Tuesday 27th December 2011
Former Bishop Finnegan of Killala
dies in Sligo on Christmas morning
AN INNOVATOR and a man of ideas was how the former Bishop of Killala, Dr John Finnegan, was described yesterday following the announcement of his death.
Bishop of Killala from 1987 to 2002, Thomas Anthony Finnegan died in Sligo General Hospital on Christmas morning. He was aged 86.
Paying tribute to his predecessor, Bishop John Fleming said that Dr Finnegan had guided the diocese of Killala in Co Mayo for 15 years with “exceptional care, genuine wisdom and great love”.
Dr Fleming added that Dr Finnegan would be remembered for the imaginative pastoral initiatives which he began as well as for the contribution to the development of the west of Ireland, the care of emigrants and the progress of Catholic education.
“An innovator and man of ideas, he encouraged consultation and participation in the life of the church in the diocese of Killala.
“He will be remembered too for his unfailing kindness to everyone he met, as well as for his great respect and love for the church,” Dr Fleming said.
During his career with the church, Dr Finnegan was a member of the Irish Episcopal Commissions for Education, Emigrants, and Catechetics.
He also served on the standing committee of the Irish Bishops Conference and the Liaison Committee of the Bishops Conferences of Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland.
His body will be received at St Muredach’s Cathedral, Ballina, this evening at 4pm and he will lie in repose in the cathedral until 8pm, when solemn vespers will be said.
A requiem Mass will be held at noon tomorrow at which Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, will preside. Archbishop of Tuam Dr Michael Neary will perform the committal in the cathedral grounds.
New ‘Data’ glove aid to arthritis care
An innovative arthritis glove measuring hand movement could lead to more effective treatment of the debilitating condition, the University of Ulster said.
The Tyndall data glove will have rotation sensors on the thumb, finger tips and joints, and monitor motion of the hands to allow detailed observations.
University academic Dr Kevin Curran said: “If patients are to receive the care needed to manage their condition and doctors the time to assess their condition thoroughly, more accurate and less laborious methods to record joint movements are needed.
“Measurement of joint range is used to establish a baseline and to record progress but this requires exhaustive personal examination and can be very labour intensive.
“Current measurement techniques are either invasive like X rays or have an over reliance on manual evaluation, such as vision and touch, both of which are very dependent on training and experience and results can vary widely between observers.”
Around 400,000 adults in the UK suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, a painful condition which limits movement in the finger, wrist, knee and elbow joints. Approximately 20,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.
One in seven patients give up work within a year of diagnosis and four in 10 lose their jobs within five years, the university said.
PhD researcher James Connolly said: “Data gloves have been used before to measure joint movements but they were not fitted with sufficient sensors on each finger and deformities and swollen joints caused the sensors to record inaccurate readings.
“The bespoke glove we are developing with Tyndall (National Institute in Cork) will give more precise and detailed readings.”
The Western Health Trust and the Clinical Translational Research and Innovation Centre at Altnagelvin Hospital are also involved in the research.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny says job creation
is key OBJECTIVE of the Coalition Government
THE OBJECTIVE of the Government is to ensure that anybody currently in long-term unemployment is in a job by the end of the Coalition’s term, according to Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
He said unemployment remained the central focus of all the Government’s efforts and the answer to the country’s problems lay in greater employment and new job opportunities.
“The changes being made by Government, both in structure and by decision are designed to rectify the problem in our public finances and provide focus . . . on the creation of jobs,” he told political correspondents in a Christmas interview.
The Taoiseach said that everywhere he went around the country he was enthused by the commitment of so many people to bring an end to recession and to look for opportunities where they could invest and create jobs.
“Time and again I go home absolutely invigorated by the scale of that commitment. The challenge of Government is to open the doors for that to actually happen. In so many places, small or large, I see examples of it every day.
“As I said at the beginning, the real impetus here has got to be about jobs and the delivery of jobs. I hope that by the end of this Government’s period that anybody who’s currently on long-term unemployment will be off long-term unemployment and will either be back in the world of work, or will have involved themselves in upskilling,” he said.
He said Minister for Enterprise, Innovation and Jobs Richard Bruton will present his jobs agenda next month. “That will involve the development of the Micro Finance Agency, which is a big issue for so many people in terms of access to credit. And also the guarantee on the partial loan credit scheme, because small and medium enterprises continuously say to me that they’re having difficulty in terms of access to credit.”
Mr Kenny said there would be discussions with the banks next month. The two pillar banks had already committed to new lending of €3 billion this year, €3.5 billion in 2012 and €4 billion in 2013.
“The stress tests that have already been carried out on our banks were sufficiently strong that even in regard to the meeting in Brussels they still measure up in terms of the extent of capital that they’ve got there.” Mr Kenny added that the focus of Government will be to make decisions designed to protect that and enhance the indigenous economy.
“There’s quite a deal of money out there that people are concerned about and not as keen to spend as you might like.” He said the impact of Government decisions on the hospitality sector had been quite significant. “Additions to that are decisions by Ryanair to bring in flights from Spain, France and Italy and Germany, to our core major European tourism potential for us.”
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