 can you see the screen there Diana King and Shaggy good morning to you it's just coming up to nine o'clock yeah it's kind of got a summer vibe to it you know and that nice wet weather we have beautiful cold wet weather yeah how are you fine how was your journey to work that's what was in someone's house the other other day yeah and I don't know if it's unusual or not but they had a waist been in the front room sitting room right have you got a see you might have young children you see it's just I'd never seen it before no it wasn't a nappy bin it was an actual bin in the front room right and I just had never seen one I think anything's possible right because if you came into a bin in well if you came into our house there's a bit of stuff everywhere there's toys and there's stuff where it shouldn't be stuff but this was you know like a bin you have in the kitchen just for rubbish but stop making out I'm judging I'm not judging you don't ask the question for the elephant no I didn't see what's the crag with the bin I just thought you could not make it do you have a waist bin in your front room living room do you have a waist bin in your front room or living room no for rubbish no you see this person's house that you went to the meeting they made a lovely nice cup of tea for you in the biscuit stop trying to make out I'm being critical I'm not being critical just how you're telling me a minute but then that person's no yours yet and with he's chatting about our bin in our living room yeah well I'll just worry about that the next time I see them that's all right but you don't have one we are no we have different situations and different receptacles and all that kind of stuff is the big one or like a wee waste paper just like a wee circular bin maybe they have the cold and they have lots of tissues it was just they have a bin in the do the script of food into the bin I didn't ask what was it how would say is it anyway keep it on the bed it was interesting that's all do you remember the trustee then no I do remember the man who's yeah what was it you did that three two you don't remember his name no I can't Ted Rogers yeah you sure you need to know that all right go on get out of here Lee Gooch mine the road's actually quite wet and horrible and dark out there today for driving all right it's nine o'clock a minute passed in fact let's get a news update it's over to Michaela Clark thanks Greg good morning the t-shock says he has huge sympathy for the Palestinian people who he says has been horribly treated for 75 years his comments come as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrives in Israel for talks with his really counterpart they've had her reiterated the Irish government's call for Israel to de-escalate its response in Gaza he says people should be careful about what they hear from both sides in the conflict I think Israel is a great country if I had a chance to visit on number occasions but I've huge sympathy for the Palestinian people they've been horribly treated now for 75 years and denied self-determination and denied their own station I think Irish people given her own history have a particular sympathy towards Palestinians but you know we have to be very careful about what we believe here because this is a war Israel will not necessarily tell the truth to the whole truth and normal Hamas well over 300 Irish troops are entering their final phase of training before being deployed to south Lebanon members of the 123rd infantry battalion will join up with the United Nations in term force next month as a conflict between neighboring Israel and Hamas continues Lebanon has said continued aggression against Gaza could spark fire that could consume the whole region security and defense analyst Declan power says it's a volatile situation in a heightened time of tension with attacks going on between the two protagonists you could have a variety of attacks from civilians looking to attack troops on patrol to shelling up their positions are direct attacks by husband police investigating the disappearance of a kindy dairy man have located a body 21-year-old Lee Johnston was last seen on October the 7th in the Dunwoord Crescent area of Cookstown in Taroan a body has been located in the Mahara area of kindy dairy officers remain at the scene this morning a 31-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man arrested following Lee's disappearance were billed on Tuesday night to live for further inquiries meanwhile police and Derry are investigating a pipe bomb attack last night as a possible sectarian hate crime a woman in her 20s was inside a house in Harenway when the device was partially exploded at the back door at around half past 11 she wasn't injured however damage was caused to the door a number of nearby homes were evacuated for a time while police and army technical officers examined the scene detectives at Strand road are keen to hear from anyone with information regarding incident or he may have captured any footage in the area last evening finally for weather rather cloudy and damp this morning with outbreaks of rain and drizzle rain will gradually clear during the day with some bright spells and a few shards developing with highest temperatures of 13 to 16 degrees that's all from highland radio news for now we'll be back with news again at 10 o'clock until then you can keep up to date with the latest local news on our website at highland radio dot com good morning your flu and COVID-19 vaccines will give your immune system the top-up it needs to help protect you from serious illness a flu vaccine is recommended for you if you're 65 or over a COVID-19 auto booster is recommended for you if you're 50 or over both vaccines are recommended for health care workers and anyone who is pregnant or has a long-term health condition talk to a participating GP or pharmacist or visit hsc.ie for more from the HSC the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio and now it's time for the talk of the northwest the nine to noon show with Greg Hughes on highland radio hello good morning to you just turned five minutes past nine on this wet miserable Thursday the 19th of October 2023 how you all keeping I do hope you're well and safe and as happy as you can be and on board for the next three hours here in the nine till noon show some really interesting guests Pat McCartt will be joining us a little later on to discuss his new memoirs that are out Pat McCartt very well known of course and a very regular guest on this show and its predecessor so looking forward to a good chat with Pat Mark McSherry's gonna come on and will tease out why he decided to quit politics is not standing in the next election and there's so much more besides all on top of that so please stay tuned with us 08 660 25,000 get involved in that conversation 08 660 25,000 or give us a call in 07 491 25,000 and emails to comments at Highland Radio dot com and if you want to watch the show and the majority of our guests hop on our YouTube channel Highland Radio Ireland on your smart TV your fire stick or across your mobile devices we're on Facebook as well of course Highland Hub Highland News and sports right so no excuses today radio not going to become a regular feature of the star of the show by the way but obviously day two of the lights around around letter Kenny since we switched on the pole star if you're coming up the mountain top and you're sitting in that traffic it's not changed I know it's nightmare and if you're outside letter Kenny you're wondering what's he on about but if you travel like the many tens of thousands that do through the pole star right about I'm just saying and in fairness I thought it unfair to say that things seem to be moving a little bit more smoothly today now I don't know if people are delaying their journeys there's less cars on the road or they're using alternative routes but from my experience people tend not to do that into the long term this morning seems to be moving better because they're being calibrated adjusted as we go is that your experience let us know 08 660 25,000 okay the Chicano tribute in this morning there was a tense standoff in a full meeting on Monday night in Kerry Keele were told when Minister Charlie McConaug was asked what progress he had made on a promise to organise a meeting with the Health Minister to discuss the serious funding deficit at letter Kenny University Hospital McConaug was in a party meeting in the village when Doctor Patrick McGinnis who was a guest on this show the start of last week and really got the ball rolling on this medics highlighting the LUH situation when Doctor Paddy McGinnis so Patrick McGinnis from the Fannett Health Centre dropped in to ask the Minister what progress had been made on his promise last Thursday to get Minister Donnelly to visit LUH and McConaug denied him may denied he made a promise and as the party members watched on we were told there was silence as the scene was set for what was described as a fraught conversation with the Minister who was put under a lot of pressure to deliver McGinnis said he was merely wanting a response from Minneson McConaug about when the Health Minister was going to come to LUH and he stated that McConaug had made the promise and he wanted to make that very clear otherwise he would not have any reason to seek answers from the Minister. McConaug was told by Doctor McGinnis that a conference call on Zoom while having the meeting in Dublin was not going to suffice and he said that the Minister of Health would have to visit LUH and see the problems first hand at numbers of those at the meeting said the exchanges were robust and tense with both parties taking opposite views and no grant was given. There were sharp exchanges and big differences of views. We are not used to these debates at our meetings in Kerry Keill added one of our sources who was present on Tuesday the GPs group confirmed that they had secured a meeting with Minister Donnelly however the terms and locations are to be confirmed the doctors want the Minister to travel to Donegal and to meet them here. We heard from people close to the Minister yesterday that he is looking to meet them next week but he wants to meet them remotely or down in Dublin. I understand there was a meeting last night amongst GPs and they are demanding that that meeting be held in Donegal and are awaiting a response from the Minister in that regard. So on it goes. Interesting that according to the paper that because I heard Charlie McConaug speaking to the newsroom here I got the impression that a meeting had been committed to as well as a visit to Leicester University Hospital. Okay the Donegal news this morning. A letter from Kenny Councillor has said the major traffic delays being experienced in and around parts of the town this week have been caused by motorists attempting to avoid the new traffic light system on the Polestar roundabout. It's your fault guys. It's not the traffic lights. Long tailbacks were reported on different routes around the town even off peak time since the lights were switched on at the Polestar roundabout on Tuesday afternoon. There was much frustration as motorists found themselves caught in long delays and many people have taken to social media to vent their anger at the changes but Councillor Donegal Coil says that the problems this week in parts of the town have been caused by motorists attempting to avoid the new traffic light system on the Polestar roundabout. Excuse me. On to the dairy news. Concern raised over Israeli flags erected in Waterside. Concerns have been raised about the proliferation of Israeli flags in the Waterside area amid allegations Israel is committed committing genocide in Gaza. The flags were allegedly raised on Tuesday night the same day nearly 500 Palestinians were killed in a strike on a hospital. Catherine Hotten of Dairy Island Palestine Solidarity Campaign said a member of the public contacted the group about the flags. A member of the public contacted us concerned about the proliferation of Israeli flags particularly on Glen Dermott Road but they are displayed quite frequently in the Waterside area and in loyalist areas she said. On to the nationals now and we'll start with the Irish independent and coalition ministers are privately furious at HSE Chief Executive Bernard Gloucester over his criticism of the health service budget and his briefing of opposition TDs. Mr Gloucester comments last Sunday that next year's health budget is not adequate for all current costs as angered ministers who believe he should not be using the media to lobby for more money. The HSE approach isn't helping a senior coalition source said. One senior minister said Mr Gloucester's comments on RTE at the weekend had been extraordinarily unhelpful while a second senior minister said it's like Tony O'Brien is back in town except more overt a reference to the former HSE director general who had a strained relationship with former health minister Simon Harris but why do they want to shut people up that are working in the health service I don't understand why that is. Surely that's democracy isn't it we live in a democracy an open democracy where people express views and have feelings and can say what they want to say why are we trying to gag consultants why are we trying to gag the head of the HSE the head of the health service who's trying to do that is that really the the country we want to live in where people working in certain areas of society are literally not allowed to speak publicly to the media and then they talk about funding a the importance of public funding public service broadcasting but on one hand and then on the other hand trying to stop people from engaging with that is that truly democracy I don't know it doesn't feel like a full open democracy to me if you're from Cork or the south and affected by flooding you might feel you've been somewhat forgotten because you have to go quite deep into some of the papers to get the information Cork has been left counting the cost of storm babbit as heavy rainfall caused millions of euros worth of damage with homes and businesses flooded and roads and bridges washed away as rivers burst their banks five counties in the south and southeast coasts were subject to orange rain warnings yesterday a storm babbit swept over the country and we're in another situation whereby you know sometimes things should be red and they're not and sometimes things should have no warning at all and they're yellow well east Cork bore the brunt of the storm with the center of Middleton town flooded to a depth of over a meter Cork County council confirmed that more than a hundred premises residential and commercial were damaged when local water courses burst their banks well Met-Aaron has responded to this and it's admitted it may be issuing too many weather warnings and is looking at raising the threshold for doing so and we did see quite a bit of that it's easy to be critical of Met-Aaron they are to some extent damned if they do and damned if they don't but when we're getting temperature warnings and wind warnings and and we know ourselves it's only a breeze and then we get an awful bit of weather and there's no warning at all you know it's like the boy who cried wolf better not to have anything almost than to have ones that you can't trust well the forecaster currently puts status yellow orange and red warnings in place depending on the severity of expected weather Owen Sherlock Met-Aaron's chief forecaster said the threshold for weather warnings are renewed every 30 years also especially with climate change he admitted there are now too many yellow warnings and that it was working on a way to minimize them and how do you do that well you um you um how do you do that you increase the threshold so instead of wind being 50 and that um wind being 50 and that promoting a warning you have it at 55 kilometers per hour you know that's sort of a way um I'm finding some I've I've called I've suggested this would be a good idea before am I politically aligning myself now with Michael Healy Ray secondary students should leave school with their leaving certificate in one hand and a full driver's license in the other that's according to independent TD Michael Healy Ray I really believe there should be a great emphasis on learning to drive in school I'm not quite sure if they should come out with the the actual test in the hand but be that as it may the rural independent group of which the outspoken carry TDs a member have tabled emotion demanding a reduction in waiting lists for driving tests they've suggested adding motoring to the second level syllabus as a possible solution would you be in favor of that would you like to see driving as part of the secondary or a part of the syllabus I think I would and also to there was some suggestion that by way of speeding things up at the moment that if you've sat your 12 lessons that you should be allowed to drive what do you think about that I don't know that's probably not a great idea either but anyway some suggestion along those lines Angus Ball to soar in new beef rankings that's the Irish farmers journal traditional beef breeds are set to rocket up the rankings at the expense of continental breeds in the first major revision of the ICBF's beef replacement and terminal indexes since 2016 on to the daily star tarnish to me hall martin says he's been told the national children's hospital could be open in late 2024 my view is the hospital is very well advanced he said we want to complete it as quickly as possible and in the best manner possible in terms of commissioning of equipment and so on October next year is a date that's been that's been touted there the son tells us that a jury should focus on when a woman told an irish celebrity accused of defilement her true age is barrister told a court yesterday the man 40 has pleaded not guilty to three counts of engagement in a sexual acts with a child under the age of 17 at locations in Dublin on dates between august and december 2010 the jury are going to begin their deliberations this morning and the most common crying people were jailed for last year was theft a report revealed according to the irish prison service figures 4,855 people were sentenced in 2022 theft and related offences was the reason more than 18 percent of those were put behind bars and was the most common crime the second most common crime was attempt or threats of murder assaults and harassment that resulted in 653 people being locked up i'll go through those in a little more detail a little later on because they are quite interesting right joanne joins us on the program now hi joanne good morning Greg thanks for joining us right what's your experience being of garages because you kind of want to throw it out there and see is it a is it just for you or is this the public's general experience yeah i do want to throw it out there specifically around the transparency of garage quotes for car repairs so recently i had an experience with a garage i booked my car and for an oil change and filter and when i booked when i booked the appointment i was also advised that be a health check and the total cost would be 179 euro so i left the car and and also then advised them that i did have a problem with the clutch and to look at that so about three hours later i did receive a text from them and i'd like to quote the text because that this is where i think the transparency issue is so in the text they said we have completed a check of your car and we found some items that need your approval please view and approve the work required i then entered a password which was my car wage number and i was given a list of different suggested repairs and the cost just a total cost and given an option of approving it declining it or postponing it from initially the cost was 179 the clutch cost was 1470 and then with the suggested the other repairs the whole the whole cost would have came to 3000 euro there was no breakdown of what the part cost would be what the back was or what the cost of labor would be and how many hours the labor was going to be can i run through this next because there's quite a lot here because we went in just for front disc and pads they said there is you know five to seven thousand kilometers remaining 360 euro front wishbone rear bushings 370 euro front wipers 42 euro now you say you changed the wipers three months ago a timing belt and water pump they generally are changed at the same time every five years or 210 000 kilometers 649 euro now you had that changed already two years ago the clutch kid as he mentioned 1470 euro but you got another quote as you mentioned there for 821 so you believe that i don't know that they were just throwing figures out i honestly would love a garage to explain it you know the the suggestion and the text was that please approve the work required and if you look at the front discs and pads that is not required currently there's they say themselves five to seven thousand kilometers remaining so that's dependent on i could i could have another six months if i only drive yeah 100 kilometers away so it's not the whole thing is when i go into a garage i am leaving it there they experts i want to drive a car that's safe and that it's not a danger to me or anybody else in the road so i have to be cognizant that they're giving me advice i'm almost thinking she's i really need this but when i actually look into it and query it and i did query about the timing belt with them and then i was said well that's advisory only but nowhere does it say that any of this is advisory so i think that's gorgeous i would love to hear why they don't do a breakdown cost why they don't suggest tell you that something is either urgent it's essential or that you can leave it okay can i say one thing joanne i just see from my notes here you weren't you would just advise that all this work needs doing you only found the additional