 How were they built? That's what I couldn't sleep for. I think in the morning, I'd be alright without pyramids. Oh, it's unbelievable. What time did you notice anything? Do you know what the biggest man-made structure is since the pyramids were built? I remember they were built many, many, many, many thousands of years ago. Oh, here we go. Tell me now. What would you say it was? Oh, God, I don't know. The Eiffel Tower. You're joking. I swear to God. So, since this amazing construction of all these pyramids, the highest thing man was able to achieve was only a couple of hundred years ago. Pieces of metal put together. The Eiffel Tower. I don't know. Aliens. Come here. Aliens and magnets. Here, listen, more importantly. The place is looking really clean. Thanks very much. I saw the video, actually. Oh, see, that's... You've gone viral. Right. See, Caroline, give me a touch yesterday. Yes. She says Lee Gooch needs to know where the recycling bin is. Really? She needs to have that conversation with Monday Night Sessions. So then... Paul and Jimmy leave this place in a kip every Monday night. That's why I'm here to tidy up. Is it true, Caroline? They do, don't they? Oh. Or have they turned their ways? Oh, what a tin of worms you're opening up now, Daddy. Go back dreaming about pyramids. Go on and dream it. It's a podcast, anyway. Just keep it lighthearted today. I'm joking. You're very serious today, aren't you? Yeah. You get your serious colours on today. We're all nice and automated up until today. Get out of here, will you? Lee Gooch, back with you tomorrow morning at 6.30. Let's get a news update now, and it's over to Donna Marie Daugherty. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. Donegal County Council is inviting people to take part in the first public consultation for the Letterkenny Southern Network Project. An event takes place this afternoon at the Letterkenny Public Service Centre to brief people on the proposal to develop the transport network south of Letterkenny Town. Donald Kavanaugh has more. The Letterkenny Southern Network Project is intended to develop the transport network around the south of Letterkenny Town. The council says the strategic piece of infrastructure will provide connectivity from Letterkenny to West Donegal and reduce traffic congestion while also supporting growth in that area. The project is currently at the option selection phase, which includes the identification of potential improvement options. This latest public consultation is to invite feedback on the constraints and potentials that the design team should consider. An open event takes place today from 12 noon until 8pm at the Letterkenny Public Services Centre. A public display will then be available at the centre for four weeks. More information available on lsnp.ie and online consultation submissions will be accepted until Thursday, June 15. Further information and more links on our website headandredio.com. One nurse at Letterkenny University Hospital has claimed that staffing levels at the facility are unsafe and inhumane. Donegal Deputy Thomas Pringle relayed those concerns in the doll while speaking on a motion on targeted investment in health service. He says there appears to be a continuous scaling back of resources at Letterkenny University Hospital with many people being forced to endure long wait times. Deputy Pringle repeated calls for the government to consider employing doctors from Cuba. The HSE relies heavily on overseas doctors, nurses and midwives to staff hospitals and collaboration with Cuba would be a great opportunity for Ireland to address the severe crisis we are currently experiencing in our health service. The government should be jumping at this opportunity because it has failed to engage with me or the Cuban ambassador on this issue despite numerous attempts and despite being raised here in the house and raised directly with him as well. There is no response. And Montana's governor signed into law a bill which from January makes it illegal for TikTok to operate in the US state. Some politicians have been concerned it could be used to give the Chinese government access to information on American citizens or to push misinformation. The video sharing app says there's no evidence of that. That's all for now. We'll be back again with a news update at 10 o'clock and until then, good morning. 999 at another supermarket gets you a 46 pack of Pampers size 2 nappies. At Aldi, only 681 gets you a larger 60 pack of award-winning Mamiya premium size 2 nappies plus a nappy cream baby wipes nappy sacks and baby lotion with 318 left over. All from Aldi, Arland's number one own label nappy supermarket. You won't just like more value, you'll love it. Tesco price check on tesco.ee 27 of the fourth 23. Tesco may sell equivalent owned brand products at lower prices details at aldi.ee for a slash swap. Exclusive offers, products and prices may vary. The county's number one talk show The 9 till noon show on Highland Radio. And now it's time for the talk of the North West. The 9 till noon show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello, good morning to you. Just coming up to five minutes past nine on this Thursday the 18th of May 2023 and you welcome along to another edition of the 9 till noon show and lots coming up including what we're going to be taking a trip into the garden with Paul answering all your gardening questions, your potting questions, whether you've got a little balcony or a pot inside the house or you're lucky enough to have some outdoor space, whatever your questions for Paul might be get them into us now because the phones light up when our guests join us and I hate then when we can't get through all of the questions that we do endeavor to do just that. So there's that and so much more besides keeping you across all the big issues and stories of the day across the region and beyond indeed. What do you think of that news of a state in America Montana banning TikTok now this is not just off public phones what have you they're banning TikTok from the state. Have you have you on TikTok it is the number one social media app everyone kind of talks about Twitter I suppose and Facebook but TikTok is the biggest app in the world and it is the app that you're probably using but certainly the young people you're in your life are using they're not on Instagram, they're not on Twitter they're all over TikTok. Have you any concerns about it is it something that you would like to see restricted personally it's actually my favorite social media app if the truth be told because it tailors the content to you stuff you're interested in there's not there's no hate on it or at least I'm not exposed to any hate there's no abuse seemingly that I'm exposed to in any case and it just seems you can have a bit of fun with it but what do you think do you have any concerns about TikTok would you like to see ban now it's one state in America but there is a big push seemingly to make it less popular anyway your views on that too to 08 660 25000 that's the WhatsApp and text number or give us a call and 07 491 25000 let's get on to the papers today it's a bumper day for papers obviously with it being thirsty that being said again struggling in the national newspapers to try and pick out something of interest to you we have a tendency in this country I'm sure it's reflective elsewhere that when there are you know one or two big stories all other news seems to fade off the agenda and you know it's just a couple of stories in all of the the national papers so we'll turn to the locals as to have done a ghost most historic parishes to be amalgamated with one parish priest serving Kilmocrennan and Terman this is seen by churchgoers as a backdoor merger for the future of the diocese due to a decline in the faith and there is a grand swell of belief that this congregation deserves better much better last weekend what's being described as the bombshell moment for the community a special candidate kipa parish priest vigil will take place at st columbus church this Friday evening at nine o'clock it has attracted much support and their newly established committee is calling on all to come along including people from outside of Kilmocrennan and also all religious denominations are most welcome it has emerged that those of other faiths are also deeply disappointed given that they regard father don as a personal friend and a confidant but as I say and there's plenty of coverage right across the paper again the bishop was on this program earlier in the week and he said it is a tough decision he understands that he understands it's a tough decision for him for the parish for father don perhaps I don't know what father don's position is on this but he says it is a decision that he felt he had to make and one that he can't sort of one that he won't be going back on and I did ask him directly and he says in time time will heal the Donegal news this morning one of the canty's biggest employers is planning major investment at its letter Kenny facility with confirmation that the company has purchased a significant parcel of land adjacent to the premises Zeus industrial products Ireland limited the global leader in advanced polymer solutions has confirmed that it has acquired an additional 24.6 acres of land adjacent to its current facility on letter Kenny's business park road plans for the new development are still to be finalised but it's thought it could see the letter Kenny plant double in size on to the dairy news now their headline dairy told to be quiet stormed officials have been accused of attempting to bully dairy into silence in the run up to today's local government elections now if you're listening in the north will you be voting in the elections if so why not be voting if so why not get involved in the conversation here zero zero three five three seven four nine one twenty five thousand very interested to hear what issues you will be voting on um all not on for that matter is it going to be on the local issues the council controlled issues is it do you have one eye on what influence it might have on the reestablishment of a government in northern Ireland are you disillusioned with politics whatever if you might be talking about politics 60 25 thousand is the WhatsApp number from the north of course zero zero three five three eight six sixty twenty five thousand the donna gore democrat today a donna gore man has been jailed after being caught with over a hundred and four thousand euro worth of cocaine mark mcgonigal was not with almost one and a half kilograms of the drug he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison with the final two to the nationals now and integration minister roderico gorman has rejected the concerns of government backbench td's and senators as he insisted asylum seekers would be accommodated at a center in inch county clare local coalition politicians have refused to condemn the protest and back the views of their constituents some politicians have also called for an end to the blockade mr o gorman said the blockade outside the former mcgonigal house hotel and reports of protesters boarding buses to count the numbers of asylum seekers were entirely unacceptable he said i accept people and recognize absolutely that people have the right to protest i think in terms of the blockade that goes far beyond what i think is acceptable it's interfering with people's ability to be accommodated he said often i know people have preconceptions about international protection applicants i think when they meet or after accommodation has been established for a while i think these perceptions fall away he doesn't seem quite sure about it if that were the case and if he truly believed that opinion surely then you speak to locals in advance i'm not saying this is what he should do i'm just saying from his comments then you speak to locals in advance and you do the tough work before people arrive rather than saying once we put people in situ you get to meet them everything will be okay yet he insists on not giving any forewarning or any consultation in advance but presumes everything will be okay after the fact he said reports of protesters boarding a bus leaving the accommodation centre and counting the number of people on board were absolutely unacceptable fena4td cahill crow said locals had legitimate concerns that had been well expressed at meetings i don't agree with the approach at the road at the moment he said i wouldn't call it necessarily a blockade when i was there it wasn't a blockade and that is ongoing and the people of inch and claire say they will stick at it for just as long as it takes there's also some new figures as it relates to new arrivals into arland in the irish times today so not unconnected the number of people entering arland having lost or destroyed their travel documents has fallen significantly amid accommodation shortage for asylum seekers and after tougher enforcement measures were introduced including which i saw myself the security stand at the door of the plane effectively to make sure you have documents with you but the figures here some 780 people presented at doblin airport in the first quarter of this year without passports that stand 38% on the previous quarter and 50% on the peak figure last year according to the department of justice figures provided to the irish times however the numbers presenting at immigration control having lost or destroyed the documents is still significantly higher than in previous years the fall coincides with an overall decrease in the number seeking asylum record number has applied last year an average of 1,137 people each month in the first quarter of this year the monthly average was 997 down at 12% so those are international protection about a thousand a month now 75,000 odd ukrainian refugees and then a further 15 to 20,000 international protection applicants so those are the figures sorry for all the noise it's just a really really big newspaper okay the farmers journal this morning farmers fears are growing over the possible impact of rewetting on vast tracts of farmland as discussions on the EU proposed nature restoration law near their final stages key EU votes in the coming weeks will clarify Ireland's rewetting and restoration targets for drained farmed peatlands which are estimated at over 330,000 hector right we sip a coffee there the throat's getting a bit dry let's go to the red top tabloids the Irish Daily Star this morning of course we've covered air and it's sister it's not sister company it's mother company really it's actual company that owns it air come well they have been quite a significant amount of money 2.5 million euro this is for bills ripoff air come has been ordered to refund over 70,000 customers and find nearly 2.5 million for repeatedly overcharging them over a number of years as well as the refund order and the financial penalty the company is also instructed being instructed to change its billing practices refunds for the estimated 76,000 affected customers could result in refunds totaling up to 6.7 million on average of just over 88 euro per customer according to Watchdog but I think a lot of people probably get around 10 15 and then a few much higher but air in the paper again there the sun this morning the shocked mom of a school boy who suffered a litany of facial injuries including full broken teeth after a horror assault by a gang of kids is hoping for justice she last night declared to think that anyone has the right to put their hands on someone because of who they are is absolutely disgusting in this day and age a God a probe has been launched after the 14 year old was brutally beaten on his way home from school in an attack that caused national outrage T. Shockley of Radcar called the ambush horrifying adding I really want to send my solidarity out to the person who was harmed and injured in this way I would say to them that life does get better and I do worry to how widely that video was shared as to say I'm not a goody two shoes myself I try and avoid seeing things like that but it is all over Twitter and WhatsApp I think Facebook probably have stronger restrictions in terms of stopping this stuff being circulated Tic-Tac which we mentioned earlier funny enough their detection technology seems much better a video like this wouldn't stay up very long but lots and lots of people sharing it and I don't know to what end it is absolutely shocking all together and hopefully whosoever responsible whomever is responsible is dealt with in a way that would certainly deter any such activity into the future any of you out there excited for Katie Taylor's homecoming I will say right now I would the person who she's fighting Chantel is a very very good boxer Chantel Cameron and I think there's going to be a big upset in Saturday Night I hate to say it but I think anyone who thinks that this is a hand-picked opponent that Katie Taylor is going to roll over is in for a shock this is a much bigger, younger and arguably stronger opponent and stronger than the opponent that she was due to face so I have my feelings about that this could not be this could actually be a fantastic event but I really do feel that Katie Taylor could be on the wrong end of the result on Saturday Night I don't know what the odds are but that's what I'd be anticipating I hope it's not the case but I do believe that she's going to come unstuck on Saturday Night but anyway eager to Katie Taylor Katie Taylor fans got their first chance to see the two weight world champion in the flesh yesterday ahead of their her long awaited homecoming fight on Saturday the Bray boxer with her opponent Chantel Cameron took part in a public workout and especially set up boxing ring at Pembroke Square at the Dundrum Town centre on South Dublin fans gathered in the sun from as early as midday to watch the undercard fighters be introduced and work out before Katie took to the ring at around 2pm Saturday about in the almost sold out three arena will be the first time in her professional career that the Olympic gold medalist will fight in her native country in the thousands of people she'd have felt croaked parking she will in September regardless of the outcome on Saturday but the ticket prices for the three arena are just off the charts altogether crazy stuff right what do you think how do you think that's going to go 08 660 25,000 and finally in the mirror this the mail this morning many of them are phrases and words from the world of business or borrowed from our friends on the other side of the Atlantic but what they have in common is that they are becoming more than a little annoying and most disliked of all apparently is the expression going forward okay so they've got a top 10 list of expressions which annoy people so we want you to add to this list okay for a bit of fun this morning so the phrases that we hate according to this survey are as follows number one going forward so going forward we're going to have to make some changes I'm not I always get conscious now are any of these the ones that I use because I know I do repeat myself a little bit to the annoyance of some listeners but anyway so going forwards number one no disrespect but now when someone says this to me it means they're just about to disrespect you three is like you know as a filler so like I went to the shop like and I bought this number four I want to reach out I wanted to reach out I don't come across that one too much number five I'm not going to lie not going to lie I think I think I might be guilty of that one number six basically the overuse of that word number seven let's go offline never heard that one used in conversation number eight is so at the start of a sentence number nine the optics of something okay I get that that can be annoying too and number ten my bad my bad which I don't hear as much now as I used to so what are your not the things I say don't come at me now saying the things that I say are annoying okay but out there what are the phrases and words that it's only it's not life or death stuff is it of course but what are the phrases or words that are overused in your view oh wait six sixty twenty five thousand what's apps and text that number or give us a call on oh seven four nine one twenty five thousand good morning to marine Paul and the rest of you watching live on our social media just to remind you you can watch this show every day cross our social media platforms on YouTube Highland Radio Ireland you can watch on your phone tablet your smart TV or your fire stick so throw us up on the big screen rather than sit and watching Holly and Paul in awkward silence there or if you can you can go on our facebook page as well Highland Radio Ireland or Highland Radio news and sport