Latest news with #JohnWhelan
Irish Times
25-05-2025
- Irish Times
‘It's gone absolutely loony': as Ireland's campervan culture explodes, problems arise
If you try to book a park-up spot on a tourist trail for your campervan this June bank holiday weekend, you will probably be told none are available. This form of tourism is at an all-time high. More than 20,000 campervans are under licence in Ireland. The boom in ownership has come since the Covid pandemic; more than a third of those have been registered since 2020. Understandably, the pandemic was a catalyst for a product driven by a desire for independent travel after stay-at-home lockdowns and pandemic restrictions. Ireland is well positioned for campervan trips. The country's scenery and coastal routes are dotted with internationally renowned tourist attractions and there is no shortage of high-quality hikes, trails and surf spots to entice active travellers. However, infrastructure is often lacking. READ MORE Campervan owners face pushback from locals and councils, which often introduce vehicle height barriers and ban overnight parking near beaches. Toilet and waste management facilities, particularly in rural locations, can be scarce. John Whelan has been running Vanhalla – Camping Heaven , a blog and resource for motorhome enthusiasts, since before the pandemic. He converted his Ford Transit into a campervan about 10 years ago; the alternative is to buy a factory-built motorhome directly at a higher price. 'It's quite an outlay so it's important that people get it right,' he says. 'I always suggest to people to try it out first rather than investing and finding out the hard way. There's nothing as sorry as seeing buyer regret, and a motorhome parked up in someone's drive for 50 weeks of the year is not the way to enjoy it.' John Whelan, the man behind the website Vanhalla. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Whelan and his wife, Grazyna Rekosiewicz, were already avid campers, both in Ireland and in France, which is widely recognised as one of the most welcoming countries for campervans. They were accustomed to using tents, sleeping bags and gas stoves. He stresses the reality of owning a motorhome isn't too far removed from that experience. 'We had the camping bug, I suppose, and then decided to take the plunge,' says Whelan. 'I think some people wait too long to do it. Some people talk about doing it when they retire. I would suggest doing it when you have that feeling, that desire, that energy and capacity to do it.' [ Ireland's campervan boom: 'Most people will spend €45k to €50k' Opens in new window ] Buying their campervan was 'one of the best things we've ever done', he says. Whelan pushes back on the view that campervan owners don't contribute as much to a local economy as a regular tourist staying in a fixed accommodation; he argues that savings on accommodation are reinvested elsewhere. 'They do spend generously, and that is established on all other aspects. They need refreshments, entertainment, food,' he said. The absence of basic facilities became more pronounced over the pandemic, Whelan says, when pubs, hotels and restaurants were closed. While vehicles have toilets on board, owners need access to waste disposal facilities. 'If you go to France, Spain or Portugal, even the most remote little beach has litter bins and cold-water faucet showers just to rinse yourself,' he says. John Whelan's campervan interior. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw He says campervans are self-sufficient 'from a toilet point of view' but they need waste disposal for 'greywater' and emptying 'toilet cassettes'. 'Usually, people want to be able to empty their cassettes, their greywater and their rubbish, get some freshwater and have a shower. To be honest, that's not a big deal to ask for,' he says. Some local authorities have embraced campervan business with Aire sites, designated spots for campers with power and water at a low cost, including at sites in Sneem, Co Kerry; Portumna in Co Galway; and Dungarvan in Co Waterford. 'They realise that it's an economic driver for hospitality and employment in their areas,' says Whelan. Motorhome enthusiasts range from the young family with children to activity-driven surfers, hikers or mountain-bikers to retired couples. 'It's a fairly diverse community,' he says. In contrast to other forms of tourism, campervan travel is all year round, with some campsites extending their season. 'If you look at photographs taken last week around the campsites of Ireland, there wasn't a park-up to be got in places like Doolin and so on,' says Whelan. Campervans are also changing. David Hanley, a founder of Ennistymon-based Vanderlust , who builds about 40 custom campervans a year for clients in his Co Clare business, says demand for more compact vehicles has spiked in the camping community. 