information at after you inquired well they the the additional information no the front desks and brake pads for example they had in brackets five seven thousand clusters remaining yes that was there the rest was can be ordered and the timing belt i did advise them that i had the time and belt changed with themselves within the last couple of years i asked about the clutch kit could they give me a breakdown of what the costs were involved in that and they advised me the clutch kit was 800 plus that and then labor i had to ask how much the labor costs were and i was advised the labor costs were 450 euro for five hours where when i got the other quote from the garage for the 821 i was advised that the labor cost or the hours worked for that was three hours so there's a two hour differential as well there in relation to how long it would take to fit the clutch and these are the things that i think i would love garages to be transparent about yeah if you would have just text back yes crack on you'd been facing a bill of over three thousand euro in and around three thousand euro i mean this is big big money i doubt there's very many people listening have like that lying about massive money from walking into a garage with 179 euro and i wasn't sure what the clutch would be but if i had clicked approve approve approve the cost would have been over 3000 euro it's huge so you want more details but but see then we could what you could say in fairness that maybe you got all the details in conversation with them like they did give you the breakdowns joanne and well my point to that would be that whether or a challenge is you need to tell me why i need from discs and pads i get you yeah or why are you suggesting that i need a timing belt where where is that suggestion coming from when that timing belt's already been fitted yeah understood you know i don't understand yeah and if you didn't have the querying mind that you have you could have just text yes and then you'd have had three thousand euro bill how much of that did you really need to spend and that's really what yeah i'm not how much we all want to drive a car that's safe and that's why when a garage suggests that suggest something you're wondering if i don't get this is my car going to be on safe do i really need this okay so that's so just a bit more important to get transparency is what you're looking for really and yeah okay i'm just wondering what other people's experiences are in relation to quote for car repairs joanne we've you've you've thrown it out there now we'll see what others think and we appreciate your time and safe motoring going forward thanks for your time thank you great all right take care goodbye any views on that 08 660 25 000 how would you like to go on the holiday of a lifetime then why not join us for the highland radio hooly in sunny saloon spend seven nights in the sun with some of ireland's top entertainers including robert missel jim divine margo claudia buckley and many more with live music all day every day staying in the beautiful four-star sol costa gerrata hotel this is a trip not to be missed book now by calling country music tours on 0749119955 or email info at country music tours.ie we'll see you in sunny saloon well grace how are you today i'm good i've just been down to the mid to measure fireplaces showroom in criss la they have an incredible selection of over 40 colors for kitchen workshops and guess what for a limited time they're offering a 40 discount on any electric fire when you purchase a worktop there 40 that's an amazing deal grace absolutely and trust me if the discount alone doesn't sway you they're a huge selection of fireplaces stoves wood pellet burners beams and stone cladding certainly well contact mate to measure fireplaces criss la on 0749138365 on facebook instagram and on mtmfireplaces.ie get ready for spooky season at century complex this halloween we have a great selection of movies at century cinemas delicious food and cocktails at backstage bar and grill and century plays halloween family fun day taking place on the 28th of october from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. get in touch on 0749121976 or visit century cinemas dot re for more information applications are now open for the dunny gall enterprise awards hosted by local enterprise office dunny gall the awards celebrate the diversity and strength of the small business community in dunny gall a prize fund of 14 000 euro will be awarded across nine different categories this is an excellent opportunity to promote and showcase your business apply before monday the 23rd of october at 12 p.m. by a local enterprise dot i e forward slash dunny gall or email info at leo dot dunny gall coco dot i e for more information highland radio time checks with expressway travel route 32 from letter kennedy dublin when you book online and travel for less expressway bringing you the time us oh good old the time now 27 minutes past nine you're very welcome back to the nine till noon show here on highland radio uh we are going to be joined by our second guest on the show very very shortly so please stay with us for that in fact i believe we actually can now say good morning to neve lambert regional coordinator with the victim support at court vsac uh are you there neve good morning to you hi morning Greg thanks for having me on no it's our pleasure it's good to have you on tell us a little bit about uh the vsac group yeah so we are the only charity in the country that specializes in court accompaniment for victims and prosecution witnesses of all types of crime so that's regardless of the the crime the the gender the religion anything like that for the victims that are coming in we look after um people who are given their evidence in court or children or vulnerable witnesses who are given their evidence through video link um so so why why why what is now we've got the reason we're talking is this is uh available in much of the country but not in donna gall and you're looking to extend into donna gall so we'll get to that in a moment but what um this accompaniment what um services actually providing other than a accompaniment of you if you know what to mean yep so we have it's so as i said we are a charity we have four um staff members we've got three coordinators i'm the coordinator for the east and southeast we have emily who would be the coordinator she's the coordinator for the western northern midland courts and then we have seara who's the coordinator for the criminal courts of justice in park gates street in in dublin and then we have dip and she's our general manager and then ever that we've got about 70 volunteers and they're the people who provide the court accompaniment and so the court accompaniment is basically just practical and emotional support for victims when they're going to court so court is an extremely scary place to go into when you go into this lots of people they're all moving around the place and they all seem to know what they're doing and where to go so what we do is that we would try to meet them prior to their case being listed so we offer a pretrial visit where we meet them at the courthouse maybe like a week or two before their case is due to start we show them an empty courtroom we show them the victim support room so open letter kenny there's a lovely victim support room up there and a lovely video link room as well and we showed them around we showed them this is where you're going to meet your volunteer on the day so when they're going in they actually have an idea of where they need to go and who they're going to meet because the majority of the time what we know from the courts is from american tv which is really really dramatized there's nobody bursting in at the last minute with the last bit of evidence doesn't work like that but that's the idea that we all have so we kind of just kind of take a little bit of that fear we're kind of empowering people when they're coming into court they're taking a little bit of that that power back for themselves they know exactly where they need to go and where they're meeting people and so that'll be our first step that's offered to them yeah and i can imagine too you know for most people as a victim you'd imagine it's the first time going into court in that environment where's the judge is the media there who's going to report this can i be seen will the public are they behind me are they beside me where do i go i mean obviously it's already going to be an incredibly stressful situation so the uncertainties and the unknowns as much as possible i presume you try and ease what's already a very difficult experience by you know emotionally holding their hand through that part of it yeah so we don't when i book in a case or any of the coordinates when we book in cases we don't take any details of the case because none that's any of our business is a fully confidential service so the details we would take as the name of the accused the name of the the injured party or the the witness that's coming in and the type of crime it is so that's it so we don't know any other details and then what we do is we can answer all those type of questions that they have because there's a lot of things that are going on in their mind and they're like who's going to be there where where do i sit one of the most questions that we get is what do i wear going into court because it's so so far into a lot of people going into one of these buildings and as i said like they have an idea in their head of what it's like and it's that's totally different to what it actually is in reality so we like to kind of help them through that so like our volunteers then would we won't go through and you're like their their statements around them with them but what we will do is we'll bring them into the courtroom we'll show them how to approach the witness box where to sit how to answer the judge we'll show them like where everyone's sitting like where the jury's sitting where the the bar is sitting so it's kind of just planning out the courtroom with them and then on the day of their actual trial we could say to them we can go in first and we can take our seats first if you want or we can let the accused side go in and let them pick their sides and we can sit then afterwards so it's just really helping them providing that emotional support and like when their cases start the they don't really realize that they're investigating guard who they probably developed a bond with over the amount of time it's taken to get to court and the barristers the state barrisons they can't really talk so much they've finished giving their evidence so we can act as like an intermediary between them we can say look this is what's going on that's how they're feeling or we can just explain a bit of the legal terms because we're so used to hearing us and we're like every case is totally different but all the procedures are the exact same so we're able to explain and often it's our cake language that's being used rooted in you know laws from hundreds of years ago effectively and in terms of like do you sit beside the person or is that an option because obviously dependent on the the crime you know having to relive it listening to the evidence and all that can be really I imagine really quite distressing either at the time or afterwards do you can you need support if the the person wants through that part of it too so when they have to give their own evidence they're up on the stands or they're in a video link room and they're that's their own time to be by themselves there but when they're sitting in the court and they listen to the rest of the evidence we can sit with them we will we will do what they need so sometimes I say I need to sit right beside me and don't move or sometimes I go my mom is in the victim's courtroom and I'm really worried about my mom and I can't concentrate on their evidence thinking about their mom on their own so we will sit with their mom if that's going to keep their their mind at ease or they might say I don't want anybody in the courtroom giving my own evidence but will you wait outside for me so when they're done they know that there's somebody outside waiting for them to bring them outside for some fresh air or bring them up to the victim's courtroom so we kind of work with what the interparty needs and obviously you have a good cooperation with the court service given what you've outlined so far the court services that we've all the courts we've gone into have been fantastic all the management the staff they've been brilliant because I think once you work within that area you see how vulnerable people are like even for like I heard you talking about burglary there in the news that like even for cases like that people are so nervous going into court so they can see that there is a need for somebody there just to kind of come in and guide them through the court system so every single court that we've been into like especially with this expansion into the northern the western courts all the court services have been been brilliant with working with us and allowing us to use their facilities now are you looking for people to work with VSAC in in in Donegal or are you going to extend your current team into the region though we have a coordinator that we have Emily Emily Healy she's our coordinator for for the the western the northern and the midland court so she's got a she's got a big task in front of her and we it's just it's just to to let people know that there is a service there for victims if they are going into court or even if they've got questions about their own procedures they don't want court companies they can always give us a ring and we can answer them we we are looking for volunteers so at the moment we are looking for volunteers in the letter Kenny Court and we're taking we're actively and going into that Cortex but any of the other smaller district courts we're taking in cases by by referral case by case so in terms of then the you know in terms of volunteers there's a lot of information that is known you has to be the right information so what kind of a background generally speaking to someone have or would someone need to have you know how competent would they need to be in terms of like to the former slister or something or student of the Laurel like who is your typical volunteer we've got a great mix of volunteers so we've got people who are retired or people who have been through the court service and they have no support or they've been through the service and they've used our our service and they're like they want to come back to to volunteer so we've got a great mix of people you don't need to have any sort of legal background around like that because everything is taught you because we're not giving legal advice it's the practical and the emotional advice that we are giving so to become a volunteer there's a lot in us to become one of our volunteers we want to make sure that we have the right people for the role and also when the vulgarities are in court you're listening to a lot of of tough stuff because last year we supported 1,997 people and out of that 870 of those those people were rape and murder cases and then we had 425 murder manslaughter and then 175 was domestic violence in the district court in the south that's all difficult stuff so there's a lot you're listening to a lot of information so we want to make sure that people aren't taking that home with them so to become a volunteer they send an application and you could do that through our website vsac.ie vsac.ie and you can send in an application there all those applications are then shortlisted and then we do we do interviews so for the rest of after this interview I'm doing interviews with those other volunteers after this one and then that's shortlisted again and then we do in-person training and that's shortlisted and then we do shadowing so they shadow between six to eight weeks case depending with a with one of the coordinators or with the one of our experienced volunteers and so they're not just going to be thrown into a case now this sounds like it could be really quite time time it could be really quite time consuming and also to you know you don't want to be there for someone on day one of the case it's deferred for three days and then not be available on day two so it requires I imagine quite a bit of flexibility in time this is on-page work is it and what really is the level of commitment that is required to provide these services for a volunteer so we look for our volunteers to give a minimum of two days a week because outside of Dublin for some reason all the circuit courts only said Tuesday to Friday so it's four days that are sitting for so we look for a minimum of two days a week and then we kind of try to to share out the case then with other volunteers some of our volunteers like when they start to case they like to finish it and some of them can only do certain days okay so we will we will let the the injured party in the garden know like they look like we have two people on makes a match a little bit of required yeah okay yeah totally but we don't like to be introducing brand new people onto the case but also with the time commitment the circuit courts only come around every couple of weeks per term so we've got four court terms so kind of works a bit like the same with school schedules and so it's not well it sounds like it's a huge amount of time that we're looking for in reality it's only for a couple of weeks per term that we're looking for I get you and is this service now available I'm thinking now those who may be due in court is this service now available in in in Donegal so it's not subject to a volunteer recruitment so to speak so how do people get signposted to you ordinarily or how can people make contact if because for some you know yourself it's so stressful are they even thinking of I wonder are their victim support services and are they charred you know what I mean so how do people normally all those over a thousand last year how did they get in contact with you how does that work so I think nearly 90% of our referrals came from the guards but also we when the circuit court is coming around we have a proactive approach where we go in on the Tuesday we'll have a chat with the court sergeant and we'll have a chat with the state solicitor and see what case they're coming in for the week because the guards have so much on their plate that sometimes they forget to book in with victim support so we're just there just to kind of catch the ones that haven't been booked in but the people who are victims of crime or the prosecution witnesses they can contact us directly as well and then give you give you Emily's details if you want yeah for sure her phone number is 085-866-110 so that's 085-866-210 or she can be contacted Emily at Vsac.ie so that's Vsac for victim support at court so Emily at Vsac.ie Right okay is this support for victims or defenders it's for victims we said that right from the get-go right okay Neve is looking for volunteers in Donagola Vsac coordinators in paid employment can I can I ask your guest Greg I presume there are there are going to be people within Vsac who are employed we've got four people who are employed so there's three three coordinators and one manager and all our volunteers but all our volunteers also get up there at a pocket expense so if it's mileage public transport or they we pay for their lunches as well so it's all done through the civil service rate so it's all at a pocket expense that they're paid for okay listen thank you very much for your time so that is live now in Donagola is it yeah yeah we have volunteers in Donagola at the moment perfect all right just so people know all right thank you so very much for your time have a lovely day Neve Lambert their regional coordinator of Vsac that's their victim support at court watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highlandradio.com Easy Living Furnitures Octoberfest sale ends this Sunday absolutely everything reduced with up to 60% of sofa's dining bedroom and mattresses that are in stock and ready for delivery with 0% interest free finance available for up to two years and with no deposit the decision is easy Octoberfest sale ends Sunday at Easy Living Furniture Terryland Goalway Sligo Retail Park Sligo and Briefy Road Castle Bar welcome to the spa at Orchids one of Europe's largest spas at the Holly Root Hotel Bundorn discovered tranquility in our Japanese themed garden boasting seven treatment rooms seaweed baths and a secret garden with an outside hot tub and sauna now let me take you to the heart of Bundorn where you'll find the Holly Root Hotel Spa and Leisure Center. Dirtmessage and our exclusive midweek hotel specials. More information at HollyRootHotel.com An emotion stirred an idea accelerated that's progress you can feel and the very definition of the Audi 241 range from the sporty iconic Audi A4 and the all-electric Audi Q4 e-tron to the pioneering Audi Q8 e-tron offering greater range than you can even imagine test drive the Audi 241 range at an Audi dealer near you today Medical cards welcome for all your denture needs called Donegal Denture Clinic on 9.1.25.25.3 online at DonegalDentureClinic.ie This Sunday the final of the Donegal Senior Football Championship will see holders, Nave Connell and the challengers Guidoor do battle to lift the Dr. McGuire Cup. You can follow the action here on Highland on air and online with Oshin Kelly and match analysts Brendan Kilcoin and Martin McHugh. Throw in on Sunday is at four. Live commentary is brought to you by Highland Motors LetterCanny with the Citroën C5 Aircross, an SUV with absolute comfort and assertive styling. Perfect for Donegal roads. Order your 241 at Highland Motors. If you're pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant and live with migraine you may be worried about how to treat your symptoms if