Donie's Irish daily news BLOG Sunday

Expelled parliamentary TDs and Senators hold meeting’s

  

A GROUP OF TDS AND SENATORS EXPELLED FROM THE FINE GAEL PARLIAMENTARY PARTY HAVE MET IN DUBLIN IN ADVANCE OF THE NEW DÁIL AND SEANAD TERMS.

Ahead of the think-in, former Minister of State Lucinda Creighton again insisted the Reform Alliance had no plans to form a political party.

Ms Creighton said that she was seeking to secure speaking rights in the Dáil.

She said the group had already had a couple of meetings, but that today was its first day-long meeting.

Ms Creighton said members would be discussing welfare reform, job creation, and the challenges facing the small and medium enterprise sector.

She added that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss new policy ideas and matters of concern to the Irish people.

Dublin North-East TD Terence Flanagan also insisted the Reform Alliance was not a new party.

He said he still wished to return to the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party.

Wicklow TD Billy Timmins has said the Reform Alliance will put down a motion in the Dáil calling for its members to be allowed sit on Oireachtas committees.

Mr Timmons said the group would be developing new policies over the coming weeks and months.

He said the Alliance would be calling for Dáil reform, adding that the group felt that all elected representatives should be treated equally and have speaking rights in the chamber.

On the Seanad referendum, Mr Timmons said the Alliance would not be adopting a group position on the issue and that members would be voting individually.

New Anglo Tapes revelation’s:  ‘We’ve f**king let the world down’

 

Anglo’s John Bowe laments lack of dinner party invites while Ireland’s wealthy elite transfer €500 million in two days into Germany

A prominent British banker told Anglo Irish Bank Head of Treasury John Bowe that the banking industry had “totally fucking let the world down”, but it was politicians such as then Taoiseach Brian Cowen who would lose their jobs.

Mr Bowe replied “Yeah”, but added that the politicians in charge had to take responsibility for the crash because “you pay the piper, you call the tune”.

In fresh revelations from the Anglo Tapes, Matt Pass, a senior executive in Merrill Lynch, which advised the State on the bank guarantee, admitted he felt “quite guilty” about the banking industry’s conduct.

He said that what had been “handed” to politicians meant that Mr Cowen and then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown “are going to lose their jobs”.

However, Mr Bowe did not absolve politicians, telling the UK banker that “if he [Gordon Brown] did not have banks handing out credit during the New Labour years, people would not have spent money, the economy would not have been as prosperous”.

The Merrill Lynch executive also suggested to Mr Bowe, in a conversation in October 2008, that political leaders could have told the banks in the years before the crash that they “shouldn’t have been doing the kind of lending they were doing”.

But he added that if they had done that, “there would have been an almighty stink”.

In the course of only two days, the bankers speculated that Ireland’s wealthy could have put as much as €500m into Germany.

Mr Bowe also told Mr Moran how Anglo worked with Irish Life & Permanent to prop up its balance sheet.

“Permo [Irish Life & Permanent] were on to us, they were short a billion, em, and kind of caught short – it sounds like all the corporate stuff [deposits] has left Permo, so the Central Bank is obviously aware of that, but they got 300 [million] on Friday and they got another, I think it was 850 [million], today from us and we just have to see what happens, but they’re paying it back tomorrow, that’s the basis on which we did it,” Mr Bowe told Mr Moran.

“So it feels a bit better, Matt – I suppose that’s the best way of putting it – and in terms of our days, days to disaster, you can kind of stretch that, stretch that out, y’know?”

Mr Moran laughed before replying: “Yeah.”

Mr Moran hit the head-lines last week when it emerged he had been granted immunity from prosecution by the Director of Public Prosecutions for all matters relating to Anglo Irish Bank. He has previously featured several times in the Anglo Tapes, as well as in Anglo emails in which he refers to contacts during the crisis with then Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who he calls “Enda K”, and then Fianna Fail TD, Beverly Flynn.

In another recording, in April 2008, while talking to Anglo CEO David Drumm, Mr Bowe described Sean Quinn as “like a cancer, this is like a cancer growing on the bank”.

He said at this stage the bank was “in a spiral, and I want the spiral to go away”.

In another conversation around that time – a month after the bank guarantee – Mr Bowe is again talking to Mr Drumm, who is complaining that Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has made a statement about the importance of systemic banks. Mr Drumm claims that in doing so “he just made a balls of it. He killed us”.

Mr Bowe told Mr Drumm that Anglo (and Irish Nationwide) were not considered systemic banks – and therefore worth saving – because “we don’t give, pay people’s wages and have ATMs and do stuff like that”. Mr Drumm replies: “Oh, yeah, the cash out of the wall.”

Mr Drumm then suggested that the Government was “trying to kill us”. “I think they have been trying to force us into a tougher spot”… so that they could… “act under the Central Bank Act, y’know, to protect the stability of the system”.

