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18.02.2010 - St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Plans for this year's parade are now at an advanced stage. The Athy Town Promoters Group have been meeting on a weekly basis in the Town Council to organise the event, which is scheduled to commence at 2pm from the Kilkenny Road.

All local organisations, clubs and businesses are reminded that they should register to take part in the parade by contacting Margaret Walsh, Athy Heritage Centre at 059 8633075 or email athyheritage@eircom.net

In addition, musicians, street performers and actors to perform both during and after the parade at a special event in the Back Square.

26.01.2010 - Athy Traffic Management Plan - Public Information Session

Athy Town Council and Kildare County Council will hold a joint
public information session as follows:

Date: Wednesday, 3rd February, 2010
Location: Carlton Abbey Hotel, Athy, Co. Kildare
Time: 4pm - 9pm

This information evening is being held to allow members of the public view plans and particulars of the proposed scheme. This traffic management plan focuses on the following transport issues in the town
centre area, as illustrated on the drawings and documentation available for inspection at the locations specified below:

- Traffic Flow Management

- Pedestrians, Cyclists and People with disabilities,

- Car Parking,

- HGV Management,

- Access to the Rail Station,

- Access to the proposed road network,

- Access to schools

- Bus Services

Plans and particulars of the proposed scheme are also available for inspection or purchase at a fee not exceeding the reasonable cost of making a copy during normal opening hours until Friday, the 5th February, 2010 at the following locations:

Kildare County Council Transportation Department, (Level 4),
Kildare County Council,
Aras Chill Dara,
Devoy Park,
Naas,
Co. Kildare

and

Athy Town Council,
Rathstewart,
Athy,
Co. Kildare

Plans and particulars of the proposed scheme are also be available to view on Kildare County Council’s website at www.kildare.ie/countycouncil

The proposed plan was advertised on 11th December, 2009, in accordance with the Planning & Development Act 2000 (Part XI), the Planning &
Development 2001 (Part 8) and the Planning & Development Regulations 2006.

22.01.2010 - Athy St. Patrick's Day Parade

At a meeting of the Athy Town Promoters held in the Council Chamber on Tuesday, 19 January 2010, it was decided to build upon the success of last year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade and make a concerted effort to organise a bigger and better Parade for this year. To do this we need your help.

Athy will have a wide variety of festivals and events this year, including Tri-Athy triathlon, the Kildare County Show, the Bluegrass Festival and the National Ploughing Championships to name but a few. It is hoped that these events will be promoted at the Parade.

The Athy Town Promoters is a group of community organisations and business groups including, Athy Town Council, Athy Chamber of Commerce, ShopAthy, Athy Heritage Centre & Museum, Athy Tidy Towns and Shine Athy. The aim of the group is to co-ordinate efforts in the town to promote Athy as a business and tourist destination for the benefit of everybody in the town.

The support and participation of all community, sporting, business and cultural organisations in Athy and environs is now being invited. Please contact Margaret Walsh at 059 8633075 or email athyheritage@eircom.net to discuss your ideas on or before next Friday, 29th January. We need your participation to make this year’s event bigger and better than ever before. We look forward to working with you to make this year’s St. Patrick’s Day really special.

15.12.2009 - Free Christmas Parking in Athy

Further to November meeting of Athy Town Council, it was agreed that free parking would apply in town from Saturday, 19th December to New Year's Day(inclusive).

Traffic Wardens/ Gardai will continue to patrol unauthorised and illegal parking in non permitted areas (loading bays, disabled person parking
areas, etc).

08.12.2009 - Athy Christmas Chocolate Festival

We received some great feedback from people who attended the Festival. Here's what some people had to say

"I want to congratulate ShopAthy on the great effort made for the Chocolate Festival. I wasn't able to make it on Saturday due to the boys soccer matches etc but we made the most of Sunday. We left the house at 10.45 and didn't return until 3.30 - I don't think you can get that much FREE entertainment anywhere these days. They loved the gingerbread decoration in Bradburys. Well done to John and Jill for the great orgainisation of this. The boys then went and made themselves sick with the Chocolate Fountain in the Wet Paint Gallery - guess what they want for Christmas this year ?? Thanks again ShopAthy and we are looking forward to next year."

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"We would just like to thank you all for the wonderful chocolate festival. As a friend of mine said, its great for the kids to be entertained in your own town for free and be able to spend our money treating the kids to lunch out.
The parade was wonderful, fantastic effort made by all, fab touch with the post men giving the letters to Santa. Hats off to you all, well done and looking forward to next year."


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"I thought I’d take a moment and contact ShopAthy to tell you and your members how impressed I was with the Chocolate Festival. Having been living away for a number of years now, it was lovely to see how the town came out in force for the weekend. We have a young family, and they loved it. There was something for everyone to enjoy that weekend. In particular, the gingerbread and cupcake decorating in Bradburys went down a treat. Another favourite was Sissie Claus in The Carlton Hotel. There was a lengthy queue to have faces painted in the Wet Paint Gallery but the boys were only too happy to wait. I reckon the chocolate fountain in the corner of the room had something to do with it!
The weather wasn’t great on Saturday but it didn’t stop us from enjoying all the festival had to offer. Again, I was impressed at the way the Bradbury family provided hot chocolate for everyone in the Square to warm hands and bellies! Sunday was a drier day and the boys enjoyed their very first parade experience. And what’s a better way to end a Christmas Festival than a quick visit to Santy.
It was a wonderful weekend, well worth the crankiness afterwards! Looking forward to next years Festival. Thanks a million for a lovely warm up to Christmas."

