The Government has launched an initiative aimed at boosting exports by three billion euro by 2015
“If we are to see the jobs recovery we so badly need, we must create a powerful engine of indigenous enterprise,” said Mr Bruton.
“While exports continue to grow strongly, we must ensure that we achieve a substantial improvement in the export performance of Irish businesses.”
The initiative sees a new exports division within government agency Enterprise Ireland.
It will provide practical support to local companies looking to branch into foreign markets and aims to increase the number of firms who receive a special exporter grant by 60% this year.
Mr Bruton said: “I am determined that with the continued implementation of the action plan for jobs in 2012 and beyond, a new generation of exporters can drive our recovery and support the employment growth we are working so hard to achieve.”
Mr Bruton, Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore announced a separate scheme under the Government’s action plan for jobs, aimed at attracting more foreign investment into Ireland.
The Government has promised to create 100,000 jobs across the country by 2016.
Pat Kenny says’
He did not know the Sinn Fein tweet was a fake’
Pat Kenny
BROADCASTER Pat Kenny has said he was never told that The Frontline tweet purporting to be from Sinn Fein was bogus.
The RTE host broke his silence on the Sean Gallagher controversy as Montrose bosses announced a new protocol on social media.
RTE’s board has apologised to presidential runner-up Mr Gallagher after Broadcasting Authority of Ireland upheld a complaint by the ex Dragons’ Den star relating to a Twitter message read out on Frontline.
However, Mr Kenny said he was never made aware that the tweet was fake.
“Maybe it was out there in the ether, but I wasn’t aware of it. I’d say I was never told.”
Mr Gallagher’s complaint centred around a fake Twitter message that was read out during the final presidential debate on RTE’s The Frontline.
The controversy, days before the election, contributed to a collapse of front-runner Mr Gallagher’s vote on polling day.
Light to Moderate drinking can cut the risk of a stroke for Women
Light to moderate drinking could lower the risk of stroke for women, according to a new US study in a hospital (pic. above right) (BWH) in Boston.
Over 83,000 women participated in the study and were followed over a period of 26 years. Throughout its duration, the women provided details about their diet, including alcohol consumption, lifestyle factors and stroke events.
None of the women had a history of cardiovascular disease or cancer on beginning the study.
At the end of the study, there had been 2,171 incidents of stroke, of which 1,206 were ischaemic strokes, 363 haemorrhagic strokes, and 602 were of an unknown or probable type.
An ischaemic stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked. A haemorrhagic stroke occurs when a blood vessel bursts in the brain.
Approximately 30% of women said that they never drank alcohol, 35% had very low levels of consumption, 37% drank moderately, and only 11% of women drank more than the equivalent of one mixed drink per day on average.
In the study, low consumption was considered less than 4.9 grams daily (less than ½ glass of wine per day).
Moderate consumption was considered 5-14.9 grams daily (a half to one-and-a half glasses of wine, one serving of a mixed drink, or one beer).
The researchers discovered that the women who consumed low to moderate amounts of alcohol had a lower risk of total stroke compared to women who never drank.
Meanwhile, women with higher levels of alcohol intake did not reduce their risk of stroke.
The researchers suggest that alcohol may contain components to prevent blood clots and cholesterol from building up in the arteries, both of which can lead to stroke.
Higher levels of alcohol intake may also increase the risk of high blood pressure and atrial fibrillation, which are risk factors for stroke.
Experts recommend that people who consume alcohol should do so in moderation. This means one drink per day for women and one to two drinks per day for men.
The research was carried out at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston in the US. The study was published online in Stroke, the journal of the American Heart Association (AHA).
Irishmen killed building America finally get a proper burial
Shown above right are coffin nails unearthed in a mass grave, in Malvern, Pa., at the Duffy’s Cut Museum at Immaculata University, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012, in Immaculata, Pa. Researchers believe the mass grave contains the remains of about 50 Irish immigrants who died weeks after coming to Pennsylvania to build a railroad in 1832.
