 or call our care team today on 07491 29562 and bring care home. Traditional Irish folk in Balaban, the Kilkenny's, come to Jackson's Hotel Balbafé on Friday 16th of February and on Kurchkidour on Saturday 17th of February. Tickets are 20 euro each and available from Eventbrite and from Hotel Reception. Introducing them is Bicy and Frank's Red Hot Burger featuring irresistible Frank's Red Hot Mayo, jalapenos, cheese and un-mouth-watering crispy spicy coated chicken. You lot ain't ready for this one. Bicy and Frank's Red Hot, the hottest drop of the year. Until the 12th of March from 11am, subject to availability, Frank's Red Hot Bottle not available at McDonald's. Gregory, I'm in shock. Me too. My secret sound's gone already, I thought that one was going to last forever. Shaking a coconut. Shaking a coconut this time of year, who would be shaking a coconut? Fair play to them. I shook that coconut in the summertime as a bank. You've had that one in the bank for a while. Because I didn't think that other one was going to last. They're not out there seasonal too, are they? They're out of nowhere. Well, Noreen and Jack. That one could have gone to two or three grand. God, what has just thought so. Any ideas for tomorrow? Well, it's a great 224 children. Shake a banana. If anyone gets that, I'll double any money you have. Shake a banana. I'll double any money you have. Shake and a canokanut. I can't even pronounce it now. You're in shock. I am. What are we going to do for tomorrow? Don't know, but I thought... Any ideas? Well, I don't think it's the best thing to do to talk it on air. Or maybe not I. Maybe you should actually try Velcro. Yeah, stay up and down. No that's flirt around, isnt it. God, I'm mighty. Shake and a canokanut... Can I even say it? Yaa! Can I even say it? The canokanut? You and your canokanuts? But anyway, can I hear you? I think you've actually lost the pot finally you've gone over the edge now. I can't do more I used to have a friend right he could never say markers he should say marketers You're even tricky words no, but a lot of people struggle with with the news side of things They call it Westminster instead of Westminster a lot of people say Simona Simona Simona, but coconut so I know I know that's enough serious stuff now come on let's pass over to you right so we'll be back tomorrow Yeah, what am I gonna do? Genuine head's tortured now if shaking the coconut didn't last a couple months I have no idea what you're doing it's not easy coming because everything's so So easy to work out. Yeah, and then you don't want it to be so unfair that it could be a Yeah, you always do a good job, but it's always gonna be one or two goals are all right That's brilliant. What a fantastic Yeah, well don't worry fantastic 220. Yeah poor kids be nice we tweeted the weekend Lovely something like that, but lovely. All right. Have a good evening I'll leave you to go and find something that makes a noise and shake your coconut. Okay. It is Nine o'clock two minutes past now. Let's get a news update and it's over to Michaela Clark Thanks, Greg. Good morning. The chief medical officer says she's very concerned The country is at high risk of a measles outbreak It's follows the death of a man in his 40s in the first reported case of the disease in Ireland this year. He died at a hospital in the Dublin and Midlands health region after recently traveling to an event in England. The WHO recommends a 95% vaccination rate, however, it's fallen below 90% in Ireland. In the Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo and West Cavern region, vaccine uptake is 82%. CMO Professor Brita Smith says the low vaccination rate is worrying. I'm very concerned that we are at high risk of an outbreak of measles in Ireland at the moment. We need 95% of the population to be vaccinated in order to prevent measles infection from spreading. Unfortunately, the uptake rate for the MMR vaccine in Ireland has fallen below 90% nationally and in some counties the rate is as low as below 80%. Early Childhood Ireland is calling on all Donegal Erectus members to support a new single agency for early years and school age care. The body has today issued all Erectus members with its policy proposal outlining the importance of the establishment of such an agency to support the over 8,200 children enrolled in child care settings in Donegal. Early Childhood Ireland says the current system is fragmented. CEO Theresa Heaney says a commitment previously given by government to provide a single agency for the sector must be honoured. We've been calling for a single agency since 2019 and we were really pleased in the last program for government that the Department of Children and the entire government committed to establishing a single agency. But I suppose what we're really concerned about at the moment is that we are potentially facing an election very soon so we believe that it's now really important that government and all of the opposition parties commit to establishing this early years agency. A public meeting is to be held in Milford next week to discuss the redevelopment of the former Reform Presbyterian Church. The Milford and District Resource Centre received the building from the Reform Presbyterian Congregation in Milford in November 2022 and grant security debt have allowed it to partially reopen. A 200,000-year-old private donation has been made towards the restoration of the former church which is now known as the Gallo Glass Community Centre which will go towards carrying out key repairs and development works. Declan Meehin, manager of MDRC, is inviting people to the meeting on Monday at 7pm in the Gallo Glass Community Centre where findings of a conservation plan, feasibility study and public consultation will be presented. Finally, for weather, a status shell of snow and ice warning is in place for the northwest today meaning it will be cold, wet and blustery without breaks of rain, sleet and snow spreading, highest temperatures off 2 to 4 degrees. That's all from Highland Radio News for now. We'll be back with news again at 10 o'clock. Until then, good morning. And now, it's time for the talk of the Northwest, the 9th and Noon Show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello, good morning to you. It's five minutes past nine. You're very welcome along to the 9th and Noon Show here in Highland Radio. It is Thursday, the 8th of February, 2024. How are you all keeping out there? A lot of disappointed young ones, I suppose with the nature of these weather warnings, they may have thought, and a lot of adults as well, perhaps, may have thought that we were going to wake up to a blanket of snow across the northwest, but it hasn't arrived yet. It is due to, apparently, as the rain moving up from the south meets the cold, easterly wind, but let us know if you spot any. The lines are open for all of your contacts, by the way. Your WhatsApps and texts to 086 6025,000, 086 6025,000, or you can give us a call in 07491 25,000, and emails. And really, the email has really taken off lately with people, I suppose, having a bit of a longer form to ask their questions or seek help and advice. You can email us at your leisure in confidence from wherever you are, comments at highlandradio.com, and we'll be getting to a few of those emails a little later on in this hour, but let's see what's making the newspapers this morning, the Tricolon Tribune, reacting to news that countercouncils are to deploy an additional 60 new staff to police farm water pollution. A spokesperson in Lifford said, Donegal Countercouncil received sanction from the Department of Housing and Local Government and Heritage to take on one agriculture inspection staff member. We asked the council, the paper did, to confirm the number of inspectors employed in Donegal and how many of the 60 new inspectors will be deployed to this county. In July 2022, the council's website saw tenders for the service of farm inspectors. It said a contract will be awarded for the outsourcing of a series of farm inspections in various at-risk catchments in County Donegal. The specification may include carrying out of investigative assessment in certain agricultural catchments as required. A full detailed report on that, which continues inside the paper as well. The Donegal news this morning, the spending of more than 26 million euro over a three-year period on agency staff for Latter-Canary University Hospital, while a HSC recruitment embargo is in place, has been branded as unbelievable. Member of the Regional Health Forum, West Councillor Jerry Montego, said the Donegal news, or told the Donegal news, that it beggars belief that such an amount of money would be used for medical agency staff, while at the same time a HSC recruitment freeze is active. Figures provided by the HSC to the newspaper show just over 26 million was spent on agency staff between the years of 2020 to 2022. The dairy news this morning, drugs arrests rise, while confiscations decrease. The PSNI and dairy carried out fewer drug confiscations in 23 than the year before, despite an increase in drug-related arrests, according to new official data. Last year PSNI carried out drug seizures, a total of 663 times in dairy and Straban. This represented a decrease of 93 on the year before when it carried out 756. On to the Irish Times now. And Sinn Féin's support hits its lowest level in three years. They have dropped four points to 38%. That's the satisfaction rating of party leaders, sorry. They've actually dropped six points to 28%, which is double the margin of error, so a figure that can't be ignored. Finagale have gained one point to 19%. Finafall remain unchanged at 20%. The Green Party have added that two percentage points in support. They're up to 5% at Labour at 4%. But support for Sinn Féin has slumped in the latest Irish Times, it's our BNA opinion poll, with the party falling to its lowest level in three years. Sinn Féin's support fell to 28%, a six-point drop since the most recent poll in September, with a general election do within the next year. The results of the poll will cause alarm in Sinn Féin, long presumed to be the favourites to lead to the next government. The poll results cast doubt on those assumptions, although it maintains a healthy lead over both Finagale and Finafall. This is as low as Sinn Féin has been since just after the last election. And I've said it on this programme from the longest time that there is no guarantee that the same government that's in power now won't be returned. And perhaps maybe that's becoming a little bit clearer now in the polls. If you were asked by a polling company, do you support Sinn Féin and you've changed your mind, or maybe you've changed your mind back in favour of the current government party, let us know. Oh wait, 660, 25,000, is there something about the Sinn Féin policy or their stance that you don't like that has changed your mind? And also what's happened with Finagale and Finafall that has sort of seen your interest in them return? In terms of the satisfaction ratings for leaders, Mary Lou McDonnell is at 38% down 4%, Léov Radkar is at 40% up 1% and Míhal Martin will be quite happy with his plus 3% to leave his approval rating at 44%. The government's overall approval rating at the moment is 35%, which is up 3%. So as I say, is there a particular reason as to why you may have changed your view if you were polled in September compared to now? No matter what the case may be, be very interested in your views on that. There are calls for a clampdown as tenants hit by rent hikes above the legal limits. This is in the Irish and dependent. The state regulator for the rental sector has promised to clamp down on landlords as new figures show rental costs rising significantly above legal limits. Data for the three months up to last September show existing tenants had suffered an average rise of 5.2% since the same quarter of 2022. And interestingly, in Donegal, there's a huge gap between those who are new renters just coming into the market now or maybe moving home. And there's lots of reasons as to why there's lots of new renters in this county, not least people moving out of defective concrete homes, etc. Well, the existing average rent is 708 euro in Donegal. That's up 8.9%. But for new renters, it's 987 euro. That's up 23.4%. And looking at the percentage increases around the country, 9 to 14, 18 and 19 in some cases, but in that 9 to 14 range, Donegal 23.4%. So there's a serious shortage of obviously rental accommodation. There's huge demand and that demand will only grow, you would imagine. So we're facing one of the biggest gaps between in situ renters versus new renters anywhere in the country. The Irish Daily Mail this morning arsonists targeted asylum seeker accommodation face heavy prison sentences following the latest suspected fire attack on a house falsely believed to have been earmarked for use by refugees. Guardian investigation after seven bedroomed detached house on the Selbridge Road in Leek Slip in Kildare was torched in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The incident is believed to be the 23rd where premises linked or rumoured to be linked to the housing of people seeking asylum was set alight Wednesday night's fire comes days after a vacant nursing home in Dublin was set alight demonstrations had been staged at the property recently by people who believed the building at Crooksling off the N81 to Blessington were to be used to accommodate refugees for several weeks. The Leek Slip property named Honeywood has been subject to numerous protests by anti immigration activists with the most recent taking place several hours before the arson attack. So another one and another building it's terrible really isn't it to see these when we have a housing crisis here to see these accommodation houses or whatever it might be burnt to the ground. The Irish Farmers Journal this morning top quality continental weanlings are hitting a record for a euro a kilogram in March this week with cattle being snapped up for export Moho Martin Cantelitrum saw over 400 bowl weanlings meet an electric trade at its annual Monaghan day sale on Wednesday top quality 350kg continental weanlings are currently selling from 1,270 euro to 1,400 euro ahead or up to four euro a kilogram this is up 70 euro to 100 euro ahead on the same week last year okay so price is on the up there on to the Irish Daily Star now and uh Northwest MEP Maria Walsh has been pretty vocal across a number of issues uh Finnegell MEP Maria Walsh has said she expects Enoch Burke's family to restart using a five-year-old website targeting her in the run-up to June's European elections the site which states it was set up by Enoch Burke made repeated references to the fact the former Rose of Tray is a member of the LGBTI community speaking to the star at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Ms Walsh an MEP for Midlands Northwest also said that scrutiny of politicians has become intense and unrealistic and uh she also said that European Parliament can be male, pale and stale following Fina Falls decision to run three male candidates in their mid 50s her comments came after Fina 4 TD Barry Count was uh won a selection convention in Mullingar to become his party's candidate for the European election in her Midlands Northwest constituency and it's incredibly likely that most likely I should say that now Blaney will be added to that ticket because it works out in terms of the vote he acquired geographically and so on and so forth but Maria Walsh has said that the European Parliament can be male, pale and stale is that something that you agree with let us know 08 6 60 25 000 um on to the Irish Daily Mirror now and an annulled with a confirmed case of measles has died the HSC has announced now measles in this country has been incredibly rare for quite some time and deaths uh it's been a couple of decades since someone has passed because of measles well a person passed away in a hospital in the Dublin and Midlands health region the HSC added this was the first confirmed to measle case notified notified in the country this year public health teams as well as the measles national incident management team taking all the necessary public health actions in relation to this case we are told and um a big push is going to be happening over the next while to try and encourage parents primarily to get their young ones vaccinated the vaccination rate in Donegal 82% nationally it's around about 88% and they say it's 95% is required for herd immunity and lastly in the Sonderdale Viagra slashes men's risk of Alzheimer's disease a study suggests researchers found fellas on the sex pills were 18% less likely to develop the degenerative brain condition um Matthew Addisian who led the team at University College London said these results are encouraging and may point to a new way to reduce Alzheimer's risk okay and I initially that drug was um was being developed to lower blood pressure I believe it was uh but then during the whole trial period a few things popped up that pointed to the fact that it might be useful elsewhere but there you go okay maybe it's now useful in terms of um in terms of tackling Alzheimer's good morning to Charlie and Dahi and Brendan and Beth and Annie amongst those watching the show just to remind you you can watch the program if you wish if it suits you uh on our YouTube channel on your smart TV or Firestick it's Highland Radio Ireland and we're across your mobile devices on that app and on Facebook too Highland Hub or Highland Radio News and Sport National Large Forecourt of the Year for 2022 this week's show is brought to you by the Highland Hooli and Saloo join us this September in the sunny Saloo for a week of live entertainment with Ireland's leading country artist dinner each evening and plenty of crack sun Saloo and you this September for booking information go to the outlet on HighlandRadio.com are you building rebuilding or renovating what heat pumps or solar panels would suit your build come along and speak to the experts efficient renewables on heat pumps and solar panels get advice on installation and grants available visit the efficient renewable showroom in Newton Cunningham and see these products in operation for yourself I know it is you return is Ireland's deposit return scheme bring back empty undamaged bottles and cans with the return logo to a shop or supermarket you'll get your deposit back and they'll get recycled better for more visit return dot ie looking for real choice leave diesel behind and make the move to Toyota hybrid electric Akeli's Toyota letter Kenny and man charles world leading hybrid electric technology lower emissions driving with the widest choice of hybrid electric models from Ireland's best-selling car brand with flexible payment options available make the move today Akeli's Toyota letter Kenny and man charles Toyota built for a better world Connor here from Erwin expert electrical home to Ireland's largest LG TV display now with the further 10% of all models with the huge selection of top household electronics featuring energy efficient posh appliances premium brands such as sage electro luxe quicker taps and more interest free layaway service available Erwin expert electrical letter Kenny in Bunkrata this valentine's day there's a free box of chocolates with every 12 roses what stocks last at Annie's flowers and gifts call 9 1 treble 7 4 0 or order online at anniesflowers.ie and with an air code your flowers will be delivered direct to your loved one make it special this valentine's day with Annie's flowers and gifts lower main street letter Kenny and you're very welcome back to the program now just a couple of stories by coincidence as we lead into our next conversation and it's in relation to transgender participation and it's been confirmed that the miss world competition is allowing transgender women to enter that competition that spots something of a debate and closer to home transgender Irish dancers can compete in categories that match their gender identity the clrg has decided Irish dancing's governing body made the ruling following legal advice the weeks of debate last year a teenager a teenage transgender girl based in the US qualified to compete in this year's upcoming world championship but we're talking now about a transgenderism or a transgender policy in Gaelic football Danielle Loughry joins us on the program to discuss this good morning Danielle good morning Greg how are you I am good so what is the current policy because we're marking an anniversary really so what is the the current policy the transgender policy in the lgfa the current policy only relates