Christmas message from Michael D Higgins states it’s communities that make Ireland what it is today
Ireland is defined by its people and not its economic hardship, President Michael D Higgins said today.
In his Christmas message the President said it was the diverse and very hard working communities striving to help themselves that really made Ireland.
President Higgins: “As our economy has contracted in recent times, many people are feeling the consequences, in terms of employment or income. However, our economic condition does not, on its own, define who we are.
“We are, for example, a country with a network of communities, that are increasingly active in responding to their own, and their society’s, difficulties.
“We also have the resource of our scattered people around the world, who support each other, and who value their connection with their homeland.”
The President also recognised the difficulties being faced by some families because of rising unemployment, emigration and family bereavement.
He added: “Christmas provides an opportunity for us all to pause, reflect, and celebrate the things that we rightly cherish. It is a time when we, as citizens, as families, and as communities turn our minds to what is really important – family, friendship, neighbourliness and homecoming.
“At this time especially, those of us who are fortunate enough to have a joyous Christmas should be mindful of the need to reach out to others who – due to loss, emigration, illness or financial circumstances are going through a difficult time.”
Special recognition was given to the emergency crews, Gardaí, prison officers, Defence forces and medical staff who would be provided essential services over the Christmas period.
President Higgins said: “I thank all these public service personnel for their dedicated service to our community.
“There is much to be proud of, and much to build on, as we prepare for the New Year and look forward with hope and courage to realising all the possibilities that it presents.
“May I wish all the Irish at home and abroad, and those who live and work with them, a very happy and peaceful Christmas and a New Year full of promise, health and fulfilment.”
Irish women running the show at the worlds top businesses
Irish business women are running the show at the top of the worlds corporate giants Apple, PayPal and Disney
WHILE women at the top of Fortune 500 firms are scarce and the EU baulks at measures to get gender balance on boards, a group of usually deeply conservative Arab states is changing things.
Dubai and the other Arab Emirates have made it compulsory for private companies and public bodies to have women on their boards. Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoumtweeted the decision last week, saying women had “proved themselves” and should be part of decision-making.
Irish women are also proving themselves in top companies, at home and internationally. Here’s our list of the most notable ones who have managed to smash a well-manicured fist through glass ceilings at home and abroad.
Best-known as the woman who bagged 1,000 jobs for Ireland, Louise Phelan runs PayPal’s European operation, having been headhunted by the €3bn revenue online transactions giant six years ago. She is one of 17 children from a farming family in Co Laois.
Not a techie but a language graduate, Facebook Ireland boss Sonia Flynn is head honcho at the social network firm’s international headquarters. Prior to that she was one of the original team that set up Google’s Dublin operation.
Una Fox is a Disney vice-president, having joined the magic kingdom from Yahoo, where she was a director. She works on market technologies and client strategies at Disney’s Burbank head office. Fox has been in California since the heady dot-com boom days, having started out working for Cisco in Paris after studying at UCC, moving to the US with KPMG.
Based in London, Clare Gilmartin has spearheaded eBay’s recent transformation from a second-hand goods auction hub to a retailer of top brand names like Superdry and French Connection. The UCD commerce grad is vice-president of Ebay’s marketplaces business of 50 million shoppers in Europe. She previously worked for Boston Consulting and Unilever.
Guardian of one of the world’s biggest brands, Lorraine Twohill is Google’s global marketing vice-president at its Silicon Valleynerve centre. The Carlow native worked for Bord Failte and then travel portal Opodo, where she was talent spotted by a Google executive and invited to the US for “a chat”. Twenty-two interviews later, she was hired.
Adele Cooper is Facebook’s director of global marketing and communications at its Palo Alto HQ. Born and raised in Dublin, she’s a Stanford graduate with a Harvard MBA.
Kerrywoman Cora Creed is digital operations vice-president of industry ‘big four’, Sony Music Entertainment. From Listowel originally, she works between New York and Salzburg in Austria.
Until recently Crumlin girl Lorna Donohoe was a top executive at Playboy’s €1bn international retail operation. Now she’s president of LMD Branding, a luxury and entertainment licensing company that has Playboy and Conde Naste as clients.
Founder and CEO of mega- recruiter Alexander Mann, Britain-based Dubliner Rosaleen Blair runs a business that has 1,500 employees across 60 countries, taking over €85m in fee income last year. Clients include Deloitte, Nike and Microsoft.
Ex-banker Catherine Day is secretary general of the European Commission, the first woman to hold the role. The recent years of eurozone financial turmoil have brought fiscal matters increasingly into the crosshairs of her job as Europe’s top civil servant.
One of Hollywood’s top powerbrokers, superagent Hylda Queally has guided the career of Kate Winslet, Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard. The 51-year-old from Barefield, Co Clare, first started her own agency at 22 and now works for powerhouse agent CAA in Los Angeles.
The chief operating officer of Swiss financial services colossus UBS wealth management division in New York is Anita Sands. Prior to that the Co Louth girl was Royal Bank of Canada’s youngest ever senior vice-president. No surprise that she’s rather brainy, but perhaps her qualification is unusual in banking: she’s got a PhD in atomic and molecular physics from Queen’s University of Belfast.
Another of Manhattan’s top female bankers is Deirdre O’Connor. The Goldman Sachs managing director from Cobh is controller of investment strategies, including investment partner hedge funds and private equity funds worth €30bn.
