A new dawn for the town’s phone boxes

THE aim to make Killarney the most ‘heart safe’ town in Ireland just got a step nearer thanks to a donation to The Heart of Killarney – a group that works to increase public awareness around the location of public access AEDs in Killarney.

Historically, the phone box played a huge part in the Irish community as they were the lifeline that kept families together. Now they can do that again by housing these life saving devices and help the public recognise and remember the locations of the AEDs.

“Following the success of the film, ‘The Dawn’ in Killarney Cinema over the past few weeks, we now have the funds to put up a second Phone Box AED in Killarney,” said Damian Baker.

“The Heart of Killarney team would like to thank the Cooper family and all the staff of Killarney Cinema for choosing to support this initiative. This project will save lives by helping people to recognise that within an old Irish phone box there is an AED,” he added.

Killarney is among other ‘heart healthy’ projects nationwide looking to lead in this innovative idea and it now hopes it will catch on nationally. Killarney has 13 public access AEDs which drastically improve the chances of someone who has an out of hospital cardiac arrest.

The team at the heart of Killarney will work with the other groups already in existence in Killarney to strengthen the chain of survival, so well done to all.

Katherine Cooper Cronin and Michelle Cooper Galvin presenting €3800 the proceeds of the screening of The Dawn at Cinema Killarney to Eilish Coffey, Damien Baker and Leo O’Connor The Heart of Killarney for a new Defibrillator.