Tony Holohan ‘full of joy' as he shares news of marriage to Ciara Cronin
The State's former chief medical officer, Dr
Tony Holohan
, has said his heart is 'full of joy' after marrying mindfulness therapist and yoga teacher-trainer Ciara Cronin.
Dr Holohan married Ms Cronin at the National Maritime Museum in Dún Laoghaire, south Dublin on Saturday.
In his 2023 memoir, We Need to Talk, he described her as a 'source of joy and optimism and hope for the future' following the death of his late wife, Dr Emer Feely.
Dr Feely, a specialist in public health medicine, died during the
Covid-19
pandemic in 2021.
READ MORE
She had been battling multiple myeloma, a terminal form of blood cancer, since 2012.
Her death came while Dr Holohan had become the public face of the State's response to the Covid-19 pandemic in his role as chairman of the National Public Health Emergency Team.
He had taken time away from his duties to help care for his late wife, saying he wanted to give 'all of my time' to her and their two children, Clodagh and Ronan.
Tony Holohan described the wedding as 'a beautiful day shared with the people we love'. Photograph: Michael Mulcaire
Dr Feely died in February 2021, with her wake and funeral being held under the toughest Covid-19 restrictions with church attendance limited to 10 people.
He subsequently met Ms Cronin, an accredited mindfulness-based psychotherapist and yoga and meditation teacher and trainer in 2022.
He
told The Irish Times
almost a year later that his late wife hoped for another relationship for him when she was gone.
At the time, Dr Holohan spoke happily about developing a 'separate and independent connection' between Ms Cronin and his children and how comfortable they are talking about their late mother.
'It all feels very good and natural,' he said.
[
Tony Holohan: 'My wife was slowly dying and would be cut off from her friends and family in the last few months of her life'
Opens in new window
]
Posting photos online on Sunday of his wedding, Dr Holohan said: 'My heart is full of joy and happiness – a beautiful day shared with the people we love.'
Last week, he said he is 'so happy that Ciara and I will spend the rest of our lives together'.
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Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
Tony Holohan ‘full of joy' as he shares news of marriage to Ciara Cronin
The State's former chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan , has said his heart is 'full of joy' after marrying mindfulness therapist and yoga teacher-trainer Ciara Cronin. Dr Holohan married Ms Cronin at the National Maritime Museum in Dún Laoghaire, south Dublin on Saturday. In his 2023 memoir, We Need to Talk, he described her as a 'source of joy and optimism and hope for the future' following the death of his late wife, Dr Emer Feely. Dr Feely, a specialist in public health medicine, died during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. READ MORE She had been battling multiple myeloma, a terminal form of blood cancer, since 2012. Her death came while Dr Holohan had become the public face of the State's response to the Covid-19 pandemic in his role as chairman of the National Public Health Emergency Team. He had taken time away from his duties to help care for his late wife, saying he wanted to give 'all of my time' to her and their two children, Clodagh and Ronan. Tony Holohan described the wedding as 'a beautiful day shared with the people we love'. Photograph: Michael Mulcaire Dr Feely died in February 2021, with her wake and funeral being held under the toughest Covid-19 restrictions with church attendance limited to 10 people. He subsequently met Ms Cronin, an accredited mindfulness-based psychotherapist and yoga and meditation teacher and trainer in 2022. He told The Irish Times almost a year later that his late wife hoped for another relationship for him when she was gone. At the time, Dr Holohan spoke happily about developing a 'separate and independent connection' between Ms Cronin and his children and how comfortable they are talking about their late mother. 'It all feels very good and natural,' he said. [ Tony Holohan: 'My wife was slowly dying and would be cut off from her friends and family in the last few months of her life' Opens in new window ] Posting photos online on Sunday of his wedding, Dr Holohan said: 'My heart is full of joy and happiness – a beautiful day shared with the people we love.' Last week, he said he is 'so happy that Ciara and I will spend the rest of our lives together'.