'Quite a few families have cottoned on to the fact that they can have a small transporter that they can use at the weekend that couples as a camper but also as a daily driver,' he says. 'That's one facet that's exploded hugely. A lot of people also started with large motorhomes and, after touring the country, realised that it's quite hard because of the narrow roads so they go to the van conversions which are a little bit more suited to Irish roads.' The length of time it takes Vanderlust to build a custom van varies, and it is also trying to facilitate the self-builds that have grown in popularity. Hanley says the company uses 3D software to design and builds vans and a lot of its jobs are bespoke, 'which is the reason people come to us'. 'We have just launched some flat-pack furniture for the self-builders, which takes out a lot of the legwork of building your van,' he says. A lot of people used them during the lockdown. Some people were very nice, and some were not so nice — Bill Lupton, founder of the Motorcaravan Club of Ireland On infrastructure, Hanley shares many of Whelan's frustrations. He believes a taskforce should be put in place to properly address the issue. 'If you compare it with the likes of France, it's shockingly bad. But they've had an industry since the '60s and they've built upon that,' he said. 'Some councils are a lot more forward thinking, and they've put infrastructure in place, but there's others that haven't, unfortunately. 'Because there's been an explosion in the number of campervans on the road, there has been quite a bit of backlash from councils.' This month Jimmy Brogan, an Independent councillor in Donegal, called for campervan culture to be embraced and new facilities to be built amid renewed concerns over the large number of vehicles parked at scenic spots in the county. When Bill Lupton bought his first campervan in 1983, it was a much less common venture. Tax was high and insurance was hard to come by. He decided to set up the Motorcaravan Club of Ireland (MCCI). Today it has 2,000 members. In addition to facilitating insurance, the club connects people with pubs around the country that can offer space to park overnight. He has seen the attitude around campervan culture change. In earlier years, he says, there was a great novelty around driving a campervan. Nowadays there can be more scepticism, and though he believes 90 per cent of owners are good and well-meaning, some give campervans a bad name. 'In the early days, when we were really stuck for tourism at the time, we did an awful lot of hard work to try and get the tourism board onside,' says Lupton. The club went to Britain and Europe to sell what Ireland had to offer and 'a freedom that you wouldn't get anywhere else', he says. 'We got a lot of people from the UK coming over here. 'In the last few years, since Covid, it went absolutely loony – people buying campers. A lot of people used them during the lockdown because they had a freedom to go where they liked and how they liked, bringing their house on their back. 'Some people were very nice, and some were not so nice.' Working with almost 20,000 members over the years, Lupton has seen the Irish interest in campervans rise and rise. The infrastructure to support, in many ways, has yet to follow.
BBC News
23-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
DIY SOS youth club in Beverley recruits 80-year-old volunteer
DIY SOS presenter Nick Knowles has hailed the "community spirit" of volunteers in East Yorkshire as hundreds of people joined forces to build a club for homeless young building was finished on Thursday after the team spent eight days transforming a field in Beverley, East Yorkshire, into a new home for the Cherry Tree Youth the crew was 80-year-old retired tradesman John Whelan who volunteered on the project for the BBC programme every Whelan, from Beverley, said he took part "for the kids - for their future - so that they can learn, enjoy something and be taught new things in life". Cherry Tree supports around 90 young people a week aged 10 to18 - and for those with special educational needs and disabilities up to the age of youth club was launched in 2016, but members of the group had been meeting in a gazebo in a park since the pandemic while a permanent home was Whelan's daughter, Angela Oldroyd, urged her father to participate in the community project after his wife said he would have loved to take part if he was Oldroyd said: "He was in the trade for 50 years, he knows his stuff inside and out and what better person to have on site than somebody who knows his stuff?" 