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 Taoiseach Enda Kenny Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil yesterday that the Government does not intend to raise further taxes, as any part of the governments new job creation package, now expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks ahead.
Good news also for Tipperary recipients of the National Minimum Wage. The Minister for Enterprise Richard Bruton has announced that the Government will reverse the cut in the national minimum wage, imposed by Fianna Fail, in a revised deal with the EU-IMF to be published this coming Friday. The Government together with the IMF, European Commission and ECB, will publish a revised Memorandum of Understanding on Friday next.
Richard Bruton stated the Government now plan to introduce legislation to restore the minimum wage from €7.65 per hour to €8.65 per hour by this summer. However, the Minister stated that in return there may be changes to existing registered employment agreements, which give workers in the low-paid sectors, various rights, including higher pay for Sunday and bank holiday work. Mr Bruton further stated that this reversal had the backing of the IMF and insisted that any new laws introduced would further improve our competitiveness in the Irish economy.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin, latter Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, yesterday met senior officials from the joint EU-IMF mission at the Department of Finance. Their meeting focused on discussing a draft of the revised memo, prepared by the IMF, European Commission and ECB officials, following a week of further research and discussion.
Ireland has been lucky, nay totally blessed, by its last two choices for the post of ‘President of Ireland.’
It was Mary Robinson who broke the mould into which British-Irish relations had settled so bitterly and deeply, when, as the first Irish head of State, she visited her British counterpart, way back in May 1993. She was to break possibly an even more significant pattern some weeks later during that year, when, on a visit to Belfast, she shook hands with then Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, who now has moved South and been elected to Dail Eireann.
 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Our current President Mary McAleese, thankfully, continued along this barely worn pathway, first walked by Mary Robinson, to continue this contact with Buckingham Palace, developing this new friendly personal relationship, as part of her stated agenda to “build bridges between the two islands and among the communities of Ireland.”
The ‘Trojan’ work of these two great leaders appears to have gone unnoticed however by our North Tipperary’s elected ‘Heads of State’ and other ‘Dignitaries’ charged with the development and tourism marketing of the of our town and county.
Thurles Town, Queen Elizabeth’s ancestral home, thus far, has not been included in the Queen’s up and coming May itinerary, despite the fact that the Rock of Cashel some 15 odd miles down the road, which has little comparative historical associations, is now assured inclusion.
Thurles business people and our increasing numbers of unemployed, please, please, please click here and then weep. This is the type of ‘Gombeenism ‘ what has made our town, county and country the present laughing stock of the world. But lets blame no one except ourselves, we voted them into office and continue to pay these ‘comedians ‘ their salaries and pensions.
However, of course, Cashel Town Council sent out their ‘Invitation’ in early March, unlike Thurles who are presently ‘spell checking ‘ their letter. Still we live in hope and should Her Majesty be flown in by helicopter, the giant craters, referred to affectionately by locals as ‘pot holes,’ and now increasingly evident in Liberty Square, should go reasonably unnoticed.
There appear to be no ‘Comedians ‘ sitting on Cashel town council, rather instead, members like Deputy Mayor Maribel Wood, who feel they owe some responsibility to the views expressed by local business people, by the unemployed and by their electorate. They recognise the need to attract a little of the massive spotlight that such a visit to their town will receive, as the worlds press gathers to observe our behavour. Now, with the eyes of the world firmly following this beam of light, they can be assured that some future customers will get a look at their well laid out market stall. It is their hope that this visit will now stand them in good stead in the quickly emerging dark years ahead, looming increasingly large on all our horizons. Thurles can now only hope to once again “eat of the crumbs which fall from the masters table,” in relation to future tourism traffic.
Queen Elizabeth II has announced that she is to visit Croke Park and Cork when she comes to Ireland next month.
Yesterday evening, a joint statement was issued by Áras an Uachtaráin and Buckingham Palace, outlining details of her four-day visit, which will begin on Tuesday 17 May. The programme will include a formal welcome from President Mary McAleese, a ceremony at the Garden of Remembrance, a courtesy call on Taoiseach Enda Kenny and a State dinner in Dublin Castle.
There will also be events at Trinity College Dublin, the National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge, the Guinness Storehouse and Croke Park. The Queen and her husband Prince Philip will also visit the Irish National Stud in Kildare, as well as the Rock of Cashel and Cork.
