 just mentioned, it's time for a news update at 9 o'clock and it's over to Catherine Gaffney. Thanks Greg, good morning. Wearing masks in public and in schools could soon be phased out if Neffat gives the green light to the lifting of the practice when it meets later today. The Taoiseach hinted that a change could be on the way with the expectation the government will be given the go ahead to lift the legal requirement for wearing face masks, masks in the likes of shops, schools and on public transport. Paul Moyner, Professor of Immunology at Maneuth University is backing the move. I think this virus is not going to go away, it's going to continue to exist in various forms. There will be new variants but if we don't lift the restrictions now when will we lift them? That would be the question when is the best time and I think we've reached a stage where our protection is as good as we're going to get. Merrin says a status red wind warning may be issued for tomorrow as storm units arrives in Ireland. A status yellow wind, rain and snow warning will kick in for Donegal and the rest of the country from 1 a.m. with mass power outages and coastal flooding possible. A number of southern and western counties will be under a status orange wind warning from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. tomorrow morning. But forecaster with Merrin, Jerry Murphy, says winds may be more severe than previously expected. We have orange warnings in operation for Galway, Clare, Limerick, Cork, Kerry, Waterford and Wexford but and the rest of the country is under a yellow level warning but there is a possibility that those warnings will be upgraded in some counties when the whole thing is reviewed as we go through this morning. So storm units looks like being a very significant storm. And people with outpatient appointments in hospitals should be given free parking. That's according to Andrews Pat or Tobin, an independent TD, Cahill Berry, who are putting forward a bill in the DAW later which would allow three hours of free parking for visits. Deputy Tobin says it's badly needed. Typically it costs about 800 euros a month for a cancer patient just for the extra charges. So things like travel to and from hospitals, overnights and BNBs or hotels to access services. And also there's an average of about 1400 euros of a drop in income. So the idea that's when they go to hospital that they have to pay car parking fees is just nonsense at this stage. Whether or not today will be a blustery day with bright spells and showers, some heavy and with hail, highest temperatures of 5 to 7 degrees. We're back with more at 10 o'clock until then. Good morning. You there, working in bed. You could be finishing that presentation in the park. It's three degrees. Imagine, Sarah, ice cream in one hand, Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in the other. But I want to add cat gifts. And just a lazy flick of your S-pen. Oh, meow. Get back out there with the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Pre-order yours at selected Vodafone stores nationwide or Vodafone.ie. Purchase by 5th of April and claim Galaxy Buds Pro from Samsung. Claim on samsung.com within 60 days of receipt. Terms apply. It's good to have you on board for another edition of the 9 till noon show. And how'd you get in touch? I'll remind you for those tuning in for the first time. You have your say via WhatsApp or text to 08 660 25,000. If you want to give us a call that number to speak to Caroline directly is 07 491 25,000. Your emails come in to us via comments at highlandradio.com. You can always post a letter. Greg Hughes, Highland Radio Mountain Top Letter Kenny. And welcome to you as you join us across our social media. You can comment there as well. If you want to watch the program, go to our website, highlandradio.com. You'll see a link there and you can watch it in browser or pop it out or go straight to our Facebook pages. Right, lots to get through. So let's crack on with the newspapers this morning and we'll start with the Donegal Democrat. A Donegal doctor has warned that the county is facing a shortage of GPs due to the shortfall in younger doctors joining general practices in recent years with a significant number of GPs due to retire in the next five years. And younger replacements are not in position to take over. Estrenolar based doctor Dennis McCauley said getting suitable candidates to replace retired doctors is going to be a problem and it's going to be a problem right across the country and something which is going to take require a government response. And we did hear some suggestions yesterday that the Minister of Health does believe something has to be done and he thinks he's the man to do it. Well, Dr McCauley went on to say there is a capacity issue in general practice generally. The chairman of the GP committee on the Irish medical organization said. Okay, on to the Donegal news now. And now for round two, wind, rain and snow warnings remain in place in Donegal with more disturbed weather conditions to come. Mettern has worn last night from my perspective. It wasn't as bad as I feared. What was it like where you are? Of course, it all depends where you live. The direction of the wind you can be more sheltered during one storm than you might another. But last night didn't seem quite as bad to me as was feared. But a status yellow wind warning for the entire country came into effect from midday yesterday as the first of two storms hit bringing disruptive and damaging winds. The warning remains in place until this morning. An initial status orange warning was downgraded. Storm Dudley brought damaging gusts as has been reported. And now of course, we have a different storm coming through one with we're not going to see the worst the winds apparently, but we could see snow driving snow, which will make driving tomorrow morning potentially difficult. Okay, the trochanal tribute in this morning, the government's the controversial sorry sliding scale model in the government's micro address scheme has been scrapped even before they saw it saw the light of the first of of concrete. The politically naive proposal was a daft as daft as it was unrealistic and it was always doomed for the skip despite the best efforts of Dara O'Brien to talk it up as the next biggest thing since Noah built the arc. The sliding scale is to be replaced with a range of eight options. However, given the chain of full storms and broken promises along with anticipated caps on costs, nobody is claiming the battle has been won. It's very far from the finishing line. You can read more coverage of that story and a much more of course on the front of an inside the trochanal tribute today. The dairy news a moment of stay was the reaction of the Dairy Chamber of Commerce following this week's lifting of COVID-19 restrictions across the city and the north. Health Minister Robin Swan made the announcement that as from Tuesday last all legal restrictions in the north were to be replaced by guidance and that could be what's on the cards in the Republic when nephat meet later today. In fact, there's talk that they could be disbanded in the not too distant future. That being said, there are those are opposed to the expected lifting of mask wearing mandates. Unions representing staff in retail and public transport have urged caution over the ending of face mask rules. The scrapping of the last population wide health regulation is expected to be discussed at what could be the final meeting of the National Public Health Emergency Team. The government is anticipating a recommendation that will bring an end to laws that require masks to be worn in shops, schools and on public transport. And I think one thing, you know, and I'm not to preach, but when I'm speaking, I'm sort of being conscious of my own behaviour or my own attitudes is that there are going to be a lot of people if they do lift these mask mandates that might still choose to wear masks. As we heard from Dr. Dennis McCawley yesterday, there could be that student in school. It could be people at mass. It could be people in shops. It could be people sitting in their cars on their own. A lot of people seem to like to criticise people that forget to take the mask off. It's just understanding that they may still be fearful and to give them the space. And if that's what they want to do, respect that that's what they want to do. But the government is anticipating a recommendation that will bring an end to laws that require masks to be worn in shops, schools and on public transport. However, General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Patricia King said the rules should be maintained for another few months given the current level of Covid cases and deaths. And I understand that. And I could really see the argument in favour of that for their protection. But it would have to be also along the lines of the fact that teachers... I don't mean this as controversial as it sounds. That teachers aren't in pubs where it's wedged with no masks. That they aren't in nightclubs where it's wedged with no masks or aren't in restaurants. And if they weren't not going into those spaces, then maybe you could say, right, is there some justification for children having to wear masks for another month or so. But I presume that generally the members of these unions are operating normally in society. And you could say yes, but a classroom is very different. It might have been different from the way it used to be. But with no limits and capacity and people mingling as they are, the argument for their retention to me, I have yet to be convinced by any argument for the retention. But what do you guys think? I'll wait 60, 25,000 WhatsApps or texts. I also want your views on this story. It's a difficult one to comment on because I'm a man. But this is the news that the National Women's Council of Ireland has said a forthcoming rally represents the moment of protest or one moment of protest after a minister said it was regrettable that no female government TD or senator had been invited to speak. A rally calling for political leadership and action on women's equality is to take place outside the door on March 5th. Among the speakers are Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, Labour TD Ivana Bakic, Social Democrat co-leader Roshin Shortall and people before profits Breed Smith. Female members of Finnegal, Finnefour and the Green Party have criticised the council over their exclusion from the rally with Minister for Justice Helen McAtee on Wednesday saying the situation was regrettable. Now maybe there's more to this than I understand. But I am sure and I would hope that the National Women's Council of Ireland would agree that there are women within the government parties and in very senior positions in some cases that are very much bang in the table or the table at cabinet at pushing a lot of the issues that they have concerns with. The system itself, I imagine, is designed as such that even these opposition TDs might find it difficult to change things when they're in power. But if this is something about all-inclusive and national rape crisis centres involved in this as well, you know, a lot of people listening to this programme are supporters of Finnefour, Finnegal and Labour. Would they be welcome at this rally? Would they turn up at this rally to hear the government being slammed by absolutely everyone and the government not having a platform to share their concerns or say what they're doing to try and address them? That to me doesn't feel inclusive and if it's supposed to be an inclusive organisation and it's about all women, well I don't know if I were a Finnefour or Finnegal female supporter, would I even go to that? I might feel excluded by it. But as I say, maybe there's more to it than I'm seeing there. Possibly there actually is, but anyway, that's my gut feeling. Right, where are we now here in the sun? The two officials charged with fixing Ireland's health care service. We yesterday quizzed about their colossal combined salary of £700,000 and off to pay the wages of 18 nurses. It comes as a tense meeting of the Dolls Health Committee heard. There are 800,000 people on waiting lists for treatment with one 92-year-old left waiting in a emergency department in court for 50 hours this week. Officials said politicians, officials told politicians that the HSE probably won't hit the target of recruiting 10,000 staff this year and will have to correct their financial records for 2020. Now a lot of those being quizzed at this thing yesterday, if you combine their wages as elected representatives, you'd pay another 18 nurses at least I would suggest, but anyway, I think you can't really chuck stones if you're sitting in a glass house. The Irish Daily Mirror tells us, and this is an ongoing conversation, but it's a tricky one because how do you resolve it? Do you stop young people or professional people heading a football in the game of soccer? It's such an integral part of it, but there is increasing evidence and huge studies that show heading a football damages brain signal pathways. New research shows that blood samples from pro players found specific alterations in levels of the brain biomarkers called microRNAs. These cell molecules are known to be altered in the mild traumatic brain injury patients. Researchers analysed blood samples after three scenarios, a head injury during a match, repetitive heading in training and high intensity exercise with no head contact. Lead author Dr. Steen Bahersadmo of the Norwegian School of Sports Science said, with millions playing football worldwide, this might ultimately have a substantial influence on public health. Now, there was a bigger study done in Britain whereby they analysed the medical records of pro players going back to the 70s, back to the days when they were heading, you know, the old leather case balls and there was very, very strong evidence that very strong evidence that it did increase issues like dementia and what have you down the line. But interestingly, that report didn't show that the modern ball versus the older, heavier ball, that there was any major difference in the impact it had on brain damage to the brain. Very finally, in the Irish Daily Star this morning, an Irish teacher has been stabbed by a 12-year-old pupil at a school in Spain. He was taken to hospital after reportedly being knifed in the back yesterday morning during a class. The drama occurred at around 10.45 a.m. at a school in the northeastern city of Murcia, identified as Montiguado School, the unnamed stabbing victim described locally as a 41-year-old Irish national, is understood to take English and technology at the boys' only school. We wish him a full and speedy recovery. Okay, now, our first guest will join us very shortly on the programme, but it is set time for our first and brief commercial break. The newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Centra, mountaintop Letterkenny. 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So visit our showrooms where our friendly and experienced team will be ready to help you. Charles Bonner & Sons Ballet Buffet in the Stove Store.ie where you can always do a good deal better. Hi Treesamanion here with a road safety alert for bad weather. Your vehicle may be blown off course in strong winds so slow down. Watch out too for vehicles and cyclists veering across the road and fall in debris like branches. Visit orsa.ie from the Road Safety Authority. Highland Radio Time Checks brought to you by Letter Kenny Shopping Centre, the centre of shopping in Donegal. Free parking and shopping all under one roof. Letter Kenny Shopping Centre bringing you the time at... 17 minutes past nine. John on Facebook says, and we'll be talking about this later on in the program, you would have heard it in the news this morning, regards free parking for outpatient clinics. Yes, there should be free parking tickets issued with the appointment letter for that day and have the time commencing 15 minutes before the appointment on the ticket expire two hours after the appointment. Then all one, then everyone would have to do, all one would have to do, beg your pardon John, is to display it on the day. That makes an awful lot of sense indeed. As I say, we'll be talking about that in the future. This is proposals to have taxation pay for parking at hospitals and not charge people because the costs can be astronomical. Greg, keep wearing, keep mask wearing in place as outbreaks in schools are high, even an outbreak in a hospital where all these deaths come from is that one week or a period of time. If you're talking about the national figure, it could have happened in the last week, it's when the deaths were reported. So it's not to say that all those deaths happened in that one week. A massive thank you says this caller to the ESB who put us back on last night after a two hour outage in the Admarin, Stranawler area, fair play to them, brilliant stuff. As it relates to the banning of the government female politicians from that rally taking place in Dublin at the start of March, Finifor, Finigale and the Greens are doing nothing for women. Look at the lack of funding for women's issues please. That means though that when you listen to the female politicians on the radio, you don't believe anything they're saying. I imagine it's very hard to make any progress from within, but I respect your point of view. Right, the Irish Defence Forces, Oglen Aheron will commemorate the centenary of the handover of Finna camp from the British to the Irish military forces with a series of events taking place between Finna camp and Bondoren on this Thursday. Today, Captain Neil Ledwith joins us on the programme. Good to talk to you again. Neil, thanks for joining us. You are of course for the listeners, not yourself, of the 28th Infantry Battalion of the Irish Defence Forces based in Finna camp. A significant day. Tell us about the significance of it, Neil, from your perspective. Well, good morning. We are looking at a very significant day here. As everyone will have been aware, the government in the last number of years from 2016 onwards has decided to convene a series of ceremonies, I suppose, to mark the various different milestones of the revolutionary era. One of the key ways in which the newly formed Irish state manifested itself was when the occupying forces, the British, began to withdraw from police military facilities all across Ireland and hand them to Irish forces which were being established at the time. It would have been a hugely significant day that, that actual handing over, I imagine, of living there at that time. Absolutely. I mean, one of the things about Finna is that from its establishment in 1895, Finnair camp had trained the troops of Empire. They went on to, men trained in Finnair, went on to fight in battles in South Africa in the Boer War, the 36th Auster Division trained here from 1914 before they went to Messin and the Somme. So that presence withdrawing and being replaced by troops who were Irish