Latest news with #Tullamore
Irish Times
19 hours ago
- Health
- Irish Times
HSE launches urgent inquiry after two new ambulances catch fire
The HSE is carrying out an urgent investigation into why two new ambulances suddenly caught fire in recent days. The two vehicles were different makes, models and types, but an initial technical examination had 'identified a possible issue', the HSE said. The matter is 'now being urgently explored in further detail with vehicle suppliers', it said. It is understood the investigation will look at potential common links between the two ambulances. The HSE said a serious incident management team was established after the fires, which took place last Saturday and last Thursday. READ MORE However, it said ambulance services for the public were not affected. The HSE said a recently-commissioned emergency ambulance was destroyed by fire while parked adjacent to the ambulance station in Castlebar, Co Mayo, in the early hours of last Saturday, June 21st. On Thursday, June 26th, a new community paramedic response vehicle awaiting entry to service went on fire in a commissioning facility in Tullamore, Co Offaly. 'Neither vehicle was in use at the time, no patients were affected and no staff were injured,' the HSE said. 'In line with health and safety requirements, all staff on duty have also been alerted to the two known incidents, requested to remain vigilant and reminded of current fire safety, vehicle evacuation, and incident reporting procedures,' it said. National Ambulance Service (NAS) operations to the public are 'unaffected by the current precautionary measures, which will remain under constant review', the HSE added. The NAS has 437 patient-carrying vehicles, including emergency and critical care ambulances and intermediate care vehicles. The HSE said all NAS vehicles are subject to a crew inspection at the commencement of each shift, as well as a safety inspection every eight weeks. [ Ireland's Community First Responders: Making the difference between life and death Opens in new window ] It said all vehicles were constructed in line with the relevant national and EU standards, were serviced and maintained in line with manufacturers' guidelines and are replaced after five years or 350,000km. It said all staff receive training in fire safety and vehicle evacuation procedures. Last year a HSE internal audit of the national ambulance fleet found that the budget allocation for last year was 50 per cent less than the service requires. It identified that some emergency ambulances were being kept in service outside the recommended usage of five years, with 66 ambulances listed as five or six years old.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Neil Doak names Ireland Under-20 side for World Championship opener against Georgia
Under-20 World Championship Ireland v Georgia, Stadio San Michele, Sunday, 5pm Irish time (Live on Rugby Pass TV) It's been a difficult season to date for the Ireland Under-20s, losing four of five matches in the Six Nations and finishing bottom of the table. To compound matters they suffered a heavy defeat to Scotland, the only team they beat in that tournament, in a warm-up game ahead of the World Championship. There were some mitigating circumstances for Neil Doak's side, injuries depriving them of key players, but it doesn't begin to explain the recurring performance glitches that undermined their ambition. Aspects of their patterns were good, they didn't lack courage or character, but they got lost very easily in the weeds of their mistakes. The playing personnel didn't deviate much despite the results with the majority of changes coming in a turnstile selection within the matchday 23 from one game to the next, where starters were benched and then reinstated and vice versa. READ MORE There is a presumption that secondrow Alan Spicer and tighthead prop Niall Smyth are still sidelined through injury. In more uplifting news, prop Alex Usanov, Luke Murphy and Derry Moloney are all fully rehabilitated in time for Sunday's opening game in Calvisano. Ireland's Páidí Farrell. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho Tullamore native Páidí Farrell, who plays with Old Wesley, will make his first start in a tournament game. He possesses a rare attribute in Irish rugby circles, top-end pace and given reasonable ball is a try-scoring threat as he demonstrated capably and consistently in the All-Ireland League. There is a nice balance and plenty of footballing ability in the back three of Farrell, Charlie Molony and Derry Moloney, while the relocation of Ciarán Mangan (younger brother of Leinster's Diarmuid) from wing to outside centre bodes well from an attacking perspective. He plays alongside the hard running Eoghan Smyth in midfield. Tom Wood, son of former Ireland international Keith, has won the number 10 shirt, with Clark Logan at scrumhalf. In the Six Nations, Wood showed a nice skill set and self-possession to play his way through tougher moments. He has a better kicking game than his dad. Billy Bohan, a player to emerge with credit during the Six Nations, teams up with Henry Walker and Alex Mullan in a ball-playing frontrow. Mahon Ronan and Billy Corrigan put in huge shifts in every match, while Murphy's addition to a backrow which also contains captain Éanna McCarthy and Michael Foy, introduces steel and quality. Foy was arguably Ireland's best player in the Six Nations, a turbocharged presence on both sides of the ball. Ireland's bench has a number of players who can change the tempo of a match, none more so than replacement scrumhalf Will Wootton. Georgia will test Ireland's mettle at the set piece, breakdown and on the gain-line. As they demonstrated last year when the sides met in this tournament, the Georgians are very sticky opponents, with Ireland squeezing home in a one-score game. They'd bite your hand off for a similar result here. Doak's side will later play hosts Italy and New Zealand in their other pool games. IRELAND: Charlie Molony (UCD); Páidí Farrell (Old Wesley); Ciarán Mangan (Blackrock College), Eoghan Smyth (Cork Constitution), Derry Moloney (Blackrock College); Tom Wood (Garryowen), Clark Logan (QUB); Billy Bohan (Galway Corinthians), Henry Walker (QUB), Alex Mullan (Blackrock College); Mahon Ronan (Old Wesley), Billy Corrigan (Old Wesley); Michael Foy (UCC), Éanna McCarthy (Galwegians, capt), Luke Murphy (Young Munster). Replacements : Mikey Yarr (UCD), Alex Usanov (Clontarf), Tom McAllister (Ballynahinch), Conor Kennelly (Highfield), Bobby Power (Galwegians), Will Wootton (Sale Sharks) Sam Wisniewski (Old Belvedere), Daniel Green (QUB). Referee : J Rozier (France). Under-20 World Championship Fixtures (all Irish times) Sunday, June 29th Ireland v Georgia, Calvisano, 5pm Friday, July 4th Ireland v Italy, Viadana, 7.30pm Wednesday, July 9th Ireland v New Zealand, Calvisano, 5pm
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Ciarán Murphy: Nostradamus would have been proud of my tip. I should have shouted it from the rooftops
I was sitting in my house a couple of Saturdays ago, idly thinking about the upcoming weekend of Gaelic football games. I was thinking, to be specific, about Kerry versus Meath , taking place in Tullamore later that day. I was trying to convince myself of something. I knocked it around in my head. Hmmm … yes. Meath like two-pointers. They can rack up scores. Kerry have a few injuries. If they are complacent, they're vulnerable. I texted my friend Mark Horgan and told him that if he had a fiver left over in a bookies app from the last time he placed a bet (almost certainly the Grand National), he should put it on his beloved Royals. As Meath eased to a thumping victory , I could sense that after 22 years, the dynamic in our friendship had decisively changed. He finally respected me. And this wasn't just about the €65 he won (there was a tenner left, and he'd put all his chips on the table). I was now the Seer of Seers, the Prognosticator of Prognosticators. That respect may have dwindled somewhat when he asked me what came over me to arrive at this startling, Nostradamus-like conclusion. 