and also go on to our website and click watch live if you prefer that the show is brought to you by lettercanny credit union offering low rate car loans with fast approval apply online at lettercannycu.ie or in office today Donaigal County Council invite the public to participate in the first public consultation for the lettercanny southern network project at the lettercanny public service center on Thursday 18th of May from 12 p.m. until 8 p.m. the project aims to develop the transport network south of lettercanny town see the project website lsnp.ie for more details at screwfix we've got low prices to make you go wow like the triton and rich electric shower at just $73.95 and the urwin jack would saw for only $7.95 get trade essentials at wow prices at screwfix.ie or in over 30 stores screwfix the choice of champions what stocks last prices until the 4th of June is a screwfix.ie for T's and C's delivery chargers and restrictions I've just had the Eclipse cinemas experience wow they truly have taken a night at the movies to a whole new level amazing recliner chairs directors lounge VIP rooms pizza and hot food served to your seat have a glass of wine and enjoy the film on the big screen try it for yourself at eclipse cinemas bundorn where the stars shine brighter by the way the pizzas are amazing you can book your seat anytime at eclipse cinemas.ie transform your garage with an electric roller garage door from it's time to modernize with a fully fitted roller door from just 997 euros with 21 colors to choose from will even take your old garage door away book your free survey today called 827515 or visit corona.ie Highland Radio time checks with Expressway travel route 32 from Leta Kennedy Dublin when you book online and travel for less Expressway bringing you the time the time is 23 minutes past nine can we all agree or do we all agree that vaping is a problem particularly amongst our young people there's no doubt there's lots of people who are former smokers that switch to electronic cigarettes or some sort of a device like that and it was the first thing possibly that weaned them off cigarettes and kept them off them successfully they aren't without risk but the risk we're told are much less than smoking but there is a huge population out there and particularly young people and you'll see them yourself who never smoked and have started vaping and they buy these lovely brightly colored, nicely flavored vapes and they're spending a fortune in some cases you know some of these disposable vapes it can cost 40 or 50 euro to keep them in supply for a week depending obviously on how heavy you use them so we've got a whole new group of people coming through who never smoked and now have a very serious nicotine addiction and nicotine is incredibly difficult to get off and we see what's happened in Australia haven't we whereby they are making vapes only available really electronic cigarettes as a prescribed kind of a device do you know what I mean they're moving forward like that and the main reason they're doing it is is to stop this thing of young people vaping now reason I'm talking about this is because we're joined on the program now by Councillor Michael McBride who is the chair of the Donegal Education and Training Board and congratulations on that position Michael obviously we're talking about vaping amongst young people and most young people are in school is it a big problem in the county schools as far as you see it yes Greg good morning to you and all the listeners I sit on the board of Mulroy College and of our last board meeting the issue came up and we had a discussion on it and it seems that in the second discussion there is a bigger problem now with vaping I think it has become very attractive to young people and a lot of them are admitting that they have now become addicted to vaping you know so I told them that I would place it at the ETB meeting which I did earlier this week and I decided that we're going to put it on as an agenda item for our next ETB meeting I've asked that all the school principals would be circulated if there were plugins on it and as we've set out to take a look at the feedback we get from it and then move forward maybe it's sent on some type of letter to the Minister for Health and the Minister for Education to see if there's anything I think can be done particularly to educate young people on the rest of vaping. That would be a strong message if it comes to it that presumably it would be a letter on behalf of the Donoghut ETB expressing concerns about the availability I presume and also the use of vapes amongst young people in the school population. Yes Greg then things will all have to be considered and as of course you know the we need to get more information on the problem I think we just can't bear any answer on this one. Candidates in some schools haven't there are very strict policies in certain schools if not all like I only can speak for a couple that I know there are detectors in toilets or at least the students are told there are detectors in toilets there are inspections in toilets to make sure young people aren't vaping and there are stiff penalties for young people found vaping on premises or in school uniforms so beyond that really what could schools really do? Well I think it's about people as I said earlier education or youth which can't relate to what happens off campus you know through the ETB but I think you know it's just the general health and welfare of our students we should still decide to do what we can to help them and I think you know education is the way forward. Well education but legislation as well I mean it's still not illegal to sell vapes to under 18s they're still sold in sexy packaging at the counter just as a impulse purchase or a popular purchase and they still come in bubblegum flavours and flavours that are attractive to young people to get them addicted to nicotine so there is education but we're being failed by legislation I would have to totally agree with you in that Greg yes education and legislation there's both as the way forward but you're right there's all readily available you can see them shop counters they're sitting in pubs they're sitting everywhere for sale they are easily excess and like you say the cost them is another issue as well for students but look that's their health and their welfare that we're most concerned about at this time yeah for sure also reading today that obviously vaping is a gateway to smoking but teen vapors are more than four times likely to binge drink or smoke cannabis according to a new study and the difference was even greater for heavy users there were seven times as likely to have booze between three and five times in a fortnight and 20 times as likely to vape and use cannabis together so it's not just the vaping side of it and the nicotine addiction but the studies are showing that they are more likely then to begin smoking which is probably why cigarette companies invest so heavily in vape companies but also can lead to younger people boozing and smoking cannabis okay Greg well to be honest with you that's all news to me but as opposed to you know it has concern as well yeah okay well we'll see what comes from it thank you very much indeed that is the chair of the Donegal Education and Training Board Councillor Michael McBride was you as a would you as a parent or guardian appreciate some legislative support are you worried about a young person in your life vaping maybe you can give us an idea of how much it costs you can contact us anonymously of course by WhatsApp or texting 08 660 25000 you can give us a call in 07 for 9 1 25000 you know it's again it's another thing affecting young people Texter says vape shops should be regulated and require a license like an off-license vape should not be sold in Euro shops petrol stations and shops that fix phones they aren't strict with ID but they're not really illegal to be sold under 18s the legislation is not really there and I think someone going into a vape shop is far more likely to be someone who is a former or current smoker rather than it seems to be particularly younger people that will go for the disposable ones former smokers tend to get something of a little bit more substance right okay just an important email I want to read to you and it is on the issue of domestic violence just for those of you listening who might be particularly sensitive to it but it's an email we've received and I just wanted to read it to you following the recent domestic violence allegations from Nicola Gallagher against her former husband Rory Gallagher I feel I must speak out regarding the physical and verbal abuse I suffered at the hands of my now ex-husband for 20 years I'm actually trembling writing this I found myself doing what other victims are still doing I hid indoors when my bruises were visible and if I had to go out I lied as to how I got the injuries I deeply regret doing that now to this day my family do not know the full extent of the abuse the abuse started not long after the marriage and long before I turned to drink to help me it didn't I had restrictions at the time as to why I felt I could not turn to the guards I did finally take out a safety and protection order against him but that in itself was a very dangerous time for me he was in court when I answered the judges to why I had applied for the order I also had to return to the same house as him that day I did not use the protection order whereby I had an option to phone the guards one of the last times he physically abused me he had put me on the floor in the hallway he kept kicking me I begged him to stop and said you've broken me you have broke me it's taken me a long time to try and build up my confidence and self-esteem but I relived the trauma before every family gathering grand children etc I will echo the words of Nicola Gallagher report the abuse record the abuse you think by not doing so that you are protecting the children you are not you only end up protecting the abuser talk tell trust in someone is that email coming in from a female victim of domestic violence watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highlandradio.com the 90 noon show is brought to you by letter Kenny credit union with monster loans available up to 60,000 euro for all occasions visit letterkennycu.ie the natural relaxing effect ideal for stress, insomnia, jet lag and pre-exam anxiety call us in natural way letterkenny shopping centre for more information when a long week leaves you longing for 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plan go to mywaste.ie now we heard earlier in the week and again I'll stress I think it's really worth listening back to we heard from three ladies involved in supporting people who are struggling primarily in terms of providing food for people who can't afford to feed themselves and one of the things that sticks in my mind was that people in the past who were donators to food banks were now finding themselves in a situation whereby they were having to ring those food banks for assistance and many many hundreds in the high hundreds of families are in Donegal alone just Donegal alone are helped consistently in terms of food now the difficulty for a lot of these food banks is sourcing food because obviously it's getting tight for everyone so maybe there's less donations but also their money that they receive the donations and there was some generous donations after our piece earlier in the week but the donations of money purchased food doesn't go as far because of the price of food so you call it every which way so those were three services two services in different parts of Donegal and then we spoke to a lady who sort of oversees much of that so we're going to go to letter Kenny now and sort of try and get a sense of what the situation is in Donegal's biggest urban area Fintan McGraw is a volunteer like all of the people that work in this area are volunteers helping people he's a volunteer with WeCare Letter Kenny Food Bank Fintan thanks very much for joining us Good morning mate Right now the guests we had earlier on the week were talking about a significant increase in demand for their services and that demand coming from different cohorts of people that perhaps weren't seeking assistance in the past what's the story at WeCare Letter Kenny Food Bank Well in recent weeks and months we've seen a marked increase in the number of people coming to our door and to the extent that right now unless we receive some food donations urgently we're going to struggle in the next few weeks to supply those food items to people who rely on that food when they come to us every three weeks so the food supply on our shelves has been depleted big time and we just urgently need donations for food and cash if people can give us cash to buy food we've just it's a never ending increase in the number of people and families coming to our door Now last week I understand 60 families sought help that's a lot of families that's not 60 individuals that's 60 families and these are families coming from with all different kind of backgrounds and employment situations, Finton That was in just one day Greg Yeah, I beg your pardon, okay but you're seeing working families seeking help as well aren't you Well, we don't analyse but when people come to our door we ask them we have to get some basic information and we don't know whether they're working whether they're on benefits whether we don't know their personal financial situation we just know that they've come to us for help and we never refuse people so as I said we're a voluntary organisation we rely 100% on donations we're not state supported and unless we get supply of food from businesses that's been difficult in the last several months as well with the businesses because we have a certain amount of frozen foods but they're completely depleted so we're relying fully on the non-perishable sector for people to donate food to us of non-perishable foods to give it out every week And when you talk about the relationship with businesses are businesses themselves struggling on unable to donate as much as they might have in the past is that what you're saying, Fintan? Well we believe that supply chain for some of these businesses has been streamlined so they don't have as much excess food to give us that's just a normal a normal fact of life in business so they give us whatever they can and we're able to source that food from various businesses all over the town and the region but sometimes we get quite a bit but other times it's not a lot as you mentioned in one day last week 60 families sought help, a big increase again this week over 40 families seeking help so you don't have unlimited resources so what are the shelves emptying of is it the staples like tinned stuff rice that kind of stuff The basic food for the pasta, rice tinned vegetables, tinned fish tea sugar cooking oil, tinned fruit all the basics that people would normally put in their shopping basket each week I've never seen the shelves as empty as they are at the moment so we're really putting out this urgent appeal for people if they can to make food for us Right and it is an urgent appeal because as you've said to yourself as much as you try to avoid it what is the best way for people to drop off in a situation where people are coming for food and you might be struggling to meet their demands so how can the public help what's the best way for people listening to this if they wish to call in to the food bank which is beside Alfie Green's shoe shop in letter Kenny what is the best way for people to help is it to drop off goods if so what stuff or is it cash donations cash that would be exception that would be useful as well but we're based behind Alfie Green's shoe shop down the lane way on the main square and we're open every Tuesday and Friday between 11 o'clock and 2.30 if they can't make it to the food bank it serves to drop in the food donations we have drop off points at the solo retail outlet and Simpson's up in the high road because they have a Kenny community center so they can drop food as a food drop off point at each of those three locations or else it's alternatively they can give us a call on 087 147 1325 that's our phone number I'll go on to our website at We Care LK Food Bank and they can contact us on our website so we're available to pick up food if people can't drop the food into us and arrange for one of our volunteers to go and collect it Fintan I know when it's clear from the way you're speaking that you're very keen to respect people's privacy and I get that but I think it might help if we get as much of an understanding of what we're talking about here as is possible we're talking about families coming with nothing but they have young children they're unable to put food on the table and they've come to the food bank in order to feed their children it's a basic food poverty situation if people haven't got enough money to support themselves to pay their utility bills to pay their rent whatever their financial boundaries may be they need to put food on the table and we're there to support that we never refuse a person when they come to the door so there are situations where we believe that it might be the whole situation with the food bank is it's not supposed to be a permanent thing it's a temporary basis but we're finding more and more that people are coming to rely on the food bank because they cannot afford what food on the table and we're there to help that situation Right, so the premises beside Alfie's green shoe shop is open Tuesdays and Fridays between 11 and 2.30pm I believe you said that donations or food can be dropped off there and just remind people again because as you said yourself this is a desperate plea here for assistance because the shelves are empty just remind people again where they can drop stuff off or how they can donate outside of those opening hours We have three drop off points we have got solo the retail outlet down next to the community centre also inside in the community centre at that point and Fincens up on the high road they're also going to drop off point for us but as I said if people can't come to us we can go to them to collect the food our phone number again is 087 147 1325 and one of our volunteers will come out and collect the food from you Okay and Fincens you get no state support and this is a country at the moment we're told to wash with money but there is no direct support to you from social services or the state at all this is all done through donations fundraising and voluntary effort We get a bit of food donation from food cloud but basically all the food the vast majority of the food we get we collect from businesses from personal donations and as I said the people are trying to work out a more long term solution might be for this food poverty situation but right now our immediate concern is we need to get food in to give people week in week out and maybe in the long term the parts that be who have probably deep pockets more resources than we have they may be able to figure out a sustainable solution for food poverty in the county in the long term Okay I understand thank you very much Fintan I hope you have a good response to your appeal today Fintan McGraw volunteer with We Care Letter Kenny Food Bank The 9 till noon show with Letter Kenny Credit Union Simplify your debts with a debt consolidation loan from Letter Kenny Credit Union Call us on 074 910 2126 or apply online via our app or in office today go full-leadle with big deals on XXL packs like 25% extra Irish board beer proofed XXL Glensala back bacon only 239 or 33% extra XXL frozen fruits pack just 279 or 2 plus 1 extra XXL pizza speciale for a small 299 go on shop without compromise go full-leadle today Shop LK at Brian McCormick Sports & Leisure Main Street Letter Kenny Women's Sportswear from Nike and Under Armour Get that new look with some bright colours Quarter Zips with T-shirts and fitness bottoms Match it up with some new arrivals in our footwear for women Brookes, Hoca and on running gives you a unique comfort sensation View our new arrivals Click on BMC Sports.ie for your free delivery Imagine a device so innovative Your XF cookies There is a device so forward thinking You can accept cookies A device that is so modern You can accept cookies Now imagine a technology where cookies don't get in the way of your advertising Welcome to Radio Advertising that's cookie free Visit RadioCentreIrland.ie to see what radio can do for your product or brand National Heritage Week returns from August 12th to 20th and this year celebrates Living Heritage Organise an event by exploring and sharing the traditions, crafts and skills passed down through generations in your family