was the first time that an Irish military force had taken over a facility in this area. It was very significant as the Union flag came down and the Irish tricolour was raised for the first time 100 years ago today in Finnair camp. And tell us what is planned for today to mark this historic anniversary, Captain? Well, first thing this morning, the events will commence with the units will be having a mass in Bundorn and at 12, 30 hours they will begin to parade from the west end of the town up through the main street. So they will be led by a pipe band and the battalion headquarters of the 28th Infantry Battalion followed by a company, 28th Infantry Battalion who would have historically been based in Lifford in the prior school there. They will parade through the town and finish up at the Old Astoria Hotel. Following that they will in bus and the personnel will head out to Finnair where we'll hold a ceremonial marching in ceremony to mark the occasion 100 years ago today where local men marched in and received control of Finnair camp, an officer of the British Rifle Brigade handed over the camp and Finnair for the first time was in control by local persons. Okay. How many would be taking part in the march? It sounds like it's going to be quite the visual. Yeah, there will be a significant military presence. We are looking at approximately 130 personnel that will be moving through the main street in Bundorn. Following that when the personnel gets to Finnair they will partake in a ceremony here in Finnair camp to mark the occasion. The flag will be raised as it was 100 years ago today and there will be a capability display so we will be exhibiting artifacts from the last 100 years tracing the story of the Irish Defence Forces from the establishment of the National Army in 1922 all the way up to the present day. The formation of the 28th Infantry Battalion here in Finnair camp on the 3rd of September 1973 to our involvement in UN peacekeeping over the last number of years. And obviously Finnair and Bundorn both bypassed now but people might still use that road. Sorry to be a bit boring on this but for motorists there will be some presumably traffic disruption but obviously for those travelling for instance from Balabafé to Sligo they can use the bypass for that but people should be aware that there's bound to be some level of disruption to traffic in that area. Yes we anticipate a small level of disruption for approximately 15 minutes as personnel mark from just outside Finnair and in through the main gate. The Guardi will be out and they will be managing traffic so we would urge the public to cooperate with the Guardi and any disruption to local traffic should be very limited. And I'm sure the locals will be more than accommodating given the day that's in it. And Captain in terms of how people can access do you know if it's being streamed or anything obviously you know a lot of people would like to be a part of it but might not be able to attend because of the timing and that type of stuff or will we wait photographs and that type of thing how will people be able to sort of be a part of this event? As part of the event we will be posting images and video to our own social media account but also if members of the public would like to look for the Irish Defence Forces on social media the Defence Forces has presences on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and highlights of today's events will be posted there more than likely in the next 24 hours. And Finner and those who were based on it, trained on it, served there has contributed more than we could cover if we had the whole day Neil over the course of the last 100 years and people I presume you know that obviously the links there with with letter Kenny and Lyfford as well you know a lot of people right across the region listening to this in one way or other either directly or by one degree or two degree separation will have some sort of a connection to Finner? Yes the 28 Infantry Battalion was formed in 1973 and part of the reason it was is that it was formed in response to the escalating troubles in Northern Ireland and its composition was predominantly local men and women who knew the who knew the terrain who knew Donegal so we are very proud of our local links but also with lots of people from further afield who have passed through Finner for many years we hosted the Air Corps when they operated search and rescue so there are many links to Finner both That's not really that long ago was it that the search and rescue was based at Finner? We're looking back to approximately I think they withdrew in 1999 if I'm you know it sounds about right yeah indeed okay well listen it's a busy day it's a momentous day as well best of luck to you captain and and everyone involved in it and look forward to seeing some of the pictures and maybe grab some of the video too thank you very much for previewing it with us today no problem thank you very much for your time no problem that is Captain Neil Ledworth there of the 28th Infantry Battalion Irish Defence Forces based at Finner Camp Henry on Facebook says a one-off pass should be issued to all cancer patients this is a parking pass that is placed on the dashboard on each visit to the hospital as on many occasions patients may have to go to the hospital which may not be appointment related example having to go in because they are feeling unwell infectious infections and many other reasons that do happen with people suffering with cancer Francis Angala who are also on Facebook you keep us busy there this morning thank you discover Bond Doran are going to live stream the parade through the main street on their Facebook page I believe okay very good I think Shane Smith might be involved in that if so and even if not so I'm sure it's going to be up to a very high standard okay stay with us back in a minute the 9 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 9102127 which is why this collaboration oh hello sorry no sorry you're breaking up there am I hearing connection troubles if you run a business you need reliable broadband to help you grow not hold you back Vodafone business broadband with always connected technology business level care and walkout working installation guarantee ensures your business stays connected drop into your local Vodafone store today and ask your business advisor Vodafone together we can for full terms visit Vodafone.ie slash 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today visit bnscu.ie or free phone 1800 290 390 bns credit union limited is regulated by the central bank of ireland now via text good morning greg the female government ministers have a very public platform to speak on championing women's issues anytime they choose with access to media etc my thoughts on the nwci speakers is that for some lots it's the rare opportunity for them to have such a platform i think it's fair to use it as such and government ministers can echo the message to the wider public indeed but a lot of the speakers likes of mary lou mcdonald have the the same platform the double rape crisis center do as well but i take your point and listen this is not a hill i'm going to die on i'm just saying like locally sometimes when there's really important issues like something to do with the hospital and if one particular party or group call a protest you generally don't see then many general members of the public that might support government parties attending because they believe that it's a a political rally for the other side and i would have thought and as i say i'm probably ignorant on this that if it is about uniting and everyone bringing everyone forward you don't sort of then exclude the potentially the 30 or 40 percent of the female population that might vote finna gal finna gal finna fall or the greens but let's just say you know there's people know much more about these things than i do um an iphone mobile phone was found sorry in lower main street letter kenny on wednesday night we have a number here if it's yours uh so you'll know if you've lost your iphone uh someone has found it it was lost at lower main street letter kenny it's in their possession and they will get it back to you if you contact us we'll pass on their number uh a call that says one third of the population of pro-life yet the women's council didn't include a single pro-life td such as carol nolyn as a representative for these women easy to see the women's council is government funded okay well that's the other side yesterday we were speaking to uh cancer albert daherty about the lack of a god of presence in caron donna and this is in light of well first commitments that were made some five years ago four years ago for improvements in that regard in this area but also because of uh a problem with antisocial behavior in the area and potentially long response times for gaurdy to get to caron donna donal joins us on the program now how you donal hello uh i'm good what's your view on this well i am uh i retired i was a reserve for 12 years and i worked in that or kenny for and i had to retire because of my age but it is the use of the reserve it's as simple as that that's the way it was on they do not i don't understand why and gaurdy she cannot have an asset which is called the garter reserve and fail to use it you know it's uh it's not used it is for i mean one of our one of our main things was supposed to be doing community in the community and as i say that is the community public order things like that that is what the garter reserve is there for but unfortunately it seems that our commissioner because at the end of the day the commissioner seems to uh i don't know why they won't use it can i ask what you did as a member of the garter reserve uh donal obviously you were prepared to do what i was ever asked of you within the sort of the boundaries of that position but what well i can absolutely i can tell you that as a member of the reserve like most of my duties now would have been uh doing public order on uh basically on a saturday night for a rally weekend the garter reserves like since 2014 have have powers under the public order act which would be the main thing for it would be drunk and things like that we have road traffic we have drug and non fatal but most of my duties now would have been on a saturday night patrolling in letter county i also would have done football matches i would have done marathons as i say the rally weekend uh and how did it work did would you get a call from you know local super or whatever and say right donal we are allocating you to let a county main street between such and such of ours on on the saturday night is that how it works well you're attached to a unit like um like anybody else like any of like there's units in in garity chicano and uh you get attached to a unit then the sergeant there's a sergeant in charge for you obviously it's a sergeant in charge in the station but i'd say for instance there was a football or the rally weekend you'd ask can you work and when when can you work most of the other times i would have just said i would have fallen and said i can work this saturday night or i can work on a friday night so you had to be proactive a lot of the time most of the time i would i would have to be proactive yes i would i would decide that i'm working on this saturday and i would go in or i'm working and was that something that frustrated you don't know did you sort of think to yourself well there's me and others here we're we're you know we're there to ease an issue if there's more of us safe for instance on letter county main street presumably that would free up other resources maybe to be elsewhere or maybe to have a a bigger presence was there a frustration that you felt that you had to push yourself for some of these gigs well i have to say i really enjoyed doing it and i like i was i was very proactive and i would i would go in but what annoyed me probably would think with the garter reserve is there wasn't when it was established great idea but i don't think they put an awful lot more thought into it you know it just kind of seemed to leave it i had always stated that we uh we should be told we weren't in fairness to tonight sergeant and charge he did he did text i'd ask some people to work but i felt that it should be basically done on a more regular basis yeah you know you shouldn't have to wait for maybe rally weekend or something like that i thought we should be said look can you work this weekend yes or no suppose that and ask them text and we didn't i i would have maybe said no i'm going in if you understand and in terms of did you would you always have to accompany a full member of the guard here how did that work yeah this this is this is where the problem lies you see like if you're if you were walking down the main street and you have to chase as i say you have to chase somebody and the garter with chases somebody you can chase the other person you know but i can't go out onto the main street on my own i can't go out onto the main street with another garter reserve i must have a full-time guard with me yeah i mean you could argue that that does double up resources potentially but it doesn't yeah it doesn't make sense as back in 2018 and this was one meeting of the jpc there were calls at that time for the increased recruitment of garter reserve members and their deployment to sort of address the the declining numbers of guardian the county i'm not sure if anything come of that i mean how many do you know how many of you were or are in in in donnie gall uh donnell well i can tell you at the minute in in the whole country there are only 447 garter reserves right so that's kind of lip service to the lip service really to the initiative isn't it and i absolutely can tell you that and that this is packed because this this came from unguarded chicano when as i say i finished in 2001 but in 2020 there was only 250 that actually were active that year and when i started in 2008 and we'll say we'll say 2009 there was 1106 garter reserves in 2017 when you interviewed and i don't know if you remember this uh a garter reserve jerry murphy and uh he was the one that said that you sort of put him up to the bear reserve put it out screaming out of the station well that was me because i like that much but at that stage it was down to the 447 i wonder to other certain divisions that are utilizing them more you know i would i wonder are they evenly spread around the county oh sorry the country or there might be one particular division where the the valley was seen and they're utilized more it'd be an interesting to get the statistics on that i think i i think the main the main problem with with the reserve is simply the fact that you have to be you have to have a full-time member as i say what i said was i i actually absolutely don't think that any that should be always two guards but if you were allowed to go out on your own that means that you could go out with another reserve yeah so there's two reserves out there plus daylight ours it's a different story from night timers you know as i say most i would i would think that most people they like nothing better than seeing a uniform on the street during the day at anything that gives them that i know so many it's a huge deterrent i mean if if people who are up to no good see someone in a uniform be it a guard or a guard a reserve patrolling an area they're of course less inclined to engage in criminality in that area i mean that's a non-brainer isn't it we can there's no you can't contradict that can you not you but i personally i would assume that i would assume that if you see if you see a uniform you know you think that has been proactive people feel good and if you're going to do something and you see me on the main street in the uniform you think maybe not you know at the very least you'd hit the brakes driving down the main street well that's true but i i just feel that you know as i say i joined in 2008 i joined those air 2008 and as i say there's been four commissioners and five ministers of justice every government well i think it's been is there an elephant in the room here donal is there a bit of resistance is there a bit of resistance from the guard unions well this is what this is what i would find so surprised i don't that i don't understand when i went i went in that door into letter candy and it was actually robbie mccaillum the guard that was killed was the first guard that let me in through the door that's such a nice fella and always asked me how i was getting on although we didn't really know each other all that i never met any resistance in letter candy i worked with fantastic people i mean i would be no old i was 52 when i went into the reserve i was working with young people and it surprised me so much how they went beyond their you know they're i know we're probably saying this but i'm just wondering you know if you have more reserves maybe the people could be afraid there might be less overtime but that that story went out the window when when i joined in 2008 we had the highest like the data numbers were at the 15 000 they were at the height at that stage it started going down and down yet we had a thousand reserves at that stage now in 2014 they started recruitment the numbers started going up and the number of reserves like it's down to four hundred forty seven so that you know okay did you feel dull when you were on duty right do you feel that you your role freed up resources for the guardie to do other work as well or do you feel that you were there just to increase the numbers do you know what i mean like do you think operationally the guardie were able to do more work with the reserves there or just was a greater presence on the busy nights in a particular place for example i have to say both because if i was out usually like not all the time you were out with somebody else you could maybe out in the car three of you you know two guards and if they got somebody and they had to go into the station you were able to go out in the car and you know keep that car out and keep out on the road or if you were even on the beat with the guard if one had to go in you were able to stay with the other one and you know keep the beat going so i mean it was a bit of both right we're we're a resource but unfortunately as i say and it's nothing to do i don't think it's to do with divisions or areas here it's to do with the commissioner for some reason each and every commissioner has failed and it's in that it's within their reach and these people could be put in their community okay if you look at special constables in uh england and the john darm in france and in america they all go out and they go into their own community okay it's interesting i mean listen it would solve the problem that we're talking of here it would help the current commissioners just by appointment had a one or i think it's a two-year extension so unless he changes his mind the the the status quo will maintain for at least uh till i think at least is it 2025 uh right okay listen