 that failure to intervene in time has now left people struggling financially. He's also criticised the Minister for the Environment, Eamon Ryan, for not stepping in early enough to stop electricity and gas companies hiking their prices before an EU proposal to lure VAT on fuels past. Deputy Pringle says he'll be bringing the matter to the doll when it reopens again next week. He also thinks the government could have been a lot more proactive regarding the matter. The number of people with COVID-19 being treated in Irish hospitals has increased again to the highest level in over a year. The Department of Health has confirmed 1,127 cases in the hospital system today, that's the highest level since February of last year. 52 patients are being treated in intensive care for the virus, an increase of four since yesterday. Ukraine's President has again urged his Russian counterpart to hold direct talks with him to stop his invasion. Volodymyr Zelensky says Kremlin forces are blockading his country's largest cities to create a humanitarian catastrophe, with the aim of persuading citizens to cooperate with them. Rescue workers are continuing to sift through the rubble of a theater that was head in the besieged port city of Mariupol. President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was not clear how many people are still trapped following the attack on the theater. We have also rescued 35,000 people from Mariupol. We continue rescue work at the site of the blown up theater. The occupiers blew it up even though people were hiding there. We have in total saved 130 people, but more people are still under the rubble. The T-shirt is coming under pressure to support a public inquiry into nursing home deaths during the pandemic. Many families who lost loved ones in nursing homes say they're still looking for answers almost two years on from the first wave of COVID-19 here. The calls from the campaign group at Care Champions come ahead of a national ceremony of remembrance and reflection tomorrow. Its chairperson Majella Beatty says it's not about a witch hunt and that an inquiry will be about getting answers and correcting past mistakes. We need to know the facts. Families cannot move forward until they know what happened. Not only does the T-shirt need to sit down and listen to us and ensure that there is an inquiry into what has happened, we need to drive reform. And finally, Census 2022 takes place in just over two weeks' time. The national survey on Sunday the 3rd of April is the first in six years. After last year's census was cancelled due to the pandemic. Vital information gathered by the Central Statistics Office will be used for the planning of public policy and services in future. Aileen Murphy from the Census Office explains how this one will be a bit different. For the first time we have a time capsule on the form this time which is a voluntary section at the back where you can write whatever you want, your message to the future for future generations in 2021-22, telling them what whatever you want, what life is like in Ireland today, sharing a secret family recipe etc. I know the weather dry and sunny this afternoon and it'll also be quite breezy and fresh and gusty southeast winds, with high temperatures of 13 to 16 degrees today. That's all from the news desk for now, we'll have the latest news headlines again for you coming up at one o'clock but until then good afternoon. All children aged five and over are being offered a COVID-19 vaccine. Their vaccine will help to protect them and the rest of the family too. The advice from the World Health Organization is that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe for children this age. So if you have questions about their COVID-19 vaccine we have answers you can trust. For information and to book an appointment for your child visit hsc.ie from the HSC. Broadcasting throughout the northwest and across the world online, this is Highland Radio, your voice, your station. Be good Saturday afternoon you're very welcome along to a very special program I'm fighting the urge to call it the 9 till noon show. But it is not, we are broadcasting live from Islington Council as part of a month-long celebration of Irish heritage. We've got a load of guests for you this afternoon, hopefully you'll stay and enjoy the program. If you're listening on radio, if you want to watch the program as well you can hop online to HighlandRadio.com via our website, we're streaming it there, you'll see a link. Or if you prefer you can go on our Facebook page, you know that Facebook page or YouTube Highland Radio Ireland. But as I say we're here hopefully to keep you entertained between now and two, giving you a sense of what's happening over here. In Islington in London we arrived yesterday morning and I had an opportunity to go around and see all the usual sites and it was a wonderful experience and later on in the program by the way after one o'clock of course there's a big match we're going to be keeping you up to date in relation to that. But the reason why we are here we're here as the guests of Councillor Troy Gallagher who is the Mayor of Islington and he joins us in studio now. It is great in studio I should say we join you in your studio I suppose. Thanks for having us and it's great to be here. If I could just ask you to lean forward into the mic a little bit for me. Thanks so much Greg. Absolutely fantastic that you are here. I'm so grateful that how many people from Donegal have all come together to help put on this program and support the Irish. And it's only you know we spoke last week on we spoke on Zoom and it was great to have you on right but it's only when you're here that you really get a sense of of how big this this event is this series of events is. So tell us what you wanted to achieve and you are achieving it. I wanted to achieve a celebration of 100 years that contributes in the Irish I've made and Greg it's the people that came over here in the 20s 30s who had nothing but the clothes they were wearing and the suitcase they were carrying came with just hopes and dreams for a better life and future. And through all the struggles and hardship over here because it wasn't easy at the time there was quite a lot of racism towards the Irish they built their lives their families they got jobs they helped build Britain build the roads build build all the houses took into development and actually and actually changed Britain and brought with them a sense a sense of the sense of their homeland homeland culture and heritage and they shaped this borough they shaped London and also United Kingdom over the 100 years so I wanted to celebrate that fact I wanted to also say thank you to those to all our forefathers and every Irish immigrant that comes over here and contributes to us today and I also just wanted to be able to say utilize it as part of my Merrill theme which is very new tomorrow how the role of the Irish immigrant has changed from the nursing Navi to people like ourselves now people involved in politics media finance and taking the new generation forward and in relation to politics because we're not last week remarkably for all of our contributions here you are the first person first Irish person to hold this position and I am I am indeed in what a great even greater honor that is I have to say I was I was taken aback when I was I was taken aback when I was told I would be the first Irish born mayor all previous occupants before had had enough Irish background but were born in Britain and instantly one of the previous mayors John Burke yeah he was born he was born in Islington but his mother came from Chrysler okay yeah so on inauguration day the grand the grand nieces and nephews sent wonderful messages to say how proud they were for the first Irish born mayor and that's something special it truly is and it's it's actually a beautiful part of the world here isn't it that's great I've never been here before and I must say the whole city seems really clean and you know modern and a lot of work seems to be going on going right across London yeah there is and I think there's a sense of people taking pride in how it looks now isn't can be quite deceiving because still while there is it's there's a lot of poverty within the area you can stand beside beside once out of the street you can see the house is the Victorian Terrace houses Georgian houses street properties and you can see across road different council states yeah and I think I think it's a testament towards the contribution and towards tackling tackling fairness and inclusion and ensuring that that's the cleanliness as you rightly say people take pride in it and that that the council actually delivers to show the best of Uslington and how we actually make those changes that are needed this is um this is a two-way street obviously because what's happening is as you've been outlining the importance of this month and the contribution here but there's another there's a lot of other stuff going on as well of course don't go kind of cancel the idea having meetings on that meeting of breakfast yesterday you know and on the face of it these things don't you can't in the immediate get a sense of the importance of them but over time yeah they can start reaping rewards and that's what what the hope is as well so it's much more than celebrating everything you've mentioned it's looking to the future as well it's very much looking towards the future we had we had the wonderful uh business breakfast with Donegal County Council yesterday and that was attended by the Lord Mayor of the City of London and key people of business leaders across uh London and the United Kingdom and the reason I wanted that to happen was to be able to utilize the networks that we have to build better relationship strength in the relationship between Donegal and London and how to promote that and it has to feel like a two-way street doesn't it you can't look and I think I sad like I'm name dropping but I'm not but I interviewed the the uh our president there not so long ago a couple years ago and he says we can't keep going to the diaspora looking for them to but it's not like that is it's about having a it's a mutually beneficial arrangement you're absolutely right you've had the nail on the head when I became mayor one of the things that I said was you know all too often people look at Irish Democrat and think actually Patrick's Day Christmas that's that checklist done but I I've always felt that there's a greater need for to strengthen the relationship between uh Ireland and the UK but most people look at national level there's nothing that's ever been done we've seen uh county councils and borough councils working together to look at lessons learned and particularly my post pandemic there's a huge opportunity for to say actually why can I not why great can I not uh go back to manifest have a job there still be London based on the salary and actually and and and be able to go across two or three times a month and I think utilizing the agile worker and the technology that we've got we can break down the pole silos of ways of doing things yes and strengthen that relationship talk to me about um what's happening tonight then the the ball that's happening tonight so the gala ball is happening tonight it is the theme is for the return to the galtimore and that is to pay tribute to the previous show bands for your listeners uh some who who have spent time in Islington they were a member that just up the road the Gresham was on the Holloway Road that was one of the big uh the big halls the national the forum and of course the main one was the galtimore so all the elderly this is the Cricklewood galtimore this is the Cricklewood galtimore and this program are we going to get a squeaky box version this year you've got the conquerors so you have yeah there and there's a charitable element to tonight as well as it is okay I might ask uh Tessa just to sit and join us here as well as you continue talking about the ball that's okay so the ball is as a reception it starts at six to seven then uh uh four course mail uh then we have a very surprised guest that is going to join us and the conquerors are starting off uh at half nine to half eleven there's a few surprises throughout the night that all pay tribute to the Irish immigrants their success stories and it's an auction tonight as well isn't there there's a silent auction there is some wonder what is a silent auction so you have I just don't bid too high on the quiet you have the photographs of all the prizes and you put the envelope to put in your picks and I have one over my right shoulder here that's a there's a it's a we can't really demonstrate it here actually do you know what if for those watching maybe you might lift it up uh Kevin so people can see this here because this is quite um this is quite an impressive piece of equipment oh can that be moved it's very very valuable but be really really careful I just move up the yeah just yeah okay so um we're gonna have a yeah that's just that's a big edging over here uh this is a very important little piece of art here I think will potentially has that's one of is that up for auction it is yes and tell us about the painter or the artist the artist is mason storm who is the equivalent of the new Banksy and he specifically did that painting on oil canvas and signed specifically for the marriage charity for this tonight and it was delivered last week uh he's uh careful with that please wait till you hear the valuation he has and you can see the signature in the back it's he said that would normally sell at auction for between eight to ten grand for charities you'll be looking between fifteen and there's only one direction the value of that is going that's correct and that's in a in an upward upward fashion okay so talk to me about uh your three uh we have uh tessa havers uh strong um you'll talk to me about your uh charity please if you don't mind one second sorry that's my fault go ahead yes good afternoon thank you very much for inviting me to speak today it's great to have you with us um my name is tessa havers strong i'm the director of forum plus we're a charity that works across islington and camden uh we're an lgbt organization and um we've been going since 2002 so this year is our 20th birthday and uh we're very privileged to being chosen as one of the mayor's charities and uh we've got various roles that we do we we support victims of homophobic biphobic and transphobic hate crime that was initially the work that