He was taken out to sea due to a big swell. An ornallye boat brought him to shore. He received medical treatment at the scene but couldn't be revived. His body has since been taken to Letter County University Hospital, where postmortem will be carried out. Letter County University Hospital has the highest number of COVID patients in the country. It is figures showed that 59 patients with the virus are currently being treated at the hospital. The figure is up 5 from yesterday. Meanwhile, 30,000 5 to 11-year-olds have so far been registered for a COVID-19 vaccine. The HSC's vaccine portal opened for the age cohort yesterday. There are half a million children aged between 5 and 11 living in Ireland. The HSC's national lead for the vaccination program, Demi and McCallion, says the figure is encouraging. What we've seen I guess with younger ages is it typically does take time for people to come forward and that's understandable. Parents want to make sure they've got all the information, they've discussed it with their child and then they make the decision and we saw that in the 12 to 17 age group where we had a really good uptake in terms of the primary vaccination program and as I said did take some time for that to come through so we'd be very encouraged by the early numbers. Health Minister says new minimum pricing for alcohol aims to reduce serious illness and death from drinking. The laws which come into effect today mean a standard bottle of wine cannot be sold for less than 7-year-old 40 and a can of beer for less than 1-year-old 70. Alcohol Action Ireland CEO Sheila Gilhene says it's aimed at problem drinkers. It's actually targeting those who are drinking at the highest levels and that is actually not something that less well-off people tend to be doing. It's actually targeting those who are drinking at the very highest and the very riskiest levels. It's something that we would be predicting through research and through modeling. We suggest that over about 20 years we would see that the number of deaths from alcohol would be reduced probably by about 200 a year. On For Weatherline today we'll bring you occasional shards of brine or heel with highest temperatures of 4 to 7 degrees. That's all from Highland Radio News for now. We'll be back with News & Full at 10 o'clock. You have one new message. Hi Claire, Auntie Dee here. I just wanted to say a big thank you for skipping my party. We had a great night and everyone was so happy you didn't come. Now you take care. I hope to see you soon. Bye. No one will thank you for turning up to work or anything else when you're sick. Stay at home and get a PCR test to protect yourself and others from COVID-19. From the HSE, Forest Hall. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest, The Nines & Nuneshow with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. Hello and very good morning to you. It's four minutes past nine on this Tuesday the 4th of January and you're very welcome along to The Nines & Nuneshow. Thank you very much for joining us. Our lines are open for you. You can get in contact with us now. It's Caroline taking your calls as always. She hasn't left us in 2021. She's still here for 22. The number to contact Caroline, 07491 25,000. 07491 25,000. Your texts and WhatsApps to 086 6025,000. That's 086 6025,000 or emails to comments at highlandradio.com. Good morning. If you're joining us across our social media on YouTube, Highland Radio Ireland or on Facebook, Highland Radio News and Sport or Highland Radio. Feel free to say hello. Leave your messages there for us as well. Tell us where you're watching from. All right. It is Tuesday. I'm trying to keep reminding myself. It's Tuesday. Right. Let's look at the newspapers for this morning. The Donegal People's Press, a Newtown Cunningham family, were told had a lucky escape on Monday morning when a lorry crashed into their house. The Glespie family were shocked when a loud bang shook through their home at around 7.30am. The lorry was traveling on the N13 road from Derry to Dettropkenny at the time. Quite a shock in the morning, I'd imagine. The Derry Journal tells us that the peer of the microaction group has highlighted how January and February will be very important months for the scheme and campaign. Michael Daugherty was speaking in a New Year update on the microaction group Facebook page in which he reflected on a tremendously successful year for the campaign and noted now how there is still work to do. Michael looked back on the year past and told how the Paddy Diver injection was massively important to the scheme campaign as well as the support from the thousands of people who marched on Dublin twice. A real highlight of 2021, that was for myself to be down and see people power in action in that way. Hopefully now it plans out and reaps rewards. The Irish Independent is discussing what I think an awful lot of people out there have been discussing and awful lot of messages I've been receiving over the Christmas and New Year period. It was about schools, schools reopening on Thursday and people have very different views and they're very passionately held views. That's the one thing I've learned. There are some that believe that whatever happens, children have to get back into school, they've suffered enough, they need that structure, they need the education, they need contact with their friends and schools should open as planned on Thursday. And then also those saying, look, this is going to last for another one or two weeks, then we're going to see the peak and it's going to fall off for crying out loud, keep the young people at home, you know, or stagger the openings and what have you. Those are the views that are out there and some people are somewhere in between. There's no right or wrong answer in any of this. But if you want your view on that, by the way, get in touch with us 08 660 25000. I think some parents will be keeping their children off for the two days. They'll be making that decision themselves and sending them back in on Monday. I don't know how many teachers or school children actually might be able to get in because there's very, very few houses at the moment where at least one person isn't isolating. But anyway, a COVID crisis is set to classrooms read as schools return from the Christmas break with confusion surrounding how many teachers will be able to report for work. Principles could face the prospect of many classrooms without teachers on Thursday as the number isolating due to COVID continues to increase. There is so much confusion about COVID testing and isolation that teacher unions cannot predict how many teachers will be able to work. It comes as a secondary teachers union. The ASTI has called for a delayed and staggered reopening of schools because of a current wave of COVID infections. Now I'd love to be able to bring you the views of the school unions this morning on the program, particularly for the teachers out there contacting me in great numbers, but unfortunately none available. So I won't be able to do that for you, but we'll try and cover it nonetheless. But speak for yourselves. Do you know what I mean? If you're a teacher out there, get in contact with us, if you're concerned about confidentiality, call Caroline or text in and have your views expressed that way. If we can't manage to get someone from a union, they'll actually speak on your behalf. Get in touch with us and we'll do that job for you 0749125,000. Well, teachers unions will be seeking clarity from the public health sector and the education minister Norma Foley at a crunch meeting today to discuss schools reopening plan. But the word coming from the Department of Education and from government is they have no appetite whatsoever to delay the opening of schools. There could be two reasons for that. First reason, if we're going for some sort of an immunity situation, delaying the opening of schools, the feeling being everyone's going to get this anyway, delaying the opening of schools will just maybe delay the peak. You know what I mean? It'll just roll it forward at towards the end of January, open them up on Thursday, let it pass through and that we might hit the peak sooner. That's I don't believe South African schools were closed. That could be one strategy though no one will ever publicly say that. So we'll see, we'll see what the story is. At the Irish Times this morning, the government is facing a standoff with teachers unions over the reopening of schools as the largest secondary teachers union seeks a postponement of the opening of schools after the Christmas holidays. I think they'll do whatever the government says if the truth be told. There should be a delayed and staggered reopening of schools as a result of the Omicron wave of COVID-19. The main second level teachers union will tell the minister for education today. Unions and school management bodies will meet no more fully as well as a department of officials, a department of officials, maybe that should be the department of health officials or education officials today in advance of the planned reopening of schools on Thursday. But the government's special rap on tour on child protection has warned against closing the schools saying children had suffered a range of adverse effects from last year's closures. I don't think people are as afraid anymore as they were. That's why I think this is going to be a very interesting year in that regard. I think the public are taking more control of the situation themselves. A big story though and it has a huge impact on those maybe who like sensible couple of drinks at home perhaps that's the way they want to socialize or particularly businesses. I think businesses that sell alcohol in Donegal are going to take an absolute hammering because the price of alcohol has increased and this has kind of slipped onto the radar although we probably all knew about it. But from today the price of booze is going up really, really quite significantly. Some examples, a bottle of gin Gordon's gin is going from 15 euro to 20 euro and 70. A litre of vodka is going up by 50 percent. It's going up from 20 euro to 29, 59. 24 cans it says here you could get them for 10 euro before but I'm not really quite sure you could have. I've never seen 24 cans sold for 10 euro but anyway that's what they're saying in the paper. But anyway 24 cans a slab of beer effectively will now cost you 40 euro and 70 cent. A bottle of Queen Margaux Scotch goes from 14.99 to 22.7 14.99 to 22.07 for I don't know what that is Western Gold bourbon yeah it's a bourbon. So these are very, very significant price increases. So even in the business of you know selling alcohol or consuming it. What are your views on this? What do you think the impact this might have on your business especially in a border area?  How much money leaving this country will be leaving this country as a result of this? Now we can try and pretend that it won't you know because you know booze is bad we shouldn't be boozing so whatever they do that's fine that's one side of it right but this is going to have I'd imagine a really, really big impact on businesses in Donegal already struggling businesses. If you're affected by this or have a view on this 086625,000 your WhatsApps and texts maybe you're robbing your hands with glee in Northern Ireland because you'll see more trades<PHONE_NUMBER>,000 but anyway minimum alcohol pricing becomes law today raising the price of some drinks four fold. Don Stors was selling 24 cans slabs of Heinegan and Budweiser for just 10 euro yesterday. Okay I'm not sure how responsible that is either but from today the price will more than quadruple to a minimum of 40 euro 70 cent. Don's did not respond to requests for comment. Another supermarket even slapped stickers on its cheap booze to entice shoppers to buy yesterday's before the increase. I saw that myself we'll come back to that in the last paper of the day.  A New York judge will rule whether the civil case was brought by Virginia Goughry should be thrown out. He and his team have done everything to discredit this woman to try and avoid him having to go into court and explain himself. They've done absolutely everything to sort of make out that she's not right for even trying to pursue this but anyway the British Royals team says a 2009 agreement between her and Jeffrey Epstein published for the first time yesterday exempts him from the legal action which he doesn't. In it she agreed to end all action against second parties but does not name Andrews. So you imagine your defense being that she can't come after me. She can't come after me because she signed a deal with my mate saying that she couldn't go after his mates. I mean imagine that actually being your defense that would worry me anyway. Lawyers told the son that Andrew who denied Virginia's claims he danced with her in 2001 by claiming he cannot sweat it may not be in the clear. And it is about time and you know obviously it was important that Kislaine Maxwell was tried and convicted for her role in that situation but where are all the men all the men that were without them none of this would have happened where are they why aren't they being brought before the courts and charged. The star today a veterinary surgeon who founded a website to educate people before owning a poppy says Irish society should take a long hard look at themselves in their attitude to finding a new pet. Tim Kirby worries that the new trend for aesthetic designer dogs is causing huge behavioral problems which will increase due to crossbreeding of totally unsuitable varieties. The Kerry native who is behind the award winning pet bond platform is now appealing for more regulation in the industry. Pet bond offers new owners the chance to meet a healthy poppy from an improved breeder after being guided step by step through their decision. And finally just some falls and against in the Irish Daily Mirror as it relates to the introduction of increases in the price of alcohol our devotion to drink has been fed by reckless discounting. This is according to Union McKinney of alcohol action Ireland. He says every day we lose three lives alcohol related illness and 1000 hospital beds are taken by those with similar attributable causes against is just someone who writes for the mirror like many others. I grew up with alcoholism in the family and I'm against this measure. I believe it's lip service in an increasingly safety society and just means one. It just means more government overreaction or overreaching to our lives under the usual banner of being in the name of public good. Right. Okay. What's your views on all that? 08 660 25,000 08 660 25,000 your texts on WhatsApps to 08 660 25,000 tell us your hopes for 2022. What do you hope to see? What do you think we'll see in 2022 be politically in health? Are you optimistic pessimistic? Whatever it might be, whatever you want to talk about, get in touch with us right now. The lines are open for you and we'll be joined by our first guest shortly. The newspapers are courtesy of Kelly Centra, mountaintop letter Kenny. Michael Haney's biggest ever winter sale is now on with offers like never seen before on your favorite designer brands but better hurry when they're gone, they're gone with up to 50% off and our women's men's kids jewelry home and footwear departments. Plus enjoy great sterling exchange for one pound by your one Euro 20. So go get what's yours at Michael Haney's ballet buffet or Michael Haney's.com.  