you stop taking your medication during your pregnancy. To address this and other issues Migraine Ireland are holding a free online seminar on Thursday the 19th of October at 4 p.m. with neurology specialist Dr. Finula McCann from Craig Avenue Area Hospital. Book your free ticket now at migraine.ie with thanks to HSE CHO Won Donegal for the funding for this event. Thinking of changing your floors? Why not see what Fluorid LetterCanny has to offer. Fluorid have a large selection of solid, semi-solid and laminate-click vinyl wood flooring together with a fantastic choice of parquet. Herringbone Fluorid all at incredible value. Don't delay. Call Fluorid today on 087-161-7008. New this week at Home Store and More. All loose cutlery and all cutlery sets are all half price but better hurry because when all the half price loose cutlery and all the half price cutlery sets are gone they're gone. Also all vacuum storage bags and all living room throws are still all half price but when all the half price vacuum storage bags and all the half price living room throws are gone they're definitely gone. Drop by your local Home Store and More or visit us online at homestorenmore.ie. New store now open in Trascati Center Black Rock Dublin. Home Store and More. A happy home. Christmas shopping just got easier with Erwin Expert Electrical's Layaway Service now open. Secure those must-have gifts from Ninja, Apple, Samsung, LG, Dyson or Sage with just a deposit. Simply choose items you love and pay for them in convenient installments that suit your budget. No stress, no rush. Gift smarter with Erwin Expert Electrical, LetterCanny and Bunkranna. Highland Radio Weather updates with Ireland West Airport where you can now fly daily to London Heathrow with Erlingus and connect via Heathrow to over 80 destinations worldwide including Boston, New York and more. Okay the weather forecaster for today rather cloudy and damp with outbreaks of raining drizzle in the morning. Rain will gradually clear to the north during the day with some bright spells and a few showers developing temperatures of 13 to 16 degrees. Right we can say good morning now to Shane Crudden officer in charge at Killebeck Coast Guard. Good morning to you Shane, how are you getting on? Good morning Greg, how are you? I am doing fantastic. Now Killebeck's Coast Guard are currently recruiting. Talk to us briefly a little bit about the work the Killebeck's Coast Guard does. Well like all Coast Guard units in the country, Greg there's 44 units in the country and we have one of the four Donegal units and in regards to Killebeck's Coast Guard we have a we're a three discipline team so we're a surge team. We're a club rescue team and we're also a boat rescue unit as well and at present we have we have about 24 members there at the minute. To run the three disciplines the search the boat and the club you need you need as many hands as possible and that's why every year well not necessarily every year we recruit but this year now we're looking to take people on for the 2024 and start them in January so and as I say it's you know the kind of the plan is that we put the Facebook post out and you show interest by Tuesday the 31st of October and yeah the email address is on the on the social media poster it's Killebeck's Coast Guard at hotmail.com and you ask a simple question you say do you want to learn new skills and qualities while helping people on both land and sea it's as simple as that which is not simple but it's a simple question yeah that's a simple question yeah but as you get world-class training uh world-class courses um our uniform our PPE is just top-class like we are we're underneath the department of transport there is Coast Guard as an organization it's underneath the department so we are um as I say a government department but um and we're government funded as well like and we're supplied with I say great equipment great uniforms PPE so on and so forth um and learn new skills like like first aid is a basic course that you have to do um VHF the Marine Radio course it's a license that you get after completing the course basic search skills you know searching long before I joined the Coast Guard 13 years ago I thought searching was just maybe walking around a field or walking around the shoreline but there's there's a there's a skill to it it's a brilliant course to do and manual handling then so that would be your four core courses done in the first in your probation year before you join you you fell out the application form and it's all pent in Guard of Ethn as well Greg you know um that's just part and parcel of what we do in that um but no we're looking for people um you know we we have a great team there at the man it's so strong they're a second family to me um we get on the best um but I say we're looking to hopefully to go on a few more family yes what are the criteria like in terms of age fitness or other um the other is I at the age of uh uh my number major 18 to join and uh a reasonable level of fitness it's it's it's quite simple like that um because I get then that I can only speak for two days Coast Guard we do go up sleep league we've been very busy with sleep league this year and um sleep league's quite a strenuous walk uh and hike up to the top with the generally that's what they call rough the gear is exactly we can get the gear by by vehicles some of the way but no there is an element of walking and you know only recently we'd have caught it there with the stretcher occasionally out of the boulder field which is near the top and that that took a couple hours to do that there and that so yeah a reasonable level of fitness it's kind of minimum age uh of 18 to join but other than that that's that's pretty much uh and live local as well like um at the end of the day we're in emergency service with a fourth blue light emergency service for the country and um first responders so you need to live and I'm not going to say uh you know a certain distance or time to the station that will all be discussed when the individuals show an interest by emailing in and when you email in you will get an email back from myself saying that we'll invite you to an open evening I will go through all the disciplines the board the craft and the sergeant yeah so really even today you're looking you're looking at maybe Shane you know we're not knocking for an outright commitment now but people who have listened to go right you know what maybe that's something you know maybe that's what I could do for my community and maybe I can be part of that setup um you know so express an interest now and then go along to one of the uh one of the open days or one of the open evenings it's can you begs post go to hotmail.com's the email go ahead Shane no no this was you're 100 right yeah show the interest and like I'd be quite frank with people when they come onto the open evening and tell them uh exactly what's expected of uh a person shown interest and some people in the last couple of years during the open evening kind of said thanks very much but you know what that's too high of a level of commitment and that's brilliant and it's brilliant to get that answer on the open evening rather than going in a year into it and realising you know what this is and for me so no I'd be quite frank and straight up with people in the open evening it does suit some people it will not suit others like but as I say that's where we get the information through them on the open evening and uh and then go through the motions with them all right brilliant stuff okay Shane uh if you've interested in uh first contact kealy begs coastguard at hotmail.com that simply expresses an interest uh but you want to do so before Tuesday the 31st of October uh Shane McCrudden thank you very much for joining us I hope you have a great response to that uh because uh we're huge supporters of the fourth emergency services you've outlined there it's fantastic the work that you and the rest of the crews do right across our coast and and our cliffs and our mountains as well Shane thank you very much indeed thank you very much take care yourself and if you need any further support please get in touch Derek are you there yep hey hey Derek how are you getting on right um you witnessed something really quite unpleasant um last night what did you see all right so I was just I was driving up past uh the bird graveyard there and I just walked next to a boss pulled on and a string of young flies out and they were urinating along the wall you know um um I just I find it unpleasant they watch as you say now you've been chatting to others you know we could say oh right they got caught out it was an emergency but others suggest that this is not a once-off all right so we're talking to a few people and they reckon that's uh it's a regular occurrence you know I think really then that the appeal here goes out to maybe boss drivers to to give some consideration of that because it's they that pull over isn't it yeah well that's it I suppose it's one thing that you know people get an offer boss to do that but the driver in there he made a conscious decision they pull in at that point you know they let they let a boss load off you know yeah okay and you're saying it's disrespectful pack it in uh well I think it's disrespectful um you know for one because it's a graveyard but two you know people visit in the graveyard as well yeah let's walk over that you know all right okay and we're talking about um inch graveyard isn't that right sorry it's the graveyard at bird to beg your pardon at birds yeah along the main road there right you all right simple as that um it's just an appeal to I thought it was worth mentioning I'm great you know that's why we invited you on and I do appreciate your time and sorry for holding you there thank you very much indeed uh Derek I'll wait six sixty twenty five thousand okay some texts here I would like to say that Vsac were a huge support to the monocle family when we needed them and we know exactly everything that you've had to endure so it's good to hear that there was some um uh comfort with the support you received from uh Vsac a caller says this is a great service and needs to be part of the family justice system as well especially when false allegations are weaponized and used to stop a mother or father from having access to or seeing their children this is the main weapon of choice used against an alienated mother or father and there are usually no repercussions or consequences for the alienated uh alienating parent or person making the false allegations counseling services should be on hand too in the end uh the children lose that well it's not the not case specific it's anyone who's a defendant in court uh not sorry beg your pardon anyone who is a victim in court regardless of of the nature of the crime uh I live on the lec road it's crazy with traffic this morning and once again we are blocked in with traffic tailbacks because our roads are being realigned there's a red line through our house and we are stuck in limbo and cannot sell every time we're asked we are told it's happening soon this has been going on for six years all right okay I'm sorry for what you're going through tonight ma'am sure I went in through the poll star twice yesterday and got through with one change of lights people should be using it this week so that they get calibrated properly good call Josephine um it is important that the regular traffic is on it uh yes Greg we too have had a lot of issues over the years with garages you're given one price and then it more than doubles it's like an unknown figure at the end if you understand me and uh you're not really going under your own car to see if the work was done or indeed needed done as most of us having to clue what's under a bonnet but there's no reason I don't think particularly with any of the garages and I've dealt with quite a few of them to believe that they're sort of saying something's done and not being done like a lot of stuff important stuff like you know breaks shocks all that kind of stuff would be picked up on an nct if the work wasn't done does that happen very often I don't think so uh but people are obviously going to be nervous and cautious when spending a lot of money uh but Greg there's no great area either you need a timing belt or you don't otherwise it will break etc indeed but uh what what the situation with our caller was is she was well within the the time frame that you can expect a timing belt not to break because it had been done two years previously I took my car to a local garage to fix all the issues needed that were advised by the nct centre got it fixed paid over 599 euro and took it back for the nct to be inspected again they advised me it wasn't fixed I took it into the garage I took in the garage invoice and what was fixed it was wasn't done at all had to ring the back I barely got an apology and had to take the day off work again to leave the car back up and get it sorted again okay that kind of talks to what I was saying there about the nct picking stuff up this garage should be named I'm a mechanic myself what makes an year is the car sounds very expensive to me right okay we have a very busy couple of hours please stay right where you are we're going to take a break for the news and obituary and notices and then we'll be right back join connelly's mg sli go for the 2024 donnie gall motor show canal road letter kenny from the 17th to the 21st of october test drive the 241 mg range and find your perfect mg driving experience with the mg for ev or the mg hs plug in hybrid drive into 2024 with your brand new mg from connelly motor group for more information visit connelly's dot i at shannon airport we know what makes a dream holiday it's not just a huge choice of destinations like lanza roti malaga edinburgh paris and boston it's the hassle-free experience that makes getting through our airport a dream so whatever dream holiday you're packing for head for shannon airport dot i shannon airport making it easy skills to advance offers a range of micro qualifications in sustainability awareness resource efficiency circular economy lean practice and sustainable procurement for irish business green skills courses are easy to access available at times to suit you and are highly subsidized to help your company transition to a green economy contact your local education and training board or visit skills to advance dot i skills to advance boost skills boost business brought to you by solace and the etbs an initiative of the government of ireland all you need to make your house a home at paterson's the hall effort christmas layaway club now open with lots of christmas gift ideas in store like hollywood mirrors dressing tables beanbags and much more needing new mattress visit our sleep center on the first floor with quality beds and mattresses at discount prices in stock and ready for a media collection or delivery open monday to saturday 9am till 5 30pm with hot lunches served daily in our coffee shop paterson's kitchens and interiors the hall effort stay warm for less this autumn with homeland five pack wood logs by three for 13 euro hardwood log great 450 k g only 329 euro nationwide delivery available shop in store or online at homeland dot i yeah yeah i'll be up to bed in a bit just one more level two more left what's the harm weight gain happens for many reasons in your 20s but a good night's sleep is one of the four habits that can help learn more at god.ie forward slash healthy weight an initiative of the government of ireland live on air online and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning i'm akilah clark with the news at 10 o'clock the department of equality has confirmed that 66 asylum seekers due to be housed in bonkrana have been transferred to another county in response to cancer jack murray a department spokesperson said they have been made aware of issues which arose in dunigol earlier this week saw protests in bonkrana against the arrival of 66 men who were to be housed in a 19 room building in the town kinds of murray says from the outset it was a wrong decision on the government's behalf there was a decision made obviously an officer doblin to bring 66 men and do a very very crowded building three or four to a room in 19 bedrooms i think it was an unsuitable location and i don't think it should have went ahead and clearly that caused a huge amount of concern and worry in bonkrana and we saw then how people have reacted so i think it's the right decision now that these men have been transferred to a different county i hope i can give some reassurance to the people of the town at this point and i hope that the government will now reflect and how badly they've handled this and i'm not doing so in such a manner again in the future well assurances have been given that there will be a review of how the housing of asylum seekers is handled by government in dunigol dunigol deputy pardre mclaughlin met with minister roddick o' gorman last evening to discuss the growing concerns in the county over the housing of asylum seekers he stressed the need for consultation with the local community health services and schools jeffrey mclaughlin is hopeful that minister o' gorman will take the concerns on board i spoke with him last night and i made it clear to him that there is real concern now in my own hometown of bonkrana but also in locations and communities across dunigol at how his department are managing the whole question of asylum seekers and ukrainian refugees it appears to be that wherever there's a building available even if it's a building where they're packing people in like sardines that seems to be the approach the minister has advised me that he has a team in terms of community engagement and he's going to reflect on the advice that i have given him the t-shirt says he has huge sympathy for the palestinian people who he says have been horribly treated for 75 years his comments come as british prime minister rishi sunag arrives in israel for talks with his israeli counterpart the iranca reiterated the irish government's call for israel to de-escalate its response in gaza he says people should be careful by what they hear from both sides in the conflict i think israel is a great country i've had a chance to visit on a number of occasions but i've huge sympathy for the palestinian people they've been horribly treated now for 75 years and denied self-determination and denied their own station i think irish people given their own history have a particular sympathy towards the palestinians but you know we have to be very careful about what we believe here because this is a war israel will not necessarily tell the truth or the whole truth nor will have asked more witnesses are to be called before the aisling murphy murder trial this morning 33-year-old yosef pushka of linale grove muckla kindy awfully denies murdering the 23-year-old school teacher on the 12th of january 2022 yesterday the trial heard from two women out for a run along the grand canal near tolamore one of whom saw man crunching over a girl the trial continues before the central criminal court this morning and is to last for up to five weeks the minister of state with responsibility for mental health and older people has been told the traveller community has been let down by government as a promised at national traveller mental health strategy has still not come to fruition tenigal senator aileen flinn raised the issue with minister mary bottler in the shanad this morning she told the minister that much more needs to be done all you have to do is walk out any heart and sight in this whole country and speak to families and they will tell you to struggle i think to a certain extent you really have to live and breathe within the community but like we're seeing 13-year-olds 14-year-olds young women dying by suicide within our community and we must and should do more we were promised a national mental health strategy for the traveller community and we just feel so let down as as a community police and dairy are investigating a pipe bomb attack last night as a possible sectarian hit crime a woman in her 20s was inside a house in hernway when the device partially exploded at the back door at around half past 11 she wasn't injured however damage was caused to the door a number of nearby homes were evacuated for a time while police and ato officers examined the scene detectives at strad road are keen to hear from anyone with information regarding the incident or who may have captured any footage in the area last evening whether i rather cloudy and damp this morning without breaks of rain and drizzle rain will gradually clear during the day with some bright spells and a few shards developing highest temperatures of 13 to 16 degrees that's all from highland radio news for now we'll be back with an update again at 11 o'clock until then good morning the obituary notices for this thursday morning october the 19th the death has occurred of john mcguyan our more island his remains are opposing at his sister's residence rosary tonight at nine o'clock with heist private after the rosary plays funeral mass two more morning at 11 o'clock in synchrone's church arne more fall by interment in the adjoining cemetery the death has taken place of eileen foster ney eakin moll hill milford formerly drum harrow remelton requiem mass two more morning at 11 o'clock in sympedias church milford fall by burial in milford cemetery mass can be viewed at church services dot tv high strictly private at the request of the deceased family flowers only donations if desired to the dunigul hospice care of any family member and the death has taken place of mary calvane 74 glenn eagles dairy funeral leaving her home two more morning at 20 past nine going to our lady of lords church steels time for requiem mass at 10 o'clock interment afterwards in the city cemetery family flowers only please donations in