to transgender woman come on into your sport so there's three different sections to it there's an application process for anybody over 18 anybody between the ages of 16 and 18 and then anybody from the age of 12 to 15 and basically it's based on testosterone suppression having a letter from your doctor to say that you are transitioning or having your gender recognition search and once they go through the process the lgfa decides if you know to pass it or not and if they can play in our female sport then going forward now of course Danielle you're not a a sole voice on this issue in your opposition to it but you're the one people are most likely to hear what what are you getting from those within the game over the course of of this last year as I say you're the most outspoken but it doesn't necessarily tell the full story of of what the feeling is amongst those competing in the sport what what are they telling you well I've received no opposition to my stance from anybody within the country here really in relation to to this day anybody I've spoken to you all believe that this policy was wrong the way it was taken in is very on democratic and they just there was no consultation with grassroots level the lgfa sites itself has been a democratic organization but yet this policy came from the top and it stayed at the top there was no discussion at grassroots level or further down you know the pegging order as into its introduction so the majority of the people out there are opposed to it as it stands there has been a lot of upheaval within certain central council meetings looking forward to be reviewed and rescinded straight away but here we are a year later and there has been a no word of anything like that happening from lgfa management yes and there is some concern that really a debate on this was um I suppose didn't get out of the starting gates really it was suppressed to some extent that's basically what it is me when you look at the lgfa it's supposed to start at the ground roots level with you know its members and then we go to its units and its clubs then its county boards then its provincial council and then up to off the central council but there was no discussion bar at central council and with lgfa management about what should be in this policy do we need this policy how do we approach you know even introducing the policy it was just taken in on the start of february last year there was an email sent out uh what's the the transgender policy attached to it um i believe at that point if you honestly ask anybody who attended the central council meeting who voted on this policy to give an honest answer did they even read the policy as it stood had they spoken to anybody about it they believed that it was going to be introduced or did they just think that this was a starting point for discussions on its introduction you know so it was just pushed in within two weeks and then no more than six weeks later we already had an approved uh application gone through you know so very very rushed very undemocratic and as as the year progresses your lobbying the lgfa uh for for commentary on this for some clarification on this and it was delivered to you in an unusual way yes i had sent um quite a few questions now because i had a lot of concerns about the policy as it stands through my club which then had to go to the county board which then finally made its way to the lgfa in crook park now i had written out my questions in a lovely email there was nothing on toward on it just general questions but it took over three months for the lgfa to finally get back to me and the way it was is they replied in an emailed answer to all my questions to my county board um secretary and chairperson but they at the county board meeting were only allowed to read out the answers to my questions i wasn't allowed to see the email i wasn't allowed to be handed a print out of the email so i had to sit and try and write down you know the answers to maybe 22 questions that i had sent them so i unfortunately then had to waste my county secretary's time by making her sits and reread every single response over and over and over again till i read it down because they were told under no circumstances was i to get my hands on a copy of what they had written now i don't understand that i just don't okay and was there anything in the response given to you that was satisfactory no none of it really they hide behind this uh line saying that this was a legal obligation on the lgfa that they had to introduce this policy but given research from myself and the the wonderful uh volunteers at the contest and numerous other uh women that are advocates for fair play sport for women have locked at e u laws i wish laws the gender recognition act and they honestly don't believe that there is any legal obligation and if there was a legal obligation then the likes of the the government agency sport island who uh overseas all sporting bodies within Ireland they are the ones who help sporting bodies here introduce policies and know their their legal obligations but in this past year they have not once said that yes the lgfa had a legal obligation to do this we have spoken to other sporting bodies who have said well they don't have a policy of this in the minute and they're not really working on it until they get guidance from sport Ireland so yet sport Ireland stall have not taken anything out i know sport island last year have done a lot of consultation themselves in relation to this area but we are still yet to see the results of that consultation um but yeah there's no sport island themselves have not said there's a legal obligation um when you look at the likes of if it was then was the merger between the lgfa and the ga and the komogi association here we are a year later from the lgas to lgfa's introduction of it but yet there's no such policy wasn't the ga or the komogi association so if they're all in the wrong bracket and they're all under the same legal obligation then why is it just lgfa that has it why is there being no push then for other sporting bodies you you use the hashtag save women's sports i mean the transgender community is uh incredibly small in this country and the the percentage of those well them that may wish to choose to play ga is going to be uh ever smaller since is it really going to have the impact that you fear it's going to have it may not have the impact that you're going to go rock out uh onto a pitch and every single team is going to have a transgender player on it but my feeling as well as this is the lgfa is in its 50 year you know of being our sporting body they have done immense work over those 50 years at getting more and more women involved in the sport and made such fantastic steps that i feel this is just a massive regression that we are supposed to trust our association to have our best interests as hearts as players and as volunteers but i feel that the introduction of this has just basically said okay ladies women yeah you're great for 50 years you've supported us immensely but here now we're just going to let the odd man and to play the sport and please don't say anything about it i just feel like they're just taking a step back they probably refer to themselves as a transgender woman but i understand where you're coming from um yeah yeah i mean fundamentally do you expect uh fundamentally do you i think this is a fair question because it talks to maybe where you're coming from this uh daniel fundamentally do you accept that there are more than two genders or that you know uh a man can transition to a woman and a woman can transition to the man or is this just solely based on an 11 playing field in sport no based in reality and in biology you can't change sex it is as simple as that i i don't care how many gender recognition search the the government handout under their gender recognition act biology as fact and as reality you cannot change sex there is only two sexes two genders male and female now i understand anybody who doesn't feel like they fall into that stereotypical way of oh i'm not really feminine or i'm not really masculine and that's that's absolutely fair but we can't be uh how do you say it we can't lose sight of reality that's you know you are one or the other it's inherently in your body that's what it is that that's never going to change unfortunately for them you know it's so inherently yet my opinion is there are two sexes and that's that and the introduction of a transgender woman and to or uh female gillig fopple is just it's an unacceptable risk as far as and the risk being in entries is the risk being injuries so like a transgender woman born male would have a physical advantage cause cause could cause injuries or could just really skew what's expected from the sport or what are your concerns on the pitch yes well that that is a massive part of it if you have a transgender woman on the pitch um who's especially if even if they haven't gone through me a problem previously i mean there's a new study released now that even from the age of eight upwards uh boys are are faster uh you know so it's it's unfair and it's a much high risk i believe even the lgfa themselves know that it's a high risk because in the application process they have set up a risk assessment committee for each application so they know themselves that having a male bodied player coming in it's going to increase the risk to the females on the pitch there's going to be the risk of unfairness and there's going to be the risk to safety i mean over the past number of say five or more years they'll they have really pushed their concerns about um concussion procedures well if this is a non-contact sport and we shouldn't be worried about injuries why is concussion such a massive thing and why do they themselves in the application for uh process for this transgender policy state that they know there is such a thing as an unacceptable risk there i mean but obviously but just in relation to that and it's only for the for the purpose of conversation i mean you could have a situation and you've seen it yourself i'm sure daniel where you could have a very strong tall woman uh who is a defender and you see it in the men's game as well but even more so in the women's game uh who is a defender and you know a light five foot one uh striker and not striker sorry attacker forward do you know what i mean so like i mean that is sort of built into the sport as well yeah it is but the thing is it doesn't matter if she's six foot six or five foot two she is still a woman well you know if she has just the uh the advantage of being higher if or taller as she has the advantage of working harder through her life that she is quicker than you and she has a better fuffler than you then that is fine because we started at at least somewhat of a level pegging because we are all the same sex we are all female so if she's better than you then you put your hand up and say oh my god she is brilliant but if you're out in the pitch and even if you're marking a chance to enter a woman and they may not be as good as you it's just it's unfair that means that there is a biological gear now sitting on the bench or maybe completely excluded herself from the sport because she's not been given the opportunity do i mean obviously you know i think what is it one or two in a hundred people um and it probably might increase uh may be born in the wrong bodies they see it and and look to transition as they mature like do you's can you can the gea lgfa accommodate them at all like i mean it is a it's a it's an association for all um or are they just excluded because of you know who they are do you know what i mean that's so i'm thinking maybe sort of earlier in their lives and as they come through i mean do you see any place for there's never going to be enough to make up individual teams like so do you do you ever see a space for them at any level in the sport of course there could be but in the category of of their birth sex because the gea need to be more welcoming of males who maybe see themselves as more feminine or or i mean they have no policy to say right okay we've figured out a way to be more helpful and making you feel more at home and that sport um like that's what could be done across sport and body i mean i you look at the the gender recognition act itself at you're allowed to apply for gender recognition sir if you're over 18 and only in special circumstances with parental guidance or you know if you're six between ages of 16 and 18 so even the law itself and Ireland says look no we want to stay away from encouraging anybody who is not an adult from transitioning but yet the lgfa policy has a whole section for children from 12 to 15 to make that change and i just think that if we're not able to do that in law because our government is worried about the consequences that can have we need to be very careful what we're putting into your sporting policies i think sometimes a lot of the body is out there just need to be more welcoming i think the confusion sometimes uh in in individual cases like we're talking now talks to really a lack of uh clarity you know on a national level and what people want and and and what have you there is also the issue as a couple of listeners have pointed out about shared spaces as well i'm thinking changing rooms uh showers and what have you again these cases are incredibly incredibly rare at the moment but is that something that is that a concern that you share yeah that's a massive concern as well obviously yeah um it was one of my initial queries to the lgfa going uh well if somebody has approved to play do they get access to or change rooms and their simple reply was is once they've gone through the approval process and been approved they have full access to all facilities within the club just like everybody else so they didn't specifically say yes changing rooms but access to all facilities to me states you're changing rooms now i don't want my daughter in a changing room with a male body person just as well like i don't want my son in a changing room with a a female body player you know this works both ways it's i'm not just targeting transgender woman here this is all round we need to be very careful on our child's safeguarding here and above what do you want for us as the first year anniversary approaches like what what do you want as i said earlier on you know i'm not across this whole debate and conversation specific to this if you know what i mean but for me it comes across a little bit like you're you're a you're a soul voice with you know some likes and retweets but is is anyone else really having this conversation i don't see any people currently playing the sport or maybe they are who are you know prepared to sort of put their head on the chopping block so to speak to now maybe i'm doing people a disservice but do you feel like this is publicly you're you're it's a solo battle oh no definitely not the support i'm getting from across the country has been amazing it may be a very slow process of trying to get the lgfa to open up and speak to us about this but it is still a process um the lgfa haven't made it easy by saying they won't speak to anybody if they're not lgfa members it takes them three months to reply to any queries you know it's just been a long hard battle but one fact isn't going to go away and there's numerous supporters out there numerous people that are working on this um from many different angles not just this one so no i'm not a solo voice a lot of people are afraid to publicly say how that's what i'm talking about they've seen what's happened that's what i'm talking about people are players or management or coaches you know uh maybe they have privately held views they're not speaking out and you say because of the risk of being labeled yeah whatever the label might be yeah because previously like last year in the likes of february and march and it pertained there had been a few uh there was a one player in particular who spoke out about it and there was a manager down the country of a county team who spoke out about it but uh very quickly they seem to disappear off the radar so it just would make me wonder them what pressure was put on them by their county board to say look please don't be saying this we can't have any more pressure we don't want decisions not going our way because of the sponsors the higher authority here or sponsors being targeted which we've seen in the past but this is this is part of a a wider societal problem that comes up on so many issues on this daniel is that we can't seem to have a respectful honest open public debate on another thing you know if you say something you're described as being you know some some slur or other yeah you're given some label yeah the conversation could could go in the other direction as well not that you would uh but you know what i mean it's like there's all the issues like this is what i've these are the types of things that people are listening at home and saying oh she's right or she's wrong or blah blah blah but until we find a way to have these conversations out in the open that's what exactly you know what i mean and as i say it's not just this one there's so many others as well it's not there's there's many different spots we seem to have lost the lack of being able to publicly debate things without it dropping into a a slanging match and an insults bearing thing and it definitely makes it hard whenever you're trying to talk about something that is so important well i believe is so important there's many others out there that believe this is very important and of course there's going to be people who think i am not making one utter bit of sense and i'm completely out there too and that's saying everyone's entitled their opinion but having a proper discussion about this figuring out what the actual legalities are of this having a government you know clearly the same because i think he gave us along in the absence of that too you know i'm conscious that these types of conversations are very difficult for trans people to hear or or those that love them of course because it feels like we're talking about you know these are these are human beings i don't want to attack any transgender person no yeah that's not what i'm here to do it's not a personal thing but my point is is that the way that the conversation is how it's actually quite damaging to it could be potentially quite damaging not that i'm on about this is still talking to the fact that we're not having a full open and you know a lot of stuff was introduced and a lot of stuff is coming online in the curriculum and i think society has moved slightly back in another direction but it's not being talked about you know what i mean i just want to make sure that i just want to make sure that our policies and our attitudes and the way we're moving forward is actually representative of of but also primarily that is the best thing for young people i think we have to be absolutely certain that the things and the direction we're going now particularly in areas around the curriculum that are coming in line now that we decided three or four years ago to just make sure that we're doing the right thing it may well be the right thing but we just need to make sure that we're not doing things as the responsible adults that's actually damaging to children now that talks to a wider issue but i that's what i just want to make sure and i don't know what the answer is but i just want i just hope we're doing the right thing whatever we're doing okay listen danielle well thanks for your your time this morning i do appreciate it a caller wants to know um have you any views about bullying going on the lgfa or any experience on that i don't know this is this is the uh the the campaign that you're working on um is that something that you came across in your playing days or is it something that needs addressing or maybe it's just one person who's having a particular experience you know i personally have been very lucky then i haven't um come across that i'm sure there's plenty of people talking away behind me but nobody's ever you know i i don't see that as a an epidemic within the lgfa okay you know i just wanted that that that that texture to be heard as well i appreciate it danielle thanks very much for your time okay that's uh danielle danielle lochery there um do you agree or disagree as i say really welcome all different points of views on these issues 08 660 25 000 uh fair play to her for speaking up say it's a texture another is the mother of a keen lgfa player i totally support danielle i wrote to the lgfa using the county's template uh and never