COVID-19 usually causes mild to moderate illness in this age group, but it can cause more severe illness. All vaccines used in Ireland are tested before they're approved by the European Medicines Agency. To find out more or to register, go to hsc.ie or call hsc live on 1800 700 700 from the hsc. The rest expads and furniture winter sale is now in full swing at our letter Kenny store supplying only the finest quality luxurious irish made beds and mattresses with genuine savings throughout our range. We look forward to seeing you at the rest expads and furniture winter sale. Highland radio time checks brought to you by letter Kenny shopping centre, the centre of shopping in Dunnyall, free parking and shopping all under one roof. Letter Kenny shopping centre bringing you the time at. Okay, the time is 18 minutes past nine. Now a lot of people wasted much of their Christmas holidays and their breaks and maybe a downtime trying to book a PCR test. The system is crazy at the moment. They've done a big U turn on antigen tests, but no one can get antigen tests. People can't simply find out whether or not they are infectious or not. It's very, very frustrating. The website, if you're not on the hsc website at the stroke of 12, you've all chance of you're winning the Euro million sometimes than simply getting a PCR test. You can't ring now doc. Some GPs can't help and it's very, very confusing and very frustrating and it's compounding people's upset because there are those who, you know, maybe they got together as they were permitted to at Christmas to have a Christmas meal. This was a lot of what I was getting over the Christmas. One person happened to test positive with an antigen test and then obviously you've got a group of people all very worried, wanting to find out what the situation is, but the system simply was not able to cope and still can't. And then go on the hsc live website to try and find out what the rules are as it relates to close contacts and it seems like something out of a comedy show. You cannot, you know, there's so many different, I'll read through what it says, just the opening page. I can't make head nor tail of it. Marge, good morning to you. Good morning. Happy New Year, Greg. Happy New Year, Marge. Did you have a nice Christmas, a hope? I had a lovely Christmas. That's good. Okay. That's the positive. Right, but PCR tests.  I have two sisters who have tested positive for COVID. I don't have it. I'm negative. But they tested positive using, you know, the homemade, the home antigen test. And I've been trying to get an appointment for them for all three of us because I'm there in the same house that I am in. I've been trying to get an appointment since Friday. I was, I was online for 90 minutes starting at midnight on Friday night trying to get an appointment and I couldn't get it. I finally, I finally went to bed at half past one. And I tried to call HSE yesterday to see if they could help me. They put me on hold for one hour. And after one hour, I finally hung up. So I haven't been, it's now Tuesday. And also my sister had to cancel a flight because, you know, because she has COVID or she thinks she has COVID. We're not even sure of the answer. There's been so much controversy over the antigen test about whether they're effective or not. Well, and let's be clear, Marge, the controversy didn't come from you or me. The controversy came from Nefert, one of the members saying it was snake oil. And the other saying don't use them if you're, if you're symptomatic. These things are very, very unreliable. It is Nefert that sold the seeds of confusion. Absolutely. Absolutely. So my sister had a had a flight to Tenerife, but not till the weekend, but she decided that, you know, she was going to cancel to add, I called, I phoned EZJet yesterday. And they think I canceled the flight, but she's not going to get any money back because she has no evidence that she has COVID. Did she consider booking a private PCR test? Yes. The private people told us that she couldn't, they would not accept her because she has symptoms. If you have symptoms, you can't have a private test. They won't let you in the building. Right. So we've tried everything. And I mean, I can go have a test, but I've tested negative. I don't see any reason for me to go have a test at this point, but they can't go because they have symptoms. And it's not just Donegal, by the way, there are no test slots anywhere. Now in Northern Ireland, and I know people from Donegal have done this, you can just walk in and get a test in many, many places across Northern Ireland. But for some reason we can't do it here. We tried. Somebody told us that we could do that as well. But then we got a call from somebody else who said, you have to have an address in Northern Ireland to get a test in Northern Ireland. So anyway, the bottom line is we've been trying to get this done since Friday and it's now Tuesday. And there's other groups of people as well, Marge, who got symptoms or maybe got a positive antigen test and aren't in work, but they can't get any assistance because they can't get more antigen tests to get sick pay because they will accept an antigen test to put you on sick pay. But then people can't get back to work either because they can't get a PCR test confirming whether or not they have it. So it's affecting that group of people as well. It's affecting everybody. Somebody needs to get Stephen Donnelly on the phone and have him explain why this has happened.  Well, they will say that they will say, well, this is happening all over Europe. This is unprecedented. We could never create enough capacity to deal with this wave. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's not our fault. It was like that when we got here. Yes, I'm sure they will. They'll have some excuse, but that is not acceptable. It's not acceptable. Somebody needs to be taken to task for this debacle. Yes, because we've two years into this. We're two, yes. You know, we're all two years into this. This is the worst thing that has happened in all of the two years. It's frustrating, Marge. And you know, a lot of things we can sort of maybe put inquiries in or get some resolution to in this program. We spent 2021 and previous years doing this. This is just such a cluster. It seems like we're just going to have to grin and bear it like we shouldn't have to. We shouldn't have to. Yeah. And now, Doc, obviously as well, would have been inundated with people trying to get a referral for a test, but they're not doing that. Apparently they were inundated yesterday and people who were genuinely sick that needed now, Doc, couldn't get through. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, listen, Marge, I hope everyone's well in your house and in your circle. And thank you for sharing that with us. Okay. Thank you very much. All right, bye-bye. Oh, wait, 60, 25,000. Join the conversation. But the HSE website, as I say, it says, if you're a close contact of COVID-19, but you can't get an antigen test or you can't get a PCR test to determine if someone in the house has it, or if you're a close contact, that's part of the problem.  And then there's a button and say, well, if you're under 13, click this. And then I got my first round of COVID-19 vaccination, but no booster, click that. I got my booster less than seven days ago before the close contact text. I got my first round of COVID-19 vaccination and had a positive PCR test in the past three months. I have symptoms of COVID-19. I have not had my first round of COVID-19 vaccinations. What's first round? Is that one? Is that two? I know I'm a close contact, but I've not been contacted by the HSE yet. And so on, living with someone, if you live with someone who's restricting their movements, if you live with someone who has symptoms, if you live with someone waiting for PCR test results, if you're caring for someone who cannot self-isolate, and so on and so on and so forth, you know, it's supposed to explain it, but it doesn't. It's all very, very confusing. 07491-25000, call Caroline. I got an antigen test in the chemist yesterday. No bother. Well, listen, you can strike it lucky. You can walk into a chemist or shop just after they've had a delivery and there's a pile, 15-foot-high, of antigen tests.  I'm on my seventh day of COVID. I ended up going to Northern Ireland last night because I'm sick of waiting and my symptoms were getting worse. I had to close to my business. I feel it's the case of the quickest finger on the computer, fastest finger first. Exactly, that's what it's like. You know, we used to do that to try and book tickets for concerts. 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A caller says question as the summer crown variant is rampant and also some of cold and flu is there a lot of cases now coming back negative from PCR and shown positive and antigen is the PCR the ones to go by well they're told to be the gold standard aren't they I mean antigen tests they are what they are and you know antigen tests are very effective at certain levels of you know the journey of COVID but I don't know this night I just genuinely don't know um but obviously the likes of myself I've got a bit of a sinus issue at the moment but I've had more things up me over at the Christmas and New Year than there have been people up a year ago just to make sure um but anyway that's a question for Greg show maybe ask some doctor or medical person what's going on that a lot of PCR tests are coming back negative well because not everyone's going to get it a lot of people have had it already and have immunity from it not immunity resistance to it um so you know every test is not going to come back positive there's lots of upper respiratory illness out their head colds as that caller said you know flues and all manner of stuff much more this year than that was last year right Father John Joe Duffy of St. Michael's Church Creasel joins us on the program good morning and a happy new year to your father John Joe how are you keeping good morning Greg a very happy new year and to all your staff and listeners and you were talking about up there ago I think the first man up there ago for the new year was a man called Paddy Stone from Dunlow but yeah he normally makes it every year for the last number of years at a very early hour when the rest of us is sleeping but I thought you didn't say the bishop because he's been known to go perigal but it wasn't no he hasn't been up that early he would say I think more up in the daytime I mean how was your how's your Christmas Father John Joe peaceful Christmas or a peaceful Christmas and again we are as you were talking about the COVID there where we were doing our level best to keep everyone safe during COVID and had extra masses more so than normally just like last year in the parish so that there will be to be more spaced out you know what I mean for people so you wouldn't have as many people in there at the one time and keeping the distance people making their own decisions and personal responsibility absolutely absolutely people are doing their very best and taking all the public health advice for the most part that I can see on board and doing their very best to keep safe it was very quiet it was eerily quiet sort of between Christmas and the New Year and I was speaking to some of the Gardie the Gardie were very visible in our area and and just that there was nobody out there was nobody on the roads and a lot of people even people that did have COVID or did have symptoms told me they stayed at home with their families and that was important for them as well for those that weren't very sick while others were struggling with it um you know not just in my parish but in other places where I know people some people struggle terribly with it others I just seemed like a headquarter sinus which you and I are prone to and um and they stayed at home with their families and they had a nice family Christmas do you find people before we speak about what we we we invited you on to talk about but yeah do you think there's a a change of attitude in people doing people are I mean obviously cautious and careful but less fearful if you know what I mean because I recall like last year we could have been talking about you know 10 cases in Donegal and everyone was up to Haido I would suggest there's not a house or not a group of people listening to us that someone either themselves or someone close them may have it or may suspect they have it but I don't I don't get that sense of panic any longer I don't know maybe my fingers off the pulse I don't know people are beginning to believe that if you are to catch any variant the Omicron variant is the one that seems to be the better one to catch and so far as most people will not be sick but then again when you speak to to to people in the hospitals the hospitals are long jammed as as the generally would have been probably at this time of year but the big problem seems to be the close contacts and staff off the big problem is trying to get get staff there's places that are fighting it very difficult to get staff and the hospital is no exception to that either and between close contacts and people having COVID that this is the big problem with the present variant that it may knock it may knock places close places yeah that businesses happen literally have to close because they have no staff yeah but there seems to be less less fear of it you're right in that and and I think people between being vaccinated and what not they're they're placing confidence in that as well and then people taking the public health I just think unless something unless something very very negative happens the government not just here but everywhere are going to have to come up with a different strategy because I think from from my sense people are going to go and get booster after booster after booster maybe those in the very vulnerable capital in the very vulnerable categories might but I don't think the general population is and I don't think the general population is going to spend 2022 with their lives heavily curtailed so whatever happens coming through January governments are going to have to come up with a different solution to this well yeah exactly and and it's good to see that there is a weaker variant because you would hope that any other variant after that will be weaker and I was speaking to somebody who is very friendly with a microbiologist in Belfast and they asked the person the question straight how long is this going to last for and they said most viruses um you know the worst of them are over in the three to five year period so you're afraid of god it will be the same for for almost a three than five I would hope a closer to three absolutely closer to three but then you know when was it in the country it was probably in the country some doctors will tell you the November even possibly the October before yeah for sure you know maybe closer to three exactly yeah so thank god hopefully we'll get on with normal life very soon you know we're not the living rather I think we have to one but but it has it has made people aware of what is important and what's important is family and people and caring for people and we have seen that care so much you know and I it's great you know some of the things though that we relied on um you know the say for example the local posts post people who deliver her mail on a daily basis you know those people have played such a vital role uh