thanks for that insight donal it's been really interesting i think it's something you missed that's the impression i'm getting from you that you you a bit peed off that you had to stop because of age absolutely miss it i would love to do it and i have to say i do recommend it to anybody it's not for everybody how can i sensitively ask what age you have to stop being a god of reserve without outing you 65 okay all right okay okay you have to start at 65 but i did actually i was at i did ask the commissioner i went to the commissioner to stay on because with covid just i thought yeah all hands on deck i thought it would be but unfortunately they really said it against it i would i did love it i did enjoy it i work with great people it's a great thing but i would love to see it progress but what a world if your keen eager life experience in good health to throw you on the scrap heap at 65 might be slightly dramatic language but it seems to it's that's crazy well i have to agree with you from that one yeah but uh no that was the way it was you know i mean i have to say they called the rd my sergeant and super and all that they're best to but commissioner refused and uh that was it okay well at least you you you your worth was clearly being recognized locally if not nationally which i imagine is is some encouragement donal listen thank you for that very interesting stuff i appreciate it all right take care of yourself donal any views on that 086 60 25 000 whatsapps or texts 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 cars ireland.ie presents when car buying becomes cat fishing oh what's that smell i raise pigeons i bring them in the back the odd time who they have a very particular scent it's horrible you'll get used to us cars ireland isn't just fast and easy we only work with trusted dealerships so you can find the right car without the unwanted surprises cars ireland.ie click click from from if you've got magic moments or great memories captured on your smartphone now is a great time to have them printed at magies.ie simply upload your favorite photos choose your size and finish and magies will take care of the rest with the results delivered to your door prices are from just 12 cent and there's also creative options available preserve your memories today at magies.ie the chutnam festival is almost here get informed with the arish fields award-winning chutnam magazine produced in association with goffs trainers willy mullins gordon elliott and henry debromhead all feature read the story behind the unbeaten honeysuckle simon rollins provides expert analysis and there's interviews with many other owners trainers and jockeys hoping to visit the winner's enclosure the arish field chutnam magazine in shops now or order your copy on the arishfield.ie at cherry more kitchens and bedrooms we are now operating out of one new state-of-the-art showroom in donnie galtown and we invite you to visit our new 5000 square foot donnie galtown showroom to discover the latest eye-catching designs remember at cherry more you're dealing directly with a manufacturer which means high quality kitchens at factory prices start planning your dream kitchen or bedroom by calling cherry more on 074 9725 822 cherry more 25 years delivering value quality and service all over arland bus air and a recruiting professional bus drivers nationwide for seasonal work commencing april 2022 all you need is a full category D license digital taco and cpc route and fleet training will be provided for further information and to apply online go to bus air and dot i e forward slash jobs island radio weather updates with arland west airport thinking of a sun holiday this summer with the family flight to alicante malaga faro mayorka and malan with ryan air island west airport you're flying all right let's look at the weather today blustery with bright spells and showers some heavy and hail temperatures 5 to 7 degrees now the wind chill will make you feel like it's minus 10 degrees believe it or not in places storm units will move up from the southwest tonight overnight and friday morning will be stormy with severe and damaging northwest winds and gusts they'll be falls of rain sleet and snow with localized blizzards and a risk of coastal flooding at high tide early friday morning so be careful okay michelle joins us on the program now hi i'm michelle uh sorry michelle i'm okay how are you uh yeah struggling yeah and and frustrated angry i don't want to put emotions in your mouth michelle so to speak tell us why yeah you were so moved that you you posted on social media about a situation that obviously um has you really feeling uh i don't know as i said i don't want to tell you how you feel but i presume it's angry michelle is it uh sad uh frustrated disappointed it's about your son isn't it it is my son he's 16 um he was diagnosed with autism and ADHD when he was just before he turned five and he has been dealt with by cams up in letter kenny for the last 11 years he had a wonderful psychiatrist for many years who retired and then he moved on to another psychiatrist as they do they they do swap around children with special needs do also feel they need routines they need to be told that things are going to happen and his last psychiatrist change was we weren't even involved in a discussion about it all right and um it under his previous psychiatrist could you see progress uh yeah gains being a psychiatrist he has now now of course you know i can't mention any name i would never mention any names because that's not fair people will deal with things differently with my son now he is um he's struggling greg i have got a video of him now he had a really bad mouth done yesterday evening he his autism and ADHD are constantly used constantly used when he goes to see his psychiatrist his psychiatrist does not listen to what ryan is saying to him ryan is screaming out with difficulties in his brain his brain is taking over his life he explains it to me like there is a constant song playing over and over in his head and he can't get his thoughts through the noise but he has the he has the the the ability to describe it so and it sounds awful um that yeah i can only imagine how that must feel constant for him is it michelle 24 hours a day it's gotten progressively worse over the last six months um every time we when we do get an appointment to go up to can there's no communication they're so listening it's either it's his autism is ADHD his hormones let's tweak his medication so you believe that they need to focus on a mental illness here that is maybe it's exacerbated but it's not the conditions that you talk of here he needs cancelling to address okay i get you he we have called out and called out again and again and again for a psychologist to deal with how ryan feels apart from his autism and ADHD because ryan is the highest spectrum so he is able to tell you whether he feels that is what it is or what isn't um he had a support worker who was there one minute and then dropped off the face of the earth without a word of warning and this has happened on more than one occasion with more than one support worker do you feel that this is a fault with the system or do you feel that people may be trying to avoid dealing with what sounds like a complex case i think it's both to be completely honest when we go to see his psychiatrist it's all about the medication Greg i took him to see his psychiatrist in august for sleep problems explain the situation said that he needed help with his sleep pattern because children with ADHD can suffer with problematic sleep he changed his whole the whole of his medication now i don't know whether a lot of people or yourself would know Greg you don't medicate autism autism is not medicaid you cannot medicate autism he is medicated for his ADHD and nothing more than that but the medication was changed in the space of the three months three months it was changed for ryan nearly had a psychotic break nearly ended up in st connell's and i thought i was going to have to put him on the suicide watch list so that should be an emergency though we tried that that's yeah yep we got called back every time and it was like okay you know the first lot of medication it didn't really affect him second time it was up you could see it coming third time it was up it flawed him so do you feel that the violent angry the aghd in terms of trying to deal with that needs to be part for the time being and focus on the mental health problem he has yes i think that they they need to i know that they are specialists in their fields but they also have to listen to specialists like themselves listen to the person the child my son can talk he can tell you how he feels i can tell you what he deals with but you have to park his disabilities and remember that he is not that he is not the measure of what he has yeah it is not what defines the whole of him they have to see past that and focus on the mental health issues how how are you coping how is he coping because as you say this is 24 7 you want to do everything you can to help him your your maternal instinct caring instinct just wants to make him better and you can't it must be absolutely devastating i am heartbroken just listening to it and imagining this situation for you michelle it must be so so tough great it's sorry it's just so difficult you raise your children i'm a single mother you raise your children you try and do everything you can for them you protect them from the world but you can't protect them from themselves and the people that can help them deal with what's going on with themselves sit back i would all i can say is sit back and do nothing take no notice of what they're being told my son yesterday had a meltdown and he screamed and he screamed get out of my head leave me alone i just want to have my life back mum helped me he's aware in the software is is even worse almost in a way yes because he knows what's going on and he knows that everything in his life is falling apart and he knows that he wants to see a psychologist he's screaming out to see a psychologist what fix is this michelle do you need to speak to someone that listens to him that listens to you and says right okay let's talk about this issue let's talk about this this this issue he has as it relates to his mental health that voice in his head the loss of sort of control and deal and focus solely on that to try and medicate it or cancel it or whatever is required is that the hope at the moment michelle that's that that that is what the focus is somebody that will listen somebody that will talk what he has listen to what he's got to say take it on board and take him seriously because he is literally a broken child with nowhere to go much leaves you a broken mom as well well greg would you mind ran did ask me he he wrote a couple of bullet points yesterday evening because obviously he's a school but he wanted to give people a perspective go ahead read them to us would you mind no i want you to i want his voice to be heard today as well now he has said that um obviously the first part is a bit mute because we're on talking about children's mental health many children such as myself are being given no other option but to watch our lives fall apart it is a crucial time for me as i am almost at my leaving cycle yet i'm forced to look to the future in fear as i am struggling i'm sorry struggling mentally i may not be able to cope they are letting the people down the people down lives are being ruined because of an outrageous mental health issue that children like myself can't control it is absurd to think that we wait months just to have 30 or so minutes of being told the same things leaving empty handed and unsatisfied i have been waiting a long time for help and it just heartens me to have to go into my final years of school struggling alone and that's what he said he's so aware of of the need for for him to to sort of get help i could understand if if he wasn't being able to articulate to these people what he needs but he is and we get trying waiting lists you know i know it's a difficult times i know that we have covered i know that the mental health services won't be no excuse there should be no excuse or barriers to him receiving help it's not severe enough sometimes great they wait until these children hurt themselves and i refuse to wait and see my son physically harm himself before somebody helps him because to the lord i will take them if they do not stand up and deal with this we know that cams in kerry is it kerry or cork had problems we know that it's obviously not just one cams the whole mental health service whether it be for children with special needs or adults it's failing this country well when you hear of when you hear of the the latest controversy the latest scandal in this region in this county as discussed yesterday and previous ones michelle listen we'll come back to this i hope it's helped in some way getting the getting the message out there let's hope it helps in a way that it actually helps your son but we'll stay in touch with you and touch base again and we'll follow this up in any way we can from our end michelle so i hope in some way though nothing has been achieved through this call other than getting the message out that it's it's helped in some way of some form or other other parents parents just need to know that you know their children have rights and what they have to deal with is more than just what they have don't ever let anybody tell you that your child is not worthy of more counseling okay and you made that point really well you really did i appreciate that thank you so much a very difficult thing for you to be talking about so i appreciate you doing it with us thank you for letting me come on great i appreciate it no problem thank you okay it's time for the news at a minute and a half past 10 back with more after the news and a bit three notes is live on air online and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning it's 10 o'clock donal cavena at the news desk a status red wind warning could be issued ahead of the arrival of storm units tomorrow morning an orange wind warning is in place for seven counties across the west and south with a yellow wind rain and snow warning in place for the rest of the country that comes into effect at 1 a.m. midair and says it's possible those warnings could be upgraded after they meet later this morning forecaster jerry murphy says while snow will cause some disruption in parts the wind is the real concern more significantly than overall is the wind now the winds are going to get very strong overnight along the south and the west coast and then those very strong winds will turn to a northwesterly direction and it'll become extremely strong right across the country tomorrow morning wearing masks in public and in schools could soon be faced out if neveth gives the green light to the lifting of the practice when it meets later today the t-shirt hinted last evening a change could be on the way with the exception and expectation that the government will be given to go ahead to lift the legal requirement for wearing face masks in shops schools and on public transport it will go from being a mandate to manners as was suggested yesterday well paul boineham is a professor of immunology at menuth university he's backing the move and i think this virus it's not going to go away it's going to continue to to exist in various forms there will be a new variance but if we don't lift the restrictions now when will we lift them that would be the question when is the best time and i think we've reached the stage where our protection is as good as we're going to get there can you hear stylist patrick gilday says he and his colleagues will continue to wear face coverings in his premises after consulting with clients and with staff we're still going to be wearing masks ourselves and people want to come in without masks no problem that's their personal choice if that's the way we're directed but the team feel for a number of reasons they're still going to wear them number one is for themselves and for that transition of moving back to normality and secondly to give the customers reassurance adony councillor is urging people to take part in a public consultation on how the board of others in the gulf of this should be selected the public and interested organizations are being invited to share their opinions and suggestions in writing with the department in relation to the matter between now and march 25th it's hoped the process will be complete by july councillor me hall column the last book says while this process is a step in the right direction it would be better to return to elections you can hear from councillor me hall column on our website helen radio dot com and the parents association at mobile community college has expressed frustration over slow progress with a long-awaited extension at the school the building was first promised back in 2015 it will effectively be separate to the existing school but linked with a walkway with more detail here's kathryn gaffney the main points of the build are to allow for a canteen with communal eating and setting areas and to provide the students with changing rooms neither of these are properly available in the school currently the awaited building completion will also provide additional hall areas as well as to enlarge all regular existing facilities effectively replacing prefabs at present the association says things are not as far ahead as they hoped and progress has been slow it had been hoped that the full build would be finished welcoming students back in september however that deadline has passed and the association says there have been frustrating delays in june the department of education allowed the tender process to begin a lack of interest in the tender concerning the electrical reserve specialist required a second round of tendering in this area in 2022 in about a week a new round of tenders can begin for the main contract and a contractor could be appointed by september with a forecast it'll be blustery today with bright spells and shards some heavy with hail highest temperatures of five to seven degrees celsius as you've been hearing on the news storm units will move up from the southwest tonight overnight and into tomorrow morning it'll be stormy with severe and damaging northwest winds and gusts falls of rain sleet and snow with localized blizzards a risk of coastal flooding at high tide early tomorrow morning you can check warnings and updates on met dot ie the storm will clear with blustery wintery showers following on tomorrow afternoon and evening and that's how in radio news we're back with news again at 11 o'clock good morning the obituary notices for thursday morning the 17th of february the death has occurred of grogna free knee odorty marinald kindrom fannad grogna's remains are opposing our late residents requiem mass will be held tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock in st mary's church fanavolte followed by burial in the adjoining