Head of News, journalist and presenter of the 9 'til Noon Show on
@highlandradio
, Ireland's No1 local station. Views my own and not that of my employer
A Donegal student attending Maynooth has been told by her landlord that half her double bed is going to be rented out for 25 euro a night. She's been told she has to share her double bed in the room she is renting with a stranger.
@SimonHarrisTD
@DarraghOBrienTD
@highlandradio
It's impossible to put into words the devastation in
#Creeslough
. It's uncertain what the death toll will be and how many are injured.The community is numb with grief. Families gathered waiting for news of loved ones, others inconsolable as they got the news they feared.Terrible
If you're inclined to pray, you might include 41 year-old Donegal mother Lisa Dillon. Lisa is fighting for her life on a ventilator in Letterkenny University Hospital this evening.
#COVID19
#PrayforLisa
More people on my timeline seem more concerned with the background of the perpetrator of today's attack in Dublin rather than the condition/wellbeing of the victims, including 3 children. We are losing our soul.
I'm the absence of help from the state, the people of West
#donegal
are hiring a private helicopter to fight a gorse fire. For those who think we are moaners, imagine if this was Dublin and your house were under threat
65 year old granddad Donal Bradley is welcomed home to Buncrana,
#Donegal
after spending almost 2 weeks in ICU and a week on a ventilator with
#COVID19
Ten people have now died as a result of the explosion in Creeslough yesterday afternoon. The deceased are four men, three women, a teenage girl, a teenage boy and a young girl.
I've had contact from seven Donegal people who offered homes/holiday homes (very recently) to house Ukrainian refugees and all were told thanks but no thanks. All the focus seems to be on a few landlords developing grouped accommodation. It's a business
Ryan Stewart has created a map of homes in
#Donegal
affected my
#mica
. Home owners were invited to tag their property. It's thought this might only represent 10% of the houses crumbling with defective blocks.
#micaredress
This is Colin Bell who established the Kevin Bell repatriation trust after he lost his son Kevin. He is a hero. Since established, they have helped 23 Donegal families and 750 families nation wide.
Imagine having a 700 hundred million underspend in housing and at the same time refusing to release 15k for accommodation to Donegal families so they can avoid freezing to death in condemned, defective concrete riddled, homes. It's incredibly, incredibly cruel.
There's a "pandemic" of sexual abuse of u-18s by other children in
#Donegal
.Five 15 year-old girls were referred to the Donegal Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre in the past week.99% of the abuse is by boys. It's a countrywide problem and needs to be treated as the crisis it is
I can tell you for a fact that there are families trying to contact loved ones connected to the cars visible in pictures of the explosion in Creeslough.
So far, Forty buses from
#Donegal
are booked for a protest in Dublin on June 15. Thousands are expected to take to the streets demanding 100%
#micaredress
for their crumbing homes. Many more from other effected counties are expected to join the peaceful protest.
A word for the emergency services still at the scene in
#Creeslough
tonight. These men and women are dealing with a very difficult, dangerous situation. There's also a lot of people,many locals,helping that aren't as accustomed to such a situation.
Imagine covering the passing of a bill through the Dail on a radio show and feeling the need to give out contact details for the Samaritans and Pieta House at the end. That's the level of distress in Donegal following the Dail's decision on Defective Blocks Redress last night.
Fr Sheehy has also condemned masturbating, unmarried living together, sex outside marriage, divorce... All the "hits". Those who stood applauding must have been squeaky clean or.... dare I say, Hypocrites
Before and after of a
#Donegal
home. Blocks from Cassidy Bros in 2001. Moved in, in 2002. By 2008 severe cracking inside and out. 13 years of stress and many sleepless nights for this family
#micaredress
Genuine upset in
#Donegal
with the amount of traffic from Northern Ireland. Caravan Parks and some play parks still open and packed, mostly with cross border traffic. We are being hung out to dry
#SocialDistancing
#covud19
A typical example of the homes thousands are, or will be, living in because of defective blocks.
#Donegal
#micaredress
. Through no fault of their own.
I didn't approach this from one angle or another but thought it important to ask the Taoiseach why he appeared to walk out of a press conference this week, mid question. Another journalist suggested they were overlooked for a question.
The redress scheme doesn't work. Many can't afford the upfront costs. It was announced as a 90/10 scheme but it's more like 60/40 and families feel abandoned. Over 10k protested last week but it didn't seem to get the national traction that deserved. 🤔
#Donegal
#micaredress
It's been estimated that a rail link from Derry City to Letterkenny would cost 320 million. Can you tag it on to the
#Metrolink
bill
@EamonRyan
and give us a little something in the Northwest? Just transition etc
#Donegal
's ONLY child and adolescent counselling service has been forced to close because a lack of funding. Over 15k counselling sessions were provided in the last 6 years alone. A request for 60k of funding was refused by the HSE & Tusla.Don't tell me this country is rich.
