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The Great Irish Radio War: Who won the first battle?

IRELAND IS A radio nation, they proclaimed. And, today, its king will be crowned.

Well, it wasn't that dramatic but this morning's talk-based radio stations were psyched up for a big day on the airwaves as the first day of the autumn season saw RTÉ's Seán O'Rourke go head-to-head with his old colleague Pat Kenny over on the young pretender, Newstalk.

"Move that dial," said the new Marconi House resident, while RTÉ promised all the day's news brought to you at a "measured pace" (huh?).

There was lots of talk this morning on social media from people trying to listen in to both O'Rourke and Kenny but even with today's technologies, that can prove difficult.

For your recapping pleasures, TheJournal.ie examines all the important aspects - including the theme tunes, the opening words and the first guests.

Plus, we captured those vital first 90 seconds for archival purposes.

O'Rourke mentioned his predecessor during the first moments on his new radio timeslot but Pat Kenny has truly left his RTÉ Radio One days behind him, welcoming loyal listeners to his new show on Newstalk without a peep about the past.

"Good morning and welcome and wherever you are, thank you very much for joining me for my first show on Newstalk," he said.

A special welcome to those who have moved the dial. And to those who normally listen to the station at this time, my aim is to keep you entertained as well.

Meanwhile, back on RTÉ Radio One, O'Rourke was positively upbeat.

"It's good to be back as intended on the 2 September but not quite as expected - three hours earlier than usual and for two hours every weekday. What a prospect.

I've been asked to follow a good act and today I send my very best wishes to Pat Kenny.

Listen back here

https://soundcloud.com/sineadthejournal/thejournal-ie-today-with-sean

(For mobile users, click here)

https://soundcloud.com/sineadthejournal/thejournal-ie-pat-kenny-intro

(For mobile users, click here)

Keen ears will have heard a slight difference to the Today theme tune, confirmed by a radio producer following questions on Twitter.

(Even one from our own Michael Freeman)

The new version is, indeed, a bit jazzier.

The outfits

We know, we know. It's radio so it is a tad unfair to include the category but first impressions and all that.

Pat unleashed the bit of the rebel in him, forgoing the suit jacket and tie, while Seán has the look of the First Years in school with his perfect tie and highlighter at the ready.

Image: Brian McEvoy

Jason Clarke Photography

The Guests

It was a mixed reaction to Pat's guests. Some were unimpressed that the Bono interview was a pre-record. Others were just unimpressed by Bono.

But, there was general kudos given to him for the hard-hitting interview with 'bankruptcy tourist' and soon-to-be colleague Ivan Yates.

On the other side, Seán had a lovely chat with author Edna O'Brien about the late and great Seamus Heaney before Oliver Callan did some of his funny business.

During his piece, he referred to poor Pat as the 'Dalkey Donkey'. Which seemed to go down quite well.

And raise the question of, who can Newstalk get to keep up?

So, that's what all the fuss was about. Now then, who gets your vote?

[] Seán O'Rourke

[] Pat Kenny

Poll: What radio station will you tune into next week?

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"Don't be afraid": Seamus Heaney's final words remembered at poignant goodbye to poet

A mourner lightly touches Seamus Heaney's coffin before his funeral service began this morning. Pic: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

President Michael D Higgins embraces Seamus Heaney's widow, Marie, as her son Michael Heaney, right, looks on. Still via RTÉ livestream.

AS A LIGHT wind whispered around them and the late summer sun shone above, hundreds of mourners gathered this morning to pay tribute to poet Seamus Heaney at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Donnybrook, Dublin.

Among them were many whose works are woven together in Ireland's cultural tapestry, including members of the Chieftains and U2, President and poet Michael D Higgins, musician Paul Brady, poet Theo Dorgan, singer Bronagh Gallagher, actor Stephen Rea, and broadcaster John Kelly.

Heaney, a Derry native, had called Dublin his home for the past number of decades, and his family - wife Marie, daughter Catherine, sons Michael and Christopher, daughters-in-law Emer and Jenny - were surrounded by people from all over the island of Ireland for the funeral mass.

Heaney was a man of peace, and it was a sense of peace that seemed to be felt in the church, with mourners exchanging small smiles between the moments of silent contemplation.

