On Friday’s Morning Focus, we opened the show with tributes to the iconic broadcaster Marian Finucane who died suddenly on Thursday at the age of 69.
Shannon woman Rachael English is the presenter of RTE Radio 1’s Morning Ireland and has described Marian as a “pioneer, an inspiration and a friend to listeners” – she spoke to Gavin on Friday morning.
Following that we spoke to auctioneer Cormac O’Sullivan about the new Daft.ie report which shows that there’s no signs of improvement in the balance of supply and demand in the private rental market and social housing.
We also heard on Friday from O’Callaghan’s Mills man Trevor Linehan who has been living in Australia for six years and is married there with a child.
He also volunteers as a firefighter and has been dragged into fighting the fires in the country as their summer gets underway.
Trevor is home in Clare for two weeks and joined Gavin for a quick chat about his experience.
In the second hour of the programme we were joined by futurist Calum Chace to discuss what we can expect to see from this decade – and he had some interesting predictions..
A leading researcher in public health issues and lecturer at LIT, has called for a complete ban on cigarette vending machines in Ireland.
Dr Frank Houghton has challenged the Irish Government to follow the majority of its European neighbours and impose a complete ban on cigarette vending machines from hotels, bars, and other public places.
The public health expert warned that cigarette vending machines, which remain easily accessible, can be a route to underage smoking – and he spoke to us on Friday.
After Frank, we heard from Fianna Fail general election candidate and Doonbeg woman Rita McInerney.
She is to be joined at Hotel Woodstock by a panel of Clare women from sport, business including Munster and Ireland rugby star Eimear Considine, President of Ennis Chamber Gwen Culligan, GP Dr Maire Finn, Mindfulness & Fitness Coach Deirdre Fitzpatrick, and Daily Diva Diary creator Helen Quealy-Murphy and joined Gavin to tell us more.
Finally on Friday, we heard from Dubliner Kealan Ryan whose film Lift has been released on Amazon Prime.
Kealan’s family hails from Knockalough, Kilmihil and he wrote part of the film there, as well as much of his debut novel The Middle Place, which won awards when published last year. It also received largely positive reviews in a recent edition of our Morning Focus Book Club.
