Waterford Today | Waterford's free weekly newspaper

The women of the south east have rallied together to become 'ladies who lunch' for an afternoon have raised €19,000 for a very worthy appeal.

The South East Cancer Foundation has thanked all the ladies who turned out with their handbags and glad rags and raise money for a new centre planned for people living with cancer and their families.

SECF fund-raising committee member, Fionnuala O'Shea, said the highly successful money-spinner was a most enjoyable event and commended the many, many women who supported it by buying tickets and digging deep. In all,145 ladies attended the second, annual Ladies Lunch.

"The Ladies Lunch is always a very enjoyable afternoon and has become a bit of a fixture on the social calendar in the South East. We want to say a huge 'Thank You' to all the people who sponsored the event, who gave

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With over a quarter of homes (27%) not using a commercial or local authority disposal service, a substantial quantity of domestic waste is unaccounted for. While a number of those not using such services have, through bin sharing and bringing their waste directly to waste transfer stations and landfills, dealt with the issue correctly there still remains significant amounts unaccounted for. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that that figure may be as high as 206,000 tonnes. What is becoming clear is that a significant proportion of it is being burned and much of that is being burned in domestic fireplaces.

"Research carried out by Philippa King of the Limerick, Clare and Kerry Regional Waste Management Office shows that of the people not using a waste disposal service 14.4 per cent admit that they use their fireplaces and stoves to get

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Community groups in Waterford have received a funding boost of €200,000 from the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs according to local Fianna Fail T.D., Brendan Kenneally.

"Éamon Ó Cuív T.D. Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and Pat Carey, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs has announced that the Government has approved the allocation of €200,000 for 2 projects in Waterford from the Dormant Accounts Fund.”

"The projects that will benefit are St. Brigid's Family and Community Care will receive €170,000 to upgrade their Family Resource Centre and Waterford Sports Partnership Limited will get €30,000 for a sports officer who will implement a sports project.”

"All of this funding will come from the Dormant Accounts Fund and is used where it is needed most, for the benefit of those in

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The launch of a global online vote to find the twenty greatest cities to appear on a first-ever World edition of the Monopoly board game, Monopoly Here and Now : The World Edition, has just stepped up a notch, with the spotlight now on Waterford.

The votes have been flooding in to find the world's greatest cities, with over a million people logging onto www.monopoly.com and taking part in a worldwide poll run by Hasbro, makers of the iconic board game.

While the fate of the top twenty places has been sealed, two spaces on the new board have been reserved for the top 20 locations that have been nominated for the Wild Card vote and Waterford and Cork are both in the running. The Wild Card winners will occupy the first two property spaces, traditionally held on the Irish board

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Ireland South MEP, Colm Burke, will be visiting Chad in less than three weeks, after his initial visit for the 2nd March was postponed due to the ongoing troubles in the country.

On his policy towards the EU mission, the MEP, who visited Waterford in his 'constitunecy week' from the EU Parliament, said that there are 400,000 civilians in refugee camps that need protection from the EU peacekeeping force.

The refugees are those who have fled the Darfur situation in Sudan along with sections of the Chadian population who have also been forced to flee trouble in their own country.

His visit will come four months after he presented a draft resolution on the Chad mission for more countries in the EU to provide support in the way of equipment and machinery to the Chad mission, which has been plagued

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In addition to the physical benefits, playing sports improves your self-esteem, perception of success, pride and sex drive. These are some of the insights from an independent consumer research by Nike, conducted by TNS amongst more than 10,000 young women from ten European countries, including Ireland. The participating young women between 16 and 30 years old express a more positive self-image as a result of playing sports, than those who don't. At the same time, in some of the countries there seems to be a slumbering fear of growing too muscular and getting too sweaty when participating in sports on a regular basis.

About half of the European women in the age category of 16 to 30 play sports. From the ten countries involved in the research, young German women seem to be the sportiest (67%), whilst only 41 per cent

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Speaking at the 2008 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis Waterford City Councillor, David Cullinane, called for more resources for special needs education.

He called on the Government to implement its own policies and deliver the teachers needed to implement the programme of improved education for persons with special needs. He also called for more educational psychologists in order to reduce long waiting times for assessments. He said it was a disgrace that parents had to seek redress through the courts because of the Government's failure to meet the educational needs of their children.

Cllr Cullinane said:"In February 2005 Sinn Féin tabled a Dáil motion calling on the Irish Government to fulfil its responsibilities and provide the necessary financial, infrastructural and human resources needed to vindicate the rights of children with special educational needs.

Three years down the road we have seen little improvement

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Boatstrand/Dunabrattin Fishmernen & Community are proud of the Overall County Community & Voluntary Award.

Oliver Coffey, Chairperson of the Community Forum presented members of the Boatstrand/Dunabrattin Fishmernen & Community Committee with two framed certificates for their achievement in winning both the Sherry Fitzgerald Reynolds Neighbourhood Services Community & Voluntary Award 2007 and the WLRFm Overall Award. Winning both of these Awards highlights the extent of the valuable work being done by the group in their area.