or community Visit heritageweek.ie for more National Heritage Week supported by the local authorities Heritage Officer Network and the Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage A comprehensive survey of over 1000 secondary school students by study clicks The study tool has revealed that social media and phone use is causing havoc with their ability to focus on study or concentrate on exam preparations. This is a big sample size, a thousand, much greater than you might see or at least equal to that that you might see for the likes of political parties popularity type things so it's pretty representative Luke Saunders is CEO of StudyClick See joins us now. Good morning Luke Good morning Greg, thanks for having me on to come on the show. Right okay so when was this survey conducted and how? Yeah it's pretty recent, it was only last week so what we did was study clicks is over 200,000 students using it and we put out the survey which is something we do every year and the numbers I'm talking about are based on 1,065 students who took it last week and we asked them a range of questions to do with the impact of social media on their lives and also more topical things like the cost of living crisis and how they perceive that and the effects it's having on them so some really interesting results and I think what's especially interesting for me is to see trends over time because we ask someone to same questions year after year and one of the things that we've, that jumps out this year is that the trend of increasing phone use has continued to go upwards and one of the things we ask students to do is to open the screen time app on their phone so the numbers that they give us back are reflective of reality and what we found was that more than one in three students are using their phone for four plus hours per day and I, you know it's probably not news to a lot of people but if you just stop and think about it it's pretty high and then further 16% are six hours plus so it's I think the main effect of this on students is something has to give in the day, there's only 24 hours in a day and I think often it's sleep they're not getting enough sleep when they're trying to balance their study their phone use time in school, travelling to school etc etc But in relation to the screen time it's quite interesting in that there's an awareness of its impact on them do you know what I mean? I think it's interesting it's not like casual and you're trying to pick out the issue here they're aware that they're probably spending too much time on their phones and they're probably looking to us to say we'll help us here for sure, yeah and that was born out in the results 4 in 5 students, 83% said but they worry about their phone use that they use it too much so I think you've got to remember all these apps that they're using like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube they're all designed to keep you on the app so it's no surprise that students are staying there, it's kind of like looking at one video flicking to the next one I think parents out there, what can you actually do to help your child I think the first thing and I often go out to students when I'm talking about study clicks and give them advice and I think when you're talking to like 17-18 year olds as a parent you can't you know, take a hard line approach you're saying maximum of 2 hours per day or whatever I think the best way to do it is to actually help them help themselves and the way I suggest to do that is to take out their phone, look at the screen time app see how much they are using it and just be aware of that that's the first thing to acknowledge that look it probably is a little bit high and then I would always recommend to students particularly if they're trying to study there's lots of distraction blocker apps out there the one that I always suggest to students is called Forest app and what this does is if a student is studying a little 25 minute segments you turn on Forest app you set the timer for 25 minutes and if you use the phone sorry, if you don't use the phone for those 25 minutes it plants a little tree on the app and then if you do get distracted during it one of your trees dies and it kind of gamifies the habit of you know healthy use of your phone and gives them the story and at the very least it focuses your mind and the conversation on how much screen time so you can see that the multi fasted benefits of that and the great thing about this survey too is we can drill down on a county by county basis and you've been good enough to pick out the Donegal stats for us you asked the question how much of social media with short form videos impacted your concentration or ability to study 68% is the Donegal average which is higher than the average of 54% Yes, yeah and we saw some variability in this one because the thing is like when you look at what are the most popular apps joined first place Instagram and Snapchat and then TikTok close behind and as I said already these apps are built so that they're going to keep you on the app they don't try and get you off the app obviously and that has its effect on students ability to concentrate or study like you know because often what I find when I talk to students is that they might be sitting down to study Macbeth or whatever it is or do their maths questions they have a constant stream of inbound messages coming in on Snapchat or WhatsApp or they're constantly being pulled away from what they're trying to concentrate and there's the fear of missing out as well and the apps are designed to make you feel like the next time you're opening it you need to see what the first video is or the first reel is for sure and I think students one practical thing that I always advise them to do is change the notifications on their phone so for example if you're in a WhatsApp group for example meaning you every time someone contributes to that group there's little simple practical tips like that and there's a lot of advice like this on the study clicks blog and it's free parents want to have a look at it just go into the blog and then look up the study advice section but yeah it has a very very real effect on their ability to concentrate one of the aspects that I thought was quite interesting when you drill into the Doney Gall statistics is we looked at a lot of cost of living type questions and it seems to me from the stats that there's the effect of the cost of living crisis has a greater impact in Doney Gall versus the national average and simple things like we asked the question about do you think the cost of living crisis will influence where you decide to go to college and Doney Gall students 55% said yes it will and I suppose it's no surprise that a county that's further away but then you know then the main then Dublin or Cork or whatever but it's having a real impact well for sure and it's kind of interesting to because it does tally with the fact that we in Doney Gall have the lowest income levels and lowest disposable income levels so and also a couple of questions here and I'll tie them in with one question to you have you ever given up sports pastimes to focus more on schools 73% in Doney Gall yes the national average 65 how concerned are you about the cost of living very concerned 73% in Doney Gall 64% nationally there's I'm not sure if it's always been the case but there's a strong awareness of what's going on amongst the young people you know they're not insulated anymore maybe they weren't in the past I don't know but these figures probably tally with what you might hear from the you know the fully grown adult population do you think the government are doing enough to address the the rise in cost of living 91% think the government are not doing enough so as I say you know there's a great awareness amongst young people about the state of the country I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing at this point Luke yeah like I think the internet has has made made students and young people like when I was in school I wasn't kind of buying the Irish Times or the Irish Independent every morning on the way to school but when you have you know all your apps on your phone you've got there's news coming in via like if you're on tiktok last week it was all about King Charles's Carnation like students are not insulated from news in the way that probably we were they just getting from a different they're getting it from a different place really I think from a different place so yeah so it doesn't surprise me the very strong opinions I think the one change since you know since social media has become the main source of news is that the viewpoints and the opinions are really really polarized right so they'll have very extreme opinions like you know the government definitely aren't doing a good enough job or you know the cost of living crisis out of control it tends to be more polarized and probably the reality falls somewhere in the middle of both sides yeah so back to screen time I think I'm not sure it's effective to say write phone down let's do this I think it's about having a conversation using details like this and say look at your peers realize the struggle to what you know you want to do well and you're leaving you want to maybe pursue whatever your passion is we're gonna have to talk about you know your screen time interfering with your concentration way forward isn't it I don't think ruling with an iron fist necessarily might work for some but I think it's obvious that there's a great awareness amongst young people and maybe our best approach is to produce statistics like this and say look it's the same for everyone what should we do do you think to give you the best chance of achieving what you want to achieve in your studies for sure and I think schools can play a role in this like I've noticed in a lot more in recent times schools are having stricter policies around phone use at lunch times that there's no phones that sometimes the phones are left in the lockers etc etc I think schools can help and you know there's a lot of good to be had like there's a lot of students for example who their teacher would create them a quiz on study clicks on specific topics and then the teacher would share and the student would actually take the quiz in groups on their phones so don't get me wrong the phones have a place in study and there's a lot of good stuff on it and that was really born out and one of the one of the stats in this survey that really surprised me was the the rise of chat gpt I was aware that it was a factor in third level where students were using chat gpt to do assignments and so on but we asked the question have you used it in the course of your schoolwork and one in five students said it would be interesting because I think that's something that's that schools certainly won't be I haven't heard of any awareness around there's been no talk about it and I actually tweeted the Department of Education Education Minister on this at the end of last year wondering were they aware that this was going on and still there's not been really a great conversation on it I think that one in five is probably going to be three and four and five next year and I'll be keeping an eye on that stat myself if people want more information on the survey and study clicks the website simple enough I'm sure Luke yeah study clicks that study clicks with an X at the end and yeah you can set up a free account and try it out to study and it's probably a little bit late in the day for this year's leave and serve but you can set up a free account now and try it out and even for parents out there I'd encourage them to click on the blog which is in the corner there is a lot of free advice for parents about all this kind of thing that I'm talking about all right and did you say over 200 students using the service at the moment is that 200,000 students wow okay that's impressive right well done Luke thanks very much indeed Luke Saunders CEO there of study clicks anything you wish to say on that last conversation 08 660 25,000 watts apps and text to that number we'll be back with you here in the 90 noon show after the news and obituary notes is stay right where you are the 90 noon show is brought to you by letter Kenny credit union digital loans now available apply online or via our app today and get your loan transferred directly to your current account at Centra feel good and shop smart with great offers this week like Centra fresh air strip points take 360 gram only 750 kitten soft toilet tissues 16 rolls and fairy all-in-one dishwasher 60 tablets only 10 euro each and Pat and Agra toro tempera nilla wine only nine euro Centra live every day enjoy call sensibly growing concern over farm rewetting for more in your farmers journal is Paul Mooney just weeks before a key vote farmers of virtually no information on how rewetting will impact their farms last minute push for a soccer scheme places call for tax breaks for farmers selling old farmhouses tension over higher cost of genotyping for soccer farmers and don't miss our step-by-step sheep guide on how to maximize your grant aid all in this week's Irish farmers journal your media brand of the year if you've been the victim of a farm it can sometimes feel like you've been left in the dark with nowhere to turn for answers or support but help is always available no matter who you are or what your background victims charter.ie provides information on translation services explains your rights and offers the support you need when you need it most you have rights you have support you have a voice find yours in the victims charter brought to you by the government of Ireland Dunningall town hardware is having a massive fencing and paving two-day sale event this weekend with huge discounts on paving and 15% of smartfans compost decking and timber decking also reduced plus savings of posts derails and pickets paving and smartfans experts will be in store on Friday 19th that's the massive fencing and paving sale event this Friday 19th and Saturday 20th of May at Dunningall town hardware I am on air online and on the Highland Radio app is Highland Radio News Good morning it's 10 o'clock Donald Kavrah at the news desk voting has opened at polling stations across Northern Ireland for the local government elections voters will choose 462 councillors across 11 local authorities with counting taking place tomorrow and Saturday the elections were delayed for a fortnight due to the coronation of Britain's King Charles the DUP was the largest party at the last local elections with 17 more councillors than Sinn Fein Belfast based journalist Amanda Ferguson says that could change this weekend who will be the largest party will Sinn Fein eclipse the DUP as it did at the assembly elections last year and the next thing to look out for is a battle within unisms the verdict on the DUP's action of boycott and storming will it play well for the DUP will they lose votes to the TUP will the Australian Unionist Party be rewarded for its position the minister for integration says he doesn't want asylum seekers sleeping in tents on the streets to become normalized according to the latest statistics from the department of integration 487 asylum seekers are homeless three new locations will open in Dublin in the next week accommodating 350 international protection applicants minister Rodrigo Gorman says he hopes to reduce the numbers who are currently sleeping rough we don't want that to be something we become accustomed to and that's why we're working to get in the first place provide that additional accommodation over the next week so we can reduce those numbers and look to see what other solutions we can bring forward so people aren't sleeping in tents because we know the risk that people face when they're rough sleeping one person has died and two others have been injured in Russian strikes in the Odessa region of Ukraine Kiev was one of the targets but Ukrainian officials have said most of the cruise missiles were shot down loud explosions were heard in the area they talked about the people were actively involved in the following debris did cause a fire in a non-residential building. Doney Gold County Council is inviting people to take part in the first public consultation on the letter Kenny southern network project and event takes place this afternoon at the letter Kenny public service centre to brief people on the proposal to develop the transport network south of letter Kenny town with more here's Kenny Town. The council says the strategic piece of infrastructure will provide connectivity from Letter Kenny to Weston-Gall and reduce traffic congestion while supporting growth in that area. The project is currently at the option selection phase, which includes the identification of potential improvement options. This latest public consultation is inviting feedback on the constraints and potentials that the design team should consider. An open event takes place today from 12 noon until 8 p.m. at the Letter Kenny Public Service Centre and a public display will then be available for four weeks at the centre. More information is available at www.lsnp.ie and online consultation submissions will be accepted until Thursday June 15th. Midlands Northwest MEP Maria Walsh is travelling to Letter Kenny tomorrow in a bid to get more women involved with politics. The power of view in politics at the central library at half past seven tomorrow night is the second in a series of road shows. Ms Walsh says the level of women's involvement in politics does not reflect modern society. What we do know from research is we would need at least a thousand women right across the country to run in the local elections if we are going to reach 30% next year and we would need at least 250 women in the general election if we were to reach a similar portion and we are nowhere near that. Right now, as I mentioned the statistics earlier, we are not reflective of our community and you can see that in politics. Legal concerns have been raised about the creation of a domestic violence register. The family of Jenny Poole have been campaigning for such register after she was stabbed by her former partner in Finglas Dublin two years ago. The mother of two didn't realise he had a history of abusive behaviour. Her brother's been campaigning for a domestic violence disclosure scheme to be called Jenny's Law but disclosing someone's past may invoke constitutional and fair procedures rights according to documents which have been seen by the Irish Independent. Well the forecast to met here and tell us to expect some sunny spells to begin today but it will become mostly cloudy as today goes on with patchy rain and drizzle developing later this morning extending through the region over the course of the day. It'll brighten up from the west later in the afternoon with sunny spells developing, top temperatures later of 14 to 17 degrees Celsius, light to moderate, south-west to west breezes. And that's Island Radio News, we're back with news again at 11 o'clock. Until then from the news team, have a very good morning. The obituary notices this Thursday morning, May 18th. The death has occurred of Margaret Maggie Kelly, Neymar Klusky, Upper Teavik Moistre-Norder and formerly of Blairstown Castle Finn. Remains reposing at her late residence this afternoon from 4 p.m. Rosary each night at 9 o'clock. Funeral leaving from there on Saturday at 1.15 for Rayquiem Mass at 2 p.m. and the Church of Mary Immaculate-Stra-Norder, interment afterwards in Drumbo's Cemetery. Rayquiem Mass will be streamed live via the parish webcam at churchservices.tv. Family time from 10 p.m. to 11 a.m. and on the morning of the funeral. The death has occurred in Livingstone, Scotland of Anna Mitchell, Neymar Karen, Mina Tochin, Dunlow. Funeral mass will take place in Livingstone on Thursday, the 25th of May. The death has occurred in Castle Milk Glasgow of William Burke, formerly Mon Fad Newton Cunningham. Prayers will be offered on Saturday evening at 6.30 p.m. mass in All Saints Church, Newton Cunningham. Mass can be viewed on NewtonColayParish.com. Funeral will take place in Glasgow on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. with cremation afterwards. The death has taken place of Brendan Macrossan, 68A, Curly Hill Road, Straban, reposing at his late home. Family time please from 11 p.m. to 10 a.m. Funeral from his late home tomorrow morning leaving at 9.30 a.m. for 10 a.m. rakeway and mass in the Sacred Heart Church Derry Road followed by cremation at Lakelands Crematorium. Family flowers only please donations if desired in lieu to foil hospice care of Eugene McDade at McLaughlin's funeral director's done given. The death has taken place of Anna Rita McLaughlin, Ballylasky