As manager of Microsoft’s European operations Cathriona Hallahan controls an area worth €25bn to the company’s commercial business. She is also general manager of its Irish arm and sits on the board of VHI.
UCD business alumna Sharon McCooey is LinkedIn’s international finance director at the business networking firm’s Dublin-based HQ, where its global financial operation is also located.
Computer giant Apple’s Irish operation, where close to 3,000 people are employed, has Cathy Kearney at the helm. Kearney is also senior director of Apple’s European operations.
Susan Dargan is head of Boston financial house State Street’s global business in Ireland. More than €450bn- worth of client assets are managed out of Ireland, with over 2,000 staff employed there.
Two women hold top jobs at Ireland-based pharma multinationals, with Loretto Callaghan running Novartis Ireland and Sandra Gannon in charge at generic giant Teva’s Irish business.
The most senior woman in Irish banking (not that there are many of those) is Ellvena Graham,Ulster Bank’s chief operating officer, with 30 years of experience in the sector. She is also on the ESB board.
Maeve Carton is the financial brains behind €18bn revenue listed building materials firm CRH, where she has been a key player since 1988 and joined the board as finance director in 2010. She’s paid well: her remuneration in 2011 came to over €1m.
Big Global icrease in life expectancy rate since 1970
Since 1970 global life expectancy has increased by 10 years
Average life expectancy around the world has increased by around a decade since 1970, new research has shown.
But while people are living longer, they are also more likely to be struggling with chronic disease and disability.
New estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study show that, worldwide, men’s average lifespan rose from 56.4 years in 1970 to 67.5 in 2010. That of women increased by more than 12 years from 61.2 to 73.3.
However, the gulf in life expectancy between the richest and poorest countries remains largely unchanged at around 40 years.
In 2010, Japanese women had the longest life expectancy at birth in the world, living to an average age of 85.9. For men, Iceland topped the longevity table. An Icelandic man born in 2010 could expect to reach his 80th birthday.
The biggest increase in lifespan since 1970 was seen in the Maldives, where men’s life expectancy rose by 54.4% and women’s by 57.6%. Average age at death for women in the Indian Ocean island nation went up from 51 to 80.4. Other rapid gains in life expectancy of more than 20 years occurred in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran and Peru.
However, it was a different story in southern sub-Saharan Africa, where men’s life expectancy decreased by 1.3 years between 1970 and 2010, and women’s by almost a year.
Haiti had the lowest life expectancy anywhere – just 32.5 years for men and 43.6 for women – but this was almost entirely due to the devastating earthquake that struck the country in January 2010.
The lifespan study was one of a series of Global Burden of Disease papers published in The Lancet medical journal. One striking finding was that while deaths among children under five declined by almost 60% since 1970, the number of people dying between the ages of 15 and 49 shot up by 44%.
Dr Haidong Wang, one of the authors from the University of Washington in Seattle, US, said: “Because more children are now surviving to adulthood compared to earlier decades, health policymakers globally will need to pay much more attention to preventing deaths in young adults.. in the coming years.”
Major award for Galway cancer researcher
A Galway cancer researcher has been awarded a Research Fellowship Award of €230,000 to develop new strategies to help improve treatments for patients with colon cancer.
Dr Aideen Ryan above from Ballinasloe has received the award from the Irish Cancer Society. Colon cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer-related deaths in Ireland and represents a significant health problem.
In many instances, colon cancer spreads to other organs, which is called metastasis. When this happens it is most likely to result in death. New ways to tackle the problem of colon cancer metastasis have had very little success, but Aideen’s research is taking a fresh approach by focusing on the cancer cells interaction with the immune system.
Dr Ryan collaborates with mentor Prof. Laurence Egan at NUI Galway, and collaborators Prof. Matthew Griffin also of NUI Galway and Dr Aileen Houston at UCC.
Their previous research has shown how the body’s own immune system affects how colon cancer cells spread. The team aims to discover the factors that control the immune systems interaction with colon cancer.
Dr Ryan states: “Blocking these factors would enable us to develop new drugs that could, in turn, be used to make our immune response to cancer stronger. This novel approach to cancer treatment could potentially result in better treatments and consequently a better prognosis and quality of life for patients with colon cancer.”
Galway firm Meterlogix to create 12 jobs
A newly launched Galway energy management firm is to create 12 jobs over the next two years.
Meterlogix, which launched its website Meterlogix.ie last week, has been in development since 2010 and has already opened a UK office. Meterlogix’s live monitoring system allows companies to more accurately measure their energy usage.
“The process of developing this business has been a fantastic experience,” commented Ollie Walsh, Managing Director. “We have partnered with a number of companies around the west of Ireland and midlands to develop a business that we never could have on our own.”
The company partnered with Avova in Athlone to develop the software, Parkmore Electrical in Ballinasloe for installation, MM Qualtech in Galway for manufacturing, Micromarketing in Galway for strategy, and several environmental businesses, such as Enerit in Galway and Candelas in Mayo for introductions to potential customers.
“This model has worked really well for us,” explained Mr Walsh.
Meterlogix also recently received a ‘Highly Commended Award’ from InterTrade Ireland for its entry into the All Ireland Seedcorn Business Competition.
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