received a response the same unjust situation is being pushed around the world and we must stay strong to keep women and girls sport for women and girls another i'm seriously starting to wonder where did all the feminists go here we are talking about biological males complain women's sports competing and winning in women and girls competitions they can win woman of the year they can win in women's beauties contests model women's clothes swimwear and worse remove mother woman from article 42.1 the constitution i mean seriously ladies is it not time to stand up for our girls and uh women okay loads more comments coming in on that i have to take a quick break i'll be back in about three and a half minutes watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com this week's show is brought to you by the highland hoolie in saloo join us this september in a sunny saloo for a week of live entertainment with ireland's leading country artist dinner each evening and plenty of crack sun saloo and you this september for booking information go to the outlet on highlandradio.com well grace how are you today i'm good i've just been down to the mid to measure fireplaces showroom in craisla they have an incredible selection of over 40 colors for kitchen workshops and guess what for a limited time they're offering a 40 percent 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 craisla on 0749138365 on facebook instagram and on mtmfireplaces.ie it all begins with a thrump as the needle nestles into a deep valley of vinyl sizzle and crackle turns into fizzle and scratch and the mesmerizing rotations pop and hiss and ah the crackle of a vinyl record just one of the ordinary sounds rediscovered by shawn whatever sounds you've lost our hearing experts could help you find them again search spex avers hearing the new year is here but don't forget about the old tax here log on to revenues my account to check your end of your position and claim any tax credits you were 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up to 65 faster with the new ninja foodie flex drawer air fryer for only 259 euros and the bico 8 k g a rated washing machine with a 10-year parts warranty down to 399 save big and the uranix winter sale now in ben swinney uranix port road letter kenny and the shopping center done low in 1869 a dreadful new statistic was born in ireland the world's first road death since then thousands of our loved ones have been added to the list of people who have lost their lives on our roads that list of names does not have to keep growing because together we can bring an end to road deaths starting now make lifesaving changes today and you will help ireland achieve vision zero no road deaths or serious injuries by 2050 learn more at rsa.ie highland radio are celebrating another birthday we are inviting you to join us for our highland radio birthday on tuesday the 19th of march in the mount erigal hotel joined by the one and only margill myself david james plus special guests brendan quinn decline ernie and patrick finney this is a night not to be missed tickets on sale now why not treat yourself to one of our package days including dinner bed and breakfast plus your ticket to the show for more information visit the outlet at highland radio dot com or give us a call on 07491 25 000 we'll see you at the highland radio birthday bash highland radio weather updates brought to you by grant building a new home choose grants a triple plus rated air ona air to water heat pump and you flex under floor heating visit grant dot ie cold wet and blustery today with outbreaks of rain sleet and snow spreading from the south this morning some accumulations of snow are likely especially over high ground highest temperatures of two to four degrees now high ground refers to above sea level more than mountains by the way so when we talk of high ground you know drum keen letter kenny you know and so on and so forth different places you may well see snow it's sleeting here at the mountaintop in letter kenny and it does look like it's going to take hold councillor paul canning his chair of donagall kind of council strategic planning policy committee and he joins us on the program now good morning to you paul good morning greg how are you i'm good good to have you on the show now you said members of the council are insisting that the local authorities traditional family ties policy be maintained in the new county development plan i presume this is about you know who can build a house and where yeah you're 100 right yeah we have scenarios and and we failed as local councillors that the the the opr and national the national gay ledges closing in on us and so far as they don't want people to build out the countryside and they're trying you know they're changing policies and they're bringing in you know these small policies and through the back door in our opinion and we we want to just stick to our goal and say there's a policy at the moment what was undone a ball where it seems to be working okay for us it has worked this last five or ten years where if a person wants to build in drama hall and they have ties to that area and maybe they have been away for a period of time and they come back to their parents or their grandparents home um and they want to build and not be next to them we're still allowing that to happen um what what could happen is if a person now uh at the can't make money off the land that they're serving i.e a farmer that they're asking those people to move into their closest house and build there or buy a house there i accept and we all accept that we have to look after smaller towns but not at the detriment to our rural or rural landscapes but at the same time the motivation isn't to look after our smaller towns the motivation is to uh is to urbanize the population really because you know that that fits in with the plan in terms of you know walking cycling public transport the provision of services you know it's not it's not really if i thought you could maybe i know you just said it's sort of in passing but it's not really about looking after you know uh carragans it's more really about um you know stopping people living in the country yeah that's right um and financially as well as you see is you know what you've had a month ago and you've mentioned sleep there this morning again um people weren't loving ahead and the and rural don't think all we wouldn't have as many roads to solve um as we're all in the in the larger towns and so there's an economic side to it as well where it's not financially viable to to solve all the rules what is the problem sorry thank you pardon paul i was going to ask what is the problem in retaining the family ties policy is there not consensus amongst councillors uh or is it uh something that could be over why uh where if the majority of elected reps believe the traditional family ties policy should be maintained or retained uh what's the problem uh we have no problem with it it's when it goes uh when it goes up the uh up the road the man says the office of the planning regulator he's he's saying that national guidelines um wants us to move into a larger town around our larger cities and that that's basically where it's coming from and there's a whole process involved as you you're saying this this plan is never going to be adopted like but it takes two years nearly from the offset to get to this point and now we're we're we're at a point uh where we're refusing the the uh we we've we've done a draft plan and in fairness to the draft plan that we sent to the planning regulator we we were happy enough with it you know if there was going to be any change they would be very minor but the office of planning regulator has come back with a raft of submissions and the the the county manager or the ceo then has to look at those submissions and take them on board right so and they make a recommendation okay so just so we understand as we understand the process so say councillors are resolute and they say no no no we we know you've sent this back to us we know you want us to replace uh traditional family ties with economical social links to the area so we're sending it back to you uh as was is does that create a standoff do can they overrule that on on the national level what is the pro process from here on yeah yeah what happens what happens then is there are the basically what we got that there was a public consultation therefore you have stage you have three stages you could say right just to give you a quick overview stage one was a pre draft preparation stage two is the draft plan that's the plan we are now looking at that's the draft plan what happened then there was a public consultation on that draft plan the the public made consul made submissions that then the chief executive does report and then we as members can can propose amendments and going against it won't let that is sent that is sent to the office of the planning regulator he makes his recommendations then and that comes back to us again we do we can go against those and go against the the chief executive report we can go against their both their recommendations say we want to keep it as it is what happens then is they do out their their what we have stated that goes back up to the the office of the planning regulator and that goes to the minister the minister for planning uh tierno donal right so they can turn around and they can overrule us at that point in time and then people say oh it's your plan it's not our plan because at times we can get at a time we can get overruled and in these scenarios and the the language that they use it will say just say great use is for I need extra car parking up here at Highland radio and I say well listen Highland radio needs an extra car park up up here I put that as a submission what comes back then I said oh we have to do an appropriate assessment on that side in case it creates flooding and in case it creates deterioration of our waterways in case it has you know and so really this is this is kind of sort of this is kind of another example though where the local voice is potentially being ignored and overruled I mean user you know the the almost 40 is sitting around there debating this and trying to form policy and really it's a planner in Dublin that gets the final say well that's you know we we uh the fact that it goes to the minister there is a little bit of respect given to his councillors for a better work or political faith and he can look at it from a democratic uh situation but you're right yes it goes to the office of the and very finally just just in a couple of minutes if you don't mind because we're right up against 10 the county development plan the biggest issue in this county at the moment for many many people is defective concrete why is there just only a passing reference to that should there not be more detail more information more accommodation of that national crisis that's focused here in Donegal in our own county development plan yeah there is the situation with the the national the planning has some material the defective blocks is a material deterioration and it's not a planning policy deterioration so a person a person that is uh that is affected with what mica they they can learn exempt from planning so if they're both in like for like they can go ahead and both without planning um so they they're exempted under the the plan and regulation so regarding the the county development plan and where it goes we there is no policy to say uh because we don't need a policy for a person that wants to rebuild their house okay so you're satisfied you're satisfied that this issue is as such as it's categorized that you're not disappointed that there's not more reference to it in the county development plan or you're not surprised there's not more reference to it that's your position is i'm i'm not surprised because where you know if i asked you read bregg or anybody where where do you want the where do you want it brought on you know what i mean it's it's it's the planning this is planning policy you know and that's the the the we have the letter kyanese and the bunk planners and the kyan donors that we have areas designated for for residential primary residential secondary we have those areas okay sorry to lump that one on you with a short period of time to go but thank you very much for that that's councillor paul canning chair of donnell golecanta council strategic planning policy committee back after the news and obituary notices this week's show is brought to you by the highland hoolie in saloo join us this september in the sunny saloo for a week of live entertainment with ireland's leading country artists dinner each evening and plenty of crack sun saloo and you this september for booking information go to the outlet on highlandradio.com weanling trade on fire for more in your irish farmers journal is paul mooney with weanling prices climbing we look at what's driving the trade we analyze the farmer protests and political concessions across europe cow waits the latest sticking point in icbf row london investment fund snaps up for irish solar farms the latest on the water quality targets your farm will have to meet is paying farmers to take slurry cheaper than renting land and as lambing begins our focus says all you need to know all inside the irish farmers journal on sale now are you planning a home renovation project and don't know where to start fire company are here to help with free in-store interior design and paint color consultants all this month our interior designers will turn your dreams into a reality we're the largest docus of interior and exterior paint in the northwest and we have free delivery on furniture purchased this month to dunnie gall terry and to ron buoyant company in belly buffet letter kenny and online at boys dot ie enhance your skills with syftec's part funded training programs at syftec we provide courses including first aid roadworks people moving and handling confined spaces electro fusion and machinery training for ireland and uk sites also online programs such as water hygiene construction supervisors safety reps and much more if you have a group for training syftec will go to you contact syftec today at syftec dot ie and take the first step towards upskilling and safety compliance lie on air online and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning i'm a keela clark with the news at 10 o'clock the t-shock says gardi are conducting a significant operation this morning in connection with arson attacks at buildings potentially earmarked for asylum seekers leah radker says officers have carried out dawn raids and arrested a number of people it follows numerous fires are properties in recent months including one at a building in leek slip in county caldera yesterday which was rumoured to be housing international protection applicants leah radker says gardi are out in force this morning there is a very significant operation underway this morning the gardi will be out later on and they'll make a full statement on it but there have been a number of raids this morning there have been arrests so i am confident that we will be bringing people to justice for committing these crimes arson is a very serious crime punishable by up to 10 years the shin vian president has clarified remarks about united arland being within touching distance it's after dup leader jeffrey donaldson dismissed the claims saying mary lou mcdonald must have the longest arms in arland speaking this morning she says she didn't mean it would happen immediately and when i say unity is within touching distance i said in historic terms i don't mean that it's happening next week or next month so you don't have to have those long arms that jeffrey refers to but what i am saying what i firmly believe is in this decade we will have those referentums early childhood arland is calling on all dunning all eructous members to support a new single agency for early years and school aged care the body has today issued all eructous members with its policy proposal outlining the importance of the establishment of such an agency to support the over 8200 children enrolled in child care settings in dunning all early childhood arland says the current system is fragmented ceo taryza heaney says a commitment previously given by government to provide a single agency for the sector must be honored we've been calling for a single agency since 2019 and we were really pleased in the last program for government that the department of children and the entire government committed to establishing a single agency but i suppose what we're really concerned about at the moment is that we are potentially facing an election very soon so we believe that it's now really important that government and all of the opposition parties commit to establishing this early years agency a public meeting is to be held in milford next week to discuss the redevelopment of the former reform presbyterian church the milford undistrict resource centre received the building from the reform presbyterian congregation in milford in november of 2022 and grant security did have elided to partially reopen a 200 000 year private donation has been made towards the restoration of the former church which is now known as the gallo glass community centre and it will go towards carrying out key repairs and development works Declan mihen manager of mdrc is inviting people to the meeting on monday at 7 p.m in the community centre where findings of conservation plan feasibility study and public consultation will be presented three dunagal tourism attractions have been recognized at the cie tours award of excellence which took place in dublin this week the company brought 25 000 tours to arland last year and based on their customers feedback forms they presented awards to the sleeve league visitor centre glen they and dunagal castle dunal kavna has more the sleeve league cliffs centre was honored with the overall cie tours excellence award for best visit the citation said visitors with cie tours highly rated the hospitable dunagal welcome and the wealth of information shared as well as the breathtaking views and surrounding scenery that showcases the incredible beauty of dunagal glen they castle national park and dunagal castle both received merit awards at the event with the company saying the awards reflect their high standards and popularity with visitors cie tours interim ceo steven cotter congratulated the dunagal award winners saying year on year huge effort is made to improve and enhance the county's offerings based on the feedback provided from the company's annual visitor surveys he concluded that so far us and uk bookings in 2024 are ahead of expectations where the night is tanish yellow snow and ice warning is in place for the northwest today meaning it will be cold wet and blustery with outbreaks of rain sleet and snow spreading some accumulations of snow are likely especially over high ground highest temperatures of two to four degrees that's all from highland radio news for now we'll be back with an update again at 11 o'clock until then you can keep up to date with the latest local news on our website highland radio dot com good morning the obituary notices for this thursday morning february the if the death has taken place of joseph wilkie west palm beach florida and formerly from dromore letter kenny wake today from 12 noon until rosary at nine o'clock family time after the rosary and on the morning of the funeral please funeral from there to more morning at quarter past 10 going to sinjunan's cathedral letter kenny for 11 o'clock recreation mass which can be viewed on church services dot tv interment afterwards in the family plot in newlex cemetery family flowers only please donations in lieu of flowers if desired to the kevin bell repatriation trust care of any family member and the death has occurred of fauncey crawford 235 sinjunan's terrace refo county donnie gall funeral leaving his late residents this afternoon at 222 going to sinjunan's church refo for two o'clock recreation mass with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery the funeral mass can be viewed online via the parish webcam family flowers only please donations in lieu if desired to cancer care west care of any family member or kelly's funeral directors for family information and more details regarding wakes and funerals please go to highland video dot com for when a right turn becomes a wrong turn get up to 70 euro off car insurance with on pust insurance at on pustinsurance dot ie or call us today 70 euro or 20 discount will be applied whichever is lower subject to a minimum premium of 355 or 