Thurles Information

Community Safety Grants Of €2 Million To Be Reinvested From Proceeds Of Crime.

22 community projects to receive grants between €5,000 – €150,000
Community Safety Innovation Fund reinvests proceeds of crime, as seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau, back into communities
Funding will support delivery of innovative projects to build stronger, safer communities
Fund increased to €3million next year under Budget 2023 – a 50 per cent increase

Minister for Justice Mrs Helen McEntee has today announced the allocation of grants totalling €2 million, to successful applicants to the Community Safety Innovation Fund.

It is the first round of grants given out since Minister McEntee and Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath established the Community Safety Innovation Fund which reinvests the proceeds of crime seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau, in local projects to build stronger, safer communities.

22 community projects across the country are set to benefit from grants ranging from €5,000 to €150,000, which will support the delivery of innovative projects to improve community safety in their local areas.

The Community Safety Innovation Fund was established in April 2021 and €2 million was allocated to it under Budget 2022 – and this will increase to €3 million next year under Budget 2023.

Minister McEntee stated: “This fund reflects the successes of An Garda Síochána and the Criminal Assets Bureau in identifying and seizing the ill-gotten gains of criminals. Equally, people across Ireland are working tirelessly in their communities to prevent crime from taking hold and make their local areas safer.

Working together, we will build stronger, safer communities. By putting this money back into the community, we can show that there is a direct link between the activities of law enforcement and improving community safety.

Based on the high quality of proposals received, I believe the successful projects have the potential to have a real impact on their respective communities.

I also want to encourage those who applied this year but did not receive funding to apply next year – we are increasing the size of the fund by 50 per cent under Budget 2023. My Department will provide guidance on how to achieve a successful application”.

The funding call for the Community Safety Innovation Fund invited applications from community safety initiatives as well as groups co-funded with local authorities, NGOs and community organisations working on issues relevant to community safety and youth justice.

The fund opened for applications in April 2022 and a total of 124 were received by the deadline of 8 June.

Minister McEntee added: “Community Safety is about people being safe and, just as importantly, feeling safe within their communities. It’s vital that we empower our communities to proactively address concerns and build stronger and safer communities.

One of the objectives of this fund was to encourage the development of innovative ways to improve community safety from those people who best understand local community safety needs. Each project has detailed how best the community wants to prevent crime and their proposals reflect community priorities and local safety issues“.

Minister McEntee will today visit the Dublin North Inner City Local Community Safety Partnership based in Dublin’s North Inner-City and the Meath Travellers Workshop, two organisations that will receive funding for projects to improve community safety under the initiative.

The Dublin Local Community Safety Partnership have received funding for a Community Safety Warden Scheme, which will help people safely enjoy the recreational space in Wolfe Tone Park and its environs through the employment of local community safety wardens.

The Meath Travellers Workshop engages with young members of the Travelling community who may be vulnerable to falling into crime across Meath.

The development of the Community Safety Innovation Fund was a key commitment under Justice Plan 2022, as part of the broader objective to drive community participation in a new approach to make communities safer, and work across government and with State agencies to support this goal.

Consumer Prices Rose By 8.2% Over Past 12 Months To September 2022.

The CSO’s latest data (October 13th 2022), showing the national average price of groceries, consisting of essentials including bread, milk, cheese, rashers, sausages, chicken, fruit, vegetables, are now €11.00 more costly.

The average price of a large 800g white sliced pan is up 26 cents. So, if a family buys four sliced pan loaves a week, same represents an increase of over €54 per year, on purchasing just bread alone.

“Man shall not live by bread alone…….” (Matthew Ch. 4:V. 4)

Next, add bread prices to the increased price rise on full fat milk, per 2 litres, which has increased by 41 cents in the past year, while the average price of Irish cheddar, per kg, rose by €1.23; butter, per lb, up 67 cents; one dozen eggs up 12 cents; a medium size chicken up 85 cents; spaghetti up 31cents per 500g; then suddenly your grocery bill noticeably shoots further skyward.

For those of us who enjoy alcoholic beverage, the national average price of a take-home 50cl can of lager is €2.16, up 21 cents on average from September 2021, while a take-home 50cl can of cider at €2.46 is up 25 cents in the same period.
In September 2022, the national average price of a pint of stout in licensed premises was €5.14, up 19 cents a pint over the past year, while a pint of lager is costing €5.55, up 25 cents compared to that paid in September 2021.

Increased energy costs are reflected in the yearly increase of Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels with electricity up 36.2%, gas up 53.1%, liquid fuels (home heating oil) up 83.8% and solid fuels up 32.5% in the year.
The annual change in Transport costs reflects a rise in the cost of diesel (+32.5%), petrol (+15.1%), purchase of motor cars (+11.2%) and airfares (+18.8%); compared with September 2021.

Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels rose mainly due to an increase in the cost of electricity, liquid fuels (home heating oil), gas, solid fuels, higher rents and mortgage interest repayments.
Transport increased primarily due to a rise in prices for motor cars, diesel, petrol and services in respect of personal transport equipment. However, this increase was partially offset by lower prices for passenger transport by bus & coach and by railway.

Restaurants & Hotels prices rose, mainly due to higher prices for alcoholic drinks and food consumed in licensed premises, restaurants, cafes etc. and an increase in the cost of hotel accommodation, possibly in many cases brought about by sheer greed.

