No, I didn't think I'd take a blue. I think that's a very smart kind of... Jumping? You haven't worn that before? I've found it at the back of the closet. Dude, yeah? It didn't need iron or nothing? Yeah, no, I wasn't wearing it. Yeah, it'll iron itself as the program goes on. Yes. Well, you should start making an effort. See, I'm not on the camera. You see, you are, right? It's the beauty of radio. It should be. No, for a face like me, made for a radio boy, have a good job. You've been on Tanny Penty? I have in the past, yes. Yeah, I've got more sense in recent times. Sorry, Lee, excuse me. Okay, have a good day. See you tomorrow, work day anyway. Yeah, it's Friday tomorrow, isn't it? Yeah, it is. This is, this is Friday Eve. This is what they say now. Oh, my word. Mind you, this is Friday Eve for the weekend. Don't want to wish our lives away. No, let's just enjoy today, right? All right, Lee, have a good day. Take care of yourself. It's the 9 till noon show on the way, just after we get the latest news now from Michaela Clark. Thanks, Greg. Good morning, people relying on community organizations for support in Donegal are set to help services disrupted as workers in 13 facilities in the county take strike action today in a dispute over pay. A protest march on rally will be held in Leicester, Kenya at noon to highlight the fact they have not received a pay increase since 2008. SIPP2 organizer, Kevin McKinney, is calling on the Minister for Health to intervene in the dispute. At the end of the day, the Minister needs to become involved. It's no good to turn around and say they're not the employer. They dictate to the employer the terms of conditions that our members are employed under. So the reality is this campaign will escalate if government doesn't get their act together and get involved with the trade unions. Take a hairlock off the left foot to Northern Municipal District, says one Donegal County Council is a long way off tackling socializing shortages in the Twin Tines strides are being made. A meeting was held last night to identify suitable future housing and economic development lands in Bally Bofay, Anstronauler. The council currently owns no lands in the Municipal District to develop housing and are said to be depending on turnkey developments. Councillor Patrick McGuigan says there is a severe shortage of housing in the area. So around like 10 years ago, people were given out about the amount of houses and ghost assets and houses have been built in the wrong place. But if you go to any of the places now, there's not so much as a free bed. If you go into some of the smaller towns that the opinion was at the time they were in the wrong place, they were just built, they were developer led. Any of the places you go now, you can't even get a bed or never make a house. We have really caught up now, where I would say we're at least five years behind. The Mayor of Derry City and Sturban District Council is calling on people to turn up and express their anger and frustration at a cost of living demonstration on Saturday. The event, which was organised by Councillor Sandra Doffey, is being held in the Guildhall Square at 12 noon. Yesterday some majors were introduced to help families in the north, including a 100-pound oil payment and an energy cap. However, Councillor Doffey doesn't believe they are enough. She says people are worried and can't take much more. Just to express our anger and frustration at the spiraling and crippling energy costs that people are facing right across our society at the moment with the cost of electricity, gas, oil, everything just going up, not to mention even food, people just can't take any more and we need help. Weather night today will be mostly dry with sunny spells and just the chance of an isolated shower. Highest temperatures of 15 or 16 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. Small businesses often find it difficult to access the finance they need. Microfinance Ireland, the government-funded not-for-profit lender, can help. We help businesses who have been unable to secure finance from banks or other lenders. We provide business loans up to 25,000 euro to businesses of less than 10 employees with a turnover of up to 2 million euro. For more information, visit microfinanceireland.ie or talk to your local enterprise office. Microfinance Ireland, supporting you through times of uncertainty. The 9 till noon show with St Yunan's GA Club Development Draw 40,000 euro in prizes. First prize, a Hyundai Kona car, plus nine other grid prizes. Tickets now available online at styunansgadraw.com or any club member. Watch the show live now on YouTube, Facebook and at highlandradio.com. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest. The 9 till noon show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello, good morning to you. Just about to turn five minutes past nine on this Thursday. It's the 22nd of September 2022. How are you keeping? I do hope you're very well indeed. And I hope you're going to keep us nice and busy on those phone lines. If you want to comment on any of the items we've got lined up for you or if you want to raise your own issue or pass on your own good story, maybe you've got some good news, something happening in your area that you want to share with the wider Northwest. Get in touch with us. WhatsApp will text the show<PHONE_NUMBER><PHONE_NUMBER> or give us a call on 07491 25000 07491 25000 and you can pass on your comments via email to comments at highlandradio.com. And as you heard just as we kicked off the intro there if you want to watch the program or website highlandradio.com you'll see a watch live button there or you can watch on YouTube Highland Radio Island or on Facebook, our Facebook pages. So Thursday morning, always a busy morning for newspapers of course which always reminds me that I really do need to get classes. The Chicano Tribune, the Abbey View estate in Rathmollen was constructed for Donegal Council in the late 70s. It's an idyllic setting, a place where the community is proud to call their home. But all is not what it might appear when Charlie Corrin opens his front door at number 11. You're met by a set of heavy duty acroes building up a construction plank to prevent the first floor from caving into the hallway. Then there's a massive gap between the outer wall and the internal corridor. This is replicated all over the house. In all there are five acroes in place to prevent the house from collapsing. It seems as if the place has been hit by a tornado. It's a detailed piece, it's a lot of colour in there as well. If you want to read more on that story get the Chicano Tribune this morning. The Donegal Democrat, another housing related story, only 19 houses have been completed in the Balabaface-Strenauleur urban area between 2012 and 2021. Yet 71 houses are needed for 147 people who are currently on the council's housing waiting list in the area. The startling figure comes on top of a number of revelations to emerge at a meeting held in Keyes Hotel-Strenauleur on Tuesday night to plan for the future. Economic and housing development of the Twin Towns. Council planner John McFeely said apart from a period of population stagnation in the 80s and more recently between 2011 and 2016, the numbers living in the town had generally grown since the 70s. He added the area had low levels of housing completions according to the CSO. There were only 19 houses completed between 2012 and 2021 in the town's urban areas. The Dairy News this morning as the cost of living crisis bites schools and dairy-rasking businesses in their areas for donations to offset the cost of feeding pupils at breakfast clubs it has emerged. Dairy News learned one school in the city had reached out to local community groups as it had grave concerns about the basic health, nutrition and subsequent well-being of some of its students. The school said some of the families in the school community were struggling considerably to adequately feed and clothe their children. The Donegal News this morning the owner of the hotel that's being prepared for Ukrainian refugees says he would have had to close anyway due to rising costs. Kolumbona, proprietor of the Viking House Hotel in Kinkasla has faced a barrage of online criticism since announcing on Sunday that it is to close the 12-breed tuned Viking house which was once owned by Danilo Donnelly. It's the latest hotel in the county to shut its doors to the public in order to accommodate those fleeing the war in Ukraine but I presume the hotel owner is arguing that he might well have the doors open to the public but if the public aren't coming in he has to try and make good on his investment and he's doing so by housing those fleeing Ukraine. I'm sure it's not the last hotel we'll hear of that is going to be doing likewise. We've heard it. It's incredibly rewarding financially. The Irish Times this morning Western Paris criticised Putin over nuclear weapons threats and those of you who are edgy on your nerves will not have enjoyed Vladimir Putin's statement yesterday. No bluffing, he said he will use nuclear weapons if need be. We're going to be talking to think about this later on just to sort of get the background to this. Of course his tactics are decent and that's not to give necessarily credit if you know what I mean. They're holding referendums in the east of Ukraine. Referendums starting on Friday. I mean the outcome of those is it given obviously because they will be you know guns at the ballot boxes effectively. Once those ballots have been counted the outcome will be that the majority of people in the east and south of Ukraine will want to be part of Russia. Vladimir Putin will claim those areas as part of Russia. He will say that that is now Russian territory. So as soon then as the Ukrainians as they have been very successfully start using NATO weapons NATO country weapons in what Putin claims to be Russian territory will then that triggers that triggers options at his disposal because it would be seen as a direct attack by NATO on Russian territory and therein lies the rub. That's where the next few days are going to be very very interesting to see how things hopefully de-escalate or at least stay as they are as terrible as they are but that's very much how things could escalate because effectively you'd be having British American bombs being dropped on or in Russian territory and that gives him a lot of latitude. Western powers though strongly criticised Russian president Vladimir Putin after he called up military reserves to fight in Ukraine and threatened to use nuclear weapons to defend the country in what they dismissed as a sign of weakness amid defeat on the battlefield and when he says as a sort of made quite clear I think when he threatens to use nuclear weapons to defend to defend his country it's not just necessarily Russia as it is now it would be Russia post these referendum. Mr. Putin portrayed his invasion of the Ukraine as a fight for Russia's survival against a hostile West and backed forthcoming referendums in Russian occupied parts of Ukraine that would pave the way for Moscow to annex some 90,000 square metres of territory an area bigger than the island of Ireland in a clear escalation of his war on Ukraine Mr. Putin announced Russia's first mobilisation of its reserves since the Second World War in a move that Moscow said would add 300,000 men with military expertise to its fighting forces in Ukraine but the terminology that's being used to allow this is pretty vague it's pretty loose and there are those now in Russia who have you know let's not forget been pretty much isolated by this it's been happening elsewhere you know same as to some extent we are as to what's happening in the Eastern Europe and we know what's going on but you know after the first shock and awe a lot of people maybe the majority of people like well it's over there and some people even argue well it's in East Ukraine it's not in Kiev so no biggie but the Russians who may have been insulated by this even in West Russia now are finding that their 17, 18, 19 year old children may be conscripted because the Russia now has or Putin now has that has that ability that they may be conscripted now and sent to fight against their neighbours many of them have family and friends in Ukraine and they would also have heard how many soldiers on both sides have died so now the war has been brought home to the people of Russia and that triggered a series of protests relatively small given the population around Russia and many thousands were arrested and detained so Putin in the next little while I think he's going to be fighting he's going to be fighting on a number of fronts domestically politically and of course then against the West in inverted commas The Irish Independent this morning sharp energy price rises higher grocery costs and a larger than expected jump in mortgage rates have combined to send consumer sentiment to a 14 year low only one in 10 of you expected the budget measures to do much to offset cost of living difficulties this according to the KBC bank consumer sentiment index for September the reason this is important too and the reason why you know your calves and your news agents and your bars and your restaurants will be watching the likes of the consumer sentiment index closely is is that when we start feeling edgy when nine out of 10 of us are concerned we stop spending we stop discretionary spending even if you have that capability and what that means is that instead of having 30 bookings for a Friday night they have 10 and then they look around at the staff and the costs and they go well how long can we keep doing this and so it goes cost pressures have led to a sharp deterioration in the outlook for household finances Economist Austin Hughes estimates the average hit to households from an inflation rate of around 8.5% this year is about 3,300 euro the downbeat outlook among households reflects the fact that in the past few weeks there's been an almost relentless flow of bad news or bad news when it comes to the bills that have to be paid to keep a home going so average on average people are going to be hit with bills in excess of 3,300 that the ordinarily didn't have now how many people have that space after you've paid the bills that you're used to paying very few people are going to have to make adjustments and what do they do they might even stop going out before they'd cancel Netflix for example it's a worrying time for business especially with rising costs because businesses need people through the doors they don't need to be necessarily paid to stay open they need people coming in and sitting down and spending money the Irish Daily Mail this morning a woman aged in her 40s has been arrested for questioning over the death of two children following a car fire in County West Weath Mikey and Thelma Denney aged two and five beautiful children pictured on the front of the papers today they sustained fatal injuries during the blaze on an isolated road outside the village of Motty Farnham on September 9th the woman who has been arrested is understood to be known to the victims and can be questioned for a period of up to 24 hours before she's either released or charged and I think a lot of people might read between the lines there but reporting restrictions have left stories being worded just as they are right there the farmers journal it's a busy one obviously with the plowing going on they