Pre-deceased by her husband Michael, son Thomas, sisters Noreen and Theres; Mrs Fox passed away peacefully, while in the presence of her loving family at St John’s Hospital.
Her passing is most deeply regretted, sadly missed and lovingly remembered by her sorrowing family; sons Michael, Emmet and Edward, daughter Simone, sister Frances, brother Laurence, brother-in-law Ailbe, sisters-in-law Ann, Helen, Margaret, Ita, grandchildren Ashleigh, Katelyn, Emma, Michéal, Clodagh, Emily, Rachel and Naomi, son-in-law Alan, daughters-in-law Mandy, Lilian and Hannah, nephews, nieces, extended relatives, neighbours and friends.
For those persons who are unable to attend the funeral service for Mrs Fox, same can be viewed streamed live online. (Note link to follow).
The extended Fox and Long families wish to express their appreciation for your understanding at this difficult time, and have made arrangements for those persons wishing to send messages of condolence, to use the link shown HERE.
Pre-deceased by her beloved husband Liam; Mrs Ferns, passed away unexpectedly but peacefully at her place of ordinary residence.
Her passing is most deeply regretted, sadly missed and lovingly remembered by her sorrowing family; sons Anthony & Thomas, daughters Mary and Margaret, grandchildren Alex, Karl, Daniel, Joe and Dara, brothers Sean, Ned and P.J., sisters Sr. Patricia and Agnes, sons-in-law Hugh and Darren, daughter-in-law Pearl and Thomas’s partner Maura, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, extended relatives, neighbours and wonderful friends.
Requiescat in Pace.
Funeral Arrangements.
The earthly remains of Mrs Ferns will repose at Burke’s Funeral Home, 103 Shannon St, Mountrath, Co. Laois, (R32 RC80) on this evening, Friday November 8th from 6:30pm, concluding with Rosary at 8:30pm. Her remains will be received into the Church of St. Edmund, Elderfield, Castletown, Co. Laois (XGG4+VG) to further repose for Requiem Mass on Saturday morning, November 9th at 11:00am, followed by interment, immediately afterwards, in Churchtown Cemetery, Mountrath, Co. Laois.
For those persons who are unable to attend the funeral service for Mrs Ferns, same can be viewed streamed live online, HERE.
The extended Ferns and Fogarty families wish to express their appreciation for your understanding at this difficult time, and have made arrangements for those persons wishing to send messages of condolence, to use the link shown HERE.
Suaimhneas síoraí dá h-anam dílis i dteannta na Naomh agus na n-aingeal.
Work on the new entrance to link the Bank of Ireland Car park, situated on Emmett Street, Thurles, with the adjacent new Thurles Slievenamon Road car park; latter opened back in 2020 on the south side of Liberty Square, has now finally begun.
Entrance to Bank of Ireland car park on Emmett Street in Thurles. Pic: G. Willoughby.
The work was originally scheduled to begin in the third quarter of this year, subject to funding being made available.
We understand that the work will include the removal of the Bank of Ireland’s current car park entrance wing walls, leading on to Emmett Street and the provision of a new setback boundary wall. Same will then see the removal of the old stone wall, between the bank and the Slievenamon Road car park, with the provision of footpaths, public lighting, signage, resurfacing and lining.
With little information being made available to the public, it is difficult to picture or indeed understand how off-street parking in the town will be anyway improved by this new measure. One problem it will not solve is the major traffic congestion in the centre of Thurles town. However, the removal of the stone wall between both car parks granting a second exit (see background of image above), should assist vehicles to exit and enter this area more freely, especially those shopping in the British multinational retailer Tesco and the parking of vehicles for those attendees, visiting loved ones reposing at Hugh Ryan’s Funeral Home.
Details of costings in relations to this work has not been shared publicly with taxpayers, as yet.
In this racing age in which we now live, one of the most pleasurable of activities seems earmarked for total oblivion. I refer, of course, to that once-popular activity of just ‘waitin’ around’.
In almost all situations in life there are moments when the world comes temporarily to a standstill for the partner and I. Such as when the number 8 bus to Dalkey whizzes past us on an evening we had planned a convivial evening with the in-laws before dashing to the theatre. On occasions such as this, one can easily distinguish between those who have read ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ and those given to kicking pavements, climbing the pole of the bus stop, grinding dentures, practising side-line hurling pucks with the brolly and roaring at junior to quit mouthing about his being late for ““Frozen” or “Paw Patrol” on the telly.
About the only people I know who enjoy waiting around are young courting couples who, like the partner and self, take advantage of the standstill in time to communicate with a touch of hands or a plain old giggle-giggle. People in general, though, have little inclination to just wait around any-more. As for the partner and self, we enjoy nothing better, except, of course when partner has an appointment at the hairstylist. A little waiting around is (and the Jesuits may correct me), damn good for the soul. It is like a little retreat as beneficial as any (with respect) at our Retreat Houses. Mind you, people will insist (particularly possessive wives) that such waiting around periods are fraught with peril for the soul. And indeed there are men who, while waiting around, see nothing but romance in every female on the street. Hardly the stuff “retreats” are made of, though I will not act the hypocrite and deny I am like the rest of men, (partner, forgive me!).
