00:00
All right, lads, how often do you change your underpants? It's time to talk. I'm listening to you on the radio at this time of the morning since I'm at least two years old.
00:08
They blocked me from trying to get a refund. It's just appalling.
00:11
The Neil Prenderville Show on Red FM. You couldn't make it up, lads. The voice of Cork. Who does that like?
00:18
A part of the conversation, the Neil Prendival Show with Elevate Credit Union. Text 0868-104-106. Pick up the phone on 0818-104-106. Paperwise, this morning, both in print and indeed online.
00:33
Examiner talk about another case where there was victim blaming going on. And this is the story of the sentencing of 24-year-old Patrick Faulkner. who was sentenced last week for the rape of a 15-year-old girl. Forgive me. I don't want to alarm or upset anybody. It is important to cover this. And it was the rape of a 15-year-old girl during a party in Limerick. Now, he was 18 years old at the time. Now, the reason I mention this is that...
01:01
The court, well, certainly the defence, spoke about the dress that the victim was wearing and the actual clothing were produced during the rape trial of Patrick Faulkner. He was sentenced last week for rape when he was 18 years old. And the showing of the dress in the trial, worn by the rape victim, She was also asked in court, incidentally, if she was wearing underwear when she was attacked. Can you believe it? In this day and age, that is still happening in court, in spite of what we learned in the past from it.
01:33
So this is victim blaming. This is public humiliation. And many are saying that and they're right to say that. So it makes the papers this morning because the Defence Council said that, you know, was asking about the clothes and the underwear. Actually, Mary Crilly said that it's outrageous that this is still going on. She said the use of a victim's clothing in rape trials was common when Mary began attending court 40 years ago.
02:00
What an incredible woman Mary Crilly has been down through the decades with the Cork Sexual Violence Centre. She said it was going on 40 years ago and she makes her angry that it's still being done. Now, the only thing I can say about that is it's less...
02:12
But it's still being referenced in court because we see this with the rape trial. I mean, I can recall, and the examiner correctly reminds us, in 2018, protests took place here in Cork and it spread nationally. I think Ruth Coppinger actually produced a thong in the doll back in the day.
02:29
There was a trial in which the jury was asked by the accused barrister to consider that the complainant, the woman who was making the allegation of rape, had been wearing a lace-fronted thong at the time of the alleged offence. I mean, hard to believe, isn't it? Now, the guy involved in this, now, I can't say any more than this, apart from the fact that he was found not guilty of rape, of the 17-year-old girl. This was an allegation of rape down a laneway in Cork back in the day.
02:59
She was 17 years old at the time. You might recall that it started a hashtag online where women were posting images of underwear online with the hashtag This Is Not Consent.
03:12
So that trial actually went international. The BBC picked up on it. What was said by the defence lawyer back in 2018 was, you have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front.
03:26
I'll say no more about it than that, but this is 2026. That was 2018. And there was a reference to what a woman was wearing again in a rape trial over the past week. You know, you look at the state of the country and you talk about all sorts of different surveys about how good, bad or indifferent Ireland is. There's one thing. Well, there are many things I could talk about, but certainly trying to find a doctor. I bet you there are people listening to me right now. Get involved in the conversation today. Text 0868104106. Do you have a doctor? Were you able to find a doctor? Was there a GP that would take you on the books for you and your partner or your small children or just you alone?
04:00
The reason I say this is the mail this morning says nearly 6,000 people have had to get onto the HSE to get help to find a GP because the number of care doctors is falling. Well, it's falling when you compare it to the growth in population. It's not keeping up. Like there are like five and a half million people now living in this country. And if you look at 2020, the population was 4.9. So in six years, population has grown by nearly half a million. So the amount of GPs that we have at the moment is like one doctor for every 1,100 people.
04:35
And that's even worse, actually, because that's an average figure. It's worse in rural areas. So the problem is people can't find GPs who will take them on. They're ringing surgery after surgery after surgery, according to the mail, and trying to find someone who would take them on. And they're unsuccessful. So you have to get on to the HSE. And you might then be appointed a GP that could be 20, 30, 40 miles away. that you'd have to travel to. And another area then that they're looking at, it's a front page of making the examiner today, is primary school. Now, if I were to sum this up, they're going to review everything to do with primary school education.
05:08
So one of the things they're going to look at is more breaks across the day for the smallies, more fresh air across the day for the smallies, less subjects covered in primary school, less homework to take home. And as well as that, although I'm not quite sure which way the dice on this one will fall. They're going to look at the fact that at the moment now, there's a shorter school day for junior and senior infants. They typically finish an hour earlier than the older primary pupils. You know this if you have kids of different ages in primary school.
05:39
which means that parents have to do two runs. They collect the real smallies and then have to go back an hour later to pick up their older brothers and sisters who are also in primary school. And we were chatting about it this morning. Apparently, Viv was saying to me that sometimes, you know, a parent, a mother or a father, would hang around for the hour or sit in the car or chat with other parents for an hour. So maybe if they streamlined it, that they all came out at the same time. Now, I don't know whether it'd come out. That means that everybody in primary would come out an hour earlier or everybody would come out at the later time.
06:10
But they're certainly talking about all sorts of different changes. And there's also a story that talks about change. And this is the front of the Irish Times this morning. Two particular words. One is the manosphere. which can be a very, very toxic place with regards to, you know, coaching young men and boys with regards to their attitude towards women. That's misogyny. And trad wives. Now, the trad wife is interesting because they're going to start now the Irish government. a campaign to push back again and come up with a strategy for women and girls warning them about the manosphere and also the increase in trad wife influencers who are promoting stereotypical roles for women and girls, particularly when it comes to being in the home.
06:55
The trad wife stays at home. She looks after the home. She looks after her man. She does all of the cooking and the cleaning and And her job in life is to be in the home as the homemaker. Now, this 2026, not 1926, they're saying. So we need to revisit that kind of a belief or that kind of a philosophy. I mean, no matter what way you unpack that, couples work because they have no choice but to work. That's the only way they can keep the show on the road. Two incomes are needed. Some would suggest that it would be nice if somebody wanted a choice to be able to have that choice, but I think it's out of reach anyway.
07:31
But anyway, it's an interesting one making the Irish Times this morning to challenge trends where women can be pressurised, particularly with regards to online, into particular care roles or being the carer or the homemaker themselves. The papers then talk about a woman, and this is, in a way, it's barbaric to be discriminated in a manner like this. It's an Irish Daily Mail story. So this woman...
07:55
was forced to flee her home with her children, right, due to domestic violence. So she had to leave. Herself and her partner back in the day, they applied for HAP and they got it. They got €1,100 a month towards their rent and the rent was €1,385 and they made a weekly contribution themselves of €78.50. Now, in theory, that is a wonderful system with regards to intervention to pay rent, the HAP system. Try and find a hap property, though, and you'll only find 15 or 20 around the entire country at the moment. But anyway, she had to leave because she was experiencing domestic violence and she had to get out of the house since she went to a women's refuge.
08:33
So her former partner...
08:35
who was the instigator of the domestic violence and abuse. He then agreed to leave the family home, right? So she was able to come back to the home with the children. But when she came back after staying in a refuge and a shelter, she found that the HAP payment was in the name of a former partner and they wouldn't do a switcheroo and put it over to her name and she was denied HAP. I mean, that's absolutely appalling. So much so that she went to the Workplace Relations Commission and rightly so. She got the hat reinstated and got 15 grand compensation. It's a dreadful thing to do.
09:07
I mean, would somebody sit down in an office somewhere at a desk and make that kind of decision? I just don't get it. Then the Examiner Online this morning are also talking about a change when it comes to state-provided accommodation, which will happen in October. So a lot of providers now of Ukrainian living space have now been put on notice that they have until October to move out and to shut down and to vacate those properties for Ukrainians living there. Now, the Ukrainians involved will have to find somewhere else to go, right?
09:39
Now, they could also... be sorted out by city councils or county councils or housing bodies. I don't know what will happen there. But you're looking at the Kinsale Hotel and Spa. You know, Kingston College houses in Mitchelstown, those beautiful houses in Mitchelstown, the Munster Arms Hotel in Bandon, the old Imperial Hotel in Yall and the Parkway Hotel in Dunmanway vacate the state accommodation. Now, over the rest of the country, like there's been 420 contracts ended already in 2024.
10:04
195 were ended in 2025. And by the start of this July, 53 contracts. There's very few left. And by the end of October, there will be none at all. So they're the latest six that make the list. Now, what's interesting about this, because people ask me all the time, well, when Ukrainians move out of these properties, what will happen with them? Well, there are two or three different things can happen. You could typically take a hotel that will then decide to go back to tourism. They could change it into student accommodation or they could just automatically flip from Ukrainian accommodation to international protection applicant accommodation.
10:38
And I think communities would have much more of a bigger problem with IPAS centres or IPAS hotels than anything at all in the past, I would have thought. Now, interestingly, the examiner also said that there's 500 Ukrainian residents in Trybolgan, right?
10:53
And they're still there. And they're waiting for news as to when they have to get out of the premises and go somewhere else. I would think the same rules would apply in Traboggan, wouldn't they? It would be by the end of October. There's a lot more in the papers. And we spoke of Badafihan yesterday and we spoke of Mahan the day before with all of these attacks and savagery. As a woman went on a first date above in Temple Bar, I wouldn't go there for all the love. If the drink was free there and the food was free, I'd stay away from it at night, lads. I really would. She's a 23-year-old girl from Cabin, Grace Carroll. She was on her first date and she was dating another girl.
11:27
They were standing at 1am in the morning in the Temple Bar area when this character comes along in a blue tracksuit, gropes her from behind. She turned around anyway, confronted him and slapped him in the face and he jumped and lunged at her. He punched her so badly that she fell to the ground and he continued to kick her on the ground.
11:45
That wasn't enough anyway. They stole her handbag and ran off for the €150, her bag, including perfume, and she suffered horrific injuries. Nose, legs, eye, jaw, ribs, the lot, and left unconscious one o'clock in the morning in Temple Bar. If you don't believe me, look at the front page and the photographs. The Inside Pages of The Sun this morning. Robbed and beaten in Temple Bar. You heard of the story internationally. This is the story of the death of Martha Nolan Oslatera. She died on the slip, on the dock of a luxury yacht club in New York State.
12:18
You'll recall that story. Now, her family's filed a massive civil lawsuit. It makes the front of the Independent this morning. They filed a $50 million civil lawsuit against the owner of the boat on which she died. And that was the boat Ripple, which was owned by a pal of hers at the time called Christopher Dernan. We don't know what happened. There is a suggestion that there was drugs on board with regards to toxicology reports. But the family are claiming that it was a suspicious death.
12:50
And it's interesting to see what will happen there with regards to that one. So it's making the front page also of the mail today. Apparently she had met him on the boat, on the yacht to discuss her swimwear fashion company. And it ended in horror. Remember, he was running down the dock naked around midnight, screaming for help, saying that his guest had passed out. And the family are saying that they had their own autopsy and it was different to the autopsy that was taken by the state of New York, that she had blood on her body. That's going to be one to watch in the coming days.
13:21
Papers also talk. I mean, you know, it's amazing. Many, many cases are solved by Paw Patrol. I mean, I'm not taking from a moment from the two-legged members of Angarda Chikana but a lot of the time it's the it's the sniffer dogs rumble people how your man actually thought that he'd get 560 grams worth of weed in two suitcases through Dublin airport he was being quite optimistic at the best of times wasn't he but they have sniffer dogs and he was just picked up like that by the dog inevitably at Shannon airport Gus the dog would spot it And he was rumbled.
13:52
And that's the front page of The Star today. And then if you like your motor cars, and maybe you like electric, maybe you like petrol, maybe you like diesel, maybe you like blended, or maybe you would like a self-drive car.
14:05
I certainly would love to have a bash off one of those at some stage. And sooner or later, I mean, probably later, we will get self-drive cars in this country. They're all over America now and Canada. And the first self-drive Ubers will start picking up London passengers before the end of August. Wouldn't that be an amazing thing?
14:24
Spoke on the air on this programme sometime in the past with somebody who was in San Francisco and got a driverless Uber taxi to take them around San Francisco. And it was an amazing experience. So the self-drive Ubers will be picking up passengers within weeks because the first licence has been awarded. So much so that already, according to The Telegraph this morning, there's 100,000 people who have joined the waitlist, the queue for a self-drive Uberless trip.
14:51
So bring that on, I think. Another fella who's making the papers this morning with regards to cars. I don't know. I mean, this guy is insane when it comes to the amount of money. The Cristiano Ronaldo earns 2.8 million euro a week. A week, I'm not taking from his talent. He is a very talented soccer player. But whether or not you deserve three million a week, I don't know. I mean, the big headache about earning three million a week is trying to come up with different ways to spend it. I mean, you can't take it with you. There's no hitch with a hearse.
15:22
So what he's got is a car collection. And all of the papers this morning give us photographs. I won't bore you with all of the different models. He's got 41 supercars. 41. 41.
15:33
I mean, if you looked at Jay Leno, I think Jay Leno has significantly more than that. But 41 of them, they are Ferraris, Bugattis, Lamborghinis, BMWs. And apparently he posted some photographs yesterday of his luxury supercar collection. And you know what? He just recently bought a new one, which he won't drive. I think it was a €3 million Lamborghini. And a lot of the cars that he has is in his own home showroom. Massive thing. It's probably underground.
16:04
They usually are. But he doesn't drive them. They're showpieces. And a lot of the time, they are collectibles that will only do one thing over the years to come. And that is go up in value.
16:17
Like throwing apples into an orchard, right?
16:20
Get on to Prenderville.
16:21
Text or WhatsApp Neil now. 0868 104 106.
16:26
The Neil Prenderville Show on Red FM.
16:29
Oh, there was a big, big response over the last couple of days to two particular incidents. One was the Mahan incident and the other one, of course, from the Balafihan area. So I'll deal with that because I want to get through texts and emails on it to be fair to people who get in touch. But actually, you know, we dealt with it on the air and Seamus actually said, I think he's going to Balafián later on today to talk with the good people of that area. But yesterday he was down in Mahan. And, you know, Mahan residents on the air, a lot of them texting, raised concerns about the safety of their community following a recent attack on those two teens, Margot's two teens.
17:02
I mean, I spoke to Margot on the air this week. They're calling for more... Gardie, they're talking about a full-time open Garda station with lengthier hours and more Gardie around the beat and more squad cars and more patrols. I was curious as to how people feel subsequent to the attack on those two lads and just life in general down in the general Mahan area. So Mahan was yesterday and today we'll be doing exactly the same thing. down around the Balafihan area. So Simas was there yesterday afternoon. Do people feel safe where they live?
17:32
Do they think it's time for a permanent... I mean, there is a permanent Garda station there. Absolutely there is. The Mahan Garda station has Mahan and it does Gahard and it does Balanur and it does Black Rock and area.