New children’s hospital boss says‘ I will not tolerate medical politics’

     

Eilish Hardiman: (pic above) The new CEO tasked with driving forward the long-delayed Children s hospital

The Health Minister James Reilly has said “medical politics” would not be tolerated at the new national children’s hospital, which he is confident will be built by 2018.

He was speaking after announcing that Eilish Hardiman has been appointed chief executive of the Children’s Hospital Group, whose task is to drive forward the long-delayed hospital.

Ms Hardiman previously oversaw the proposed development when it was due to be built on the Mater hospital campus but left to take over the running of Tallaght Hospital.

The new facility, for which planning permission has yet to be obtained, will see the merging of the existing children’s hospitals in Crumlin, Temple Street and Tallaght into one complex. It will be built on the grounds of St James’s hospital.

The row over where it should be built has already delayed its progress by many years and exposed deep divisions between the three hospitals which will eventually have to work as one.

Dr Reilly said the bad experiences of previous new hospitals – where existing facilities had merged – would not be repeated.

He did not specify any names but many of the problems experienced by Tallaght hospital were linked to the failure of the Adelaide and Meath hospitals to let go of their previous independence and work together.

Dr Reilly said there would have to be cohesion when the new complex opened. Asked about funding, he declined to say how much it would cost.

However, he said he was “absolutely committed” to ensuring it was funded and pointed to the indicators that Ireland was recovering. Some of the funding is due to come from the sale of the

National Lottery funding.

It will be early summer next year before a planning application is submitted and this will take another six months before a decision is made by An Bord Pleanala.

If planning permission is granted, the next step is to tender for construction companies to build the several-storeys-high complex – but it could be the end of 2015 before it is “shovel ready”. Building is likely to take three years, so it is not expected to be completed until late 2017 or early 2018 and it will then take more time to fit it out and make it ready to accept the child patients.

Dr Reilly said he was confident that lessons had been learnt since planning permission to build it at the Mater site was turned down.

People of major experience in the construction and building industry were now on the boards overseeing its development, he said.

Allsop & IMHO agrees a deal to prevent ‘unnecessary Irish home repossessions’

  

Mr. David Hall of IMHO says a repossessed family home should not be put up for sale unless all parties agree

The Irish Mortgage Holders’ Organisation (IMHO) has secured a written agreement from Allsop Space that it will not offer repossessed family homes for auction in cases where banks have failed in advance to strike an acceptable deal with the properties’ former owners over their outstanding mortgage debt.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent following the conclusion of the deal last night, IMHO director David Hallsaid the commitment from Allsop would help to prevent the “unnecessary repossessions” while providing those who had to surrender their family homes with a “definitive outcome” that allowed them to move on with their lives.

Commenting on the importance of the deal, Mr Hall said: “It’s hugely significant that two weeks after the banks were before the finance committee 15,000 repossession letters went out. We’re saying there is a need for repossession, and some family homes will need to be repossessed and sold. But we’re saying the system should be changed, and for those properties where it’s agreed by advisers, the bank and the customer that the family home should be sold at auction or wherever; that prior to that auction, a full debt deal should be negotiated and an agreement reached with the bank.”

Asked what kind of debt deal the IMHO expected to be reached by distressed borrowers with their banks before their homes could be repossessed and put up for auction, Mr Hall said: “Once the hammer comes down on the property, there needs to be a definitive outcome. For residential family homes, under no circumstances should any home be sold unless it’s agreed by all parties that it needs to be sold in a voluntary manner and with a full deal done on the balance of the debt. There are circumstances, unfortunately, in the real world where family homes will need to be sold, but what we’re saying is that there are more sustainable solutions.”

Asked if the IMHO would seek a similar agreement from other estate agents and auctioneers, Mr Hall said: “We will be seeking an identical commitment from every single auctioneer throughout the country. We will be saying clearly that sales of repossessed family homes will only take place where everyone agrees that the property must be sold. It can only be done in ourview when a deal has been done on the entire debt by consent. Only then can it be sold. We want the entire deal to be triggered at the moment the property is sold when it is done by agreement.”

Mr Hall said in cases where that commitment was not forhcoming, the IMHO would publicly identify properties offered for auction where it believed that there had been a “reasonable alternative to repossession”.

Contacted by the Sunday Independent and asked for comment on its agreement with the IMHO, Allsop Space director of auctions Robert Hoban said: “We’ve had detailed discussions with the Irish Mortgage Holders’ Association and with David Hall and we’ve made a commitment not to sell any repossessed family homes defined as principal private residences. We understand the difficulties out there in the market and we understand that people have concerns. We as a firm don’t have any interest in getting involved in those kind of sales. We’re very sensitive about it.”

Exercise reduces depression symptoms

  

Exercise does appear to reduce symptoms of depression, new research suggests.

Around 120 million people suffer from depression worldwide, including 280,000 people in Ireland. Antidepressant medication and psychological therapies are both seen as effective treatments for the condition.