03.12.2009 - Athy Christmas Chocolate Festival

The timetable for this event can now be download from this website. Remember all events are FREE.

20.11.2009 - Athy Christmas Chocolate Festival

We are working on the final schedule for the Chocolate Festival. Details will be available very soon so please check back. It promises to be a very exciting event.

10.11.2009 - Presentation at Meeting on 09.11.2009

The following is the presentation made at the open meeting on November 11th 2009.

download a_chocolate_christmas_festival.pdf

09.11.2009 - Open Meeting

On behalf of ShopAthy we would like to invite you to an open meeting to discuss proposals to attract additional customers and trade to Athy over the Christmas period. For many businesses, especially the retail sector Christmas is their harvest time and a successful trading period over this time is essential to the viability of the business for the coming year.

We hope to examine a number of proposals already made and consider further proposals from the meeting which will assist retailers and other services in their trade over the period. A number of proposals have already been considered, such as;

· Short term alleviation measures for traffic congestion in the town,
· Car parking arrangements over the Christmas trading period,
· Craft fairs in central areas in the town,
· Christmas choirs,
· Late opening hours on selected days,
· Co-ordinated advertising of discounted products across the town.

It is hoped that the meeting will be attended by ShopAthy members and non-members for the benefit of the whole town, as a successful trading period will protect existing jobs in the town and hopefully keep revenue in Athy.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, 11th November, 2009 at 6.30pm in the Carlton Abbey Hotel. It is hoped the meeting will last for 1 hour. We look forward to seeing you there and hope that by working together we can all have a successful Christmas and prosperous New Year.

Contact ShopAthy for more details

30.10.2009 - 1st Annual Raffle

Our 1st Annual Raffle was held in the Carlton Abbey Hotel on the 30th October. The winners were;

1st - Emma Redmond
2nd - Michael Kelly
3rd - Tom Walsh
4th - Sharon Ward
5th - John Connor

Thanks to everyone who bought a ticket and also a big thanks to all the members who donated a prize.

28.09.2009 - The National Ploughing Championships

The National Ploughing Championships, held in Cardenton Athy, was a great success this year with record crowds attending.
Athy business's, particulary the drinks and food industry benefited from the event and also hotels and B&B's too.

ShopAthy committee members worked very hard at the stand for the 3 days promoting Athy. Gabriel Dooley sponsored printing of the large format posters and Robert Redmond Studios sponsored the design for the following organisations, Athy Town Council, Athy Chamber of Commerce and ShopAthy. Over 10,000 ShopAthy leaflets were given out from the stand at the show, together with an information pack about Athy.

The Fashion Show was on 3 times a day and ShopAthy also gave out the voucher books at these events too. In additional there were many extra road signs erected for the event. ShopAthy's wet Paint Gallery also sold paintings over the few days.

Well done to all the committee members who worked hard during the week.

23.09.2009 - The National Ploughing Championships

Well done to all on ShopAthy's section of the promoters stand for all their hard work. Gabriel Dooley sponsored the printing of the posters, which were designed at Robert Redmond Studios by Marlene Dawson. A large poster was designed for the following, Athy Town Council, Athy Chamber and ShopAthy all promoters working together for Athy.

19.09.2009 - Home Coming for Charmaine Kenny - Rose of Tralee 2009

Left - Charmaine Kenny with Chairman of ShopAthy, Maurice Flinter


Right - The people of Athy come out to welcome Charmaine home.





Left - The Sydney Rose - Athy girl Romi Farrelly stopped off at The Wet Paint Gallery on a recent visit home, pictured her with her Fiance Louie




Right - Kildare Rose - Athy girl Erica Kelly with Andrew Farrelly and Chairmaine Kenny.

24.08.2009 - Voucher Book Launch

The €20,000 discount voucher book is now in the shops and will be delivered to every home in Athy later this week. Some great discounts available. Look out for your FREE VOUCHER BOOK.

01.05.2009 - ShopAthy Meets The Council

ShopAthy and Athy Town Council meet regularly to discuss and inform each other of different ways they can help each other.

At this weeks meeting Town Manager Mr. Joe Boland stated that the ShopAthy Project was a very positive project for the town of Athy and that he hears only positive comments everywhere about the much needed organisation.

Mr Boland offered to be of assistance to the project and details will be announced late on this.

25.04.2009 - Launch Night

After two months of hard work ShopAthy was officially launched on the 24th April in the Carlton Abbey Hotel.

Sean Gallagher, known from RTEs Dragons Den, came and spoke about coping in the current climate, his previous jobs and gave the crowd a good laugh with his jokes and some peoples opinions of him on the Dragons Den! He lifted the spirits of the crowds and backed ShopAthy 100%.

Robert Redmond talked about what was involved with ShopAthy from the voucher booklets to all the ads in the newspapers and on the radio. Also mentioning the website playing a major part in the marketing campaign. ShopAthy has all the different aspects of media covered!

The business people that attended got a glimpse at the ShopAthy logo and the voucher booklet, which were designed and made in Athy.

With the Carlton providing tasty canapés and drinks the ShopAthy Launch went very well. By the end of the night there were 5 new members.

20.04.2009 - ShopAthy On The Radio

Robert Redmond was interviewed on The Business on RTE Radio 1 on Sunday 19th of April about the Shop Athy project.

There was a fantastic prize worth €2500 sponsored by Athy businesses given out the show.

01.04.2009 - Marketing Athy

ShopAthy is all about marketing Athy as the great shopping destination which it is.

We want to make people aware of the great selection of shops we have on offer and the fantastic products they have on offer.

If you want to help, or if you have any ideas to promote the town or improve the website, contact ShopAthy today




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