leif wish to the fall hospice family time please from 8 p.m. until 12 noon for family information and more details regarding wigs and funerals please go to highland radio dot com it's the great autumn of savings at supervalue with over a thousand price cuts on all the big brands you love like calvita block was 290 now 265 the happy pair granola selected range was 449 now 399 and money off vouchers every week on the app too so pop in for great savings in store online this autumn at supervalue the county's number one talk show the 9 till noon show on highland radio you're very welcome back to the 9 till noon show thank you to all of you listening and texting into the show greg there was a time when you didn't pay for a phone call until a person answered now you're charged from the minute the machine is switched on it costs a fortune and most times no satisfaction that comes in from mary uh just actually i'm going to mention that after i get through some of these comments because there's some good news that i want to share with you as well hi greg and all this has been discussed before on your show however lighting in ballad buffet shocking you can't see if the person crossing the road it's extremely difficult and raining the new crossing is also difficult lighting over these are poor and no beacons people asking for this fixed but nothing has been done don't understand the reasoning when so many have asked for this issue to be fixed possibly get someone on from the council well we've covered this extensively as you know listener it's not necessarily a cancel issue either um as such driving through this morning it was pitch black it was raining and it was hard to see if anyone was crossing and i still have great concerns about that crossing there at the bank particularly a caller says everyone's avoiding the pole star and coming in the back way to town resulting in traffic around this monaghan an old town okay well at least staying out of my way uh no joke obviously uh but we all need to use the road as normal um for them calibrating those lights i suppose uh caller says it's insane to think the consultants are warning of service collapse at luh coupled with an unprecedented intervention from 78 gps and yet the minister is reluctant to come and see the situation for himself his job is to solve this problem as minister unthinkable he'd prefer to hide behind his desk in Dublin though he would probably say he's got a lot of commitments in his busy he should come and meet the people waiting for hours and ambulances and in the ed to understand the gravity of the situation if this was st james or tala hospital he'd meet stakeholders there why are fina fulso hell bent on disrespecting and leaving donningall behind well he's it's not the party's a whole he is a minister um in his own right also as well of course he's a member of that party the gps are sticking to their guns though and they will go public again no doubt about that if the minister refuses to come to donningall and meet them where the problem is actually happening over seven weeks into hedge cutting season and very little done roads in our draw area i hear the council do get some areas and roads done so they need to either cut none or all as a lot of landowners are confused with what's going on i think you've texted in from our draw a couple of weeks ago as well or someone else did at least still no progress there it's not a process i'm incredibly familiar with in terms of responsibility and what have you right now the irish hotel awards 2023 have taken place and the irish hotel awards uh took place in the radison blue in slygo on tuesday the best of the best in the hospitality sector celebrated their hard work and achievements and we want to say a big congratulations to the waterfront hotel in dunlow uh standing proud taking not one but two prestigious awards back to donningall they won the olster coastal escape of the year and business and conference hotel of the year so congratulations to all the team out there at the waterfront hotel in dunlow it's a wonderful hotel i've stayed there before and it's amongst a whole host of fantastic hotels we we have in this county we're blessed with them okay let's take a break for the bingo numbers it's time for mcbi bingo on highland radio it's thursday the 19th of october jackpot day you're playing for the jackpot prize of 5000 euro on the pink sheet the reference number is s9 it's game number 42 the jackpot number is number 11 this number can come out in any position from the next 10 numbers drawn and now here are your daily numbers 88 27 23 88 82 17 14 45 and finally 67 phone your claim tonight 1043 before eight tonight leave your name contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day get all your ncbi bingo information at highland radio dot com oh you don't leave him usual is it see some at visa we're proud to support small businesses in every community like murphy's of dingham makers of quality ice cream supplied by kerry dairy farms when you shop put in independent business it multiplies to support your community where you shop matters visa dunigold denture clinic letterkenny denture problems we can help at dunigold denture clinic we customize personalize and tailor your dentures to suit you call us for a free consultation on 9 1 25 25 3 find us at ballet rain letterkenny beside rossin college medical cards welcome for all your denture needs called dunigold denture clinic on 9 1 25 25 3 online at dunigold denture clinic dot ie keep out the cold cold cold and ring flaming for their full range of garage doors agri doors insulated doors milking parlor doors flaming 91 48 234 it's the home of the vegan butchers the artisan bakers the freestyle lyricists and the trousers suits droiders it's the urban jungle where the every day meets the latest wave and you could see it all from your seat suv from the sharp lines and smart style of the arona to the bold and beautiful ateka and if size is your thing the to raco comes as a seven-seater see what's in store at seat dot ie for our latest offers and visit dmg motors claw road dunigold town because your new seat is just waiting to see what's next okay don't we're joined in studio now by administrator at highland radio events sorry administrator and highland radio events katie me sorry it just says it's written and highland radio events katie megee hi katie hello thanks for calling in no problem uh exciting exciting developments because finally we have an online shop all we will tomorrow yeah tomorrow it's an outlet on our website shop dot highland radio dot com is the url tell us about it what's happened so it'll be accessible through our highland radio webpage so it'll be on the homepage similar to how it would look for the car drawing other way to be able to sort of a long banner across the home screen so that's exactly how it's going to look as well it's called the outlet so get used to that name the outlet to go you can purchase your events and uh so anything we're doing throughout 2024 will be up there as of tomorrow so anything we have going on for 2024 will be up for purchase from tomorrow going forward as well as our own christmas concert you where you can purchase packages and tickets um both purchasable online um highland radio merchandise bingo books merch we call it merch highland radio merch yeah um now people familiar with that our website will know that we do the car drawbies there a show will be there and you kick through this is a one stop shop a one stop outlet shop so to speak shop at highland radio dot com so we've always had an online presence but now this is a one stop place so in other words go oh i heard that ads i might have a look at that shop dot highland radio dot com the info will be there all in the one place got the shopping card all that kind of stuff as well yeah no it's really cool actually and it looks really well actually there's some really good work done in the background on it as well so i'm really looking forward to people seeing the final product tomorrow um and like i say whole plethora of stuff going on next year that we've been putting together um brian adams i just added about about five days ago so yeah so we've been looking off to get some really good shows for next year as well um as as everything else and our own our own concert which is really exciting because we haven't done it i haven't heard about this uh is that can we talk about that so that it's on uh December the 11th which is good it's i like christmas concerts and christmas things that are close to christmas yeah you know what i mean yeah which is good so it's on the 11th of christmas so you can be in your fault you can have your tree up at that point it's perfectly legal totally yeah and you can you know but you know what you can really get a sense of what can you tell us about that the concert yet except that it's on on the 11th of december well i can i can tell you a few details come on please so we have john mcnickle michael english claudia buckley our own david james and jack kyo so we had there the the acts that we'll be playing um we have the two options as we always did before covid and we were doing these constant concerts quite regularly so we have a dinner a bed and breakfast option and your ticket to the show which is purchasable obviously online through the outlet and also if you want you can call me here and no bother um to purchase that and then the ticket only option as well if you just want to go to the concert and go home afterwards so those are the two options there brilliant stuff um and also uh other shows that we have for next year six sister act which is nearly sold out is it yeah it's pretty we're pretty much there with distract there's a very limited space is left for it um brian adams as you mentioned um this is brilliant for people who want hassle free i was chatting to people that were going to watch luke holmes and the talk of where what car should we take where do we park trying to park around belfast trying to park around doubling it was two separate people trying to get accommodation um you know a whole handling now we do it and it's fine right but the thing with the likes of the brian adams trip you know it's your transfer as you ticket your accommodation you don't have to worry about any of that and you know there's i think that's a big deal for people uh michael macintar the comedian he's hugely popular very funny actually michael macintar wicked and hamilton two more shows as well exactly all dates will be available um tomorrow yeah 100 they're available now but i'm on about on outlets yeah on our on on the outlet on the we call it the outlet i'm not gonna get used to the name no i'm not gonna be conditioned to that's what you're trying to do here you'll be calling it the outlet soon enough anyway i guarantee how many of you met around the table to decide we're gonna make sure it's called the outlet it has to be called the outlet we all we actually do you know what we were struggling with what to call it clearly and you didn't really get to the end of that journey you just gave in you just gave in mid struggle not at all i think it's a really cool name actually here's one right if i was in on that meeting highland shop but you're not telling anybody we're not in america well you know we're in ireland it's a shop so from henceforth you're gonna call it the shop uh no i'm not joking either way it's uh shop.highlandradio.com someone must have taken outlet.highlandradio.com it's gonna it's gonna be live for you from tomorrow and what it is it's a one-stop outlet for all of the highland stuff yes um rather than as i say it's all we're not we've been doing online forever uh but it just means that there's a one-stop place that we can direct you rather than looking at banners and people on different devices the banners can be in different places and all that kind of stuff so we'll still have the we'll still have that stuff there but it's just so that you know when you can check out your card and the various options like you say with the christmas show yeah it's quite simple is it just a ticket do you want the accommodation as well yeah you know it makes it all really quite simple and streamlined the the other thing there's two things there i just what i wanted to mention one is you can go in you can you can pay your deposit as normal for trips and that kind of thing or you can pay full price whatever the option is there for whatever whatever way you want to pay initially and secondly with the bingo books that is it's a good service because it broadens where we can actually where we can where people can actually play the bingo because obviously bingo numbers are online play anywhere you want who's the our listener in the cayman islands we'll get them out yeah i need to i can't remember it i say hello to me in the cayman islands again this morning de laurus was down in gallway i wonder are you back de laurus i know where everyone's at all the time oh well there you go here on the on the facebook see well so we can get them out we can get them out to the cayman islands down to gallway wherever you are uh there's lanzarote to say hello from lanzarote charles is over in glasgow are you there charlie anyway you can play bingo we can get the books out to you uh no problem now just something i want to say if that's okay by the way in case anyone thinks this is not us abandoning you and your cash and coming to see us and anything like that there this is just about making those who prefer to do stuff online or choose to do stuff online to make it as simple and streamlined and one stop shop as possible we're still at the end of the phone on 07491 25 000 and there's people calling up all the time and that's okay too this is just uh to to make uh the online experience more streamlined and enjoyable for uh those that choose to do it that way katie yeah 100 percent absolutely we we had an online portal before for purchasing um for purchasing our own concerts but this is just we've just basically taken that idea and we've made it for everything so it's next level stuff next level that's it you always have to aim higher you know of course it's the it's the fleet of thought of us here that we just yeah okay so it's good it's great katie you know you and others and the and those working on the back end of this have worked really hard and really it's just to make it much easier for people who want to do stuff online tomorrow you'll see uh details and our trips for sister at brian adams michael macintyre wicked hamilton uh the christmas concert which uh we've just revealed details of there that's on the 11th of december which is just really really close it actually is isn't it it's all easter halloween's gonna be behind us in no time and then it's i know jingle bells and and adverts with christmas ponds in i know we're gonna get spooks tabularies out i can't are you are you organized for christmas yeah fully everything you see there you go there you go christmas tree is up and everything with the with the with the ghost on the top i said to someone last year says i put my christmas tree up last night and they says did you put it up yourself it says no i'll put it in the front room just get my dad joke in there get the dad joke okay right all right katie this katie listen uh the outlet shop uh on our website live tomorrow uh the trips the bingo and merchandise which is good because i mean it's going to be a soft launch on the merchandise i'd imagine but it would be nice to be able to build that up actually we actually we have two really nice products which will be going live tomorrow if my face isn't on them you know you're wasting your time well we actually made a promise that well night moon cups no no no no no they're they're extremely exclusive we made a promise to people that there be no greg hugh's faces on any merchandise in order to sell them just just when you're uh finished here now would you go out into the into that reception and would you just dust my award sorry sorry it's the gold one i believe that belongs to caroline anyway no congratulations on that by the way because i haven't had a chance no no no no you're fishing caught a whopper right so uh really what katie came in for not just to pass the time of days to talk about shop.highlandradio.com tomorrow go and have a look at it it's our new online shop i'm really excited about it any innovation um it does excite me believe it or not we're going to have details of all of our trips details on the salute trip as well the highland merch the bingo books wherever you are and all that kind of stuff all right listen thanks very much katie is there anything else we haven't mentioned no i think that's it for now all right okay take care of yourself and uh katie mcgee administrator administrator and highland radio events you are highland radio events that's written here that's me no no title in the head of that like just highland radio events as well caroline says i'm being a brat i'm joking please back after these watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com high on dies big offers continue at high on die dealerships nationwide test drive the 2024 high on die range including the all new kona arland's best-selling car the twosan and winners of world car of the year the ionic five and the ionic six avail of the big selection of offers when you book your high on die 241 model high on die a class apart your local dealer is diverse high on die canal road letter kenny call 9122600 with a high digital online skills course you'll feel a real difference i can listen to all the music i like the boss app that's coming out and it's brilliant anything you want to know is to have their fingertips does small terms but they mean something learn essential online skills with simple accessible lessons at high digital dot i or free phone 1 800 20 30 30 brought to you by vodafone island foundation and alone vodafone together we can ready for winter it could be a busy one so it's best you're prepared help protect yourself and the people around you by getting your winter flu and covid 19 vaccinations at the same appointment our trusted experience team are on hand to help at boots pharmacies across ireland book in store or online at boots dot ie forward slash flu with you for making the most of this winter boots with you for life eligibility criteria apply charges may apply subject to availability shrink your bill with double savers at done stores save in the aisle with the ingredients for five meals for less than 25 euro that's everything you need for beef stir fry fish finger wraps chicken casserole vegetable penne pasta and salmon teriyaki all for 24 euro 68 cent when you save with the till with the five of 25 grocery voucher find all the recipes on our website done stores always better value terms and conditions apply voucher mueser next in store grocery shop of 25 euro or more step into our showrooms at foy and company in letter kenny and belly buffet this month and you'll be transported into a realm of endless possibilities imagine lounging on a luxurious leather sofa hosting friends at a stunning dining table or sinking into a cloud like mattress and bed at the end of a long day reserve now to ensure delivery for christmas also shop online at foy's dot ie finance is available inquire in store at foy and company letter kenny and belly buffet doney gold denture clinic letter kenny denture problems we can help at doney gold denture clinic we customize personalize and tailor your dentures to suit you call us for a free consultation on 9 1 25 25 3 find us at belly rain letter kenny beside rossin college medical cards welcome for all your denture needs called doney gold denture clinic on 9 1 25 25 3 online at doney gold denture clinic dot ie gregg one word i hate his merch there's no such word actually i was disappointed to hear you correct the lady who had the intelligence to use the correct term i'm surprised that someone of your age profile would stoop to use such words the english language is being decimated by such unnecessary abbreviations and i'm sorry to be a part of that i used it ironically i hate the word too it's obviously for young people and influencers and um there's a few phrases i dislike i don't hate i don't really hate anything i pour war and uh the misuse uh miss uh the abuse of children and what have you but in terms of words i don't hate words and i don't hate people but merch does grind my gears um it really annoys me and another thing that annoys me is when people talk about songs in or tv shows instead of being released they're being dropped it does annoy me so i used it ironically uh to sort of maybe and poke fun of myself and others that are like minded my apologies and katie was quite correct what do you feel about the americanization of our language is that another thing that bothers you when i say our language i mean the english language my wife left her car in a garage to get two new front tires last year dropped car off in the morning to collect in the evening as she works in the town two hours later she got a call telling her that the wishbone bushing was about to fall out of car and that uh it needed a track rod end total cost 340 euro as it happens i had changed the track rod ends myself two months previously two days later the car passed its nct and uh add to this the car passed its nct again last month with still no word of a worn wishbone bushing or track rod ends being worn absolutely disgraceful uh that a woman we've treated like this so they didn't get the work done in the end and it's passed two nct since simple solution to let her carry traffic problems put all uninsured drivers off the roads that will speed up the flow uh traffic currently backed up now when i say currently by the way these texts are coming in uh over the course of the morning and they're not all as of now traffic backed up to the dry arch from the pole star no road works just