However, medication can cause unwelcome side-effects and not everybody has access to psychological therapies.

Exercise is also recommended for people with depression as it can change the hormone levels affecting mood and can act as a distraction from negative thoughts.

However previous research has found only limited evidence linking exercise with less depression.

As more trials in this area have recently been carried out, Scottish researchers decided to look into this further. They carried out a review of 39 trials involving over 2,300 people with depression.

In 35 of the trials, the researchers found that exercise had a moderate benefit when it came to depression. Furthermore a few small trials found that exercise was as effective as psychological therapy and taking antidepressants.

“Our review suggested that exercise might have a moderate effect on depression. We can’t tell from currently available evidence which kinds of exercise regimes are most effective or whether the benefits continue after a patient stops their exercise programme,” the researchers from the University of Edinburgh explained.

However, they acknowledged that the link between exercise and depression was weaker when they focused on six high quality trials.

“When we looked only at those trials that we considered to be high quality, the effect of exercise on depression was small and not statistically significant. The evidence base would be strengthened by further large scale, high quality studies,” the team added.

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Declan Ganley shown minutes from Anglo Irish meeting on ‘overcharging’ following some scepticism

 

BUSINESSMAN DECLAN GANLEY WAS SHOWN MINUTES FROM A MEETING AT ANGLO IRISH BANK THAT RAISE SERIOUS QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW INTEREST WAS APPLIED TO LOANS.

The Sunday Independent has seen an email from Mr Ganley where he relates: “Around October 13, 2010, I was shown minutes from an Anglo meeting that covered the issue.” He goes on to use a notorious term that was familiar to many within the bank in relation to how interest was calculated.

What Mr Ganley was shown by a former Anglo executive concerned a major issue with interest rates. “The reason this former Anglo individual showed the minutes to me was that I had expressed some scepticism when he had first told me about the activity and he showed a copy of minutes to me, then explained the calculation and spread,” Mr Ganley’s email said.

“I have no personal or business interest in anything related to Anglo or its successors. My interest was motivated by my strong objections to the bank guarantee and what I suspected was an effort to firmly foist Anglo and others’ losses on the Irish taxpayer, which unfortunately fully came to pass.”

On Tuesday, Sinn Fein TD Padraig MacLochlainn submitted a parliamentary question on the matter to Finance Minister Michael Noonan.

Mr MacLochlainn asked the minister about reports in New York “concerning the overcharging of interest on Anglo loans” and asked if the minister’s attention had been drawn to the case and whether provisions had been made by IBRC’s special liquidator or Nama to deal with any financial compensation or the possibility of loans being declared void or becoming unsellable as a result of the case.

Mr Noonan said he couldn’t comment on cases before the courts. He said he had been advised by IBRC’s liquidators that in the Republic any claims in relation to the potential overcharging of interest would likely rank as unsecured creditors.

He said he was advised that the allegations were not expected to have a significant impact on loan sales.

The Sunday Independent last week reported that banking specialist Bankcheck, which has inspected hundreds of Anglo loans, estimates a possible €1bn “overcharge” could emerge.

Developer John Flynn and Chicago Spire tycoon Garrett Kelleher both have US court cases pending Stateside on this matter.

Beer could be the answer to all of Ireland’s economic worries

THERE IS SCOPE FOR THE CREATION OF HUNDREDS OF MICRO-BREWERIES HERE WITH HUGE ECONOMIC BENEFITS.

 

Let me tell you a story about where Alltech’s brewing business began. It started at the august Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin some years ago.

There I sat, awed by my surroundings, watching people enjoy their morning tea and biscuits.

At 22, I had just graduated from UCD with a degree in biochemistry and had spent years working on and off in the brewing industry, first as an intern at Harp Lager Brewery in Dundalk followed by a period at the Guinness Brewery in Dublin.

The chair I sat in was so soft it seemed bottomless, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a man in tails moving through the room. In his hands sat a small chalkboard. Two bells dangled from its corners, jingling softly as he moved through the room. Suddenly I saw that my name was written on the sign. Raising my hand, red-faced, I acknowledged that he was searching for me.

Now my reason for being here was made clear: I was at the Shelbourne to meet Professor Briggs, a man with the power to change my life. He was in charge of the British School of Malting and Brewing, that 100-year-old institution in England.

Fifteen minutes later, after a short interview, he accepted me as the first Irishman ever to enrol. Leaving the hotel, my head floating in the clouds, I eagerly anticipated telling everyone the news. Little did I know that I had just started on a journey that would shape my future.

Forty years later, my company, Alltech, has offices in over 128 countries. My knowledge of brewing and distilling has helped us set a target of $4bn in sales. (We’re already at about $1bn.)

How did I go from a brewing and distilling degree to running Alltech, an animal nutrition to food business? What was my journey? The answer, simply, is yeast. It is my passion. It is awakening greatness within me and those around me.