talking to people in their homes and seeing the people all right even talking to people through the window and you know there's a great sense of community uh again uh and places you know where you might have felt community wasn't as strong come out of it better or worse than I wonder I would hope we could I would hope we come out of it much better realize and realize and what is important that it is family it is people and and community yeah all right um um now tell us Father John Joe we contacted you as it relates to another situation tell us about it oh this time yesterday morning I was in a state of panic um the church there was an incident at the church overnight um during the night at some point I heard an unmerciful bang I thought something had blown out blown over at the house I can't say when I remember hearing it at some stage and the plaster work it's an unusual design uh so my first Greece uh a more modern design and there's a huge amount of plaster work probably about eight feet tall between what is the ceiling and and and the roof uh above the back windows of the churches I would call it and the whole art uh gave way and landed down on top of a smaller roof and put most of the windows smashed most of the windows and exposed the whole area between the roof and the ceiling to the elements so I was absolutely while the situation was bad enough in what had happened and very bad I was afraid we would lose our roof lose the ceiling in the church as water was blown in as it was an awful day yesterday and um that that's essentially what happened a huge amount of damage monetarily I would say as well but thank god we're insured but uh I put out the call and the first person that father doon and I called contacted father doon the parish priest first it was the sacriston that had alerted us at a quarter to nine and um I put out the call with father doon to a local building contractor and he rallied his people and other tradesmen and locals all came together and including a teacher from belfast and got up and worked like throjan horses and you know worked like throjans rather and got the church secured and uh we were fit to re-enter at four o'clock yesterday evening but the generosity of the people uh in our area including that man who came is a teacher in belfast and others from outside the parish and other parts of the community and others who didn't know that what have been there to help it was just extraordinary to see the help and see those men out all day away from their families and the rain pouring down on top of them just working so hard to secure the church so that we wouldn't lose our roof or ceiling and that's the community community we were talking about and obviously it's been it's been sure to prevent hopefully any further damage but but what what what needs to be ongoing forward what is it is it is there concerns about more of the structure now or no we we believe this was a particular type of uh work that was done to this particular part of the structure over the windows yes so we hope that after yesterday's work yeah there's no concern for the rest of the structure but if it hadn't been for the tremendous effort of the people yesterday we would be in severe bother because in january 1978 the roof blew off the church and the entire roof for most of the entire roof blew off the church at the time i suppose these churches the designs were beautiful uh and a very beautiful church but some of it was based on churches that you had in in in france and in switzerland one built for the west it they weren't built for the the northwest of ireland i don't think and that was the big problem and they remember yesterday when they were breaking the glass uh that's when the shock of it really hit me because it brought me back to an earlier stage you see your childhood has a huge impact on you in later life it brought me back to a stage when i was in the prefab uh that blew down when i was at school in 1984 uh once i heard the smashing of glass it just brought me right back to that moment uh where we were children in the prefab that blew down in uh at cage national school in burton port and our teacher uh she was uh mya mccowals who happened to be the mary from down low the previous year in 84 and one the end side blew in and the other side blew out and there were six or seven children trapped and of it hadn't been for the teachers and and others um i seem to recall that because we were being taught in a prefab in lahi at that at that time yeah and i think there was some there might have been some broader concern then oh there was broader concern over all the prefabs at the time and if it hadn't been for the action of some locals at that time uh who advised the principal now mccowal to put up a barrier to protect the roof yes uh which the department objected to uh if if that hadn't been put up at the time previously to the incident happened the roof would have collapsed and many would have been killed at the time but the big the big thing was that they weren't and uh i i can't remember the exact date but pakky mccowal and bridger they often bring them and ask them the date because they would remember it very well and um the um the um yesterday thank god what happened increased the church happened during the night because the thought of that coming down would have we wouldn't the church in mass at the time it would have frightened us it wouldn't have injured anyone but frightened us like in the matter internally st michael's church it's it's it's very different it's not unique though is it similar to father out the late father on old friehl's kilimar chapel it's there's some similarities there there's some similarities uh in terms of seating anyway uh yeah and the seating it's very some there's some similar aspects to burk church which the same architect designed uh the mccormick um the seating is very similar also to burk burk church and there are many similar the one with the nice roof is it yeah exactly harry seekham uh brought his songs of praise program to burk yeah exactly maybe 20 years ago but uh they were all built around the same time as you say the little father on the friehl uh about kilimar and um they they were all built around that sort of 70s 80s period yeah okay um right well the the work the fair play to everyone who come together to stem any damage my heart yeah okay it's a great sign of community father john joe thanks for your time gregg thank you oh gregg yesterday just when that happened you know we were very sad but then of course uh a young man lost his life out on our more island and that put it all into pale and significantly just want to send my sympathies to his family and to the people of the island this morning that's a former part of yours isn't it former part he was he was just three years of age when i went there and um i remember him as a child sort of between the ages of three to nine a lovely little child he was and uh they come from a lovely family who helped me on numerous occasions in many different ways and um i was just heartbroken i remember i remember him so well and i went over to the pier last night at port na blad just after everything was sorted here and i just prayed for him sitting over at the pier and uh and our hearts go out it's a terrible tragedy my heart goes out to the family and we all all felt that grief uh in my house as well as my house as well thank you john joe okay thank you for your opportunity i appreciate it uh right we'll be back with more on the night on the show after this short break eating better is easier at done stores with 20 varieties of fruits and vegetables all only 49 cents each create delicious meals like all that tiger and curry full of flavorsome baby potatoes courgettes and peppers all for only 49 cents each meaning big flavors and new ideas all month long plus with our 10 or 50 grocery voucher you save even more done stores always better value terms and additions apply voucher can be used on its grocery shop with 50 euro or more right now there's a child who desperately needs a foster family it's the right of every child to grow up in a supportive and loving home could you open your heart to a child origins foster care need foster cares now together making children's lives better call 01 907 91 96 or follow us on facebook is your water safe to drink if your water tastes unpleasant or has a foul smell it may be a sign that something is in your water brothers tech dunigol provide a complete private well water treatment service using the best water treatment equipment to meet your needs or maybe you drill the new well and the water isn't satisfactory at brothers tech their expert team will also service existing problematic systems if you're concerned about the quality of your water call brothers tech on<PHONE_NUMBER> okay so we were heard from marge earlier on about her situation vis-a-vis getting a test getting a PCR test and I mentioned to her did she consider going private and she says well we made inquiries inquiries and we were told that you can't get a test privately excuse me if you have symptoms dr john daherty is a medical director and ceo of uh jace medical is it doctor yes yes thank you very much for having me on yes right what's the situation at your company well i mean my belief and my passion about this uh this whole flight and fight against the pandemic of COVID-19 is that this is a medical problem and it requires medical people to be involved in in fighting at the managing and core to the the managing of it in my opinion is testing testing identification and elimination of people um for disresolvation and quarantine and so that you can halt the spread of COVID-19 but we're going in a different direction it seems because what they're doing now is saying right well we can't really provide capacity we we're probably and i guarantee we're going to run out of antigen tests before the middle of the month you can mark my words on that one um and what they're saying yeah and what they're saying we are i'll be very interested in your views in that doctor but i want to put this other point to you as well to get your views on it now what they're saying is it's in terms of isolation and stuff oh well we don't want the country to shut down so rather than doing what might be best we're going to sort of shorten certain periods to get people back to work and i can't imagine the virus has changed significantly in a couple of weeks that can only aid in a better spread but all everything that you want to say tell me doctor no it's just a central to my belief and this is screening and testing people to halt its spread is the important aspect of management of it is the most important as i guess i mean we can you know celebrate the fact that vaccinations have had a reduction in how people respond to it and we can celebrate the fact that there is um you know a change in the virus itself that it seems to be less vibrant but it certainly is a hell of a lot more contagious than it was when it first started and if we look back to the start of a lot more people um coming into contact even in a more distance measure from it was previously people are getting it much much quicker the incidence in some parts of dummy ball are up in 30 and 40 percent so it's an alarming fact now it's great that people are vaccinated it's great that people are having less of an impact on them medically but um for those that aren't vaccinated and for those that are vulnerable and it's certainly not the case and in the hospital club and we're seeing lots of people were overwhelmed in fact by managing these people you know they are sick they do become sick and you know anyone as i said with any vulnerability certainly is more susceptible yeah and of course there's 50 percent reduction in serious illness that's 50 of a number but if you double or triple that number in the wider community obviously that smaller percentage can can can outmatch what was there before absolutely absolutely i mean it's important that whenever you're reporting to take the figures at face value in the context that they're reported and and that's often the problem there's a bit of uh manipulation in the report and then but for for for different reasons obviously people want to be optimistic that we're the women this fight but in fact you know a lot of the the things that i see day-to-day testing people is certainly contrary to that belief so um so back to my sort of conviction that testing is the is the absolute important way to manage this we're involved in testing throughout coming to all um um northern ireland and as far down as dublin weklo Limerick um you know all the way throughout the whole country um i'm seeing you know increasing numbers of people with coronavirus i'm seeing increasing numbers of the omnicron variants of course um you know and they are very very sick um it it pains me to hear your previous listeners saying that she was told that she wouldn't be appropriate for a PCR test if she had symptoms in the public system uh in the private system pardon me the public system is a breaking point as you well know it's it just cannot handle the capacity that's in front of it at the minute over christmas we've had an increase in the number of people who are traveling home from america abroad to see their families that they haven't maybe seen in two years and they're bringing coronavirus and coronavirus from within ireland because of that but gathering together of people so in the next week to 10 days we are going to see an unprecedented number of people with it and an unprecedented demand for testing for it so you know what kind of capacity do you have um in terms of you know if people need a PCR test even to get out of the country actually so i mean we have daily clinics throughout donningall and we've been operating every single day now since a year ago so uh we have a capacity for um really as much as it's thrown at us if we need to skew it up then we do um but they want to emphasize to you it's very much a medical approach that i'm and bring them to it and it is that sort of belief you know that that i think that this is going to help manage it and certainly support the public system that is under such stress you know before we talk about people contacting you themselves would it not make sense though with the likes of our government we're uh working with people doing this privately like yourselves to try and increase capacity well i know they are in other parts of the country and that's the that's the alarm and sort of and worry and part of it there seems to be subselect of committees throughout the different political jurisdictions in ireland where they make these decisions i know it in dublin for example they certainly are using private companies to prop up the the demands in the hsc which are clearly inadequate at the moment for the numbers and that the uh the demand that has been met of it so you know i from the start um we've picked our company out there as a company that's medically led experienced i mean we do perhaps the largest number of single tests in a week in the corporate environment we test somewhere in the region of 20 000 a week so we have capacity we have the capacity to to scale it up and certainly as i said from the outset we have put ourselves forward as somebody who would be interested in working alongside to help the hsc so yep absolutely we're we're i'm open to correction on this but my understanding is is that the the can do about 350 uh in