Call for nominations for PPN Environment Representative for Local Community Development Committee

by | Jun 22, 2020 | Local Community Development Committee, Members News, PPN News

June 22nd 2020

Call for Nomination for Environmental Representative to sit on Clare County Council’s Local Community Development Committee:

As some of you will be aware Clare PPN has a number of representative seats on Clare County Council’s Committees.  We are currently looking for nominations for one Environment College Representative to sit on the Local Community Development Committee which is administered by Clare County Council. Only member groups of the Environment College of Clare PPN can nominate individuals for this seat and the nominees must themselves be a member of one of those groups.

 What is the Local Community Development Committee?

The Local Community Development Committee is comprised of Council Officials, Elected Councillors, and various business and community and voluntary group representatives.  Among other things LCDC has the job of developing and overseeing the community elements of Clare County Council’s 6 year- long Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP). This is an important committee for Clare PPN and its members and we hold 5 seats on it.  This vacancy is for an environment seat and we would encourage nominations of people who have an understanding or experience or interest in any of the following areas; biodiversity, sustainability, policy making, renewable energy, food sustainability, circular economies, environmentally friendly agriculture, renewables and rural development.

For more details on Clare PPN’s other representatives on the LCDC see: http://clareppn.ie/local-community-development-committee/

For more details on the Local Community Development Committee itself see here

Who can make Nominations?
Every current Environmental College member group of Clare PPN can nominate one person for this position. Once all nominees have been received on or before July 3rd at 5pm, Clare PPN will circulate their details and hold online elections in which all Environmental college member groups will be invited to vote.

Who can be Nominated?
Any person who is in an Environmental College member group of Clare PPN can be nominated for this position with the following exceptions

  • Currently serving elected representatives at any level of government may not be nominated.
  • Anyone who has contested local, EU or general elections in the last year may not be nominated.
  • Those who have declared their intention to stand for general or local election can not be nominated.
  • If someone is nominated and later decides to contest an election they will have to vacate their seat.
  • Any individual can only hold one Committee seat for Clare PPN however individuals can be on the ‘Secretariat’ (The board) of Clare PPN as well as holding one seat on an external committee.

What’s involved in being a representative on the LCDC for Clare PPN?

The successful candidates will be required attend all LCDC meetings year on behalf of all the Environmental member groups in Clare PPN. These will be preceded by a brief pre-meeting with your fellow PPN reps on the same day at Clare PPN offices or online.

You will also be required to attend four Clare PPN plenary meetings per year and the occasional college group meeting and/ or training events. It is likely that you will need to attend a minimum of 12 meetings per year to carry out this role.

Each representative will be required to give a short report following the meetings of their committee to inform the other member groups and will be required to raise the issues or concerns of member groups at each meeting where possible. Clare PPN will provide support and introductory training for anyone who decides to take on these positions and travel expenses will be covered by Clare County Council and Clare PPN.

How do you Nominate Candidates?
• A candidate can only be the nominee for one representative position on one  committee. In the case that a person is nominated for more than one committee, we will contact them to ask them to select one which they wish to stand for.
• The candidate’s permission must be secured before they are nominated
• A fully completed form (see link below) with a clear photo and a short biography of the nominees (up to 200 words) must be submitted to admin@clareppn.ie Clare-PPN-LCDC-Representative-Election-Nomination-Form

  • Nominations must be received by Friday July 3rd at 5.00 pm after this date we will contact all members with the full list of candidates and ask for their votes.
    Please make sure you do nominate and then vote in these elections- we want to be sure our member groups are fully involved in selecting who they want to represent them on this important committee. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if any of the above confuses you or if you need any help. You can get us on 087-1617375 or admin@clareppn,ie

 

Minutes of representatives and secretariat meeting June 3rd 2020

by | Jun 15, 2020 | Current, Members News, PPN News

Minutes of Clare PPN Reps meeting 

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2020

Present: Damon Matthew Wise, Emma Karan, Eugene Cremins, Fionnuala Collins, George Atijohn, Hilary Tonge, James Giller, Mary Leahy, Mary O’Donoghue, Noel Kearney, Oonagh O’Dwyer, Padraic Hayes, Madeline McAleer, Sarah Clancy, Sarah Ferrigan, William Hederman

Apologies: Aisling Wheeler, Annie Wise, Elaine Dalton, Helen Liddy, Jean O’Keefe

Facilitated by: Sarah Ferrigan

Minutes: William Hederman

UPDATE FROM LAST MEETING

Suggestions on the Work Plan from the last meeting included: developing a Communications Strategy, both media and social media; encouraging people to support local businesses; encouraging people to protect bees and biodiversity.