17:42
But some say limited opening times and a reduction in the amount of Garda themselves. Have a listen.
17:47
Do you feel safe in the area? I do. I don't feel safe for the younger children. No? No, it's not the first attack that's left to happen. It's not going to be the last.
17:57
You know what I mean? It's disgraceful what their own community is doing to themselves. It's rotten.
18:04
That incident, you know, that happens with the two boys. That was very violent compared to what you'd normally hear about, bullying, picking on, or because they're in a different, inactive group or anything like this.
18:19
Like, I have girls. I wouldn't like my girls. Anything like that to happen to my girls.
18:24
They're teenagers?
18:25
Yeah. Mine don't go outside the door. Mine don't go that much. generally i feel very safe walking around you know about night time if i was to come down do you know yeah yeah it's about half eight in the evening but like do you think smacking could do it more please oh 100 patrolling yeah i do you think it's it's missing from the area yeah or even other people watching out for other people i'd say do you know it's a big problem you ask me do i feel safe
18:55
I might walk around the corner and be stabbed. I don't know, like, you know, you don't know that, but I don't feel that's going to happen. I have no difficulty walking around, whether it's dark, whether it's not dark.
19:07
Bright, dark, it doesn't matter, like, you know, I feel safe. I don't know if it's stupid, like, you know, but I can't go around feeling afraid all the time. No, can you?
19:14
Security for a big, sprawling area like Mahon, it needs a full-time guard station and guard presence then.
19:21
Oh, 100%.
19:24
Not even just that, there's a lot of different things that's wrong with down here that they're leaving. They're leaving it just go on the surface. Like what? Like drugs, everything like this. You could stop at anywhere and you can see where they're actually passing them out.
19:41
You can see them. They don't even hide it anymore because there is no guard of presence for them to hide.
19:45
But does the guard of presence in town, is it still the same thing?
19:48
I mean, the gas station is closed over.
19:52
It opens, I think it opens at 6 o'clock or something in the evening, 7 o'clock in the evening.
19:57
And if you want that, you have to get on Langley Street. Yeah. I mean, they're probably dealing with something more important than, you know, coming down here, you know. They'll be gone by the time they get down here, you know.
20:08
Well, look, I mean, there was a fellow, a man in his 30s, murdered in Dublin last month. He was out walking a Sunday afternoon and he was attacked for his phone.
20:16
I'm sure he died three days later in hospital. So, theory can happen anywhere.
20:20
It can happen anywhere. I think it's illogical. This is just my own personal opinion to be constantly blaming the members of Ungardish Khan or the, you know, the... The reaction time of Gardaí. I just think that makes no sense at all, really. It's a societal problem more than the others. Like Gardaí will react to crime. They can't anticipate it. One deterrent. Dennis is listening in Oxford in the UK. He says one deterrent to stop assaults on the streets is to evict them and their parents from council houses. But then back in the queue at the end of the queue. or maybe never give them another council house, I can guarantee you the parents of the young offenders will be kept an eye on then.
20:52
You can be sure of it, Sissy. In relation to the two incidents, Innocent Brothers, beaten up on Friday, adolescents nowadays are nothing short of brazen, and they know full well nothing will be done. Bullying and intimidation beatings, when will all of this stop? When they kick the living crap out of some child and literally kill them, perhaps? Well, people have died from attacks. Name and shame. Make an example of the troublesome generation being left to get away with it. Those boys' poor mother would have been quickly sought after and prosecuted if she had used that baseball bat.
21:25
I listened to your show and I cried tears for that mother of a son of 16. If it happened to him, I wouldn't be responsible for what I do to the attackers. No one should be untouchable in this day and age. They need to be brought in.
21:37
If the Guardian know who they are, I'm brought to justice and they will do it again. And I suppose probably have done it before. People in the area all know who these individuals are. The justice system needs updating. No one should get away with attacking anybody, never mind kids minding their own business. What's wrong with people these days? You hit the nail on the head there. What is wrong with people these days? Martin's on the phone. Martin, good morning. Good morning. It's interesting you talk about the city. It says you spent two years in Cork City. What does that mean? Are you living in the city or visiting or what?
22:08
No, that was an instant two years. Actually, I spent, I suppose, 40, 40 years living in the city and working in the city.
22:14
So, I'd have a good... Sorry, you didn't say two years. I don't know where I got that from. It says you spent years in the city. My apologies.
22:20
Yeah, years, years, years. And I suppose, like, years ago, I would have worked. Not anymore. But back then, I did, you know, working with nightclubs there, Chandra's and Crow Jacks. And, you know, I had a good sense of, I mean, maybe, you know, when there's violence or there's threats around, you know, and then I lived overseas in Japan. And I was training people sometimes to go overseas on holidays and whisk away with all that kind of stuff.
22:42
But I can honestly say like in the last two or three years, Cork City, when I get up there, you know, my strength level, my sense of awareness of, oops, And it's... What kind of... I don't like... A lot of people take over and say...
22:56
Okay, it's not a great phone line, Martin. I'm very keen. We are keen to hear what you have to say. Is that better? Are you on a speakerphone or what? I'm off it now. Okay. Is that better? Yeah. Yeah, we'll see how we go. So give me an example. You were in town in the Grand Parade yesterday, for instance.
23:12
Yeah, there was three different incidents. I was sitting down having a cup of coffee and there was three guys came up and they were quite menacing and they were shouting and, you know... I won't kind of put any label on them, but they were definitely a threat. There was only 10 o'clock in the morning, and then I was in the car park, and there was four guys. I've been using that car park for years now. There's four guys. You know, you know when teams are going to kick, they're very close to kicking off. They're aggressive. They're shouting. They're threatening. They have all the talk, and I'm thinking, there's lots of people passing by them, you know, and if it kicks off, A lot of people can get hurt.
23:45
And last year, I was walking down by the GPO, just minding my own business. I'm a middle-aged guy. I look healthy enough, you know. You wouldn't normally just come up and peek at me just for the sake of it. And three of them, a woman, two guys, just kind of circled around me outside the GPO. And obviously, it's the time. Do you have the time? It's the oldest trick in the book.
24:05
And they kind of took a position around me just to kind of pin me into the wall. So I just had to kind of, you know, I don't know. Is that in the middle of the day, incidentally? Yeah, yeah. 11 o'clock, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And Grand Prix, I mean... Oh, are they trying to do Rabia, is it? Oh, yeah. I mean, they would... And as they say, I have a background in all kinds of things. And like, these days, they can stick a screwdriver or something. It's very easy to hurt somebody these days.
24:33
And like, the way I look at it is I'm a very positive person.
24:38
But to say, I'll be grand, I'll be fine. Yes, you will be grand, you will be fine, but you need to have a sense of awareness around you because the rules have changed.
24:47
I've got grandchildren. I'm terrified about letting them go into town, into the city, any time of the day now.
24:53
See, all of those things that you witnessed at the Grand Parade yesterday, the three different incidents, all involving shouting and roaring and pushing and shoving and aggression... That's all drug related. They're all in the throes of very, very, very serious addictions. They're off their face. They will do anything. I mean, they'll do anything now to get money for heroin or drugs. Like there's a fellow before the court there. He got a six year prison sentence with the last two suspended yesterday. Right. So he's a masked man.
25:24
And he goes in with a three-pronged spike attempting to speak in a mock Dublin accent because I think he may have known the member of staff behind the till. Can you imagine him working in a little shop? This happened to be, I think it was the Cost Cutters on Bridge Street, right? So in he goes anyway in his grey hoodie and green grey mask and he demands the female staff member to open the till. She says no. So he goes around behind the counter with a three-pronged spike and takes €200 from the till and legs it.
25:56
Imagine having to work under those kind of conditions. His defence, of course, was that he was heavily under the influence of drugs at the time. But check this out, Martin. He had 96 previous convictions. So 96... I'm not saying that he was 96 times in court, but he was 96 times convicted in court for robbery, carrying knives, assault causing harm. That's typical now. Yeah.
26:22
It is. And there are just two quick stories there. Like, I know friends of God. If you talk to God, I mean, they're not able to do their job anymore. I mean, the amount of administration and paperwork and stuff they've got to do, it's phenomenal. They can't, you know, if they were a 12-hour day, they can spend two hours actually on the street. So they need to be resorted much better than they are here, I have to say. They're not...
26:44
People say the guards, this, the guards. It's easy to say that. Of course it is. But when you look at their own working conditions at the moment, they're not being supported very much either on the ground. Now, last year, there was a guy who came up to my door. I was out. I was away and tried to keep the door in and he was threatening to skin the cat. What? Yeah.
27:04
And this is a local drug dealer and he came up to my door. I live in... All right, okay, don't say where you live, but that's fun. Just outside the city. It's very tourist, very normal, very quiet place.
27:16
But this guy, my friend, had it on video camera, and he had the wrong address. He got the wrong house.
27:24
He was outside my house. I saw the video and he was doing really... He was threatening. This is the daytime. He told someone to, you know, whatever. He was fearless.
27:32
What was he roaring and bawling about?
27:34
Was it a drug death? Yeah, yeah. I found out the guy who ordered him. The guy, a neighbour, shall we say, ordered him 100 euros. And this guy was looking for it and he was threatening serious...
27:46
Serious damage, of course, as you know. They'll do you 400 euros these days. And I'm down to the guard and they say, look, there was no crime commission. I'm looking at him and I say, sorry, look, there's a video. He's outside my door. Sorry, there was no crime commission.
28:02
I thought maybe there'd be something under the Public Order Act or something, no?
28:05
Yeah, I said, what about trespassing or anything? They said, no, no, no. And that fellow went on through something more serious a little time after that. So it's a big mess at the moment. And I've worked in community work. I've worked for drugs. I've worked in everything.
28:18
How was it when you were... Were you working in the bars of the likes of Chandra's or Spiders? No, I was...
28:24
I was a quite country lad, but I got dragged into a friend of mine to Crow Jack's Forest, if you remember Crow Jack's in the old days. That really was the Wild West because every person that he met there...
28:36
and say what I witnessed there to the King Street Blues. Really?
28:39
I played Crowjacks a few times. I was in there many... It always struck me as a... I thought it was a great spot.
28:47
I saw some stuff there.
28:49
I've been there before you. But the thing is... No, door staff see everything, man. I get that.
28:54
Oh, we do. Well, actually, a friend of mine who's an ambulance driver, he made a very interesting point. He said, if you want to talk to anybody, talk to the ambulance because they see everything. But they can't talk to anyone.
29:05
Oh, yeah, but I'm curious as to what maybe a doorman might have seen in what? The 80s? The 70s?
29:10
Oh, yeah, the 80s. Oh, Jesus.
29:13
I had a guy with... It's funny, I had a woman attack me one day with a scissors. And you know, like nail clips. On the door? Yeah, and then we guys come up with a .22 rifle and one lad got a belt of a brick in the back of the head and then you had guys pull screwdrivers and you know... Oh, because he wouldn't let them in?
29:32
Yeah, well, I was always nice to people, but you know... Well, you made the right call in all of those anyway, that's for sure. Oh, yeah, yeah. But, like, unless you've dealt with people who are really intending to hurt you, you will go into a state of shock. If you're walking down the street and somebody does something like that, the girl in the shop...
29:48
I mean, I have a friend of mine there, 30 years ago she was attacked by three girls and her mind is gone. She never recovered from the trauma of it. So my point is that... And what happened? Was there a court case? No, the girls got away with it.
30:06
You know, people getting caught for things, revolving door policies. I mean, we always say that people should meet the consequences of their actions. straight away but nowadays they're put into all these programmes like if you do something you need to get the consequence but now put into all and as you say this guy could have talked in 96 convictions for everything and just still out and about running around yeah because they're addicts and their life is in chaos and they have nowhere to go and they have all day to fill and they're hunting around looking for money or they're tapping people or they have to rob and shop but what do we have to do to fix that Well, I think it's, to be honest now, like, unfortunately, I think it's almost too late at this stage.
30:52
Like, first of all, it's a fully integrated approach. You can't have just the public, you can't have just one area getting focused on it. I went back to UCC years ago, did my community degree, and I was very much focused on young people and their, you know, how they could get through life well. But, like, everything in this country is disjointed.
31:12
Like you can do a program here in this country and then you're finished and you're let's go kind of thing. I've worked with abuse victims, you name it, I've done it really.
31:19
I mean drugs really are the problem. They really are the underlying problem. And I work with people in Covenry and they're the nicest people I've ever known. Once they come back on track and they're getting their stuff together, they're amazing people. But when you're in addiction, you know yourself, we don't have to do stories on air here, but they will do anything for money. And that's the problem.
31:43
What about if there was a form of kind of forced rehab where you actually had no say in the matter? If you're convicted, you go to court and part of the sentence is that you go... And I don't know, just build big rehabs. Just get this sorted where people would be sent to rehab where they would detox and they would come down and they would get clean while incarcerated.
32:02
No? No, to be honest...
32:05
And the strange thing is that wouldn't really work because people have to want to do it first. It would bring about change, a cycle of change in people. They have to want to change. I've worked with people in different areas. And unless they really are committed to change, it's a waste of time. It's a waste of time. And then they can fail five, six, seven, eight, nine times anyway. You won't get it right the first time.
32:26
But I think, you know, there's a lot of drugs out there at the moment. Places flooded with them. There's hotels now, they won't stop people doing drugs because they won't get customers. You know, because they know if they start people doing drugs, they won't be able to get... Doing drugs where? In the hotels? In hotels, yeah. Like, you know, if there's a wedding or something like that and there's no drugs, there's a drugs policy.
32:49
I won't mention anyone in particular.
32:50
Oh, you mean that it could be a wedding where they turn the other way when they know that there's cocaine being used?
32:57
Oh, yeah. All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so common now.
33:01
I love the expression recreational drugs. Yeah.
33:04
It's an appalling description. It really is. All right.
33:06
Nice one, Martin. Stay in touch.
33:07
Much obliged to you, kid. Take care. Thanks for listening. Text 0868-104-106 after the break.
33:15
What about a girl that was glassed and kicked in the head by a boyfriend in a bar right in front of other customers at the weekend? Neil Cork is every bit as bad as Temple Bar, let me tell you. Can't come on. Please keep my details private. I saw that online, actually. It was absolutely horrific. More than that, I just don't know. What happens is you become almost like numb to stories like this because we get more and more of them. I mean, there is good in the world, but unfortunately... There's a lot of things that certainly need to be reported on because it seems as if it can be deemed to be much more dangerous now if you're out and about.
33:49
I mean, I have no particular issue being in the city by day. It's lovely. It's even more beautiful when it's sunny. But looking at the suburbs now have become more of a focal point. because of Gardaí on the beat keeping the city somewhat more under control. I don't know what it's like at night. I have no idea. It's not somewhere I would go at night, but certainly during the day. I mean, you see people who are off their heads and they're running around or walking around or dashing around in packs and clearly have nowhere to live and nowhere to go and they're in chaos because of drugs. Jim, good morning.
