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Alzheimer’s Tea Day makes a comeback

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Dáithí Ó Sé and Sinead Kennedy invite Kerry to the Great Tea Day Comeback on May 5th

RTÉ stars Dáithí Ó Sé and Sinead Kennedy are calling on Kerry to host a Tea Day to mark Alzheimer’s Tea Day Comeback on Thursday, May 5.

After two long years, The Alzheimer Society of Ireland (The ASI) is inviting everyone to come together again for a cup of tea, a chat and maybe a treat or two to help raise funds for vital dementia supports and services.

The ASI is asking the people of Kerry to get involved with local Tea Day events in their homes, gardens, workplaces, schools, local community centres or somewhere special.

The traditional Alzheimer’s Tea Day was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, and the event had to be moved online.

But now, Alzheimer’s Tea Day, The ASI’s biggest and most important fundraiser, is back.

For the first time in three years, after so much time in isolation, with many feeling lonely and alone, The ASI wants people to host their very own Tea Day and help Tea Day make a comeback!

The ASI aims to raise vital funds to provide supports and services to help families living with dementia nationwide.

There are an estimated 2,429 people living with dementia in Kerry and each year more than 11,000 people develop the disease across the country – that’s at least 30 people every day. However, there is one thing you can do to help – you can put the kettle on and host your very own Tea Day!

How to help

Register on teaday.ie and you'll be sent an Organiser’s Toolkit which includes posters, collection boxes, raffle tickets, and everything you need to make your Tea Day a success! Next, share a cuppaa and a few stories at home, in the garden, at work or in the community. You can host Tea Day however, and wherever, you like!

Share your Tea Day event on social media. Post your photos and videos and don’t forget to use the hashtags #TeaDay2022 #TogetherForTea

By supporting Tea Day, you can make an incredible difference as €10 provides an hour at an Alzheimer’s cafe for a person with dementia, €35 provides one hour of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy, €70 provides a session of Musical Therapy and €150 runs a social club for one day.

“I’m delighted to support Alzheimer’s Tea Day again this year," The Alzheimer Society of Ireland Ambassador, Dáithí Ó Sé, said.

"It’s been three years since we’ve been able to gather for a proper Tea Day get-together. So, let’s make up for lost time, lost connection, and lost funds and come together to make 2022 the Great Tea Day Comeback Year! On Thursday, May 5 we want everyone to have a chat, a laugh, a brew and donate a few Euro to The Alzheimer Society of Ireland’s Tea Day campaign to help provide essential dementia-specific services for the 64,000 people living with dementia in Ireland."

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Fossa School says ‘bonjour’ to French classes

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Fossa National School is giving its pupils a headstart in learning a new language.

The school signed up to Language Sampler scheme as part of the ‘Say Yes to Languages’ initiative in primary schools organised by Post Primary languages Ireland in 2021. This is the school’s third year running the module.

Hélène Olivier-Courtney, the school’s French teacher and director of French For All Killarney School of French, covers ten schools in Kerry over the three terms.

The success of the initiative relies on an all-school approach and the active involvement of class teachers and management.

“The whole staff in Fossa certainly helped make this new journey a special and enjoyable experience for the children as we learnt French through art, songs, games and food tasting! This year, we also organised a catwalk on our last day. Our sixth-class students will have such a head start before secondary school and most importantly will have develop curiosity interest and love for the language,” said Hélène.

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Opinion: Silent majority needs to stand up and call out far-right hate

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By Chris Davies

Last Friday’s Dublin Riots should not have come as a surprise to anyone. It has been bubbling under the surface of Irish society for a good number of years now. The actions of a small minority last week was a culmination of years of racism, hatred and misinformation shared online by far-right groups.

Late on Friday night a disturbing WhatsApp voice note was doing the rounds on social media where a far-right actor could clearly be heard encouraging violence on the streets of Dublin. 

“’Seven o’clock, be in town. Everyone bally up, tool up…Any foreigner, just kill them”

Watching the Riots unfold on social media brought me back to when I was working in Dublin a number of years back. My morning commute from Skerries to the city centre involved a dart to Connolly Station followed by a short trip on the Luas to the Jervis. Every week, without fail, I would witness at least one racial slur or attack on someone who didn’t fit the narrow minded view of what an Irish person should look, dress or talk like. I don’t know if it is the eerie silence of public transport that seems to amplify the situation, but that’s where I found it to be most common. The abuse was usually perpetrated by a group of youths or someone who was clearly under the influence of drink or drugs. The victims were always of colour, often dressed smartly enough to presume they were on their way, or coming from work. A far cry from the perpetrators who you could tell were roaming aimlessly around the city looking for trouble.

While shameful to admit, I would often look on and watch the abuse unfold, only to spend the rest of my work day thinking about the poor person who was told to “F*&K off back to your own country”. I would sit at my desk questioning why I didn’t step in and say something. There were one or two occasions where I did step in and call it out, but not nearly often enough.  

This disgusting behaviour is much more visible in our cities. Since moving back to Killarney I wouldn’t witness as much direct abuse on the streets but working with the Killarney Advertiser I would be tuned in to local news and some of the comments I read on our social platforms are far worse than anything I witnessed during my time in Dublin.  

There is a significant group of people in Ireland that I would call the ‘silent majority’. We are not as outspoken on issues we care about. We tend to observe and consume the news quietly, and only speak of our support or disgust on certain issues in close circles, too afraid we might offend someone. The problem with this is that we are leaving these far-right groups unchallenged, to become louder, more aggressive and more hostile as seen last week. 

The past week Sinn Fein and the Social Democrats have been busy in the media expressing no confidence in Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris but I would suggest that there is a large percentage of the Irish population that bears some of the responsibility. We witness racism in our communities and online every day and we need to start speaking up and calling it out. 

On the issue of immigration in Killarney, there is no doubt resources are being stretched and our tourism industry is suffering as a result of an influx of immigration. Locals have also raised concerns in relation to the placement of so many male international protection applicants in one setting and we only have to look back on the incident in Hotel Killarney last year where a number of men were involved in a harrowing stabbing incident to see how that played out.  

However, being concerned around immigration is not the same as anti-immigration. It is important to raise these issues with local representatives and Kerry TD’s but also to separate ourselves from far-right groups who are only interested in encouraging violence.  

The anarchy we witnessed last week should never be the answer and research shows it is completely unnecessary. Harvard University have looked at hundreds of protests over the last century, and found that non-violent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns and that it only takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change.

Let’s continue to protest peacefully for issues we believe in, but stand up and speak out against people and movements in our community that incite hate and violence. 

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