AJ

June 5th - Failed Path or New Road?

2009-06-01T13:44:00.004+01:00

Speaking today AJ Cahill Said:-

"Politics has failed the people of Galway, we need to take a new road.

Galway can bypass the worst of the recession that is now engulfing every individual and family.

Job creation and retention is now the only game in town.

If elected I intend to reinvent the role of a councillor by using my expertise and energy to create “Action Teams” that will make Galway the number 1 location for tourism, renewable energy & software services in Ireland.

The Volvo Ocean Race has proven what Galway can do when we think big and embrace new ideas and leadership.

On June 5th the people of Galway will decide if we follow a failed path or take a new road."

END

AJ Cahill

Independent Candidate
Galway City Council West Ward

Galway is going nowhere and is adrift

2009-05-25T09:16:00.001+01:00

Speaking to day AJ Cahill said:-

"Last week the boats leaving Boston set a course for Galway because they knew that without a destination they were going nowhere.

Galway like the rest of Ireland is now going nowhere and is adrift.

People are disappointed, disgusted and disillusioned.

The dole queues are out the door, nothing seems to work and no ones has a plan.

It does not have to be like this.

Galway can set a new course.

We can work a new plan together.

For 20 years I have created and delivered many plans, including multi-million euro projects for eircom.

and started successful businesses.

Using my experience of working with Dr Jerry Cowley and the late Tony Gregory I have created a social plan that will positively impact every man, woman and child in Galway city."

END

Press Release - Loneliness is killing our “Grannies”

2009-05-25T09:14:00.000+01:00

18/05/2009

Senior citizens are well served by home help, the active retirements associations and organisation such as COPE who provide “meals on wheels”

However in houses across Galway many retired people are living alone, for some widowed grandparents this can be a living “death” when “Life” revolves around fear and isolation.

Speaking today AJ Cahill said “For anyone to live in our community behind a closed door with nothing but four walls and their memories is a stain on us as a people. Loneliness is a living death “

He states that It does not have to be like this. And if he is elected he will establish within 6 months a daily phone contact service called “Good Morning Galway” based on the successful “Good Morning Balanchardstown” service in Dublin that provides a daily “conversation” for these people and point at which city council, Gardai, home help & HSE community nursing service can be accessed and co-ordinated.

The service will alert designated relatives, friends or neighbours to visit and check the well being of a senior citizen who that does not answer when contacted repeatedly. In Dublin these visits have resulted in help being given to those who for example may have fallen but are unable to summon help.

AJ Cahill went on to say that “If elected the “Good Morning Galway” service will be established and funded using expenses given to me as a councillor”.

He will also seek the help of voluntary organisations to staff and run the service each day.

Finally AJ Cahill said “If politics in Galway is not about solutions and solving the problems we face then it is about nothing.”

END

AJ Cahill

Independent Candidate
Galway City Council West Ward

Press Release - “Killinaskully” politics is ignoring Jobs crisis

2009-05-04T17:36:00.004+01:00

Speaking today (4th May 2009 ) A.J. Cahill said:-

“The “Killinaskully” politics of Galway City Council is ignoring the worsening Jobs crisis in Galway City.

In recent years we have seen city council meetings abandoned and bar room brawls while shouting is a normal feature of council meetings.

Meanwhile unemployment has increased 81% in the last 12 months.

Unemployment is not only about the loss of income; unemployment steals dignity from homes and replaces it with fear.

Galway has unique advantages because of its size, location, popularity and third level institutions that if harnessed and exploited will allow Galway the opportunity to avoid much of the deepening recession by creating its own micro economy.

Galway urgently needs a plan to create jobs and a "smart" economy mindset quickly. In the absence of a Galway City Council plan to do this, I have put together my own plan for the creation of jobs with an initial target of 1000 jobs based upon riding the waves of new "smart" technologies like software services & renewable energy while expanding our tourism business.