UPDATES ON COUNTY COUNCIL, SPCs etc

County Council due to meet next Monday, 8th June, in Glór. SPCs due to start meeting in June. This week a call was also made for the LCDC to meet soon.

Several people said the PPN Reps had been ignored for the past three months. The Council has not involved the voice of the community during the pandemic, when in fact this is exactly when community’s input is needed. Agreed that this should be raised, but noted that councillors are not necessarily the ones to target, as they may also be feeling left out.

UPDATE ON FINANCES & RESOURCES AVAILABLE

Sarah Ferrigan gave an update. Once running/fixed costs have been accounted for, we have approx €4,500, to spend mostly on ‘Training & Development’ and ‘Projects & Events’. This is a low amount.

We have pre-paid €1,800 for training in three areas: Cultural Diversity & Anti-Racism; Local Government; Media. This can be online.

We also have paid for some venues for events. And for some transport with Clare Bus.

DISCUSSION ON WORK PLAN

Sarah Clancy: key ambitions are becoming more effective at having the views of community and voluntary sector taken on board at local authority level; and encouraging participation and a sense of ownership of the PPN among people in Clare.

Open discussion – suggestions were based mostly around:

  1. i) mental health, especially due to effects of lockdown;
  2. ii) supporting people to retrain, refocus careers, an ideas fair;

iii) seminars / webinars

Noel: Can we include in PPN people with mental health difficulties? Also, we should tie in with Aoife Boland of  AIRES Mid West/ HSE.

Sarah C: We can do events around mental health, but note that our role is to influence policy, not to provide service. We need to make sure mental health is considered in all relevant forums. Should we declare that we are a mental health friendly organisation?

Mary O’D: Suggests a poster and a spread in Clare Champion about all the orgs and agencies you can contact if you’re feeling down.

Hilary: Good time to boost the PPN online, as everyone is at home and online. Boost posts. Perhaps a weekly training session; life coaching.

Damon: Disabled People need social events, some don’t use social media very much.

Mary O’Donoghue: Points we are raising here should be expanded and input into Clare LECP (Local Economic and Community Plan), which is up for review soon, and other county-wide plans. Good opportunity to gather people’s views.

Fionnuala Collins : suggests holding an online conference on belonging to a democracy, focusing on the need for open, transparent input and decision-making. Also, we should signpost about options for getting back into the community – classes, social interaction, which places offer counselling, community garden etc

James Giller: Good time to invite public to participate, like the ‘What do we want?’ submissions. Also, pandemic has highlighted discrimination. Ask Council to push for policies to prevent and lessen discrimination. And suggests training for use of online tools.

Madeline: A webinar on ‘Where to post-Covid?’, with follow-up events and trainings, with the PPN leading with the message that community representation needs to be very strong now at decision-making level.

AOB:

Madeline was contacted by a Colin McGann, who is making a documentary on people’s experiences in Clare during COVID:

Please note that we have his contacts but don’t want to share them online

http://www.clare.fm/podcasts/new-documentary-tell-story-clare-covid/

NEXT MEETING: 

Monday 15th June, 2020 at 6:30pm

ENDS

May 29th Message from Covid-19 Health Communications Stakeholder Support

by | Jun 2, 2020 | Members News, PPN News

We hope this message finds you well. Thanks for your continuing support in helping to share information about COVID-19. This update is particularly aimed at sharing, and drawing your attention to the COVID-19 public health information translated resources. We would be very grateful for your help in sharing these resources as widely as possible with relevant communities.

Translated COVID-19 Resources
For those whose first language is neither English nor Irish, we have translated public health information into 24 other languages. These include Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Simplified Chinese, Czech, Farsi, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Urdu and Yoruba. We are also working on developing resources in Somali and Eritrean. The most up to date translated partner resources for COVID-19 can be found here.

Roma
Under the resources listed above you will also find a video for the Roma Community in Romanian. This video can also be found here. There is a Roma specific resources page which includes easy read and image based communication documents and a translation of the Phase 1 government re-opening roadmap which can be found here.

Migrant Health
There is also a Migrant Health resources page, which includes videos in various languages and further specific translated resources.