Part of my journey has involved my love for brewing. When I told my brother Lorcan that Alltech had opened a small brewery in 2000 in Kentucky where I live, he was immediately excited.

“It is small,” I told him again, trying to temper his enthusiasm ”Yes – but it’s beer, and that’s what’s important,” he said.

In many ways, he was right because beer and whiskey inspire imaginations. Brewing and distilling has allowed my company to grow. We would like nothing better than to see others following suit. It is our hope that our Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, one of the most successful and fastest growing craft beers in the United States, will inspire more Irish people to go into brewing.

Ireland is experiencing a time when jobs are needed, and young people are searching for opportunities. Entrepreneurs advise putting the best people where the best opportunities lie, and I believe the craft brewing and distilling industry is such an area of opportunity. This year alone in the US, 1,254 new breweries are planned, adding to the 2,400 already active craft brewers.

In Great Britain there are 900 breweries, and even Bangalore, India, has 40 craft brewers. While sales at large breweries are stagnant, craft beer in the US had a total volume of sales that topped $11bn in 2012, a sales increase of 15 per cent. Over 185,000 jobs were generated at the same time. Why not have two breweries in every county in Ireland? Why would Dublin not have 50 craft brewers and distillers?

After all, Denver, Colorado, which is similar in size to our capital city, has over 50. Ireland, with its rich history in brewing, and the home of Guinness and the River Liffey, is the perfect place to build on this craft brewing revolution.

Is this a trend that is going to go away? Absolutely not. This trend has spent 40 years gaining traction. When I moved to the US in the late Seventies, it seemed like every town had brewers. The city of Cincinnati, Ohio, with its German roots, had seven.

Yet one by one, these small craft breweries began to fall by the wayside, disappearing across the country. Big breweries were forcing them out, either through costs or large-scale advertising.

Still a movement survived. It was a movement away from the often bland nature of the large breweries’ products. This movement was not specific to the United States, but spread around the world.

Great Britain saw the CAMRA campaign flourish, a campaign for real ale. People wanted differentiation; they wanted taste in their beer. With my background in brewing and distilling, the timing was perfect. I had immigrated to Kentucky because of their bourbon whiskey and my expertise in yeast. Slowly, as the years passed, the bourbon industry, and also the craft brewing industry, experienced a renaissance. Why not add to its growth in Ireland?

IRELAND COULD BECOME THE EPICENTRE OF CRAFT BREWING AND DISTILLING. BUT WHERE TO START?

Within the context of the Irish Government’s Gathering, I saw an opportunity. Deciding to set a date, we created a craft brewing and distilling convention. Entrepreneurs often say that any idea has a lifetime of three days. If the idea is not acted upon in those three days, it will die. We didn’t let the idea die, instead we acted quickly and booked the Dublin Convention Centre. Immediately our sales force in 128 countries began to spread the word about this inaugural event.

Craft brewers and distillers are hungry. They are hungry for venture capital, knowledge, and expertise. At our convention answers will be given: how do you brew a beer that has legs and can travel? How do you brew a beer that is sustainable and consistent? How do you distill a whiskey, gin or vodka? What is involved with these processes?

We will discuss food pairings, for example, with Irish cheeses. We will talk about reaching out to restaurants and sharing where the beer industry is and what they can expect. We are ready to share how to brand a food or beverage, for without branding and marketing there cannot be a success. Brewers can also bring their beer for evaluation and suggestion.

Added to the event are various forms of entertainment and sessions. We decided that just as we had brought the Kennedy family back to Ireland for the 50th anniversary of JFK’s visit, we would bring others to Ireland. We would bring the spiritual ensemble that stole the show last month in New Ross. Woodsongs (the old-time radio show) also accepted our invitation to perform for the first time outside of the US. Information about innovation, entrepreneurialism, and crisis management will also be shared.

Yet we hope the convention will be something even bigger than the sharing of information. It is our hope that it will be a catalyst for change. A catalyst for job creation.

Typically every brewery has as many as 10 people. With 50 breweries in Dublin, that would be 500 jobs – not even taking into consideration the malt suppliers, the bottle producers, and so on. There is a whole infrastructure that goes behind each craft brewery.

Have you been wondering what you can do to help Ireland? Use your imagination just as we did when we set up a distillery in Ireland. Create space in your schedule and life to awaken your greatness.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to talk to like-minded people who can help you set your plans in motion. Bring life to your idea. Let us help you start your own journey of passion and success. Join us on July 18-20 in Dublin. We hope to see you there.

Lucinda Creighton could lose party whip next Wednesday over suicide issue

 

European Affairs minister yet to give indication on how she will vote on crucial abortion bill

It’s widely speculated that junior minister Lucinda Creighton will have to wave goodbye to the party whip on Wednesday.

The European Affairs minister has given no indication as yet of how she will vote on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill – however it’s believed that she may vote against the government.

Minister Creighton has tabled a number of amendments to the legislation – including the removal of the suicide clause.