34:20
What would you do with those people then, the ones that are in chaos with regards to drugs and addiction?
34:25
Well, I mean, we've tried everything else. Rehabilitation doesn't work. I'm sick of people saying, give them all the help and help and help. We've given them everything. It doesn't work. They have to be taken off the street. It's the same 40, 50 guys through cock creating all the damage.
34:40
You know, they have to be taken off and there's only one cure, that's prison. There's no substitute for rehabilitation rather than doing time in prison.
34:48
Okay, but there's two, there's a lot of different things going on here, right? To begin with, some people do come through rehab and they turn their life around. I've spoken to them on the air. You know, I mean, it's, I accept it's not for everybody, but there are success cases. So the other aspect of this has to do with what happened, that mayhem, that barbarity. It was hard to believe. It was like something out of a Hollywood movie that they were filming, a car chase or what have you, the carry-on and ball of your hand. This is about drugs as well, but it's about drug dealers and money and drug debts and minding their patch and taking out the opposition.
35:23
That's a bigger problem now.
35:25
They're running the city, Neil. The girls won't go near them. The girls know who they are.
35:31
There's no point the girls even arresting them. They have to start doing deals with them. There's no prison for them. And the only solution here, 10 years in jail for carrying on like that in a private prison because we can't afford... the public ones anymore. The wages are too high. So we need to privatise prisons. We need to build prisons and put these guys away.
35:50
Are you talking about maybe a super prison out in the middle of the country? Like, say, in America, where you've got to take a bus if you want to go and visit a prisoner. Absolutely. And you could be on the bus for an hour or two before you find the prison.
36:04
Well, all of the small, we never do the two hours.
36:06
Do you know what I mean? As opposed to in a residential setting up around, you know, the Glen.
36:12
Yeah, it has to be moved out of there. Now, we're not talking about guns and walls or anything like that. But it would be a super prison. It would have to be privatised and take it away. At the moment, the cop can arrest someone, bring him to court. The judge knows, knows there was no place in prison for him. And all he can do is slap his hand and he's out again. Those two have 70 crimes and they commit more. Remove the guys that are committing the crime and crime will go down. It'll be a safer place for everybody walking around and a safer place for our children. Just get on with it. And stop listening to the psychologists thinking that they can bloody well deal with this and cure everyone.
36:47
You cannot. But time does.
36:50
Time softens everyone. If you have 10 years in jail, you're coming out a different man. The world is a different place.
36:57
It's the only cure. So we're going to have to do it.
36:59
And you think with longer sentences, you think people are cured. OK, you might be able to cure somebody from a drug addiction, but can you cure somebody from being just evil, angry, nasty, misogynistic, an abuser? Can you cure all that stuff?
37:16
Probably not, but you can give them rules that if it happens again, within five minutes, you have another 10 years. So you met Andy Burnham, the PM. I mean, this is a guy barking mad. One of the first things he does is he says that because the prisons are full in the UK and there's nothing they can do about it, they're going to let murderers and people found guilty of manslaughter out of jail early.
37:36
Yeah, well, he should privatise the thing as well. I mean, isn't that crazy that somebody, you're in your house tonight and you know if somebody breaks in, that they can do what they want. And it'll be two or three years between the court cases and everybody is supposed to have softened and got over it. Let's get this right and take these guys off the street. Neil, they have security men inside shops in town protecting meat on the meat sections, for God's sake. Have we come to that?
38:05
Yes, we have, because they are plagued with shoplifting and robbing and thievery.
38:11
And the same, the same people. So let's cure it. Let's put him in jail. That's the only answer. There's no psychologist can cure this.
38:19
You can't cure evil.
38:20
You just can't. But why is it, like, is all theft and shoplifting evil or sometimes is it out of necessity to try and food to eat or food for a family or...
38:33
You look at the stakes that you're talking about that have security on them, tags on them. There's a market for those. I mean, that is criminality, I know. They would rob them to sell them again.
38:45
But at the end of the day, is it not all about trying to get money to survive?
38:49
Neil, I was inside the bar a couple of weeks ago. This guy walked in at four o'clock, right?
38:54
He opens the bag inside the bar and he says, anybody want to buy stakes? I just got them out of Dunst stores. He had just robbed them.
39:01
That's amazing. So that is a successful theft and he's selling on.
39:07
There you go. So that's what you're looking at. Nobody was starving in this country. Did anybody buy the steaks?
39:13
No, they did not. But we had a good laugh in there, all right. No, I was tempted to buy it because there were good steaks.
39:19
Maybe I'm just nosy. How many steaks did he have in the bag? He had two. Two.
39:24
Right.
39:25
He was a granny after the coming in. You could see here the juggernaut problem. No one faulted him for that. Right. But it's just, it was just a whole event. Like it's got to stop.
39:36
Anyone that backs this, like, it's crazy. Just take the bad guys off the street so we can use our city. Would somebody please get on with it?
39:43
Yeah, I think it might be fair to say that we've a very, very, very small percentage, to be honest with you, of shoplifting, theft and thievery in shops out of necessity. Do you know what I mean? Like, I think the vast majority, you know, I think there might be some, but that, you know, in the day and age when we have the likes of what's happening at penny dinners would feed everybody.
40:04
I think most, I think it would be fair, it's a vast majority of criminality regarding, is criminality regarding shoplifting and theft.
40:10
And we have a fantastic social welfare system, probably too good in this country. Nobody stays. Now, the other big issue, Neil, I have is with the kids that are beat up around the city.
40:19
there's two things we need to do here again these guys that are doing it no matter what age they do they need to be dealt with and if it's a juvenile prison they've got to be taken off the street and the second thing is you need to protect your child as well give your child the tools coming through life to protect themselves put him into a good tough sport put him into rugby put him into martial arts if he's brave enough put him into the boxing he doesn't have to stay there forever why do you want to do that Well, they need to protect themselves.
40:45
No, you want to encourage young people to walk away, not to take on, because a knife could be pulled or a Stanley blade or a gun.
40:54
Well, that's where we'll differ, Neil. I think maybe you might have to throw a punch and then walk away. Okay. Any video I've ever seen of somebody walking away, there's generally two or three. When you're going to martial arts, you'll know how to hit a fella in the nose or up on the big chin. Okay, maybe you're right.
41:08
Maybe you're right. Maybe you're right.
41:10
I had a daughter years ago out in Douglas. And there was three, four of them went into the picture house. And when they came out, they were only 14, 15, they were attacked, right?
41:21
And three of the girls went crying. Whereas Kim, in fairness, they came right, she's tough out. Kim took one of those girls out, done by the hair, and burst on us, right? And they all went away.
41:32
Do you tell me now who's raising their kids right and who's protecting their kids? No, I know. If you aren't out there, toughen up your kid. Stop being soft. And if you say to anyone, I'm not putting my child into boxing. I'm not putting him into rugby. I'm not putting him into the GAA. It's too tough. You are doing a damage and a disservice to your child.
41:50
OK, let's get the reaction to those comments, particularly that one. Much obliged, Jim, as always. Text 0868 104 106. In other news, with regards to this campaign next year, which will be launched to discourage misogyny, the manosphere or the influencers online who talk about the importance of trad wives. Do you not think it's more than coincidental that this focus on trad wives and fighting misogyny coincides with the big increase in the growth of Islam in Ireland? Come on, people, read between the lines.
42:23
No, I don't. Maybe. I don't know. You're connecting dots there. I don't quite see it, but you're connecting dots.
42:28
I wish people would wake up. Do you think that our corrupt government is going to throw the Ukrainians out onto the streets? They're going to be given houses. You're naive not to think so, and the accommodation they leave will then be turned into IPAS centres for military-age men. Do people find it suspicious that they're being asked to leave in the middle of a housing crisis, says Mary Jane? Um...
42:50
I don't see the suspicion in that. You know, this has been a gradual, I mean, it's been a housing crisis for a long time. It's going to even get worse. This has been a gradual thing that started in 2024, back into 2024, across 2025. They've been talking about reducing and not renewing. not renewing contracts. Wait and see, Neil. You can be sure they'll find houses for Ukrainians while the Irish homeless figure will continue to rise.
43:15
There's a lot of mythology surrounding domestic violence, Neil. It only ever impacts on women. There are never any cases of men who are also the victims of domestic violence. I think that's why you're saying that's a myth. Of course, there are men who are also victims, not of the same percentage amount, but certainly does exist. And on the thongs and lace knickers being shown or indeed referenced in a rape trial, I think that it is time for the likes of Duns and Pennies and all the stores that sell products to be sued now for inciting the rape of women who wear thongs and lace knickers.
43:51
Seriously, what system in this day and age blames the victim for their choice of clothing? Judges should pull aside defence lawyers and stop this form of defence being taken. It's barristers, actually.
44:02
If women treated men that way, the law would be different, I tell you, says Annette.
44:07
You know, it's astonishing that we learned so little from the 2018 rape trial that it happened again last week with the dress and the fact that she was asked as to whether she was wearing underwear or not in 2026. Back after the break.
44:22
Get on to Prenderville now.
44:25
0818 104 106. The Neil Prenderville.
44:30
Be part of the conversation. Pick up the phone 0818 104 106. You can also text a voice note if you wish. I should send a voice note. It's the same text line, but it's over on WhatsApp 0868 104 106. Let's get into them.
44:42
Meanwhile, about a few years back there, the cafe inside town had a bike, a push bike, one that tied onto a pole outside. I mean, they got a litter of fine for it.
44:50
Come back a few years ago because they had a bike for advertising outside. Remember the normal push bike? They got a fine, so why can they leave tires down there like... It was bloody madness.
44:58
That's picking up on yesterday's part of the programme. We were talking about tyres being used to block off spots for parking with the tyre company in the city. Just texting about the tyre garage by the Mercy Hospital. They leave tyres out at night to stop people blocking their doors so they can open them in the morning. That tyre garage has been doing that for a long time, as far back as I can remember, maybe 60 years or more. There are too many busybodies around the place and they should mind their own business. Morning, they are conducting a business and entitled to carry out their business whatever way they want.
45:29
They pay enough in rates. OK, fair enough. I'm all for that. And that, from your point of view, is up to and including putting big truck tyres into the parking spaces, which are legitimate parking spaces for the public, but can't use them because there's tyres there. That man talking about parking is 100% correct. There are public spaces. Cork City Council turn a blind eye when it suits them to some cases. How many people know of others putting parking cones outside their houses to block up public parking spaces? Well, anyway, I just moved them. There's been a caravan parked on the footpath near me for the last few months.
46:03
It's blocking visibility for oncoming traffic, making it difficult for people with buggies to use the footpath. Why is that tolerated and allowed? Behind Lidl, three caravans appeared last summer. Again, nobody seems to be living in them. Let they're allowed just take up public parking spaces. While local residents can't park their own car, it's OK for the rest of us to get a caravan, is it? And to leave it parked in a public space too? I can't understand why Lidl wouldn't have just moved those. It's their property. Just get them towed away. Obviously what's happening in the Lidl you're referencing...
46:35
I think it's around Tokar, is that people are parking up their caravans there and using it as a place to store their caravans as opposed to in their own driveways.
46:49
Be part of the conversation, the Neil Prendival Show with Elevate Credit Union. A lot of different stories all going on at the same time. And I kind of like that. Hope you do too. We also have family passes to give away again today. Best call, text or email. We have wonderful family passes for the Clonacilty Park Adventure Centre and golf. So the family, you, three kids, two adults, two kids, whatever you like, heading down there for aerial trekking, high rope courses, climbing tires, zipline, power fan jumps, adventure golf. And they've just launched, I love a bit of 10-pin bowling, don't you? They just put in a 10-pin bowling alley as well.
47:20
And that's all at the Clonacart, Clonacilty Park Hotel. Further details at ClonaciltyParkHotel.ie. So we have family passes to give away for that a little later on this morning. So get involved in the conversation. So this one is of interest because I see a lot of this. I can't come on the air, but I'm on my knees to the council for a home for me and my kids at work. I pay my tax. I've been hospitalized from the stress the council are causing me by not housing me and my kids. And this area of Balafihan, where another house was petro-bombed on Clarks Road a few months ago, but another house on Clarks Road boarded up after a drug-related petro-bomb and the family had been housed again in another council house, Where is the fairness in that for the likes of me and my family?
48:02
I'm in pieces from the way the council is letting me and the likes of other people like me with the homes being petrol bombed and they're being rehoused again. No questions asked. It's absolutely disgusting. I work. I pay my tax. I've been in hospital because of the stress caused to me. It is not fair. No, it isn't. It really and truly isn't. But these are the times we live in and they ain't going to change anytime soon. And let me tell you why. Let me tell you why.
48:27
If you, for instance, are trying to rent. Now, let's just take typically an apartment, right? Not talking about a three bedroom or four bedroom semi. I'm just talking about an apartment. And I'm trying to look at this through the prism of young people, a 20 something or a 30 something who wants to get somewhere to call their own. Now, I'm not even going to go down the route of saying trying to save for a deposit for a house or anything because I don't want to overly complicate this. So you could be at home, you could be 25, 26 years old, you could be 30, 32 years old, and you're at home because you just can't find something that you can afford.
49:02
And here are the reasons why. Now, this is just places that everybody should be entitled to live and get an apartment. Now, you would end up having to share with somebody else. I'm quite sure that'd be fine. But how in the name of God? Just look at these. This is just from daft.ie. And I found these on the weekend, right? Because I knew I was going to be touching on this subject. I wanted to bring it up this morning or get to it on the air. So these are two-bedroom apartments. And here is the selection from daft. These are all two-bedroom apartments. Hartys Quay, 2,500 a month.
49:33
The Elysian, 3,000 a month.
49:37
Union Key, 2,460 a month. Red Abbey, 2,400 a month. Balancholic, I looked at two of those. 2,200 for one of them, 2,500 for the other. The Western Road. Ladies and gentlemen, there's a two-bedroom apartment on the Western Road that is asking for 3,450 euro a month.
50:00
City Centre, 2,500. Blackpool, 2,250. Rochestown, 2,700. These are all areas where people should be able to afford to live, right? Douglas, 2,650. The Old Y'all Road, The Old Y'all Road, €2,800. The Model Farm Road, Mother of God, €3,270 a month. Wellington Road, €2,850 a month. Hartys Quay, €2,800 a month. White's Cross, €2,400 a month. So how did it get that bad?
50:40
Clearly, it's about supply and demand. It's what can be got because there are too many people looking for too few. And in those cases there, they are all two bedroom apartments in places where way back in the day, you'd have a no problem living or renting an apartment, a one bed, a two or a bedsit or whatever. But all of those areas now, all of those areas now, are out of reach of a young person who wants to fly solo or go out with a pal. I mean, you've got to come up with $1,100 or $1,200 a month each before you do anything at all.