Galway needs a fresh dynamic City Council focused on Job creation not another re-run of “Killinaskully” politics which will kill our only chances of economic recovery for 5 to 10 years dead.”

AJ Cahill

Independent Candidate
Galway City Council West Ward

Press Release - KNOCKNACARRA COMMUNITY CENTRE: STOP WAITING - START BUILDING

2009-05-01T17:43:00.001+01:00

Press Release

KNOCKNACARRA COMMUNITY CENTRE: STOP WAITING - START BUILDING

Speaking today AJ Cahill Said:

"The continued lack of community facilities in Knocknacarra is increasing social problems and damaging the community fabric in Knocknacarra. As the recession deepens, more people will be made unemployed and become idle. The absence of these facilities reduces the activities available for young and old. The lack of facilities will become more acute over the next 2 years. Galway City council is broke and the development levies paid by each homeowner have been spent.

The people of Knocknacarra can have a community centre, indoor pool & sports facilities that meets the needs of all young and old alike. These facilities can be located in the heart of Knocknacarra. These facilities can provide a “home” for community groups such as the active retirement association, "Mother & Toddler" groups and drama groups.

Other communities across the country have provided these facilities for themselves by looking to themselves. Land is available, €300,000 euro is sitting in a bank for this purpose for years. The community can if it wants have exactly the facilities it needs and wants, 14,000 people can service a community mortgage for example by way of a local lotto. It is time for the community to stop waiting on false promises and start building. If I am elected I will work with the People of Knocknacarra to put a community centre and related facilities in place or not seek re-election."

END

AJ Cahill

Independent Candidate
Galway City Council West Ward

Press Release - Galway City West Local Election Independent Candidate Announcement

2009-03-10T16:02:00.008Z

Press Release 10th March 2009

“I wish to announce my intention to stand for election in the west ward of Galway City council as an Independent candidate in this summers local elections on June 5th.

I have attached my plan to create Local Jobs & Solutions in Galway that I intend to implement if elected this summer.

The number of people signing on in Galway City alone has increased by 74% in last 12 months from 6,198 to 10,810 people.

Many people are worried about keeping or getting a job. Ongoing local problems with traffic, schools and crime affect every one of us.

Talk is not going to solve our current problems. We need a plan and new leadership - I have prepared a plan to create good local jobs that depends on good local solutions. To implement it, I need I need the platform afforded a city councillor in the media and the city to drive this plan forward.”

END

AJ Cahill

Independent Candidate
Galway City Council West Ward.

Videos worth watching

2008-08-24T03:11:00.006+01:00

Very interesting video from the mid 90's explaining the credit crunches, money and world finance. Video is very long 3 hours and 35 minutes.

Nice story

2007-08-27T21:52:00.002+01:00

I used to do a lot of rowing when I was younger, I have a brother who lives near Boston he sent me this story a few days ago. I hope you enjoy it. The human spirit is an amazing thing. I found this story up lifting. I could not be bothered to follow or comment on the recent gombeen antics in Ireland. By the way a gombeen originally was a sort of rural loan-shark. Nowadays, it has come to mean just about any sort of petty underhand, moronic or corrupt activity . So escape from gombeen land for a few minutes and enjoy this story.

To the office on time by the row less traveled
Commuter broke own record to Boston; he might have even beaten you
By Amy van Aarem, Globe Correspondent August 23, 2007

If you were commuting by boat from Hingham to Boston last Thursday morning, you might have noticed an odd sight in the water -- a man rowing to work.

Once each summer for the past seven years, Scituate resident Peter Detwiler has commuted to Boston in his 1981 Alden Ocean Shell. Why forgo coffee and the morning paper aboard the ferry for a vigorous 11-mile row? "If you're a climber and you look up at a mountain, you wonder if you can make it to the top," Detwiler said. "That's what rowers do with water; you wonder if you can row in it."

