Donie's daily Blog update Tuesday

Smile! It could Lower Your Stress Levels, new research study shows

PEOPLE PLACED IN ANXIOUS SITUATIONS FELT BETTER WITH GRINS IN PLACE

   

Are you stressed out? Turn that frown upside down on your face and you might just feel better, new research contends.

Researchers at the University of Kansas subjected college students to anxiety-inducing tasks and found that those who smiled through them appeared to have less stress.

The study, led by research psychologists Tara Kraft and Sarah Pressman, is scheduled for publication in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science.

“Age-old adages, such as ‘grin and bear it,’ have suggested smiling to be not only an important nonverbal indicator of happiness but also wishfully promotes smiling as a panacea for life’s stressful events,” Kraft said in a journal news release. “We wanted to examine whether these adages had scientific merit; whether smiling could have real health-relevant benefits.”

To do so, they had 169 university students engage in tasks known to induce stress, such as tracing a star using their non-dominant hand while looking at a reflection of the star in a mirror. Another task had the participants plunge their hand into icy water.

The students performed these tasks under three conditions: not smiling; being explicitly instructed to smile; and while holding chopsticks in their mouth in a way that forced the face to smile.

The researchers included the chopsticks condition because they wanted to gauge the effect of “genuine” smiling (which involves the muscles around the mouth and eyes), and so-called “standard” smiles, which involve only the muscles around the mouth — the kind of smile induced by the chopsticks.

Kraft and Pressman used heart rate measurements and self-reported stress levels to assess how perturbed the participants were during the tasks.

The study found that participants who wore any kind of smile were less stressed during the tasks than those with neutral facial expressions, and stress levels dipped especially low for folks with “genuine” smiles.

According to the authors, this means that even forcing a smile during an unpleasant task or experience might actually lower your stress level, even if you’re not feeling happy.

So, Pressman reasoned, “the next time you are stuck in traffic or are experiencing some other type of stress, you might try to hold your face in a smile for a moment. Not only will it help you ‘grin and bear it’ psychologically, but it might actually help your heart health as well.”

Judge Mary Devins slams the ACC Bank for sending thugs  

‘to bully a customer for loan repayments not made’
   
Judge Mary Devins

A debt collector working on behalf of ACC Bank has received a suspended sentence for the assault of a Straide man while the bank have been slammed for sending ‘thugs’ out after customers who fail to make repayments. 

Aidan Faulkner of Crow’s Nest, Castlecohill, Clogherhead, County Louth was sent to the home of Patrick Ruane at Knockshanvalley Lodge, Straide on April 21, 2010 to seize Mr Ruane’s five-year-old Toyota Hiace after Mr Ruane missed three repayments on the van, totalling €843.

In the court hearing on July 6, 2011 Mr Ruane said he was ‘terrorised’ by the actions of Faulkner, who he described as a ‘bully’. The court heard how a headbutt from Faulkner to Ruane’s face left Ruane with a broken nose, a split lip and loosened some of his teeth. 

Faulkner, a former officer in the Defence Forces, said he was ‘extremely provoked’ and contested the charges.
Judge Mary Devins said then that the letter which Faulkner had brought with him to Ruane’s property on behalf of ACC Bank was ‘the worst drafted letter I’ve ever seen’ and it gave ACC no right to take the van, said Judge Devins.

Judge Devins found Faulkner guilty but the matter was adjourned for sentencing.

At last Friday’s court Myles Gilvarry, solicitor for Faulkner, said the case had received a lot of media attention, in national papers and on radio stations.

“Why are you telling me that,” interjected Judge Devins.
Mr Gilvarry said that the publicity had ‘greatly affected’ his client.
Judge Devins asked Patrick Ruane if he felt Faulkner should go to jail.

“In relation to ACC Bank they shouldn’t do what they do. I borrowed money from the bank and I met a lady who I did business with … very nice people. I didn’t think I would be meeting anyone like the way I did,” he said.

Judge Devins said that was exactly the issue she had – how suddenly a commercial transaction with people in suits who are very keen to lend money and then suddenly if there is a failure in repayments ‘how very quickly the people in suits get involved in what can only be described as thugs’. She said that Mr Ruane’s comment ‘is a very interesting comment on repossession cases generally’.

She added that ACC’s paperwork was completely faulty and wouldn’t stand up in court. 
“The repossession orders are, quite frankly, nonsense. They don’t make sense in English not to mind law,” she said.
She added that Faulkner had no right to be on the property that day and then ‘behaved in a thuggish manner’. 