donningall town and about 1500 in letter can is the same open to uh but that's a top that tops out every single day by about five past midnight absolutely and that's well well below what would be required absolutely absolutely i mean we on average sort of numbers on a daily basis you're talking 150 pcr tests you know and we have the ability to do rapid pcr tests with rapid turnaround as well of two to three hours so you know it's about getting people quick answers it's about offering them you know quick opportunities to make decisions um in terms of what the plans are going to be in terms of who they're going to be spending the evening entertaining with or what event they might be wanting to go to you know uh it really is that important is it expensive privately doctor pardon sir is it expensive to get a pcr test get a pcr i mean it's it's become cheaper and cheaper obviously from the start and and largely the prices have been governed by the laboratories that do the testing yes and in ireland we only have a few of those as you know so we're in a situation that it is more expensive than other parts of europe but you know you could be looking anything upwards from 50 pounds for a pcr and and then obviously if you want faster results and then express pcr then obviously those things are more expensive but i mean apart from the expense you need somebody who knows what they're doing you need kind of got people who know what they're doing are experienced in it so that they do a proper pcr test they do the the procedurally uh is correct and are your pcr tests acceptable for travel and for employers and stuff like that they are they are but i mean what really stoked me to call in uh was the fact that somebody had symptoms and was sick um you know it's great for companies out there providing you know certification for travel we we do that that's a small part of our business but what's more important to me is is helping in the fight uh against covid and preventment spread and i i really am quite dismayed to hear that any company would be refusing the advances and what the situation we're finding ourselves in doctor and i was contacted by a lot of people who did have get-togethers over christmas within the public health guidelines one person happened to to uh one person happened to test positive an antigen test and no one else could either get antigen tests or pcr tests particularly the pcr tests so you had them almost effectively trapped in a bubble for for many many many days because they didn't want to they wanted to do the responsible thing and find out what their status was before they returned to mixing with other people or to the workplace but they were unable unable to do it well i mean that that is the right approach to have first of all done i command that person for you know isolating uh even though in in christmas times and new year's times whenever people were gathering together it might have been uh it might have been very against the sort of uh the the grain at that time you know so that that's the right thing for that person to have done but at the same time you do need a confirmatory pcr um and it's shameful to hear that they're not more available in hsc or or available um through in a partnership or association with the the public or private sector pardon me so yeah i i think that's essential if people if people want to to avail your services how do they find out where they can they can go on our website jsmedical.ie right okay listen thanks for that and you believe that um if it is the case that some offering these tests privately are only doing it to asymptomatic that they need to review them absolutely it's it's 100 certain to me that but the part the biggest part of this is actually that it's doing the right thing humanely and you know that we're in this business to try and help people uh get answers in terms of their their covid status and help them make decisions and if they're not able to do that through companies you know only stamp on a passport given them a travel certificate i think that's she input frankly dr john daherty thank you very much indeed for your time 08 660 25 000 texts or whatsapp hi just listening to marge there how dare she say this is the worst thing to happen try telling that to people who've lost loved ones from covid i i understand where you're coming from but i also understand that we just can't keep can't cancelling each other out if we've got different points of view uh or that's was setting passing by marge it's relative to her in this moment uh it doesn't mean that she would be not considering um it doesn't mean she'd not be considering other people's feelings but we can't keep trying to shut each other down i mean i'm finding myself coming off a couple of social media platforms now because no one can say anything without it being policed or uh a pylon or them being cancelled or whatever it might be everyone is entitled to an opinion or to interpret things the way they want to do uh maybe people might not agree with it maybe they do it on a different platform to the one you're on but we're gonna have to come to a point whereby you know we stop trying to shut people down because they don't say things exactly how we want to to hear them it was just said in passing in the context of where she's at at that time i would suggest i was in my sister's uh eating on christmas day and stayed in my brother's in christmas night 10 people were eating in my sister's eight out of 10 got covid i did not get covid okay that's good for you uh just a message regarding the pcr tests we're fortunate enough to be able to get one in dairy through the nhs at the time we booked 8 30 yesterday morning there were 500 slots available with up to four in each slot this is just for the county of dairy not counting uh the other five counties in the north how many cases they're in hospital and i see you were in vaccinated as of england and america show up to 90% are unvaccinated the majority are i think a dr tony huland said uh on the radio they're not so long ago uh good morning highland just to comment on covid do you think it's fair that non-believers of covid should be working in shops and hospitality sectors happy new year to all right we'll be back with more in the nine till noon show after the news at 10 and the obituary notices stay right where you are recycle your natural christmas tree for free dunigal county council has set up 16 locations throughout the county that will be available from the 6th to the 29th of january where you can bring your natural christmas tree for recycling free of charge please check out local press or visit dunigalcoco.ie for a location near you recycle more with dunigal county council 2022 new year new me no more chocolate or red wine or social media before bed yeah right i don't know about you but i'm always full of great intentions that last about uh five minutes so this year why not start with resolutions you can keep like getting that home alarm you've been thinking about for years this january get a phone watch home alarm installed for just 99 euro visit phone watch dot ie today offer ends january 31 monitoring fees apply this is the new toyota yaris cross a new kind of suv a new point of view new compact style new spacious sphere and exclusively self-charging hybrid the right choice for today get a new perspective with the yaris cross self-charging hybrid available now at kelly's toyota port road letter kenny or drone by mount charles you'll never take a wrong turn with toyota built for a better world line on air online and on the highland radio app this is highland radio news good morning i'm akilah clark with the news at 10 o'clock a postmortem examination is due to be carried out on the body of an 18 year old man who drowned of armore island the teenager was swimming with his friend when he got into difficulty along the pier yesterday afternoon gardy say he was taken out to sea due to a big swell an orna lie boat brought him to shore he received medical treatment at the scene but couldn't be revived father john joe joffey is a former parish priest of armore island he was just three years of age when i went there i remember him as a child sort of between the ages of three to nine a lovely little child he was and uh they come from a lovely family who helped me on numerous occasions in many different ways and um i was just heartbroken i remember i remember him so well and i went over to the pier this night to port nabla just after everything was sorted here and i just prayed for him sitting over at the pier the three coalition party leaders will meet this evening to discuss potentially changing the coven isolation rules t-shock me hall martin tonnage jillie rancor and green party leader eamon ryan will consider the current coven situation ahead of a full comment meeting tomorrow they'll discuss whether the rules around close contacts or self-isolation periods for confirmed cases need to be changed chair of the irish medical organization's gp committee johnny called dr denis mccolley says we shouldn't become obsessed with getting a pcr test if you're between four and 39 you will try and get an antigen test if you're um if you're over 40 or under under four you'll try and get a pcr test but please don't wait to get the test and the result before you make your um decision the simple thing to say if your symptoms today and you've only got a cold it isn't a cold it's probably arm across so just stay at home 884 people are in hospital this morning with coven 19 that's 80 more compared to the same period yesterday letter kenny university hospital has the highest number of infectious cases in the country it is figures show that 59 patients with the virus are currently being treated at the hospital 93 people are in icu's across the country 30 000 5 to 11 year olds have so far been registered for a coven 19 vaccine the hsc's vaccine portal opened for the age cohort yesterday the hsc's national lead for the vaccination program demian mccolley says the figure is encouraging what we've seen i guess with younger ages is it typically does take time for people to come forward and that's understandable parents want to make sure they've got all the information they've discussed it with their child and then they make the decision and we saw that in the 12 to 17 age group where we had a really good uptake in terms of the primary vaccination program and as i said did take some time for that to come through so we'd be very encouraged by the early numbers the health minister says new minimum pricing for alcohol aim to reduce serious illness and death from drinking the laws which come into effect today mean a standard bottle of wine cannot be sold for less than seven year or 40 an account of beer for less than one year 70 alcohol action ceo sheila gill heaney says it's aimed at problem drinkers it's actually targeting those who are drinking at the highest levels and that is actually not something that less well off people tend to be doing it's actually targeted those who are drinking up at the very highest and the very riftiest levels it's something that we would be predicting through search and through modeling we suggest that over about 20 years we would see that the number of deaths from alcohol would be reduced probably by about 200 a year boncrona has secured a top 10 place in the latest irish business against litter survey meanwhile nate has been crying arlands cleanest time for 2021 boncrona has risen 11 places to be named 10th cleanest time in the country eight out of 10 sites surveyed in the town received the top litter grade can you look up the initial municipal district cancer nicolas crossen says it's evidence of the hard work put in by all involved in keeping boncrona clean we've moved up to the top 10 of the eyeball turns in Ireland and it's very very much welcomed and there has been a marked improvement in litter free areas in boncrona and we're delighted with it i think with the constant work of the dole call county council and indeed there are great work in keeping the tidy turns i think of that they can get even higher marks weather night today will bring occasional charge of rain or hail with highest temperatures of four to seven degrees that's all from highland radio news for now we'll be back with an update again at 11 o'clock until then good morning the obituary notice says for this Tuesday morning january the fourth the death has occurred of norman o'hair 52 blue cedar bali buffet remains reposing at his late residence from five o'clock this evening funeral leaving his late residence to more morning at half past ten for requiem mass at 11 o'clock in the church of mary immaculate strunerler internment afterwards in drumbo cemetery requiem mass will be streamed live via the paish webcam donations and leo flowers if so desired to the rehab unit letter kenny university hospital care of any family member the house and funeral will be private to family and friends only the death has taken place of william pinkerton gordon glebe raffaugh funeral service in his late home at half past one to more afternoon with burial afterwards in strunerler church of iron and graveyard family flowers only please donations and leave to the friends of letter kenny university hospital care of any family member or william key funeral director the death has taken place of anna marie annie gallagher nae duffy 341 3d caledonia road gobbles glasgow formally of glen road anna gree and letter kenny requiem mass tomorrow a blessed john donne scottis church baleteer street gobbles glasgow internment in the lynn cemetery glasgow family flowers only please donations and leo flowers if so desired to the prince and princess of will's hospice bella houston glasgow care of desmond maguire funeral directors or any family member wake is strictly private the death has occurred of james mcshie mara melin donne low his remains are reposing in mcglenn's funeral home wake is strictly private to family and close friends only removal to simpatrick's church mean across at half past six this evening to arrive at seven o'clock where he will repose overnight funeral mass on wednesday morning at 11 o'clock with internment afterwards in marie cemetery the death has taken place of joseph adair shanahen ardra his remains are reposing at his nephew joseph dunleavy's residence in shanahen remains are reposing at ardra methodist church funeral service this afternoon at half past one with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery joseph's funeral service can be viewed live on chauvin's funeral home facebook page the heist and funeral are private to family neighbors and close friends please the death has taken place of tommy adala o donnell 15 birch hill creaslaw and formerly the college's glen road glenties wake is private to family and close friends only please funeral mass this morning at 11 o'clock in st michael's church creaslaw burial afterwards in glenty cemetery mass can be viewed live on the parish webcam family flowers only please donations in lay of desire to the dunnegull hospice care of any family member or james harkin funeral director and the death has taken place of angela mcglinti sanfield ardra her remains are reposing at st connell's church kilclini funeral mass this morning at 11 o'clock with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery for more details including any family health guidelines for wakes and funerals please go to highland radio dot com and you're very welcome