we set out to do back in 2002 um but since then we've grown to produce cultural events across the boroughs things like lgbt history month we put the largest program of events on in the country and uh we have art exhibitions we we um we have monthly support groups and uh we we have book clubs and film clubs and um that those with the aims of those being to prevent social isolation and and um and prevent loneliness as well and then other aspects that we do we work um in schools we do lgbt awareness days and um we also offer training advice to local businesses and and also uh with the police and because it's it's very important isn't it to be there to support uh the victims of of these types of crimes but obviously we want to be in a space where we don't have victims of these crimes as well isn't it yes and i would say the news overall is very good if you look at compared to say 20 years ago the levels of homophobia back then were a lot higher than they are today but sadly um there are still incidents where where people experience homophobic abuse um violence is quite rare these days physical violence but quite often we see a lot of chronic uh antisocial behavior which involves homophobia and that's something we're working hard to to reduce and it's lovely i imagine to get the endorsement of someone in such a position of power as our mayor here very very proud and um and we're so pleased to be part of it and it will the the funding that comes in through that will go a long way to supporting the lgbt communities and the work that we do difficult to select charities i mean obviously because they're all worthy yeah effectively and you would love to be able to say right i can use this time or this platform to support all um so how did you go about choosing your three charities i wanted to choose charities that had specific uh resonance with me yes and it was very very hard because you're getting a lobby left right in center once they know that you're becoming the mayor i i chose i always wanted to chose the charities to tackle mental health and particularly male suicide yes and lgbt clearly i'm lgbt myself and the homophobia that that test has talked about i had experienced that in my past as as many other i wish people across who came across and i and i specifically chose forum plus because of the number of the elderly i wish people who said of the what they went through when they came across now dan brackett hopefully he's going to join us here now as well we're having to wing this a little bit dan because he was supposed to be with us here in the mayor's parlor i hope you can hear me and i hope i can hear you are you there dan yeah i am hi hey that's good to be here even online yeah okay well in sporting parlors in arland this is called a hell mary and it works so this is good i'm not sure uh uh either tessa or or american here but we can and the listeners can okay so i wanted you to talk to talk to us uh dan a little bit about james's place yeah so um james's place is for a therapeutic centre for men in suicide of crisis and we have a centre in Liverpool we have a centre it's just set up in london and we've been setting up over the last year um we work i mean there's a problem um for uh for men in suicide of crisis and men are three times more likely to to die by suicide than women and it's the um leading cause of death of the men um over the age of uh under the age of 50 so it's um one of those um real issues that you know there's got to be kind of solutions to um what we do at james's place is um we've designed a a centre and an intervention that uh makes it easy for men to access therapy at times of crisis and we have trained therapists who um who uh come to our uh so we have trained therapists who welcome the men to the centre we have incredibly welcoming atmosphere and um put a great deal of investment into the physical space so with that when a man comes into uh into a dangerous place centre yes they they feel very welcomed and respected and we've worked with um over 100 men in in london and that's been helped massively by uh the work of uh the mayor of islington and um promoting uh our charity and our and our setting up and it's important isn't it and and and what the same um a point to another guest uh tessa who we have here as well it it's it's good for it it must be very important for a charity to to get that sort of backing from a person in troys position absolutely absolutely and i mean it's it's meant a great deal for us coming into london as a new a completely new centre to then be known so we get referrals and we have got referrals through um instead of the process for work all right dan listen lovely to speak to you i wish i'd been able to meet you in person but uh may be another time thank you very much for joining us this morning real pleasure thank you all right take care of this afternoon now isn't it okay thank you very much indeed uh that was uh dan bracken uh from james's place tessa anything you want to add just before we wrap this segment up um i would just quickly mention it's our 20th birthday this year and so we're going to be putting on lots of celebrations throughout throughout the throughout the coming months and so do keep an eye out on our website uh forum plus dot org dot uk and you can also subscribe to our mailing list from there as well if you like and do you get a sense of real progress over the last 20 years a long way to go of course but you know i think often we have these conversations and we never really talk about that things are improving or things are changing because we never want to sort of i suppose you know not give the importance to what people might be going through as well but if we are improving i think we have to recognize that too don't wait yes we're definitely there's this huge shift of support now towards the lgbt communities and i would say that yes that there's lots of work to be done but young people today really do understand about acceptance and understanding of other people lovely listen thank you so much uh it's been great having you with us you stay where you are tro you are the special person uh not just today but always i hear okay uh we'll be speaking well we've got loads of guests as i mentioned coming up for the program stay right where you are we've an awful lot more uh to talk about but we're going to take a short break and we have another uh guest from one of the mayor's chosen charities and so much more besides uh coming up on the program in just about a couple of moments Nutrious milk replacer range which includes Nutri start and Nutri start plus offers the best start to your calves this spring season with 23% and 25% crude proteins ideal for calf to beef and heifer rearing systems give your calves the best possible start available at your local homeland store visit nutrious.ie for full nutritional information inflation busting offers from Lidl help make your money go further with products from across our incredible range you could make your family a week's worth of delicious nutritious meals and round it all off with a big Irish sundae roast that's a whole week's shop for a family of four for less than 76 euro follow Lidl's inflation busting challenge online at hashtag Lidl inflation busters for further savings tips and offers and save even more money in store with the Lidl plus app inflation busters at Lidl more for you products shopped febru 15 see Lidl.ie for details are you thinking of selling your home at Robinson estate agents we currently have clients waiting to buy properties due to relocation to Donegal call for a free evaluation and find out more about the benefits of using an estate agent with over 25 years experience you can also avail of a free professional marketing campaign let Robinson estate agents maximise your sale value today for more information call our offices in letter kenny and on fallahy on 07491-2090 Robinson estate agents working for you okay you are very welcome back to the program broadcasting live would you believe it from the ishington council offices were in the mayor's parlor it's a beautiful surrounding is a beautiful building it's relatively uh it's it's younger this building that i would have thought uh Troy yeah 1901 it was built okay it just feels even if you think it could be 18th or something but yeah i suppose London was only growing out yeah exactly as simple as that it was and if you if you wonder why it's so it looks so much towards the left they didn't run out of funds to complete the other side of it okay the third mayor's charity is icap its CEO is Catherine Hennessy Catherine so much thank you so much for joining us you're very welcome Greg can you talk to us a little bit about the work that your charity does okay so icap offers counseling and psychotherapy to the Irish community in britain and your listeners will be aware there's few families in Ireland who don't have somebody living abroad and we're providing counseling and therapy for the Irish community we're doing that at our London Centre in Finsbury Park which is about a mile from here in Birmingham and then in other locations around the country and the people we see um 97 percent of them were born on the island of Ireland and they range in age between about 22 and about 88 and we also see then people of the second generation so people who were born here to Irish parents who perhaps emigrated in the 50s or 60s yeah okay how many people would you work with uh well each week we'd see about 200 people yeah across all our services and people come to us for a variety of reasons sometimes people left for economic reasons to come here and make a better life for themselves but some people also left because of difficult circumstances in their childhood in Ireland and we know it's history but it's not history it's current it's our living history really a lot of what we're talking about if i'm reading uh reading correctly the type of things that you're talking about indeed because we're talking both about those who might have lived in institutions but also those who might have suffered abuse in their homes or in families um and so London's always been an easy place to escape to if you've had the price of the fair exactly but you know people often you know would say well if it's like that we'll just get away just get out but it's the when you do especially if you go to a strange country in inverted commas the realities hit very very quickly that you know we all have structures and stuff around us even if if some of it's problematic and then when that's not there that's when you you'll find yourself going well thank god there's icap there yeah and and i mean icap's just one of the number of charities working with the Irish community here places like the London Irish Centre and a host of other organisations across the country i suppose our particular focus is on counselling and we're very grateful to the mayor to have chosen us as one of his charities for this year of course our our links with Dunnegala very long standing our founder Theresa Gallagher was born and brought up in letter Kenny and um just outside letter Kenny and and she was committed to providing this service which was quite unique at the time it was founded 25 years ago in 1996 and do you find that those who engage with it's often on a long-term basis sometimes it can be sometimes it can be more short-term during the pandemic we set up a telephone helpline so that might be someone who was just struggling during the pandemic yeah I mean isolation is a big issue generally for the older Irish population and obviously that was exacerbated during the pandemic because people weren't able to go to the day centres or social activities that they would normally have taken part in um so yes or it can be longer if somebody's had a very difficult upbringing it might take quite some time longer but you'll have that flexibility we have that flexibility and we can work with people and a lot of our therapists are are themselves Irish either born there or so they can recognise the cultural needs of the people who come to see us okay and Troy again um it's you can see the connection and the intertwining of the charities you've selected yeah very much so between mountain health isolation and loneliness and and homophobia I think it's it's it's very much what has many Irish immigrants experienced over the years and and when I first came to his LinkedIn I remember speaking to an elderly person who said who's family all moved away his wife had died and said all I have is one or two friends I've just realized for the first time in my life I'm lonely I don't know what to do if nowhere to go to it and that was one of the first piece of case we're getting going yeah and we're familiar with that of course in Dollingham with the rural isolation and I think you know what happened during the lockdowns is people in towns and villages all of a sudden got what rural isolation was absolutely you know and it was like okay so this is what they've been talking about on the radio or whatever not everyone a lot of people are very empathetic and understand but I think really people started to realise I were very very quickly you can become the isolated no matter you know your environment yeah I know how quickly things spiral okay so um as well as we've talked about uh a fantastic night of entertainment and crack and short speeches very short speeches there is there's the there's the silent auction okay what all the stuff is up for guys because you've got great support from home as well as uh what your home here and your home at home yeah indeed oh yeah I mean I still call letter Kenny don't go home and that never leaves you even to this day travel going back to England traveling over the port bridge I still get a pain in my heart I do get that I've got wrenching feeling even now after all these years but the other prayers are up tonight Glen Eagles in Calarney have given a four night stay yeah a four night stay in that beautiful hotel private trip to muckers park and the ring of Kerry plus two tickles to two tickets to a Daniel Donald concert Arsenal have given a signed jersey of all of all the team to current teams nice one there's Arsenal tickets there's there's Tottenham Hotspur tickets there's Man United tickets and there's Liverpool oh you covered everything yeah all right clever I like it so we'll see how generous people are this evening yeah so I've never done this before so I'm open on a wing and a prayer but I've apparently just told us great you put your bed in an envelope and you put