According to the statement, the itinerary is ‘a wide-ranging and exciting celebration of the close ties between our two countries. This is a historic visit that also celebrates our close modern partnership.’
One of the symbolic highlights of the Queen’s visit will be a tour of Croke Park, where in November 1920 British troops shot dead 14 people including Michael Hogan, Tipperary GAA Gaelic footballer and one-time Captain of the Tipperary team. Michael Hogan was a member of the Irish Volunteers and was born in the Grangemockler area of Co. Tipperary. These killings were in retaliation for the killing earlier of 13 people and the wounding of 6 others by the IRA. Four of the British casualties were military intelligence officers and another four were known members of the Secret Service. The assassinations were planned by Michael Collins then head of the secretive Irish Republican Brotherhood and IRA Chief of Intelligence.
For the majority of Irish people now living, this war is long over and while we remember our fallen heroes like Collins, with gratitude, thankfully Her Majesty the Queen will sit and watch an exhibition of hurling and football, played by schoolchildren at our valued GAA Headquarters. A Croke Park spokesman said the GAA was confident that the Croke Park visit ‘will be welcomed by those who play, administer and support our games, at home and abroad.’
Thank God some of us have moved upwards and onwards.
For security reasons, no particular days and times have been assigned to the events to be attended by the Queen and these will be now announced closer to her visit.
Tell me this, is it true that Thurles is twinned with the English town of Bollington or am I hallucinating again?
I never really believed that the late Princess Diana would ever accept an invitation to visit Thurles, but ‘nothing ventured ‘ for Thurles, can often result in ‘nothing gained.‘
Over 4 million British tourists had visited the Republic of Ireland in 2006. Tourism in Thurles was then practically non existent, with those responsible for marketing North Tipperary, only pushing their products west of the Shannon, in an attempt to justify earlier politically influenced public finances spent in funding in counties Limerick, Clare and Galway, while ignoring projects in the environs of Thurles, a practise they appear to still continue, as part of their marketing strategy today.
To cut a long story short, the following ‘Letter of Invitation‘ was penned and sent to Kensington Palace. I was encourage in this venture by the recently deceased Mr Ned Ryan, Upperchurch, and also by friend and lifetime museum patron, the late Mr Matty Ryan, both of whom had close associations with the late Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, and younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II.
Our communicated invitation read as follows:-
Kensington Palace,
London W8 4PU
Date :- 22/ 7/ 1997.
Your Highness, Diana, Princess Of Wales,
On behalf of the people of Thurles, the members of our committee and myself, I would like to extend an invitation to Your Highness, to visit the home of your ancestors here in County Tipperary, Ireland.
As you maybe aware, your ascendancy were protectors and rulers of Thurles until 1841 and it is the intention of this committee to erect a stone testimonial,to commemorate your progenitor, Lady Elizabeth Butler, Viscountess Thurles, (1587-1673).
It is now the fervent desire of this committee, that You Highness would greatly honour us by unveiling this stone inscription.
We are very much aware of your many personal and public commitments, both at home and abroad, and fully comprehend that significant preparations would need to be put in position between, both Her Majestie’s Government and the Government of the Irish Republic, before such a visit could take place.
If, however, Your Highness were to signal her willingness and availability to accept this invitation, immediate preparations could be entered into, which would conform with your busy agenda.
It is our heartfelt wish that Your Highness will find time, in her busy calendar of events, to accept this invitation sometime in the near future.
I remain,
Yours most sincerely,
St. Mary’s Famine Memorial Church, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
 The reply from Kensington Palace We were aware that, politically, it was not possibly the best time in our nations history to send such an invitation. Then Fianna Fail Minister for Foreign Affairs, and later disgraced T.D., Mr Ray Burke, had days before, just welcomed the decision taken by the Orange Order, with regard to certain of their Annual Marches, which gave space for all feuding factions in the North, to consider how the whole marching issue could be handled on the basis of respect for the rights of all, both the Orange Order and the wider community alike.
The now deceased, but then Northern Ireland Secretary Mow Mowlam had hinted that substantive negotiations, seeking a genuinely new political dispensation, based on equality, parity of esteem, respect for human rights and the principle of consent, were about to begin that September in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin were being encouraged to take their place at the Conference Table, to represent the views of those who supported them. Fair and reasonable assurances had been spelled out with regards to what was expected by both British and Irish negotiators, before Sinn Féin would be allowed take part in these upcoming negotiations.
