On todays Morning Focus with Gavin Grace
The Garda Commissioner has expressed her sympathies to the family of a Limerick man who died following a break-in at his house last month. Noirin O’Sullivan says the death of carpenter John O’Donoghue was a ‘tragic’ case. She says rural areas ‘are not alone’, despite growing concern about burglaries in isolated communities. Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan says the new garda recruitment campaign will help to prevent break-ins. Clare FMs Edel Bane asked the people of Clare about their experiences with crime and many people felt the lack of gardai is a big issue.
Responsible for rolling out the Community Alert System in many areas, Neil Garvey from Inagh , CEO Muintir Na Tire, spoke to Gavin about rural life. He held a conference titled “Save Rural Ireland” back in March this year highlighting aspects of rural life affected including rural Broadband / Post Office Viability / GP cover and concern over increased crime. Councillor Alan O Callaghan of the Local Joint Policing Committee spoke about this with Gavin.
Padraig Howard, the Managing Director of West Clare Renewable Energy was on Morning Focus to talk about wind farm projects. Ireland needs to hold a referendum in each county to determine whether voters are willing to support extensive wind farm projects, the director of a €100-million facility planned for Co Clare has said. Padraig was reacting to John Whelan, Labour’s Seanad spokesman on energy, who said that rural Ireland was “being sacrificed to assuage D4 sensibilities on climate change” because of delays in the publication of new planning rules for wind farms.
A West Clare Councillor says rural communities here could benefit from government efforts to solve the shortage of social housing here. Fine Gael's Gabriel Keating has proposed a pilot scheme whereby vacant homes be bought or leased, and then used as social housing. He thinks this injection of people into a community would halt a decline in rural population, and help retain vital services. Speaking on the show, Jim Connolly, Chairman and Founder of Rural Resettlement Ireland who is from Kilbaha, Kilrush, has helped 800 mostly Dublin families resettle in the countryside over the past two decades, says he has "zero faith" in current Government plans and argues that provincial life will die out without an influx of new people. He is calling on the Government to move homeless families out of Dublin and into these areas to give them a second chance and at the same time help struggling communities survive.
Gavin was joined in studio next with the CEO of Shannon Airport, Neil Pakey. Shannon Airport has been recognised as a key player in the Irish tourism industry. The Mid-West airport was "highly commended" in the ‘Under 4 Million Passengers’ category at the World Routes Marketing Awards, held in Durban, South Africa. It's the third year in a row Shannon Airport has been honoured with an award having been named the outright winner of the award last year and ‘Highly Commended’ in 2013 also. The awards, which are voted exclusively by airlines, recognise the marketing and promotional activities of airports and tourism destinations globally.
It is Carbon Monoxide Awareness Week and Owen Wilson the Networks Safety Manager at Gas Networks Ireland spoke about the silent killer. The week aims to raise awareness of Carbon Monoxide poisoning among householders nationwide. Owen Offers Safety Precautions for people in their homes.
Get the popcorn out and head to the Empire Cinema in Ennis on the 25th of September to see the “Older in Ireland” documentary. Alex Feganm, the director of the documentary, told us all about his second feature film (his first being ‘The Irish Pub’). Older in Ireland is a landmark documentary that tells the story of a hundred years of a life as seen through the eyes of thirty Irish centenarians. It features thirty men and women aged 100 years and over. Often funny and at times poignant, the film explores each centenarian’s journey, from their birth at the dawn of Irish independence to their life as a centenarian in modern day Ireland. Gavin played a clip of the late Kathleen Snavely, an Irish centenarian who emigrated to America, passed away early this year in Syracuse N.Y., but not before she was filmed for Feganms documentary.
From its first event in November 2004, Dromineer Literary Festival has grown into a much loved and warmly anticipated event on the autumn literary calender. Eleanor Hooker, Chairperson & Programme Curator Dromineer Literary Festival, spoke about the event. “It’s a testament to the hard work of the volunteer committee that the festival enjoys the reputation and success it has today. Our 2015 programme reflects the diverse and rich talent in today’s literary scene. The daytime events and workshops will be held in Lough Derg Yacht Club with its breathtaking backdrop, and Nenagh Arts Centre will provide an intimate environment for our evening programme”.
Eugene Drennan from Ennis, Father of Katie Drennan who passed away in February this year aged 24 years spoke to Gavin about an event this Saturday September 26th, TRUCK RUN FOR KATIE. All entries welcome from Vintage to New Trucks / register on arrival €50 per Truck – €25 per Truck Passenger 26th September from 9am to 2pm. Funds raised will be used to fit out and equip the new Adult Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Unit in University Hospital Limerick (UHL). This new building has been built totally so far from voluntary funds, but as it's is not yet completed, the CF unit in this new hospital needs to get equipment to benefit all Cystic Fibrosis people who attend the UHL. Katie always wanted to help other CF people who attended this hospital. Katie wanted to get the new unit up and running to the highest standard of Care and Excellence in the Cystic Fibrosis centre.
On this weeks Animal Matters, Burren Vet John Underhill told us all about parvovirus infections in dogs and why dog owners should be vaccinating their dogs against it to avoid recent outbreaks in the county.
Today, Caroline Collins from Ennis Bookshop, gives a book review on Generations – 10 Decades of Irish Life by Rosita Boland and A Spoon of Blue Thread by Anne Taylor:
Generations – 10 Decades of Irish Life by Rosita Boland – This is a new book based on a series of interviews that were published in the Irish Times last year. In all 50 people were interviewed – the youngest was seven and the oldest was 103 years old at the time. Collectively, they represent a century of experience of life in Ireland. Rosita Boland who conducted the interviews is an Irish Times features writer and she is also from Ennis.
A Spoon of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler – The shortlist for the Man-Booker prize for fiction as announced last week. There are six books on the list and this is one of them. Anne Tyler is an American writer and this is her 20th novel.
