Thurles Information

Paschal Donohoe Accuses Hospitality Representatives Of Price Gouging.

Finance Minister, Mr Paschal Donohoe has demonstrated his displeasure at greedy hoteliers for price gouging their customers.

Mr Donohoe met with representatives of the hospitality sector which included the Irish Hotels Federation; Irish Tourism Industry Confederation; Licensed Vintners Association; Vintners’ Federation of Ireland and the Restaurants Association of Ireland, for a requested pre-Budget meeting.

The above named representative organisations had gone into the meeting seeking to retain the lower existing 9% Vat rate; a reduction in excise duty on alcohol, and a targeted financial support package to help with the cost of energy increases.

Representatives were quickly reprimanded by Mr Donohoe; latter who informed them that the Government had provided strong supports for hotels in recent years. Same supports had gotten them through Covid-19 he stated, and he was therefore extremely disappointed that value for money for those looking to holiday in Ireland had not been forthcoming.

Finance Minister Donohoe made it known that that charging over €500 for a room with an American football game in the Capital, was not acceptable and politicians were now looking for the 9% Vat rate to be increased due to exorbitant accommodation prices. It is understood that there was a muted acceptance by some representatives that some hotels were indeed involved in price gouging.

In May 2022, Mr Donohoe had extended the special 9% Vat rate, latter introduced in November 2020, for a further six months, at an estimated revenue loss to the State of €250m: to assist businesses that had been severely impacted by harsh, but necessary, Covid restrictions.

Covid -19 Vaccine Reminder for Persons Aged 50 Years & Over.

People aged 50 years and over in the Irish Republic, have been invited, since yesterday, to come forward for their next Covid-19 vaccine booster.
Vaccine boosters doses can be booked online at vaccination clinics HERE.

Note: The Tipperary Vaccination Centre is currently situated at Gortnafleur, Clonmel. (E91 WR29).

Those who are more than 16 weeks pregnant are also invited to book their next booster at a vaccination centre or from participating GPs and pharmacies.

Those aged between 12 years and 49 years with long-term health conditions will be offered their second booster vaccine from next week and healthcare workers will be offered booster vaccines shortly.

The HSE and Children’s Health Ireland will shortly be inviting, through their parents, children aged 5 years to 11 years, who are immunocompromised, and now due to have their first booster.

The health service has warned there is still a small, but important number of persons within our State [150,000 to 200,000 persons], who have not yet been vaccinated against Covid-19.

In the previous 14 days, up to August 23rd last, at least 270 new cases of Covid-19 have been identified and confirmed within the borders of Co. Tipperary. There remains a fake sense of confidence that the disease has vanished, however, future new variants are still a possibility, so it is important for people to get themselves vaccinated.

From October 2022, a third booster, or fifth vaccine dose, will be offered to people aged 65 years and older, together with those aged 12 years and older with weak immune systems.

The National Immunisation Advisory Committee has recommended that these stated doses be administered with the seasonal flu vaccine, amid concerns that the State could be facing a bad flu season, in light of Australia’s winter experience over recent weeks.

“My Dearest Kitty” Love Letters.

100 years ago, as the Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State, Michael Collins assisted in leading the Anglo Irish Treaty negotiations, he was also negotiating a new and long distance personal relationship with Kitty Kiernan.

Eight months ago and over the course of 11 episodes, through Kitty and Michael’s correspondence, containing some 300 letters and telegrams, we learn at first hand, [Courtesy of Cork County Council Commemorations Committee], the story of their evolving relationship, in conjunction with the then also evolving story of the Anglo Irish Treaty negotiations, both here and in London.

Episode 1. begins HERE; however we have chosen to publish episodes 11 (‘My Dearest Kitty…’ Finale), hereunder to highlight our point of debate.

It was Major General Piaras Beaslaí, who wrote the first full-length biography of Michael Collins, published in 1926, which was first to suggest that the “Big Fellow” or “Long Fellow” had little or no time for the fairer sex.

Major Beaslaí wrote, “He preferred the company of young men, and never paid any attention to the girls belonging to the Branch, not even to the sisters and friends of his male companions”.
Beaslaí makes no mention of Kitty Kiernan in the biography, nor that Collins was then engaged to be married at the time of his death, in 1922.

Collins had proposed to Ms Kitty Kiernan in the ‘Grand Hotel’, Greystones, County Wicklow, later to be renamed ‘La Touche Hotel’, where I began hotel management training in 1969.

Same hotel, which had initially opened in 1894 and closed in 2004, is now a striking luxurious residential development known as “La Touche Cove”. (But where now is Room 27, then rumoured as used by Collins?)

There was only one floral tribute permitted on the flag-covered coffin of Michael Collins; a single white peace lily from Ms Kitty Kiernan.

Frank O’Connor’s biography of Michael Collins, in 1937, also failed to mention Ms Kitty Kiernan, and essentially ignored the latter’s interaction with other females.

Twenty one years later in 1958, Rex Taylor also failed to mention Ms Kitty Kiernan in his biography.

Many women over that troubled period in Irieland had worked with Collins.
So why was Moya O’Connor, (later wife of solicitor Compton Llewelyn Davies); Lily Mernin (cousin of said biographer Piaras Beaslaí); Nancy O’Brien; Susan Mason; Patricia Hoey and our own Bridget Fitzpatrick (latter Thurles executive and courier for Richard Mulcahy and Michael Collins); Susan Killeen (secretary who worked with him in London); Eileen McGrane, Lady Edith Londonderry, and Hazel Lavery, totally ignored in various writings.

