On today’s show Gavin opened the discussion up to an item from Clare FM news. A new study has found that large parts of Clare are among the worst serviced by full time hospital care. A mapping system, created by NUI Maynooth, has identified healthcare black spots, which flag gaps in access to services across the nation. Their system finds that it can take up to 59 minutes to travel from Lisdoonvarna to the nearest 24hour A&E unit. Kilkee is longer at 69 minutes – the national average is 21 minutes. Among the calls and texts to the Today Show was Jean in Kilkee who voiced her concerns about the travel times.
Paul “Calso” Callaghan – Chef and Food Blogger – joined The Today Show in studio for his weekly cookery feature. Paul is originally from Co. Armagh but moved to Clarecastle over 2 years ago. An avid gardener, he is growing, cooking and eating all he can produce from the garden along with local fresh produce. He’ll give us some cookery tips and recipes healthy options over the coming weeks – as most of us are trying to be good at this time of year! Today’s recipe was a bacon, pea and leek risotto. See Calso Cooks from the Sustainable Larder: Low Fat Risotto or http://thesustainablelarder.blogspot.com/ for more of Paul’s recipes and tips!
Ed Farnan, a Journalist with Irish Central, has been closely following the race for the Republican nomination and Gavin checked in with him today for the latest update.
After a bruising clash in South Carolina, Republican presidential frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich took their battle to a bigger stage when the campaign moved to Florida yesterday. Gingrich, a former US House of Representatives speaker, thrashed Romney in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, suggesting the race for their party’s nomination and the right to face President Barack Obama in November may last months more. Gingrich won around 40% of the vote, followed by Romney with 28%. Rick Santorum was in third with 17% and Ron Paul in fourth with 13%.
Gavin also spoke to Christina Brosnan, originally from Ennistymon, Christina has just been honoured by winning the Creative Island overall award at a reception in Dublin on Saturday evening in advance of the official opening of Showcase at the RDS on Sunday 22nd January. Christina Brosnan was born in Ennistymon in Clare and now lives in Kilkenny. She introduced her new collections ‘Contour’ and ‘Osseous’ to buyers at Showcase and her work was of such a high quality she was selected to showcase it in the exclusive Creative Island arena. Both of her new collections use sterling silver or 14-carat rolled gold with semi-precious gemstone and bone.
Vivienne Daly, a student at Kilrush Community College spoke to Gavin about how she has become one of the last fifteen of the Google 4 Doodle competition for Ireland – the only Clare student to get this far. The winning student will have their doodle appear on the Google Ireland homepage for 24 hours. They will also receive a laptop for themselves and one for their teacher, and their school will receive a €10,000 technology grant! Vivienne is urging the people of Clare to vote for her doodle – so please google “Doodle 4 Google” to cast your vote!
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