'Buzzing' "He's had a tough year health-wise. We thought it would do him the world of good mentally and physically to get out and do something for the community," she Whelan has been sweeping up and helping the joiners. He called the work "good fun". "I'm buzzing just watching it all happen," he said. The single-storey building featured a communal area, a kitchen, meeting room, storage area and toilets. There was also an outdoor gym and a cycle path. DIY SOS presenter Nick Knowles said people came from as far as Scotland, Devon and London and "pulled off a miracle"."To be able to build out of the ground with no services in eight days to provide a place for the youngsters around here and let the people who run this amazing place and carry out the amazing work - they're the people that did it," he added."People in the area should be really proud of the community spirit that's alive and well." Gabrielle Blackman, an interior designer who also presents the show, described the project as a "superhuman effort" from "incredibly talented people who really care"."I've been crying for about an hour, I'm so thrilled. Everyone is amazing," she said."They've all made friends, people have been given jobs. It's an explosion of good stuff."DIY SOS is due to broadcast the story later this year. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
BreakingNews.ie
20-05-2025
- Health
- BreakingNews.ie
Family ask Attorney General to direct inquest into death of mother (54) as they settle action against HSE
The family of a woman who, it was alleged, was prescribed an excessive dose of blood-thinning medication at University Hospital Waterford and later died has asked the Attorney General to direct that an inquest take place into her death. The call came as Esther Flynn's grieving husband settled a High Court action against the HSE over her death three years ago. Advertisement Esther Flynn, the family's counsel, Aidan Walsh SC, told the court was only 54 years of age at the time of her death. Counsel said it was their case that Ms Flynn's death was 'totally unnecessary', and it involved the alleged over-prescribing of an anti-coagulant blood-thinning medication. Counsel said Ms Flynn suffered a brain haemorrhage and died on May 26th, 2022. The claims were denied, and the settlement, which was reached after mediation, is without an admission of liability. Mr Walsh said the fact that there was no apology forthcoming caused great upset to the Flynn family. He said the family's solicitor had asked for an 'open disclosure meeting and was 'effectively ignored.' Advertisement In the proceedings, it was claimed that Ms Flynn had been prescribed an excessive dose of blood-thinning medication and there was an alleged failure to prescribe the woman with a correct dose of the drug in accordance with her weight. Outside court, the family solicitor, John Whelan of Whelan Law, said the family has made an application to the Attorney General under the Coroners Act, seeking an inquest based on available medical evidence, including new expert reports from a consultant physician and a consultant haematologist. He said while the family welcomed progress in their case through mediation, they are saddened that there is currently no legal mechanism for the court to require an apology 'even in cases where the emotional and human need for one is clear". 'They hope this case will serve as a reminder of the importance of patient safety, full disclosures and dignity for families. They also hope that this will not happen again to another family,' he said. Advertisement He said Ms Flynn was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, sister and daughter to a close and loving family. Her family, he said, remains deeply distressed by the absence of 'any meaningful explanation or acknowledgement from the hospital since her passing.' Joe Flynn of New Ross, Co Wexford, had sued the HSE over the death of his wife. Esther Flynn had been admitted to University Hospital Waterford on April 29th, 2022, following a seizure and facial droop. She had a CT scan and an MRI scan of her brain and which were noted as unremarkable, but investigations revealed lymphoma. She was discharged on May 16th, but was readmitted two days later due to her health condition. Advertisement On May 22nd, 2022, it was noted that she had not been commenced on blood thinning medication since her admission, but due to her immobility and previous deep vein thrombosis in the past, a decision was made that she was at high risk of a pulmonary embolism. A prescription was decided upon, and on May 24th, she had a reduced level of consciousness, and a CT scan showed an acute intracranial bleed. Her condition deteriorated, and she died on May 26th. In the proceedings, it was claimed that Ms Flynn had been prescribed an incorrect dosage of the blood-thinning medication and was allegedly prescribed an excessive dose. It was further alleged that Ms Flynn had not been weighed, and an alleged unsubstantiated prescription of the drug had been based on an estimate of her weight. All of the claims were denied. Noting the settlement and the division of the €35,000 statutory mental distress payment, Mr Justice Paul Coffey conveyed his deepest sympathy to the family.