The strains of the uileann pipes played by Heaney's friend and collaborator Liam O'Flynn opened the ceremony. He was soon joined by the deep tones of Neil Martin’s cello playing.

Still: RTÉ livestream

Chief celebrant of the funeral mass was Monsignor Brendan Devlin, who spoke of the sense of taking some of the burden from the shoulders of Heaney's family. He said:

All of us in this country are keenly aware of our deprivation at the disappearance from among us of Seamus Heaney.

Heaney was, said Devlin, a “public figure, private friend”. A man whose exploration of his life through poetry made us feel as though we knew him intimately; a man who we felt would be around forever.

When President Higgins embraced each member of Heaney family, he gently hugged Seamus' widow, Maire, the longest.

The news of Heaney's death at the age of 74 filtered through on Friday, followed by an outpouring of tributes from around the world.

Though he left behind him an enormous, weighty legacy of work, Heaney will be remembered for the small things. This was no more reflected than in the offertory.

Pic: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Heaney’s grandchildren, Aoibheann Heaney (5) and Anna Rose Heaney (6), brought simple gifts to their grandfather’s coffin; bread and wine, a copy of Seamus’s work; a small posey of flowers from his garden on Strand Road, the stems held together with tinfoil.

Like in his own poetry, it was the domestic details that that made the most impact.

Friends such as John Kelly and Theo Dorgan offered up small prayers, speaking of the poet’s spirit of inclusiveness, and it inspiring us to strive for peace. They also paid tribute to the other poets and artists, teachers, educators and scholars, who have shared their insights and inspirations with us all.

Heaney’s friend, fellow poet Paul Muldoon, brought humour to his tribute to Heaney, recalling a time when Michael Heaney called his father ‘head-the-ball’. That, said Muldoon, “suggested a wonderfully relaxed attitude between father and teenage son”. Heaney was renowned the world over, but was “never a man who took himself too seriously”.

When fitted with a pacemaker, he delighted in announcing “blessed are the pacemakers”.

But he "had that single ability to make each of us feel connected, not only to him but to one another", said Muldoon.

He said Heaney did everything ‘con brio’, with vigour; that he was a man who was not brazen, not ostentatious. Instead, words that come to mind when Muldoon thinks of Heaney are ‘bounteous’, ‘benign’, bighearted’

Seamus had an "unparalled capacity to sweep us all of us up in his arms”, concluded Muldoon.

Bono and wife Ali Hewson attend the service. Pic: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

The final tribute was left to Heaney’s son, Michael.

In true Heaney style, he told the church that his speech would be “nothing fancy”. Yet, like his father before him, his simple words cut through the grief and right to the heart of the loss.

He thanked the staff of Blackrock Clinic and St Vincent’s hospital, all those who looked after his father over the past few years, everyone who provided “such incredible support” to the family.

He also thanked everyone at Faber and Faber, Heaney’s publisher for almost 50 years.

His father had “generosity of spirit,” said Michael, and everyone who met him was lucky to have known him. But his family were the luckiest of all.

Heaney’s last words were sent by text message to Maire, just minutes before he passed away, said his son.

They were in Latin, and devastating in their simplicity: “Don’t be afraid”.

As Michael sat back down, his family gathered around him. "Brilliant," mouthed his sister to him, her eyes wet with tears.

Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire, file

Before Seamus Heaney’s body was brought from the church, by special request, Brahms’ Lullaby was played. And then, on the shoulders of men and garnished by flowers, his coffin was brought out of the church, to be blessed with water and incense.

Back out to the sun it went, for him to take the final leg of his journey. He was going back home.

Seamus Heaney will be buried in his native Bellaghy, returned to the fertile soil where he - squat pen between finger and thumb - first dug for the words that made him one of Ireland's greatest poets.

- By Aoife Barry, ©TheJournal.ie

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Those in poverty 70 per cent more likely to get lung, stomach, cervical cancers

Image via jasleen_kaur/Flickr/CreativeCommons

POORER AND MARGINALISED groups in society are 70 per cent more likely to get some cancers.

The Irish Cancer Society and the Society of the St Vincent de Paul is warning that action is needed to close the health inequality gap.

Factors such as the level of education, income, employment and living conditions can all influence cancer risk and survival.

In Ireland, lung, stomach, head and neck, and cervical cancers are all more common in areas of higher unemployment and lower levels of education.

