Latest news with #Paddy'sDay
The Irish Sun
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
‘I am nervous about telling my story' says RTE icon as she prepares to launch long-awaited memoir
RTE legend Miriam O'Callaghan has announced that she is finally set to release her long-awaited memoir. The popular presenter will lift the lid on her outstanding life and career in her new book Miriam: Life, Work, Everything, which is set to hit shelves on October 30, 2025. 2 Miriam is finally set to release her long-awaited memoir 2 The book is being published in October The book is being published by Sandycove, an imprint of Penguin Random House and it'll be available in print, e-book and audio. The 65-year-old also hosts an award-winning radio show Sunday With Miriam on RTE Combining career success, glamour and being a mother-of-eight is what makes Miriam a truly unique figure in Irish public life. READ MORE ON MIRIAM In her absorbing memoir, Miriam shares touching stories from her personal life and fascinating insights into a career that has given her a ringside seat to a changing Ireland. Opening up about the new book, she said: "I have written my memoir, I can't believe I am saying that." The radio star revealed that it's been more than 20 years since Sandycove first sent her a contract. She said: "Let's just say, it's taken a while. I thank them for their patience, persistence and belief in my story." MOST READ IN THE IRSIH SUN Miriam admitted that she has always lived life in "fast forward" and never thought she'd stop long enough to "look back and reflect". She said: "I also wondered if anyone would be interested", but that changed when she received a prompt from editor Patricia Deevey. Miriam O'Callaghan shares snaps from Paddy's Day celebrations The Miriam initially thought the book would just focus on her work but she quickly realised that her professional and personal lives couldn't be separated. She said: "At first I thought it would just be about my work as a journalist, but then when I began writing I realised how impossible it was to separate my professional and personal lives. "I don't know if that's because I'm a woman or a mother or both or none of those things, but I just knew that for my story to be authentic and truthful, I couldn't simply focus on the work side of my life." Over a four decade career, Miriam has fronted some of the biggest stories in Irish history. 'NERVOUS' She said: "I have been lucky enough to have had an eyewitness view. It was a privilege to cover the peace process for both the BBC and RTE, and at times it has been emotional looking back." Among her "major career moments" are presenting on the days of both the Good Friday Agreements and the 2015 Marriage Referendum. She also recalled interviewing Leo Varadkar in the same year he became the first cabinet minister in Ireland to come out as gay, as well as campaigning for John Hume to become 'Ireland's Greatest' in 2010. But it hasn't all been positive for Miriam as she admitted: "I also reflect on the worst year of my life, 1995, my BC and AD — the year that forced me to rethink everything." The mum-of-eight revealed she's often approached by members of the public and it's not always to talk about politics or interviews. She explained: "More often than not they, usually women, quickly segue into asking me about having eight children and how I managed to hold down a big career, so that's why my story is about life, work and everything." Despite decades in the spotlight, Miriam has said: "In truth I am nervous about telling my story — it's probably why it took me so long to write it. "All I can hope is that people will read it and find it interesting, authentic, entertaining and hopeful."
NZ Herald
23-05-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
High praise for Gisborne-East Coast lawn bowls as Stewart heads south
Stewart, 40, was named Bowls Gisborne-East Coast men's player of the year at the centre prizegiving this month. Te Karaka Bowling Club, with whom he has won nine centre titles, is opening the club on Saturday for food, drink, bowls and laughs to mark 'Paddy's Day'. Stewart has been in Gisborne for the past four years and played three seasons of bowls. He worked in kiwifruit orchards for nearly three years and lately has been availability manager at The Warehouse, working nights to ensure the shelves are stocked for the next day. 'I was touring round New Zealand during Covid times, doing some fruit picking, and stopped up here because my grandfather, Harawira Ngata, lives at East Cape,' he said. 'I whakapapa back to Ngāti Porou on my mum's side. She was a Tuhura from Ruatōria. Apirana Ngata was her grandfather's grandfather. On my father's side, we're about eighth-generation colonists. 'I am into a nomadic life of getting to see and experience different parts of New Zealand, going from one extreme to another.' His next port of call will be Dunedin, where he hopes to catch up with Bowls New Zealand national coach Mike Kernaghan. 'I want to tinker with my delivery, and he is probably the best one I know of to help with that,' Stewart said. When he arrived in Gisborne, Stewart had played bowls – mainly in Christchurch – for 15 years. He started bowling as a schoolboy in Waikari, North Canterbury, in 1999, but then had eight years off. He was in his seventh season back on the greens when the 2016 national champs came round. Stewart combined with Kaiapoi clubmates Kerry Becks and Tony Andrews, and Papanui club member Darren Redway, to win the national fours title in Christchurch. Last year, Stewart travelled from Gisborne to Christchurch to team up with Becks in the Rawleigh's Stewart Buttar Invitation Burnside Pairs, and they won it. On the local scene this season, Stewart won the men's open pairs alongside David File, and the champion of champions senior men's triples with File and Steve Goldsbury. He also played in the national intercentre with Malcolm Trowell, Shaun Goldsbury, Steve Goldsbury, Ricky Miller, Andrew Ball, Arthur Hawes and Steve Berezowski. 'Gisborne-East Coast is the second smallest centre [for number of clubs] in New Zealand – Buller is the smallest – but it stretches from Wairoa to Tolaga Bay,' Stewart said. 