‘Irish society has failed a 13 year old child’ Priest questions efforts to tackle bullying in Ireland
Sad mourners at the funeral of beautiful Erin Gallagher, the Donegal teenager who took her life amid complaints of being bullied, were told that “society has failed a 13-year-old child”.
Addressing Erin’s family and school friends, Fr John Joe Duffy urged young people to talk more openly about their problems, but he also questioned whether the authorities had done enough to tackle cyber bullying.
Speaking of the sense of “disbelief” and “unrealness” her death brought, Fr Duffy, recently appointed chaplain at Finn Valley College, where Erin Gallagher went to school, said: “Any one of us would love to be able to turn back the clock so we would not be here today but, by its presence, this community wants to tell you as a family it also feels your pain.
“This community wants to reach out to you, to heal hurt, to heal sadness, to heal broken hearts,” Fr Duffy told her mother Lorraine (36), who sat with Erin’s sister Shannon (15), and brother Seán James (4), along with a wide circle of relatives and friends.
Members of Erin’s boxing and GAA clubs were among the hundreds of people who attended the service at St Mary’s Church, Stranorlar.
Her classmates sat together, many wearing flourishes of pink, Erin’s favourite colour. They held hands and wept, with the dazed expressions of children suddenly thrust into a very grown-up world.
Fr Duffy had special words of comfort for them, noting: “Erin’s death may be the first experience of death and loss for many of you. You may feel overwhelmed by your feelings which may possibly be one, or many.
“On the other hand, you may not have a strong reaction at this moment in time . . . It is okay to ask questions such as ‘why?’ But be patient with yourselves and allow yourselves to grieve. Don’t be afraid to talk about your feelings to your family, to your teachers, to me or to the other priests and indeed to your friends.”
He said any young person in crisis should not be afraid to speak to “someone you trust”, or to organisations such as the Samaritans, Childline, the HSE or the Garda. He also urged them to rethink their use of social networking websites such as ask.fm, which Erin had been frequenting before her death. “I am now asking each one of you: is it necessary to have ask.fmin your lives? . . . When we see the consequences of what such discussions can do to some people, I am asking you to seriously think about going home today and to delete ask.fmand never agree to frequent that site or any other sites . . .
“Is there any regulation of social media pages? There is not. Authorities may hide behind technical and other difficulties but these sites can be regulated and they must.
“Unfortunately today is not the first tragedy we see in our country but let it be the last . . . But it can only be the last if we face the reality of what we need to stand up to as a society,” Fr Duffy continued.
“I ask parents to familiarise yourselves with these sites, to familiarise yourselves with the safeguards and to act in the way that is most necessary to help protect your children.
“As a country, we are very good at aftercare – after the fact – but we fail miserably on prevention. We have seen the excellent support of these last few days from professional services but let all of us take a step backwards. Let us go back to last week. What levels of support were available and where were they before this tragic event? . . .
“Have we the resources and personnel necessary to man the frontline with regard to prevention? Have we the national policies in place?
“Have we the guidelines for intervention and prevention to avoid a terrible and unnecessary tragedy like this in the future? . . .
“I am asking all agencies in Ireland responsible for the care of children to finally come together and formulate a comprehensive policy of prevention and support for helping individuals so this day will never have to dawn on another parent . . .
“That is the challenge we as a society now face. We are only here today because society has failed Erin Gallagher, has failed a 13-year-old child.”
Erin was remembered as someone “full of life, of fun, from the very start of life”. She had “a very hearty laugh . . . always made sure her hair was perfectly done”, and enjoyed her music, liked metalwork at school, while “the time she spent with her family and friends was precious to her”.
At the end of Mass, her classmates gathered on the altar to read the poem Angels Are Hard To Find. When one of the teenagers faltered over the lines, another finished the reading. Afterwards, they formed a guard of honour outside the church, releasing pink balloons as the small white coffin was carried past.
Members of Erin’s family stopped to embrace the schoolchildren before rejoining the cortege which passed through Stranorlar in light rain to Castlefin cemetery.