back to the 90 noon show the first 90 noon show of 2022 we do hope you are well we were just having a debate there during the news uh what's the story with christmas trees i got all my stuff down a couple of days ago and the place looks bare and uh needed deep clean as you're still up what it feel like still looking at is heading home from work today perhaps seeing it there or heading off for work tomorrow or thursday with it's still up have you taken it down yet or are you a traditionalist is it bad luck to take it down early or what 08 660 25 000 texts or whatsapps uh i call it says let us be honest unfortunately the government do not know or do not want to know actual numbers schools are about to reopen businesses lack workers why suddenly report smaller case numbers early afternoon instead of the usual five p.m. announcement whereby numbers are higher just spent 17 days isolating and won't matter a bit once schools reopen self-frustrating and totally sickened at business before health well after weekends or on bank holidays figures are often released early now i'll call it out when it needs to be called out but it would not be unusual for figures to be announced earlier in the day and sure look at they have to announce them the next day anyway so you'll be up on the 30 000 so i don't know if there's any great advantage in them playing with the figures in terms of playing them down hi greg we've covered in our house since thursday i've tried every night from 12 to 2 in the one to get pcr tests eventually got appointments for tomorrow nearly a week later i mean that's just unacceptable isn't it it's time to open up the whole country no sport for the young people for over two years sitting classrooms with windows open sitting in the house day and day out it's time to live now that's fine okay and i get that and let's have that conversation and maybe that's where we're working to but people will get sick in very big numbers and end up going into the hospital so if we open up january we are closing going to be closing hospitals they're already run over let a kind of university hospital has the highest amount of covid patients a lot a lot of people waiting i've sent pictures of people lying on the floor literally lying on the floor of the hospital over christmas because there were no beds you know every action has a reaction if you want to do that that's fine but text me back in and say okay but we are going to have to for the most of january and into february further restrict uh what we're doing in our hospitals because you cannot ask these people who them themselves have been working in the hospital service for two years they know all about it coming back uh off covid or off with covid or whatever it might be trying to juggle covid patients non-covid patients covid hospital work non-covid hospital work um you can't juggle all of that it's not possible so if you're okay with that being the case and god forbid if you were to get sick text back in and say right okay that's an acceptable price to pay because every action as i say has a reaction and we have to if we're going to have that conversation we have to have it frank and honestly as well it's time to bring back the local testing centers as a matter of urgency in a shown should have its own center everyone should not have to travel to letter kenny or donnie gall time i know there was some politicians calling for a test center to be established in an issue but for me it's too little too late i tried to bang that drum for long enough and then eventually i gave up i cannot understand how people are accepting it that there is no testing available in an issue an area the size of an issue if i were an elected representative i would not sleep until i had a testing center in initial and expecting people to travel from the tip of the country into letter kenny for a test if they can actually happen to get one it is the fact that it's been allowed to happen and people aren't kicking up an absolute stink about it um you know and that's fine there's a lot of people out there going well less testing less cases it's great that's fine but other people that want to get tested and are worried should have that capability and to have to travel uh to to letter kenny for it it's i i think that's an absolute disgrace uh greg the government should introduce a booster loyalty card once you fill your loyalty card you get a pcr appointment that comes from eddie i don't know eddie if you're meaning that seriously or not hello greg my husband was a close contact his first home test was negative his second text the next day was positive i then tested myself mine was negative it cost 15 euro for five i got a pcr test for both of us both were positive after six days of isolation tested myself again with the home test it was negative filled out the close contact form online at the end of filling the form there was an error session expired when can we get a go out again um it is 10 days from the onset of symptoms isn't it uh is is when you're allowed to go out again right okay it's time to play bingo it's not the first time i think the bingo returned after the week's break yesterday uh but it's my first time playing the bingo numbers for 2022 good luck if you're playing today the community garter slot uh the local garter patrols coming up for you in about two minutes it's time for ncbi bingo on highland radio it's tuesday the fourth of january you're playing on a brown colored sheet the reference number is s2 it's game number one the numbers are 37 77 62 64 74 54 78 79 28 and 36 phone your claim to 91048 double three before 8 p.m tonight leave in your name contact number and the name of the shop where you purchased your book get all your ncbi radio bingo information at highlandvideo.com have you seen that grand shoes bunkrana have their seal on yeah i love grand shoes they're the best for comfortable shoes amazing service great value and better still grants are local and family run grand shoes bunkrana seal now on most people say that donny doll is the coolest place on the planet but up here we know that sometimes it can be the coldest charles bono and sons ballet buffet is the one-stop shop for all your heating needs we have a huge range of multi-fuel and wood pellet stoves and ranges spare parts for all major stove and range brands plumbing and bathroom wear all at exceptional prices so visit our showrooms where our friendly and experienced team will be ready to help you charles bono and sons ballet buffet in the stovestore dot i where you can always do a good deal better if you've got magic moments or great memories captured on your smartphone now's the time to have them printed at magies.ie simply upload your favorite photos then choose your size and finish there's click and collect or you can have your prints delivered to your door prices are from just 12 cent and there's also various creative options available preserve your memories today at magies.ie highland radio time checks brought to you by leisure candy shopping center the center of shopping in duny all free parking and shopping all under one roof leisure candy shopping center bringing you the time at now you're very welcome back to the program it is uh 10 15 and now it's time for the highland radio uh garter slot um we're joined in studio by garter nal maguire attached to the falcara uh garter station good morning to you thank you for joining us and a very happy new year to you and all your colleagues yeah great same to yourself and all your listeners right okay now the um very serious nature to the appeals all the time but it seems particularly this week and we're starting with an appeal for information as it relates to a murder suicide in letter kenny yeah greg the guards in there kenny are continuing to investigate all the circumstances into the discovery of two male bodies at a house in windy hall on thursday the 23rd of december 21 one male daniel duffy in his 80s was discovered in the house and a second male his son damien duffy was discovered in a car in an adjacent shed the scene was examined by the garter national technical bureau and post mortem examinations conducted by dr callas the state pathologist so the local guard here appealing for anyone with information in relation to this incident to come forward and in particular anyone who spoke with either male in person or by telephone or provided transport to either or taxis who may have called to the house at windy hall letter kenny on the 22nd or 23rd of december please come forward and if you can help us uh specifically uh people that may have spoken to them or give them lifts on the 22nd or 23rd december please contact the guards in letter kenny<PHONE_NUMBER> or the confidential telephone line 1800 travel 6 travel 1 or indeed any guard station and and you'd be inviting people not to sort of suggest well it was insignificant that's for the role of the guard you have to fully investigate this discover the as much information as is possible so even if someone listening was or had any contact or any information no matter how trivial they might feel it be it's very important to guard e to form the the full picture presumably exactly great yeah so you know we need to investigate a story we can so that we can maybe um assist professions in the future from preventing something like this from happening again okay very important um now a very sad fatal uh rolled traffic collision in the st johnson area yeah this happened on the 30th of december um the guardian castle finna and letter kenny are investigating this uh the situation surrounding the recent fatal accident in st johnson a young local man lost his life and another local lady had serious but non-life threatening injuries this collision occurred uh at the town of don d the r 236 is the name of the road in st johnson and approximately sometime between 9 p.m and 10 past nine in the evening this is the road that you would take to dairy through st johnson uh through carrigans and it's near local housing estate our barn a burgundy voxel corsa was traveling from the st johnson side towards carrigans and collided with an oncoming silver opusial 207 traveling from carrigans so we are directly appealing for any witnesses to the collision to come forward or anyone that witnessed either car being driven immediately before the collision occurred some people may have had dash cams or cctv on their premises and i do know from speaking to them best to get in time that uh as soon as the first responding garage arrived at the scene there was quite a number of people at the scene because it's a busy area so if anyone um hasn't spoken to the garage ready that we're at the scene just a phone call would be um great if they could help us out again the garage and castle fin are able to be reached through letter candy station on the same numbers nine one six seven one hundred or any guard station okay now appeal as it relates to criminal damage at letter candy retail park yeah this is the kind of one we're liking up on the bud early um it was three youths wearing dark clothing at the uh were recorded on cctv spray painting uh uh business premises walls and doors with black um paint door spray painting graffiti the youths raised approximately 15 years old three of them were in dark clothing if anybody saw them on the 22nd of december at around uh 4 p.m. Greg so and at the rear of the business parking letter candy police contact the garage and letter candy that may help us um identify these young offenders and as you say you know it's the it's in the bud that probably see it in youtube whatever tagging and all that kind of stuff but um the sooner it's eliminated the better you don't want to catching on for sure anyway exactly yeah this was a multinational company in the uk um that was the victim of this you know so yeah right okay um burglary in nock pneumonia yeah this happened at clackenmore nock pneumonia last tuesday night the 28th and to wednesday the 29th between uh two in the morning and ten in the morning during which a domestic garage window was broken and was entered uh two children's e-scooters were stolen uh thank goodness they weren't um they weren't santa presents the one was a nine bot segway hoverboard and the other was an nb scooter you know these kind of scooters the kids have um they they stand up and there's like a kind of a skateboard type thing so any again any persons that can help the investigate and guard please contact again letter candy nine one six seven one hundred so that was clackenmore on tuesday night the 28th going into wednesday morning uh two children's e-scooters a segway nine bot and an nb scooter if anybody's offered them for sale by the way greg maybe the good um special circumstances the segway hoverboard that's the one with no handlebars you sort of you know you stand sideways on it almost and move around the other would be the more traditional scooter with the handles okay not a nice thing to happen over christmas it's never a good time for something like that but um now two burglaries in the boncran a burn foot area yeah the guards in boncran and burn foot are investigating two burglaries the first occurred between tuesday um to wednesday past the 21st to 22nd between four p.m and one p.m at gortna hinson that's a townland near the halfway house it's quite a rural area a garden shed again was entered and uh three chainsaws were stolen as well as a cordless drill i don't have the brands of the chainsaws but um there this this chap must have been uh um um working with him whatever he had three of them in the shed and they're gone now so hopefully it's not affecting his livelihood too badly but we'd love to get them back for him so if anybody has been offered a chain to offer sale a second hand chainsaw specifically um please contact the guards in boncran or burn foot so i have the number for you at the end of this uh and then on thursday the 23rd of december at uh 4 30 a.m in the morning at two ban burn foot a house was broken into and the car was stolen the owner uh fortunately disturbed the intruders and they fled the vehicle was subsequently found set on fire at burge town burn foot shortly after and the assistance people can offer us and these two burglars please contact the garrity in boncran<PHONE_NUMBER> or indeed any garrada station or the confidential helpline uh 1800 travel six travel one yeah and finally i'm not suggesting for a second um that this shed wasn't locked or anything like that um nile but it is a reminder you know we do tend to make sure our house is locked and we have a lawns and all it's just a reminder off the back of that poor person's unfortunate situation to make sure all of our ad houses and what have you be at the boiler house or whatever it might be is uh secured yeah exactly great uh before we go just a big thanks to yourselves and highland radio for last year um and indeed um last month's appeals uh we had a huge response to him for directly from highland radio listeners um i had emails phone messages confidential phone messages and it helped us solve the case and there's a chap now before the court so i can't go into which case it was great right okay so thanks a million to all your listeners for the help there um and just before we go to you i just want to say a happy belated birthday to ruby driss uh ruby is a friend of mine's and i've known her for almost 30 years so ruby was 106 a new year's eve and it's right you had ruby honored your show last year greg