did well with the weather didn't they today there's a bit of rain this morning but this afternoon it's going to clear up nicely down there but fears are mounting that the majority of farmers will be excluded from a key energy support scheme to be announced in the next budget that's next week farmers were already explicitly excluded from an EU energy scheme announced last Monday Tonastily-Ovaradkar confirmed a second scheme for farm businesses to the Irish Farmers Journal on Wednesday to help with electricity bills in the coming months however up to 90% of farmers may be excluded from the scheme if farm businesses means limited companies only which is the big boys isn't it I presume are larger farmers more likely to be limited companies that's not much good for I think the majority of farmers 90 odd percent of them affected by that let us know 08,660,25,000 the Irish Daily Star tells us that Environment Minister Aiman Ryan says he's backing calls for VAT to be scrapped from newspapers to help protect robust journalism is this something that you would support there have been supports for other sectors of the media I'd say those within the newspaper industry say they maybe have been somewhat left behind and they say they play a very important role in producing robust journalism and they want VAT to be scrapped from newspapers what do you think 08,660,25,000 I'm not sure if this would be to reduce the costs and more people might buy or it's to maintain what's there for those who are buying papers or maybe it would be maybe to focus on an online sort of approach I don't know but Minister Ryan said he was concerned by the growing influence of unchecked misinformation from social media and said Ireland benefits from having a strong newspaper industry when I hear comments like that from government ministers it does worry me from any ministers because to be honest with you there's quite a bit of misinformation comes out from Miriam House if that's what it's called is it you know stuff that is spawned a certain way to make it look better than it might be like say for instance a hundred percent micro redress scheme that isn't do you know what I mean if that was fact checked like by say the journal Dodd IE fact checked it what would it find you know I think it's not just sort of people with certain views that need to be fact checked either I think it's important to our politicians are regularly fact checked so that what they say is either proven or disproven because this sort of feeds into the what I was saying yesterday on the front of the Irish independent which was just a press release from Finnegale effectively that's how it read it was just everything that was happening what they fought for what they're going to achieve five thousand euro in your pocket extra you know and then obviously the caveat is you have to be earning fifty grand to get that but I mean should that stuff not be fact checked should there not be more balance on a front page of a newspaper to sort of say well but if you know where I'm coming from but anyway he was speaking a lot of papers do that by the way he was speaking in the door as Fina 40D Brendan Smith called for the nine percent VAT rate on newspapers to be scrapped Deputy Smith said Ireland is one of the countries that imposes a high tax on newspapers news brands Ireland have outlined very have very urgently I don't recognize that word right do need glasses oh cognitively the absolute need to reduce the VAT rate to zero for newspapers print and digital as well what say you I think if it keeps more papers going than that it's a good thing right put the wrong bit of this paper down okay let's just go straight on to the Irish Sun finally here now and two joy riders as they are described I don't like that phrase really these are those that rammed a stolen motor into a guard car are part of a 12 strong crime gang cops believe the chief suspect and their pals have been terrorizing locals in ballet firm at Dublin this past year the crimes have included joyriding car thefts assault robberies and intimidation concerns have been raised about their crimes by local reps from number of months but their actions escalated on Monday night when they rammed the guard car in nearby Cherry Orchard now Senator Eileen Flynn made some interesting comments as it relates to how that story's being covered both in the media and on social media and I might play them out for you a little later on to see what you think I kind of agree with her I don't want to give up on young people I think you know we it's so easy to call people scum and scumbags and this that and the other and then sort of you know not take our responsibilities a nation to support certain communities certain parts of the country to make sure children have something to do get involved in sports get involved with the arts you know make sure their parents are supported make sure they're being well looked after at home you know if we're not doing that and then you know they turn into baddens and inverted commas you just give up God the scumbags lock them up you know all that kind of stuff I mean I think really the state needs to not shirk its responsibility to make sure people are given the best chance equally you know equally because you can be sure there's very little for those young people and their families in this upcoming budget because they probably that don't matter to people that make decisions I don't know but you can be very very sure there's very little in the budget all the front pages is about people earning 50 grand and how people on that kind of money will benefit and keep money but what about the communities that are underserved that have social disorder problems what about supporting them what about going in with initiatives things to occupy the young people to teach even a boxing club to show them discipline get them involved in sports but no we what we do is we just look at it and say we take no responsibility for what we haven't done that has left young people with that lack of that lack of direction and we just call them scumbags and this that and that anyway I agree with the senator I'm not going to lie I'll play her clip out a little later on if I can track it down but in the meantime let's take a break as we line up our first guest on the Ninety-Ninth show for this Thursday morning Would you 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Well that's the first prize in the St. Unions GA Club Development Draw who are sponsors of this week's Ninety-Ninth show There's nine other great prizes and tickets are now available online at stunionsgadraw.com or any club member The county's number one talk show The Ninety-Ninth Show on Highland Radio In 2018 Toyota cut through the confusion completely ceasing production of diesel passenger cars lowering harmful emissions and providing certainty for Irish drivers everywhere And Kelly's Toyota proud to be part of that hybrid electric journey Visit Kelly's Toyota Letter Kenny or Mount Charles today to see what makes Toyota Ireland's best-selling car brand in 2021 and 2022 You'll never take a wrong turn with Toyota Built for a better world best-selling claim based on most recent monthly figures Attention all pet lovers and owners Gary's Pet World Letter Kenny is open seven days per week offering the very best value on all pet foods, accessories, grooming and care products Call in and let our staff help you spoil your pet today You will be amazed by the range of product for all pets with exceptional value on all leading brands Alternatively, you can browse and buy online at petworld.ie and we will deliver to your home On this week's Business Matters I'll be joined by Larkin Rorty owner of Roses Bar and owner of the Wild Atlantic Camp which are both located in Creasley So join me, Curio Donald for Business Matters on Sunday evening after the 6 o'clock news Thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next episode Bye The Business Matters podcast is also available to download at HyleVideo.com Business Matters in association with the Faculty of Business at ATU Donegal Looking for a career in financial services? 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It's all under one roof and right on my doorstep Lettercanny Shopping Centre So much choice Open seven days Find us on Facebook or visit LettercannySE.com I'm not bluffing those were the words I presume carefully chosen by Vladimir Putin and those who support him as he announced a partial mobilization of reserve troops but the language is I suppose loose enough that that could be expanded beyond partial I'd imagine Danaka Obakoin is a professor of politics at Dublin City University and I'm really pleased to welcome him back onto the show Good morning to you, Danaka Good morning, Greg Great to have you with us Okay, so what has unfolded in your view over the last couple of days then? Well, what we had was a belated response from Vladimir Putin to the huge territorial gains that the Ukrainian army has made in recent weeks You might remember that something between six and eight thousand square kilometers were regained and the peoples there liberated and of course we found evidence again of war crimes that have been committed and there was no response formal response from Putin I mean, the line from the Kremlin all along has been everything is going according to plan even though from the very beginning it was clear that that was not the case of course key of the capital was supposed to be captured within days and now we're almost seven months into the war and Russia has sustained losses which some estimate to be up to 60,000 troops So, you know, this is a belated recognition that things aren't going according to plan it's trying to retake control of the narrative to try and be assertive and of course it's falling back on Putin's old strategy of threats, blackmail, bluster and with articulating, I guess, historical grievances and also an antipathy towards Ukraine as a country and as a people One thing he makes clear, of course, throughout and this is one of his explanations to the Russian people about why, you know, Russia's plan has not turned out as it had anticipated is that it's not fighting Ukraine it's fighting the West in Ukraine that this is a proxy war and that's why Russia hasn't been able to overwhelm Ukraine as quickly as it had hoped Has he painted himself into a corner and maybe even NATO into a corner in that? If he, I mean, we know the outcome of these referendae effectively then he will declare that to be Russian territory and he has stated that if NATO weapons, Western weapons are used on Russian territory well then he will respond So very, very quickly, we're going to see really he's going to be in a position where he needs to act or back down or find some other use of words to try and defer an even greater escalation Yeah, I mean, he's proven himself to be a gambler and this is another role of the dice you might remember that shortly before the war he recognized Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states you know, something that wasn't followed by other countries in the world of course and that was a gamble and then of course, you know, invading Ukraine from all sides was a gamble none of these gambles have paid off and this one is very unlikely to as well but it is an escalation it is a rhetorical escalation but I would take my cue and I think the rest of the international community are taking their cue from the reaction of Ukrainians and indeed the Ukrainian government in Kiev who have been very, very, I guess, calm about this they see it, I think, for what it is that it is more a sign of weakness than of strength I mean, these referenda, so-called, I mean what can we say about them? They don't even control the territories in which the referenda will take place I mean, Russia after seven months has extended its control of Donetsk from one third which it controlled before the war to one half so there's half of Donetsk that it doesn't control and similarly, it doesn't control all of Luhansk it doesn't control all of Zaporizia so, you know, how you can have, you know leaving aside the legalities or anything else how you could have a referendum in an area you don't control during a time of war, you know, a three days notice you know, we know what it's like to hold elections and referenda in Ireland they are laborious processes those things can't occur so this is just a PR exercise it's messaging both his own population in Russia who are, of course, becoming increasingly restive there's evidence of that that he has regained the initiative and also trying to send signals to the West that he won't tolerate more support from Ukraine but that's been his position all along and all his initiatives have backfired you might remember that one of the main reasons that this war started according to Putin was he wanted to prevent the expansion of NATO to Russia's boundaries and of course, as we've seen, the NATO boundary with Russia has doubled during the course of the war because Finland and Sweden have joined NATO but he also drew, he's drawn the NATO into Ukraine and up against the Donbass effectively and other areas, you could argue but so just in terms of how this might play out then the referenda, okay, people, the majority of people will obviously say they want to be part of Russia what happens next? Does he then say, does he accept the outcome of that and from his position, that becomes Russian territory and if it does, then what possibly could the consequences be of say, for instance, US missiles landing in effectively what he would recognise then as Russian territory? Is that how it might play out and if it does, what's the consequences potentially? Sure, well, just to address the very beginning of what you said there of course, there will be no actual vote I mean, the vote numbers are known Yes, of course, yeah any exercise but in terms of what he will do afterwards once this preordained result is announced he's left himself, you know, a number of options open I mean, his speech was rather ambiguous on whether the newly acquired territories of Russia as he will now consider them have the same, you might say, guarantee security guarantee with nuclear weapons as will say, the internationally recognised borders of Russia so he's left himself some rigour room there and I wouldn't, I wouldn't anticipate that if the war persists in Donetsk, in Luhansk, in Herzog, in Zaporizia as it will I mean, the Ukrainians have shown that they have a determination to expel Russia from all parts of Ukraine I don't believe that he will use nuclear weapons it hasn't been a great advertisement for nuclear non-proliferation I mean, some of your listeners might remember but I guess many will not that Ukraine itself used to have nuclear weapons up until 1994 but voluntarily gave them up in return for security guarantees which of course have not been honoured From Russia and Britain amongst others, wasn't it?  