“He had certain training which meant you were physically able to engage in that sort of behaviour and that training makes your behaviour on the day even more reprehensible,” she said.
However she said she ‘accepts’ that Faulkner was a ‘pawn’ that day and that if a custodial sentence should be issued to anybody, ‘those people are not before the court and it is those people in suits’. 

For the charge of assault she sentenced Faulkner to three months in prison, suspended for 12 months on the condition that there are no further convictions or offences in 12 months. She fined him €500 and directed that he pay €500 to Mr Ruane. The Public Order breach of trespassing was taken into consideration.

Claremorris hotel evacuated after bomb scare to hotel & three other venues

   

Late last night revellers in Claremorris were shocked on Saturday night when a bomb scare led to the evacuation of the night club at the Western Hotel in the town. Gardai cordoned off D’Alton Street for two hours until the premises were declared safe around 1am.

A call to the PSNI in Belfast using a recognizable code set alarm bells ringing and contact was immediately made with the Garda Siochana headquarters in Galway.

The call to Belfast stated that four bombs had been placed in venues in Claremorris, Galway (The Bentley, Eyre Square), Ballinasloe (Haydens) and another hotel in Tullamore and were timed to go off at 11.35pm.

Claremorris Gardai were informed of the scare and immediately went about closing down the approaches to the hotel.  

Donie's Ireland news daily Blog

‘Mental Health’ improving the length as well as the quality of life is paramount

   

Mental healthcare is different. A substantial proportion of us will have mental health problems at some point in our lives.

The Government current policy is based on the 2006 report A Vision for Change, it aims to provide services “equitably and across all service user groups”. It calls for an orientation towards recovery and more social inclusion. I welcome this, but I am struck by how different policy is from general medical care, which is based on treating specific illnesses to improve outcome.

Perhaps these, more fundamental aims, have already been met in mental healthcare? Having spent almost 20 years as a clinician treating and researching severe mental illness I do not believe this is true. I find the difference disturbing.

If you have a heart attack or stroke and are too incapacitated to consent, you will receive medical care using the “best interests” principle. Many people with serious mental illness don’t believe that being admitted to hospital is in their best interest. However, there were 2,057 involuntary admissions in 2011 under the Mental Health Act 2001.

At least three-quarters of these were for treatment of two disorders:schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. What the figures reflect is that these two conditions are more common than generally appreciated (there are likely to be more than 50,000 people in Ireland affected).

Most treatment is actually provided in the community by teams including doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists. Involuntary admission is reserved for where this approach fails because a person’s judgment is impaired by illness. This could mean that you develop a complete conviction that others are involved in an international conspiracy to kill you or that you have uncontrolled mania causing you to behave recklessly.

This is likely to affect your decision-making, but admission under the Act is reserved for situations where “judgment of the person is so impaired that failure to admit would result in a serious deterioration in the condition, or immediate and serious harm to the person or others”. The average duration of admission, unclear to me from annual reports, is probably fewer than 21 days.

Similar legislation is present in other EU countries. With the implementation of the 2001 Act, Irish admission rates, average by European standards, have fallen by more than a third.

Representative of much of the debate about mental health by Dr Pat Bracken, a consultant psychiatrist, arguing that this practice is too “paternalistic” and “at odds with” national policy. I couldn’t help wondering how this might sound if applied to acute medical care. Would one argue that the provision of care to incapacitated medical patients is too “paternalistic”.

He appears to argue for a person’s “right to define the nature of one’s own problems” even if judgment is impaired by illness. Do we expect patients suffering heart attacks or strokes to “define” their own problems? No. He questions the central role of the consultant in providing acute psychiatric care. We trust hospital consultants to manage acute medical problems.

Maybe serious mental illness is not medically important compared to cardiac disorders, strokes or cancer? Tragically, this is not so. People with schizophrenia have an average life expectancy 17 to 25 years shorter than the general population; for bipolar disorder the figure is 10 years. This is based on international data – Irish figures are not collated – but I doubt the picture is better here.

The facts and their potential consequences for thousands of people go unmentioned in the Irish mental health policy document. If these conditions were physical, with this information, wouldn’t health policy focus on improving the length, not just the quality, of life?

Perhaps psychiatry has nothing to offer? Dr Bracken echoes a prevalent view that effective medical treatments are unavailable and describes current treatments as “a mess” and “toxic”. This is wrong. Take schizophrenia; we know the condition is debilitating and 80 per cent of patients relapse within five years.

