18,000 COPIES WEEKLY Conor makes his mark
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Primary school quiz winners
Musical treat for charity
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Record breakers
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Wednesday, 4th December, 2013. Vol. 6, Issue 49 • 63 Clanbrassil Street, Dundalk, Co. Louth. Tel: 042 9320888. Fax: 042 9329676. Email: editorial@dundalkleader.com; advertising@dundalkleader.com
By Paul Byrne
THE people of Dundalk have achieved their aim of making it into the Guinness Book of World Records thanks to almost 5,000 Santa’s taking part in last Friday evenings fun run. More significant is the fact that the Santas delivered the perfect Christmas present in the form of approximately €100,000 for local charities. The initially surreal sight of gangs of Santa’s jumping out of cars soon became the norm as it appeared that almost the whole town had come out to support the Dundalk Chamber’s Santa Fun Fun which aimed to raise much needed funds for charities around Louth. The chamber had asked for over 4000 people to support
Michael Halpenny with Leah, Amy, Zoe and Mya Halpenny
the venture in order to try and make it into the Guinness Book of World Records and according to organiser Jimmy Cumiskey they have surpassed that figure with plenty
to spare. “We were absolutely blown away by the response we received from people for our Santa Run. 4961 tags have officially been counted and we
are confident that we have fulfilled all the criteria to make it into the Guinness Book of Records. I can honestly say I have never seen so Continued on Page 6
Local actors hit big screen After 10 months of writing and rehearsing, production and filming, the service users, staff and volunteers of RehabCare Resource centre, Carroll Village Dundalk are at last ready to launch their first feature film, The Dream Machine’ at the IMC Cinema Dundalk. Fifty actors with intellectual disabilities from the RehabCare centre are set to see their names in lights in what promises to be an all-action, colourful family film that will be screened on Wednesday December 11 at 7pm. The group set about the task of converting a disused space in the National Learning Network facility on the Coe’s Road into a Technicolor sound stage. Months of designing and painting have created the rich backdrop against which the action of the movie is played out. Continued on Page 10