County Offaly

It starts today at Johnstown Estate in Meath at around 11 o'clock.

We'll travel to Wicklow, Kildare, Offaly, Westmead, Clare, Limerick, Cork, Kilkenny and everywhere in between from now until Sunday.

And Anna Daly is the ambassador for the Cannonball Run.

She joins me now from Johnstown Estate.

So in the west of the country, there's this rapid expansion of hedgerow and field division.

the field pattern in the east of the country would have established further, probably certainly around even Kings County and Queens County, Offaly and Leash.

That probably was where the hedgerow networks first came in.

You see by the second edition Ordnance Survey, even in Leitrim, 96% of the hedges that we currently have were probably present.

In the way that we talk about tree surgery, I think with Hedgeland, we should be talking about edge surgery.

Some examples, it was a traditional technique in a number of parts of the country.

Kildare top left, Offaly top right, Westmeath bottom left, and Sligo bottom right.

These are all examples that I've come across when I've been doing hedgerow surveys.

Yeah, you're right, Stephen.

So next week we have the National Appliance Championships there in Scrag in Tullamore County, Offaly.

So we're looking forward to meeting new and existing customers there at it.

So we're going to be based at stand 53, row 3, block 4.

The plan went in, the plan of permission, and it was granted by Roscommon County Council.

And then all of a sudden, a man from County Offaly, a Mr. Brian O'Sullivan, decided that he would object to the planning for the Aldi store in Boyle.

Following that, we decided we would have a protest.

We had that.

And this has to stop.

This has to stop.

And the fact that someone from County Offaly that has probably never, ever seen Camden's building and has a bull's notion whether there's bats or what the hell is in there, can do this and delay this project and try and deprive Boyle and the surrounding areas of this.

It's just unbelievable.

The National Ploughman Championships is on next week in Scregan or wherever it is.

It's Shamrock, Smukla, over that direction in Offaly.

It did a number of years in a tie and it did a number of years in Ratanesca.

And if you go to Castle Mitchell GA Club, they have a stand built and they have an astrofacility built on the back of the ploughing being in that area.

Ratanesca, Parc Ratanesca have done an amount of work, a lot of the legacy of the ploughing championships and Shamrocks GA Club over in Offaly, as well as Muckla Soccer Club, where you are a regular visitor to as well, have all benefited hugely out of the ploughing championships being in their area.

And Shamrocks GA Club is a big, wide sort of, it's a bit sort of like a St. Joseph's that has a whole little mini villages in it and different areas.

They are doing a multi-million development and the ploughing is a very central part of it.

And we often see it in Leash where someone will leave and they're going to have to be a director of services in Waterford or Carlow or Mead or whatever, like Ciarán Cio from...

Well, hello, good morning from Athlone.

And what skills have you picked up over the years that you've never actually put a name on? And could they be the key to your next career move? Well, this morning, live from Golden Island Shopping Centre, we're looking at Reshape, a new free platform designed to help people across Leash, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath Discover not only the skills you already have, but where the gaps might be and where those combined skills could take you.

And if you're an employer, how you can develop and keep the people who are already working for you.

Also today, the 15th century Offaly Castle with a spy hole and dungeon and 35 years of memories for Patrick Bergen.

He'll be on the programme in 15 minutes.

The Irish Open and Donald Trump being the main guest.

Some local stories.

One of the most basic supports for children and adults as we develop is speech and language therapy.

He was also playing Robin Hood opposite a young Uma Thurman.

And shortly afterwards, he arrived in Offaly and bought Emmel Castle, complete with battlements, a medieval tower, a banqueting hall, a spy hole, and appropriately enough for Robin Hood, a commanding view of the countryside as well.

So 35 years later, Patrick and his wife Helen have decided it's time to hand the keys to somebody else.

Patrick, you're welcome to the programme.

And

that's where we have our dinner parties.

And then there's the battlements, of course, which gives you the view over the whole of Tipperary and Offaly.

The interesting thing about the word Emil comes from the Gaelic word imil, which means edge or border.

Staying on the theme of wildlife, on Monday's Mooney Goes Wild, we heard a selection of reports which Terry Flanagan has recorded for the programme over the years.

In this report, Terry met Ricky Whelan, Biodiversity Officer for County Offaly and a member of Birdwatch Ireland, who had lots of interesting things to tell Terry about crows.

So it's been proven in ravens time and time again.

A guy called Brent Heinrich, we'll give you one example over in in North America he uses ravens in all his experiments and what he does is he will go to a roost, a raven roost similar to this but in America he will take some of the ravens he will bring them back to his aviary in his house he will keep them for a few weeks he will then bring them to a secret location and show them a dead carcass these couple of ravens and then release them The carcass will be covered in snow, but the next morning they will return with hundreds of their friends after telling their friends where the carcass is.