God, it's cold. You find it nappy? No, I mean... You're doing good. You have a fleece on and a T-shirt, right? Yeah, but you said you're tired. I'm a little tired. And when you're tired... Do you feel cool when you're tired? 100% cool to do, yeah. Have you eaten today? No. Right, so you're tired. You have no fuel. Oh, yeah. Did you have any water? Yes. That's about it. And coffees. And coffees. The heebie-jeebies as well. The heebie-jeebies? As long as I heard of it, the heebie-jeebies? Go get some weed to mix in there. Daddy, I got the heebie-jeebies. What have you got? Your Bee-jee's are effectively heebie'd. The heebie's? The heebie's? Have a good show, right? All right, so Dr Greg, back with you tomorrow morning at a minute to nine. All right, it is the night till noon show just around the corner. Let's first get a news update, though, and it's over to Michaela Clark. Thanks, Greg. Good morning. I'm here to address the lack of infrastructure in many parts of Donegal and in particular to prioritise areas deemed to be at full capacity. Councillor Noel Jordan says my charness is a typical example. No development can take place and the situation is exacerbated by the fact that water and sewage works have been promised for a number of years, but no headway has been made. He says as a new draft kind of development plan is completed, there needs to be a focus in opening areas up for the provision of new homes and businesses. I'd just give one example of a land identified in the Manchester area for social housing. I just can't move without the infrastructure put in place for that area. I would be asking that areas whether to have more input. Tell us where there is capacity. Tell us where there's no capacity and their plans going forward to address us. Junior Minister Noel Collins says that you make a statement in the door today following controversy surrounding a land sale. He's been the subject of allegations in recent days relating to a land sale when he was a local representative for Limerick County Council. The land in Patrick's Well was bought by his wife. The Limerick Deputy says he was no longer a councillor by the time the sale went through in 2008. People with for-profit TD Paul Murphy says there are key questions to answer. Did he know his wife had expressed an interest in buying the site of Council land at the time in which he participated in the decision to put it up for sale? For me, that's the only information I need to have. I think I know the answer to that. I think it's very unlikely that he didn't know that his wife expressed interest. He has never stated anywhere that he didn't know about it. Officials in Dublin and Nairobi are continuing to support Irish citizens who remain in Sudan but want to leave. Around 100 Irish citizens remain in the conflict hit African country while a franchise ceasefire holds. A total of 88 Irish citizens have been rescued with the help of other countries since the situation deteriorated. The DQJ says a Good Friday Agreement has not been implemented in full as legacy issues remain outstanding. DQJ was speaking in the door during statements on the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. He says in some aspects people have not been allowed to move on from the past. The Legacy Bill represents a clear breach of British government commitments in two international treaties the Stormont House and the New Decade New Approach Agreements. Instead of fostering and building upon our peace and seeking to meet the needs of all of our peoples that bill stands clearly as representing a blatant disregard for victims. Whether I mostly climb you today with party outbreaks of rain and drizzle and highest temperatures of 12 to 14 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. Not later on actually after 11. We have Dear Greg and it's where we answer your relationship problems. We have our relationship expert in studio not in studio sorry on the program Tara who will it is Tara is not my name anyway I'll get to that in a second Taryn a big pardon Taryn and she'll be answering any questions you might have so if there's something bothering you in your relationship and you don't want to talk to family or friends for fear that they might judge the person you're asking the question of we can do that for you anonymously 08 6 60 25,000 that's the whatsapp and text 08 6 60 25,000 or give us a call on 07 4 9 1 25,000 emails coming to us comments at highlandradio.com that's how and watch the show comment online YouTube Highland Radio Ireland like and subscribe if you use that service regularly it's greatly appreciated at the same with our Facebook pages we stream the show live across it and on Twitter as well a lot of papers out on the Thursday morning as you can imagine and the Chicano Tribune have done a deep dive into the letter Kenny area plan so if you have an interest in it now I'm just going to read the first couple of paragraphs as we normally do but if you have an interest in the letter Kenny area plan Declan Kerr and John Mackity have an extensive report on it so well worth reading before I get to that she congratulations to father John Joe Duffy he is obviously a Chrysler based curate as we all know he's been awarded a prestigious national award for his ongoing work with Donegal schools the Burton-Portbourne Cleric received the sister Eileen Randall's award at the Catholic primary school management association conference held in Limerick this week so good to see his work recognised so back to this story about the letter Kenny area plan as the members of the council arrived for a plenary meeting in Lyford on Monday the difference of opinion among them were no further down the road to agreement than they were two months ago the decision deadline to respond to the proposals from the OPR is two weeks away for members for numbers of councillors serious concerns have arisen over plans to re-designate prime development sites with the consequence of major financial devaluation for the owners so as to say there's a lot in that I can't do it justice just reading the details of that and you'll read all about it The Donegal news this morning Gartie have worn motorists of a crackdown on motoring offences across Donegal ahead of the bank holiday weekend a highly visible guard operation will be in place throughout the county with check point speed checks and patrols the guard of warning comes in advance of the May bank holiday weekend when there's likely to be more traffic on the roads and increased risk of collisions and not to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs and also in the front of the page it tells us that Brian O'Donnell has retired from his post as road safety officer with Donegal County Council hopefully we might speak to him over the next wee while to talk about his role but just to thank him personally for coming on the programme it's kind of a thankless role to some extent because the messages are quite clear but often they aren't getting through so really you can do sometimes is reiterate them and Brian always accepted our invites to come on and chat and we wish him well in his retirement and whatever he's doing next on to the Donegal Democrat now a drunken prank saw a lorry driver have a miraculous escape after his vehicle plowed into a garage four court sign the metal sign was left dangerously in the middle of a busy road near a filling station in Castle Finn the sign had been placed on its side meaning the driver did not see it until it was too late the substantial damage was caused to the lorry but the driver managed to bring the vehicle under control Gardie launched an investigation into the incident and two men were identified by CCTV one of the men 30 year old Adam Gardner appeared before letter Kenny a district court the Derry News this morning tells us that Derry hotels are at over 90% capacity today sees the start of the island's biggest jazz festival hosted right here in Derry the city is gearing up for a packed weekend of live music and outdoor entertainment running from April 27th until May 1st the city of Derry jazz and big band festival has gone from strength to strength over the past 22 years establishing itself as the biggest celebration of its kind in Ireland with over 70,000 music lovers expected to descend upon the city in the coming days hotel occupancy levels are currently sitting at over 90% ahead of the weekend with people from all over the globe set to soak up the noise and blues that helped firmly place Derry on the tourist map the huge crowds and a great great few days for people into that type of thing and jazz is such a broad school I would have initially thought it was just the you know what a lot of people might have seen as the traditional sort of jazz set up but of course as you get older you realise it's much more complex but nuanced there are it's a big umbrella jazz Irish independent this morning bad news if you're an energy customer and you got billed twice we'll talk about it now in a second if any of you have been affected by this get in touch with us two of the biggest energy providers in the state have admitted billing errors that have affected thousands of their customers around 11,000 electric Ireland customers are facing bill shocks after the marriage that a blunder means they have not been asked for a payment for months so if you are an electric Ireland customer some of you were in contact with us talking about not receiving bills a couple of weeks ago and you were in contact with electric Ireland and weren't getting any answers we got no answers either I wonder is this connected now are the same people that weren't getting their bills now about to get a massive bill for a number of bills in succession if that makes sense check your statements the problem with this is though it's not just really the inconvenience of having to pay a large amount in one go we're coming towards the end of the month when a lot of people's other bills mortgages etc are due and a big electricity bill that you weren't expecting because they haven't taken money out of banks for some time for a number of customers could mean that other payments bounce so this could have a ripple effect that could be quite impactful on a lot of people that could find themselves with a bounced mortgage payment and no money going into the long weekend board garsh has apologized after mistakenly taking direct debit payments twice yesterday from 11 and a half thousand of its customers again were you one of those if you are a board gash energy customer double check that you have funds in your account because they have taken the bill out twice for 11 and a half thousand of you the supplier board gash was scrambling to reverse one of the two payments yesterday Statehold Electric Ireland which is more than 1.1 million customers admitted a billing issue meant some of its customers have not received bills that would you last month these are the people we've been speaking to it comes at a time of energy crisis with the bills that are overdue for a period when electricity and gas usages have been sky high the early months of the year tend to see high energy use in homes okay not good on to the Irish Times now and we're told that Sinn Fein politicians will not be given a free vote on potential changes to the existing abortion law it's emerged an independent reviewers recommended sweeping changes to the existing law including an extension of the 12 week limit to access abortion in certain circumstances decriminalization of medical practitioners and making the mandatory three day wait to access abortion medication optional now this is going to be problematic for a lot of people listening because much of the debate that was had in the run up to this and it was had in good faith amongst people was that a 12 week limit would be in place a lot of people that came on this program for example they only voted yes for that reason and it was a dilemma for them and also the three day option which some statistics were published yesterday which shows around about eight and a half thousand women made an initial contact with the GP and then after the three day cooling three day cooling off period or whatever they're calling it the figure had dropped down to over just over six thousand who wanted to progress with the abortion but a Sinn Fein spokesperson said Sinn Fein elected representatives are expected to re-spect policy decisions taken by the Ardash and to vote in line with party policy a source said Sinn Fein intends to study barrister mario shea's reporting detail the report has been referred by government to the rockers health committee which may recommend changes that would need to be voted on in the doll a Sinn Fein Ardash in June 2018 cleared the way for party TDS and senators to vote for legislation allowing for abortion up to 12 weeks a separate motion at the time requested that all Sinn Fein members be allowed to articulate and vote in the issue of abortion in accordance with their conscience that was rejected Leo Veradkar said that no decision has been made by the government on any of the legislative proposals put forward by the independent review but he did sort of suggest I think didn't mean some of his comments that he would have not issues I don't want to misquote him but concerns if elements key elements that people voted on were changed I think that's along the lines of what he said always at me hall Martin I'm confused now because tarnished a tee shock you know what I'm saying but anyway I'll clarify that a little later on the Irish Daily Mail tells us that the Green Party has mobilised a proposed new rural political movement that would fight back against their policies warning them talk is cheap the Irish Daily Mail revealed last week that independent TD Michael Fitz Morris is seeking to set up a new pro-agriculture party in what he called the last round in the fight for rural Ireland but the Green Party's rural development spokesperson Senator Rosheen Garvey from County Clairs hit back telling this newspaper I don't know what their definition of rural is is it anybody outside the pale little turf fires like peg sayers most of Ireland isn't that at all things have changed she says more on the potential emergence of two parties now this if I'm Fina Gail or Fina Fall by the way this is Fandaby Dosey I think because I believe there is a core support for both of those parties that will come out and there is support outside of that core support that will come out as well but then where the decision that the election could be decided out here in the sticks you have a number of parties kind of saying the same thing or providing an opposition that talks to the electorate it splits the vote and I would be rubbing my hands together if I was involved in the main parties in government at the moment because this potentially is really really good news from for them an opposition vote being split all over the place because I don't think you're going to turn many Fina Fall or Fina Gail voters who are there for the long haul they're going to see it through I could be wrong on that but that's my sense but in the Irish Sun it tells us that rural voters could have two new political parties to choose from at the next election with several independent TDs considering starting up new groups as we heard Roscommon Goway TD Michael Fitz Morris has spoken with reps across the country