it beside the photograph what you're betting for and the highest bidder is announced at the end of the night all right and and we're hearing and understanding for those um I mean obviously the amount of people going to it we're not all going to be listening to this but it just gives a sense of of the importance of the work that it will be supporting as well it's been lovely meeting you Catherine thank you very much thank you very much indeed and thank you again Troy you're not going anywhere are you going to be around when you dip in and out with us if that's okay all right it is a program that I haven't named maybe donal can come up with a name 12 to 2 donal I think we'd get away with that one donal's helping us back at base but what it is is it's a special broadcast and it's lovely to be a donal goal station being part of this as well because this is all about and lots of people listen so you're regularly listening to Troy aren't you oh yeah yeah every day as well so it's nice to hear that too that we're reaching out to people of fear as well loads more guests to come stay where you are your voice your station make the most of your bank holiday weekend with inflation busting offers at Lidl there's Tato 16 packs for only 3.99 coca-cola range 10 and 12 can packs just 6.99 each and a 700 mil bottle of Baileys was 20 euro now an unbelievable 10 euro inflation busting offers at Lidl more for you enjoy alcohol responsibly for a great early season lawnmower deal visit Gartley sales and hire exclusive stock is of steiga in the northwest moors strimmers and headstrimmers full trade and service available at Gartley sales and hire Gartley letter Kenny call 9126276 visit Derry and experience a world of difference just over the border see the historic walls the waterfront and 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buy and send a personalized e-gift card at any time or schedule it to arrive on mother's day Dunstores always better value terms of additions exclusions and minimum spend applies okay you're very welcome back to the program we're joined now in the mayor's parlor by two guests we'll say good morning or good afternoon in fact firstly to Sally more reader a more read you beg your pardon advisor to the irish elderly advice network i'm told and i can see that you are a legend in these parts is that not overdoing it there am i been around a long time you have indeed can i talk to us about um you founded the organization three decades ago wasn't that correct yes what what happened and it was um i decided i was going to take a part-time job i've worked for it's lives in council for many years and uh i saw this ad it was simplest that i saw an ad looking for somebody to provide advice and support to old irish people and um i cut the cut the job nine pound grant and then nine pounds just to um run the organization nine thousand pounds it was very little funding in other words and then we got we got um comic relief came on board um it did it cabinet council were excellent islington contributed i won't say how much um anyway i needed funding as much as they needed a worker yeah now also it's been an important date just passed for you as well because uh people might know you're originally from cork a formal former public representative but you were one of the founders also of the the Birmingham Six Freedom Campaign and as i say i think it was the 15th of march was the the anniversary of their release yeah the Birmingham Six basically i always say this to everyone in terms of them who who was campaigning for who the wives were the first they stood by their women um sorry they stood by the men um through all those 16 years and then campaigns were developed over time my journey was basically city watching was an action um one night and it was it was absolutely clear to me that they've got that you know that this was a terrible terrible mistake and i had been involved in the miners strike and the miners wives and um you know it's in downtown hall in fact margot hodge um was leader at the time and margot hodge was the she's um she's in peter and barky barky degnam but i mean she was amazing the the stuff she did not only her yeah the trade union movements as well in islington was very strong and they came on board but did you have to suffer any backlash from it because i'm sure your your campaign wouldn't have been popular with everybody yeah at the beginning i mean don't forget it took 16 years to for the state to say sorry the guys we got the wrong guy yes you know 16 years so i suppose you know when you take that into consideration it's it's not uh it's not a simple history but um i mean there was campaigns to the wives there was then the general campaigning groups and organizations yeah um i went to see them in prison twice and it was quite scary i would imagine so but but very impressive um you know those six men were you know totally innocent um yes you are right i mean i had people even i wish people coming up and saying you've got it wrong that's what i was thinking yeah and with everything else going on you have to really feel strongly you have to have the courage of your convictions because you have to write a lot of that out um you're also a member of the irish council of state and and very special in that you are one of the seven appointees appointed to the council of state in 2012 by michael d higgins the president uh she's the only president say sorry i should have say uh sally's the only president's nominee on the council of state who does not live in arland which again i presume that was a great honor for you was it absolutely i was to have a guess of what i got the phone call from michael d um president higgins um if you're if you're on very good terms with him it's okay if you're calling michael d oh i take the whole of the whole island we all are called a great affection okay we're also joined by john o'connor who is a trustee of the irish elderly advice network um talk to us about why this network was founded john and good more good afternoon to you good afternoon to you and uh no the irish elderly advice network was formed 1993 uh from the discovery of three irish men elderly irish men were found dead in their apartment sort of flats on the same flat but different ones and it uh it prompted some irish women to set up an organization to look after these people like this so the irish elderly advice network was was formed and since then this being going from strength to strength and up to um this present moment in time that that have gained for irish people irish elderly people uh for how how social housing benefits you name it they're chased it i know that they're they're like paying out they're not paying but they've managed to obtain over two million pounds a year which is very a phenomenal amount of money and i suppose it's also to make sure that these uh but people don't get lost fall through the cracks their contribution is recognized that there are there are supports and groups around them to make sure that they are treated with the importance that they deserve because even just as you spoke those words you know my mind was taken to what it must have been like for the three people that you mentioned yes to you know go on to meet their makers that's what might have been going through their heads how did they feel how did their isolation make a obviously an end of life situation even more difficult you know so it's anything we can do to prevent that people if you're not hundreds like them that they're what's in in England and London and all the okay and they've been here since they were 15 16 years of age and for some reason they've fallen through the cracks and they've lost contact with them with their families they lost contact with their friends and neighbors and consequently they're just they're on their own living on their own and no one sort of once their doors are closed then nobody cares but the Irish elderly advice network they care if they get a hint that somebody is looking for help I need help and they're there for them which is which is very very important Sally isn't it for all the reasons we've been outlining there and these are our uncles our aunties our grandparents you know this is I think I would say about the in addition to what John just said the one thing that's really moved me and really kind of gave me a direction almost immediately I started a job and that was the sense of empowerment I felt none of them had when they come to us you know and we we wanted to instill that we wanted to let people have pride yeah they just have doubt of them over years I mean when I see people sitting outside the station and they they're Irish people I kind of like I just wish I wish we could do more than we do but you know it is a hundred times better and thanks to to a large extent to the finance now comes from the Irish government part of the foreign affairs and year on year that it gets better more strategically allocated to us to our charity as well and what's happened as well is that there's been a mushroom a huge big drive and there are now several organizations for older Irish people but you've you've set the groundwork the model is there and once it's been established and and there is a way to do it it's easier then to to to apply it in different areas John but the most important thing about but this organization organization is that all the advice anyone that comes to their door or please put the telephone and ring all that advice is free of charge yeah and if they can't come to the center so the base then then they will go to them so it is it's a wonderful organization okay listen and there's a wonderful sound of people getting married in the background as well I think that's what it is listen it's been it's been an absolute pleasure meeting both of you and congratulations on the work that you do and you know maybe we all should be doing a bit more for these are our people too you know and it's great to have you the likes of yourselves but it's it's definitely it's only just housing and benefits and and looking after and the elderly people but they're also I've got a cultural side of it so they've been the they're still keeping the culture and do you have your fiddle with you I don't have a fiddle I'm trying to see Nora I should have told you to you must bring an instrument that would be that's what they have a wonderful conscious sound as well with the pensioners choir they've been people together yeah it's absolutely fabulous and it's we're so important our interaction with other people and again we've learned through COVID how important that is one last word yes please of course I was going to say it's it's what's also always been of help is borrows to have a good attitude towards Irish people yes local authorities that are willing to assist and take an interest in what we do and and that's not just councils it's MPs as well and I just want to mention that Jeremy Corbyn has been a very excellent MP and I'm really sad that he hasn't found the means to and to reconcile with with um deleted but of course there's politics is politics there's a lot of yes I get you and there's a there's politics there as well of course but of course that's the way it is it's a it's a funny old game as they say listen it's been really nice meeting both of you it really has anything you want to add before we and because she had a surgery in uh in east London which is the part of London that is more or less forgotten about Irish people do actually live in in east London but salutes to her initiative and drive she set up an organization in east London called the Irish Pensions Forum and that was started up 10 years ago now and it's been a godsend to the people not only of the seven boroughs of east London which we have meetings and tea dances and stuff once a month and we have the demand for this is unbelievable so well this leaves me with only just one question do you sleep and how many hours are in your day because you don't know how you managed to fit it all in you ask I mean I have actually put in the last year and I've been very you have you in the last year okay well I'm sorry to hear that now we covered Raring School and the elections are coming up and politics is my heartbeat it's your passion and you're rooted in Labour as well as you mentioned didn't you hadn't your background is in the Labour Party that's where your heart lies okay where what county you're originally from if you don't mind me asking John that's a very temporary okay well sure look everything else was going so well yeah it was listen thank you so very much both of you it's been an absolute honour and pleasure to meet the pair of you and I really appreciate your waiting and sparing the time for us have a lovely day thank you okay that was two great people there clearly who joined us on the programme John O'Connor and Sally Mulready you are tuned to the 9 till noon no you don't tune to the 9 till noon show is kind of like a version of it don't stop laughing I can see you you are tuned to a version of the 9 till noon show but it's live from it's five live from Islington Council the mayor's parlor here it's part of a month-long celebration celebrating Irish heritage and it's really nice to come over here and speak to the people that are doing so much to help people that have just arrived here but people that have spent their lives working here as well okay we'll be back with more on the programme after the break the best music on your station 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 favourite photos choose your size and finish and magies will take care of the rest with the 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senior ladies played Dublin this Saturday afternoon in the National League semi-final join us on the Highland Radio for updates from Clonus as Dunigaltook to upset the defending league champions throwing from 1 pm Highland's coverage is in association with the Lagumbar restaurant in Terman okay and we'll keep you updated with updates on that program sorry on that match here between one and two so uh stay tuned for that by the way I should say you can interact with those text or WhatsApp the show 086625000 all those lines of communications remain open 086625000 or give us a call in 07491 25000 if you're watching on our social media pages feel free to uh hit a comment there or share it out so other people can see right okay I'm very pleased to welcome on to the program now our next guest and that is Barbara O'Donnell originally from County Cork but here in London for over 