Indeed all these women worked with Collins as either trusted secretaries; incriminating document holders; providers of invaluable information or simply friends; thus these biographers exposed Collins to suspicions of being gay or misogynistic.

Close friend Moya O’Connor is noted, in 1942, as having stated “His friends who wrote about him have distorted him as much or more than his enemies”.

The Collins and Kiernan correspondence must surely now shed a completely different complexion on the private lives of both these young lovers.

Cashel Library To Host Award Winning Author Margaret Grant’s Irish Book Launch.

The award-winning novel ‘Three Eleven’, written by Moyglass author Ms Margaret Grant, has its scheduled Irish launch in Cashel Library at 7:00pm on Tuesday, September 6th, 2022.
The novel ‘Three Eleven’ was awarded the Premio Emotion by City of Cattolica’s Pegasus Literary Prize.

Margaret grew up near Moyglass, Fethard, Co. Tipperary, where her father made hurleys and her mother worked as a Librarian. She lived in Tokyo for eleven years and was there when Japan was rocked by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Her experiences on that day and in the weeks and months that followed formed the inspiration for ‘Three Eleven’, her debut novel.

Margaret holds an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and works in education.

The Città di Cattolica – Pegasus Literary Awards are known internationally for the quality of their content. Their focus is on reviving literary culture by stimulating the creativity of young and old, as well as discovering new talents, while at the same time celebrating those who, over the years, have distinguished themselves in the cultural field.

“It is very fitting that Margaret is to have her Irish launch of this most enjoyable novel with the Tipperary County Council Library Service, where her mother worked and no doubt harnessed her love of literature”, says Cashel Librarian Ms Maura Barrett. “We are delighted she chose Cashel Library, a place she frequented as a child, that is a lovely thing, to come full circle, we wish her every success with it”.

‘Three Eleven’ is a page turner. It is a novel set in our times. Japan is a country prepared for earthquakes. Strict guidelines govern new building construction and its citizens are regularly instructed on what to do and how to behave.

Nevertheless, nobody was ready for what 2011 had in store for the country. That year, on March 11th, a powerful earthquake off the north-eastern coast triggered a huge tsunami, resulting in a massive number of casualties and the destruction of a nuclear power plant in Fukushima. In the wake of that frightening event, many foreign residents decided to leave the country, fearing the worst was yet to come.

On that day also many lives changed forever, including those of friends and book club buddies – Charlotte, Lauren, Fumiko, Katherine and Sinéad. The five friends had planned to meet on the following Wednesday, to discuss their book of the month, ‘Middlemarch’, (latter by author Mary Anne Evans, who wrote as George Eliot), but that get-together was not meant to be.
They didn’t lose their homes or their loved ones in the disaster, but the seismic event shook them to their very core.
‘Three Eleven’ is the story of five women and how they each reshaped their lives in the aftermath of this shattering event. Margaret Grant in this work of fiction skilfully weaves this tale of survival that stays with you long after you have closed the book.

Margaret Grant’s novel launch ‘Three Eleven’ takes place in Cashel Library, Friar St, St. Francisabbey, Cashel, Co. Tipperary, on Tuesday 6th September 2022 at 7:00pm, when Margaret will read from her novel and make herself available to sign copies.
There will be musical entertainment and a cheese and wine reception. All are welcome to attend, [RSVP please to Cashel Library Tel: 062 63825.]

‘Three Eleven’ is published by Europe Books and will be available for purchase at the event, stocks are also available through Hanna’s Books

Church Leaders Call On Politicians To Help Those Most In Need.

Ireland’s church leaders have called for further Government support for people struggling with the current cost-of-living crisis.
The cry for help has come from the heads of the Catholic Church; the Church of Ireland; the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches and the Irish Council of Churches, who are asking for immediate practical measures to be implemented, with a refocusing of government policy on eliminate poverty.

President of the Irish Council of Churches, Rev. Andrew Forster, highlighted incidents of where people are asking for food from food banks that do not require cooking, as they cannot afford the electricity for their cooker.

Rev. Forster further stated, “We’re really moving into unprecedented times, and as we move into the winter, things can only get worse. We all know how heating costs have risen hugely and we’re moving in double-digit inflation figures. So, what, as a group of church leaders we are doing, is asking not just Government, but all of us in society to redouble our efforts to help those who are most vulnerable now.”

In a joint statement, Church leaders have said, “As leaders of Churches with a presence across Ireland, we are deeply concerned by what we are seeing on the ground, with the increasing energy and food prices disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable, often leaving people with impossible choices to make, missing meals, and falling into arrears on bills”.

The statement was signed by Most Reverend Eamon Martin (Catholic Primate of All Ireland); Most Reverend John McDowell (Church of Ireland Primate); Right Reverend Dr John Kirkpatrick (Presbyterian Moderator); Reverend David Nixon (Methodist President), as well as Bishop Andrew Forster (President of the Irish Council of Churches).

Bishop Forster (Bishop of Derry and Raphoe) stated, “Politics really matters when it comes to putting food on people’s tables and that’s where the struggle is at the moment, and what we’re doing is calling on leadership right across society to redouble effort to deliver help to those most in need”.