graveyard family flowers only please donations and loo if desired to fannad day care center care of any family member the requiem mass can be viewed live via st mary's fanavolte and st columbus mass mount facebook page the death has taken place of john harkin new houses collay and formally from movile his remains are opposing at his home funeral from there tomorrow morning a quarter to ten for 11 o'clock funeral mass in st mary's church balibrak movile followed by burial in the adjoining graveyard the death has occurred in australia of joseph gallagher formally of aardlahan clohan brother of shamis and eugene gallagher funeral arrangements to be confirmed later the death has occurred in perth scotland of eileen ward formally of bonawillan kinkashla her remains are arriving home today going to st mary's church kinkashla for approximately half past five where she will repose overnight the funeral mass tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock within termed afterwards in bell crich cemetery the death has taken place of jimmy bradley list karna house karna mogha letter kenny and formally listillion letter kenny jimmy's remains are opposing at his late residence the funeral from there tomorrow morning a quarter past ten going to st eunan's cathedral letter kenny for 11 o'clock recreation mass which can be viewed live on church services dot tv in termed afterwards in conwall cemetery letter kenny family flowers only place donations and lua flowers if desired to the donnie gall hospice care of any family member family and close friends are welcome between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. the death has occurred of mooring temple tear callan sternourla her remains are opposing at her home funeral leaving her home tomorrow morning at half past 10 for recreation mass in the church of mary immaculate sternourla at 11 o'clock in termed afterwards in drumbo cemetery family time on the morning of the funeral place the requiem mass will be streamed live via the parish webcam and the death has taken place of rosaline green green band quigley's point rosalines remains are opposing at st columbus church drone funeral mass will take place this morning at 11 o'clock followed by barry ill in the adjoining graveyard the funeral mass can be viewed live on st columbus drone dot net for more details including any family health guidelines for wakes and funerals please go to highland radio dot com with all the stories that matter across the northwest it's greg hughes on the night and noon show on highland radio okay you're very welcome back to the program a caller says ask michelle has she ever heard of clarden street chiropractor they do amazing amazing work with children and children with autism amazing outcomes i'm not sure if it's could deal with the issues set faced by michelle's son i think at this point they want sort of the adhd and the autism to be set to one side to deal with as described in his own words that the other mental sorry the mental health issues that are bothering him on a 24 seven basis uh there's a coffee and chat morning taking place in the wellness yoga cafe above uh whole green on the church lady letter can eat until 11 a.m this morning uh you've 50 minutes to get there and you're welcome i'm told interesting listening to that man regarding the guard reserve however there are age restrictions of 35 for joining full time which is age discrimination i think if you pass entry criteria and fitness test you should be able to join i think that's a fair and reasonable comment in this stormy and wet weather i think often of the families says this caller living in the mica houses and how scary it must be i also think of the people whose houses were damaged in the last big floods and wondered did they ever get back into their homes or are all issues related to donagall just completely ignored by the government well those homes are still boarded up um if uh you're referring to the homes in bernford and we have people we contact uh on a regular have contact with on a regular basis that situation is still the same and yes as it relates to the mica houses yesterday again there was a a big push on twitter to get that message out and myself sitting thankfully in a secure home i didn't have to worry about what a lot for an awful lot of people in this county have to worry about the wind whistling through your home the bricks maybe it happens in windows and doors you might be used to but whistling through the the walls of your house that rain been driven in to your property and then of course colder weather forecast for the next day or two that moisture uh despite the the cold and trying to heat your house with these huge uh prices for fuel tough heat in the house where the wind's blowing through it okay but also then the further damage caused by this rain being driven in this moisture being driven in uh to the homes and then potentially freezing um it doesn't have to freeze of course and the damage it causes to these blocks that just simply crumble away like we too big so that needs to be resolved as soon as possible Greg if any of uh other listeners living in the Glencott area notice the constant rallying going on day and night in the area revving of engines and such you can hear all over the neighborhood every day from early in the morning uh and late in the evening very annoying and frustration to listen to speed bumps all over the area but doesn't seem to stop boy racers why aren't the god of patrolling this area on a regular basis to catch this dangerous driving uh or dangerous driver who's causing disruption to residents are other listeners aware I saw a video actually on uh shared with me from tiktok it's not in the Glencott area of a person could have been a man could have been one I don't know um driving up a road in rural Donegal it seemed to be rural Donegal anyway weaving backwards and forwards backwards and forwards around corners and what have you not the cleverest thing in the world to post it on social media but if you were coming around the corner and met that person it would could end in disaster because he's making or she's making a decision right but another motorist isn't you know and would just come on that and could be very seriously injured or worse but that other problem that caller is referring to is in the Glencott area at least one motorist in that area they're say responsible for that noise pollution which it is and also what they say is dangerous driving okay um lots to come on the program and I say that all the time but I think it I think it is true we're going to be speaking very shortly to Fianna for Justice spokesperson deputy Jim O Callahan he's calling for tougher sentences or tougher laws to deal with those who attack elderly or vulnerable people and or vulnerable people um in their homes or outside their homes we're going to be talking to him in a moment after these it's time for NCBI bingo on Highland Radio it's 30 the 17th of February jackpot day you're playing for the jackpot prize of 8800 euro on the pink sheet the reference number is s14 it's game number seven the jackpot number is number eight this number can come out in any position from the next 10 numbers drawn and now here are your daily numbers eight 27 77 54 26 57 64 45 9 and finally 28 phone your claim to 910 for 833 before 8 tonight leaving your name contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day get all your NCBI bingo information at highland radio.com the 9 till noon show with letterkenny credit union mortgage is now available with a personalized service from your local and friendly credit union email mortgage at letterkennycu.ie this friday the 9 till noon show will broadcast live from rush fitness in letterkenny to celebrate the opening of their brand new state-of-the-art personal training studios the team at rush fitness have an action-packed launch day in store as they prepare to launch donnie gall's first boutique style personal training suite that's this friday from 9 to noon live from rush fitness listen in and letterkenny should have gone to spec savers that's what the ads tell you but for some people in india it's not that simple imagine having no eye tests or glasses you couldn't work so you could lose your home i'm lisa from spec savers and i'm proud to help the hope foundation provide eye care in kalkata spec savers arrange for me and my colleagues to go there and do eye tests to date we've given out over 11 000 pairs of glasses find out how we're changing people's lives for the better at spec savers.ie there's more furniture than ever on display at mcginley's furniture in letterkenny with extra floor space there's more suites beds dining room and occasional furniture also more rugs mirrors and lamps all available for immediate delivery if you'd like to make a beautiful addition to your home there's more furniture than ever to choose from at mcginley's furniture on the joe boner link road letterkenny and at mcginley's furniture dot com cattle trade on fire as beef passes five euro a kilo for more in this week's farmers journal is paul mooney factory feedlots drive mark trade towards record prices supreme court gives green light for a glambia cheese plant we take a look at the measures in the new agri-environment scheme farmers with mic affected sheds ask to come forward and in irish country living we explore the rising cost of living and launch our new rural housing series plus don't miss your free newspaper for young farmers only inside this week's irish farmers journal on sale now at done stores we've stacks of ideas for pancake tuesday whip up a better batter with six eggs for only one euro top with our hazelnut chocolate spread just a euro a jar or squeeze on some lemon nets of three are only 49 cent your choice our great value everything you need to do pancake tuesday your way plus with our 10 or 50 grocery voucher you save even more done stores always better value terms and conditions apply voucher can be used on x grocery shop a 50 or more okay the fina foal justice spokesperson is deputy jim o callahan and he joins us on the program now good morning to you jim thanks so much for taking the time out this morning you're very welcome good morning good to speak to you right now you are calling and your party presumably are calling for tougher laws to tackle serious acts of violence this of course following a number of cases which we've been hearing about over the last number of weeks real shocking stuff what do you think the impact of tougher laws might have well i think it will have an impact right but i suppose that we can't lose sight of the fact that already this month as you say there have been three vicious examples of aggravated burglaries that the people throughout the country have heard of we heard of the farmer and sligo tom neiland being viciously attacked in his home we saw in cork more recently brother and sister mary and jerry o halloween being attacked and then there was the kildare pensioner also attacked in his home in february i'm conscious as well preparing for this that in do you all i think in december in bunkrana there was a grandmother and her eighties and granddaughter who were attacked at their homes i'm conscious there's no simple solution to this but one of the solutions i think has to be tougher sentences like in 2001 the eruptus introduced a sentence for aggravated burglary an aggravated burglary is burglary when somebody breaks into your home with an offensive weapon it's a very premeditated and targeted and offence and the sentence that the eruptus decided that should be the maximum sentence was life in prison but we know from what the court of appeal has said more recently that the mid-range sentence should be between six and ten years my own view is that that is too light it needs to be stronger and i think as an eruptus we need to get away from what we have as a tendency when drafting criminal justice legislation to impose a maximum sentence to consider doing something that would be novel which would be introducing minimum indicative or presumptive and minimum sentences and that hasn't really been done before by the eruptus so do we know typically what someone and all all all crimes are different and i presume all factors are taken into consideration do you know what do we know typically uh what someone is being sentenced to for this type of aggravated burglary yeah we do because back i think it was in 2019 the court of appeal gave a number of decisions in respect of the type of sentences that should be imposed and it said for something such as aggravations burglary that the mid-range sentence should be between six to ten years and the high range should be between 11 to 15 but is that being achieved like i don't recall reading an article and i'm not saying uh that it didn't happen whereby someone responsible for an aggravated burglary got at least six years well listen it varies and it can happen that people can get sentences of that mid-range but the mid-range aggravated burglary the court of appeal says it's between six and ten years but this is unconscious sentencing you know the courts have an important role to play in sentencing but so does the eruptus and we can play a more i suppose intrusive role in terms of trying to say well we the people's representatives believe the presumptive minimum sentence should be or an indicative sentence because presumably the judges can only use the tools that are provided to them to to some extent well that's correct and i suppose to a large extent most virtually all criminal offenses when you look in the statute book it'll say a person convicted of this defense shall face a sentence maximum sentence of five years in prison and ten years in prison or live in prison and that's the general involvement that the eruptus has and i think and the supreme court recognized this in the 2019 decision of elis against the minister for justice that you know the issue of presumptive minimum sentences wasn't being dealt with in that case and it is something that is available to the eruptus to consider and it's an unconscious just because the eruptus introduces uh this type of sentence that to say that anyone convicted of aggravated burglary should face a presumptive minimum sentence of ten years in prison it's not going to solve the problem but it does have a send out a message to society that the lawmakers of the country that the people's representatives view with appearance this particular offense and i think it also does send a message to the victims or potential victims that we as a society see this intrusion on them as something so serious that requires a minimum sentence of ten years because you know you can't we can factor in if there is injuries uh or or or that but you know someone who's 84 uh has you know lived a whole life probably uh living uh someone comes into the home that whole experience you know do the ever feel comfortable or happy in that home again this would be the type of an act even if there were no actual violence that will have an impact on their lives for the rest of their lives you know it's a huge it's a huge thing and also too in terms of the minimum sentence i presume there is some consciousness in people taking the risk in other words they might say well even if court i might be out in three years there's a big difference between that um if i'm caught i'm going away for ten years minimum you know i think you're right and if you look at it if the mid-range sentence is between six and ten years they're likely had somebody get seven years they're going to be out in about three and a half four years but then aggravated burglary and i think this type of a response from the eruptus is useful for aggravated burglary because that is a very premeditated and targeted offense if you look at the recent examples obviously people who are being uh subjected to aggravated burglary they were targeted because of their age they were targeted because they were vulnerable and i think that's the type of offense where the eruptus should be staging where you have that level of premeditation that a presumptive minimum sentence should apply and i think you know it's something we could start looking at in respect to aggravated burglary and i think it would have an impact because people who heading out to break into tom nylen's house or into gary and gerry and mario halloran's house they think twice about it if they thought that we forgot to and this we're going down for ten years there's also obviously sometimes at least if not most of the time an element of casing whereby people might cold call do we need to look at tougher sanctions for people that are found to be cold calling at someone's house for no particular reason you know if they don't have id or if they don't work for a particular company or would that be too hard to sort of quantify or get a handle of i wonder well i i think we're better off focusing on the offender in this instance gregg i think the person who has made the conscious and deliberate decision to break into a house to bring an offensive weapon with them in order to frighten and threaten the occupant of that house that person if they're convicted of that offense we need to focus on what type of sentence they should get obviously there are a whole load of other factors we need to take into account in terms of trying to deter this type of crime and such as ensuring that people elderly people on their own you know people calling them people shouldn't be calling at night time if you know to frighten elderly people and their measures that could be introduced so i just think in terms of focusing on the minimum sentence here that we should focus on individuals who are convicted of serious offense and finally whilst looking at that then you know people often the public will express frustration that oftentimes if caught these people are reoffenders of have offended before does there have to be do we have to look at that also well we did look at that and that's i refer to the case of ellis against the minister for justice and that was a decision in 2019 and the eructus prior to that had made a decision that in if a person was convicted of a second firearms offense that that person would be to that because it was treating people convicted of the same offense differently but one thing we do need to look at gregg is in respect of the whole issue of bail you know i remember i spoke to charlie mcconnellog about this he's very conscious of it as well when it comes to the issue of bail we need to ensure that people who have previous convictions for serious offense offenses and then they're charged with another offense when it comes to that they shouldn't be granted bail like we had a referendum back in 1997 to deal with this and the people overwhelmingly voted in favor of changing our bail laws so somebody who was believed likely to commit a future offense wouldn't get bail for serious of course you know to bring someone before the courts they have to be caught and we need the guardie to do that we need guardie to patrol as well to try