Detwiler, 46, said he first assessed the water along his commute from his vantage point on the back deck of the ferry. Then, one afternoon he stopped a worker at the dock in front of the Boston Harbor Hotel at Rowes Wharf and said, " 'Hey, I'm thinking of rowing in from Hingham. Do you think I could dock my shell here for the day?' "

"Anybody stupid enough to try that can keep their boat here," was the reply.

So the annual row, to and from Boston, began in 2000.

"Once I made it, I knew I could do the round-trip every time," he said.

That's 22 miles of rowing in one day.

Detwiler said he rows 4 to 6 miles once or twice a week in the spring, summer, and fall, and once a month in the winter if the temperature is above freezing. His mileage goes down if the fishing is good. He said he started rowing boats in Norwell and rowed crew for Williams College from 1979 to 1983. His longest single row without stopping was 20 miles around Monomoy Island off Chatham -- ocean on one side and Nantucket Sound on the way home.

John Cotter, head girls' coach of the Hingham High School Rowing Association and a former rower for the University of Washington, said that 22 miles in one day is a lot.

"I do 44 miles in six days, and this guy is doing half that in one day," Cotter said. "That's a lot of mileage."

Last Thursday morning provided perfect conditions for Detwiler, who, before launching, had completed his standard checklist, which included a call to the Coast Guard for weather and marine conditions. He also made sure he had a secured dock space at the Boston Harbor Hotel.

As commuters boarded the 6 a.m. ferry nearby, Detwiler set his shell in the water off a boat ramp behind South Shore Lobster at the Hingham Shipyard; packed in his dry sack, which contained business clothes and a cellphone; put on gloves; and tossed in a bottle of Gatorade. The commuter ferry pulled away from the dock at 6 sharp; seven minutes later, Detwiler was following in its wake.

At 7:06 a.m., he phoned from Thompson Island: "I'm on a record pace. The water is beautiful and flat, perfect conditions."

The trip took him about an hour and 40 minutes, the fastest he had ever done it.

He docked in Boston at 7:47 a.m. and, with his first meeting scheduled for 9 a.m., Detwiler had more than enough time for a quick shower, compliments of the hotel.

Then it was a 2-mile walk to his office at the Prudential Center, where Detwiler works as a director of an energy firm.

Carrie Cullen-Hitt, a colleague of Detwiler's and a fellow Scituate resident, was impressed with the feat.

"It takes me an hour-40 to get to our office in Back Bay and Peter rowed there in that time," she said. "I don't know many people who could do that."

Things have not always gone smoothly for the rower over the years.

"I broke down off of Spectacle Island once: The rigger broke and the oarlock fell in the water," Detwiler said. "I rowed past the sewage treatment plant in Weymouth and flagged down a fisherman who helped me load the rig onto his boat [after sundown] and brought me to the dock in Hingham."

So, what does his wife think about all of this?

"She doesn't like me out in the harbor quite so far away, but, you know, I do a lot of stuff in the shell that she doesn't necessarily like," said Detwiler, the father of two teenage boys.

Thursday's return trip proved to be in stark contrast to the morning's row.

At 3 p.m., Detwiler checked the marine forecast.

"It showed 10 to 15 knots [of wind], shifting from south to southwest, trending up to 20 knots," he said. At that point, Detwiler cut his workday short, and set off for the harbor.

"I expect to beat the 20-knot nonsense, but extra headwind and some tidal resistance suggests an arrival time just after 6 p.m.," he texted by cellphone.

It was 4:20 p.m. when he began the outbound trip. At 5:47 p.m., Detwiler pulled over to Hangman Island to bail out the shell, something he would do three times on his trip home.

"45 mins from dock. Windy. Behind schedule," he typed.

At 6:15 p.m., there was no sight of him in Hingham Harbor. Thirty minutes later, Detwiler's shell came into view. He pulled his shell onto the shore at 6:45 p.m. and promptly went for a swim. The return trip took him two hours and 20 minutes.

All told, the day's events included a 22-mile row, a 4-mile walk, and $12 saved -- the round-trip ferry fare to Boston.

Now back to gombeenland boys and girls.