so that's some brilliant stuff thanks nile as always and uh as i say happy 2020 to you and thanks to you and your colleagues as always that's uh garrada nile maguire attached to the falkara garada station we're going to take a piece of music here is uh david bowie and so it goes on for another 28 seconds that star man from david bowie i actually note this morning that his family have sold his back catalogue of music um for 250 million i think which is uh quite an amount also quite an amount uh you can be caught out with is i'm being told by michael now oh wait one eight numbers now on the face of it michael they say in the t's and c's that an oh wait one eight number uh you know it if you have a bundle uh it's taken out of your bundle calls on your mobile or it's the same as ringing a regular landline but that's from another landline but you're saying oh you're warning us that oh wait one eight numbers it might be more expensive than we realize michael they aren't the they aren't the greg you have um a command to operation there on the first of december yeah uh all government and even 1800 numbers now they used to be free to callers are now being charged at a weight one eight rates and if you haven't got the call button as you say you're going to be charged maybe from a mobile up to 30 cents per minute to 50 cents per minute if you haven't got the free balance or call buttons which are the same thing right so people could get caught out very quickly or accidentally chew into all of their minutes yes yeah even to ring um maybe loud dogs or roadside rescue they've changed from 1800 to wait one eight and you're gonna be charged for all in if you had no credit if you break down on the road you could might have no credit you might be able to call out because the call is chargeable and i think i i don't know i can't fry some arbitrary percentage but i'm going to anyway i would say probably 90 percent of us are ringing these numbers on our mobiles are we i mean how many of us actually use landlines religiously any longer so this is going to be relevant to a lot of people i'd imagine yeah even the one eight fifteen number was a a number you would call number you could be on for as long as you want maybe 10 20 minus at the same rate 20 cents yeah now that's been changed to wait one eight so it's going to be if you haven't bundles going to cost you 30 cents per minute you won't realize it and we spend a lot of our time on hold on some of these numbers nowadays michael's things yeah actually the old 761 numbers the one eight 50 one eight ninety they're all gone so wait one eight but the important thing is that people realize that they have they they have called bundles are three minutes because of the won't the wall be caught out yeah but as i say too they might not realize they're eating into those three minutes as well those could be three minutes they're using to to stay in touch with family correct yeah that's right yeah so what can the charges actually be outside of bundle then from your mobile michael uh ending from a dependent on your provider yeah uh ending from 20 cents per minute to 50 cents per minute which adds up very very quickly obviously on the higher rate as well and from a landline to you won't escape because uh there's a connection fee of 10 cents per minute and ending from 5 cents to 12 cents per minute depend on your provider you couldn't go through all the providers no because of all different rates yeah okay listen you've saved people money this morning they'll they'll hopefully yeah hopefully were you caught out or did you just keep an eye on these things though i was i was putting her up there this last two months around comrade yeah and dublin and base told me the same thing if you haven't got called bundles you will be caught out but they should have some kind of uh advertisement on the radio or on the media to tell people to pre-warn people about it you know i think so uh opened us in transparency yeah correct yeah yeah okay and this connection fee what's that about that pretty close in this day that's on a that's on a landline i know but you know back in you know back in the day they'd been a person in a post office and she would have or he would have pushed one wire into a hole and connected you right okay maybe 10 cent for that but what the hell are they charging 10 cent for a connection charge as if that's a sudden i would i would gauge it to somebody website there uh i'll just give it to you now greg if that's okay no problem saving you money money gate ireland and it's just a it's not a business it's just people how to save money in that and that's cost of calling away one number in ireland that's good stuff and that'll give people all the info well done to you michael thank you happy new year to you hopefully you had a great 2022 thanks so much okay uh right 08 660 25 000 that's the text line if you want a whatsapp post and it costs you nothing 08 660 25 000 i think i think there's more people what's up now than actually sms if i'm not mistaken but you want to give us a call it's 07491 25 000 07491 25 000 i wanted to play these requests at the time in the music but i want to put them out now because annette worisky is from brayroll burnford and is celebrating a big birthday today happy birthday to you annette and uh kailin daugherty he's 21 today happy birthday do you still get the key the door that used to be a big thing i don't think it really happens much anymore historian joe kelly uh is the is the key of the door a thing was it everything joe yes good morning i'm catching you my surprise here just before take a quick break did we do the key of the door do you remember people used to get big plastic keys on the 21st birthday does that i remember those all right yeah i don't know i haven't seen them for a while yeah um although i don't think in two or three hundred years someone will be speaking to you like another historian going the tradition of uh big plastic keys when someone turned 21 i don't think history's going to really worry too much about that you know well i think i have my mother is one and we still have it and with her photographs so i think maybe the older generation and plenty maybe people out there um i still have them um so it'll be worth worth while finding out if there are listeners out there anymore okay listen brilliant stuff stay where you are joe we're going to be a chat to joe kelly about much more important matters but you know i mean that's a beautiful memory from joe there they have the key and the picture of that time what a lovely keepsake to have i can imagine that beautifully framed uh but does it happen anymore do people get anything particular like that for the 21st birthday but anyway listen keep us busy on that one but we're going to be speaking to dr joe kelly very shortly about the release of state papers he's going to give us the details on that it's going to be an interesting one stay right where you are homeland fuel offers keeping you warm for less 40 kg premium doubles or easy flame coal 16 99 buy 10 get one free one kg fire logs for for five euro 12 pack wood briquettes buy two for 10 euro shop in store or online at homeland dot ie getting together might take a bit more planning this year before you do remember to first think or svp risk symptoms venue people risk what's the risk am i vaccinated or have i got my booster symptoms am i currently showing symptoms of covid 19 venue are they following the guidelines will i be wearing a mask and people how many people are my meeting how many households are coming together let's all or svp ahead so we can stay safe and enjoy christmas this year find out more gov dot ie forward slash risk aware supported by the government of ireland the huge january sale is now on at what's in menswear in letter kenny with up to 50% of all stock great savings on casual jackets jeans shirts footwear and more that's at what's in menswear main street letter kenny and online at what's in menswear dot com don't miss the savings right now at what's in menswear rightio you're very welcome back to the nine till noon show and we are joined and rejoined by dr joe kelly matter you why joe it's great to have you on the show as always right tell us this the release of the state papers you know what's going on here is it they're kept secret for what 30 odd years and then we get them released at the start of each year is that it um believe it or not as we've been like your key idea there the idea of opening sometimes they put stuff under lock so as it's safe maybe it's too raw and maybe it's too political and particularly now the fact that came out this year a lot of them would have to do with the peace process if that came out too early or that was available too early it might scupper things it might create difficulties it might create tensions you said this and you said that so normally the state papers would be released depending on their sensitivity and that has to be judged by the officials within the various departments generally they would be released and now it's 20 years used to be 30 years but in northern ireland the public record service reduced to 20 years and so in 2018 our government passed legislation that any state papers can be released providing they're not too sensitive after 20 years personally i think that's a wee bit too early and i'm thinking particularly in relation to our own peace process at the moment that there's some of the stuff in there that i think would be unhelpful if it was exploited from political reasons but maybe we're beyond that um so there's there's a number of files that have been opened there's about 695 files that have been released this year but not all of them all the files are fully opened there's a 565 partially opened on top of that and then there is which is very interesting there's 132 files that aren't opened at all they won't be open that's the stuff we want to get our hands on isn't it well again it's it's a matter of timing and what's appropriate and that's where the whole thing lies but her judge is that though because like it would have to be independent one is and we'll get into the nitty gritty of it but let's just say right you know we're a couple of years out from an election here in the republic and something from 20 years ago was was very unfavorable or didn't look shine say fina fall or fina gale who are in government at the moment in a very positive light you know can we be satisfied that there's no political influence on what is and what isn't released like who is determining well i would i'm not sure what the term termination is or the criterion i'm sure they have that internally but i would imagine these are several servants particularly those involved with the national archives which has an independent board appointed and i would say that they're academic enough and sensible enough to know what can be released and what can't be released just just for example the the compensation papers for the bloody sunday episode not on 1921 in crow park and it was november was november 21st 1920 sorry that was only released this year as part of these archives again maybe it was too sensitive because there were family members involved in that maybe your great grandparents or whatever and you were getting information about them and maybe they were citing one way or the other there's a whole that whole thing there's things i know for example it's a historian in my own community people that i've recorded that they're long dead that i can never repeat um just because it's true and just because it's a fact doesn't give one the right to use it if that makes sense sometimes let sleeping dogs lie as they say okay so a lot of the stuff we're going to talk about is more recent but are you saying that their stuff going back a hundred years was only recently released and if so what yeah well for example we talked there about the crow park attack on bloody sunday and the november 21st 1920 there were 14 people that were died and um there was up to about 60 to 100 people injured and those injured people made claims against the british government at the time i don't know if you remember there was a young fellow called william robinson he was 11 he was shot as he went in um he was only 11 years of age and the parents obviously sued the government the british government at the time and he got 50 he received 50 pound that's all he was worth was 50 pounds uh terrible to think that but then like for example an bork whose husband james died in the attack he was awarded 400 euro um and a small pension of of two pound for for the three youngest children until they reached the age of 16 or died i thought that was very interesting or died in other words but people children didn't necessarily live to to you know into their teenage he was factored in as a matter of course yeah and then there was a james hogan he had his arm amputated because of a wound and then he later died gangrene and the sister claimed 40 pounds for his death um there was other people as well there was a barber and tamato connor he was hit in the wrist it's where he couldn't work and he succeeded in claiming 75 pounds uh was he didn't try somebody else to do the the barber in four months his hand was healed so uh there was different um records shown that but they haven't all been released that's only the some of them 14 records um have been released on that and i'm sure there's more uh claims in there and that will be released in due course all right let's stay with gea because in january 1990 uh which is is crazy because people i'm talked about 1990 and when i i was 1990 immediate mom and dad were talking about the 60s we're talking about it's the same type of passage of time which means i'm old now uh i think officially uh but the government were what were they were worried about the price of hurdy sticks well it was it was um uktra and common president of the gea at the time and believe it or not i was actually talking in person i met her yesterday she was the private secretary to and i asked her about this whole episode and she would have been the one that would have sent the correspondence but the gea were uh concerned about the price of hurly there was a tax put on hurly's and the hurling sticks and the the commons and so they wrote uh at the end at the time to the finance minister albert reynolds later the tisha to see if they could get the tax off the price of hurly's because hurly's were broken frequently it was something that uh young boys and the girls and the komogi and so what needed the the commons and at the cost every time of replacement was too much in the 90s so they asked for a derogation that the tax would be removed that the government wouldn't put a tax on it but they as usual they ran to the eu regulations said well the eu is preventing us from removing the tax from this and so they had to endure the the price the tax on the really cherry pick what we use the eu for don't we but you just think about us trying to vrt we we can manage to find a way to continue to apply that tax uh child obesity and things that we're trying to do to promote fitness and health and yet here we are taxing and sports equipment maybe that's something that should be considered to make sport equipment a lot cheaper for children to use and particularly keep fit equipment at the buy in christmas time let's start thinking you know but anyway that's for it's a good idea because it's it's it's more inclusive too because you know