Sport, pages 50 - 51 Friday 12 August 2022 ObserverTheKilkenny FRIDAYEVERY Tel: 056 777 1463 E: sales@kilkennyobserver.ie W: kilkennyobserver.ie FREE EDITION sales@kilkennyobserver.ie1463kilkennyobserver.ie Page 12 We Got Chills When we met the wonderful Olivia Winning Ways Women feline good, as Dowling’ delivers
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Carey may lose home
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Kilkenny native Catriona Carey faces losing her family home after failing to make any repayments on her mortgage in nearly 10 years. An order for possession of her house in Weir View Hill, Co Kilkenny, has been granted to Start Mortgages Designated Activity Com pany, which is seeking to recover arrears of more than €359,000.Carey,who has been em broiled in controversy over an alleged mortgage scam where she took hundreds of thousands of euro from people in nancial di culty after promising to help them secure new deals to keep their properties, has not made her own monthly mortgage repayments since November 2012, according to court documents. An order for possession of the house was granted on May 11, together with a stay of execution of three months. Once that period has ended, Start Mortgages is entitled to take possession of the Despiteproperty.thepossession or der, it is understood that the former Ireland hockey play er will still have the option of temporarily remaining in her home if she agrees to a private sale of the house. Otherwise the county sheri will be instructed to take possession of the home if she does not vacate it later this month. e balance out standing on the property is €876,000 including the €359,000 in arrears. She has also incurred sig ni cant arrears on another property she owns in Co Laois, while a house close to her family home which she previously owned was recently sold by private auc tion for €365,000 after re ceivers were appointed to it. ose who paid her thou sands of euro for mortgage deals that never materi alised now have little hope of recovering any money they are owed after details of the former Kilkenny camogie player’s debts were revealed. Carey also recently admit ted to the Sunday World that €400,000 in client funds re ceived by her company, Car eysfort Asset Estates Ltd, is spent and is not recoverable. She is also being sued by Bank of Ireland (BoI) over debts relat ing to a property since sold.
3e Kilkenny Observer Friday 12 August 2022 kilkennyobserver.ie GETTING IN TOUCH WITH THE TEAM E:SPORTSsportseditor@kilkennyobserver.ie
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Ireland’s relationship with the controversial Tavistock clinic in the UK, which provides psycho logical assessment and support for children with gender identity issues, has been defended by the HSE.eclinic provides help to children and teenagers strug gling with their gender iden tity, some of whom go on to be treated with hormone blockers under the supervision of their doctors.Insome cases the clinic rec ommends the prescription of puberty blockers, which put a pause on puberty, while a young person thinks about their gen derInidentity.thepast number of years the HSE has been referring Irish patients to the service, with 238 children being referred since 2015.DrPaul Moran, a psychiatrist working with the National Gen der services, which treats people over 16, has been raising con cerns about the HSE’s relation ship with the Tavistock clinic. “If children present to their GP with gender dysphoria they can be referred to their locals CAM HS service or to primary care psychology and if the CAMHS service is concerned they will refer on to Tavistock,” Dr Moran said.Now, senior clinicians within the HSE have now called for an investigation to be carried out by the Minister for Health into the use of the Tavistock clinic by the health service in Ireland.
With one in four schoolgoing children now having additional educational needs, an invitation has gone out to teachers, parents and those caring for children with special educational needs, in Kilkenny and beyond, o ering them an opportunity to enrol in one of two new online postgraduate programmes about the subject beginning in
lovelyRememberingOlivia ere can be few of us of a certain age who haven’t seen Grease, the hit musical lm in which Olivia Newton-John transforms from the demure Sandy into a seductress in skintight spandex and leather. Following her death after a 30 year battle with cancer, our columnist Paul Hopkins recalls an exclusive and recent interview with the iconic star. See News, Page 6 Column, Page 8 A radio legend is laid to rest Tributes continue for radio legend Johnny Barry who was laid to rest recently. e Kilkenny native, aged 80, died peacefully at his home. A pipe band led his funeral cortege through the city. Johnny retired from his weekly Sunday evening slot on KCLR and went on to work as a Country and Irish Ambassador for the station. See News, Page 10 and Gerry Moran, Page 20 €20m. airport deal e billionaire Comer brothers — the Galway-born investors who own a huge property portfolio across Europe — have agreed to pay up to €20m to buy a majority stake in Waterford Airport. e acquisition price includes a signi cant investment programme at the facility,.
