In normal circumstances, the May Bank Holiday weekend would be a busy couple of days of local events.
With the secondary schools on the home straight and the summer beginning to stretch out in front of us, it’s always one of the best weekends of the year.
This year, however, we restricted, locked down as the world over attempts to limit the spread of the Coronavirus.
This new world – where nothing is going ahead as normal – poses challenges for the media and how we fill the space that would otherwise have been filled by match reports, photos from local events and reports on meetings that are no longer taking place.
For LaoisToday, we’re trying to keep our ever-increasing audience informed, engaged and entertained.
That’s why we’ve been moving towards more ‘live’ content on our Facebook page.
Our twice-weekly quiz has been going out live on Facebook every Sunday and Wednesday at 9.30pm and last week we began our first Saturday night live music session, performed by Damian Carroll from the popular Electrix band.
And this weekend for the Bank Holiday we have a bumper schedule of entertaininment – consisting of two matches, two live music sessions and our regular Sunday quiz.
On Friday night, to mark the 15th anniversary of Knockbeg College’s All Ireland SFC ‘A’ final success in 2005, we are putting out the video of that game on Facebook at 8pm.
Though it’s obviously not ‘live’, we are using the ‘premiere’ feature on Facebook so that people can watch it together in real time – and comment, like etc as the game unfolds.
It is the first game in this style that we will be showing – and from next week we are teaming up with Brophy Videography to bring you regular games in this manner, beginning on Monday with the 1986 National Football League final, where Laois recorded a famous win over Monaghan. That will be shown on our Facebook on Monday at 8pm.
On Saturday, The Finns – a folk band who have performed across the world and played Electric Picnic last year and who are comprised of Rathdowney brothers Hugh and Ciaran Finn – will be performing live on our Facebook at 9pm.
On Sunday, the Dooley Brothers from Borris-in-Ossory will be live at 5pm where they will be joined by Paul O’Brien from Rathdowney. The Dooley brothers were due to support the Wolfe Tones in New York on St Patrick’s Day while Paul is a member of the High Kings.
Their performance will be coming from the local primary school and will double as a fundraiser for Borris-Kilcotton GAA club.
On Sunday, we will return with our regular live quiz.
SEE ALSO – Next Laois Rose selection won’t take place until 2022 as this year’s event in Tralee is postponed