345 euro depending on policy underwriter applied consecutively for new customers only acceptance criteria terms and conditions apply one direct island limited trading as on pust insurance is regulated by the central bank of ireland one direct island limited as a wholly owned subsidiary of on pust best price online and now in rose 2023 best local original news program the voice of the northwest the nine till noon show with greg hughes and you're very welcome back to the program or good morning if you're just after joining us some of your comments coming in on some of the issues that we've discussed throughout the course this morning hi greg i'm not a gea or i'm not in the gea but that lady is 100 dead on correct for standing up for her principles and she is to be congratulated for not going along with doblin group thinking this is very important i wish to commend daniel she's spot on well done for speaking out finally someone says it as it is uh daniel 100 correct says another biological males are not girls or women biological females are not boys or men but of course the law of the land is such that they can be recognized as such greg trans is appearing as a big issue in sports and needs to be sorted out fairly as it's unfair that a man with all his physical advantages should not be able to compete in sports with females imagine a top one armed female surfer arm bitten off by a tiger shark has now stopped competing because she spoke out about trans uh trans uh met women now competing against her those making gea rules should take notice people are silenced because if they speak out about this on fairness they appear transphobic i know if i spoke out publicly i'd lose my job well spoken and well done for trying to open up this conversation people seem to be afraid to speak publicly as the attacks they receive from the lgb community is unbelievable they've carried people into silence and it's a powerful tactic but players in the us are finally starting to speak out and refusing to play and although that's nonsense needs to stop men joining women's sport is wrong and very disturbing from a females point of view uh onto some other uh comments here read the shin fane drop in the polls uh could it be that if the party wants us to believe a woman could be a man of vice versa what else will they fib about greg what's the problem with irish politicians that white people are in the doll in europe we are a white race did she reference uh pale stale and male actually i think was the the phraseology um 20 of of the population um may not be white so if society changes surely it has to be reflective of the society does it not that's a question i have issues with our government bringing in so many when there is no place to put them it's unfair to both them and locals trying to get a home however i think it's worth setting buildings on fire that is not the answer and just in relation to that by the way the guard you've made arrests uh if you're commenting on that you might be interested in this information uh i'll read it to you three individuals have been arrested by guard investigating an arson incident of the premises in ring zen dublin on the 31st of december okay this is not the one overnight as part of this investigation four residential properties were searched under warrant this morning um two males aged in their 30s and 50s and female in his 20s were arrested a number of evidential uh items were seized items of evidential value including electronic devices in the course of the operation it's quite a serious crime arson um i'm sure you're aware um and uh following a conviction it can lead to imprisonment life imprisonment i wouldn't want to be the first few uh through the door facing those charges at the moment uh they should never have done it in the first place of course leo of rad cars misleading the irish people yet again the states like denmark have the opt out of e u immigration policy under the lisbon treaty why would the irish taxpayer foot the bill for asylum seekers when we have no legal obligation obligation to do so morning greg couldn't help but uh notice he didn't mention the aim to party amongst the recent polls again suppose this is what we expect now from the donagall establishment favorite radio station especially without elections looming which is quite an interesting take on on this program um i haven't been called uh establishment radio station for long ain't is very well represented on this program by the way uh with two of their representatives in this cannot be defensive but look you said that two of them being in the uh two of their uh members being on the program regularly and indeed the party leader being on the show uh regularly i'm trying to find where they are now because i was actually reading the front page of a newspaper um i'm not sure if it doesn't focus on any of the parties but i don't see let me see sorry about the noise going through a newspaper here to satisfy this listener turn to page 11 okay i'm going to page 11 and i'm going to tell you so you're not upset that oh there's nothing on page 11 oh i have a clue anyway ain't who's not mentioned on the front of the paper so that's why i didn't mention it um okay thank you anyway good to hear i'm being described as an establishment um show good morning great do you think uh the irish government should put the uk on a dangerous list seeing as that poor man died got the measles when he traveled over there i don't know my thoughts are with him and his family but i take your point hi great great show's always quick question with the lack of taxis in his show why is not uber allowed to operate in arland or donagall the service is great when you go on holiday etc you know what the bill is before you book them and you don't have to tip them whoever thought of that needs a cigar well uber is available in arland i think it's down to the drivers whether or not they operate it here um if you go down the thing about it is is though in dublin when you use it um what's the there's one taxi called unfree or were free or something like that there and uber and then if you get the taxi on the street they're all the same price there's no real saving in arland uh because of the way it's all been regulated or the way the prices have been set but uber does operate in dublin for sure i know i've seen them there but it's the same drivers they have the uber app the i'm free app or they park at a taxi rank app and the prices are all the same i remember having a conversation with someone down there a taxi driver um when i was down there at a constant concert the used to there used to be one uber taxi i remember seeing one uber taxi that would pop up in and around letter kenny so it's not that they're not allowed as far as i'm aware it's just they choose not to operate uh up here hi gray how are aint you doing in the polls great alternative to other parties if maria walsh refers to pale meaning white skin then that is racist the other comments are discriminatory an agist uh says that let's know that okay back with more after these it's time for vision arland bingo on highland radio it's thursday the eighth of february jackpot day you're playing for the jackpot prize of 8200 euro on the pink sheet the reference number is s9 it's game number six the jackpot number is 67 this number can come out in any position from the next 10 numbers drawn and now here are your daily numbers 72 88 42 57 84 74 45 one 65 and finally 85 phone your claim tonight 104833 before eight tonight leaving your name contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day get all your vision arland bingo information at highland radio dot com in 1951 michael and morrin ohara baked their first loaf in fox with kentimeo now ohara's is launching baker 51 in their honor an authentic sarado loaf made pure and simple with no added yeast 72 years in the baking one bite and you'll see why true taste takes time and just like that another big lotto jackpot is one for somebody somewhere the dream of it could be you has come true but the big winners are national lottery good causes because while that lotto jackpot was building lotto and lotto plus players raised over 25 million euro for good causes across arland 25 million euro so on behalf of thousands of good causes thank you for playing you make this possible the national lottery support responsibly croffer tiles and castle fin extends their famous bathroom refits to the entire hospitality sector transforming 10 bathrooms in just 10 days their service include full gutting replumbing and retailing unbelievable prices with hotel recommendations available on request to inquire called croffer tiles on 0749143942 this week's show is brought to you by the highland hoolie in salute join us this september in a sunny salute for a week of live entertainment with ireland's leading country artist dinner each evening and plenty of crack sun salute and you this september for booking information go to the outlet on highlandradio.com now international epilepsy day 2024 takes place this monday february the 12th the day is epilepsy arlands biggest awareness day of the year epilepsy is a condition which affects over 45 000 people in arland so that's one in 100 uh we're joined on the program by a couple of guests laura hardaker good morning to you laura hope i've pronounced your surname correct yeah just about your heartache heartache okay not far off it and uh paddy mcgagan have a no mcgoggin i beg your pardon mcgoggin dreg i have to only go applying to mine as well so uh this is not a good start both of you i'm so sorry about that okay um paddy talk to us about the focus of this year's international epilepsy day yeah so listen we're building a campaign saying how important it is to for the public to learn more about seizure first aid as you mentioned there is 45 000 people live in the epilepsy island uh making it one of the most common neurological conditions in the country um to put that in an atomic oil context where we'd estimate it in around 1400 people living in epilepsy and doing also it's a condition that's much closer to home than what you might think and knowing vital information such as seizure first aid is is is very very important and so our campaign is is highlighting our key words around seizure first aid to the public which are time safe and stay time the seizure keep the person safe and stay with them that's what we're trying to promote that that's what we want people to and all outlined on our website www.epilepsy.ai yeah we'll talk about that more in a moment laura a professional baker from the south of the county in bandone where you live with your husband and children you were an adult or very early in your adult years before you had your first seizure that's right yeah i was 18 um or 19 i was actually in new jersey on my j1 when i had my first seizure and that was a full invulsion tonic conic seizure would be the the medical term um you know with two of my friends when you're 18 i know you say that's an adult which are really only a child like in your and your far from home and you know my friends didn't know what was happening they like their words were that we thought you were dying or you know it must have been terrifying and then waking up in hospital and um the doctor saying okay we're just going to do a CT scan now to eliminate the possibility of a tumor you know to be told all of this and then anyway i was i was released um or discharged at least from hospital but i had another one very quickly afterwards that evening um so then my father came over and took me home and that was the end of the j1 but that was also the end of kind of my traveling my independence you know at that age where a lot of friends might have gone on to do another you know stand to traveling the following year i was a bit scared okay i didn't have any more seizures until um well actually no it was about three months later when i had another seizure at home and i was finally put on medication and because they didn't put me on medication after the first two because apparently everybody is entitled to one seizure event and even though i had two that time in new jersey um i would have been considered the same event it could have been brought on by something else um but because i had another one then when i came home um a couple of months later i was that was the diagnosis of epilepsy then um you talked of the the type of seizure that you had whilst you were traveling uh maybe the majority of people out there if they were to describe a seizure may come up with sort of you know one thing they might see typical but there are different types of seizures and and and they can present in different ways could you talk talk me through that a little bit yeah and i was very i was probably you know six years into having a diagnosis before i even knew that um i thought because my big seizures so the seizures where you go unconscious on the ground i thought because those had stopped in 2011 i hadn't had one from between 2011 and 2016 i didn't have one of those seizures i was only on one medication i was very happy that we got enough to the level that worked and i i was and i thought i was seizure free um possibly was but um it's hard to know because then okay i had another big seizure then in 2016 back to neural just um in moment that time and they started asking me you know and do you ever have any other types of seizures and i said well what do you mean other types of seizures they didn't know there were any um you know well do you ever feel dizzy or do you ever get um blank spells and i said well actually sometimes yeah okay and i said well that's a seizure you know you can't drive uh well yeah i was driving at that stage so you shouldn't be driving um and then people started to notice them so maybe they just became more frequent because i can't believe that i would have gone five years having these little blank episodes with people and how does it look from the outside on from the outside um so if i was talking to you right now like that's it we're face to face i would stop talking i might get a blank look in my eyes one i might start to twitch might have very small movement in my hand um i would be unresponsive so if you spoke to me i wouldn't be aware so it's called a seizure with impaired awareness but those seizures can also happen with awareness so the person can like i don't get those ones but can still have the sensation that there's something happening and when you're aware of that when you come out of that are you aware that something's just happened um no no i'm not so it so that's what's difficult as well when you're trying to register you know obviously i keep a seizure diary um so i wouldn't be aware so because i would spend a lot of time like you said i'm a baker i bake from home i used to have a cafe used to have my own cafe for four years in bandora and hardy baker but um well that closed during covid but at the same time now okay having two children and also i feel like the seizures have gotten more frequent and i just can't handle when my seizures happen it's definitely related to a stress issue or a tiredness issue and i mean obviously running your own cafe it was a lot of stress so in a way the focal impaired seizures are not that there's a hierarchy but even more debilitating because it kind of rules more stuff out like you know if you're if you're seizure free of what people might see is the you know the atypical seizure what have you the frequency or infrequency of these types of seizures create a great deal of uncertainty for you i'd imagine unless you get used to that just going about your everyday life yeah you're right and you're right as well about the hierarchy i mean somebody asked me recently oh you're still having seizure you know someone i hadn't seen in a while and i said well yeah i do get those i do get my impaired awareness seizures so i would go blank for maybe 30 60 seconds it is dangerous then i think that i don't know when i come out of it so i don't know if it has just happened um but anyway sorry but the person said to me oh that's not too bad okay at least you're only getting those and i said well no it is like it is still still very bad because it's still hugely impacts on my day-to-day quality of life okay you always have it in the back of your head um how am i feeling today sometimes sometimes i would get um as a feeling that your head is full like physically full um that i know i'm kind of i put myself in a dangerous zone have i done too much um so it affects from that perspective then the type of job that i can have um so i can't be in a very stressful job i would say and the another reason for that is excuse me because i can't drive because i'm not um allowed to drive with the condition it really limits my employment opportunities but apart from that then in terms of quality of life it massively limits your independence and then tiredness and over tiredness is of such a broad church as well um you know can i ask you just in relation to that about becoming a mum uh because obviously you know some of the symptoms of pregnancy you know it can be stressful it can be tiring uh but also that i'm thinking too um you know after you've had the children the fear maybe that you might be holding one of your children or your child and have any of these types of seizures or or what have you did that was that difficult to deal with does that put an extra sense of pressure on um or you know being a mum and a new mum particularly in terms of the seizures and the type of seizures and frequency and all of that it actually stayed the same throughout pregnancy my gynecologist at the time told me that it would actually be more difficult so i'd be more dangerous to come off the medication than to stay on it in terms of risks to the baby there there is one medication in particular but that's been withdrawn now for it's not prescribed to women because it's um the dangers of what it would do to the developing fetus um so my seizures kind of we're at the same frequency but yes then when you're a new mother and the reason i'm here in london now is because i'm with my sister she has a three-week old baby and it's bringing it all back to me you know i mean you're up all the time you're exhausted so of course i would have been putting myself at a higher risk of seizures so i mean the genitalia we're concerned in nursing or holding holding the children yeah the advice that i was given was when you're feeding a nurse and the baby be on the floor you know where possible or be in a if you're in the bed like have be in the middle of the bed yeah pushing around you but i mean one happened so my youngest is about he'll be two in april and i had one of my usual the types of seizures that i have my impaired awareness ages a couple of months ago and i was just holding him in the kitchen and but because i stay still and do nothing nothing happened you know i was just holding him went into the the blankness that came back after about 30 40 seconds didn't know what had happened but there was another adult in the room um thankfully at the time but you know that could happen when there isn't an adult in the room so i think what i would say as well about those uh impaired awareness seizures where it might look like somebody has just gone into a daydream or a stare one happened just in the last couple of months where i was out walking with the two boys in the buggy and i that obviously don't know what happened because it didn't feel it coming on but next thing i knew there were three people around me and they said that the buggy had fallen over and so tough yeah but i did you know i but they said i hadn't fallen over it they didn't know what was happening they had called an ambulance because obviously they came running when they saw the buggy had fallen they came running to help me must have tried to communicate with me in some way and i was not responsive so they didn't um they didn't know what to do and and called an ambulance so just so that people are aware that that's the type of seizure um something else i was told yeah i just wanted to ask you to just in terms of sort of the diagnosis because we would talk a lots of different conditions here and people know what's going on and they get a diagnosis and then there's some sort of a relief like there's a name on the problem they have but it's absolutely a little bit different in that you you're told you have epilepsy but why did you why did it happen in 18 you know why do you get different types of seizures yeah is it frustrating in the why like why me is it genetic is not genetic is it something i'm doing or not doing is it something i did or don't do like