HSE stands by trans-gender clinic
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E:EDITOReditor@kilkennyobserver.ie COUNTYACROSSDISTRIBUTEDCITYANDEVERYWEEK
• City Library: Talk by Ian Kenneally on the Civil War as seen in Newspapers in the Common read.
• Parish Hall, Callan: Launch of a new book on ‘James Hoban: Designer & Builder of the White House’ by Stewart D. McLaurin. • Local Studies’ Depart ment: Posting a series of images from our collections on our social media platforms showing the streetscapes of Kilkenny City at the dawn of the 20th century.
Join us for a tour of The Heritage Council’s headquarters, the former Bishops Palace at Church Lane Kilkenny this Na tional Heritage Week. This beautiful historic building now called Áras na hOidhreachta has been home to the Heritage Council since 2008. For 800 years previous it served as the Bishop’s residence.Thebuilding and grounds have a fascinating history. It has historical links to former US President Barack Obama and is one of the oldest continuously used struc tures in Ireland. The tours take place on August 16 & 17, 2.30pm -3.30pm A tour of the PalaceBishop’s
News 4 e Kilkenny Observer Friday 12 August 2022kilkennyobserver.ie
• Loughboy and Graigue namanagh Libraries: Our popular one-to-one Geneal ogy Masterclasses in Libraries and the Local Studies’ De partment continue this year, booking“Heritageessential.Week is a great opportunity for the public to experience Kilkenny’s rich heritage in all its variety. e Library Service is looking forward to welcoming back the public to our libraries for these Heritage Week events after a 2-year absence on inperson events.” says Executive Librarian Declan Macauley.
Kilkenny County Council’s Library Service is delighted to see a return for in-person events for Heritage Week, running from Monday August 15 to the Heritage19th.Week showcases the diversity and depth of Ireland’s heritage assets in the built, natural and cultural heritage areas. e ongoing success of the initiative has been built on free events being provided by cultural organisations, community groups and individuals. e library’ programme focuses on the areas of Built and Cultural Heritage and in cludes:•Loughboy Library: Talk by Larry Scallan on local activist Tom Treacy, Kilkenny’s For gotten Commander.
* You can access additional information as regards times of events, booking details where applicable etc. at tageweek.ie/event-listingsie or www.kilkennylibrary.at https://www.heriIt’s time to heritage...yourabsorblocal
• City Library: Open Circle Community Arts Collective unveil their embroidered artwork based on research exploring the experiences of women in Kilkenny 100 years ago. is takes place in the City Library.
5e Kilkenny Observer Friday 12 August 2022 kilkennyobserver.ie Advertisement
News By Paul Hopkins ere can be few of us of a certain age who haven’t seen Grease, the hit musical lm in which Olivia Newton-John transforms from the demure Sandy into a seductress in skin-tight spandex and leather. at scene on celluloid when bad-boy Danny Zuko — the youthful John Travolta, with the hypnotic eyes and slicked-back mop — sees her metamorphosis is imprinted, like a rst kiss, in our now collective middleage“I’vememory.got chills, they’re multiplying!” sings Travolta in You’re e One at I Want.And I, and every other hormones-raging, young male 40-odd years ago, wanted to — oh-soachingly-wanted-to — get physical with the virginturned-vixen that was Olivia Newton-John. Our chills were multiplying to every breathless beat of its soundtrack.“IthinkJohn knew the lm was going to be huge. He had done stage versions of what was originally a stage musical. But I never realised, never imagined, how it would change things for me, that I would be here talking to you about it 41 years later,” Olivia told me back in 2019 when I was the only newspaper journalist she gave an interview to. To play-up the phenomenal success of Grease is not to over-laud the now legendary 1978 movie. It was the highest grossing musical movie of all time, eclipsing even the box o ce takings for e Sound Of Music, until as recently as 2017 when it was overtaken by Beauty and the Beast but still comes in at a respectable No.2 with Chicago and Les Miserables slotting in at third and fourth. “I was literally sewn into those gure-hugging trousers, as the zip — and the pants by the way were from the Fifties where the movie’s set — broke when I was rst trying them on,” Olivia told me, her petite gure giving lie to her years since that summer of 1978. She was (still) beautiful, sexy, sultry with the unashamed innocence-like quality of that girl-next-door of Sandy before she turns vixen, the hypnotic seablue come-hither eyes and infectious smile that tempt me away from my train of thought for this one-to-one interview.Bornin Cambridge but raised