Looking back over November 2021 in Tipperary - New 40-bed hospital unit arrives in nick of time

November 4, 2021

Local residents opposed to the installation of a telecommunications mast in Clonmel vowed to fight the proposal all the way, wrote Eamonn Wynne in our first edition in November.
A planning application for a 21.1 metres-high monopole to support telecommunications antenna and ancillary equipment for use by Three Ireland (Hutchinson) Ltd and other operators on the grounds of Clonmel Town Football Club at the Cashel Road had been lodged with Tipperary County Council.
However Dominic Hanley, a spokesperson for local residents, says “if we have to camp outside that gate 24/7 to stop this going ahead we’re going to do it”.
“We won’t let the builders in there. We’re not going to let this lie, it just ain’t happening.”
He said that more than 500 signatures opposing the mast had been collected in a petition from residents of surrounding areas including Pearse Park, Cooleens Close, Baron Park, Marian Terrace, Bianconi Drive, Love Lane, Prior Park, Tudor Drive, Airhill and Melview.
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Taoiseach Micheál Martin officially opened a new 40-bed unit at Tipperary University Hospital on Friday, October 29 that, he said, had arrived in the “nick of time”.
The Taoiseach said the new unit enabled the Clonmel hospital to cope with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.
He said that the new modular unit, which opened the previous March, had helped the team on the campus of the hospital to “make a real difference” during the “long and unrelenting Covid journey.”
“This extension came in the nick of time.
He said the extension provided 40 extra beds to help the hospital cope with the crisis and more importantly it increased the isolated bed capacity from 17 to 57.
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Tipperary County Council granted planning permission for a new 40- bedroom hotel in Carrick-on-Suir town centre.
The council granted conditional planning approval to Carrick-on-Suir based JSF Property Holdings to develop the hotel at numbers 5-8 New Street, part of which includes the former Figgerty’s Bar property..
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November 11, 2021

A lot of work was going on behind the scenes to attract new industry to the Ballingarrane Estate in Clonmel, the town’s Mayor, Michael Murphy, told Eamonn Wynne in early November, 2021.
He was speaking following the announcement that a design team was being sought for the development of a 10,000 square metres advanced technology building on the site.
“This is a key focus in the county and I very much welcome this latest development,” said Cllr Murphy.
“Few towns in Ireland possess such an impressive opportunity for companies to grow new enterprises in a strategic location like Ballingarrane, in a high quality environment and within public ownership,” he added.
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The very best in business in Tipperary was recognised at the annual County Tipperary Chamber of Commerce awards virtual ceremony in the Clonmel Park Hotel in November.
The Overall Tipperary Business of the Year Award sponsored by Boston Scientific went to Buttimer Engineering, a diversified mechanical engineering company specialising in bulk materials handling systems and high quality steel fabrication.
The prestigious President’s Prize was awarded to the founder of the Aiséirí treatment centre for addiction, Sister Eileen Fahey.
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On Saturday morning November 6 Peter Falvey set off on a journey from Mizen Head to Malin Head on a pink scooter (“Little Pink!”) and dressed as Buzz Light-year to raise funds.
Peter, who is a truck driver with Daltons of Cahir, raised over €6,000 over the two days and the beneficiaries were Laura Lynn Hospice and Scoil Aonghusa in Cashel. In 2020 with the help from his Bad Company family Peter, who lives in Ballinure, Cashel, travelled the 32 counties on “Little Pink” and with the generous donations of the people he met along the way he raised monies for Pieta House in Project Take Over.
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November 18, 2021

The parents of a boy battling stage 4 cancer reached out for support to help them save the life of their six-year-old son in November 2021.
To save Danny, his parents, Lar and Lisa Norris, made an emotional plea for help to the public. They needed to raise in excess of €380,000 to access a vaccine trial at the Memorial Sloane Kettering Hospital (MSK) in New York in 2022.
“There is no choice, we have to do it, any parent would if it means saving their child,” said his mother Lisa, when speaking to Eamon Lacey. “All we want for Danny and ourselves is a normal everyday life. We want Danny to be able to go to school like all his friends, to go training for hurling and football and to be able to play with his two brothers.

This vaccine is our only hope of keeping Danny alive,” said Lisa. The contented family life of the Norris family, who live in Glasha about eight miles from Clonmel, was thrown into turmoil in July 2020.
Danny was diagnosed with stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma, a cancer of the sympathetic nervous system.
Danny had to endure twelve rounds of chemotherapy, a nephrectomy to remove his kidney, high dose chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, seven nights in ICU due to complications arising from high dose chemo, 23 rounds of radiotherapy as well as multiple bone marrow aspirates, blood transfusions and other medical procedures all in the midst of a global pandemic. Danny has since sadly passed away.
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In November last Patrick Quirke lost his appeal against his conviction for murdering popular DJ Bobby Ryan, whose decomposed body was found in a disused slurry tank on a farm leased by Quirke.
The Court of Appeal rejected more than 50 grounds of appeal argued by lawyers for Quirke during lengthy submissions made late last year. Mr Justice George Birmingham, delivering the judgement on behalf of the three-judge appeal court, said he was not persuaded by any of the arguments made on Quirke’s behalf. Quirke (52), of Breanshamore, Tipperary is serving a life sentence having been convicted in 2019 of the murder of popular DJ and father-of-two Bobby “Mr Moonlight” Ryan (52) at Fawnagowan in Tipperary.
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At the Super Valu National Tidy Towns annual awards ceremony at the RDS in Dublin Kilsheelan came within two marks of overall winners, Ennis. They also finished runners-up in their category, Ireland’s Tidiest Small Town.
The Suirside village improved their score by a whopping 11 marks and were ranked joint third with four others out of a huge entry of 847 towns and villages up and down the country.
According to Tom Callery, treasurer of Kilsheelan Tidy Towns, “this result was absolutely huge for us. Only two years ago we were 10th with seven other centres, now we are joint third with just four others, that’s real progress for us”, enthused a delighted Tom when talking with Jeddy Walsh that week.
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November 25, 2021

Councillor Michael FitzGerald called on the local authority to toughen its stance on anti-social behaviour in council houses.
The councillor raised the issue at the November meeting of Tipperary/Cahir/ Cashel Municipal District.
He said: “Surely we need a ‘three strikes and you’re out policy’ regardless of who you are. Calling what’s going on in some estates anti-social behaviour is doing it a favour.
He called on the local authority to take a tougher stance when such issues arise in estates in Tipperary.
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Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan stated in November last that Tipperary Town would get a bypass built in advance of the motorway link between Cahir and Limerick Junction. Tipperary TD Michael Lowry had received a firm commitment from Minister Ryan on the Tipperary Town bypass issue.
“The time for sympathising with the people who are subjected to these conditions has come and gone. The time for rhetoric has passed. It is now time to tackle this problem with decisive action,” Deputy Lowry told Minister Ryan in the Dáil.
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Maureen O’Brien from Cahir was announced as the Netwatch Tipperary Family Carer of the Year in November 2021.
Maureen cares for her husband, who is in his 80s and has limited mobility following a stroke, and also cares for her son who has a stage 4 brain tumour.
Maureen’s daughter Rosie said her mother lost a son in an accident 12 years ago but still manages to be so positive for everyone and puts her own health issues on the back burner to care for everyone else.
She described Maureen as a kind, beautiful soul who is amazing in every way and always thinking of others.
More than 500,000 people in Ireland provide unpaid care in the home for children or adults with physical or intellectual disabilities, frail older people, those with palliative care needs or those living with chronic illnesses, mental ill-health or addiction.