Treatment with medication is effective in reducing initial symptoms, but staying on medication, from early in the illness, reduces risk of relapse by more than 50 per cent.

This is similar in efficacy to treatments for diabetes, and better than current treatments for asthma and high blood pressure. Despite the evidence, medical nihilism has had a damning impact on investment in the development of new and better treatments compared to other medical areas. (Pre-empting criticism that as an academic psychiatrist my opinions are “corrupted” by the pharmaceutical industry, I don’t receive funding from industry for my work.)

Rather than helping people to live with serious mental illness, our focus could include improving life expectancy. People with serious mental illness die because of suicide, increased rates of accidental death, from heart disease and as a consequence of poor health related to smoking, low physical activity, poor nutrition and medication.

Can we improve life expectancy? Yes. One function of the Mental Health Act is to allow the management of immediate risk of suicide or serious accident. Patients who take antipsychotic medication live longer. Treating depression in schizophrenia with antidepressant medication reduces death by suicide.

Addressing lifestyle changes and reducing smoking rates is challenging but achievable. People with heart disease and schizophrenia die because of poor medical care. Across international studies, it has been shown that these patients receive fewer heart surgeries and are less likely to be prescribed heart medication than the rest of the population.

Mental healthcare policy is different, but it shouldn’t be. All patients should have access to the best medical care irrespective of whether their condition is physical or mental. The focus of this article has been on only one aspect of treatment. Regrettably provisions for psychological or social interventions are also neglected. Limited mental health resources are currently spread “equitably and across all service user groups”. Based on medical need and available medical interventions, people with serious mental illness may have the greatest claim.

Irish Government appoints a new head of banking policy

  

John Hogan has been appointed to the new position of head of banking policy in the financial services division in the Department of Finance.

According to a statement from the department, Mr Hogan will be responsible for developing and delivering policy in key areas such as credit and lending to small and medium-sized businesses, mortgage arrears and consumer issues.

The department appointed Mr Hogan following a competitive process ran by the Top Level Appointments Committee.

The head of banking policy is a newly created position in the restructured financial services division as set out in the department’s strategy statement, which was published in May. Mr Hogan’s appointment will complete this restructuring.

Mr Hogan has held a number of positions in the department to date and joined the financial services division in 2009. He is head of credit and lending policy and played a key role in the completion of the inter-departmental report on mortgage arrears (Keane report).

How & why our muscles become paralysed during sleep?

  

When you are asleep, you cycle through different phases, including one called rapid eye movement or REM sleep. This is the phase where you typically have the dreams you later recall.

Did you know though that in normal REM sleep, your eyes may be moving but many muscles in other parts of your body don’t act like they do when you are awake? Why is that?

The muscles that go offline in normal REM sleep are skeletal muscles, which are involved in moving parts of your body like your arms and legs, rather than other muscle types that keep the heart or other vital processes chugging along.

One theory is that these skeletal muscles go into a temporary state of paralysis during REM sleep to literally stop us acting out movements from our dreams.

Quite how that happens at a biochemical level is still a matter of debate, and a new study on a rat model suggests that multiple brain chemicals and receptors could be involved.

The research, carried out at the University of Toronto, found that chemicals called GABA and glycine shut off motor neurons during REM sleep and appear to trigger REM paralysis, according to researcher John Peever from the University of Toronto in a press release about the findings.

“But we also identified the way cells detect GABA and glycine,” he adds.

“Motor neurons, like all brain cells, listen to these transmitters through receptors and we identified the receptors that allow GABA and glycine to shut the motor neurons off – the three different types of receptors that are required.”

The study was published this month in The Journal of Neuroscience.

W.B. Yeats was ‘conflicted’ about death of close friend Lady Gregory

     

YEATS SUMMER SCHOOL SLIGO:

Had she lived longer, Lady Augusta Gregory might have tempered the increasingly strident political views WB Yeats adopted in the late 1930s. She might also have discouraged the poet’s “somewhat adolescent dalliances” with women half his age, students at the 53rd International Yeats Summer School in Sligo heard yesterday.

James Pethica, director of the school, explored Yeats’s “massively conflicted” feelings on the death of his oldest friend, concluding that, as well as being a blow he had dreaded, her passing was a “liberation”.

Students heard that the woman Yeats had described as “more than mother or father or friend . . . the only person in the world to whom I could tell my every thought” had also been his moral compass up to her death in May 1932.