Other Resources:
The Covid 19 World Service is a joint initiative of Nasc and Together Ireland. The Covid 19 World Service has video messages from doctors and other healthcare professionals in several languages for migrants living in Ireland.

  • Video 1:  General advice on how to prevent the contraction and spread of the virus.
  • Video 2: Information on self-isolation, what to do if you test positive for Covid 19 or are a contact of someone who has.

These videos can be found here.  

The Government’s ‘Community Call – Advice and Contact Information for Your County’ leaflet has been translated into 12 different languages and is available here.

Public Health Information:
As always, for the most up to date information and advice on Coronavirus, please go to:

https://www2.hse.ie/coronavirus/

https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/c36c85-covid-19-coronavirus/

https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/

Please share and pass on these resources as widely as possible to relevant communities.   Keep well, remember we’re #InThisTogether and #HoldFirm

Covid-19 Health Communications Stakeholder Support

Postcards from the Edge: Mike Hanrahan – Cooking up a storm

by | May 25, 2020 | National, PPN News

Postcards from the Edge: Mike Hanrahan – Cooking up a storm

With a book tour, live music tour and a number one album, singer-songwriter Mike Hanrahan‘s year was looking really good. Then Covid-19 came and he had nowhere to go. So he took a leap into online performing and created a positive space for those sailing into the unknown

After studying and teaching at Ballymaloe Cookery School, followed by 10 years working in the food industry, I recently returned to my wonderful life of music. In the past few months I celebrated a number one album with Stockton’s Wing, my book Beautiful Affair – A journey of music, food and friendship, was published and was shortlisted as best Irish published book of the year in the An Post Irish Book Awards.

A book tour was in progress; tours were set with Leslie Dowdall and Eleanor Shanley; The Wing had a few gigs throughout the summer; and I was back writing songs again. My year was looking really good, I was bubbling, at a creative peak, ready for action, with so many places to go. Then suddenly, I had nowhere to go.

It’s frightening to watch the pages of your working diary flitter away on a breeze of Covid 19 until all you have left is one book festival appearance, in Wexford, at the end of September. In a year of empty theatres, a southeast stage becomes your focal point, your only hope – all is not yet lost. You imagine the space, the lights, the audience, the stories, the laughter and the songs. As each day passes without a quit notice, your resolve is spun by that single thread of hope.

Fear filled my first days of isolation but I knew I had to address it in a positive way, give my life some structure, occupy myself with purpose and discipline to ward off any signs of depression or anxiety that thrive in such times of uncertainty, always ready to pounce.

Facebook can be a cruel place at times and, in the midst of a growing number of keyboard warriors, I decided to use its platform to counteract the negativity, shut it out by creating a positive space for me and others who were sailing out on similar boats into the unknown.

I offered to help people develop new skills in that part of the house that hitherto had been cordoned off, a no-go area – the kitchen. On the first day I gave simple recipes: my mum’s brown bread, an Irish stew and an orange cake. Within minutes the pings of like, love and smiles lit up my screen with countless post approvals and queries. A friend suggested I go live and sing.

Two days later, on March 15th, I pressed ‘Live’ for the first time.

“Am I on? Can you hear me ok?” Hearts flew across my screen, I sang Beautiful Affair, talked cooking and baking. Later I read and replied to all the wonderful messages from all over the world, Nova Scotia, Arkansas, Michigan, Boston, London, Sydney, Geneva, Thailand and Myanmar. I remember Myanmar from my stamp collection. My friend John Cutliffe lives there now and he baked my mum’s brown bread for his family. How cool is that?

I received photos, recipes, suggestions, questions and so many gifts, including a stunning pencil drawing of Ronnie Drew which formed part of my backdrop. As the days passed my music room was my main stage where I creatively thrived. My lockdown had found its antidote.

For 57 days I woke up, planned, researched and wrote a menu blog. At 1.07pm ‘Cooking up a Storm’ lunchtime concert went out live. I sang my old songs, new ones, odd requests, talked food, gave tips, responded to queries, interacted and sometimes ranted about things that annoyed me. Like the day Facebook accused me of a copyright breach of my own music and another tune from the 1950s which I had legally downloaded and paid for called, ‘If I knew you were coming I’d have baked a cake, baked a cake.’ I particularly enjoyed that rant.

When easing of restrictions was announced I decided to close the curtain. On the final day I posted the following:

To all of you who jumped on board ‘Cooking up a Storm’ throughout its nine glorious weeks of fun, craic and laughter.

