Video « Thurles Information

St. Patrick’s Day Parade In Thurles

Today, March 17th, 2021, and for the second year in a row, a physical St. Patrick’s day parade will not be permitted to celebrate our Irish Patron Saint, in the interests of health and safety.

Here on Thurles.Info, we feature some of our last St. Patrick’s day parade pictures, taken during better times; same times which we hope will return to some normality very shortly.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh! – Happy St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day Celebration Events 2021

No matter where you are in the world on March 17th and all this week, you can enjoy a digital feast of specially commissioned St. Patrick’s day events that showcase our rich Irish heritage and culture.

Festivities include a celebration of Irish music, poetry, dance, food, comedy and spectacular visuals. This eclectic range of St. Patrick’s Day events can be viewed HERE .

On St. Patrick’s morning President Michael D. Higgins will deliver a special address at 10.52am on Oireachtas TV HERE.

At 6.30pm on RTÉ 1 on March 17th, Baz Ashmawy will host ‘A Celebration of St. Patrick’s Festival’. If you are living/working abroad this year and you can’t access RTÉ, you will be able to watch RTÉ’s St. Patrick’s Day coverage, online, from anywhere in the world at 6.30pm on March 17th by simply clicking HERE.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit!
[Translation from Irish – “Happy Saint Patrick’s Day”.]

Miracle Products For Your Spring Clean.

Here at Thurles.info we’re in no doubt that Thurles homes are among the cleanest in the County, given the positive email response to our recent Spring Cleaning Tips and Hacks article.

For all our readers aiming to have their homes shining by the end of the season, here are four miracle products which help greatly with your spring clean.

Vinegar
Anyone who lives in Thurles has had to deal with the problem of limescale built up on showers, taps and basins. It’s like scrubbing rock!
One of the most effective limescale removers, thankfully, is the everyday ordinary white vinegar sitting in your kitchen cupboard.

Spray or soak the area covered in limescale with vinegar, leave it for about 20 minutes and the limescale should more easily scrub away. Beware however, Vinegar isn’t safe to use on all surfaces because of its acidity, so be careful to check that it doesn’t damage certain surfaces.

Another great cleaning hack with Vinegar is the dreaded black burnt pot. Yes, it happens to everyone. You get distracted from your cooking and suddenly where once stood a delicious pot of food now lurks a burnt smell and a black pot end.
It can take hours and cycles of scrubbing and soaking to fix the problem. Indeed many a pot has found itself on the scrap heap after burnt on food.

Next time this happens don’t throw out your pot or spend hours scrubbing. Pour on some vinegar and leave it overnight. In the morning the vinegar will have descaled the pot and the black burnt-on mess will simply wipe away.

The Pink Stuff.
Next time you see this little tub on the shelves of your local supermarket pick it up. Using 99% natural ingredients, it’s advertised as a miracle cleaning paste and it really is. Great for cleaning the oven, hobs and pretty much anything you put it to work on.

The Magic Eraser
One other item you should pop into your shopping trolley next time you are in the supermarket, is the Magic Eraser. Every cleaning press should stock a few Magic Erasers. They are sure to solve some of your tougher cleaning problems. Magic erasers are great for removing biro off walls, restoring grubby trainers to white, cleaning car rims and removing scuffs and dirt from skirting boards and plastic.

Happy Spring Cleaning, but remember, before using any cleaning product, do wear protective gloves and be sure the product is safe to use on your various surfaces. Store all cleaning products out of reach of children.

Pick – Poolbeg Chimneys Or Thurles 175 Year Old Great Famine Double Ditch?

**Poolbeg industrial chimneys, Dublin.**

The two x 207metre high Poolbeg industrial chimneys situated standing at the mouth of Dublin Harbour were built and came into operation in the 1970’s and are amongst the tallest, hideous, eyesore structures in Ireland, visible from most areas of Dublin city.

The twin chimneys, with their distinctive red and white, dirty, rust streaked facades, when built had only a planned operational lifetime of 30-40 years. While Poolbeg itself continues today to be an operational power station, the existing chimneys were decommissioned back in 2006 and 2010; same no longer required for the 470MW gas turbine plant, which generates electricity for more than half a million Irish homes.

Bear this information in mind, when you hear that Dublin City councillors have called for the 50 year old chimneys to be listed as protected structures. To this end they have commissioned an architectural historian to research and report on the state of the chimneys, with a view to encasing them in concrete or fibreglass at a cost of several million euro.

Here in Thurles, Tipperary Co. Council officials, elected County Councillors and TD’s are on a totally different thought wave length.

Surely, the Poolbeg chimneys built in the 1970’s can hardly be observed as an international tourist attraction, while the Great Famine Double Ditch situated on Mill Road, Thurles Co. Tipperary has major tourism attraction potential, bringing benefit to a town centre currently on its knees.

Tipperary Co. Council officials, elected County Councillors and TD’s have now condemned the 175 year old Great Famine Double Ditch to total eradication, without the consent of those residents of the county who elected them and who continue to pay their massive salaries.

In the words of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Secretary of Defence, Mr Charles Erwin Wilson, which of these scenarios offers “most bounce for ounce” or “bang for your buck”, for the Irish taxpayer.

Choose!
Restore and protect a 50 year old defunct and hideous eyesore, known as the Poolbeg chimneys; costing “Several million euro”, placing the debt burden on a State-owned company, who will be required to foot a continuous annual maintenance bill.
Or
Restore and protect an historic 175 year old Great Famine Double Ditch, Right-Of-Way and Mass Path, already slightly damaged by Tipperary Co. Council officials; which offers major tourism attraction potential, costing “Between €15,000 and €20,000”.

Spring Cleaning Tips and Household Hacks

When we’re all at home during lockdown, many of us are taking this opportunity to finally tackle those household spaces that are in desperate need of tidying up. When it comes to spring cleaning, projects typically involve a bit of washing, decluttering and reorganizing.
To this end, here are some top tips and links for spring cleaning that are sure to help you save space and freshen up areas in your home.

Tips for a Full Household Spring Clean

If you are determined to scrub the house from top to toe as part of a lockdown spring clean, then check out the YouTube video above for great cleaning life hacks featuring Mrs Hinch and Lynsey Queen of Clean. They’ll show you how to freshen up grubby doors with fabric softener, refresh a smelly mattresses with bicarbonate of soda and keep your toothbrush free from toilet germs. For more household cleaning hacks from Mrs Lynch visit her YouTube and Instagram account or Click HERE.

For more cleaning tips from Lynsey Queen of Clean visit her blog by clicking HERE.

Organise Your Fridge and Freezer

We all agree that it’s important to keep our fridge and freezer clean to avoid bad smells and maintain good food hygiene. It’s also important however, to keep your fridge and freezer organised. Why? A well organised fridge and freezer is important because it actually saves you money. How many of us end up throwing out food and wasting money because we forgot about an item we couldn’t see tucked behind the milk and cheese?
For top tips on keeping a clean, organised and economical fridge and freezer, follow these links and watch organization guru Justine Pattinson advise on containers, hygiene and space.
Click HERE and HERE

Organise Your Clothes

When it comes to organizing drawers and wardrobes of clothes, it’s all about folding and the folding guru is Marie Kondo, a professional organizer from Japan who has revolutionized the way millions of people declutter and organise their homes all over the world through her website (konmari.com), books and a series on Netflix.
To master the Marie Kondo method of folding clothes to save space, Click HERE.