'The best of the best here are as good as anywhere. The top few are New Zealand-class, but with the small membership, you'll have only one top team per club, whereas the big-city clubs' fourth-tier teams are still strong because they'll have a membership of 150 to 200.' During his time as a Te Karaka club member, being part of the teams that enabled Steve Goldsbury to win his 50th centre title and David File to win his 90th had been 'a joy'. 'Probably less than a dozen bowlers in New Zealand have 50 centre titles, and David is well out in front with his 90,' Stewart said. 'It would have been lovely to stay longer and help him reach the hundred.' A highlight of his time in Gisborne was being treated as 'a sort of mentor' in the representative team. At the national intercentre tournaments, the team had gone close to reaching the quarter-finals in all of the past three years. He also enjoyed helping the junior team at a mid-year tournament held on the Hastings indoor green. The team had grown in stature from the first day to the second, and if they had started the competition as well as they had finished it, they could have won it. Being a member of the Tairawhiti bowls community hosting the Aotearoa Māori Bowls (Fours) Tournament in February was an 'amazing experience', Stewart said. 'Being able to host nearly a hundred teams from around the country was a real joy, and I felt a lot of pride that we were able to look after our guests so well.'
Otago Daily Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Take a bow, Showbiz Queenstown
Some of the hardest-working local volunteers are Showbiz Queenstown's cast and crew, who spend months building up to their musical each year. Ahead of next week's latest show, Philip Chandler delves into the history of the society, who staged their first production 50 years ago last August. With Showbiz Queenstown entering its second half-century with Into The Woods starting next week, it's surely time to make a song and dance about it. As the Queenstown Musical and Operatic Society it launched in 1974 with Salad Days, in which Fae Robertson played "an attractive and saucy Rowena". She says it grew out of a loose group of entertainers, The Gaiety Club, who'd sing for Paddy's Day and the like. She subsequently had singing/dancing roles for 18 years and also served as president and secretary. A set builder, her stepfather Owen Lockhart also wrote the 1979 show, Beyond The Moonlight, depicting local history. "We paid an actor because we were short of a male lead and every time a coconut he missed the cue to lead us in." Later, when helping out at the bar during a show, she got her drinks mixed up — "instead of asking a customer if they'd like an RTD, I said, 'would you like an STD?"' Robertson also played a major role securing their first sponsor, Armada's Jim Boult, so they could employ their first director. "He said, 'how much?', I think I said '10 grand' and he said, 'is that enough?"' "That was a momentous step," says Greg Thompson, who was president when the first director came onboard for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat in '88. "It just lifted everything up and improved the way we did the show including lighting and sound. "Since then we've come full circle almost in that we've got our own people being directors who have learnt through it." An example is Marty Newell, who's trod the boards every year, except three years, since 1995. After serving as assistant director he directed Jesus Christ Superstar in 2014, co-directed Annie in 2016 and is director again this month. He says "it's also very good to bring in a professional to bring in new ideas and teach people different things". "The standard just keeps getting better and better, and I think we push ourselves every year to be better and better. "We want to be the best — we don't want to be an amateur musical society, so people come in and experience a show they could see in Christchurch or Auckland." Two hugely ambitious shows were 2017's Mamma Mia!, which used the Events Centre, and Les Miserables in 2009, where the Queenstown Memorial Centre had a revolving stage. "Les Mis was something we were told we could never do, which of course just fired us up to actually do it," Newell says. Thompson, who renamed the Queenstown Musical Society Showbiz, says he and other long-timers have experienced three ever-better iterations of the Memorial Centre. "Until the first modification it was absolutely awful — we had to hang scaffolding pipes so we could hang lights up and we put in temporary power supplies because we would have blown up the whole thing otherwise." Someone who knew the venue well was the late Glenn 'Scooter' Reid, whom Thompson brought along when he taught at Wakatipu High and who later ran the lighting for about 20 years and also served as president — the light and sound booth's named in his honour. Someone else who's grown through the society is Nicole McLean, who played Velma in 2013's Chicago and is now choreographer for the second year running. Another is current president Emma Pullar, who originally played an orphan in Annie in 1989 and whose daughter Ruby was an orphan in the next Annie in 2016 when she was 7. A special repeat was Showbiz's The Sound of Music in 2012, when cast from the show 30 years earlier visited for a reunion. They included Stelios Yiakmis, who went on to act in TV dramas like Shortland Street and McLeod's Daughters. In the '82 version "I was singing Rolf's song, I am 17, going on 18, on my 17th birthday," he told Mountain Scene. Thompson says his only regret is Showbiz, which can no longer use its Isle St rehearsal room, is homeless. "Every other society I can think of in Otago and Southland has got their own space, and poor old Showbiz has been shoved around from pillar to post." Reader giveaway Our friends at Showbiz Queenstown are giving us two double passes to next Thursday's opening night of Into The Woods, to give to you. To be in to win, just email ed@ — subject line 'Showbiz' — by noon Tuesday, May 13, and we'll notify the winners directly. Into The Woods is being staged at the Queenstown Memorial Centre till Saturday, May 24 — for more info, or to buy tickets, visit
Irish Independent
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Wicklow sea swimmers get new changing area – ‘There used to be nine of us in the van!'