there are some people have very little money after heating and and food and why should they not have equal access to to fitness equipment one wonders what how much is the baton a pair of runners well there's no baton children's runners but adults you know we have the back to cycle to work schemes where you get your tax back on your bike maybe on sports equipment to encourage people to get into fitness in the new year yeah well as it relates to tax on on on children's schools we might be talking about that in the release of state papers in in another 10 or 15 years because there is some controversial history in that regard the princess princess of prussia of russia prussia was an old empire people think of countries now like germany and austria and france there were no countries really up until 1870s ickley didn't become a country until 1922 with mausoleum unifying all the little states so prussia was part of russia poland germany that whole area there so austrian hungrian empire and then your depression empire so that's going back before world war one that all changed after world war one so she was one of their family she was a great granddaughter of the last german emperor and christia was her name of prussia and she had family jewels and she was on holidays in dalki and in in dublin in 1978 and she was rob now they believed it was an ira robbery um how they knew about these jewels i don't know but she had she wrote to the president asking president of ireland at the time uh president hillary in november 1978 asking for assistance to get some money for this they made an insurance claim or to for the crime side of the the event to see if it could be investigated further and to put some pressure on and it was estimated it was about 77 000 pounds worth of jewelry that was was stolen at the time that's all we know in the file um we it was stated that it was believed it was an ira holdup what happened after that i am unsure but the diplomats both in germany and in ireland did their best to facilitate her because she used to come quite frequently on holidays to ireland so that thought it was a very interesting thing so she wanted the state to compensate her for her jewels being stolen in ireland is that it well not so much the state the insurance company in the house that she was saying that that would be covered under that i understand and that just because she had gone back home again that the investigation would stay alive and that would make sense right this whole knighthood system they have in britain i could never get my head around it of course very controversial at the moment with uh tony blair uh being uh thanked i suppose or acknowledged for his service in receiving a knighthood there's a massive campaign to have that rescinded which clearly it won't but we at one point the the release of the state papers um we're looking at introducing a similar system weren't we yeah i think that's been discussed about over the years and no our own president uh michael d higgins you know that we have the gashke awards for children trying to encourage them to get some kind of state award and i think it's it's interesting that back in 1991 the records show that bernard dark and he was a finna yield td at the time and there were others who was pushing for some kind of knighthood irish knighthoods but the likes of say steven roach at the time had won the tour de fan chan kelly you bob gildiff you had bono and you two people like that but i don't think bob gildiff and those were too concerned about such titles um but at the same time i think there is something amiss in there and that's maybe for another time do we not get that through and it would be an amazing honor to get the freedom of your county or of your city i mean is that not real recognition you know meaningful recognition you don't necessarily walk around you know with a tattooed on your forehead but uh we do have we do have a way of recognizing people's contributions the safety awards that we'd have you know those involved in a in a rescue what have you yeah i understand that but maybe maybe just a title lady are you fishing here for sir for sir dr joe kelly is that what you titles that wouldn't work that wouldn't work but i don't think uh like roger i don't know roger caseman who used to come to god of hawk and donnie gall used to come to iris and fan it and he was titled sir another time maybe i'll do a talk on him but he didn't want to take it uh he didn't want to take the title so he got by the way he got sick that morning and didn't want to refuse at the same time but he was titled sir and then obviously later on when he was tried for importing arms against the british empire the title he was stripped of his title so it would definitely have to have a chat about him problem of iris uh nighthoods because maybe we would be an awarding them one week and we'd be stripping them off the people the following week yeah and maybe the same one four times in a very short period of time um uh tell us about the infamous amelda marcos she's the wife of the former philippines uh president visited in ireland in the early 70s what we've learned some information about that what's the story there well we know that ferdan and marcos he was a tyrant of a leader and and what he did in the philippines he was a dictator between 72 and 81 and i remember that whole history of the time it was awful what he did and there was a famous priest at the time that father nihilo brownie wrote a lovely book seeds of injustice and he talked about the whole violence and the the way the people were manipulated and he they reckon he he sucked out of the philippino people somewhere between five and 10 billion pounds and stuck it away privately she was known for all her shoes and her expense and so forth she was very very uh um well she she was well dressed all the time i think she had thousands of pairs of shoes but she decided to come to ireland uh 1973 and she wanted to have her there was a few attempts on her life and on her husband's life life as well and so she wanted to have security and in order for her security to gather or to wear guns or have guns on them revolvers or whatever ornament they would have they needed state permission so they write to the irish government looking for permission for 18 bodyguards to carry guns to protect her and so i mean obviously it was uh she'd be 18 people in her group and for security and personal reasons she wanted them to have guns and they were uh they were granted permission to do so so it just thought it was very interesting to to think that we were tied in that she came here little did they know what her husband and what she had been doing at the time back in their own country i think within affinity in this country with the with the people of the philippines we always had maybe that's due to the missionaries but um there's some really interesting connections between uh our part of the world and uh although there's something there isn't there a place in um is it brazil um that you know people speak with irish accents of irish names that type of stuff dan mulhall i had the privilege of having dinner with him he's an ambassador to america this is back some years ago and he tells a story about him going to argentina he was in argentina yeah with with um with uh dick spring who was the minister for foreign affairs at the time and he ends up at this irish center and this this big burly red-haired man and uh he says you know what county are you from and he says i'm from county bonas aries he'd never been to ireland um but he had the irish red hair in the freckles never been to ireland and they had left in 1850s from cork he so so from county bonas aries so i think there's plenty places like that throughout the world and i think there's some story about nuns going over here i i've done the story but i just my my head just can't get random just at the moment right we'd be very familiar with maybe nely the elephants or jumbo but what about me me who's uh maybe it's a very interesting story uh state visits are part of the presidential role and president tellery who's our president um in 1979 he went to tanzania and uh kind of a diplomatic around and sued afterwards he has heard of honor and respect maybe for this visit and you could imagine maybe at the time not too many dignitaries would have been going to these poor african countries and he was awarded or he was gifted an elephant mimmy was her name and uh with a view to him taking it away with him well you couldn't insult the the nation by not accepting it you see at the time probably people were wanting elephants for breeding purposes to dock and so forth and so it was a nice gesture he offered one to to um to the president of ireland to take to ireland and that they could have this and so it was transported to dublin zoo in 1980 and subsequently it ended up in liverpool uh she was a three-year-old elephant but then after that a bell came in then from the tanzanian government looking for reimbursement for the cost of the delivery so that caused a little bit of a diplomatic difficulty who was going to pay for it and was it the president's fund was it the department of the tisha was the department of foreign affairs but it was resolved i i haven't found the details of actually how it was resolved but i imagine that the irish government had to end up paying for for this gift that we were presented with so the gift was free but we had to pay the post and packaging yeah that's it there you are now so that's that's it that is quite random okay uh prince charles was here uh the britain's prince charles was here on a state trip in 1995 uh the the the british queen mother then had an interest in coming here as well is that what we've learned yeah she seemed to have really wanted to come to ireland um she had a great uh interest in but her her charles had done and uh she'd expressed her interest that she would like to go but she was told that it wasn't it wasn't appropriate at that time and later then the queen mother or the queen herself then came i think was in 2011 but it was just interesting that she found that she was interested in coming to ireland and the other thing was very interesting and it was one of the guards one of the um uh british guards spoke in irish to her uh ihoa so obviously one of them had iris from somewhere so you find these in in some of the diplomatic records that were there but she wanted to come charles had a very successful visit at that time and remember we're going back to the time of the early peace process we're going back to the time where there was a lot of insecurity as to knowing where the union is stood where the nationalist stood where the ira and disarmament and so forth and you had to think that on top of that then you had a state yes sponsored visit of charles and we must never forget that there is an incredible amount of discussion strategy uh analysis before any of those types even when uh charles and camilla were over here all of that is the timing right what could be the impact what could be the possibility all parties with an interest in it would be fully consulted for the most part i would say those things are very heavily managed aren't they yeah well if mary macalese did a lovely interview there president mary macalese um backs off maybe about two months ago when she talked about the queen's visit and she talked about how she spoke in irish and what a risk she took the queen took because had she pronounced it wrong and or had said anything wrong i upped around and she'd she'd she'd the she'd the grammatics perfect uh so it showed that they made a lot of effort and the way that uh that was done was francis camberlou is actually from from northern ireland he's the provice chancellor now and in an australian university in catholic university in australia but he he um he was the first catholic diplomat to the vatican on behalf of tony blaire and about half of the british government he was tony blaire's private secretary as well um and i would have been in college along with francis and he went to mary macalese and walked down the back of an envelope how to say this in irish and obviously he taught her so when she did come she had it right and to think that she went to the memorial park of nine you know 1916 there at parnell square that the queen went there everything that was all planned and done in a very very tasteful way in recognizing that the men of nine men and women of 1916 were found were a republic and that her government her country were were in control around at the same time so i look there's have been the state papers revealed a lot of healthy things as well and charlie hohey features he's got a feature i suppose uh for a number of years anything interesting there uh he he wanted to ban on on otter hunting it's it's you know it's amazing when you think that officials are pushing one way and yet some kind of natural reason and some kind of natural common sense almost seems to come through in some cases and here with charlie hohey for example he there was four licenses socked for the killing of or culling of otters and charlie by his gut instinct went against this and said no he he didn't want these licenses renewed and he wanted it in fact stopped and subsequently 10 years later otter banning otter hunting was banned in irland and that was in 1990 so to think that he was ahead of the time and there was a push and a lot of people wanting to have the the licenses and yet he went against it and the same goes through the same went through with the epa the environmental protection agency and he decided at the time that um and public fund that they should set up an agency to investigate environmental matters here in irland and his top officials went against this said no way this will go against planning this will go against economic development we can't be too environmental uh this is this will put a halt to ireish openness and ireish industry and it'll be look not look good internationally for foreign direct investment and yet charlie stopped to his guns and said no we're going to establish this and he gave them a budget i think a budget of about seven million we probably still could have a debate on that we've seen an awful lot of development you know not going ahead because of oyster beds and maybe that's the right thing to do but it could be a lot i hear what you're saying and maybe we could do a lot more that way but to think sometimes this stuff's invoked to block something rather than it being the reason for something not to go ahead that's just uh what can happen um right a minute 30 seconds he was grumbling about hunting otters and venison pate pate as well well obviously at the time but you've gone into that time you have the peace process and gone on ongoing and then you had the ireland being the president having the presidency of the european union and so there was a big uh the meeting of all the leaders of the eu and dublin and uh in 1990 there was a european council summit in april and charlie was given out about the the foods the standard of the food it was only like good um pub grub and that the patty was a disaster so party must have had a very uh uh delegate palette or enjoyed his food but um look i think the one of the things that these record shows is that you know life is lived in a very real time and they have to make decisions based on what they see in front of them and then it's easy for us to judge on hindsight god only knows what