poor timing of lights as i said i went through them normally quite busy had no issues at all hi greg we've had no water in ballymilil since seven yesterday evening no notification and can't get any information as to what the issue is or when it will be back on can anyone update us i'll try and do that whilst i speak here to see if i can get the uh info for you you'll need a helicopter to get around letter candy at present come december and christmas shopping the roads in and around the town will be the biggest car park in the country do you think um i mean you know if you go into a big shopping center you're it's never going to be a clean road because there's lots of people want to do the exact same uh that you want to do right let's see um i don't know balil mili balilil repairs to a burst water main may affect supply to the kiltoi gleeb lachnagin and sarans until four p.m today okay so is that i'm sorry bali mililil is not mentioned but maybe that's part of that problem there that's the only one well seven o'clock um no there's nothing else there at the moment the only other update repersed to a repair to repairs to a burst water main may cause supply disruptions duncanelian sarans until three today and then the only other uh relevant one i can see for now uh is repairs to a burst water main may affect supply to kiltoi gleeb lachnagin and sarans until four p.m today so does that include bali milil pardon my ignorance on that it's just hard to know where every townland in is in so if that does four o'clock so hopefully it'll be on before that caller wants to know if anyone out there has any issues with copper pipes in their homes leaking apparently it's a coming issue in dunagall and the caller has only learned that this uh has this issue but she hasn't heard anyone else talk about it it does happen i've copper pipes in my house for a long time now and um some of the radiators gurgle and bubble and blah like that there and i keep having to i keep having to bleed though i was told that little holes appear in them and can appear in them and there's a a case going on in west dunagall at the moment too um as it relates to um something in the water potentially damaging copper pipes so your copper pipes are not infallible it is very possible that they could leak right robinson careen's fundraiser i just want to mention it's from her page the national breast cancer research institute in association with black rock swimwear are asking as many people as possible to swim in pink this coming monday and help raise funds or is it sunday that's monday october 22 but it's sunday is i'll come back to that one i just want to double check the date there because it says monday and i don't think that's correct i'll come back to that and give it a proper uh give it a proper mention there of course um special needs trust planning zoom zeb and webinar for always online what i've all right okay jack morry is with me jack morry i my apologies i did not know you were there sorry for holding you i really do apologize i've been sitting here waffling waiting for the next guest to come on and you're sitting there my apologies again uh we spoke to you earlier in this week as it relates to a public concern in the boncran area after the arrival of uh 66 uh men into the town uh at night time there were demonstrations there and we've spoke to a number of people from the area concerned as to how it happened and what the consequences may be but there is an update what is the situation yeah i've received correspondence yesterday evening from the department of quality and children um advising that the the men who were um who were to be housed at the the building at the top of car park have been relocated to a different county and they haven't given any update as to any future plans of us so would this be a long term or short term but you just all they could say at this moment the time they've been they've been relocated to another county so i hope that this is a time now for the government to reflect for on just how badly this entire saga uh has been handled um it's like it's no exaggeration to say this is an unprecedented time of worry concern and tension in the boncran community it's really divided the community and it's really worried people if there's been no communication whatsoever at a government level and to communicate to people and it's perfectly understandable that all those people that were there that live in the nearby area had genuine concerns because of this because the because of the unknown but it puts people what happens as well too is it puts people um regular folk in a very difficult situation uh because they probably understand uh the background of at least some of these people they understand what they might be fleeing they understand that they need somewhere to stay but they also know in the heart of hearts that this is not appropriate accommodation for them or an appropriate way to do things and unfortunately the current policy leaves regular people in that uh situation that sort of you know conflicting emotions situation yeah and then we go on the shoulder to a huge amount of responsibility in accommodating refugees far far more than most countries I think it's close to 10 000 people is it being decent and the county is a huge amount so but but it needs to be controlled and needs to be done in a way that respects the local community it's not long ago that like all county council had told the department like it was of justice that they could no longer accommodate any more Ukrainian refugees because of the health service being stretched the educational service being stretched but that seems to be ignored it can't just be a policy of finding anywhere with a roof and cramming as many people and as possible don't show any respect for the local community or for the service that are there and like it's just almost designed to create as much tension as possible and I've been very worried I've been very concerned for a long time how this has been handled and I don't know the colleague part of from Glockland was spoken to Roderick Gorman on this just in the last day or so but has been raising it consistently in the past and it's almost a textbook example of how to handle this badly was there any reason given as to why this decision was made now I mean obviously those who were out protesting or demonstrating will see this as a as a victor I'm sure when we're talking about people's lives I suppose it's it's not sort of the way I would describe it but I understand that they might feel that that's the situation but do we know as to why this decision was made is it because the people themselves didn't feel like they wanted to be there it was a you know the locals will listen to the accommodation wasn't what they expected it to be like was there any reasons given no I forward the response on to to your your editorial team so they can they can see the response but it's quite vague it was a response to an email I had written to the department and they said that they and I doubt the concerns of the local community they said that they'd recognized the tension in the local area and I'm proud of that they'd relocated these these people to another county but that's as long and short as it as it does its details so and but it is recognized they and I should have been recognized a long time ago as I said the last time I was on that fly the concerns that the location in the short front that there was tension building on the local community and I think that should have been respected and it shouldn't have made things worse by once again bringing people in the dark of night to a very very unsuitable location without any consultation with the local community without any consideration for the health service or anything they do claim they do claim that they work with government departments and all services in advance of these arrivals so do you think it's an important question to know to find out as to what Donegal County Council knows in advance not the councillors themselves but if how much information and what information is actually given to the local authority and and if there is quite a bit of information there and quite a bit of forewarning why is that not shared with with councillors because whatever about the whatever about whatever about the team I pass not engaging with you guys right it would be interesting to know what level of engagement there is with the local authority and if it's extensive why is the local authority not passing that information on to elected reps you know my understanding is just next to no communication with the local authority and even in the email they would accept in it that they said well what they said is that they didn't have enough time to consult like they would like to have I find that hard to accept too because there's plan information that's built in probably a year ago and to adapt it for this very purpose so I would find it hard to accept that they didn't have enough time to consult with anybody when they knew this was common but that's the reason it's given on the email so yeah because it was a change of policy because it was established that we were at capacity in terms of in Donegal no one had been moved here for quite some time because of the pressure on services and what have you and the fact that we had more proportionately of refugees you know asylum seekers than any other county but then it started again so we'll see where we go from here thanks for the update I do appreciate it yeah okay take care of yourself so the email that was forwarded to cancer Jack Maury in response to the moving of those 66 men while the community engagement team is not involved in all arrivals we have been made aware of issues which arose in Donegal please note that those applicants seeking protection who were assigned to Donegal have been transferred to another county given the extraordinary pressure on Arlen to accept those fleeing the war in Ukraine and those seeking international protection my colleagues in iPass do not always have a window to engage with communities as they seek to accommodate applicants who might otherwise be homeless however please be assured that we do indeed work with services to assist arrivals and all government departments and services are ready to do our maximum to work with communities and it is really quite interesting to that it quite often happens at night time as well all right independent deputy mark mick sherry is with us good morning to you mark thanks for the taking the call good morning Reagan thank you right how long have you been considering whether or not you were going to contest the next general election before deciding not to mark I mean certainly over the course of the last year I mean the talk process would have put a foot I mean it's been an incredible privilege and eternally grateful to the electorate or to the senate and the doll over the course of the last more than 21 years and it's been a great privilege and the time will be right now when the next election comes up to seek out other opportunities and hand over to fresh legs are you disheartened by politics in this country disillusioned with it I wouldn't say that I mean I think there are many challenges at the moment you know in particular I I feel that politics now and has become the blind pursuit of personal advancement at any cost over and above sort of issue policy and people driven politics and I think that in parallel with what is a reality globally in politics as well as here in Ireland where you know a dissenting or contrarian voice is far too readily dismissed as and labeled extremist I think is a very dangerous combination for democracy and and I think that's a challenge for for those who will remain in it and those who will come to you and and certainly that would have been a frustration that I would observe but no I mean you we have no choice but to embrace democracy and stick with politics did you find yourself having to censor yourself that you couldn't speak as freely or openly as you might like for fear of I don't know cancellation for fear of it interfering with perhaps any ambitions you might have in in the in the private sector like did you do you find that you've had to muzzle yourself for the reasons you've just been outlining well I I mean I should know yourself and thanks in all small way to yourselves of highland and the media generally I never muzzle myself I always said what I felt needed to be said and and to electoral and personal and other detriment you know throughout that period and and you know my personal view is that's a vital role in in in anybody that's in politics you know in the world we live in at the moment you know that's not always acknowledged it's not always welcomed and of course people will have other views but as someone who who didn't prioritize popularity over substance you know I think that's a really really critical part for people who were in public life that you know they must be prepared to be unpopular they must be prepared to you know at least sections of society to call out you know injustices or or issues that they're feeling that need to be addressed rather than you know the approach which most follow sadly politically which is political expediency and keeping the head down in favor of better days and promotion and so on you know trumps all out did you ever do that yourself keep your head down sort of vibe for promotion no I mean you know everybody's political career sort of takes their path and you know I would have certainly identified early on that that you know if ministerial office was something that was going to drive you it was very unlikely to be part of my portfolio to become a minister then to become a minister like what what sort of maybe sacrifices to your constituents do you have to make if you know what I mean like what what is the greasy pole to ministerial office oh look I mean there has been excellent ministers through the years and so on and you know it just it just wasn't about that for me you know it was about the job primarily but you know sadly I would take the view and observe that increasingly there are those who would sacrifice what needs to be done in favor of that political expediency keep the head down you know play it safe praise everybody all the time and you know the board might bounce in your direction and you know if that's what it's about for some people then that's a matter for them it wasn't what drove me and you know it's about issues of the people and and and they're becoming lost I think in the political game generally unfortunately you know yeah and and and the reality is is that's it's it's it's there everyone can see it and unfortunately it seems that politics is not reacting to that it's going to be very interesting to see how things go into the future would you would you like to have fully reconciled with finafall and made this decision representing that party you know I mean you will always be the person that left finafall you know stayed on as an independent and then bowed out of politics will that leave a sour taste in your mouth as the years wear on let's give them my history in the party of course my exit from it is is one of sadness and I still have many very many friends in it and very grateful to the many people who still call themselves finafall who supported me through the years throughout south dunny gawld the rest of the constituency but no that my decision to leave finafall is uh solid uh today as it was at the time and and I would take the view that that that the finafall you know I first joined them was involved in and no longer exists and and that's a sad reality I think for the people generally because it was as good a vehicle for the delivery of services as any other through the years but it was founded on real principle and I think I'm one national interview yesterday I gave the analogy in 2002 when I came in first uh to national politics you know opinion polls national would have finafall around 38 or 39 percent but your home was in charge um they were in government more than the other party up to that time and obviously lots of water is under the bridge and then the corner culture at that time we would have been as high as 60 percent at that time uh now we're at 9 percent and there's a very good reason for that I mean I think uh finafall for galax republican principles I think we forgot the strategic necessity to support broader counties and to acknowledge the contribution that could be played if provided with the correct enabling infrastructure in the northwest and and I feel your things like that were abandoned like a good example in the news last week we saw in the national user a suggestion of a new superport in county me and you know to try and uh take advantage of the wind energy um capacity that we have into the future uh and you know it just cracks me up quite frankly I mean there is one port capable of this and that's Kilimanjaro with the wind energy of our coast and with all of the green talk about all we're going to do with all of our wind energy we have no ports like Aberdeen for example to capitalize on uh in order to see oil that they've done over the years and there's one port now and I'm ready for that and that's Kilimanjaro and there isn't even a suggestion to build an appropriate road to it and uh you know that's the sort of vision that I believe is missing from from from national politics and then so long as it's governed on an individual basis by the blind pursuit of personal advancement really cost I am a little I mean but obviously you know given your your own background your your dynasty or your legacy or whatever it might be how one might describe it though you still obviously have a lot of friends in finafall and I love for finafall whether it's the finafall of now or the finafall that you describe what do you see is the the future for the party can you see any change under its current leadership or if there is a change in leadership can you see getting back to what probably could be described as its roots no I don't actually and I'm pessimistic about that um uh it's not about the current leadership or the next leadership it's about what's now the template for a party politics in Ireland it's far too presidential be it should be in finafall if in a gay labor it's about one person at the top the entire apparatus is uh uh manipulated and run for and in favor of those people and you know that that is a pale reflection of the sort of democracy that I believe any country and particularly Ireland require I mean he used the word their legacy I mean for me legacies are for narcissists I mean the only legacy that interests me is that people might say well look he did the best he could while he was there and had the wisdom to move on and hand over the fresh legs without overstaying as well okay well um do you know what you're going to do after politics is this it by the way do you draw a line under it could you is it something you might return to into the future or is this it for no no I mean it might fundamentally believe when you're gone you're gone I mean it's been an incredible privilege and to have had the opportunity to be a national politics for more than two decades is something to be very grateful for you to be the best we can when you move on and when you're gone you're gone and uh but no I don't have anything identified that I'm going to go into my background's enterprise I would certainly uh be looking for a job I would certainly work but between now and whenever the election is uh somewhere between 12 and 14 months from now you know I'll be continuing to do the work to the to the best of my ability you know all right thanks very much for that uh we do appreciate your time all right Deputy Mark McSherry independent thanks very much indeed okay uh that's he is he bows out Mark McSherry's two-out spoken for the head nodding self-centered party that Fina Fall has become says a listener well that's one person's uh assessment of it I'm sure many would uh disagree right let's take a break back with the weather the eagerly anticipated brand new production of the Broadway smash hit musical sister act is on its way to the board gash energy theater in Dublin join Highland radio as we make way to this unforgettable show on Friday 23rd of February 2024 your trip includes luxury transfers bed and breakfast at the four star city north hotel in Dublin your ticket to the show and a shopping trip to Dublin city centre for more information call Highland radio on zero seven four nine one twenty five thousand or visit Highland radio dot com why leave all the magic moments or great scenes you've captured on your phone sitting there or in the cloud when you can have them printed at McGee's chemist using the McGee's app or one of the in-store kiosks you can upload your photos from your phone google photos facebook or instagram and have them printed instantly within an hour or in by 10 and ready by five see McGee's dot ie for more details hold your memories in your hand with McGee's chemist letter kenny join me marty fray every friday night from eight for rocking hits on Highland radio in association with arena seven where you can enjoy dinner and drinks in the woodbury grill bar and restaurant before bowling in arena seven state of the art lanes see arena seven dot ie go full little this halloween and fill your trolley without a nightmare price get all the treats without the tricks muggy nuts two packs for four euro carve costs on irish pumpkins prices from 99 cent and get two for three euro on scary jelly mix deadly go on have a halloween without compromise go full little today from the morning routines to cozy family moments grant has been bringing comfort to homes for over 45 years with our biofuel compatible condensing boilers heat pumps and underfloor heating you can trust grant to heat your home now and into the future think heating think grant visit grant dot ie at carzone