Pethica, who is writing a biography of Lady Gregory, said critics suspected that the owner of Coole Park in Galway would have tempered the “increasingly strident political views Yeats adopted in the late 1930s”, including his flirtation with fascism and the Blueshirts.

She would also have disapproved of his dalliances with “name hunters, would-be bohemians and hostesses”.

“It is hard to imagine that she would have remained silent about his treatment of his wife and his disingenuous effort to hide his last affairs from her,” Pethica said.

Lady Gregory had been quick to reprove Yeats, and when he fell “too obviously” for a young London actor called Florence Darragh, who performed at the Abbey Theatre, she had told him “with relish” how Darragh had mocked the way he “trotted all over the theatre after her like a little dog”.

When another young woman told Yeats, in 1913, that she was pregnant by him, which turned out to be untrue, his sometimes “domineering and unforgiving” friend told him that the episode “has not been worthy of you”.

But Yeats’s devotion to the long-time friend, who helped found the Abbey, was underlined when he stayed at Coole for the last nine months of her life.

The poet was not there when Lady Gregory died in the early hours of May 23rd, 1932, but arrived at Gort station hours after being summoned by telegram.

Lady Gregory’s granddaughter Catherine, then 18, told Pethica how she and Yeats had travelled from the station, facing each other in a side car, in total silence. “He wasn’t in a state where he could talk to anyone. He was sobbing.”

Pethica said there had been a claustrophobic co-dependent aspect to the Yeats-Gregory relationship, and, after her death, the poet had embraced the possibility of new beginnings.

While he was bereft at the loss, he also felt freed from the judgment of a woman he regarded as thoroughly Victorian.

HSE to fund blood-thinning Pradaxa drug for some Irish patients 

 

A Heart drug that could prevent up to seven strokes a week that the Health Service Executive (HSE) had refused to fund will now be funded for some, according to the HSE.

Pradaxa, a prescription blood thinner, is claimed to be safer and more effective than the widely used warfarin for many patients with atrial fibrillation, a condition that affects some 57,000 people in Ireland.

One clinical trial showed it reduced the risk of stroke 35 per cent more than warfarin.

While some Irish clinicians switched their atrial fibrillation patients to Pradaxa when it was approved by the Irish Medicines Board last year, the HSE said that while those switched before November 9th would be reimbursed under the GMS scheme to remain on it, future patients would not.

Last week, however, the HSE said while warfarin remained the default treatment, it would now reimburse Pradaxa for patients with poor coagulation control, those whose other medicines interact poorly with warfarin and those allergic to it.

The HSE said physicians would have to justify prescribing Pradaxa, which has a wholesale cost of €2.35 per patient per day, before it will be reimbursed.

Separately, the chief executive of the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland, Philip Watt, has called on the HSE to expedite its approval of the cystic fibrosis drug, Kalydeco, also known as Ivacaftor.

The oral drug, the first to treat the underlying causes of a particular form of CF, has recently been approved by the European Medicines Agency.

Donie's Monday Ireland news Blog

Roger ‘the dodger’ Jenkins 

Scottish tycoon gives half his fortune to Ex Wife Diana in ‘happiest divorce ever’

       

Diana Jenkins left and centre supermodel Elle Macpherson, right pic. Roger Jenkins (right) and his brother David training in the 1970s

The Scottish banker and sprinter who became one of Britain’s richest men has agreed a reported £150m settlement with his wife in what they have described as the “happiest divorce ever”.

Roger Jenkins, who represented Scotland as a sprinter at the Commonwealth Games before embarking on a lucrative banking career, is worth an estimated £300 million and has now reportedly handed half to his Bosnian-born ex-wife Diana.

Notoriously private, Mr Jenkins was caught in the limelight for the first time on nearly four decades when he stepped out with supermodel Elle Macpherson for the first time earlier this year.

The Jenkins who separated three years ago, have now divorced without a court fight and are said to have remained the “best of friends”.

Diana Jenkins is reportedly “thrilled” at her ex-husband’s new relationship.

Mr Jenkins was worth £272 million and ranked 290 on this year’s Sunday Times Rich List. His wife is now listed at 457.

Mr Jenkins, 56, and Elle Macpherson, 48, were first seen together in public at the high-profile White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington DC earlier this year.

The man known as Roger the Dodger and the King of the Double Dip and the woman known as The Body were also recently photographed in Ibiza on holiday.

Mr Jenkins, whose father was a manager at Grangemouth oil refinery, moved to Edinburgh as a boy and was a pupil at The Edinburgh Academy. He studied at Heriot-Watt University.

