On Morning Focus today, Patricia Vaughan, Principal at Furglan National School joined John Cooke on the show to talk about the affect of the storms on her school. They are closed for a second day due to the loss of power and the resulting lack of heat.
John also spoke with Minister for Transport and Tourism – Leo Varadkar who was at Shannon Airport yesterday for an update on progress one year on from the separation of Shannon from the Dublin Airport Authority.
There he met with Rose Hynes – Chair of the Shannon Group and Neil Pakey its CEO to review passenger growth, enhanced flight schedules and plans to grow passenger numbers by double digits this year. He also heard about plans for a programme of new hangar development at Shannon, as full occupancy has been reached by its existing aircraft capacity.
Seamus Grey is the ESB Production Support Manager for the MidWest. He spoke to John about the 5,000 Clare residents and businesses that are facing into a second night without power, as a result of Storm Darwin. ESB crews worked throughout last evening, and again today, to repair the 400 faults on the county's electricity network and some progress has been made. Despite this, 8400 people are still without power this afternoon, and less than half of these will see their situations improve before nightfall. ESB says it's not known which areas will definitely be with or without power overnight, but spokesman Seamus Gray insists they are working as hard as possible. The ESB Emergency number is 1850 372 999.
Sean Lenihan, Senior Executive Engineer with Clare County Council talked about how water tankers have been set up for the Clare communities which have been left without water in the aftermath of Storm Darwin.
This is likely to continue for a couple of days even if the electricity comes back it will take time for pumping stations to get back to normal.
Joan Blackburn from Met Eireann and Ger Dollard, Director of Services with Clare County Council also spoke to John about how Met Eireann issued a status yellow warning for Clare yesterday evening (Thursday evening). The national forecaster expects very wet and windy weather with strong to gale force winds. Gusts are expected to reach 80 to 110km/hr especially in coastal areas. Coastal, tidal and river flooding are all possibilities.
Fr. Joseph Cooney is the Director of Knock Marriage Introductions and was a guest of the show following their AGM. Knock Marriage Introductions AGM was held on February 11th, where it was reported that in 2013, 107 women and 101 men applied. At the moment there are 46 couples in ongoing relationships. There were 3 engagements and 10marriages in 2013. To contact the service please visit www.knockmarriageintroductions.com or call their office on 094 9375960.
As the clear up continued after the storms yesterday there were trees cleared from almost every road and park in County Clare. John Cooke saw trees being cut at Shannon Airport, Dromoland Castle, Shannon and Ennis Golf Clubs on his travels yesterday. On his way back to Ennis he witnessed many trees and branches down at St. Flannan's College, where the roundabout was blocked for hours on Wednesday afternoon. He spoke to some locals who were making the most of the bad situation by stocking up on firewood from the trees
Marie Moloney and Rhonda Murphy also joined John in studio. Both are Committee Members of the Clare Branch of the Alzheimer’s Society. They talked about how the Clare Branch of the Alzheimer’s Society annual sponsored Burren Walk takes place on Sunday February 16th. Donations can be made to Unit 17, Clonroad Business Park, Ennis or for more information please call 065 6845835, particularly if anyone is interested in becoming a carer with the organisation. They are currently looking to supply carers in West Clare.
Chris Stoodley is the young Welsh musician who sang the 'Home and Away' theme tune on the Voice of Ireland recently. Chris is living in Ballina/ Killaloe. He is on Team Kian and has made it through to the battles. He’ll battle it out on our TV screens on the 2nd of March. Given that today is Valentines Day Chis performed 2 of his own songs about love. The first is called “Catching Good”, which is about the honeymoon period at the beginning of relationships. The second is “Settle Down”; this one is not so romantic really as it’s about not getting married!!
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