about creating a new political party to represent farmers in rural Ireland the independent TD believes the current political parties are too city in town focused and he claims areas beyond that are not being properly represented elsewhere though Court TD Michael Collins is working with independent TDs Richard O'Donough and Matty McGrath have set up a new rural community party deputy Collins claims the group have up to 20 candidates ready to run in the next year's local elections for their rural Ireland party but I imagine they'll just be a group of independents in the door and exercise their power that way because they've shown how successful it currently is isn't it in influencing policy and what goes on in the door The Farmers Journal this morning MACRA has demanded that the government establish a farm retirement scheme in which older farmers would be paid to exit the sector retiring farmers should be paid the equivalence of 2,910 Euro per cow to exit farming MACRA President John Keane told the Irish Farmers Journal he said the already earmarked for a dairy care reduction scheme should instead be redirected to fund MACRA's proposed succession scheme there should be no land use restrictions in such a scheme MACRA said in a letter handed to T Shockley of Radcar yesterday at the end of its protest and we spoke to people on that protest yesterday I sometimes think that people involved in big stories that are going to be big should definitely a little bit of PR council before reacting and that's a case in point I think for Ireland's Eurovision entry hopefuls while youth because in reacting to this story that we're going to talk about now and then the way that they did I think it's kind of really backfired on them and it's going to tarnish their entire thing Eurovision hopefuls while youth said they're trying to stay in a positive mindset after author JK Rowling accused them of misogyny for sacking their creative director over his social media comments on transgenderism the band's Eurovision performance was thrown into chaos on Tuesday after the group cut all ties with Ian Bannum they're a staging director for his social media comments on a story about a transgender rapist convicted of an eye for tech now there's one problem here with this story and unfortunately too with what JK Rowling has said and I'm not taking sides in this as such it wasn't one single comment he's made numerous comments as it relates to transgenderism if you just look through his Twitter you don't have to look at just one single comment he does have form in this regard the comments sparked a major reaction on Twitter with Harry Potter author Rowling wading into the new into the row accusing the Irish act of preening self-satisfied misogyny the row first erupted after while youth released a statement saying there were parting ways with Ian Bannum now Ian Bannum does speak to quite a large group of people out there a lot of women for that matter a lot of people from all different backgrounds who will row in behind him it's not necessarily an absolute minority and I think while youth could have reacted in a different way but anyway they're going to have to, it's tarnished their whole thing now I think finally in the Irish Daily Mirror T-shirt ruled out introducing price caps on groceries amid concerns it could lead to rationing and shortages during leaders questions in the doll yesterday Labour's head Nash called on the government to examine if price controls could be put in place to tackle rising prices for consumers he said over the last year alone food prices rose by over 13% milk is nearly up 25% butters up 21% eggs up 20 that's grand but what's happening is a lot of businesses are actually the big ones are just ramping up prices to increase their profits there are obviously going to be some products like those mentioned that the impact costs have gone up greatly they're going to go up but it's across the board here and there is profiteering going on I think that's kind of broadly accepted first guest with us now shortly just down festival pull out with all the top tipsters in our stable ready to get you first past the post all week the Irish Daily Star number one for racing number one for you charge into summer with Tui choose from a beach cruise our city break or Mexico flying direct from Dublin holiday sorted Tui live happy fantastic value at homeland letter Kenny garden centre this Saturday 29th Saturday buy one get one free and all hedging buy two trees for 65 euro medium veggie brought only 219 euro and get 10 packets of seeds homeland lawn feed weed and moss killer buy two bags for only 50 euro shop in store at homeland letter Kenny with expert advice from her experience team offers mentioned available this weekend only Hi Paddy here at Shea and Connolly Cars in Donegal town are you looking to upgrade your car with Shea and Connolly Cars you'll find great finance options and we also accept readings check out Shea and Connolly Cars dot com or call on to us at Shea and Connolly Cars from London road Donegal town Le— We look at the pros and cons of pre-nuptial agreements all in this weeks Irish Farmers journal on sale now Highland Radio time checks with expressway travel route 32 from letter Kenny to Dublin expressway bringing you the time at 21 minutes past 9 and we welcome on to the program now Father Francis Bradley who's the parish priest of Bunkhrana and Farn good thank you for your time today. Good morning Craig. Right now you have got to the point and I presumed it's based on on experience and conversation and what you see where you thought it necessary to speak about social media and particularly is it father its impact on our young people? Yeah well it has an impact on a constituency much broader than our young people. It impacts on every one of us whether we're adults or children but yes I'd say well what crystallized this was the unspeakably tragic death of a 13 year old child here in Boncran on Friday week last the 14th of April and but that's just the latest episode in what I see as a growing trend and in relation to our use of social media. Whilst I don't want to get into the specifics of that little girl's death nevertheless it has drawn to a head for me something that I think needs to be addressed and look I'm a very small voice voicing concern about something which is a tsunami across the world not only across the country across the world and that is our dependence our growing dependence on social media without ever really tackling the pitfalls and the dangers that are that are inherent in our use of social media. We probably view the internet the social media as a way of you know interacting with other people expressing views forming friendships I don't know everyone sees it in a different way but you seem to have concerns that it's that's kind of a counterintuitive situation that it's not that at all. Well it is that but it's not merely that you know it's like every other good thing if used properly it can be of benefit but when abused or when used improperly it it's very destructive and yeah you know our use of social media promises us immediate and personal communication on a world platform and we can I suppose we can publish and we can float our ideas and share our experiences right across the world with some limited filter available to us to guarantee and safeguard our privacy but by the same token we also open ourselves to what can be a very malicious predatory and harmful experience in our lives and that is particularly I think it's true for adults but it's particularly true for our children and what do you see the the greatest impact this is having on children how do you in your experience see it affecting them? Well I'm obviously not a parent myself but I interact with lots of parents I see kids like like everyone else sees them I see them in school or I see them coming from or going to school or maybe in their activities outside of school and you know you're you're you're driving to work or you're driving to the office or you're you're moving about let's say at school going time in the morning or in the evening and kids are walking along and their their faces are buried in their screens okay to such an extent that in fact it becomes a danger where they're coming to a junction and they might easily walk out in front or something so something has caught their attention and that I guess that that's a good thing and it's a wonderful first you know it's a blue ribboned prize for for marketing and advertising it catches it catches our attention the difficulty is that whilst many many forms of social media promise us immediate and personal communication what it is actually delivering in so many many cases is complete isolation because I talk to parents who can't get their kids out of their room I talk to people who say cotton you know my kids are so aggressive they're so angry they're so you know they seem to be isolated we're a country that prides itself on our ability to be sociable to be good in a group to be you know full of fun in the life and soul of the party and yet and our abuse of this of social media can in fact drive us into ourselves and by the way this is not just children you know you sit in a restaurant from time to time and you look around you maybe and there's a couple that maybe at another table and they're both sitting there you know faces into their phones they don't appear to be communicating with each other or if they are communicating with each other via their telephones it's an unusually complex way of trying to communicate with somebody who's sitting in front of you and father also to what is an issue I think particularly for young people is is that people turn often to the internet or social media if they aren't feeling well or there's a weakness in themselves or they don't look like something about themselves and that's not a healthy place to go because actually what happens is people exploit that or people will use that as a weapon to beat you with or your problems end up getting amplified so the solution in inverted commas is actually often what might compound how someone is feeling about themselves. Yeah and it's you know it's much too easy a solution to grasp to such an extent that it may not be a solution at all you know for the last 15 or 20 years quite properly in the church for example we've been coming to terms with the need for safeguarding now this to my mind especially in the lives of children is a safeguarding issue we'd be very careful for example just using that image again of looking at children going to school in the morning or coming home in the evening parents for the most part wouldn't allow their children to walk to school in the morning okay so our you know our lines of traffic build up as parents deliver their children safely to school that's the parents decision and that must be respected but the same application of the need for safety need has to be applied to other areas of their life you know because it's not so much that this is the elephant in the room this is the wolf lurking in the bedroom it's in the bathroom it's in the it's in all their social interaction and yes it for the most part I hope it is positive but it has terribly destructive effects where it is not positive and it is a harsh it is a harsh and toxic environment to it's not so much that we release our children into this but we release this amongst our children but I also would argue that there's a lot of pressure for parents and others to be under and teachers and schools you know where you know attention time for kids is going down and down and down everything is boring if it doesn't you know the face of the person sitting opposite of them is of no use if that face doesn't glow with the blue light and also father the problem is I think a lot of us adults many of us if not most of us are not actually equipped for the toxicity the negativity the conflict the division on social media if we're not able to deal with that how can we expect young children or teenagers to deal with that and I just feel we've gone so far now it's going to be very hard for us to take any steps backwards sure it has stolen the march on us really and you know you meet you meet parents who are stressed in many ways maybe with a child in the push chair the child is playing with a mobile phone already at the age of two or three you know becoming conditioned to knowing that this is the means of their entertainment this is their this is where they're going to find engagement you know I'm just very concerned about it and tragically tragically we have to deal with the terrible fallout of that and as I say I'm a very small voice being raised in questioning this tidal wave of compliance that we've allowed ourselves to become part of in relation to our dependence on social media and I have to hold up my own I must depend on the next on it yeah I get you father Francis Bradley it's not an insignificant voices but it's a powerful intervention into this debate and we appreciate you coming on and sharing your views with us on air and I wish you a good day and thank you very much indeed thank you so much take care okay that's father god bless you too father Francis Bradley parish priest of boncran in Farn and as you say an awful tragic case that has it's not a case an awful tragic event that has triggered his speaking publicly on that matter we're going to stay in in a show now because councillor Nicholas cross and joins us on the program thanks for taking the time out this morning councillor I appreciate your time can you hear me Nicholas no I don't believe you can okay let me see what I can do about that I will take a very quick break I'm going to have to take this break back shortly watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highland radio dot com the 90 noon show is brought to you by letter can you credit union with monster loans available up to 60 000 euro for all occasions visit letter can you see you dot ie get the Irish daily star today for your free 12 page punches down festival pull out with all the top tipsters in our stable ready to get you first pass the post all week the Irish daily star number one for racing number one for you sun soak in mexico with two fly direct to cancun from Dublin and save up to 400 euro per person holiday sorted two live happy opportunities apply by choosing dunnegal creamery smoke you're supporting over 200 dairy farming families across dunnegal in doing what they do best producing delicious fresh milk every day for over 100 years dunnegal creamery smoke has been brought to you daily from our dairy at crossroads killy gordon the longest established creamery in the region support local farms local families and local jobs by choosing dunnegal creamery's milk joe gallagher entertainments presents 50 years of shawari wari live at the clanry hotel letter kenny on friday the fifth of may and the waterfront hall bell fast sunday seventh of may tickets on sale from denny box office ticketmaster.ie and waterfront.co.uk atu dunnegal's open evening will take place on the letter kenny campus on thursday fourth of may from four to seven p.m. find out about the new programs available at atu attend the informative talks about susie grants applications and student life guest speaker on the evening guidance counselor rory white from careers portal will be giving tips for leaving certificate students