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Brennan reveals he is 'living with cancer'

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Hotelier John Brennan has revealed that he is living with cancer.

He told Ryan Tubridy on The Late Late Show that “it’s treatable, it’s not an issue”.

He said he has been cocooned since last October after having a second course of scheduled chemo.

He said the first time he had chemo it was 2011.

“It was the 16 March, 2011 and I had my gallbladder out,” he said.

“The surgeon who took out the gallbladder…there was a little nugget on the side of it and he said they’d just take it because it was too big.”

John said the doctor sent it away to get analysed and they realised there was cancer in it.

“So then he phones me three weeks later and he says ‘listen, I’ve got some bad news for you’.

“He said ‘I’ve a great lady in Cork, Mary Cahill. Go and see Mary’.”

John said that after filming in Tipperary he went to Cork for his appointment “and Mary tells us [John and his wife Gwen] it’s stage four.

”John said that he was diagnosed with non Hodgkin's lymphoma.

He said the type of cancer was treatable but it’s not curable “but that’s fine. It’s treatable, it’s not an issue.”

Chefs Crave return to Cooking

‘We just want to get back cooking’ was the wish of two of the country’s top hotel chefs when they spoke to Micheline Corr of The Firm in the latest ‘The Firm Optimist’ edcooney

conversations to-day (Thuursday 14th May).

Ed Cooney, executive head chef at The Merrion Hotel Dublin said : ‘We miss cooking, and serving our guests. That is what we do and we what we want to do. So the best day will be when we can start cooking again’.

Philippe Farineau, executive head chef at Ashford Castle Hotel agreed. ‘We are making many preparations for the day when we again welcome our guests’, he said.

Both are looking forward to re-opening restaurants on 29th June with full hotel facilities coming back on stream on 20thh July.

‘We will be re-opening in a whole new world’, Ed Cooney said. ‘We will be complying with Government protocols so that our hotel is safe and comfortable for our teams and our hotels. We will be at the cutting edge and will seek to lead the way’

The chefs agreed that initially they will be catering for the domestic market. ‘After a long period of lockdown, guests will want to enjoy food that they cannot have at home, with new flavours and interesting ingredients’, Philippe said.

‘It will be a long time before the international market returns’, said Ed.

Ed Cooney said that the experience of the lockdown was traumatic initially. ‘I saw my whole life’s work go up in the air. It was hard to process, but now we are planning to re-open and it has given us more confidence’.

Air Traffic down by 85%

Traffic through Irish airports fell by 85% last month as the Covid-19 pandemic brings air travel worldwide to a halt. The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) said that just 14,907 flights Knock Airport were handled during the month of April when compared to the same month in 2019.

Dublin Airport recorded 2,067 flights, down 89.8%%.

Cork airport traffic saw 225 movements, down 93.9%

Shannon airport reported 364 flights, a 79.8% decrease.

There was also a decrease of 81.8% in the number of flights that pass through Irish airspace but that do not land here.

Music Festivals in Peril

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Independent music festivals might never recover from lockdown unless urgent action is taken by the UK Government, the sector has warned.

The UK could face a festival “wasteland” in 2021 and beyond, according to its trade body, which says festivals are a “defining part of British culture”.

The call comes after festivals from Glastonbury to LoveBox were axed this year.

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) warned that 92% of member festival businesses could collapse under potential refund requests.

Chris proposes Booths and Screens

Chris Hadlington, a widely-experienced hotel and catering manager, says industry professionals have the expertise to find solutions to the demands being placed on hospit chrishedlingtoin ality businesses by government - and suggests a few practical ideas to get the debate started

They include the construction of booths in restaurants, perpeex screens to separate tables and temperature checks on diners.

Chris has had a long career in the UK as a chef, food and beverage manager, caterer and cnsultant and he now operates a guest house in Rosslare, Co. Wexford.

He say that the time is fast approaching when restaurants, bars and cafés will be re-opening after lockdown 'and we’ll need to be prepared to operate in a very different world.'

The doom and gloom being spread by many people in the hospitality industry is, in my opinion, very sad', he says..' We’re the guys and gals whose raison d’etre is to cheer people up and make them happy during difficult times, so we need to be proactive in the preparation of our establishments and educate the government about what we can do to revive our sector of the economy.

We are the industry professionals so we should have the expertise to find solutions to the demands being placed on us by government. I’d like to share some ideas that businesses could consider implementing, or that might get owners thinking positively about practical measures that could be developed in their particular situation.

These concepts are offered as outlines of what we can do to keep customers and staff safe while remaining compliant with Government guidelines and yet maintaining an acceptable level of profitability. We can split these concepts into two categories.