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This Tipperary 'biketown' has worked hard to recover from recession - but it's been an uphill struggle

In an area in need of more mental health services, Carrick-on-Suir locals have devised a plan to try to sustain itself.

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TheJournal.ie / YouTube

IF I HAVE a suicidal patient in Tipperary, I sometimes have to send them off to a busy Emergency Department, due to inadequate community-based staffing levels. If I have a suicidal patient in Waterford, I can call an experienced psychiatric nurse who’ll see them in our surgery, potentially a day or two afterwards.

Dr Richard Roche-Nagle is a local GP in Carrick-on-Suir. Both of his parents practiced as GPs since 1971. He also has a practice in Clonea, Co Waterford, just 10km from Carrick-on-Suir, which gives him the chance to see what services aren’t accessible to his patients in his Tipperary practice.

“We have a consultant psychiatrist who visits our health centre in Waterford every two weeks, which facilitates speedy access to their services. We also have a facility called a SCAN nurse, which is a Suicide Crisis Assessment Nurse.

“And that’s someone that we can ring up if someone’s in a crisis, who’ll see them in our surgery for an hour a day or two after referral. [So] the patient knows they’re going to be seen in a familiar stable environment.”

He says that evidence and research that has shown this nurse reduces rates of readmission for patients with suicidal tendencies.

In Tipperary, unfortunately, we don’t have access to a SCAN nurse. And we lost our hospital [St Michael's] about 15 years ago. We were promised additional community services, but unfortunately a lot of posts remain unfilled.

GE20 COS SS 4 Nicky Ryan / TheJournal.ie Nicky Ryan / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie

“There has been a high turnover of consultant psychiatrists in Tipperary, and there are several vacancies in the extended psychiatric team. Therefore, the contrast is quite significant.”

If I have a suicidal patient in Waterford, generally I can call a nurse. It’s an experienced psychiatric nurse who’ll see them in our surgery, potentially a day or two afterwards, and the patient knows they’re going to be seen, and then they’re filtrated directly into the psychiatric service. It works in Waterford. And there’s ways around this and we have to think outside the box in Tipperary.

Roche-Nagle called the psychiatric services for children in Tipperary “inadequate”, with “extremely long” waiting lists, as is the case elsewhere in the country.

The GP was one of a number of people who spoke to TheJournal.ie as we visited last week, after we appealed for readers across Ireland to contact us with details of locals issues from their area that they’d like to see discussed as part of our election coverage.

A member of the public emailed in to ask us to look at mental health services in Carrick-on-Suir, calling the closing of St Michael’s Hospital in 2012 “disgraceful”.

Located two hours from both Dublin and Cork City, and at a junction of three county boundaries, Carrick-on-Suir is primely positioned in the heart of the south-east. But it suffered badly during the recession.

In the 2011 Census, 35.1% were unemployed compared to a national figure of 19%. Of its 1,803 workers, 845 worked outside of the area. When asked about their health, 134 people said they were in bad or very bad health, representing 2.3% of the population. This compared to a figure of 1.5% nationally.

GE20 COS SS 5 Nicky Ryan / TheJournal.ie Nicky Ryan / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie

Health services in the South-East

Just outside of Carrick-on-Suir’s town centre is a brand new Primary Care Centre, opened just over a year ago. The aim of centres like this is to bring health care and diagnostic tests to communities, and relieve the pressure on hospitals.

Primary Care Centres are a key part of Sláintecare – the healthcare programme which has received support from all parties as the best way to reform the healthcare sector in Ireland. So care centres like this one represent an effort to change the Irish healthcare system for the better.

government website says they offer “an ideal alternative to hospitals” particularly for those with chronic conditions like diabetes or asthma, and help patients get access to diagnostic tests and minor surgery.

Although this building seems to fit in with plans to deliver on Sláintecare and bring additional services to the South-East, it isn’t quite there yet. In the middle of a weekday last week, the brand-new Primary Care Centre was quiet, with just one person in the waiting area.

Figures within the community told us this was at least partly due to the fact that it’s not properly staffed – so the equipment and machinery that should be available to the community isn’t being used. Added to this, locals said, is the possibility that people aren’t aware of the clinic: it hasn’t, for example, had an official opening ceremony.

With the care centre located at a meeting point between three counties: Tipperary, Waterford, and Kilkenny, it also has the potential to serve a wider community.

The South East Community Healthcare group was asked about the staffing levels at the care centre and they gave a six-page long statement on the extent of the mental health services available in the south-east region.

They also said that “efforts are continuing to fill a vacancy as to the contracting of a GP service at the Carrick-on-Suir Primary Care Centre”.