20 years and is the anaesthetic team leader at Whitington Health National Health Trust thank you so much for joining us Barbara how are you keeping I'm good thanks in yourself not too bad at all do sometimes when you hear someone like me say you've been here 20 years does it seem almost unbelievable slightly I came over here on uh I came over here on sort of relatively short notice um and then state it's funny how it goes you know and I'm sure a lot of other Irish people have the same uh you know the same experience yeah a lot of variants of the same thing staying and why why did you I mean obviously not for getting into any personal reasons but why did you move over here it seemed to be more opportunity yeah it's the usual thing I mean we it was 94 when I moved so I would have been the last of kind of the previous wave yes of the crowd who'd gone because of course the Celtic Tiger hadn't really gotten hold of us yet at home so yeah and working in health care right from the get-go mostly so I started out in other jobs I started out in Argos I worked in a pub on the Finchley Road um and then I did a little bit of health care assistant and then I started as a theater's health care assistant in 1995 at the Whittington and can you talk to us about um your role as an anesthetic team leader or even maybe what you were doing before you were elevated to that position okay um so I went through I sorry following the HCA position I found um out about operating department practitioner training and I went and applied for that um was offered was offered that course and took it and that was down at the middle sex as was um then did that training and stayed out on the circuit as an operating department practitioner for a good while and you know got up you know went up through the ranks and took a substantive positions etc and then the opportunity came up there in 2014 to apply for a band seven position and I wasn't sure but I stuck my hat in the ring and you know here we are um and our the team that I run goes out with anaesthetists every day to help you know anybody who's in severe trouble usually we're kind of cardiac arrest where uh women having babies we are your routine elective operations so wherever there's an anaesthetist there's one of us do do anaesthetists not get the credit they deserve I wonder they don't all surgeons and the rest taking all the limelight known and being a little bit facetious but essential essential part of the whole process a huge responsibility to massive responsibility for the anaesthetist massive um I agree that they don't quite get the credit they deserve um in so far as they're they're kind of almost background and in fact anesthesia is has got many more um arms to it than you might first expect there's things like pain management they do things like pre-assessment um you know helping optimize patients prior to their surgery so there's a huge amount that they do that's sort of a little bit unseen you know we need loads of your expertise back home I don't suppose you're any any chance of moving back anytime sooner are the roots so uh firmly planted now I've I've thought about it the difficulty is that I don't have a nursing qualification but with that notwithstanding um how do you from from where you're working now and you look look you know you'll read all the articles I'm sure you've got friends and colleagues working within the HSE if you had the qualifications that were required uh and you shouldn't probably not you shouldn't probably have to require them I'm getting the sense uh that you're already well qualified in those in that regard does it seem an unattractive place to go and work with what you're hearing I wonder no it doesn't seem like an unattractive place to go and work not at all um I you know I've heard very very good things about you know the work that the HSE does obviously they will have done absolutely sterling work through COVID as well throughout you know the most difficult time of their careers as well um ODPs do exist in um in Ireland there's a few in private clinics in Dublin it's just that I think maybe the Irish HSE hasn't quite hasn't quite embraced those allied health professional roles maybe is what the impression I have yeah there's a bit of work to be done there and you also are a writer yes for is it to just to get into a different head space or have you always had an interest in it is it something you've took up I started writing when I was 13 because it was the only thing that made sense at the time actually um I started out in poetry was it cathartic for you is that that's an often maybe it's an overused word but is that really what it was about it helps to process it helps to process what you see around you and just you know the world and you know what your own what your own stuff is so yeah there's a degree of catharsis yes okay and um that's continued then throughout your life pretty much yes one form or another yes and talk to us about the kind of stuff you write so started out in poetry continuing with poetry um I had my first essay sort of memoir non-fiction essay published in 2019 with culture matters who are an organization here in the UK and that was in an anthology um I kept journal throughout my life but of course that's private but again it's still all writing of course yeah and you've been all over the place too haven't you you've traveled a lot I've traveled yes as well yes I managed to go I managed to get out a go and have a really good look around um at one time there in 2004-2005 you know take a break because I went out in the agency for a while and then just take a proper break from NHS life and you know get on the road for a while okay listen it's been absolutely lovely meeting you thank you very much indeed learning more about our influence the Irish influence over here and what we're doing what we're achieving I say we's if I've done anything it's like the I think that the royal way is it look what we've done look what we've done it's true and you're here doing it now aren't you I think I can I can't take any credit but listen thank you so much for joining us it's been lovely having you on the program okay we have another hour to come on the show lots to squeeze in because we have a lot of guests and we have a sport to keep you updated in we've got the London Mary is going to be joining us I think Danny Lodonnel might be making an appearance we're going to speak to some members of the council and so much more besides Troy says a caller best wishes for your charity ball this evening and well done on your service to the Irish community in Islington that comes in from the Irish branch of the Labour Party another it's so good to hear the work of the Irish being honoured in Islington best wishes Troy from all in letter Kenny and so they continue to come in keep them coming into us 08 660 25000 that's the whatsapp and that's the text number 08 660 25000 give us a call in 07491 25000 as I say Maureen O'Donnell and Frank Craig are going to bring us updates between one and two on the Donagall versus Dublin Leeds National Football League semi-final so hopefully Donagall can do the job there as I mentioned we've got Caitlyn Finn coming in Jeremy Corbyn by the way the former Labour leader is going to be joining us between now and two when you heard people here speaking very highly of him and what else is there Lois Moore coming in Danny Lodonnel as I mentioned and that we'll be speaking to reps from Donagall County Council as well and Sam McBride is a Donagall man living in Islington and so much more so stay with us 08 660 25000 what's apps and texts if you wish to stay in touch with the show give us a call on 07491 25000 but what we'll do is we'll throw it back to studio for a commercial break we'll get the news at one o'clock and as I say then rejoin us your voice your station HPV cervical screening is free to all women aged 25 to 65 it's the best way to reduce your risk of developing cervical cancer in the future women over 50 are less likely to attend screening but you're still at risk so it's important to attend your appointment when you're invited to check you're on the register visit hse.ie forward slash cervical check or free phone 1 800 45 45 55 from the HSE at Centro we're at the heart of the community so we go to great lengths to help you live your best life fresh bread finest meals fantastic offers all the good fields not to mention a fabulous wide range of our own brand favorites and as for off-license we've been to the four corners of the world so you can enjoy the best wines and beers locally at centra we've got everything you need centra live every day enjoy consensibly have you got your lotto ticket yet clear responsibly in store in app or at lottery.ie the national lottery it could be you broadcasting throughout the northwest and across the world online this is Highland radio your voice your station broadcasting throughout the northwest and across the world online this is Highland radio your voice your station now then these are the latest news headlines at one o'clock I'm Daniel Brennan Anthony Gold deputy has criticized the government for missing opportunities to manage the rising cost of energy independent TD Thomas Pringle says failure to intervene in time has now left people struggling financially he's also criticized minister of the environment Eamon Ryan for not stepping in early enough to stop electricity and gas companies hiking their prices before an EU proposal to the war vat on fuels passed recently deputy Pringle says he'll be bringing the matter to the doll when it reopens again next week and you can hear from deputy Thomas Pringle on our website now that's highlandradio.com the number of people with COVID-19 being treated in Irish hospitals has increased again to the highest level in over a year the Department of Health has confirmed 1,127 cases in the hospital system today that's the highest level since February of last year 52 patients are being treated in intensive care for the virus an increase of four since yesterday Ukraine's president has again urged his Russian counterpart to hold direct talks with him to stop the invasion Vladimir Zelensky says Kremlin forces are blockading his country's largest cities to create a humanitarian catastrophe with the aim of persuading citizens to cooperate with them rescue workers are still continuing to sift through rubble with theater that was hit in the besieged port city of Mariupol today the tea shop is coming under pressure to support a public inquiry into nursing home deaths during the pandemic the calls come from campaign group care champions ahead of a national ceremony of remembrance and reflection tomorrow they're pushing for an inquiry to encompass all nursing homes throughout the country census 2022 takes place in just over two weeks time the national survey on Sunday the 3rd of April is the first in six years after last year's census was cancelled due to the pandemic vital information gathered by the central statistics office will be used for the planning of public policy and services in future and finally a charity climb is taking place at Mount Aragul today in aid of the Irish motor neuron disease association as well as for repairs to Hollomore in Dunlow the event called Paki's climb in memory of Mora is taking place this afternoon and has already raised more than his 5000 euro initial goal that's all from the news desk for now we'll have another news button for you coming up at two o'clock but until then good afternoon broadcasting throughout the northwest and across the world online this is Highland Radio your voice your station you're very welcome back to a special program here on Highland Radio this Saturday afternoon we're broadcasting live from the mayor's office the mayor's parlor it is part of a month-long celebration of Irish heritage which of course the mayor has coordinated in his role as mayor of Islington here and it's just lovely to hear different voices from all over Ireland and those that are helping the Irish that have been here and all that but we've got so much more to come on the program but we also have a very important football match today because Donegal are playing Dublin in the league semi-final this afternoon in Clonus and therefore Highland Radio sport is Maureen O'Donnell and first Frank Highland's coverage of the Donegal ladies in the national league in association with the Lagoon Bar and Restaurant Terminal the perfect place to eat and enjoy your special occasions call us today on 0749139088 for more information thank you very much Greg and welcome to St Tierness Park Clonus for this little ladies national football league division one semi-final between Donegal and Dublin with me here in the commentary position it's former Donegal Cool Bar and Maureen O'Donnell we're a little under two minutes in here and it's still scoreless of course Dublin big hitters and the ladies football four narrow champions of course dethroned last year by me Donegal looking to get back to the top table again having been beaten in the Ulster final last year by Armagh and of course it was Dublin that accounted for Donegal in the All Ireland series Maureen Donegal up against it here today the record against Dublin at this level isn't good they get close but they don't get over the line what do they need to do differently here this afternoon I suppose they have to hold on very early in the early stages of the game Frank not like last year they come out of the blocks flying and then they lost the game to Dublin by five points and it was a quarter final in the All Ireland quarter final but today's championship pace game as well because they're looking for a place in the finals today so I think they need to cool down steady the game very early try and keep as much of the play out they're defending as they're defending now they have the the breezes they're back Dublin are helping against the breeze now it's a moment Frank so Donegal need to get as many scores on board this half as possible yeah and the good news for Donegal is that Yvonne Bonner haven't come on against me oh last time out and scoring two points she's in from the very off and of course Katie Herron starts as well so encouraging team news at least for Donegal little over three minutes gone here and Clonus and Estelle score this back to you Greg Highland's coverage of the Donegal ladies in the National League is an association with the Lagoon Bar and Restaurant Tournament calling today and sample our new bar menu with daily specials available now taking bookings from