Ireland’s gold-den girl Katie collects a bronze for starters with 26-15 win
Ireland’s Katie Taylor lands a left hook during her stunning 26-15 defeat of British lightweight hope Natasha Jonas in a throbbing ExCel Arena in London yesterday. The victory guarantees the Bray boxer an Olympic bronze medal at least.
BOXING & the sight of a Gold medal: for Katie Taylor caught everybody’s eye yesterday. From the moment her red vest flashed up on the monitors and she emerged from the tunnel until her father Peter kissed her forehead at the end of a stunning Olympic debut, Taylor was the commanding presence, the performer who held the gaze of 10,000 fans from the moment she stepped into view. Naturally and irredeemably Taylor has been sprinkled with stardust.
Yesterday she was given the platform that she had longed for but was denied when boxing was not included in the schedule for the Beijing Games. That disappointment has made her London 2012 visit more urgent. The lightweight champion has always seen these Olympics as a stage to evangelise women’s boxing, to show the doubters that it is possible for a woman to take thousands in her grasp and hold them there captivated and wanting more.
Even British opponent Natasha Jonas graciously fell under the Taylor spell. The Liverpool woman fought the best fight she could but there was little headway to be made against the speed and explosive power of the four-times World Champion.
“I noticed that her pace had slowed down,” said Jonas of the final round. “But to be fair her slow pace is still a fast pace. I could have thrown a kitchen sink at her. I could have driven a bus at her and it wouldn’t have worked.”
Few have witnessed an atmosphere like it in amateur boxing and it was all because of the Irish athlete who has balanced poise and grace with a wrecking ball game.
“She fights like a man,” said British colleagues after the 26-15 win. The comparison was well meant, an unadorned, baldly stated fact that Taylor’s general movement and hand speed was inherently different to all of the other women in the draw.
Her father Pete was less enamoured with the bronze medal win but content with the first act and a performance that arrived after having had no sparring. The cobwebs have been blown away. But Pete, a former Irish champion, never lets his standards slip.
“She needed that one fight just to get rid of the nerves. We’ve had a long wait and she’s not sparred for 11 days so . . . you’ve got to kind of grow into a tournament. And now she’s in. She’s up and running and she’s flying now. She’s 60 per cent there. Next time she’ll be 80 per cent. And in the final she’ll be 100 per cent.”
Taylor’s first round was modest enough and cautiously approached. She gave hints of what was to come but Jonas, ranked seven in the world, emerged just 5-2 behind. The second round was Taylor’s weakest of the four and she was caught with a couple of Jonas backhands, which gave the British woman some hope, her tempo visibly rising. The round was scored 5-5 which left Taylor 10-7 ahead with four minutes remaining.
The third round won the fight and the crowd. Stronger and banging her right hand through the Jonas defence, the British woman was given a standing count to a cacophony of booing. Taylor was beating Jonas to the punch every time and when her combinations began to land Jonas seemed hopelessly vulnerable.
Another standing count for Jonas in the fourth round after she was rocked back brought the fight to a 26-15 conclusion.
“I wasn’t doing what I was told, I don’t think, in the second round,” said Taylor. “I was getting caught with a few backhands and the third round was crucial really. It’s really what won me the fight, the first and the third round.
“I just had to hold onto that lead then in the fourth round. But it was such a tough contest, it was always going to be a tough contest, Ireland against Great Britain. I couldn’t let her beat me really. I’m going for a gold medal and nothing else, and I’m just concentrating now on my next fight. No one’s ever happy with a bronze medal.
“I just try to stay calm and composed, I try not to play up to the crowd too much because it can burn up too much energy. I just try to stay relaxed all the way through. But it’s hard not to get excited with that crowd. It was amazing to box in front of them.”
She now meets Mavzuna Chorieva for the silver medal. The Tajikistan boxer came through with a win over China’s Cheng Dong. Taylor last beat Chorieva 16-6 in the World Championship semi-finals, while yesterday’s win was her 49th successive Championship victory and 130th win in 137 career fights.
Most in the ExCel had never seen Taylor fight before and knew her through reading newspapers or seeing her picture. Now they know what the 26-year-old can do. Judging from the reaction, they have gladly taken ownership
Katie Taylor lays it out: I am going for gold and nothing else is good enough
Seconds out, round one over and a bronze guaranteed, but the real fight is still to come.
That’s the way Katie Taylor was thinking straight after her victory over Great Britain’s Natasha Jonas yesterday set up a semi-final against Tajikistan’s Manzuna Chorieva at 2pm tomorrow.