The end of any tour is always bittersweet, the longing to return to the calm of the nest sits uncomfortably with the knowledge that the adrenalin buzz will soon dissipate, yet it is during that emotional transition you realise just how lucky you are to experience such diversity in your life, to connect with so many people who walk in and out of your daily routine leaving behind a beautiful glow of friendship.

These past nine weeks I found many kindred spirits in food, music and chat as we meandered our way through an astonishing and unprecedented period of all of our lives. I feel lucky, fulfilled and enriched this morning. Little did I know on March 13th 2020 this incredible journey would take me into so many homes and hearts. It has replenished my faith in humanity and in that beautiful side of Facebook which allows us a space to be kind to each other, friendly, supportive and non-judgemental. The end of this tour is sweet because it really is only a beginning.

Twas friendship brought us all together
Friendship makes our hearts unite
Friendship leads a life of pleasure
Twas friendship brought us here tonight.

People are inherently good and decent and at ‘Cooking up a Storm’ we sailed through the unknown with the knowledge that, on any given day at 1.07pm, we could moor for a short rest at https://www.facebook.com/mikehanrahan46/ to celebrate life, friendship and humanity.

The day after it ended two significant events occurred. My new iPhone developed a glitch which knocked me off all networks for several days. It had had enough. And I received an email from The Write by the Sea festival in Wexford to sadly announce the cancellation of this year’s event but with an invitation to come back on September 21st, 2021 to fulfil the booking.

My diary has started its refill.

https://www.harpercollins.com/9780008308759/beautiful-affair-a-journey-in-music-food-and-friendship/

 

• We’d like to hear from you! Back to normal or time for radical change? We’re asking people for their views (in less than 350 words) on how to move forward together in Clare in the wake of Covid-19. You can win a €50 restaurant/take-away voucher. Details of how to submit here: http://clareppn.ie/what-do-we-want/

Postcards from the Edge: Willie Hanrahan – ‘We will value the company of neighbours and family in a new light’

by | May 21, 2020 | Current, National, PPN News

Postcards from the Edge: Willie Hanrahan – ‘We will value the company of others in a new light’

Social distancing and the closure of marts has been tough, and the drop in farm income is daunting, writes Doonbeg farmer Willie Hanrahan, but the pandemic has made us appreciate how fragile the humanity is and that we can survive without many of the excesses that had become normal

 

Since lockdown began, every morning starts the same. At 6:30 my son Liam (the farmer) leaves the house to start the morning milking. At 7 the rest of us make our appearance, and so the day begins. The major difference from other years is the fact that we have four of our five adult children back living with us. Two engineers and a Leaving Cert student. Makeshift offices with internet access have been installed.

In general the lockdown hasn’t affected our working day to any great extent – the work is the same, cows calving and calves to be fed and tended to, cows to be milked and grass to be managed. However, when we need supplies from the hardware and co-op shop we have to stand in line and socially distance, which is hard and strange as farming is a solitary life and we tend to embrace any bit of social interaction with enthusiasm.

The closure of the Mart has been one of the biggest losses to farmers as a means of selling animals and meeting likeminded people. This has been replaced with online bidding, but the social interaction is not the same. The bargaining and posturing are missing and the enjoyment of closing the deal is gone.

Online selling might be the future, but this lockdown has shown us that maybe we are not quite ready for that lack of human contact. Going to mass on Sunday morning made us stop for a while and put on the Sunday best – maybe not for the prayers but again to see a few familiar faces and catch up on the week’s gossip.

The drop in income in every sector is very concerning. Cattle and milk prices have taken a hammering and the uncertainty will have far-reaching consequences. There will be no on-farm investment this year which will have an effect on other businesses such as building and plant hire.

This lockdown has shown us that we can survive without a lot of the excesses that had become normal. Eating out, foreign holidays, leisure activities and running and racing to every cat-fight, wherever it was happening.

If there are positives in this it has to be that we will value the company of our neighbours and indeed family in a new light. Simple conversation and interaction on WhatsApp can be interesting. The Saturday night quiz has become the in thing at the moment.

The powers that be also thought the world would end if the M50 wasn’t jammed every morning and the sky wasn’t black with the congestion of planes in the sky. Everyone was looking for the soft target to blame for climate change, but now we hear the skies are clearer and the air is cleaner after just a couple of months of lockdown.

