Thursday, July 26th 2007

The programme is presented today by Aonghus McAnally.

Don't forget, you can now text us whilst the programme is on air on 51551 from the Republic of Ireland or STUDIO [followed by your message] to 80889 if in Northern Ireland, or Great Britain.

It's summertime and to celebrate Mooney's Money is going international! For the month of July, we'll continue to give you the chance to win €1,000 of Mooney's Money each day during the show. But the twist is that you'll play to win a themed foreign currency plus a chance to win a fantastic holiday to the home of that currency - this week, you can win a fabulous holiday to Iceland! Click here for more details.

One of our listeners warns us about a new bogus e-mail looking for credit card details (known as phishing)

If you think of Thor, you might think of the Norse God of Thunder - but not if you are Robert McDonald from Florida! He's an adventurer, stuntman, and a charity organiser, and he's got a boat called Hammer of Thor. It's not just any aul boat though ... it's a Viking longship made of 15 million recycled lollypop sticks! The lolly sticks were collected by children all over the world, and it took Robert and two friends two years to glue them all together! He's hoping to sail the 50ft boat across the Atlantic, to raise money for the Sea Heart Foundation for children. To learn more about the project, click here.

It's that time of year again when most of us want to jet off to sunnier climes to escape from the grind of our daily routines, especially this summer as it hasn't stopped raining! Holidays should be the one time of the year when we can relax, sit back and enjoy ourselves - but unfortunately holidays can sometimes be a cruel twist of fate and what was meant to be a rejuvenating break can turn out to be tiring and stressful. Stress Management Consultant Therese Ryan, from Renewal Consultants, joins Aonghus with some practical tips to minimise your holiday stress.

This morning, Aonghus and Dermot O'Neill went off to one of Dublin's best kept secrets, the beautiful Iveagh Gardens in Dublin, to meet up with Dr. John McCullen, the Chief Superintendent of Parks with the OPW. To read more about the gardens and see how they got on, click here.

Ever thought that the vacant warehouse or old school at the end of your road could be put to better use? Maybe you're a member of a community group that pays hefty rent for your meeting spaces and you'd much rather be able to re-vamp that empty building? What are the implications for free public spaces, and how can we best use them? These are concerns close to the heart of Seomra Spraoi, a Dublin-based collective committed to creating more communal public service spaces. For more, Aonghus is joined today by one of the collective's members, Mark Malone, and also by Andrew McIlroy, a writer, cultural policy expert and project manager. For more information about Seomra Spraoi, click here. And in his capacity as a writer, Andrew McIlroy's short story, Osama in China, is one of this year's selected entries for the Francis McManus Awards, which you'll be able to download here.

Dermot answers queries about vine weevil eggs, and tells us about his recent gardening trip to Italy, and his forthcoming gardening visit to China. For more information about the trip, click here.

In today's Nob Nation, our Nobs face the Planning Tribunal into Fairy Tales!

Mick Mahon, commuting in Kildare, plays the Commuter Quiz, and wins a pair of tickets to Bohemians vs. Sunderland on Saturday night, courtesy of Boyle Sports, PLUS a Mooney jacket!

And we congratulate Ann Ryan from Mullinahane, Co. Tipperary on winning €1000 of Icelandic kronor in Mooney's Money - he'll now enter our prize draw on Friday to win a FANTASTIC holiday to Iceland! For your chance to win tomorrow, just click here.