Well, I think, look, we have a precedent here with the Cuban missile crisis which again, I think most of your listeners will be familiar with and let's take away what happened there I mean, the Cubans got a commitment from the United States and let's face it, Cuba was only 90 miles off the United States border they got a commitment that the United States would never invade Cuba which of course was a major commitment because they'd only tried to invade the year before in the Bay of Pigs and Cuba was allowed to remain within the communist block which was the decision of the Cuban government at the time and indeed is still a communist country So if Ukraine and this, you know, Vladimir Zelensky gave a very impassioned speech to the United Nations last night if Ukraine could be getting those kinds of commitments that Russia would respect its democratic will to be where it is geopolitically with the European Union, with NATO that it wouldn't necessarily have hostile missiles placed that could jeopardize Russian security but it would be allowed to, you know, be in Euro-Atlantic structures and that Russia would give a guarantee that it would not invade that would be the basis of something going forward but we're nowhere near that and again, I mean, that speech last night also emphasized that there will have to be a reckoning with the Russian government who have inflicted so much suffering on the Ukrainian people and so on necessarily In terms of Vladimir Putin, how sort of how much a wonder support does he have from the political circles, you know? Because we heard China, interesting language not quite maybe as supportive of Russia as they were in the past India not, you know, saying now is not the time for war I think it was India, or was it Pakistan? I believe it was India and then of course, as you say albeit in smaller numbers compared to the general population I think this mobilization has brought the war to Russians who maybe were able to just crack on with life thinking this is happening somewhere else and it doesn't really impact us now they could lose their 17, 18, 19 year old children Where does this leave, like how isolated is Vladimir Putin I suppose within his country internationally like where does he go from here? I see maybe even signed his own death warrant with this latest move Oh, well, that's a very good observation I mean, he has definitely lost support within Russia and outside of Russia I mean, let's face it Russia is a dictatorship so, you know, you're on a very short leash when you are seen to be weak because you're not there because of popular affection or a democratic vote you're there because you have a monopoly of violence and if you're seen to be weak that's when you're at your most vulnerable not necessarily from a popular uprising but from within your own circle and that's how usually dictators are removed it's usually somebody from within their own circle and we usually don't know until it actually happens who that person would be to replace them There is, as you say, evidence of unrest within Russia you know, that's, as you say, largely because people who have been insulated from the war are now looking at a possible draft and they were quite happy for that suffering to be inflicted upon the Ukrainian people they were quite happy for ethnic minorities and poor conscripts to be sent to Ukraine but once it's affecting themselves they are out in protest now but as you say internationally as well and this is something that Volodymyr Zelensky highlighted at his United Nations speech there was a vote on whether to allow him to speak Russia could only find six countries in the world to support its position everybody else essentially over 100 countries supported the Ukrainian position and he said that's the basis of the coalition going forward and those countries, by the way, which supported Russia we're talking about North Korea we're talking about Belarus we're talking about Syria other dictatorship so the line has been very much cast about, you know, this is essentially democracy versus autocracy it's a challenge, of course, the world has faced before in Europe in particular and we can only hope, of course, that the outcome is the same as it was at the end of the 1940s you'd really hope so it won't be very much longer but yesterday we had the situation too whereby the biggest, largest exchange of prisoners or captives between Russia and Ukraine took place in fact Russians even released they got an ugly arc in return but they even released British and American people that were arrested kind of strange in the day that it was because that would probably, in other circumstances, be seen as a glimmer of hope well it was received with wild celebration and enthusiasm within Kiev particularly because of the identity of those prisoners of war who were released 200 defenders of the Mariupol steelworks and they are already entering kind of the Ukrainian history books as legendary defenders against, you know, hopeless odds so the fact that they were the primary people who were released was welcomed in return Vladimir Putin got Viktor Medvedchuk who is an ally of his within Ukraine he was under house arrest for some time he's very close to Putin Putin indeed is the godfather of his child so the Ukrainians will be very glad to see the back of him and very glad to see their Mariupol defenders for them it was evidence, I think, that again the war has been in recent weeks turning in their favor I mean they've always argued that they have the motivation because they're defending their country and they have the manpower what they need essentially are the weapons but that's not to underestimate again the huge suffering that's been inflicted on the Ukrainian people I mean I was in my native clear just recently and I met refugees who are there and I know of course there's refugees in the northwest as well and they come from all walks of life that's I think the clearest thing this is an entire society that is mobilized you know because of this war that being said and since you mentioned that and I see texts coming in already and I've seen the original posts and the sharing of it on social media as well and I get it a lot of people saying oh well you can book a hotel in Kiev if you wish and only 15 percent of Ukraine is dangerous because it's that war now I've spoken to actual Ukrainian refugees and the reason they've come here is because they fear that Vladimir Putin at any point could strike anywhere in Ukraine so it's probably not akin to someone in Korg fleeing Ireland during the troubles because you know the the threat there was well very very low I'd imagine I hope that's not a clumsy comparison but the reality is is that especially if you've got young children and a lot of people that feel this way have sent their children out to school today if you're in Ukraine and you're dealing with Vladimir Putin and he okay they say they won't use tactical nukes in Ukraine but you do not know what he's capable of he could bomb and we've seen the Americans do it he could obliterate you Kiev if he wished oh absolutely and and and look the reason why there are hotels available in Kiev is because no one wants to travel to Kiev on holidays or business that's why they're available no I mean he has shown an inexhaustible appetite for inflicting terror wantonly and arbitrarily on the Ukrainian people and that can happen anywhere at any time and usually actually when he's losing on the battlefield is when he's most likely to lash out at the Ukrainian civilian population I have many friends for example in the city of Odessa city I used to visit weekly and even though Odessa is again not being bombed daily it's been bombed regularly and you know I have professors there who are still teaching students at the university but you know they are ready for evacuation at any time so it depends on individual circumstances as well I mean most of the people who have of course left Ukraine are women and children it's the men who are staying behind because they cannot leave and everyone between 18 and 59 who's a man must stay so it's and I think your comparison with the north is is is is quite an appropriate one I mean I grew up in Shannon and I went to school there we had a lot of refugees who came from the north in the early 1970s and many of them stayed on many of them went home but you know it was something that we had to do in the circumstances to to aid people who were in need of course mercifully it that intense period in the north lasted for for a relatively short time we hope only that the Ukrainian you know conflict with Russia will also last a similarly long time and I think what also clears that we we're helping people when they're at most need because most Ukrainians that I know and I know many and I know many who have come here they desperately want to go home I mean this is a very this is not where they wanted to be they had very normal lives like you and I before this war on 24th of February was visited upon them and they want to return those lives and to their friends and their families in their neighborhoods as quickly as possible and that's why and they're very appreciative I think this is emphasized but maybe you cannot emphasize enough they're extraordinarily appreciative of the welcome they've received in Ireland during this time of need which of course none of them anticipated and none of them wanted very finally we get comments like this in in regularly of course a call us says so it's okay for Zelensky to want to basically be pro-Europe yet the president before was ousted for being pro-Russian tell the professor Ukraine is a communist dictatorship as well you should pull him up so I'll just put that to you I mean you're the professor in post-soviet politics and unrecognized states so what would you say to a comment like that well I think that's the first time I've heard of Ukraine being described as a communist dictatorship it is a democracy they've had five presidents in the last 20 years Russia of course has only had Vladimir Putin in control either formally or informally you know that is the basis of this struggle in many respects about choosing Europe I first visited Ukraine you know more than 20 years ago and Ukrainians were much more ambivalent about which direction they would go you know there were many who would have been you know as happy being having good relations with Russia as they were with the European Union what changed was Russian aggression and particularly the events of 2014 the gentleman in question who was who fled Ukraine in 2014 the president of the time Yanukovych that was not because he was pro-Russian I mean Yanukovych was an extraordinary corrupt person who was pro himself it was simply because he had signed an agreement which had the approval of the majority of the people to have closer relations with the European Union and then as a result of a private arrangement of Vladimir Putin which offered 15 billion dollars and he backtracked on that and then that led to a popular uprising which he fled much to the surprise of everyone including myself I you know I thought he would stay in Ukraine and fight his case but he fled and is in Russia today there were questions about whether the Russians at the beginning of this war were thinking of reinstalling him as president but that of course is off the agenda but do you think though it would be useful the reality is here and the last moment with you Donica the reality is here of course that you know Russia is the aggressor aggressor but Russia will say that it had flagged that this could happen a NATO in and itself maybe was antagonizing of Russia and Vladimir Putin felt that he had to do something but that's that's some point of view at the same time though Ukraine has been responsible for indiscriminate shelling for the last number of years as well and you know these these victories that have happened on the battlefield would not be without the loss of innocent blood because weapons are a blonde instrument do you think it would be better if we were getting a slightly more nuanced view not a 50-50 there's no balance in a big country invading a little one but I just think that the media perhaps should try and bring a little slight more nuance to the coverage of this this war and maybe recognize that you know Ukraine's going to be responsible for certain bad things as well and I think the public then might trust that media a bit more rambling I apologize but well look nuance is always good but I think that you know this is as your question hinted at is a case of an aggressor and a victim I mean like you know if we see someone who's been beaten up on the street randomly we don't start asking did they deserve it or what we come to the aid of the victim I mean that's that and this is what the world is doing now with Ukraine I mean like the idea that you know Ukraine provoked this that it was asking for it in some way but I mean it's rushed to join the European Union and NATO as I said was itself spurred by Russian aggression and also when we think of NATO I think sometimes you know people get obsessed with the United States in this respect NATO is made up of 30 countries most of which are small countries like Estonia which is population of Dublin Latvia Denmark you know Sweden now as well joining you know this is NATO and this wasn't a matter of NATO expanding eastwards to acquire new territories or to provoke Russia this was essentially especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 this was countries which had a long history of abuse from the Kremlin rushing to retake their places at the center of Europe and to escape that abusive cycle of history indefinitely because that's the reason why Ukraine is being attacked now and for example a country like Estonia which I mentioned much smaller than Ireland is not being attacked even though it has also by the way a significant ethnic Russian minority it's because it has a security guarantee and that's what the Ukrainians are trying to do now they're trying to get a guarantee from the world that they will never be placed in the situation again so I mean going back to your initial question of course we have to take us where the evidence brings us that's what good journalism does that's what good academic study does but we also have to make judgments with the evidence that is presented in front of us and the evidence is that this is the attack of a sovereign country and we're seeing the redrawing of the map in Europe at the whim of a dictator and we've been as I said down this road before and that's why I said Europe this is Europe's moment and Europe has to respond accordingly Professor Danaka Obakoin thank you so much for all of your time this morning I really appreciate it he is a lecturer in post-Soviet politics and on recognized states The Naintonen show with St Junits GA club development draw 40,000 euro in prizes first prize a Hyundai Kono Kyaar plus nine other grid prizes tickets now available online at Sinyunonsgadraw.com or any club member with everyone looking to shrink their bill these days Dunstores gives you new ways to save on your 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I'm looking to claim on my insurance policy Okay, and what type of chip do you need to claim for? It's not a chip I was in a minor accident And was your windscreen chipped in this accident? No, it's just my backlight and the bumper So your windscreen is not chipped? No Unfortunately, our policies only cover chips Do you get the feeling that you're not getting the right cover? Well, at local insurance, we are Irish owned and understand your needs Call us today for a bespoke quote on<PHONE_NUMBER> Local Insurance We'll get you sorted The Local Insurance Network DAC Trading's Local Insurance is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland Local Insurance is a tied insurance intermediary of Acorn Brokerage Limited Acorn Brokerage Limited Trading's Acorn Insurance is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland The Donegal Senior Football Championship has reached the semi-final stage and you can follow the action this weekend here on Highland on air across the northwest and online at HighlandRadio.com The Dr. McGuire Cup holders sent unions will play kylkar on Saturday evening at 8 and Dave Connell's tie with Ghidor is on Sunday at 4 Both games are live on Highland from McCool Park, Bally Buffet The Championship on Highland is with Highland Motors' Letter Kenny your main Renault and Dacia dealer in Donegal with the new award-winning seven-seater Dacia Jogger from €25,990 the perfect car for a world of rising prices now available to Test Drive and Order Hi Marty Freel here hope you can join me this and every Friday night from 8 to 10pm with Rock and Hits on Highland Radio in association with the Renault 7 Letter Kenny Book a Kids Party at LaserQuest Arena 7 combine it with bowling and great food for a day to remember for packages and bookings visit arena7.ie Okay some interesting get results from the Northern Ireland census on religion have been released in the last couple of moments and the question was in the last census what religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to? 42.3% say Catholic that's an increase on the 2001 figure a slight increase 38.7% say they are Protestant or other Christian which is actually a decline from what looks like around about 46% down to 38.7% the amount of people that describe themselves as other including none has risen from like 14 odd percent up to 19% that's a considerable cohort so 42.3% say they belong to the Catholic religion 38.7% Protestant or other Christian and 19% other including none what religion, religious denomination or body were you brought up in 45.7% Catholic that's pretty static quite a large drop for Protestants and other Christian down to 43.5% and an increase in other including none to 10.8% so some interesting figures coming out there from that Northern Ireland census as it relates to religion right German Doherty joins us now hi German Good morning Craig how are you?  