It’s time to stop blaming agriculture and the poor cow for all the problems of pollution. The whole aviation industry has to be looked at, and cleaner ways of transporting people and goods have to be found. Our whole mindset and ways of doing things have to be changed.

My chief concern for the future is not climate change, although that needs to be addressed in a common sense manner, but the realisation that we were so susceptible to a virus. Covid-19, although very serious, did not wipe out civilisation. If it were a virus like ebola or some even more serious illness, we would be in dire straights, especially if it was transmitted through the air we breathe. We as a human race are very fragile indeed.

On a lighter note it is time for a general election as Fine Gael is past its sell-by date. We have a Taoiseach who has lost touch with the people, doesn’t know where rural Ireland is or how it survives, and craves holding onto power to the extent that he would sell out rural Ireland and agriculture to keep himself in the limelight that he loves.

Willie Hanrahan is a former Chairman of Clare IFA. The views expressed in this article do not represent the views of Clare PPN.

 

• We’d like to hear from you! Back to normal or time for radical change? We’re asking people for their views (in less than 350 words) on how to move forward together in Clare in the wake of Covid-19. You can win a €50 restaurant/take-away voucher. Details of how to submit here: http://clareppn.ie/what-do-we-want/

Postcards from the Edge: Aung Marma – ‘Meditation helps you stay calm”

by | May 19, 2020 | Current, PPN News

Postcards from the Edge: Aung Marma – ‘Meditation helps you stay calm’

Living in direct provision means Aung Marma is more vulnerable to infection from Covid-19. He worries, but also keeps calm by taking exercise, keeping busy and meditating

My name is Aung Marma. I was born in 1991. I’m originally from Bangladesh. My ethnicity is Marma, which is one of the 13 ethnic groups in Bangladesh. My religion by birth is Buddhism.

Bangladesh is predominantly Muslim, and for that reason most of our ethnic groups have to face fatality from Islamic extremists and we don’t get justice for what happened to us. Which is why we migrated to neighbouring countries, India and Burma.

As we are Buddhists, the impact of Islamist extremists came on us. Once we were attacked in 2003. Then I went to Sri Lanka for my safety and for further studies in 2008. And I started my studies at university level. In 2016, when I went back to see my mother who was sick, I was attacked by some Muslim settlers and I had flee to Burma for my life.

And from Burma I made a false passport and returned to Sri Lanka. From Sri Lanka I came to Ireland in June 2019 for my safety and to raise my voice for our people, who are suffering at the hands of extremists and are seeking refuge from the world. I hope my voice will be heard by the whole world someday.

So now I am here in Ireland, living as an asylum-seeker and living in the direct provision system.

Living in direct provision means you are more vulnerable to being infected by the Covid-19 virus, since we have to live with many people in the same building.

The Irish Government has taken the initial steps to prevent the spread of coronavirus, and the managers and workers in our centre have taken all the precautions to prevent infection from the virus. Honestly, I do not have any objections to the management and to the authorities.

I know this pandemic affects different people in different ways. I have seen that some of my friends seem very stressed worrying about their families and their

future. I do also worry, but I keep myself calm, knowing that the pandemic will be over sooner or later.

In Buddhism, the Buddha has taught us about Anicca (impermanence), Dukkha (suffering) and Anatta (constant change) – in this world every phenomenon is changeable and not permanent. If one comes to understand the truth as truth, so they can live in calm.

So my idea is to keep myself busy by doing activities. When you’re staying home, do some physical and mental exercise. Physical exercise can be done by yourself and mental exercise can be done by practising meditation. Meditation helps people to understand the reality of things by being attentive to what’s

going on around you. And meditation also helps you to see the impermanence of the Covid-19 pandemic.

I would like to ask people to be wiser and calmer to face this disaster and to take every precaution imposed by the authorities. I thank the Government of Ireland for taking the initial precautions for preventing the pandemic. And I would also like to see the laws and rules continue to be implemented until Covid-19 has been completely uprooted from Ireland.

I am well aware that people have reasons to break the rules of government, but if we break the rules we will have to face more fatalities from coronavirus, that is for sure. Therefore, we must be far-sighted and act wisely.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of all of the Clare PPN.

• We’d like to hear from you! Back to normal or time for radical change? We’re asking people for their views (in less than 350 words) on how to move forward together in Clare in the wake of Covid-19. You can win a €50 restaurant/take-away voucher. Details of how to submit here:
http://clareppn.ie/what-do-we-want/