Other News In Brief

People Encouraged To Stay Off Their Phones This Valentines Day

People are being encouraged to stay off their phones this Valentine's Day and instead spend time with their loved ones.

Cork Senator Tim Lombard, a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, is behind a campaign asking people to desist from using their smart phones when socialising with friends or family.

He said: "Since I first mooted the idea of phone free pubs and restaurants in recent weeks, I have received an overwhelmingly positive response. In my own constituency, several pubs and restaurants have taken the campaign onboard and encourage people to chat to each other rather than waste time playing with their phones while out for an evening or night.

"Today is Valentine's Day. This is a special day where you should spend quality time with your loved one.

"But all too often, we can get side tracked and consumed with our smartphones. Spending quality time means giving that person your undivided attention. We have done it for thousands of years. Why let a modern invention detract from love, friendship and company?

"No one wants to go on a date with a device.

"This Valentine's Day, I'm encouraging people to put their mobiles away so that your loved one doesn't end up on a date with a phone," the Fine Gael Senator said.

SIPTU Members At Pfizer Agree To Attend WRC Negiotians

SIPTU members working in the Pfizer Plants in Ringaskiddy and Little Island in county Cork have agreed to attend a meeting of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in relation to proposed pension changes at the company.

SIPTU Organiser, Ray Mitchell, said: "Our members in the Pfizer Plants in Ringaskiddy and Little Island have,in accordance with a request from the WRC, also deferred their scheduled industrial action."

Grant Approved For Irish Revival Archives Project

Minister of State for Gaeilge, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Seán Kyne, has announced a grant of €120,000 to Conradh na Gaeilge for the Irish Revival Archives Project.

The grant has been sanctioned over a two year period, 2019 and 2020. Announcing the grant during a visit to the headquarters of Conradh na Gaeilge on Harcourt Street, Minister Kyne stated that he was very happy to make this grant available.

He said: "Work on a project of this kind is challenging and it is of the utmost importance that such an initiative receives support in order that it will be available to future generations.

"Much work has been done in the past couple of years to collect and organise this historical material which relates not only to the history of the organisation, but also to the history of the country.  Conradh na Gaeilge has deposited archival material in NUI, Galway, and I am delighted that the university is making significant investment in order to catalogue and digitise this material and to make it available to the public.

"As part of this work, much research has been carried out and is continuing the history of Conradh na Gaeilge and on Number 6 Harcourt Street, which had connections with some of the most famous people in Irish history, among them Cardinal John Newman and Michael Collins. Conradh na Gaeilge is developing plans to redevelop Number 6 as an Irish Language Centre and I took the opportunity today to visit Number 6 and to learn more about these plans and the history of the building."