records of our previous year will be released in 20 years time i think of the catherine sapona saga or we're talking about maybe the meetings with nephred and the vaccine debate and should school those are the ones those are probably the files that won't be released for sensitive reasons who's yeah i would have maybe maybe not but i think you started the year far less cynical than i have uh dr joe kelly and on that basis and on that basis alone i'm going to have to terminate this interview thank you very very much indeed pleasure as always historian dr joe kelly news is on the way is 2022 the year you need to change your mattress rest expires letter kenny the massive january sale is now on sponsors of today's show beat the cost of brexit and no customs charges do you need a uk address for your limited company or personal use space hub and dairy can provide you with your own virtual office or mailbox have your post and parcels delivered to space up and collected your convenience also brand new 20 foot shipping containers 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value for the very best in after sales think i motors your number one nissan and kia dealer in dunigal via a range of vehicles please visit i motors dot i good morning thanks for joining us for the first show of 2022 and keeping us busy on the phone lines we have another busy hour for you stay right where you are it's time though at uh just approaching him in past 11 to get the very latest news and it's good morning once again to mikaela claude good morning mikaela thanks great good morning guardian keen to speak to anyone who may have been in contact with the victims of a murder suicide in letter kenny prior to their deaths the body of daniel doffy who was in his 80s was discovered in a house in the windy hall area on thursday december the 23rd when his son dimian was fined dead in a car in an adjacent shed investigations are ongoing meanwhile investigations are continuing into a fatal crash in st johnston last week which claimed the life of patrick dirhaw of port hall who was in his 20s on thursday night last at around 9 p.m two vehicles collided in the dundee area a woman was also badly injured during the crash the hse is urging all hospitals to scale down elective procedures and prioritize urgent care over the next two weeks to deal with the omicron surge in a letter to hospital management paul reid says the redeployment of staff is also needed as the country deals with record infection rates 884 people are in hospital with covid this morning up 80 in 24 hours letter kenny university hospital has the highest number of infectious cases in the country at 59 well the hospital is also the most overcrowded in the country today 36 people are waiting on a bed at the hospital according to this morning's iron mose trolley watch report that's the second highest figure in ardent the asti is suggesting only exam year students return to school this week the union is calling for a staggered reopening to schools post christmas amid concerns of staff shortages and inadequate ventilation the department of education will meet with the asti and tui today to discuss thursday's scheduled reopening of schools and three years are being sought after letter kenny business was brandished with spray paint at around four o'clock on wednesday afternoon december the 22nd the three years wearing dark clothing were caught on cctv footage spray painting the walls and doors of a business premises and there's your kenny retail park with black paint gardeners say the grip are aged around 15 years those are the latest headlines we'll be back with an update again at 12 noon okay mckayla thank you very much indeed we're going to be talking about the reopening of schools we're going to be hearing from the asti after this quick break the tui live happy sale is here with thousands of free child places this summer splashing sorted savings of up to 250 euro per booking plus low booking deposits and the tui holiday promise for a complete peace of mind here we come so relax and get 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style fridge freezers plus we've got free delivery on all large kitchen appliances and large screen tvs teas and sees apply get in store our online at curries dot i e all right a texture says am i the only parent in this county who thinks that schools should open on thursday if parents are concerned they should just keep their children at home um that's one point if you know you're not i think there's a there's a split um not a split as such because that suggests that people are at arms over it but there are different views everyone has different views let's hear the view of the sti because patrick curly is member of the sti standing committee he's a teacher too in loretto community school milford and thank you for joining us patrick it is appreciated because you know i'm getting a lot of views separately from teachers and parents and it's important i think that we hear uh from unions that represent those teachers so what is the asti advocating for at this point um hello greg and happy new year to you and all your listeners yeah look at the the whole thing here is born out of concern concern from for the actual community concern for students concern for the staffing involved in schools as we know um the new overcome variant is very transmissible i think it's up to five times more transmissible than the previous um one delta and i think it's unfortunate that the government haven't come together with with schools and and you know unions and management to decide how we're going to approach the the kind of the dangerous area of of just after christmas and that we we uh make sure that that runs nice and smooth so that our schools can continue to stay open and serve serve our pupils and the community what does a staggered return look like well the the staggered return would be that there would be a prior prioritization given to the leaving cert students and the junior cycle students um because they're the ones that that will be looking to get certificate exams um so those would be prioritized those would be bought back first in in a gradual basis and what we're trying to do here that the whole emphasis here is trying to get over the spike in cases and obviously we're looking for filter filtration air filtration in schools as well there's been there has been them mooted for months now yeah but with this move not with this move though not um not it wouldn't help us get over the spike it would just it would defer the spike i mean there's and then you talked about the transmittance transmissibility is that on an inevitability here uh patrick yeah but what what what it's a bit like you know protecting the the health service if everything comes together there's going to be huge amounts of pupils missing school there's going to be huge amounts of staff missing school um all at the same time so there will be a huge disruption whereas if you can kind of even out the curve as the same goes um you're going to have much more continuity and actually a better education yeah but that being said you know um we have i presume most teachers are are vaccinated if not boosted you know much of the secondary school population is vaccinated they're sitting with the windows open they're sitting with masks on uh there's not much else i mean if that's not a safe environment or it's not the safest environment we can possibly have what else could be left to be done well look at it it's always been been um touted as our schools are safe but the reality the reality is that management and teachers and the school community try their best but some schools have a thousand pupils in them and you know schools have even engaged in in different lunch breaks different um staggered breaks staggered lunches to try and ease congestion and stuff but the clinical fact is it really is a breeding ground for for the the virus well not to mention that many of those students traveled to school and travel away from school on 100% and in some cases above that capacity bosses yeah i mean that's so i mean look we're managing it i i i would never say it's like what is safe safe is a matter of of degrees but it definitely is is an area where there could be there could be a big outbreak but i mean there is this brown breaks everywhere the only thing patrick is this though i mean as i say you know with the vaccine that's out there in masks and all that type of stuff what are we trying to protect here because if it's our children you know it's very important they're in the school environment it's very important uh you know and and their parents having to organize childcare or what have you know oh absolutely like is the best the best of a bad point is the best of a bad options say for instance not a full return school on thursday no i think i think it could it could be it could be actually counterproductive and i've explained why because if you if you take every everyone back right in one goal like that first of all i i think there's a there's a new reality there's a more transmissible variant now that we're going to have to deal with we know we do know a little bit more about it than we did say pre christmas so there'll have to be extra precautions taken in that area now i suppose it's okay saying that maybe omacon isn't as dangerous as the delta variant but that's not going to be much good to one or two people that actually get a severe case of it or in fact say students going home it spreads among them it goes to their communities to their families i get that but we do have to be elderly i understand that and i mean that's an accurate and it's also an emotive argument but what about we have to think about though the well-being of our young people taking them out of school having them back in their homes again respect here we're not talking about long we're talking about a staggered return we're not talking we're actually thinking that this action will prevent schools closing so you might have the case where all schools open on thursday every student goes back all staff that can go back there could be a lot of absenteeism for both well that's inevitable i think community right in some cases they may they may have to be localized school closures where they actually can't can't um carry on with the thing i mean the businesses um i i was was was looking at a business this morning where i was ringing for for a product their whole business was closed down and i was on i was on a the phone number went to a remote guy he was actually isolating and the business was closed down that's a small tool hire business that i rang this morning so i mean it's inevitable that if we're not careful and if we don't do this thing right i a fji is not talking about closing schools we are talking about a cautious staged managed a managed you can't eradicate the risk but you certainly can manage the well i mean you can manage the risk as well with with a proper investment in the likes of things of like ventilation systems we've known for a very long time but primarily this is airborne and that poor ventilation is one of the biggest factors in the spread of this yet there has been a resistance to invest properly we have the co2 monitor so we know perhaps uh there's the classrooms that actually would need these uh primarily these ventilation systems i mean has the likes of the sti and others done enough to either pressure or indeed dare i say embarrass the government into making these environments safe for your members and for the pupils well certainly as a member of standing committee i have been discussing um for months now in some cases the lack of co2 monitors and in in a lot of cases how they were delayed now i know this this delays for every product at the moment with global shipping and whatever but we've also been discussing these hepatite filters and another type of system called air purifiers and it seems to me that principals have to go at the on their own hawk and try and secure these and get an air engineer i mean this should have been censored done centrally by the department where they simply allocates these these um systems out you know because i mean you got to get your orders for for things in now well in advance so to be doing them on a one ad hoc basis one school at a time i don't think really um was appropriate there is nothing coming from yeah okay there's nothing coming from either the department of education or the government to suggest that there will be any delay to opening or staggered opening i'm not hearing anything that's not what the mood music mood music is suggesting to me will the asti send their members in on thursday if they persist uh with with a full reopening well the asti is very concerned about it it's obviously members um and their health and well being also the whole community the whole school community but i mean i have to repeat the asti does not want schools closed they want them open they want them well managed and in a situation where they will be open for the feeable months come and right up to the leave and start in june um see there is a meeting as you have highlighted between the the union that the asti and the government and other unions as well the i n t o expose and and for the primary sector um will be there as well and you know it's up to the government i feel now to make sure that that that education as we quite rightly know is a priority the mental health and well-being of our of students is a top priority i don't think there's any teacher in the country that does not want to return to school on thursday but they certainly want to return to school in in a manner that they feel that their health isn't being compromised and the health of all their students and the and the wider community okay isn't being compromised because schools are all about the community and you know we want to help with the problem we don't want to exasperate or make the problem worse but is there uh if they decide to press ahead with the reopening on thursday will asti members work with the the department of education will they be returning to work as expected do you think i certainly think that the asti will work with with the government and communities but i'm i'm hoping that of course there'll be plans put in place that in light of this new more transmissible variants that there will be extra precautions put in place all right thank you you know it's just a sensible approach okay thank you for your i think i think i think if the sensible approach is all around i think we absolutely can get a very managed approach to go on back to work in a safe manner for everyone okay thank you for your time this morning patrick carly member of the asti standing committee and teacher in loretto community school in milford more of your comments here hi greg i think if schools close children in junior and leaving should have online classes at the same time on the timetable in the same time frame this hasn't uh this hasn't been happening uh the last time uh under the asti proposals though those two cohorts would go into school but at the same time if that were to happen i know we'd be contacted by parents saying i don't think my leaving search student should have to go into school for for this reason that reason and the other there's a myriad of views out there has anyone asked about the logistics in getting the children to school on public transport well you know i've mentioned that numerous occasions on this program it