Carrick-on-Suir: The medieval ‘biketown’

GE20 COS SS 1

Carrick-on-Suir is a medieval town that straddles the river Suir, and has a grand cycling pedigree.

The town’s bridge, built by the Butler family in the 14th century, is a striking focal point. It’s one of the oldest bridges in Ireland – apart from an elongated arch that was rebuilt after being blown up during the Civil War in 1922.

The rock that Carrick is named after is in the foundations of the bridge, so it goes.

Locals say that it’s always been “a biketown” – Tour de France hero Sean Kelly is from Carrick-on-Suir, as is the professional cyclist Sam Bennett – the town also claims to host Ireland’s oldest bike shop, O’Keefe’s. A new Blueway offers to boost that aspect of the town’s identity.

As mentioned above, Carrick-on-Suir also lies at a point where three counties meet: on the border between Tipp and Waterford, but also just 3km from the Kilkenny boundary line – and so, is ripe for local tourism.

But its location also left it somewhat isolated during the recession.

A tannery, where animal hides are treated to make leather, closed in 1985 – leaving a hole in the town’s identity and knocking the legs out of its main means of employment – a significant proportion of the area had relied on this industry. ‘The Tannery’ is the name of a prominent pub in the heart of the town.

Tannery Google Streetview Google Streetview

A 2014 index by Teagasc based on unemployment rate and inward migration figures, put Carrick-on-Suir in the bottom five performing towns.

Six years later, things have definitely improved: unemployment has dropped significantly – and while people are at least leaving the town at a slower rate than before, the recovery hasn’t yet resulted in actually boosting inward migration and persuading people who have already left to return.

In their own hands

In 2011, at the height of the recession, Carrick locals began meeting to plan for their town. Their organisation, now called the Tourism and Economic Development Committee, has met regularly ever since, and in 2016 produced a document which lays out suggestions on how to improve the town.

The initiatives centres on the town’s medieval identity: the OPW spent €3 million recently on Ormond Castle, an unfortified Elizabethan manor house which was home to the Butler family, who built the town’s ‘Old Bridge’ and founded the town’s woolen industry in the 1670s. The castle currently attracts around 12,000 visitors a year; the locals’ plan aims to quadruple that to 50,000 in just five years.

TheJournal.ie / YouTube

A digital hub is also planned for the town: ten desks will go in the olive-coloured Town Hall building built in the 1840s, while another, more ambitious plan aims to put 65 desks in what was a friary building on the other side of the river. Digital hubs give small online-oriented entrepreneurs a space to work and collaborate with their peers; the Carrick group has looked at similar initiatives in Skibbereen, Sneem, and Dublin.

It also has a Blueway, which is a walking-cycling route by the river, open since last May and that cost around €3 million. It means that people can now walk between Carrick and Clonmel, a Tipp town 17,000-people strong, located 20km up the Suir.

One local who sells fuel during the winter has bought half a dozen bikes and plans to rent them out to visitors during the summer, as a sign of the domino-effect that these tourism initiatives can have.

The Tourism and Economic Committee is aiming to raise between €500,000 – €900,000 from private investors to build some of these projects; the town’s committee is working on building relationships in Dublin and London trying to win that investment through harnessing the diaspora.

20200129_113204 Maurice Power. Gráinne Ní Aodha / TheJournal.ie Gráinne Ní Aodha / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie

All they ask for is a €2 million of public funding a year to create €4 million a year over the next 10 years, says Maurice Power, a local accountant and spokesperson for the Carrick-on-Suir Tourist and Economic Development Committee, dubbed COSTEDC (pronounced ‘CosTech’).

It’s hoped this will rejuvenate the entire area, and provide an incentive for people to come back. “One of the problems we have in this town is we don’t keep our talent, we don’t keep our young people… We’re educating them but they’re going elsewhere.”

The committee has looked at what towns like Westport and Kilkenny have done, and have spoken to representatives there to try to do something similar, and turn the medieval town into a “mini Kilkenny”.

TheJournal.ie / YouTube

Power says that this kind of investment would “do a number of things, it would create, it will stimulate new businesses, encourage small businesses to stay here and creative vibe around the town, so that you have young people coming in, and young people will stay.”

Roche-Nagle says of the town’s future: “Unemployment has decreased recently, so that’s a plus in terms of healthcare, because they’re all they’re all linked. The Blueway, in terms of exercise, is going to be a good thing in the future.

“Carrick-on-Suir has great people: there’s a very strong family structure here we’ve lots of good grannies and moms who look after kids, and I see that every day.”

