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GI4RSI > BARNEY 22.01.04 17:26l 43 Lines 3755 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 38111-GB7FCR
Read: GUEST
Subj: The future looks bright...........................
Path: ON0AR<ON0AR<GB7FCR
Sent: 040122/1624Z @:GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU #:38111 [Blackpool] FBB-7.03a $:38111-GB
From: GI4RSI@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : BARNEY@WW
Cheer Up.' - The future looks bright
HELLO there! How are ye all doin'?
Have you noticed that the days are on the turn?
It's four weeks since the darkest day of last year and already the daylight is stretching - so remember that "if winter comes, can Spring be far behind!"
All the keen gardeners will be out (maybe with magnifying glasses) looking for the sign of the first snowdrop or crocus - and I wish them luck for like many others, I don't like the winter weather at all.
Maybe it's a notion of mine, but I think that everywhere is looking better than ever! Just have a good look around Omagh or Strabane - and you'll see for yourselves. I had a good look at the new library in Strabane at the New Year and it's a great improvement on the old Market Yard, where I saw cattle and all sorts of livestock being bought and sold, just beside the Square when on Hiring Days boys and girls and men and women were also "sold".
Just round the corner what a change there has been in the old Canal Basin
- the "naval base" for the warships of the Channel fleet that ploughed the deep from Derry to Strabane!
It's just a pity that a bus station hasn't been built somewhere round there! Somewhere that would-be passengers could wait in comfort on a wet day, instead of having to shelter in shop doorways as they have been doing for years, ever since Charlie Donaghy started his buses way back in the thirties.
What a change in transport since the trains were taken off in February 1965 which prompted a local poet to write:
"Oh the trains were many, the trains were long
And great were the days we knew,
As we passed half a day at the Lifford road gates
Watching the goods go through.
The folk now sigh for the good old days,
And sadly they miss the train,
As they dream of the glow of the waiting-room fire
As they stand for a bus in the rain!"
Now there's not a sign of one of the biggest rail junctions in the country - just a roundabout, with not a mention of Strabane on it!
What a change there has been in Omagh. Look at the Community House, for instance, a great achievement on the site of the tragedy of the bomb. Somewhere where people of all classes and creeds can meet and unite and talk together, where good can triumph over evil.
Shops round there have risen from the ashes, phoenix-like and Market Street has a new look.
Not only Market Street, but the town generally looks better than ever.
I'm glad that although the Royal Arms Hotel has disappeared, the builders of the Mall have retained the historic facade for to destroy that would have been another tragedy for Omagh.
Just look at the shopping development in the old Showgrounds - a transformation indeed - and you wouldn't recognise Spillars Place from what it used to be years ago.
On the site of the old railway yard at Market Place (actually the first railway station in Omagh) there's a wonderful new library.
A stranger to the town would hardly recognise it, because of the improvements and there'll be even more in the near future.
For instance, a stranger would miss the old Town Hall. It's been knocked down, but there are great plans for an arts centre to replace it, with a glasscovered walkway and a footbridge across the river to connect with the new college, which is to replace the `Technical' which is also demolished.
The river area, too, is to be landscaped with walkways where lovers (and others) can have a quiet stroll in the sunshine - or moonlight if they prefer!
Cheer up. The past has gone, the present is bright - and the future looks brighter still.
So long now and the best of luck!
- by BARNEY McCOOL
73 - Kenny, GI4RSI @ GI4RSI
Message timed: 16:23 on 2004-Jan-22
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