Miscellaneous Goods & Services did decrease, primarily due to a reduction in prices for motor insurance premiums, health insurance premiums, jewellery, clocks & watches.

Do not forget to budget these price rises to include the 10% increase in Local Property Tax here in Tipperary and the €1.60 per hour charges in Thurles town centre for parking your motor vehicle before you even buy one iota.

View Thurles Under Water.

According to some town residents, Thurles may be twinning with Venice shortly; same to be announced by Thurles TD’s, within the next few days.

However, those with properties under water claim that drains are not being cleaned and that engineers have questions to answer regarding drainage brought about by the half-finished upgrading of the Liberty Square town centre.

**Cathedral Street, Thurles. October 16th 2022.**

**Fianna Road, Thurles, October 16th 2022.**

**Emmett Street, Thurles, October 16th 2022.**

**Kickham Street, Thurles, October 16th 2022.**

**Thurles Town Park, Thurles, October 16th 2022.**

Garda cars and private cars are being used to halt access into severely flooded streets.

Premises in Friar Street in the town are also severely flooded, with same currently being viewed by two councillors, and Fianna Fáil TD Mr J. Cahill. (You know the latter named; he’s the farmers friend who does not support current notions on “Climate Change” and “Global Warming”).

However, today is only October 16th and one wonders should residents invest in boats, before the real winter season “swings into play”.

No doubt Local Municipal District Councillors and Officials, with red faces, will discuss the issue tomorrow, before washing their hands of the matter; to blame and make demands on Irish Water, who were never involved in any updated installation.
[Time to bring former Town Clerk Mr Michael Ryan out of retirement.]

NOTE: Warning was given in August 2022 HERE with video evidence; again in August 2022 HERE, and in February 2022 HERE, by Thurles.Info.

The Newspaper Man.

The Newspaper Man.

The little bespectacled man,
With the heavy newspaper bundle,
Under his arm,
Carried Indo, Press and Herald,
The news of the time,
To terrace, road and street,
Door to open door,
In all the frost and snow and rain,
All the long year round,
To our small town.
He magically brought
Disasters, Curly Wee and Gussie Goose, Rip Kirby,
Crosswords, Sports, Cartoons-
And a myriad things besides,
To talk about and do.
To pass the easy-going times, as were in it then.
To give us a break from radio.
I hear of laptops from journalism colleagues now,
The technology of distribution-
All in the times, I own,
But Paddy Hickey, flesh and blood,
Newspaperman,
Walked them hard streets for years,
To meet his deadline.

END

Tom Ryan, “Iona”, Rahealty, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

Irish Fiction Laureate Colm Tóibín Hosts Podcast In Cashel Library.

The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Colm Tóibín, hosts ‘The Art of Reading’ Podcast in Cashel Library.

Maura Barrett, Cashel Library, Reports: –

The ‘Art of Reading’ is a monthly book club hosted by Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet Colm Tóibín, the Laureate for Irish Fiction. It is available to library book clubs across the country and offered as an online event for readers and booklovers everywhere on the last Thursday of every month.

Since February, the Laureate has met a different library book club each month to discuss a novel by an Irish writer, highlighting outstanding Irish writing and celebrating the reader and book clubs.

In November 2022, Colm Tóibín comes to the bookclubs in Cashel Library, where he will record live his podcast that will be aired live on the last Thursday in the month, through the Arts Council website and social media

The selected titles include new work by contemporary Irish writers as well as novels from the past, that the Laureate wishes to bring to a new generation of readers.

Readers, book lovers and book clubs everywhere are invited to join in the Art of Reading with the Laureate, to read these outstanding books and to engage in reading in a deep and focused way.

The Poet Laureate will discuss Elizabeth Bowen’s ‘The Last September’ with noted Cork Novelist and Poet Thomas McCarthy, before opening the discussion out to the Book Clubs.

Note: There are a limited number of spaces available to interested readers for this event and early booking is advised.
Please contact Maura Barrett in Cashel Library on Tel: 062 63825, to secure a place at this event.

Colm Toibin FRSL

Colm Toibin was born in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford in 1955.
He studied at University College Dublin and lived in Barcelona between 1975 and 1978.
His work has been translated into more than thirty languages. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of books and a contributing editor at the London Review of Books.
Between 2006 and 2013 he was a member of the Irish Arts Council. He has twice been Visiting Stein Writer at Stanford University and has also been a visiting writing at the University of Texas at Austin.
He taught at Princeton from 2009 to 2011 and was Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Manchester in 2011.
He is currently Mellon Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia and Chancellor of Liverpool University. He is President of Listowel Writers Week and a member of the Board of Druid Theatre.
His second collection of stories ‘The Empty Family’, published in 2010, was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor Prize.
His book of essays on Henry James ‘All a Novelist Needs’, appeared also in 2010.
Also, in 2012, his novel ‘The Testament of Mary’ was published and short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. In April 2013, ‘The Testament of Mary’ opened on Broadway, with Fiona Shaw, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play. In 2013 it was released as an audiobook with Meryl Streep.
Colm Toibin’s novel ‘Nora Webster’, published in 2014, won the Hawthornden Prize.
His ‘On Elizabeth Bishop’, published in 2015, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
His ninth novel ‘House of Names’ appeared in 2017.
In May 2017, he co-curated ‘Henry James and American Painting’ at the Morgan Library.