If you need to talk, contact:

  • Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.ie
  • National Suicide Helpline 1800 247 247 – (suicide prevention, self-harm, bereavement)
  • Aware 1800 80 48 48 (depression, anxiety)
  • Pieta House 01 601 0000 or email mary@pieta.ie – (suicide, self-harm)
  • Teen-Line Ireland 1800 833 634 (for ages 13 to 19)
  • Childline 1800 66 66 66 (for under 18s)

Video and additional reporting by Nicky Ryan.

TheJournal.ie visited Carrick-on-Suir in Co Tipperary to hear about the issues facing the town ahead of the General Election. We visited the area before the death of independent candidate Marese Skehan on Monday, which has delayed the election date for voters in Tipperary.

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    Mute Dave Barrett
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 2:42 PM

    Just ban celebrities.

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    Mute Martin Galvin
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 8:02 PM

    @Dave Barrett: If people are calling for a ban on the overpaid court jesters from promoting junk food, they need a good hard look at themselves ….. The fact that they think that their children, or themselves, are influenced by this, says more about their fragile-mindedness than anything else …. By the way, it’s not your ‘glands’, you’re just eating too much crap, and if your kids are constantly asking you for junk food, just say ‘no’ …. They’ll thank you for it in later life…. Own your lack of assertiveness….

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    Mute Anna Carr
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 8:48 PM

    @Dave Barrett: lol

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    Mute Dian
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 2:40 PM

    Majority? No one asked me …

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    Mute HonestGrump
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 2:53 PM

    @Dian: Me neither.

    Did any Journal reader get asked?

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    Mute Nollaig Kelly
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 5:38 PM

    @Dian: not me

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    Mute HonestGrump
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 7:18 PM

    @HonestGrump:

    Four hours have passed and not a single person has said they were asked the question.

    It’s clear this is just another bullish!te article invented by the useless reporters of this rag.

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    Mute Mjhint
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 2:43 PM

    Bán them from expressing their political opinions as well.

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    Mute Edmund Spencer
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 3:58 PM

    @Mjhint: Generally I’m in favour of less regulation on most things but I’d absolutely stand behind this being signed into law.

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    Mute Contrary Mary
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 2:48 PM

    I’m more concerned with celebrity changing impressionable young minds’ attitudes on illegal drug use, sexuality and body image issue, thanks for asking.

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    Mute The Grand Nagus
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 2:56 PM

    That’s a mighty fine burger.

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    Mute Harriet Shields
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 3:20 PM

    I’d prefer to ban them from promoting diets and wellness merchandise that has not scientific backing what so ever.

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    Mute Cynical
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 2:58 PM

    But we still advertise alcohol during sporting events, surely a burger and fries is much healthier than that?

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    Mute Robert O Farrell
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 3:22 PM

    First off the dreadful Snoop Dog Just Eat ads need banning. We’ve all suffered enough this past year or so.

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    Mute Brian Kelly
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 2:39 PM

    Jesus I would love some junk food right now (licking my lips) at that wonderful picture of a double burger & chips! Yummyyyyyyyy!!!!

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    Mute Richard Cronin
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 2:47 PM

    @Brian Kelly: I have a hankering now some spicy chicken wings & chips

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    Mute Charmaine ☘ Irish
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 3:03 PM

    @Richard Cronin: me too.. think Eddie rockets burger, chips and wings with franks hot sauce.. definitely getting it now..

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    Mute Mike
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 3:32 PM

    @Charmaine ☘ Irish: Sold…Takeaway for me tonight

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    Mute Mirabelle Stonegate
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 3:54 PM

    @Brian Kelly: I had a big plate of chicken fried rice for lunch.. it was yummy! and surprisingly, not that unhealthy!

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    Mute Proudly Italian
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 3:06 PM

    How ridiculous… just teach kids to eat well, starting from school. But not just ‘banning’ sweets from their lunch box, I mean real eating lessons. Then, they can enjoy some junk food every now and then…

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    Mute Mirabelle Stonegate
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 3:59 PM

    @Proudly Italian: If people learned to cook properly, some things considered junk can be rather healthy.

    I had chicken fried rice for lunch today. I used a packet of microwave coconut chicken from aldi (no additives, nothing unexpected), and then added some leftover roast chicken, soya sauce, spicebag seasoning and an egg.

    Rice in the pan first. Toss in the seasoning. Then the soya sauce and chicken. Lastly, push everything to one side, scramble the egg, then mix it through for a couple of minutes. I probably used a tablespoon of oil at most. Likely, I used less.