That same July 1997, the Democratic Unionist party leader Ian Paisley would vote against the Anglo-Irish plan for guerrilla disarmament, storming out of the voting session in Stormont Castle, near Belfast, while stating his party was out of the peace talks for good, while Mowlam confirmed that Sinn Fein would now sit at the negotiating table, when peace talks would resume in September of the same year.
Princess Diana’s reply to our invitation arrived six days later in a letter from Kensington Palace and as expected her reply, pictured here, disappointingly spelt out her sincere regret. We now share this letter with you, our readers, for the very first time. (Click on Letter Image to enlarge.)
A little over just 4 weeks later, on the 31st of August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, was fatally injured as a result of a car collision in the Pont de l’Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Fayed’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the only survivor. Although earlier the media pinned the blame on the paparazzi, the crash was ultimately found to be caused by the reckless actions of the chauffeur, who was the head of security at the Ritz and had earlier goaded the paparazzi waiting outside the hotel.
An eighteen-month French judicial investigation concluded in 1999, that the crash was caused by Henri Paul, who lost control of the car at high speed, while under the influence of alcohol, which may have been made worse by the simultaneous presence of an antidepressant and traces of a tranquilizer in his body.
On hearing the news, Thurles ladies began to arrive with bouquets of flowers to the door of St Mary’s Church here in Thurles, in an unprecedented show of sympathy and solidarity.
July 31st each year I often think, what an ambassador this world has truly lost and what if the Princess had decided to visit her ancestral home of Thurles, instead of visiting France, on that fateful day in 2007.
But then each person’s road, while on this earth, is so often paved with numerous ‘what if ‘s.’
 St Mary's Church, Thurles, burial place of Elizabeth Butler (alias Poyntz) progenitor of the present Heirs to the British Crown. According to reports, by our top Tipperary Radio station ‘Tipp FM,’ today, we learn that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England will visit Cashel and Coolmore Stud near Fethard, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, during her forthcoming historic visit to Ireland in May.
Deputy Tom Hayes has announced that a trip to South Tipperary will be included on Queen Elizabeth II’s itinerary, when she visits as speculation still surrounds this two-day state visit, beginning Tuesday, May 17th, though this date has yet to be fully officially confirmed. Confirmation of her visit to South Tipperary, however, was given to Deputy Hayes by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
“The Queen’s visit will be a huge boost for the County“, Deputy Hayes stated on Tuesday evening. He said he had made strong representations for the Queen to come to South Tipperary and he was very happy with the commitment that Taoiseach Enda Kenny had given him.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s visit will be the first to the Irish Republic by a reigning British monarch since her grandfather George V visited Ireland in 1911.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch here in Thurles, Political leaders, Tourism Marketing Groups, County Councillors, Urban District Councillors and those with paid responsible for promoting Thurles, have once again failed their public in promoting Thurles and North Tipperary.
Fifteen miles up the road from Cashel, lies the town of Thurles, the ancestral home of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Yet, as far as I am aware, no invitation or representation has been made to indicate, nay insure, that Her Majesty visits Thurles her home town, during this her first visit to Ireland.
It would now appear that there are more public representatives in North Tipperary requiring ‘motions of censure’ than Mr Michael Lowry TD.
In the days when Urban District Councillors received no pay, just expenses, made real decisions regarding our community and were not associated with individuals who write identifiable misspelled anonymous poison pen letters to the local press, we had governance. Amongst their many progressive decisions made was the raising of a plaque to commemorate Elizabeth Butler, progenitor of the present Heirs to the British Crown, which they erected at St Mary’s Church in Thurles.
In those unpaid days, these Councillors knew the value of visitors from across the water.
Now, in possibly a waisted attempt to educate our present overpaid Councillors, allow me to demonstrate the unharnessed value of English Tourism to our town, through statistics shown hereunder, supported by the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Estimated Number of Overseas Visitors to Ireland 2000-2007 (‘000’s.)
Visitors to Ireland – Year:—-2000.– 2001.– 2002.–2003.–2004.—2005.–2006.—2007.
Great Britain:——————-—-3,559.—3,462.—3,579.—3,719.—3,681.—3,822.–4,060.—4,032.
Other Europe:——————–—1,453.—1,357.—1,392.—1,497.—1,600.—1,917.–2,281.—2,590.
