Dreams Grounded: French Air Strikes Cancel Flights, Shatter Hopes Of 21 Young Martial Artists From Newbridge, Kilcullen, And Monasterevin

Thursday, 25 April 2024 14:13

By Annie Cross

The children, aged 8 to 14, have been working relentlessly for months.

Twenty one children from Newbridge, Kilcullen and Monasterevin have had their hopes dashed as the French air strikes caused flights to be cancelled before their Martial Arts European Championship.

Speaking on Kildare today, concerned parent Colm Moore said the children cannot attend a very important martial arts competition in Paris.

Colm said the flight was scheduled to depart this morning, with the competition running from Friday to Sunday,

To top off the trip, a special day out to Disneyland Paris was planned for Monday.

The children, aged 8 to 14, have been working relentlessly for months and even gave up their Easter holidays to practice every day.

Colm and other concerned parents are scraping together all the money they have to give these kids the opportunity of a lifetime but are unsuccessful.

The team currently has no funds to support them and is appealing to the public not to let their hard work go to waste.

Colm and other devastated parents are appealing to the public to help them raise €2,500 to help these young children represent Ireland in the Martial Arts European championship.

You can donate here.

Meanwhile, Ryanair says the EU isn't doing enough to protect air travel in Europe.

The airline is calling on the European Commission to take action, after 300 of its flights were cancelled today due to strike action by air traffic controllers in France.

Although the strike was cancelled, 2000 flights passing through French airspace had to be called-off, in anticipation of the industrial action.

Group CEO of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, says too many flights are impacted by planned strike action in one country.