Political Correspondent with the Irish Daily Star, Catherine Halloran, says she believes the government should have handled the situation differently so as not to lose party members:

Grandmother has hip replacement surgery

while she watches cricket match on iPad

      

Intrepid glider pilot gran had one regret when she had hip-op while conscious and watching cricket – it finished before the end of the match, Lying awake listening to a surgeon cutting through your bone may sound like a gruesome tale straight from the Middle Ages.

But that’s exactly what happened to 68-year-old cricket fan Jeannette Griffin – who even managed to watch a one-day match between Pakistan and South Africa during her recent hip replacement operation.

Glider enthusiast Jeannette is just one of a growing band of patients opting not to have general anaesthetic for surgery which once demanded it.

But the former electronics lecturer from Hyssington in Powys, who was fully awake throughout the two-hour procedure, did not want to hear the hammering and sawing and so asked to listen to the match on the radio as a distraction.

“The experience was absolutely brilliant,” she said. “The anaesthetists asked if there was anything I wanted to listen to and then explained they could go one better by enabling me to watch the cricket, rather than just listening through headphones.”

As Jeannette settled herself onto the operating table, the anaesthetist handed her an iPad, allowing her to tune into the match.

Completely absorbed in her favourite sport, the pensioner said she was aware of hammering and could feel her body being pulled around, but did not feel any pain – and was only upset when she was wheeled out of the theatre part way through the match.

Speaking after the operation, she said: “The procedure was over so quickly, I missed the final two overs. I feel great and I’m sure that staying awake for the operation has contributed to this.”

Although adventurous Jeannette has a good head for heights and qualified as a solo glider pilot three years ago, she is terrified of general anaesthetic. It was this fear which prompted her to research other options.

After speaking to consultants at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry, she decided to opt for a spinal block – a form of anaesthesia that numbs sensation in the lower part of the body for up to five hours.

During the procedure, a needle was inserted through a gap between the bones in her lower back and local anaesthetic was injected to numb the area.

Consultant anaesthetist Dr John John said: “There is nothing innovative about spinals, they have been around for 80 years.

“The main advantage is the avoidance of a general anaesthetic. This means the patient will suffer from less nausea, grogginess, sore throat, confusion and less risk of developing chest infections.

“Another advantage is patients can eat and drink straightaway.”

Fellow anaesthetist Dr Elis Hughes said the procedure was becoming increasingly common. In 2003, only six of his 43 hip patients chose the spinal block, but since the beginning of this year, all 42 patients have opted to stay fully awake throughout the procedure.

He added: “I see patients before surgery and reassure them that with a spinal block, they won’t feel anything from the waist down, but if they feel anxious, they can also be given intravenous sedation to relax them.”

According to Dr Hughes, most patients worry about hearing sawing, hammering and drilling during the operation, so he advises them to bring an MP3 player to drown out the noise.

Jeannette said: “I was slightly apprehensive beforehand, but the anaesthetist was close by the whole time, which was reassuring. I’m glad I had the operation this way.”

The active grandmother of two retired to Mid Wales with husband Stephen 15 years ago, and started gliding at the Long Mynd gliding club as a 60th birthday present from her husband and three children.

She started to notice pain in her right hip last autumn, when she landed her wooden K8 glider at the far end of the airfield due to bad weather and had to walk back to the launch point.

Despite receiving physiotherapy, she began to struggle to lift her leg high enough to get into the glider and could not sleep due to the pain.

After undergoing surgery on June 10, Jeannette is recovering at home and hopes to be flying over the Welsh countryside again in September.

First full launch for Grasshopper rocket in California 

 

A Californian based rocket design and manufacture company carries out first “full navigation” launch of the reusable Grasshopper rocket.

The aircraft flew 325 metres (1066 feet) into the air – higher than Manhattan’s Chrysler Building - before landing vertically back onto its launch pad.

It was the first time the Grasshopper had made full use of its navigation sensor suite, which is accurate enough to carry out vertical precision landing allowing the rocket to land back to Earth intact.

While most rockets are designed to burn up on atmosphere reentry, the 10-storey tall Grasshopper rocket is designed to withstand reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere and to land back vertically onto its launch pad.

The Grasshopper, which was designed by US company SpaceX, consists of a Falcon 9 rocket first stage tank, Merlin 1D engine, four steel and aluminum landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure.

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President Higgins says Anglo tapes do not reflect the views of the Irish people

 

President Michael D Higgins speaking at the Community garden party yesterday at Aras an Uachtarain said the tapes do not make for easy listening. David Drumm pictured above right who’s voice was on the tapes.

The voices heard on the taped conversations of Anglo Irish bankers were not those of the Irish people, President Michael D Higgins said today.He said the attitudes they revealed were not shared by the Irish people and the behaviours they reflected were not characteristic of the Irish people. He recalled often speaking in the past of the terrible damage that had been inflicted on society by the aggressive individualism and self-interest of a speculative economy.