Irish Times
10 hours ago
- Irish Times
From Famine to feast: the Irish seaweed revival
My 10-year-old niece, born and raised in Shanghai, snacks on grilled seaweed rolls the way I munched on Sam Spudz smoky bacon crisps when I was her age. My Chinese sister-in-law was raised on the marine vegetable, consuming it daily in soups, sushi and as a light bite between meals. But my brother, despite living in Shanghai for almost 25 years and embracing traditional dishes from hot pot to dim sum, still views seaweed as particularly Asian fare. In Ireland we have struggled to equate the dark, leathery-looking straps of seaweed on our local shorelines with a mineral-rich superfood. And for good reason. It was a Famine food, harvested and hauled from rock pools by starving peasants to boil or dry, then eat. Seaweeds replaced soil vegetables at one of the most catastrophic points in Ireland's history, and that association with desperation and deprivation has been difficult to shake. Prannie Rhatigan, a GP and the author of Irish Seaweed Kitchen, who has been giving seaweed walks, talks and workshops in Sligo for the past 26 years, agrees. She vividly remembers as a child the side eyes and sympathetic looks her father received while harvesting the edible seaweed sleabhac (similar to Japanese Nori) for his family from the local shoreline. Dr Prannie Rhatigan 'People would say to my father: 'I saw you on the shore yesterday ... Times must be tough.' They thought if you were looking for seaweed you couldn't afford to buy a white sliced pan, that you were making do. But at the back of it, they'd be dying for a bit themselves to simmer and eat with onions and potatoes. They wouldn't want to be seen on the beach looking for it, though. My father thought this was hilarious.' READ MORE Rhatigan says Asian people consider seaweed the most nutritious form of vegetation on the planet. 'That's a big reputation for seaweed to live up to, but in my opinion it does.' She eats seaweed every day – sea lettuce, nori, sea spaghetti, dillisk and truffle seaweed – and says she couldn't live without it. [ Seaweed burgers: a new product aims to reduce the meat in burgers while improving their taste Opens in new window ] 'It's like a magic wand in the kitchen. I mix it with some olive oil and a touch of garlic and have it for my 11 o'clock snack, or I pile it on to a rice cracker. I'm making cakes for my daughter's birthday this weekend: chocolate cake and nori is a magic pairing. But I've met plenty of people with packets of seaweed in their larders and great intentions, but they don't know what to do with it; I tell them to snip it into stews.' Despite being a 'powerhouse of nutrients', we're still some way off viewing seaweed as a store-cupboard ingredient, yet mindsets are changing, and harvesting seaweed for culinary and cosmetic use is a burgeoning business in Ireland. Anne O'Hagan founded her seaweed pestos and sprinkles company Ebb & Flow four years ago, and has noticed an enormous spike in interest since. 'Seaweed has gone from a novelty product to mainstream,' she says, adding that this is, in part, thanks to TikTok. 'Young people are hugely interested in seaweed, especially sea moss, since it started trending online.' Ebb & Flow seaweed pesto To date the #seamoss hashtag has more than a billion views on the social media platform, as celebrities and wellness influencers eulogise it as a cure-all for everything from gut health and acne to high cholesterol and lethargy. Rhatigan says that although research into the benefits of seaweed 'isn't really at the races', seaweed is medically proven to be antiviral and to shift phlegm from the chest. Ten years ago, O'Hagan was suffering from serious kidney problems and high blood pressure. She was told to cut out salt entirely from her diet and that's when she became involved in 'the wonderful world of seaweed'. Today she describes herself as a healthy, energetic, curious 60-year-old and her goal is to 'introduce people to this extraordinary superfood'. O'Hagan, who is based in the coastal suburb of Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, buys bags of dried seaweed hand-harvested from the Quilty shoreline in Co Clare, where the waters are deeper and colder than on the south Co Dublin coastline, then rehydrates it to make her sprinkles, hummus and dairy-free pestos, which have won two Great Taste Awards from the Guild of Fine Food. Ebb & Flow is stocked in several local fine-food outlets in Dublin such as Cavistons in Glasthule and Robbie's in Goatstown, but O'Hagan still sets up at farmer's markets in Dún Laoghaire and Killruddery House in Co Wicklow because 'there's nothing better than having your customer right in front of you ... When they taste the product, their reaction is extraordinary.' [ Irish seaweed explodes with that undefinable savoury flavour the cool kids call umami Opens in new window ] O'Hagan feels there's a strong enough market here for a more diverse range of seaweed products, and she travelled to Japan in January to investigate how she might broaden her range. 