Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

2015 on track to be Ireland’s best-ever year for tourism

   

2015 is set to be a record year for tourism, according to a new report from the CSO.

Figures show that more than 1.5 million trips were made to Ireland by overseas visitors in the first three months of 2015.

That represents a 13% rise on the same period last year.

The news comes as Fáilte Ireland is reminding towns that today is the closing date for entrants to apply to the 2015 Tourism Towns Award.

Alex Connolly from Fáilte Ireland said that that these figures are good news for tourism operators across the country.

“The American market is extremely strong – that’s been helped by the fact that the American economy is improving – but also by the fact that the currency is currently working in favour of American visitors,” he said.

“Also the UK market, the British market, is very strong at the moment.

“We’ve recently surveyed the tourism businesses in Ireland and eight of 10 tourism operators are telling us that they reckon their business will be up this year.

“We could be looking at the best tourism year on record.”

Drumm, Fitzpatrick, McAteer, Whelan (The notorious four) given inquiry date

 

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern asked to appear on July 16th, before former Anglo executives.

Former Anglo Irish Bank executives David Drumm, Sean Fitzpatrick, Willie McAteer and Pat Whelan have been directed to appear before the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry on July 29th.

Other high-profile Anglo executives John Bowe and Tom Browne have been directed to appear on July 24th. Mr Bowe was a former head of capital markets at the bank and featured prominently in the Anglo Tapes controversy.

Mr McAteer and Mr Whelan were found guilty last year of giving illegal loans to 10 developers to buy shares in the bank and ordered to do community service. This followed a 48-day trial.

In addition, former Irish Nationwide Building Society chairman Michael Walshhas been directed to attend on September 2nd, along with John Stanley Purcell, a former director with the institution.

Anglo and INBS received €34.7 billion in bailout cash from Irish taxpayers following the crash of the Irish financial sector in late 2008.

However, no date has yet been set for the appearance of INBS’s former chief executive Michael Fingleton, who was issued with a notice to attend the committee on May 21st.

Other high profile players in the financial sector before and after the crash who have yet to be given a date include, Alan Dukes, the former chairman of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, Mike Aynsley, IBRC’s ex chief executive, Gillian Bowler, a former chair of Irish Life & Permanent, Gary McGann, a former director of Anglo, Fergus Murphy, a former head of EBS Building Society who is now an executive with AIB, and Matt Moran, an executive with Anglo.

These directions were issued late yesterday as part of the latest tranche of communications by the Inquiry to witnesses to appear before the committee, which is investigating the events that led up to the financial crash in 2008.

The 11-person committee is being chaired by the Labour Party’s Ciarán Lynch.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has been asked to appear on July 16th while the current holder of the office Enda Kenny will appear a week later, along with jobs ministerRichard Bruton.

Tánaiste Joan Burton will appear on the same date along with the former Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte.

The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan is set to go in front of the committee on September 10th.

It now remains to be seen if all of those directed to appear will actually turn up at the committee, in particular Mr Drumm, who moved to the United States after his exit from Anglo and has shown little interest in returning to Ireland.

Rethink again how you eat your vegetables

    

We’re always being told to eat our greens, pack our diet full of fruit and vegetables and get much-needed nutrients into our bodies.

But while many of us think that pinging a steam fresh bag of veg in the microwave or popping a few florets of broccoli in a pan to go with our dinner will do the job, it turns out that a lot of our storing, preparation and cooking methods of vegetables are actually diminishing their nutritional value.

In her new book Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health, journalist Jo Robinson has shared some top tips on how to make sure you are getting the most out of the veggies you eat.

Cook tomatoes for longer. The longer you cook tomatoes for, the more nutritious they become because the heat changes the lycopene within them into a form our bodies can process a lot easier. This means that canned tomatoes have more nutritional benefits than the fresh variety thanks to the cooking and canning process.

Boiling vegetables. Most of us will have heard before that boiling vegetables like spinach is wrong because water soluble vitamins like vitamin C seep out during the process. However Jo reveals that antioxidant levels also lower when boiled. Instead, try steaming, sautéing or roasting your veg to keep it nutritious.

Don’t cook chopped garlic straightaway. If you put chopped or minced garlic in a hot pan as soon as you’ve prepared it, you stand little chance of absorbing any allicin, the beneficial compound that makes garlic such a fundamental part of a healthy diet. This is because it hasn’t had chance to activate, so leave it for ten minutes after preparing before putting it on the heat as this will give the enzyme a chance to do its thing.

