Tag Archives: India

Fiona McGarry speaks to former Flannan’s teacher Liam Ashe whose NGO’s school in Kolkata is changing lives AT 76 years of age, Doonbeg native Liam Ashe is a great advertisement for what he describes as “late adulthood”. A teacher with four decades of experience, Liam is the driving force behind an NGO that is currently teaching 320 children in one of the most deprived parts of Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. He describes psychologist Maureen Gaffney as his “guru” and lives her precept that if you are active in retirement, you are still in late adulthood. That, in part, explains the huge energy which the long-timer Ballyea resident puts into Balo Children Ireland which he set up after a visit to India over 15 years ago. Liam is known to several generations for his work at St Flannan’s College, Ennis, where he taught History and Geography for 40 years. “I idolised those subjects,” he told The Champion. …

WHILE many of us were using Zoom to do quizzes during lock-down, advocates with a learning disability supported by Brothers of Charity were using the technology to develop international connections. The local advocates have been linking up with Indian charity Families for Children, a non profit, non-sectarian organisation that exists to fulfill the needs of children and young adults with disabilities. Resulting from this, both groups are coming together to host a Wellbeing Zoom event on Thursday, September 16 to raise funds for Indian children and Families for Children’s work. Labasheeda advocate Orla McMahon explains how the connection with Families for Children began back in April when the country was in the grip of record breaking cases of Covid-19. “When I saw the news on TV, families getting turned away from hospitals in India it was desperate. I said, we should do something about this. Let’s do a fundraiser. We’re all meeting up on Zoom nowadays so we looked up …

Enterprise Ireland’s Trade Mission to India, led by the Minister of State for Employment and Small Business, Pat Breen, concluded on Sunday. Thirteen Irish companies from the aviation, financial services, pharmaceuticals and health, ICT and education sectors travelled to Mumbai, Bengaluru and New Delhi. During the mission, a numberof deals and partnerships were signed. As expanding opportunities for Irish companies in the aviation sector was a key objective of the mission, Minister Breen met with the Indian Minister for Civil Aviation and addressed the Aero Expo India attended by key policy and decision makers and stakeholders from the Indian aviation, aerospace, air cargo & allied industries. Before departing India, Minister Breen said, “This trade mission was a valuable exercise in promoting Ireland as a welcoming country for Indian students to come to Ireland pursue a world-class education. As we address the challenges posed by the Brexit vote this trade mission provided valuable introductions for the participating companies to new business …

Pupils in Corofin National School brought together a range of diverse themes recently when they invited members of the Ireland India Council and the India Embassy in Dublin to take part in their Walk for Water. A week of celebrations before the Easter holidays marked India Week and the pupils’ Active School and Green Flag endeavours. Partha Ray, First Secretary at The Embassy of India, Dublin and Mr Ray’s wife, Temina, took part in the school’s celebrations, as did Prashaut Shukla, director of the Ireland-India Council and board member Aparna Shukla. The group spent two days in the school teaching the pupils about Indian culture, history and heritage. Pupils took part in Yoga, Bollywood dancing, Laughter Yoga, Indian music workshops and Indian food-tasting as part of their week-long celebrations. Guests from the Ireland India Council and the Embassy took part in the Walk for Water alongside the school community, as part of Scoil Mhuire’s Water Action Day for their Green …