Cairndonna. Anna Rita will be reposing at her home today from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Funeral mass will take place at the Church of the Sacred Heart Cairndonna tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. followed by cremation at Lakelands Crematorium County Cavern on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. Family flowers only donations in lieu of flowers to the Donegal hospice care of any family member. Funeral mass can be viewed live on churchmedia.tv. The death has taken place of Angela Kelly, Cool Boy Letter Kenny. Remains are reposing at her home. Rakeway and mass in St Columbus Church Kilmachrannan at 11 a.m. tomorrow morning followed by interment in the adjoining cemetery. Reposing at her home from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. today. Family time on the morning of the funeral, please. The death has occurred of William John McLaughlin, Drama Dewey Byrne Futt. Reposing at Murphy's funeral home today from four o'clock until half past five followed by removal to St Murrow's Church Fawn arriving at six o'clock to repose overnight. Rakeway and mass on Friday at 12 o'clock followed by interment in the adjoining cemetery. Rakeway and mass can be viewed on Churchmedia.tv. Family flowers only, please. Donations in lieu to the Donegal hospice care of any family member or Murphy funeral directors. The death has taken place of Bridget Ellis Ni Carr, Bangort Glencolm Kil County Donegal. Wake and her daughter Ann White's residence at La Rue's Point Ardra from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. today. Funeral from there tomorrow to arrive at St Columbus Church casual Glencolm Kil for one p.m. funeral mass with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Funeral mass will be streamed on MCNmedia.tv. The death has occurred of Edward Eddie Callahan, Ken Litter, Bally Buffay. Funeral leaving from his late residence tomorrow morning at 10 20 a.m. for Rakeway and mass in St Mary's Church session needle at 11 a.m. interment in the adjoining churchyard. The Rakeway and mass will be streamed live via the parish YouTube channel. Donations in lieu of flowers if so desired directly to Donegal hospice or care of any family member. House is strictly private to family only please. The death has occurred of Ella Doherty, Urus, late of Tirna League, Cairn Donegal, reposing at her home. Removal from there tomorrow morning at 10 30 a.m. to the church of her sacred heart Cairn Donegal for Rakeway and mass at 11 a.m. interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Funeral mass can be viewed live on Churchmedia.tv. The death has occurred of Mary O'Flanagan, Nea McHugh, Sands-Nacully-Refaux, formerly Choum, reposing at her late residence in Sands-Nacully. Funeral leaving her late residence this morning at 10 20 a.m. going to St Unan's Church-Refaux for 11 o'clock Rakeway and mass followed by interment in the adjoining cemetery. The funeral mass can be viewed online via the parish webcam. Family flowers only please donations in lieu if desired to the Donegal hospice care of any family member or Kelly's funeral directors. For more details including any family health guidelines for Wakes and funerals please go to HighlandRadio.com Central Bank of Ireland. One direct Ireland limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ampust, Home Insurance, underwritten by Aviv Insurance Ireland, Dak. Best prices online. Okay you're welcome back to the 9 till noon show. Very good morning if you're just after joining us and a big welcome to the hundreds of you watching the show as well. Just to remind you you can do so on YouTube, Highland Radio Ireland, on your smart TV, your forestic tablet or phone and also across our Facebook page is Anita Bernadette, Marie O'Donnell and Paul. Good morning to you all as well. Thanks for the kind wishes. Later on we're in the garden. Paul's going to be in studio with us answering your gardening questions and as I say that also applies to those of you who maybe don't have a garden. You've got an indoor space, you want a potted plant or whatever it might be. Maybe it's something you want to grow indoors. All your questions answered to 08 660 25000. We're going to be speaking to the Polish ambassador very shortly off the back of their visit to this part of the world. That and so much more besides a couple of comments before we head towards the bingo numbers. Good luck to Bonkran a medical centre who are holding a coffee morning this morning. It's for relay for life and it runs until one o'clock. I was kind of wondering Greg why they bother having elections in the north when Stormont is still shut down. What's the point? Well it's council elections you see. So the councils I believe and I'm open to correction on this. The councils in Northern Ireland perhaps have more influence or input in terms of you know bin collection, the running of leisure facilities and what have you. So they're electing along those lines and dependent on how the DUP Sinn Féin and others do it could influence whether or not Stormont is brought back up into power as well. So I mean if you're into politics and you think voting matters I suppose they are relatively important. It's the same as our council elections and the republic versus the dual elections when they come around. Greg, teachers should not be allowed to use phones in classrooms for role modelling, safety and privacy of students. Now I'm not so long time since I was in school as you can imagine I'm not really quite sure how frequent teachers might use their phones in class. Has the sports desk covered the election last night of the new Donegal International Rally Committee? Well apparently Highland Radio Sport are awaiting an official press release on this. It was the AGM of Donegal Club which is separate to the Donegal International Rally. So as soon as we get the formal information it will of course be covered. Good morning Greg. Going forward has to be the worst for me. This is in terms of phrases that drive us up the wall or the repetitive use of words. We were reading about it a little earlier on in the programme. So going forward really gets this person's goat. Politicians use it and you just know it means they're not going to advance one bit on what they're talking about. What's wrong with using the more honest term in the future? Okay I get you. The phrase I hate is from the get-go. I haven't heard you say it for a while. Okay well I'm probably going to say it now back. This isn't about me by the way. Going forward is another one that gets on people's nerves. Not see it from my house. Okay it's another one. I agree Greg with all due respect means insult is coming. I'm afraid you just insulted me without the introduction. Yeah indeed. I'll get you a wee menu. We anything in a sentence does it for me. I have found myself doing the wee thing lately. It is something I wouldn't say annoyed me but I tried to resist. But now it is the wee thing and the wee that and the wee the other. And we were in Belfast recently with not last year or something with someone and they were using the wee this and the wee that. And I think it's a politeness thing. In other words I'm sorry to put you out but can I have a wee menu. Do you know that sort of way. But the the lady who was serving us in Belfast. But I don't think she'd come across it before and couldn't understand why every second word was wee. But anyway Greg about when the waitress is yes dear always makes me feel old. I remember back in my days in Northwest Radio and it is a long time ago scary how long ago it was is that this came up as a discussion point and a person an older person it was came on and they did not like that form of familiarity. Yes dear how are you dear today along those lines and I think it was an older person if my memory serves me correctly. And then we had a then there was a waitress that came on who uses that and it was a term of endearment and so in other words this isn't a new thing does that annoy you when people maybe is it over familiar. Yes dear I don't I think that's nice it wouldn't bother me but then again if you feel that it's because of your age or your gender or something it might be offensive but I've never had a problem with that what do you think get involved in that too as I say we talk about the serious stuff but we can have a bit of fun as well with it 08 660 25000 what's apps and texts to that number right it's jackpot day today so I'm sure many of you out there with your bingo books open at the ready hopefully one of you wins big today don't forget the fantastic daily cash prizes that are there all the while as well the county's number one talk show the 9 till noon show on highland radio it's time for mcbi bingo on highland radio it's thursday the 18th of may jackpot day you're playing for the jackpot prize of 17 200 euro on the pink sheet the reference number is s 19 it's game number 20 the jackpot number is 16 this number can come out in any position from the next 10 numbers drawn and now here are your 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thousands on custom charges with space hub dairy call o four eight seven one eight seven eight zero seven seven for more details the nine till noon show with letter kenny credit union now offering mortgages from 40 000 to 600 000 euro with no hidden fees or transaction charges letter kenny credit union nine one o two one two seven okay this week we've been talking about food poverty and there are hundreds of families in donningall alone that require regular support in order to put food on their table margaret joins us on this issue good morning margaret good morning i'm doing good and you're making the connection on to you between the amount of food that's dumped by retailers whilst we have this food crisis well you know often at night i've been late and one night and i said to the employee is that food going to be dumped and he said yes well i couldn't believe it you know the amount of like okay there was a lot of meat and bread and that's on it but i i feel that there should be a way around this whereby rather than dumping it you know the cost of it the price of it and you know to see this happening and half the world dying of hunger and even like as you see in our own country people you know needing this food that i can't understand why you know there isn't some kind of a method or something in place whereby you know good use could be needed but and i suppose it's not the supermarket spot because you know they would be penalized maybe exactly if they sold something that was out of it but i think that uh you know rather than waste especially in the current climate yeah and i imagine those businesses to factor in a certain amount of waste into their profits you know to mean i would imagine they would have to have uh and maybe someone in the industry might help us out Margaret that they say right well eight percent of this food is going to waste right so we have to factor that in to make sure that it doesn't eat into our profits but there has to be a way doesn't there Margaret in 2023 that we can bypass maybe whatever problems there are to get that food to people that need it now i think we're talking about fresh food here Margaret aren't we but there has to be a way no but if you think on every trolley food of um dumped uh waste that's it from every supermarket in the country what mountain of the mountain range of hergill wouldn't call it yeah and i've noticed myself too when i'm and i in fact i noticed it yesterday when doing the the big shot Margaret um the stuff brought to the front you know everyone i think digs into the back now to try and get an extra two or three days out of whatever they're buying but the stuff to the front the stuff to the front was going out of date the next day and i know it's a busy shop i was in but there's no way they were going to sell all of that stuff so it was inevitable a lot of this fresh fresh produce that had been brought forward was not going to be shifted by the next day and there is absolutely no way they could keep it on their shelves past due date either so it was going to go into a skipper a bin or something yeah well i just wonder if there was just maybe a short advertisement to say that at the particular time in a particular shop that there might be some food but then again i think it's the insurance issue is a big issue too so you know and we might all wait till the last minute Margaret so maybe they would have to do it through the likes of a food bank so it didn't become a and also as individuals as well i was reading upon this after our last conversation we ourselves uh the average household apparently throws out 60 euro per month of food that's our food weight 700 euro per house per year so we throw collectively and i don't want to bamboozle people with figures we as a population ourselves separate from the shops throw out 1.29 billion euro worth of food that is the the food waste in this country every year again that would perhaps meet the needs of an awful lot of the people that we're talking about you know we're not going to obviously it's when you over buy stuff or the meat goes out of date and you don't realize okay but we could all be doing our bit if we could hopefully in some way that food could find its way to those that need it if that makes sense Margaret yeah yeah my campaign for that maybe over the recycling business might help but as i say it's i think it's really interesting that you saw firsthand from that person that they uh that that food was going to go into the bin Margaret it's been lovely speaking to you thank you so much for your time thank you have a lovely day Margaret have a lovely day Margaret they're thinking on her fellow person there Anna Sohanska is the Polish ambassador to Ireland and she joins us on the program now Anna you're very welcome to Highland Radio thank you so much for joining us good morning thank you very much for having me it's good to have you with us and we will have you in Donegal tomorrow because you are about to undertake your first visit to the to Donegal tomorrow you're very welcome yes Greg and I am very excited I have never been to Donegal before and I heard about the beauty of this part of Ireland that is why I'm so excited and so happy okay well do you have an opportunity to meet Polish nationals or people originally from Poland whilst you're here and what what what is your function in that regard of course wherever I travel to different places in Ireland I always try to meet up with the Polish people and this will this will be of course a good opportunity to to meet them because as far as I know none of my predecessors visited a Polish school in in Leatherkeny so I will have this opportunity to to meet them and to to hear about their opinions about the functioning of the Polish school about their life in Ireland it's always a great pleasure to to talk to them and you know to exchange the views on Polish-Irish relations as well because of course relations with the Polish diaspora is mainly the responsibility of consuls but as the ambassadors as the ambassador of course I focus on the on the relations between the Poland and Ireland but for me it's a great pleasure also to to to meet with the Polish diaspora as you know there are 120 000 Polish people living in Ireland so it would be strange if the Polish ambassador wouldn't be interested in meeting them yes and many of you will meet particularly the younger people will be second third generation a lot of their parents or indeed maybe in some cases grandparents have been living here for a very long time now absolutely I think the the the main wave of the migration of people from Poland to Ireland happened in 2004 when Poland joined the European Union and as you as you may know Ireland was one of three EU countries that opened their labour markets immediately so people just decided to go to Ireland and they loved it from the very beginning you know there is a kind of a proximity and kind of similar mentality between the Polish and Irish people and I think that the Polish people are doing great here in Ireland they feel at home at the same time what is really great thing and I respect them for that they still want to keep in touch with their families friends and they they they are so much well organised around the system of Polish weekend schools and they care about their children to know the Polish language and to know the Polish history so this is wonderful that at the at the same time you can be you can be part of two kind of societies you can love both countries Poland and Ireland the country the people you talk of in the mid-naughties they left a country perhaps that's somewhat different to the the country now and I think particularly with the events of the last couple of years the political situation the proximity to Ukraine and the the the the greatly increased population of Poland presumably it's very much on the minds of Polish people in Ireland as well as those still living in Poland well of course when they left Poland in 2004 it was just the beginning of the transformation of our country and so those people were looking for you know better opportunities there was not so much you know so so many jobs in Poland but as you celebrate now 50th anniversary of your membership of the European Union and Poland is a your kind of your younger brother or younger sister and we will celebrate 20th anniversary next year but one one have to really admit that as Ireland Poland also benefited so much out of the EU membership and now if you if you went to Poland you would see a different country well organized with very entrepreneurial people beautiful so I encourage our listeners to to visit Poland of course now the situation is very difficult because of the war started by Russia in Ukraine and we focus so much on our assistance for the Ukrainians in total we would have like three million Ukrainian people in Poland including 1.5 million of recent refugees so it's a huge burden on our economy but at the same time I think the Polish society and the Polish government and local government and NGOs they passed this exam very well that's a huge influx of people in short term and every country is facing the same issues at the moment and also to every country is dealing with perhaps in an increase in nationalism as well I presume it's the same in in Poland as it is right across Europe and that has to be managed and debated and discussed as well well nationalism is a very bad word I would say and sometimes people misuse this of course there as anywhere else in Europe people there are people who are who are against migration or who would rather focus on their own interests and I think that the war in Ukraine showed showed us that Europe is a good place is a place where people really care about their neighbors whether these are neighbors you know on the other side of the street or neighbors you know like you know in case of Poland Ukraine we really proved as the Europeans fantastic solidarity and support for people in need and I think the people who are against such you know such activities should really not kind of overshadow what good has been done in Europe so far. Okay now there is also a theme to your visit as well and that would be the fact that Milford in Donegal is hosting the national famine commemoration and we're going to talk now about an exhibition and a conversation you'll be having at Kerry Kiel National School because there is a a connection between the the famine and a Polish nobleman talk to us a little bit about that. Yes thank you very much for asking me this question because it's very important from my perspective and my my colleagues at the Polish embassy actually this exhibition is a our project because of course not many people know that there is this link between Poland and Ireland as Paul Strzelecki in Polish Paweł Paweł Strzelecki he was a Polish nobleman who and a humanitarian who was the agent of British Relief Association and he volunteered to come to Ireland and he was absolutely fantastic person and he introduced I would say a very very modern way of helping people especially children through the system of local schools he fed them through the system of local schools and it is estimated that he might have saved like 200 000 Irish children from starving otherwise they would have perished and died during this tragic tragic time so our embassy my predecessor was the the initiator of this beautiful exhibition about Paul Strzelecki this is the I would say traveling exhibition it travels all over Ireland and we also finance special workshops for Irish Irish pupils in different places just to tell them about about this beautiful story of Polish Irish relations and you know for me it's a double