MILLENNIUM AREA MERIT AWARD Ballaghaderreen Community Games Committee were presented with the Area Involvement Award and a special Millennium Area Merit Award as recognition for their exemplary efforts again this year. This is the fourth year in a row that the Ballaghaderreen Committee has represented Roscommon at these Annual Awards. The Committee members present were; Brian Tansey, Chairman, Tom Flannery, Vice-Chairman, Mary Colleran, Secretaty, Caitriona Colleran, Ass. Secretary, Regina Finn, P.R.O., Eileen Fannon and Freda Waldron, Treasurers, Emer Tansey, Youth Officer, Fergus Frain, Mary Flannery and Tom Griffin. NATIONAL AWARD FOR PAST PUPIL Congratulations to Joseph Towey, Clayboy House, Ballintubber who completed Engineering Certificate course in the Galway Mayo institute of Technology and won the student of the year aware. He was also winner of a competition run by the N.C.E.A. for his project work on water pollution. He received a medal, Certificate of Achievement and a prize at the National Honour Awards Ceremony recently. We wish him every success in his future career. ST. NATHY'S CAROL SERVICE The now annual Carol Service was held in the Cathedral in front of a large appreciative audience. The impressive programme for the night was matched by a high level of preparation and performance. PAST PUPIL PUBLISHES BOOK John Regan, who is currently a Research Fellow at Wolfson College, has recently produced an impressive tome "The Irish Counter-Revolution, 1921 - 1936", published by Gill and MacMillan. John is a graduate of Magee College in Derry and Queens university in Belfast. In 1994 he was the first Irish Government senior scholar at Hertford College, Oxford. He does not forget his days in St Nathy's, specifically and particularly acknowledging the influence of Fr. Andrew Finan, who "opened up a whole new window of ideas and theories". We wish John every success with his noteworthy book and future career. G.A.A. PRESIDENT VISITS BALLAGHADERREEN As part of his exhaustive itinerary Joe McDonagh, President of the G.A.A., visited St Attracta's National School and St Nathy's College. He praised the many people who put endless hours into helping people develop the skills at under-age level the have lead to the impressive pedigree of footballer's and handballer's from the locality. EMIR HOLOHAN DOYLE SWITCHES ON LIGHTS The reigning Miss Ireland, Emir Holohan Doyle, Consolidated the tremendous public relations job she has done for Ballaghaderreen and its locale, when she switched on the lights on the tree on the Square on the 8th of December. (That was starting to resemble a chorus from the Raglan Bog). She had the children cheering and joining in the countdown as the impressive tree swayed in the strong winds. Music was provided by the children of Brusna National School under the tutelage of Sheelagh Dillon.   >>>>> next news article coming soon >>>>>