'I was just sitting in my favourite chair, looking out the window, and . . . thinking about football' doesn't paint me and my life in an exceptionally interesting light, but I'd like to think it hasn't disappeared entirely. READ MORE As the updates came through, I was kicking myself that I hadn't published this hunch more widely. I work on a podcast, I write a column for a national newspaper – why couldn't I have broadcast these almost mystical match-predicting abilities more widely? You may feel obliged to point out that I have corrected the record today, at least. Meath football manager Robbie Brennan celebrates his team's famous victory against Kerry earlier this month. Photograph: Tom O'Hanlon/Inpho Predictions are the stock-in-trade of the chattering classes and I had wasted my one good shout of the year on a Saturday morning text message. But this is a very narrow worldview. Because I've found myself making predictions everywhere this week. My family, the TV repairman, the man making my coffee . . . we've all exchanged our tuppence ha'penny worth about the four upcoming All-Ireland quarter-finals. There have been years when this was not possible. There have been years when the TV repairman would have had no interest in talking to you about Gaelic football, and he would have been well within his rights. Your local barista would have had other things occupying their mind. But this is a new dawn. There are many things we do not know or understand about Gaelic football, but there's one sure way to advertise your knowledge and that's by confidently predicting winners. So when asked, I like to picture myself sitting at the bar in Mullarkeys in Milltown, Co Galway , beside my father. I imagine myself being quizzed by his friends, who are looking at me with a gimlet eye. 'He earns a living at this craic, but does he actually have any clue what he's on about? It's one thing expounding at length in the coffee shops of Dublin 2, but in this crucible, who are you actually going to tip?' The morally, intellectually honest answer to such a question this week is: 'I really couldn't say with any certainty.' But, of course, that will not cut it. I dare not even mutter the phrase 'shot efficiency' within two miles of Mullarkeys. I've noticed in the past that it's better to lead with something like a team's lack of a left-footed free-taker; something that is noticeable to the naked eye, but which shows keen observation, rather than a slavish, possibly deviant, obsession with statistics. Tyrone's Darragh Canavan makes a pass under pressure from Cian Reilly of Cavan. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho 'Well lads, here's how I see it' – I might pause here and take a sup of my pint, for dramatic effect – 'Galway will beat Meath on Sunday.' This would appease the locals, notwithstanding their serious misgivings about Galway, which they would probably have been airing for the previous hour and a half. 'Donegal will have their arses out to beat Monaghan on Saturday.' That sounds like a bold statement, but it's still a shout for the favourites. 'I think Tyrone will beat the Dubs, Con or no Con. They have big men around the middle on Cluxton's kick-out, and they've forwards. Darragh Canavan, lads – Sunday will be the day we'll see Darragh Canavan.' Someone will lean in and inform the pub that Dublin v Tyrone is actually on Saturday, not Sunday, but I'm in my stride now. 'And Kerry will beat Armagh after extra-time.' This is the point where I would really open my shoulders, rhetorically speaking. I'd mention Barry McCambridge's calf, Paddy Burns's struggles with Shane Walsh in the group game, David Clifford's irrepressible form. [ Darragh Ó Sé: Donegal are right - there's no way they should have to play on a six-day turnaround Opens in new window ] I would construct an entire argument – but it's not a conclusion, in the same way that tipping Tyrone over Dublin isn't a conclusion. What I am actually doing is retrofitting some opinions to the hunch I have, after the fact. 'I just have a feeling …' isn't good enough for Mullarkeys, or The Irish Times, or The Sunday Game. But maybe that's all we have. I can see myself slapping my pint down and saying I'd better be on my way. After that, silence would descend on the bar for 10 seconds. Then 20. Someone will say, as if to no one: 'That lad now . . . that lad is the latest in a long line of bullshitters.' And they would, as ever, be entirely correct.
Irish Times
21-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Dara Ó Cinnéide: ‘I'm getting sick of this #WeAreKerry stuff. What does it actually mean anymore?'
