Ravens Pop-Up Shop is an initiative from Retail Practice Students at Waterford Wexford ETB in aid of RNLI (Dunmore East), Barnardos (Waterford), Waterford Marine Search and Rescue, Guide Dogs for The Blind.

On a cold and dreary Monday evening in January, a large turnout of over eighty people commenced their Operation Transformation journey with Cill Barra Community Sports Centre.

The Operation Transformation Challenge was launched earlier this month as part of the Centre’s exciting new “focus on fitness” initiative for 2019, which aims to get the local community fit and healthy, while having fun in a relaxed group setting. It also set a collective weight loss goal of 1,000 lbs, the equivalent of 453 bags of sugar!

Those in attendance heard from mindset expert Shane O’Sullivan of Inspiring Excellence, nutrition expert Dietician Brendan Cullinan and fitness expert David Phelan from the Cill Barra Community Sports Centre. The talks from the health panel focussed on the importance of making small changes daily to help improve overall health and wellbeing, followed by a weigh-in for those who signed up to the 8-week programme.

The leaders and participants have already achieved a staggering 167.5 lbs weight loss after a successful first week of exercising and eating well. The Centre also hosted a group walk in the locality which was well attended by young and old and is now set to become a weekly activity, with all welcome to join in.

Leader Michelle Keohan is already feeling the benefits of the programme. “It has given me more energy and I feel so much better in myself and I’m making healthier food choices.”

According to Sinead Brannigan, Cill Barra Community Centre Manager, the programme has evolved into something greater then she could have imagined. “We know that we set ourselves a massive challenge but if we are helping one person to make a change for the better it will be worth it. Social connection is not something we can measure in numbers, but that being said, this programme definitely brings people together and encourages them to think a little more about introducing small healthy changes to their lifestyles.”

Sinead acknowledged the support of the business community, “Without doubt this programme would not happen if it wasn’t for the support of local businesses that are passionate about supporting a healthier Waterford city. Ball Cooperation, Jack Molloy, Walsh’s Bakehouse, Mulligans Pharmacy, UPMC Whitfield, Waterford Area Partnership, and the Department of Sport and Exercise Science at Waterford Institute of Technology have all gotten behind the initiative whole-heartedly and we’re very grateful for their invaluable support, advice and expertise.”

The Cill Barra Operation Transformation programme continues every Monday until March 11th and includes a weekly weigh-in and exercise session, with the weekly group walk taking place every Wednesday at 6.30pm.

Cill Barra Community Centre has also developed Teenage Workouts for 12 to 16 year olds. These workouts are aimed at teenagers unable to join a gym at present due to age restrictions.

If you wish to find out more information about gym memberships or lunchtime fitness classes, call 051-350800 for more information or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Shane Ross TD, Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, has appointed two new directors to the board of the Port of Waterford Company following a competitive process managed by the Public Appointments Service.

William Johnston and Derry O’Sullivan will join the existing board members Joe Dreelan; Louise Grubb; John Kehoe; Mary Mosse; Frank Ronan, CEO and Des Whelan, chairman.

Mr Johnston recently retired as a partner with Arthur Cox Solicitors where he specialised in banking law, capital markets and regulation. A board member at the National Maternity Hospital and the Housing Finance Agency, he is a former chair of the Law Society’s Business Law Committee and former co-chair of the Banking Law Division at the International Bar Association.

Mr O’Sullivan is a chartered engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers in Ireland. He holds a Masters in Industrial Engineering from UCD and spent much of his career in the southeast with Roadstone where he was Regional & Technical Director. He has also worked overseas and on marine projects in Ireland. A keen sailor, he was part of the Waterford host port team for The Tall Ships Races 2011.

Welcoming the new appointments which will be effective from February, Des Whelan, chair, Port of Waterford Co, said: “Both William and Derry are experienced senior professionals who bring a wealth of relevant business experience to the board. We look forward to working alongside them and drawing on their in-depth knowledge from the legal and engineering worlds respectively as well as tapping into the fresh insights they will bring.

“Frank Ronan, CEO, and his team continue to make great strides in growing and diversifying the Port’s business and the board is determined to support them in responding agilely to emerging opportunities.”

LiquidEdge is a WIFI Marketing and Analytics solution to enable businesses to generate value from existing WIFI, turning IT infrastructure into sales and marketing tools. LiquidEdge is a Waterford-based company originating from WIT.