does that make it a different difficult condition to live with those unanswered questions i know what you mean yeah completely unanswered like if i asked a doctor you know i have a diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy cause unknown that's literally my diagnosis you know so um because there's no you know having had all MRIs and everything there's no scar tissue nothing happened me at birth it's not in the family um i do believe there i think there's a lot of research happening at the moment and they're discovering that there might be some genetic connection but anyway that's not the case in my case um so the cause is unknown yeah it's a little you just kind of have to accept it yeah i did ask um one of the neurologists when i was in Bowman is there any particular reason why i might have come on at that age and he said well no we don't know um if it hasn't come if it's not present from birth the most common times for it to just spring up out of the blue is during puberty or early adulthood so the ages of 18 to 25 but i guess those are just statistics you know they still don't know why they could probably have sat down says it's also quite common it pops up when you're 25 or you're 23 or you're 12 or whatever yeah okay um and before i go back to patty and patty thanks for your patience but the whole purpose of this is supposed to also also get an opportunity to speak to someone who is affected in terms of of the medication that's constantly monitored as far as i understand are there any other interventions um surgical or otherwise that that that are options that aren't or are the experimental or are they proven or are there a risk or what's the situation Laura um okay well there are there is a huge list of medications like there's i don't know how many medications there are and it's a case of trial and error for a lot of people um i was on you know i was on one for a long time um and then a second one was introduced but i was still having these which stopped the um the bigger seizures but i was still having um my impaired awareness seizures and um yeah sorry yeah so then it was actually when we introduced keridro but my neurologist told me quite straight out um if two drugs haven't worked and if we're trying a third one you're talking in about a 10 chance that this is going to make you seizure free which is obviously the goal um so he said the next um intervention really that we would recommend is surgery and i said no way like no way am i ever going to let somebody you know open my head up so i was put on a list for EEG monitoring involvement um there are four beds involvement i think there are two beds in cork if i'm right there um so that's it in the whole country for this EEG monitoring so i was waiting for about three years now that was through COVID as well so i know that would have extended the wait three to four years even from when i was put on the list when i did this last year um i was in the ward for it took about eight days just in the bed with hooked up to EEG HD cameras around the bed and they reduce your medication and they sleep to drive you so obviously most people's triggers would be tiredness and obviously non-compliance with medication um so yeah within about five days i started having seizures so they were able to register on the EEG what was happening and where the seizures were coming from and on the back of that then they've put me forward as a surgical candidate so i and um i feel very lucky actually at this date that because since then we've tried two more drugs not happening you know i was on four drugs one point what's the what are you told about the the the risk stroke success rate potential of of the surgical intervention well i was told um in terms of risks okay risk of a stroke less than one percent risk of brain damage less than one percent and they said the reason they're these are the surgeons in moment um the reason they were giving me those numbers was because no surgeon is responsible um but it has never happened in that hospital so you know that obviously gave me confidence and then in terms of success rates they wouldn't actually answer that question um but said like from what i've read and everything you know with seventy to eighty percent wow okay um to achieve seizure freedom which is obviously the goal um so seventy to eighty percent is it's good enough for me actually to take yeah for sure they said you want do you want to go away and think about it and i said no we'll just we'll just go ahead and i'm on the list for that so um just just one question before i go back to paddy the focal impaired seizures the how long they last you you talked of them lasting 30 40 seconds for you i believe do they can they be longer and in your during your research or you spoke to can they be last longer or for a less amount of time per person um i can't answer that with any great confidence i mean for me i only know from my witnesses to you know because i don't know how long it's happening how long it's happening for and then there might be a time then post well it's called post it you know when you're coming out seated that you're still not quite you're kind of rebooting actually was it a term that paddy said to me is um and it makes a lot of sense it's like as if you've you've shut down and then you're kind of slowly rebooting come back to yourself but um i'd say they probably can be shorter or longer but in my experience i've been told they're 30s 40 seconds um yeah or or shorter but then i might respond yeah but they're certainly not two or three minutes if you exclude the sort of full reboot time uh to just to borrow your phrase there okay paddy really interesting to hear from uh laura i think and and it it answers a lot of questions and then throws up perhaps a lot of new information for people about the different types of seizures how it can affect them uh and just really the the impact it can have on your life it varies from individual to individual but we've heard directly there from laura the reality of her life with epilepsy yeah of course i think laura's just given a fantastic kind of overview of her life with epilepsy and i think everyone listening will will have a greater understanding of the cause of it and that's that's one of the keys to international epilepsy today it's people don't want to hear from me talking about epilepsy a learned experience we need people talking about their lived experience um because it's just so much more powerful it helps people understand and hopefully it'll help people go to our website now and learn more in advance of the big day realize that this common condition realize that there are ways you can help people um so yeah i think everything laura said there's fantastic in terms of like helping people understand the condition much much more yeah and and as you say you know and also too and it often comes up with we we can also often jump to a conclusion as to what's happening you know and we see that with with a number of medical uh conditions that we might give a wide berth because we presume it's something or you know yourself i don't need to give examples i'm sure people can uh but even uh laura's experience of her focal impaired seizure whilst out with the buggy for an example people might walk past thinking something else is going on there rather than offering assistance and also to perhaps if i can describe it as the more common seizure that people would would have go through what we as the general public stroke population should do in a case like that yeah well for for both really it is the time-safe day message but um for botanic lanik the convulsive seizure that you're talking about there it's time the seizure goes over five minutes it's potentially dangerous ambulance needs to be called keep the person safe so that means cushion in their head um moving objects from around the person so for example if they're in danger of hitting off a chair move the chair not the person another thing we always have to mention as well Greg is never put it in the person's mouse during seizure and never restrain them unfortunately too massive miss when it comes to seizure birthdate uh and we have to talk about them and to dispel them unfortunately so people i i do recall um back in the day that people swallow their tongues or can swallow their tongues that's why someone might try and intervene in that route you're saying don't do that yeah you can't swallow your tongue during seizure it's that's one of it like i think it was probably previously taught that that could happen yeah and that's why it's out there but no you're you'll only do damage to the person themselves um trying to get them get their tongue out or um do damage to yourself because obviously the person will be the final step of stay um stay stay with the person throughout their seizure talk gently to them let them know what's happened and reassure them as they come to and do you sit them up post-seizure once it's clear just just take the lead from the person as well like obviously put them into the recovery position as laura is described there in terms of our own individual epilepsy every every person as individual it might take people longer to recover so just stay in with them letting them know what's happened um we gently reassure and then not standing over them screaming at them wondering what's happened it can make the world of difference as the person recovers or or reboots us as myself and laura have mentioned and so those words are time to stay again greg all out by end on the website at epilepsy dot e and hopefully uh the earlisteners will see some of the message in you know out in national media obviously it's great to be on island speaking about it today too um and through the social media channels over the day and week ahead uh a call wants to know patty if you can uh give a brief explanation of what a complex partial seizure is it's kind of it's a bit like the seizures that uh that's that laura is talking about um listen i suppose the the important message that we would have is that there's there's over 50 types of seizures um and uh you know we're not expecting the wider public to have an encyclopedia of knowledge of each of them but as laura says there's oh you know there's more than one um so being aware that there's more than one type seizure for the reasons that you about lying and not making assumptions taking that extra second and talking to a person and maybe you know making sure that there's a way that you can help okay um and laura one of the other challenges that you've faced and finally i'll let both of you go after this is that even though that you weren't able to drive even though you're you're you're under sort of ongoing medical care unable to to uh avail of free travel hopefully that's going to change in the not too distant future but um you know not not fair i'm sure you would have felt yeah definitely not um no it's brilliant and i only heard i think that only was announced in the last but did they were last year is that right yeah um actually just it's just July just just to add to that to Greg and actually i was like moth this um we're going into the department to actually to meet the minister about it um to discuss it a bit further listen i was really really hard hard fought campaign to actually get that change made um but essentially what's going to be done in july is that people who are medically unfit to drive for at least a year can apply directly to the free travel scheme no means test no just all that we need is medical evidence um and hopefully it'll make a big impact um in people's lives in terms of helping access public transport okay and remove that cost from as well so listen we'll put an update up on the website after we all right paddock thanks very much for your time i really do appreciate it um and thank you to laura best of luck hopefully in terms of getting that operation congratulations to your sister as well of course thank you and we appreciate your time can i just say Greg as well because i didn't get to like obviously as i said i do um yeah i have a lack of independence because of not driving but huge thank you as well to my friends and family who are so massively supportive around that you know i was in the supermarket the other day and i was in a hurry and i just you know it's about a 15 minute walk from my house not too bad um but needed to get back before the four year old got back from preschool and there was somebody ahead of me at the time that i knew when i said you wouldn't mind you just rung me up um and of course they did and everybody is is willing to help but it does make you feel a little bit more vulnerable and the lack of independence is it's something i'm used to now but it's not um it's not pleasant but anyway thank you to everybody you cope with it but you're not content with it as such okay i get all right thank you very much indeed for that and hopefully as i said the operation goes well for you and uh thank you things improve take care of yourself thank you that's Laura Hardaker there and Paddy McGeagan there and uh he's advocacy and communications manager with Epilepsy Ireland watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at HighlandRadio.com this week's show is brought to you by the Highland Hoolian Saloon join us this September in the sunny saloon for a week of live entertainment with Ireland's leading country artist dinner each evening and plenty of crack sun saloon and you this September for booking information go to the outlet on HighlandRadio.com not all food is the same food that carries a quality mark means that it's being produced to board B's highest quality standards verified at every stage it's reassuring to know that there's always someone out there inspecting how your food is being produced and checking where it comes from it also means you're supporting quality assured producers so always choose food with the board be a quality mark it's food you can enjoy even more because you know you can trust it new this weekend home store and more all frying pans are all half price but better hurry because when all the half price 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ie well here at the mountain top the rain has turned to sleet and the sleet is turning to snow around the region though cold wet and blustery today without breaks of that rain sleet and snow spreading from the south this morning some accumulations of that snow are likely especially over the higher grounds temperatures of two to four degrees now we're joined on the program by Emma Bradley who's a national school principal but on this occasion is speaking to us as a parent of a child with special needs Emma thank you very much for joining us I do appreciate your time thank you now there's been quite a reaction to the announcement of the department of education it's released their support teacher allocations for every primary school this week and there seems to be some disquiet amongst if that's the right word amongst parents I'm sure teachers and principals as well can you sort of explain to us what has been announced and the potential impact of it yes so every year or every second year that the department released the sec allocations for schools so that gives schools knowledge of what teacher supports they will have for children with that need special educational teacher support throughout the next year or two years whenever the case may be and until this year this is the first year now where it's allocated without special consideration given to children with complex or additional needs this year it's allocated based on four criteria enrollment educational profile for literacy educational profile for numeracy and educational disadvantage prior to this the allocations would have had another criteria another box let's say for children with complex disabilities I myself have a daughter with she has quite complex needs she has Down syndrome a visual impairment and scoliosis and so along with let's say her low literacy profile and numeracy profile due to her intellectual disability with Down syndrome she also has other complexities that were very time consuming for her teachers who are looking after her so well and it's not a simple case of her just being low academic achieving an English and numeracy she's actually you know there's so many more complexities to her what their visual impairment she works from specialized books sanctioned from the visiting teacher for the visually impaired their their double size print but there's complexities with working those things don't line up maybe the way they do and the teacher has to find the pay you know it's just an added extra for the teachers the tick time the teacher time so last year last year the system obviously wasn't perfect but this year it seems that and just in your case and it's other cases as well that's your your your daughter's complexities are actually being ignored as if they no longer matter all yeah yes that's the way it feels you know she is a more complex case than other children and yes there was criteria if you go back years and years and years ago um you know when it wasn't perfect but when you had to enroll your child at school like i did with her you would have or previous children you would have ticked a box to say you know the child had a visual impairment a hearing impairment of physical disability intellectual disability autism whatever it was and within the allocation into schools uh depending on the number of children a school had with complex needs there was an increase given to the overall s et allocation that has been removed this year so that's not factored into these numbers and although my daughter will achieve not maybe as high as her peers or the average within the class and literacy and numeracy that's only a small part of her complex needs as i say the scoliosis the visual impairment add to the academic deficits left side the demands on the s et obviously so is it easy at this point to uh to is it easy at this point to see the difference in in your daughter's case or maybe not enough time has passed but the the hours or the the the assistance that was available last year versus this year like has that been reduced despite the best will of the teachers or whomever is involved but has this actually led to less support in in your daughter's school well these hours will only come into effect in september 24 right understood and so um this this is for next year's teaching allocation um so what she currently has she has at the minute um my daughter is very lucky she goes to a school that looks after her extremely well she loves school and her classroom teachers and her special education teachers have been fantastic with her right through um it it they probably because as a school and i know in my job that you allocate you are directed by the department to allocate the most resources to the most needy children she is one of the most needy children in her school um you know she's she's up there among the top five let's say anyway um but what happens is and you know this is where it's it's not just it's not just an issue for a parent like me who has a child with extremely complex issues this is for every parent and every child um the more time the less of an allocation to children with complex needs that is given the more teacher and s et support time must be given to those children which means your children who are on the fringes who are on the edges who could do with a little bit of support if there was time there those children are losing out as well now it really pains me to say that because i feel that my daughter has only added value to her school as any child that i've ever taught with special needs they add a value to their class and their school and they and my daughter is 100 welcomed as a very valued member in her school and in her classroom but if the proper resources are not there and if the department do not step up and give these children an opportunity it does have an impact on others within the school as well and the teachers in her school work extremely hard the children in her class and in the school are extremely you know welcoming offer and they help her and support her um and i think i honestly think if those that come up with these algorithms for allocating resources spent a day in the life of my daughter and watched how the children in her school value her and care for her and see the importance of her being looked about and learning and if they could see spend the day with her class teacher her s et and her you know people that work with her her s and a they would understand the value of these resources it's just um it's really sad and