pleasure because I'm coming to Milford library to meet the students and also local politicians and Milford librarian to talk about Strzelecki but at the same time on Sunday I will be taking part in national commemoration of the great famine so I'm very proud that Poland a Polish Polish person played a very important role in this tragic period for the Irish people yes and it's great that you and your predecessor recognize this just interested to know is Paul Strzelecki's contribution recognized in Ireland is there anything to commemorate him in this country or to recognize it or is that work being done through your good offices yes we try to do more of course the exhibition and workshop this is one thing we unveiled a plaque dedicated to Strzelecki but I would also like to have a monument of Strzelecki we started our conversations with some local authorities and I hope it will happen soon but of course the most fantastic thing would be just to have I don't know an exhibition in one of the Irish museums and maybe something in the Irish curriculum in in the history book just the information that there was such a man from Poland yeah for sure it's a remarkable story and one we might look at into the future ourselves for now Anna thank you very much indeed again we look forward to hosting you in in Donegal and enjoy your weekend thank you so much indeed that is Anna Soanska who is the Polish ambassador to Ireland watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highlandradio.com the 9 till noon show is brought to you by letter Kenny credit union offering low rate holiday loans with fast approval apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today Donegal County Council invite the public to participate in the first public consultation for the letter Kenny southern network project at the letter Kenny public service center on Thursday 18th of May from 12 p.m. until 8 p.m. the project aims to develop the transport network south of letter Kenny town see the project website lsnp.ie for more details the groom goes free the groom goes free yes you heard it the groom's room involve clothing letter Kenny retail park the groom goes free call in today terms and conditions apply gear your club up for the season with the range of footballs and equipment from all the top brands at Michael Murphy sports and leisure great savings on O'Neill's Murphy's and attack GAA footballs and unmissable bundle deals on soccer balls from only 99 euro also a full range of cones and markers boundary poles hurdles and bibs see the full range at Michael Murphy sports dot ie preparing for a special occasion sorento shoes has the finishing touch shoes and bags in pastel shades bling or classic neutrals sorento shoes available in all leading shoe stores there's fantastic value at homeland letter Kenny garden center this Saturday 20th of May with our garden super Saturday by any two trees for 65 euro there's 10 percent of all fencing get 20 percent off ceramic pots and raised garden beds only 139 euro plus get 12 packets of seeds free shop in store at homeland letter Kenny with expert advice from your experience team offers mentioned available this weekend only now data collected from coroners around arland shows that there are 44 records of our unidentified remains with dna profiles for 28 unidentified remains recorded on the national dna database details relating to the remains have been published on a new database which is the first of its kind in arland pat o'connor is of the coroner's society of arland and i'm pleased to welcome him on to the program now pat thank you very much for joining us i told greg good morning to you and to all the kind and every listeners this morning right talk to us about the the background to the establishment and establishment of this database and what kind of an undertaking it was okay just but my my own position is that i'm the public information officer for the coroner's society of arland whom there are 34 corners in the country and most of the coroner for the district of mayo and i'm sitting in that regard so on Tuesday last the there was a launch of the actual database itself but by way of background i think it's important to perhaps the lecture listeners know that the establishment of the national dna database in 2015 by forensic science arland was a key turning point in the identification of human remains in arland and it really it's from that that this particular database has has grown in fact i think the department and the government introduced 10 years ago a national missing persons day in all arland annually commemorate the day and the events of people passing away so what happened last um tuesday in in dublin when the database was launched was that in 2021 the department of justice along with the garthish your corner missing persons unit and forensic science arland decided that they would try and exchange information on unidentified remains in the country and it was intended that the data set up would be updated every year so it's not sort of a static sort of a database and if there are any changes to be made to it which hopefully there won't be too many going forward it can be done as you've identified in your opening there and there were 44 records of unidentified remains in arland identified i think there was two in dunning all there's one actually so still still outstanding and of those 29 are full human remains and they're 15 unfortunately which are partial remains but of the 44 28 i've had dna taken from them and there's another 16 which will be done in in june course and eventually it's it's up and running and people wish to sort of identify and i see a map produced here and i'm not sure if it's from yourselves or a media organization but it talks about when the remains were discovered but that of course doesn't tell us when a person may have passed away or when the remains were located there does it necessarily no it doesn't indeed it's it's purely to identify where the unidentified remains are at present and we are a small country in a coastal country as well so there is obviously an opportunity that people have come into the country and sadly passed away maybe wanted to disappear from another or they've moved around arland or they were lost at sea and found uh on on the shore so i think it's important that it's a it's a country wide uh it's a country wide um uh database because of course the the remains found in donna gall could be that of a person from from wexford for an example absolutely or that could be from a fishing vessel or from a boat at sea you know there is no way of identifying clearly unidentified is what it says regrettably and if you look at the concentration of where the unidentified persons are presently located in in burial grounds most of them are on the east coast and that's i suppose consistent with first of all population but also with the ebb and flow of tides across the irish sea from wales to england across to arland and vice vice versa and increasingly because as arland becomes a multicultural society there are going to be persons who are in the country and who pass away and sadly pass away and they have no identity or they cannot be identified and that causes issues as well of course the dna database that we have of the 28 that does that tell us anything of someone's background or where they may originally from or is it literally they're identifying markers that can be checked against another sample that's correct great great that it's an identifying marker it doesn't tell you anything about where they're from what they are it is possible to identify whether it's male or female but and perhaps even approximate age but it doesn't go any further than that if it if it could it would be great but unfortunately that's not the not the situation in medical science but it has developed dramatically it hasn't developed to that extent and i suppose really at the end of the day until such time as everybody's dna is on some sort of an id card right throughout europe and did I say the world of europe and that's not going to be of of tremendous assistance now of course this is very important and very well intentioned because you know i mean this could this could solve mysteries out there people could have the remains of the loved ones returned but there are 856 unsolved missing persons so that's potentially 856 i would argue probably very many more who might think well one of those could be the person you know one of those could be my loved one who is missing so this has this or do you expect this will trigger a rush of people looking to offer samples to forensic science arland because i don't think i could settle until such time as i gave my dna to see if any of these identified or unidentified remains sorry are those of someone close to me that's missing do you get so so there's a lot to work through here i imagine oh yes there is indeed and you you've literally the the point to the important point i mean the fact that there's 840 people missing doesn't mean that they're deceased and even if they are they may not be in ireland but that but it is a starting point and i would say that if anyone has any suspicion or indeed any inkling that one of these people who are unidentified who are buried in ireland and might might be one of their loved ones the the important thing would be to make contact with the garda ashikana missing persons unit there's a telephone number for that which is on the coroner's website which is www.coroners.ie but the phone number for anyone who wishes to start the process that you've just identified is 016669476 and i think i would encourage people it's a matter for everyone themselves but i would encourage people that if they have the slightest inkling at all to do contact the garda ashikana they would be asked will they are they prepared to give a sample of their own dna so that then a test can be run on the national database to see whether or not there is any match between the unidentified people who are buried and themselves and of course we are a very mobile population as our other countries now so i presume there'll be some interest in this from people you know in britain or europe well absolutely indeed and they have their own databases and clearly if there are people from great britain or indeed from europe and increasingly ireland is a world sort of a repository of different nationalities yes it will and i think increasingly it will become very very important for them and while we can't speak to them from here though i'm sure some of them do this into the highland radio across the water i would encourage them to contact and garda ashikana at that number that i gave which is 016669476 yeah for sure and it's not just a case now that people are hearing this information and might be motivated to sort of say right i'm going to do something we do know there have been many families and individuals who've been calling for this type of a database to be established and and here we are and as you say it's not static uh i presume tests on the remaining 16 unidentified remains will be done shortly and it will be continued to be added to and hopefully uh it can connect people missing people from those that are are missing and don't try and avoid the word closure but at least they might have remains that they can they can bury and what have you okay pat unless there's anything yeah yeah go ahead unless this was just the last thing that many people grieve in different ways but it is very difficult grieving when you don't have the actual body of the person and if this in itself even helps a handful of people to actually bring some sort of finality to their search and then let them get on with their grieving it won't relieve their grieving but at least will give them some sort of certainty exactly incredibly valuable in that regard thank you very much indeed pat o'connor of the coroner society of arland um there were one uh set of remains located well there's two actually but only one made this release uh the second to be identified uh the dna to be identified uh one remains located discovered in 2021 in litrium one remains located discovered in 1986 in sligo remains located in 2009 um and the furthest back they go is 1968 remains were located in wexford six remains located there but the database has been put together currently there are 28 set of remains already on the national dna database and they say the 16 unidentified remains are to be attained where possible and you're encouraged to contact forensic science arland to provide dna samples to help solve these cases and um provide answers really uh i presume the nine till noon show is brought to you by letter kenny credit union offering low-rate car loans with fast approval apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today when a long week leaves you longing for adventure swap your work days for waterways and paddle board along the tranquil waters of locturg or go with the flow as you cruise along the Shannon for more short break ideas visit discoverarland.ie book early for the best value and keep discovering growing concern over farm rewetting for more in your farmer's journal is paul mooney just weeks before a key vote farmers have virtually no information on how rewetting will impact their farms last minute push for a suckler scheme places call for tax breaks for farmers selling old farmhouses tension over higher cost of genotyping for suckler farmers and don't miss our step-by-step sheep guide on how to maximize your grant all in this week's irish farmers journal your media brand of the year transform your home with a visit to McGinley's furniture letter kenny located at the port link business park just off the port road you'll find a huge selection of top quality suites beds and mattresses also slide robes and custom made dining and occasional furniture with prices to suit every budget see the great choice for yourself at our showroom McGinley's furniture port link business park port road letter kenny click McGinley's furniture dot com getting married this grant can take care of all your printing needs not just invitations but save the date cards order of service booklets table cards and so much more see what's available at weddinginvites.ie or call 911 7995 the clamory hotel presents their wedding showcase this sunday 21st from 2 to 5 30 p.m. meet our dedicated wedding team and make your dream wedding come true no appointment necessary that's the clamory hotel wedding showcase this sunday from 2 to 5 30 p.m. now two separate investigations are underway into an attack on a teenager in county mead the victim suffered facial injuries in the incident in navvin this week which is now the subject of a guard investigation while the loud mead education and training board is also investigating the incident as some of those involved were wearing their school uniforms officers are asking people to stop sharing footage of the attack online and I referenced this a little earlier on today professor james oh Higgins Norman is UNESCO chair on bullying and cyberbullying and is director of DCU anti-bullying center thanks for joining us professor it's good to have you on the program first let's talk about the video sharing I think some people are outraged at this and they think they're doing the right thing in sharing it others share it because you know that they're desynthesize this type of stuff I mean there's different camps out there but it seems the even if it's well-intentioned it seems that uh guard and I'm sure you are of the opinion that we need to stop the sharing of this uh video because it feels to me like another assault on this young person yeah I think your feelings are correct you know in um usually in an act of aggression or violence or bullying and there's a somebody who engages in the in the bullying behavior to somebody who is a target and then there are bystanders who to their silence and effectively supports the behavior and what's happening by sharing this video online we're amplifying that role of the bystanders from whatever number of people are actually physically there on the day to I believe now over five million people have viewed that and the trauma that's involved for um the individual involved is amplified because of that and then also there is an effect on those who are bystanders who watch it and you know become desensitized this type of material so I think sharing this is is is not a good idea um at all yeah because there's different words for it gore videos wrecked videos re kt whatever it might be there are platforms that share these types of videos for entertainment and it's worrying because if a younger person does get desensitized this type of stuff it can only have negative consequences down the line either for them or or in their actions but I suppose it's chicken and egg I mean the fact that somebody decides to share something like that means they probably have already experienced a level of desensitization to this type of it a type of content um and if somebody is sharing this type of content online um and watching this type of content online it means the algorithms are going to push that type of content towards them and unless you're very savvy and try to beat the algorithms then that's the type of content you'll be watching all of the time yeah indeed and of course as we know and we bring this up on this program from time to time obviously sometimes instances even when they're not video just you know that we describe them as non-life-threatening injuries that seems to be the industry known but that doesn't tell the full story they can be life-changing in injuries but even when those injuries if they fully heal the for a lot of people if not all people it's the emotional scarring and I suppose for this person as they work through this if they're aware that others are watching what happened to them that's going to you would have to imagine that's going to um it's going to complicate their process of recovering physically and mentally well without commenting on the individual cases I don't know the specifics of the context in which it occurred but for anyone who is the target of bullying and that's about 17 percent of school children experience bullying in the last year according to our research here at TCU and that would that would include online and offline and one of the key factors in in the damage that and the negative impact that bullying can have is that that exposure and that humiliation to an audience in the old days it was just those in the classroom where the school your artists and so on and now today it's it's amplified beyond that out into the millions and so of course there will be a negative impact on that we also know though that when um bullying is reported to a trusted adult and it's dealt with swiftly um that the um the negative impact is lessened and can be resolved in a matter of days and weeks according to according to what the children and young people are telling us in research I think I hate to generalise but I'm going to do for the function of the question generally speaking we don't always talk about bullying as a society then the curtains pulled back with an issue like this and there's absolute outrage and then the curtain falls again and and on we go how do we um try and convert some of that outrage into a meaningful conversation or action or a change of values or our our societal opinions to try and make sure this doesn't happen again or that someone doesn't feel it's okay to video this and post it online because they really see how that is wrong that requires a all of society change of mindset I think absolutely um I think there are different levels of response to this there's a role of appearance a role for schools social media companies policymakers what we call a whole education or a whole society response and the more work we can do with young people and with ourselves as that was before an incident like this occurs then the less likely it will be to occur so education around empathy and self-efficacy you know having the I am sure there were you know in an incident like that there are lots of onlookers who just feel helpless and don't know what to do so one of the things we do for example in DCU we run a programme called Fuse and that is delivered to schools all over the country and it focuses on increasing the uh the confidence in young people in how to recognise report or respond and report to um but to bullying um and so that kind of preventative work is really important but it involves part all partners in society working together on that we need a regulation we need takedown we need um education and we need parents having gentle very gentle opening honest conversations with their own children yeah but my concern is is that and I'm not talking about