The WaterfordCityWIFI network that is currently available across Waterford City and which will be dramatically expanded upon in the coming year. The WIFI is a public resource and is free for the public to use. During the login process customers can be provided with information from the local council and local businesses, such as sites, bus timetables and local offers.

The service is primarily used by tourists to Waterford, who are here to explore Waterford and spend some money.

The service offers 6 advertisement slots (samples above) that can be purchased by local businesses only, and in this case exclusively to Waterford Chamber members.

Popular advertisements can be used to direct visitors to Waterford to also visit your premises, or to make use of your services.

In addition, if you host an Access Point in your premises, we can even measure the number of visits directly from ads viewed on the WaterfordCityWIFI network.

For the month of January, there are six FREE slots available for the whole month, to the first six businesses that get in touch.

The service is currently live in Dublin, Galway, Sligo, Carrick-on-Shannon, Monaghan, Knock and is being expanded to 25 towns/cities during 2019.

For further details, contact Steven Davy at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 086 0505821.

A protest against the ongoing lack of 24/7 cardiac care is being organised for Saturday, 19th January starting from The Glen, Waterford at 2.00pm, to travel down Bridge Street, The Quay and finishing at John Roberts Square.

Cardiac Campaign groups HEFSE, 24/7 Cardiac Care for the South East and the South East Patient Advocacy Group (SEPAG) together with Waterford Council of Trade Unions are calling on all citizens in the south east to once again put their "Feet on the Street" in support of the ongoing campaign to deliver a comprehensive 24/7 cardiac care service at UHW and health equality for the South East region.

Discrimination continues for those accessing cardiac health services in the South East region. In 6 years and 2 Government administrations nothing has changed beyond delivery of an additional Cath Lab to Dublin to bring their total to 21units while mandating the south east region continues to suffer single lab access and a 39 hrs per week service!

Despite recent promises, no official order from the Department of Health, the Minister or the HSE has been made or enacted to increase cardiac access or implement 24/7 cardiac care at UHW. The recently published 2019-2020 HSE Capital Service Plan contains no budgetary provision for enhancement of cardiac services at University Hospital Waterford and neither is there provision in it to expand the services of the contract cath lab on-site at UHW to address the longest cardiac stenting list in the country!

The "South East Broken Hearts" campaign is calling for the delivery of regional 24/7 cardiac care and the immediate ending of "patient abuse" where cardiac patients undergoing a diagnostic procedure in the contracted modular cath lab at UHW are being denied follow-on invasive therapy where disease is identified and treatable!

We are asking for your support on January 19th to make Government hear our call! We also propose to take a clear message for health equality from the people of the south east to Dublin as a next step in March 2019!

Join with us on the 19th of January and let those entrusted with the care and protection of our lives and those of our loved ones know that we as citizens of this region will not ‘stand down’ until an end to patient abuse and our right to equal healthcare and 24/7 cardiac care in this region has been delivered!

We would ask people to please ‘Join us’ at The Glen on Saturday, 19th January at 1.45pm as the march is scheduled to begin at 2.00pm.

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/scaling-and-moving-forward-tickets-54527721884

Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) research centre TSSG is facilitating and participating in the ‘We, the Internet’ global citizen debate which will contribute to the future internet to empower citizens.

The debate, organised by Missions Publiques and an ecosystem of partners including TSSG at WIT are launching a Global Citizens’ Debate on the future of Internet that will engage hundreds of non-expert citizens worldwide. This first round will take place between 2018 and 2019, with hundreds of people meeting in 12 countries around the globe.

Participants from the South East of Ireland of all ages are required – whether they use the internet daily or not at all.

The activity is related to the SpeakNGI.eu project, the consultation project of the NGI (Next Generation Internet) initiative. This participation in the "We the Internet" global citizen debate is one of the consultative activities of SpeakNGI.eu.

Speaking about the Global Debate; Paul Malone, Researcher at Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (TSSG) says “As part of the Next Generation Internet initiative, we recognise that the voice of the citizen is often unheard in defining the future Internet and the services it will deliver. This global debate is a great opportunity for civilians to have their say in how future iterations of the Internet should best serve society and its citizens.” The Ireland element of this global debate contributing to the future of the Internet will take place at WIT’s West Campus in early January 2019.

People interested in participating, should first fill out a 2-minute questionnaire available from: https://goo.gl/Y8namN and will be contacted by organisers.

The participants selected to partake in the Global Citizens’ Debate will receive a €100 gift voucher and lunch will be provided.