   He made his fortune as a tax expert at Barclays Bank and now sits on the board of Brazilian bank BTG Pactual, splitting his time between Sao Paulo and North America.

His brother David is a former European 400m champion and the pair teamed up for Scotland in the 4 x 400m relay at the 1978 Commonwealth Games. But David later admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs and was jailed for trafficking in the US. He now lives in San Diego, where he built a successful career in sports nutrition products.

Yesterday it was reported that Mr Jenkins told friends: “I love Diana and have such admiration for her as a mother, businesswoman and someone who was brilliant as a wife.

“We have moved on and are supremely happy with the arrangements we have in our lives. Diana will always be a very happy part of my life.”

The Jenkins have two children from their 10-year marriage and divided their property portfolio, including a £25 million clifftop estate overlooking Malibu beach. Former Bosnian refugee Diana, 37, is said to live in the main house with the children, while Mr Jenkins has an adjoining house.

The now former Mrs Jenkins is a successful businesswoman as chairwoman of lucrative drinks brand Neuro Brands, and she told friends she is delighted with the amicable divorce.

She reportedly said: “All is great, life is good, Roger is wonderful – class all the way to the end. He is and always will be my best friend. He is the father of my children and I will always love him.”

A friend continued: “They say they have the happiest divorce ever, and they do. Everybody’s super-happy. Diana is thrilled that Roger has found happiness with Elle; we all thought she’d be cut up about it, but she’s delighted.

“She really likes Elle and wants Roger to be happy. He seems to be, and the relationship is very serious. Diana has been telling people that it’s great and she has a great settlement and she’s delighted.”

Sligo man Fergal McNulty (42) jailed for 8 years for assault on former partner

    

A Sligo bouncer who punched his former partner twice in the face with a sharp object has been jailed for eight years.

Fergal McNulty (42) came up behind the victim as she was walking her eight-year-old son to school and punched her twice, cutting her from ear to nose.

In a victim impact report read out in court Una Webb said the severe scarring resulting from the assault is a daily reminder of her attacker.

The mother of one said that she is not a vain person but she felt that the scar has destroyed her face.

She said that some days she cannot leave her home and she never walks her son to school anymore. She said the attack has affected her ability to raise her son.

Garda Shimlagh Martin told Garret Baker BL, prosecuting, that McNulty has seven previous convictions, including theft, forgery and two for common assault.

McNulty of Whitworth Road, Drumcondra and formerly of Collooney, County Sligo had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm and assault causing serious harm to Ms Webb on St Anne’s Road, Drumcondra on September 3rd, 2009.

After two days of evidence the jury of six men and six women took three hours to return majority verdicts of guilty on both charges.

During the trial the woman, who is in her 30s, sobbed and struggled to speak as she described the attack. She said she was walking her son to a school near their home when she felt a presence behind her.

She turned and looked over her shoulder and recognised McNulty. Within seconds she felt blows to her face. She was afraid her attacker would hurt her son and she ran away dragging the boy with her.

Ms Webb turned around a second time and saw the man across the road looking back at her. She told the trial she was in doubt that it was McNulty.

McNulty was arrested later that day. During the trial two alibi witnesses said they saw him at a house at least five miles from the assault at the time it took place.

His current partner Michelle Jenkins and her aunt, Jane Kane, said he was at Ms Kane’s home in Ballybrack that morning.

The court heard that Ms Webb was left with a 15cm permanent scar and the attack had shattered two of her teeth.

Patrick Dwyer SC, defending, said that McNulty originally came from Collooney, Co Sligo but had moved to Dublin in 1993 and had worked mainly in security and door work.

Counsel said he could not present anything else in mitigation because his client still maintains his innocence and intends to appeal the conviction.

Judge Patrick McCartan said that if McNulty wasn’t the attacker then it had to some wild deranged man who has never being discovered and who has never repeated his attack.

He said Ms Webb was “in pieces” during her testimony and that the jury had believed her and found McNulty’s testimony to be unbelievable.

The judge said it had been a horrendous and vicious assault, carried out in broad daylight on a public street which had destroyed the victim’s life.

Donie's all Ireland daily news Blog

The Rich of Ireland hiding 250 Croke Park’s of cash outside the country?

  

As the wealthy get richer, the poorest get poorer and continue to bear the brunt of the bankers’ mistakes,

Imagine a million dollars. Imagine it sitting on a seat in Croke Park. Imagine every seat in the stadium had a million dollars wrapped and stacked on it. Altogether, that would be upwards of $82bn. Now, imagine 12 Croke Parks, each seat similarly decorated with money. Now, you’ve got a trillion dollars.

Now multiply that by 21. We’re looking at over 250 Croke Parks, each holding $82bn. Now, unless the batteries on our calculators are dodgy, we’re looking at something approaching the amount of money hidden offshore by the super-rich in 2010.

The figure of $21trn is the conservative estimate (it could be up to $32trn) in a report published last week by the Tax Justice Network (TJN). The research for the report was done by the former chief economist of McKinsey, a consulting firm that’s hired by major corporations and governments.

The research is based on information drawn from the IMF, the World Bank, the Bank of International Settlements and various central banks. And this is just financial wealth, bankable lucre — not including property. The research by TJN identified a black hole in the world economy, where increasing amounts of resources are sucked up by those already so rich they’ll never live to spend a fraction of that money.

Those young semi-hippy folk, who call themselves occupy this and occupy that, are of course very naive and unfocused. And, as it happens, just about spot on, when they identified the problem — the massive imbalance in the allocation of resources. There really is a greedy, wasteful one per cent, who are allowed to hoover up an enormous amount of what we produce. And an army of professionals who benefit from servicing them.

Now, you might imagine that offshore money is hidden using the favoured method of corrupt Irish politicians and officials — flying to Jersey or the Isle of Man, with envelopes full of cash stuffed down their Y-fronts. And opening accounts using the name of their granny’s poodle.

Not quite, though the morality of it is similar. These offshore trillions are managed by an array of private bankers, who route their clients’ money electronically.

And this isn’t just a lot of money. This is a major portion of the world’s wealth. The GDP of the USA is about $15trn. Therefore, the minimum amount hidden offshore, $21trn, is equivalent to the entire American economy. Plus the Japanese economy.

But, if this is true — how come we don’t see some tell-tale signs? Well, we do. Last week, as it happens, a committee of the US Senate reported on the activities of HSBC, the British monster bank — in every sense of the term.

For some years, HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, has been channelling offshore the hot money of assorted criminals and dictators, as well as the swag taken by the corporate sector. This allows the criminals and dictators and various corporate chaps to go about their business, whether in business class or private jets, without worrying that some grumpy airport security type on minimum wage might pat them down and find a chunk of money.

Mexican drug gangs, for instance, ran $7bn into the US economy in 2007 and 2008, using a subsidiary of HSBC. More than 52,000 Mexican client accounts were accommodated by HSBC in the Caymans. Over a period of seven years, more than $19bn was channelled from Iran. Money from the Middle East and Asia, associated with terrorism, was similarly transferred into hidey-holes.

(Couldn’t happen here, you say? Remember an Irish bank’s involvement in back-to-back Cayman manoeuvres with a certain Fernando Pruna, later convicted of drug dealing? Moriarty Report, Part 1, page 502.)

The bulk of the $21trn, of course, is money accumulated quite legally, albeit depending on coercive business methods, manipulated tax regimes and the occasional bribe.

The extent of Irish wealth hidden within such funds is undocumented, as yet. For too much of the time, we fret about the detail of what’s happening — minor shifts in GDP, a decrease or increase in a deficit. The rise of one transient politician, a clone of countless political place-holders, is analysed as though it meant something.

The bigger picture includes a layer of super-rich, with other layers of cronies and helpers. And a financial sector that has taken on a role that’s more significant than that of any government.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers affected more lives than the rise of Barack Obama. The collapse of Fianna Fail was no big deal. Fine Gael and Labour stepped briskly into their shoes. The collapse of Anglo Irish Bank, however, destabilised the country.

Banks used to be utilities, facilitating the flow of credit. They are now power centres with their own interests — separate from and often opposed to the interests of the citizens.

At which point it’s not just about power and greed — such bankers become the enemy within. British bankers were recently caught falsifying interest rates that affect the rest of us. It’s not long since Irish bankers were caught falsifying account details, to help clients defraud the Revenue of billions. They got a slap on the wrist. Many bankers are reluctant to indulge in actions that are questionable, probably dodgy, or unmistakably illegal — but if they chicken out some competitor would step in, so they do what they need to protect market share. And they know any consequences will be minor and the rewards immense.

Quite openly, with no fear of chastisement, the wealthy transfer ownership of assets to spouses. They move assets to where they can’t be touched — sometimes they do this illegally. They transfer residency to the UK, to benefit from relaxed bankruptcy laws.

Less openly, politicians are persuaded to rejig legislation. Tax liabilities are magicked away. Money is run through several entities before going offshore.

Deferential politicians give a bank guarantee here, a Finance Bill there. Shane Ross TD argued in the Dail recently that the banks get “the same deference today as they were given in 2008″. He denounced their “absolutely unacceptable input into legislation”.

Social Justice Ireland, using the latest CSO figures, report a 4 per cent increase in disposable income for the top 10 per cent. And an 18 per cent drop in the income for the bottom 10 per cent. And that’s not counting the hidden money.

Having wrecked their financial system, the wealthy and their bankers continue to make big bucks, and they trust the politicians to fix things. And the politicians asset-strip the great majority of us, to plug the holes in the system. They cut deeply into those at the bottom, while insisting on preserving the wealth of the elite — sometimes known as bondholders.

A couple of weeks back, the IMF dropped in and instructed the Government that they must advance on two fronts. First, they must cut welfare benefits and medical cards. And they must “strengthen” the banks. They need to “enhance asset quality” and “regain profitability”.

They demand we chop unemployment benefit, to force the unemployed to take jobs that don’t exist. And simultaneously do whatever is needed to help the banks restore immense profits and sustainable bonuses. “Jump,” said the bankers. “How high?” said the politicians.

Male’s in Ireland, over 50′s, overpaid – Power drunk & they still rule Ireland

     

THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR DOWNFALL REMAIN UNCHALLENGED,

‘Official Ireland is predominantly male, predominantly over 50 and predominantly people who earn over €100,000. For the most part, it includes the speakers at the MacGill summer school in Donegal and those that attend it.”

Every single inquiry into public life that we have had in this country over the past 15 years has come down to one singular thing. The operation of power by Official Ireland. The political tribunals, the church scandals, the police inquiries, the hospital failures and the banking crisis were ultimately about the abuse of power.

Those abuses were enabled and facilitated by those who never shouted stop but punished those who did.

Official Ireland is characterised by the sameness of people in positions of power which means a uniformity of decision-making. This closed-minded conformism dismisses and belittles anyone who opposes the group consensus. These awkward people with alternative views.

The Carragher Report and the Nyberg Report both used the same word to explain why catastrophic failure occurred in the two very different institutions of RTE and the Irish banks.

“There may have been a strong belief in Ireland that contrarians, non-team players, fractious observers and whistleblowers,” the Nyberg Commission noted, would be informally or publicly “sanctioned or ignored, regardless of the quality of their analysis or their place in organisations”.

No official acknowledgment has been given to the whistleblowers who endured to tell the truth. People like Frank Crummey, Joe McAnthony, Padraig Mannion, Joe Murray, Sheenagh McMahon, Patrick McGuinness, Eugene McErlean and others should be thanked for the service they have given to this State.

Official Ireland ostracised heroes like the social worker Frank Crummey, who confronted the abuse of children head on. Joe McAnthony, the Sunday Independent investigative journalist who first uncovered payments to politicians back in 1973, also suffered. A troublemaker whose persistence was rewarded with emigration.

“My life was pretty much over as a journalist. Everything I worked on was closed down,” Joe said in an interview some years ago. “Nobody would hire me. I had four children. So we had to go. I was essentially expelled from Ireland.”

That’s what Official Ireland has done to individuals who have tried to speak the truth. To avoid rather than confront. The refusal to recognise the fundamental difference between right and wrong which poisons public life. Excuses are made for erroneous behaviour, often to protect a reputation.

It still happens. We still build safe consensus on particular subjects. Three examples.

According to the polls, Sean Gallagher was 13 per cent ahead before the RTE Frontline programme aired three days before the presidential election.

Some 900,000 people watched that programme and many changed their mind because of Pat Kenny’s line of questioning that night.

The agreed analysis after the debate was, well, it was the way Gallagher used the word envelope. It was the way he reacted. It was his fault. That was the official line, the groupthink. Then the Father Reynolds episode happened and this forced earlier assumptions to be questioned more forcibly.

Gallagher’s complaint was upheld by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, which found that there was a “lack of objectivity” by Kenny.

Anne Harris wrote an article in the Sunday Independent a month ago alleging media interference by the newspaper’s biggest shareholder. The article related to Denis O’Brien’s borrowings from Anglo Irish Bank.

Not a single newspaper, or other media outlet, picked up on that story. Official Ireland decided that this was an internal boardroom battle within Independent News and Media. And the attitude ‘sure, that’s the Sunday Independent’.

The last example. Two-thirds of Ireland’s population, some 2.8 million Irish citizens, are under 45. This lost generation is disproportionately bearing the brunt of austerity. The CSO revealed this week that the number of those under 24 who are unemployed could fill Croke Park to capacity. One in two young men are unemployed. One in 10 men between 19 and 29 have left Ireland in the past 10 years. The rate of youth unemployment rose by 74 per cent since 2006.

It is this generation who also have the greatest burden of mortgage debt. Central Bank figures show that 18,193 mortgages have arrears of more than 90 days, and 59,437 mortgages have arrears of over 180 days. Another 38,658 have restructured their mortgage by moving to interest only or reduced payment.

None of these people are Official Ireland. They do not speak at summer schools or grace the Marian Finucane panel on a Sunday morning. We do not hear their voices.

Membership of the State consensus includes those who, for the most part, enjoy economic advantages such as intact pensions, mortgage-free houses, secure contracts and disposable income.

These mostly male, middle-aged decision makers are responsible for the collapse in the first place because they never shouted stop.

Elaine Byrne is the author of ‘Political Corruption in Ireland 1922-2010, A Crooked Harp?’ published by Manchester University Press, 2012 See www.elaine.ie/book/

Ireland’s food and drink industry vital for jobs, says Ibec group

    

30,000 new jobs could be created by the Irish food and drink industry by 2020, according to a new report by Food and Drink Industry Ireland, the Ibec group that represents the food industry.

According to the report, sharing the Harvest: the Food and Drink Sector Jobs Dividend, 230,000 people work in the sector, representing one in eight jobs.

The report argues that, in contrast to most other manufacturing industries in Ireland, the food and drink sector buys most of its inputs and services from within the Irish economy.

Some 76 per cent of the industry’s expenditure is spent in Ireland, compared to an average of 30 per cent for other manufacturing industries, according to the report.

“This reflects a strong Irish-based supply chain which is far more likely to retain jobs and investment per euro spent in the wider economy.”

The agri-food sector has a “substantial GNP-generating effect”, according to Food and Drink Industry Ireland, “retaining profits in Ireland unlike other sectors where profits are repatriated abroad”.

Commenting on the findings of the report, FDII director Paul Kelly said that Ireland’s food and drink sector “is deeply embedded in the Irish economy, which means that an increased focus on food will drive growth in the wider economy as well as in the sector itself”.

Highlighting the need for public policy to be aligned with the needs of the sector, he underlined the need for a sustainable supply of cost-competitive raw materials and the implementation of the proposed grocery code immediately following the enactment of primary legislation.

He also stated the imperative to influence the redevelopment of the EU state aid regime for the post-2013 period.

New gene class could potentially prevent epileptic seizures

   

Irish researchers have discovered a new gene that could offer new hope to epilepsy sufferers.

Irish researchers have identified a new gene class which they say could potentially provide new treatment that would prevent epileptic seizures.

Researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, clinicians at Beaumount Hospital, and experts from Madrid’s Cajal Institute say that the new class of gene, called MicroRNA, is instrumental in the control of protein production inside cells. They found much higher levels of one particular type of this gene (microRNA-13) in the part of the brain that causes epileptic seizures.

The journal Nature Medicine has published the team’s paper, which outlines how scientists used a new type of drug-like molecule called antagomir which seems to lock onto the microRNA-13 gene and remove it from the brain cell – and, by doing so, prevent epileptic seizures.

“We have been looking to find what goes wrong inside brain cells to trigger epilepsy. Our research has discovered a completely new gene linked to epilepsy and it shows how we can target this gene using drug-like molecules to reduce the brain’s susceptibility to seizures and the frequency in which they occur,” said the senior author of the paper Prof DavidC  Henshall,of the Department of Physiology and Medical Physics at the RCSI.

Approximately 37,000 people in Ireland are affected by epilepsy and, of those, one in three continue to experience seizures despite being prescribed medication.

Mayo town Ballinrobe offers to exchange punts for goods & services

   

Shopkeepers in Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo, are going back to the future by accepting old Irish punts as payment for goods and services.

Just over a decade ago the euro replaced the punt, but the Central Bank estimates that more than £300m is still outstanding.

Shoppers in Ballinrobe will get an opportunity to put that money to good use, with the Spend Your Punts campaign.

They will be offered an exchange rate of £1 for €1.20 and change will be given in vouchers.

It comes after a similar campaign was run in Clones, Co. Monaghan. More than 40 local businesses have signed up for the scheme.