Thurles Information

FSAI Recall All ProBox Just Smoothie Products Due To No Approval

Alert Summary Dated Saturday, April 6th, 2024
Category 1: For Action
Alert Notification: 2024.11

Product Identification: Please see table hereunder.

Products.	Pack Size
Just Smoothie Banana & Mango.	250 ml.
Just Smoothie Forest Berries.	250 ml.
Just Smoothie Strawberry & Banana.	250 ml.
Any other ProBox Just Smoothie products.	250 ml.

Batch Code: All batches and best before dates.
Country Of Origin: Ireland.

Message: The FSAI is recalling all ProBox Just Smoothie products due to ProBox not being approved to produce these products and also using an incorrect approval number.

Action Required: Manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, caterers & retailers: Retailers are requested to remove all ProBox Just Smoothie products from sale.

Consumers: Consumers are advised not to consume the implicated smoothies.

Thurles Special Olympics Basketball Club.

Annual General Meeting 2024.

The Annual General Meeting of Thurles Special Olympics Basketball Club took place in the Anner Hotel on March 19 th 2024.

The Chairman welcomed all present and he complimented all athletes, volunteers, families and carers for their contribution to making last year’s activities a successful one for the Club.
He also thanked those who supported the Club in many ways including Meitheal 21 on Abbey Road, the Presentation Convent Sports hall, Tipperary Co. Council, Tipperary Star, Special Olympics Ireland and sponsors who make a valuable contribution to the running costs of the Club.

The Secretary’s report for 2023 was compiled by Ms Mary Ryan Maher and delivered to the meeting by Ms Catherine Reynolds.

The following members were elected to serve on Committee at the AGM for the year ahead:
Chairman: Mr Enda Bourke.
Secretary: Ms Mary Ryan Maher.
Asst. Secretary: Ms Catherine Reynolds.
Treasurer: Ms Carmel Sammon.
Asst. Treasurer: Ms Cathy Slattery.
Medical Officer: Mr Dennis Jordan.
Safeguarding Officer: Ms Antionette Ruth.
Athlete Representative: Ms Maureen O’Shea.
Coach / Sports Officers: Mr Enda Bourke & Ms Marion O’Reagan.
Club Membership Officers: Ms Mary Ryan Maher & Ms Carmel Sammon.
PRO: Mr Enda Bourke.

A good discussion took place on the Club’s main priorities for the year ahead including, fundraising; to cover the ever increasing costs of running our Club, the 2024 athlete programme, Insurance and affiliation fees and volunteer recruitment.

Additionally, the new membership online system (“Just Go”) for athletes and volunteers is being rolled out to all affiliated Clubs this year, which will streamline what has been a very ‘paper based’ registration
process in the past.

We are also anxious to increase our volunteer numbers. The commitment is one evening per
week. [Note: We train indoors at the Presentation Sports hall each Wednesday from 7:00pm – 8:00pm.]

If you are interested, please contact Enda Bourke on Tel. No. 087 6060772.

Dublin Suffragette Meg Connery’s Link With Thurles & Tipperary.

“Where Tipperary Leads, Ireland Follows“.
Quote by Thomas Davis, editor of ‘The Nation Newspaper’ in the 1840’s.

A headstone, marking the grave of the Irish suffragette better known as Meg Connery, was unveiled in Dublin yesterday.

**Pictured L-R: British Conservative politician and Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law (1858-1923), Mrs Meg Connery and Irish Unionist politician, barrister and judge, Sir Edward Carson (1854–1935).** *(Meg is pictured distributing copies of the ‘**Irish Citizen**‘ newspaper)*

Margaret (Meg) Knight (1881–1958), was an Irish suffragette and feminist activist, born near Westport, in Co. Mayo, in 1881, the third of nine children. In 1922 she would be part of the delegation sent to review the destruction in Thurles and elsewhere in the wider county of Tipperary.

Mrs Connery was a strong advocate of women’s voting rights, conveyed publicly through her public speaking, lobbying, protesting and the publishing of articles in a variety of publications, especially in the Irish Citizen newspaper.

The Irish Citizen newspaper, itself, was founded in 1912, by the Irish Women’s Franchise League, latter founded in 1908.
Amongst its founder members were Mrs Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, (former resident of Loughmore, Templemore, Co. Tipperary, latter village just 11.4km from Thurles), [VIEW HERE]; her husband Francis Sheehy-Skeffington (1877-1946) [Note: latter executed in Portobello Barracks, today known as Cathal Brugha Barracks, in Rathmines, Dublin), together with Thomas MacDonagh executed revolutionary leader and signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, (born in Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary, latter village just 39.7km from Thurles), and strict vegetarians Margaret Cousins and her husband; teacher, author, actor, poet and play write James Henry Cousins (1873–1956). [Latter is credited with the quote, “Wisdom is wisdom only to the wise,” and once suspected of getting ‘too close’ romantically, to Maud Gonne, (to the annoyance of poet W. B. Yeats), following the execution of her husband, the Irish republican and military leader John MacBride).