we're serious about buying and selling cars we know nothing about garden furniture gym equipment or guinea pigs but if you want a car we're your people we're irons trusted motoring marketplace with the quality cars advice and tools to help you make the right purchase carzone dot ie a serious site for serious buyers highland radio weather updates with irland west airport where you can now fly daily to london Heathrow with their lingus and connect via Heathrow to over 80 destinations worldwide including boston new york and more radio so rather cloudy and damp this morning without breaks of rain and drizzle rain gradually clearing to the north during the day with some bright spells and a few showers developing highs of 13 to 16 degrees in moderate southeast winds quite a bit going on on sunday and it seems we're going to have decent dry weather on sunday which is good for the tractor one we talked about yesterday and for the national breast cancer research institute in association with black rock swimwear they're hosting or sorry they're asking as many people as possible to swim in pink this sunday and help raise funds and awareness for breast cancer research during october which is of course breast cancer awareness month several events are taking place around donningall this sunday marble hill 1030 neds point boncrant 12 noon russ nowler 10 a.m leon and beach 1 p.m tolands bar organized that one so make sure to dip swim or splash for swimming pink on sunday and support breast cancer research registration just 25 euro with all the monies raised going to the national breast cancer research institute to register go to swim pink dot i e and you'll receive a free swim in pink swimming cap okay which wouldn't be much used to me but it will be much used to many people uh out there uh kevin how are you getting on good morning to you good morning rig um traffic around outer county what say you uh total disaster okay we as a county as a town there is only one project that they've got rate and that is a brand device you can get a school that one way system right now i went out yesterday at about quarter to 11 i was heading up the north and i got to come out from the remelton road going left out to the gary road and got to the traffic lights brawlin red then i got then we got a green but the car's to my right hand side couldn't go anywhere because the wee holding pens is on that roundabout we're already full with cars waiting to get a i read ten yards away from the force bed satellite so i i went on and from the pool star right out to the uh bunny yee roundabout was bumper to bumper on both leans no i heard a guy on saying everything was clear wasn't clear bumper to bumper but kevin yesterday was the first full day of those lights they have to be calibrated they have to move we sensors around to gauge the traffic there's teams out there that will be there for the next two weeks trying to refine it should we wait and see how it goes shall shall i just continue with me story yes if you have two minutes but go ahead kevin all right my story is very simple we set up the pool star roundabout as it wasn't wasn't the pool star then it was around about the port bridge roundabout we spent a fortune and we put a pool star thing on it like group called it the pool star spent an absolute fortune on now we spent an absolute fortune on traffic lights and if we have traffic lights there on a crossroads which it is a is a crossroads right we have no need for a roundabout the roundabout is only a hazard now in it i've been and i do have everybody's been in bigger cities bigger towns where there's dual carriageway going straight ahead and they won't cross the dual crack carriageway and there are lights and everything works perfect we've got two lanes coming into one lane coming in from the dairy road going up to the port road there's two lanes going into one right you have a left turn you have a right turn over the needy to breathe the road out to our melt no one is well aware of take away your roundabout and put a set of box junction and sensitive cameras there so if any of the boys that jump the red lights are caught and fined simple there no this whole thing of holding me in a pen that isn't big enough yeah you know that that who come up with that kind of logic if you get a green light you should be able to go on the way you're going with that green light not go ten yards and be held up and then you're blocking up the whole thing then because nobody can get away yeah okay i get your point totally unbelievable how this tone can make a mess of everything all right kevin listen thank you for a full season right yep go ahead there's the one around the schools there that's the school okay that's the only one i'll give them pass in the back that but everything else is a disaster all right kevin listen thank you very much for that this winter be ready visit winter ready.ie from flooding storms snow and freeze to fall and trees winter is hard to predict find out how to protect yourself your home farm business and the elderly on the office of emergency planning website winter ready dot ie or follow us on twitter at emergency ie an initiative of the government of ireland charlie mclafferty funeral directors serving letter kenny and the surrounding areas for over 100 years charlie mclafferty funeral directors and our family take care of your family and guide you through a difficult time so say you're on looing and it's okay for you to let in a bit and flew all did actually have a in a hinnestrum chushok the lani stop and virus and look at he's got over in a good enough she didn't fall good for the lani either dough or dough yet vaccine flew oil serenashke in ish talk to a tree spray shruna and it's current check cause and how also it's a fact on flew a foil machine on the again will hurt car queen is serenashke in oil at the doctor pilot know let the show go shore agus cost on the high leg on loo till a whole ish or hsc punk ie with only a few paydays to go until christmas discover a new way of shopping this year at macklehenny's the macklehenny's layaway club is perfect if you want to pay in for your favorite products or gifts available in store and over the phone spread the cost of christmas with macklehenny's doughnuts freshly made to water are now available at smokes and grills in leather candy at the end of your meal the end of the day the end of the week because really there's never a bad time mouthwatering fresh doughnuts with a selection of sauces to sit in or take away at smokes and grills also great for a special party treat indulge yourself today with freshly made doughnuts in the new smokes and grills at riverside retail park leather candy we're inviting you to our 241 open weekend at i motors join us from the 20th to the 22nd of october friday saturday and sunday to test drive a range of kios and nissans with finance rates as low as 3.9 percent come and see how affordable a new car can be three service plans and many more offers this is not to be missed check out i motors dot i for opening times we look forward to seeing you hello bonk rana karak don is coming to town new mega store opening friday at 11 am vip guests discount giveaways and more join the opening party at karak don this weekend more info at karak don dot com tesco club card gives you the power to lower prices so no scares this halloween like the tesco pumpkins range from 1 euro 99 selected haribos and swizzles packs were seven euro now five euro plus selected cadbury treat size sharing bags were three euro 55 now two euro lower the cost of your shop with your tesco club card or app the power to lower prices tesco every little helps product subject to availability prices may vary in express stores with all the stories that matter across the northwest it's greg hughes on the night and noon show on highland radio okay it is 11 o'clock let's get a news update good morning mikaela clark thanks greg good morning the department of children equality disability integration on youth has confirmed that 66 asylum seekers due to be housed in bonk rana have been transferred to another county in response to cancer jack murray department spokesperson said they helped be made aware of issues which arose in donnie gall earlier this week saw protests in bonk rana against the arrival of the 66 men who were to be housed in a 19-room building in the town well assurance is helping given that there will be a review of how the housing of asylum seekers is handled by government in donnie gall donnie gall jeppe podger mclaughlin met with minister ronrico gorman last evening to discuss the growing concerns in the county over the housing of asylum seekers he stressed the need for consultation with the local community health services and schools the southeastern england deputy has said that politics has become the blind pursuit of personal advancement at any cost deputy mark mcshary announced this week that he will not contest the next general election he was first elected to the shanad in 2002 and as a td in 2016 president michael d higgins is in rome today for a private audience with probe francis it will be the fourth time the pair have met following meetings in both the vatican and at aris anukteran the topics of climate change food security and global peace are on the agenda for the president and the pontiff the minister of state with responsibility for mental health and older people has been told the traveller community has been led down by government as a promised national traveller mental health strategy has still not come to freer shin donnie gall senator eileen flinn raised the issue with minister mary bottler in the shanad this morning she told the minister that much more needs to be done police and dairy are investigating a pipe bomb attack last night as a possible sectarian hate crime a woman in her 20s was inside a house in hernway when the device had partially exploded at the back door at around half past 11 she wasn't injured however damage was caused to the door anishka erin is advising that repairs to a burst water mean may cause supply disruptions to parts of letter kenny today works commenced last night to repair the burst and are expected to continue until four o'clock this afternoon disruptions may be experienced in kill toy glib locking again and surrounding areas those are the latest headlines we'll be back with an update again at 12 noon right okay thank you very much indeed why shop at oudie that's easy oudie's been voted the best family friendly supermarket by parents in ireland ireland's most sustainable supermarket and the most reputable supermarket by irish shoppers oudie has also just bagged another 46 blast awards been crowned during three tailer of the year awarded 63 star awards at the great taste awards and picked up ireland's first ever diamond award at the international taste institute awards for some of our irish specially selected stakes so many awards for one supermarket oudie every day amazing all right can i be speaking to pat mccart shortly he's going to be in studio with us talking about his memoir which is being published now a very interesting man no doubt as you all know no doubt you all know and looking forward to a chat there but first councillor michael mcbride independent in the letter kenneth milford electoral area good morning michael oh sorry wrong lineup michael uh you've been speaking to about two engineers about the traffic and its situation uh what are they telling you well as boss greg um with the new uh the new traffic lights turned on at the poll star roundabout about the port road yesterday and everybody was kind of waiting to see what effect it would have on traffic flow and we wake up this morning i went down to work and i had a few work colleagues that came in behind me one traveled in from the very side told me that the traffic was backed up almost to manor village and another one who came down from the small town told me it took them a half an hour to get from the house to work which is probably about a mile as you would walk by road you know so um we have a serious problem i had raised it at the last municipal meeting about the gridlock um in the town and i think it's totally unacceptable you know that people are coming in there in the morning to go to work for appointments um people get on to schools and uh you know and everybody uh you know you can leave and say i'll try to be there 10 minutes earlier you're on allow myself 10 minutes earlier but so the one lady told me that it took her one and a half hours to get from the golf course road and to the town from five to six thirty um yeah and we've been hearing loads of stories like that there but what are they telling you why what is the problem and what makes you think that this grid gridlock will lift well i'm certainly not suggesting would love that would i'd rather be suggesting that the local county councillors need to meet with the PA 80 times see as there are any other measures we can put in place to try and speed up the traffic or to reduce the number of the motor traffic and on to town and i like Michael we have to deal with what we have to deal with literally yesterday uh a whole set of traffic lights were switched on on the busiest roundabout in the county like can we talk about that has that and does the engineers believe that's having an impact on like in other words people are saying that they're not moving now as well as they did before the pole star traffic lights were on right before we talk about park and ride and getting traffic off our roads we have to deal with the here and now and people getting to work or the hospital tomorrow have you been told anything as it relates to what impact the lights have had on on traffic will that get it better what's the situation Greg i went through that roundabout um three times yesterday myself and i do acknowledge that at that time traffic was moderate in the town um that was hardly judged by that what effect it was going to have now this morning um i went through it uh going from the nitty blinny road on our through bali heaven for balerian i could through there not too bad but i could see when i was going through there that the traffic stealed all the way back out the port road again i've been told by the engineer that the company who have installed the traffic lights are still there and they're still tweaking them to try you know to make them work as efficiently as they possibly can and my only opinion is and i hope i'm wrong on it but i think at the roundabout might be too small for for traffic lights but anyway we'll have to try and monitor did you ask anyone the logic in switching on traffic lights on the county's busiest roundabout whilst the dual carriageway approach into letterkenny was down to one lane i mean like again i am not that was a point i'm not i don't want to sound like a smart arse or whatever but why switch on a new traffic system control system like that when one of the busiest approaches into letterkenny is down to a single lane i would love to know the logic there yeah that was a question that i asked this morning myself um you know i says um you know whenever we turned on the lights people are going to be really monitoring that to see what you know if an effect it will have on traffic flogging and and to letterkenny in particular in the morning time and to have the road works going on i was told you know that the funding for the road for the road works that's going on at the dual carriageway came at the 11th hour and it's work that had to be done yeah but we don't defer and switch on the lights on for two weeks yeah well that's that's that's that's that would have been something that as far as i'm concerned that would be the absolute sense to do but i still have to thank to myself what about the traffic that has already passed you know the well it's reduced to one lane i mean the fact is that you still have the two lanes from the dikes roundabout to the poles that are roundabout and the traffic's still backed up you see the thing about it too is another thing uh that i can't understand michael and please shed some light on this for me if you can how can you calibrate those lights correctly now over the next week or two when traffic is being filtered onto the four lanes do you get where i'm coming from right so they're adjusting those lights and one of the main arteries into letterkenny is on a single lane so how can they be calibrated correctly when the dual carriageway becomes then a two lane carriageway again that's a very good question greg what you're saying is that you're not getting a true flow you're not getting you're not getting you're not the the traffic is not flowing as it will once the dual carriageway into two lanes so you've got a group of guys and i use that of covering both genders if a group of guys they're twiddling twiddling with the lights moving sensors around and then when the work is finished on the access from the dual carriageway i presume the traffic has to behave somewhat differently so i would imagine so i would it well that's a good point and to be fair about it i've been thinking about this this last number of days and i would have assumed that you know there would have been traffic coins done by the company but none the traffic lights and that don't have been able to model their traffic coins through a computer system to try and get the optimum um you know time is first watching on and off lights are for them to you know to start and stop but um look at both everything in reality as as that it's not working this morning anyway now more of the big complaints this is one of the big complaints we're getting from listeners as well is traffic being stopped on the roundabout the roundabout is not big enough so an awful lot of people are reporting to us that they can't move when lights are green because the traffic layer that the roundabout is not big enough to accommodate traffic stopped on the roundabout i can't see how that square can be circled well that actually happened to myself yesterday greg um i went through the roundabout um good night to tilt away and when i was on my way i'm sorry on Tuesday and when i was on my way back in again the lights were actually commissioned and uh when i got the green light to go um got into the lean to go on to the linear or with those a car that was half in the lean on my right hand side and half in my lane so i couldn't get through there so that has happened and um people you know tell you if well people have to get used to using it but at the end of the day when the lights green you're going to go forward and it looks like there's not enough room on the roundabout for to accommodate the cars that are getting onto it and they do block the lane um opposite of the so i've experienced that myself that is 100 percent correct okay uh we need to seriously and i know a lot of work's been going on amongst you and your colleagues about alternatives a boss hub park and ride all that type of stuff a proper boss service around ladder kenny um but i mean we don't have time to talk about that michael it's been well talked about on this of course we all recognize that needs to be done but we're also talking about it an awful lot we are talking about it like ring roads and bridges and stuff i feel for the people on the back roads of ladder kenny that now have thousands of cars passing their front doors as everyone tries to find their way around find their way around the traffic it's a nightmare yep that's correct i think the old dairy road in particular you know there's a lot of traffic using that road now that that hadn't been in the past the left road is another one right down onto the old town and that kind of felt as right out and people trying to get into the town from uh less modern ran towards rock hill the whole lot out there so like it does the problem is really affect the traffic right around the town it's not only that's the uh port bridge so um and you know there's a lot of hdvs and stuff coming in over the old town bridge and god forbid if anything ever happened there i don't know what kind of a mess would happen and also what we need to what i'd be very interested into and i'm not an elected rep uh and maybe it's information you can find out now i presume we we have some estimate of of traffic like the traffic i think most people would agree around that or can it is worse now than it has ever been are more cars on the roads now or are we managing traffic worse because there's been introduction of little relief roads access roads extra traffic lights more traffic lights now in the poll star they're talking about more traffic lights on other roundabouts now as well right so we really need to sort of say like other the traffic's worse now than it was are the more cars on the roads now or are we just managing it worse or you know is it disproportionately busy because people coming across the mountain top are experiencing huge delays there as well it's got worse for them is there a knock on effect what's going to be done for those people who never see the poll star around about but feel the effects maybe of traffic gridlock they're like we need a proper assessment of what are we doing and is it improving things or making things uh worse uh michael and i think that's really valuable information if we could try and ascertain that i would agree with you greg may once again as if the volume of traffic coming onto town has increased you know um you know a large increase in it over the last 10 or 15 years um if we look at the hospital you know the problem of 15 years i think sorry to cut across my i think i'm on about the next last three you know 2019 versus today not 50 i mean obviously listen the whole county's population is exploded but i mean like 2019 versus 23 that would be two comparable years uh and you know the data is there ti i have have a lot of data i might actually be able to go through it myself but just to ascertain is