The result of consultation with local swimmers and a license agreement between Wicklow County Council (WCC) and landowner Roadstone, the new facilities include changing screens, a bike stand, planters and a lifeguard hut for the summer months. Part of a Coastal Blueway project to improve maritime facilities between Bray and Arklow, and funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD) and WCC, the upgrades have been celebrated by crowds of walkers, beachgoers and The Cove's elated community of swimmers – who include groups named A proud member of that growing community who was eager to see the project come to fruition before the chilly winter months, Tony Neary played a key role in its development, acting as a middleman on behalf of swimmers between WCC and Roadstone. Delighted with the quality of work carried out, he praised WCC and Roadstone before explaining how the project came together and how much value the facilities will provide for swimmers and non-swimmers alike. 'The Cove is basically the last bit of a beach we have left here in Arklow and hundreds and hundreds of people go down there all year round, even during the winter,' he began. 'There's the early morning group, 'The Delightful Dippers' who go down at 8/8.30 am, 'The Gone Wrong Club' (10 am), 'Hungry for Hypothermia' (12 pm), then you have 'The Badasses' who are the elites and run swim competitions, mainly on Saturday afternoons. 'We have moonlight swims several times during the year and dress up for Christmas Day, Valentine's Day and Paddy's Day, which is great craic. 'Over time, we were looking for a changing area and a bike stand, just to upgrade the area a little bit. 'We always get great cooperation from Roadstone, and without them, nothing would happen out there. Over the years, we've had loads of meetings with them, and they've always come through. Roadstone knows The Cove is the heart and soul of the town. 'In recent months, I've been dealing with a couple of girls from Wicklow, Carol and Sol, who contacted us and did the deal with Roadstone, with myself acting as the middleman between them, telling them what the swimmers and users would like. ADVERTISEMENT 'Now that the works are done, Jesus, they have done a great job down there,' he continued. 'I'm not sure you could make a comparison now because it looks so well, as it was a bit of a mess before. 'We've got the flower pots, we've got the bike stand, they moved the lifeguard coat down there for the summer and we've also got a changing wall. 'Looking forward, the other improvements that they will be looking at are a couple of little picnic benches and some nice signage. 'We have a beautiful walkway thanks to Roadstone, which a lot of people use, so this is all huge for the entire community, and we couldn't be happier or more thankful to Roadstone and WCC for making it happen. I would also like to acknowledge the work of Cllr Pat Fitzgerald who many years ago originally acted on our behalf with Roadstone our main concern then was access to the beach which Pat got us, another key figure worthy of special mention is Roadstone foreman Peter Farrell who is always approachable and will help out in anyway he can. As Tony explained, the changing screens will not only provide a place to sit and wipe the sand from between the toes after a bracing swim, but also some sorely needed refuge for those brave enough to take the plunge when sea temperatures are at their coldest. 'Although it would be great to have a roof on them, the changing screens are a big addition, as people would have to run back to their cars after a dip during the winter months,' he said. 'I resorted to buying an old Volkswagen campervan for our group, and there used to be nine of us (and a dog) in the van. It was crowded, but everybody would bring a cup of coffee, chill out, and have the craic, but it wasn't ideal. 'I suppose, that tells you a lot, and that's why these facilities were so badly needed. The Cove means a lot to people, and it's a huge outlet for physical and mental well-being. 'Particularly during Covid, lots of people came back to The Cove who wouldn't have swum for years, as it was within the allowed radius,' he added. 'People found it gave them a tremendous boost, particularly with their mental health, and just lifted their spirits. It certainly does for me. 'The other thing is, when you go down there and do your swim in that cold water, you challenge yourself, and it really sets you up for the day, making you feel you've already accomplished something not everyone would want to do.' Echoing Tony's compliments to WCC and Roadstone, local councillor Warren O'Toole said that delivery of the facilities before the summer had prompted a buyout mood among The Cove community. 'This is what happens when people work together, a massive thanks to Roadstone who allowed these works to take place and assisted with some of the works,' he said. 'These works were facilitated by WCC and the County Wicklow partnership, who have put a massive amount of work into getting this done.' 'Thanks to Wicklow County Council and County Wicklow Partnership for listening to the community of sea swimmers at our precious Cove Beach – it just shows that with proper consultation and communication, good things happen,' Cllr Peir Leonard added. 'Thanks to Roadstone also for giving the license to install the shelter and the lifeguard hut – hopefully, they will come on board with more community partnership projects further along the coastline going forward. 'As we all are well aware, it's so important to keep access open to all our beaches and coastline and safeguard it for future generations.'
