News Ireland update on Sunday as told by Donie

The colourful rays of the northern lights can be seen soon off our Northern Ireland coast 

The Northern Lights as seen from Pollan Beach in Ballyliffin, Inishowen, Co Donegal. 

One of the world’s most famous and stunning solar phenomena is eagerly expected over Irish skies in the coming weeks, stargazers have said.

The celebrated Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis, has its best chance of being seen in more than a decade because of a peak in the sun’s activity.

The celestial light show appears as ghostly, wispy rays of greenish and whitish colours dancing across the heavens.

Brendan Alexander, an astronomer in Co Donegal, said the further north and away from city lights people are, the better chance they have of seeing the dream-like spectacular.

“It’s definitely worth seeking out,” he said. “It’s an event that — especially on these shores — is so rare. But we are lucky to live just north enough to experience it — any country further south than us won’t be able to see it.”

The sun has a “heartbeat” every 11 years or so — known as the solar cycle — and when it erupts, charged particles blast into space and are sucked into the North Pole.

These explosions react with the earth’s atmosphere, sparking great swathes o coloured light over the night skies, known for centuries by native north Americans as the Dance of the Spirits.

The long, clear darkness of winter is among the most likely times to see it and astronomers believe the sun will hit the peak of its cycle again in the coming year.

Between now and the equinox in March is being tipped as the best opportunity in Ireland for more than ten years.

“It is really captivating, just the sheer strangeness of it means it’s worthwhile seeking it out,” said Mr Alexander, who saw the phenomenon for the second time from the Donegal coast last March.

The postgraduate, who is studying for a Research Masters Degree in Science at Letterkenny Institute of Technology, said observers should give their eyes about 20 minutes to adapt to the dark.

Then they should look towards the northern horizon for a whitish or greenish dome of light.

“From time to time you will see rays shoot up from the dome of light, across the horizon, and if it gets really active you can see the rays moving across the base of the dome, and they can shoot right up to the centre of the sky,” he said.

“When you are watching the display it’s very eerie, almost alien. It’s like nothing you have seen before.”

Mr Alexander, who was shortlisted for the BBC Stargazing Live’s astronomy photographer of the year contest, issues free alerts on expected sightings through his www.donegalskies.com website.

Over 115,000 Worried Irish OAP s 

flood the helplines about tax bills

          

The Revenue Commissioners’ phone lines and offices have been besieged by anxious pensioners worried about the prospect of facing tax bills for thousands of euro.

Up to 115,000 elderly people are bracing themselves to have their pensions raided by the taxman as early as next month.

And the Government was left red-faced today after the Revenue Commissioners admitted that they could not yet pinpoint who exactly will be liable to cough up extra tax.

The liability for a single person in receipt of two pensions could be as high as €4,400 or €8,800 for a couple.

Junior Finance Minister Brian Hayes moved to allay fears in an interview with the Herald.

“I would urge people not to get upset or to feel stressed. Despite reports, there is no question of thousands of pensioners being forced to pay arrears,” he said.

Age Action Ireland described pensioners receiving the letters as “feeling like the guards had just called to your door”.

Mary Morrison (80), told the Herald: “As a citizen I feel it is not right what they are doing to people. I’m very annoyed.”

The Revenue Commissioners were forced to open four special helplines to deal with fuming pensioners. The Herald has learned that a significant number may have been sent letters in error, and do not owe any additional tax.

Mr Hayes said the fiasco was down to a “communication breakdown” between government departments.

Ireland’s Enterprise and Innovation Minister Bruton sets up a new work rights office

      

Irish minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton is creating a new office in his department as a first step to streamlining the State’s employment rights institutions.

Mr Bruton pledged last summer to merge the five existing bodies into two organisations and to replace the 80 or so different complaint forms with just one.

Currently, rights commissioners, the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the National Employment Rights Authority, the Equality Authority and Labour Court all deal with disputes between individual workers and their employers.

Yesterday, the Minister said that, as part of the streamlining exercise, his department has created a new office, Workplace Relations Customer Services, which will act as a single point of contact for the public.

Along with this, he is also introducing a single complaint form and a website.

The Workplace Relations Customer Services office will handle initial complaints, deal with enquiries and provide information to the public. Mr Bruton said the creation of the office and introduction of the single complaint form and website were important first steps in the the process.