RTÉ News
01-05-2025
- RTÉ News
Profile of an abuser: Christian Brother Martin O'Flaherty
As a senior Christian Brother, Martin O'Flaherty could access all areas in Irish education. His mark is evident across the sector, not just in his primary and secondary teaching and principal posts, but in teacher training, governorships and Boards of Management, on schools' syllabus, in the creation of the Christian Brothers' schools trust, ERST, and in the sell-off of educational land. He was part of the Christian Brothers' core leadership for a dozen years from 2002 to 2014, and he had an influential reach on either side of those years. O'Flaherty was a keeper of the keys to the congregation's assets and secrets. He was one of them himself; he is currently in Mountjoy jail, his status in the Christian Brothers' leadership exclusively revealed by RTÉ Investigates. A native of Doora, Ennis, Co Clare, O'Flaherty was reared in St Michael's Villas in the town. He returned in June 2015 for the launch of a local history book about St Michael's and preached the homily at a special mass in Ennis cathedral. O'Flaherty was a typical Christian Brother recruit: by his own account, the son of parents of modest means, who were delighted to be among the first to benefit from social housing schemes of the 1950s. "Imagine how lucky they must have felt in the knowledge that there was a green area 'out front', as we used to say, where children could play and be supervised", the Clare Champion reported him preaching at the mass. His parents were probably delighted too when their son entered the Christian Brothers' training school at Carriglea Park, Dún Laoghaire, in 1965, at the age of 13, to study there. The former journalist and senator John Whelan was another Christian Brother recruit, from Co Kildare. He joined Carriglea eight years later, in 1973, aged 12. John Whelan brought his toy soldiers with him and hid them under the bed. Four years later, in fifth year, his parents drove up to collect him and he left, completing his Leaving Cert elsewhere. He is critical of wholesale denunciation of the Brothers that ignores the good, inspiring educators among them, and he was aware corporal punishment wasn't just legal back then; it was encouraged. But Carriglea was different. He described a training school for Brothers that was a breeding ground for violence. What he experienced and witnessed, he said, was a school of "cruel behaviour", in which "a handful of men seemed to take pleasure in a sort of vicious application of being able to beat you." He recalled one incident that exemplified the culture; for him, it was the last straw. It happened at a football match. "We would have been fifth and 6th years, versus the teachers, the Brothers, and one chap was running rings around them, then scored a goal", said John Whelan, "and on his way back out, celebrating, he got bursted, like, levelled". The Brother who beat the boy had to be restrained; he was the Brother Superior of the school, its principal. "When the Brother Superior was dishing it out, you know, it was very much embedded in the system", said Mr Whelan. "Corporal punishment was taken out of place and amplified to a place of cruelty and brutality. Boys were hurt, and terrified — but you know, it wasn't just one bad egg, it wasn't just a rogue trader; it was more systemic." In the face of that culture hung the fate of sexual abuser, Br Martin O'Flaherty. He was a brutal physical abuser too, described as "a monster" by one of his victims. Yet for 50 years he remained undetected and untroubled within the Christian Brothers' congregation. Instead, he rose to the top. The Scoping Inquiry that reported last year was focused solely on historical child sexual abuse in schools, not physical abuse. Yet on sexual abuse too, the Christian Brothers came out on top, with the highest number of alleged abusers, albeit having had the largest number of schools. Using the Christian Brothers' own figures, the Scoping report cited 820 allegations of historical child sexual abuse across 132 schools against 255 Christian Brothers, mainly from the 1960s up to the early 1990s. Total allegations are likely to exceed the figures given to it by the religious orders, it reported. From O'Flaherty's tenure in one Kilkenny primary school there is an indication is just how high the figures are likely to go. O'Flaherty started teaching in CBS Primary School, 'Scoil Iognaid de Ris' in Stephen Street, Kilkenny from August 1976 until August 1981. There he sexually abused several boys. He shared some of that time with another child-abusing teacher, then-serving Brother Liam Coughlan. In May 2023, former Br Coughlan (88) was convicted of indecent assault on five boys at the school in the 1970s; in October 2023 he pleaded guilty in relation to the abuse of 19 more boys. Br Martin O'Flaherty, arrested in October 2020, pleaded not guilty each time. He put his victims through six separate trials, from 2022 up to last month, his legal defence paid by the Christian Brothers. The Scoping Inquiry reported four alleged abusers and 17 abuse allegations in CBS Primary, Kilkenny, over the years. But from O'Flaherty and Coughlan's convictions alone, a sense of the true scale: they alone have 167 convictions and at least 53 victims. On the state side, there is a cost in prosecuting such trials, involving multiple counts and several victims. The Garda investigation that preceded the cases came at significant cost to Garda time and resources