in Australia, she started singing on local TV shows when still a preteen. After winning a talent competition, she travelled back to England where she sang on the pub circuit for a couple of years and eventually found another spot singing on TV. In 1970, the producer Don Kirshner, the man behind the Sixties phenomenon e Monkees, recruited her to join Toomorrow, a band that was the subject of a scimusical that Kirshner had put together. Too-morrow bellied up, and NewtonJohn went solo. A minor 1971 hit with a cover of Bob Dylan’s If Not For You saw her head down the avenue that would carry her through her early career. She landed her rst US hits with Let Me Be ere in 1973, which peaked at No.6, and the 1974 If You Love Me Let Me Know hitting No.5. In 1974, I Honestly Love You was Olivia Newton-John’s rst American No.1. e soundtrack of Grease was the pivotal point in a career that has seen Olivia’s collective output reach 100 million sales worldwide. One of the world’s bestselling soundtracks, it spent 12 weeks at No.1, producing three Top 5 singles for Olivia with the platinum and No.1 hit single You’re e One at I Want with John Travolta, the gold Hopelessly Devoted To You, and the gold duet Summer Nights with Travolta. She earned a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress In A Musical and performed the Oscar-nominated Hopelessly Devoted To You at the 1979 Academy Awards.Uptoher death, she is still in touch with Travolta. De antly so, she was done crying tears over her 30 year battle with cancer she told me, most recently recurring in 2018 on her spine. She was rst diagnosed in 1992, on the same weekend that her father Brinley died. She said the last bout, her shoulder, had been “challenging” at times. “But look,” she laughs and nonchalantly upends the palms of her hands, “I’m here, aren’t I? We nipped it in the bud. Again. I am doing really well... I am here, in Ireland... my rst big trip since last September, so it has been a big test for me. “I’ve had my moments, and my tears and all that, but I have a wonderful husband in John and a daughter in Chloe who support me through those things. “ ere are moments, I’m human. If I allowed myself to go there, I could easily create that big fear. But my husband’s always there, and he’s there to support me. I believe I will win over it. at’s my goal, to see cancer cured in my lifetime.” She told me: “Health should be a priority of all governments. Women’s health issues need listening to. Also, we all should be protected from pesticides and harmful additives in the food chain and from pollution in water. We need to protect people, animals too. e biggest threat facing us is the horrible things we are putting, allowing, into our environment.” At the time of the interview, she was 70, the new 50s. “Does ageing worry me? No. I am delighted to be able to age... it is denied to so many.”What next for Olivia Newton-John, I ask, as we touch hands. “What next? I don’t know, isn’t that what’s exciting about life?”
When Grease was the word: the lovely and defiant Olivia Meeting an icon: The Kilkenny Observer columnist Paul Hopkins with Olivia in 2019 and, inset, the actress with John Travolta in Grease
Small businesses reject minimum wage concept
6 e Kilkenny Observer Friday 12 August 2022kilkennyobserver.ie e small businesses group ISME has rejected the concept of a living wage and a Govern ment proposal to roll it out in four years. In a submission to the Depart ment of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, ISME said: “ e control of living costs are more material and important to the lower paid than driving wage costs upward by legislative at.” ISME also describes as “non sensical” a question posed by the department about whether employers should be supported in phasing in the living wage. A living wage is de ned as the minimum income needed for a worker to meet their basic needs.Tánaiste Leo Varadkar an nounced last June that a new living wage would replace the national minimum wage. He said it is proposed to phase it in over four years from next year. It would be worth 60pc of the median wage for all workers. Based on this calculation, the living wage would be €12.17 an hour this year compared with the national minimum wage of €10.50 an hour. “ISME rejects both the timeline for achievement of a living wage, and the concept of a living wage itself. We consider the control of living costs to be more material and important to the lower paid than driving wage costs upward by legislative at. Our principal di culty with the living wage is sue is that it identi es wages as the issue, not costs.” It said Ireland consistently had the second or third highest minimum wage in Europe, not just the MovingEU.from a €10.50-an-hour national minimum wage to a living wage of €12.90 an hour would push labour costs up by 23%.