Yes just not written by notes but I know you are German there's a few German devotees around Donegal I'll have the right one okay good man right okay a big topic at the moment is the 9% VAT rate applied to the hospitality sector there seems to be some indications that that's gonna go up that it may well be increased but for people just as in the bar trade as such maybe the public don't generally realize that you've never really benefited greatly from the 9% well the post that I done and I we have 20 rooms above the bar all right okay so you're taking that in as well okay German yeah it's a relation to that and the I just got set up with the all you hear about is rooms at 500 euros and you know a 400 euros in Dublin or whatever it's concert on and stuff like that and no account taken you know of the rooms that you can get for 80 90 100 euros and how to break down and the increase in VAT would affect people selling rooms at that rate because I would wave a very very loyal customer base here and people would maybe do a bandone for night and may or slag or Galway so I would be chatting a lot of people over the last couple of months and asking how much they paid for the room and trying to get a handle on it you know and people were telling me that we're getting rooms between 90 and 130 140 down along the west coast so we're not we're not getting the four or 500 that's like that's constantly reported you know there's a media post and the politicians jumping on the bandwagon oh let's punish them but do you think the possibility yeah German do you think the reality is here though and I want to talk about the price of a pint as well because here you can get a pint or other drinks you know still for under a fiver in some places but then of course down in Dublin you might be charged 820 or 830 or more I just wonder if we have the gouging taking place in the likes of Dublin the media living and socializing in Dublin and and it's it's it's a bubbled mindset and we never get the credit we deserve particularly here in the northwest for the value and the offering and yet we've got a much more shorter season to try and get a profit and employment out of that I just think every the the media and the gouging is happening in Dublin and as far as there are concerned that's Ireland but that controls that you see that's exactly the point of my post but the people that would pay the biggest price are the people in the northwest because the margins are so low the season is so short I mean you can get a pint from between 450 to a fiver you know some places maybe 550 around Pandora and the general area but the only focus there might be a handful of pubs that are charging 8 euros in a particular area in Dublin where you could go to the outskirts maybe a double and get a pint for 556 euros but the focus on the price of the pint in a handful of bars the same as the focus on the price of accommodation but my problem is because our margins are so low and our season is so short in the accommodation sector that if they raise the that rate from 9 to 13.5% based on our calculations of what we have out of a room per night it's a 25% caught in our profit margins Gerard what would you say to people listening who would say that well sure the 9% that rate was not to increase your profits was it that was that not to be passed on to the consumer to make it more attractive for us to stay and drink in bars and hotels well it's a variability issue it's a variability issue in regards to room you know like I mean if I sell you a room tonight at 100 euros and I'd be you know that'll be a good rate for us because as the season goes on the rates drop I just give you a quick rundown of 100 euros so I sell you a room tonight for 100 euros if you buy it if you book it through a book in safe okay 13 euros goes to the book in safe bookings.com or whatever it may be right 30 euros we go to cleaning the room washing the sheets ironing getting it all back in action for the following night that will be 8 euros and 25 cent breakfast for two and we will do a good breakfast with fruit and yogurts and full frying on 20 euros electric and heating which now is coming in at 10 or a night per room which is going to increase as the weather gets colder and if you pay for a night porter and reception you're averaging out if you're falling about a 10 or to pay for them for the the 24 euros well it leaves you 9 euros that that comes to 81 euros and 25 cent which leaves you 18 euros and 75 cents okay so if you increase the bat from 9 percent to 13 and a half percent that leaves us with about 15 euros but what worries me though gentlemen what worries me and we're tight against the time and I wish I'd I got to speak to you a little earlier German but what worries me is I heard Leo Veradkar say that if this type I think it was Leo Veradkar certainly someone one of the three leaders so I think it was Leo Veradkar saying if this price gouging continues in the hotel industry of course we have to look at the bat rate now if the people that are sitting around the table making these decisions do not understand that you could get much greater value outside of Dublin do you know round about Croke Park and even a further loop it worries me if the decision makers don't see that it is Dublin based businesses and other hot spot areas that are that are seemingly gouging if they don't get it I would worry about your you know how much consideration they're giving you in your business well this is this is this is the problem because there's no headlines in reporting that you can buy a room for 100 euros in Guido or Bandoan or Slego there's no headlines in that but there is a template set out that you could you could stagger the bat rates and the way I had a point on the on pubs as well if you had say for the likes of small turnover businesses no fat on the first 100,000 9% fat on 100,000 to half a million and then if they have to go to the 13% or as over half a million that would protect the small rural business that maybe has a very seasonal period and it would make no difference whatsoever to the big I mean some of them big hotels in Dublin would have half a million turned in the first two weeks in January yeah it's different completely different businesses is there in the same space but completely different businesses all right German listen we'll return to this and do you know what maybe it's time we start using social media and spread that word ourselves do you know I'd be more than happy to get involved in that let's people of the country know on Twitter or wherever it might be what kind of value and packages are available here in the Northwest because we can't rely on some of the agencies to do that for us so maybe we just have to start doing it ourselves but for now German thank you for sorry for the little confusion at the beginning and thank you very much for joining us this Thursday morning yes Greg thank you you know all right bye bye German Daherty there okay back with more after the news and obituary notices would you like to win a Hyundai corner car well that's the first prize in the Saint-Union's GA club development draw who are sponsors of this week's 9 till noon show there's nine other grid prizes and tickets are now available online at stunionsga draw.com or any club member Brian McCormick sports and leisure your football specialist multi-buy discounts on footballs from MITRE Adidas and O'Neill's training equipment cones bibs water bottle sets view our complete range on bmcsports.ie have your team look the part with some adidas leisurewear new entrada 22 quarter zips with matching bottoms training packs available for all ages look the part play the part in store online mobile click and collect on bmcsports.ie 9 7 1 0 double 1 0 or visit cargo defenders.ie view the autumn spa packages online today on villa rose.ie it's the final countdown in this season's league of ireland and fin harps need your support for their two massive home games against both hymns this saturday and then shellburn on friday week the 30th ollie horgans men will kick off early at four against bows on saturday and then face the amian doves shellburn next friday at eight tickets for both matches are now available on finharps.ie this ad is sponsored by hylum bakery your number one local bakery at vokes wagon commercial vehicles the wait is over production is back now your plans can really begin whether that's scaling your business or smartening your service offering with hp finance from 3.9 percent purchase contributions of up to 3000 euro and service plans from 12 euro 99 per month don't wait secure your next caddy cargo transporter 6.1 or crafter at your local vokes wagon commercial vehicles dealer or visit vokeswagenvans.ie be ready to really deliver offers for business customers only finance provided by way of higher purchase agreement from vokes wagon financial services island and subject to lending criteria terms of emissions apply call into connelly's vults wagon letter kenny today or visit connelly's.ie to book a test drive live on air online and on the hyland radio app this is hyland radio news good morning it's 10 o'clock donal cabana uh the hyland radio news desk people relying on community organizations for support in donal gall are set to be disrupted today as workers in 13 facilities across the county take strike action in a dispute over pay the striking workers will hold a protest march and rally in letter kenny at noon to highlight the fact they haven't received a pay increase since 2008 subject to organizer kevin mckinney is calling on the health minister to intervene at the end of the day the master needs to be common box it's no good to turn around and say they're not the employer they stick to the employer the terms of conditions that our members are employed under so the reality is this uh campaign will escalate if uh government doesn't get their act together and get involved with the trade unions donal gall county council is being urged to source funding of 120 000 euro to install long-term flood relief measures to prevent what's been described as outrageous flooding in glenn swilly during a recent period of heavy rain letter kenny to fintan road at glenn swilly school was washed away cohere look of letter kenny milford md councillor donal mandy kelly says the road must be treated as a priority he says the money must be found i find it very flitter body can't raise 120 000 euro particularly at a sum pot for emergency work such as this i mean this is severe flooding that this happens as say on a main artery we say to the school residents been trapped in their homes that's something not good enough if we had the emergency service running to get down through this road you know they're not going to get through it and um when i'm not willing to shut back and be told that this fund can't be sourced Catholics have outnumbered Protestants in Northern Ireland for the first time latest census 2021 results which have just been published show 45.7% of the population now Catholic 43.5% is Protestant or another Christian religion the last census in 2011 recorded the number of Protestants in the north at 48% while Catholics made up 45% the HSC's chief clinical officer says a twindemic of COVID and flu this winter is possible but not certain column Henry says recent trends in other countries show lower death rates for influenza compared to last year earlier this week the health minister instructed the HSC to take steps to use all private hospital capacity available over winter when the HSC's chief clinical officer column Henry says flu outbreaks in places like Australia haven't led to high rates of serious illness we're right to be concerned a lot of people have expressed concern in recent weeks but it's possible but by no means certain that we're going to see a twindemic when we look at the trends of influenza in Australia that usually is a signal to ourselves we see there was an early spike in cases it didn't translate through to huge pressures on their health care system and that what we call the case fatality that that proportion of cases who become so serious that they die was was perhaps lower than previous years the clear look of Lifford Stronaulaw Municipal District says while Donegal County Council is long way off tackling social housing shortages in the twin towns strides are being made a meeting was held last night to identify suitable future housing and economic development lands in Balabafe and Stronaulaw the council currently owns no lands in the municipal district to develop housing and is said to be depending on turnkey developments councillor Patrick McGowan says there is a severe shortage of housing so around like 10 years ago people were given out about the amount of houses and ghost sets and houses have been built in the wrong place but if you go to any of the places now there's not so much as a free bed if you go to some of the smaller towns that the opinion was at the time they were the wrong place they were just built they were developer led any of the places you can now you can't even get a bed I'll never make a house we have really caught up now where I would say we're at least five years behind and the mayor of Derry City and Stronaulaw District council is calling on people to turn up and express anger and frustration at a cost of living demonstration on Saturday the event which was organised by councillor