it will be the children like my other children the children on the front yes we'll lose out well that's what i say um i just to speak more generally like it's not a nice position to put parents and guardians in generally speaking that a a parent of a child with with additional needs is full of praise for the schooling they receive but then you know sort of in the back of the mind or in the front of the mind concern what impact that might have on on other children we shouldn't really be be put into that emotional space i don't think really and hopefully there's enough time for this to be reconsidered because there's enough going on without without sort of this no i mean you you um yeah and that is the problem and and sometimes it can cause them um that like i would it won't happen in my child's school case i know that but i can see that down the line um schools may not be as welcoming or as encouraging for children with very complex needs into their school if there is no dedicated supports for that child because it is then you know um causing difficulties i guess you say that's like they might they might find themselves being forced into a terrible way of putting it but like a greater good situation you know what i mean yes all right and they wouldn't think about that but you know yes yeah yeah okay um it's it's it's okay right so uh this is a decision that was made by the department of education so we're going to make an inquiry into their regard can you see any logic to this decision emma you know given the fact that you have a couple of hats there to wear yes um a long time ago not that long ago but it feels like a long time ago when you enrolled a child with additional needs like my daughter into school there was a box now it was a form um a box ticking form which wasn't ideal either but you teched to say if your child had a visual impairment or autism or whatever it was so that was considered a complex need um that was done away with quite a few years ago and schools were schools and parents were told that all of the schools are going to be front loaded with enough s and a and s et support to deal with whatever children come into your school now that data is not there anymore and the eight years have passed so that um now the department can say that they have no data for children how many children are in each school with complex needs and i would envisage that that's why that has been removed um so we are supposed to be front loaded with enough staff um but i would guarantee you that we would be hard pressed to find any school in this country that will tell you they have enough support to deal with the complex needs of the children right a lot a lot there for us to pursue in terms of our inquiries emma thank you very much for your time i really do appreciate it okay take care thank you emma bradley there who's a national school principal but also uh talking on that issue primarily actually as a parent of a child with special needs and you can see what that decision throws up if you're affected by that or have a view on that please let us know on the usual contacts 08 660 25 000 that's the whatsapp and text and just to remind you you can whats up your voice notes as well if that's how you wish to express your opinion or you can um give us a call and also from 491 25 000 okay the snow playing have it with some roads outside this region uh well it's in the north west uh the police service of northern ireland has confirmed that a formanna road is currently impossible due to excess snow and ice lying uh in the areas in a nutshell um anyone thinking about using belkulu belkulu black line derrilyn road to doblin your advice to go another direction that road is closed so as i say the snow hasn't really hit us here yet but it is certainly in and around the formanna region so if you're traveling south just avoid belkulu black line derrilyn uh road to doblin thanks to patsy for messaging that into us it's greatly appreciated news headlines just around the corner this week's show is brought to you by the highland huli in saloo join us this september in the sunny saloo for a week of live entertainment with ireland's leading country artist dinner each evening and plenty of crack sun saloo and you this september for booking information go to the outlet on highland radio dot com the big baby event is back at leadle from this thursday 15 baby low grow with me high chairs only 59 99 dream of cozy disney baby sleeping bags two for 25 euro and on leadle plus our pressure fit baby gate was 22 99 now 17 99 go on shop without compromise go for leadle today is fun to touch a lecture cuz it was so either well it needs to listen and it needs to listen electric island tomah jinshuk and through or a heart that let fascination plan in a major close to holly eevee and his panel reina in our net zero hub new dn the side needs to layer a turish needs to listen well you need to show me and a sale needs to kill it till i own a shag electric island punk guy weanling trade on fire for more in your irish farmers journal is paul mooney with weanling prices climbing we look at what's driving the trade we analyze the farmer protests and political concessions across europe cow waits the latest sticking point in icbf row london investment fund snaps up for irish solar farms the latest on the water quality targets your farm will have to meet is paying farmers to take slurry cheaper than renting land and as lambing begins our focus has all you need to know all inside the irish farmers journal on sale now before you settle on a new hybrid take the nissan cash guy e-power challenge the nissan cash guy e-power is a hybrid so you don't have to plug in but unlike other hybrids it always drives in electric mode you get the superior smooth and quiet driving experience of an electric car all of the time take the nissan cash guy e-power challenge at your local nissan dealer today you'll never look back nissan innovation that excites orio the robot is not just helping with service at kelly's diner he's also adding a little twist to birthdays there if you're celebrating at kelly's orio can even be persuaded to sing a very special happy birthday it's a great treat for small kids and plenty of big kids too for the chance to see and hear orio the robot in action visit kelly's award-winning diner today at mountaintop letter kenny first communion and confirmation catering also now available the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio okay it's just turned 11 o'clock let's get a news update now from mikaela clock thanks great good morning contact tracing is taking place after man died after contracting measles in the first case reported in ireland this year it's reported the man aged in his 40s died in a hospital in the dublin and midlands health region after recently traveling to an event in england the chief medical officer says she's very concerned the country is at high risk of a measles outbreak as the national vaccination rate has fallen below 90 percent in the dunagol leachum sligo and west cavern region vaccine uptake is at 82 percent gardi have arrested three people in connection with an arson attack at a former dublin pub on new year's eve four homes were searched underwarned this morning in connection with the blaze at the shipwright pub on december the 31st it was being renovated to house homeless families early childhood arland is calling on all dunagol eructus members to support a new single agency for early years and school aged care the body has today issued all eructus members with its policy proposal outlining the importance of the establishment of such an agency to support the over 8200 children enrolled in child care settings in dunagol the shun fian president has clarified remarks about a united arland being within touching distance it's after d up leader jeffrey donaldson dismissed the claims saying mary lee mcdonald must have the longest arms in arland the national women's council is hosting a referendum event in letter kenny tomorrow it's part of the group's vote yes yes in the referendum on family and care on march the eighth campaign they will gather at the dunagol women's center tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock a public meeting is to be held in milford next week to discuss the redevelopment of the former reform presbyterian church the milford and district resource center received the building from the reform presbyterian congregation in milford in november of 2022 and grants to secured have allowed it to partially reopen three dunagol tourism attractions have been recognized at the cie tours award of excellence which took place in dublin this week the company brought 25 000 tourists to arland last year and based on their customers feedback forms they presented awards to the sleeve league visitor center glen they and dunagol castle those are the latest headlines we'll be back with an update again at 12 noon thank you very much indeed mikaela this valentine's with prices even cupid will fall for in store from february 10 a dozen red roses just 3.99 sent a surprise bouquet 14.99 and an unbeatable price on prosecco for santae was 7.99 now only 6.21 from february 12 gets sizzling savings on irish black angus sirloin steak two pack was 8.49 now only 5.99 this valentine's day follow the path to lower prices go all aldi get the fat speed drink where visit drink where dot i okay some of your comments here hi great should the government take some responsibility for all of the arson attacks well i mean arson and the destruction of properties a very serious crime against another person's property and stuff they own and you can face a life sentence up for it i mean where does that argument end so if i'm frustrated with the government's policies and i believe that they're responsible for the cost of living crisis to a girl cross the road and fill my car with petrol and drive off to a break in someone's house and take their stuff if i think they've got more than me and they're being looked after more by the government i mean you go down that route where does it where does it end um you know i wish the council to don these buildings up years ago hundreds of them and put them to a good use this burning of buildings would not be happening thank you mary i think the number fell for Sinn Fein and others because people are thinking maybe more independent farmers parties etc everything has every action has a reaction there's no doubt about that good morning greg we've snow here in strunaller that comes in from a daily listener thank you so much indeed hopefully uh strunaller is always an area where things start to settle perhaps before other areas in the county county councillors have no real saying anything believes this listener the council executive calls the shots beyond filling potholes and deciding property tax rate a caller believes it's a waste of taxpayers money but even though the the executive of the council doesn't necessarily have the power in relation to the new uh in the new um planning situation uh hi greg how are aintu doing in the polls great alternatives are the parties if maria walsh refers to pale meaning white skin then that is racist she believes or this person believes aintu are um have been announcing candidates from really quite diverse backgrounds as well so uh a lot of people will go we'll we'll see that as a positive and the world we live in now some might even see that uh as a negative oh wait 60 25 000 is the whatsapp and text number or give us a call on 07491 25 000 right elana kerrigan joins us on the show now good morning alana good morning greg nice to speak to you now um you have uh been publishing on your instagram about uh your recent experience of a home birth you opted for it for a home birth and more specifically a water birth is that correct and if so well it is great because i know i've read it why did you alana well um this is my third baby greg and with the first two i was induced i went into hospital and had an induced labor in the labor ward and and i thought that that was what i had to do because i'm someone who is prone to develop ingestational diabetes um and i always wanted a water birth but because of the diabetes and because of being induced it was not an option that was available to me in the hospital um so when i got pregnant for the third time i was researching how you could i have a water birth i really wanted to do it and i was just told that it wasn't an option for me so the only way i could do that was by looking into home birth um and at first i thought oh that sounds a bit bit risky but i did a lot of research and actually it's far safer in a lot of cases to have your baby at home um and also you're then in control of the environment and you can choose if you want to have a water birth or whatever other kind of birth whatever preferences you want put in place um i had probably not a great experience with my first birth in the hospital and that left a wee bit of birth trauma as well so i felt much more confident then um giving birth at home and being as i say in control of the environment and feeling like that be a bit more autonomy over the circumstances and did you go full term with your third child or because of the diabetes in pregnancy uh was the baby induced so no you can't actually be induced at home currently um in my transfer anyway so i went overdue um which was a new experience for me with the other two i was induced at 39 weeks um and this time around i had a home birth rota which started at 37 weeks so what that means is from 37 there were midwives on call to come to my home anytime um and that went up to 41 weeks but unfortunately i went overdue beyond that i went to 41 um 41 weeks in two days so i had to request that that rota be extended um and let me tell you the nine days that i went overdue felt as long as the nine months that i was pregnant i have a whole new precision it was honestly it was really stressful because i think i knew that the hospital and the consultant would start to put pressure on me as well as i went too far overdue they'd start to pressure me because obviously the the the if i'm correct with the uh diabetes and pregnancy uh you know as soon as you have the baby that that you know your blood levels return to normal is that the case with you yeah okay so the gestational babies but yeah yeah so did they advise you that you know really by going full term and in your case nine days over that that sort of potentially increased any risk with you with the diabetes or even to the you're unborn baby um the risk to myself is the same um with gestational diabetes it's all linked to the placenta so once you deliver the placenta the impact of the hormones on your insulin resistance are basically gone right away the risks that they are worried about are obviously risks to the baby um i was very lucky in that every time with my gestational diabetes it was diet controlled i never had to go on any medication i was able to manage my blood sugar levels just by watching what i was eating um and the research that i had done indicated to me that if your diabetes and pregnancy is well managed then the risks to the baby that normally are present they're actually mitigated already just by managing it you're really at no higher risk than anyone else as long as your levels have been well managed which mine thankfully were um so the main risks with a gestational diabetes baby is that you can have a larger baby than than normal they call it macrosomic i think and it's it's basically a baby that's difficult to deliver because of their size there's also a risk of shoulder dystocia where the baby gets stuck because their shoulders are too wide um and there's also a risk of the baby being born with low blood sugar now because i had had two previous births and both babies were fine i was very confident that those risks were really money i can imagine now when what is it when you talk of a water birth like is there a specific you know uh pool or is it like you're bringing you know the jacuzzi or something with the power off or like is there a particular how what do you what are you in as you give birth well we bought a birth pool specific birth online um really there's no rules you could give birth in your bathtub if you wanted um but it probably wouldn't be the most comfortable place we chose to buy a birth so you do have to be careful some people think you can just get any old paddling pool but the the plastics need to be safe for warm water and it needs to be sturdy enough that you can lean on it and so on so there are specific brands that sell birth pools and we bought ours online and then it comes with all these disposable elements it comes with a pool liner and a hose and a pump and everything that gets disposed of afterwards so if we were to reuse the pool we'd have to rebuy certain parts of it yeah okay fascinating and um it's just you in the pool uh as you give birth obviously then there's a new arrival but the those that are assisting you were around the pool they were yes although the pool we bought was large enough that i told my husband if he wanted to get in he could get in i could guess the answer to that one he was so i told him if i decide you're getting in the pool you're getting in the pool but he thankfully we didn't have time to discuss that because the baby came very quickly and i barely got in the pool myself yeah and you didn't take what would be described as traditional pain medication during the birth how did you approach that side of things because you'd been there twice before so you you knew for the most part what to expect yeah um so i did hypno-birth in classes with my first and second baby um and hypno-birth as a concept is is unbelievable women can practice that whether they're giving birth at home in the hospital in a birth this week wherever um and what that does is really helps prepare your mind for the experience of labor um so i went and did no one that you know it wasn't going to be totally comfortable but it was something that my body is designed to do um i had practiced breathing techniques i used aromatherapy um i the the pool itself provides some level of pain relief um but mostly it's it's a case of mind over matter i think and telling yourself that your body is designed to do this and it's not it's not like if you break your arm the pain is there to tell you that something's wrong when you're birth and a child it's your body doing a natural physiological process and i think a lot of the pain that we feel comes from our expectation of it being a painful event and if you think greg about when you see um chipper's on tv it's always a really medically setting where a woman's on a bed maybe she's in stirs and she's screaming and that in itself and the fact that in society we only ever really hear horror stories about when birth goes wrong or how painful it is or you know people people almost um revel in telling their horror stories about about birth so that i think adds to the experience for a lot of women they go in expecting pain births childbirth to be painful and therefore it is um i i knew it wasn't going to be a breeze don't get me wrong and i said that when i told my birth story on instagram i said it doesn't tickle you know it is very intense but you can do it um and i also had there was gas and air at the house so that was delivered um around christmas time and it was here to be used but unfortunately the midwives only made it to my birth about eight minutes before the baby was born so by that stage i had asked if i could have the gas and air um and they couldn't get it set up quick enough because he was already on his way so um there are options are you in are you under the nhs or the hse sorry so i'm under the nhs i'm in the um i'm in clinty dairy so understood we are the western trust but i do think there's a lot of similarities um in terms of the process because i was actually reading into that you know whether you're in the north or the south um i think the main thing i didn't realize that home birth was an option or that i could be supported by nhs midwives the thing about it is this is an option everywhere because we wouldn't we knew we were going to have this conversation and that people listening might go right you know what that sounds like something i would go through so we contacted the hse and said we're wondering if home births are available to families in donneagle at the moment and their answer is a single line public health nursing service donneagle does not provide a home birth service for you you know in or out of the water for that matter which is i think really quite interesting uh alana that you can avail of it in dairy