and you know discourage this type of activity we've been speaking the last couple of days about one particular town in donny gall locals concerned there isn't a guard of presence there there's no point in going into the details of that because i couldn't expect you to be across that but i mean from your party's perspective and under your whilst in government in the past we have seen a reduction in guard of numbers there is a recruitment drive going on at the moment but what do you believe now going forward not looking backwards needs to be done in terms of you know the level of policing across our country and across rural border counties such as donny gall where there are you know some unique elements to policing here you know just now i've been around at meshing throughout the country and i've listened to people what they want to see is a greater guard of visibility and obviously we have a large number of guardie we always like to have more but what we need to ensure is that the civilians who are hired within the guard of sheik hona that they're the ones doing the desk work we do not want to have guardie behind desks or stuck in offices or stuck in garden stations what gives people a sense of confidence as if they see guardie on the streets not only in the towns in donny gall but throughout the country as well and i think we must have a greater urge there was a commissioner when he came in there was a noticeable increase of guardie on the streets i think may have fallen off of it we need to get them back out on the streets because that presence deters criminals but more importantly it gives confidence to people particularly people living in rural locations all right and very finally just by coincidence we were speaking to a former member of the guard of reserve who found himself actually having to ring the station up to say look i'm available on on saturday night i think we have about 450 across the entire country i'm not sure how well or how often they are used they're constrained by having to go out with a a full member of them guard of sheik hona i mean there are a willing group of people out there that would come on in a community situation and we see we see them used in other countries around the world do you believe there could be a stronger role for community guard and if so how yeah well absolutely garden reserve you know they were brought in i think at the beginning of this century they're an important part of the protection we have against crime they need to be because they're not utilized they they need to be used more but like in fairness the eructus has passed the laws to create them they're there unfortunately the guardie don't seem to want we've just given the commissioner an extension to his contract uh i think that was agreed at cabinet um well well let's let's lobby him to say why don't you make more use because successive commissioners don't seem to see the value of of uh of the guard of reserve uh definitely i think you're right and i've put down questions the minister for justice about the guard of reserve where they aren't being used more by the guardie and it may be the case that there's a certain concern if i put it that way on the part of the senior figures in the guardie and using the guard of reserve i think we need to use them more because the presence of a garden reserve out there if you think of the numbers we have even 500 more around the country it would add to a greater sense of confidence that people would have and they could do a lot of the the work that sometimes isn't essential for guardie in terms of just seem to be patrolling a sports event or patrolling a music event that could be work that could be done by the guard of reserve to enable the guardie to be in more or walking up and down a street without a guard station in a town um as a presence listen thank you for your time this morning i appreciate that thanks great all right take care of yourself that's uh fina for justice spokesperson deputy jim o kalahan there the 9 till noon show with letter kenny credit union now offering mortgages with life cover provided at no additional cost letter kenny credit union 9102127 you have one new message hi claire auntie d here i just wanted to say a big thank you for skipping my party we had a great night and everyone was so happy you didn't come now you take care i hope to see you soon bye no one will thank you for turning up to work or anything else when you're sick stay at home and get a test to protect yourself and others from covet 19 from the hsc for us all hello i'm david forley medical herbalist are you suffering with a cold flu or sinusitis then ask for irish botanica echinacea a traditional herbal remedy irish botanica echinacea is your natural solution to relieve the symptoms of the common cold flu and sinusitis call it a natural way let a kenny shopping center for more information getting ready for the football season ahead visit brian macormick sports and leisure main street letter kenny adidas copa sense football boots and soft ground and firm ground from only 80 euro adidas classics copa mondial world cup and kaiser cup sg just arrived the new predator edge point one fg in black football boots gloves shorts and socks in store or online click and collect on bmcsports.ie cattle trade on fire as beef passes five euro a kilo for more on this week's farmers journal is paul mooney factory feedlots drive mark trade towards record prices supreme court gives green light for a glambia cheese plant we take a look at the measures in the new agri environment scheme farmers with micah affected sheds ask to come forward and in irish country living we explore the rising cost of living and launch our new rural housing series plus don't miss your free newspaper for young farmers only inside this week's irish farmers journal on sale now milford tiles wood flooring and bathware milford retail park now open large range of wall and floor tiles on display and in stock over 70 different laminate floors to suit every pocket tillers and wood footers available new bathware showroom now open milford tiles wood flooring and bathware zero eight three zero nine one zero seven zero seven highland radio time checks brought to you by letter candy shopping center the center of shopping in dunny all free parking and shopping all under one roof letter candy shopping center bringing you the time at 1032 can you ask the fina fall td jemma calhan on your show why so many garter stations were closed most in rural areas everyone in fairness in my opinion would agree to a sentence to fit the crime touch on the policing in rural island with him a caller says we need to have a zero tolerance for crime in this country similar to america this revolving door needs to stop the person who is the victim lives with it for life it's time we made these people do the same thing are you talking like this three strikes rule why have all these government politicians voted to allow the cuckoo funds to continue on tax in this country it's pulling the price of homes for people out of reach and we're talking now uh the value of property homes getting close to uh and sorry exceeding the Celtic tiger levels uh campaign to end mask wearing in schools is mainly sorry is mainly media led we've only heard a minority of parents pata toby matta migra and a hesitant richard boy barrick call for the end of mask wearing teacher student unions political parties most medics and nephra urging caution on this policy never thought we'd get comfortable with masks we have and it has led to fewer flu outbreaks etc hope workers in the public will still have a choice of a masks after nephra bad to media pressure i think the role of media mainstream media in matters like this is over amplified i think the public have loads of different platforms to have their say i think the public drive a lot of the issues uh not the media i think in terms of you know using their social media other platforms lobbying td's you know td's aren't worried what i'm saying td's are worried what the people that voted for them are saying they read the room they say right okay now is the time to do this yes the media has an important role but it's not as important as some people might think that is in my opinion i think a lot of things are driven by people now uh and you know they share their views between programs like this and and on social media and elsewhere i think the days where the media could drive something through or make such a change personally speaking i don't think it's it's there at the moment but listen i'm open to correction but there's a ton of different platforms uh out there the whole mental health system needs to be reviewed says this caller people with mental health issues should not be seen in an a and e department adding more pressure on a system that can't cope with other day-to-day issues another that woman is talking the truth it's such a struggle to get help for mental health and for autism as well and another one i rang up the gp for my son and the receptionist said what is the issue so i can give the gp a brief i have a real issue with this where is the privacy gone what i why should i be explaining anything to a receptionist i was then asked to send a photo of the issue and from that day i've had no follow-up why are gps not seeing in-person people at the minute why is it still phone consultations it depends from gp practice to gp practice i personally uh believe receptionist would would would respect your confidentiality as much as the gp might you know they play an important role very knowledgeable in what they do the majority of them i would suggest and also it is whether we like it or not at the moment a form of triage in that they have to prioritize and if it's something that is not urgent well then the gp can have a look at the receptionist note and then put his patients or her patients in order there is huge pressure on gp services at the moment it's only going to get worse but i understand why people want to get back in and see the gp and in some practices they are your gp might be taking a different approach personally i i would trust the receptionist to treat my call with sensitivity and confidentiality okay we're going to take a break for a piece of music if you're watching us on our social media there'll be a radio silence for a couple of minutes the rest of you can enjoy the next song and we're going to play it especially this morning for my good friend Olivia in Pillar Park in Bunkrana happy birthday Olivia from Philippa here is Rita or okay that is the sand of Rita or there and anywhere now coming up after the break we're going to be talking history with Dr Joe always a very interesting item we're going to be focusing on the Spanish Armada and it's roll everything about it okay if you want to watch Dr Joe and me have a conversation go on to our website right now highlandradio.com you'll see the watch the nine till noon show icon there you can click on that and watch it in your browser or if you want to go on to our youtube channel and give us a like or subscribe there please subscribe and hit the bell that's Highland Radio Arland to watch the program on youtube with us daily or on facebook it's Highland Radio or Highland Radio News and Sport and you can chat and engage with us and see our guests there as well like Deputy O Callahan and Dr Joe Kelly coming up shortly but of course as I say the easiest thing perhaps may be for you Highland Radio.com open it up there and if you want if you've got a chrome cast or a chrome cast enabled 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levels of security to your most precious possessions call store and go springtime dairy on 02871 278 900 to discuss your needs and get bespoke advice or get a free quote at store and go the Cheltenham festival is almost here get informed with the Irish Fields award-winning Cheltenham magazine produced an association with Goff's trainers Willie Mullins Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead all feature read the story behind the unbeaten honeysuckle Simon Rollins provides expert analysis and there's interviews with many other owners trainers and jockies hoping to visit the winners enclosure the Irish field Cheltenham magazine in shops now or order your copy on the Irish fields.ie hi dad just popping on to say hi love how did you manage to video call i'm a bit of a computer with these days i can see that and it's not just video calls with high digital free online course paddy also learned to do the grocery shopping and you can too so how are you dad hang on i have a very funny gift to send you or is it jiff learn essential online skills today at highdigital.ie brought to you by Vodafone Ireland foundation active retirement Ireland and alone Vodafone together we can all right good morning we're talking history now with Dr Joe Kelly a historian uh good morning imagine why Joe how are you today imagine why Greg it is the luck they shut down to your listeners and highland radio good morning to you as all it's good to have you with us now in our previous conversations we've touched on the Spanish Armada and why not because it's such an important part of of history and our connections with here and there and we'll talk about that more in the moment so take us back to is it 1588 is that the era we're talking here yeah 1588 and then around that time it was a very very unsettled century in fact it probably was the most bloody century we had in European history up until world war one world war two there was a lot of instability with countries jostling for control and power and expansion and so that would end up with with what would become known as the Spanish Armada essentially an attempt by Spain to conquer England but the the the roots of the story are far more complex and far more interesting when Henry the 8th died and he had turned towards Protestantism who was going to take his place and it eventually became his daughter from his first marriage Catholic marriage would have been Mary she then became known as Bloody Mary and Bloody Mary was about 38 or so when it was arranged that she would marry Philip the second of Spain and so they would unite Spain and England as one kingdom okay before we get to that Bloody Mary people would be familiar with the alcoholic cocktail too early for one I would say now but I suppose they do say it's five o'clock somewhere is that derived from her if so why what's the story there well it's made from vodka and tomatoes and other spices and different herbs and things like that and what's the source quite bizarrely the idea possibly was that the redness of it that people were persecuted because she turned back towards Catholicism and there was about 280 Protestants persecuted under the killings at the stake burned by Mary Queen Mary Tudor but what was maybe unfair in some way what she did obviously was was mad stuff in today's terms but Henry the 8th had also persecuted people and so did Elizabeth as we see later on with the Spanish Armada so it was kind of common place to do that even though it wasn't right but it was religious persecution and she then because England then eventually went towards Protestantism she was seen as the the worst inflictor of persecution thus the Bloody Mary just the tomato juice and so forth right so we've got Queen Mary of England Philip II of Spain they married to sort of bridge the two areas how did that work how did they get on well they were planning to have a family and they were married for four years but Mary died and so that put an end to that so that led to complications so now what was who was going to become the next king in England and next in line was Queen Elizabeth later would become Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth and so Philip would have known Elizabeth he would have visited her visited her while she was in captivity Mary didn't execute her even though she was a Protestant and possibly a threat she didn't and so Elizabeth comes to the throne and the question was then was she going to go Catholic or was she going to go Protestant and Philip II actually made a formal proposal to marry her and she actually always kept a picture of Philip II in her chambers so she seemed to have had a good relationship initially with them but she turned his proposal down and Philip then eventually married a French princess and and thus that was the end of the relationship there he's back in Spain building his empire and at that stage Spain is one of the is the biggest empire in the world because it is South America it has conquered lots of lands lot of wealth lot of gold sailing and all those things so eventually the relationship between Elizabeth and Philip began to sour from friendly hostility towards actually war and Elizabeth goes towards Protestantism and also the there are a number of things but two things in particular Spain held on to her own what was known as Spanish Holland the Netherlands was controlled by the Spanish and there was a revolution there and Elizabeth was helping the Protestant revolters there by sending over army and elements like that so he wasn't happy with that and also his votes that were laden with riches coming from the new world were being constantly attacked by English pirates particularly Drake and at this stage England wouldn't have been a mighty you know the Britannia rules the wave they wouldn't have it been a mighty ocean-faring nation it's only subsequent to this that they merge in the world of empire so presumably any romantic involvement between Elizabeth and Philip II I mean this was a bad breakup well in the sense that when she was going to be obviously going towards Protestantism how could you marry a Catholic king with a Protestant queen and then how would that work out would her subjects accept the Catholic king it was all complicated she blocked him she blocked him off all social media in in in modern terms and vice versa but it went far beyond that before we move on so you talked about so I mean we know this but and sometimes things are obvious so when we have the likes of you know Spanish being used in South America or Portugal or whatever and the connections between these two places from one end of the world to the other not literally but almost metaphorically these links date back to these times presumably yeah absolutely and sure look I just find that amazing you know the colonization of South America like Brazil and the Portuguese and then the rest of them um Argentine and so forth are Spanish and if you go to those countries you'll see the Spanish influence in portugese the buildings and the infrastructure even the language for that matter and and you know we talk about colonialism in our own country 800 years of British rule but Europe other countries did the same and and and in other countries it just amazes me that we live in history we live or the consequences of it you know now it's it's not just something written in a book or or something that circulates in your head right okay so uh obviously then relationships have broken down very much between the