Sandra Duffy is taking place in Guildhall Square at 12 noon she says people are worried and can't take any more just to express our anger and frustration at the spiraling and crippling energy costs that people are facing right across our society at the minute with the cost of electricity gas oil everything just going up not to mention even food people just can't take any more and we need we need help weather forecast mostly dry today with sunny spells the chance of an isolated char it'll be colder than recently top temperatures today 15 or 16 degrees celsius in light north westerly winds and that's island radio news we're back with news headlines again at 11 o'clock good morning the obituary notices for this thursday morning september the 22nd the death has taken place of Patrick DeBanny Mill Road Newton Cunningham County Donegal Patrick's remains are reposing at his late residence funeral from there on saturday for recreation mass at 12 noon in all sins church Newton Cunningham followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery family time from 10 pm to 12 noon highest private to family only on the morning of the funeral funeral mass can be viewed on churchservices.tv family flowers only donations if desired to the Donegal Hospice care of any family member the death has taken place of Marian Patton Nick Kelly Drum Keane Marian's remains are reposing at her late residence removal from there to more morning at half past 10 for 11 o'clock funeral mass in St Patrick's Church Drum Keane with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery the death has occurred of Bernie Doherty 553 Art McCoolston Orler remains are posing at her home today from 12 noon funeral leaving her home on Saturday morning at half past 10 for requering mass in the church of Marian Marklitz Doherty at 11 o'clock in term and afterwards in drumbo cemetery the requering mass will be streamed live via the parish webcam donations only of flowers if so desired to the Donegal Hospice care of any family member family time from 10 pm until 12 noon each day please the death has taken place of Patrick Shields London and formerly of Dewey Dunnings his remains will arrive at the church of St John the Baptist Carygarde at 8 o'clock this evening funeral mass tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery the death has occurred of Rosaline Cassidy 30 letter Art Letter Kenny and former of Hillhead Ardra her remains will repose at McCabe's funeral premises this evening from 6 o'clock until 9 o'clock funeral from there at half past 10 tomorrow morning for funeral mass in the church of the Holy Family Ardra at 11 o'clock with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery funeral premises is private to family only on the morning of the funeral family flowers only please donations if desired to the Irish a wheelchair association care of any family member the death has taken place of Patrick McDermott Art Foil Movil his remains are reposing at his home funeral from there on Saturday morning at 10 o'clock for 11 o'clock recreation mass in St. Mary's Church at Bogan-Kuldawth followed by burial in the adjoining graveyard family time police from 11 p.m. to 11 a.m. family flowers only donations if desired to the Donegal Hospice care of any family member Patrick's funeral mass can be viewed live on KuldawthParis.com the death has taken place of Hugh McGlynn 35 Beechwood Road letter Kenny County Donegal Hughes remains are reposing at his late residence with rosary tonight at 9 o'clock funeral from there to more mourning for mass in St. John's Cathedral letter Kenny at 11 o'clock followed by interment in the family plot in Lex Cemetery funeral mass can be viewed on ChurchServices.tv family time from 10 o'clock tonight and before the funeral tomorrow family flowers only donations to Diabetes Ireland care of any family member and the death has taken place of Jackie Cairns 239 Melmine Road Victoria Bridge reposing at his son Martin's home Greenhill House to Carr Gullin Road funeral from there to more mourning at quarter past nine for recreation mass in St. Teresa's Church sign mills at 10 o'clock interment afterwards in the adjoining cemetery donations and lay of flowers placed to knock more large residence comfort fund care of Quigley funeral directors family time place from 10 o'clock the recreation mass can be viewed live by the parish webcam for more details including any family house guidelines for wakes and funerals please go to highlandradio.com watch the show live now on youtube facebook and at highlandradio.com okay dog let's get to some of your calls and comments which have been coming in thick and fast in the first hour a call assist the Irish government must be able to join with Putin there's nothing like the threat of extermination to make voters forget about the cost of living I don't think people are that easy bought over those who particularly those who think they can see the woods for the trees need to give I think the general population much more credit we're a nation of very clever people there are men here who are not that age how is this I I don't know I suspect maybe they'd already moved over to some neighbouring countries for example I know of one case of that specifically that someone came here not from directly from Ukraine but they would be within the age bracket where they'd have to stay in the Ukraine I think they were in Poland and they came over here with their family so I imagine what has happened is that a lot of people could see what was coming and fled to neighbouring countries and you know their families have followed them or maybe not and they've fled to Ireland and other European countries it's not just here so I'd suggest that's probably one good reason as to why that might be the case but also what we need to do is is that check this stuff out ourselves because there's you know there's an awful lot of people out there that would have you think that the entire country is being overrun with Ukrainian men and elsewhere that have fled Ukraine themselves but we all have to think for ourselves and actually check and maybe even do your own research dare I say Ask him where is the opposition party in Ukraine and other not all 18 to 13 year old stay behind to fight the war in our area the majority of Ukrainians are young men which has made people wonder why they're here but as I say it's possible that they fled neighboring they fled Ukraine before the war began in earnest and came here from neighboring countries I'm just suggesting that could be the case good morning Greg 15% or less if the Ukraine isn't in war so why in God's name are all these so-called refugees here when they are hotel rooms to rent in Ukraine at a lot cheaper rates than here the reasons hotels to to rent in Ukraine is because for a weekend away but also as was mentioned in the first hour and it's up for you to to buy it or not buy it you know but I've spoken to Ukrainian women mothers here and they took their children here because they fear that Putin could drop a tactical nuke anywhere in Ukraine at any time he has the scope he has the range and you know they fear that that could be the case and that's why they're here because they feel they're safe here but they don't feel safe anywhere in Ukraine again that's up to you guys to figure out what you want to think good morning Greg get the left of you off the president of Ukraine he's committed war crimes against his own people yet he doesn't say that because it doesn't suit his narrative Putin bad Ukraine bad I put that to him thanks to the Irish government should Putin decide to launch a nuclear attack we are front and center for one of these attacks America is using challenge refuel and half of Donogol now has the Ukrainian population honed we are close to the border of Northern Ireland does this make us a sitting duck well listen it's all over if nukes start going off I mean let's you know no one wins that war and that's the reality of it because they're devastating weapons I would say our greater concern probably would be our proximity to Britain which is funding and supplying weapons to the Ukraine I don't think we'd have a bomb necessarily that might come directly at us but as I say the likelihood of that you would hope is slim because when that starts well I think we all know what they are it's mutual destruction really do you think Putin will eventually resort to nuclear bombs well he would have to consider the fact that his population would be greatly diminished because nuclear bombs would be flying in the other direction as well so is he prepared and not just he those around him are they prepared to do that because that would be it you know you don't launch a nuclear bomb and then just sit back and not expect one to come back at you does Simon Kovner not remember Lisbon if we said no the second time I'm sure the guns would have come out right okay let me see where are we hi Greg have lots of reading glasses is there anyone that could recycle them I have asked spec savers this is where all of them have been bought letter Kenny say they don't take them thank you I think maybe because reading glasses are so widely available maybe that is why they don't have any second hand value I don't know but I am sure that there must be somewhere out there the frames would be of particular value perhaps maybe for other countries where they don't have the same access to eyecares we do if anyone out there knows anywhere that recycles reading glasses or their frames or their lenses let us know we'll pass that on there is now a Catholic majority in Northern Ireland while in the Republic of Ireland the majority is Muslim Catholics in Northern Ireland have nothing to celebrate from the religious divide that's simply not the case the majority of people in Ireland the Republic of Ireland are Catholic there's a lot of fear and worry out there isn't there about the future of this country some of it you know maybe justified some of it is well if you think the majority of people in Ireland Muslim Catholics in Northern Ireland have nothing to celebrate from the religious divide says that caller says that caller so Amy and Ryan the man is pushing people into buying electric cars now once that removed from newspapers no talk of that removed from petrol or diesel is this really going to help the economy of course not I sometimes wonder if he's living in Cuckoo land thank you well the argument being that removing that from newspapers the value in that is that newspapers don't go out of business and you have that journalism there to fact check is the argument that was made in the paper today so it's not necessarily to to is to make the industry viable and have a future or more viable and to have a longer future Hi can you please let everyone know we have a coffee morning today from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. it's in the new hall in Falkara it's an aid of the Donegal Hospice get along to the new hall in Falkara between now and one right let's take the bingo numbers a quick break and we'll be back with our next guests in just a couple of moments it's time for NCBI Bingo on Highland Radio it's Thursday the 22nd of September jackpot day you're playing for the jackpot prize of 10,600 euro on the pink sheet the reference number is s9 it's game number 38 the jackpot number is number 1 this number can come out in any position from the next 10 numbers drawn and now here are your daily numbers 74 23 19 43 25 14 48 62 84 and finally 32 phone your claim to 9104833 before 8 tonight leaving your name, contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book and we'll call you back the next working day get all your NCBI Bingo information at highlandradio.com Would you like to win a Hyundai Kona car? Well that's the first prize in the St Yunan's GA Club Development Draw who are sponsors of this week's 9 till noon show there's 9 other great prizes and tickets are now available online at stunansgadraw.com or any club member For day-to-day health care needs generations have trusted the experienced staff at McGee's Chemist in Latter County from coughs and coals to aches and pains from vitamin supplements to first aid essentials McGee's have what you need when you need it with a full prescription service available daily McGee's Chemist Main Street Latter County for health care help and advice you can always trust More than ever you can't afford to miss it Give your home a whole new look for less with the Foyan Company Autumn Sale Get great value with up to 50% of selected lines across all departments Redecorate your home in time for the festive season with great discounts on display sofas ready-made cushions and curtains Breathe new life into your walls with great savings on wallpaper and paint Order now for guaranteed Christmas delivery Don't miss out on fantastic savings in store and online at Foyan Company's Autumn Sale in Erichenni and Balli Buffet while stocks last Are you in a low income and worried about an essential expense or bill that you can't afford? The Department of Social Protection is here to help The additional needs payment is available to support you with important expenses such as utility bills or other essential household or personal costs It's available to anyone on a low income who qualifies no matter how many hours you work or if you're already on a social welfare payment This support is provided by the Department's Community Welfare Service To find out more visit gov.ie forward slash a-n-p or call 0818 607080 A government of Ireland initiative Paula Leonard is the National Lead in the Community Action on Alcohol Alcohol Forum Ireland joins us on the programme now Hi Paula Good morning How are you Greg? Very well Good to have you back on the programme right Now, an event is taking place this evening It's entitled Women and Alcohol Your Right to Know Tell us about this event and what it's about and what will be discussed Well, this event actually this evening is a collaborative event So it's Alcohol Forum Ireland of course working with the Atlantic Technological University as part of their sort of gender equality agenda and the Donegal Women's Centre who've been working on the issue of women's health for many many years and we've come together basically through conversations that have been happening over the last year or so around the concern that women really don't know the risks that alcohol poses to their health and well-being and that you know we wanted to create a way to include more people in that conversation so more people could know what we know and then the decisions they make around that are entirely their own It's not my business what people choose to do or choose to drink but it is my business to let people know what those risks are and why the alcohol industry doesn't want us to know what those risks are The relationship between alcohol and cancer particularly breast cancer 1 in 8 breast cancers are linked to alcohol Now is this excessive alcohol drinking or is this any consumption of alcohol or does that matter particularly? Unfortunately it's not excessive drinking what we know is that every unit of alcohol consumed you are consuming what is considered by the World Health Organization to be a carcinogenic product The World Health Organization won't talk about low risk alcohol consumption because they're saying it doesn't exist There are risks associated with it The International Code says that it is in same category as asbestos it's in the same