this individual case because I like you don't know the background to it the narrative the conversation amongst fully grown adults uh I feel now the way the discourse is is setting the stage to green light uh some of some of these instances and bullying that might be motivated by someone being of a different uh a different race or uh a different sexuality or a different uh gender uh now I don't know how we push back against that because I think everything's changing at the moment and it's a much bigger I think to sort out than this conversation but I just hope adults who often seem to be very concerned about the welfare of young people are cautious in their language and and realise that they could actually be sowing the seeds as I say to green light some of this activity absolutely we know from research that the people who are most likely to be targets of bullying behaviour are people who appear to be different to the majority in some way whether it's ethnicity uh skin colour um their sexuality or perceived sexuality and so on and um those those um people are more vulnerable because of the way that the majority of people um view them and talk about them so we need to really and and there's a you know a a a silly joke or a comment at home uh can be the tin end tin end of the wedge in terms of dehumanising and objectifying these people so that it's easier to treat them badly human beings are full of empathy and we treat other human beings really well because we feel for them so in order to be able to treat somebody like this to bully them or to act towards them aggressively or in an uncaring way we need to totally objectify that person and dehumanise them and then it's so we don't have to worry about how they feel so the way that we talk about um people who are different the jokes we crack um all of that needs to be checked us as adults we need to look at the role models and I don't think that's woken us I think that's just literally consideration for for your fellow person and be treat others like you would treat uh want to be treated yourself or treat other's children's like you'd like I mean it's not I don't think it's not nothing to do with woken us and people might go off here we go I don't think it's anything to do with that it's just common manners and politeness and care for a fellow person that you might not agree with them or disagree but you don't uh target them uh or don't sort of so uh atmosphere in a house that would allow that to happen. Professor thank you so much for your time I do appreciate it take care of yourself that's uh professor James O Higgins Norman who's UNESCO chair on bullying and cyberbullying and is director of DCU anti-bullying center the 90 noon show is brought to you by letter kenny credit union with monster loans available up to 60 000 euro for all occasions visit letterkennycu.ie dunigolf vintage and working day association present a charity truck run and strongman competition at the grounds of reform art this saturday may the 20th there's a full timetable of events including sheep shearing truck show vintage car and tractors strongman truck run and many more other attractions plus jiving from 7 30 followed by jimmy buckley and his band from 10 to late it all happens this saturday the 20th at reform art your specialty is quality tiles bathroom suites and wooden floors who is the best range of tiles in dunigolf the best wood flooring the best bathroom suites five day bathroom refits and who's been 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letter candy for my new show celebration ardent saturday may 27th hilarious sketches sing songs and so much more celebration ardent on grain on letter candy saturday may 27th book on 07491 2077 or on grain on dot com cutting through the spin the night on new show on highland radio okay loads to come in the next hour stay right where you are but first let's get a news update at 11 o'clock and it's good morning donna marie daherty thanks gregg good morning 27 areas of donnie gall are to share just over 3.1 million euro under the government's community recognition fund the fund is designed to acknowledge the contribution being made by communities across the country in welcoming and hosting significant numbers of arrivals from ukraine and other countries 421 000 euro goes to projects in letter candy 345 000 to projects in bali buffet and 315 000 to projects in guidore secondary school principals are invited to participate in a discussion surrounding the grown popularity of vaping among students the conversation was raised in a board meeting of malroy college and was further raised in the monthly etb meeting councillor michael mcbride is the chairman of the donnie gall education and training board and he says legislation is needed as vapes are readily available to students police in dairy say a 73 year old man has been arrested following a fire at a house on chambered in street at around 10 20 last night the fire service has determined the fire was started deliberately the ps and i say nobody was injured and the fire didn't spread to any other properties voting has opened up polling stations across the north for local government elections voters will choose 462 councillors across 11 councils with counting taking place tomorrow and saturday the elections were delayed by a fortnight due to the coronation of britain's king charles midlands northwest mp maria walch is traveling to letter candy tomorrow in a bid to get more women involved in politics the power of view in politics event in the central library at 7 30 p.m. is the second in a series of politics and me roadshow m.e.p walch says that the level of women in politics does not reflect society and finally one person's died and two others have been injured and russian strikes on the odessa region of ukraine kiv was one also one of the targets but ukrainian officials have told us most of the cruise missiles were shot down loud explosions were heard in the capital city however it's thought falling debris caused a fire and non-residential building those are the latest headlines will be back with more at 12 o'clock until then good morning all right donnelly thank you very much indeed our next guest joins us in just about 30 seconds experience the power of three home broadband the master of multitasking that lets man work from home dad streamer's favorite show and the kids play the latest games all at the same time sweet get three home broadband free for the first three months and for only 39 euro per month after that plus no setup costs all in ireland's fastest and most consistent 5g network visit and store or a three dot ie 24 month minimum term speeds may vary based on analysis by utlav speed test intelligence stab a q3 to q4 2022 now the word meet world meteorological organization has warned that a warming climatic event in the coming months combined with human induced climate change will have far-reaching repercussions for health food security water management and the environment it's in line with what science has been saying we've made no cutbacks to addressing to addressing it john gibbons is an environmental journalist and joins us on the program now john thanks very much for your time this morning good morning greg right so um how would they what have they considered in coming up with this warning well i guess the wmo which is part of the united nations which uh under which we have the intergovernmental panel climate change essentially these are the folks who who i guess moderate all the scientific research around climate uh its impacts forecasting modeling etc so these are the i guess this is really the last word if you like in in our understanding of our of our changing climate so um and i guess what the wmo are saying in in this latest projection as you said in your introduction i guess the best way i can put it is that we're heading into uncharted territory it's probably worth considering that in the 10 or 11 000 years since the last ice age ended we've been in a in a period of earth history known as the holocene now that period that entire 10 11 000 years average global surface temperatures have never exceeded one degree above what we call pre-industrial it's been a remarkably stable period and of course that stability is the reason why we were able to develop agriculture the reason why our cities and our civilizations expanded in this very stable very predictable climate now of course within that you get you've we've always had extreme weather events uh but it was in the context of a stable climate system now what's happened in the interim is that we have left that stable climate system we're currently at about 1.2 degrees above pre-industrial uh we're heading according to wmo we've got a distinct possibility later this decade of breaching 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial and this would be the largest i suppose uh heat anomaly as i say since the end of the last ice age and it takes us basically into uh into conditions completely different to the conditions in which humanity has thrived now people will say john people might say yes but you know the climate has always changed we went through many different ages if you just reference but we're talking about changes here that have happened uh the changes others might talk of a reference happened over thousands millions of years we're talking about very dramatic changes on this planet within a couple of hundred years there is no historic president for that without a major sort of event happening like a a meteor strike or something that's exactly right and and you you are correct uh our climate changes and of course the reason that we know that our climate changes is because of the work done by climatologists and there's a branch of climatology called paleo climatology that has actually looked into this in huge detail and on that we have instrumental records uh like physical records going back from ice cores 800 000 years these are Antarctic ice cores so they give us a physical record of global carbon dioxide levels almost a million years of straight records and in all that time greg we have never had more than 300 parts per million of co2 the reason co2 is so important is that it is the trace gas that basically traps heat in our atmosphere other gases like oxygen and nitrogen are completely uh opaque to the atmosphere so so co2 is the gas and methane of course they're the two key gases now what we know is that since pre-industrial which is really the blink of an eye it's only 100 years or 150 years in that time we've gone from never exceeding 300 parts per million to today's level of 420 parts per million so we've added about 50 percent more co2 through human actions to the global atmosphere in the last 100 years or so but particularly in the last 30 to 50 years we've more than doubled it by the way since 1990 and that is the fastest rate of change in not in thousands but in several million years and it's probably worth mentioning greg that the last time we had over 400 parts per million was about four to five million years ago and at that time global sea levels were 20 meters higher than they are today now the scientists are as certain as any scientist might be 98 percent certain I believe that as you've mentioned at least one of the next five years will be the warmest year on record now some of that obviously is is what's going on in terms of the human impact the El Nino climatic event is also going to impact on that so this is not necessarily a increase in temperatures that will be sustained either that's right we've just come out of a prolonged La Nina climatic cycle and in simple terms that means during La Nina phases you expect the earth to be slightly cooler all right now what's happening is the La Nina cycle has become overwhelmed by the global warming signal let me give an example of that last year 2022 Europe experienced its hottest summer ever recorded and that's in over 500 years of instrumental records and that happened greg during a La Nina cycle in other words during a cooling cycle now what scientists are looking at at the moment is that we're swinging in back into an El Nino cycle so that means in a sense that what we're going to get is all the additional warming that we have from climate change and then the cherry on the top if you like is an El Nino event and essentially an El Nino basically transfers heat energy from the oceans to the atmosphere that's basically in simple terms that's what it does so it turbocharges the underlying climate signal and I suppose that's why 1.5 is on that is on the cards but certainly when I was looking at this a few years ago the discussions probably up to about 2018-2020 was that we would not see 1.5 in the 2020s it would definitely be the 2030s so what we're seeing really is that the global atmospheric system is more responsive more sensitive to rising CO2 levels than we feared and again you know and what does this mean in real terms for example we know that Europe apart from that extreme drought conditions of last year they continued into this year major rivers drying up huge economic impacts and food production and then you see in the last few days extreme flooding events in Italy so you go essentially we're swinging rapidly from massive droughts into unprecedented flooding and the flooding in Italy apparently they got a year's worth of rainfall in under 24 hours and John listen I get why I get why there is a large proportion of not a large proportion sorry a certain amount of people who don't want this to be true because we don't want anything bad to be true do we and if something's happening on the other side of the world and we can't see it well for some it simply is not happening and we're here for a fleeting moment and people don't want to have to deal with this or the stress of this let the next generation or so but you know what I think the the penny is really going to drop is when we start seeing climate refugees effectively parts of the world that become uninhabitable and they will have to move to survive into other parts of the world that are and we are in a strip if I'm not mistaken that yes there'll be some climatic changes but perhaps not as extreme as you might see in other parts of the world and I think that's when people start going to realize when hundreds of thousands of people to survive start moving to other areas where they can live that's when people are going to realize that right okay there are things happening that I can't see on other parts of the planet that are now starting to impact me in a way that I'll sit up and notice I think that's a I think that's a very fair summary it's also incredibly important to remember or to bear in mind that the way people like us live in wealthy parts of the world like Ireland is directly impacting on the climate system today and is already severely impacting people in what we call the global south so that the global south at the moment is bearing the the brunt of extreme weather events they're they're being hit hardest and first and also they have the least resources so we have a situation where the way our lifestyles our extravagant carbon intensive lifestyles are already imposing huge costs on on the people that you just described Greg now science science has looked at this very carefully over the last couple of years and one major study has projected that by between 2050 and 2070 we're looking at areas of the world in which at the moment about three billion people live will become too hot for human or other mammal habitation so we're looking at it's approximately 19 percent of the of the world's land surface becoming hotter than it is in the hottest parts of the Sahara desert today now that leaves us with a really a situation for which there's no precedent in human history and you mentioned hundreds of thousands of refugees Greg we're looking at hundreds of millions unfortunately running into billions now many of those refugees will be internal refugees so for example the greatest number of refugees at the moment aren't people fleeing to europe they're actually people going from one country say in north africa to another country or maybe from afghanistan into pakistan right there so in fact the the the third world if you like is already bearing the brunt of massive refugees but but what of course you know alarms people in europe is the fact that this is going to spill over and you described it and i think correctly described it that we have a very benign maritime influence climate in ireland and somebody's described it as we're a sort of like a lifeboat now the problem with a lifeboat is first of all we're a wide open globalized economy our economic and particularly our agricultural system is completely connected to the rest of the world so the idea that ireland can continue to thrive while the rest of the world falls into chaos is of course completely daft yeah obviously i mean that's into the future and it's really at the moment now really but you see that the thing that the the difficulty i think we have john is is that and yes we can break this down into our our emissions per individual and then sort of all the scales twist but i don't think the public's ever going to buy into that unless china united states india russian japan germany iran some of the biggest polluters in the world unless there is a global agreement where everybody actually says right okay we have to save this planet by doing a b or c that's i can't see us making any inroads into that because people in ireland and as i say you can break it down into well what is it per head of population you know you're on as good as you might think you are i don't think that's that message is ever going to be sold and until such time as there is a global proper agreement with proper targets not building more coal mines for an example and more coal burning facilities or drilling more oil like trump wants to do for example it's nothing's going to change here unless something drastically changes right across the world and governments come together and and say look this is what we have to do and we have to do it now i can't see this sort of whack-a-mole system of trying to get the irish to do something while the the the chinese aunt or something along those lines working might be a bit pessimistic and depressing john but i just don't see the penny dropping otherwise i think that's a again a fair summary i would stress that ireland while we like to assure ourselves on how small we are we emit the same amount of co2 as the equivalent of about 400 million people in sub-saharan africa so don't ever underestimate the impact of the irish we we are we punch far above our weight greg in terms of emissions per capita in fact our emissions per capita are so high i think there's a second highest in the european union which of course is one of the highest things but the other side of that is that we're a full and equal player in the european union and the european union is one of the most powerful economic and political blocks in the world we have the ability to influence the policies at EU level so the kind of learned helplessness that says we're only small leave us alone unfortunately and i totally understand your point unfortunately that kind of thinking is going to get us on one i get you but one of our biggest polluters in europe is germany who are deciding to move away from uh to who are deciding to move almost in the wrong direction in terms of eliminating nuclear uh and and and we know they're the most recent uh dependence on gas because it's but do you know what i mean i i get what you're saying and i get it and i want a great future for my children and their children it's just square in the circle is i don't know how we're going to do it unless there's a genuine global buy-in and maybe that's going to take a catastrophic a really catastrophic event of some sort or other i don't know and i think you've kind of taken the words out of my mouth and i mentioned this in the examiner this morning that we're getting very very close to the thresholds the climatic thresholds a combination really of temperature and humidity where basically uh we're looking at a mass fatality event we narrowly avoided this in uh regions of india and pakistan last year and remember greg that was without an el menio they were probably two or three degrees centigrade short of a mass fatality event now um we're getting very very close so my fear is that we will one of these days be back on a program like this talking about it and we'll have a lot of people gnashing of teeth and saying why did nobody tell us this is going to happen uh how could this have happened how could we have let this happen etc i think it's important before tragedy strikes to at least have an honest conversation and if in the