'Seaweed crisps are huge over there, and I'd love to get into the snack market, but I'm not sure the Irish palate is ready for that yet.' Maybe not. Bantry-based Claire O'Sullivan, founder of Wasi, swapped seaweed pesto for seaweed skincare because she felt food was a harder sell. 'I started off making seaweed pesto, but it's more difficult to get it on shelves. People are much happier using seaweed on their skin and hair.' Sligo brand Voya, based in Strandhill, has had enormous success in the wellness arena with its seaweed baths and skincare products; last year it collaborated with luxury airline Emirates on a bespoke fragrance for the airline's first and business class passengers. Claire O'Sullivan and her mother, Margaret O'Sullivan. Photograph: Andy Gibson O'Sullivan grew up harvesting seaweed with her mother and grandmother for their own domestic use as a cough medicine, fertiliser and horse feed. She attributes her lineage of centenarians – her great-grandmother lived to be 103, her grandmother 100, and her mother is healthy and strong and still helps out with the harvesting – in part to their simple diet, which included spring water and seaweed. She trained as a holistic therapist in her 20s, working in spas and on cruise ships all over the world, performing seaweed treatments while making her own body oils. She later qualified as an architect, but coming from a farming background, she found the office 9-5 anathema to her personality. 'I just needed to be outdoors.' Now, instead of fighting traffic, the 45-year-old works in tandem with the tides, harvesting from September to April and taking her cues from the fullness of the moon. 'When there's a full moon or a new moon, the tide goes out a very long way,' she says. 'Sometimes you're up at the crack of dawn and out on the water while everybody else is still asleep. It's a beautiful way to live; it feels so natural.' At a time when storytelling has never been so important to a brand's ability to capture the imagination of consumers, this narrative of saltwater, sea air and moonlit forages is seductive and evocative, which O'Sullivan says is resonating with customers. 'People love the heritage of it all, especially Americans. Many of them remember their own parents talking about Irish seaweed and how great it was.' Wasi began as a cottage industry at the kitchen table, but now O'Sullivan has a dedicated workshop to keep up with demand. She infuses seaweed into barrels of sweet almond oil and jojoba oil, where it absorbs all of the vitamins, minerals and trace elements seaweed is rich in. Wasi sells online and is stocked in Avoca and Meadows & Byrne, and there is interest from Germany, the UK (from the prestigious Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew) and the United States. But O'Sullivan says interest is growing among Irish consumers, too. 'They're specifically looking for Irish seaweed because it's considered a premium product.' Claire O'Sullivan in Bantry. Photograph: Andy Gibson Evan Talty, founder of Wild Irish Seaweeds – one of the country's biggest seaweed success stories, exporting its food, skincare and wholesale products all over the world – agrees. 'There's a demand right now for high-grade seaweed and Ireland is seen as having clean, green, pristine waters,' says the fourth-generation Co Clare harvester. 'The Atlantic is nutrient-dense with untapped waters that are naturally better quality, plus not every country producing seaweed is governed by the same standards and regulations as we are. Our seaweed is seen a bit like our exports of beef and dairy.' Talty believes the demographic of people who love to cook and eat seaweed is still quite niche, so the company is transitioning from food into food ingredients and nutraceuticals such as electrolyte drinks and nutritious gummies. 'We're moving away from selling packets of seaweed and saying to people, 'See what you can do', to creating an everyday product that everybody uses.' Sea moss capsules and seaweed smoothie blends are already available on the website. The company is expanding its facilities too – the difficulty it faces is not demand but labour. 'Hand-harvesting is hard work and our average worker is mid-40s to early-50s. West Clare isn't a hotspot for attracting young talent and we're competing against local industry and tourism.' To encourage the next generation of harvesters and entrepreneurs, Rhatigan says education is key. She also believes seaweed should be among the gifts given to foreign dignitaries along with the Aran jumper and pint of Guinness. 'We're an island, for goodness sake. We should be promoting the amazing biodiversity of rich seaweeds and their fabulous-tasting profiles,' she says. We may not be there yet, but seaweed has become the beating heart of businesses up and down the country and at a time when quality, authenticity, sustainability and traceability are culinary and cosmetic buzzwords. The future looks bright for Irish seaweed, despite its dark past.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