category as tobacco and there really is very low health literacy around that and the population and that's something that we just thought you know come along tonight join the conversation hear about what you're not hearing about generally in the media so it's lovely to be talking about it this morning and these are our topics It is and it's hard to and maybe it's discouraging because you know especially when times are difficult and people would have the odd glass of wine or glass themselves at moderate drinkers and there's no good news here you know even as you mentioned drinking one unit of alcohol can have an impact so maybe people say you know that old saying that's going around now it is what it is you know and maybe in a way people might go just say you know what stuff it Yeah I think that but you know what we find really in our work is that people are quite shocked to find these things out and actually quite angry to find them out and they're kind of going why didn't I know that? Why am I aware of you know the risks of overeating or the risks of too much sugar or the risks of fizzy drinks what I'm not aware of and I'm not being told and I'm not being involved in conversation around the this of alcohol and one of the biggest reasons that's not happening is because the alcohol industry pours millions of euros and dollars across the globe every single year to hide those messages and to make sure that women don't know those messages and to make sure that for example the Irish government doesn't introduce mandatory labeling on alcoholic products that will give us a warning about cancer that will give us a warning about liver and it will give us a warning about risk during pregnancy and those are the three topics we're going to look at tonight because we could go really wide and start to talk about mental health and road traffic accidents and all of those other things including sexual assault which is a really complicated one but we've decided tonight to take three bite-sized chunks to look at liver to look at cancer and to look at pregnancy and to begin a conversation around that so the people are armed what they decide to do then is entirely up to themselves I mean I eat chocolate I know it's bad for me I sometimes drink alcohol I know it's bad for me but at least I feel like I'm informed about those It's an informed decision you're making informed decisions and also I mean then we're not going to be talking tonight then really about problem drinking or what might be classed as it or identifying what that is this is really just about letting people know what alcohol could be doing to you and if you choose to consume alcohol at least you are aware in advance of how it might exacerbate cancers for example Absolutely and look I'm not naive in terms of I think it is important to say to people we do know this can be a difficult topic we know for example the numbers of people who have lost people due to cancer we know the numbers of people who are in recovery from cancer and we don't want to talk about this we'd rather stick our head in the sand and live in denial I mean the HRB published a big report on drinking in denial last week that we really don't understand how much we're drinking as a nation we don't talk about it we don't want to face up to it and tonight is really not about judging people not about thinking or judging people's behaviors not about giving people advice on not to drink it's simply saying we have had you know a 30 30 plus 38% increase in alcoholic liver disease hospital releases in a 10 year period we had a 300% increase in 10 years in this country in liver cancer associated with drinking and we're not talking about that Yeah and you know whatever about me or you or someone listening to us whatever age they might be you know say 25 plus for an example it's terrible really that we don't tool up young people to know the dangers of alcohol when we do talk about it it is the sort of the headline ones do you know what I'm on about binge drinking getting involved in assault but you know is there anything else that we widely consume that we kind of just to a great extent allow our young people to go into it blindly in other words not really really knowing the consequences I mean it baffles me constantly do you know what I mean we know what fizzy drinks do to us you know we see the warnings we have health education in our schools we if I pick up a bar of a specific tax to discourage it yeah I don't but I also don't know what the ingredients of alcoholic products are I don't know how many grams are in them I don't know how many pesticides have been used on them and the wine industry for example has been hell bent on making sure that there isn't labeling on alcohol products to tell us that so when I come off this today I have to get three submissions done to the European Commission asking them to support the Irish government you know in their in their journey towards introducing labeling on alcoholic products in Ireland and really we're looking for those really simple warnings so that we can have a more literate population who know about the risks and who every time they go into licensed premises that there'd be a warning in the licensed premises and there'd be a very simple warning the bucket we did it with cigarettes we know that it worked yeah but on cigarettes it's interesting I think you know if they were brought to market now and we'd never smoked there's absolutely no way they'd ever get any approval I do wonder if alcohol didn't exist and it was you know there was a period of time where it was studied and the implications of it and what have you the consequences of it its impact on the health service people's mental health would alcohol now if it were a new product with a decent bit of research be licensed to be sold anywhere in the world yeah it's look it's a pointless question Paula indulge me but you know what I mean like I mean I know but it's you know how do you go round and round I mean alcohol has existed in most cultures not all it has existed in most cultures for a very long period of time but what we've seen over the last you know 30 years is this you know increase in consumption globally particularly in Europe we've seen a huge increase in consumption in Europe and we we aren't shouting stock we are talking about it we are thinking about it we normalized it and said we've always drank we have always drank but not in the way and not to the degree that we've done so do I really know you know can I can I imagine if they if you do didn't exist I think it's worth having a chat about and thinking about sociologically culturally and all those things but we are where we are yeah I'm not in the context ahead of this event so I won't even suggest what I also believe to some extent is that the you know the zero products are I feel to some extent are a little bit like the vapes of the smoking industry but anyway we'll not we'll not go into that but it does it does maybe talk to a topic that you've mentioned that will be discussed and that's the strategies of the alcohol industry we know they make it really really cold so it's more palatable to people that have never drunk and you know also as you you know the resistance to labeling and and the content you know but I think you're the only person I've really heard with any consistency calling out the industry along those lines well you see that's why I think this is interesting I mean I was on this show back in March when we introduced the i-mark you know which was that mark of an organization standing up and saying enough we won't take funding from we won't collaborate with them we won't use materials that have been developed by funded by or in collaboration with the alcohol industry so you know one of the organizations that signed up to the i-mark was Donegal Women's Centre and Mary who'd be there tonight and who's speaking tonight and opening the event was saying gosh you know as an organization we really haven't thought about this we haven't thought about how women are marketed we haven't thought about the pinkwashing we haven't thought about the exploitation of LGBT communities with the pride vodka bottles we really haven't spent enough time on this so let's have a think about it so maybe I've been talking about it with consistency for a long time but I do think more people are getting involved in the conversation and we now have over you know I think it's almost 30 organizations that signed up to i-mark and many of those are above so I think you know I think the movement is growing I think there's a rumble on the ground and yeah I'm delighted with the support and someone's someone's mentioned that but sure you know you could die crossing the road you know another I think what they're saying is why should we worry about everything but if you cross the road without care you are aware that lorries and cars and what have you are on that road and one could strike you it's a calculated risk the basis of this conversation is is that it's letting people know if they choose to do it what the risks are so you can't say after the fact well no one told me you know we're not going to cross the road with a blindfold on yeah yeah that's it so tonight's about taking off the blindfold and saying to people look you know for women there are particular risks like one of the risk factors acknowledged by the British Liver Association for the development of liver disease so they talk about hemicromatosis they talk about obesity they talk about hydration and nutrition and then they talk about one of the risk factors is being female you know so being female is a risk factor for alcoholic liver disease we're seeing women die from end stage liver failure at younger ages than we're seeing men more men are still dying of alcoholic liver disease but the gap is closing and it's closing fast and you know I think women have to think about this in a particular way the the one topic you talked about it being a difficult one is probably you know the most immediate and potentially the biggest and that's the relationship of alcohol in sexual assaults now is it because it's difficult to have the conversation whereby regardless of of anyone's capacity or incapacity or whatever they wear or whatever you know they are the victim and it's not their responsibility or why is that the space that it's difficult to talk about I think it's really difficult to talk about because victims have been blamed for their own sexual assaults for a very long time by the courts by culture by media by society and then if you mention alcohol you know as a risk factor for that people immediately assume that you're part of that narrative so what we would be really clear about is that alcohol is used by perpetrators it is a date rape drug it is used in victim selection there is research that supports that and we do know that those who you know are involved in sexual assault the perpetrators that we know that they use alcohol their own alcohol use as an excuse to let themselves off the hook so sorry darling I was absolutely hammered last night we know they told the court that we know they said they can't you know recall what happened so what we need to do is to start to find a language that doesn't blame the victim that looks at the role of alcohol as a toxic product how it's been used by victims and how the courts and the guards and all of those people need to have legislation that understands that and in this country we do in this country we now do over the last number of years acknowledge in law that no matter whether you are that if you were intoxicated asleep or you know your capacity had been reduced by alcohol or any other substance that it is still a sexual assault you didn't consent to what happened it's not your fault it's not your fault so then how do you is there a conversation then to be had about how do you then talk about because I want to if there's a conversation to be had I want to be able to talk about it into the future then how do you talk about then maybe your vulnerability if if you're using alcohol and maybe using it too much but without in any way attributing responsibility yeah look that's the tricky one but that's the kind of conversation I want to figure out have to have in the future because we've also been struggling to have a conversation about say for instance people's weight and its impact on their health in a space whereby and these are completely different but it's it's a difficult conversation then about people's right to to have their body whichever way they want them body positive it's it's another area that's difficult though unrelated so how do we have that conversation because not even the rape crisis center a comment was made on this show a couple of years ago and I know the point that was trying to be made but it was latched on to because it sounded like victim blaming but with the people that you're talking to you know that that's never ever what's happening here okay so what what we're primarily interested in is allowing people to explore how it's been used by perpetrators right how it's been used in the wider situation it's used in domestic violence it's used in you know sexual assault it's used in all of those horrible issues that predominantly women are the victim of so the problem is you know violence against women and children and girls and those are really sticky horrible things that we have to face up to as a society and that we need to have zero tolerance around however I agree with you there's a really tricky conversation to be had do you know what I mean it's we don't want to make your personal safety the responsibility of young girls come out in the night we don't want to end up in having conversations around what people should wear how much they should drink my safety should be guaranteed when I go out into the town centre on a Friday or Saturday night that's the responsibility you know of the local authority of the nighttime economy of the taxi service of everybody working collectively but I'll tell you this if we brought down population level consumption okay so if we could reduce our drinking as a society and reduce how much of that happens in a severely intoxicated state that it's hazardous that it's really chaotic drinking if we can do that we will see sexual assault come down within our society generally in Brazil when they introduced in one city in Brazil when they introduced closing times for pubs they didn't have any and in this one city they introduced closing times for pubs the reason for doing that wasn't anything to do with domestic violence but what they saw was the murder rates of women in that city came down by the government and the policing services and the licensing authority saying we're going to have a closing time so those are the kind of things that I would like to start talking to policy makers about not necessarily to young women about but to policy makers as soon as we until such time as the tourism boards and the government and whomever is stop taking people off a plane famous people off a plane getting them into a pub and get them pulling the pint again as I don't know you know what I mean like if that's still perfectly normal and how we express ourselves to visitors we have a long way to go but tonight's very specific and I don't the conversation has sort of expanded a little bit but anyway tonight is about women and alcohol your right to know knowledge is power it's not a lecturing session it's to empower