the more traffic in 23 than 19 the definitely is worse traffic in 23 than 19 so if it's not more traffic uh or even slightly more is it proportionate to the traffic congestion that we're seeing now or are we making things worse in trying to make it better and maybe that work has been done but i think even if the public were able to find that out and and we said look we're dealing with 15 15 000 extra cars a day well at least then we're all part of the problem you know the rule can't be cleared for us individually but we need that info i think as a public so we can really sort of deal with it because you know it's letter Kenny's going to pay the price in terms of of the business community and everything else i spoke to someone yesterday michael and they messaged me on on social media they work they have a good job in letter Kenny and they were going home they said to work on their CVs to try and get a job outside letter Kenny because they could not no longer take the traffic in and out of letter Kenny that was one person i'm not saying that's going to happen you know a lot but that's the kind of life decisions people are making off the back of what's going on yeah i agree with you greg and i do believe that the the amount of traffic coming into town has greatly increased but you know like i'm i'm sure there are four or five hundred extra people working in the hospital you know since before covid and that's only one example of one employer and letter Kenny so you know we have to look at it but i agree with you 100 we have to look at all the statistics look at everything and try and see if there's anything that we can do to try and improve the flow of traffic in letter Kenny because there's no doubt business people are going to hurt coming to up to christmas time if we don't get the problem sorted or solved in some way you know people are going to choose to go other places and you've also got employers you know that are sitting there and they're going to be thinking to themselves you know our workers are continually coming in late the night start to consider this is the place we need to do in business okay and the other thing is you know like you've all these apartments in the hospital and we're always here you know about how many thousand apartments have been must during the year i've been frightened how many people on this card they have to have to make their way to letter Kenny for medical apartments that ended up in late and maybe didn't get there in time for it to get changed for now we have to take all these things into consideration yeah all right for now councillor Mcbride thank you very much indeed we look forward to getting some of that info okay that gentleman after talking kevin about the lights instead of a roundabouts talking a hundred percent right the engineers who ever makes these decisions never fail to amaze me can they not just look at the way or the big tans do it hi greg traffic backed out to the hotel uh clanry i presume at 1015 to the poll star roundabout too small for what they planned oh that's 1015 that's outside russia isn't it the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio it's the right price tiles and wood flooring biggest ever sale up to 50 percent of everything in store all tiles all wood flooring all outdoor slabs cladding and bathware everything slashed in price this sale is not to be missed right price tiles and wood flooring biggest ever half price sale extended until sunday are the signs of aging creeping up on you are you not happy with the way you look or feel at letter Kenny medics private clinic we're here to help you offering botox anti-wrinkle injections derma fillers skin bio injections botox treatment for grinding and clenching teeth hyper hydroses that aids excessive sweating let our doctors help bring back your confidence and look after what is important to you to see what real results really look like book your immediate appointment with no waiting times at letterkennymedics.ie letterkenny medics we listen if you want to talk enhance your skills with sift tech part funded training programs at sift tech we provide courses including first aid roadworks people moving and handling confined spaces electrophusion and machinery training for ireland and uk sites also online programs such as water hygiene construction supervisors sifty reps and much more if you have a group for training sift tech will go to you contact sift tech today sift tech.ie and take the first step towards upskilling and safety compliance the effects of personal debt problems often go beyond just financial what we don't want to face can cause us to unravel stress eats at you relationships unwind it can feel like life's falling apart but support is available get back on track with the insolvency service of ireland an independent organization that helps untangle personal debt problems see back and track.ie supported by the government of ireland highland radio time checks with expressway travel route 32 from letterkenny to doblin when you book online and travel for less expressway bringing you the time it's 11 19 coming on for 20 past 11 and really pleased to have in studio with us pat mccart who's the author of his memoir wall piece and the dairy journal pat thank you so much for coming in and joining us it's really great to have you in studio thanks very much great so where does this book sit you didn't want to necessarily write specifically about individual characters though or political figures though you could it's not an autobiography as such yeah but it covers your life so where do you where does this book book sit then that's good no Greg at a simple rule when I started I said right if I couldn't remember it I wasn't going to write about it so it's a memoir and that's and it's all the stories in my life now while it's called war piece in the dairy journal but I'd say a third of it's set in Donegal or from stories from Donegal like I am from letterkenny I grew up here I had a joint I went to I went to St. Unions and after St. Unions I ended up at letterkenny RTC as it was known in and like I could see the people there were sort of underwhelmed by my leaving results in the sense that I failed maths and my Irish wasn't that great but anyway ended up doing business studies I was going on for an accountancy and as you Greg you know me reasonably well you would know I'd be the world's worst accountant so anyway that's for sure I was there and anyway very strange thing Patsy McGonigal who's a contributor to this place Patsy was the PE teacher out at the RTC at the time and he wrote a column for the dairy people and he was telling me again this is how circuitous my life is goes he was telling me Sean Korn who ran the dairy people at the time and Sean says we're looking for a young reporter a cub reporter and he Patsy was very friendly with a guy called Jerry Darley who I believe got a who did qualify as an accountant and I think he works for De Beers somewhere in America or somewhere probably much wealthier than I am so Jerry wasn't interested in being a cub reporter but he knew I was because I had been editing the student magazine and so cut the chase Jerry can do he says hey Patsy's on about somebody there's a paper looking for a reporter he says I don't want the job but he says I think I made suit you yeah so I joined the dairy people and I spent what was it basically six years there with Sean Korn and so on and it was the best Greg without question it was the greatest experience but there was obviously something in you that was motivated by what was happening at the time or the search for you know the search for truth or wanting to get stories out there did you see that in yourself I yeah absolutely you were already playing that in the college there absolutely well it also helped I was good at about three things English economics in history that's what I got me honors on perfect so that was I should have really been going there but I would work with Sean and then but the other thing Greg just running parallel with that was the troubles in the north were really a full swing you know I started in 74 and the dairy people the troubles in the north were really and 20 miles up the road from me I was we I grew up another Kenny 20 miles up the road and dairy there was British army or there was REC there was the B specials there was John Hume there was Martin McGinnis there was Bishop Daly there was Bloody Zombie there was all this going on there was the world's media there was the epicenter yeah absolutely and that fascinated me and after you see what happened then was Sean Kern letter Kenny took off like a rocket at that time economically because Courtaulds as it was then came in and they promised I think it was between 600 800 well-paying jobs the RTC came in and there suddenly there was X number of students I can't remember it's there 400 500 all of a sudden and letter Kenny which had been a backwater town before that suddenly took off you know you could have literally had your dinner on the middle of the street on some days because there was no traffic there's no look at it today yeah you know it's a totally different place but I that was the background and I in 1974 and June 10th 1974 I joined the dairy people which is the Donegal news now were you in any way Colesha's about moving to dairy at that time were there any in your family saying that you know it's a lot going on let me put that in context I left the dairy people and went to RT you got a job in RT yeah and can you imagine the local boy getting a job with the big nats on broadcasts my mother in fire were very happy about it and so on but I mean I was my dear Mrs Rosie we were in RT for about a year and she says hey look we have to go to my aunt's 50th and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary and we were in Dublin on time and she says look it's not a we're half it to go it's not going to be your choice we're going to it so we drove all the way down from Dublin went to Karen Donna went to this thing and Larry Dougherty who was the chief photographer with the Dairy Journal I had known Larry and it was sitting having me done and he came over and started sat and he says how do you like Dublin I says act so so and he says hey you know there's a job coming up on the Dairy Journal and etc etc now I said I might be and he says look I'll let you know so any he said the dealers they're looking for a chief reporter but he says what they're really looking for is an editor so I basically said I took note of it and so on and anyway when the advertisement appeared Larry rang me up and he says hey look you should apply for this now I don't think I applied for it but I got a I sent off a letter to Colin McCarroll at the time who was the sort of general manager of the Dairy Journal and then fast forward about two weeks later I'm sitting in the dial in this one of the uniformed guys there come up and tap me and tap me on the shoulder and he says look there's a guy from the Dairy Journal on on the phone and the and the dial at the press room looking for you so I went up and Colin's first words were you're a hard man to get so I took and he says the next time you're down come and come and talk to me so I came down and then I talked to Colin and I took the job but my mother's famous first words were shades of John McEnroe and I told her I was moving to Dairy says you can't be serious right now leaving RT going back to going into Dairy at that time the hunger strikes were on there were shootings there was bombings and she thought you're going to get end up getting yourself killed you know because that was the perception and you were working in news and you were working in news which you know it's it's tough now but you know you've got different people with different views reading it you know different interpretations you know it's it's risky and we've seen the risk absolutely you know over the years you do get the odd threat like I can't even repeat the language on there they stand outside me wonder telling me would effin kill me yeah and there there's I've got on the phone like Greg there were shootings and like there were all that sort of stuff and you were right in the middle of it and of course you were dealing with you know heavy the big piece like John Hume was the what the man of the century he was the top politician in Ireland he I actually saw him on my office one day he rang Ben Bradley of the Washington Post he was able to and he was able to get through and he was on first name terms so presidents and prime minister and that was I remember one week he rang me on I think the Monday he rang me from America for he wanted to John always wanted the lead story so he wanted a lead story in the Tuesday Journal on on the Wednesday he rang me from Brussels and on the Thursday he rang me from from Westminster like I like John ended up with dimension I would wonder all that travel on the compressed the air on an airplane I wonder how much that I do because the man was absolutely you know just just in relation to your move back from from Dublin to Derry what motivated you to do that because you know there there is sort of like a pathway isn't there where you start somewhere then you move there and eventually you're heading you know you want to go national you you would got that move yeah you were in the heart of of democracy in the doll and what have you do you know what I mean so box tick box tick you could have spent 40 years doing that yeah so but what was it what was it that swung the the move back to Derry I was fascinated about the troubles in the north there's no doubt about it and do you think you did a job to do I'm not Greg I really can't answer that question I got it the day of Bloody Sunday we had gone my father and my brothers we'd gone to I believe not a match at Fun Park on the way back we made out on the radio and it's just started coming in about four o'clock with the shootings and the Derry and the other we came home that night and we sat the whole family nobody moved made a switch from RT to BBC to UTV and we listened to that coverage and for some reason almost by osmosis it's it's it's deep down but I have to tell one other thing my father was a an absolute news junkie when he got up in the morning he would put on RT and then he would put on before he left he'd put on the headlines he used to go to work at eight o'clock he'd have on the headlines back in those days he was able to get home for lunch and he would put on the one o'clock news on RT and then he'd put on the six o'clock news and then the nine o'clock news in the morning he would buy the Irish press and in the evening he'd buy the evening press and Sunday but he used to buy the Sunday independent the Sunday press and later on Sunday word maybe mother didn't like the Sunday word too much but we're not going to but for very interesting why yeah anyway so here's the thing I when the the first morning I was supposed to be doing training on RT I went down to the sub-editors desk and the chief subsist right pat here right this story and we'll see how you go I wrote the story and he's just gone ahead and that's just why he says you don't need to and I didn't realize now I was no genius don't get me wrong but I had been listening to so much RT that I knew their style yeah I didn't need to be trained you know because there was a couple other people and they took them all week to get into the style yeah like and I literally wrote one story so now you can go ahead now the way I sort of framed the RT experience was that it was the centre of you know you're in the dull the centre of of of where decisions are made for the republic and RTs and and and on first listen it might sound like I was talking of moving back to Derry's a backward step but I don't believe that because that was where the news was you were at the heart of the news and I'm actually feeding news into BBC into RT because the paper of record for Derry they'd be saying well what's in that yeah you know quoted in courts I'm sure you know seen as the record of on the ground yeah so really you know in a way it wasn't it was a huge advancement of your career in returning to Derry at that time to that paper absolutely I was in first hand now with people who were centre stage you know like Hume as I said earlier was the man it was out quite like the Americans the first person they rang Ted Kennedy he was Hume was his go-to person for advice on Northern Ireland. Kennedy introduced then Hume to Tip O'Neill who was the speaker of the house Reagan apparently Ronnie Reagan after a first meeting with Margaret Thatcher and as they were closing their books and apparently the one of the first things he said to her was and what are you going to do for my friend Johnny Hume you know that's the influence the claim was that when many other people were been showing showing in the back door of the White House Hume could go in the front door yeah and was that a two-way relationship because you know you talked of John Hume being ringing you up and saying look I'd really like the lead on this one but that works in another direction he's got some contacts book yeah hasn't he did that work to your advantage yes and no by the way I never quite got this in John and he was a brilliant man but he could be pregnant he could be when you really really know people yeah you know when you have a relationship that's not that goes it's a little bit closer because you're from the same area ish you know you know the ins and outs like it's a bit different I think you know someone a bit better than yeah the rest of the world yeah exactly there's like I want to put it on the record John was the architect of the whole piece by absolutely but he you know this Saint John one that I read about John could be very difficult to deal with now he was under a hell of a lot of pressure and all the rest but he also and he was a genius like he had a brain the size of a planet and so but he expected you know almost like you were some sort of acolyte that when he spoke you should listen you weren't I think he thought you should sort of follow unquestioningly and like as my dear brothers will tell you I'm not quite that type of person I feel I'm entitled to me own but I'm sure you are very much respected above other people for that because people in power kind of respect that don't they but then you had courses like Martin McGinnis yeah I've whom was young Martin McGinnis was young like them a human was sort of the the peace man and Martin was allegedly the war man so there's you go Greg so in terms of particularly when you became editor of the newspaper how did you present the news because I referenced it earlier on that there's you know you could have the army reading it from one perspective you could have the Protestant community from another perspective the Republican community from the loyalists you know different eyes on the same story so how what was the editorial policy how did you present your stories so that you didn't feel that you were excluding any any particular group Greg that's I have to say that's a brilliant question because that was one of the first problems I ran into before I arrived the other before me Frank Corn Frank was of the old nationalist tradition and so on and a brilliant man too he was very good but the pepper was very traditional and I you know the hunger strikes were on and I remember chatting to people and I could see things were changing so I started and but the the traditional thing in the dairy journey was if it wasn't John Hume it was Bishop Edward Daley and if it wasn't Bishop Edward Daley it was maybe the mayor and so on and I started putting in statements from Martin McGinnis and I started putting in a statement from Gregory Campbell and any of the DUP and so on and I remember one day I got I'd reached ahead one says you're turning this pepper into a sort of like on public because you're publishing other people's statement but at that stage Sinn Fein we're getting about 30% of the votes on the big houses I remember one reporter said Pat there's them and us and I thought in terms of the North she meant Catholics and Protestants that wasn't what she was referring to at all she was referring to the fact that there's what they call the Colmore set and then there's the people who live in places like the Bogside in the Craig and now it's generalisation but that's what what she meant was the Colmore Catholics were the Catholic people who were nice middle-class the doctors allowed and she's they don't speak for us at the British the British army weren't creating their houses they're reading our houses they're not so there was a dichotomy there then which a lot of people were the Catholic community was just wasn't sort of homogenous there was a lot of different views was the balanced approach a red line for you yeah clearly obviously because you maintained that yeah I got into a fairly big row with the the proprietors the directors and I said look here's the this and I was by the way I was I was very nervous about I was only in the job about a year and here it was a young editor telling the people who owned it I am changing everything and I said look here's the rule as far as I'm concerned it's the best story every week I don't care or every every edition I don't care whether it's from Sinn Fein the DUP sdlp or whatever the rule is it's the best story did you have to change a culture then within the news yes and and yeah and but frank mccarl frank fe mccarl the proprietor it was a brilliant man he was I kept saying but he was really and he looked after me he says right Pat as long as I can stand up and anybody rings in this door or anybody comes on to complain that that's the best story that's a niche edition that's our lead story our perspective where he said I will support you all the way and he did well not that it is the not that it is really how you test the success of something but the new approach did it have an