if yeah if in the end of the day greg your listeners and and if we all decide look the hell with it we couldn't be bothered it's too much trouble we want our cheap flights we want our suvs etc etc if we're not prepared to make any changes okay and and we've decided we're just going to run with the system as it is that's fine make that conscious decision that's your choice yes you you better live with that decision and when when the hard rain falls then you need to sit your kids down and say listen daddy and mommy want to tell you uh we we knew about this stuff but you know what we just didn't care yes but john we live i get you but we live in a country and it's not just us it seems to be every country individually that everything is a threat to us and our children externally you know what i mean it could be the movement of people it could be policies it could be nothing is our fault we talk about what could be coming down the line yet we live in a country with so many young people in poverty so many young people harming themselves so many young people with mental health issues but instead of talking about that we talk about what could happen to them from other people you know it's like don't look here look over there and we're doing it the same we'll blame someone else for what you're talking of i fear unless we really change how we think i don't know john i've really enjoyed speaking to you thanks for your time pleasure great bye bye john john gibbons environmental journalist there and as i say you know i know there are many of you listening that think it's all gobbledygook and then there are others that think that this is the biggest threat to us and i'm not sure how that all breaks down uh out there uh but i do think we're a million miles away from us really thinking right we have to do this now because as i said to john there and i think you might as well say the quiet bit out loud we look around us we look around the world we see what's happening in ukraine and you should go well why should i start burning turf or why should i uh my petrol and diesel cuts cost an absolute fortune or why should i have to burn uh this type of of coal whilst you know the fires are burning everywhere else in the world and i just don't see that being sorted until as i said to john there there's some sort of a global thing that goes on but that's not going to happen anytime soon so we're going to still having this these conversations that pop up now and again and uh not much really changes but your views pleased to 08 660 25 000 what's apps and texts 08 660 25 000 if you're listening outside the republic 0035 386 60 25 000 and uh you can give us a call to an 07491 25 000 okay i need to take a break because i'm about to pull on my wellies i'm gonna don my overalls roll up my sleeves take out the marigolds the marigolds my watering can and i'm going to step into the garden with paul please join me in the garden after these the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio the nine till noon show with letter kenny credit union simplify your debts with a debt consolidation loan from letter kenny credit union call us on 0749102126 or apply online via our app or in office today dunig all county council invite the public to participate in the first public consultation for the letter kenny southern network project at the letter kenny public service center on thursday 18th of may from 12 p.m until 8 p.m the project aims to develop the transport network south of letter kenny town see the project website lsnp.ie for more 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think for us to tune but anyway who cares it's the 18th of may yes where is the year going right okay so uh bedding plants what are bedding plants bedding plants are generally annuals they're like three flowers you put in this time of year and they will continue now flowering up to halloween the real sort of impact plants for the garden they're short lived but it's a very spectacular life that they'll have in terms of bringing color to the garden and everything yeah and the frost i mean it's actually was one or two degrees three degrees in some parts the last couple of nights but still the threat to plants has passed us now would you say it really has unless you get an absolutely sort of a look of a thing if you know what i mean but uh but not if the most part it definitely has passed and uh we're starting to see people out in the gardens i love it the mower the sound of the mowers although you know some people obviously don't want to mow but you know what i mean exactly i know it's good to see people out and about you can't say anything anymore now i feel like it's almost mowing the lawns the dirty word yes you have this no more may campaign i know i've said nothing till you hear more all right no more may that's a good excuse i like it uh just don't do it june maybe i might do that too right so what's the benefits of bedding plants then uh bedding plants once again just bread really sort of that's the sign of summer you see the even tidy towns groups villages everything looks brilliant at the minute pubs and restaurants have all their flowers out so it's just real high impact colour for the few months of the summer what about location is that important location is fairly important generally the first consideration probably you want is to actually put them somewhere where they can be seen very well in the sense that you have these spectacular looking blooms where you want everybody to enjoy do they need direct sunlight direct sunlight not particularly however they'll perform better in direct sunlight any flowering plant generally uh the more sunlight gets the better flowers generally so at the well do all right and a bit of shade but you'll get a far better display and fall some yeah and even though it might not be cold as such wind is not necessarily bedding plants friends no absolutely if you get a sort of sudden summer storm can obviously break them off and stuff but even a cold one even someone like today can sort of stunt their growth a wee bit so generally but if you think there's storm coming or even a very breezy day if you have the ability to move your pot or your underbox move to somewhere a more sheltered location yeah but not to the point where you can't enjoy them because the whole idea of this is especially in more difficult times is to to a bit of a color give yourself a lift you know tidy up uh you know around the house a little bit so i mean they are pretty easy to grow and relatively sturdy aren't they they are very easy to grow all right like there are a few steps you can take look enough to get the best out of them but generally just if you if you keep them watered they'll reward you yeah and it's just like uh we were the conversation about the lawn you know that there are your standards uh but people if they want to sort of say right this is maybe you know more favorable to pollination you can consider that can't you in the choice of plants yeah funny in the last few years there has been a move people are sort of more conscious of what your traditional bedding plant they're all hybridized to sort of get the best out of the flowers and generally some of them weren't particularly good at providing nectar that but there are more on the market now people come back to older varieties that are actually much better for nature so if you pick the likes of the buddhans there or someone like even the marigolds would be very good for actually pollinating in the next year you get the best out of your garden and you're helping your pollinating friends too now we haven't seen much rain the last week and we're not going to see much rain for the next week we're going to get some misty rain the occasional shower but for the most part for the next week it's going to be dry this is the food for these plants isn't it yes absolutely and like i say if you do nothing else if you keep them watered they will survive and they will grow happily enough so it's very important to keep an eye on the water especially at a time like today's dull you don't automatically think that they'll be dry but the wee breeze there doesn't belong drying them out especially someone like hanging baskets because they're stuck up in the air so they're catching all the wind and how how often over summer would you add feed in uh generally add feed from the start you'll be whenever you're doing up your baskets or whenever you're buying your baskets they will have a certain amount of feed in them but because you want so much out of it it's a good idea to replace the nutrients as you go so product like miracle grow or tomato food every two weeks yeah and when do you deadhead them like when is it a deadhead yes a deadhead one of the flowers starts going backwards like it's just come it's done the flower and it's what i call it started fading backwards if you nip that flower off it's starting to look a little bit worse for where exactly nip nip him off and what you're doing there you're removing the seed from the plant so the plant goes on i've lost my seed i'll produce another flower yeah so it'll keep him flower so the sooner you do that the better than obviously at the right time as well and it also is the benefit where as a lot of time the sort of older flowers fall down into the middle of the plant and can actually sort of look on slightly and they can cause mold you yeah by removing them you're just keeping that ring tidier all right okay now is there anything we should be looking out for on the plants of the going out watering them that that could bring them back particularly bedding plants of course pretty much your the biggest thing for bedding plants is your petunia something like that there'll be green fleet green fly or white fly would both attack them so it's just if you get into the habitat regularly water you'll sort of pick up them sort of infestations or any problems that's come along with your basket so the earlier you see them the easier they are treated all right okay and how do you treat them washing up liquid spray washing up liquid spray of the garlic spray as well wd 40 w 40 some people abuse that around the top of their pots for slugs actually wd 40 for everything i'll tell you if you ever get lamps you're particularly in older cars wd 40 is amazing for for anything that's black but if your lamps on your car are missed you know when it gets that white mist on it spray wd 40 on it leave it for five minutes scrub it off it's amazing what it does i've seen people doing that with toothpaste as well well wd 40 is the way to go but toothpaste might work i don't know but i'll tell you maybe we change your toothbrush yes i don't use the toothbrush are we are we sponge but it's amazing how dependent on what's causing it can bring them up okay anyway i don't know why i was talking about that but just thought i'd mention it someone go out there now if your lights are fogged over do you know that kind of white mist that's on them get the wd 40 go out spray on give it a rub and come back and tell us how you get on 08 660 25 000 right paul most vegetables in tunnel and glasshouse are being eaten away soon after germination despite using antipoder and slug pellets cucumber in particular and some others are eaten back to the stem any advice and all solutions please advice or solutions and if they've been eaten back to the stem chances are it's nothing insects doing it's most likely slugs yeah so maybe sort of be be sort of if you're using slug pellets you do get organic slug pellets and then they're based on salts not on the oil poisons that it used to be so just sort of be vigilant if you can go out even just as it's getting dark with torsion that's when the slugs be most active sort of physically remove them as best you can and just sort of if you're using slug pellets keep up with the slug pellets then you should be all right what about wd-40 not many jobs but so it really is a case of physically sort of saying there you go pretty much some people would do a thing called companion planting in terms you can put in sort of plants that are more attractive for the slugs yeah you could actually plant some nasturtiums in your tunnel and slugs are going to actually go towards them first and maybe so that'll sort of attract them away if you know what i mean too but just vigilance probably is the key but i'd say it'd be most likely slugs yeah we were talking or it's been on in the news this week about a wonky veg that we go into the shops and we expect our carrots to be orange and straight and clean and the same with other vegetables you know or potatoes they all have to look a certain way aesthetically pleasing i suppose it's crazy when you think about it isn't it you'd wonder what's wrong i don't think i'd have any problem with a bent carrot what about you yeah it's not absolutely like for somebody who grows a lot of stuff like january you take a carrot into the ground you bring it in the first thing you do is chop it up so whether it was straight or bent doesn't really matter much at that stage yeah but i think i think it's uh i think they maybe the shops need to trust us but do people maybe they pick through the stuff and go oh that's not very nice quite probably some market research 20 years ago decided that everything had to be straight yeah a certain size we're in a cost to live in crisis though so i think you know they need to give it a go anyway speaking of carrots growing carrots is it okay to grow carrots in a polytunnel yes perfectly okay to grow carrots in a polytunnel they do quite well and you can actually start them a lot of people are starting carrots are that now april may we're in a polytunnel you could start them probably february so you'd actually have a wee jump start on the year but now they grow perfectly well right okay um i have a very old i have a very old pink rose it's got lots of black and brown spots on the leaves what is it what to do uh january it's that's a thing called black spot that comes on roses it's a sort of fungal infection so it is um you do get sprays for it sort of your multi-rose something like that they'll be quite good but this year if it's an old rose chance that it'll stand up the infection so a good feed at this time of year sort of the healthier the plant is the better it can stand up to the infection but at the back end of the year whenever sort of the flowering season's passed cut it back well and it's very actually important uh the black spot the spores from it fall in the ground and even any dead leaf running line on the ground so it's very important actually clean up properly around the plant remove all that stuff and keep it away from the roses and that should stop it sort of reinfecting next year all right my hydrangea leaves tips are dark yes quite common this time year for the hydrangea leaves especially in older plants what has happened there probably is we touch a frost early in the year but um shouldn't do it any harm in the wide world are there any do's and don'ts about spraying weed killer where we live a farmer man openly walked the field with a back sprayer we have young kids maybe the spray not dangerous but he had a mask on and look at it's not just the farming community i saw uh um someone walking up and down the road with a mask on full gear on yeah spraying on the footpath or alongside the footpath now obviously kids running the grass or dogs i don't know what they're spraying right we don't know that's the problem but you can understand as we become more aware when people see them fully suited up spraying weed killer you know what can you do about it we don't know what's in it what's your what's your comment on that given the limited information yes well limited information but that's supposed to complex issue in terms of once again getting back to your sort of wonky veg like farmers tend cause they're expected to produce this perfect stuff that's tend to have to eat some chemicals and stuff like that you know so probably they have to think suppose it's good good to see that the farmer to an extent was protecting himself using the mask and that in terms of property and services of course being a good neighbor to actually be good to inform your neighbors of what you're spraying and what for and if you wanted them to know what it was yeah okay but um generally a lot of chemicals a lot of weed killer stuff once they actually hit the ground and dry they're sort of actually in the end at that stage if you know what i mean but obviously you need to know what you're dealing with i have a dog who keeps ripping up the garden and chewing at young fruit trees is there anything i can put on the garden and trees to deter the wee bugger from doing it um well it's most it depends most uh the way of doing it sort of not you do get sort of chemicals or they're sort of based on essential oils stuff that are supposed to deter dogs and cats i've seen them working with varying degrees of success what a lot of people would use for animals sort of to get them out and out but if the sniffing about pitcai and pepper than more of this pepper spray i'm sure those people use bot colors as well i know there might be a little bit controversial i don't have a dog so i'm not responsible for their yet but generally if you can break the habit yeah before he's going he will actually maybe if he's young dogs well once he grows up he may grow out of it you'll realize it's not really much fun okay could you ask paul if there is any substance which can be applied to ivy to kill it off i've uh i've grown through a garden fence i can't get at the roots to dig it out so is that the neighbors or i don't know maybe it's yeah just not accessible pretty much ivy would be hard to kill um there are a few a few different products available you get sort of brushwood killers that would actually be used in briars and stuff like that so it's because it's a woody sort of thing if you know what i mean but uh someone like that their ideal thing would be just sort of keep snapping it off and stuff yeah often sort of you can spray onto the end of it that makes it die back as such there are a few products all right but to be sort of to be fairly harsh if you know toxic stuff would be yeah yeah okay uh look out for hedgehogs and feed them cat food they'll gobble up all the slugs yes very good point actually a lot of more people are getting on i've never seen a hedgehog uh funny i've seen a couple or yeah so they go but not uh hedgehogs very i mean if i was waiting on a hedgehog to land to sort the problem out yes unfortunately you know what i mean another thing people are actively trying to attract to the garden would be frogs he do it slugs and stuff you know so but a wee patch of water or something actually and create a habitat like that but like you see i wouldn't want to be depending on him no no you wouldn't my two apple trees were in bloom now blooms are gone the leaves are black what could this be um it sounds like a sort of a blight or something like that i don't know if you know i mean there's some sort of fungal infection so you would be able to get sprays for it i probably feed the three at this stage might sort of bring them on but as as the sort of flowered a few those a few harsh days of wind which can sort of turn the turn the leaves backwards a bit so hopefully i feel he might snap out of it but once again take pictures and bring it to your local garden centre all right advice as best they can paul thank you very much indeed well thank you very much it's been great having you in again and as usual answering all of our questions um and you got to mention garlic spray which is always good chicken poo not featuring as much this year as last year but the season's on yet exactly i so i think i've actually along those lines of a new one for you okay don't ruin it all right okay all will be revealed is it a poo yes oh it's very exciting but it's not a chicken poo no no no that's very exotic well next time next time paul is on the show he's going to reveal to you the loyal listeners of the nine-tailed noon show a brand new poo which will be one of his key recommendations in fertilizing your plants so don't miss it okay we'll be back with more on the nine-tailed noon show shortly but for now paul mclaughlin of balak dirt garden centre thank you very much indeed watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com the nine-tailed noon show is brought to you by letter kenny credit union digital loans now available apply online or via our app today and get your loan transferred directly to your current account this friday around the northwest will become in life from i motors in letter kenny for their start of their two three two sale event this weekend you will have the opportunity to sample