Men in areas with the poorest education levels have a 32 per cent greater risk of lung cancer than men living in areas with the highest level, while women have a 23 per cent greater risk.

Women in areas with the lowest education levels had a 66 per cent greater risk of cervical cancer than those in areas with the highest level of educational attainment.

Social conditions

Men in the most densely populated areas had a 53 per cent greater risk of developing head and neck cancer than men in less densely populated areas.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot, international expert on inequalities in health and director of the University College London Institute of Heath Equity said:

We know that half of all cancers are preventable by means of healthier living. But an individual’s ability to act on this information is shaped by social conditions acting through the life course.

“If we are to have any hope of reducing high cancer rates among poorer communities, we have to recognise and tackle the social and economic factors which impact on people’s health. We have to make sure that everyone, no matter where they live or how much money they have, gets the same high quality cancer treatment,” said John McCormack, CEO of the Irish Cancer Society.

- By Amy Croffey, ©TheJournal.ie

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Property tax evaders 'will not see a penny' of their income tax refund

stock image euro, house via Shutterstock

REVENUE HAS BEGUN contacting people to let them know that they will not be paid their income tax rebates until they complete their property tax returns.

  Today, Taxback.com said it has received several advice letters from Revenue to taxpayers informing them of the amount of income tax or PAYE refund they are due. Tax expert Christine Kelly said the letters are advising them that "they won’t see a penny of it" until they complete their property tax return.

More than €175 million has been taken in by Revenue already through the tax with 90 per cent of households on the estimated register compliant with it.

Taxback.com said the letters further demonstrate the lengths that Revenue will go to to ensure compliance.

The tax experts commented that if Revenue had simply deducted the tax owed and paid the balance it would be one thing, but here they have withheld "far greater amounts".

"In a typical case, a client of ours is due a refund of €3,437.89, but Revenue will not pay due to 'outstanding returns'", Kelly commented. "We’ve seen dozens of these letters since 01 August and expect to see quite a few more."

She added that this could have implications for further taxes and charges, like the water charges, in the future.

A spokesperson for Revenue told TheJournal.ie that in advance of issuing a refund, a taxpayer’s record will generally be reviewed to ensure that there are no outstanding liabilities and where a liability exists an offset will be made before the refund is issued.

"Local Property Tax will be treated the same as any other tax for offset purposes,” they said. “An offset will not apply where a phased payment method is in place and being honoured”.

- By Michelle Hennessy, ©TheJournal.ie

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Government urged to introduce ban on smacking children

stock smacking image via Shutterstock 

THE CHILDREN'S RIGHTS Alliance (CRA) has called on Minister Frances Fitzgerald to honour the government's commitment to ban corporal punishment and introduce a complete ban on slapping children.

The government has until 27 September to respond to the European Committee of Social Rights following a formal complaint against Ireland by the Association for the Protection of All Children (APPROACH).

CRA said that under Irish law, physical punishment of children by parents or legal caregivers, childminders and foster parents is currently allowed. The association has called on the government to remove the common law defence of 'reasonable chastisement' and introduce an outright ban on violence against children in all settings.

Chief Executive Tanya Ward said today that physical punishment of children is "invariably degrading and harmful".

She said:

It is abuse and ill-treatment; it never does any good. Our law recognises that we cannot strike another adult, why can we still strike children?

Ward added that as children return to school this week, we must ask ourselves "why they are protected against abuse in school but do not have the same protection at home".

The complaint by APPROACH is the latest in a string of similar complaints and follows the recommendation in a report of the Rapporteur on Child Protection that corporal punishment be banned in Ireland.

In a statement,  the Department of Children and Youth Affairs said corporal punishment is prohibited in a number of settings. It added that the Children Act 2001 made it an offence for anyone who has the custody, charge of care of a child to wilfully assault or ill-treat them.

The department said that any proposal to prohibit the defence of reasonable chastisement requires careful consideration.

There is a balance to be found between supporting parents in effective parenting, in particular, in use of non-violent forms of discipline, and the use of criminal law to impose criminal sanctions on parents who do not adhere to best practice in parenting.

Considerable progress has been made in recent years in encouraging parents to use alternative non-violence forms of discipline in the family setting, the department added.