two parties but presumably Britain and Spain more generally there's a power struggle on is it this point now that the armada is launched what was it or take us to the point where it is yeah well you've you've had the nail in the head at this point then Philip he was known as the El Rey Prudente the the prudent king the wise king or the sensible king and he had a number of ideas what to do maybe go and do a direct invasion of England or what would he do and the idea was a merge of of two things that he would send a massive fleet of about 130 ships to what was known as the Spanish Netherlands and to meet the Duke of Parma's army there ship them across to England and then go and invade England and they believed the time and rightly their conclusions were correct there were many Catholic supporters in England that were willing to help them and that they would overthrow Elizabeth and that would then make England a he would insert himself as his king so the armada was pivotal to all of this this plan then was it absolutely yeah and it came it came down from the north I in my head I just imagined it sailing up from the south but the armada came down from the north well yeah for us and don't and don't he go yes but where it started off was in Spain and they set off from Liz well Spain and Portugal were one at the time set up as one out they go it actually took them three days to put out all the ships there was that many off them it was like they saved in a crescent form and he unfortunately many of the ships weren't suitable for the Atlantic Ocean there were Mediterranean ships some ships were modified and decks put above them when the keel wasn't deep enough different things like that it was a badly designed fleet in many ways and poorly laid out in so far as guns and ammunition the English had smaller lighter boats which were more maneuverable than the Spanish so the Spanish head off and when they head out the first thing is they meet a storm and some of the ships are damaged so they have to head back in again to the top of Spain to Corona and they restock and re-get their food and soared out their boats and they head off again and they're heading up so it's July when they head up towards England so they're heading in a crescent form up towards England to north of England down along Southampton and their plan was to land in Holland collect the Spanish soldiers and ship them across and at the same time the Ollie ships would defend any attack from English ships to ferry them across and to put it mildly it was a failure weather went against them and the ships organization went against them and between one thing and another they find themselves on the other side of Holland and England up heading up towards the the other end of England the east coast of England and the decision is do they head back now again and try to get back to Holland the Mr. Ron the east they they end up going up the English Channel then effectively and they were in fairness the British sorry where were the head where were the where where was their destination and Holland Holland so why did okay right okay because I find this interesting I want to know that so they did they intend to go up the the east of course sorry I'm confused in my westernese carry on Joe carry on go ahead they were going to head up towards the bottom of England south Hampton along the coast of England but heading in towards Holland 130 ships then would collect all the men there was about 25 000 soldiers waiting waiting in Holland would ship them across and these ships were were a carrier service but there were also a protection in case there would be attacks from British ships so that they could land in and around the the coast of England the southern coast of England that was the plan but with sand dunes and with bad maps and with storms and one thing another they just failed and as well the English were very bright they sent them phantom ships full of explosions and fires into the middle of these Spanish ships and the Spanish ships then would have to scatter scatter other than there would be otherwise they'd be destroyed or whatever so there was disorganization and so they get to the other side of England the the east coast of England and the Sedona with the Duke of Sedona decide well what am I going to do here do I head back down or do I go back to Spain so we decided to head back to Spain but the plan was then to go up along Scotland down along the top of Ireland round on Eagle and then sail south then back to Spain and of the 130 odd ships that set sail from Spain in in May 1588 somewhere a region of 50 them were returned how many of them how many of them didn't make uh how many of them didn't make the Netherlands uh about 10 or 15 of them would have been destroyed one or two were captured but we we believe that somewhere in the region of 28 ships were lost off the northwest coast of Ireland and how many people would have been on those oh there was there was about 30 000 men somewhere about 29 30 000 men yeah yeah yeah it's estimated that about 5 600 men drowned off Ireland and about 1100 of men were also slain so that's quite a lot of of of you know when you do history it affects your spirit and I have to say myself personally you know when I was researching this and doing some uh reading on it it lies very heavily on you to think that there was 5 600 men that were drowned off our coast right so how many so how many ships did you say sailed around the coast about 130 okay and then estimated about between 30 and 28 and 30 were wrecked off Ireland and that was all down to storms was it well yes and a number of things one is there was spanish sickness you know if you're on these ships there was diseases poor food malnutrition different things so the the men themselves had been weakened they'd been in the water quite a long time sailing at this stage they didn't plan to go up rounding and round so their morale and their health were low and then unfortunately and it was the worst of storms for 40 hours it was a hurricane that beat the ships and the same thing repeated then again two weeks later hey do you have do you have five minutes I have to take a break in the news but I just want to pick up the story then of what's off our coast what happened did anyone get back to Spain what happened afterwards then in terms of what this how you know yourself okay there's a ton of stuff can you bear with me for five minutes you can okay fair play 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highest temperatures of five to seven degrees and of course you're well abreast of the situation as it relates to a storm unis okay dr joe is going to be rejoining us very shortly but at 11 o'clock we'll get a news update and it's over to kathryn gaffney good morning kathryn thanks greg and we have the latest as it relates to storm unis status red wind warning has been issued for cork and kerry ahead of the storm tomorrow met iron has also updated its orange alert with 14 counties in the bottom half of the country set to be impacted donnie gall in the rest of the country will come under a yellow wind snow and rain warning it's expected an end to the legal requirement for wearing face masks in shops schools and on public transport will be given the go ahead as nephrates due to recommend an ending of the practice when it meets later today the t-shock hinted that a change could be on the way with the expectation the advice will be to lift the requirement instead leaving it up to each person whether they want to wear a mask in public settings or not the minister for the opw says the corn and flax mills and new mills will not be given any significant funding unless visitor numbers increase the opw own facility on the outskirts of letter kenney is said to have huge tourism potential with calls for it to be promoted better on a national stage people with outpatient appointments and hospitals should be given free parking that's according to into into his pat or tobine and independent td cahill berry who are putting forward a bill in the door later that would allow three hours of free parking for visits adoni gol candy consular is urging people to take part in a public consultation on how the board of idris negiltic this should be selected the public and interested organizations are being invited to share their opinions on suggestions in writing with the department in relation to the matter between now and the 25th of march and the parents association at movill community college has expressed frustration over slow progress on the long awaited extension at the school the building which was first promised back in 2015 will effectively be separate to the existing school but will be linked via a walkway that's it for now we're back with more at 12 noon okay kathryn thank you very much for that dr joe kelly is still with us good morning to you once again joe right okay so um the spanish amada or what's left of it now is off the northwest coast how far off the coast of don e goal are we talking here well the the route that was set out by the man the the juke that was overseeing at sedona he had suggested that they stay well off the coast of ireland and in fact he warned them not if possibly not to land because the dangers that would befall him should they land on ireland uh he realized obviously the tension that was there and that if they did survive and came on shore they may not necessarily have the welcome that they might anticipate and what people maybe don't realize is that at that time the english were unsure what was happening and were they going to come back down and attack england uh they hear then that there's ships off don e goal and off the north coast are these new ships is this a double pronged attack or is it some of them are mad at are they going to come to don e goal are they going to start an attack there there's a lot of insecurity um at that time and you can imagine how long it took a message to travel um there was no instagram or facebook no text message and so they were very very unsure and there was a bit only about 1800 british soldiers in ireland at that time so the spanish had they joined up with oh donal here in don e goal and o'neill they would have easily overthrown the english here now do you imagine though there was a point whereby you know these ships are starting to face this weather presumably they knew there was land relatively close none of them broke away to try and seek shelter uh did they oh yeah some of them have too absolutely they did yeah um numerous ships did come in to safe waters just to look for shelter in the hurricane that they endured um the first ship that went down was the castello uh negro it was all all the sailors were lost we were not sure exactly where it is some believe that it's off the rosses there were 300 on board that they have the records from the ships that left and the numbers of men that were on it sailors were on it and then the numbers of ships that let return so this is how they figure out the number but the number of people that died the number of ships that were um that were lost but there was quite a lot um there was another boat called the hamburg and that's um foundered off northwest coast of donal e goal as well and then you had the trinidad uh valenci and that's probably what best known they're up in north indy shone and kind of go bay and when they arrived in fairness the o'daherty chan o'daherty there welcomed them but about 200 or 300 of them already had drowned on that boat and uh he fed them and looked after them and and and get give them as much assistance as possible and as did um the sweeney's the sweeney's where the rulers say dough dough castello there and then up around duncaneeley there the sweeney's as well and so a lot of ships came in along the rosses into into kelly begs and along there and and he actually if you were to look at the kind of charity or the kindness of those sweeney's they they fed about 1500 to 2000 sailors that came in or six different vessels that that have been damaged and abandoned so they were hoping to jump on some other ship that might still be able to carry them and then head on to sweeney's was there any was there any um blowback for those that assisted uh long term yes uh short term no because i always say that dunney gall is very different you know when you see the tourism ads up here you know it's different dunney gall had not been conquered we were the last county to be conquered by the british by the english they had no presence here in the county at this time um so they had no army here so the the locals the local shifters were in still in control and and we have a good record here in dunney gall and how we treated most of those sailors having said that the odonal family and we talk about him another time uh hu rua odonal he was in captivity in doubling castley he was a young boy of 15 and the odonal sent up 30 spaniards to doubling castley to the british uh hoping that it do do do a swap that they would release hu for these 30 spaniards and in fact they executed every one of the spaniards wow okay stay with us brian said joining us here brian how are you getting on no i've lost brian okay uh because he was going to talk about burt and the fact that some of these spanish sailors are buried uh there right you're in terms of artifacts what's been brought to shore i believe the anchor in dunney gall town is from a ship from the spanish amada is that correct yeah from what i understand yes it's huge right i'm trying to get an idea of scale about the size of these ships so can we take maybe an average trawler uh because we're talking about our coastal committee how would that one of these ships compared to a one of these trawlers in terms of scale well there's a number of things there first of all there's a number of size of trawlers as well but anyway yeah well the first thing that they varied in size and depending on what their function what was some of them are smaller some of them only carried food and supplies some of them are heavily armed with guns and some of them then were for transporting people people men yeah that was the nature of it then so there were different types of ships now the difference between the mediterranean boats or latin boats we would have had more clinker boats here in the atlantic ocean which were they had stronger keels they had deeper keels so a lot of these boats were not suitable for what what they were meant to go through going around the northwest coast of of ireland and around tru dunney gall so the ships varied in size and some of them carried gold and and there's a lot of prophecy and folklore had this gold was to be used to pay when they would land in england you know to buy people and to uh engrace them towards what the spanish were trying to endeavouring to do so look there's no doubt about that there was wealth on these boats there was gold in those coasts off the northwest hills then absolutely yeah and a lot of the prophecies like um and some of the books they call them kill it talk about the the the gold and the gold found that would make northwest unigual wealthy and different other people then took this and wrote various books like sheamus um o grainer wrote a beautiful book called band ruid the gala the red herald donnell woman and the prophecy was that she would set the rocks of women free but it wasn't the father used to take her walk on the beach every morning thinking that she would find the gold off the armada but the way she set the women free was that she went for she was the first girl to go and work and the fishing and the herring gutting in scotland so then all the other girls left as well so there was a freedom of women to move out of their area and come back for the first time with money but okay we're gonna have to be a quick fire in some of these uh how many ships actually made it back to spain uh about 120 off the 130 150 sorry i'm sorry what i'm saying about a 90 sorry made it back if i'm no sorry my apologies it's a 50 no sorry there was 30 sunk off on ego and then about 20 million so 50 off that about 80 80 to 90 votes made it back how did this play out for philip because presumably it would have been seen as a disastrous operation yeah it was and he said look i sent my army uh against the the the protest and religion and against the anglish i didn't send them against the god and the seas and the waves created by god so he spun it a bit he spun it a bit and he was he was depressed afterwards there's no doubt about did he ever have another bite of the apple yes he did and it wasn't necessarily himself it was a successor philip the third maybe we'll talk about that and you have kensale 1601 uh that they actually did consider then sending an army to ireland to join up with the ireish and then to tack from ireland towards england that was the plan but we'll talk again about that maybe some other and just in terms of the impact of the amana our amada here like do we have place names or things that are different here because of those influences yes of course like i'm thinking of there in in trolley for example there's tubber in the spanya it's believed 11 ships parked up off um gedore there and they came up into what we're now is called the rampa and they set up a forge to fix the ships they set up a hospital for the sick men and there's a well there called tubber in the spanya and they stayed an hour and more for a week one of the ships stayed an hour and more for a week um as i said to you up in duncanini there uh they lodged at the McSweeney's castle there about 1500 of them so there's different places there associated with them and you talked about the anchors and there's various artifacts having found over the years there was lots and lots of stories and lots of folk are any people living in donningall now spanish ancestry did any of them stay here set you know what i like i like it around here the ladies are beautiful uh did any of them up to stay not perhaps nervous to get back into the ships again not knowing what uh what might uh what fate might uh await them yeah well it's believed that some of them did uh and uh if you look at the 1937 folklore collection that were gathered by the children they talk about certain families having very dark skin and black hair and that these were people that belonged to the spanish or mad at the sentence and yes some did stay they stayed an hour and more for a week so god knows what happened well this caller says they knew a family called the galanaz who could trace their ancestry back to the spanish armada well there's a lovely diary kept by francisco the seller if anybody's ever interested in his available there and he survived a very very interesting story and he wrote a story uh took him a number of years to get back to spain and kept a diary and when he got back then his diary was lost for some years but it's been published since and it tells us the whole how's the whole experience of what happened to him but one of the things that that lies heavily on me is when they came into slago the engie's army were waiting for them there