impact one way or other on circulation absolutely well a couple of things happened so along came Jerry City into the League of Round but the Tuesday paper doubled circulation the the Freddie went from someone like 1920 up to about 27 and at one stage I remember on a couple of pages with 29,000 paper sales on a Friday now that was special occasions but the had worked very well the Derry Journal but was actually at one stage earning more money than some of the Nationals and we and it was very very influential Greg when you consider the fact that between Derry and any shown and we part of Donegal a paper was was selling 29,000 like you look any paper now wouldn't get anywhere near that now and you're probably pushing close to a national circulation there I would suggest yeah yeah if you if you discounted return stay with me we're in conversation with Pat McCart he's got and we're going to talk more about the memoir but it's just interesting to to chat to Pat about his life experiences his memoir is War Peace and the Derry Journal and we'll be talking more about how long has been working on it in that process and much more as well after we take this break watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highlandradio.com easy living furniture's october fest sale ends this sunday absolutely everything reduced with up to 60 percent of sofa's dining bedroom and mattresses that are in stock and ready for delivery with zero percent interest refinance available for up to two years and with no deposit the decision is easy october fest sale ends sunday at easy living furniture terryland go away sligo retail park sligo and brady road castle bar this sunday avoid the stresses and strains of cooking or cleaning up by pulling into kelly's diner for a bite to eat after training maybe out for a drive or meeting up kelly's have something to suit all tastes from a full Irish to a full sunday lunch or something sweet from the packed dessert menu round off the weekend with a stop at kelly's award-winning diner mountaintop letter kenny are you building a new home building requirements state that you must install a radon barrier at ff radon systems we supply and professionally install the fully certified barrier for more information call him at ff radon systems on zero eight six eight double three two seven four nine i've just had the eclipse cinemas experience wow they truly have taken a night at the movies to a whole new level amazing recliner chairs directors lounge vip rooms pizza and hot food serve to your seat have a glass of wine and enjoy the film on the big screen try it for yourself at eclipse cinemas bundorn and leford stirban where the stars shine brighter by the way the pizzas are amazing you can book your seat anytime at eclipse cinemas dot ie hi kate appleby here just wanted to let you all know my exciting new autumn shoe collection is available nationwide in all good shoe stores kate appleby dot com hope you enjoy my shoes don't miss the most heartwarming film of the year the miracle club congratulations you're coming to lords you can't go what do i do on me own go back to bed starring laura linney i'm in a place i swore i would never come back to academy award winner kathy bates i never hated you more than i thought you and academy award winner maggie smith you don't believe there's always hope the miracle club in cinemas now rated 12 a this autumn centra's cutting prices on hundreds of branded favorites across the store enjoy big discounts on jacob's took original 100 gram was 199 now 150 and their telespread 350 gram was 345 now 335 whether you're topping up or stocking up this autumn shop smart feel good centra live every day so pat at the height of the the troubles you're living in you're working in on on a really important newspaper of the time covering all the issues of the day and then of course you know you're from letter can you see coming down to letter kenny as well how different was dairy to letter kenny and how bizarre was it to sort of step from one environment into the other yet them so close together uh it was day and night it really was day and night the first day i uh you know remember i was telling me mother's famous one you can't be serious i remember the first one of the first days i drove and up the strand rodent area noticed for some reason those were all the street lights have been shot out and i asked somebody what happens is they are a shot them out so it and the dark their active service units could move around the hunger strikes are on and every gable end had support the hunger strikers and all the i remember thinking i think and have i made the right decision here and the other thing is back then we had two kids i remember a lot of weekends i would leave dairy we were living on dairy and i'd move back out to the canyon stay we meet parents just to get away from it all yeah and anyway i remember one sunday morning i got a call from one of the reporters and she was really really upset early story and friday had been a bit of young fella who had gone up and he had confessed to being an informer and anyway she was really upset his body was found he had been executed by the ira and his body had been found not too far from her home the thing was she was the only reporter at the thing at the press conference where he admitted is and she was really uptight she says we were we were sort of used to justify the execution of this young fella so i remember i met a couple of senior republicans and i said we will never ever go to a press conference like i we're not here to justify no the execution that wouldn't have happened in litter kenny you know but that's what that was the reality of life and dairy and just i remember we had uh and one day we had the guy from the british army and we had uh john human and we had martin mcginnison and i thought to myself this wouldn't happen you know and gallway or carry it couldn't happen you know uh he was the colonel from british it used to be funny but a well-known republican and dairy told me what used to happen was the british army guy would come in and there'd be two big landrovers come in first and you know everybody said oh that's the colonel arriving and but by ten months later this little sort of incident of now if i can care would come in and that was the colonel they know in other words they were watching their security cloak and but they're a republican guy says but we know the the colonel comes in the week here that's following so that's how uh the update speed they were you know believe they knew exactly what but he had all all sorts of people coming i remember greg we used to get uh i remember there's a guy a french guy often wondered afterwards was he a secret agent uh or something because he used to come in and regularly but my best story about that greg was i was sitting one day uh and there's this guy called callyne green of her remember her name she worked for the american embassy and she rang me and she said pat can i bring this guy down to see you and she said on a thursday and i said now callyne no way you know absolutely no way on a thursday so that was i think it was monday and she rang again she rang about three times and the third time she was almost begging she says look can i bring this guy down so well she brings this guy down and like he stood out of central casting he was about six foot four teeth you could see your reflection and blonde hair and so on and he wore those type of coats that the american secret service so the guys sat down and he started asking me about martin meganus and he started but i was so busy i wasn't paying attention you know and so on and he stayed for about an hour and a half i actually had to say look you people have to go i can't keep doing this so because it was Thursday because we had a paper anyway the following monday morning uh morning martin meganus came down and i was chatting with him and i was getting up to leave i just by the way martin was a guy from the american embassy down or american down here the last day i asked him a lot of questions about you and he said oh jesus pat what did you say and i said what he mean he says that guy is from uh the cia and so on now how martin knew this i don't know now i remember the guy's name at that stage i don't remember it now understood what they were doing is bill clinton was checking out whether to give uh meganus and adams a visa to come to the states oh and your man was checking out uh what uh what uh whether the bona fideas of meganus and adams uh were worth giving did he get the visa he got the visa well you didn't so that was my role in the peace process uh and uh it really doesn't get the attention it deserves um now obviously you know you you you can oppress people with bad news all of the time right and then eventually people can i'm not picking up the paper because it's it's draining me right so was it a difficult process to balance light and shade with with features with uh talking about positive stuff um maybe featured articles or columns or what have you we entered greg it's just i remember one day you'd need happy polls to read this paper because it was so depressing this bomb shootings court cases and all around and one day i was i remember thinking this is i remember one freddy was going through it and i said this is really you know it was dark all the time and why would you bother if you knew there was bomb up a town it killed a couple people why do you want to read the journal on freddy to tell you the same story yeah so i had this idea one time i was out walking one day and i heard there were two teenagers a boy and a girl walking ahead of me and the weird was definitely the brains of the outfit without question and anyway they were slagging each other and i remember she turned around she said to him i know when you were born a doctor should have slapped your mother for bringing such an ugly kid into the you know it was vicious but it was really humorous and i thought wait a month the dairy people know the old joke and dairy what's first prize is a weekend dairy the second prize is two weeks you know uh and they had a great self-deprecating sense of humor so i had this idea i came up with this idea called the jude uh the jet column and i deliberately put it in page two because our editorial was on page two and it was always serious and it was and i thought right here's a wee bit light and shade and i remember the the the management were uh the directors were weren't sure about this because the dairy journal was quoted in parliament it was quoted in courts it was quoted in academics and this sort of you know do i do this does it trivialize that you've got it and i thought it was dodgy but i remember uh they were sort of patty sure about this and i see i didn't discuss well they would just put it in bottom line it was took off like a rocket dairy people just loved getting their name mentioned and jet it was because it was interaction with the community the only time anybody ever got mentioned in the dairy journal was either whether they were shot dead or in court you know the old joke about what he called a dairy man with a suit the defendant you know that all that sort of stuff so suddenly here and we and we started we started doing a lot more features and we tried to get away from the sort of the doom and gloom of and i suppose it became it was it was to reflect the community to hold a mirror up to it and that is light shade the humor the dark humor and all all that kind of stuff um time i wish i had another hour um is there a a a piece you wrote an interview with someone at a moment that's easy for you to identify as a standout yeah great you know this everybody says you know you know the you know the the sort of traptage of you know meganis hum hum and bishop dilly nothing to us one day this wee woman came in to see me she was called Peggy me fan and she was from Melbourne Australia she was sent out as a child as a child migrant on the way out they took away sort of her birth certs and all the rest of it they changed her name she spent 50 years looking she had one brother in this earth and she spent her time looking for him and the story she came back in normally somebody came in to see me and they'd get 10 minutes because it was so busy she came in at about 11 o'clock one day and the deputy had there was a what we called she won megalini she rang out about three times Peggy's still there two o'clock she's been in but she told me the story that she spent 50 years looking for her brother she came to the dairy she went to the nazar's house nobody gave her any information anyway the law changed the numeric in Australia and she got uh an information where her brother was and his name was uh uh she said it it was working on a farm by a people called belonging to people called dilly and balaba fae so the only person she knew with that name was bishop dilly and so she wrote to bishop dilly and said bishop can you find this this is my brother i've been looking for him for 50 years he says bishop dilly says yeah of course and he rang up the parish priest in balaba fae and the parish priest says look there's nobody here called dilly and bishop dilly but who was a totally decent man says would a man in balaba fae and he said bala bally bay so he rang the parish priest in bala bay in mullan and they asked was there a patrick mcfaddon working he said uh bishop there was but he's dead he died two years ago now Peggy came in and told me story and she's no the the real kicker the real she's when i was looking for my brother she says we're going to Dublin one day and the bus that we're in or whatever it was broke down and they took everybody off the bus into this wee cafe and where bala bay uh and she said she sat for two hours and she's my did my brother walked past me did he did he you know and she said she got a break right the same year she says after she got the letter she had a nervous breakdown but there's a lot more to the story and it was exciting is it in the memoir i mentioned her in the memoir yeah i was gonna say there could be a whole book on its own yeah yeah listen i've kind of got just just to get access to to you and just chat about uh your amazing career path and i kind of it is all really about the memoir as well at the same time because much of that is contained within war peace in the dairy journal 12 years ago you started this why did it take so long why did it take so long to get it out no that was my fault uh kevin kevin kevin old already was a question kevin old already was the parish priest and newton and i was a friend of mine and one day i met kevin for a coffee and we were sitting chatting like me and you were chatting now and he says pat why don't you write all this down before you know before you forget a type thing and so on i says right kevin so i started work the fall on monday morning i worked until about thursday and then it took a break for 12 years so i don't know i don't know why i met caravan down he's uh of callum kill press and i met him one day and he says he caravan was subtle he says pat write it all down before you get Alzheimer's yeah so so that that was the and then i said with him and several people said pat even if nothing else even if you don't publish it why don't you leave it for your kids so and that was the motivation yeah and it's kind of your memoir so far uh because of course uh you're still right for the paper you still commentate on on on on matters you've got your podcast with jude twice a week you're teaching with writing groups as well so it's not over by any stretch the imagination um so the the the journey that you take the reader on this it's similar to what we've been doing here it's the highlights the important parts and yeah and you tell a lived experience not just a working experience of wall piece and working in the paper i started off and it was a guy called sean corne and i want to put on the record here now what i learned in journalism i learned from sean corne and i owe him everything but like i used to travel to the courts with justice larkin you know like you wouldn't do that now you know uh and you'd end up in all sorts of ways like larkin one day i remember he made a total mess of a case and when we got back into the car he says pat what do you think of my judgment in that case and i said uh just as you just as you got that wrong because one guy totally contradicts us and he didn't speak to me the the whole way home then about a month later he asked me what did you think of my decision in that case pat and i said brilliant judge and that he was happy as a right okay i don't i haven't got a hold of the book uh some kind of going off won't be out until uh first of the first week in november are you proud of it absolutely i'm not a great it took 12 years yeah and and i'm now i'm glad i did it that's i don't know proud's the right word but i'm glad i did it yeah and and as you're only reflecting um those conversations you had those relationships you had the role you played in being a paper of record which we don't see as much anymore but we're not getting nostalgic you did you miss it whilst you were doing it and as you look back now you realise wow okay something really really important happened uh i was engaged and involved with really important things with really important people i think sometimes when you're living it you don't get it as much uh what was it like reflecting back on it all i don't remember who told me this but i told there's three jobs in dairy worthwhile the mp the bishop and the editor of the dairy journal and i never knew i never thought i'd be the third sort of cog in that or the third leg of that particular stool and see when i retired Greg i really didn't miss it there wasn't an adrenaline thing of being involved in the dairy journal you were the center of the universe like uh garvin donnie who's the publisher as i mentioned earlier he's he made the point there were silos the british army didn't talk to shin fain the shin fain didn't talk to stlp the stlp didn't talk well you know but they all talked to the dairy journal so you were getting it from every side you know but but that being said the dairy journal has to be established and run and edited in a way that keeps those lines of communications open and often that's the real challenge that was the real challenge and you know but we went out we had a rule you left your politics at the front door and we published every every side and we didn't and we've without fair and gregory cambell uh who's the dvp guy was on regularly and woley haye who's a senior friggin the dvp said that i actually said it on the record the dairy journal was one of the first papers he had come across and i was very proud of it well i've about an hour of more questions that i don't have um it's uh been described the book as revealing an insightful memoir macart reflects on a life devoted a life of devoted service to the people of the northwest ireland recalling the triumph and the tragedies the villains and the heroes and it's out when i think it's the first week in november okay well we'll make sure to remind people then stocking filler alert okay thanks pat thanks very much it's an absolute pleasure thank you so very much indeed back with the weather after these the eagerly anticipated brand new production of the broadway smash hit musical sister act is on its way to the board gash energy theater in dublin join highland radio as we make way to this unforgettable show on friday 23rd of february 2024 your trip includes luxury transfers ben and breakfast at the four star city north hotel in dublin your ticket to the show and a shopping trip to dublin city center for more information call highland radio on zero seven four nine one twenty five thousand or visit highland radio dot com hi patty here at shane connelly cars in dunagall town are you looking to upgrade your car well shane connelly cars you'll find mix and models for every budget great finance options and may also accept readings check out shane connellycars.com or call into us at shane connelly cars from london road dunagall town the corona is live with the big top-key door at fovar festival 2023 on bank holiday sunday october 29 tickets 41 euro 90 visit fovar festival dot ie for tickets and shuttle bus information autumn is here and still with the new arrivals at green shoes shopping store or online now from top brands like doc martins kate applebee tommy bow and riker also new balance wonders echo and many more shop lk and one for all gift cards accepted in store visit green shoes and discover the perfect footwear to complement your style green shoes at market square let a kenny shopping center for cara and online at green shoes dot com the dunagall silage competition with homeland and utris animal feeds is back for 2023 and entries are now open entry is free and includes five categories dairy beef sheep round bale and new entrant first prize is a 300 euro voucher and second prize a 200 euro voucher in each category for full entry details visit homeland dot ie go full needle this halloween and fill your trolley without a nightmare price get all the treats without the tricks monkey nuts two packs for four euro carve costs on irish pumpkins prices from 99 cent and get two for three euro and scary jelly mix deadly go on have a halloween without compromise go full needle today pylon radio weather updates with ireland west airport where you can now fly daily to london he throw with air lingus and connect via he throw to over 80 destinations worldwide including boston new york and more rain will gradually clear to the north during the day with some bright spells and a few showers developing highs of 13 to 16 degrees in moderate southeast winds that's where we leave it on the show today we'll be back with you tomorrow morning for friday's show kicking off with the friday panel look forward to chatting to you then have a great thursday stay tuned john breslin