Dara Ó Cinnéide was in Tullamore last weekend, watching the Kerry game alongside an old college friend from Meath . On the way up the road, there was campfire gossip going around that 'a significant Kerry player' wouldn't be togging out. When he saw Seán O'Shea walking around in his tracksuit during the warm-up, the low sludge of unease he'd been feeling for much of the week started to properly crystallise. 'We're in a bit of bother here,' he told his friend, who did what all right-thinking friends would have done and dismissed him immediately. Life is far too short to be listening to Kerrymen poor-mouthing in the 15 minutes before a championship match, especially if you're from a county that has beaten them just once in the past 70 years. 'After about 10 minutes,' Ó Cinnéide says, 'my mate from Simonstown turned to me and said, 'F**k it, I should have listened to you and put a few bob on this, we'd have paid for the weekend'. 'You could see from the start that Kerry weren't working hard enough. They weren't earning the right to play the ball around. They were trying to flick the ball up to themselves on a wet day and all this carry-on. If I'm a Meath player on the pitch at that moment, I'm going, 'These lads aren't great, are they?'' READ MORE They certainly weren't last Saturday . The one upside for the Kerry players who got rinsed by Meath in Tullamore is that the game wasn't televised in full anywhere. However bad Kerry people imagine it might have been, it was worse when you watched it back. The ease with which Meath stretched away in the 15 minutes before half-time was pretty astonishing to watch. It would be one thing if Meath had come up with a flurry of intricate set plays to bamboozle them but the reality was far more prosaic. They routed Shane Ryan's kick-outs, annihilated Kerry on breaking ball. Rudimentary stuff. With 20 minutes gone, Kerry led 0-7 to 0-5. Between there and half-time, Ryan had 10 kick-outs. He went long seven times and Kerry lost every one of them. On two of the three occasions he went short, Kerry turned the ball over almost immediately. Nine of those 10 Kerry kick-outs ended in a Meath player taking a shot at the posts, leading to eight points. Meath's dominance of the Kerry kick-out was so total that when the 10th one finally bought Kerry some breathing space – Joe O'Connor won a brave free that Mike Breen immediately moved on to Dylan Geaney – it led to their first possession in the Meath half of the pitch in 13 minutes of football. Even if there's an element of potluck at the kick-out under the new rules, a team that allows itself to get penned in for 13 minutes is miles off being a contender. 'There were probably a few doubts about where we were at anyway,' says Darran O'Sullivan. 'I've been in games like that where you really don't perform. You don't turn up and you find out the hard way that if you're not committed, which is the only word I can say really, you're going to get found out. 'They were missing a lot of big players, which isn't an excuse. But if you look at who they are – Paudie [Clifford] and Seánie for example – footballers though they are, they love the rough stuff as well. They're not going to back down from any fella. They're not going to shy away from any physicality. Paudie Clifford of Kerry against Cork. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho 'We all know we have great footballers. But you've to be more than that. You have to have the bit of nastiness to you. You have to have the willingness to get hit and give a few hits and get dirty.' And so, in a week like this, the walls come tumbling down all around the county. The sun is out, the schools are finishing up, the tourists are landing daily. A summer heatwave in Kerry is one of the great Irish birthrights and if you get to combine it with the county team hitting a rocky patch, you get the full Kingdom experience. Nobody expects Kerry to lose to Cavan this Saturday but if they have to play Armagh in a quarter-final next weekend, it's perfectly feasible that could be that. All of which means that in every corner of the county, it's the first topic of conversation this week. 'Players are pretty much insulated from it,' says Ó Cinnéide. 'But I nearly think they should be exposed to it a bit. We had no social media in our time so we were able to get into and do our stuff and not worry about the noise. Even though players now take steps to do the same, it has to be almost impossible for some of it not to seep through. And maybe that's no bad thing. 'We can't have it both ways in Kerry. We can't have documentaries on the TV at the moment and fellas going on about the history of Kerry football being such-and-such and what it all means. Well, if it does mean so much more down here, let's see it. Let's see it in Killarney on Saturday. 