On August 11th 2007 the Committee officially opened the Boatstrand/Dunabrattin Sea Safety Centre. The purpose of the centre is to facilitate activities taking place in the pier, to promote sea safety awareness and to improve sanitary services. In 2006 wheelchair accessible public toilets were opened to the public but it was in early 2007 that in unfortunate circumstances the centre itself opened to provide refreshments and

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CIE Chairman, Dr. John Lynch, was in Waterford last week to meet with the City Manager, Michael Walsh, at City Hall, after which, he held a press announcement on updates to the Waterford to Dublin route.

In relation to the meeting between the two men, the City Manager said that he had a 'positive meeting' with CIE chairman, Dr. John Lynch at City Hall last Friday despite saying that he could not comment on the precise detail of the meeting.

However, the City Manager did say that many areas of public transport were discussed including the rail station and public transport throughout the city.

Dr. Lynch, who held a press briefing that day with Waterford journalists to discuss future plans to the Waterford-Dublin rail route, including newer rail cars and an express route straight to Dublin, informed the media in

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The Financial Regulator last week published new life insurance cost comparisons on its personal finance website itsyourmoney.ie, which compare the monthly cost of a number of life insurance and mortgage protection policies.

The cost comparisons show the cost of policies for male and female consumers and highlight the increased costs for smokers, as well as the savings that can be made by choosing a joint policy.

Head of Consumer Information, Sharon Donnery, explained, "These cost comparisons highlight the possible savings that a couple could make by shopping around for a joint policy, which pays out a benefit if either person dies during the term of the policy. By choosing a joint policy rather than two individual policies, you could save up to €25 per month[1]. This adds up to a saving of more than €6,000 over the term of a 20-year

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Fancy competing in one of the biggest inter-county golf competitions to hit the South East in years and help raise very needy finance for a great appeal at the same time?

If so, then the organisers of the South East Cancer Foundation's 'Swing into Action' competition want to hear from you now.

The group has just written to 40 clubs across the five counties in the South East, inviting them to put their best players forward for an event which will test the mettle of all budding Tiger Woods' and Annika Sörenstams in the region.

Details of the competition are to be launched at a special briefing for clubs in Waterford's Tower Hotel on March 10. But the organisers have revealed that the competitions will begin in each club immediately afterwards, culminating in the regional final at Faithlegg on May 6.

The coveted prize

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It would seem that The Mahon Tribunal has been a fixture in Irish political life for ever. Originally set up to run for only a certain few number of years, it has unearthed so many questions that need to be answered that its remit has been extended on an ongoing basis. No one would deny that they are doing sterling work and that the need for the Tribunal is great. If we cannot have honesty and transparency in public office then it is a very poor day for Irish democracy. As much as the Tribunal has uncovered outrageous flaws in the way that some public business was conducted in the country in the past, it is as nothing compared to the recent questions that have been unearthed in connection with An Taoiseach Bertie Ahearn. Of course, it has to

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March is one of the most active months for wildlife. Winter populations of birds that came here last autumn or early winter are now leaving to go to their breeding grounds. All birds have two complete moults each year and by March, the spring moult is virtually complete and birds now have pristine new plumage to drive and carry them afar. More than this, the new plumage is that of their breeding rituals and is the brightest of all. This nuptial plumage may be completed when some arrive at their breeding sites and the business of attracting a mate and courtship begins.

March is the month when numbers of wintering species increase in frenzied feeding to build up layers of fat on their bodies to sustain them with energy for the long flight. Brent Geese numbers at Tramore and Dungarvan

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Dear Editor

As you know, the man responsible for the setting up of Patrick's Day as a feast day is our very own Luke Wadding. Also, the man responsible for the most Irish of all things Irish (no, not the rasher), our flag, hails from our city too, T.F. Meagher (though the rasher was invented here also J).

I believe these two men should be commemorated and their contributions celebrated in some special way on St. Patrick's day each year…

I would suggest that we have a ceremony every St. Patrick's day in remembrance of where the Irish Flag was first flown. It would work out well as the PA box is normally around 33 The Mall. Perhaps the Irish flag could be raised in a ceremonious fashion at the location either on a temporary mast or on a mast permanently constructed for

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The Workers' Party in Waterford have said that Councillor John Halligan had grossly distorted the facts in the press release and in the interview he gave to Waterford Today following his resignation from the party earlier this week.

"The Waterford Constituency Council of the party wants to set the record straight as Cllr. Halligan has tried to portray his abandonment of our principled opposition to domestic service charges as some kind of David and Goliath battle between himself and the party leadership when, in , he has been in defiance of the wishes of the overwhelming majority of local Waterford members for several months.

"Councillor Halligan has made some totally exaggerated claims about things for which he is claiming responsibility, such as the wheelie bin waiver scheme, the provision of central heating in council houses and the replacement of faulty boilers by

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