Donie's Ireland news BLOG Sunday

Children’s referendum Yes vote passed by 55.4% to 42.6% amid a low turnout of 33.5%

     

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has welcomed the passing of the children’s referendum by 57.4 per cent to 42.6 per cent.

“The passing of this amendment will help make childhood a good, secure and loving space for all our children,” Mr Kenny said in a statement. “It will also give hope, reassurance and confidence to parents, foster parents and vulnerable children.”

The proposed constitutional amendment looks at a number of areas of children’s rights including adoption, protection, State intervention in neglect cases and giving children a say in their own protection proceedings.

More than 3.1 million people were eligible to vote, but the low-key campaign failed to capture the public imagination. The turnout was just 33.5 per cent.

Despite the low turnout, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said it was a “historic day” for children’s rights in Ireland.

Asked about the Supreme Court decision last Thursday that found the Government’s information booklet and website “not fair, equal or impartial” or whether Attorney General Máire Whelan had advised against using some of the material, Ms Fitzgerald said it had been the Government’s intention “at all times” to comply with the McKenna judgment.

“All of the normal processes were followed by my own Department and by the Office of the Attorney General in relation to that.”

She said the issue of Saturday voting “needed to be examined.”

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said the Supreme Court decision would be addressed when the detailed judgment is delivered on December 11th.

“I think there’s been a lot of issues discussed in the lead up to the referendum and I’ve no doubt there’s going to be a lot of discussion later on. But the central and most important thing that we have achieved is a sea change in our constitution in the manner in which we treat children, recognise that they have rights and the obligation given to our courts and social services to truly listen to the voice of the child,” he said.

Leo Varadkar, Fine Gael’s director of elections for the referendum, said he would have liked if the turnout had been higher.

“We did expect the margin to be a little bit wider but we’ve had plenty of low turnouts before in referenda and we’ve had a lot of referenda that were a lot tighter and in the fullness of time people forget those details,” he said.

“What history will record is that the Irish people voted today to enshrine children’s rights in our constitution and that makes it a historic day and a day for celebration.”

Sinn Féin Children’s spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the vote was a clear endorsement of the amendment to strengthen the rights of children but said the Government now needed to “match words with actions”

Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Children Robert Troy welcomed the result but said questions remained over the Government’s handling of the campaign.

Three of the 43 constituencies in the State voted No: Donegal North East, Donegal South West and Dublin North West.

Total votes:  1,066, 239

Invalid:  4,645

Valid:  1,061,594

Yes votes:  615,731 (57.4%)

No votes:  445,863 (42.6%)

Turnout:  33.5%

Why Does Scotland Have So Many Redheads?

 

Having red hair is a rather rare quality among humans – no more than 2 percent of the global population are carrot-topped. However, in Scotland, redheads are numerous – and local scientists would like to find out why.

The Scotish DNA project has launched a program to count all the country’s redheads – and to learn why the ‘red head’ gene is so prevalent among native Scots

BBC reported that researchers estimate about that 650,000 people in Scotland are ginger-haired – about one-in-eight of the total population. But researchers at Scotlands DNA think that as many as 1.6-million Scots may carry the ‘red hair gene’ (many of whom are not red-haired themselves).

The BBC noted that red hair is the result of two versions of a recessive gene on chromosome-16 which produces a mutation in the MC1R protein and which can often skip generations.

People with red hair also tend to have very pale skin, often with freckles, and exhibit great sensitivity to sunlight.

“It’s not necessarily the people who have red hair that interest us at ScotlandsDNA, what we want to do is discover who carries the red hair gene variant,” the managing director of ScotlandsDNA, Alastair Moffat, told BBC Scotland.

“I think that’s a much larger number. For example, in my own family, I have three kids and two of them have red hair – and while I haven’t got much hair, it’s certainly not red, and neither has my wife.”

Moffat added: “In either side of our families, there was no red hair – and I thought, where has this come from? That was what got me interested. We’re looking at people who have already had their DNA tested by Scotland’s DNA, which is simple for us to do. But they have to be tested first, and then we can tell them if they’re carriers of the red-head variant.”

Moffat believes Scotland’s gloomy, rainy weather may be partially responsible for the proliferation of redheads.

“I think it’s to do with sunshine — we all need vitamin D from sunshine, but Scotland is cloudy, we have an Atlantic climate and we need light skin to get as much vitamin D from the Sun as possible,” he explained.

Red hair is also relatively common in England, Ireland and northwestern Europe.

“In Ireland about 10 per cent have red hair, but it appears that a staggering 46 per cent are carriers of the red head variants,” Moffat told the Daily Telegraph,

“For England, the estimate is 6 per cent, but this is highly provisional and there are no current figures available for the number of carriers.”

Interestingly, red hair is less prevalent in Scandinavia than in the British Isles – likely owing to the fact that Norwegians and Swedes enjoy more daily sunshine than Britons and the Irish.

Winston Churchill, Napoleon Bonaparte, Maureen O’Hara and Thomas Jefferson are among the most famous redheads in history.

Irish actor Gabriel Byrne slams the Gathering’

  

The Irish actor Gabriel Byrne has dismissed the Gathering 2013 initiative as “a scam”.

Byrne, who previously served as the cultural ambassador for Ireland in the US, said many who left Ireland for the US felt abandoned by the Government – and that the bridge between Ireland and its diaspora was broken.

He also said Irish Americans were not receptive to being “shaken down” for money.

Speaking on The Last Word on Today FM today, which was broadcast from New York, Byrne said the Taoiseach’s speech launching the Gathering was “slightly offensive”.

“Most people don’t give a shit about the diaspora [in Ireland] except to shake them down for a few quid.

