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Christmas storms wreak havoc
By Niamh Kirk There were as many as 35 roads closed locally in the days following Christmas after Ireland suffered one of its worst storms in 15 years this Christmas. Local emergency services were forced to deal with fallen trees, flash floods and fires county-wide over the Christmas season. With wind speeds as strong as 135kph, damage was wrought across Co Louth on St Stephen’s night with trees and roofs fallen and electrical lines downed. Louth’s local authorities dispatched emergency crews to tackle problems across the county and some fallen trees were so large that specialist contractors were called in. The crews battled to make affected areas safe even in the severe weather. They were forced to withdraw for a time over concerns to their safety as the weather conditions deteriorated. Louth County Council reported that their fire crews were called out to a number of incidents throughout the county while other teams were dispatched to tackle flash flooding. Such was the volume, Louth County Council asked the public to avoid a number of routes as crews were not able to deal with all calls. In the days flowing Christmas the local authority crews cleared debris from roads which was particularly bad in wooded areas. The roads around Knockbridge were particularly affected as were the Ardee Rd, the Castleblayney Road and the Ravensdale area. Due to the danger posed by debris, drivers were advised to make no unnecessary journeys. The fallen branches brought down a number of power cables and more than 1,400 homes in north Louth were without electricity after the St Stephens night storm. Parts of the Cooley Peninsula were also without power for a number of hours after the storm. However electricity was returned within 24 hours in most cases.
Dundalk Leader 2nd January 2014
Pupils analyse benefit of music By Paul Byrne
Realt na Mara 4th Class students will represent Dundalk at next Thursday’s RDS Primary School Science Fair with their interesting experiment which asks the question ‘Can music help you study?’ The project which took place under the guidance of science coordinator Mrs Daly will be the school’s very first visit to the prestigious science exhibition and the students are raring to impress the judges in the RDS next Thursday. Mia Durnin who is part of the 4th Class project team explained how the students tested whether music helped or hindered them during study time. “We wanted to test if
Realt na Mara pupils looking forward to the Science Fair
people could concentrate better or worse while music was playing in the background so we found a concentration game on the website www.mathsisfun.com and we had to play the game with and without the song ‘What does the fox say?’ playing” explains Mia. “We found that 22 of
the class did better playing the game without music and only seven got better results with the music playing. We also made pie charts showing how many people usually listen to music while studying and they showed that 27% of girls usually listen to music and 39% of boys do so” she added.
The young Realt na Mara scientists said they were surprised that so many of them did better in the game without music as most have them had expected the results to be closer. As well as their main project the students have also been busy creating brand new games which they will take with
them to the RDS to interact with the other schools taking part in the exhibition. The games which were created from scratch by the children include concentration related games called ‘Where’s the ball?’ ‘Matching Shapes’ and ‘Story Square’. Mrs Daly praised the
children for their hard work in putting their project together and is also looking forward to the trip to Dublin next Thursday for what will be her first RDS Science exhibition as a teacher. “We’re all looking forward to showing our project to the judges up in the RDS and it should be a very enjoyable and interesting experience for the children. Science is a wonderful subject as I think it plays a huge role in developing a child’s mind and it makes them ask questions and discover how things work. If taught correctly science can be fascinating for children and it brings out a side to children which you don’t get to see in other subjects” she explained.
O Fiaich Institute night classes enrolment O Fiaich Institute Dundalk is now offering over 40 night classes as part of the Spring 2014 Evening Class Programme. Courses range from hobby classes to FETAC level 5 Healthcare and Childcare modules. Also on offer is a selection of Leaving Certificate courses to take place after school
to facilitate those intending to sit the Leaving Certificate in 2014. O Fiaich Institute, under the auspices of Louth Meath Education and Training Board are involved in an innovative project titled BestVET. As part of this initiative there will be a Pre-registration information
night for anybody considering undertaking FETAC courses on Wednesday 8th January from 7pm to 9pm in O Fiaich Institute. All are very welcome to this event where an outline of what is required to undertake FETAC courses will be given and meet our panel of FETAC tutors. A demonstra-
tion of how you can study FETAC modules from home is included. Enrolment for night classes takes place on Monday January 13 from 10am to 3pm and Tuesday 14 from 10am to 3pm and 7pm to 9pm. Further details may be found on www. louthnightclasses.ie