Our Niamh is Queen of Blue Jeans

Niamh Sheehy has been crowned winner of the Blue Jean Country Queen Festival – the rst Kilkenny Queen to win in the festival’s 36-year history.

Niamh is a 24-year-old pharmacist assistant, part-time singer and member of Kilkenny City Macra na Feirme. She was awarded the top prize of €1,000 from Athboy Credit Union at the 2023 Blue Jean Country Queen Festival on Sunday June 4.

e festival made its return following a four-year hiatus due to Covid-19.

Niamh and her 21 fellow Queens took part in a hectic and fun- lled weekend which saw them do everything from taking part in on-stage interviews, playing fancy dress football, attending a BBQ with main sponsors, Athboy Credit Union and singing Karaoke with the festival organisers and judges. Speaking afterwards, Niamh praised the community spirit of the people of Athboy: “You couldn’t hold the festival in any other town in the country. e whole town is behind you.” On her fellow Queens, she said “ ere was not a second of this weekend where it felt like a competition. I am a competitive person but after four years of waiting to take part, I just wanted to make every second count. All the girls were in the same boat. We were all just there to meet everyone and have the craic. We were all just there to support each other and have a good time.” and through an Irish-based court. This is not available to them at present. Under the new system, companies will be able to enforce patent rights from Ireland in a market that effectively accounts for 360 million consumers and 17.3 million SMEs.

“The period between holding a referendum and setting up a Local Division must be factored into the equation. It is not enough to merely host a Local Divi - sion and to merely catch-up with the other locations who have been there from the start. We must also have the ambition to make the Irish Local Division ‘best in class’.

“It must be able to demonstrate a reputation for quality, efficiency and be actively and aggressively marketed as a litigation venue. Prompt action is required, and preparations stepped up for hosting the Irish part of the UPC ahead of the vote,” he concluded.

Record public response to Constituency Review

An Coimisiún Toghcháin, The Electoral Commission, has seen a record public response to its call for submissions on a Constituency Review of the 39 Dáil and three European Parliament Constituencies.

The Electoral Commission received 556 submissions from elected representatives, political parties, academics, sports and community groups and interested individuals.

All submissions are published on the Commission website www.electoralcommission.ie.

The record level of public interest comes as the Central Statistics Office last week published the final results of Census 2022.

The Electoral Commission’s Constituency Review recommendations will be presented to the Oireachtas no later than August 30, 2023, being three months from the publication of the final census report.

The Dáil currently has 160 TDs. The Oireachtas has asked An Coimisiún to review current arrangements and make a recommendation of between 171 and 181 TDs for the next election.