51:12
And you look at wages and conditions. It's just like that should not be 60% or 70% or 80% of your income on rental loan. Have you got abandoned then? $1,250 for a two-bed apartment. There's nothing wrong with that. Middleton, okay, $1,700. Mitchellstown.
51:29
1,500, those kind of things. By virtue of satellite towns, as opposed to suburbs, it's like day and night. It makes absolutely... Why would you have an apartment? Say, for instance, it's interesting. Why would an apartment on the Model Farm Road cost 3,277? What is it like? Has it got gold taps or what? Or the Western Road? Maybe it's because of closeness to UCC. Perhaps it's within the hinterland of...
51:56
The CUH or places like that, €3,450. Anyway, your thoughts are welcome. Pick up the phone, text 0868-104-106. I ploughed through some more texts throughout the course of the morning. So keep them coming, text 0868-104-106.
52:11
But I just want to talk to you about a recent, you know, we did a recent conversation on air with a man by the name of Syed. Syed it was from Karagaline the conversation was from Syed who was living in Karagaline and was attacked and beaten down in the area let me just recap on some of the conversation I had with him I don't have the I don't have the date for it but I think it was was it or it was in July I think maybe early July I believe have a listen
52:39
I was surprised that why he punched me. So I just go back a few steps. I said, look, man, I'm not here to fight or I'm not here to make any trouble with you. There's two boys and four or five girls.
52:49
And amongst them, some of these individuals were shouting, F-U-C-K off, go home. This is not your country.
52:58
Yeah, then he punched me, the second one. And that time he started bleeding and I fall down. They started screaming, go back to your home, it's not your country.
53:07
Your son witnessed all of this?
53:09
Yeah, my son is followed. He just ran and come to me because that time my full face is full of blood.
53:15
You were bleeding severely at this stage. Yes, yes, yes, yes. But Garda came to your aid. Someone called an ambulance. You were taken to the CUH with a deep gash above your right eye. Right.
53:29
Ended up having 12 stitches. You spent the night in hospital and have been in a lot of pain since then. Blurred eye vision with... Yeah. A lot of body pain all over, yeah?
53:40
Yeah, a lot of body pain, yeah. Because he punched me first on the left side and then the right side. Okay. On my eye.
53:48
The guards arrived. What did this gang, these teenage boys and girls do?
53:55
They did arrest a teenage boy.
54:05
The teenage boy was arrested in connection with the incident but released without charge. The case now will be referred to the Garda National Youth Division. So they're obviously underage then, yeah? How old would you say they were?
54:16
I think May 15.
54:18
15, 16. Now he's left with 12 stitches to his face after the attack. His face blew up then like a balloon and everything. And it was witnessed by his distraught children who were walking in the park with him as Saeed was chatting with some other men as they walked around and enjoyed the good weather. That, of course, coming on the back of the two lads down in Mahan at the weekend, coming back from Mahan Point, having spent a bit of pocket money. Talk to Elizabeth Scott Hall. Elizabeth, good morning.
54:42
Hi there, good morning.
54:44
Actually, you were referencing another, which would seem to have been an Asian attack in Waterford, of a nurse's daughter. What was that about?
54:53
Well, there was a six-year-old daughter of a nurse playing in her front garden.
54:59
and with some friends and again a group of youths came along and one of them pushed a bicycle into her where it hit her in some very vulnerable parts of her body and she's only six and told her to go home of course she was born in Ireland but
55:15
Or one of these go back to your own country, racist hatred.
55:18
Yeah, yeah. What I want to say is this. It's an interesting segue that you've made, isn't it? Because we've been talking about housing. So is that what brought this to mind at all?
55:31
In what sense?
55:32
Forgive me. Well, the fact that people are saying go home and there's all this talk of possibly not enough housing. And housing and immigration are...
55:44
Big issues, but they're not the issue of this because obviously the issue is violence. And we can't stop people feeling the way they feel or thinking the thoughts that they think, especially when social media is so rife with all kinds of racism.
56:03
But I would encourage people not to view it. Just make a decision to block it. Don't look at it.
56:14
You can say that. You say that to a 14, 15-year-old.
56:17
I'm an ex-teacher, so... Yeah, you have your right. Yeah, yeah. These are teams we're talking about. And there's not a lot of critical thinking taught either. You know, think... And certainly on AI and this sort of thing, the relationships that people are having with AI, it's your right.
56:38
They're telling people you're right. Whatever you're thinking, you're right.
56:42
But anyway, I mean...
56:45
When I was, I had cancer a while back.
56:50
I was operated on by a skilled surgeon and he originally came from India. All the staff who cared for me were from many different countries, including Ireland, but India, Pakistan, Poland, Nigeria, other countries too. And thank God for such a skilled multicultural workforce living in Ireland. They're important to our health, to our economy, whatever their skin colour or home language. And I think we need a bit more compassion and kindness.
57:19
Absolutely. I mean, 100% agree with that. But you talk about the economics of it, and that's all very well to say people are here and they're working and they're saving lives and they're working in hospitals and doing jobs.
57:30
And paying tax.
57:31
And paying tax.
57:33
And this is unconnected. We have a serious... housing crisis on the basis that... Why do we have a serious housing problem?
57:42
Because there's not enough forward planning.
57:44
No, I know that. I'm only saying that as a consequence to this, that's why I'm reading out prices for 2,600, 2,800, 3,200 on the Model Farm Road. It's because of supply and demand. And if you can rent the place.
57:58
Our population is increasing rapidly with people who are coming here legitimately. People confuse, right? People who come here illegally, without paperwork, without vetting, come in and claim asylum and go into IPAS centres. And people who come here and get visas to work. There are two different sets here completely. And people just need to make sure that they understand the difference. But the housing crisis, whether it's a house or an apartment or somewhere to live, It's getting worse because we have so many people who are like there is an issue, for instance, with language schools.
58:31
You saw the story the other day making the paper. There are 34 people of Chinese extraction who are living in one four bedroom house. It was only discovered last week. 34 of them.
58:42
I didn't see it. No, I didn't hear that.
58:44
34. The house was rented by the owners of the Chinese restaurants. They said that they didn't know there was that many people in there. Certainly, the landlord didn't know it until he went in there with inspectors and found 34 people in one four-bedroom house.
58:59
God, sounds like my student days, Neil.
59:02
Well, yeah. I mean, there's supposed to be a bit of chaos. I get that when you're young. But this is an example of the crisis that we have
59:10
We're all aware of the crisis. There is a crisis.
59:13
Where somebody wishes to come here and get a visa has nowhere to live.
59:19
I know. I know. And the people who get visas, these people who come and are medical staff, who are people who work in big pharma, people who come because there aren't the people here that can actually do those sorts of jobs. Let's face it.
59:37
And...
59:39
What do we do? Our health service would fall apart if we didn't have people like that coming in.
59:46
I know. Think about CUH. Think about all the hospitals if you've ever been. I mean, thank God they're here.
59:53
And I mean, I live in my street across the road from me. I've got a Turkish man. I've got an Irish family. I've got an Indian lady next door who's a doctor.
60:03
I've got somebody who works in tech who is Russian across the road from there. I mean, and then sort of.
60:15
So you hear then about the displacement of the Irish as a consequence of that.
60:22
How would you react to that?
60:24
Well, I don't know because there are plenty of Irish people here too. But where I live, you can afford, you know, people buy houses who can afford to buy the houses. The people who can afford to buy the houses are the people who earn good money. The people who earn good money are the people in tech and in medicine and in pharma. So, you know, I mean, they're not taking houses away from anybody.
60:51
So anybody, I would say the price of housing is appalling. I would say there's not enough going into housing. And I can see that people do have a problem with not being able to get a house. That's fine.
61:12
Okay, so if you have a son or a daughter who is trying to get on the property ladder, I'm just throwing this out there.
61:18
and wants to go and view or wants to go and buy a three-bed or whatever the case may be, and the prices are mad and the different phases increase in price. So they have to compete then financially against people who are possibly a lot better off than them who've come from overseas.
61:32
We hear a lot about people who... No, it's not who've come from overseas, it's who earn more than them. I think you're conflating earnings and poverty with racial matters.
61:48
That's, I don't think is the case. I would say, if you've got the money, you've got the money. Now, funnily enough, I mean, you can hear I've got an English accent. I'm accused of being English all the time. I'm not, I'm Scottish.
61:59
Well, that's not an accusation. It's just the identification of an accent. It's not an accusation.
62:07
No, no, no, no. But I was aware, I've been aware many, many years ago, when the IRA was sort of really big. And many, many years ago, I had to really watch myself in Ireland.
62:25
Forgive me for saying this. It was the other way around, Elizabeth. It was the Irish had to watch themselves in England.
62:33
Oh, damn right they did. They did. I've seen notices on doors saying no blacks, no Irish, no dogs when you went to rent a place. And those were the days when there was like 20 of us in a couple of rooms. Yeah.
62:50
I'm exaggerating a bit but you know yes I'm well aware of that Do you live in Carragalline?
62:58
I do Okay Do you know Saeed?
63:01
I do Yeah Only recently I reached out to him after I heard your interview And how is he now?
63:10
Well, he and a lot of people actually are feeling very nervous. I've talked to a lot of people who are Asian and other nationalities.
63:22
And would they be nervous walking around the park?
63:25
Let me just read you something. I just got a message last night, actually, from somebody who heard that I'm...
63:34
I want to stand up and say we need to behave with kindness and compassion.
63:44
Violence is wrong. Whatever is going on in your head, violence is wrong. And this was a very, very frightening thing that happened in the town. Syed's daughter is traumatized.
63:55
So is his son. I mean, she couldn't stop crying for weeks. There'll be something post-traumatic.
64:02
Yeah, well, they saw their dad being beaten off.
64:04
Yeah, they did. But listen, I got a letter here.
64:08
Somebody wrote to me.
64:10
I had said, you know, will you come to this event? Thank you so much for this. I can't tell you how I felt when I read about the attack. It was very scary. Every time kids go out with their friends, it makes me anxious. It will take time to go back to normal. And the thing is, the majority of the community is very, very kind. So this came as a shock.
64:31
And I mean, I'm helping to organise Culture Night.
64:36
I've been doing it for a few years now.
64:39
And we've had Indian drummers, the wonderful coins, Indian dancers who are fabulous. And they went down an absolute storm. They're not coming this year.
64:50
Why?
64:51
They're nervous.
64:53
They're nervous. They've received abuse. Why?
64:59
I don't get this. The St. Patrick's Day parade has flowed after flowed after flowed. I know. Of people from all over the world. A lot of them, they could be Spanish, they could be Indian, they could be Pakistani. Hang on a second. They could be South American, they could be Brazilian. Nobody gives them any grief whatsoever. And without them in the parade, it would be a much shorter parade. Exactly.
65:18
Exactly, but we're talking about a limited number of people who are willing to perpetrate violence. That is nothing to do with anything else that we're talking about. We're talking about violence, really, aren't we?
65:31
This is what it is for people to think that it's OK to attack people, to perpetrate violence on people for whatever reason. I mean, let's just think about this. I mean, you had Una McCancellor, Una McCarthy, on the other day. She's recently been the subject of harassment and verbal abuse. She was on your programme the other day.
65:52
Ah, that's a complete... That's disgusting. Well, that individual just needs to be caught and locked up, you know?
65:57
Yes, he does. But there are other individuals who are not just...
66:01
giving verbal abuse. And listen, we're not talking about the parades. We're not talking about all that kind of thing. We're talking about individuals going out and feeling a little bit anxious.
66:11
Okay, okay. Do you have a get-together planned for Monday?
66:15
We do. We have a get-together planned for Monday. Our TD, Seamus McGrath, is coming to show his support.
66:24
Councillor Una McCarthy, Councillor Patrick Donovan. And what is it?
66:28
What is the get-together?
66:29
It's just to get together with a bit of music, a few people getting up to speak and to say, to basically encourage people to stand up to racism. Racism is a horrible, horrible thing. I understand housing shortage is horrible.
66:49
I understand that there are a lot of people who feel very, very strongly that nobody else should come into the country. Yeah.
66:58
It still is no excuse for violence.
67:03
I know I go back to this all of the time. And if people are coming here legitimately legally on their visa and they have a job to come to, that's fine. A lot of the time, they're very low paying jobs. And that creates a problem then for housing. But it also creates, you're a GP. You can't get a GP now.
67:18
No, I'm not a GP. I'm not a GP. I was a visiting research fellow at a UK university. Oh, forgive me.
67:25
OK, well, you certainly are. You certainly have the medical profession. So colleagues of yours who would be. No, I'm not.
67:30
I'm of a musical profession.
67:33
OK, forget everything I said then. Let me just make the point. But I will still address you as doctor.
67:39
It's impossible now, like 6,000 people had to get intervention from the HSE to find a GP to take them on, right, for them or their family.
67:48
He's Indian, luckily enough.
67:50
Well, it shouldn't matter where they're from. There aren't enough of them, either that or they don't work long enough hours. I don't know. But you can't get a GP now because there are too many people and not enough GPs. So whether it's housing, whether it's health, whether it's other aspects of society in Ireland, it's not keeping up with the population.
68:12
No, no. I see that housing isn't keeping up with the population, but I think you're looking in the wrong place to blame.
68:19
I'm not blaming. I'm not blaming anybody. Well, you kind of, you're saying that you're making it a causal thing. There are too many people. Yes, yes. There are more people than there is housing for. Let's get the government to get a move on and put more money into housing. For God's sake, we're all paying cash. And some of these high earners who have come in and are taking jobs as doctors and all the rest of it aren't.
68:50
aren't going without paying tax. They probably pay more tax than a lot of other people. Why is that? I mean, we should be seeing more investment in housing completely. It doesn't excuse violence. Well, fair play.
69:06
You make very interesting points. So on Monday next, which is the 10th, at 7pm, where is that gathering?
69:13
In the park in Carragalline, we've got, as I said, we've got various people coming to speak. And all we want to do is to say, don't allow racism. Let's not have racism. If you hear it, you know, that was how in some countries we see a lot of sort of ultra right wing racism, blaming people for being a particular color. Yeah.
69:42
and saying, and treating them badly simply because of their skin colour. And, you know, I mean, this is a Christian country, for God's sake.
69:52
It should be. We cannot stand by and let people spout hatred without saying, have a little kindness, have a little compassion.
70:03
You know, when I came to Carragoline, when I first came, I decided to live here. I was living in a rented place.
70:12
further away from Cork but we were looking we had to find somewhere to live and that was because of work my husband's whole office moved to Ireland it's a Canadian company they moved to Ireland and I felt I could work sort of long distance so we came here And I decided to live in Carragoline because every time I went in to get a cup of coffee somewhere, when I was out house hunting, they're welcome. It was fabulous. It's a vibrant town, full of color, full of life.
70:44
It's a beautiful, beautiful place to live.
70:47
And certainly there are more houses being built.
