OVER 350 customers and friends were invited to a night of gourmet food at the Duke, last Friday night, by proprietor Ciaran Gallagher.
The night was held to mark the 10th anniversary of the restaurant, which was closed to the general public for the evening.
A large selection of food was available to the VIPs from seabass, salmon, ham and roast beef.
The head chef on the night was Hugh Brown, ably assisted by Layla McAllister.
When the meal was finished, everyone went downstairs to the big hall where all kinds of entertainment was laid on.
Big O was there, gammy leg and all, supported by Buzzer, who was Olly’s mainstay when he got his plaster on. Buzzer drove him around to various gigs and was a huge help to him.
Anyway, congratulations to Ciaran on ten great years at the Duke.
The recent brides, belles and beaus night in the Whistledown in aid of the Southern Area Hospice was a huge success.
The three main organisers, Grainne Southwell, Philomena Turley and Caoimhe Parr were pleased when, on Friday night, two cheques for £3,260 were presented to Martha McGrath from Macmillan Cancer Support and Ewan Crawford for the Southern Area Hospice.
Unfortunately Grainne Southwell was unable to attend the presentation due to commitments.
I’m sure her ears were burning with all the praise she received and of course the Whistledown got a lot of praise too for putting the hall at their disposal.
A golden wedding celebration also took place at the hotel on Friday. Leonard and Anna Annett, Church Vale, Kilkeel, were wed in Warrenpoint Presbyterian Church all those years ago. The couple have four daughters, Heather, Gail, Jennifer and Maureen and ten grandchildren. May they spend many more happy anniversaries together.
The second annual Mourne Truck Run took place on Saturday, August 1, and over 130 trucks were present.
The convoy left Greenbank, Newry, through Warrenpoint, Rostrevor, Killowen, Kilkeel to Newcastle then to Castlewellan, Kilcoo, Hilltown, Mayobridge and back to Greenbank, with crowds cheering as they passed.
Afterwards there was a reception and dinner in the Whistledown Hotel, followed by a mock auction for a varied selection of items.
Incidentally, the organisers, O’Hare’s Bar, Brian McAnulty and his team tell me that a complete video of the run is available for £10.
A fun day then took place at St Christopher’s Park the next day.
The Maiden of the Mournes Festival got off the ground with the annual parade of bands and floats from Jonesborough, Atticall, Mayobridge and Camlough, together with local floats from Bridle Road, St Peter’s GAA Club, the Whistledown Hotel and Shinken Shobu Ryu Club, Warrenpoint.
Judges were Mark Hughes and Declan McConaghy, BBC, who selected Whistledown as winners and St Peter’s as runners-up.
Paul Braham, chairman, welcomed everyone and then introduced the maidens and called on the mayor to declare the festival open.
But there was a surprise in store when Paul announced the mayor and his wife Nuala were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary on that day.
He called reigning maiden Pamela Cassells to hand over a cake to mark the occasion.
The mayor cut the cake and proceeded to distribute the portions around the crowd. It was a case of loaves and fishes because it appeared as if everyone got a piece.
Councillor Michael Carr announced that Newry and Mourne had twinned with Southern Pines, North Carolina and indeed a deputation from the city was present, led by their mayor Mike Heaney, who thanked everyone for their hospitality.
On Monday at Jack Ryan’s the proceeds of the recent Make a Wish fun day were presented to Denis Mulgrew and Gerry Carey, Friends of Children.
A cheque was presented to the value of £1,010. Included in the presentation party were Irene Greer, Rosie McNally, Kate Boswell, Gerry Carey, Denis Mulgrew, Cara Grant and Simon Grant.
While the maidens visited various places, the children’s event took place with the selection of the Junior Maiden.
Judges were Pamela Cassells and Sarah McVeigh, who selected Nathan Gibney as Little Mr Escort and Cobi Jamiolkowsk as Little Miss Maiden.
The maidens paid a visit to Narrow Water Castle where Mrs Hall welcomed them with the usual cream scones.
Hopefully the weather will come up trumps for the rest of the week.
The open night at the fire station on Monday night attracted a large attendance and the kids had a marvellous time trying out the new helmets.
The INF lotto numbers on Sunday were 3, 10, 14 and 18. As nobody had all four numbers the three number entrants shared the runners-up prize.
The seven runners-up were P Watters, E O’Reilly, M Duffy, S Rice, J Green, L Reavey and C Duffy.
Sunday’s jackpot is £2,900. The inclement weather has affected some of the outdoor events at the Maiden of Mourne Festival and this meant that some had to be transferred to the Town Hall.
Even the soccer school was called off on Monday due to the rain, but thankfully the good weather seems to have made a return, for a while anyway.
The second annual 10k, 5k and fun run, organised by Newry Lions, was supposed to start from the Fitness Centre. But apparently at the last minute the start line was changed, but no one told the police. Some of the runners had to race back to the Mound Road. It was confusing and surely no fun when competitors had to run or walk over a mile to get to the start line.
The Teddy Bears Picnic took place on Wednesday behind the parish church in bright sunshine and a great crowd turned up. There were large teddies and small teddies, in fact one teddy was so large, that I hear May Bradley thought it was a child and tried to charge for it. Nice one, May.
The Whistledown Children’s Party and Disco attracted a huge attendance. Magician Sean Brannigan, with the assistance of some young volunteers, kept everyone on their toes.
Unfortunately the rain started in time for the fireworks and the Whistledown barbecue, which affected the turnout.
I was glad to see that Dizzylands Amusements had a good night for once. The photographs on show in Walsh’s Chemist window are attracting a huge interest and many older folk are now recalling events of long ago. By the time you read these notes, the new Maiden will have been selected and it’ll be interesting to see who predicted the winner.