Mother's Day Sunday launch call 0749139088 okay and we'll be going back to Maureen and Frank a little later on in the program in fact just stay with us about 10 or 15 minutes and you get much more coverage then between one and two I'm trying to keep track of what time because I think I'm right there no yeah what two and three yeah two and three we're in one and two now okay I'm delighted to welcome on to the program now and lots of people have been waiting for her to join us Caitlyn Finn London Mary in the Mary from Dunlowe this year Caitlyn how are you getting on good lovely to be what I mean there's a lot of people in London yeah it is for you to be to be selected absolutely when did you decide to get involved in Mary from Dunlowe so I'd been involved at the festival for the last five or six years as a volunteer taking photographs of the Mary's and helping them around so I thought it was a fantastic opportunity and always said that when I was in my 20th year I'd go for it right and then unfortunately last year as you know it didn't go ahead virtual yeah and so this year is the big year brilliant stuff and did you have to go through I don't know how do they select the Mary over here do you just say look I'm interested in they go yeah so you have to fill out an application form and then it goes through the process of selection and yeah how long have you been living over here I've been living over here since September 2019 I'm in university in Twickenham so how do you find it absolutely love it really love it over here it's a big change though isn't it a change from letter Kenny but yeah I mean letter Kenny is big yeah but then you know you go to London it's like well that's big yeah now Twickenham's like a home away from home loads of Irish so yeah which is reassuring for your family of course because I know you're an adult and all but you know for someone heading away yeah you know you'll be wondering if they're gonna be okay and all that kind of stuff so you can are you looking forward to the festival itself absolutely cannot wait when is it taking place this year it's bank holiday weekend in August some time away of course and you'll are you doing I mean obviously you're fulfilling things like this and having a chat about it and talk about the competition you do much else or and tomorrow I'm with the Goatstone Shave in Ezington so really looking forward to that as well well that's good isn't it yeah I'd say in the past you've went to watch them somewhere in in in Donegal and now they're coming over here and you're their guest it's all right how things change isn't it okay very exciting that's going to be a cracking geek that one I think because to see them out playing again as well like all bands they haven't been able to do so right so you're looking forward to the whole week of event I've spoken to lots of people involved over the years and they all talk about this amazing experience this amazing bonding experience and growing experience and it seems to have it seems to that's everyone's experience of it and you want a bit of that I'm sure as well yeah absolutely I think there's nowhere else in the world you want to get to me 20 plus girls from everywhere that have completely different experiences and all different people from all different backgrounds it's it's it's amazing in that regard is it too soon to talk party tricks I don't even know if it's called party tricks you know what I'm on about party piece sorry party tricks where did I pull that one from not too soon not too soon everyone knows I'm a bit of a singer myself I've written poems for the festival before as well and who's your favorite artist? Musically um good it's too too many to choose from um big fan of Brian McMillan from Belfast I think he's fantastic he's um I mean he's very very popular but I don't think radio stations realize how popular he is amongst their fans yeah if you get where I'm coming from yeah absolutely huge following who I bet you haven't been asked this one uh Mayor Troy Geller who is your favorite artist singing artist what kind of music do you listen to? Oh I've got like the taste of music so we can listen to um to uh Montpredin Sons to Enya um and there's quite a lot of that is quite a sweet show isn't it? It is yeah it is depending on what mood I'm in Greg Enya counts me down okay what do you need to be listened to for us to avoid you do you know if you're listening to this you just don't want to get near him Montpredin Sons or a bit of a bit of metal um you have a bit of an interest in the likes of these types of competitions a bit of history haven't you? Yeah uh my uncle ran my uncle Pat Noragel her ran the Mayor from Dunlow Festival for 30 years and Shyam's going to be on later on he was talking last night about the many tennis teenagers going down from the Mayor from Dunlow Festival making great people and also how how wonderful Dunlow is it's a really beautiful spot and and you know I think the levels since the post-pandemic the level of appreciation people have for Dunlow go the health and well-being people walk on the beaches quite well walking but also just on the tiniest side the Rosa Tralee one of my my sister-in-law was the former London Rose in 2011 she went on to win it she was Claire Camembert she became Rosa Tralee so um yeah I've interviewed a couple of I was we were over in London for another program a couple years ago we interviewed the London Mary then as well so I just travel around London meeting a future Mary from Dunlow Festival and it is a beautiful part of the world Dunlow is I mean I know you're from that of Kenny but you'd have been out there I'm not sure and you know you'd know the crack absolutely type of place it is and it's just a real celebration too and I think over the last couple of years too they've pushed the focus at it's changed a little bit you know what I mean and it's it's more Donny Gaul as well as uh you know everything has to evolve and change and it's uh it's the same as well right so we know you're gonna enter we know you're gonna sing do we know what you're gonna sing and are you gonna sing it today absolutely not a clue but I'm going to sing um yeah not not a clue so far we won't put you under pressure are you going tonight as well no or are you able to make tonight for the mayor's ball or is it your all your focus on the ghost on shape tomorrow we have to get a good night's rest for the ghost on shape tomorrow yeah there's a lot going on tomorrow as well isn't there talk to us a little bit about that so there's a there's a special mass tomorrow in Duncan Terrace it's which is a big Irish church there's a mass not there and then it's followed by Navigator Square and from 1230 to 530 it's the family fun day some of the acts include a ghost on shape a band called Kila your good self as she's going to be here with myself we're going to and there's a lot of storytelling and fun field activities at both sides of the stage for a definitely but this is drawing it'll draw a big crowd uh not just with direct Irish connections because I notice um when we were over at the the event that Tiny Vaughan is behind um that the the broad community comes out and enjoys it as well yeah and they can a lot of a lot of especially you know people that have moved here or second generation can relate as well it's all the same it doesn't matter really which country you came from no naturally and that was very important to me was it don't have to be Irish born but you know second third generation but equally to Greg when we had the Windrush celebration of the the wedding in hospital back in September unveiling the statue the High Commissioner of Jamaica said to me oh uh in Jamaica and Barbados we've got a huge Irish community and and there's people who are from those communities here that come out and celebrate who are coming out and participating in this uh Irish month as well so people from Jamaica Barbados who've got Irish heritage all joining in so and that's the beauty of Ireland the global footprint no matter what your background we all come together to celebrate Irishness when we said we were doing this i've had a lot of messages saying is Kate in honour what times Kate in on so come here have you anyone to say hello to don't leave anyone out because i am gonna i'm not gonna explain it to them my nanny Mary that there was a special show that she's been she's been really really looking forward to it and my mom and my little sister Hannah my brother orn he'll be tuning in yeah and my no Mary she's messaged me she's listening she's in Dublin i think she might be in Dublin she was down there for St Patrick's Day so so she's listening into you in Dublin both of us from Donegal one in Dublin one in London and look where i am great great stuff listen best of luck with it thank you very much i mean i hope you hope you win because i'm here with you now but i think we we all know you're gonna have just the most amazing amazing time and experience and that's fantastic and uh Troy you're staying with us anyway you're not going anywhere we'll be back with more including an update from the football uh and plenty more guests stay where you are after these at centra we have great offers for the long weekend like inspired by centra irish angus trip points take 450 gram only eight euro by one king or tatl selected 250 gram pack and one club selected 1.75 litre for only four euro and until sunday santorita 120 range only eight euro each centra live every day enjoy called sensibly remember telling your kids not to play with their food well you might have to eat your words because Aldi has teamed up with irish rugby for the play with your food competition to help kids enjoy their fruit and vegetables encourage your kids to create fresh fruit and veg masterpieces and share them on aldi's social channels with hashtag aldi play with your food for a chance to win great irish rugby prizes join in at aldi dot ie aldi official fresh food partner of irish rugby store and go springtown dairy the north of ireland's only temperature controlled smart access individually sized storage units store and go offers storage for personal storage house moves and renovations business storage for excess stock or filing systems once signed up you can access 24 hours a day through an app on your phone gaining access through four levels of security to your most precious possessions call store and go springtown dairy on 02871 278 900 to discuss your needs and get bespoke advice or get a free quote at store and go dot net yeah i think if you try to design a garden too much it's it's artificial looking then and you know we better to see go along the garden we see uh these gardening programs you know don't put this color beside that color and don't i think that's a lot of nonsense too like you know a pank of plant looks nice no matter where what what color it is that's down the garden path a new series Wednesday nights on Highland radio after the news at 8 p.m the best of music on your station and for this Saturday afternoon it's music and it's conversation we were talking a little earlier on myself and maire gallagher about the fact that you know this is about celebrating culture and recognizing people contribution and all that but you also have to look to the future as well and marie conlands head of economic development with donnelly gold countercancelling joins us on the program here live from the mayor's parlor and marie thanks very much for joining us you've been here a couple of days now i've been here a few days we came in on thursday morning greg so i'm delighted to be here this morning with yourself in the mayor yeah and indeed yesterday uh you met with a number of business people uh are they primarily from london if it was a business breakfast as well as you can say yeah we had a business breakfast uh on foot of an invite by the mayor uh and i suppose really we've spent about the last eight weeks developing and planning for it and connecting and with people with a donnelly gall connection in london and in islington uh so we had about 40 people in the room yesterday uh lots of people from different business networks kind of different irish london business networks and really amazed by the number of donnelly gall connections um kind of blown away by it it's everywhere absolutely just a couple that happened to live here and they knew we were here and they from boncran and they called in and and that's the way it is and i suppose as we kind of touched on this a little bit earlier on it's not sitting there having the begging bowl out it's reminding people too that a lot of positivity is happening in in donnelly gall you know a lot of opportunity a lot of different ways of working i'm sure they're well aware of that but it's an opportunity to remind people and sort of say you know this is and this is some of the assistants that are there and this is what's good for you and this is what could be good for us is that is that kind of the conversation absolutely greg absolutely and i think donnelly gall has come on so much in the last 20 years and i think what's really important is our cross-border kind of location if you like so we're in the EU but we're right beside northern ireland with access to uk and northern ireland markets and i suppose we're connecting with businesses in london what we're saying to them is look this is a great location if you want to access the EU you have a you're we're right here on the border with northern ireland so the people of donnelly gall are really comfortable working on those two settings and that that itself is a you know it's a key selling point for us you know yeah of course and it could also be as well a problem solver for some of the people who are speaking to it absolutely because logistics is a big thing isn't it yeah and also you can point to other companies that are doing very well in donnelly gall as well you're not expecting anyone to be the trailblazer here you know there's there's big companies that are doing it and it's tried and tested and you know yeah absolutely and we've a lot of kind of lessons to share as well between aslington and donnelly gall so for example how the likes of letterkin institute of technology and the donnelly gall e2b have worked with large companies in in the county and smaller businesses to develop those kind of bespoke training programs where they can then get the employees that are job renting that are able to go in so that itself is that's probably a departure from what's you know what happens in other places so that's a that's lessons