Despite earning Ireland’s second bronze medal of the games in front of a sell-out crowd at ExCel she has bigger ambitions.
Winning her first fight was not a reason to celebrate.
“It will only be a relief when I hear Amhrán na bhFiann at the top of the podium — I’m going for a gold medal and nothing else,” she said.
“I’m just concentrating now on my next fight. No one is ever happy with a bronze medal. I’ll just go back and concentrate — just try to stay calm and composed.”
It was a big statement from the four-time world champion who had the ExCel weaving to The Fields of Athenry as she came back from a ropey second round to carve her opponent apart in the third before cruising to the fourth.
She won the first round 5-2 but allowed Jonas back into the fight in the second when she went toe-to-toe which suited Jonas who tied the round at 5-5.
The third, however, saw Taylor at her best, scoring from multi-punch combinations and picking off points from some powerful single shots, giving Jonas a standing count and winning the round 9-4. From there on she sailed through, winning the fourth 7-4.
“In the second round she stopped doing what she was doing in the first round and I got a bit concerned,” high performance coach, Billy Walsh admitted. “But Zaur [Antia] got her back together and she came out for the third round all guns blazing.’’
Katie admitted: “I wasn’t doing what I was told in the second round.
“I was getting caught with a few backhands and the third round was crucial really. It’s really what won me the fight, the first and the third rounds. I just had to hold on to that lead then in the fourth round.
“But it was such a tough contest, it was always going to be a tough contest, Ireland against Great Britain. I couldn’t let her beat me really.
“I couldn’t believe it, it was such an amazing atmosphere. I knew it was going to be great but it took me by surprise a small bit. It’s a privilege to box for them as well as my country and for my family.
“I just try to stay calm and composed. I don’t try to play to the crowd too much because you can burn up too much energy. I just try to stay relaxed all the way through. It’s hard not to get excited with that crowd. I definitely think I had more support than the GB [fighter] there which was incredible really.”
But despite the support from the crowd she knew she would get nothing easy and Jonas made it difficult.
“My dad told me she had a deceptively long reach and I had to watch out for her,” she said.
“Sometimes she slipped past me with it. I knew it was going to be a tough contest and I was expecting maybe a battle of nerves today and that’s exactly what I got.
“It was my first fight in the competition and it’s always kind of hard to get into the competition but, overall, I’m generally happy.”
Katie’s father and coach, Pete, was thanking Brian Peters for having her on the Bernard Dunne world title fight undercard as it helped prepare her for the atmosphere yesterday afternoon.
“It was unbelievable,” he said. “And I want to thank Brian Peters because we’ve experienced that before in the O2 on the Bernard Dunne card, so it wasn’t a shock to her. She’s had that kind of ovation. So it was great experience that stood to her today.’’
He insisted we have not seen the best of Katie yet and she will improve still further.
“She needed that one fight just to get a bit of the nerves,” he said.
“We’ve had a long wait and she’s not sparred for 11 days so you’ve got to kind of grow into a tournament. And now she’s in. She’s up and running and she’s flying now.
“She’s 60% there, next time she’ll be 80% and in the final she’ll be 100%.
“I was a nervous wreck this morning. Katie was grand. Like we’ve a routine. Ma came over and prayed with her and we went for a little walk — got something to eat.
Same as we always do for any tournament whether we’re boxing in Bray or boxing in World Championships — same routine — same nerves to tell you the truth.”
Jonas said herself and Katie Taylor had done women’s boxing some justice and hoped it would change a few opinions about it. “That’s what women’s boxing is about at its highest level and I hope we have proved that to people,’’ she said.
“I hope young people will want to get involved and sceptics realise that at the highest level women’s boxing is just as good as men’s amateur boxing.
“The atmosphere is always electric. Being a Scouser, we’re used to a lot of Irish people. A lot of Liverpudlians descend from Irish people. I’m used to noise like that. It was a great atmosphere and what a way to get behind women’s boxing with how many turned out and cheered us on.
“We both gave it all that we had in there. We both appreciated each other’s efforts.
“I expect Katie to win gold and I’ll be behind her 100% after that performance. As I say I’ve got no issues, there’s nothing else I could have done. I wish her all the best with the rest of the tournament. It would be nice to know that you got beaten by the eventual winner.”
Ireland’s Coalition green group call for all fracking activity to stop
A Coalition of 27 environmental groups has called on the Government to “put a stop to all fracking activity” in Ireland because its “known impacts are so serious”.
