The Big 6 - Friday February 26th

Every evening at 6 o'clock, WLR brings you the 6 biggest stories of the day.

NearForm was named Overall Waterford Business of the Year at the Waterford Business Awards this lunchtime by Mayor of Waterford City & County, Cllr Damien Geoghegan, during a live virtual awards ceremony. The multi-national company also picked up the Technology & Innovation of the Year award during the streamed event and is the second time the Tramore-based company has won the top prize, collecting it first back in 2016.

Dungarvan was the only local electoral area in Waterford which saw an increase in the number of cases of Covid-19 last week. 58 cases were confirmed during the two weeks ending on Monday, February 22nd, which is up from 40 a week before and is a jump of 45 per cent. Waterford City South continues to have the highest level of the virus active in the community. There were 77 cases confirmed during that time to give an incidence rate of 342.6 per 100,000 people

In a busy week for the club, Waterford FC announced another four new signings today. They included 21-year-old centre-back Kyle Ferguson, who previously lined out for Swedish side Ytterhogdals IK. Katlego Mashigo also joins from Bohemians FC and the club also welcomed defender Jack Stafford and striker Prince Mutswunguma.

Among the many changes which could be heralded by the Waterford GAA strategic plan for 2021-2030, one of the more unexpected could be the possibility of a new championship tier in the future. Speaking at the presentation of the “Waterford Rising” plan, county board Chairman Sean Michael O’ Regan said that conversations have happened with a view towards introducing a new “Premier Intermediate” championship” to try and bring greater competition and balance to the current championships.

The Solas Cancer Support Centre in Williamstown is celebrating a milestone today – this was the first day that clients were welcomed into the new Centre 10 years ago. Solas had been operating from a rented property in Earlscourt and thanks to a huge fundraising effort, the donation of land from Waterford City and County Council and the provision of professional services for free from many of those involved in the creation of the building, the one million euro centre was able to begin operating debt free. Lorraine Hurley, from Waterford City, clearly remembers this day having availed of services in the original Centre before the new Centre opened. Lorraine was diagnosed at 14 with a rare type of bone cancer in March 2010:

Freya, Amelia and Emily were the most popular baby names for girls in Waterford last year. That’s according to the CSO’s latest breakdown of the most popular baby names in the country for 2020. The top spot for boys in Waterford City was shared between Alex, Jack and Liam, while in county Waterford Jack was the most popular name.