and as these half drowned half dead men came in they just slaughtered them just executed them there and then and this sounds like a terribly crude question after the what you've just outlined but do we uh is there an opportunity or do we um emphasize enough our connections that historical connection with spain maybe even you know as an advantage to us by way of of tourism uh you know i'm not fully aware if there is much going on in that regard could we be doing more in that regard so maybe have more spanish people coming here than in the other direction very interesting because a year after the wrecking of the armada in 1588 with the widows of some of the men on board they would have been noble men they had a how common or had a ship and they came to ireland and came to donnie gall and visited the different places no way yeah yeah yeah and like you could imagine where the bodies when they were being washed in here in donnie gall like they stacked them up where they would stack the seaweed normally and i i don't know what happened but how are they buried you know well apparently there's some of them are at least some are buried in bird uh according to uh the lister who we didn't get an opportunity to speak to but we might touch on that again uh we could talk all day and i think people could listen all day but we've all the guests lined up there is some potential absolutely i mean i you know i'm very proud of my county and sure aren't we all and there's um numerous ways we could explore and develop this and in fairness there are donnie gall county council does a terrible lot of brilliant things and it's a it's a space maybe that we could be thinking more off with the leg-wide the glantic way and we talk about column killing doing the schlie column killer maybe we could have the spanish armada way where you could have a route following where the following where the ships went or where there's a lot of folklore but unfortunately because we saw something similar with the flight to the aeros i think we did see some some routes being followed i just find it amazing that in donnie gall town and elsewhere there is an anchor that started its life in in spain that that followed on this arduous path that you've been outlining that this ship uh and all associated with it perished off our coast we went out we trawled that in and the anchor is sitting there with its chain and you can go up and engage or touch that uh and and you are literally connected to to uh three or four hundred years of history i find that amazing and we should definitely be promoting this stuff more what would have happened had spain phillip the second conquered england we'd be speaking in spanish probably would that have left us with northern ireland would that have how would have changed that's a full other half hour what would have would not but just before we go the spanish and mad influence the terrible out of aries writing and culture and folklore and so forth and it is believed now there's different views on this but robert louis stevenson that wrote a gold treasure island that he came to gedore in 1880 sometime around that instead with the minister karson at the time and it was from goal island he was told it was gold island as opposed to gaula goal island and that the whole story of the spanish or mad it was told to him there and that it's believed then that from that he got the idea of treasure island and all that went with that book and the idea of the captain with the parrot on his shoulder if you ever look at the book well according to the local folklore the captain was drowned but his parrot was still alive and was standing on his body when he when they came across him so there was a part going around gedore for some time after i understand so look there's there's lots of folklore lots of story just about this this parrot flying around gedore chatting to everyone anyway listen uh you see that's the problem you drop a morsel there we could go on for another uh 20 minutes thanks dr joe appreciate it greatly okay that was uh talking history with dr joe kelly fascinating stuff i hope you agree the 90 noon show with letter kenny credit union now offering mycu current account and debit mastercard bringing full banking features delivered with the same 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to be three months since your last vaccine and wait three months if you had covet 19 since you're vaccinated visit hsc.ie now from the hsc and you welcome back to the program now every year multiple times in the one year since parking charges were introduced to letter kenny university hospital there have been calls there were national calls in 2018 for a review of the charges locally there have been calls to find out where the money goes you know what's the money being used for what's the advantage uh and so on and so forth the conversation is happening again on a national level i think in terms of uh the impact on patients letter kenny university hospital fair is okay compared to some other hospitals the likes of go away that others that people from this area would actually visit but anyway uh the leader of entu deputy padertow bean uh do you want them done away with uh firstly good morning to you uh do you want them done away with all together i would like them done away with all together if possible but there is um a difficulty in that i don't think we'd be able to achieve that and we're finding it a bit of resistance from the government even in the plan that we have and the plan that entu has is that a person who is an outpatient of a hospital would have free car parking charges in the hospital for three hours uh every time that they visit and the reason that we want that is because obviously you know a serious illness like cancer heart disease stroke or or mental health these are life changing uh and diagnosis both for the patient and for the families but what people probably don't realize is that there's a massive economic cost to those illnesses too so the Irish Cancer Society has estimated that at least 800 euros extra costs are faced by these patients you know in things like you know travel up and down to hospitals uh hotel overnight's bnb overnight's even child-minding costs uh for example and also there's a double whammy because people who have these uh diagnosis are also faced with a serious reduction in income so you know the Irish Cancer Society reckons that on average a cancer patient will have a reduction of income of about 1400 euros a month so in real terms it's about 2200 euros worse off because of that particular diagnosis and we think that it's just illogical that these patients who are suffering health-wise and financially are being asked to pay high car high car parking charges in hospitals on a regular basis so they're going back and forth from chemotherapy and radiotherapy as an outpatient and you know that can add up to 60 quid a month 60 quid a month to 700 quid a year and what we're seeing then is that this is a tax on illness and we in aim to believe that you know the health service the public health service should be paid for on the basis of of uh income tax because income tax identifies those who can afford to pay and those who can't afford to pay it's a more it's a more nuanced it's a more targeted way of those who can pay uh that do pay and those that at least able to pay or their circumstances change more drastically they don't have to and as I say it's not it's not a it's not a uh it's not so it's it's more nuanced it's really it's fair it's much fair it's much more it's a better understanding of a bit of people's abilities to pay so and this particular bill as well it's a cautious bill as you say yourself it doesn't you know throw the door wide open and and the reason we didn't do that is because we figured the department wouldn't allow that secondly and there's an issue of what they call car park management and so if you give free car parking charges or to everybody in hospitals there's a danger that people will park the car it's not a danger it's a reality because that was you know part of the argument for introducing them remarkably people were parking the car in the hospital car park heading to work or heading shopping or whatever exactly and and therefore those who really needed them and wouldn't be able to access those car parks at all and now there's there's a political difficulty here minister and the former minister for health Simon Harris announced a review into this in 2018 as you said yourself believe it or not that review has never even been published by by the governments here four years later every single political party from Sinn Fein, Fianna Fawth and Gail Labour had this plan in their manifestos and the general election but unfortunately none of them have acted upon it and this is despite an in fairness to you know councillors for example on on regional health forums do raise this on a regular basis you know but obviously at that level it can't affect change of all political so I think the councillors on the ground realized the problem with this we just need it to be addressed nationally now what does it mean when the government says it won't reject the bill that sounds like well it's just going to sail through those two houses and everything will be changed in a short matter of weeks unfortunately our system doesn't quite work like that no you're right unfortunately and what happens in in Irish politics like on a regular basis is a way for the government to say no is for them to say yes and then just ignore it so I would often see here in the door where ministers and government TVs go out to the front gates with campaigns put their arms around them you know smile for the cameras stand behind the banners and they go back into the door that's a very very cynical attitude you have unfortunately that's the way the political system works it's a little bit like yes prime minister unfortunately and the thing about this too I don't know why anyone would resist it because we're talking about 12 million euro that's being gathered here you know in terms of multiple years that's not an awful far lot off where the hsc spends on debt collection for cancer patients you know especially with what the spending we've seen in the last couple of years the amount of stress and anxiety this causes 12 million it's nothing it should be done away with forthwith why would anyone resist this amount in the the black hole money pit that is the hsc absolutely so the 21 billion euros expenditure this is the drop in the ocean and in in that term but it is on the flip side it's 60 000 euros a day in charges from people who can lease afford it so it's a significant chunk of of their income and you know in reality the government needs to just buy the bottles of this it needs to accept the aim to bill not just let us to languish in the legislative process for a number of years but to actually run with it and push it through now some might say car parks and hospitals we've talked about the police and that you talked about but extensions were able to be bought because this money was able to be used to extend car parks and offer better facilities whilst that sounds like a good argument on the face of it you're saying especially with the budget the health service is given would you say that we shouldn't have to rely on on tax further taxing on cancer patients to build car park extensions we should be doing that through through general taxation yeah listen um there's no doubt that this was created by most hospitals to build the the funding gaps that they were experiencing from central government but this like you know if you look at agency staff in hospitals you know agency staff or staff that are not paid directly from hospitals but their wages are far higher than the general staff which costs the hsc millions of euros on an annual basis if you look at the hsc hasn't still got in place a a proper it system where each patient has a number where people are running around with with files physical files on each patient where taxis are going from hospital to hospital with physical files you know there's there's about 10 different areas that we could sit down and identify efficiencies and money savings uh elements within the agency you don't charge patients rent for sitting in the ed seat to pay someone to clean ed that would be there that would be you know so it's the kind of the same model but but outside it just it's incredible in university hospital in go away and they offer free car parking charges for the first 20 minutes but what's happening is patients are leaving the waiting rooms every 20 minutes to drive the car in and out like it's bananas and you know because of the Irish cancer societies campaigns we do know that about 12 hospitals have started to reduce their charges and but that's very opaque it's not very clear many patients are using the hospital really is as well there are some actual good schemes that that work there and I'll say for instance you can get a pass down at another kind of university hospital for 15 euro for a week that's still too much for some but is it are people aware of it you know is it is it well publicized this this is it so you have to be in the know in in certain aspects to be able to access that listen we're talking about people who have had life changing diagnosis many people who have a black cloud hanging over their families you know where their actual existence is under threat and we're asking these people who have suffered this massive blow to their lives and the financial blow that goes with it we're asking them to shell out again at the car on the way out on the car park it's just not good enough the government is taxing ill health they're taxing sickness we need to cop on to ourselves as a state we need to show these people compassion give them support and that's why I'm asking people to support the aim to right so just just very finely so I haven't confused it what what you want this to have not just no resistance but you want it to have cross-party government support to get it through both houses is that is that really yeah exactly we don't want the government's to just allow this through and let it bounce around the legislative process for years and and not make progress through the doll we want the government parties and the opposition parties to grab this and run with one of the best ways to do that is just for people you know who feel strongly about this issues to get on to the local cancerists get on to the local TDS and you know say that demands that you know those political parties support the aim to build in this circumstance okay finally how are you okay how are you feeling we spoke to you last year you were at a medical scare yourself and you were using your platform to get a message out there are you in good form everything okay with you yeah yeah thankfully the the cancer this hasn't recurred for me thank god and I still go on further the the three monthly checkups whereby they they do a full skin scan and just visually to see is there any moles and to be honest now and again and the consultant knocks off a mole here and there but it's it's minor business compared to where it was at a year ago and the only the only scars I have now is that I look like a my head looks like a boiled egg that's tough and by a spoon at the moment but thank god we're we're a hailing heart okay thank you very much for joining us thank you all right take care of yourself okay back with more shortly the 9 till noon show with letter Kenny credit union now offering mortgages with life cover provided at no additional cost letter Kenny credit union 9102127 for great fuel deals contact Gortley sales and hire large sacks and trailer loads of logs also briquettes coal kindling and gas with free delivery locally contact Gortley sales and hire in letter Kenny on 9126276 if the medical experts get it wrong everything changes from misdiagnosis or delay diagnosis to surgical injury or even poor treatment all have physical emotional and financial consequences we're here to help so if your treatment didn't go according to plan speak to our experienced medical negligence team at mackleheny and associates find us online or call 0749175989 mackleheny and associates solicitors struner in contentious business a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement for a huge selection of furniture all in one showroom pulling to grow furnishings in letter Kenny sofas beds wardrobes tables and chairs also a range of carpet vinyl rugs and laminated flooring if it's time for a change it's time for a visit to grow furnishings growth deliver throughout dunny gall dairy and tarot be inspired at grow furnishings kill toy road letter Kenny it was a sunny morning doubted he'd been to mass there was talk about the march whether it would go ahead or not the priest had told him to be careful and to keep an eye on the young fellas i was 22 first to we was edgy we was told to expect trouble you were the trouble we were ready for anything that was us they're not trying to deal with when you come back home some didn't get to come back home an incident with dave cotter a new player by bloody sunday at the baller theater 23rd 24th of february the chitlam festival is almost here get informed with the Irish fields award-winning chitlam magazine produced an association with goss trainers willy mullins gordon elliott and henry de bromhead all feature read the story behind the unbeaten honey suckle simon roland's provides expert analysis and there's interviews with many other owners trainers and jockeys hoping to visit the winner's enclosure the Irish field chitlam magazine in shops now or order your copy on the Irish field dot ie highland radio time checks brought to you by letter candy shopping center the center of shopping in dunny yall free parking and shopping all under one roof letter candy shopping center bringing you the time at 11 35 and on to the program we welcome mary lane part of the campaign to get educate together second level school provided for letter candy good morning to you mary thanks for joining us good morning great how are you good to have you with us right so what is the process for the establishment of an educate together second level school well do you know this that is a very good question and that is a question that we still need to get the right answer for and that can sort of give a bit of background as a way to watch is happening has happened really this has all this has kicked off within the last week or so there were a group of parents we started back at the parents and toddler groups after covid loads of us mamis and daddies we hadn't seen each other since before covid and we were now back at the baby groups with our pandemic babies and our then toddlers are now in primary school and we just got talking about primary schools and you know that they're all starting off and you know chatting where have each of our kids gone and that and there was a lot have gone to the educate together primary school and now I know my sister is an educate together