academic staff will be on hand to discuss your options atu dunnegal's open evening thursday fourth of may check out atu dunnegal socials for more info okay we might have a technical issue we'll see can you hear me counselor cross and no he can't okay i'll tell you we might get him briefly on the telephone if that's all right caroline it's just a slight glitch in the matrix as they say but we will get him on and just speaking to to our last conversation there there is a new development from snapchat and if you were on snapchat so it'll be rolled out to you where it is a artificial intelligence person that becomes your friend on snapchat and i was engaging with it a little bit this morning as a test and i'll tell you you talk about isolating from real people this ai and you i think everyone knows the concerns i'll have in relation to that if they listen to the thrill regularly this ai interface on snapchat it is exactly like speaking to another human being and that is um just the thin edge of the wedge right okay we aren't getting counselor nicholas cross nor he isn't getting us so we might have to leave that because i understand he's under tight time pressures i suspect at this point it's his end rather than ours uh right some of you'll actually go and check that um um what's it called chat ai on on snapchat you'll will be flabbergasted uh fair play to father bradley for speaking out for our youth says that listener uh greg that's why i take a copy of all my bills that's proof of your bill indeed but some people with certain companies weren't getting bills you see uh and they were they were ringing up electric areland trying to get them and they rang us with a to us trying to see what the problem was and now we found out what the problem is um as an irish republican i'm disgusted says a listener uh no i can't hear you either so i think the system's down let's go to line one can you hear me nicholas cross and how are you i can't sure greg sorry but that no it's i think there's a problem with my desk here and we don't have long so we'll get straight into it if that's okay we've been speaking now about this new residential zoned land tax and its impact on bonkrana what's your observations here nicholas now observations like this is a a tax that's coming in early next year table been next year on land that is zoned strategic reserve or residential in and around not only bonkrana but the rest of the county greg but it does affect bonkrana because we have a local town plan here which takes coming back from the time that bonkrana was a town council any land that was that was zoned residential now is liable for a tax but there seems to be a gray area that i've asked for the meeting on tuesday and and lufford that it has to be serviced land but the the planners are maybe maybe saying that as long as it's accessible to services that this can be zoned so i have been making representation on behalf of the farmers and around bonkrana area that i've come to be and said some of them have land for in their family for over 120 years others have 90 and 70 these are not speculators greg these are not people who bought land the last couple of years willing uh to wait on the land prices to go up these are people who farm all their life and in my opinion this is unfair it's an unjust it's an unbelievable tax that our government would not produce so we have a meeting uh next week with the planners for the for the initial area to discuss the possibility of uh taking some of these people that want out of the system and believe me there are other people who want into the system and can't get onto the system so we're trying to find a happy medium and we were speaking to the ifa earlier in the weekend and it was described as a blunt instrument and that that's exactly what it is some people would of course like land rezone because it means it can be an increase in value what have you but we can't have a situation can we where people who have been farming the same land for generations are being taxed out of agriculture and that is seemingly what's happening some people feel it's like a land grab is that what you're hearing yourself well one of the farmers told me that they have to sell one or two fields to pay the tax should that this doesn't make sense at all Greg in the anybody's language and you know there are parcels and there is there's an instrument as you said the blunt interest and so on but in places around Leinster around the coast around the city Duff Dublin cork and Galway where maybe there's a huge huge demand on houses looking for thousands and thousands of houses but here in Donegal we're in rural Donegal yeah but the problem with that Nicholas sorry to cut across you is is what we're seeing and we've seen it in cork already and elsewhere is developers who have land forehousing in high pressure areas are being given a buy the being giving exemptions out of this yet we have a farmer in Boncran with the same land for 120 years house may never actually be built on this land and they are being forced with this tax it doesn't make sense I have stated that for years that there's people who will who are genuine farmers and if you are talking to the genuine farmer who loves the land and loves working on the land they have no interest in selling their land they want to farm their land and those people should be allowed to do that without an unfair taxation coming down on top of them now this this taxation this although there there could be amendments put on that and I would sincerely hope that the farmers association along with our TD agent up and this is where where it's happening where the bills are passed that there would be specifications and they say but if there's land in the family for years they're not speculators and they want to maintain they want to keep their land I would agree that there are speculators who have bought hordes of land and and accumulate this and and waiting for the price to get up to go up so they can sell it and make a profit on it I've taxed those people who want to to build on it but not the farmers all right so have you yeah go ahead just add this one in case that I do forget about this is prime agricultural land that we're talking about and the change in climate in the world God the island is a good producer of food and beef and dairy cat at dairy produce why can we not keep a good agricultural land for agricultural we have plenty of places where we have that that there's not it's not suitable for growing anything but certainly would be suitable for housing and the way don't we build houses on land that is not used for agriculture I mean this this plan hasn't been thought through okay when's that meeting taking place finally again and I haven't got to go on it but I think it's one day or the next week and then the show and would certainly keep you posted and and and anybody else is interested in on it so there's an awful lot of there's a reading and I was reading through an awful lot of stuff and this is this has been brought into the department of finance finance and the department of housing and local government and you know when the department of finance gets their hands on anything the tax will be paid on it and this is going to put farmers off their family land that had been fired for generations all right listen thanks very much for your time I appreciate it thanks okay all right take care 08 660 25,000 is the what's up in text number give us a call on 07 491 25,000 this caller says as an Irish Republican I'm disgusted that Michelle O'Neill has accepted an invitation to the coronation of Charles in May what has our struggle been about all these years it's been welcomed by some criticized by others what do you think do you think Michelle O'Neill was correct in accepting the invite to that coronation it is presumably the way forward Michelle O'Neill says that she wishes to represent all sides of her community as First Minister all communities sorry and I suppose if she were to refuse that invitation how could she do that I don't know what do you think 08 660 25,000 08 660 25,000 or call us an 07 491 25,000 07 491 25,000 there was never an independent review as Barrister O'Shea who was in control of the so-called review was a prominent campaigner for unrestricted abortion during the referendum I've not yet read the full report but I hope RTDs will show some respect for life they say let's return to the issues and concerns raised by Father Bradley Connell joins us on the program for this conversation Connell thanks for taking the time out this morning okay now yeah it's a very enlightening conversation you had with Father Bradley and it's it's very important I think that that discussion has carried on much further through the whole political arena because I think politics as we know what is stuck on a time warp to about issues you know and debating issues and the dollars used a lot of the times to discuss issues that are not really fundamentally hugely important for the country whereas something like that is is really it's it's so important to discuss it because I think a lot of the stuff Connell now discussed in the doll and other parliament it's not exclusive to the doll is distraction it's to look at this so that you don't look at that I mean when was the last time say for instance you know the mental health of our young people or the greater population and the impacts of that people down by suicide when did that dominate the front pages for five or six days when did that lead to a heated row during dolls leaders questions are we being I mean are we being represented by anyone in the doll then if not talking about this stuff well I think politics politics has to have a conversation with itself and that's all political parties as to what its function really is you know because when you see what what is happening I mean it has to address issues I mean it can be dominated by the formation of a new rural party or the sale of a site by some other politician or or I mean I've seen a heading in the paper yesterday which is I can't understand it at all in the in the paper about Joe Biden should be in a more or less in a nursing home you know this type of thing and I mean look at I'm old enough to realize that the whole of life is a learning process and what what has happened this last 25 years in the whole social media thing and a whole change of a way of life completely it's not it's not debated in the political arena the way it should be and that's that that's a big issue and even here in this country you know I mean we know these things are happening and we fail to debate them as you say about the causes of the destruction it causes a mental health and everything else you know and we need to we need to debate in a conversation among ourselves and it has to start with politicians about looking at what their role is in the modern island that we have and how it can be changed to make things better I mean there's nothing wrong with changing politics it's just the same as it was 50 years ago you know that these type of debates not you know but it's such a different word now and there's such issues like that what the Father Bradley brought up that they nearly they have to be brought to the forefront of a center part of you know yeah but unfortunately and the media has its role to play in this it's we talk about stuff that really it's obviously important but it's not the big issue you know the whole debate that's dominating American Irish to some extent and certainly British television news at the moment is this whole woke agenda and the the fight over that I'm not saying it's not insignificant but it doesn't pay the mortgage you know what I mean it doesn't get you a hospital bed it doesn't prevent you being outside uh letter Kenny University hospitals ed in a trolley in an ambulance for 12 hours that debate yes it's important we need to get that right but it is talked talked more about than it's than it is important if that makes sense compared to all the other issues that are going on in life and it's just one issue after the other we all just argue about something that's not really necessarily what we should be we have our eyes off them yeah I mean I've been in your program many times saying and this is going on now for 10 years about a fair deal scheme for home care that people can stay in their own home and you can have a system in place that that there's a good fair deal scheme to help to get any recent hospital and keep people out of nursing homes that maybe not necessarily have to go there I mean I'll give you an example I'm a community development all my life and I'm over 70 but I was in Ross Common in the 70s and I remember going to this man he lived in poor conditions and I was involved myself in volunteer organizations at that time and everybody was saying he should go in to the local nursing home you know but I had a conversation with him and I thought that was right I was in my 20s that time I had a conversation with him but he told me look at every day I get up at the feed the dog I have to make my tea I meet the traveling shop I see the postman the day doesn't be long when I'm and he says if I go in there I don't know how to do the whole day now I thought he was wrong that time because I was young yeah but I'm not it's now and I think I now know he was right but that debate needs to occur to from people that's retired I mean you know elderly people and it could that myself they're the people that's in recipients of the care but maybe a lot of the time it's decided by people that's that's young that have well you see this is this is the power right that the media and politics has if you think about it and I've talked about this extensively on the program because I have a real problem with it old people older people are probably not willing to speak out because they're seen as the problem there are the people that we can't afford to look after because people are retiring too young there are the people that are clogging up hospitals do you know the narrative that's out there well older people are lambasted and blamed for everything if you actually look into how the conversation is happening so if you're an older person you're going to keep your head down below the parapet because you'd be afraid of it getting chopped off if you dared speak about your own rights no I think older people have to speak up I mean I'm great involved here and my own part in community development in all aspects of it and maybe and everything maybe I'm in too many things maybe I'm in them too long but I think I have a contribution to make and I think a lot of the times communities undersell themselves totally and their capacity to deal with an awful lot of the problems that they have in their own parish and the parish is a great unit and we're underselling our capacity to run our own affairs to some degree looking too much for centralized solutions to everything I mean what better way of getting people involved in the community what can we do but this that and the other thing and the part and the community and the parish and and I think people can people will achieve an awful lot and they can do far more but I think politics has to change to to to realize that that this was it was it you I was talking to about going back to the system of providing housing in local communities through maybe it wasn't you but it was you I mean