The coalition group includes An Taisce, Birdwatch Ireland, Feasta, Friends of the Earth Ireland, the Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association, the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, the Irish Wildlife Trust, the Organic Centre, Sonairte and Voice.
In a new policy document on hydraulic fracturing of shale gas – commonly known as “fracking” – the Environmental Pillar of Social Partnership referred to the “proposed industrialisation and degradation of our environment across at least nine counties”.
Michael Ewing, co-ordinator of the Environmental Pillar, said the environment and long-term development of rural Ireland was “at risk from the secrecy surrounding the polluting processes involved – the damage done to communities, water supplies and wildlife”.
Instead, the Government and EU should “focus their attention on increasing energy efficiency and accelerating the move to renewable energy rather than allowing the development of high-risk, inefficient and polluting gas extraction processes that just add to the problem of climate change”.
In its policy document the pillar says there was no scientific agreement that unconventional gas extraction would have significantly lower total greenhouse gas emissions compared to other conventional fossil fuels, and its development “will be at the expense of cheaper and safer policies”.
It warns that fracking “could cause the contamination of surface and ground water (including drinking water) with toxic chemicals used in fracking fluids and increasing the concentration in such water of methane and hazardous and radioactive materials that naturally occur in shale and coal”.
The document notes that fracking “involves pumping vast amounts of freshwater underground, much of which becomes irretrievable and/or contaminated [and] this will create significant social and environmental pressures at a local and regional level, and particularly in regions suffering from water scarcity”.
It also caused air pollution from soot, methane and natural gas as well as noise pollution that would affect local residents, livestock and wildlife and “increases the risks of earthquakes, which in turn increases the risk of damage to, and leakages from, gas wells”, according to the document.
“Many of these impacts are not only local but can be felt regionally and even globally. Without a comprehensive scientific assessment of the impacts of fracking in Ireland and across Europe, an unconventional gas boom would be an enormous experiment on the environment and human health.”
It says fracking also runs counter to the EU’s commitment to achieving a high level of environmental and human health protection as well as the precautionary principle – especially in the absence of a comprehensive and detailed analysis of fracking by an independent Irish or EU regulatory agency.
Such a study would have to examine fracking-related air pollution and the long-term health impact, fracking-related water contamination and a full cost-benefit analysis of the socioeconomic and environmental impacts – possibly through a European Commission green paper with full public participation of stakeholders.
To date, the pillar says, “there is no consistent process in Ireland or Europe that properly includes citizens and communities in decision-making” related to fracking, while the companies involved “are not disclosing an exhaustive and detailed list of the chemicals used” for each project.
“Until all these problems are adequately addressed, we believe that no further shale gas, shale oil and coal bed methane activities should proceed. We call on the Government and the European Commission to suspend all ongoing activities, to abrogate permits and to place a ban on any new projects,” it said.
Membership of the Environmental Pillar, which was set up in 2009, includes An Taisce, Birdwatch Ireland, Feasta, Friends of the Earth Ireland, the Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association, the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, the Irish Wildlife Trust, the Organic Centre, Sonairte and Voice.
Chemotherapy can ‘undermine itself make cancer cells more resistant
’but treatment can also encourage cells to grow’
Fibroblasts are usually helpful cells & on right a nurse administering chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy can undermine itself by causing a rogue response in healthy cells, which could explain why people become resistant, a study suggests.
The treatment loses effectiveness for a significant number of patients with secondary cancers.
Writing in Nature Medicine, US experts said chemo causes wound-healing cells around tumours to make a protein that helps the cancer resist treatment.
A UK expert said the next step would be to find a way to block this effect.
Around 90% of patients with solid cancers, such as breast, prostate, lung and colon, that spread – metastatic disease – develop resistance to chemotherapy.
Treatment is usually given at intervals, so that the body is not overwhelmed by its toxicity.
But that allows time for tumour cells to recover and develop resistance.
In this study the researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle looked at fibroblast cells, which normally play a critical role in wound healing and the production of collagen, the main component of connective tissue such as tendons.
But chemotherapy causes DNA damage that causes the fibroblasts to produce up to 30 times more of a protein called WNT16B than they should.
The protein fuels cancer cells to grow and invade surrounding tissue – and to resist chemotherapy.
Success v failure: It was already known that the protein was involved in the development of cancers – but not in treatment resistance.
The researchers hope their findings will help find a way to stop this response, and improve the effectiveness of therapy.