USA and Canada:—————--1,043.——912.—–849.—–904.——977.——953.—1,055.—1,073.
Other Areas:—————————256.—–260.——245.—–249.——317.—– 285.——314.——317.
Total Overseas Visitors:——-6,310.—5,990.—6,065.–6,369.– 6,574.—6,977.—7,709.—8,012.
Failure to study these figures and act, gives licence and credence to “Ireland : A Rough Guide: distributed by the Penguin book Group, to publish the following untruths:- “Having seen the Rock of Cashel, most people head out of Tipperary for the West, and frankly this isn’t a bad idea – the north of the county has little to distract you.” “You’re unlikely to be immediately enticed by a first sight of counties Tipperary and Waterford, much of whose countryside could well vie for the title of Ireland’s dullest.”
I am at pains to point out, of course that this information contained is “Ireland : A Rough Guide,” is always to found under the armpit of every American tourist who visits our Fair Green Isle. Perhaps our Public Representatives and Marketing Groups, presently over funded, while charged with the responsibility of promoting our public and business interests locally, would like to use this website, to explain to our Hoteliers, Nightclubs, Bed and Breakfasts, other Local Businesses, and, I nearly forgot, our numerous unemployed people, why they have failed to take advantage of this golden business opportunity, afforded us. Indeed I suspect that the wonderful American poet Robert Lee Frost in writing ‘The Road Not Taken‘ had just read this aforementioned ‘Comic Travel book.’ Quote:
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both,
And be one traveler, long I stood, And looked down one as far as I could,
To where it bent in the undergrowth;( ‘Undergrowth possibly refers to Thurles ‘) Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear.”
Remember, our valued 1,000 plus readers who visit this website each day, could see your future silence, as an admission of failure and worthlessness, so do explain the reasons for your lack of any progressive action please. See your chance to explain as a perfect opportunity for further self seeking publicity, which we can afford you and which you seek ever so diligently, through local press reports.
We, just like the present Fine Gael party, stand for H.O.T – Honesty, Openness,Transparency, so let’s publicly debate these issues very soon.
“We know you all, and will awhile uphold the unyoked humour of your idleness,” (With apologies to William Shakespeare‘s Henry IV, Part 1)
Gardaí are investigating whether or not telephones at the Moriarty Tribunal were tapped in the days/weeks running up to the publication of last week’s report.
Present investigations are centred on the telephone of tribunal chairman Mr Justice Michael Moriarty in particular, following concerns expressed within the inquiry, that private information may have been accessed by an unauthorised third party.
 Phone Tap Garda crime and security branch technical experts visited the Tribunal’s offices the week prior to Mr Justice Moriarty’s final report being published. It is understood that they found no evidence that current telephone apparatus in the office had been interfered with.
It is also understood that these investigation are ongoing and that gardaí are now looking at the possibilities of whether the exchange, through which the calls were routed, could have been accessed, which, although not impossible, is believed would be difficult to access.
The alleged breach of security was first reported yesterday evening by RTÉ, which said the tribunal had refused to further comment on the matter.
The tribunal report findings claimed that Mr Denis O’Brien made payments to the then Minister for Communications, now Tipperary North Independent TD, Michael Lowry, whom it states “secured the winning ” of the licence for Esat.
Note: Both men have rejected the report’s findings.
Similar claims of phone tapping in the past were made by the people of Erris involved in the Shell To Sea campaign who for a long time assumed that their phone calls were being monitored. This suspicion rapidly increased during the incarceration of the Rossport Five. Claims that some mobile phones were experiencing beeps and clicks, preceded by a ringing signal which resulted in calls having to be dialled more than once to get through, were reported, together with a tendancy for phones to ring briefly without showing a missed or received call.
In March 2007, Justice Minister Michael McDowell refused to reveal the number of phones taps he had authorised during his term of office. Although bugged phone conversations cannot be used as evidence in court, they can be used by gardaí to gather intelligence on suspects. In response to a Dail question, Mr McDowell said it would be contrary to the public interest to reveal how many phone taps had been approved by his department, or what categories of people were being targeted.
The Irish government agreed with its EU partners to introduce a system whereby it will be possible to monitor all aspects of global telecommunications. At present in Ireland there is a legal framework for allowing phone tapping under certain circumstances. This legal framework includes the tapping of all types of telecommunications including mobile phones, fax, telex, e-mail and all satellite based communications.
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