yeah well I was involved in our grant but that's my point exactly and I appreciate that but I mean like that is again I thought that was a very common sense intervention from you Connell in that we have a system and it might seem old now where that actually delivered houses where they were needed in the area why aren't we given the one billion euro that we're not spending on housing that's been allocated for it to organizations like we might have seen in the past that will actually start delivering houses in the areas that they're needed from we have we know we have a we know how it works if we used to do it well I'm pushing it very much at the moment I'm pushing a project a very local project here not far from myself similar to that because there are so many young people in for instance in nursing homes that they can't have care in their own community of a building that's suitable for their care and you know with a little bit of backup you don't need a lot of backup and you also need I find now that you need mixed development you need young families you need elderly people all together in the community of buildings because what happens then is the younger people and the younger children get automatically interlink with the elder people and see them as you know as part of the thing whereas there's a great tendency now to put us all in boxes that I'm putting a box when I'm over 70 and I shouldn't be saying this not that I should listen to this but there's there's so many solutions out there you know when we're intelligent people and we are great community people but sometimes we just writing that first line on the sheet of paper and calling that first meeting is all what's so important you know but another thing too and this is no disrespect to anyone I'm not calling any anyone out right but a lot of two what are the conversation you see in social media is the fear of what might happen what is coming what's going to happen what could happen here what could happen there and no one not enough sorry people are talking about what's happening now we've got record levels of the abuse of children right now we've got record levels of children harming themselves right now we've got record levels of children seeking help for their poor mental health right now look what with the older generation for example look at all the problems they are experiencing right now the same with the squeezed middle and inverted commas yet if you go on any campaign pages anything on social media now and and don't get me wrong it's justified and people are entitled to campaign and what they want but it's about what might happen what could happen what happens if this happens and then that might happen and what kind of a society might we have then and no one is having a conversation about the mess that's happening right now because we're all distracted look we're making things far too complicated and so many respects I mean I'll give you another example the one I was in the 70s I wasn't in charge of farm water supplies I went out to this house and the man had chronically suffered from MS and he had no water and it was a very expensive place but no water I could have cancelled that application or I could say look can I community do something about this and I asked a well-born contractor would he look at it in the context of maybe they would organize something to get it done and if there is a man or them and he bore the well it was he had water and I went on into the hardware man and was coming and he drove out he said we'll do this job you know and we managed to get it done and all that and I could have cancelled that application or I could do someone about it but in the modern world that we have if I was a civil servant and that you couldn't do things like that no no you're breaking regulations but the goodness of people has to be always a paramount of importance over total red tape and bureaucracy that doesn't serve the end purpose anyway can't listen thanks for your time as always I appreciate it I wish we had more time the 9 till noon show with letter Kenny credit union simplify your debts with a debt consolidation loan from letter Kenny credit union call us on 0 7 4 9 1 0 2 1 2 6 or apply online via our app or in office today the paving store a creative landscaping works in letter Kenny have all you'll need to give your driveway patio or yard the wow factor with the full range of tobermore paving bricks and flags walling kerbs and edging they're also done it goes leading supplier of millboard decking and cladding they have the largest range of artificial grass in the northwest and a huge range of outdoor play accessories see the unique displays and talk to the experience team at the paving store this men and letter Kenny on 0 7 4 9 2 0 5 0 3 9 mockery demand farm transfer scheme for more in your farmers journal is Paul Mooney young farmers call and t-shirt to incentivize farm succession plans Brazilian wood ship ship 7000 kilometers to be burned in county offally Michael Fitz Morris outlines his plans for a farming and rural party land rental prices predicted to jump 14% factories take record numbers of feedlot cattle plus in our farm succession series we look at the pros and cons of prenuptial agreements all in this week's irish farmers journal on sale now Calla and Scala and go Burt your one-stop family shop with over 50 years of experience we pride ourselves in providing a top-class customer experience keen fuel prices convenience shop hot deli hardware and for us these famous special recipe ice cream family run helpful staff and service with a smile sure it's all go with kelin's highland radio weather updates with Ireland west airport fancy a european city break this summer discovered the beautiful cities of Barcelona cologne and Milan with ryan air six flights week for summer 2023 island west airport don't just take off take it easy okay so uh mostly cloudy today with patchy outbreaks of rain and drizzle light to moderate southeast lee winds will gradually back north westerly highest temperatures of 12 to 14 degrees but temperatures looking to increase by the weekend and perhaps a decent spell of weather not promising too much into next week we shall see a caller says mental health in this country is on its knees and I agree with father Bradley social media is to blame there's such a huge pretense of this perfect world on social media many influencers now admit one perfect photo may have took 20 shots to get it right indeed so father father Bradley is 100 right i see it all the time in my grandchildren because their mother restricts their time it's the first thing they ask for in my house so we have a deal we have to do an activity to get 15 minutes on the phone and very often once they start the activity they forget all about her phone time uh Greg i think Michelle O'Neill is 100 right going to uh Charles's coronation i think people need to move on in life and get over the past she is showing everyone the true meaning of respect another i think Michelle O'Neill going to the coronation is shameful i hope she enjoys the limelight she is at the moment because it certainly won't last she isn't representing everyone in northern Ireland and it shows back to father Bradley's comments thank you so much father Bradley for shining a light on this i think the whole social network thing is an addiction and worse than alcohol we need to pray for the younger generation that they can get through this the problem is is that it's here now um and as as father and father Bradley corrected me a couple of occasions a couple of occasions because he sees it from all angles it is a wonderful thing the internet and and what have you and social media is too but it is a very very difficult space to uh be in really dependent on what part of it that you're in and it's not going to change now it's part of everything look look at the Nile Collins story it started on um it started on social media um look at if the pope uh makes a statement he makes it on twitter now his intervention on things like the ukraine war or a message it's posted first on twitter that's the pope himself i'm not saying that as a criticism either but that's where it's at that's how it's happening so we can't avoid it can we we just have to uh figure out how we can do it and maintain our um maintain our well-being okay it is time to take a break for the news and obituary notes stay right where you are and keep those texts and calls coming in by the way mockery demand farm transfer scheme for more in your farmer's journal is paul mooney young farmers call in t-shirt to incentivize farm succession plans brazilian wood chip ship 7 000 kilometers to be burned in county offaly michael fits morris outlines his plans for a farming and rural party land rental prices predicted to jump 14 percent factories take record numbers of feed lot cattle plus in our farm succession series we look at the pros and cons of prenuptial agreements paul in this week's irish farmers journal on sale now do you know what i love about letter kenny shopping center i love it because everything i need is under one roof there's fashion shopping for women and men health foods and cosmetics test schools and pennies free parking and late night shopping thursday and friday i love it because letter kenny shopping center has it all including homework jewelry hair and beauty and revolution laundry and their free car park letter kenny shopping center so much choice and open seven days if you have an idea to solve one of ireland's social problems we want to hear from you at social entrepreneurs ireland we support people with ideas that will deliver positive social change apply today for training funding and support at social entrepreneurs dot ie and we'll be with you every step of the way with the right people beside you anything is possible ideas academy closing day to may 16th impact program closing date may 30th visit social entrepreneurs dot ie we all have that perfect spot the corner of the couch where the lights just right the kitchen table with your first coffee or lounging by a crackling fire so where will you read it enjoy home delivery of the irish times from just two euro 40 per day visit news delivery dot ie the irish times because you get it air online and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning it's 10 o'clock donal kavana at the news desk a donagall priest has spoken out in a bid to highlight what he says is a tsunami of people being dependent on social media father francis bradley parish priest of bunkrana says the tragic death of a 13-year-old has drawn to a head something that needs to be addressed he says while social media is a positive tool in connecting people the pitfalls of the dangers of it are not being tackled father bradley told today's 19 noon show that social media is taking over people's lives and that is deeply concerning the child is playing with a mobile phone already at the age of two or three becoming conditioned to knowing that this is the means of their entertainment i'm just very concerned about it and tragically tragically we have to deal with the terrible fallout of that i'm a very small voice being raised in questioning this tidal wave of compliance that we've allowed ourselves to become part of in relation to our dependence on social media an independent councillor in and shown says there's a major problem at the heart of the new residential zoned land tax which is set to come into effect next year land which is zoned residential is subject to tax but councillor nicklas crossland says some farmland on the outskirts of bunkrana is zoned as strategic reserve land which means it may in the future be used for residential developments but at present it is being farmed however councillor crossland says the farmers now face having that land taxed under a measure designed to tackle speculators who are hoarding land and that he says is unjust i have been making representation on behalf of farmers around bunkrana area that i've come to be and said some of them have land for in their family for over 120 years others have 90 and 70 these are not speculators these are not people who bought land the last couple of years willing to wait on the land prices to go up these are people who farm all their life and in my opinion this is unfair it's an unjust it's an unbelievable tax that our government will enter just as health dunningall councillor says there is a need for a concerted effort to address the lack of infrastructure in many parts of the county and in particular to prioritise areas deemed to be at full capacity councillor null jordan says mont charles is a typical example no development can take place there and that situation is exacerbated by the fact that water and sewage works which have been promised for a number of years have not taken place councillor jordan says as a new draft county development plan is completed there needs to be a focus on opening areas up for the provision of new homes and businesses i just give one example of land identified in the mont charles area for social housing just can't move without the infrastructure put in place for that area i would be asking that areas whether to have more input tell us where there is capacity tell us where there's no capacity and their plans going forward to address us two men have been charged as part of an investigation into a gang impersonating gar thee it follows a 10 month investigation focused in the east and the midlands with more here's ifa currents gar thee have been investigating claims people were pretending to be gar thee and taking cash from people's homes six searches were carried out across three counties and around 3000 euro and cash three rolex watches and five vehicles were seized in the operation on tuesday five people were arrested three have since been released without charge this morning two men charged in connection with the investigation will appear before clikkenny district court a motorcyclist has been killed in a road traffic collision in county cavern it happened at around eight o'clock last night on the r165 at corner kill kings court there were no other vehicles involved gar thee said the motorcyclist who was aged in his 20s was pronounced dead at the scene the road remains closed this morning his body's been brought to hospital for a post mortem examination adoni gold deputy says the good friday agreement has not been implemented in full as legacy issues remain outstanding donnie gold deputy povick mcgloughlin was speaking in the doll during statements on the anniversary of the good friday agreement he says in some aspects people have not been allowed to move on from the past the legacy bill represents a clear breach of british government commitments and two international treaties the storm and house and the new decade new approach agreements instead of fostering and building upon our peace and seeking to meet the needs of all of our peoples that bill stands clearly as we're representing a blatant disregard for victims well the forecast and that here and tell us it'll be mostly cloudy today with patchy outbreaks of rain and drizzle top temperatures on today thursday of 12 to 14 degrees celsius and that silent british news we're back with news headlines again at 11 o'clock until then from the news team have a very good morning the obituary notices for this thursday morning april the 27th the death has