learned maybe for for for companies as well and for for agencies here in aslington and london so that that's so we're sharing really information and i can't suppose troy this it backs you up a little bit because you know what we're very proud people particularly i think from donnelly gall so any opportunity you'd say to people you know this is what you can do this these are the opportunities but at least now you've got you know the likes of amary and others coming over to back it up with the the the facts and figures you know a natural pathway if someone wasn't planning to do so yeah and that's important to just creating that pathway and and putting in a deliver action plan as i say before it's how we utilize that shared experience and the opportunity because it's easy to say why can't someone not live in ranafars and still have a work in london why cannot someone say i want to have an apprenticeship in donnelly gall for six months bring that skill across get the european experience and then actually when they set up their own business further strengthen their relationships between the uk and iran by bringing by up wider opportunities across can i can i just also say i think it's really important that um one of the things i wanted to achieve was that county councils actually work with the established network of the irish family that got in britain to be able to be able to tackle some of the social issues as well and through building that relationships to whether being donnelly gall limerick i've had a conversation with the lord mayor of cork the lord mayor for limerick to be able to follow on the example being led by donnelly gall to fill in that wider eviction and break down there's no need for the america to be gone no right and we have to make sure a rise and tide lifts all both yeah is there a particular cork connection here uh because a lot of the different you know people have been speaking to have a background in cork and you've referenced cork or is it just uh a coincidental in passing comment yeah a bit of both the cork association which is after donnelly gall one is quite uh right okay that makes sense then so the business character to go through that yeah now um also america means big hitters over here too there's people that come over here and uh made a fortune the public could buy us uh if they if they wanted to uh so it's great to have access to people with those resources and that business acumen absolutely yeah absolutely you know you fall over and create great wealth and a big business you have to have you know a absolutely and i suppose the work that we're doing in donnelly gall in terms of regeneration from places such as armore and bork and port to let our county to kill your bags and it's about telling those people about the work that we're doing and seeing is there an opportunity because a lot of people want to come back and do something for their own areas uh it's kind of all in us you know we we want to make kind of mommy and daddy proud and our ancestors proud so it's about giving people the opportunity to do that so on the back of maybe investment that we're making in the council uh to see can you know these are opportunities for someone who's looking to come back maybe invest in a hotel or invest in some some business in the area absolutely but and but we have to make sure we get the simple things right to like uh if someone moves back to arland being able to get car insurance do you know what i mean i know it sounds like a silly thing to say but people come back to arland and they can't actually get on the road with all their wealth yeah uh because there there are no claims as lapsed or whatever it might be you want to say something now for me thank you great i think what the feedback from the Irish immigrants have started to come across to Ireland before pandemic was the level of bureaucracy yeah that they have so that's why he's a politician i can't think of the right words i have to say insurance no bureaucracy that's what i was the bureaucracy and that's some they they've said they have two years savings to use for pendant deposit from mortgage etc but it's the level of bureaucracy haven't gone for so long the prsi number they there's them the credit union and and an old tiger through which which they said try for this to work and for people to go back to Ireland they do now post-pandemic donagalls great opportunities but both yourself and the politicians and the wider networks need to remove the bureaucracy and make it more simplified straightforward i think a lot of stuff works quite well at local authority level or council level and it's not the conversation we have we often be talking about you know what a td says or what a government says and amry i'm not going to try and walk you into anything that's controversial to you but it's kind of a credit really i think to the local authorities and stuff in that you know maybe if we could sort of we'd have a better understanding of the bureaucracy the little things you know because we do a lot of the other stuff on a local level yeah and it's the big things that can undo us and it's out of our control to some extent yeah not the big things the things that go on to all right listen and it's a it's a long game a long play amry is now i was chatting to someone recently who was one of the first delegations that went over to china you know we're going to do much trade there and this is not the same but and then now you know there are great connections in terms of exports and what have you this is not instant results but we hope that these type of breakfast we will feel the benefit down the road we don't know quite when but that we will yeah this is really about starting the conversation Greg and it's about giving people an opportunity to see who they who they can connect with um and probably what take a bit of time you know in terms of looking at exploring options looking at uh you know again looking at the bureaucracy looking at how things work and i suppose one of our jobs in terms of the work that we do is about highlighting those kind of issues that you just mentioned so for example a few weeks ago we were talking to lovely don't go people who come every year and spend four months in falcara and they they're in their 80s now so he's finding it really difficult to get car insurance just as you spoke about um and he has to get a new irish driving driving license he's 83 years of age you know and he's doing it he's going on he's applying for it and he's doing his test he's on a theory test and it's all so he can drive and only go for four months off the off the year so it's things like that we do need but we need to know about them and we need to know that there are issues and that's what we can do and the other reason isn't that lovely to have you in what is it trod you know tell the whole class i was just going to say you know it's about 30 years it was about 30 years and uh and i summed the door this class it was at the time she now summed it on a hey when i made that mistake and she said oh is there something you want to mention before we go to music i just wanted to say we had yesterday lord mayor of the city of london attend this breakfast and he is very keen to be involved with this too and take it further and also the wider links with the northwest uh between dunnigol dairy airport which i think so much could be utilized for yeah exactly and that's when we talk about you know the city's northwest city since it makes it very easier it's easier to sell it it's not necessarily for what it does for us oh how we feel about it but it makes it easier than to to market and spread the word there's some brilliant stuff and marie thank you very much great to chat to you over here uh and keep up the good work marie conlon there she is the head of economics uh economic development with dunnigol counter council all right we are going to be joined very shortly by danie lo donnell as well but of course as you know uh dunnigol are taking on doubling in the national ladies football league semifinal and we head back now to clonus for an update from uh maureen and uh france highlands coverage of the dunnigol ladies in the national league in association with the lagoon bar and restaurant turman the perfect place to eat and enjoy your special occasions call us today on 0749139088 for more information yeah greg welcome back to clonus here and we're 22 minutes in and the good news for dunnigol in the first quarter was that they really boss matters kicking with the breeze putting a huge press on the doubling kick out to go five one up doubling though with a point to their name at that stage it on six minutes uh four points off the pace but just in the second quarter here now a bad mistake coming out of dunnigol's own defense by shelly twig it fist over her head it presented the ball to hannah turrell and she buried to the back of the net that's left at one one to five point a one game now one point game now after dunnigol doing so well doubling had taken the lead to lindsey davie on six minutes but jerry mcglotman from her free quickly tied matters up caron guttry again from a place ball in eighth minutes pushed dunnigol to one ahead and another place ball this time from guttry from the hands here on the left hand side moved dunnigol into a two point lead at three points to one dunnigol continued to press aggressively on the doubling kick out and another close range free presented itself for jerry mcglotman to move maxi kernsgaerts four points to one in front and then just before the water break caron guttry with dunnigol's first point from play left at five one dunnigol continues to do very well in terms of possession and putting doubling on their huge pressure with a high energy game and seem to be coasting along here but just a turnover inside their own 14 seem to be no danger shelly twig coming out with a ball look to move possession on to a teammate on the left but hannah turrell she second guess that they're jumped blocked the ball down and buried a pass rush in mccaffrey it says we're a little under seven minutes out here now from half time dunnigol for all their huff and puffs are only a point to the head it's five points to dunnigol one goal and a point to doubling marion what do you think of that there ah listen frankie just listen to your commentary there's just disappointing that dunnigol lost that goal because they were really motoring on well you know they were holding on to possession but it's just doubling or just waiting for dunnigol to make mistakes or like they're in now again this could be another goal opportunity like there's a very slack here but doubling are just chipping away frank so i mean like and they need to dunnigol really need to use the advantage that they have which is the one that they're back now in this half try and get a few more scores now we're level now frank as it is here now and we're not far away from the halftime mark yeah kato solomon just hitting another point there for doublance who has one two to five points all square and all the play for back to you greg hyland's coverage of the dunnigol ladies in the national league is in association with the lagoon bar and restaurant tournament call in today and sample our new bar menu with daily specials available now taking bookings from mother's day sunday launch colo seven four nine one three nine zero double eight we're the connectors at esb networks we've been connecting customers to arland's power network for years we've also been making new connections building a network that's stronger than ever so we can all be kinder to the planet connecting our network to natural resources and arland to a net zero future that's more sustainable esb networks connecting you to a clean electric future looking for a flexible affordable home improvement loan from your 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i presume he's still counting himself from letter kind of we've touched on that already uh we have trey galler who's the current mayor and using his term in office also to to to uh run and host this event shan mcbride joins us on the program as well shan good morning to you how are you keeping yeah good gregg yourself i am doing fantastic uh you lived in you're originally from glasgow lived in letter kenny for 13 or 14 years you've got to know trey there yeah yeah i've known trey all my life i was when i moved over to arland he's a he's a townie like ourselves he's from iona he just lived down the bottom of town and we actually went to school together so yeah and then he moved to islington he moved to islington um probably about 20 something years ago yeah and i'm here actually this is me getting into my 19th year myself so i wasn't far behind him yeah and how's life been here for you yeah life over here isn't it's great i've obviously got my family not here now my my my um my mrs is obviously second generation irish um her mom and dad is from cramford and carry gart they've been here for nearly 40 nearly going on 45 something years but you made a partner in the grill yes i met my partner in a grill he's right i'm sure i'm sure a lot of lyric anyway met their partners in the grill so i'm probably no different all right but still it's nice and he's both live here now tell us what you're doing over here i'm a project manager in construction um i used to be in juris in the channel and i got myself into construction after i left letter kenny and um yeah there's a no better place to be in the construction over here it's thriving it's booming is it i mean the cranes are back the cranes have never gone even during through the pandemic we never stopped i was working every single day so it's great i mean some of the buildings going up are unbelievable what area of construction are you working it's all i'm housing i'm in the housing sector always have been a little bit of retail here and there but it's most of the housing sector i'm in yeah but we have a strong history and record too don't we have coming over here and working in construction always have always probably will listen the thing about it is is actually when you're here for a length of time and you get to know a lot more people the irish the irish um companies that are over here is just phenomenal when you start delving into and they're actually they may be gone to a second generation maybe the summer that something's taken over but it all started from and i'm just continuing to work with a lot of irish companies over here well that's it i mean like i'm not saying it's not like that