Looking back over January 2022 in Tipperary - First baby of the year and Nancy’s tips to be 100!

January 6, 2022

Our first issue of 2022 led with the headline “Ten-year-old boys drug dealing in Clonmel.”
The story informed readers that drug dealers were using boys as young as ten-years-old to carry out their trade on the streets.
The December meeting of the Tipperary Joint Policing Committee heard the disturbing description of how drug dealers in Clonmel were using young boys to do their work.
A demand was being made for additional garda resources to take on the drug dealers in Clonmel and combat an increase in the levels of crack cocaine available.
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The first baby of the new year in county Tipperary was born to a Clonmel couple.
Róisín O’Reilly from Clonmel gave birth to a baby girl in Tipperary University Hospital before noon on New Year’s Day.
Róisín, a former pupil at Loreto Secondary School, and her partner Keith Cashman, a member of Clonmel Town, were delighted with their New Year’s Day baby.
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Two Clonmel schoolboys, Adam Cooney from Lyrenearla, and Thomas Charles, Árd na Gréine, raised the incredible sum of €4,755 for C-SAW, the Community Suicide Awareness Workers, when they cycled from one end of the country to the other, from Mizen Head to Malin Head last autumn as part of their Transition Year programme at Rockwell College.
In an incredible achievement over six days the boys (with their support team) cycled the 670 kms from the bottom of Cork to the top of Donegal.

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January 13, 2022

A Government decision to overlook Tipperary Town in a €21m national package for rural development had devastated the community, we learned in early January, and the outrage over the snub to Tipperary Town was mounting.
Elected representatives, community leaders and members of a task force, set up by former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to aid the revitalisation of the town, had been left reeling from the hammer blow.
The decision to refuse Tipperary Town and grant Nenagh €1.1m for a digital hub under the same funding scheme, had heightened the perception that the north of the county is being favoured over the south.
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There was a remarkable outpouring of support throughout Tipperary and from all over the world for 6-year-old Danny Norris who was diagnosed with stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma.
In November 2021, Danny’s parents made a public appeal for help to enable him to go to New York later this year for a vaccine trial to try and save his life.
A short few weeks on, the astonishing generosity shown by so many communities has seen over €400,000 collected to fund his cancer treatment.
The heart-rending appeal for support made by his parents Lar and Lisa touched people from near and far.

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The same week we reported that the 10th annual ‘Little Bob’s Memorial Tractor Run’ took place in Touraneena Parish, Ballinamult, on New Year’s Day 2022. This event was set up in memory of the late Robbie (Bob) Power who died in tragic circumstances in 2011.
In July 2021, the Power Family marked the 10th anniversary of Bob’s passing, and he is forever in their thoughts. It is obvious by the support shown each year at the Tractor Run the effect that ‘Little Bob’ had on people’s lives.
All proceeds this year were donated to the Dream for Danny Fund - Danny Norris is six-years-old, a bright, bubbly, and full of fun and mischief, wrote Maria Gleeson.
Since the Tractor Run started in 2012, a whopping €46,955 has been donated to various clubs, groups and charities in Waterford and Tipperary.
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Looking back over October 2021 in Tipperary - Visitors to Cashel cemetery harassed, intimidated

January 20, 2022

In mid January a 70-year-old woman was attacked by an intruder with a weapon as she sat in her livingroom at her home in Clonmel. The woman was admitted to Tipperary University Hospital where she was treated for head injuries.
A male, who unlawfully entered the house at around 11 pm, assaulted the woman with a weapon. Her injuries were not life-threatening. A man in his forties was detained.

Gardaí were also investigating an assault on a 13-year-old girl. She was assaulted by another female in Clonmel town centre.
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The late Ashling Murphy’s talent as a traditional musician and her “bright personality” were recalled at Tipperary County Council’s monthly meeting, when a minute’s silence was observed in memory of the Offaly schoolteacher who had been murdered the previous week, wrote Aileen Hahesy.
It was also decided to open a book of condolence to allow Tipperary people to express their sympathy to her devastated family.

Upwards of 500 people attended a vigil in memory of the late Ashling Murphy at the Canon Hayes Running Track in Tipperary Town on Friday evening, January 14. It was a very poignant occasion as young and old came together to remember the young teacher from Tullamore who was murdered on the previous Wednesday while out for a run.
People also turned out in their hundreds at vigils held in Ashling Murphy’s memory in Clonmel, Cahir, Cashel, Carrick-on-Suir, and around the county.
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In a timely boost in advance of the National Coursing Meeting in Clonmel, it was announced that the future of greyhound racing in the town had been secured following an agreement between the operators of the Clonmel Racetrack and GRI.
The track was also poised for another important development that will open many exciting new opportunities. The Davis Road Greyhound Stadium Ltd had agreed a new lease with Greyhound Racing Ireland which would enable the facilities to be used for commercial activities in addition to racing.
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It was also announced in January that the Clonmel Park Hotel had been taken over by new owners. The Talbot Collection announced the acquisition of the Clonmel Park Hotel.
This acquisition would be the third hotel in Munster for the group. The group currently has seven sister hotels located in Cork, Carlow, Wexford, Dublin.
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January 27, 2022

Plenty of fresh air, plain food and hard work are the recipes for a long and happy life. That was the message from Nancy Lennon on her ‘Big 100th’ on January 17,
A resident of St Anthony’s unit in Clonmel Nancy told Eamonn Wynne: “If you don’t stay out in the fresh air you’re finished.”
“I don’t smoke or drink and I like plain food. “We didn’t eat junk food, we didn’t get it. I don’t overeat, I never eat big meals, it’s always small and often,” says Nancy, who also loves a cup of tea.
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In January Government funding was granted to prepare an options assessment for Ardfinnan Bridge where a controversial temporary traffic light system has been in place for seven years.
A total of €220,000 was allocated to the Ardfinnan Bridge project under the Active Travel Investment grants provided by the Government.
The Ardfinnan funding will kick-start the preparation of a plan to deal with the controversial traffic management measures that were introduced at the bridge seven years ago.
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There was an outpouring of support for former priest Richard Geoghegan in Carrick-on-Suir where he served as curate in St Nicholas Parish for many years, after controversy erupted over his departure from the priesthood.
The Dungarvan native, who was also formerly parish priest of Ballyneale, announced on Twitter that he was “officially dismissed by Rome” on January 7.
“My Bishop was happy to dispense me. I’m a good man. And he talks about the shortage of vocations,” said Mr Geoghegan, who performed a drag impersonation of singer Shirley Bassey on Francis Brennan’s Grand Tour of Vietnam television show on RTE in 2017, which drew criticism from some conservative Catholics.
Bishop of Waterford & Lismore Most Rev. Alphonsus Cullinan rejected Mr Geoghegan’s claim that he was dismissed by Rome and in a statement said he had “of his own accord” petitioned Pope Francis for laicisation.