taken place of william barn mcfadden knock foley gedor removal from the eternal light chapel of rass mount and top letter kenny at 12 noon today going to roti's funeral home dairy bag his remains will repose there until rosary at 8 o'clock removal afterwards to his daughter francis gallerhurst heist upper keel drama gore to hork heist strictly private for family only please funeral mass in sin column kills church knock foley on saturday morning at 11 o'clock with burial afterwards in knock foley cemetery the death has occurred of john joe harkin gally duff clemane remains are opposing at his late residence funeral from there on saturday morning at half past 10 going to st mary's church clemane for recreation mass at 11 o'clock with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery family time please from 10 p.m until 11 a.m family flowers only donations if desired to sin column kill village claire clemane care of any family member or mcfeeley funeral directors john joe's funeral mass can be viewed live on church services dot tv the death has occurred of paddy lion's korean ballet buffet remains are opposing at mcclean's funeral home ballet buffet with visiting time this evening from 5 o'clock until 9 o'clock rosary tonight at 9 o'clock funeral evening there tomorrow morning at 20 past 11 for recreation in the church of our lady of perpetual soccer glen fin at 12 noon interment afterwards in kilty vogue cemetery the recreation mass will be streamed live by the parish webcam donations and lay of flowers if so desired to the dunigal hospice care of any family member the death has occurred of 20 o'clock 24 clonkill park bomb crana reposing at murphy's funeral home this evening from 6 o'clock until 9 o'clock removal tomorrow morning at quarter past 9 to st mary's oratory bunk rana for recreation mass at 10 o'clock full by cremation and leg glands crematorium at 4 o'clock recreation mass can be viewed on church services dot tv forward slash bunk rana family flowers only please donations and lay of desire to the irish lung fibrosis association care of any family member or murphy funeral directors the death has taken place of john t. sculler st. joseph's drum fin fulcara his remains are opposing at his late residence with rosary tonight at 9 o'clock funeral mass to more morning at 11 o'clock in sinfinian's church fulcara followed by burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery highest private following the rosary tonight and before the funeral tomorrow and the death has occurred of null crossing three hill crest leg letter kenny remains opposing at his late residence funeral from there going to sinfinian's cathedral for recreation mass at 11 o'clock this morning with burial afterwards in holy cross church burial grounds done family time before the funeral this morning family flowers only please donations and lay of flowers to the dunigal hospice for more details including any family health guidelines for wicks and funerals please go to highlandvideo.com on puss money mate is a current account that gives kids the power so what money power do they want the power to get paid for their chores come on nearly there punter oh shown for relax your mom's paying you with jobs on the app or to be a super saver with the savings jars hold on can i have the power to keep an eye on all of this you can with the current account for kids that's just two euro per month plus your first three months free search on puss money mate or get the on puss money app tees and sees apply see on puss money dot com forward slash money mate available for children age seven to fifteen and a half years transaction fees apply after three months a monthly fee applies on puss is authorized by the minister for finance to provide payment services and is regulated by the central bank of ireland and the provision of such services good morning once again you're welcome back to the nine till noon show welcome along if you're just joining us uh you missed out on quite an informative and uh interesting first hour i think just a reminder for you that the show's podcast on our website it's broken down into three hours uh for you every day it's available uh just after 12 around about half past 12 or you can watch the show back whenever you like on our youtube channel highland radio arland a call it says so good uh to hear such common sense on so many topics this morning instead of legal and uh political another as for michelle o'neill shin fame would need to look at itself bowing to the king of england a step too far insulting the innocent people of uh dairy murders by king charles's army and he the chief of the power regiment another michelle is right she's looking at the bigger picture and looking to a future for all the people unlike uh the dup who are self-serving another michelle o'neill is only going to the coronation to wind up jeffrey donelson who is missing out real mixed views on this topic and call it says what about the property tax as well unfair tax on your home we had to pay it taken over by revenue time the people took to the streets this government is a joke dick terpens the lot of them i've heard no proposals from any other parties by the way to um remove the property tax now unless i've missed them so if you were to uh remove them with whom do you replace uh re charles's coronation a patot beans party ain't who's criticism of michelle o'neill designate first minister in the north of arland shows us what a one-trick pony political party they are in my opinion miss o'neill said from the start she would be first minister for all of this politics at play here too i'm not questioning uh patot beans uh motivations but of course they are contesting elections in northern arland and a number of seats uh in the next month and maybe they feel that um if they take that stance it might uh play to a wider audience relating to your conversation with father bradley earlier and his interview with greg yes totally agree with his view on mobile phones on the internet this interview was targeted all the right angles but it's up to the parents and teachers to address this toxic issue um hi greg that cancer is 100 leave farmland for farming and their families there are too many things in the pipeline that our so-called government is trying to introduce that it's not getting the attention it deserves there's nothing in it for the local person uh the local farmer only grief rtds have shown time and time again um they are not there to support their people only developers investors bankers or corporate people don't hear what's happening so they can't react in time hi greg did you hear any news about revolute looking for your pps number for june this will finish revolute with me thank you um they have to have your pps number apparently now when i say they have to just to be clear i'm not defending revolute or saying it's the right thing to do i'm just saying this is what they say because of the potential for money laundering and um and um scams they say that they are required by law to have the pps number i presume the other banks have to have it as well they are now obviously providing irish um i-band numbers and presumably another set of rules and oversight from the central bank requires them to seek your pps number they asked for mine a couple of months ago um but presumably as it relates to money laundering i mean talking about money laundering and all that kind of stuff i went into the post office a couple of weeks ago spoke with a lovely lady don't get me wrong this is nothing to do with her but i was surprised dare i say even shocked that to get a money order it was 65 euro um you have to provide your you have to sign a document and your date of birth you have to provide your date of birth just to transfer 65 euro into a money order and i've gained that stand for money laundering rules and all but you know they'll they'll argue what it's for but i can't believe that this day in age just to transfer 65 euro in cash to a money order that you have to provide such personal information as your date of birth i didn't mind because i don't really feel have anything to hide i've got very little privacy on my phone in terms of what companies can access because i don't really care but for others it would be a big deal that's why i mentioned it all right good luck if you're playing the bingo today it is jackpot day here are the numbers the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio it's time for mcbi bingo on highland radio it's thursday the 27th of abril jackpot day you're playing for the jackpot 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bills recently for really big amounts well i thought they were big and they were big but nothing compared to what we're going to talk about now i've been chatting to people off air and and on who've received bills seven eight nine uh hundred euro thousand euro and what have you but as i say that pales almost i wouldn't say to insignificance because it's very significant to the people involved but it's it's nothing really compared to what the the bill that dropped on to martin's uh door mat good morning to you martin thanks for joining us good morning how you doing great i'm all right i don't know how i would feel though if i received uh this bill um that you received for your electricity especially considering i'm not really having to go through everything that you're going through at the moment because you have a defective concrete home and you received a recent bill for electricity and what was that bill uh yeah well we've got a bit of a holy moly we've got a bit of a good a shock um that was the start of january uh yeah we have one of the defective blocked houses and um you know to be fair about it our house has become an increasingly hard to heat as a fleet um so our prices have been creeping up there's no doubt about that but on the start of january and i'll always remember it was on a friday probably four five o'clock probably too late for me to call but anyway remember that open up the letter and we got a bill for electricity for 3189 79 cent um i'm going to be totally honest i didn't really i've got a bit of a shock but i didn't i wasn't one bit worried about it i thought okay it's obviously a mistake so there's not a lot i can do until monday morning so i'll give them a shout in monday so i did give them a shout in monday and she's greg within two minutes within 30 seconds that was my bill apparently i was estimated in september october november december they read it in january and that was my bill now i do appreciate and i do realize i have a heat pump um that's the alert works in the electricity because we have a night meter so um it's heat in the house during the night um i can tell you that the switch on the wall of that has actually been switched off since we went about a thousand liters of oil but uh i was also at a contract what them she informed me now the person was lovely they they they kind of they helped me as much as they could so i was at a contract so i had no discount um so she applied all them right back to when it did go out which brought my ball down to just north of 2800 now in relation to martin how many months did that cover four months okay i couldn't understand it i said listen there has to be a mistake i said could it be a problem with the meter so she actually pointed me in the direction of the sb that yes you can get your meter tested they'll come out they'll remove your meter they'll take it away i think it's either for seven or eleven weeks they put it onto this machine to calibrate it to see if it's going okay if it's deemed that there's something wrong with it as calculated you get a get your return if there's nothing wrong with it you pay us be 180 euro i think for their trouble to come out and do that for you we didn't do it we just took it on the head we ended up paying for it and that that's our ball just north of 2800 for that for that period couldn't possibly believe it i was gobsmacked but but what do you think is eating the electricity so much it couldn't be the heat pump could it on on on night time are you having to use we storage heaters and stuff in different rooms or no we're not we're not we haven't got to that stage yet now we're not using storage heaters or anything like that i still i have to how in the name of god could i possibly use that much electricity so they all pointed me in the direction of the heat pump it must now i know there was a cold snap but that wasn't we've had colder um because there's a there's a little unit that's outside the house and when it gets below a certain temperature it'll always obviously bring it on um but you know this i didn't even contact the people that put it on for me to see to come out i've just switched it off at the wall no heat pump we went and got a thousand liters of oil yeah uh and that's what we're using at the minute and did you see the whatsapp i've just sent her while i was waiting to talk to you i actually did you look at my whatsapp there i put another button um for the last period oh god i wrote it up in the kitchen what for six six hundred and eighty six nine three six six hundred and ninety three euro and eighty eight cents that's for two months is it that's for two months but that's for january now in february so that's my ball that has just arrived with me today six hundred and ninety three eighty eight i don't know where i'm going wrong i think i'm going to have to do something about the esp to come out to check my meter or something because there's no we're on the night meter saver our um dishwasher our washing machine and everything is put on a delayed timer that's done during during the night our house is just a wee bit over two thousand square foot it's not like we're heating a small bloody castle um but it's just absolutely electricity at the minute as cropping it's now this is still this is still particularly high i mean i think i'm kind of average you know there's a number of tv's on in on in the house i'm constantly asking people to turn off lights you know yourself stopped using the dryer as much as possible uh but sometimes you still have to but my bill is is i think my last one was three eighty eight which is far shy of your seven hundred um mark i mean that's just astronomical no one can absorb those types of costs so you're you've paid effectively you know over three grand for electricity for five months yes and i've and i've and i've the whatsapp of whatsapp my my account number to show you to show that i'm not making it up you know i don't have it of the bow yeah i didn't even get talking to my wife yet about it but um geez we seem to be absolutely crippled with electricity even listening to your two callers coming do you know that's i think we're just been slowly chipped at all the time these companies are showing huge profits and allowing the prices to rise with absolutely no accountability whatsoever well here i am here we are now i know that's probably the and i know there has to be people sitting out there what is what is the same dilemma as that we're on at the moment but where do you go um the lady was talking about sweatshirt and doing this and that and i did i wouldn't be the quickest person to pick up on that but i did contact the good for you them the prices that i would have been or the saving that i would have been making would have been no more than maybe a hundred