Frustration in Government over continual revelations from CHI
For weeks the Government had been bracing for more trouble at Children's Health Ireland (CHI), the embattled group that runs paediatric hospital services in Dublin . There has been frustration over waiting times for children who need orthopaedic surgery and a scandal over the implantation of unauthorised springs into three children. By mid-May another significant controversy was brewing; a review indicated that up to 60 per cent of a type of hip operations carried out at Temple Street Hospital were not necessary. However, just days after the hip report, real trouble came out of left field, with questions raised over the use of special waiting list clinics. The Sunday Times highlighted an internal CHI report that alleged potential irregularities in the State's initiative to tackle waiting lists. The Department of Health has said it had never seen or heard of the unpublished report, which dates back to 2021/22. Health Service Executive (HSE) chief Bernard Gloster also said he was unaware. But in recent days CHI told Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill that its content had been 'discussed' at performance management meetings with a senior HSE executive. READ MORE The report said a doctor, identified only as Consultant D, had been paid €35,800 for seeing patients at special clinics paid for by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). The report questioned whether the special NTPF clinics were needed and suggested the children could have been treated using other capacity in the public system. [ Audit of CHI waiting lists ordered to ensure productivity in public hospitals, Minister for Health says Opens in new window ] The report was devastating on several levels. Taoiseach Micheál Martin is a champion of the NTPF, which forms part of Government initiatives that have seen €1.6 billion spent in recent years trying to curb hospital waiting times. Any suggestion of irregularity could undermine the wider system. Senior management across the Department of Health, the HSE and the NTPF maintain they were completely blindsided. Senior figures have acknowledged it is possible there were 'miscommunications' but insist that CHI never flagged any serious issues. Oireachtas committees will, undoubtedly, seek to pursue what the HSE was told about the CHI report in 2021 or 2022. Gloster, in a pre-arranged interview with RTÉ's 'This Week' programme on May 25th, described the CHI report as 'absolutely shocking'. 'I assure you if anything connected with, or near connected with alleged people ingratiating themselves financially in the public health system, the first step I'll be taking is to refer that matter to the gardaí,' he said. Gloster demanded to see the report from CHI the next day, and the HSE passed it to Carroll MacNeill. The report caused consternation, with worrying findings made about the NTPF clinics. More importantly, the report raised issues about patient safety. In the Department of Health there was concern that architecture put in place in the health service to deal with issues regarding the safety of patients had apparently not been utilised. [ Hip surgery audit: Almost 70% of operations in two children's hospitals 'unnecessary' Opens in new window ] The HSE is understood to have pressed CHI to refer the report to the Medical Council, the regulatory body for doctors. It warned that it would make the referral itself if the CHI did not. Last Thursday the HSE said it would bring the issues to the Medical Council, as well as to gardaí. The NTPF suspended funding to CHI pending an investigation. The report also deals with rows between staff in a particular unit. The findings are stark: 'CHI has a broken culture, created by dysfunctional relationships and challenging behaviour, negatively impacting service delivery, department dynamics and staff experiences and has the potential to put patients at risk.' The new controversy arriving after issues of hip surgery and spinal implants adds to the governance problems at CHI, which is preparing to take on operation of the new €2 billion national children's hospital. On May 27th the Minister confirmed three members of the CHI board had resigned. Another had stepped down the previous week. The Taoiseach told the Dáil