but but your neighbour across the the road in in donneagle uh couldn't um well how do you there is i do i do think that um you can and obviously this is developed it depends on personal circumstances but i believe there are private midwives available in the south which you can't actually hire in the north because they can't get insured to work in the north so there are options available but i believe um if they can't if you can't get it through the hse that's not that's not very good and people should be um annoyed about that because it was of all three of my births it was the best experience that i've ever had um and my recovery so far has been wonderful and i will be shouting this from the rooftops for the foreseeable that i think anyone as long as you don't have any immediate danger to yourself or your baby and there's no medical need for you to be in a hospital i think everyone should consider a home birth and should be allowed the opportunity to consider a home i think so alana and correct me if i'm wrong too i think it kind of depends on the personality because you know when you go in for scans or what have you and that you know the the measurements there are also a little bit smaller or it's a little bit big or you know the a lot of people get on edge with that right because they're not familiar with the language or the bedside manner and instantly go into oh my god is there something wrong mode uh you know uh so like the uh the the diabetes and pregnancy thing that you had for a lot of people it'd be like oh my god is everything going to go okay but because you had experience of it um you you're pretty chilled about it able to handle it with your diet and i think maybe that kind of feeds into your wider character correct me at any point that i'm wrong and i think you know a lot of this these decisions come down to you know how how confident that individual is uh in sort of going an understanding and working through that language and realizing that they can still do a home birth if any of that makes sense yeah no it makes perfect sense and i think that's partly why the first time i was pregnant and going through this um i i didn't question what i was told by my healthcare providers when the consultant said my baby was measuring really big and i would struggle to deliver my baby i was like oh my goodness book me in for that induction i never questioned what negative side effects there could be also induction because you just trust wholeheartedly and as you say they often tell you they often tell you that the baby might be big and then they might tell you that later in their life they may be more susceptible to obesity and you hear in all these alarm bells going uh are you sorry all your alarm bells start to go dependent on your character and then you go right i'm gonna air completely on the side of caution uh when we had our last baby uh alana um shortly after birth it was probably he was he was induced as well because of the just i keep calling pregnancy and diabetes because i ain't taking on the g word um and um shortly after birth um effectively stopped breathing and um thank god for the amazing people down the road from us here got him into the icu and it was touching go for a bit and then miraculously and it was a miracle i feel um he just came out of it and was fine started breathing on his own like did you have any concerns that god forbid something went happened post birth are you assured that the midwives on hand sort of have the emergency stuff that might be required in such an incident yeah they um they bring and leave everything that they might need in an emergency at your home so i they had um they used the word resuscitation quite a few times and in your case that that was obviously needed but with with my case when i was pregnant i found that quite anxiety and just but i knew that they had to go through all the risk factors and they had to make sure that i was making an informed decision um and so it was quite scary at times to think about that but when you have you have to take a step back sometimes and look at the bigger picture and the statistics and everything that i'd already experienced was telling me that me and my baby were going to be fine and worst case scenario we are about 12 minutes from the nearest hospital in an ambulance if there was any need to transfer either myself or maybe again um i'm not good and i respect that because i feel sometimes generally speaking sometimes i'm i'm actually controlled by fear and catastrophizing and stuff like that there and it's not really a very nice way to live your life so i've full of admiration that you you know you're able to process that and and work through it and do what worked out really well for you and your lovely family and it's been really nice speaking to you thank you for your time thank you very much great take care bye bye uh that's alana kerrigan there roma sorry for holding you there roma good morning hello gray how are you i'm all right um i'm just reading i'm just i'm just reading the introduction uh to you uh what a mom okay talk to me about your super mom well my mother unfortunately greg can't talk today because she has been diagnosed with dementia and i got on 50 so um i she and daddy on the river roma i'm gonna come here let me take a break and get you back on a good line would you hang up there roma i want to call you back sorry just give me five minutes we'll get you back in a minute okay i'll just i'll take five minutes all right stay where you are caroline's gonna reconnect with roma there because uh her mother is uh let me just say very experienced in homebirth the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio this week's show is brought to you by the highland hoolie in salute join us this september in a sunny salute for a week of live entertainment with ireland's leading country artist dinner each evening and plenty of crack sun salute and you this september for booking information go to the outlet on highland radio dot com despite low temperatures and high energy costs it's important everyone stays warm and well through the colder months it's also important to understand that saving energy where possible saves money and helps reduce the impact on our climate simple steps can make a big difference like turning down the thermostat by one degree limiting the use of high energy appliances like tumble dryers or ensuring we don't heat rooms that aren't in use government is playing its part two making a range of supports available to help ease the burden on families across the country for support and advice visit gov dot ie forward slash reduce your use brought to you by the government of ireland the way you eat a cream egg says everything about you if you eat yours with a teaspoon that means you like things just so you turn up the tv in even numbers you pronounce chorizo chorizo and if you find a shirt you like you buy ten search cream egg test to find out who you really are cadbury cream egg how do you eat yours nutritious excel yo with lamb and nutritious yo with lamb crunch are formulated to ensure a vigorous lamb and excellent milk yield avail of our lambing season offer 25 kg bags buy ten get one free and 15 euro off per ton in bulk available at your local homeland store visit nutrius.ie for full nutritional information do you suffer from high cholesterol men of all symptoms digestive issues anxiety aches and pains or a lack of energy the highly trained team at the natural way letter candy can provide advice on natural remedies for a number of individual health issues the natural way also has its own brand of herbal treatments to help fight fatigue relieve digestive discomfort maintain a healthy immune system and alleviate common menopause symptoms the natural way at letter candy shopping center your one stop health shop roma sorry about that how are you now you're all right good i'm grand i all right tell us about your mom then so my mother obviously can't see the talk of today because she's they are she's dimension great but um her and my daddy met one mommy was 15 and daddy was 17 they got married they got married when she was 17 and she had a baby every year since then until obviously her last kelly on it um she had all home births 15 home births and my sister orna was a bit difficult so they had to take her into hospital to be delivered because she had her cord around her neck that was the only thing i sent mommy to the hospital um all births were obviously the doctor was there and nurse feni i think it was at the time and it would have been dr floridae dr floridae or dr magna at the time were all my mother you know they were they were present at all mommy's 15 births and the house so so how many how many daddy was how many children did your mom have my mommy had 19 children all single births wow that's remarkable that's that's literally a football team and subs but you know what greg she loved it she loved being a mommy and to this day it's the children that brighten her up so there was something special about her just for sure wow i mean literally gave her life to having and rearing children that was what what worked for her what she wanted yeah 100 dedicated her and my father both like obviously um he was obviously part of the you know he was part of the good plan too um so he was always about the house when she was having her babies you know he would have been busy wall like there's one story about him wallpaper and when she was on given birth with my granny was there and the doctor and they delivered um one of my sisters at the time while he was out paper and a wall so but you see you know they're supposed to be great I suppose once it's happened so often you kind of have to get on with things you know this yeah baby yeah yeah are all your birthdays grouped or are they across the year or we're all across the year um I mean it's all stepping stones we're all just over a year apart wow it was then the last my last after there was two years between them obviously there was a couple of miscarriages on there too unfortunately but you know what she believed that was before you wouldn't pass she and she had her 19 children and she was just happy like I said being at home and being with us all the time and she really highly recommend that the homework be honest and did she have it in a in a in a bed like it would have been that way rather than yeah yeah she had all her babies in a private room obviously with the doctor and the nurse and maybe my granny would have been present at the time yeah you know so oh she never complained I never once heard a complaint about anything to be honest with you what an amazing woman and where in the siblings do you sit Roma I'm number 17 Greg so I am um there's two more after me and like I say when was the most people in the house if you know what I mean like you know people move on and move out and stuff yeah yeah so my older sister was married I had a set of twins before I was born um and then everybody else was in the house yeah so I'd say 17 at any one time we're in the house together with my oldest sister then getting married when I was my second oldest sister got married when I was four I think so yeah there would have been 17 in the house at any one time amazing amazing story what a way to what a way to what a way to grow up what an experience to to to be read amongst so many of your siblings yeah and you know what Greg it's like anything it's the experience that makes you the person I think because without that experience sure it would be completely different you know what I mean I just think we have more the people that just enjoy having the crack you know when we get together and obviously it's like any family you have your ups and downs but you get through it and the north and it makes you stronger family and the north and south korea's it's it's like yeah yeah yeah it's all just started okay it exactly oh that would be it but I have to think talk to you Greg yeah I'm for I'm from a large family and my partner's family is I thought like 13 14 was big but 19 is just something else and um so busy house all of the time you would have been hard to get time to yourself which is not a bad thing either Ron would don't get me wrong but uh did did you sort of go oh my word can I have two minutes to myself please do you know what I say now though I think we're all about the same as we're I can't really stick as much noise as I used to so maybe that's a sign of you know how busy things were so I don't I don't like it but I play it sometimes but other than that no it was great great to be honest I had great experience growing up great parents um you know we were we were never daddy worked hard um mommy was great manager of money she just uh I don't know how they did it but they did it and they did it easy if you know anything yeah you know the way we all complain nowadays yeah I mean we all complain about silly things these days but she didn't she just got through it I can remember stand up till three four o'clock in the morning like as I got older using the twintail but that time yeah and wash him you know clothes and obviously you get to an age where you helped her and we took over the housework then from her but unfortunately she was young enough when she got sick but she has been interviewed here before with you like it was with John okay and then she was on the paper you know she got sick she got an award for Ulster for a supermom of the year like way back so and um obviously yeah exactly well that's good isn't it it's good that her voice has been heard yeah yeah pot cooking as well too can you imagine preparing meals and what have you I mean everything obviously you know you couldn't for it sometimes it sometimes in our house like you find yourself making two or three different things uh that was not the way it was when we were growing up we all ate out of a pot and everyone had the same thing and if you didn't eat it uh well you you learned you had to eat it because there was no special and no special provisions because you could simply couldn't because there's so many people you just have that way with food even anybody come into my house but fair people can tell you stories about you never left our home no matter how many we've done it without a whole stomach like she just had this way of just making everybody feel at home yeah um I came across someone recently in 87 go ahead I came across I thought I came across an 87 year old woman recently just by chance um and she said Roma I think we've met before and I was like I don't know and she says I came to your house years ago with the priest some priest to get shirts from your daddy and she said and your mother made me a whole feed and I left your house full to the room so that was that was nice to me right you know just to see the much people she's impacted yeah and it's lovely Roma and it's so clear that you're able to speak of not just your mum but your dad as well with uh such warmth and respect it's lovely and it's the same with it was the same with with with uh with my parents thankfully uh Roma it's it's wonderful what what an amazing woman what a legacy uh uh to leave behind uh 19 children um and and of course the grandchildren all that kind of stuff as well it's it's wonderful um and um yeah pass on our best wishes uh to your mom as well um I was great and we really appreciate you and what a lovely what a lovely tribute to her and it's great that her story has been well passed as well she know what childbirth just to mommy was she used to take a mistrade like I said she believed she used to always say the last one we were having our babies and the apple fall when it's ready so you know she was very much she would have had home births the whole way through unfortunately my sister or the latter to hospital but you know what other than that all was good she had good experiences and I suppose that's the main thing amazing amazing love to all Roma thank you so much for your time take take care that's Roma Redden there uh her mother and I I can't imagine this is matched um anywhere really uh 15 children born at home and four in hospital and she won the title and retains the title of uh super mom and lovely to hear Roma and uh what an amazing mom and dad as well too let's not forget dads too dad was there on one occasion wallpapering I love that side of the story uh but I suppose uh you get you know what you've been doing it for so long you sort of become accustomed to it um in regards to the home birth private midwives Ireland isn't available in Donegal so it's not possible at all to have a home birth in the county with either private midwives or hsc midwives obviously that's someone who's looked into that I wonder why private midwives Ireland don't offer that service in Donegal is there a reason to that uh a lot of snow on McGrory's Bray not sure what it's like further on uh going to Donegal so McGrory's Bray is between Balabuffet and Donegal town and it's where that road works is ongoing at the moment so a listener who's been on the road telling us McGrory's Bray uh a lot of snow there I think now we're moving into the time looking at the window where we're going to start see snow lying so if you are out and about around the roads obviously be really careful uh but if there's any information that it's useful for us to pass on to other motorists or road users uh please let us know hopefully school runs in the afternoon and what have you on affected but if there's any um road information that you can share with us and we can share with our listeners please let us please let us know right across the region uh by the way uh Greg to the person who said who should take the blame for the government or should the government take blame for arson attacks such a ridiculous statement the only ones who are responsible for arson attacks are the person who deliberately starts the fire that if someone or some people were inside the burning building who's responsible then but sometimes you wonder if people you just see some commentary from people and maybe it's just words that you know well you know this is a fight or you know it's part of a bigger picture almost as if someone could be collateral damage how could you be fully sure there isn't a person even a homeless person seeking shelter in one of these premises do you know what I mean I think people really need to I think we need we can have the debates have the discussions have the arguments but it just feels we need something of a reset in this country and it's the same all over the place that's a great story 15 wanes born at home imagine please have more stories like this on yeah we love the stories and um we also too put a call out and I just actually to remind you uh last year we were looking for your unsung heroes and we got loads of correspondence in on that and we're going to start introducing some of those people over the course of this year as well um so uh look out and listen out for unsung heroes could we say potentially that supermom mrs redden is our first unsung hero I think she's a hero I fought for a free boss pass I also have epilepsy when I threatened to sue them I got my boss pass Emma spoke with so much understanding and empathy and so eloquently I want to say big well done to her yeah I really I just talked to Emma about uh the sc t hours in schools um it did just it painted it painted the scenario perfectly for me listen to the segment on seizures so happy to hear this being spoken about on today's show someone who lives with someone who suffers uh that suffers from seizures it's a topic I feel is not spoken enough about people try and hide it and then there should be no shame about it but awareness indeed and again I can't emphasise this enough how important this statement I'm about to make is is that if there are things like that that you believe you should hear more of or you know that people don't understand I'll give you an example we were talking about um Lyme's disease and then we had uh we had a gentleman listening to us that was suffered from Addison's disease and he messaged me on Facebook says look Greg uh I wouldn't I would love an opportunity to talk about Addison's disease not a lot of people um understand it and there's only two of us in the county and a few of us in the country brilliant so he came on and talked about it as well so that's how interactive we are so when I invite you to text or contact or serve there's something you want to talk about or something you want us to talk about it's not just a throw throw away line at the start of the show I mean it uh I'm delighted that this person felt that that that topic was being discussed and it's helpful to them and