Still, marginally, mind you, there is more to the great world than ladies hurrying home from office, shop or factory. One could, for instance, eavesdrop on the private lives that often become very public at a railway station or a bus stop, when detainees and ‘in a hurry folk’ moan about the vicissitudes of life such as their working day presents them with. Times you know when a station waiting room or a bus stop can be a public confession box. Waitin’ around is good for my business. Once I was forced to wait for an hour for the partner outside a Tipperary Hotel and wondered, irascibly, when she would arrive. In the course of that hour I met the secretaries of umpteen societies and groups who were leaving the hotel after their respective meetings, all cheery and talkative of course, after leaving the hotel lounge-bar.( Mind you, after the introduction of the smoking ban, there are more people just waiting around than ever before).
Eh, begad, I was given press releases, secretaries’ reports and off-the-record statements I should never have acquired under more sober circumstances, had I not been waiting around. Maybe more journalists should hang around hotel exteriors after closing time!
There are some people who live in a small town all their lives and never really know it. Not me. From waitin’ around for the partner I know the colour of every shop front, the registration number of every car, the habits of every courting couple in town. I am better than a Garda and I am likely to know at what precise time the town drunks are about to render a few bars of “Show Me The Way To Go Home” or “The Red Flag”.
At Thurles Railway Station, while waiting around I have welcomed home emigrants, congratulated young boys and girls off to their first job in the Civil Service or to College; consoled hurlers coming back from Dublin trophy-less and (before I was wed), asked to dinner bright young things from New York and Paris arriving to ‘au pair’ in Tipperary.
Really, I almost envy the professionals at the ‘waiting around game’. Corner boys, people on strike, reserves on teams, gentlemen of the road, all good people who serve right well, though they only stand and wait. Which reminds me, partner has been waiting around for me to drive her to the Post Office. “On my way, dear. On my way”.
END
Tom Ryan, “Iona”, Rahealty, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
Progress, economic prosperity, and health all threatened unless Ireland increases the scale, pace, and ambition of environmental action.
Dul chun cinn, rathúnas geilleagrach agus sláinte i mbaol mura méadaíonn Éire scála, luas agus uail.(Irish Language Translation: Progress, economic prosperity and health are at risk if Ireland does not increase scale, speed and ambition (pride).
Ireland has modernized and prospered since joining the EU over 50 years ago – future prosperity and health are threatened unless we better protect our environment.
We are continuously playing catch-up – a forward step in one area is often matched by one or two steps back in another.
Actions on many fronts are having positive impacts but are entirely inadequate to deliver a healthy environment.
For too long we have merely aimed to ‘get by’, aspiring to only minimum standards – in many instances, we don’t even reach those.
Serious action cannot be postponed – we need a rapid and resolute advance in environmental performance driven by a national policy position on the environment.
For too long, the Report says, we have merely aimed to ‘get by’ aspiring to only minimum standards, and then in many instances not even meeting those. The report shows that actions on multiple fronts to address issues are not keeping pace with growing pressures and our environment continues to degrade. What is now needed, the report continues, is a strategic leap, a shared vision for how we will adapt our lives and work to protect our own existence within the next decade, and a national policy statement on the environment that articulates and drives this transition.
Speaking at the launch of the report, Ms Laura Burke, Director General of the EPA said: “We have made immense progress as a nation. Our membership of the EU helped us achieve that. We now look back to a time when we had serious industrial pollution of our rivers, when we relied on over a hundred municipal dumps, when we burned smoky fuel in our cities – and we can never go back to that”.
“But where we are right now,” Ms Burke added, “while it is better, is nowhere near good enough. We are always playing catch-up. We now have virtually no seriously polluted rivers, but we have hardly any pristine ones left, either. We now recycle more, but produce more waste than ever and export much of it. We are taking positive actions across multiple fronts, but they are not keeping pace with the growing pressures, and our environment is being squeezed. Increments now are not best use of scarce time and resources: We need to make a fundamental shift.”
That fundamental shift, according to the report, would start with a national policy position on the environment, that allows for long-term planning and would ensure that the environment is prioritised consistently across decades.
The report identifies five key essential areas we must prioritise to deliver the impact we need:
We urgently need a national policy position on the environment.
We must rigorously implement existing environmental plans and programmes to achieve the benefits that they were developed to deliver.
We need to transform our energy, transport, food and industrial sectors.
We need to scale up investment in water, energy, transport and waste management infrastructure.
We need to understand the absolute link between protecting our environment and protecting our health – harm one and we harm the other.
“We know what we have to do” Ms Burke added. “Our energy, transport, food and industrial sectors are the core of where this transformation can, must, and will happen. We must harness all of our resources to meet this challenge. Not acting now only postpones inevitable change that will be much more difficult, and more costly, later on.”
Dr Micheál Lehane, EPA Director said: “It is clear that our environmental challenges are interconnected and they are complex. We need to drive action across climate, biodiversity, sustainable consumption and pollution goals. This will not be easy and we cannot underestimate the challenges of moving to a path of a less wasteful, regenerative society. The IPCC has highlighted that there is now a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all. It is not negotiable. We need our air, water and natural environment to continue to prosper. You either change for the environment now or the environment will irrevocably change us and how we live later. We, in Ireland, must do our part in making this sustainable future a reality.”
Ms Laura Burke, Director General of the EPA concluded: “We can no longer take the environment for granted. By taking determined actions, we will ensure we are not going to go back, or playing catch-up. This time, we need to be ahead. A healthier environment is attainable for all and is within our reach.”
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