A new party was created in Donegal that didn't exist last October. They now have 4 seats on Donegal County Council and have a bigger representation than Fine Gael in the County. They're 100% Redress. One dude got elected down the country and is trending.... X isn't reflective
Papers take pictures and personal accounts from the social media of families of victims of the Creeslough without permission and, despite objections...that seems ok, no protection. Leo is captured on video in a nite club and we have a government crackdown on privacy laws.
It's worth noting.. two of the likely new Midlands-North-West MEPs (Nina Carberry and Barry Cowen) chose not to engage in debates in Donegal because they weren't canvassing in the area. As far as I'm concerned, that reflects how important they see the area for the next 5 years
For months I and others have been highlighting the need for easier access to vaccines and testing in Donegal. And a need for a targeted approach.. and we got nothing til things got bad in Letterkenny. And now, according to Nphet, it's all our fault.
Andrew McGinley has spoken of his upset after RTÉ pulled his planned Late Late Show appearance after members of his wife’s family objected to the interview because it would be too painful for them. He says they could have watched it before broadcast and okayed it.
The remarks from SF Deputy Padraig MacLochlainn on
@highlandradio
yesterday which have caused a bit of controversy. People can make their own minds up.
Big crowds take to the streets of Buncrana in
#Donegal
to keep the 100%
#micaredress
issue to the fore. I'm told the last Dublin protest was the river, the next will be the sea
#Dublin
native Eileen Ní Fhloinn, now living in
#Donegal
, will be nominated to the
#seanad
later today. A member of the travelling community based in
#Ardara
, Eileen contested the last Seanad elections hoping to be the first traveller elected to the Oireachtas.
67 new Covid cases in Donegal today. I know many of them to be connected to both national and secondary school going ages. It'll be interesting to see if they are officially connected to schools or if it will be said to be community cases being identified in schools.
#micaredress
needs to be taken on as the national scandal it is and not just the odd feature on a hard pressed family. Many thousands of family homes are affected as well as holiday homes, investment property commercial property, public housing and public buildings.
These are very very special people that will never be forgotten. I spoke to one local man who was called up to help with the removal of rubble by hand. His voice was cracking at the idea of it, he wasn't prepared, but he went ahead none the less. He knows people still missing.
The devastating impact of
#StormFranklin
on a Donegal
#Mica
home. It's only pure luck that a house didn't collapse on a family, but it'll happen. Families full of anxiety and fear. If
@DarraghOBrienTD
or others want to stay a night during a storm it can be arranged,free of charge
#Donegal
nurse flies from Australia to answer Ireland Call with
@SimonHarrisTD
declaring "your country needs you". No shifts in 11 weeks and not eligible for
#COVID19
payment
The funeral takes place today of Beautiful Shauna Flanagan-Garwe and her loving dad Robert Garwe, 8 days after the awful explosion that robbed us of so much. There's no words, but I know we'll all be thinking on them and sending strength and love.
At a minutes notice, a major protest is being organised to object to
#TrumpinIreland
. He's divisive, but seriously... Where are the big marches on homelessness, vulture fund and health etc that "everyone" is upset about? It's a strange country at times!
The closure of bank branches (announced in March) is not insignificant, but 30k shutting Dublin to try and help keep a roof over their heads should have been the lead story all day.I'm not being parochial but I understand how people might feel it was somewhat buried
#MicaProtest
From today you can get your hair cut or have a pint in the pub but you have to wait until September to see if you have breast or bowel cancer. It's an important day, but all seems a little backwards.
The reality ahead for more home owners in
#Donegal
. Their life's work tossed to the ground. And the warm weather respite for those still living in their crumbling homes is soon over. This is a housing and mental health crisis for homeowners and their children
#micaredress
Never been more proud to be from
#Donegal
. It was an amazing day in Dublin for the
#MicaProtest
. The government can be in no doubt that it has to be 💯
#micaredress
26 billion euro surplus over the next two years and much of it will be put away for a rainy day. Well it's absolutely pissing it down for much of the population. Who is it being saved for.
#Donegal
is going to get a lot of stick. But few counties have moved as far as we have in shifting opinion. I hope that doesn't get lost in the narrative!
#ref8th
Another
#Donegal
family home lost to the
#Micascandal
and still no answers or certainty for the thousands of other home owners facing in to another winter. This is happening through no fault of their own. It's a housing and mental health crisis
#micaresress
💯
People can't let their children out to play or park next to the house for fear of plaster breaking away. Not to mention sleeping in a house that may collapse at any point
#Donegal
#micaredress
. Through no fault of their own.