at home in arland okay but it's funny from speaking to people in previous shows we did from london and in different parts of the world as well the sense that you get almost the irish community stronger outside of arland if you know what i mean that people work very very closely together there's still that tradition of you know helping people out if there's a job available you know if someone if there's an event that needs a bit of backing or charity do you know what i mean there's a a great sense of irish community in the likes of london i'm sure it's replicated in birmingham as i mentioned you buy new york new york we know what it's like in america as well it's it's kind of it's we've retained it more almost i think sometimes outside of arland do that make sense yeah listen i think i don't think you can take the irish man out of arland i think when anybody when anybody has anything that they actually want to do obviously the mayor came up with this idea of having this weekend or this month event and he brought it to my attention probably over a year ago and it just started taking a pair of legs and we've gone from strength to strength and and again we've we've obviously opened up to a lot of irish companies over here and straight away when you get on the phone to them there wasn't a problem about coming in and sponsoring the event or offering prizes whatever it may be you know and they're all done they go most of some of lirikini lads so yeah that's a very easy thing over here to do that with any sort of people yeah i can imagine listen it's been lovely meeting you no problem thank you very much it must be nice to be part of the irish community over here in half a month like this sort of recognizing our history our contribution and all that type of stuff greg it's whatever the vision that this man has and he's obviously brought it to the table and to bring everybody over and you see the amount of people that's actually come over here and i've met a few people i haven't seen in 20 odd years you ain't going to get this again and he's done the right thing by obviously marking the 100 years and marking his um his role as mayor all right and it's a personal story here as well a lot of people uh messaging from home to you trey uh greg i know of all trey's family in letter county they're all lovely and his late dad was a lovely don loman is that correct yes indeed okay trey's mom here which is nice isn't it listening in in letter kenny i'm told very proud of you and the work you're doing for the irish and the community isn't in islington love mom isn't that nice and trey's brother hugh here sending our love and best wishes to trey today we are so proud of the work you've done disappointed we can't be there due to covet but we know the event this weekend will be a huge success and that comes in from hugh and uh kerry as well so it's nice it's nice to it really is let's get that personal touch isn't it as well okay right okay we'll switch guests out now listen chan thanks very much for joining us continued success if you get how much out of interest yeah i do yeah i've got my mom and dad and my family back there i've got my own house in that down around the downings area so week frequented over the summer times my kids can't wait to get back for the summer is there six weeks of the summer time i'm going back um do you have a massive boat no unfortunately i'm not at that level yet i'm lucky i'm lucky to have the front door you've a few more houses a few more houses to build yet before you get the cruise liner is that it all right that's the one thanks very much indeed i appreciate it all right uh stay in touch with us 08 660 25 000 that's the whatsapp text line 08 660 25 000 or give us a call on 07491 25 000 07491 25 000 if you're watching us on social media feel free to leave your comments there right okay and a few messages here but the phone's playing up on me so i'll get back to those keep them coming into us they will be read out before the show is over okay i welcome on to the program now islington north mp jeremy corbin thank you very much for joining us good to have you on the program and good for you to call in by the way and and do it personally with us we appreciate it how are you keeping very well sags it's real pleasure to be here yeah it's good uh 1983 your first elected here you know that i'm just telling our listeners of course how has things changed over that period of time do you think in our borough in your borough massively um i was first elected 1983 actually in this very building the election result declared i remember it very well in the assembly hall it's one of those life changing moments um then islington was very much an irish borough a huge number of irish people lived here mainly the men working in construction a lot of irish women working in the wittington hospital as nurses and alongside the wind rush generation they made a fantastic contribution to our society a lot of um irish music and irish pubs excuse me all along the hollow way road and archway and the archway tavern was a major source of employment uh almost an employment exchange and it was there was a huge sort of irish presence everywhere and um the irish music was very common in most of the pubs live music which we don't unfortunately get as much of these days because pubs have become rather boring and antiseptic in some cases and um there was a sympatrix day was just um irish flags everywhere which was it was great and i i love the buzz of it and the community and as you know have been very involved in irish issues all the time i've been an mp it's different now troyes are here who's done a an incredible job in promoting irish culture irish issues and i loved it when he was um elected mayor i was actually in liverpool at the time but i was following it online when he said um i thank the people of islington and donnie galle good man for becoming the mayor which was a lovely touch yeah and um now we have actually i think the largest number of irish born people in any borough in the country which um is good and there's this constant back and forth of people going to arland and back all the time but there's one thing i sort of remember in the 1980s there was a lot of older men who were coming to the end of their working life in construction were actually quite lonely often quite sad and they used to say to me you know when i go home when i go home i'm gonna do this i'm gonna do that they could have gone home at any time really but it was they were frightened to go home to a changed island and so they often led quite sad lives they did and we actually we were living on their own bedsets and stuff it wasn't it wasn't all good and they worked incredibly hard and were very grossly exploited in the building industry but i know you've got a question but just one other thing i want to say is that um the community has changed quite a lot but there's been a resurgence of irish culture uh for example a pub opened in finsbury park and i was i'm a bit of a bore when it comes to pub names i don't think they should change because i think a pub name usually you're talking so much about pubs i'm getting thirsty well i well actually i don't even drink okay i mean i'm a tea totaler but you know that doesn't mean i'm not prepared to go into a pub and um take an apple juice um but one pub changed its name to the wb8 right and i thought that was great yeah and it wasn't just the name they've deliberately developed it deliberately encouraged irish poetry and so on and that to me is good and so irish dancing we used to have an irish sense of unfortunately that was closed and sold off but we had an irish bookshop but we do have this sort of big spirit of the irish community in the borough and um long may it stay that way and you talked about the experience of a lot of people that were working here and and we we're talking about the early run and the work of the irish elderly advice network in trying to support those who were caught between maybe feeling that they've served their purpose here but arland had changed so much that they couldn't return and and now they have people there uh now they have people there to support them um in terms of politics you know i mean you know the situation with with the likes of your bbc news sky news rt at home uh you know you get the impression that only the decisions the important decisions in the running of a country is made at you know parliament level um do you think the work that's done at local level council level you know the real ins and outs of stuff that actually probably impacts people on a more regular basis it doesn't really i mean i'm not expecting national news stations to cover it don't get me wrong but i don't think it gets the credit sometimes that it deserves it often doesn't and local councils are much more of enablers as well as providers than they ever used to be enabling by contacts by communication and by inspiration i was at an event in the community center uh in north of borough yesterday the andover community center and it was put on by the council and it was a sort of community impact thing i think it was called but it was you had the nhs there you had dwp there and you also had um the council's own back into work scheme and you had the council's youth scheme and so on there and i was i was there for quite a long time i met many people there many of them really up against it got very complex needs and the council because it had brought everybody together was able to give them some real and practical help but above all gives them some confidence because if you've um an older person not of retirement age but say in your fifties and so on unemployed come out of kovid living on your own it's pretty grim and so council as an enabler and during kovid islington had a brilliant relationship with the voluntary sector which enables to get food banks and now food co-ops going and so i um i often talk to parliamentary colleagues about their relationship with their local authority and they always start off complaining complaining complaining and they said how's it with you i don't know what you're talking about it's fine if i need something i'll ring up the council and i don't always give me the answer i want but they give me an answer it's just simple things even in in donningall troyes you would know i don't understand why our five elected representatives our mp's tds do not meet once a month or every two months with the local authority and then they feed into them because it's they that are hearing directly from the people and i mean the council leader and chief executive very regularly probably once a month and you see the benefits of it yourself yeah and i i meet troyes the mayor what he's a friend as well um and i meet the local councillors all the time and um do i always get what i want out of the council no i mean i recognize their financial problems i recognize the stress they're under but they do work with me and i work with them on housing development and dealing with that because that's the biggest issue so for a council can make a very very big difference and support for community centers and community projects make a big difference i just remember in the in about 82 i you must remember this because you're i don't know how old you are but i you know i don't want to start guessing well i kind of want you to one of my favorite games what year 82 no i'd have been very young you'd have been very okay well you would have heard of a woman called margaret thatch right of course yes well we didn't come down with the last shower you know i mean i would i would even if i hadn't been born i would hope i'd i'd i'd i'd have some knowledge told about it yeah well they had an idea that they would um take away the vote of irish people living in britain and so in retaliation we formed the ibrg irish of britain representation group and we started meeting at um kakston house in islington near the archway and we got the campaign going we got the petitions the letters the meetings and everything else and lots of other people did the same in brent and camden and all over and we defeated this nonsense and irish people obviously continued to have the you know the special rights of movement between britain and ireland which is how it should be and we defeated that but in defeating that it also strengthened the community and strengthened that sense of community and from that we got a special irish center opened in the north suburban called the roger casement center uh which i used to go to a lot and when i was um over in deri last month i met people that used to go to and work at the the irish center so and you it's a great community i believe you've been questioned or taking some interest on the mic issue that's indeed we did an event at the gunner's pub another pub event you're walking into this i am saying nothing and i you're saying nothing and i'm the non drinker walking into all these pubs but i was there with troi on the mica issue because there are a lot of people here who either own a house in the west of ireland or are supporting children or parents of owner house and so it's a very real and the mica issue is a very realistic for them it's absolutely scandalous that somebody knowingly authorized the use of mica in building materials it's caused houses to collapse families to be made virtually homeless if not completely homeless or buildings just propped up with timber frames around them it's a huge scandal and the point that troi and i were making was that ultimately it's the government of ireland's responsibility for allowing this to happen and it's got to be there and i'm asking the house minister a couple of weeks ago a couple of months ago can he guarantee that this cannot be happening now and the answer was no so you know and that that that is that says it all because since mica mica is the equivalent in building terms of scandals of the high luminous immense scandal that happened in london and other parts of england in the um 70s and 80s when we had concrete rot in what were apparently robust and strong buildings a house is something it's more than just where you live it's where you put yourself and your community in your home finally and briefly and it's horrible to use that as a preface to such an important issue you know you've been speaking at a number of events as it relates to the awful situation we're seeing in in ukraine what do you think the british government's response should be to what's happening there do you think they're what they are doing is enough is it too