“The other day I was talking to a group of people. One of them was an illegal immigrant. His father died, he couldn’t get home. He feels abandoned by the Irish Government. He feels an alien. He can’t go back.

“Then I talked to two kids, a girl and a boy who were forced to emigrate because there are no jobs. And they blame the incompetence and the gangsterism of the Government for being forced to emigrate.”

Later in the week, we published a story (above) revealing that the Gathering had part-funded the visit to New York by Today FM’s Last Word programme, on which Byrne made his comments

The Gathering in a nutshell

The Gathering is a Government-backed, year-long festival in which members of the Irish diaspora and anyone with an interest in Ireland are encouraged to visit the country during 2013.

Instead of holding new events the Gathering will sponsor hundreds of pre-existing festivals and events throughout the year. From an initial core budget of €5 million the Government hopes to attract an extra 325,000 visitors and generate €200 million in tourism revenue.

Organisers have also pushed the idea of small scale gatherings which, according to the official website, “can be as little as you inviting back an old school friend to visit Ireland in 2013, or your local GAA club asking Toronto GAA to come over for a match.”

Mental health distress rampant in Ireland, says Minister Reilly

   

Mental health distress is rampant in Ireland, Minister for Health James Reilly said yesterday, when speaking for the first time about the suicide of a medical colleague in north Dublin.

Dr Reilly told an Oireachtas committee he had attended two funerals in the past fortnight – of a GP and a pharmacist who had taken their own lives.

“I’m aware of others. And I’ve also had the sad experience of attending a friend’s funeral four years ago who took his own life and his son who did the same thing only a few months ago,” he told fellow TDs.

Dr Reilly told the health committee that mental health required huge attention and resources “but we have to make sure that the resources give the outcome needed”.

“It is terribly important that people are referred to people who are suitably qualified, because people who are not properly qualified can do terrible damage.”

Dr Reilly was responding to a call by his party colleague, Dan Neville, for counsellors and psychotherapists to be included within the scope of the Health and Social Care Professionals (Amendment) Bill.

Mr Neville said there was extreme concern about the activities of under-qualified counsellors advising people with mental health problems. Some people were calling themselves counsellors after doing a weekend course, whereas others had studied to master’s level for four years.

The Minister has declined to include counsellors in the Bill as the educational standards governing courses are still being drawn up. However, he said the legislation allowed him to add the profession to the list of those subject to new rules by way of regulation at a later date.

Mr Neville claimed this could take up to 30 years to happen. “How many people will die by suicide in this time? How many people will have serious health problems because of wrong advice given by these people?” he asked.

Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher claimed “so-called, self-appointed counsellors are preying on communities”.

Dr Reilly said there were legal impediments to accepting the amendment proposed by Mr Neville, but he hoped to have the matter “done and dusted” by 2014. The Minister said he would talk to the Minister for Justice on the matter.

How many people die by suicide? 

  

1. Around one million people complete suicide each year worldwide. This figure is higher than the combined numbers of people who die by homicide and war. It is also higher than the number of people who die in road traffic accidents in most European countries.
2. Suicide rates in Ireland doubled between 1987 and 1998 and appear to have levelled off since that time. Between 2000 and 2002 it was estimated about 500 people per year completed suicide. This figure is average when compared with other European Union (EU) countries.
3. There were 486 deaths by suicide registered in 2010 (386 were male, 100 were female). Men between 35-44 were the most vulverable to suicide, with 109 men in this age group taking their own lives.
4. Suicide is a leading cause of death among young people. The rate of youth suicide in Ireland is the fifth highest in the EU at 15.7 per 100,000 for 15-24 year olds.
5. In Ireland, rates for completed suicide are notably high among young men aged 16–34 years, who accounted for almost 40% of deaths by suicide in 2003.
6. A study of young Irish men aged 18-34 years revealed that 78% knew someone who had died by suicide, 42% knew more than one person, and 17% had a close friend who completed suicide.
7. For each person who dies by suicide it has been estimated that at least 6 other people are affected.

What makes people more likely to attempt suicide?

1. A history of attempted suicide is said to be the strongest predictor of eventual suicide.
2. People who have engaged in Deliberate Self Harm are said to be 100 times more likely to complete suicide than the general population⁸
3. People who are socially isolated in cities and those living in rural regions, particularly in farming communities, have higher completed suicide rates than in the general population.
4. People diagnosed with a psychiatric illnesses, such as affective disorders, personality disorders and psychosis, are around 7-10 times more likely to complete suicide than the general population.
5. Up to 50% of suicides are associated with the presence of alcohol. Irish records suggest that alcohol use was involved in almost half of male deliberate self-harm episodes, and in 39% of female deliberate self-harm episodes in 2003.
6. Other factors which make people more likely to die by suicide include social instability, limited education, poor employment, low self-esteem and family history of mental illness.
7. In Ireland the increase in suicide rates has been associated with contextual change over the past two decades such as economic boom and downfall, growth in multiculturalism, emigration return, and lessening of church influence.
8. Researchers have proposed that there is a distinct group of people who have 2 or more genuine suicide attempts that are characteristically different from people who attempt suicide once, in that they are more likely to have a diagnosis or co-morbidity of disorders. The PISA intervention was designed for this population.

Why are young people more likely to attempt suicide?

1. Youth suicide has been associated with an increase in the prevalence of depressive disorders and substance abuse, increased life pressures, changes in attitudes towards suicidal behaviour making it a more acceptable response to stress, and an increase in the availability of suicide methods.
2. Youth suicide has also been associated with increased exposure to media violence.
3. Other factors which have been associated with youth suicide include family disruption, poor conflict resolution, unhealthy communication patterns and family break-up.
4. Young Irish people identified relationship problems, concern with sexual orientation, educational stress, abusive experiences, and family disharmony as significant contributory factors in suicidality and DSH