70:51
We need more central housing. I get that. I'm going to move on, Elizabeth. We covered a lot of ground. But to the many Asian friends who have told you that they feel anxious about going out, especially to the park, will they go on Monday at 7 o'clock? Yes. Okay.
71:06
OK. Yes, they will.
71:07
All right. Mind yourself. Thank you, Elizabeth Scott Hall. Text 0868104106. 7 o'clock, Monday, the 10th of August, the park in Carragalline. Pick up the phone 0818104106. Call's on the way.
71:21
Yeah.
71:41
Morning, Neil, says Tony and Douglas. I wonder if there's any update on the guy that elbowed the girl in the face on Oliver Plunker Street. Do you remember that? I was wondering about it there when you were talking about the girl attacked this in Temple Bar, says Tony and Douglas. Which case do you want to know about Tony on Oliver Plunker Street? For there were two of them. I have both of them here in front of me now. And the first one was, if you're talking about the guy, there was a woman came down. She came down to work in Cork for the day.
72:08
She's Selena Regazzoli. And she was down in Cork doing a bit of work and she was walking up Oliver Runger Street. Is it that one? Well, that was a guy called Conor Graney from Far and First Avenue. He then sold the guards.
72:22
He assaulted her unprovoked attack. And he said it was a case of mistaken identity. He got five years jail, if you're asking me. He said he was sick to his stomach when he realized the woman that he punched and tripped outside the GPO was not the right woman. It wasn't who he thought it was. So this is an unprovoked attack on the 35-year-old. She's a businesswoman. She was on a work trip to Cork, badly broken ankle, unable to walk for six months. And I think she said, he beat the self-worth out of me. So that's the first case. Anyway, Conor Graney from Farron, he got jailed.
72:52
The other one then...
72:55
was a second one. You might remember this guy with that. He had a right old swagger on him. Do you remember he was walking down Oliver Blunker Street and he sucker punched this girl. That's a fellow called Abdelilah Habouli of Holly Hill.
73:08
He was arrested after that. He's a 36 year old. He was charged with assault calling on to a woman on Oliver Blunker Street November 2025. He got bail.
73:19
I don't know any more about it than that. It was reported at the time of the attack. Immediately, he knocked the woman unconscious. She suffered a broken orbital bone as a result of the attack and received treatment in hospital for her injuries. So that's the second one. So I get the impression that the second one has still to come before the courts. He's unveiled. That's as much as I know about. Both of those. I think you probably are talking about the first case, but there were two. You got five and a half years with six months suspended, Conor Greeney from Farnery. So he's in jail right now. So I hope that explains it to you and I bring you up to date with regards to that one.
73:54
I'll get back to a lot more throughout the course of the morning, but it's always great to kind of circle back on different topics. Remember I read out a text there, what day is today? Thursday. So I think it was Tuesday. It was from Philly. He said, it would mean the world to my family if we had a chance to win one of the family passes for Clonacilly Hotel. A little breakaway is something we could really use. Now, I won't read the entire text because Philly joins me by phone. I'm absolutely delighted to give them one of our family passes to take him down for the day. But there's a little more on offer as well. But Philly, good morning.
74:22
Neil, how are you? Good, my brother. More on that in a minute. Tell us as much as you can about your circumstances, because you seem to be an incredible couple and a very close-knit, loving family to your twins, Chloe and Sophia. And I think there's a... Is there a little boy as well, if I remember correctly? Corey, yeah. Corey. So tell us what you can about your little lovely family.
74:44
Well, the girls are the day before in September, so jeez. It's a role, of course, the rest of you, Neil. 13 weeks...
74:52
The 13-week scan we got told we were having twins and all excited and then we got told that we have to go down to a specialist the same day and got told that basically that they weren't going to make it.
75:04
So we went from highs to lows and look, I'd love to walk back up there and tell the surgeon or the specialist that he was totally wrong. They made it?
75:16
Oh yeah, just flying it, flying it. He told us that at 13 weeks when he looked at the scan he was like, baby, one Baby 1 in, the half beat is too fast and not going to make it. So he'll probably knock out baby 2s. So we scan you in two weeks' time and we see how you get on. Right. That was the attitude. That was basically the attitude that the way he spoke to us.
75:35
So, yeah. That's an interesting way to put it because it raises then even kind of, I'm not saying in your case, but it could raise the suggestion of termination, right?
75:47
Oh, yeah. Like, he was telling us 85% of couples...
75:51
when they find out that they are having Down syndrome babies that would terminate, which I thought was shocking.
75:57
It's very high for Ireland, incidentally. I remember covering that on the air some months back. Very high, yeah.
76:03
And you wouldn't know. You wouldn't know the circumstances. I understand.
76:07
You're right to say that. Yeah, you are right to say that. You don't know people's circumstances. So, identical twin girls, both living with Downs. They say a one in a million chance of what? Downs or both twins?
76:19
But I have an identical twins that have Down syndrome, yeah.
76:22
Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
76:24
So, yeah, it is one in a million, yeah.
76:29
Yeah, that's amazing that you can get a diagnosis that can be so wrong.
76:34
Oh, yeah. Do you know what, no? My attitude was, look, we deal with it when the girls come or when the boys come. So, no, it was just, you know what, it's just, they're brilliant. They are different. They changed our world anyway. How old are the girls now?
76:50
Chloe and Sophia.
76:50
They're three.
76:51
They're three. So four now in September. Yeah.
76:54
Okay.
76:54
And they're flying it? Flying it. We were up in Crumbling after six months with Sophia for open heart surgery. So she had two holes and she was missing a valve. They'll fix that. They'll fix that. Absolutely. Not a bother to them.
77:09
Not a bother. So you said to me, my wife deserves it more than anyone else. She spends every day at home caring for the girls. We're both born, as we know, with Down's one in a million. And she says, your wife's one in a million, you said. Her love, her patience, her strength and her dedication inspires me every single day. That's a wonderful, wonderful thing to say about your partner.
77:33
I'll have to find the person who sent that message. It was you, don't be caught, Mary. Look, no, honestly, if it was me who was at home all day, I'd be up in my mum's house and her mum take the kids, but... Like, the work she does, the physio she does with him, the singing sign language. She's unreal. It's just... It's just unbelievable. Unbelievable.
77:55
I think Corey as well, your nine-year-old boy, he pulls his weight too, doesn't he?
78:00
He is the best. Honestly. Honestly. I'd say his head is wrecked more than ours, like, but... Yeah, it's just, Corey, can you get this? And Corey, can you get that? But he's brilliant.
78:10
You said to me, we also have a wonderful nine-year-old son who's always on the go. He's the best big brother anyone could ask for. He never stops looking after his two sisters. And that led me then to say, and I read out a few lines that I read online about, you know, your parenting.
78:27
You've done well as parents if you have brothers and sisters through all through life. are close and look out for each other and love each other and mind each other and stay in touch. That is a box ticked by parents, Philly.
78:41
Oh, yeah. I think I'm the good cop and the wife would be the bad cop.
78:46
You have to have that yin and yang, don't you?
78:49
There you go. Exactly. Yeah.
78:52
Anyway, listen, I just wanted to get you to jump on air because I was glad to give you one of our Clonacilty Park Adventure Centre passes for the family. Where do you live?
79:03
Carragline. Okay, this is good. This is good because you're on the right side to travel down to Clon. So we've got that sorted for you. A bit of aerial trekking, high ropes, courses. You'll be good at all this.
79:13
You'll be exhausted. That's four kids she has to mind that there.
79:17
Climbing towers and ziplines, Dad. How do you feel about a ziplining?
79:22
Not too bad, not too bad.
79:23
Well, there's adventure golf and there's also the 10-pin bowling alley and everything like that. But, right, Janie from Clonacilty Adventure Centre got in touch and they said that they would be delighted to extend an overnight stay to this loving, deserving family in one of their renovated superior family rooms, including breakfast and also the family passes for a wonderful day.
79:49
Neil, thanks a million. Cheers.
79:53
No.
79:54
Delighted with that. Isn't that kind?
79:56
Not unreal. Unbelievable. So you go and tell the twins, you go and tell Corey, what's your wife's name?
80:03
Danielle. Danielle and yourself. Pick a date, pack an overnight and off you go. You're going to have a wonderful 36 hours. You're going to love it.
80:11
Unbelievable. Neil, thanks so much.
80:14
Not at all. Thanks for getting in touch, Philly. I wish you the best of luck in the whole wide world.
80:18
Great stuff. Thank you.
80:19
Enjoy it. Excitement in that family this evening and tonight, I can tell you. Well done to all concerned. Thank you, Janie. That was very, very kind of you from Clonacilty Adventure Park. Further details on everything they do at clonaciltyparkhotel.ie. Back after the break.
80:43
No, no, no, I have to do this. I let a lot of things go and I'm open to all of the criticism and the stuff that I get wrong. But go on, go on, go on.
80:50
I already apologise.
80:51
No, I don't want an apology. I just feel I have to, you know, I'm told I should stand up for myself more, you know, rather than being a punch bag.
80:59
No, I know you're not. I'm just saying, just in general terms, you were saying, how in the name of God can you equate living in Cargilline, being on the right side and close to Clonacilty? Well, no, you, firstly, he could have been living, Philly could be living in Mallow or they could be in Yall.
81:15
Yeah. He could have. But it was the way you said it, it was as if it was Balancholic and Douglas. You were like, where are you living? He said, Carragoline. And you said, great, it's on your way.
81:25
It is on his way.
81:26
Clannacilty isn't on the way. It's 55 minutes from...
81:29
If he lived in Yall, I'd say something, or Mallow. But hang on a second, right? You're in Carragoline. You take the back road in Carragoline, up over the brow and down into Innes Shannon. Yeah, yeah. Right? And then, after Inishanon, you're in Bandon and then you're in Clon.
81:45
Well, you'll be stopped in Inishanon for a while. What? You'll be stopped in Inishanon for a while. Oh, yeah, there she goes now. What is it about Inishanon? I swear to God. It must be the traffic sequence. My sister was 45 minutes trying to get through the last day. What is it? Every time, even if it's not busy. It's tourists. Rental cars. I think it's the traffic light sequence in Inishanon.
82:06
I like Inish, Shannon.
82:07
Oh, I love it, but you will invariably every time get caught in a traffic jam there. All the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
82:13
No matter what. What's that fabulous deli there on the right-hand side going in? Robert Rowe, whose daughters do fabulous sandwiches and bowls of soup and coffee and all sorts of great things. Do you know where I went yesterday? Sonny's Deli.
82:28
Oh, where's that?
82:29
It's in Dewtown. Where's Dewtown? Albert Road.
82:32
Oh, my gosh.
82:33
OK. Do you know that area?
82:34
No, I don't. And I'm sorry, I bow to your superior knowledge as well on geographical matters.
82:39
Don't bow.
82:40
Never bow to a man. Never be subservient to anybody. No.
82:44
No, anyway, just making the point with regards to how he's on the right side for Clonacilty. So I just had to defend myself on that one.
82:51
Maybe it's just me, but I would never say, oh, you're on the right road there for Clonacilty in Carrigaline. Yeah, I have to agree. That was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.
83:02
Who's going to defend me? I mean, is it going to take men now to defend me on this with regards to getting from A to B?
83:09
I don't know. Like, you know, then you could have said something like, ah, it's not too far for you to travel. What did I say? You said something. I don't know. You're on the right road for it. You're on the right road.
83:19
You're on the right side.
83:21
The right side for Clon. Yeah, yeah. In Cargilline.
83:24
I would have said now if they were going to like, you know, Fountainstone or something like that, like that kind of area.
83:28
You're on the right side for Crosshaven.
83:30
I have listeners in Fomoy. Yeah. Right. Lismore County Waterford. You do. Tralee. You know, in the Midlands. Tipperary.
83:38
What would you say to them?
83:39
They're a long way from Clannacilty. That's what I would say.
83:41
Would they be coming up or down to Clann?
83:43
Down.
83:44
Can I just ask about your sandwich, please? Because I got such a disappointing sandwich yesterday. I nearly cried.
83:49
OK, well, firstly, you haven't been and had a Long Valley sandwich. And secondly, Sonny's in Dewtown, right? This is the old Albert Road.
83:57
I've often passed there, but I've never pulled in for one.
83:59
OK, you've got to get there before a quarter past two because they will sell out, right? They have these fantastic sandwiches and wraps. And what are the ones with the hole in the middle, those roundy things? Bagels. Bagels.
84:11
But they used to do... They used to do a real kick-ass Reuben sandwich. So I was in there yesterday because I wanted to get a couple of them. And I was slightly disappointed. The lad says, we don't do this anymore. But they do a take on them, which involves so much pastrami.
84:27
Unbelievable. And chock full of all sorts of deliciousness in a big long roll and wrapped up tight. They do wonderful sandwiches. They do fantastic bagels that are stuffed with all sorts of beautiful... You can get it in pastrami. You can get it in chicken. They do vegetarian versions. But there's a fierce run on what Sunnies do when they're gone by. I would say you want to get in by two o'clock, to be honest with you.
84:46
And can I ask what type of bread?
84:48
Well, mine was a fantastic crusty white roll.
84:51
Oh, right. Okay. I just think everywhere should do nice sourdough as an option. I'm obsessed with sourdough. I really am. But like where I went yesterday.
85:00
Well, I didn't unwrap all of them to look in like.
85:03
Yeah, but generally they are now. So I was kind of dreaming of like sourdough toasty, you know, like all the melted cheese and ham. And I'm very basic with my Ballymaloo relish.
85:13
But I went and this place now I thought would definitely have like a really good sandwich.
85:19
The filling was nice but the bread was like just ordinary bread.
85:25
Are you telling me where you got it?
85:26
No I can't do that.
85:28
You'd be barred is it?
85:29
Well I just wouldn't do it to them but like I should actually send them a message and get nice sourdough bread.
85:34
Because honestly, it was so disappointing. The bread was like kind of stodgy and just cold.
85:40
Did you see there's a lovely sandwich place near the Kinsale Road roundabout? You fly in and out.
85:46
Oh, that's unreal. It's in there where that little market kind of, what's it called now? In on the right across from Smith's, you know, they do like, there's a little supermarket kind of there.
85:59
That's where KC goes for the full Irish.
86:01
Is it? Yeah, yeah. I can't think of it now, but they do gorgeous toasties.
86:05
He goes there for an omelette and all sorts of stuff like that. I think they're Eastern European. They might be Polish or something like that.
86:10
Maybe, yeah.
86:11
I can't remember the word. Anyway, here, look, you got, I got the menu here for you, Sonny's Deli. They do a smoked chicken and cucumber pickle, right? I got one of those. They do a mature cheddar and salsa. They do a smoked chicken, Swiss and salsa. They do salami and provolone, is it?
86:28
And a focaccia bread.
86:30
They do a salad box. They do a feta and spinach roll. They do sausage rolls just out the door. And they do a load of different desserts that you love then, granolas and all sorts of things like salted caramel mini donuts. They're just very creative. They just have a different spin on everything. But the king of the castle is the pastramari and horseradish, cured beef with tomato, onion, horseradish and all sorts of things on a big crispy roll.
86:56
Nice. The horseradish would turn me off now. I'd like that now. The Food Emporium is the place I'm talking about. Oh, that's a different place. Yeah, you know, cans, fish and all that in there. But yeah, their coffee and sandwiches are lovely.
87:09
Well, it begs the question, who in Cork does the best sandwich?
87:12
The Long Valley.
87:13
We love to ask.
87:14
Yeah, but like you're not going to go, like you need somewhere that you can just kind of pop, you know, like there's a lack of places actually where you can pull in and get a nice sandwich. Takeaway sandwich though. Long Valley does takeaway.
87:25
Yeah, but you have to park up in town.
87:26
Oh, well, that is true. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Sorry, I can't do anything about that.
87:30
Can't do anything about that. Unless you get a guard of escort. You could organise that with your better half. Get a guard of escort. Double park. Aisling, good morning.
87:38
Good morning, Neil. You've been so kind. I just felt I had to kind of defend myself there. My apologies for that. But on a serious note, school transport issues. Go ahead.
87:48
Yeah, so my daughter, she goes to St Cillian's in Mayfield. We live in Wilton.
87:55
And basically she's been without transport since October of last year.
88:00
When you say without transport, explain.
88:04
Well, she's always had transport. She's been going there since she was about five.
88:10
Now, this is the second time now that we lost transport. I can't remember the last reason, but I think this reason this time is trying to get hold of drivers. It just seems to be impossible. because I spoke with one of the inspectors from Bus Aaron the same day we found out that her route had gone. And it was basically explained to me at the time that they had obtained the tender, but they were just waiting on the driver.
88:42
Is that why Bus Aaron are always looking for bus drivers then?
88:46
Yeah. So basically then I think was it, Coming into November then, our escort was in contact with us. They had contacted her. She was just waiting on word.
88:57
But by December, coming into Christmas, there was basically no word. She hadn't heard anything.
89:03
And there's been nothing since October?
89:06
Nothing.
89:06
Okay. And is it, forgive me, is it a place on a bus or is it a taxi with an assistant?
89:12
It's a mini bus.
89:14
A mini bus. It takes up to about 10 kids on the route. With two escorts.
89:19
Two escorts.
89:20
And now, yeah, but now we've lost one escort. She had to be redeployed because of no transport.
89:27
But basically then by the time we were coming into the new year, we, us as parents, the whole parents on the route, we basically had resided to the fact that we weren't going to get it in the latter half of the school term by then.
89:40
Okay, so is it 10 other families have lost a minibus space?
89:45
Basically, yeah.
89:47
Just like that, with no replacement or no other alternative?
89:51
It was, you know, it was actually way out of the blue because she went back to school in September of last year. Transport, no issues. Went as normal. We got where we normally get. Communication, say, towards the end of August, maybe a week before they start back to say, yeah, we see you on such time Monday morning.
90:13
no issues. We're on midterm break. We're actually away down in Clarny and the escort because we're on a WhatsApp group, she texted us to say that the transport was gone.
90:28
So we're going into year two now of it.
90:31
Yes, basically.
90:34
Explain to people who would be listening wondering how that impacts on a family getting their children to school.
90:41
Well, I suppose just Just speaking on behalf of my own family, not only do I have a daughter with autism, I suppose within the last couple of years, we now have another daughter who's had serious health issues. She's basically now left with medical difficulties. That requires a full-time nurse. One of us has to be at home all the time.
91:07
I don't drive myself. So it is up to my husband to take our other daughter to school every day.
91:14
He's been basically working from home since she's lost her transport.
91:21
his employment have been very understanding. I understand.
91:24
There have been days when it's pressurised. You see, I understand. And as well, if it is available and if it is a service provided, then it should be provided, right? And it shouldn't be selective. And you should not be living in a situation where others, with children with special needs, have a service that you don't have. It should be equitable to all. And it's not right that it isn't. So... Everyone has their own situations in their own family unit with regards to their time and what they need to do.
91:53
But if something is provided, then it should be provided for all, not just cancelled.
91:59
Oh, yeah. Bus issues come up every single year on this program for parents, all of the time.
92:06
Yeah. No, it's the same. I think it was about four years ago now we had a similar issue.
92:14
I think was it before we found out before she went back to school that September of 2022. But this, no, it was unusual in that she basically gets to midterm of last year and the transport is gone.
92:28
Yeah. And the reason given to you all of the time, I'll come back to this after 11, incidentally, and thank you for starting the conversation, is because they don't have enough drivers, is it?
92:38
That's my understanding. That's from my understanding.
92:42
Can they not give those parents taxis then?
92:47
Do you know what? It's like they should. But I think Boss Aaron have been, they've been lacking in this. There's been very little communication. I reached out to Seamus McGrath. He made representation on our behalf.
93:05
And they had informed me before Christmas that bus errands were going to contact us around Christmas time. They never did. I heard nothing.
93:13
So it's not looking good for the next term, which will start in a number of weeks. OK, let me let me see what bus errands say to us. Right. And also see if there are other parents in a similar situation. So I'll be back to Aisling. But thank you for kicking this off. It's very important. I do appreciate it. All right.
93:28
Thanks for now. We'll be back to you. Text 0868 104 106 if you're in a similar situation in a country that's awash with money.
93:35
Back after 11.
93:36
Be part of the conversation. The Neil Prent of a show with Elevate Credit Union. Pick up the phone 0818 104 106. Text 0868 104 106. Stop all the clocks, lads. People have come to my defence. which is a wonderful thing to behold. I'm assuming these voice notes are included in the defence of me and my navigational skills, ladies and gentlemen. If you live in Carragallion, are you on the right side to get to Clannacilty? Yay or nay, people?
94:05
Leave Neil alone. He's right. If you live in Carragallion, you're on the right side of Clannacilty.
94:15
Eimear, I have to disagree with you here. Carrigaline is the right side of Carrigaline, off the road to get to West Cork. Go off over the five mile and straight through Ballenhasig and you're out onto the Bandon Road. So it is, yeah, he's right there. I wouldn't agree with him very often, but he's right there.
94:36
What's with that stab at the end? I wouldn't agree with him very often, but he's right there. She's spoiled my beaming smile.
94:43
They're crawlers. Can you say liquor on the radio?
94:46
You just did. I agree with Neil. You can cut across into Inna Shannon from Cargilline, says Trevor from B2B Science. I'm down in y'all and I totally view Cargilline as being very convenient for Clonacilty, says Katrina. I love it. Leave Neil alone. Tell the girls to wake up or to do a driving test.
95:04
One leave Cork and the other leave Carragalline. See who gets there first.
95:08
It's 55 minutes from Carragalline. For God's sake.
95:12
That's not, it's not about the length of time. It's about the proximity to getting there as opposed to being in, let me say, Formoy.
95:22
No, I agree with Viv. Like, I would say, if you're going to Crosser, you're on the road from Paragoline. You're on the road to Crosser or down that way.
95:29
When you're explaining you're losing, sorry, I'm mortified for you. There's two of you, actually, so I'm double mortified.
95:35
But these are crawlers. I swear to God, I met a woman recently. She said, I love Neil. I love him so much. I love all the...
95:42
She probably loves me because she doesn't live with me.
95:44
She said, I love all the topics he does and the subjects he is on. I was like, that's me, actually. Me and Vivian.
95:51
I do all that, she said. That's not him at all. He just rocks in five to nine.
95:55
talk about she loves me because she doesn't work with me yeah I genuinely would you pass the driving test now if you were to do it no I wouldn't either no I failed I did one a mechanic was asking me a few questions yesterday and honestly I was like oh my god stop asking me things like really simple things like when I was put on the spot how to pop the bonnet how to pop the bonnet down in Mickey O's in Glanmire like he was changing lights for my NCT and honestly I just went totally blank with everything he was like press the brake I was doing the accelerator I just I actually just got so confused did you not know the difference between the brake and the accelerator well I did but like when he asked me I was put under pressure and you drive around with children in the back I know yeah but honestly do you know how to put petrol in it I do do you know how to change a wheel Absolutely not.
96:44
No.
96:45
Okay. Oil?
96:47
No.
96:47
Do you not put water in the windscreen whiteboard bottle?
96:50
No. Stop. No. I know. I'm mortified.
96:55
Is that kind of typical of your cohort of female friends?
96:58
I think so, yeah, actually.
97:00
How much did he charge you down in Mickey O's?
97:01
Oh, my God. So he was with me for about a half an hour doing the lights in and out, checking everything. Six euros.
97:07
I was like... How's the man in business?
97:11
I know. And they're so nice in there. There's about 10 of them behind the counter.
97:14
But the next person that comes in then will drop 150 on a car battery.
97:18
That's the other side. I'll be giving out about the price of something another time. Yeah, yeah. But they're so good though.
97:23
Did you try and encourage them to take more than the 6 euros?
97:25
I was just shocked. I was kind of looking at them funny, you know.
97:29
I got a very, very, very serious engineering job yesterday in Brownlow's. You know them?
97:34
Brownlow's, yeah, yeah.
97:35
A&R Brownlow. Four euro.
97:37
Oh, my God.
97:39
There was a load of fellas in, you know, there was engineers in there in the queue. There was mechanics in there in the queue. There was house builders in the queue, carpenters in the queue. And they were looking on. I was kind of getting very uncomfortable. One fellow says to me, God almighty, you must be pure useless.
97:53
He says to me, you have a great face for radio.
97:56
I says.
97:58
four euro the job cost oh my god but isn't it better like than fixing something than going away having to buy something else they didn't fix it the man behind the counter fixed it it's a piece for a lawnmower four euro would you feel like giving them more like I know that's the way I felt
98:13
It throws a whole other thing there as well about tips, you know, and the way people don't really tip as much anymore, but you can in the hairdressers or whatever. I never know what to give. Like the women will be listening to this now. We might get some advice. Do you give a five for a blow dry and a tenner for a haircut?
98:29
Or what?
98:30
Give 10%.
98:31
Yeah, kind of generally. Like if you were getting your whole colour and stuff done, you'd give a tenner, do you know? Or if there was two different people doing it, you might give a fiver to one and a fiver to the other.
98:40
Because I was observing in the nail bar recently as well and I'd always give like a fiver in the nail bar.
98:44
You have a great life, nail bars and hair salons. It's a great life being a woman, isn't it? Yeah.
98:49
But I was looking and an awful lot of people just tap and run now. They don't give a tip. They're not getting anywhere near the tips.
98:55
Here's what's wrong with an awful lot of businesses. They don't allow people with debit cards or Revolut cards to tip because they're saying, no, we don't have that facility for the staff. But if you don't have cash, what are you supposed to do?
99:07
Well, they do add it on in the nail place. I saw her do it saying the Fiverr tip.
99:13
Yeah, I'm not saying that everybody doesn't do it, but a lot of restaurants and catering establishments don't know. And another thing that I've an issue with is, should you tip when you're getting a takeaway?
99:24
like when they deliver it.
99:26
No, no, you're standing at a counter and they ask you do you want a tip. It was an ice cream shop down in Dingle. Had three options on Saturday. You're getting an ice cream across the counter.
99:35
Yeah, they've started that.
99:36
And it's like, I don't know, is it like three euro, five euro, ten euro or something like that. And I'm thinking, why would anybody tip somebody handing you an ice cream across the counter?
99:45
And it's putting you in a spot then. You kind of feel, you know, God.
99:48
I'm assuming that the only people that would do it would be Americans.
99:51
Possibly, yeah.
99:52
Because they feel they have to
99:54
No, because they're used to it kind of thing.
99:55
Yeah. Talking about cash, I was telling you I brought cash on holidays. I'm like turning into a total nana. I had my little bum bag with my wad of cash.
100:03
Cash is king, yeah?
100:04
And I'm telling you, I had so much more control over my spent.
100:08
Yeah, you don't with the Revolut card. You don't. Can I just get back to the ones that are saying that I'm right and you're wrong?
100:14
Ah, you're so funny, guys. I heard it all now. In Carragallion, you are not on the right side for Clon. That story with the twins, it was so sad, but they'll have a wonderful time here in Clon. It's just a lovely walk into town and on the way. There's a lovely playground for them, very suitable for smallies. And don't forget to go to Scally's for the beautiful food. There's a small carvery dinner in Scally's for a fiver. Wow. I mean, what would you feed? A mouse?
100:36
And that's Marie in Clon who agrees with us.
100:38
She lives in Clon. But anyway.
100:40
Oh, sorry. I read that up because she says I'm wrong.
100:42
Yeah.
100:44
forget that we'll dump that okay back after the break text 0868 104 106 standby debbie thanks listen to the neil prenderville show wherever you go download the go loud app the new home of red fm the neil prenderville show on red fm okay back to the phone lines debbie i was chatting with uh ashling before the the news there with regards to transport for the upcoming summer term are you in a similar situation
101:10
Hey, good morning, Neil. Yes, I am. Thanks very much for letting me come on.
101:14
I have a girl that's due to start school in September. She has actually had no school place since last October.
101:20
So we were delighted to get the place for her.
101:22
So she's a year delayed getting into the education system.
101:26
Yeah, since last October I have her here at home. We were actually refused home tuition for her. We had to get a solicitor involved and then we eventually got seven hours per week home tuition for her for the rest of the year.
101:42
Why were you refused?
101:44
Because it's actually, do you know what, to even say it's comical because her attendance in sixth class was good. I have it on black and white because her attendance in sixth class was good. She didn't meet the criteria for the application that we made.
102:00
Because she actually went to school?
102:04
Yes.
102:04
Okay, and how old is she now?
102:06
She is 15 now.
102:07
Okay, but do they not understand that after sixth class, that's the end of primary school, you move to big school?
102:14
That year is not relevant. That year is gone. It should be based on the year that they started, as in the current school year. So we had to get a solicitor involved. And thanks to him and his team, we eventually got seven hours per week. She should be in secondary school for a full week.
102:29
So that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't threatened to sue?
102:32
No, no.
102:34
That's appalling, isn't it? Isn't that appalling?
102:37
Absolutely appalling.
102:39
It's been an absolute, from start to finish, the transport doesn't even surprise me at this stage because every single thing, we as people of Ireland, our government need to wake up and watch our kids with additional needs. Every single thing. I'm speaking for my family and my family only. Every single thing from my daughter in question that I applied for her during this year was either stumbled or blocked or delayed. It was the same for her summer programme.
103:06
Well, stumbled, deloct, played or refused, actually.
103:09
Yeah, yeah. I again had to get the solicitor involved because there was an issue accessing the summer programme for her. That's 40 hours that every child's.
103:19
any type of diagnosis gets and again we had to get it and now on top of this Is that 40 hours of summer play is it?
103:26
It's, what they call it, it's a first-hour summer programme. It used to be known as July provision. It's now, I think it's called a summer programme. So some parents will have to do a kind of...
103:36
I can't hear you. Sorry about that, Debbie. I think it might be on speaker.
103:39
Some parents will have to do kind of summer or kind of, you know, academic work. Other parents will have to focus on social and getting them out and, you know, getting them part of society.
103:49
So why would some parents be denied the social activity that's important to a child in the summer when others would get it?
103:57
It all goes by the department. It could be they don't deem them eligible or they don't have the correct diagnosis. It varies in everything.
104:05
Is there anything that they can get right? Is there anything?
104:07
Early in the week... Do you want my honest opinion?
104:09
Early in the week, I've got pages of text here from people who are being screwed around because of lack of guard of vetting. They can't get it done fast enough. Now it's this. It just goes on.
104:20
It's awful. And in our instance, we're so happy she's got the place. We're bursting at the seams. Can't wait. She can't wait to start. We're exactly the same. It's exactly over 28 kilometres from our home to her new school. I obviously won't name the school now. I was told on the 17th of July via email that she's deemed eligible for transport. We were delighted, happy out.
104:41
So you got the place, right? But you have to travel 104 kilometres a day to get there.
104:48
Exactly, yeah, to get her there, yeah, to get her there. And it's vital that she gets there, obviously, from being out so long now. It's so important.
104:54
So how are you going to manage this?
104:57
Well, we have been told either we drive her or use public transport.
105:02
Can you do either of those?
105:05
we can, but that means then, what do I do with my work? What do I do with my job? Do I have my job? Oh, sorry, I can't come in.
105:11
Okay, so if somebody was listening to that, they would say, well, why would it be different? Clearly, I don't mean to upset you or say anything unkind. But what if they would say, well, that's what the rest of us have to do.
105:23
I appreciate that, but I vote for kids with additional needs or I have a diagnosis or anything like that. Every day is different, Neil. So, like, I work in the education sector myself, so I know from one, like, in my instance, our kid could go in in the morning, everything could be fine. The next day we could get a call to come. But I don't understand why a department can... tell a parent, and for us, it was the 17th of July, she has been approved it. And then on the 29th of July, not even a week and a half later, we've been told there's no eligible route.
105:55
Yeah, because they can't get drivers. Is that the story again?
105:58
That's what we're being told, yeah. It's no available taxis. Our taxi companies are willing to take it on.
106:06
But from my understanding... No taxi companies are willing to take... There's good money on it though, isn't there?
106:12
So they say, but I suppose if a taxi company takes them, they're possibly tied down to that route and they may find it harder to take on other jobs, etc.
106:21
Well, you can't be greedy now. You can do one or the other. But if the routes pay big money, and I'm told you can make serious money doing school runs with the taxi. And what is it? It's like an assistant goes with the taxi driver, isn't it?
106:34
In our case, we wouldn't need that, but some kids do need the S-cars. But in our case, no, it would just be the driver because that's what would happen in primary school. And even at the start of last year, there wouldn't have been an S-cars. It just would have been the taxi driver.
106:47
An S-cars, yeah.
106:48
Yeah, so in some cases there is. But, you know, the department then offer, I'm not too sure if you're aware of this, but if they can't find a transport route for you or, you know, a taxi, they offer you a grant.
107:01
This grant is paid at a rate of, I think it's 0.41 cent or around that. If you average it off, it could go 42 cents.
107:08
A kilometre.
107:09
A kilometre. But then after 6,000 kilometres, Neil, that rate drops again. So it drops down to about 32 cents, I think.
107:18
And do many people opt for the money?
107:22
In some cases they do. It suits some people. Maybe if you're a little bit closer or your school isn't as far away. But then every other year, this is what I think needs to tell us, every other year there was an option for a parent to either accept the grant, Maybe they might have another child going to that school and, you know, they're already going. Or there was a box to tick to say, no, it doesn't suit my family. The form this year that come out, that wasn't there at all at all. It was literally, this is what you're being offered. That's it.
107:50
And do you think, do you think that there might, I'm just curious now, I'm just thinking because I'm learning all of the time. Do you think that every family and all parents who are availing of the transport system need to use it or they're just using it at a convenience and then denying it to others who really genuinely do need that intervention?
108:09
I'll be honest, any parent that I know genuinely needs it. Okay, fair enough.
108:13
I'm going to take your word. Yeah, I'm going to take your word.
108:16
But, I mean, I'll go back to us as a family. The 104 kilometres... That's a lot a day. But also, where's the independence for the child? Like, a lot of kids thrive, in my case, they'll thrive in the taxi. It's independence, you know, give them their own bit of, I have to get up, get organised, you know, go, I'm travelling.
108:36
There's a lot of other reasons why it's a great idea. So they say that a lot of the time the special school a child gets their place in is very far away from home. You know, special school places are very hard to come by and they can be very far away. Whereas able-bodied kids who are blessed in that way have schools very close to home. They're all in their local vicinity.
108:55
In our case, we got 18 refusals. And that was including our local schools. And it was only, as I said, with the help of our solicitor and a very, very good TD who's been absolutely outstanding to us and supported us all along. We eventually found one.
109:10
Who was that? Because I'm always keen to hear of TDs who actually do something.
109:14
I have no problem. And him and his team came out in. He should be staying from the rooftop.
109:20
Did he get you a transport?
109:22
He's working on it at the moment.
109:24
All right, okay. Will you come back to me and let me know? I'd love to hear from other parents as well. It's worrying as the clock ticks. You're looking at the back end of September. Yeah, I know. Sorry, what am I talking about? Early September, isn't it? That's when it should be happening.
109:35
We've got about four weeks, I think, left.
109:36
Four weeks, all right.
109:37
I have to say this before we finish. I'm hearing it's not just us as a family and obviously that's quite evident that you've had another caller. They're a good few families. Okay, Debbie.
109:46
Thanks so much. Keep those calls coming. Pick up the phone 0818 104 106. Text 0868 104 106. Talking about beautiful families. With regards to Philly, and they're off for an overnight down in Clonacilty now, not too far from Carrigal Line. Can I just say Philly, on the line, talking to Neil, is one of the nicest people you could meet. Himself and Danielle are parents that people could learn a thing or two from. Top class, the pair of them. And that's with love from somebody known as the chairman. The chairman. Hi, Neil. That couple...
110:18
Lovely couple. They're beautiful children. We're on the plane to Malaga in June. They're just an outstanding family and the children are a real credit to them. It's amazing. These are spontaneous, unprompted texts. Big Brother Corey, you're amazing. Keep up the great work. You're an absolutely star, son and brother. And then a few on... I mean, we could be here all morning. Just a selection came in already because...
110:41
Viv and others are on the hunt for a good sandwich. Sometimes they can be very disappointing. You'll never be disappointed in the Long Valley. Somebody agrees with me. It's been a while since I had the Long Valley sandwich meal. Always fab. I love the corned beef. I have a craving now. So I used to do a pastrami, which is kind of the lighter, more delicate, more tender type.
111:01
But if you're up for the corned beef in the Long Valley, it's corned beef salad on white. You'll love it. I think that's Jack Cotbert's bread, incidentally, inside in the Long Valley, I think. Olive Bistro and Ring is Giddy is where Perry Street used to be, says Robert. Great sandwiches. Best toasted sandwich in Cork is Five Points by the Leisureplex. Added with a fried egg before 12 a.m. And it is toasted sourdough. The Old Amberley have a great menu just across from the airport. Great. Well, it's sandwiches we're talking about now, which is great.
111:32
And somebody else says Carved is the place. It's absolutely divine. Don't know where it is, but the gaff is called Carved. Text 0868 104 106. We've got voice notes. Is this knowing the back to the front of a car? What's under the bonnet and what's under the boot, probably?
111:49
Sorry, no, but Viv Darno is after telling us that she hits the accelerator instead of the brake.
111:56
And she thinks she's in a position then to tell you, Neil, what's right and what's wrong in relation to the road to Planet Kilty. Oh, for God's sake, give me a brake.
112:08
Hi Neil, just in relation to your caller, Jim, he made a very good point I feel regarding to exposing your child to like GA or rugby or martial arts or some form of a disciplined activity that does kind of expose your child to those situations. Just to add my own two cents worth, I think for boys and girls, I think it's important that they get exposed to danger in a very controlled way.
112:33
so that if they are in that situation for real that they aren't dealing with that for the very first time with no idea how to deal with it. So I think it's good to expose your child to a situation where they're out of their comfort zone and that they're given the tools to deal with that situation so that they can then in a very self-sufficient way, deal with that situation.
112:53
OK, fair play. A lot of that has to do with Jim talking about, say, for instance, getting your kids involved in rugby, getting your kids involved in martial arts, getting your kids involved in self-defence. He's dead right, Neil. Kids need to be able to defend themselves against brutal attacks that are not being punished. Allowing these thugs to get away with it because they're too young only emboldens them and encourages them to carry out that attitude into adulthood as well. says Anthony. The downside to that, though, is this could be weaponised crime, weaponised assault. If you have all the martial arts in the world, fair enough, I get that.
113:24
You might play rugby, you might play hurling, you might play gah, whatever the case may be. You might be handy. But up against a knife or a hatchet or a machete or a blade... 100% agree with your caller. All kids nowadays should be trained in some type of sport to be able to protect themselves. Cork MMA is full of young kids nowadays being taught how to train properly. It's great to see. Cork's a different place now, even compared to 10 years ago. This needs to be highlighted more and more. Love the show. So the overwhelming amount of people getting in touch say, yes, they should be trained and they should take up sports, contact sports.
113:54
They should be able to protect themselves. They should do some form of martial arts. And that would be just as important for girls as it would be for boys, for obvious reasons. The idea that children should participate in tough sports to toughen them up is nonsense. Toughen them up? Unfortunately, as the horrific incident in Mahan showed, if your hands are held behind your back or you're outnumbered, all the toughening up sports in the world will mean nothing. However, if you have martial arts training, you know, and you are really good at the martial arts training, surely you would be able to put yourself in a position where they wouldn't be able to get your hands behind your back so they could beat the face off you.
114:31
At 62, I'm contemplating doing a self-defense course. New people came into our town last week and I'm scared because everywhere I walk, I see them and I don't have a car. So walking is a worry. The dread in the dark winter evenings. means that I will not stir outside the door, says Alish. Another one. Anybody receiving a custodial sentence is automatically given a portion of their sentence suspended straight away. So before they've even begun their sentence in Ireland, they're being rewarded. If a portion of a sentence is suspended and they come before the courts again, then it should be added to their next sentence automatically.
115:05
Courts are soft on criminals and tough on taxpayers nowadays. Can't come on the air as I'm working. So that's just a selection. There's lots more like that, which I'll come back to. To the phone lines we go. Ken, good morning.
115:16
Hello, Neil. How are you? Do you drive a motor car?
115:20
I drive a lot more than a motor car. I drive everything on, Neil. All right. Not at the same time, I'm sure. But what kind of vehicular transportation do you drive?
115:31
Well, I suppose, Neil, I've driven everything going from a wheelbarrow, as they say, to a train. You drove a train?
115:39
Well, that would have been a tourist train.
115:43
That would have been the tourist train in Clannacilty years ago, I can remember it.
115:46
Okay.
115:48
All right. So if you... Because somebody asked me earlier on if I was to do my driving testing, would I pass it? And clearly the answer to that is absolutely not. Would you...
115:58
Well, I would hope and I would presume I would.
116:03
Because in my profession of driving trucks and coaches and everything else that's gone in between, Neil, we have to have training done. You have to do a CPC every year. I know that doesn't entice you to make you a great driver. Don't get me wrong for one minute. But it most certainly opens the mind up to a lot of things going around you, if you know what I mean.
116:25
Yeah. So we should all do refresher courses then, is it?
116:29
Well, I would be thinking myself, as I was saying there to the girls a while ago there, that I most certainly think there should be something done anyway. Because in fairness to your researching staff there, she was very fair. I don't know, it was a Vivian or the other lady said it herself. But one of them said it anyway. Yeah, one of them said it there about she wouldn't know really how to change a wheel or open a bonnet or anything like that.
116:50
Well, I suppose if you're driving on the road, Neil, you should have an idea. Like, for argument's sake, if you can't put water, and that's the only thing about anybody now, don't get me wrong right here, but if you can't put water in your window washer, you're in trouble straight away because you're on the road there. I drive, as you know, I do a lot of, I'm here back in West Cork and Kelly myself, but I'd be on narrow roads and big roads and small roads and all kinds of roads, and you'd be meeting everything going from a tractor to a bicycle.
117:21
And you most certainly would want to be able to operate and navigate your car or your bus fairly well.
117:26
Well, those basics should be taught in secondary school then. They'll be a lot more beneficial than some of the things they're teaching them. I'm assuming that Viv knows where the fuel gauge is. And when she's low on fuel, though, that would be a good starting point, wouldn't it?
117:41
It would most certainly. She'd know that, all right. And everybody knows that at this stage, I'm sure. And everyone would know that. Oh, kid yourself.
117:50
Everybody would know when they're hungry because it would affect you, if you know what I mean. But I suppose, realistically speaking, Neil, on a serious note, driving is a big operation. And it's the thing that we've discussed before about different people driving on the road and taking part in different things. So I most definitely think you'd need some kind of a bit of a refresher course. But saying all that, some people then... They got no refresher courses. They got a license given to them back there well before the time of the test came in.
118:22
If you go back into the 60s and 70s, you got a full license to drive anything at all from a wheelbarrow.
118:31
There was an amnesty. Everybody on provisional has automatically just got a full license. They were crazy days back then, weren't they? Just give everyone a license. Off you go.
118:41
Well, I would have been delighted if it happened to me. I'd be delighted if anybody got it. And I'm sure there'll be a lot of people out there.
118:47
Yeah, I know, I know. I mean, like, you look at it... I mean, this is only personal to me. Nobody else will care. But I wanted to get a moped, you know, a 125cc moped. And I thought I'd be just able to go in and buy one and ride away on it on my car licence. Apparently, I can't. I have to do a driving test and I have to do the theory test or else I have to drive a 50cc moped. Like, which would...
119:10
Which wouldn't pull the skin off a sausage, like. Or if you want to... I was trying to go on a motorhome trip for a week in France, right?
119:18
And apparently, if I want to get a proper motorhome that's above, say, three and a half tonnes, I also have to get another driving test. I mean, feck's sake, like. There's driving tests for everything. Like, because there's no way that I would pass the theory test. Forget about it. Now, people will shout at the radio, if I can't pass the theory test, I shouldn't be driving in the first place. But some of the questions on it are stupid, like. Aren't they? They're like stupid signs of things.
119:43
You won't agree with me, Ken, I know.
119:46
I can't. From my side of it, I'll take the Fifth Amendment in that question.
119:55
Have you got a C licence?
119:59
I have. Oh, Jesus, you're so lucky, boy. They're like gold.
120:03
I have and I'd sell it to you if I could but I can't do that either.
120:07
Give me a loan of it will you? Give me a loan of it. The thing about the trucks and the coaches and the licences for cars and all these kind of things there's a lot of red tape there as well.
120:18
Now, saying all that, I'm not going to go down that line. I'll leave you. That would be a topic for another day. But going back to the motorhome, what you were on about there, you made a very valid point there about a motorhome, Neil, because on the serious side of a motorhome, a fellow would want to be very, very careful because if you're driving a motorhome or a camper or a car, whatever you like, the weight can change very, very quickly. And you'd say, how the hell can the weight change so quickly? I know.
120:45
I mean, I... No, listen, I'm not making light of it because nobody wants to cause an accident to go out and be reckless in any way, shape or form. I just think that there's... Like, if you're suggesting a refresher driving course, be careful because someone in Dahl-Aeran would think that's a great idea and they'll wreck our heads even more getting more money and sending us in for extra refresher courses.
121:05
Well, I'll tell you the truth, Neil, here. I'll stand over what I said, and I'll stand over it again. I think it's time for a refresher course, and I'm just serious about this one, because I'll tell you why it's time for a refresher course.
121:18
To be something what you're discussing in the previous show here about schools and buses and everything else, I'm not going to go into that too deep. But when you're driving for, and I'm not the correction on this, but I think I'm fairly right. If you're driving for a school bus for CIE, At 70 years of age, I think that you'll have to retire from that position at 70 because I don't think you can continue. But I'll tell you something for that. In other words, you can't do a school run.
121:50
But yes, don't get me wrong. Yes, you can come along to the school at 20 past nine in the morning. And go in and pick up the students that you wouldn't allow going to school in the other bus.
122:02
And you can take them out at 20 past nine. I get it.
122:05
I get it. No, I mean, it's daft. It is. But listen to me. Forget about your refresher course. Come back to me when they've put manners on the guy on an electric scooter heading up the middle lane of the N40 past Toker right now. That's where they need to start with these lunatics. And then they can come and then they can have a look at the rest of us.
122:24
Yes, and we're talking about the scooter thing that you were saying there about, you were talking about scooters there a few weeks ago. And you, to be honest with you...
122:33
I got to go, Ken, because I got a couple of birthdays that I need to celebrate and the clock is ticking. What did you want to say?
122:40
We'll talk about that another day when you will have more time because it's a busy show. And thank you very much.
122:45
No, no, no, I don't mean to cut you off. I mean, you wanted to make a point about e-scooter, so make it briefly, yeah.
122:50
Yeah, make it very brief. They're looking into it at the moment and that's going forward. And I made my point in that before, but I must definitely think that, yes, this will have to be looked at very, very quick.
123:02
Okay, my friend. Much obliged to you as always. Get involved. Text 0868 104 106 after the break.
123:06
Get on to Prenderville.
123:08
Text or WhatsApp Neil now. 0868 104 106. The Neil Prenderville.
123:16
be part of the conversation text 0868104106 and I know an awful lot of people will join me and probably will text as well to wish one of the great Cork legends a really super talented man and a great guy all round the great Joe Mack who celebrates his 90th birthday today Joe good morning hi Nate how are you how does it feel does it feel any different no I was no different than I was yesterday um
123:46
Only I realised, 90, here I am.
123:50
Oh my God, 90. You're as old as the new City Hall, I see, which was built and opened in 1936. That wasn't today or yesterday.
123:59
No, no, no. And my father worked on the stonework on that new City Hall. Get away, was your father working for CISC?
124:09
No, no, he was McCarty's Stoke Cutters.
124:12
Go away. Your father worked on the City Hall and my grandfather worked on it. We've claimed a film. Yeah, yeah. Wow. It's amazing. 90 years and still gigging in Canty's, right?
124:23
Yeah, yeah. I'm loving it. And let me say, when Oliver King, God bless him, and myself started in Canty's, People said they won't last the two opposites. They won't last a couple of months. And here we are now, 17 or 18 years later, still playing on the Sunday.
124:41
Every Sunday night. And they say that when you get up to perform and sit and, you know, play and do your thing, you lose about 40 or 50 years. It's like as if you're back in your 40s again. It's your happy place, like.
124:56
Yeah, I'm totally happy there. You know, totally happy.
125:01
It's amazing that you still would be playing and still enjoying it, yeah? It keeps you young and keeps you sharp and keeps you healthy.
125:10
It does, but I'd be shagged for two or three days after it.
125:14
You'd probably say to yourself, I'm not going to do that ever again. But by Friday, you're ready to go.
125:20
I'm ready to go Friday, yeah. Listen, before we go any further, I'd like to say... To Bernard McCarthy, who looks after me inside in Kenties. Thank you, Bernard. He's a great guy.
125:31
I love him. Yeah, and he reminded me actually earlier in the week that today was your 90th. Joe, do you mind me asking, how is Anne?
125:38
Anne is grand. She's very settled, very, very content where she is.
125:42
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, our wishes to her as well. What are you, 66 years married now?
125:48
66, yeah, yeah. Crikey.
125:50
Do you feel the years flew by?
125:53
Absolutely, absolutely. And I was saying to myself, on my birthday, I'm going to sit down and have a good cry because it's all good so fast.
126:03
What would you cry about, though? I mean, you know that you did a lovely article with All About Cork and one of the questions they asked you at the time was, if you could go back in time, would you do anything differently? Do you recall what you said?
126:17
I don't. I'm sure I said I wouldn't change anything.
126:22
No, actually, you said, I'd have saved more money and spent less on cars. I bought a new one every year. I took flying lessons. I bought a few boats. I did the lot. But I wouldn't worry about it. I enjoyed it at the time.
126:38
It's part of my...
126:40
Exactly right. Did you change your car every year then? Was that what you were saying? I did. I did.
126:46
I did. And if I got a scratch on the car, I'd change it.
126:52
You know?
126:53
It isn't a matter of shape because all you had to do was sign with UDT, change car, change car.
126:59
That was the life and times of being a pop star, I suppose. But you're... Oh, yeah. Do you miss the band of brothers? You're the last man standing regarding the Dixies.
127:09
Well, I do because I don't know what to talk about old times that we shared. Yeah. You know, we shared... We were like family. We were like brothers more than anything else.
127:20
You've got to remember that you would have been touring and away from home an awful lot, particularly when the kids were young. So you had to get along with each other in the Dixies, whether it was all over Ireland or the UK or America, Vegas. Or the Middle East. Or the Middle East. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is it, like 72 years gigging?
127:43
Yeah, yeah.
127:45
There's not a job that would last that long. Anyone's job in the world wouldn't last that long. I'd still do this.
127:52
But didn't you start with the butter exchange? You picked up a trumpet first, wasn't it?
127:58
I wanted to learn.
127:59
I wanted to get into music. Someone said, join the butter and learn to play the trumpet. So I joined the butter exchange. They didn't have a vacancy for trumpet, so they put me on a euphonium or an upright horn or something like that. Yeah, yeah. The same thing going against the trumpet. And I was there.
128:17
I told this story before. I was there just a few weeks to, you know, first and second, blah, blah, blah. And I went to a dance in the School of Commerce. I told you that.
128:27
I don't know if you told me. I certainly read about it. You went to a dance where the drummer didn't turn up or something.
128:32
That drummer didn't turn up. Must have got lagers at halftime. I think you did say that.
128:37
And then they announced off the stage, can anyone in the hall play the drums?
128:42
I put up my hand and I went up and that was the end of the water.
128:48
But when you did that, because your man never came back for the second half, you had never played drums before, had you?
128:53
Never. Never. What I used to be doing is, I'd have two leaves on the kitchen table, my mother would sing. That's right. And she could sing all the old jazz numbers and she was spot on in timing and everything. And I, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta.
129:07
You know, so... So did your dad go guarantoring Crowley's or something for a set?
129:13
He did. He'd go guarantor. But the new kid in drums.
129:18
But before my father would sign for him, he insisted that I take lessons at the School of Music. And I went and I took lessons.
129:27
And the rest is history. Yeah.
129:30
the Dixielanders then turned into the Dixies and there it began back in was it 64 was America wasn't it Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall was 64 but we went professional 1961 got married in 60 went professional in 61 what do you know nine grandchildren later six great-grandchildren yeah that's right But, you know, with regards to, you know, the music and the entertainment aspect of it, it also turned out that you were funny.
130:06
And you said that you had to be funny because I think your words were, I wasn't the most beautiful person in the world. So you had to work on it.
130:18
I'd have a bunch of fellas at one side of the stage watching me.
130:23
And all the antics and the drumsticks up my nose and playing the drums with my feet.
130:28
And all the girls will be watching Brendan on the other side.
130:31
That's right.
130:33
That's right. And they're still coming to see you, man, all these years later inside in canties.
130:39
Yeah. Zimmer frames, wheelchairs, crutches.
130:44
And people come up to me and say, I remember back in the mid-60s down there and you said to my old, I'll use the stories.
130:54
That's right, they still have them. Some are coming in in Zimmer frames, wheelchairs, others in crutches and you're walking in.
131:01
Fair play to you. No, I walk in with the help of Bernard McCarthy and a walking stick.
131:08
But then miraculously, when you're playing, it's like as if you're half your age.
131:13
That's right, yeah.
131:15
That's what the music does.
131:17
Long may it continue, Joe. That's all I can tell you. Is there any plan for your 90th? Is there any party or a bit of a bash or a few tunes or anything?
131:25
No. I'm having a meal at home here tonight. That's it.
131:29
Low key. They're having a party in Kenties on Sunday.
131:32
Oh, right. That'll be a big event then.
131:35
Yeah.
131:35
Good.
131:36
Niall, could I just say hello to a friend of mine in Middleton, Con Welch. He's not well at the moment, so I'll get well told.
131:44
All right. Listen, well done and best luck to Con. But to yourself, this is your day, Joe, and everybody's thinking of you. And we're getting some lovely texts in as well. Happy birthday, pal. And may we talk and celebrate your next one and the one after that and many more to come.
131:59
Happy birthday. My brother is 92 on Saturday.
132:03
What's the secret?
132:05
I don't know because both my parents died in their 70s.
132:09
And it isn't as if I did everything right. I think I did everything wrong.
132:15
Don't say that. Don't say that. You know, we get some things right and some things wrong, but you're a great guy and you deserve every single year of it. And you deserve to celebrate your birthday this evening with family around you. That's what matters, isn't it? Isn't that the case, Joe?
132:30
Absolutely. Absolutely.
132:32
On behalf of us all to the Cork legend, happy 90th birthday, Joe Mack.
132:37
Thank you very much, sir. God bless you. And you too, my friend. He's a wonderful, wonderful man. 90 years young. Get into Canty's. It's every Sunday inside in Canty's. He plays there. Rain, hail, sleet or snow. And he's been there for years now and will continue to do so. I'll just check on the time, actually, of the Canty's gig. I know it's every Sunday. I think it's in and around, is it like 7 o'clock or something like that? I'll check and let you know. But Canty's, get in early because it gets very busy in Canty's on Pembroke Street. Back after the break. Text 0868-104-106.
133:11
Okay, I have the info now.
133:13
Every Sunday from 6pm, Joe Mack is in Canty's on Pembroke Street and it's just a great, great event and it's a big piece of entertainment on a weekly basis and Joe absolutely loves it and he thrives. And maybe that's the secret. Keep doing what you do and keep doing what you love doing. Happy birthday to Joe Mack. 6pm every single Sunday in Canty's. It's a great evening's entertainment. Actually, talking about birthdays in studio, it is great to see as we celebrate a second birthday.
133:41
Let's roll the tune for both Joe and also for Harry the Tortoise.
133:46
Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday.
133:54
Thomas has brought him in. Will we say that he's 90, the same age as Joe Mack? Because we're not quite sure.
133:59
Yeah, you could say. Well, if we had our two ages together, we're 140, 160.
134:06
That's a bit of a stretch.
134:08
How is Harry? He looks in good form. He is in good form.
134:10
Yeah, yeah. Does he know what that is next to you now? Oh my God almighty.
134:15
That is an edible, I'm assuming it is edible, an edible tortoise birthday cake. Oh my God.
134:23
There's a lot of eating in that.
134:25
There's an awful lot of eating in it.
134:26
What does it say there, Thomas, the cake?
134:29
It says, Happy 80th birthday, Thomas.
134:33
OK, well, we'd say 80, so we leave Joe Mack have the 90 and Thomas. Joe Mack is older than a tortoise of 80 years of age. Think about it.
134:40
Yeah. What have you got there? What are you trying to do with him?
134:43
Oh, you've given him some of the cream.
134:45
See, will he take it, yeah?
134:47
He does like it.
134:49
He might, you never know.
134:52
Well, come here. If he takes that cake home, it will take him at least a year to chomp his way through it. Do you think we should help him?
134:59
Yeah, I'd say so.
135:01
Get a knife and... Oh, he likes it, man. How's he been over the summer? Has he been in good form?
135:06
He's very good, yeah. He's over his injury.
135:09
Yeah. Did he enjoy the World Cup?
135:12
Oh, absolutely. He enjoyed the World Cup.
135:14
Who did he follow? Who was he supporting?
135:17
Well, he was supporting Spain.
135:18
Was he? Yeah. Okay.
135:20
He only supports winners.
135:22
Did he make a few bob on it? Did he put down a bet?
135:24
No, no, no, no, no.
135:25
Yeah. Okay.
135:27
No.
135:27
Did he follow the hurling, the football, anything like that?
135:29
He follows the hurling. He follows the football. He follows everything, everything.
135:34
He has to pop himself up, you see, because when he goes into hibernation, he forgets about all that.
135:41
Yeah, but that won't be for a long time yet, though, will it?
135:43
No, about 12 weeks.
135:45
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
135:48
But that's a long time away yet. There's still a lot to be done.
135:51
And I have something here for you, though. This is what he comes from, look. Is that what he starts out at? An egg that size? An egg that size. And that's about 25 grams. Eggs can go from 25 grams and 70 grams.
136:04
You never settle down, though, Harry, take a wife for anything or have kids, did he, no? No. No, no, no. He's a bachelor tortoise, like.
136:11
He is. And when he hatches, then he's that size, Neil.
136:17
He's like a little terrapin.
136:18
You got a size one?
136:21
And look at him now, huh?
136:22
And look if you compare him now, compare the two of them, they're not together, like.
136:26
You'd never bring down the Atlantic pond and let him in for a swim with all... What are they in there?
136:30
Are they... Excuse me now. They're turtles.
136:34
No, they wouldn't get on, no?
136:35
No, I don't think so, no.
136:38
Why wouldn't they get on? They're kind of very similar. You would think they might be cousins or something.
136:44
He's an individual. They're sort of individuals.
136:48
He's a bachelor. They can be odd. They like things their own way. They only have themselves to look out for. And he likes it that way.
136:55
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