Health « Thurles Information

White Helmets Win Tipperary Peace Award

Syrian Civil Defence volunteers, known as the ‘White Helmets’, are to receive the 2016 Tipperary International Peace Award. The announcement was made today by the Tipperary Peace Convention.

The 2016 winners will formally receive their award on September 6th, 2017, at a ceremony in Tipperary; a further testament to their enormous bravery and hourly displayed courage.

With more than 50 rusty barrel bombs; same filled with nails and explosives, and as in the past sometimes filled with chlorine, landing daily on bakeries and markets in Syria (latter rolled out of the back of government helicopters), together with mortar fire; the ‘White Helmets’ stated mission remains to save the greatest number of lives in the shortest possible time. Their daily activities include search and rescue; the reconnection of electricity and water services; medical and civilian evacuation, and the securing of all ruined buildings.

The ‘White Helmets’ have saved well over 95,000 people, while, regrettably, 192 of their unarmed and volunteer membership to date have been killed. Responding to news of the selection, a spokesperson for the group said: “We are very happy to receive this peace prize because it means that there are still people around the world who support our mission to protect lives, and that the voices for peace are much stronger than the voices for war.”

The Tipperary Peace Convention was first set up in 1983 in an effort to promote peace and reconciliation. The first Peace Award was made in 1984; going to the late Seán MacBride; himself a founding member of Amnesty International.

Previous Winners of the Tipperary International Peace Prize include:-

Some of the previous winners of the Tipperary International Peace Award have included; ‘Live Aid’ organiser Sir Bob Geldof (1985); Mikhail Gorbachev (1988); South African president Nelson Mandela (1989); U.S. President Bill Clinton (2000); former President Mrs Mary McAleese and her husband Martin; late Senator Ted Kennedy and his sister Jean Kennedy Smith; US diplomat Dr Richard Nathan Haass; US Secretary of State and Democratic Party politician Mr John Kerry; United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and Nobel Laureate & Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai (2012), to name but a few.

Thurles Order of Malta Ambulance Corps News

Thurles Order of Malta Ambulance Corps – Mr Gerard Fogarty, Parnell Street, Thurles reports:-

Order of Malta Ambulance Corps Thurles has recently completed a milestone in raising safeguarding standards. Officer In Charge, Catherine O’Loughlin said “Congratulations to all members who recently completed the Child Protection Awareness Programme last weekend. In line with our Safeguarding Policy, now all members who take part in unit activities have completed the programme. It was a pleasure to host members from across the region in our fantastic training centre to complete the course”.

Some of the Order of Malta Ambulance Corps Thurles members and Cadets managing the immense emergency medical operation at the Munster Hurling Final recently, with support from Cashel, Nenagh, Limerick, and Shannon colleagues.

We recently celebrated two further milestones with our members. I want especially to pay tribute to Very Rev. Fr. Gerard Hennessy, our wonderful Chaplain, who marks twenty-five years in the priesthood. Fr. Hennessy is a tremendous support to our unit; always travelling to support our Cadets, and attend our meetings. Extremely helpful in assisting us to promote our religious, Christian ethos; he is also always available to celebrate our units’ annual Mass, and our annual Mass for deceased members, in addition to our other pastoral needs”. He recently travelled to UL as a very encouraging face for our Cadets at their national competitions. We wish him the very best and look forward to his next jubilee.

We also joined to celebrate a special birthday with our Nursing Officer Sr. Catherine Keohane. Sr. Catherine is a fountain of knowledge and encouragement to our members, in teaching nursing skills and has been a long serving member of our unit. Her years of experience working in devastated areas abroad, inspires an ethos within our unit of looking past our own homes, towards others. Even at the most difficult of ambulance duties her reassuring smile lends a strong comfort to us all. We were thrilled to join this group in their birthday celebrations; and to acknowledgement the huge part they play in our unit, and their contributing to each of us as members.

We intend to run an ‘Emergency First Responder Course’ for all members who have yet to up-skill to this standard, in the coming weeks, and so I would be grateful if you could provide your name if you are available.

Last, but by no means least, we would like to sincerely thank Adjutant Mr Ray Deery, who recently stepped down from the Order of Malta Units’ Management Committee. His contribution to the Thurles Unit is well noted and greatly appreciated.

Tipp Share In The Top 50 People Shaping Ireland

Dr. Robert O’Connor, Head of Research and Acting Head of Communications for the Irish Cancer Society.

Yesterday the website Lovin.ie published the current top 50 incredible people who are shaping modern Ireland; yes actual game changers.

In the words of Lovin.ie editor Ms Marie Madden; “For all of our faults, we’re a wonderful little country. Whether it’s business or sport, we’re constantly punching above our weight and doing ourselves proud across the globe.
Each year seems to unearth a new collection of creative and dynamic people who are ready to forge a path and show us something new.
This list could have run into the hundreds but here’s a snapshot of the names that should definitely be on your radar right now.”

Amongst those named include:
At No. 46 is United Kingdom’s John Connors for using his ‘Love/Hate’ profile to shine a light on Irish Travelling Community’s discrimination.
At No. 44 is Londonderry, Northern Ireland’s Martin O’Neill for breathing new life into Irish soccer.
At No. 31 are West Cork rowers, the O’Donovan Brothers, two incredibly dedicated and talented world class Irish athletes.
At No. 29 is Cork born Tetra-amelia syndrome sufferer Joanne O’Riordan, who despite her own disability continues to highlight the importance of disability funding in Ireland, taking senior politicians to task, before lecturing to the United Nations.
At No.10 is Belfast born Roman Catholic priest Fr. Peter McVerry, to be found at the coalface of the Peter McVerry Trust, helping those in need and who most recently launching a €1.4m housing project in the North Inner City.