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8 e Kilkenny Observer Friday 12 August 2022kilkennyobserver.ie ‘Easier to solve TrianglethemysterytheofBermuda...
Hi! I’d like bathroom tiles re paired please. When can you come? Tiler, Next appoint ment is in eight years. Man, Oh. OK, I’ll take it. Tiler, Morning or afternoon? One could be forgiven for thinking we were talking about Ireland today, with this quip doing the rounds in Eastern Europe long before the Berlin Wall fell. It’s hard to get good help these days. I am waiting weeks for my gardener, the man who will run the mower over the front garden — with the minimum of e ort, trust me. He’s booked up, he says, but at least with my wild lawn, as opposed to the prim ones of neighbours, I am doing my bit to ensure the survival of our threatened bumble bee. So important to food production, if they vanish we might as well all giveOneup.of the fallouts from the pandemic is that a nation obsessed with their week in the sun or climbing the Hi malayas, what with travel re strictions decided to use their hard-earned cash to dolly up their homes. I might as well have a new couch to relax in, went the argument, before I go mad altogether with HWS (holiday withdrawal symp toms).Kitchen and bathroom retailers have been working round the clock to keep up with demand, cost of living increases or not. So, you buy the components and then set o on that journey to nd someone to put all the pieces together. It would be easier to solve the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle than nd such a craftsman. After the crash in 2008 construction workers and tradespeople contracted signi cantly. Numbers have never returned to the gures of the mid-2000s, despite the demand, post-ish pandemic, for home improvements setting a new record. In 2007, there were 23,700 apprenticeships in Ireland — by 2015 that had fallen to 4,400 and has not recovered since.Dermot Casey of the Con struction Industry Federation says a negative perception of trades endures. “Schools are only considered suc cessful when 95% or more students go on to third level. e high drop-out rates of young people after one year in college shows the problem with this thinking.” ( e CIF says 86% of build ing companies have an in adequate supply of quali ed tainthattatinglatestdesperatebarrel.havetradespeople.)efewertradespeopleusovertheproverbialeyknowwearetokeepupwiththeinteriortrendsandroAIkitchensorshowersresembletheTreviFounbut,wouldn’tyouknow it, they are run o their feet so can’t give you a concrete date to start work. Sorry, no Trevi Fountain for you, just a quick body wash with a damp cloth. Among my coterie of friends in my teenage years, a good half of them went on to become apprentices in various trades from chippy to sparks, plumber to mechanic. Among them was the bold Mickey D, who was appren ticed to a carpenter and about ve years after nishing his indenture had himself a suc cessful little business. My best friend Papo, lived two doors up. His mother was the wonderful Sheila. One day she decided to get a ‘lean-to’ at the side of her end of terrace house, to house the kids’ bikes, the rusting lawn mower and the bin — only the one in those days. e bold Mickey D was given the lucrative contract which involved a wooden beam or two, some wooden laths and someone’s long discarded back door. e job was rushed, the door knob was a little dicey. “I’ll be back tomorrow to sort that out, Sheila,” says Mickey D, and he wasSomegone.weeks later I was leaving my parents’ home and stopped to say hello to Sheila who was in her garden pruning her roses. “Jesus,” she said struggling for breath after many decades of smoking Woodbines, collo quially known as Co n Nails, “will you tell that Mickey D fella to come back and x my door knob.” And she pulling on the fag, the rose pruner to hand.at conversation was re peated many times down the years until, 19 years on, Sheila died.After her funeral we ad journed to a nearby hostelry. We lads were propped up at the bar and Papo, after set tling his family in, came over to say “Jaysushello.Pat,” said Mickey D, “I’m sorry for your loss,” o er ing his hand in condolences. Papo looked him square in the face and without batting an eyelid said: “Well, at least now you won’t have to come back and x the door knob.” was the last time you spotted a plumber?
When
The Fact Of The Matter PAUL HOPKINS
Opinion
