On today's Morning Focus with Gavin Grace
Aer Lingus is working to make alternative travel arrangements for passengers after a plane had to make an emergency landing in New York. Shannon-bound flight EI-110 returned to JFK airport 15 minutes after take-off yesterday evening because of technical difficulties. It's reported smoke was detected in part of the plane on landing, and emergency services at the Port Authority were on the ground to deal with the incident which happened at about half past seven local time. The company says 110 passengers, who were bound for Shannon airport will be accommodated on the next available flights. No-one was injured in the incident. This exchange between the plane's pilot and the control tower has been broadcast on US TV.
Fianna Fail Councillor Clare Colleran Molloy spoke to gavin about why she chose not to run in the general election. She said it has been one of the hardest decisions she's ever had to make. Claire Colleran Molloy was approached by representatives from Party Headquarters over the weekend to run as a third candidate on the party ticket but she has turned the offer down. The Ennis-area Councillor previously put her name forward to run in the election but lost out to sitting TD Timmy Dooley and Clare GAA County Board Chairman Michael McDonagh at the party's selection convention in July.
Timmy Dooley, Clare FF TD and Joe Carey, Clare FG TD next spoke about social housing. There are 2,600 council houses lying empty across Ireland, a situation that has been called “shocking”. The numbers were obtained by Fianna Fáil Environment spokesperson Barry Cowen through a series of Freedom of Information requests to each local authority. The information shows that there are over 2,600 vacant units across the country in council ownership, despite the growing housing emergency. The majority of local authorities suffered reductions in refurbishment funding in 2015, with local authority sources saying that, in many cases, the money simply isn’t there to make empty houses habitable.
Clare County Councillors have voted in favour of maintaining reduced local property tax rates here, but only after a tense political row. A majority of Councillors, a mix of Independents and Fianna Fáil members, backed a motion to maintain Clare's current reduction of 15%.That was despite warnings that the fall-off in income of around 1.5 million euro would limit the number of projects and services here next year. Fine Gael Coucillor from Bodyke, Joe Cooney and Independent Councillor from Sixmilebridge, PJ Ryan spoke to Gavin about the local property tax rates.
Eoghan Corry, an Aviation Journalist for Travel Extra spoke about the emergency situation in New York. Aer Lingus is working to make alternative travel arrangements for passengers after a plane had to make an emergency landing in New York. Shannon-bound flight EI-110 returned to JFK airport 15 minutes after take-off yesterday evening because of technical difficulties. It's reported smoke was detected in part of the plane on landing, and emergency services at the Port Authority were on the ground to deal with the incident which happened at about half past seven local time. The company says 110 passengers, who were bound for Shannon airport will be accommodated on the next available flights. No-one was injured in the incident.
Speaking with Gavin next was Frankie Neylon, Former Councillor and Former Mayor of Ennis and now a Coal Merchant and John Holohan, Head of Communications of the Asthma Society. A nationwide ban on smoky coal will be introduced within a year. The announcement comes on the 25th anniversary of the ban's introduction in Dublin. It's been welcomed by health groups including the Asthma Society of Ireland, which says thousands of lives will be saved as a result. Enviornment Minister Alan Kelly says introducing a State, wide ban on smoky coal is a necessary step.
County Clare won many awads in this years Tidy Towns. Ennis won a Gold Medal and Gavin spoke with Josephine Cotter Coghlan who is the Chair of Ennis Tidy Towns. They were two points of the overall win. Kilrush also won a Gold Medal, Paul Edson, the Chairperson of Kilrush Tidy Towns spoke about the brilliant achievement. Mountshannon won a Silver Medal and Josephine O'Brien, Chairperson of the Mountshannon Tidy Towns, spoke about what they did to achieve this. A big congratulations to them and also to the Bronze Award winners; Quin, Ballynacally, Tuamgraney and Kilkee.
Frankie Coote of Clare ISPCA Officer and the County Dog warden joined Gavin again this week to talk about animals. He told Gavin that two dogs were shot in East Clare, there are three dogs causing problems for people on bicycles, Frankie went on to tell us that 12 dogs were brought to dogs trust in the UK.
'Motivate a new you' – John Whyte from Motivation Weight Management and Shane O'Donohoe from The West County Gym spoke about losing weight the healthy way with a good balanced diet and exericise.
A survey released by Safefood yesterday revealed that some foods like wraps are not as healthy as people believe. Clare FMs Edel Bane went out to the streets of Ennis to ask people what they had for lunch. Many people were very shocked to hear about the amount of calories in a chicken wrap.
Sean McGoldrick, author of “Punching Above Their Weight” spoke to Gavin about one of Irelands leading sports. This is the inside story of a great tradition, a story of physical prowess, gritty determination, devastating defeats, sheer bad luck, infamous ‘he was robbed’ judging decisions, and the ultimate goal of Olympic glory. The boxers’ lives play out against a backdrop of the economic woes of the 1950s, the Northern Ireland Troubles, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the break-up of the Soviet Union. Sean McGoldrick shines a spotlight on Ireland’s ‘Medal Factory’, the sometimes-contentious High Performance Unit, which has nurtured Irish boxers on the road to winning seven Olympic medals. Punching Above Their Weightcaptures the rollercoaster ride of such legendary boxers and coaches as John McNally, Fred Tiedt, Barry McGuigan, Hugh Russell, Billy Walsh, Michael Carruth, Zaur Antia, Wayne McCullough, Paddy Barnes, Kenny Egan, Darren Sutherland, John Joe Nevin, and Katie Taylor, among many others.
Colm Gorey of Silicon Republic spoke about the new discovery on Mars. Flowing liquid water is almost certainly responsible for mysterious features on Mars that change with the seasons. Experts suspected that water might be involved in the formation of dark streaks on the planet's surface, but only now has evidence supporting the theory come to light. The new research is based on analysis of images from NASA. Michael Meyer – from their Mars exploration programme – says the mystery has been puzzling scientists for years.