    I regularly eat egg fried rice for lunch. Most of the time, it’s just leftover rice from dinner the night before. Today though, I needed to stay off wheat, and didn’t want wheat free pasta again.. so I grabbed one of those microwave packs of rice in aldi this morning, and threw this together. If I wanted to, I could have thrown in veg of some sort, but I wasn’t in the mood for veg.

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    Mute William Tallon
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 4:07 PM

    @Mirabelle Stonegate: I’d consider changing my diet if I were you as it seems to have given you a bad case of logorrhoea…

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    Mute Eamonn Martin
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 4:14 PM

    @Proudly Italian: Fully agree. Cancel culture has gone mental. Educate people and then let them make their own decisions.
    This goes for way more than just food. Please stop the bad man on tv making me do the bad things and now I’m all sad. Weak people ask for these things.

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    Mute Mirabelle Stonegate
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 5:20 PM

    @William Tallon: why? Because I wasn’t in the mood for veg for one meal? That’s not going to cause significant issues in fairness.

    My favourite thing to make is pizza. I make homemade dough for the base. Then its topped with veg and a little meat. The next day, any leftovers get made into either a fried rice or pasta dish which actually tends to stretch to two meals. I usually put red pepper, spinach, corn and pineapple on my pizzas, as well as plain tomato puree. Yes,I’m a pineapple on pizza person.

    Also, being both wheat and lactose intolerant, its very easy to keep myself.. regular. In fact, I’ve currently having a few days of detoxing from wheat atm, because I’ve somehow had far too much lately.

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    Mute William Tallon
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 6:10 PM

    @Mirabelle Stonegate: Logorrhea on steroids or maybe it’s meant as a parody of pompous food columnists that’s unfortunately fallen flat like a bad soufflé…

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    Mute Seeking Truth
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 5:00 PM

    Are celebrities the real reason we overeat? I do not think so. Loads of other reasons.

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    Mute Craic_a_tower
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 4:05 PM

    How many celebrities promote the spraying of toxic chemicals on your self at an overly inflated price to production? 3% of the population are allergic to perfume after all. They also promote environmentally damaging products and fast disposable fashion.

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    Mute Tomo
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 5:02 PM

    Who cares? Educate people on the risks. We don’t learn about much to do with life in school (taxes, cooking, germ theory, personal hygiene, drug use, etc). Educate people seriously about these things and peoples’ behaviours will change. That’s the only way to tackle this. Some people really don’t understand dietary requirements that their body need to prosper.

    Let adults consume whatever they want. Education is the key to most problems.

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    Mute Tarraing Mo Liathróidí
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 4:55 PM

    I’d prefer celebrities and the Z list knock off celebrities RTE usually find for the late late or their radio shows banned before banning them promoting junk food, cos their personalities and talent is as bad for your health to watch as a big Mac

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    Mute JustMeHere
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 3:07 PM

    Riveting stuff….

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    Mute Peter B
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 6:15 PM

    I really feel like eating a burger and chips after reading that……..I’m off Burger King for a Rebel Whopper

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    Mute Nollaig Kelly
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 5:38 PM

    Get kids off their arse and away from video games and off social media and then let them go outside and run around
    I grew up in the 70s and most things we ate would be seen as unhealthy today. Frying in lard everything seemed to have added sugar if it didn’t we added it, but very rarely was there fat kids as I said above we got outside and ran around and so on
    Today people want to blame everthing but the problem

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    Mute Anna Carr
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 8:56 PM

    @Nollaig Kelly: well said. I saw a program of kids playing on the street in the 70s and the boys bomming up and down on their Rally choppers and girls playing skipping with their dad’s tow rope, elastic, and clapping hands against one another’s hands and just wonderful memories. We were so happy

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    Mute Anna Carr
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 8:51 PM

    Ffs what difference will that make. If ppl want to drink they’ll drink. If they want to smoke they’ll smoke. If they want to be grossly unhealthy and feed their kids junk they’ll do that. Banning celebrities isn’t going to change anything. I’m annoyed that I can’t get points on my clubcard anymore from alcohol, that’s how I used to get great vouchers haha.

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    Mute William Tallon
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 2:53 PM
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    Mute Sense of Doubt
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 7:49 PM

    Pity they couldn’t extent it to a ban on them expressing ill understood trendy political views. It would make the world a little bit more bearable.

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    Mute Eoghan Deegan
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 6:27 PM

    Probably more to do with being sick of seeing those people on TV, and less to do with the food!!

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    Mute Brian Flavin
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    Apr 22nd 2021, 6:05 PM

    Who care. Won’t ban

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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Apr 23rd 2021, 8:27 AM

    “can’t understand it, ban it”

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