people with the information to make their own choices it's tonight I think I've phrased I've framed it correctly have I it's tonight it's tonight in the 80 room 14 01 at the letter candy campus of Atlantic Atlantic Technologies University and great parking and all that type of stuff how do it start today sorry it runs from seven to eight 30 you can have a cup of tea in a chat after do you have to register in advance just turn up or what's the story pull obviously I want to know numbers in advance but it's on the day of the event too at the same time so not going to worry we can put on a kettle for another few cups of tea the room can hold I think up to 70 people we have I think over 30 35 or something registered now if somebody wants to rack up on the night and join the conversation we'd be delighted to have them if they need to sit at the front all the better the more the merrier so show up tonight in the 80 they always start the seat and it always starts filling from the back forward doesn't it listen Paula thanks very much for your time this morning as always take care and thanks as always okay bye bye Paula Leonard National League Community Action on alcohol alcohol form Arland 0860 25,000 whatsapps and texts to that number the 9 till noon show with St Yunans GA club development draw 40,000 your own prizes first prize a Hyundai Kona Kyaar plus nine other grit prizes tickets now available online at stunionsgadraw.com or any club member oh Amy my little one I ask myself a million questions every day when will you give me your first smile how much sleep do you need how can I help you and your big brother to get along at the HSEs mychild.ie and in the free mychild books you'll find the answers you need from doctors midwives public health nurses dietitians and lots of other experts mychild.ie expert advice for every step of pregnancy, baby and toddler health from the HSE this week at centra choose from our amazing mega deals like centra 24 rebiscuit 480 gram only 1 euro 50 centra soft quilted bathroom tissue 18 rolls only 5 euro and centra fresh our strip point steak 360 gram only 7 euro smart choices choose centra centra live every day 50,000 euro to refurbished derelict houses for more in your farmer's journal his paul mooney a grant of up to 50,000 euro will be made available to refurbish one of rural houses we reveal the results 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exec ed coordinator on 9186206 or email exec ed ex e c e d at atu dunne.ie today okay now dunnegall connect 2022 is just around the corner it runs from thursday september 22 to sunday 25th gary martin instructor of services economic development information systems and emergency services gary good morning to you tell us really then you know the aim of dunnegall connect more generally and suppose the specific focus this year good morning greg yeah I suppose look it's great dunnegall connect is back for the fourth year in succession and indeed two years I suppose virtually we now actually are back in an actual presence event again this year the project itself developed I suppose from an initiative originated in the dunnegall association in Dublin back in 2017 when there was a I suppose a conversation and a suggestion that we shouldn't really be reaching out wider to our international diaspora from dunnegall both on the island and indeed international with a view to I suppose telling the story of what was happening at home and looking to I suppose tell a great story of of dunnegall and what a great place it is to visit live study and invest and etc that paralleled nicely with an initiative that was being led jointly by falsia ireland and the department of foreign affairs known as the global Irish festival series we married the two of those together their objective was to harness the diaspora links for the benefit I suppose of local and community tourism activity we married the two of those together and I suppose for the last four years we've had a number of initiatives targeting I suppose a number of different things one obviously is to bring I suppose people back to dunnegall during the shoulder period of the tourism season from the perspective of falsia ireland and to great economic activity on the back of that secondly I suppose to continue to reach out to the diaspora and tell the story of what's actually happening and as you know we have a huge focus on that from a dunnegall perspective and then lastly and more recently they are emerging and on-going efforts and developing the new dunnegall brand and I suppose outlining to I suppose the wider audience what the opportunities exist in dunnegall whether someone has decided to relocate here by way of business whether someone wants to remote work here the investment opportunities that are here in the back of the regeneration investments that the council are doing and I suppose aim and I suppose to build I suppose our economic base and the county in line with the objectives of our own county development plan in relation to that Gary is this an ongoing work that really maybe results aren't as tangible or as identifiable as we might want in that it creates a space and atmosphere you know similar to a trades mission to China 30 years ago and now we export you know whatever products we might do so but it would be very hard to directly maybe link those exports to that initial meeting so it's a roundabout way of saying like can we show results in these type of initiatives or can we see the benefit of it over time you know when it creates a it creates a space that makes you know investment or reconnection or coming home more likely it does well as we looked at any of us who would have been immigrants in the past nine one of those there's always an aspiration and a desire to come back home again that's the reality of it and sometimes it's when you reach a particular stage in your life when you want to put down roots and you want to establish a family and a home and so on and so forth and we're particularly interested I suppose in targeting people that have reached a point where Donnie Gaul as an option to live and to work in or to invest in is something that they're really thinking of and to your point there are tangible outcomes and we can actually point to them in various towns and villages around the around the county where people have I suppose on the back of looking at the opportunities for investing in those towns have come back made their investments and have actually added huge economic value to those respective areas COVID, which is something that no one would ever have planned for actually then demonstrated through the social experiment we had to go through with remote working the capacity of rural areas including areas across Donnie Gaul for people that can work remotely and no one ever thought that people would be working for companies like Google or Amazon or eBay from you know some of our more remote towns and villages and now we literally have hundreds of those and part of our event this week will be testimonials of some of those guys who have actually gone and done that and I suppose what we're trying to do is we're trying to make sure that you know we evangelize that as best as we possibly can to tell the story because whilst we might assume that people are aware of that they don't they're not always aware of that and as you know yourself when the when the Highland Broadcast and the Long Bay which vintage event there a few weeks ago we had an opportunity to talk to people and to I suppose further tell the story of what was actually happening at home in Donnie Gaul particularly in people's homes towns and villages and that's where the heart yeah and that connection you talk of to the county you know it's not easy for some who wish to return to do so because they've had family and their family have had children and they still a heart back but it is definitely there and it can be tapped into and also part of the reason we went to London I thought it important for us to go there is to recognize our diaspora what they're doing where they're doing it the same when we were lucky enough to go to Dubai to talk to the Donnie Gaul people that are doing really really well over there and that's too I suppose about this diaspora award there's an element of that as well is recognizing people from our part of the world that have gone abroad or elsewhere in Ireland and are doing really really well you know so we recognize what they've achieved rather than and it's great if they can come back and spread some of the world here but rather always drawing on them to say we'll fair play to you and I think sometimes it's nice and that's why I did it to go out to where they are and do that absolutely and look it's gone beyond the stage Greg of I suppose us putting the lav and I'm putting the hand out looking for assistance here and look it's great we do work I suppose with different I suppose entities across the world we're doing work with Boston City Council at the minute and they're actually looking at some of the initiatives that our own education and training board have here in Ireland and in Donnie Gaul in particular and developing apprenticeships and traineeships to try to develop initiatives for some of the areas that they have responsibility for to create economic activities so it's a bilateral engagement in areas where we have I suppose strengths and opportunities and in the same way when we're talking to the folks out there we talk to the folks in Harvard and MIT a new mass to identify opportunities that might exist in the areas that they're working very strongly on such as innovation and we have strong aspirations and intents for that and Donnie Gaul as well to create a really innovative economy supporting new 21st century employment and we want to learn from them in relation to that but it is bilateral and it's very much about creating that brand and recognition of where we stand and Donnie Gaul and initiative such as Donnie Gaul Connect is a really really good platform to be able to do that and of course often I might in my question focus on you know maybe IT or other types of business that could be done remotely but we now need and we'll need more than other people with different skill sets people with trades and what have you to see a return to Donnie Gaul as a positive option because there's going to be an awful lot for them to do we would expect and hope Right finally Gary from a listener's perspective here a lot of the work is on call but is there any activities we can engage in or any information resources that we could be looking at over the next couple of days Yeah well look the best thing that I can point you to I suppose is to our website at www.DonnieGaul.ie Donnie Gaul Connect that gives you the full itinerary for the four days of the events starting today Thursday the 22nd running true until Sunday the 25th there are activities across a diverse range of areas including food experiences genealogy business engagement arts and culture right across the county we have obviously a keynote event taking place in Bunkrana tomorrow night the Tiponeel Awards whereas you've already referenced a number of people with Donnie Gaul linkages and lineages who have performed really really well in the respective fields are being recognised and honoured for that and you know we we're very very proud of people who have those Donnie Gaul connections who never forget where they've actually come from and are very generous and sharing that back with us again and recognising them as part of these awards and we're really looking forward to that event at the second place at the Anishoen Geekway Hotel tomorrow evening as well All right and there's the Anishoen Carnival Group they're presenting a carnival trail at Swan Park on the evening of the 24th that is the day after tomorrow and it'll feature exciting carnival props, illuminations geometric light sculptures and live performances all right Gary thanks for your time this morning thank you Greg all right bye bye Gary Martin director of services economic development information systems and emergency services with DCC Would you like to win a Hyundai Kona car? Well that's the first prize in the St Yunans GA Club Development Draw who are sponsors of this week's Nine Til Noon Show There's nine other great prizes and tickets are now available online at stunansgadraw.com or any club member does any baby actually sleep? like a baby you'll find expert advice on sleeping at mychild.ie from the HSE to get that job done call Gortley Sales & Hire in letter Kenny generators portaloos and lighting towers also diggers dumpers rollers and much much more with short-term long-term and weekend special rates available call Gortley Sales & Hire online one two six two seven six we all know everyone's bills are going up so maybe it's time to say goodbye to those other supermarkets at Lidl we always help to make your full shop cost less so hopefully it's one less worry because when you go full Lidl you'll have the freedom to shop without compromise and pay less so go on go full Lidl today paying less when compared to other supermarket retailers when shopping like for like products on pro-rata prices see Lidl.ie forward slash go full Lidl for more he's not sure where to stand he doesn't know a single rule this game isn't familiar neither are his teammates he's outside of inside jokes and inside he's shaking he's learning how to solo he's starting to feel like he's not alone his local club welcomed him in like one of their own he is one of their own he's a newcomer and he belongs where we all belong GAA where we all belong as energy costs continue to rise investing in the energy efficiency of your business becomes increasingly crucial the SBCI Energy Efficiency Loan Scheme offers low-cost flexible funding to help SMEs, farmers and fishers invest in energy efficient equipment like heat pumps, solar panels, LED lighting and electric vehicle charging points to improve the sustainability of your business finance amounts range from 10,000 up to 150,000 euro with repayment terms up to 10 years at a discounted rate allowable funding includes term loans, higher purchase and asset finance products terms and conditions apply find out more at sbci.gov.ie or call 1-800-804-482 this is an SBCI initiative with the support of the European Investment Fund Does any baby actually sleep like a baby? You'll find expert advice on sleeping at mychild.ie from the HSE All right people were talking about the demographics I suppose of those coming from Ukraine to Ireland they see themselves gathered the information as it relates to that this is the most recent this is based off the 45,000 people from Ukraine now living in Ireland that number has increased a little since then women aged 20 and over account for 47 percent of arrivals to date so almost half of all of those who've arrived in Ireland so far are women aged over 20 another 30 percent of those are zero to 19 so what's that 77, 84 so 84 percent are either women aged over 20 or male or female aged zero to 19 the highest percentage of those arriving 39 percent were categorized as one parent with children under the broad relationship classification headlinings headings used as of the last date of these figures 66 percent were noted with English language proficiency being a challenge in securing employment okay so the stats there the most recent stats suggest that of those coming to Ireland from the Ukraine 84 percent are either women or