“This week, voices from the past have been heard which serve to highlight behaviours and attitudes at the very root of that failed speculative model,’’ he added. “They do not make for easy listening.’’

Mr Higgins’s remarks, made at a community garden party in Aras an Uachtarain, drew loud applause from those present.

He said the Irish people, who had borne the brunt of a financial crisis not of their making, were shocked and dismayed that a culture of greed and recklessness emerged in some of our institutions – a culture that was neither in keeping with our core values as a nation or, indeed, our current convictions or determination to move to a new chapter in our history.

“The Irish people, who are rightly recognised for their fortitude, work ethic and courage, will take us out of this present crisis,’’ Mr Higgins added.

“The authentic voice, spirit and values of Ireland will be restored and lead to what is important – a real economy that provides sustainable employment for all and a just and ethical society that allows all its citizens to fully participate and achieve their life potential.’’

That was the message, he said, that Ireland’s sons and daughters, all Irish people, wanted to go out at home and abroad.

“And I know that informed foreign opinion will recognise that the real story from Ireland is not the aberrant voices we heard this week but the heroism of its people who are determined, not only to get through this crisis, but to secure a future that is just, prosperous and sustainable and offer that achievement to the people of Europe and beyond,’’ he added.

Mr Higgins said it was encouraging to see from the attendance such strong reassurance that the great Irish community spirit was alive and well and that so many people were showing such resilience and continuing to work to keep community and family at the heart of society.

“It is something that I have encountered again and again during my time as President and long may it continue and may it bear fruit for you and the people you care for,’’ he added.

Mr Higgins said the transformative power of communities working together was immense. Their combined strength in restoring, rejuvenating and reimagining connections with committees, celebrating and retaining all that was best about their past while participating confidently in a modern and globalised world was so impressive.

Ireland, he said, was in a decade of important commemorations. “It is a time to remember that a knowledge of our history is intrinsic to the creation of active and responsible citizenship and to the building of communities and a society that are fair, inclusive and participative,’’ he added.

Mr Higgins said that, this year, Ireland was celebrating the courage, endurance and historical human rights significance of the Dublin lockout of 1913.

“If we are to flourish in the present and future, we need to fully understand when and how things worked in the past,’’ he added.

Ireland’s weakest link was Finger’s Fingleton of Irish Nationwide

 

Irish Nationwide was lauded as it lent money to the high-rolling developers of this country. Pound for pound Ireland’s worst financial institution – Irish Nationwide Building Society – ended up costing the taxpayer €5.4bn.

Led by the goateed banker Michael Fingleton and chaired by professor of banking Michael Walsh, it exuded power during the boom.

Its members cheered the society from the rafters as it lent millions to high-rolling property developers – even while it relentlessly pursued small borrowers who fell into arrears.

How a small building society ended up costing the Irish taxpayer so much money is forensically examined in the best-selling Fingers by Tom Lyons and Richard Curran, which was published by Gill & McMillan.

The Anglo Tapes provide an insight into how, in a world of banks gone mad, the Irish Nationwide Building Society always maintained its own special place in the toxicity league.

As the crisis deepened, it was obvious to international investors that the society was finished.

It would take the State some months after the bank guarantee to realise this error to the taxpayer’s cost.

John Bowe (JB), as he often does in the Anglo Tapes, sees the crisis much clearer than Ireland’s authorities. In this extract from the Anglo Tapes he discusses with an unnamed English Fund Manager (FM) Irish Nationwide in the months before the bank guarantee.

FM: I guess our fear is really that they [Irish Nationwide] are the weakest link and that if something bad happens to them then the rumours spread… so it impacts your bonds, your spread, you know, and I know it’s totally difference but it’s just an Irish name.

JB: No, no, I get it… I think you’re right, I think the Regulator had it on his radar and my guess is, my personal opinion without insight is, that they will look to do something within the next six months to sort of stabilise, I suppose, the threat and consolidation I think can happen.

FM: Do you think the Irish Nationwide management, from what you’ve read about them and things, get it, because we’ve met them and, to be honest, things are terrifying.

JB: Well when you said management I was a little bit lost there, I wasn’t sure who you were talking about – I mean they have a very strong personality in their CEO and it’s difficult to see what the management team is beyond that, so if you’re asking me does Mr Fingleton get it? I don’t know, I really don’t know. You know the guy is in his 70s.

FM: Yeah, he’s pretty old.

JB: Pretty old, he’s a very wealthy man… and he’s got an inordinate amount of money paid into his pension scheme – he’s looking to cash out, that would be my view. I’m not expressing an Anglo view, it’s just a personal view.

FM: As is my view on this, I guess a lot of people probably share that view.

JB: So my guess is that might be one where the Regulator takes a stronger hand.

Irish drinks industry strategy relies on recruiting young drinkers to their brand’s

 

The aim of sponsorship is to ‘piggyback’ on sport’s positive images

“There are 2,000 Irish people in hospital beds today due to alcohol use.”

