Moninne Griffith is the Director of Marriage Equality. She joined Gavin Grac eon today’s Afternoon Show as supporters of gay marriage in Ireland are hoping the move to legislate for gay marriage in the UK will influence the Irish government. The topic of same-sex marriage is to be discussed at a meeting of the Constitutional Convention here in April and the group, ‘Marriage Equality’ say they’re confident that the outcome of the discussions will be positive. As it stands, same-sex marriages are banned in Ireland and the Civil Partnership Act only provides for limited tax and inheritance rights.
Fergal Lyons from the Physical Education Association of Irelandalso joined teh show. He discussed how many school children in Ireland may not be receiving enough hours of physical education (PE). Just 10% of post-primary school pupils are currently taking part in 120 minutes of PE every week, despite rising levels of obesity causing alarm in the country. This 2-hour minimum is recommended by the Department of Education and Skills. However, the department has proposed reducing the status of the subject to a short course, meaning it would have a time allocation of just 100 hours across two or three years. Separately, operators of the W82Go programme at Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin claim one in four children in primary school in Ireland are either overweight or obese.
Clare FM’s Kiara Gannon was also out and about getting your views on childhood obesity and asking if you feel PE is important in school.
Aidan Courtney from The Ennis Book Shop and our resident Book Reviewer joined us for our weekly book feature to discuss two new books, “The U Turn: A Guide to happiness” by Conor Farren and personal trainer Karl Henry’s latest offering “Bums, Tums and Bingo Wings”.
Joe Robbins also joined Gavin to let listeners know about a special 12k Run/Walk/Cycle that takes place on Sunday to raise funds for the repair and restoration of Oatfield Church in the parish of O’Callaghan’s Mills.
To contact the show please email afternoon@clare.fm