Nearly 190,000 Irish people caring and looking after family and friends for free
Nearly 190,000 people in Ireland are providing unpaid care and assistance to a member of their family or friend, according to new Census 2011 data published today.
It showed that 6.2 million hours of this care is given by carers weekly, an average of 33.6 hours of unpaid help per carer.
Women provide two thirds of this form of care while elderly people over 70 years are spending 800,000 hours a week looking after others.
The census also revealed 4,338 children less than 15 years of age are responsible for caring for others and they account for 2.3% of all carers.
Children under 9 years and under are providing 13,738 hours of care while 10 to 14 year olds are devoting 24,758 hours to the needs of other children and adults.
The figures show that a 595,335 people in the population had a disability in 2011 of whom 305,607 (51.3pc) were female.
Disability included sight and deafness problems, intellectual disability, difficulty learning, psychological problems, pain, and breathing or long term illness.
DISABILITY HAPPENS MORE THAN YOU IMAGINE, SOME FACTS HERE:
- In Census 2011, 595,355 people recorded having a disability, equivalent to 13% of the population of Ireland.
- However, the National Disability Survey (2006) which uses a broader definition of disability and chronic illness recorded a disability rate of 18%, comparable to other developed countries.
- At least 1 in 10 adults of working age have a disability (15-64 years)[1].
- Disability is age-related and increases sharply with age. Just 5% of children between 0-14 years have a disability compared to 38% of adults over 65 years (Census 2011).
- Approximately 4,000 people with disabilities still live in institutions or psychiatric hospitals. People with Disabilities are more likely to experience poverty:
- · Families where the head of the household was not at work due to illness or disability had the lowest average annual disposable income in 2010. This was €23,900 compared to €56,537 for those at work.
- · Disabled people are twice as likely to live below the poverty line as the rest of the population.
- Disabled people experience high levels of consistent poverty (13% compared to 2% of those at work). This means that they have a low income and have difficulty with basic provision such as a meal with meat or fish every second day or the ability to have adequate heating.
- Additional costs of disability have been estimated to be a third of average weekly income3.
Eircom propose to save €100 million wage bill in further 2,000 jobs cut
Ireland’s largest telecoms company, Eircom, plans to shed 2,000 jobs over the next 18 months in an effort to save €100 million a year.
This is twice the level of redundancies previously indicated by the company, and represents 35 per cent of its 5,700-strong workforce. The company will initially ask staff to opt for voluntary redundancy.
It represents further bad news for the Government on the employment front and comes just a day after it was reported that State-owned An Post is seeking to cut up to 1,500 full-time positions by 2016.
Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte said it was “regrettable that further restructuring seems inevitable” at Eircom. “But the commitment to invest €1.5 billion to upgrade the network is welcome.”
Eircom has been in an almost permanent state of restructuring in recent years as it has sought to modernise and address legacy costs from its days as a State-owned entity.
It has also struggled under the burden of massive debts put on the business by a succession of private-sector owners.
Eircom’s workforce has been reduced by 1,500 over the past three years. The company only emerged from an examinership process earlier this year after its lenders agreed to cut their gross debts from €4 billion to €2.35 billion while taking control of the group.
Eircom has had seven different owners since 1999, when it had about 13,000 staff.
Its revenues declined by 10 per cent to €1.515 billion in the year to the end of June 2012 as the company continued to lose market share in the fixed-line telephone and broadband markets.
Staff were told yesterday that a programme of cuts needed to be introduced by the company.
Other changes will include further modernisation of work practices and the closure of certain office locations around the Republic that are no longer deemed viable.
Eircom said “detailed discussions” with staff and their trade union representatives would begin shortly. This will include “face-to-face sessions throughout the State over the coming weeks” and will be led by Eircom’s new chief executive, Herb Hribar.
He said the challenges facing Eircom were “significant” and required “a fundamental transformation” of the business. “The programme is ambitious but the challenges are not insurmountable,” Mr Hribar said.