it was clear the environment was 'not optimal for safety'. He said it was absolutely critical that there should be fundamental reform at CHI. Separately, the Minister for Health said 'toxic behaviours' developed over time within CHI as individuals had not got along with its board and executive. The report found there were 'significant concerns' about the prudent and beneficial management of NTPF funding and a lack of oversight of access initiatives, which are ultimately not in keeping with the memorandum of understanding between CHI and the NTPF. Carroll MacNeill sought answers from CHI about the report. Sources said CHI appeared to view the report as identifying internal human resource management issues that were addressed internally. 'They don't seem to understand there is an issue,' one senior figure told The Irish Times. The Opposition demanded publication of the report but the Attorney General advised the Minister that such a move was up to CHI. However, over last weekend this argument became rather moot. On Monday The Irish Times reported details directly from the report . It found a 'negative and toxic' work culture at a CHI hospital, with multiple staff complaining of 'unprofessional and disruptive behaviour from consultants'. It said this contributed to the undermining of care and treatment for sick children. Challenging behaviours regarding one particular part of the organisation 'appear to be the norm', the report stated. It revealed one that consultant had taken a defamation action against another and stated that it was reasonable to assume this could only arise as a result of fraught relationships within this particular unit. In a statement issued at about 9.30pm on Bank Holiday Monday, CHI said the issues raised in the report had been addressed 'and the team in question are working well'. Effectively congratulating itself, the group said: 'This is an example of taking action when issues are identified in line with good HR practice.' [ Doctors say they warned CHI of toxic behaviour by several senior medics Opens in new window ] On Wednesday The Irish Times revealed that the consultant at the centre of the review for allegedly referring patients to the NTPF-funded clinic did not fulfil his on-call hours for more than three years due to 'health issues'. He had run five weekend clinics for which he was paid an additional €35,800. The consultant was seeing twice the number of patients in the weekend clinic than during his regular weekday equivalent. CHI had brought in a locum to cover the consultant's on-call hours, at a cost of around €450,000. 'It needs to be explored how one consultant can undertake a series of NTPF-funded clinics over numerous Saturdays and during these clinics see a much greater number of patients than they are able to see in their routine public clinics, working at a very fast pace with significant throughput – a substantial undertaking of additional work – yet is unfit for any on-call duties for the past three years,' the report stated. [ CHI consultant at centre of review did not fulfil on-call hours for three years due to 'health issues' Opens in new window ] In the meantime the Minister and the Department of Health were going through answers provided by CHI, particularly on whether the report's recommendations had been implemented. CHI told the department that monthly meetings had taken place, with actions tracked and the majority 'closed out'. Separately the HSE chief executive commissioned an audit of governance and equity in patient access and waiting-list management at CHI. This aimed to look at the balance between public and private patients' access to care. A pre-scheduled meeting of the Cabinet subcommittee on health discussed the CHI issue on Wednesday . Ministers were told the HSE had referred the CHI report to gardaí who will determine what steps to take. In the meantime the service level agreement between the HSE and CHI, which underpins funding, is to be strengthened. Under new HSE structures, regional executive officers have greater responsibilities for running services in their areas. The regional chief executive for Dublin and the Midlands will have a greater involvement in working with management in CHI. But the key issue for the Government is whether it believes CHI is the body that should be given responsibility for the new children's hospital. The Minister expressed confidence in current CHI management, and some in Government believe it may be too late to implement radical change before commissioning of the hospital begins. [ CHI unable to move in to national children's hospital due to continued delays Opens in new window ] Still, frustrations remain in Government at the succession of crises involving the children's hospital group. And a further report on spinal surgery is awaited.