At No.19 not surprisingly and most deservedly is Dr Robert O’Connor, who currently has access to a Tipperary address. So what has editor Ms Marie Madden got to say about him?
Ms Madden writes: “There isn’t a single person in Ireland who hasn’t been touched by cancer, so the ongoing research into treatment options is so important to all of us. As Head Of Research for the Irish Cancer Society, Mr O’Connor is responsible for co-ordinating several ground breaking studies that could save the lives of all our loved ones in the future.”

“So what is our interest in Dr Robert O’Connor?” I hear you all ask.

Dr O’Connor graduated from UCD with an honours degree in Pharmacology in 1991, before moving to the School of Biotechnology in DCU, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1995 before taking up a post-doc in cancer drug resistance in the NCTCC/NICB, a specialist biomedical research facility. Here he became involved in translational and cancer clinical trial research.

In 2007 he assumed the chairmanship of the translational subgroup of ICORG, Ireland’s national cancer clinical trials network, helping this organisation to a milestone of enrolment of 7% of all cancer patients into translational research studies by the time of his departure in 2015.

In 2010 he became a lecturer in Biological Science in the School of Nursing in DCU and moved to take up his current role leading the research effort of the Irish Cancer Society in February of 2015.

Dr. O’Connor is passionate about providing the evidence-base to help manage our emerging cancer crisis; focussing on prevention, early detection, increased efficacy of diagnostics and therapeutics and supporting the 170,000 Irish cancer survivors to thrive after their treatment.

Dr O’Connor is associated with the Premier County, since both his parents (Kathleen and Ernie) came to reside in the picturesque hamlet of Templetuohy, Thurles, Co. Tipperary. But even more important is the fact that he just happens to be this editors nephew. I trust that God will therefore grant me forgiveness for pandering to one of the seven deadly sins; in my case the capital sin of pride.

You can read all about the other top 50 incredible people currently shaping Ireland today, by simply clicking HERE.

Horse Meat Fraud Dismantled By European Cops

The Spanish Guardia Civil, the oldest law enforcement agency in Spain, known as the benemérita (reputable); in co-ordination with Europol, have dismantled a crime clique in Europe, trading horse meat unfit for human consumption. The operation was carried out in co-ordination with Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

In Spain, 65 people have been arrested and charged with crimes which include animal abuse, documentation forgery, money laundering, perverting the course of justice, crimes relating to public health, and holding membership of a criminal organisation.

The discovery, in 2013, by Irish authorities who detected beefburgers containing horsemeat, led to investigations into discovering the origin of the initial contamination, where the anti-inflammatory drug phenylbutazone (often referred to as “bute,” a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used for the short-term treatment of pain and fever in animals), was found in the meat.

Meat companies, frozen food companies and fast-food companies were affected by the investigation, which led to the identification of a Dutch citizen.

It took until the summer of 2016, for Guardia Civil’s Environmental Protection Service to initiate ‘Operation Gazel’. This investigation led to the detection of fraud, involving horse meat from Portugal and northern Spain, labelled as “not suitable for consumption”, being processed in a unnamed facility and from there being sent on to Belgium, latter country being one of the biggest horse meat exporters in the E U. This deceit involved the criminal organisation forging animal identification microchips and other documentation.

Guardia Civil was able to track down the Dutch businessman related to the Irish beefburger / horse meat case in Calpe, Alicante, in Spain, and later arrested in Belgium.

Co-ordinated by the Federal Police, the Federal Food Agency in Belgium and the Guardia Civil; bank accounts and properties were either blocked or seized, together with five luxury cars.

Results of samples, taken from slaughterhouses and facilities, concluded that the destination of the horse meat in question was mainly destined for countries outside of Spain.

Who Hath Ears To Hear, Let Him Hear

“Who hath ears to hear, let him hear,” – Gospel of St. Mark Ch. 4: V. 9.

One afternoon an Irish politician was riding along in his chauffeur driven Ford Excursion, 14 Seater Stretched Limo, when he spotted two homeless men sitting on the roadside apparently eating grass. Having ordered his driver to stop, he got out of his vehicle to further investigate.

He addressed both men, “Why are you eating grass?”

“We don’t have any money for food”, the homeless men both replied in unison “We have to eat grass”.

“Well, then, you can come with me to my house and I’ll feed you”, the TD said. “But sir, we both have wives and a total of 12 children with us”, stated the homeless men, “You can see them over there, starving under those trees”.

“Bring them along also” the TD replied.

Having crammed 4 children into the vehicles trunk / boot, the other 12 homeless individuals climbed aboard the interior of the plush 14 seater.

Once under-way, one of the homeless men turned to the TD sitting up front with the driver and in expressing his gratitude stated, “Sir, you are too kind. Thank you for taking all of us with you”.

The TD replied “Glad to do it. You’ll really love my place – I didn’t get a chance to cut the one acre of lawn to the rear of my home so far this year, and the unspoilt grass there is almost one foot high!”