Galway East TD Anne Rabbitte has written to two government ministers arguing that McDonalds should not be a sponsor of the Big Big Movie on a Saturday evening.

Deputy Rabbitte says that thousands of children look forward to watching the Big Big Movie and that is not right that they are encouraged to associate this fun time with fast food.

The Fianna Fáil TD wrote letters to Minister for Health Simon Harris and the Minister for Communications Denis Naughten as well as Professor Donal O’Shea, the HSE’s Clinical Lead on Obesity.

Deputy Rabbitte explained: “Childhood obesity is a huge issue in Ireland. Almost one third of children in Ireland are now overweight, which represents a 10-fold increase in the rate of obesity among Irish boys between 1975 and 2016, and a 9-fold increase among Irish girls.

“Childhood obesity is correlated with a wide array of serious health problems later in life. Overweight children are four times more likely to develop diabetes than children with a normal BMI. Additionally, childhood obesity is linked with a higher incidence of high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and increases the risk of strokes at a younger age.

“The extremely high incidence of childhood obesity in Ireland is a national crisis. At the same time, the Government continues to allow McDonalds to sponsor the Big Big Movie on RTÉ. This is in direct contradiction of Government policy and should be changed.

“Thousands of children look forward to sitting down in front of the Big Big Movie every Saturday, and it is not right that they are encouraged to associate this fun leisure time with fast food.

“I have written to Professor Donal O’Shea, the HSE’s Clinical Lead on Obesity, as well as Minister for Health Simon Harris and Minister for Communications Denis Naughten, asking them to reconsider this policy decision and to ask RTE to choose a more suitable sponsor for this piece of children’s programming.”

The Together for Yes campaign has raised its target of €150,000 in under seven hours.

Its initial target was €50,000 to pay for 5,000 Yes posters and after reaching its second target of €150,000, it has now been raised to €250,000.

The eight-week referendum campaign is underway and the anti-abortion campaign has raised €400,000 since January.

Together for Yes is now aiming to get enough money from its CrowdFund campaign for 25,000 posters.

Together for Yes Galway launched last week in the city, attended by doctors, politicians and members of the public.

At the launch, Hildegarde Naughton TD said: “I think it’s very well run, and I think if we had more of this engagement right throughout the country, and get the facts out there, again from the medical and the legal perspective as well as womens’ personal experiences. I think it’s a very good approach to this campaign.”

A research project led by NUI Galway, which established that companion robots can have a positive impact on older people living with dementia, has been featured in a European Commission study among the most important research projects in Europe over the last decade.

The EC study analysed the impact on society of EU-funded research and innovation in technology for active and healthy ageing.

The MARIO project is among 25 projects credited, and the only one in Ireland, with having had the most influence in Europe over the last 11 years.

The project is also being featured across Europe this week on the EuroNews TV channel’s Futuris science programme.

Welcoming the listing among the top 25 projects, Professor Dympna Casey from the School of Nursing and Midwifery at NUI Galway, and MARIO project coordinator, explained: “Loneliness is a key public health concern across many age groups and especially for older people with dementia.

“We know that social health and social connectedness are important to the quality of life of people with dementia. Human companionship is the best way of promoting social health but the reality is that our health care services do not have the resources to provide this service.

“So we devised MARIO to be there for people living with dementia.”

According to a European Commission review of MARIO: “Providing adequate care to the elderly is essential to ensure that Europe’s senior citizens are able to spend their later years living a healthy, happy and independent life.

“But without support, many face loneliness, a lack of mobility and exercise, and forgetfulness on a daily basis. However, with the use of modern technology and particularly the development of robotic solutions, Europe’s elderly population can feel young again and lead a much safer and richer life.”

The European Commission study considered the key achievements from ICT for Health research projects funded under FP7, the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) and Horizon 2020.

In doing so it provides a useful consolidated insight across the ‘technology for active and healthy ageing’ portfolio.

Ageing poses one of the biggest economic and social challenges for this century. It is estimated that by 2025, more than 20% of Europeans will be 65 or over, and by 2060, one in three Europeans will be aged 65 or over.