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
'She was a celebration. She didn't deserve the end she had'
Tributes have flood in following the death of a 'kind and caring' woman who made 'everyone's lives better'. Layla Owens, a 28 year-old from Fazakerely, in Merseyside, died in January 2025. Layla spent several years teaching languages at the Blackley Co-Op Academy in Manchester. Even after she left teaching, she would volunteer at a library in Manchester every weekend, the Liverpool Echo reports. She had a wide variety of skills. She also worked in the prestigious Nord restaurant in Liverpool city centre at a time when she was considering becoming a chef. READ MORE: Supermarket cheese that costs £3.80 named best in UK - beating iconic Cathedral City READ MORE: He said just three words after pouring boiling water over a homeless man She also worked at a law firm in Manchester and spoke many different languages. During her life, Layla became known for her many acts of generosity. Paying tribute to her daughter, her mum Anne Owens, 58, told the ECHO: 'She was a very bubbly and very energetic. She had a very inquiring mind, was always a joy to be around and was very caring. The overriding thing that people say about Layla is that she'd do anything for anybody. She was a really nice person. 'We would be walking through town and she'd stop at every homeless person and give them her money. She wasn't materialistic at all. As stunning and pretty as Layla was, she was a very simple girl. 'She loved her role as a teacher. She didn't know when to switch off. We would be constantly in B&M, buying stuff for the kids. She cared about them because she was a very young teacher herself. 'For some of her students, English wasn't their first language, but of course, with her speaking the likes of Arabic and French, she broke down barriers.' Her sister Jessica Owens, 26, added: 'Wherever Layla was, she had this vibe that lit up the room. She would make friends with anyone and everyone with people from all over the world. 'A lot of the kids that they remember as she'd put the music on in the class every morning and start dancing. On Paddy's Day she dressed up as a leprechaun. She loved traveling as well. She loved France and she lived there for a year. I think that was probably her happiest time for her.' Layla was not afraid to go against the crowd either. Anne said: 'She was a mad Evertonian and was a club member, even though we're all Reds. We'd go to Goodison and she'd say "stand up for Z Cars". She always wanted a Scouse pie at games.' Layla was diagnosed with bipolar one when she was 21. The family feel this changed her as the years went by, although she remained a kind and caring person. Jessica said: 'I think it took a big knock on her self-esteem. She wouldn't leave the house without make-up and wore black a lot - I think she did it to blend in." Anne added: 'She put on a brave face would never bring the party down by looking glum or concerned for herself. It was never about Layla, it was always about others, so sometimes for me it was hard to gauge. 'Having bipolar one was really difficult for her. You can't now talk about Layla and not talk about bipolar because it does stigmatise a person and a lot of doors were closed for her career wise. 'When she left teaching in 2022, she went to work in a law firm in Manchester and they were very good and very flexible with her because the medication used to really have an effect on her. 'But they loved her as well. Every job that she worked in they would remember Layla. She would always bring something into the office like cakes or biscuits or make a display. She touched everybody's lives and made them better, no matter where she worked.' Layla died in January 2025 after taking her own life. Her family were comforted somewhat during this time due to the support they received from everyone who knew Layla. A GoFundMe to go towards the funeral costs raised over £10,000. The funeral was attended by many people including neighbours, members of the Muslim community she worked with in teaching as well as old colleagues. There were also people who attended recovery groups with her and members of the Jewish community, as Layla was in the process of converting to Judaism. Jessica: 'My friend who set it up was phoning me every day and saying, have you seen how much this is raising? Some guy put £1,000 in. Jessica: 'My friend who set it up was phoning me every day and saying, have you seen how much this is raising? Some guy put £1,000 in. 'I said to everybody, thank you so much for contributing to this amazing funeral that we just wouldn't have been able to give her, you've made it so much easier for us. 'Honestly, you'd be hard pushed to find somebody who didn't like Layla. There was everyone in that funeral from all different walks of life. 'We made it a celebration of life because she was a celebration. She wasn't a self-pitying person at all. She just didn't deserve the end that she had. I thought she'd go on to amazing things and she did want to, and she studied so hard.'