and fifty to two hundred euro over the year now that's the energy that i'm was at the moment which would have been always fairly would have been there or there about i know there's not a well maybe there is a difference but i don't i couldn't see a huge difference but uh listen that's where we're at um i listen to you i know this i think our politicians and our local representatives needs to be doing i know this is a nationwide thing but uh prices of everything and we're we're in every department we're being chipped and chipped away at all the times you geez greg if this was to happen in france do you know this to be uproar in a stitch to be uproar what do you see we are paying and as you know and and has triggered all of this we're paying the highest electricity in europe uh we are um four or five times the lowest we are 50 above the the average what's going on where is our representation on this stuff martin you know they're in arguing about not unimportant things in the door but what about this like this is crippling people that type of a bill i don't know martin if you you come across as you come across in your voice and the way you're speaking to me to some extent as you can take things in your stride and perhaps you have to with everything you're going through with the house and everything but for some people to get that bill if i if for some people to get that bill i don't know what impact it might have on them and and then to get another bill then for 700 even after switching off your heating overnight um and on top of all of that to be in a house that's deteriorating all the while getting no help from banks i presume no help from from the government as of yet we'll see what comes from that i mean it's just one thing after another for your smart and i don't know how you can say you know so sounding so upbeat and i'm not trying to bring you down i admire you and i wish i could take some some of it from you uh but like it's why i can choose one thing after another right okay okay it's just yeah okay i get to you uh i'm not one but i'll beat about it just yes with regards to our politicians and not been represented that is definitely it and particularly i know this is nationwide but particularly indoni gall we do you know this we're far too nice up here we need to be represented and we need to be heard at the table a lot stronger and a lot harder than what we are we're just too caught up our own our own tds our own politicians are all too caught up and and and the family and not the family the the party whoop and and they're afraid of ruffling feathers and i think that's why there's leaving us a lot of us where we are today now don't be under any illusion that we're taking this in our side yes we've got a lot i've spoken to you but make you and or not to have make at that time but effective concrete now before but i can assure you we're not taking it out would be our self-employed now with four four young family and even before we got our core sampling done that was last year i got my core sampling done on on on december the 13th my wee girl was she was turning her eighth birthday three days before that my wife organized a party in dairy and we're going to go on for something to eat we went to the mass the cathedral and i didn't feel great that morning but anyway i went to mass the cathedral hoping to go to dairy after that to celebrate her birthday it was the day of her eighth birthday and ended ended up coming out in an ambulance i was actually anointed coming out the door just took some kind of panic attack or something but believe me the the stress and the and the anxiety that's what it is palpable that's so hence the reason i haven't been on talking i tried to i can only i'm not a public speaker i can only tell my own story and that helped somebody else or somebody else can relate to it great okay but um the the pressure and you feel okay more and because i think that at that time the pressure pop was just at its maximum and and the lid went just for context for this electricity situation and and i don't know why we're being treated like we are wholesale electricity prices that's the price that that these companies buy the electricity at fell by 41% in the final three months of last year compared to the previous quarter electricity prices were 17% cheaper compared to the last three months of 2021 right now we're still getting these massive massive bills and we hear tea shuckling of red car or tannister at the time sat up sat opposite me and said well we can't do this and we don't know if we can do that and this that and the other and they join us and say it's terrible what's going on but if a government any government this government or whatever government can't intervene to at least get some fairness for us well then what is it all about whomever it is i don't care if it's phenogale phenofulsion phenain too it doesn't matter but they are there to scream from the rooftops to say that you can get electricity now on the open markets for 17% then you could at the end of 2021 and then there's people like yourself martin who have received them bills for over 3 000 euro and having to put up with that and everything else that's going on like what is going on in this country you've got the nail in the head there so where do you what do you say to that what do any counsellors say to that what is any td or politicians say to that um are they been listened to they might be in the party but are they actually been listened to and if they're in there what the bloody hell are they doing look at us they can very welcome to come here and have a look at look where we're living look at the state of our house now i know there's probably houses that are a lot worse off you don't have to apologize with what you're going through my understand that and i know it's in your nature but this is your experience right what i'm annoyed about is why why isn't somebody actually doing something about it you know we're not only just us but it we're slowly being chipped away at this land i was tired you're talking about the farmers there's only the land the fishing everything we're just being chipped away at all the time constantly constantly constantly gee where it's what point does it actually stop and do people actually start what stop worrying about things and love life that's a really important point how can you when you've so much going on around you even the most normal events take on a whole different meaning don't you're running past your family you're running past every joy of being a parent you know where do you get the brain space for that not you personally mark i mean all of us you know what i mean like just the simple stuff that as we grind out what we're grinding out um yeah yeah and also to listen that thousand liters of oil is not going to last for ever either and that's going to be another bill that's coming down the line while you've got a i checked it last night well i know it's down a wee bit of a minute but uh i checked it i've been running about eight inches so i'll probably for another fortnight so that did me um that did me all just eight and a half weeks so i'll probably get another week so i'll probably chat in about 11 weeks for a for a thousand liters of oil i'll tell you what i would do martin because i don't i don't trust these people i'd switch to a pay-as-you-go meter uh get them into install it see how much you're using and then before the cooling off period expires get it taken out again if you don't want it because i don't think i can trust the companies to sort of sort this out for you maybe that's one way you can monitor it yourself i don't know well i'm gonna this morning because that's not i did switch my heat pump off and turn off so i thought okay well if you're causing it we have we you have to be switched off so that is switched off and now just at one minute past 10 you'll see the time my text came in from energy and another ball now for 600 and 80 odd euro um for january and february so um okay i didn't get a chance we do i need to talk to my wife to see what's going forward but obviously i don't know the some of us people has gone i don't know i i'm i'm just at a loss that the minute has to know where to go it just seems as though we're working to pay electricity at the moment it's um it's mental it's absolutely mental it's totally unabstainable we couldn't sustain this we're gonna have to do something but anyway all right that's horrible and i'm sure there's other people out there as well and just the coincidence of the same boat yeah the coincidence of that 700 euro bill dropping on the dorm at the same time we're we're about to talk it's it's yeah all right martin listen yeah all right oh i hope there is some resolution soon and stay strong it's tough out there i understand that something or if there has been a mistake or if there's some problem with the meter or something i'll give you a heads up with somebody else my paper to relate to it but we're gonna have to look on to see where all this energy's been used at the moment or if that's what it is but if there is anything that jumps out i'll come back in that you know all right martin love to all the family thank you very much indeed for that i appreciate it tell me listening to martin there i mean shocking stuff uh you make a really a good solid point here tommy where is the energy regulator yeah that's that's right i like i've heard the prices of electricity on your show in the past i've heard peers to hardly chatting at all about it but where you know i've never heard it mentioned anywhere yeah i mean i saw someone yesterday um spouting not spouting because that sounds like i don't don't mean like that talking about how uh last month or one month this year 10 percent of our power came from solar you know another 30 35 percent came from wind we're being told this stuff and then we're being told that prices are so cheap on the open markets and yet we've got people like martin getting uh these big bills and who's standing up for the people it's clearly not the energy regulator because as you say tommy they're seemingly absent without leave yeah but i'm like i don't understand why it likes appears to hardly or even yourself in your show i've never mentioned the regulator yeah well this hands off yeah i suppose i understood the regulator when makes a like say um like just electric yard and want the price increase they have to go through the regulator and they have to okay it you know so i don't get it well maybe the energy regulator is not working for us maybe you know i presume then they set the right that guarantees people who generate electricity through wind um the same amount of money you get per unit for if you create it with oil or gas i don't know maybe they're part of the yeah okay okay look i don't know like the financial regulator went went missing about 10 15 years ago and look look what happened to the country so look the you know it has to be brought up it has to be brought up in front of the royal committee or whatever and put through a basis whilst i was speaking to you just just another side thing on what you what your man was just talking about there about the prices i watched a little video this morning on youtube and this guy i don't know where he's from maybe somewhere in the valley shaman area lachey area because he mentioned about going to um keys and lachey about the generator to generate his own electricity because he said it'll work out cheaper than paying what they're paying at the moment and this guy he was charged over 2700 euros on a two-monthly bill and he got on to to the company and he reckons that they're just targeting random people and charge them what they like and a big point that his thing was he says you've got all the people i've been maybe charged eight nine hundred pound i went ahead and paid the bill without even questioning us just thinking that's the prices like this yeah and he says they probably been targeting it he says uh just interesting while i'm listening to you and i was listening to you uh the commission for energy regulation which is the group that you talk of received 12373 complaints from customers last year about energy and water issues now did they act upon them how many of us actually go to the bother of making such a complaint as you say what are they going to do about it uh and we'll put out we'll put an inquiry into them and you're right hands up have we mentioned them no have we called them to account no shall we yes uh we will tell me but thank you very much for your input i appreciate it all right take care of yourself thanks to me but it's lovely having you on the show i appreciate it greatly uh that poor man electric is far too dear he's right the people have to stand together on this another martin is right it's a disgrace we should be more like the french and get out there our government ministers are well i have no words this whilst and trying to get a conversation going last week not trying to direct the conversation but get the conversation going we are living in a country that between last year this year and next will have an excess now the surplus is beyond what the government was expecting okay i i believe it certainly doesn't make up all of it but certainly part of it over 30 billion over 30 billion euro and we've got people like martin living in a defective concrete affected home getting bills of 3700 and 700 euro for five months to cover five months for just heating his home and even though we switched off the electric pump still for two months 700 euro which is uh that's not outside of what i've heard other people talking about but it's still incredibly high watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highlandradio.com the nine till noon show is brought to you by letter kenny credit union offering low rate holiday loans with fast approval apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today get the arish daily star today for your free 12 page punchestown festival pull out with all the top tipsters in our stable ready to get you first pass the post all week the arish daily star number one for racing number one for you come saturday once the drop-offs and pickups the tidying up and the cleaning out are done there's something tasty to be had a kelly's diner maybe one of the renowned burgers or some homemade goujons a pancake stack or something later from the selection of salads loads of parking take some time out this saturday a kelly's award-winning diner and in top letter kenny shop lk at brine mccormick sports and leisure main street letter kenny all the kids are back playing football with longer days and shorter nights kids football boots from only 25 euro available in velcro or lace check our new range of kids boots shorts socks and accessories visits our new club room with quarter zips t-shirts and matching bottoms for your favorite local club click on team wear at bmcsports.ie for more details hi paddy here at she and connor cars in dunig all town are you looking to upgrade your car but she and connor cars you'll find mix and models for every budget great finance options and they also accept radiance check out she and connor cars dot com or call on to us at she and connor cars from london road dunig all town hi breaching here from mcdade's bathroom plumbing tiles bunkrana it's the last few days of our massive marquee tile sale huge