Furthermore, the ratio of working people to the ‘inactive’ others will shift from 4 to 1 today to 2 to 1 by 2060.

TULCA Festival has announced that this year’s festival will be curated by Linda Shevlin.

Linda Shevlin is an independent curator based in Co. Roscommon Ireland.

‘Syntonic State’ takes dual cues from Galway’s merchant and mariner histories, and from the concept of nostalgia, with its cultural links to revelry and hedonism.

Speaking about this year’s festival, Linda said, “I’m absolutely thrilled to be curating the 2018 edition of TULCA. I’ve followed the festival for many years now, secretly plotting what I would do if I was ever approached to curate it. So it’ll be great to these thoughts come to fruition.”

Kate Howard, Festival Producer of TULCA 2018 said: “We are delighted that Linda has accepted our invitation to be the Curator of the 16th edition of TULCA in 2018 and very much look forward to working with Linda to develop her programme.”.

Linda explained the inspiration for this year’s festival by saying: “This year’s exhibition takes its title from the psychology term to be ‘culturally syntonic’, or to be in harmony with one’s environment. Living in a time of mass migration and displacement, it will be a provocation that explores nostalgia in popular culture, it’s use as a political device to incite fear & anger in society and how we all struggle to find our place in the world.”

TULCA is now accepting submissions for its open call, the deadline is May 31^st for further Open Submission details please go to www.tulcafestival.com. The TULCA Festival of Visual Arts runs in Galway from November 2^nd – November 18^th at various locations around Galway.

Galway professors and lecturers will join Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole at an exhibition on George Bernard Shaw in New York next week.

The Judging Shaw Day, featuring a roundtable discussion entitled, ‘Shaw, Our Contemporary?’, a keynote lecture by Fintan O’Toole and a Judging Shaw Exhibition, will take place next Monday, 16 April at Columbia University in New York.

George Bernard Shaw was the most famous Irishman in the world for much of his life – yet, for many, the prodigious nature and quality of his output is forgotten.

As well as being a prolific writer and polymath, he was one of the first global celebrities who carefully created and managed his personal brand of ‘GBS’.

With his passionate interest in social justice and poverty, in human rights, in public discourse and in entertainment, he was a man with much to say to our times.

This event will include discussion with academics, archivists and a publisher who will debate the relevance of Shaw today, on the stage, in the classroom and in print.

Speakers at the roundtable discussion will include Catriona Crowe (Chair), Member of the Royal Irish Academy; Adrian Paterson, Lecturer in English, NUI Galway; Ruth Hegarty,Managing Editor, Royal Irish Academy; Barry Houlihan, Archivist, NUI Galway; Lucy McDiarmid, Professor, Montclair State University; Keri Walsh, Associate Professor, Fordham University.

Fintan O’Toole will explore Shaw’s ambivalent relationship with Ireland and Irish nationalism. George Bernard Shaw described Irish nationalist fervour in 1913 as “a burning fire shut up in the bones, a pain, a protest against shame and defeat, a morbid condition which a healthy man must shake off if he is to keep sane”.

The only cure was national independence. Shaw always remained a paradoxical nationalist, arguing simultaneously that Irish freedom would do no good in itself and that it must be gained in order for the Irish to be able to think about other things.

Author of a new book, Judging Shaw, Fintan O’Toole is a columnist and literary editor with The Irish Times and a Leonard L. Milberg lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University. He has written books on Irish history, politics, society and culture. He has been awarded the European Press Prize 2017 and the Orwell Prize for Journalism 2017.

Professor Daniel Carey, Director of the Moore Institute at NUI Galway, said: “Shaw continues to intrigue, decades after the end of his long life. He still speaks to us, partly as a figure intent on social justice in his plays and criticism, by turns knowing and naïve, yet fully engaged in a world of contested relationships and political conflict.”

Funding of €600,000 has been allocated for the Dun Aengus, Inis Mór as part of investment by Fáilte Ireland and the OPW in four key heritage and tourism sites along the Wild Atlantic Way.

€1.15m has been allocated to the Céide Fields in Co Mayo.

