311 or 086 3177123.

Family Fun Day
Saturday 4th June is the excellent free children’s day at the Friary Fields with the Family Fun Day. There will be free entertainment for the kids in the form of bouncy castles, bungee run, Velcro wall, street art, treasure hunt, face painting, giant Jenga and giant connect-4 and much more.

There will also be plenty of sports displays to watch and interact with including rugby, soccer, cricket and Camogie. There will be refreshments all day with a catering van and ice creams. The fun starts at around 1pm so bring the kids or just come for the craic because it’s promised to be a great day!

While you are at the Friary field why don’t you pop up to the Friary for the Ballyhaunis Artist Group Exhibition between 2pm and 5pm.
For information call 094 9630311 or 086 3177123.

Traditional Fair Day
On Sunday 5th June, Ballyhaunis will be alive with activity. The Summer festival peaks with the traditional craft fair day with stalls lining the streets, demonstrators, animals, face painting, vintage machinery and much more to see.

The kids can look forward to a puppet show in the grounds of the Courthouse at 1.30pm, 2.45pm, 3.20pm & 4pm. There will be a wonderful display from Mary Elwood’s School of Irish Dancing at 1pm, followed by music in the Square, and then the Tuam All-star Gymnastics Team will enthral the audience with their high-flying acrobatics at 2pm.

Then Ramblin Bob will play music in the Square at 3pm while the Vintage Cars drive through the town and park in the Church car park. There will also be the good old-fashioned duck race down by the river on Bridge Street at 3.30pm.

There will be much to see and do and there will be plenty of food throughout the town for all tastes, so come along for a great day out. We have a few more stalls available for anyone who is interested so call us quick to book your spot in town.
For information call 094 9630311 or 086 3177123.

Mobile Cinema Coming

June bank holiday weekend is the weekend of the Ballyhaunis Summer festival and this year we have organised a mobile cinema for Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th June. The cinema will be behind the Enterprise Centre and will cost €5 for one showing. The times are as follows: Saturday; 12.30pm, 5.30pm & 7.30pm. Sunday; 1pm, 5.30pm & 7.30pm. We will be showing up to date films for tots to teens.
For information call 094 9630311 or 086 3177123.

Final Day

The Ballyhaunis Summer Festival will wind down with a relaxed day. There will be a 9-hole Beginners Scramble at the Ballyhaunis Golf Club. The Ballyhaunis Gun Club is arranging the Inter Provincial County Shoot from 12pm-5pm and there will be an Open Day Fishing Competition down at Derrykins Lake at Greenwood organised by the angling club.
For information call 094 9630311 or 086 3177123.

A new Ryanair service from Knock Ireland West Airport to Faro in the Algarve starts today.

The new flights will be launched at the Airport today by OLYWN MURRAY, A NATIVE OF BALLYHAUNIS.

With summer Ryanair flights to Alicante and now Faro - there is no need to travel to Dublin to get flights to the sun.
You could previously fly on package tours from Knock - but the new Ryanair flights mean hopefully cheaper holidays for people in the West of Ireland.

Congratulations to Chloe Coyle who won the All Ireland Talent show 2010 tonight.
Olwyn Murray’s votes were not enough to get her the top spot - she only came fourth. Well done to Olwyn for getting so far - and best of luck in your Leaving Cert.

If you go by the bookies odds - there are just 3 acts in with a chance of winning tonight.
Chloe Coyle is now the odds on favourite with Olwyn from Ballyhaunis now the second favourite at 5/2. Close behind is the Sean Nos dancer at 3/1.

Vote for Olwyn Murray Text “Act 2″ to 53125
Voting ends at 8.30

It’s hard to know why the odds on Olwyn Murray were 10/1 earlier in the week - but today they have dropped right down to 3/1 - and look like they will drop down further after her performance tonight. Get on while you can . Paddy Power Novelty Bets

The All Ireland Talent Show final is this Sunday 14th March - and Ballyhaunis singer Olwyn Murray has seen her odds with the bookies rise. She is now 10 -1 with most bookies - making her the outsider of the 6. Favourites are Emma O’Sullivan and John O’Halloran at 11/8. The bookies aren’t always right though - but with phone votes being the deciding factor - the act with the most fans or followers and the best publicity campaign can get more votes. Good Luck to all tha acts.

For tonight’s second semi-final of the All Ireland Talent Show five acts are battling for a place in the final next week. Only 3 acts go through tonight. From Ballyhaunis - Olwyn Murray should get through tonight -she is up against the talented David Lofts, Tuam All Star Gymnastics Club ,Ben Escorcio and Chloe Coyle .
According to Paddy Power - Olwyn Murray is the favourite of tonights acts to win - but overall the act with the shortest odds are Emma O’Sullivan and John O’Halloran - at 7 to 4 to win outright. Olwyn is at 4 to 1 to win it - with Na Fianna and Tuam Gymnastics Club both on 5 to 1.
It is all down to phone votes - so the act with the most fans wins it. Large group acts will have the advantage because of the larger number of friends and family that will vote.

Congratulations to Ballyhaunis schoolgirl Olwyn Murray - who won last night’s All Ireland Talent Show heat - and is now through to the semi final.
The judges put her in joint third place but the public vote was enough to give her the the win. A good performance - but she will probably have to do even better to win the contest.
See Olwyn singing live on the show here (22 minutes in) (only viewable until Feb 14th)

See more about Olwyn Murray here

Ballyhaunis Leaving Cert student - 16 year old Olwyn Murray is through to the semi finals of the RTE All Ireland Talent Show on March 7th 2010.
Join the Facebook Group here

It is probably too late - but anyone can apply for free audience tickets by calling 01 4480500 or email audience@tyrone-productions.ie

Olwyn is one of 8 contestants left in from the West - and the only one from Co Mayo. She doesn’t seem to have got the online publicity going - not like some of the other contestants. The Leaving Cert is probably taking priority. Hopefully the publicity in the local papers and radio stations will work just as well for Olwyn.

Find details here of how to vote ()

Olwyn has a Youtube channel - but there is just one video there at the moment

Olwyn started singing at an early age and her first performance was in in The Sound of Music when she played Gretl, the youngest of the Von Trapp children, when she was just 6 years old.
Olywn had some recent success in the Mayo Feis 2009 where she came first in 3 categories - classical vocalist (14 to 16 age category), senior soprano, senior musical . Olwyn was also awarded first place for the overall best classical vocalist in the competition.
Olywyn’s father - Adrian Murray is from Balla where Olwyn she can sometimes be found playing Gaelic football for St Mary’s GAA Club .
Olwyn’s mother Breda comes from Roscommon town, has three brothers who played football for the county in former years, Padraig, Sean and Liam McNeill.

Olwyn also won five gold medals in the individual section of the 2009 World Performing Arts Championship in Los Angeles.
She is also a member of a Ballina group called Realta which consists of 12 singers ranging in age from 13-26. They won the World Championship title in the group section this year in Los Angles.