Help in the search for Christopher Cronin:
Meeting at Costcutters at the end of Bianconi Drive tomorrow at 12pm. Anyone wanting to and free to help please meet there or at the Gas House Bridge.
Please wear warm and very visible clothing as well as good walking shoes. All are welcome and thank you in advance.
Christopher Cronin has been missing since New years Eve.
Christopher Cronin
He is 23 years old, tall of slender build, and was last seen near the Gashouse Bridge, Clonmel at the weekend.
Any information on his whereabouts to Clonmel Gardai 05261-22222 or please contact Jeri Cronin on 0852891593.
His family are very worried and any information at all would help.
An Online Petition has been set up calling on the Minister Alan Shatter TD, Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, to immediately publish the Feasibility Study which led to the decision to Close of Kickham Barracks Clonmel. Click Here to Go to Petition.
The Petition states:
“The decision to close Kickham Barracks is totally outrageous and indefensible on any grounds.
Taken together with the closure of St Michaels’ Unit and the transferring of our Acute Psychiatric Beds to Kilkenny by a Labour Minister Kathleen Lynch, the Movement of the Vocational Education Committee from Clonmel and South Tipperary to Nenagh by Labour Minister Alan Kelly and now the closure of Kickham Barracks by Minister Alan Shatter of the Fine Gael party, it is evident that we are clearly under attack by this Labour – Fine Gael Government. We are under siege.
The people of Clonmel fought off Cromwell and we will fight this government of broken promises and pre election promises of fiction.
The decision to close Kickham Barracks on 15 November 2011 is an attack on the economic, social and historical wellbeing of this town.
This is a vicious attack on our Soldiers and their families. Our Soldiers and their families in the 12th Battalion are heartbroken by this news, some knowing when going to the Lebanon on 16 November 2011 that they will not return to their barracks.
The loss of €9 – €10 million in revenue from the town will bring job losses and business closures.
We call on Minister Alan Shatter TD, Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence to immediately make available to all the Feasibility Study which led to the decision to close Kickham Barracks, Clonmel, Co Tipperary and to Reverse this totally unnecessary and cost ineffective decision.”
The petition also gives you the option of writing your own message.
Please take a few minutes to sign this petition and ask your family and friends to sign it too. Click Here to Go to Petition.
The campaign to retain acute inpatient psychiatry beds in Clonmel is continuing despite the assertion by Junior Minister Lynch that she intends to shut St Michaels Admission Unit in March of next year. A public meeting has been announced by the Save Our Acute Hospital Services Committee in the Park Hotel in Clonmel for 8pm on next Tuesday 6th December when service users and carers/relatives are urged to come to show their support for this vital service which like so many others in Clonmel is under very serious threat at present.
The Nationalist spoke to Dr Alan Moore, consultant psychiatrist who took a decision to leave the HSE following his effective gagging by management this summer. (He received a letter threatening him with disciplinary action if he continued to talk to the media). Dr Moore remains an active member of the Save Our Acute Hospital Services Committee which is campaigning for the retention of a reduced number of acute psychiatry beds in South Tipperary instead of the HSE plan to send patients for admission to Kilkenny.
He told the Nationalist this week that the arguments in favour of keeping a small admission unit in Clonmel are as strong as ever despite HSE claims that the development of Day Hospitals and a Home Treatment team will replace the unit next year.
“No amount of HSE spin will alter the internationally accepted research which shows that even when you put in a Rolls Royce community service with home visits etc etc, you can only reduce the number of hospital admissions by a maximum of 40%. This leaves 60% of the most acutely ill patients from South Tipperary who will be treated like second class citizens and packed off to Kilkenny where they will have few if any visits from relatives and where they will be looked after by unfamiliar staff . Unfortunately the community service that is being planned falls far short of the ideal one in terms of staff resourcing and infrastructure and is but a pale shadow of that recommended by Vision for Change, the governments own policy document for mental health. Yet this is the context in which they intend to shut our beds, which once gone will be gone forever”.
“From the outset the HSE have been determined to shut down St Michaels and have refused to consider a range of alternatives which were put forward by clinical staff, and supported by local elected representatives. These include the downsizing of St Michaels from 49 beds to 20 to 25 beds and the careful and scientific analysis of the use of these remaining beds while the community service is properly resourced. Repeated requests for an option appraisal have been refused by HSE senior management without explanation and it has been crystal clear that closure of the Unit was the only show in town from that black day in January in 2010 when Seamus Moore made his shock announcement on local radio,” Dr Moore said. All the subsequent meetings and committees have been window-dressing unfortunately” he claimed.
“The HSE’s behaviour throughout our campaign has been extremely disappointing,” he said. “For me, the last straw was the gagging letter which was to me a clear indication that the HSE is not interested in the truth, and are prepared to get their own way at any cost. There is a climate of fear amongst staff: people are afraid to speak out for fear of the consequences” he went on.
However Dr Moore remains optimistic of a happy outcome in the campaign “The people who really matter have not yet spoken—the users and carers. They know of the absolute need for a local service and they have not been asked for their views—deliberately, I believe”.
“The Save our Acute Services have been asking Minister Lynch for many weeks for a meeting with service users and families to forward their views but no date has been granted unfortunately. The pressure for this meeting will intensify in the weeks ahead, I believe”
“In the meantime the Committee is hopeful that the meeting in the Park Hotel will see a huge turnout and that this in turn will send a message to the decision makers before it is too late.”
Tipp FM is reporting that a number of areas in the county have been badly affected by the heavy rain so far over the weekend. There were reports of flash flooding on most secondary roads across the county. Parts of Clerihan and Poulmucka in particular suffered from the adverse weather conditions. The Poulmucka/Clerihan road is still said to be impassible. Council workers have issued sand bags to residents after flood waters rose in the area ealrlier today.
Cllr McGee reports that there is lots of surface water and flooding in places on the Clonmel to Dungarvan road, please take it handy as on the dark roads it’s impossible to see the water.
We will update this post as new information is received. Please feel free to contact us with updates.
Facebook: Workers and Unemployed Action Group
Twitter: WUAGIRELAND
Email: mailwuag@gmail.com
Or you can leave a comment below.
The Expected Schedule of Works is as follows.
Monard 22nd of November
Place ducting across road way between Twomeys Garage and National School
Duration 1 day
Stop/Go Traffic Management will be in place.
Bansha 23rd of November to 2nd of December
Dig and Replace failed Sections of Pavement on Main Carriage Way Between O’Heneys and the Railway Bridge
and at entrance to Galtee View Housing Estate
Duration 8 days
Stop/Go Traffic Management will be in place.
Monard and Bansha 5th of December to 16th of December
Monard: Renew Roadway on Main Carriageway between the Speedlimits
Bansha: Renew Roadway on Main Carriageway between O’Heneys and the Railway Bridge
Duration 10 days
Stop/ Go Traffic Management will be in place.