“My overall objective is to encourage early resolution of disputes, the vindication of employee rights and minimisation of the costs for employees, employers and Government, in terms of money, time and workplace productivity,” Mr Bruton said.

Marriage counselling services 

report a New Year distraught calls surge

     

Marriage counsellors say they have been flooded with calls from distraught couples after Christmas.

Dublin’s AIM Family Services told the Irish Examiner the volume of calls is the highest in its 30-year history.

The voluntary agency said yesterday it had dealt with 60% more clients between November last year and the first week of January in comparison to the previous year.

Financial difficulties are being blamed for the rise in calls, as well as the pressure of the Christmas break.

Michelle Clarke, AIM spokeswoman, said: “We opened back up on January 3, but we’ve been completely booked up in both the pre and post-Christmas period.

“Financial difficulties have made it particularly difficult for a lot of families this year and if there’s been a loss or bereavement in the family, that makes things all the worse. There’s a bigger demand on services at this time because the Christmas period magnifies any existing issues tenfold.”

Relationships Ireland also says it experienced a higher-than-average number of calls.

Lisa O’Hara, a counsellor with the charity, said: “We only opened up a couple of days ago, but the phones have been busier than ever. What’s unusual about it is that couples usually wait until the kids are back at school before they contact us.

“What I’ve noticed this time is that a lot more men, mainly in their 40s or 50s, have been picking up the phone, which is highly unusual.

“In some cases, they’ve been forced to make the call to show their commitment to the relationship and they might say they have to go to therapy immediately, because their wife is threatening to leave. Others are doing it without any prompting from their partners.

“But it shows counselling doesn’t have the same stigma it used to for men. That’s a trend I’ve noticed over the past two years.

“Now between 30% and 40% of the clients I’m seeing are through appointments made by men, whereas five to six years ago that figure was between 10% and 20%.”

Top Marks . . IT Sligo students on road to success after winning top tech prize for driver safety

   

Team members include Calum Cawley, Aine Conaghan and Matthew Padden.

IT Sligo students are announced winners of Microsoft Imagine Cup in New York for their Hermes driving project

IT’s a small box that will help parents sleep easier at night and reduce deaths on the roads.

A group of Sligo IT students have been awarded a prestigious technology prize for inventing a device that warns parents, fleet managers and car owners if their car is being driven dangerously.

The ‘Hermes’ device beat off stiff opposition from 350,000 students from 183 countries to win the Microsoft Imagine Cup in New York, and now the inventors hope to secure investment which would allow it to go into production.

The device they developed plugs into a car engine and relays information about erratic driving to a phone application, and from there to laptops and home computers.

It allows drivers and car owners to monitor where and how dangers are being created, and is likely to sell for less than €200.

The device was inspired by a notorious stretch of road on the N4 Dublin/Sligo route which is currently bordered by 29 crosses, each one marking the scene of a fatal accident.

“That’s one of the reasons we are so passionate about this; we drive past those crosses every day and we know that hundreds of people are dying on the roads in Ireland every year and we wanted to do something to stop this slaughter,” co-inventor James McNamara said.

“We had initially probed the possibility of researching the impact of potholes on road safety but we quickly realised that driving behaviour was a much bigger factor in road deaths than potholes.

“Hermes will alert the user to speed, to hard cornering, sudden acceleration, in other words things we learn from the gravitational force. We consulted with garda crash forensic experts during the development process to give us a better insight into what the dangers are.”

Speaking about the IT Sligo students, Paul Rellis from Microsoft Ireland said: “Each year the Microsoft Imagine Cup shines a light on incredible, innovative students around the world and this year we were delighted that the winning team came from Ireland. It’s a great sign of the talent that is being developed in Irish universities in the technology sector.

“There has been great interest in the students’ project and I’m delighted that the students are continuing to pursue their ambition of getting this project up and running as a viable business. We’re looking forward to seeing what happens next for them.”

Mr McNamara now plans to produce the device and has been awarded a place on a programme to help start-up technology companies.

The three-month programme will provide mentoring and capital to help start a company before introducing the team to potential investors.

“Our goal is to keep it in the same price as a sat-nav, about €150-€200,” he added.

“We want it to be a fairly low cost because the more cars you can get it into, the more lives you can save.”