Since proposals to gradually phase out sponsorship of sports events by the alcohol industry resurfaced a few weeks ago, the response has been entirely predictable.

Senior sporting figures have been lined up to warn of the dangers of removing sponsorship by alcohol companies, as though it were all going to disappear tomorrow and the world of sport would collapse forthwith. As usual, alcohol companies are positioning themselves as philanthropists. Yet the reality is that sponsorship helps secure a whole new generation of drinkers.

As part of its 2009 investigation into the conduct of the UK alcohol industry, the House of Commons Health Select Committee obtained access to internal marketing documents from both producers and their advertising agencies. The documents were analysed by Prof Gerard Hastings.

His report’s title, “They’ll Drink Bucketloads Of The Stuff”, says it all about the alcohol industry’s aims. For example, internal documents from the drinks company Carling show that the aim of sponsorship was to “Build the image of the brand and recruit young male drinkers”. Carling summed it up thus: “They (young men) think about 4 things: we brew one, and sponsor two of them.”

The internal documents were equally cynical about recruiting young women. One brand described its marketing as somewhere between “MySpace and High School Musical”. The latter was a highly popular Disney Channel movie aimed at six- to 14-year-olds.

A major study of 6,600 adolescents in four European countries, published in December 2012 by Amphora, an initiative of the European Commission, found that “Alcohol-branded sport sponsorship influences alcohol consumption among adolescents. Exposure to sport sponsoring can predict future drinking.”

As Patrick Kenny, a DIT lecturer in marketing, has pointed out, one of the reasons that sponsorship is important is because consumers generally have a more benign interpretation of it than they have of advertising. Sponsorship is perceived to be generous and supportive, whereas advertising is seen as motivated by selfish reasons. People’s defence mechanisms are low when it comes to sponsorship, and high when it comes to advertising.

Alcohol sponsorship of sport is but one piece of the jigsaw when it comes to our dysfunctional relationship with alcohol, but it is an important one. The aim of sponsorship is to “piggyback” on the positive image generated by sport, so that the brand is associated with vibrant health, excitement, team spirit, and community.

A study of 462 Irish teenagers by Deirdre Palmer and Dr Gary O’Reilly found that the average age of starting to drink was 13.4 years, so you are talking about a very vulnerable and impressionable group. Many young people have an established drinking habit by 15 which mimics the adult pattern of binge-drinking. The younger people are when they start to drink, the more likely they are to experience harm.

Astronauts wives club lift lid on grim reality behind the smiling shuttle launches

  

Astronaut wives above,  Mrs. Jane Conrad (Peter’s wife), Mrs. Barbara Cernan (Eugene’s wife), Mrs. Leslie Bean (Alan’s wife) celebrating Apollo 12 launching. Hamblin, Houston at the Conrad’s house. November 16, 1969

The Astronaut Wives Club declared themselves ‘”Proud, happy, thrilled’ as their husbands jetted into space. But a new book has shed light on the fraught reality behind the television smiles.

They were the unsung heroines of the space race, quintessential American housewives expected to stand by their men, smile to order and declare themselves “Happy, proud and thrilled” as their husbands were strapped aboard towering columns of explosives and rocketed to glory.

Poised, serene and flawlessly groomed, they were feted as the epitome of domestic perfection, undergoing a transformation from ordinary military spouses to the First Ladies of Space alongside husbands whose bravery in the face of death-defying risks and lunar ambitions knew no bounds.

Yet behind the thrills, the glamour, the celebrity status, ticker-tape parades, glossy magazine photo-shoots and receptions with monarchs and presidents, life for the wives of Nasa’s pioneering Mercury, Gemini and Apollo era astronauts was also a harrowing, fearful and at times scandalous existence.

Chronicled for the first time in a new book, The Astronaut Wives Club, the story of the women behind Nasa’s elite space explorers of the 1950s to 1970s shows that it was not just the menfolk who were expected to have the Right Stuff.

Under pressure to play a cool hand and live up to the gold standard the public and Nasa expected of them, some had to turn blind eyes to their husbands’ infidelities, sweep domestic strife under the carpet and put on shows of marital harmony “like Stepford Wives” to protect the astronauts’ images and careers.

“We all tried to be so calm and so cool and everything,” said Jane Dreyfus, who divorced from the third man on the Moon, the late Pete Conrad, in 1988. “But we were a far cry from Stepford Wives.”

Some turned to tranquilisers – or, in the case of Susan Borman, wife of Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman, alcohol – to help them cope with the extreme dread of seeing their husbands sent into space, or the trauma of seeing marriages slipping away.

Only by forming a sisterhood they called the Astronaut Wives Club – motto “Proud, Happy, Thrilled” – did they pull one another through the challenges and anxieties of being married to America’s first space heroes.

“If you think going to the Moon is hard, try staying at home,” said Barbara Cernan, the wife of Gene Cernan, commander of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 and the last man to walk on the Moon.