if you're out there and there's something that you want to talk about please really feel free uh to contact us we are your station and it's not just a tagline that's exactly what we uh do here very disturbing the amount of buildings and premises that are being vandalized in our country right now when and if some of the people who drive this hate agenda run for election I hope the people give them a message uh back to Ceasius would the seizure possibly be related to stress could she relax her nervous system it might be worth the try yep she says that the triggers are tiredness over tiredness and stress um but I mean if you're a mom and you're working and just going about general life general life does bring stress with it so um you can't avoid stress really you can try and manage it and I think um Laura does very well in relation to that but you can't eliminate it either but this caller says a small dose of axychlamide reduces her anxiety and stress it would be easier than on operation she should consult her doctor I worked in the hospital and noticed that anyone with anxiety was at a higher risk of seizure as the body is in high function indeed yeah that that does make sense and I'm sure all medical options have been looked at there I mean with that the comes you know you're going down another course of action I'm not sure how that medicine might work with the anti-seizure measure and so on and so forth but I really appreciate you getting in touch I was born with epilepsy it's over 10 years from the last one no doctor can tell me uh any well when anyone will have one so you had a seizure 10 years ago are you on medication maybe that talks to the fact that your body works well with the medication uh that you have right let's take a break our next guest about to join us watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highlandradio.com this week's show is brought to you by the Highland Hoolian Saloo join us this September in a sunny saloo for a week of live entertainment with Ireland's leading country artist dinner each evening and plenty of crack sun saloo and you this September for booking information go to the outlet on highlandradio.com spread the love this week at your local centra with great offers like inspired by centra angus soloing steak for 40 gram only eight euro inspired by centra selected breakfast deal any three for six euro and champagne pier Darcy's brute 75 cl only 20 euro shop smart feel good centra live every day enjoy a call sounds clean valentine's day is almost here still looking for the perfect treat for your special someone make this day unforgettable with a gift from pandora don't 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wheels available in four-wheel drive and a seven-seater visit us today at iMotors.ie to find out more right you're very welcome back to the program and we're joined on it now by Mary Hurley who's manager of the Donegal Women's Centre and we're talking about an event that's coming up ahead of the uh referendum on family and care on the 8th of March now this is a point of view coming from one particular standpoint but we're keeping a close eye on this topic of course and whilst it's not always easy to deliver a balance in every single interview in the round we are keeping a close eye on that to ensure that balance is given to both sides of the arguments as best as possible but as i say we want to be able to have conversations as well without it always being anyway it'll be fine in the long run uh Mary Hurley manager of the Donegal Women's Centre so the event is taking place this Friday at 11 a.m and what's the purpose of this meeting yes thank you Greg and thanks for having me on this morning the purpose is really it's an information session so it's an opportunity for the public um because it's an open invitation to come along and hear information that is um you know that is balanced that will inform people and how um and what the referendum means what the changes are um what it means for them if they've got any concerns so we have a panel of speakers um there that would look at it from each side and every side and you know maybe some issues that haven't come up or haven't been spoken about publicly so it's really just kind of a get-together just to share information and so we won't be pressing for a well opposite the National Women's Council of Ireland i'm very popularly coming out with the SES campaign that's not the purpose of tomorrow the purpose is to give the information and to allow the attendees to make an informed decision and how they would like to vote on the 8th of March yeah the problem with this referendum referendum's referendum and it's probably not unique to these either it's not actually the wording of what we're voting on or what we're voting on it's the unknown it's the subsequent uh application interpretation challenges to it so to some extent yes we can have informed debates but to a great extent we can't because you really could approach this you could approach this referenda and sort of talk about what might happen after the fact to suit your point of view or your narrative or your state of mind and which is somewhat unfortunate or maybe that's just the reality of life that's probably the reality of it um and i think it was there's been a solidarity discussion around this referendum um on both of them that i think there's a lot of misinformation there's a lot of confusion and this started with a conversation with ourselves here in the center from me talking to friends and about what they knew how they thought that we're going to vote and we all realized actually we've very little information so we've very little information around the referendum itself you know what the the impact um or the consequence of voting yes or no will will look like going going forward um i know that the wording isn't really it is going to be an issue for some people you know um and what would that mean and i think the likes of the conversation starting tomorrow will just bring those out into the open get people talking about about it yeah because even just on one issue which uh feeds into conversations we have on a regular basis in very uh various uh is this you know removing or diluting uh a woman's place in the constitution now there are two arguments to that that can be very forcibly made and both kind of right and that's just in one tiny icky picky element of this and therein lies the problem informed decisions though informed opinions because i think there are those the i think there's someone listening here that has an opinion and they might think no aligns that opinion and they might actually think yes aligns that opinion in both referendums yeah and that's the reality and that's supposed to be a democracy as well is that you know if you look at this and you don't really like it and it's not for you um or you don't agree with it you have the right to vote no equally you know on the other side if this is something that's going to impact you you think this is a positive move forward um that this is broadening out you know what a family looks like the woman is still mentioned in the constitution and other occasions um mother is still mentioned there you know so it's not taking it away i think what we're looking at is broadening out and to be more inclusive that you know it's the language that's important uh because there's a lot of stay-at-home dads here at the moment as well you've got same-sex marriages you know there's as well society has changed the family i think part of it too is you know we're here we are now having a referendum um and this doesn't talk to us and all but who's driving for this like you know i was a uh a dad a single parent father but i didn't think oh my god i need to be recognized in the cons you know and people weren't contacting me saying right we need to get there together now and campaign to the government to james this because we don't think dads are being recognized here uh you know uh throuples aren't sort of saying you know we need a referendum now because we want ours to be classed as a meaningful relationship now the the the the referendum in itself wouldn't determine that but some are arguing that that's what it could like so who is campaigning and and seeking this this sort of change in language and inclusivity and or even the removal of a reference to women if not the total removal of it i think that's what kind of has a lot of people sort of saying well what's the motivation for this what is the problem here that we're trying to fix yeah and that's really good and that's part of the confusion because nobody you know we're not all clear about where it came from and my understanding my own personal understanding is that it came from the citizens assembly and looking at the road of women in society and looking at the road um the women has changed since the constitution you know was was written um and about women's role in society women's role within the home and outside of the home and as we're following up from that then it just you know it's to broaden out to include other families to include loaned parents to include you know moms who are parenting on their own um so it's to be more inclusive of the society that we're currently living in without necessarily being detrimental to to women or to mothers in the home and that's what tomorrow is about you know where did it come from how did this happen how did we get here and why are we doing this um and that's the conversations we'll be having tomorrow as well just looking at all of that yeah because a lot in this in this country's against women representation um work um employment opportunities healthcare is anti-women and it some might say well it seems to recognize that to some extent to remove a reference to to women in particular would seem counterintuitive that's not me saying that's an opinion but that's part of the debate you know what i mean yeah absolutely and there's two sides to that because you know we can look at it and say well we're not looking at women just being in the home we're looking at them you know their work their contribution to society outside of the home and equally we're looking at their contribution that they give within the home you know because many women choose for or may not choose but they end up being carers in the home um and is to give you know legitimacy to that as well as well as a woman being outside um and having a career and working during other activities outside of the house so it's trying to be inclusive um again you know that's my understanding of it i think tomorrow um would be great because there'll be another debate about that you know there'll be more information i'll be challenged we'll all be challenging each other and coming from different sides and that was really where the where it all came from because people had different opinions i heard this i heard that and people need to step out of the echo chamber really you know it's so important again i sound like a scratch scratch record but you know it's good to go into a room like this and say half the panel yeah you're right half the panel you're wrong but you do said something that you know resonates okay so people just roll up to the Donegal Women's Centre tomorrow morning at 11 am so we're going to have panel of speakers um the Rachel Coyne has been named from the National Women's Council of Ireland and they have obviously come out and we you know we've no issue with that they're going for the SES campaign um we have Patricia Blee from the family carers Ireland so she's coming along to give her a contribution and then we have Siobhan Cullen um who is also our chairperson but is a family law lecturer and Siobhan is going to chair the debate and really kind of pay almost everyone's advocate you know for everything that's put forward and maybe say okay well what's the other side of this you know how can we look at it differently um you know like exactly the points that you've brought up are we you know discriminating are we eliminating women from the constitution so it's to have that balance that over and back and then hopefully the purpose is really for women are people those who attend tomorrow to leave more informed and say actually i'm quite comfortable um and i know how i'm going to vote or say actually i need more information you know and we might do other events then all right Mary listen thank you very much for that it's 11 o'clock tomorrow in the Donegal Women's Centre have a lovely day Mary Hurley he manager of the Donegal Women's Centre this week's show is brought to you by the Highland Hoolian Saloo join us this September in the Sonny Saloo for a week of live entertainment with Ireland's leading country artist dinner each evening and plenty of crack sun saloo and you this September for booking information go to the outlet on HighlandRadio.com looking for the best place in the northwest to get a bed or mattress rest X beds a mountain top letter Kenny had a great selection and great prices rest X beds has everything you need for a good night's sleep visit them today and sleep better tonight join me Marty Freel every Friday night from eight for rocking hits on Highland Radio in association with Arena 7 where you can enjoy dinner and drinks in a woodbury grill bar and restaurant before bowling in Arena 7 state of the art liens see arena 7.ie don't know if you know Alice and Pat late 40s couple kids been together 17 years never married of course but that's not a problem until something happens and suddenly words like unmarried inheritance and substantial tax bill enter 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traffic is crawling uh cold wet and blustery today with outbreaks of rain sleet and now we're seeing that snow spreading from the south some accumulations of snow are likely especially over the higher ground temperatures of two to four degrees Richard Hogan's a writer and psychotherapist at the therapy institute good morning to you Richard good morning Greg right now you are behind a petition what is what are you asking people to sign i am indeed um for too long now Greg i've sat in my clinic and i worked with families for many years and i've worked in schools and i sit in the national advisory council so i'm with parents in schools every every day and i talk in schools every every week and i'm asking parents that we come together and we go to the government and say enough is enough of our children consuming hardcore extreme materials currently there are no safeguards in place to protect our children consuming very damaging images and they are damaging and so what i'm looking for is parents to go on to my instagram sign the petition i'm going to lester house next week and i'm going to bring this to the government i want them to i want them to finally bring in safeguards and take the safety for children very seriously because we know psychologically children who consume hardcore extreme material it changes their brain structures it makes them more impulsive and it can create very very pathological ideas particularly boys towards girls we we just need to stop it because currently Greg a child can go on there five years of age or six years of age and you see all the stats there about kids at that age getting smartphones which is you know very dangerous but that they can consume hardcore material i've been in a school there last year where a senior infant had consumed extreme material now that is dystopian stuff and we need to put safeguards in there because we can't allow these platforms regulate themselves they don't want less traffic they want more traffic and so we don't care richard but what the solution to this the solution to this the greatest well you know we know we sorry richard let's put the question to you the solution to this uh the greatest resistance will probably come from from uh adults who are supposed to care for children the obvious solution here is is uh photographic id to be used to access sites to ensure people are of an age to go on tiktok to go on x to go on uh uh websites that that offer pornography like the government might go yeah we would do that but you know where the resistance is going to come from it's going to come from the general public who will argue that oh well you're trying to steal our identity or track us or blah blah blah you know the children won't be put first by probably the general population you know you're right great um the the greatest resistance will come from i think probably the platforms themselves in some ways but yes i think i think is i think of the society we probably have a relaxed view and think this is just like normal satiating of sexual curiosity and of course sexual curiosity that's normality that's normal there's nothing wrong with that but it's what they're using to satiate it and people will say well you're it's a nanny state and you're you're taking too much control from us and now i'd say well no you know the state doesn't allow our children to drink alcohol and the state you know has laws against the children vaping and our children driving with drink and any of us so we have laws to protect society and these things are this is a real this is a real silent ill in our society as i see it working with families and couples as well but with children and it's like yeah it's very easily fixed if we want our children to stop consuming them all we have to do is put in um you know verification of your age with picture photograph we have loads of we have a huge potential with ai to make this stuff really easy and you know and and doable and so it's a quick fix we can do it if we want but the political will has to be there and the thing is to this is i mean it's not perfect but in terms of technology and protecting children uh playstation have achieved it solely have achieved it uh microsoft have achieved it through the xbox achievable they they they can filter out language you can be flagged for bullying uh i mean obviously they're then you can go into another space and there's potential for grooming but the point being is is that industries that actually rely on monetizing our children have found a way to get almost there in protecting them it's not perfect but they have adults want their space left alone but that's where the problems that's where the children are being exploited exposed and having you know women having girls have an unreal expectations of them fellows have an unreal expectations of of of of women you know like intimacy exactly intimacy and what is and what isn't and all the crap that they see and when you see right when you see what the top searches are in this country and they're released it's public step sister step fathers all that kind of stuff young old it's crazy and we know because porno released that stuff themselves annually this is serious problem there is a serious problem and this is what i'm trying to say to people that i'm not approved you know i'm not approved but i have three daughters myself and i work with teenage boys a lot and young and younger boys and i see you know i hear them talking and i actually great i have a lot of teenage boys who come to me because they hear me talking publicly because of a platform which i'm lucky to have you know and they hear me talking about it they come to me trying to get off pornography because it's addictive and it's not like they're satiating it with kind of normal curiosity they're satiating that sexual curiosity with like hard core extreme material that's the nature of pornography today that's why i'm so against it and that's why i'm so so strong in this and i think we need to stand up as a society to look that's that's damaging children we want our boys to have healthy ideas and we want them to love themselves want our girls to love themselves and respect themselves and understand what intimacy is because what you described there that's not interesting that's a warped view of intimacy and that's actually acting and actually when you analyze it's even further that promotes sex trafficking and so it's like you know we have to understand what this thing we know what this thing actually really is in the last 20 seconds sorry Richard if people are of like mind how do they sign your petition yeah thanks Greg if they go on to my instagram official Richard Hogan and you'll see it there you're able to sign this okay simple as that all right thank you very much for your time Richard Hogan there writer and psychotherapist at the therapy institute we're back with you tomorrow morning at nine have a lovely Thursday be careful the roads we're getting reports of the roads becoming more dangerous in different parts of the region so if you are out and about