secondary school teacher in Dublin so I'm sort of familiar with the ethos of of an educate together secondary school and I asked if anybody was aware if there was any campaign or any motion happening behind the scenes to get a secondary school for the town and nobody had heard of anything and and before we knew it with a whole gang of mamis and daddies all sat around chatting going right come on we have to so we're very at the very early stages of this then the committee has been and campaigners is forming now so a lot of questions remain unanswered so we don't know yet is a perfectly acceptable answer to any of my questions mary but what what um what need um would a educate together secondary school in Etto can he serve well to be very honest it would be a fresh approach for education in the town at second level and the four pillars of educate together are equality based co-educational learner centered and democratically run and the students are at the centre of everything that is happening and it really it is for my observation a new word of of of horror school is run um you know by by obviously the staff but also by the parents and the students who are encouraged to be an active participation at every at every point um throughout the process um there is there is a lack of choice for co-educational co-educational schools in letter Kenny um even the the number of children of young people who are in single-sex education in letter Kenny is over 1700 whereas there's only just over 500 are in co-educational um but there is a that may change in the not too distant future though those those wheels can turn quite slowly yeah you say not too distant future 10 to 15 years is what the government has said our our children will be in university or in their in their jobs by the time that could come to fruition okay do you know then mary or do we know sorry then how are they funded do you know what i mean like is there an educate together uh organization you know because obviously you either require or convert a school but probably build one from scratch it's a huge undertaking uh is that done through fundraising from the community or is there do it do if the responsibility on the Department of Education to provide it if the need is there yes so my understanding and i am happy to be corrected if i have got this kind of wrong in any way um my understanding is that first there is the assessment of need in an in an area um as to whether or not an extra school is required once that need has been established it then don't pretty much get put out to tender for all interested parties who wish to take patronage of the school and that there is an educate together body um and they oversee 21 second level schools in the country at the moment in addition to all the primary schools and and basically all interested parties be it the gale school movement be it um Catholic Church be it you know any other denomination um or body that or VEC or sorry ETB um that wishes to take patronage of a school um then they basically put it put across their case and it is it is to my knowledge the Department of Education that makes the final decision on who gets the patronage but for letter Kenny um even if there were other bodies interested um we do think that the educate together um would have a very very compelling and strong case within the town because there are other um you know there there is an ETB school there are um two Catholic Church schools and there is a gale college and so to and as well because there is the very growing um educate together primary school yes there definitely is okay so this sorry Mary I have to I have to move along just to wrap things up but we'll speak down the line I'm sure this obviously is a campaign that's as by your description has started very organically but there are people listening that say right I didn't know this was even a thing I want to get involved in that how do people get involved get more information on the campaign it's very early days as we said from from the get go so how do anyone interested how do they get more information or get involved or offer expertise or whatever it might be Mary sure well we've set up a facebook page um so it would be facebook.com forward slash ETSS for letter Kenny and we've also a website has just started there's not much on it as yet but hopefully that will grow and it's ETSS for letter Kenny dot IE um we we are keen to hear particularly from people who from families who are currently opting to leave letter Kenny we know that there are buses of kids who go to Raffaul, Milford and other and other places in search of particularly co-educational and multi-denominational education so we'd really love to hear people's stories why they've chosen to go elsewhere and as well as new people to the town we want to hear you know we will be doing all sorts of different surveys and things as time goes on those will all be published on our website and facebook page and so that there will be an awful lot of consultation I would imagine that will go that will go ahead and form part of this so you can check out ETSS for letter Kenny on facebook and get the links to the website and all from there thanks for that Mary no problem all right bye bye take care Mary Lane part of a new campaign to get educated together secondary second level at school for letter Kenny homeland fuel offers keeping you warm for less 40 kg premium doubles or easy flame coal buy 10 bags get one free hardwood logs two bags for 10 euro flow gas 25 pound gas cylinder only 27 euro 99 shop in store or online at homeland.ie as you start rediscovering northern Ireland again we want you to explore with confidence that's why we've introduced the we're good to go industry standard for tourism and hospitality businesses so you know they've agreed to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines like social distancing following the recommended cleaning processes and undergoing spot checks so you can enjoy your break to the full look out for the safety symbol for businesses that are good to go northern Ireland we're good to go brought to you by tourism northern Ireland in partnership with UK national tourism bodies if the medical experts get it wrong everything changes from misdiagnosis or delay diagnosis to surgical injury or even poor treatment all have physical emotional and financial consequences we're here to help so if your treatment didn't go according to plan speak to our experienced medical negligence team at mackleheny and associates find us online or call 0749175989 mackleheny and associates solicitors strunorler in contentious business a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement save up to 25 percent on your shopping at Kelly centra in there Kenny in store you'll find a huge range of great tasting own brand products fresh produce including fresh meat and frozen foods along with all your day-to-day needs say yes to savings every day at Kelly centra mountaintop there Kenny whatever the weather night or day letter Kenny driving range is open to 10 p.m. daily are you a beginner or thinking of taking up golf our base allow you to practice the good and not so good shots for as little as three euro practice makes perfect at a letter Kenny driving range open seven days find us on facebook cattle trade on fire as beef passes five euro a kilo for more in this week's farmers journal is paul mooney factory feedlots drive mark trade towards record prices supreme court gives green light for a glambia cheese plant we take a look at the measures in the new agri-environment scheme farmers with mica affected sheds asked to come forward and in Irish country living we explore the rising cost of living and launch our new rural housing series plus don't miss your free newspaper for young farmers only inside this week's Irish farmers journal on sale now okay you're very welcome back to the program now you'll remember the story last year wouldn't you of a number of defibrillators being tampered with pads were being taken from them old pads being left in their place which meant they were not not available in the event of an emergency regularly in this program we talk about life rings being tossed off bridges disappearing and all that type of thing so obviously those who feel it's feeling inclined to do so don't feel that it is you know they're going to get a decent punishment for what could effectively cost another person their life well senator Robbie Gallagher joins us on the program now you want senator good morning to you by the way good morning Greg and thank you for having me on no thank you for joining us you want um higher penalties heftier penalties for people found to be interfering with the likes of defibs or live boys just as a question is it a specific offense to to deal with life-saving or to tamper with life-saving equipment I wonder well Greg currently um it's not a specific offense and that's what we are trying to do here in relation to this piece of legislation currently um offenses of this nature are dealt with under the criminal damages act 1991 which would be the equivalent of somebody for example maybe breaking a park bench or riding graffiti on a wall uh something minor like that and I think you saw them drop perfectly in their introduction there this is much much more serious and back in uh 2017 um myself and senator German Wilson and then senator Keith Swanwick a GP from from Mayo introduced a piece legislation called the life-saving equipment bill and basically its main focus was to introduce a specific offense for anyone that could say and to fear with or damage or remove any piece of life-saving equipment and that as you outlined yourself could be a defibrillator it could be a life boy or could be a light ring so that's that's what we're hoping for here that basically we feel that it's up to legislators to put up the legislation and we feel currently unfortunately this particular offense and examples of it and you've dealt with them on your own station where defibrillators are damaged or life boys or life rings are taken away is hugely serious and it could be without overreacting it could be a matter of life or death for sure and it means to if this were passed a sign could be erected close to it and there'd be public information out there as well so which states that if you tamper with or a fan to damage this piece of equipment you could face a prison sentence of up to five years a 50,000 euro fine or both that would stiffen the cough absolutely I think we need to send a strong message out there that this is huge to hugely important and apart from the aspect where we could be talking here about the potentially saving someone's life in in say for example in relation to a defibrillator this is what we're talking about here but not alone that Greg approximately we have about 2,000 defibrillators located through every length and breadth of the country and they were put there by and large by volunteers that would be a GA club soccer club or even a business that fund raised to put them there in the force base and then we had people voluntarily coming forward as force responders who took time out of their own time that is and went and got trained and keep themselves upskilled in order to be able to respond to somebody in their in their hour of need and not alone it's also a crime on the community and it's a crime on those people so I think we owe it to those people and into the community at large to send out a strong strong message here that listen anybody that interferes with this will be dealt with very very strongly why is it taking five years so far what's the hold up up until now I'm disappointed to say that the previous government there was there was some resistance to this they felt that that there was legislation already in place to deal with this and we had difficulty moving it forward since the change of government we've had a number of meetings scheduled with the department we have more scheduled next week actually to try and move this forward I'm hopeful and confident we've moved on now Greg to committee stage and we have only one more stage left before it's finished in the Shannon and then moves on to the doll and from there the president because the call the courts aren't going to be flooded with people being brought before them onto this legislation I just think this is one of those where the law would be 99% deterrent absolutely correct and right and that's what we're doing here we're trying to strong message that anybody that is caught doing this will say that very very strongly if dealt with through the courts and ultimately that's the message we're trying to get out here because it is a simple this could potentially save so much life yeah all right okay and it's it's a huge problem right across the country we hear a lot of it but we don't hear all of it I'm not sure if it's all noted and logged as perhaps it should because what happens is is a life boys chucked off a bridge here and the local search and rescue or local volunteers either risk their lives again rooting it out of the water and putting it back where it is or find some way to replace it without it being treated or logged you know as an offense or as an occurrence so I think there's a lot of this going on and this would certainly put pay to a lot of it I think thank you for joining us senator no you're welcome thanks for having me all right no no it's our pleasure senator Robbie Gallagher there I think most would agree would you if you disagree of course oh eight six sixty twenty five thousand now we are out and about tomorrow it's business as usual by the way we have our Friday panel between nine and ten discussing lots of big stories big issues it's one of the most popular hours of the program and then we have um michael and fenula joining us from 10 to 11 but it's all coming live from rush fitness in letter kenny for the official launch of donnie gall's first boutique style fitness suites now I didn't see all of it but we called down yesterday just to have a look around and it's beautiful it's big it's open it's airy and it's in tons loads of parking and all that kind of stuff really close to letter kenny as well there'll be tours and trials all day so you're invited to go along and they didn't ask us to do the official opening no you have to have competed for one of the premier boxing world titles that's jason quickly of course jason's going to be cotton the ribbon that's at six p.m but throughout the course of the day you're invited to go down and have a look at it we're broadcasting live from it throughout the morning nine till 12 a lot of the show obviously is what you'd expect but also we'll get a sense of what's going on there and as I say try and talk to you about it so you can go and have a look at it look at it as well if you're in and around that area so looking forward to going down and seeing the crew at rush fitness for the show tomorrow between nine and 12 call it says why can't the hospital hsc manage the car park themselves so instead of just getting a small percentage they'd generate millions over the year which could be plowed back into the hospital time for the hospital to be more self-sufficient uh arguably you could say that the car park the whole notion of it was you know you pay a bit for it to be managed you can use some of the funds for spend on the hospital to extend the car park and you don't have to rely on central government funding that model probably at the time was argued as being one which was self-sufficient but i'm not contradicting you and i take your point come back to us in three minutes 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 9102127 i used to play football here when i was a school girl now i'm here coaching the next generation being a garden means thinking quickly being active and loving the excitement of not knowing what's around the corner what it also means working as part of a team guiding young people and helping keep people safe you'll have plenty of skills that could help you be a garden you might not know what they are yet but they're there apply to join as a garden trainee by the 16th of march at publicjobs.ie on garden sheikana the difference is you at hikki clark and langan insurance brokers they compare quotes from all the leading insurers so you get a great price home motor and van farm holiday home travel and liability insurance they quote them all so if the worst happens you're covered for a competitive insurance quote today called hikki clark and langan on 912668 or pop into their office at bali mccool letter kenny hikki clark and langan general insurance is limited trading as hikki clark and langan is regulated by the central bank of ireland are you troubled with painful varicose veins with spring only around the corner why wait to seek treatment restore the health and beauty of your legs with rapid access to a vein consultation at kingsbridge private hospital letter kenny our vascular consultants offer assessment advice and options on the latest treatments available book your appointment today visit kingsbridgeprivatehospital.ie to find out more because life matters at crucially supermarket we offer daily specials at our deli with fresh and delicious food to go available butchers weekly specials or choose from a range of healthy options and pre-packed meals plus many more offers in store we're open seven days for your convenience crucially supermarket where quality and value is assured the three amigos jimmy buckling robert brazil and patrick finney are coming back to donnie gall see this amazing show live at jackson's hotel molly buffet monday february 28 tickets priced at 35 euro and are now on sale at the hotel reception and ticketmaster.ie this award-winning show is not to be missed island ready or weather updates with island west airport discover ember this summer with reiner's three times weekly service stunning architecture endless winding streets and an awe-inspiring castle island west airport you're flying so today will be a blustery one with bright spells and showers some of them heavy some with hail temperatures five to seven degrees but with the breeze the with the wind feeling much colder than that i am told uh storm units will move up from the south west tonight overnight and friday morning will be stormy with severe and damaging northwest winds and gusts there'll be falls of rain sleet and snow with localized blizzards there is a risk of coastal flooding too at high tide early on friday morning the storm will clear with blustery wintery showers following on friday afternoon and evening right just want to mention before we go that the northwest simon community regional tea day is taking place today the chart is calling on the region to host a tea day on thursday the 7th of february or any day that suits during the month of february this is the 17th of february isn't it okay so uh keep an eye out anywhere locally um the word that's hosting that okay uh listen that's where we have to leave it on the program today thank you to all of you who took time to uh watch or listen to