Ballincollig

So I still work for him two mornings a week, Tuesdays and Fridays.

So I was driving, I was sitting in the office, and I was going, "Right, I'll go home now, and I must alter my presentation slides in order to give the presentation to companies and to give it to local gyms." I'm doing two local gyms in Ballincollig on the menopause, perimenopause season of life.

So I was like, "Right, that's my next thing on my to-do list is go home now and start tackling those slides and changing them from how to coach women in this season, in how to survive and thrive as a woman," I'm gonna say thrive completely, "as a woman in this season." So I was like, "Oh, fuck.

I have to go home now and do that, and that's my Friday afternoon." And then I made an executive decision.

Now, what started in 2015 as a tribute to her late sister, Hilary, it has grown into an incredible local institution.

Over 10 years, Ballincollig's own Bernice Kavanagh has raised nearly €50,000 for Marymount University Hospital and Hospice through Ireland's Biggest Coffee Morning.

And just recently, her dedicated work was recognized on the national stage when she was awarded the Together for Hospice National Super Host Award.

Uh, Bernice joins me now.

And, uh, good, good to talk to you, Bernice.

First of all, massive congratulations on the National Super Host award.

How did it feel, uh, to step into St. Francis Hospice and receive the national recognition for what you've built in Ballincollig?

Well, uh, of course it was an honor to go to St. Francis Hospice 'cause being involved with it for so many years, I always wondered, you know, what about other hospices and 'cause I knew it was nationwide.

And now we're going to come to this week's chapter one edition.

Every couple of weeks we get one from the Liefenbauer Bookshop in Ballincollig.

And Fiona Farrell always has something, words about some, I don't know, different type of book that might have you thinking or curious or whodunit.

But this week I was looking for a little bit of solace.

There'll be an exhibition of assistive technology, there'll be some of our charity partners some of the big sight loss charities in ireland like child vision vision ireland irish guide dogs fighting blindness the anne sullivan center and vision sports are all going to be present and the community hub for assistive technology and sarah boland who was on your show before will be there delivering a workshop and there's going to be workshops around some of the research projects that are being done in TU Dublin by some of their students.

So loads of things going on on Monday and Tuesday and then on Wednesday for people who aren't in Dublin we're going to Cork and we'll be at the Irish Guide Dog Centre in Ballincollig from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

So it's a chance to look at technology, both from Sight & Sound and the brands that we represent, and Optelec, Jan's friends from the Netherlands, are going to be with us, and also Synaptic, who do the smartphones, the Synaptic tablets, The new smartwatch.

So we'd love to see people.

Some areas in the proposed map, I don't have it to hand just now, but they are, they're narrow.

I'm thinking of Station Road in, in Ballincollig, very narrow, where people have said, "God, it's too narrow a street.

You can't go putting the Luas up it." And, and the, the loop in Ballincollig, you've explained how important the loop is.

Phase three.

Absolutely.

[laughs]

Uh, and that's one of the areas where, uh, uh, we focus our attention, certainly.

Uh, uh, Ballincollig, uh, the Bishopstown area, and Ballintemple, because of the steep gradient.