too. Gardai identified 900 people who had been in the school in the relevant years, and pursued inquiries on that basis. They took 88 statements regarding five alleged abusers. Forty-three complainants came forward against O'Flaherty alone. Of those who have secured convictions, many do not wish to be publicly identified. Some have told their wives of the abuse; others, not. Many did not tell their mother or father, and fear telling them now is too much to ask of elderly parents. Some told their family, but do not want to tell work colleagues. Others do not want anyone to know. They face the same predicaments many others will soon face — how open they are prepared to be about widespread sexual abuse of young boys in Irish schools over decades and its impact on them as grown men. One survivor who wishes to remain anonymous queried how other Christian Brothers did not know about Br O'Flaherty. "They had to know", he said. "If the kids knew it, the other teachers knew it —I just can't see how they could not know". Another survivor recalled that it was talked about in the schoolyard at playtime. "Stay away from him" older boys told younger classes. The survivor said that O'Flaherty used to squeeze in beside him at his desk or call him up to the teacher's desk on the pretence of reading something out loud. He would also beat him with his fist as he walked by his desk. He recalled O'Flaherty trying to catch him in the dressing room of the Kilkenny CBS hurling grounds. "He went to close the door, and I just knew, I knew. He closed it and I couldn't get out. I hit him with a hurl on the side of his face and that shocked him sufficient for me to get away", the man said, "But he hit me a blow on the face as I went out". The boy's father spotted that the boy had been hit on the face and went to the school the next day. O'Flaherty was gone for three days, the man said. "He never touched me again; he never laid his hands on me again." One survivor, the smallest boy in his class, suffered an attempted rape by O'Flaherty. In his case, beatings led to sexual abuse. "I didn't know it was happening to anyone else", he said. O'Flaherty held him back after school on the pretence of improving his long division in maths. He then wrote a school report claiming the boy was not pulling his weight in class. In later life, the man said he could never fully commit in relationships and his marriage broke down. Br Martin O'Flaherty's career took him through several other schools in Ireland and in England in various roles, ensuring he had continued access to children until recent years. He first taught in Tipperary CBS primary school from 1971 to 1973, and then in CBS Greystones primary school until 1975. After Kilkenny, he studied in Dublin until 1985, when he moved to CBS secondary school, Portlaoise, later becoming principal there. When he left Portlaoise in 1991, he took a sabbatical in England. He was principal of 'North Mon', Cork's CBS North Monastery, from 1993 to 1994. O'Flaherty was based in the Family Studies Department at Marino Institute for Education from August 1996 to March 2002, where he ran an MIE course for parents in leadership skills for personal, spiritual and faith development, and authored a book on spirituality in adolescence. A booklet O'Flaherty wrote titled 'Faith Development' was on the recommended reading list for a module of the 'Leaving Cert Applied' Religious Education syllabus. By 2002, he was part of the Christian Brothers' leadership, involved in its decisions on the first state redress scheme for victims of institutional child abuse. O'Flaherty saw himself as an educator. He was also associated with St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, where he facilitated religious gatherings. By 2006 he was on the Governing Body of MIE. Christian Brother abuse survivor, Damian O'Farrell said he was shocked when he heard about O'Flaherty's history as an abuser. He had met him through connections to Marino. "I was in his company a few times. He came across as a very charismatic person", said Mr O'Farrell. In 2007, when the Christian Brothers in Ireland restructured, creating a new Province for Ireland, England and Rome called the European Province, Martin O'Flaherty continued to be at the core of the leadership, involved in key decisions on its property, its cash assets, its treatment of victims of institutional child abuse during and after the Commission into Child Abuse and the Ryan Report, and its approach to the second redress deal in 2009. In 2007, he was a founding member and director of New Street Properties Ltd., a trustee company that acts as the property management company for the Christian Brothers and is now called Christian Brothers CLG. He remained in that role until May 2014, and was still recorded as a trustee of several individual properties after that. O'Flaherty was part of the Christian Brother leadership that developed an approach to its property interests of increasingly entering contracts for sale with developers across Dublin to maximise profits, a policy that has resulted in it squeezing availability of schools' land. In 2007 also, he was part of the leadership that decided that the congregation would keep assets arising out of the sale of the schools' playing fields it owned, and in 2008, that created a new, lay trust, the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, to which it said it was transferring all its schools. O'Flaherty and other past and present leadership