Peter Nelson, who led the research, said: “Cancer therapies are increasingly evolving to be very specific, targeting key molecular engines that drive the cancer rather than more generic vulnerabilities, such as damaging DNA.
“Our findings indicate that the tumour microenvironment also can influence the success or failure of these more precise therapies.”
Prof Fran Balkwill, a Cancer Research UK expert on the microenvironment around tumours, said: “This work fits with other research showing that cancer treatments don’t just affect cancer cells, but can also target cells in and around tumours.
“Sometimes this can be good – for instance, chemotherapy can stimulate surrounding healthy immune cells to attack tumours.
“But this work confirms that healthy cells surrounding the tumour can also help the tumour to become resistant to treatment.
“The next step is to find ways to target these resistance mechanisms to help make chemotherapy more effective.”
25% of Polish workers in Ireland are claiming dole ‘new stats show’
One in four Polish nationals living in Ireland is now receiving the dole, new statistics have revealed, following Judge Mary Devins’s controversial remark about social welfare being a “Polish charity”.
The extent of the unemployment crisis within the immigrant community in Ireland is revealed in statistics secured by the Sunday Independent, which show that 25 per cent of Polish nationals between the ages of 15 and 64 are on the dole.
The issue of unemployment levels within the immigrant community emerged when, responding to queries in Castlebar District Court about the existence of a Polish charity in Ireland, Judge Devins remarked: “A Polish charity? There is. It’s called the social welfare.”
However, the most up-to- date statistics reveal that the Polish community, who are the largest non-national grouping in the State, are suffering even more heavily than Irish residents from the jobs crisis. Currently, 100,162 Polish immigrants of working age are resident in Ireland and 23,905, or just under a quarter of these, are receiving some form of Jobseeker’s Allowance or Benefit.
Significantly, the statistics also reveal that whilst Polish citizens constitute 3.3 per cent of the population aged between 15 and 64, they account for 4.39 per cent of claimants of unemployment schemes that are open to the working population.
It is believed one of the key factors in the rate of unemployment amongst Polish workers, which is slightly higher than that of Irish workers, has been the collapse of the building and manufacturing industry in the economy.
During the height of the boom, the work ethic and skills of Polish workers meant they were actively sought by employers. However, they seem to have been effectively left high and dry.
The statistics reveal that currently 543,961 individuals in the State are getting Jobseeker’s Allowance or Benefit, Back to Work Allowance, One-Parent Family Payment or other benefits.
Of the 95,646 people receiving Jobseeker’s Benefit, 6,057 or 6.33 per cent of total recipients are Polish. Jobseekers Benefit is paid to individuals who have been in work and earned enough stamps via PRSI payments.
Jobseeker’s Allowance, which is means tested, but is also paid to long-term employed individuals whose benefits have run out is currently being paid to 309,885 individuals, 14,051 or 4.53 per cent of which are Polish.
Polish immigrant take-up of the Back to Work Allowance Scheme, which encourages unemployed people (among others) to take up employment is particularly high at 8.7 per cent or 1,044 of the total of 11,955 applicants.
Relatively few Poles, 2.32 per cent or 2,083, are found amongst the 89,735 citizens on One-Parent Allowance, whilst the Polish take-up of other schemes such as Back to Education, Farm Assist and Pre-retirement allowance is even smaller. Currently 36,700 people are receiving such benefits, of which 670 or 1.83 per cent are Poles.
The figures indicate that whilst unemployment levels are relatively high amongst the Polish community, the overall impact on Irish unemployment figures and costs — 23,905 or 4.39 per cent of the total — is still peripheral.
Donegal Pensioner killed in single-vehicle incident named yesterday
A pensioner killed in a road incident in Co Donegal early yesterday morning was named today as Eddie McGuigan from the Fintown area. Mr McGuigan was in his mid-70s he died when his Toyota Yaris car left the road and went into a field.
Donegal Gardaí are currently investigating the circumstances of the single-vehicle incident at Fintown.
A Garda spokesman said: “At approximately 00.15 hours a man aged in his 70s died when the motor car he was driving veered off the road and into a field at Meenmore, Fintown.”
The spokesman added: “His body was removed by ambulance to Letterkenny Hospital for a postmortem examination.
“Forensic collision investigators have been notified and traffic diversions are in place.”
Mr McGuigan was a married man who did not have any children.
It is believed Mr McGuigan may have suffered a heart attack behind the wheel before he crashed.
His wife, Kitty, was last night being comforted by family and friends.
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