I'm not calling anyone out, but there's clearly intercounty travel and travel beyond 5km in
#Donegal
. We are either in lockdown or not. What's the point in closing businesses etc if much else is going on as normal?
Mr Asadulla Aslam, a consultant urologist at Letterkenny University Hospital has resigned from public practice due to the "impossible working conditions" he was under. Terrible that we are losing such talent that might be very very hard to replace.
If Leo Varadkar said of most other lines of work, what he said of priests today, there would be uproar. Very unfair comments against a generally good and hard-working group of people
Remarkable to see
#micaredress
the 2nd most trending hashtag in Ireland in 2021. Even more remarkable is, I don't think it trended No1 till around May 25th, though I'm open to correction. A huge congratulations to all involved which will be hollow until there's 100%
#micaredress
Despite warnings from
@CMOIreland
Tony Holohan, people are traveling in big Nos in the dead of night to their holiday homes in
#Donegal
.
@highlandradio
inundated with calls from listeners this morning genuinely concerned at the situation and the lack of policing of it.
#COVID19
A number of nurses at
#Letterkenny
University Hospital say they are not being given proper protective gear when dealing with positive
#COVID19
cases. They say they can't assist patients properly and have to choose who to care for. They say the hospital already can't cope.
Even if you're not interested in the Defective blocks issue... You should be interested in government plans to spend billions of your money replacing houses on foundations that may well fail too. Do you not think it would be prudent for this to be investigated further?
1/ Just going through WhatsApp messages from when my partner was in hospital with a suspected miscarriage as I sat in the car outside. We are chatting about why us and what we will do and the procedures she'll have to go through. Then out of no where a heart beat was discovered.
Would tax payers really have an issue helping people get the homes back they have lost or are losing through no fault of their own? I think we all pull together in this country when the chips are down. I'm sure we can pursue banks and others down the line.
#micaredress
#MicaBig3
We've come along way from Micheal Martin saying "we must all take individual responsibility" and "we are all in this together" to a dedicated phone line in Donegal for the public to report Covid breaches. I presume we will see the same established in Kildare and Cork etc..?
Just listening to Liam Neeson's advert about the terrible plight of children.There are Donegal children,many in counseling, freezing in condemned, black mould riddled homes.
@DarraghOBrienTD
please release the emergency funding, you've been given practical options I'm sure.Please
I'm not having a go, but one image is what the Taoiseach was pictured pointing at in
#Donegal
and the other is, or will be, the reality for thousands of others.
#micaredress
.
It's great to see that Ireland is on course for tourism numbers in 2023 close to 2019... But where are tourists going to stay if they come? There are entire towns with barely a room available
The 1000s affected by the
#mica
crisis in
#Donegal
and Mayo need the rest of Ireland to support them & maybe for the media to imagine this was in Dublin. There's been great coverage at times, but it doesn't match the billions of euro scandal
#micaredress
Congratulations to former Highland Radio present, Father Shaun Doherty on his ordination today. A wonderful occasion and a great addition to the Derry Diocese.
#MicaPaddysDay
trending in Ireland as those affected by the Mica scandal pay tribute to
@PaddyDiver4
who has stepped back from the campaign following dogs abuse from a very small group of people
Still waiting to here from
@MichealMartinTD
. Buried my sister and father during the crisis, very much restricted by
#COVID19
guidelines.
#golfgate
is a slap in the face to everyone who has sacrificed so much and still no comment or obvious leadership.
A positive development tonight. Accommodation grants of 15,000 euro have been confirmed for Donegal homeowners who must move out of unsafe homes damaged by defective concrete products. An additional 5,000 euro is available for storage costs. This effects up to 20 families.
RTE and others calling people keeping the country going through construction, tourism, bars and restaurants as "low skilled" should be done away with.
#covid19
Everyone deserves to be heard, but
#liveline
is 28 minutes in to highlight the plight of noise pollution on two home owners. Has much time been given to
#Mica28
home owners any time recently? I admit,I may have missed it so I'm very open to correction
The cabinet will sign off this week on 100% redress to fund repairs to defective Celtic Tiger homes in a scheme they'll cost up to €2.5 billion. I'm glad these people are getting 100% but why not for defective concrete homeowners in
#Donegal
and elsewhere? It's simply unfair.
#Donegal
GPs have declined a meeting with Health Minister
@DonnellyStephen
in Dublin or via video next week. They say he needs to come to the county to meet GPs and consultants and see the issues at Letterkenny University Hospital first hand.