'I'm getting sick of this #WeAreKerry stuff. What does it actually mean any more? There's a reason we won all the All-Irelands we won – it's because there's an anger there. It's because there's hurt there when you lose. It's because the prestige of the tribe is damaged by a defeat and because it pisses you off on a Monday morning if you've lost on the weekend. 'And that's just me, an ex-player and supporter. I stayed above in Tullamore on Saturday night and drank porter and was just fed up and in bad form after it. I'm just wondering does it hurt any more? I'm sure the players are hurting. I'm sure they are.' Amid all the noise, it should be pointed out that Kerry are still bookies' favourites for the All-Ireland , alongside Armagh. One defeat won't define their summer and if all it takes is an attitude adjustment, that's an achievable target in a short space of time. Particularly if they can get some of their more high-profile injured players back on the pitch by next weekend. But even if they can, Armagh loom on the horizon with the memory of last year's All-Ireland semi-final fresh in the minds of everyone . Kerry were outstayed as much as they were outplayed in that game – O'Shea, David Clifford and Jason Foley all limped away from shots in extra-time before having to stretch out their calf muscles to get rid of cramp. Down in the tunnel under the Hogan Stand that Saturday night, Stefan Campbell was entirely up front about how certain Armagh were of their advantage. 'The big thing we took away with us at full-time of normal time was the amount of Kerry players that were obviously hurting and cramping,' he said. 'I think we won that psychological battle coming out for extra-time. We made the point inside – we've been there before and Kerry haven't. They probably weren't as battle-hardened as we were.' Dara Ó Cinnéide playing for Kerry in 2000. Photograph: Tom Honan/Inpho Kerry have had to dig deeper this year than was the case in 2024 – their average margin of victory for the five games before they met Armagh last summer was over 10 points. This time around, Cork have run them to extra-time and they've lost to Meath. Cavan are being dismissed by everybody but they finished level on points with both those teams in Division Two this year. They will at least believe they can give Kerry a rattle. But there's a sweet spot between being battle-hardened and battle-weary. If Kerry get past Cavan and find themselves landing into Croke Park next weekend having had to rush the likes of Clifford, O'Shea, Paul Geaney and Diarmuid O'Connor back from injury, what kind of shape can they expect to be in? They couldn't last the pace against Armagh with everyone fully-fit and available. What chance would they have as a weakened version of that side in 2025? 'I do think Kerry will be a different proposition against Cavan,' says O'Sullivan. 'I think Paudie will be back, Seánie will be back, I think Paul will be back. I think they'll be more than strong enough for Cavan. But it's a case then of how strong will lads be for Armagh. Because that's what the real test will be.' Can they turn it around? Yes, obviously. This is Kerry, when all comes to all. They've won All-Irelands from stickier spots than this. In 2009, Sligo missed a penalty three minutes from time that would have put them out of the championship. A week later, they were level with Antrim with 10 minutes to go and just about got out the gap. On the bus home that day, the blood got up as soon as word came through that they had drawn the Dubs in the quarter-final and it turned their whole season around. 'Anger can be a very powerful force,' says Ó Cinnéide. 'And you can't manufacture it. It's either there or it's not. A lot depends now on who's back and how they come back. 'The attitude needs to be so much better. Just get nasty, like. I was always criticised for being a nice footballer but there were times when you had to get nasty and you wouldn't be found wanting. That's what people need to see. 'Go back to Tullamore in '09 against Antrim. There was a genuine rallying that day from the Kerry supporters. I was in the stands that day and you could feel it, as if people were saying, 'Jesus, this team might be dying but we're going to support them'. And they did. 'Kerry supporters can be very good like that but the players need to feel that this weekend. They need to feel the anger but also feel the support. Last Saturday, all they heard when they came out on to the pitch was polite support. It wasn't good enough.' Things need to change, quickly, on and off the pitch. Otherwise, they could be knocked out of the championship in June for the first time since 1994. What will they talk about then? Nobody in Kerry wants to spend the rest of the summer finding out.