A leading figure in the Irish Women’s Franchise League, Mrs Meg Connery, where possible, heckled and disrupted political meetings, and was a strong believer in the use of physical force in her pursue for voting rights for women. After spending most of her life in Dublin, Meg’s activities, much like that of her close friend Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington’s, included breaking windows in the Customs House, Dublin Castle, London War Office, going on hunger strike being imprisoned and beaten in her pursuit of equality for women.
During World War I which saw the introduction of the Contagious Diseases Act, Meg protested feeling the purpose of the Act was to make sex safe for male soldiers and sailors. In 1915 the British government closed the North Sea for a number of days around the International Women’s Peace Conference in The Hague thus leaving Irish women unable to attend.

Meg’s final years on this earth were difficult due to failing health and poverty. and up until yesterday an unmarked grave in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Harold’s Cross, Dublin, marked the burial place of Meg Connery and her husband Con Connery, whom she had married 49 years earlier in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, in 1909.

Thurles.Info now asks the question, “Why is this historic information not being used as bate to attract/promote badly needed tourism to both Thurles town and the wider county of Co. Tipperary?

Gardaí In Thurles Seeking Help Following Theft From Vehicle.

Gardaí in Thurles, Co. Tipperary are currently investigating a theft from a motor vehicle, which took place on the main Littleton to Horse and Jockey roadway last Thursday, last April 4th 2024.

The theft is understood to have taken place between 4:30 pm and 5:30pm and Gardaí are anxiously seeking the public’s assistance.

If you, the public, were travelling anywhere within or around that particular area, above stated, at that time on Thursday last and may hold dashcam footage, you are asked to please contact Thurles Garda station on Tel:0504-25100 or the Garda Confidential Line Tel: 1800 666 111 or indeed any Garda Station.

Ireland’s Power Generation & Industrial Emissions Decreased In 2023.

Ireland’s power generation and industrial emissions decreased by 17% in 2023.

In 2023, greenhouse gas emissions from Irish power generation and industrial companies covered by the EU Emissions Trading System decreased by 17%.
Emissions decreased by almost 24% from the electricity generation sector.
The decrease in industrial emissions was over 6%, with cement industry emissions decreasing by 6.2% mainly due to lower production levels.
In contrast, greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by more than 9% compared to 2022, which reflects continued growth in this sector.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), today released its preliminary analysis of greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 from the Emissions Trading System (ETS) sector. Emissions from Irish power generation and industrial companies decreased by 17% (more than 2.4 million tonnes) in 2023 to 12.19 million tonnes of CO2. This compares with a decrease of approximately 15.5% across Europe, according to data published by the EU Commission.

Ireland’s ETS sector delivered a decrease in emissions in 2023 due to a combination of factors, including an increase in imports of electricity, the use of renewable electricity and renewable fuels as well as a decrease in cement production.

The electricity sector used less coal generation compared to the previous year, with increased use of wind and solar powered electricity. This is the second year that a drop in emissions from Moneypoint is observed, but fossil-fired power stations continue to play a strong role in meeting a high electricity demand. Importation of electricity from other countries outside the EU will require a carbon price to be paid in the longer term under the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism unless there is a linking agreement with the ETS in the exporting country.

Ms Laura Burke, EPA Director General said: “While Ireland is increasingly moving away from coal generation, we still rely heavily on fossil fuels to meet our electricity demand. Ireland must continue to put a priority on renewable generation infrastructure to deliver grid decarbonisation.”

109 major industrial and electricity generation sites were required to report their emissions for 2023 by 31 March 2024 in the EU Emissions Trading System. These include sites operating in the power generation, cement, lime, and oil refining sectors. Also included are large companies in sectors such as food & drink, pharmaceuticals and semi-conductors.

Cement industries recorded a 6% decrease overall due to a drop in production.
Emissions from the food and drink sector also showed a decrease in emissions of more than 3%.
Emissions from bulk manufacturing of pharmaceuticals decreased by more than 6% while emissions from manufacture of pharmaceutical preparations increased slightly by almost 3%.

Aviation emissions from flights within the European Economic Area reported to Ireland by 31 March increased by over 9% compared to 2022, to over 11 million tonnes. This is still lower than the pre-pandemic levels of 12.8 million tonnes, nevertheless, the emissions data for 2023 reflect the ongoing growth of traffic in this sector and the need to put a series of measures in place to reduce air traffic emissions. The revised ETS Directive published in 2023, allows aircraft operators to claim free allocation where they can show that they have used Sustainable Aviation Fuels.

Dr Maria Martin, EPA Senior Manager, said: “The EU Emissions Trading System is one of the key policy tools driving decarbonisation. The system is expanding to bring in new sectors including buildings, road transport and smaller industries as well as the maritime sector and this will provide an incentive to reduce emissions in those areas.”

Maritime emissions come under the EU ETS from the start of this year and this will provide an incentive to reduce emissions from container shipping and passenger ferries.

Further details about Emissions Trading are available on the EPA website.
Further information about Ireland’s overall greenhouse gas emissions is also available on the EPA website and the EPA has developed useful infographics and published the detailed greenhouse gas inventory HERE.

Analysis of the EU data can be found in a DG Climate Action news article published on 3rd April, which also contains a link to the data.