We opened this morning's show with audio from Clare's Championship wins. The county tasted victory on the double in this weekend’s All Ireland Championship action. On Saturday night, Davy Fitzgerald’s hurlers defeated Limerick while on Sunday Colm Collins’ men overcame Laois. Afterwards, both managers spoke with Clare FM’s Syl O’Connor.
Next we heard from Clare County Council who are pledging to reduce social housing waiting lists. With the waiting list for social housing in Clare now stretching into the thousands, the local authority has pledged to boost its housing stock. The council is inviting tenders for the supply of completed housing schemes in Clare towns and villages where a housing need exists. It's also inviting tenders for land banks and development sites , as it attempts to tackle a situation whereby more than 4,000 families are waiting for a council house. Leonard Cleary Acting Director of Service, Housing, Clare Co Co was in studio to tell Gavin more.
Then we turned to a new survey from the Irish Farmer's Journal that shows a significant drop in milk prices paid by co-ops. The average paid in 2015 was 29.26c/l – well back from the average 36.31c/l paid out in 2014 and 37.76 in 2013. The 2015 figure is much closer to the 30.81 c/litre paid out in 2012 and reflects the 15% to 20% swing in milk price possible from year to year. In terms of co-ops, Kerry is in eighth position in the milk price review table with 28.42 c/litre, one spot better than 2014. For the last 10 years it has hovered between position seven and nine compared to other processors in the review. Jack Kennedy, Dairy Editor with the Irish Famer's Journal was on the line to discuss the impact this is having on farmer across the country.
Aer Lingus and Shannon Airport are calling on cyclists across the region to saddle up for a special 110k round trip straddling Clare and Galway in aid of two worthy charities. All proceeds from the event will go to the two Shannon Group designated charities for 2016, Irish Children’s Arthritis Network (iCan) and Abalta Special School for students with autism in Galway. The Aer Lingus Charity Cycle is now in its third successive year and will begin from Shannon Airport on Saturday week (July 23). Organised by Shannon Group staff, the cycle forms part of their annual charity fundraising programme. This year’s cycle will travel west from Shannon, up to Gort via Kilmurry, Kilkishen Tulla and returning via Clooney, Quin and Newmarket-on-Fergus, before making it back to Shannon. Declan Power, Head of Aviation Development was on the line with more details.
On our Garda Focus slot, Sgt Joe Downey, Crime Prevention Officer at Ennis Garda Station, was in studio to tell us about the latest happenings around the county.
Then we heard about the phenomenon: Insta-perfect – the pressure to create the perfect online persona. In this era of social media, presenting the perfect self-image has become a 24-hour task. Pics are posted from dawn til dusk – and they've got to be good. The biggest consumers of social media, and those under the most pressure, are young people. Clare FM's Cian Kearns took to the streets of Ennis to meet some users and find out more. Mary McGill is a journalist who recently wrote an article for Irish Country Magazine asking how Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter are altering our views of reality. She joined Gavin now on the line to describe what she found.
On our weekly Fleadh News slot, Joe Arkin,s Chair of the Venues Sub Committee and Vice Chairman of Clare Co Board of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann discussed the competitions which will be run over the course of the event.
And finally today we had the Sports Panel in studio to discuss the weekend's action. Derrick Lynch, Clare FM Sport and Seamus Hayes from The Clare Champion, discussed championship wins for Clare and the drubbing received by Waterford.