figures are themselves trustees of many Christian Brother properties. Of the twenty surviving trustees in the Congregation's current and past leadership, a handful have been trustees over several years. O'Flaherty is one of those. He remained a member of the Province leadership team until May 2014. He was transferred to England in spring 2016, but before that, he was Chair of the Board of Management of a non-Christian Brother school, Our Lady's of Mourne Road in Drimnagh, having been appointed by another religious schools' trust, CEIST. Chairs of Boards of Management of schools are responsible for overseeing child safety issues in schools, under the statutory framework, 'Children First'. RTÉ Investigates also examined O'Flaherty's movements in England, where he was appointed a director and trustee of the charity and company holding Christian Brother property assets there. As a Congregation trustee for England, he was a Governor in five preparatory schools owned by the Christian Brothers in England, two of which since closed. He was also appointed as a trustee of St Anselms College Edmund Rice Academy Trust in March 2017, only stepping down on his transfer back to Ireland in May 2018, as the Garda investigation into him intensified. The Christian Brothers said that "all allegations of sexual abuse against a Brother or former Christian Brother are notified to the appropriate safeguarding authorities and to the gardai (and to police and church authorities in the UK where appropriate)". It also said that "pending investigation of such allegations, any Brother against whom allegations were made (whether in Ireland or the UK) were removed from active Ministry or any frontline role involving the education or welfare of children". However, RTÉ Investigates has established that Martin O'Flaherty had contact with pupils from a number of Christian-Brother connected schools during his time in England, after the Garda investigation had begun, including in March 2018, when he attended an event with pupils from St. Anselm's College, Liverpool, St. Joseph's College, Stoke-on-Trent, and St Ambrose College in Hale Barns, Altrincham, Greater Manchester. When he was brought back from England in May 2018, while he resigned from roles involving ministries with children, he remained a trustee of the congregation's property assets in England. He resigned from that position in December 2019, almost three years after Gardai first made contact with the Christian Brothers about him in January 2017, and 21 months after the first formal statement to Gardai by one of his victims, in February 2018. In October 2020, he was arrested and charged in connection with child sexual abuse in Kilkenny CBS Primary School in the late 1970s. He first went on trial in March 2022, and, following six separate trials involving multiple victims, his final conviction was in March this year. In Ireland, he remained a trustee listed on the deeds of several Christian Brother properties, including some synonymous with the Brothers, such as Synge Street in Dublin 8, and Monkstown CBC, where he was among trustees executing a rectification on the deeds in 2022, over a year after he had already been charged with abuse. The Christian Brothers trustee company subsequently transferred land it had retained at Monkstown to ERST in July 2022. In response to RTÉ Investigates, the Christian Brothers, under current Province leader David Gibson, said it "reiterates our apology for the physical and sexual abuse that occurred in many former CBS schools and institutions over several generations." It said it recognises "the terrible damage that was done to innocent children who should have been protected." However, in the face of its approach to victims and its record on educational land, the Christian Brothers words ring hollow for many survivors. With the public, it now risks its legacy in education, where its actions, not its words, have been sounding an alarm.
Globe and Mail
16-04-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Imperial to hold 2025 First Quarter Earnings Call
(TSE: IMO, NYSE American: IMO) Brad Corson, chairman and chief executive officer; John Whelan, president; and Peter Shaw, vice-president, investor relations, Imperial Oil Limited, will host the 2025 First Quarter Earnings Call on Friday, May 2, following the company's first quarter earnings release that morning. The event begins at 9 a.m. MT and will be accessible by webcast. During the call, Mr. Corson will offer brief remarks prior to taking questions from Imperial's covering analysts. Please click here [ ] to register for the live webcast. The webcast will be available for one year on the company's website at In the event that the EDGAR system experiences technical difficulties, or the company is unable to successfully complete its Form 8-K earnings press release filing at the intended time, investors and the public should look for this information at that time on Imperial's website or on Canada's SEDAR+ system at In case of a failed filing, the company intends to furnish the information on EDGAR as soon as possible. After more than a century, Imperial continues to be an industry leader in applying technology and innovation to responsibly develop Canada's energy resources. As Canada's largest petroleum refiner, a major producer of crude oil, a key petrochemical producer and a leading fuels marketer from coast to coast, our company remains committed to high standards across all areas of our business.
