- NEWS
10% tax on junk food to tackle obesityA 10% tax on fizzy drinks, sweets, biscuits, crisps, and chocolate is to be recommended to the health minister as a way of tackling the country's soaring obesity problem.
Prayer vigil for fine weather as farmers queue for fodderA 24-hour prayer vigil for fine weather has been held on the Kerry-Cork border.
- WORLD
It’s technology, Jim, but not as we know it WHEN Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry first dreamed up the concept of a television show based in the unexplored universe of Outer Space in 1964, the world was a very different place.
Berlusconi’s party girls dressed as nuns, Obama Silvio Berlusconi's private disco featured women dressed not just as sexy nuns and nurses, but also as President Barack Obama and a prominent Milan prosecutor that the former Italian premier has accused of persecuting him.
- BUSINESS
IBRC delays loan valuations, saleThe valuation and sale of IBRC loans has been pushed out by six months to November and December of this year.
The smart money is always on SeánFounded four decades ago, its annual turnover is now €2bn.
- SPORT
The Terry Reilly Interview: The Godfather of GalwayOver the course of almost half a century, Liam Sammon has been in service to Galway football. Now he hopes a new generation can restore county pride.
Super Blues keep double in sightsJoe Schmidt's side won their third European trophy in successive years and gave Connacht reason to celebrate also as the Westerners gained entry to next season's Heineken Cup courtesy of their neighbours to the east.
- LIFESTYLE
Let in the seasonal lightYOUR wardrobe isn't the only thing that needs updating once the barometer starts to rise.
It’s a guy thingDid you cry with your buddy while watching Fergie say farewell at Old Trafford?
10-13C
Breaking stories
Surgery hasn’t cured boy, 3, of Batten disease
By Donal Hickey
The parents of a three-year-old Kerry boy who has Batten disease have been told the pioneering surgery he had in New York last year is not going to be a cure.
However, Tony and Mary Heffernan yesterday said they would continue to leave no stone unturned for their son, Liam, and are hoping for another treatment trial in Los Angeles next year.The family yesterday flew from Dublin to New York where he will undergo further assessment at the Weill Cornell University Hospital.
He had eight-hour brain surgery in the hospital a year ago. The surgery involved a gene transfer procedure. The genes were administered to 12 locations in his brain through six holes drilled through his skull.
“This week, he will be going through a full head-to-toe assessment and will have a full MRI scan to determine the extent of any deterioration in his condition,” said Mr Heffernan.
“Liam is still improving and is continuing to have speech and language therapy and occupational therapy.
“Overall, he has a good quality of life. He just needs a lot of care and watching. He can’t be left alone and we have to keep a seizure watch all the time.”
Liam is the youngest child in the world to undergo a gene transfer procedure and the only person outside the US to receive it.
The Hefferans, who live in Keel, Castlemaine, are helping another Irish family to take a child with Batten disease to New York for assessment.
The disease is a rare neurological disorder and also claimed the life of the Heffernans’ five-year-old daughter, Saoirse, their only other child, in Jan 2011.