Please see http://wetheinternet.org/ for more information.

Health Equality For The South East (HEFSE) is beginning a new Hand On Heart activity to highlight a simple service addition that will dramatically improve regional cardiac care in the South East. 'Let's Get Stenting' is launching in Waterford this Sunday, 16th December at 2.00pm. 

Hand On Heart is asking businesses to support the initiative by purchasing badges (€1 each) for their staff for continuous wear until Saturday, 19th January when an on-street support march is in planning for Waterford City to further highlight both the inadequacy of the present service cover and this simple service addition that can transform cardiac access for a large number of patients.

The leaflet below is for creating additional knowledge of the present service configuration at UHW and Hand On Heart ask businesses with public footfall to make available for dissemination – leaflets will delivered FOC.

Badges can be ordered by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by message to the HEFSE Facebook page at www.facebook.com\healthequityfse

On Thursday 10th January, in Faithlegg House Hotel, Rotary will celebrate 50 Years in Waterford.

Donal Tully, President of the Rotary club said ‘we are delighted and honoured that Ambassador Daniel Mulhall has accepted our invitation to be guest speaker on this very special celebration for Rotary in Waterford.

Daniel Mulhall who was born and raised in Waterford city took up duty as Ireland's 18th Ambassador to the United States in August 2017. He joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1978 and had his early diplomatic assignments in New Delhi, Vienna (OSCE), Brussels (European Union) and Edinburgh where he was Ireland's first Consul General, 1998-2001. He served as Ireland's Ambassador to Malaysia (2001-05), where he was also accredited to Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. In 2005, he was conferred with an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland for his work in connection with the Asian tsunami. From 2009 to 2013, he was Ireland's Ambassador to Germany and from 2013 to 2017 he served as Ambassador to the UK.

The Rotary club of Waterford was founded in 1968 with many members of the club remaining for life. Rotary clubs are part of a global service organisation with over 33,000 clubs who bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian service and advance goodwill and peace around the world. The Waterford Memorial Christmas tree appeal for Hospice now in its 21st year and was the first such campaign in Ireland. The club has supported over 70 local projects with club events including sponsored cycles, film nights, chef nights, fashion shows, buy a brick campaigns and many more.

Internationally, the Rotary foundation has been instrumental in the eradication of the Polio virus as well as many other global health and peace initiatives.

Tickets are available for this event and non-members are more than welcome to attend.  

For full details and bookings contact Sheila at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Waterford Chamber is delighted to support the WLR ‘Be a Little Star’ Christmas Appeal this year in association with the Society of the St. Vincent de Paul in the hope of raising funds which will go directly to the society’s ongoing services in the local community.

The ‘Be a Little Star’ campaign will run on-air on WLR throughout December and will consist of several key events this year. These events will include the previously popular ‘Red to Work’ day whereby hundreds of schools, companies and businesses in the city and county will wear red on Friday, 14th December in support of the appeal. All Chamber members are encouraged to sign up to take part through www.chritmasappeal.ie.

Waterford Chamber CEO, Gerald Hurley stated: “We are delighted to support such a worthy cause again this year, which provides such vital services to those less fortunate in our community. Christmas is a time of generosity and kindness and I am encouraging the Waterford business community to get behind this wonderful initiative.”

Roisin Ferris, WLR Events Manager for the appeal says “Christmas should be a time of great joy for everyone and we here at WLR relish in the festivities in December from playing Christmas music to passing on greetings to family and friends. However, there is another side to Christmas as many are living in hard times and we should not forget those in need at this time of year. Through our campaign we hope to inform the community of the many services the SVP provide locally and in turn assist in raising funds through a number of different events we host during the Christmas period.”

Funds raised through the 2018 Christmas Radio Appeal go towards food and fuel for the needy of the City and County but will also assist with the provision of many vital services the SVP provide. These services assist in ensuring;

• Children in less well-off families have money for school books, uniforms and shoes. 
• Students from disadvantaged homes are helped with college fees and transport. 
• Low income families have access to suitable childcare that allows both parents work. 
• The very real and increasing homeless problem that exists around the county is effectively tackled by the St. Vincent De Pauls Men’s Hostel.

The Christmas Radio Appeal will be hosted by WLR FM presenters and will run throughout the month of December. For a list of events see www.ChristmasAppeal.ie. You can also make a €4 donation by texting appeal to 50300.