discounts on all wall and floor tiles and much more grab yourself a bargain at mcdade's bathroom plumbing tiles bunkrana massive marquee sale now on all right keep your calls and comments coming in on the various issues we've been discussing this morning i'll get to them in a moment but the head of the northwest migrants forum has called for an end to the deeply unfair practice of othering school children who do not identify as catholic or protestant the forum's director of programs lillian senor bar was speaking after receiving a heartfelt letter from a 10 year old muslim girl lillian joins us on the program now thank you for joining us lillian it's good to have you on the program uh i don't know if your microphone is blocked but um uh i can't hear you as clearly as i would like but anyway we'll proceed and see how we get on uh lillian talk to me about this young person's experience so yara is an 11 year old girl and throughout her primary school she was taught about diversity and that everyone is equal and she got a massive shock when she went to apply for secondary school she learned that religious and ethnic minoritized people were considered other she was just not shocked she was very upset and then decided she wanted to do something about it this is what prompted her to write to me and you know in some way in addressing this young person's experience we can also talk to about how in northern ireland despite all the changes that has happened there is still not enough integration it is them us others sort of a thing so really uh you know in addressing this we maybe could address the situation for an awful lot of children regardless of their background or what religion they happen to be born into absolutely 25 years after the good friday argument there is so much diversity of thought and diversity of identity in the north of ireland and to be honest identity has always been more than the two communities but we have remained in the binary of unionism and nationalist and Catholic and Protestants and we need to move away from language that alienates such a big community that belongs here if recently you see their lives and times service since 2006 they have shown that the largest group in northern irelands are not those who identify as nationalist or unionist they've moved away from that we mix communities mix religious families we have people of minoritized communities and young people who are born in this country who wants a better future and don't see themselves as reduced to these two boxes of a binary between Catholics and nationalists so it is something that we need to look into and seriously if we want to build a shared community and a shared future for everyone who lives in the north of ireland now this young girl uh asked encouraged the northwest migrants forum to make representations on their behalf and we're doing that now okay but unfortunately we can't make decisions or change policy so has the forum made representations to government or politicians when i say government obviously there's a complication in that regard but with the powers that be have representations been made and what has come back from them if so well we have done i received this letter only last week and the good news is the good relations strategy is being reviewed right now so we have submitted a feedback on the consultation and highlighted this issue as a very serious issue and iara is one who have taken action there are so many young people we work with in different schools in the north of ireland who also have a massive problem on this particular issue but we have also written to all the leaders of every political party today to highlight this issue and ask them to meet with young people from our community to listen to their voices and hear how they feel alienated in the society that they were born into and feel that they can build a sense of belonging here in the north of ireland if their identity is not recognized or they're not given the opportunity to express who they are and have to be put on a box of other which is quite frankly very diverse in nature in itself yeah so is there i wonder then is there other ways that we catch the population of school children in northern ireland because i presume in terms of policy approach where we you know how we refine our education system you kind of want a sense of who you're teaching don't you and it would be interesting to know how many are you know Protestant Catholic Muslim whatever religion there might be is there somewhere else i wonder in the system where we catch the actual makeup of this other group because if we aren't then i think we're missing an opportunity in in making sure that we are offering the best education for all children absolutely i think the best practice just use even just in England here where people can identify as who they want to and that is captured through policy if we move away from sectarian headcounts we can ask people a straight question how do you identify you know what religion do you come from it's not with really rocket science and if people want to identify as Catholic they might have a space rather than just putting it in a box to say are you Catholic are you a nationalist are you unionist or are you a Protestant and it's asked a straight question how do you identify and people what is your ethnicity or what is your religion and that can be captured it's happening just across the waters so why not happen here and you know we as adults can dig through this all and peel back the layers of the onions and all that kind of stuff but sometimes the words of the child themselves are the most telling and i'll read some of the letter here i'm writing to complain about signing up for the schools you see i found it hard to sign up to some schools because of the criteria as i'm sure you know it's set into Catholic Protestant and other and this is the bit that stood out for me it's a simple sentence i refuse to be called other it isn't nice so there's no loaded language there's no massive history there there's no bias you know that even she that she just simply says it's not nice you just say it's not nice to be out and we know other people is excluding them is denying them that sense of belonging and recently there was a research done by the economic and social research institute which compared migration patterns in the north of island and the republic of island and it highlighted that the second generation of young people living in the old island are twice likely to have poor mental health this is another issue that really makes it harder for them to feel that they belong here and it impacts profoundly on their mental health so we really do need to listen to the voices of these young people and move away from this binary just let them feel they belong because island is their home too okay thank you so much for your time this morning i appreciate it take care of yourself the line not terribly clear there but hopefully uh you were able to hear the points raised there by Lilian senior bar who is the northwest migrants forums director of programs and the young girl is simply saying it's catholic Protestant she doesn't want to take other just put a few other options there what do you think i'll wait six sixty twenty five thousand it makes sense to me um i don't know about uh what you all think that's why i invited you to next the nine till noon show is brought to you by letter kenny credit union offering low-rate car loans with fast approval apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today the world awaits you make 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gradually back north westerly highest temperatures of 12 to 14 degrees okay some of your comments coming in so far this morning martin said his bills were estimated for three times and mentioned being out of contract this is his problem he should have read his own meter and not gone out of contract i don't think it's his problem i understand where you're coming from his meter then was eventually read and it confirmed the estimates i'm currently out of contract with my electricity provider and the advantage of going back into contract is 100 euro credit that's it there's no other advantage beyond that there's no advantage in terms of the cost of electricity there's no deductions no nothing and they are the cheapest on the market at the moment so i take your point i respect your point but i'm not sure if that accounts for all of the money we're talking about here greg when buying a couple of hundred sterling in the post office i was asked for my pps number i was told it was required by the central bank keep up the good work they say yeah indeed that's why people are being asked for their revolute number if electric if electric allen dropped their rate to pre-covid rates they still would be making 400 million euro profit not too bad is it not too shabby another caller said i've got a bill of 2000 in march because of all the previous bills that been estimated live alone and i cannot pay this extra they arrived at my door to cut me off despite me paying each bill they sent me on time i ended up having to get a loan to pay it off well that again is completely uh sounds completely unfair can you imagine having to get a loan at to pay your electricity bill i'm sure many of you can because you're perhaps having to do it but that is that is not right okay let's talk history now it is time for talking history with dr joe kelly our resident historian good morning to you joe how are you keeping good morning good morning to you all and uh yourself and to all on highland radio it's great to have you back on the show again we're talking about the history of the gaurdi really effectively aren't we yeah there's a very interesting history of policing in ireland for the number of centuries um and we're commemorating this year a hundred years of the formation of the gaurdi chicana um they were named such in 1923 august 1923 so we've had a hundred years of the gaurdi and previous to that we had other police forces in ireland when we were colonized so there's a long history there how far back do you want to go should we start with the royal irish constabulary which of course the on gaurdi chicana effectively replaced or do you want to dig a little bit further back well maybe we think of it in the context before actually the english arrived in ireland and colonized us we didn't really have a policing system as such and we talked before about early irish law and the brechen law it was a self-regulated um and self-discipline society and if somebody broke the law a codified law then there was a punishment a fine paid by the individual and if the individual couldn't pay it it was paid by the family and the family couldn't pay it the community would pay it so that was the system we had and it was a very interesting policing right well let's set a scenario in right i i i'm making my own pot gene right i'm selling it all over the place in my local village i'm locked all the time everyone about me is locked we're fighting we're robbing we're doing all of that uh we're in the mid 19th century let's say uh there's no police what's going on how is how do we keep law in order yeah well what happened then from what you could say first of all very interesting is back in ancient irish times it wouldn't have been potting would have been meat and the beautiful thing about making alcohol from honey is there's no hangover it's a natural it's a natural alcohol so to speak it's fermenting so maybe we could go back to that and have less sore heads how do you spell meat and how many joking go ahead all the people googling and we're putting the bars out of out of out of business but um no you're right about that there how did this regulate and there was punishments laid down by the braves but as we moved into colonised times um and really with the arrival of 1171 of henry the second the king of england his son then was made the heir of hibernia and 1170 70 started to build dublin castle and with that establishment of dublin castle which is very uh a symbolic of british policing of ireland from 1177 to 1922 we have a colonial system of policing but it wasn't an organised policing system as we would know today it evolved over time and initially what they had say in urban areas were night wash watchmen they were called charlies and they only worked at night and they had kind of hooks um to catch people um they would have to go off around at night and say uh it's uh hour at 12 o'clock and uh cloudy evening they would shout out the weather they had little um like cricket sounding sticks that if there was a noise rattles uh they would uh they would spin the rattle around and that would alert all the other night watchmen to get the thieves and they would that was the kind of system but they were only part-time and you're correct it was only then subsequently you're talking with what they call the police preservation force which was established by uh robert peale who was the prime minister of england but he was in ireland as the lord lieutenant about 1812 and he established this uh force and it was the first policing force in either ireland or england at the time it was a professional permanent force um and it was based mostly in dublin and that's why often you know in our national anthem you'll hear a taffy lav in the billar the guns that are in the hands of the pealers and it's robert peale the prime minister so sometimes you might hear the police being called the guarding called the pealers in irees particularly in the irees language it goes back to robert peale that's why how would that have been uh uh accepted i wonder by the population in that you know it's a new concept we're born into it so it's very easy but they're going well gives you the right uh who gives who gives you the right to tell me what i can do and what i can't do i mean do we know if there was much of a pushback on it or did maybe people welcomed it because you know they thought right there's a lot of lawlessness and now we have some order i don't know i wonder what their attitude was well the population of ireland would have been somewhat different to as it is today um and it would be much more rural than urban if that makes sense so for the urban areas they would have welcomed peace and security of that if that was you know a concern for people um other than that there it wasn't really affecting their lives if they were carrying on as normal so to speak um but what they had in the counties where there would be riots or anti-agreery and anti-landlord movements they would have a county police that they moved around from place to place they weren't permanent that didn't happen really to the formation of the irees constabulary which led to the royal irees constabulary and you're talking from really 1822 on this organized police force was established and they had a bit of 1400 bikes throughout the whole length and breadth and this then became the structuring of policing that we've come to know even today it's the idea of it local permanent professionally trained educated men and women now at that time men and they had about 8500 men all right all right see your irees constabulary meant about 1840s and that number grew to about 10 12000 you mentioned the irees constabulary irees constabulary and the royal irees constabulary was the royal added later and if so why yeah