Just five weeks after sailing from Ireland to find work in the US, in 1832, five Irish people perished, they were ignored by their wealthy compatriots all of these years.
The remains of five Irish laborers who researchers believe were murdered in 1832 while building a Pennsylvania railroad received a dignified re-interment Friday, more than 3,000 miles from their homeland and nearly two centuries after their first anonymous burials.
People lined up to pay their respects before five wooden caskets at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, just outside Philadelphia. The sounds of bagpipes and gunshot salutes filled the air as more than 100 mourners paid tribute, including Kevin Conmy, deputy ambassador for the Irish embassy in Washington.
“What this does is it just reminds us that the story of Irish in America has many strands,” Conmy said. “You do get a sense that justice has been done to these people.”
The immigrants were among 57 hired to help build a stretch of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad known as Duffy’s Cut. They lived in a shantytown by the rails in current-day Malvern, about 20 miles west of Philadelphia.
Historian Bill Watson and his twin brother Frank Watson, also a historian, led a team that set out nearly a decade ago to find out what happened to the workers from Donegal, Tyrone and Derry. They believe many died of cholera and were dumped in a mass grave at Duffy’s Cut.
But they also theorized — based on mortality statistics, newspaper accounts and internal railroad company documents — that some were killed. Railroad officials never notified the workers’ relatives of their deaths, and they later burned the shantytown.
The burial services on Friday marked the end of a long quest for the Watsons.
“It’s a 10-year pilgrimage for us,” Frank Watson said afterward. “It’s a pilgrimage for truth and for justice.”
When the Watsons’ team first began excavating in woods behind a manicured subdivision, they unearthed items such as glass buttons, forks and smoking pipes, including one stamped “Derry.” Many artifacts are now on permanent display at nearby Immaculata University, where Bill Watson is chairman of the history department.
In 2009, they found human bones. The team uncovered six skeletons in all, and forensic experts found evidence of skull trauma. The brothers speculate that when cholera swept through the camp, these immigrants tried to escape the deadly epidemic but were killed by local vigilantes, who were driven by anti-Irish prejudice and fear of the extremely contagious disease.
Those remains were found apart from the main ossuary, commingled with coffin nails. One set of bones was tentatively identified based on size and the passenger list of a ship that sailed from Ireland to Philadelphia four months before the men died. If DNA tests prove a match to descendants in Donegal, the remains of John Ruddy will be returned to Ireland.
The other sets of bones — four men and a washerwoman — were interred at West Laurel Hill. Identification proved nearly impossible, in part because the remains were so badly decomposed.
Their grave was marked with a 10-foot-high Celtic cross made of limestone quarried in County Kilkenny, Ireland, and paid for by Immaculata.
“It’s just the right thing to do, to give these men a Christian burial,” said university spokeswoman Marie Moughan.
The cemetery donated the plot for the same reason, said Kevin McCormick, a liaison to the Duffy’s Cut Project from West Laurel Hill. Some might argue the dead should rest in peace in their original graves, but disposing of bodies is not the same as burying them, he said.
“Who put them there?” said McCormick. “Was it people who had their best interests in mind?”
The Watsons’ ultimate goal had been to find, unearth, identify and repatriate the remains of all 57 workers using DNA analysis, the ship’s passenger list and other documents. But ground-penetrating radar indicates the mass grave is too close to active train tracks for the bones to be exhumed.
Still, the evidence and artifacts the team did uncover are valuable, said Kurt Bell, an archivist with the state Historical and Museum Commission.
“It really speaks volumes about the social history of railroads. We don’t know a whole lot about the men who built the railroads in Pennsylvania from early in the 19th century,” said Bell, a railroad historian. “The Watson brothers have really shed light on a little-known subject.”
More data will be coming. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and elsewhere are studying bone samples for additional information about the workers’ lives.
And the Watsons plan to look into another reported potters’ field of Irish railway workers in Downingtown, 10 miles up the tracks. Research shows cholera made its way to that camp, Bill Watson said, and he wonders if murder did as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment