Teenager’s in Ireland find it very easy to get booze
As Junior Cert celebrations get underway tomorrow, a new survey shows that 84pc of 16-year-olds find it “very easy” to get their hands on alcohol.
Half of those surveyed also said they had a drink in the previous 30 days.
The teens are buying their drink in pubs, discos and off licences.
Underage
Drinkaware.ie and the National Parents Council Post Primary have called on parents and licencees in the on and off-trades to be alert for underage drinking.
They stress this is particularly important tomorrow as thousands of Junior Cert students celebrate their exam results.
Drinkaware and the Parents Council have urged parents to take steps to ensure their children celebrate responsibly.
They are advising them to let their children celebrate at home or at a cinema, bowling alley or other venue where no alcohol is available.
They say the parents should find out who their children will be celebrating with, drop and collect them, talk to them about their plans and get contact numbers.
The European Schools Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs found that just less than four in 10 minors bought their drink in a pub or disco in the previous 30 days.
Another 26pc bought it in a shop or off-licence during the same period.
Average
The good news is that the Irish figures are lower than the European average which was 45pc for on-trade purchases and 37pc for off-trade.
Half of the 16-year-olds said they had alcohol in the last 30 days, down from 73pc in 2011 and lower than the 57pc European average.
Tourists visiting Ireland up by 7.9% for 2011
The number of tourists visiting Ireland rose 7.9 per cent last year while Irish people took fewer trips abroad, new figures published by the Central Statistics Office show.
A total of 6.6 million visits to Ireland by overseas residents were recorded in 2011, an increase of 500,000 on the previous year.
The number of nights spent in Ireland by foreign travellers also rose by 6.1 per cent, from 48 million in 2010 to 50.9 million last year. Hotel bed nights were up 13 per cent, while nights spent with friends and relatives were down.
Although the CSO figures show the Irish tourism sector recovered from disruption wrought by the volcanic ash cloud in 2010, visitor numbers for 2011 were still lower than 2009 levels, when 6.9 million people came here.
Figures for last year were about 17 per cent below 2007 levels, when tourism to Ireland was at its peak.
The strongest growth in numbers last year came from mainland Europe, with visits up 11.4 per cent. Traffic from Britain was also up 4.4 per cent, and North America by 8.1 per cent. Visits from other developing markets increased 15.1 per cent.
High-profile visits by Queen Elizabeth and US president Barack Obama to Ireland in May last year are thought to have contributed to the boost in visitors for the latter half of 2011.
Minister for Transport and Tourism Leo Varadkar said the figures confirmed Irish tourism was showing strong signs of recovery.
“We have seen how improved sentiment in key markets and improved value for money in Ireland, supported by targeted Government measures such as the VAT cut, can help drive growth in business,” Mr Varadkar said.
Despite a rise in the number of nights spent by foreign visitors in Ireland, revenue generated by tourism from overseas last year was just 0.7 per cent more than in 2010, at €3.58 billion. Excluding fares, the total is €2.95 billion.
“We still have a lot to do to recover the business lost after 2007. People are still watching their spending,” the Minister said.
“We have to keep fighting for business by offering good value and giving people reasons to come here.”
“Hotel occupancy is up on 2011, although the spread is uneven, with urban areas, particularly Dublin, faring better,” he said.
“Growth in visitor numbers will depend to a large extent on improved economic conditions and consumer confidence in our source markets.”
Visitors are leaving it until the last minute to book their holidays, Mr Gibbons added, meaning “there is still everything to play for into the autumn and for the remainder of the year”.
The Gathering 2013, launched by Mr Varadkar this month, aims to entice an additional 325,000 visitors to the Republic next year.
The CSO figures also show that Irish people made fewer overseas journeys in 2011, with the total number of trips falling 4.2 per cent on 2010 figures to 6.4 million.
The number of journeys taken by Irish people to visit friends and relatives abroad fell by 10.7 per cent, while the number of leisure breaks taken fell by 2.3 per cent.
Irish residents also spent less on overseas tourism and travel last year, with the total sum falling by 7.2 per cent from €5.21 billion in 2010 to €4.84 billion in 2011. Including fares, the total is €5.47 billion.
Ireland’s Paralympians return with a record haul of medals from London
Lots of tears and hugs, singing, screams, signs and a sea of green greeted the Irish Paralympic team arriving into Dublin Airport’s arrivals hall after 9pm last night. Hundreds of family, friends and supporters thronged the building.
From grandfathers in leprechaun hats to mammies in green Viking hats and babies in shamrock socks, the combined generations nearly raised the airport roof as 48 of the athletes – with an unprecedented medal haul of 16 medals, three world records, seven Paralympic records and 17 national records – paraded into the arrivals area led by a piper.
Double gold medallist Mark Rohan was “almost speechless” and “blown away” by the attention and support on the team’s arrival.
“This is crazy – I never expected this. It’s just great to be home, to share the whole experience with everybody,” he said. His best moment was to seeing “the look of sheer delight and pride on people’s faces” when on the podium.
Liam Harbison, Ireland’s Paralympic chef-de-mission said it was an “amazing journey” and described the team as the “greatest Irish sporting success story ever”.
Double gold winning Derry sprinter Jason Smyth appeared focused on Rio 2016. With his December wedding to fiancée Elise Jordan ahead, he had “a lot of thinking and decisions” to make, he said.
Also focused on Rio but looking forward to “golf and shopping” was Michael McKillop (22), who won gold in the 800m and 500m.
The Antrim native, who was awarded the Whang Youn Dai achievement award, said it showed the value in teaching “able-bodied kids in primary schools that paralympic sport is elite . . . It doesn’t matter if you have a disability or don’t: everybody wants to win a gold medal, that’s what I’ve brought back to Ireland.”
Equestrian winner Helen Kearney said she was going to take it easy when she got home to Dunlavin and thought the team bronze was a “real testament to how far equestrian dressage had come” in Ireland.
Silver medallist in discus Catherine O’Neill couldn’t wait to see her seven-year-old son Calum after a five-week separation. Her medal was a “dream come true” and it had been “very emotional” to see the Irish flag raised.
Proudly holding his gold medal, swimmer Darragh McDonald (18) was greeted by a large crowd from his school in Gorey. He thought Paralympics was received even better by the public than the Olympics because of the back-stories that every athlete had.
Last night, supporters cheered for the achievements of medal-winners and those who did not win alike. Among them was, Ireland’s youngest paralympian, Heather Jameson (15), who achieved two personal bests and showed her potential for Rio, her proud father said.
Looking towards Rio was Minister of State for Sport Michael Ring, who said the team had “lifted the county”. He looked forward to their next games.
Letterkenny General Hospital opens a new block and emergency department
The Management of Letterkenny General Hospital pictured at the new 22 million euro hospital wing as they get ready for the opening of the Emergency Department included from left Sean Murphy, General Manager, Micheal Martin Project MAnager HSE Estates, Clare Mc Aleer ,Assistant Director of Nursing/Service Manager, Dr. Ken Mulpeter, Cosultant Physician, Anne Flood Director of Nursing and Liam Doherty Assistant Director of Nursing Emergency Department.
The new emergency department and medical block at Letterkenny General Hospital opens this week, while the hospital faces reports of further cuts in spending.
Hospital management took media on a tour of the new, €24 million block earlier this week. The emergency department is expected to move to the new facility on Thursday, Sept. 13th, with one of three new medical wards opening next Tuesday, another medical ward opening next Thursday, Sept. 20th, and the third medical ward opening in the new block on Tuesday, Sept. 25th.
Sean Murphy, general manager of Letterkenny General, said the new state-of-the-art block was designed to improve patient care while being as green and efficient as possible.
Hospital managers had been told there would be no funding available for additional staff for the new block, and last week the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, Services Industrial and Professional Technical Union (Siptu) and the Impact trade unions agreed to interim measures to facilitate the opening of the new building. In a controversial decision, the hospital also closed the gynaecology ward, to free up nurses who would be needed in the new block. Gynaecology services will continue to be provided at the hospital, administrators said.
About 40 people held a candlelight vigil outside the hospital carpark on Monday evening, in support of the hospital’s gynaecology ward.
Mr. Murphy said the unions’ agreement was “a reflection of the really good industrial relations we have”.
There were some bumps in the road to the new block since 2003, when then-Health Minister Micheal Martin announced the project. Construction was stalled when the original builders, McNamara Construction, went into receivership in November 2010, and recommenced in October 2011 with John Sisk and Sons.
Magdalene Laundries report ‘by end of year’
A report on state involvement in the conditions in the Magdalene Laundries will be submitted to Government by the end of the year.
Senator Martin McAleese, head of the review, has said that information is still coming in which could add to the findings.
“A significant level of information and documentation has been identified,” the Department of Justice said.
“However, relevant records continue to be identified by Government departments and state agencies – and the committee also continues to receive new submissions from representative and advocacy groups.
“Senator McAleese has indicated that the information still being identified has the capacity to add in a meaningful way to the overall outcome of the Committee’s work.”
The independent Inter-Departmental Committee, chaired by Senator McAleese, has told Justice Minister Alan Shatter that it would be improper to stop its work without examining the additional material.
The Committee said it intends to present a substantial final report as soon as possible, at the latest before the end of the year.
Justice for Magdalenes (JFM), the survivor advocacy group, said it was “shocked and disappointed by today’s announcement that the final report…may now not appear until the end of the year.”
The independent Inter-Departmental Committee was set up by the Government to establish the facts of state involvement with the Magdalene Laundries, to clarify any state interaction, and to produce a narrative detailing such interaction.
An initial progress report was published on October 25.
Special rapporteur on children’s rights Geoffrey Shannon used the publication of his annual report in July to claim that reports from women forced into the laundries showed their treatment “constituted slavery”.
The UN Committee Against Torture called on the Government in 2011 to set up an inquiry into the treatment of thousands of women and girls in the laundries.
NASA Orbiter Observations Point to ‘Dry Ice’ Snowfall on Mars
Observations by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have detected carbon-dioxide snow clouds on Mars and evidence of carbon-dioxide snow falling to the surface.
PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter data have given scientists the clearest evidence yet of carbon-dioxide snowfalls on Mars. This reveals the only known example of carbon-dioxide snow falling anywhere in our solar system.
Frozen carbon dioxide, better known as “dry ice,” requires temperatures of about minus 193 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 125 Celsius), which is much colder than needed for freezing water. Carbon-dioxide snow reminds scientists that although some parts of Mars may look quite Earth-like, the Red Planet is very different. The report is being published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
“These are the first definitive detections of carbon-dioxide snow clouds,” said the report’s lead author, Paul Hayne of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “We firmly establish the clouds are composed of carbon dioxide — flakes of Martian air — and they are thick enough to result in snowfall accumulation at the surface.”
The snowfalls occurred from clouds around the Red Planet’s south pole in winter. The presence of carbon-dioxide ice in Mars’ seasonal and residual southern polar caps has been known for decades. Also, NASA’s Phoenix Lander mission in 2008 observed falling water-ice snow on northern Mars.
Hayne and six co-authors analyzed data gained by looking at clouds straight overhead and sideways with the Mars Climate Sounder, one of six instruments on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This instrument records brightness in nine wavebands of visible and infrared light as a way to examine particles and gases in the Martian atmosphere. The analysis was conducted while Hayne was a post-doctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
The data provide information about temperatures, particle sizes and their concentrations. The new analysis is based on data from observations in the south polar region during southern Mars winter in 2006-2007, identifying a tall carbon-dioxide cloud about 300 miles (500 kilometers) in diameter persisting over the pole and smaller, shorter-lived, lower-altitude carbon dioxide ice clouds at latitudes from 70 to 80 degrees south.
“One line of evidence for snow is that the carbon-dioxide ice particles in the clouds are large enough to fall to the ground during the lifespan of the clouds,” co-author David Kass of JPL said. “Another comes from observations when the instrument is pointed toward the horizon, instead of down at the surface. The infrared spectra signature of the clouds viewed from this angle is clearly carbon-dioxide ice particles and they extend to the surface. By observing this way, the Mars Climate Sounder is able to distinguish the particles in the atmosphere from the dry ice on the surface.”
Mars’ south polar residual ice cap is the only place on the Red Planet where frozen carbon dioxide persists on the surface year-round. Just how the carbon dioxide from Mars’ atmosphere gets deposited has been in question. It is unclear whether it occurs as snow or by freezing out at ground level as frost. These results show snowfall is especially vigorous on top of the residual cap.
“The finding of snowfall could mean that the type of deposition — snow or frost — is somehow linked to the year-to-year preservation of the residual cap,” Hayne said.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, provided the Mars Climate Sounder instrument and manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
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