well that's a very good question they were known as the irees constabulary initially and then they were called the royal irees constabulary after 1867 there was a fiennion rising in 1867 and the constabulary had paid a major role in suppressing that rise and so Queen Victoria honored the irees constabulary with the title royal so then it became the royal irees constabulary and we know later on when when when they were disbanded in 1922 in the six counties it became known as the r-u-c the royal ulster constabulary yeah well we talked about them being disbanded though it was a presumed some members of the r-u-c then became members of the the free state guard like how many how big of a transition from from the one force to the other i mean it was the new police effectively just a new name or was it a ranch and a brute a brute branch change yes a very interesting question and it was a very controversial question and and one must remember you know we we'd been with the war of independence 1919 to 1921 there was an effort to refuse to cooperate in any way with anything british in our country be it the court system be it supplying the police with turf isolating by cutting the police so you could say for three years from 1908 19 to 1921 there was no policing in ireland that it had fallen apart because people in ireland weren't accepting the r-i-c which was seen as a british rule in ireland weren't accepting that anymore so when we got independence in 1922 with the disbandment of of the r-i-c the problem was how are we going to restore order and there still were crimes during the war of independence how are we going to restore order to a society that has been more or less lawless or unpoliced for three years and it did create a lot of difficulties um because when the r-i-c initially disbanded ira men had moved into the various barks and taken them over and they kind of kept a policing presence but collins took a jaundice view of these men in the sense that they weren't profession they weren't trained um and he was concerned that they wouldn't be disciplined so he decided look we need to do something about forming a new police service in the new free state and so um at the time the the minister of the time um kevin o'higgins asked the tds could you recommend former r-i-c officers that were sympathetic towards the irish to help us form this new police now that went against the grain with a lot of men that had been fighting the r-i-c and shooting at them and the black in tans and all that and saying here what now you're going to take some of these men in to form our new guard d and about 180 former r-i-c men were given senior roles within the formation of the new guard d uh to help them shape them and one of them actually was a letter kenny man patrick walch and he became the assistant commissioner um and it was mcginley um he was the td dr mcginley and it would be nyle mcginley or the historian well-known donnie golland historian his father recommended patrick walch to michael collins and michael collins wrote to patrick walch asking him would he come to dublin to meet to help form the new guard d or the new civic yard and what do we know about patrick walch and do you have a little bit of time after 11 or are you you have okay so are you sure right because i'll tell you what we'll do is we'll take a break for the we'll take a break for the news if there's someone here to read the news here they come we'll take a break for the news and then what we will do is we will pick up with dr joe kelly as it relates to patrick walch and tease out the next hundred years or so all right it is the nine till noon show it is 11 o'clock it's time for news update or fast approaching it in any case here is donal cavern with the headlines okay slight problem with the mics here is donal cavern thank you Greg good morning a donnie goll priest has spoken out in a bid to highlight what he says is a tsunami across the world of people being dependent on social media father francis bradley parish priest of bunkranna says the tragic death of a 13-year-old has drawn to a head something that needs to be addressed 116 irish citizens and their family members have been evacuated from sudan the tonnish they issued an update on the operation to evacuate citizens after an escalation of violence in the country an independent councillor in the nation says there's a major problem at the heart of the new residential zoned land tax which is said to come into effect next year land which is zoned residential will be subject to the tax it's being introduced to tackle speculators who are hoarding land however councillor nick this crossland says some farmland on the outskirts of bunkranna is zoned as strategic reserved land and that means it could be used in the future and farmers face being taxed on now he says that is unjust a man's been arrested as part of the investigation into a g-soc investigator attending a party alongside jerry de mong hutch the man who's in his 60s is being detained at a garter station in the east of the country the party was held in dublin on the night mr hutch was acquitted of david bernes murder the tullivar road in octon tloy is closed following a crash earlier today emergency services are at the scene it's believed a number of people have been hospitalized the road is closed in both directions and a hikwa inspection of the bali shannon community nursing unit has found no non-compliances there were 26 residents at the center when the inspection took place in january more details and a link to the full report available on our website highland radio dot com we're back with news headlines again at 12 noon okay donal thank you very much indeed right still with us is dr joe kelly historian so doing a much about patrick walsh he was the r i c district inspector in letter kenny who as you were outlining before the news then was appointed second in command to the new guardie yes well um as i said dr mcginley dr joe mcginney who was a pro treaty td had recommended to collins and to higgins the ministers at the time uh that patrick would be very um favorable towards the irish free state and he used an example from his own experience where there was a an incident an ira attack which is dr mcginney himself was involved in and patrick walsh arrived to his house with the officers and said look three men were discovered and one of them fits your description and he moved through the house and he could find some shin fame literature and he says if you were this was found you know you'd be going to jail and he could rid of it and he let he let dr dr schweeney away if that's so to speak so dr schweeney never forgot that and he realized that this r i c man was actually very favorable towards the republican cause and so when the shoe was on the other foot in an independent ireland the doctors mcginney recommended him highly and michael collins wrote to patrick walsh and in fact he signed the letter milo collin which is very interesting so patrick went to dublin was actually a monahan man who had been in charge of the r i c in edard kenney and um he worked very hard in in establishing the garden chicana and the format the discipline the education and he served two commissioners um and he served up to 1936 and it was a very very odd it seemed to be in a very honorable noble just man and it was very interesting that ono nil the second commissioner said that he was so good to go to for advice such experience such forthrightness and he obviously had a shape what would become the future guard the as well as one element of that which intrigues me only this week interviewing uh the representative from the god a representative association on the conversation of whether or not god issued of tasers and during the course of that uh conversation he said and he said it before uh brendan o'connor that is that the the god of force is very proud that it's an unarmed force the r i c were an armed force worthy not so why did we then transition from the r i c an armed force into angadashi akana which is unarmed i presume it was unarmed from the start and yet here we are a hundred years later they're still proud of that but still having conversations about some level of armament brilliant question an absolutely brilliant question and i'll tell you why believe it or not the what was a city guard for a while it was called then the garden she had it was renamed it was actually initially an an armed police force and what happened was god remember the civil war was going on and there was a mutiny in may 1922 and kildare in the training station for the gardi what would become the new gardi and the state were a little bit afraid that if these armed gardi they could go one way or the other with the state and so they decided to not arm them after the mutiny that lasted for 11 weeks a lot of the new recruits didn't look very favorably towards these former r i c officers being in command if that makes sense and so the fear that they might actually you know read to another revolution or you know the anti-treaty side and so forth so they actually became unarmed after that mutiny in 1922 in may 1922 so that was within abundance of caution in case there was some sort of a rebellion or uprising or or something they took the guns off them because why would they have a ready-made army out there if they took an ocean to rise yes and that that was one of the concerns now historians have a different perspective because some would traditionally believe that the guard that she cannot was what they were renamed there were initially called the civic yard a temporary name for a year and then the guard the chicana which was a name actually given by another letter kenny or i c officer matthias mccarty who served as a nor i c officer net or kenny in 1937 he'd written an article and claimed that it was he that offered the name guard the chicana which is come back to what you said it's a very unique name the keepers of peace and maybe this is where we're coming to celebrate a hundred years of the guard the island has a very unique view of policing and so far as they're unarmed as you point out but our yards aren't police as such their guard the chicana chicana means peace their keepers of the peace and the purpose of guard the in the formation of the early state was that they were to keep the peace and if you keep the peace there's no need to enforce the law and and then that leads to maybe some of the questions are we resourcing our guard the sufficient is that ethos still there is that why sometimes we see uh what what people guardy at attending something but not necessarily getting involved you know what i mean so is to some extent is is that just a a happenstance of modern arland now or is there surely it's not still a reflection of the initial sort of ethos of the ungodly chicana is it i think so and i've heard superintendent in my own area speak in and others about michael staines who was the first commissioner who said look policing the guard the chicana does not work by force or by use of arms but by moral authority and i really do think we need at some stage to have a citizen assembly about our guard the and so far as it only works at the present on armed guard the if we all buy into that see these people are armed armed and trying to enforce or keep the peace number one and then on occasions enforce the law and they're unarmed and the only way this works is if we buy into it and say yes we give you the authority to enforce the law of this country to regulate this country but our society is changing very rapidly i mean there's been eighty nine guard the killed over the history of the state and the last one was my old guard there back in i think it was 2021 you know shot dead no gun nothing to protect them and another than in 2016 i think as well so yeah but i don't think now is a good time to have that citizen assembly because of everything that's been going on and a lot of people's attitudes towards ungodly chicana i think the last three or four years have changed an awful lot of uh not an awful lot but certainly some opinion out there so what was the early duty of of the guard because they had some peculiar kind of responsibilities in a modern context anyway absolutely as far as from video cams and from all those things we talk about and guard the car and patrolling the the things that they did was very very they were very basic to the community and the guard he lived in the community or in the barracks and just to point out you know we still call some of the police stations barracks no yeah and but they're not barracks is because barracks is a military institution it's by default we say that and everybody does it's a military institution in which was armed and there's a great book by walter macklin called the scorching wind and the two brothers are either side of the civil war and one says there's 600 years of history between a police station and a barracks a police station in our case is a non armed station a barracks was a minister military institution and it's interesting that the or i see always had a barracks the english always thought that we control ireland by arms as for today we have a totally different concept so when the guard they were initiated and started off 1922 it was very much community policing so they had to take funny enough they had to get a list of record record the rainfall and the weather they had to talk about no businesses they had to note down who had bulls note down who had licenses for dances and for pubs they had to note down who were vagrants who were visiting the people so i've heard stories of and it's not that long ago uh guard getting involved in what was being grown on land now i'm not talking about weed or or stuff like that there but particular particular uh species of plants the garden that must then be connected to the sort of historic role of the garden then yeah well you'd have the the different departments that your culture would have given instructions that certain weeds could be grown and not grown and things like that there was a famous case in don fanny that somebody had taken a bungee uh back on holidays and uh remember he's dead now fan barbara telling me and he was he was a sergeant local sergeant and the department had found out that there was this budgie or canary in don fanny that shouldn't have been there now you're going back to the 1950s and so patty tunney who was a letter kenny man i think he was in charge of the of the environment or the department of agriculture or whatever it was and he was sent down and told look we have to get rid of this budgie and the order was given to the guard the to kill the budgie this was the kind of the minor issues of life that was concerned did they do it yeah but one of the very interesting things and and my research of the guard the um and there's there was various records kept in fact they kept about 24 different types of books or records but one of them that i found very interesting was the school attendants act of 1926 where the guard he had to do a weekly and then a monthly report on students missing school now school would have been very different to what we know now but students were missing and i went through the books to look at why they were missing and excuses were as follows potato gathering working at cows um hired in poor circumstances helping with the treaching minding a child uh death of ano