much if you were the leader of the country what would you be looking to achieve it's not enough first of all on the immediate humanitarian issue of the refugees we are still not admitting enough refugees to this country from the ukraine but there's also something very unpleasant in that the ukrainian refugees that are getting here they're very very welcome and we're going to have plenty in islington i'm sure um they are having no home office problems in getting in yet a refugee from an equally war-torn country like afghanistan or yemen or sudan or eric tryer of course get in so there's an element there secondly well that's a very difficult difficult one to process is that a conversation for now though because i i get what you're saying and i've said that on my own radio program uh and even even barris johnson going out uh to try and do a deal in saudi arabia they're not very friendly to their neighbors they just executed 81 people you can be killed over there for simply being gay but that's the alternative to doing a deal with russia it's very hard there's so many contradictions not you know how do you even start so should we be focusing though on saying right let's deal with this current issue and then we can return and sort of say right it would not be difficult for them to simply say if we're admitting refugees then we admit all refugees irrespective where they come from what is the criteria exactly the criteria should be you need a place of safety not the color of your skin um on the wider thing the war is appalling the actions of russian forces are appalling the actions of president putin are appalling we have to make all the demands we can for an urgent and immediate ceasefire and there has to be some kind of long-term guaranteed security between ukraine and russia and that's basically got to be done through the un i am disappointed at the lack of united nations activity some of the language from the u and i've thought has been maybe beyond their the scope of what they should be saying but anyway okay listen thank you for your time it's a pleasure to be here and i'll let you go continue your tour of pubs which i'm sure we've we've held you back from as a tea total by the way i don't want to paint you in any it's un anti-racist day so i'm doing a speech in a rally in parliament square i'm also doing a live link up to an equipment rally in berlin perfectly thank you so much then for sparing the time it makes it even more than more than important Troy you're staying with us of course uh it is uh a special we're broadcasting live here uh from uh london and we'll be back with more on the program in fact daniel old donnell will be joining us uh after we take this break stay right way broadcasting throughout the northwest and across the world online on highland radio dot com your voice your station at centra we have great offers for the long weekend like inspired by centra irish angus trip points take 450 gram only eight euro by one king or tatl selected 250 gram pack and one club selected 1.75 litre for only four euro and until sunday santa rita 120 range only eight euro each centra live every day enjoy cult sensibly don't sleep in and miss the very latest beds and mattress offers from dfinebeds.ie ireland's leading online bed and mattress retailer you'll get a comfy irish made mattress upholstered base and headboard from an amazing 229 euro check out the full range at dfibeds.ie delivery free and guaranteed to you within seven working days dfi beds sleep well live well the dunnygold senior ladies played double in this saturday afternoon in the national league semi-final join us on the highland radio for updates from clonus as dunnygold looked to upset the defending league champions throwing from one p.m highland's coverage is in association with the lagoon bar and restaurant in termin for confirmation and first communion see the great selection of suits casual wear and footwear at what's in menswear letter kenny top brands including 1880 club lilan scott farah and diesel also tommy both footwear and all at great prices whatever the fit whatever the style confirmation and first communions are covered for less at what's in menswear open seven days a week on main street letter kenny and in what's in menswear dot com also great end of sale bargains still available we are going to cross back to clonus because of course dunnygold are taking on dublin uh struggling in the wee bit i think the last time we heard from uh maureen old donnell and firstly frank craig take it away guys of things improved i wonder highland's coverage of the dunnygold ladies in the national league in association with the lagoon bar and restaurant termin the perfect place to eat and enjoy your special occasions call us today on 0749139088 for more information yeah welcome back to clonus here we're just underway in the second half and dublin's kate solomon has kicked a free to move her side within a point of dunnygold dunnygold had started so well here in the first quarter kicking with a huge breeze they raced into a five one advantage and the second quarter they started in comfortable enough fashion but a routine mistake shelly turning over possession inside her own 21 coming out with a ball look to move it on to a team but hannah turrell telegraphed that their intentions she jumps intercepts the ball and buries it past russia mccaffrey iosolomon then added a point soon after left at one two to five points tied the game up but dunnygold to their credit finished the half strongly kate herne sent the ball into evan uh boner reverse over her shoulder a brilliant hook of a score push dunnygold back in front six points to one two and then jerry mccaffrey just before half time push dunnygold two ahead at seven points to one two dublin i've got the first score that's here second half greg might have daniel adonal joining them in the studio but i have moring adonal besides me here in the commentary position moring dunnygold so happy with so much of that first half but a very routine error has cost him severely yeah listen frank and that's the kind of thing that the dunnygold want to avoid this evening you know you're playing the uh you know last year's all our runners up high and their quality might do it the month as it says any mistakes they are just uh they're on dunnygold's back like straight away like there's dunnygold giving a few breeze away now frank early on this half there's only a point in the difference in the scores and they have a tight breeze against them so they want to settle down into this half dunnygold or dublin's going to look to penalize here now and try and get back in front yeah four minutes on here to the second half dunnygold scores in that first half and then the current guttery with three points two frees and one from play jerry mcglougham with three frees and evan boner with one from play four minutes then here now to the second half and as you leave it it's dunnygold seven points dublin one three highland's coverage of the dunnygold ladies in the national league is in association with the lagoon bar and restaurant tournament call in today and sample our new bar menu with daily specials available now taking bookings for mother's day sunday launch call 0749139088 and you're very welcome back to the final segment of our special program here live from the mayor's parlor in islington's council offices it's part of a month-long celebration of irish heritage that's a ball tonight there's a family day tomorrow saw doctors not saw doctors goats don't shave or playing um i think they are isn't i got that right is that yeah i'm supposed to shave and keela and keela of course and we are delighted to welcome into studio uh evan synonymous with with with dunnygold and supervenous is that a good enough introduction Daniel that'll be fine yes did i over again supervenous that's great well we are supervenous is the way to be career you would have played a million times in london wouldn't oh god we did surely so we came over here we played in all the halls well not not all the halls but i played in the heberney and with margote i played in the and the gresham the galtimore the national the the forum or it became the town and country up in nelly's the thatch not far up the road and hollow a road and and you know how the you know all of the the the great nights can you imagine the buzz though if you're away from home and living over here for four or five years or ten years or whatever and you know the likes of yourself and another great irish performers come and perform in your local it just must have been the best thing ever well you know i suppose i was talking about that just here with some people you know in those days and i came nearly at the end of it you know people were beginning to be able to travel more readily but you must remember when people came over here they might get home once a year now you can go home for a weekend you know travel is more accessible to people so the irish dancers was their meeting place it was where people connected you know and it was important it was so important and the atmosphere was tremendous you know it's a reason why it's so easy to forget how it used to be because we i worked in barringham for a couple of years in my early 20s and i came home once because you got on the bus yeah and the bus across to wales the ferry the bus up and you know i'm not doing that again so the next time i felt homesick i just went straight and planes were it was just completely beyond me it was out of your reach financially anyway you know so i i mean the the the dancers i mean i can remember you know the gresham halloween road there was a stage like a round stage and the relief band to be on first and then you would be in at the back and at the the whole thing in the gresham was that the the music never stopped that when the relief band was playing going off and the new band was playing coming on so there was two bands playing you know one one song was going away and the other song was going back and it was brilliant it was just you know the atmosphere and the national too i remember been on a simpatrick's night you know on the crowd and of course the galtimore and you know the galtimore was was just it was as brenton shane says i met her in the galtimore you know how many people met at the dances i don't think you've lived until you heard him do that live yeah it's just a brilliant piece of music and you don't have to be a fan of that to recognize this such you're i we watched your um the show on your life it's brilliant it's going back a while but i don't think i've spoken to you since then it's a great show were you happy with it i was i was it was amazing really to get the like of that done but it's lovely to have it too you know and just to reflect on on different things i've been very fortunate you know i've been it's 41 years since i started with margaret and um you know when you look back sometimes you forget things i'm very lucky that they put together the show that documents but it also felt like and it felt like you you know your career so far it didn't feel like the you know the riding off into the sunset well no but because you know i mean yeah because you've got so much more right okay what are you what are you doing in london i presume you didn't come just to see me well i'm here to attend this wonderful function i didn't know if i could say that that's why i wanted you to say one function and i mean troyes here beside me but i just think it is such a great achievement you know where troye is to be here and isn't in the lord mayor and i mean he's from home yeah at the end of the day you know and do you know to have reached where he is and like if you if you say i have more to do he has an amazing amount to do but obviously he's impacted and touched so many people you know so i just think has if you can call it a star but has definitely his his mission is only beginning and i mean i'm delighted to be here to honor you know this this evening i think that's a great way to finish troye thanks for taking you know i mean i can't listen to another person speak highly of you because i'm starting to feel inferior here no but it's all jokes aside it's clear that what you're doing is this is there's something behind it it's not about getting on the council and getting your term as mayor there's something much more deeper there and that's come across in all our conversations today in indignal but you see the thing about it is um no matter where you where you get to you know in the history books if you haven't done anything you want to be remembered you know and i think that's what troye is doing and it's not where you got to it's what you did on the journey brilliant listen daniel thank you look forward are you singing tonight are you enjoying yourself as paddy says you would not laugh and then it'd be too late that's as close as it yes you're ever gonna get listen thanks so much daniel thank you for having us over mayor troye galler it's been lovely and it's been nice to be part of it it's been nice to see london it's been lovely to meet all the people that think so highly of you and to get a feeling of what you've been doing between support and the charities and and everything else enjoy the rest of it thanks i mean no one can say you didn't make the most of your year as mayor is it one or two years two one year one year only once in a lifetime no one can say no one can say you haven't made the most of it thanks a minute and it's not about me it's about that's about everyone else i want to say thank you to yourself to daniel don't leave all county council to the letter kenny last sham everyone who's made the chair made a contribution towards us and that was the best thing about the program it wasn't the same for me everyone had a hand and that's the sorts that are best when we all come together to help okay listen thank you so very much that is where we have to leave it on the program thank you to donal cavena by the way who kept us on there and helped a base on a saturday and i genuinely appreciate that carol and of course who got the show together um kevin i indeed i i i really feel like saying kevin's got a free trip to london but uh there's more to it than that of course listen kevin thank you very much as indeed and fenula has been helping out today okay that's it have a fantastic day my apologies i'm a little late going to the news but sure look it's an important day we'll chat to you on the show on monday at nine have a great weekend the weekend on highland radio with expressway.ie