Tag Archives: New Zealand

NEW Zealand boy who made an appeal through The Clare Champion for help in bringing her son home from rehab, has thanked the community in County Clare for its support. Monday, March 18 marked six months since Tadhg Giles first became ill with an influenza A infection, which resulted in encephalitis leaving him severely cognitively impaired with inflammation in his brain. The young boy was treated in hospital at Auckland but, when his period in rehabilitation care ended, the family were faced with moving him back home without adequate and appropriate medical support. As their home was not suitably adapted for Tadhg’s new needs, they were required to extensively modify their home with the local health board offering limited support. However, with the combined help of their family, friends, and the Irish community in New Zealand, they were in a position to make the required modifications for a safer home for Tadhg to live in. Speaking to The Clare Champion …

A Kilkee mother living in New Zealand whose ten-year-old son is severely cognitively impaired following a flu infection, has appealed to the community in County Clare for financial help to bring him home from rehab. Laura Devine-Giles’ ten-year-old son, Tadhg has inflammation in his brain, a condition known as encephalitis following an influenza A infection late last September. At the time, he was rushed to ICU and then the children’s ward at Christchurch Hospital before being transferred to Auckland in November. Prior to becoming ill, Tadhg was a very chatty boy who loved playing rugby, singing in a choir and doing all the normal activities a child does in New Zealand. He was also the captain of his school’s kapa haka team. An intelligent boy, he is a self-described “maths genius” and even has his own YouTube channel. Today, Tadhg no longer speaks and is cognitively impaired. The brain injury he suffered has left him with memory loss, psychosis, catatonic …

Fiona McGarry and Dan Danaher A ROUND of applause was given by members of Clare County Council, at their November meeting, to a leading advocate for the protection of the rural post office network. A total of ten councillors had signed up to two motions call for the enactment of a Dáil motion passed in 2016, calling for the establishment of a post office banking service to help secure the future of rural offices. Tom O’Callaghan, Chairperson of the Independent Postmasters’ Group, a proponent of the motions was in attendance at last Monday’s meeting and, after an appeal from councillors PJ Kelly and Gabriel Keating, was allowed to address the gathering. In a letter circulated to local councillors, Tom O’Callaghan outlined the financial gravity 31 Clare Post Offices find themselves in and warned that revisions to incomes would shortly make them unviable. “I spent the first ten years of my career working in the postal service,” Councillor Keating told the meeting. …

MILLIONS of eyeballs will focus on a small rectangle in Cardiff on Saturday night, their owners anticipating a level of drama virtually never found away from live sport. Three of the four major world heavyweight titles are on the line, both fighters are undefeated, both are heroes in their own countries. A genuine sense of occasion and a hair-raising atmosphere will fill the Cardiff arena as the first bell rings and the leather begins to fly. While few here know it, a man with very strong ties to this county is among those who has done most to make the fight happen. Parker’s promoter, the 38-year old Auckland-based David Higgins, spent some of his teenage years in Clare and his mother hails from Newmarket-on-Fergus. Parker has been with Higgins’ company Duco Events since turning professional and one could almost say Higgins is the WBO champion’s creator, having sat down at a whiteboard some years ago and plotted how he might …

Tourism Ireland, together with 13 Irish tourism companies, including Dromoland Castle, is preparing to undertake a week-long sales mission to Australia and New Zealand next month – to grow tourism from both markets. The sales mission, which takes place from November 14-21, will target some 300 influential travel agents, tour operators, airlines and travel journalists in the key cities of Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The objective is to engage with travel professionals in the four cities who are currently selling the island of Ireland, or who have strong potential to sell the destination – and to encourage them to extend their Ireland offering, or to include Ireland for the first time, in their future brochures and programmes. Business links between the tourism companies from Ireland and the influential travel professionals in these markets will be strengthened during the sales mission. The island of Ireland has seen very good growth in visitors from Australia and New Zealand over the past …

Dromoland Castle and the Cliffs of Moher are among 12 Irish businesses touring New Zealand and Australia this week. During the eight-day sales blitz, they will meet hundreds of influential travel agents, tour operators and journalists, during specially tailored business-to-business workshop sessions and networking events – telling them all about what the island of Ireland has to offer holidaymakers. Tourism Ireland’s final overseas trade mission of 2014 takes in the cities of Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Jim Paul, Tourism Ireland’s head of Australia and developing markets, said: “Australia and New Zealand are important markets for tourism to the island of Ireland, delivering a record 206,000 visitors last year, representing growth of 16% over 2012. Visitors from these markets are important, as they tend to stay longer than other holidaymakers, typically six to eight nights, they travel right around the island and many of them come here in the off-season. According to the latest CSO figures, visitor numbers from …