Eircom said the restructuring was part of a five-year business plan drawn up during the examinership process. This involves capital expenditure of €1.5 billion over the period, including €400 million on building a fibre network to support high-speed internet services for a million premises.
“The business strategy remains sound and our strategic investment continues,” Mr Hribar said.
Steve Fitzpatrick, general secretary of the Communications Workers Union, which represents the majority of staff at Eircom, told The Irish Times: “It’s not pleasant but then it hasn’t been for the past five years. I will be looking to see that the pain is evenly spread across the company.”
Mr Fitzpatrick noted that a high number of “contractors and consultants” work for Eircom. “These will have to cease working for the company before affecting our staff,” he said.
The union yesterday stated that its members had already agreed a “very difficult” rescue plan at the time of the examinership.
Despite its difficulties, Eircom retains a strong position in the marketplace. It has a 67 per cent share of the broadband market and has over 60 per cent of fixed-line voice business.
Its share of the mobile market – where it operates the Meteor and eMobile brands – is just under 20 per cent.
Major increase in Irish banks deposit rates
Deposit rates across the Irish banks increased in September at their fastest rate for over a year, while banks’ dependency on Central Bank funding has continued to recede.
Figures from the Central Bank, published yesterday, showed a month-on-month decline of €943m in Irish-resident private sector deposits during September. This was largely attributed to a seasonal decline in deposits from non-financial corporations (NFCs).
More significantly, the data showed a 1.8% year-on-year rise in deposit levels, up from an annualised rise of 0.7% in August.
September’s annualised rise — household deposits were up by 0.7%; those from insurance companies, pension funds, and other financial intermediaries were up by 6.4%; and NFC deposits fell by 1.2% — was the fastest such increase since May 2010.
Last month also saw a further reduction — of €900m — in covered Irish banks’ dependence on ECB funding to €59.9bn, with a further €200m decline in the level of emergency liquidity assistance from the Central Bank of Ireland. The support now stands at €100bn, down from a peak of €156bn in Feb 2011.
The Central Bank also yesterday reported that loans to households fell by 3.7% on a year-on-year basis in September. This was unchanged from the annualised rate of decline recorded in August. Mortgage lending was down by 2%, year-on-year, while lending for consumption and other purposes fell 8.4%.
The data drew a less than enthusiastic response from commentators.
“The bottom line is that Ireland remains a long way from where it wants and needs to be, as regards credit supply and demand, to get the domestic economy moving again,” said Alan McQuaid, economist with Merrion Stockbrokers.
“The reality is that until the banking sector crisis is fully resolved and things improve on the labour market front, then the supply/demand for credit will stay subdued, in our view, severely hampering the overall recovery prospects for the economy as a whole, in the process.”
According to Mr McQuaid, despite recent signs of improvement in terms of bank deposit levels, the underlying message from the latest Central Bank data “is still one of overall weakness and difficulties in the banking sector”.
Two oily fish portions a week ‘may help to ward off stroke’
Eating two portions of oily fish — such as salmon, trout or mackerel — a week could help to ward off a stroke.
However, fish oil supplements do not have the same beneficial effect, a study found.
An international team of researchers examined the association between oily fish, which are a good source of Omega-3 fatty acids, and the risk of strokes or mini-strokes.
They looked at 38 studies involving almost 800,000 people across 15 countries, and examined participants’ fish and long-chain Omega-3 fatty acid consumption. During the studies, a total of 34,817 strokes and mini-strokes were recorded.
Participants eating two to four servings a week had a 6pc lower risk of stroke compared with those who consumed one portion or less every week, the study found.
Research: Fish oil supplements were not significantly associated with a similar reduced risk.
Eating oily fish has already been linked to other health benefits such as reducing the risk of heart disease.
The UK Food Standards Agency recommends that everyone should eat at least two 140g portions of fish a week, including one portion of oily fish.
“From past research we know that eating plenty of fish is good for our general health,” said Dr Peter Coleman, deputy director of research at the Stroke Association.
“This research shows that it could also help to protect us against stroke. However, it’s interesting to see that taking fish oil supplements doesn’t have the same beneficial effect.”
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