zero to 19 both male and female now I don't know what accounts for the remainder of that but that is just statistics rather than perception of perception too is important so we were talking about alcohol one listener on Facebook says I don't drink alcohol and I had cancer can you please explain that seven out of eight people who get cancer don't alcohol wasn't a factor so hopefully you're feeling well now by the way seven out of eight people who get cancer breast cancer women alcohol isn't a factor so that's how we would account for that so poppers by two hours each night as a big influence on people's habits whether good or bad which became the norm plenty of alcohol drinking on these all before the water shed and before that too and I've moaned about it on this program before you know back in the day when I was younger we used to go down and watch Saturday morning TV it'd be Scooby Doo and Danger Mouse and Tiswas and all that nonsense but now it's adults sitting around drinking wine you know Saturday morning kitchen and all of those shows booze is front and present so probably you have to go and watch some streaming children's programs but that space that I seem to recall being for young people in the mornings is now adults sitting around just having a casual booze at 10 o'clock in the morning but anyway does constant medication have the same impact on your liver and that's a message for a doctor and even Paula with her experience would probably refer you to a doctor in that regard should we not introduce a policy of limiting sales of alcohol to the public the same way we do with paracetamol I mean it's not hard to circumvent those paracetamol rules either but maybe it might have some impact and if alcohol is costing you more than the price of it then you have a problem with it okay I get what you're saying all right back with the news in a moment the 9 till noon show with St Yunan's GA club development draw 40,000 euro in prizes first prize a Hyundai Kona car plus nine other grit prizes tickets now available online at St Yunan's GA draw dot com or any club member the county's number one talk show the 9 till noon show on Highland radio go full needle and feed a family of four for less than a fiver with these incredible offers for a chicken fajita dinner go fantastic fajita kits for just 149 sweet corn a very sweet 27 cent fresh Irish mushrooms just 49 cent and Irish chicken ties only 269 go on shop without compromise go full needle today fancy a lunch out today Kelly's diner in Aberkennie have a menu packed with great value selections and there's also specials every day or enjoy a three course Sunday lunch from 12 to 3 for just 1675 take a seat for the best value lunch in town at Kelly's award-winning diner mountaintop better Kenny for all your training needs Northwest Forestry Services Training Department Bally Buffet offer a wide range of courses from training bodies such as NPTC City and Gills QQI Landra and ABA International courses include all land based services such as Chainsaw tree climbing and rescue pesticides working in heights and ATV training other courses offered include first aid responder manual handling and building safety to name but a few for a full list of training courses and availability contact Northwest Forestry Services Bally Buffet on 07491 32033 thinking of hiring a locksmith or do you provide locksmith services did you know that locksmiths must hold a PSA license issued by the private security authority locksmiths who operate without a license and anyone employing one is breaking the law and could face prosecution and fines for more information on how to get a license or to report an unlicensed locksmith visit PSA-gov.ie issued by the private security authority the security regulator greener choices are the key to a sustainable future that's why energy is leading the way in renewable energy technologies like wind solar and battery storage because the choices we all make today will change how we live tomorrow hello everybody it's me Tommy Tiernan I'm playing the Mount Eregal Hotel on Saturday the 1st of October with me brand new stand-up comedy show Tom Fulery tickets are 35 quid from ticketmaster.ie don't you dare miss it watch the show live now on YouTube Facebook and at highlandradio.com okay it is 11 o'clock another out come in the show stay right where you are as we get a news update now from McKayla Clark good morning McKayla thanks Greg good morning community organization staff in Donegal are striking today in a dispute over pay a protest march and rally is taking place in Leicester Kenny at 12 noon to highlight the fact they have not received a pay increase since 2008 SIP to organizer Kevin McKinney is calling on the Minister for Health to intervene in the dispute Catholics have outnumbered Protestants in Northern Ireland for the first time the latest census 2021 results which have just been published show 45.7% of the population are non-Catholic while 43.5% are Protestant or another Christian religion serious concerns are being raised over convicted offenders from outside Sturban potentially being hised at a new apartment development in the town archising association has previously stated that the housing on Main Street will not be used to specially accommodate individuals with convictions of a minor or serious nature cancer women bar however says discussions with the housing association has failed to allay fears the HSE's Chief Clinical Officer says catastrophic conditions in hospitals this winter are not inevitable it's feared a pandemic of high COVID and flu case numbers could lead to further overcrowding in hospitals just 11 long-term care residents are currently being accommodated at Falkara Community Hospital the refurbishment of the facility is due to commence in the first quarter of next year which aims to ensure the quality and safety of care and compliance with HIKA regulations Donegal County Council has been urged to source funding of 120,000 euro to install long-term flood relief measures to prevent what has been described as outrageous flooding in Glen Swilly during a recent period of heavy rain the Leicester County to Fintown Road at Glen Swilly School was washed away here look off the Leicester County Milford Municipal District Councilor Donald Mandi Kelly says the road must be treated as a priority and the Western Development Commission and Halo Business Angels Network have announced a special event in Donegal next month to match companies with potential investors the event is taking place on October the 13th in the Colab Centre at the ATU's Leicester County campus the commission says bringing different people together should raise the level of investment in the region those are the latest headlines we'll be back with an update again at 12 noon Okay, Mikayla thank you very much indeed and we'll be back with more on the Ninetal Noon Show after we take this quick break stay right where you are The Ninetal Noon Show with St Yunan's GA Club Development Draw 40,000 euro in prizes first prize a Hyundai Kono Kyaar plus nine other grit prizes tickets now available online at stunansgadraw.com or any club member have you a job vacancy that needs urgently filled? have you tried various ways to find new staff but didn't succeed? let Highland Radio help you source and fill your current vacancies in the most cost-effective way sign up for a job spot and we will tell our 70,000 daily listeners about your vacancies every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during our primetime shows we will broadcast the latest job opportunities across the Northwest and into County's Derea and Taroan all jobs will be listed on highlandradio.com under our job spot section for more information contact the advertising team on 07491 532 or email advertising at highlandradio.com Highland Radio delivering your message across the Northwest For this bakery in changing times you need the right support to take the next step in building your business for this cafe at Bank of Ireland we're here to support the financial well-being of your business as it grows with faster easier loan applications and dedicated business teams when you need them Hello, Fully's Coffee Roasters Search Bank of Ireland Business Bank of Ireland Begin Lending criteria Terms and Conditions Apply Over 18s only Bank of Ireland is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland An important timetable update from TFI Local Link Donnie Gull's LIGO Leadroom Route 953 Movil to Lederkenny Great news from Monday, September 19th TFI Local Link Route 953 Movil to Lederkenny will be extended to Greencastle and will now service locations including Kuldaft, Leneely, Greencastle and Bridgend Operating up to three times per day seven days a week the enhanced route will now provide a new peak time service for students and commuters into Lederkenny Arriving for both 8am and 9am and returning at 5pm as well as improved connectivity to regional bus services for onward travel For timetables, fares and all route information see locallinkdsl.ie or call our office on 074 9741 644 TFI Local Link Part of the Transport for Ireland Network The Donnie Gull Senior Football Championship has reached the semi-final stage and you can follow the action this weekend here on Highland on air across the north west and online at HighlandRadio.com The Dr Maguire Cup holders St Dunans will play Kulkkar on Saturday evening at 8 and Dave Connell's tie with Ghidor is on Sunday at 4 Both games are live on Highland from McCool Park, Bali Buffet Highland's Championship Coverage is with Highland Motor's Lederkenny main Renault dealer in Donnie Gull The much anticipated new 100% electric multi-award winning Renault-Megan E-Tech is nearly here with a range of up to 495km A test drive is a must Cook yours today Okay so ahead of World Long Day which is Sunday the 25th the Coalition of Irish Long Health Charities are urging the public to love your lungs and there are five steps to love your lungs and it's available for you online we'll run through some of it at the moment but we're going to speak to someone, two guests now firstly Professor Tim McDonnell Consultant Respiratory Physician Good morning to you Tim thank you for joining us Good morning Greg and also Michael McGloin who lives with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD Good morning Michael Good morning Greg Right okay I'll come to Good morning Professor McDonnell Good morning Michael Good to hear from you Okay I'll come to you in a moment Michael Professor Our lungs incredibly incredibly important to us and how we function I'm sure there is some debate in the medical world as to sort of what is the the engine of the body but you could make a good pitch for the lungs being incredibly important of course Well I think they are and perhaps the problems when they arise in lung diseases are underappreciated We often forget that for instance lung cancer is the commonest cause of deaths in men and women in Ireland Asthma is a very common problem but it's it's often under realized that it can be a very significant problem One death a week occurs in patients who've got asthma and as these patients tend to be younger patients that is a very significant tragedy COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the commonest cause of emergency admissions to our hospitals So when we hear about the trolley crisis a lot of the people who are stuck on trolleys are patients with COPD I mean we have 15,000 admissions a year to our hospitals in COPD and unfortunately 1500 deaths How much of it is within our power to I suppose best prevent you know some of these conditions for our lungs and how much of it is just you know always going to be present in the population Well I think we can do a lot to prevent these disorders and more effect more importantly perhaps better treat them for instance with asthma there's a lot of asthmatic patients tend to under treat themselves or under a complaint if you like you know asthma patients frequently wake up at night coughing and wheezing and that is unacceptable it's a major marker of poor control of their asthma and they should seek assistance for patients with asthma shouldn't for instance be stopped from doing anything because of the asthma they shouldn't put up with having coughs and wheezes you should talk to the GP and seek anything we've done about it with COPD obviously some of these patients smoked in the past but we now increasingly recognize that there are other factors that may have contributed to it I mean there can be early infections in childhood there can be an element of genetics and even smokers with COPD a lot of patients with COPD have stopped smoking still have a disorder just in relation to COPD the figures show less than a third of people are diagnosed compared to those that would be estimated to be living with COPD well what is your working theory on that is it are they going to the GP and it's not being diagnosed or missed or are they seeing it as they're crossed to bear I can imagine it has quite an impact on on your life how come the diagnosis rate seemingly is so low I think again the issue goes to perhaps the patients putting up with things as COPD yeah it takes effect it's a very slow disease it progresses very slowly so patients sometimes put up with the fact that they're getting short of breath as simply a sign of getting older and you know they just decide that you know their breathlessness is just due to an aging factor when in fact it's something else so again if you are getting short of breath particularly if you've got risk factors like smoking you should go and talk to your GP about getting assessed for this similarly the other thing the other main symptom that COPD patients have is chest infections particularly in the winter and sometimes again they can be dismissed a little bit as just being winter infections if you have risk factors for COPD particularly again if you're smoking and if you're getting chest infections seek help from your GP and inquire whether you could possibly have COPD it is one of those diseases that the sooner it is identified the better you could say that I suppose of all diseases but COPD is one that you don't want to put down to something else you want to be getting any care that is available as soon as is possible yeah I mean again the treatment has improved significantly over the last 10 years and so and patients can do an awful lot better if they're put on the appropriate treatment and if they're given other advice I mean one of the issues that in the love of your lung campaigns is exercise we know how important exercise is for patients with COPD and again encouraging people with COPD to get out and exercise in addition to taking their medication in addition to taking their vaccines can be hugely important in preserving their general health yeah and in relation to I presume obstructive sleep apnea some might categorize that as snoring and I think there is just sort of jovial attitude towards snoring a bit of banter and stuff and even in recent storylines and so poppers it's played for comedic value but it is something people should not ignore yeah obstructive sleep apnea is very much under recognized it has become more of a problem particularly as people tend to be a little bit more overweight these days and what the symptoms to look out for here are excessive sleepiness during the day if you if you are finding it difficult to keep awake at particular times of day and if you're fall