Thursday’s Morning Focus saw a Fianna Fail Councillor outline his intentions to run for the party in the next General Election (whenever that may be!), heard the impact of increasing school costs on parents and had a visit from some very special people!
The show opened with its usual paper review, followed by a chat with Barnardos’ Head of Advocacy, June Tinsley. She was speaking about Barnardos’ Annual School Costs Survey which was released on Wednesday and showed that the average price for sending a child to school has increased.
Following that we spoke to school teacher and Shannon Councillor Cathal Crowe, who on Wednesday evening confirmed his intentions to run for Fianna Fail in the next General Election. He expects the selection process to have been finished locally before Christmas and hopes to be on the ballot, as he explains below:
As unemployment figures rose slightly in July, Liam Horan of Slí Nua Careers joined Gavin over the phone to discuss the options for people who are finding it tough to find work.
The Scariff Harbour Festival is one of a number of festivals or local events on this August Bank Holiday weekend, and we spoke to a committee member Harry O’Meara about the event. We also spoke to some of the people – or should I say Princesses – who will be visiting the Festival; Snow White, Elsa and Merida joined Gavin in studio, alongside Alison Giblin of Scarlett Princess Parties ahead of their appearance in the usually Princess-less East Clare town.
Clare’s West Coast might be known for it’s surfing, it’s cliffs and it’s beautiful landscape, but a recent survey has put one of it’s villages on the map for something else entirely; Liscannor has been announced as the village with the highest pub-per-person in Ireland! Morning Focus’ reporter Muireann Duffy headed out to the area to speak to some of the locals, and you can hear that below:
Siobhan Mulcahy, Clare’s County Arts Officer spoke to us in studio about the Arts events in the County this weekend, and we also heard from Miltown man Sean Malone who’s hosting an American Bluegrass band, The Sweet Olive in the Market House Theatre.
We ended the show with a live performance from singer/songwriter Ronan Leonard. Ronan’s performed all over the world, from Las Vegas to Longford, and held the Clare launch of his new single, Take That Chance in Ennistymon’s The Cheese Press on Wednesday evening. He spoke to Gavin about his career before playing the new track in studio.