Mr Cernan, addressing the book’s official launch event in Houston, choked back tears as he admitted: “If it weren’t for the wives who committed their lives to what we were doing, I don’t think we would have ever gotten to the Moon.”

The space race began in October 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first ever man-made satellite, infuriating the US and deepening Cold War hostilities.

Two years later, on the orders of President Dwight Eisenhower, Nasa selected its very first astronauts. Known as the Mercury Seven, all were military test pilots with genius-level intellects. Tasked with beating the Soviet Union to putting a human in Earth orbit, they were seen by their country as models of integrity and valiant ambassadors of anti-Communism.

Thrust suddenly into the spotlight, the wives were considered by women across America as “seven glorious women they could look up to and emulate,” said author Lily Koppel. Their family lives were spread across the pages of Life magazine, and their home-making skills, fashion choices, hairstyles and lipstick colours scrutinised and copied by those who saw them as perfect cookie-cutter American wives and mothers without a hint of domestic turbulence.

Yet of the 30 astronauts recruited into the Mercury Project and the successor Gemini and Apollo programmes – which ultimately set man on the Moon in 1969 – the marriages of only seven survived intact.

One of them was over before Mercury even began; Gordon Cooper’s wife Trudy had left him in 1958, four months before Nasa selected him for the programme, because, as one of the other spouses would reveal, “he was screwing another man’s wife”. Driven by the prospect of riding an Atlas rocket into space, and realising he needed a “loving wife” to fit Nasa’s requirements of him, he persuaded his wife into a reunion.They split for good in the late 1960s.

The marriage of Mercury Seven astronaut Alan Shepard, who became the first American in space, and his wife Louise – nicknamed “Saint Louise” for her composure – was among the few that survived, despite dalliances that included him attending swingers parties and picking up a prostitute in a Mexican border town during a Nasa trip to California prior to his 1961 mission.

A livid John Glenn, a fellow Mercury Seven astronaut who went on to become the first American to orbit the Earth, was called on by Nasa to talk a newspaper out of running the story and incriminating photographs.

“As John saw it, any astronaut who couldn’t keep his ‘pants zipped’ threatened to ruin everything and squash America’s opportunity to beat the Russians, not only in space but on the grounds of moral superiority. They all had a responsibility to the country to be the wholesome heroes they were sold as,” said Ms Koppel.

Mrs Shepard had feared prior to her husband being selected for America’s debut space flight that his penchant for women could ruin his career. Until he gave up his womanising, she believed “he’d be stuck on earth” – yet when others asked why she tolerated his fooling around, she told them: “Because I’m the one he really loves.”

Many of the wives knew Cape Canaveral and its resort of Cocoa Beach as “that harlot of a town”, where a number of the astronauts kept a “Cape Cookie” – a girlfriend on the side.

Don Eisele, who flew aboard Apollo 7 in 1968, was served with the first “space divorce” by his wife Harriet upon his return, having endured his infidelity Cape Cookies for years out of a sense of patriotic duty.

Whenever she had voiced her fears to him that he was being unfaithful, he told her she was crazy. “If I’m crazy, I should see a psychiatrist,” she told him, only for him to answer: “You can’t. I’ll lose my job.”

The wife of Apollo 1 astronaut Gus Grissom, who died in a fire during a launch pad exercise at Cape Canaveral in 1967, knew that he was seeing other women but tried to blot it out of her mind. “I’m not saying that Gus didn’t have girlfriends.I just tried not to think about those possibilities,” she admitted.

When Pat White, the widow of Apollo 1 victim Ed White, tried to take an overdose after his death, the Astronaut Wives Club rallied around to help keep the news from the public. She went on to remarry, but killed herself in 1991, still haunted by what happened.

Buzz Aldrin could be “heartbreakingly cold” towards his first wife, Joan, to whom he once gave a monkey as a Christmas present. The monkey would bare his teeth, make obscene gestures and dance around mocking her. “Buzz, I’ve had it. It’s either the money or me. Somebody’s leaving,” his wife told him. She was met with a silent look from her husband that appeared to say “Well, what are you waiting for?” Their marriage ultimately crumbled following his return from the Moon in 1969, when he sank into depression and alcoholism.

Neil Armstrong, who preceded Aldrin on the lunar surface, was “emotionally unavailable” to his first wife. “It was hard for them to come home,” said Faye Stafford, the former wife of astronaut Tom Stafford, who orbited the Moon on Apollo 10 in 1969. “Who could ever compete with the Moon? I was lucky if I could come in second.”

Many of the astronaut wives cooperated with the book. “I see them as America’s first reality stars. Their country looked to them to hold up the public relations arm of the early space programme and the feeling was that if they did not, their men may not go into space or to the Moon,” said Ms Koppel.

“Their story is kind of The Right Stuff meets Mad Men, with a little bit ofDesperate Housewives thrown in. Decades have passed and they finally felt they could be more honest with themselves and the public about their experience.”