- By Michelle Hennessy, ©TheJournal.ie

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Emergency motion on disability cuts to be brought to Dublin City Council

A St Michael's facility in Dublin. Pic: Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

THE SUBJECT OF cuts to services for people with disabilities will be on the agenda when Dublin City Council meets this evening.

The HSE and St Michael's House work together in delivering services to almost 1,700 children and adults with an intellectual disability, and said last week that additional budget cuts presented a 'significant challenge'.

HSE funding for St Michael’s has been cut by a total of €12.3 million over the last five years.

St Michael's House was told in August of this year that an additional million euro was being cut from its budget for the second half of 2013, backdated to 1 July, and a series of service reductions was being introduced as a result.

St Michael's has over 170 centres across the Greater Dublin Area and in Navan, Co Meath.

Extra €35 a week for residents

Staffing levels are expected to be reduced, while a rent subsidy is also being cut, meaning residents are being asked for an extra €35 per week.

CEO Patricia Doherty said in a letter that management are: “making every effort at both a local and national level to impress upon the HSE and the Government the seriousness of the situation and the inevitable negative impact of their decisions on people with disabilities".

Sinn Féin will propose an emergency motion at the monthly meeting of Dublin City Council this evening, opposing the cuts to services at St Michael's House facilities.

Sinn Féin Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha, who is tabling the motion, called on Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn to allow debate on the motion.

Cllr Mac Donncha said that the party's motion is calling for the recently-announced cuts to be reversed.

The families of those using St Michael's services are being urged to lobby their local TDs, senators and councillors on the issue.

- By Aoife Barry, ©TheJournal.ie

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World Irish and Irish Central to merge into one website

TWO WEBSITES CATERING for the diaspora will merge into the one site, it was confirmed today.

WorldIrish.com and Irishcentral.com, who claim to have over 2 million unique users a month between them, will now be known as IrishCentral.com alone.

The combined site will have offices in New York and Dublin and will go live on 15 September. 

Irish Central founder Niall O'Dowd said that the merger would allow the creation of an Irish "super-site".

"We are delighted to join with John McColgan and the team at World Irish," O'Dowd said. " We believe the potential to create a super site worldwide for the Irish is very real."

McColgan will become a director of the new site, as well as an ad advisor. He says that the merger offers World Irish an "exciting opportunity".

"In a relatively short period World Irish has established a successful platform and this merger is a logical development to achieve greater global traction for the Irish diaspora."

- By Paul Hosford, © TheJournal.ie

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"Arrogant, inhuman, bastards": Ivan Yates takes aim at banks over his bankruptcy

Yates with co-presenter Chris O'Donoghue, announcing his return to Newstalk yesterday. Pic: Newstalk.

AHEAD OF HIS return to Newstalk Breakfast this Wednesday, former Fine Gael minister Ivan Yates has defended his decision to move to Wales to declare bankruptcy. 

Yates, who had owned Celtic Bookmakers until receivership in January 2011. Yates had availed of bankruptcy in Wales last August and was discharged from bankruptcy last week.

Having been discharged from bankruptcy, Yates was announced to be returning to his role on Newstalk FM.

Yates said that he was "naive" in signing a personal guarantee on Celtic Bookmakers.

"I was trying to consolidate the business and make it indestructible. We had no internet strategy and our competitors had deeper pockets.

"I had signed a personal guarantee so was liable. 

I was utterly naive and foolish about the guarantee.

"No idea why banks came after me"

Yates went on to say that he had made numerous offers to the banks, but feels like he was unfairly targeted.

"I put forward two offers to the banks. I said if I could keep the house, I would sell everything else. 

"I offered to give over 80 cent on the Euro, but I was told that even if I gave them 99 cents on the Euro, they'd say no.

I was shocked to find from a Dáil question that AIB have only taken bankruptcy proceedings against two people: Ivan and Deirdre Yates.

Yates is writing a book on his experiences and has a chapter on banks entitled "Arrogant, Inhuman, Bastards".

"AIB destroyed my life," he said.

"I have come back from a harrowing 16 months in Wales. I was very lonely and had no friends."

On two occasions, I was so down I wish I was dead.

"I have lost everything. Lost everything that I worked my life on. I will do my best to try and procure a home for my family.

"Bankruptcy is not something I chose, it is something I was compelled into."

- By Paul Hosford, © TheJournal.ie