Irish Times
18-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Darragh Ó Sé: There's an air of finality around Kerry after losing to Meath
In Kerry , there's a sense of finality about the place this week. When it comes to football, you can't fool the people down here. You can't be going around explaining the Meath defeat away because we were down a few bodies. Call us pessimistic or realistic but whatever way you want to look at it, the mood isn't great. Meath are improving, there's no doubt about that. But if you stand back from it, they're still a Division Two team and they were missing a few of their best players too. That's a team you should be dealing with if you have intentions of winning the All-Ireland . The final is in five weeks – if you're not able to beat an understrength Meath now, how are you going to deal with the bigger tests ahead? Kerry didn't take this game seriously enough. I don't just mean the team and the management either – how the county board ever allowed the game to be played in Tullamore was ridiculous. It was as if their attitude was, 'Sure look, we're going to win anyway so we'll go wherever we're told'. Outside of a hardcore of support, Kerry would be known to be bad travellers so maybe they just decided it wasn't worth having the row. That tells you a lot about the state of things in Kerry at the moment. Everything is starting on the wrong foot. Most people think there's an air of inevitability about what comes next. We'll beat Cavan on Saturday and then Armagh will put an end to it the following weekend. I met one fella on Monday who said, 'Isn't it a pity we didn't draw Galway and have done with it?' READ MORE Kerry weren't just beaten by Meath, they were rightly hosed. If it was matchplay golf, they'd have been picking up their ball on the 12th green and heading in. Take the 15 minutes before half-time – they went from being two points up to six points down in a game where there was no wind. They lost the second half as well. Some Kerry people say Jack O'Connor hasn't looked enough to the future. Photograph: Tom O'Hanlon/Inpho Obviously, you're going to lose something when good players get hurt. Paudie Clifford, Paul Geaney, Seán O'Shea and Diarmuid O'Connor are major losses. Barry Dan O'Sullivan was having a good season too. That night in Cork when they started going down like skittles, nobody was under any illusions – this was going to mean trouble somewhere along the way. But the killer problem isn't the injuries. Every team is picking up knocks and losing players. As soon as the GAA compressed the season to make way for the concerts in Croke Park, that was always just going to be a fact of life. The job of managers all over the country is to build a panel that can cope. That's the biggest criticism Kerry people have of Jack O'Connor . He hasn't future-proofed the squad during his time in charge. The Kerry team now is very similar to what it was when he took over at the end of 2021. In that time, he has won an All-Ireland and lost a final so there's an argument to say he didn't go too far wrong. It's totally his prerogative to focus on winning now and letting the next lad worry about the future. Time moves on though. Teams have to evolve. Look at the winners of the last three All-Irelands – Kerry, Dublin and Armagh. Who has the best squad? Armagh , no question. Kieran McGeeney nearly has two players for every position now – some of the lads who won them an All-Ireland last year can't get back in. Who's next? Dublin, without a doubt. Dessie Farrell brought players through during their transition period. They're not as good as what was there before but they have a lot of experience at this stage. Dessie wouldn't have Armagh's competition for places but they've had injuries to Con O'Callaghan, Paddy Small, Eoin Murchan and Lee Gannon and still kept the show on the road. What can Kerry people learn now about Paul Geaney that they don't already know? Photograph: Tommy Grealy/Inpho Now go through the Kerry bench for the Meath game. Dara Moynihan has been a regular for a number of years. Dylan Casey has come into the reckoning in the last two seasons and has had a decent bit of exposure at the top level. Conor Geaney and Seán O'Brien have played a fair few league games. But the other six outfield players listed have very little senior experience. Is that their fault? Or is it down to the management not being willing enough to properly blood new players? I'd say it's a bit of both. Jack doesn't like losing and he knows well that a chunk of Kerry supporters will think the sky is falling in if they get relegated from Division One. But every one of the other All-Ireland contenders has spent a bit of time in Division Two. They blooded players along the way and now they're in much better shape. You have to evolve. Even when you win the All-Ireland, everyone knows you have to improve by 15 or 20 per cent to go again the next year. You need to test the next wave of players to make sure they're ready. There's a difference between being very good club players and being up to the standard of intercounty. The only way to find out if you're able for the big step up is to be exposed to it. You're not going to do that when your response to losing a couple of games in the league is to bring the Cliffords back early after they've had a long club season. Paul Geaney is nearly 35 and still he played in every league game this year. Why? What do Kerry need to find out about Paul Geaney that we don't already know? It all came home to roost against Meath. Okay, there were injuries. But when people go on about it being a panel game nowadays, this is what they mean. You have to be able to go up the country against a coming team and suck it up when you're missing a few key men. It can't be up to Paudie Clifford and Seánie Shea and Paul Geaney to keep the standards up – that's everybody's job. But they can't learn it overnight. This isn't like cramming for an exam. Whether Kerry get their players back in time for the quarter-final, it already feels like they're too far behind to be able to catch up.