The Blasket Island Visitor Centre in Kerry and Carrowmore in Sligo will also receive funding.

Galway West TD Sean Kyne welcomed the investment saying: “I am delighted with the investment of €1.15m in the Céide Fields for a new exhibition and interpretation space to replace the existing Visitor Centre and with the €450,000 by Failte Ireland and €150,000 by the OPW for a major upgrade of the Visitor Centre at Dun Aengus and the introduction of interpretative information at other key OPW-managed sites on Inis Mór, such as Dun Duchathair.

“As Minister with responsibility for the Atlantic Economic Corridor I know the importance of both tourism and the preservation of our heritage sites to communities from Kerry to Galway to Mayo to Donegal.

“My colleague, Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin TD is also acutely aware of the importance of developing and support the assets in the West with key investment in tourism which boosts local communities right along the Western Seaboard.

“By co-ordinating investment and the efforts of State agencies, Minister Griffin and Minister of State for the OPW, Kevin Boxer Moran are making ensure that the potential of every euro invested is realised.

“The prehistoric stone fort of Dun Aengus is one of Ireland’s most recognised landmarks and is one of the OPW’s most visited sites with 132,233 visitors in 2016. The Céide Fields, the oldest field systems in the world, will be enhanced with a new exhibition and interpretation space to showcase archaeological material. The OPW-managed site attracted 33,178 visitors in 2016.

“With the significant challenge of Brexit ever present, investment in and conservation of our heritage sites is as important as ever so that we can enhance and maintain the visitor experience for tourists and local alike.”

Cúirt International Festival of Literature takes place 23 – 29 April in Galway and this year’s eclectic line-up looks at literature across a number of art forms, including music.

In a new departure, the programme will feature a number of events exploring the connection between words and music, playing with the idea of literature and the “sister arts”.

Commenting, the new Programme Director for Cúirt, Emily Cullen said: “Cúirt originally started out as a poetry festival in Galway in 1985 and is now one of the oldest and most recognised literature festivals in Europe. While staying true to its core values in poetry and prose, this year we’re very excited about exploring a number of exciting new areas across music and visual art.”

Lyrics of our Lives: The Art of Songwriting invites us to think about the creation of song lyrics as a writing practice with five leading songwriters and musicians including Steve Wall (The Stunning), Julie Feeney and Paul Linehan (The Frank & Walters); Play It Again  integrates The Guardian’s former-editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger’s written reflections on world politics with the virtuoso piano of Finghin Collins for a lively evening with the haunting music of Chopin, interspersed with readings and conversation about music, writing, journalism and politics, and Danny Diamond’s fiddle converses with the poetry of Tom French in What To Bring When We Leave.

The 33^rd Cúirt programmes features over 70 events to choose from, many of them free, ranging across poetry, prose, music, spoken word, theatre, talks, masterclasses, family events and exhibitions as well as the popular annual series of talks and workshops for children and teenagers, the Cúirt Labs. 

Leading Irish and international authors (including Sebastian Barry, Bernard MacLaverty, Sally Rooney, Sinéad Morrissey, Patrick McCabe, Professor Declan Kiberd and Juan Pablo Villalobos), an exploration of language across art forms and a strong commitment to Irish-language writing are at the heart of this year’s festival.cúirt galway daily literature festival

New figures released by the CSO show that there were 12,191 people on the Live Register in Galway in March 2018, down from 12,397 in February (-0.6%).

In Clifden, the number of people on the Live Register (which includes Jobseekers Benefit, Jobseekers Allowance and other entitlements) was 800, down from 858 in February.

This decrease is representative of the national figures.

The number of persons seeking benefits in March 2018 was the lowest number recorded since July 2008.

The Live Register total recorded a monthly decrease of 2,200 (-0.9%) in March 2018, reducing the number of people on the benefits and allowances to 233,100 (232,366 unajusted).

Of the number of people on the Live Register in March, 132,581 were male and 99,785 were female.

10% were from other EU member states and 82% were born in Ireland.

The Live Register does not necessarily calculate unemployment, as it considers people with part-time jobs, seasonal and casual workers.