and see the new stock for july registration from kia and nissan we will also have some great music chat and some fantastic giveaways join us from 12 for the launch of the i motors new two three two registration seal weekend they say knowledge is power so the more you know about your personal finances the more power you'll have over them now all the knowledge and power you need is right at your fingertips with the ccpc money hub free impartial and comprehensive information calculators and tools to help you learn more and take full control of your personal finances get to know the ccpc money hub at ccpc.ie forward slash money from the competition and consumer protection commission join the team at homeland letter kenny on friday 19th and saturday 20th of may for in-store paint weekend enjoy exclusive offers in store on both dates and you can talk to our expert julux color consultant from 11 a.m till 3 p.m on both days meet special guest the julux dog on saturday 20th of may from 12 till 2 p.m and speak with her experienced paint center team with a paint mixing service available in store visit homeland.ie for more information tommy marron here writer of it's the real mccoy and three hill marys join me at on grain on letter kenny for my new show celebration ardent saturday may 27th hilarious sketches sing songs and so much more celebration ardent on grain on letter kenny saturday may 27th book on 07491 20777 or on grain on dot com okay you're very welcome back to the program and we're going to talk now about simply so bits the national youth entrepreneurs of the year overall business award winners for 2023 and the people behind it join us now abbey boil good morning to you abbey thank you very much for calling in thank you very much for having us great it's good to have you in uh also amy hegrity good morning amy hello good morning and ifa smith hi ifa hello good to have you with us and jay mcclean's the program officer with froiga uh thanks very much for calling in jane thank you gray all right amy i'll start with you talk to us about your product and how you come to feel that there was a gap that needed filling there um well we first came up with a product when we were uh asked to do a product for our school christmas market and we were just kind of talking and brainstorming ideas and we came up with the idea of soap um the one has ever done soap before in our markets in school uh so we just researched then from there and the whole business developed then yeah and ifa talk to me about the soap what's different about this soap um so our soap uses a goat's milk base which is something that you know is uncommon um so goat's milk is high in vitamin e which is highly moisturizing and very good for the skin it creates a good lather and it just you know separates our soap from other soaps in the market excellent and abby i love the packaging as well because you know you sell things with your eyes as well as you know trying and testing the product aye so we did a lot of research into other handmade soap companies and we noticed a common theme of a simplistic natural theme to the packaging so we selected a monolistic font and design and it really just helped boost our product for what it is simply soap and the brown paper as well just emphasizes the the naturalness of it yeah and a bit of consideration to going into the scents so that it's you know not gender specific presumably yes so we have a six scents so we have we offer lavender lemongrass manila and then for a more masculine scents ocean breeze and citrus mist and we really wanted to focus on making sure everyone could enjoy our product so that was a important focus for us and Amy this was a long journey against an awful lot of people to get to where you got today presumably you never thought that you would achieve this level of success no definitely not um i think we just got this far because we really enjoyed it like we we just enjoyed every second of it you know we're three best friends and um i think we definitely wouldn't have got this far a little own win if we didn't enjoy it as much yeah just to put it into context simply soap won the title after competing against over 6 000 young entrepreneurs from all over Ireland through a series of local county regional and semi-finals with a total of 186 local competitions taking place leading to 30 regional finals and uh it's not the journey's not finished here because it now goes on to represent Ireland at the European Youth Entrepreneur Awards in Austria later this year i mean Eva what a journey you said all went on incredible like it's it's amazing to think like back in September when we got into ty when we were first told about you know creating a business it's incredible to think how far we've come just together and through the nifty froiga prop or program which was let out in our school you know we're very grateful to it to be a part of it you know and it's just been an unreal process all in all and was there a lot of sort of tech kind of happy stuff that you're up against you know i think that might be what a lot of root what i'm trying to get at is it's i think it seems nice that it seems quite a traditional business that has come out on top is there something to that um i think it's just how authentic we are as a group you know we've we know the ins and outs of our business we're very you know down to earth and i think it's how we present ourselves as much as our product ourselves you know and we're just yeah very lucky to work so well together what about what what is the future abby for the for the company though because you know you've hit on something here it looks like it could be in any shop in the country do you know what i mean this is not this is not something that you're imagining this is something that's actually happened so are you producing it to scale at this point do you plan to do it where are you at in terms of the actual business so we are currently we are producing a scale in scale we currently have 150 soap in our stock and we're looking to be located in killy bags and come summer there are 29 cruise liners docking in our town and we are planning on tending the markets held for these cruise ships for their crew and passengers and this will be a great uh opportunity for us to get our product worldwide because they're coming from all over the world these cruise ships and we hope to sell well at them and it's a we're very grateful this opportunity yeah nami is this something that you want to stick with as a team um you know as as as as an actual income is it possible that you can do that and continue with your studies oh definitely yeah it's um it's great like we love making them and it's just it's a very nice product to be able to sell and we're just grateful for the opportunity to be able to sell them is it a complicated process to create them and we don't need any you know you don't want to give the competitor as any clues here right but is it a complex procedure or once you've sort of gotten it down yeah it's not too complicated i mean it was complicated at the start you know we went through a lot of trial and error um at the very beginning when we were just experimenting but now that we have it all down it's easy enough and how environmentally friendly is it in terms of its impact on the environment how it by uh how it degrades or biodegrades uh was that an important element to all of this for you um well we first of all we buy off an irish company so small footprint like it go ahead yeah what's next um we also we use paper as our packaging so it is biodegradable all right a furnace is that part of the business ethos as well um definitely i mean soap in itself obviously wears away biodegrades itself so it's definitely been something that we've thought about you know from the start and yeah i say we're glad to have something that's environmentally friendly as well because it's obviously a very topical issue at the minute and it's something that's being brought forward to and just more emphasis on it all the time so all right okay well let's bring jane uh mclean it's mclean isn't it i mean i try not to say anything obvious but we all talked about soap jane and i'm sure i'm not the first person to point that out yeah yeah no i know what you're saying but i think the girls here it's like if i was called greg mcradian do you know that yeah um i suppose the difference with the girls is that they're exceptional their product is exceptional it's a full blown thing isn't it yeah yeah their delivery and their presentations along as you said they're the presentation for for their and house competition their regional finals their semi finals the national finals and the next step for the girls now is that they go to austria um to compete in the european finals in september so they didn't get this far without being exceptional in many many different ways and they were up against as you said over 6 000 young people um the frug and nifty program is an international program the nifty managed um uh frug and managing nifty within ireland but it's an international program so it's all over um america asia india it's all over europe um so it's a it's a it's an internationally recognized program i suppose and the girls have just done uh amazingly well to kind of get this far i'd imagine everyone at st katharine's vocational school in kilibag's really really proud of what they've achieved because they have uh it's it's a project but it is a business and you can see with the language that they use and and and what they're achieving that they they have gone all in on this yes exactly yeah no the school have been extremely supportive and the school have facilitated nifty for many years and they've a fantastic teacher miss falerton um who's a great support to the girls as well and um you know it's her her first year um with nifty and she's just been absolutely amazing so we're we're delighted the school are amazing great school to work with all right abby when's uh when is the austria trip later this year and i use all going yeah but you're a team you have to don't you yep the three of us are going in this september and we just can't wait it was a it was a very foreign concept come september when we first heard about maybe going abroad and the fact that we're actually going to be going on the strip it's amazing but you know to borrow a phrase from from katie taylor i mean you want all the belts now uh i mean you know why not you know you've you've got this far why not go and win the the bloody thing yeah not amazing we i suppose at the very very beginning we didn't even imagine us getting this far so it's just brilliant opportunity and we're very happy to have it well okay when's on the cards yeah exactly anything you want to add as we wrap up jane yes i would just like to say that um i suppose we were there on tuesday and doubling in the in the richmond barracks and we had 28 businesses from all over ireland that competed um for our four top awards and nifty throughout the year the girls um won obviously the the main one but there are four all together but i'd also like to say a huge congratulations to um skull warabong krana and um the carolina community college who also won two awards so dunagall got three out of the four awards so we flew the flag very high in dunagall on tuesday so i just want to say congratulations to everybody all the young people um and dunagall that have done nifty throughout the year they've been absolutely fantastic yeah and our young people never cease to amaze me they're amazing okay listen um is it going to have to have to hook up with us when you're out in austria so try and remember that okay well beforehand and afterhand okay because i think you've i mean it's a huge achievement already anything else now is gravy right abbey boil amy hegerty ifa smith and jane mclean all four of you thank you very much for joining us uh continued success and thanks for making the trip on thank you thank you all right back with more shortly the 90 noon show with letter kenny credit union now offering mortgages from 40 000 to 600 000 euro with no hidden fees or transaction charges letter kenny credit union 9102127 join mike denver and guests live at the abbey hotel dunagall town this friday the 19th to sunday the 21st of may friday four hours of dancing with jimmy buckley and band mike denver and band and billy mac saturday the 20th it's kean rosnian band mike denver and band and shane black sunday the 21st of may afternoon dancing with mike denver and band from three to five p.m tickets at the door for each show our wide range of 2023 scooters are going fast this is the sound of the brine family getting their powerful diesel kodiak and this is fully charged for yona driving away in her electric scooter enyak and this is the sound of someone who didn't place their order in time order your 2023 scooter today before it's too late scooter made for ireland your local scooter dealer is dmg motors klarod dunagall town telephone 0 74 97 21 396 or visit dmg motors.ie mexico oh amazing but what about italy could be lovely or vietnam norway india there are so many places to go and one place you absolutely have to visit travel wise you can find up to date travel advice for almost 200 destinations and get information on safety visa requirements and more all online and don't forget to check your passports and dates know before you go visit dfa.ie forward slash travel wise an initiative of the government of ireland now exciting times as we talked to tony forester ceo of the letter kenny chamber because yesterday the chamber launched his business awards in castle grove these are the 2023 business awards tony good morning to you good morning greg here we are again another year and another exciting event to unveil and it's really about getting voting so talk to us about the awards tony yeah so um we're delighted i can't believe another year has passed really um delighted to launch them yesterday and with our we've we've kept our key sponsor air grid from last year as well and they're with us for another few years so that's really good news um we have 16 categories this year so two two three extra last year um and that includes a few like um outstanding small business young person young business person of the year which is brand new and workplace of the year so we're trying to to sort of make it as wide as possible so that any type of business could apply i'm looking for a radio presenter of the year it must be uh come here to i'm looking down the the list and people need to go to letter kenny chamber dot com forward slash uh business awards looking down the list too it's great to see the level of support and sponsorship you have for the various brilliant categories it just shows the real buy-in from the community too and also the credibility and profile of these awards absolutely and we've had some of some of our sponsors our category sponsors with us from the beginning and that's probably nearly 10 years ago so they've seen the value of it for their brand and obviously they want to i suppose um support the success of businesses they have out there and at the end of the day we're a business community you know we're we're an ecosystem of our own and um we really that that's downtown to employees that goes down to everybody not just the owners of businesses so it's really important um that we have those the support of of the larger companies in some cases in some smaller businesses they support our awards every year yeah and uh there's best new business award hiding the radios the sponsor there you mentioned young business person of the year workplace of the year hall of fame business person of the year and so on and i think too uh you know not across the board to a great extent it's still relatively difficult trading conditions and there's a lot of competition out there between you know multinationals internationals and online and a lot of these businesses that will be nominated do operate in those spaces as well don't get me wrong but i think it's really important that the public out there you know we often wonder what can we do that doesn't cost us anything well back your local business nominate your local business if they mean something to you and get them uh get them hopefully into a a short list and who's to say where it could go from there because it's a badge of honor that that business then can wear for the entire year and beyond it certainly is and we had a net Houston speaking yesterday from FM services about that very thing that they use their they use their application as they get their staff to help do the applications for the awards but then they also use them for marketing purposes and for purposes of doing tenders so people will often ask you know what what awards have you won and then a county chamber business awards is one of them and and putting all that out there it's such such a good thing for a company to do how important is it is do you think that the businesses park there you know sometimes we can be a little bit we can be a little bit shy to shout from the rooftops of what we're achieving so how important do you think it is that businesses do pot themselves forward so they can be in the reckoning i think it's really important i think it's really important and and this is one of the things we're always trying you know put yourself forward because you know your business best you know why you're brilliant and one of the questions we have every category has about four questions and one of the questions is why should you win and if i talk to businesses and face to face they could tell me everything about themselves and they're brilliant they are but sometimes they're a bit frightened to go forward um but we've found last year with some of our our highly commended so we get three per category and the winner and two highly commended they were they were going out there telling people they were highly commended and as well which was really good yeah and i suppose as an asset as well you know there's a night out at the end of this and i like the i like the business yeah exactly i like the business through irish reward as well because it's not surprisingly sponsored by lin linra linra letter kenny but it also kind of you know again if you are a business that does business through irish uh you know what a brilliant marketing tool again so throw your name in the hat for that one there's a full list of categories and then the the voting process is there a public voting element to this and we know that well yeah what happens next is we ask businesses to nominate themselves on the forum and we then that's open until the 14th of july and then we our judges will look at the short listing for that and just based on what they got in and we hope they will send out an independent judge or judge probably on zoom actually to talk to people and then they come back make their final decisions essentially but we usually what we do with the last three in each category is we usually put it out to a public poll just and part of that's engagement you know and we do judges do take that into consideration yeah and everyone there i mean this is all done a lot in social media so you'll you'll see a post coming up all the sponsors tagged um and everyone who's involved tagged so that we want the businesses to come september when the short lists go out the businesses will start talking about themselves as well we love to profile them and i know last year you did great work with us on profiling our businesses when we got to that stage as well now there's a many many categories and and i'm sure all businesses will find a space in one of those so get nominating yourself and and just in terms of and in the last 30 seconds from from where must your business operate to be included it you can be anywhere don't it go leaner letter can in the Irish business your Irish is the only one letter Kenny and you do not have to be a chamber member to be involved in this anyone can apply get your name in the hat okay brilliant stuff i'm sure we'll talk again just to remind people as the deadline closes just to make sure everybody gets an opportunity to nominate themselves but for now Tony thank you very much indeed okay thanks Greg and we'll talk about when the the event is happening as well Tony Forrester CEO of letter Kenny chamber there thank you very much for all of you who listened to the program those of you who watched the show great to have you on board we're back with you tomorrow morning from nine with the friday panel talking through some of the big issues of the week and of course michael and fenule will be in with us from 11 as well and that and so much more besides thanks to caroline and neve who worked on the show but for me great use and the team enjoy the rest