Cutting carrots before cooking. We’re all guilty of this mistake at some point: cutting carrots before cooking them. While it seems like the logical thing to do, cooking them whole, then chopping them into your desired shape helps keep more nutrients in the little orange numbers. Jo adds that cooked carrots are better for you than in their raw form, as it helps break down the cell walls, which means the nutrients are easier to get to.

Some 7,700+ patients on Irish Hospital trolleys during May

    

It’s the highest May figure since records began

Over 7,700 patients were left waiting on trolleys for an inpatient bed last month – a 31% increase on the same period last year, new figures have shown.

According to the latest ‘Trolley/Ward Watch’ figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), 7,713 patients were left waiting on trolleys during May of this year compared to 5,891 during May of last year.

These are the highest May trolley figures seen since records began in 2006. In May of that year, 4,214 people were left waiting on trolleys, therefore last month’s figure of 7,713 represents an 83% increase.

The hospitals with the highest number of patients on trolleys last month included Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital (782), Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda (718), University Hospital Limerick (538) and University Hospital Galway (524).

The INMO pointed out that in recent weeks, two patients who were over 100 years old, were left waiting on trolleys for more than 24 hours. However, it insisted that ‘every day is the same inside Emergency Departments (EDs), with elderly people on trolleys lined up, head to toe, along small narrow corridors’.

The organisation said that there are not enough nurses to care for these patients and at this point, many of its members are ‘embarrassed to have to face patients and their families who have to suffer this indignity’.

INMO general secretary, Liam Doran, described the treatment of these elderly patients as ‘a damning indictment of our society’.

“While some investment has been made recently, it is only the tip of the iceberg. The Government as a whole needs to take responsibility for this ongoing crisis as we continue to see a deterioration in the figures month on month,” he commented.

He added that the stated target of having a reduction in the level of daily overcrowding in EDs by October 1 ‘is merely a pipe dream’, unless there is major investment in acute beds, step-down beds, community services and recruitment initiatives for nursing and other staff.

Six care workers in court for alleged assault of Áras Attracta patients

  

Case put back until July 14th to allow disclosure of TV footage and various documents

Six people appeared in court on Friday for allegedly assaulting patients who are intellectually disabled at the HSE-run Áras Attracta centre in Swinford, Co Mayo

Six people appeared in court on Friday for allegedly assaulting patients who are intellectually disabled at the HSE-run Áras Attracta centre in Swinford, Co Mayo.

The cases against all six, five women and a man, were put back until July 14th for mention by Judge Mary Devins at a sitting of Ballina District Court.

The cases against the defendants were put back to allow for disclosure of TV footage and various documents and papers that the State is seeking to rely on.

The six accused, Joan Gill (62), Dublin Road, Swinford; Patrick McLoughlin (56), Lalibella, Mayfield, Claremorris;Christina Delaney (35), Seefin, Lissatava, Hollymount;Kathleen King (56), Knockshanbally, Straide, Foxford; Joan Walsh (42), Carrowilkeen, Curry, Co Sligo and Anna Ywunsong Botsimbo (34), Lowpark Avenue, Charlestown, were all present for this morning’s brief court hearing.

An intensive garda investigation into allegations of assault was mounted following a Prime Time TV investigation late last year.

Footage, which was secretly filmed by an undercover reporter, showed residents at the centre being forced fed, physically restrained, shouted at and slapped.

The assaults allegedly occurred in November at what is known as ‘Bungalow 3’ in the Áras Attracta complex.

One of the accused, Ms Gill, faces five assault charges, the others one each.

Judge Devins put back all the cases to July 14th for mention to allow disclosure be provided. A date for a full hearing will be decided thereafter.

Solicitors for five of the accused requested that an application for free legal aid be deferred until a later date.

On the instructions of the DPP charges against all six defendants have been brought under Section 2 of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.

The penalties for conviction are a fine of €1,905 or six months in prison.

The State was represented at the hearing by the State Solicitor for Mayo, Vincent Deane.

Polar bears develop a taste for dolphins as the Arctic warms up

   

Norwegian scientists have seen polar bears eating dolphins in the Arctic for the first time ever and blame global warming for the bears expanding their diet.

Polar bears feed mainly on seals but Jon Aars at the Norwegian Polar Institute has photographed dolphins being devoured by a bear and published his findings in the latest edition of Polar Research this month.

“It is likely that new species are appearing in the diet of polar bears due to climate change because new species are finding their way north,” he told AFP.

The first incident he documented was in April 2014 when his team came across a polar bear feeding on two white-beaked dolphins.

Although dolphins are regularly seen in the Norwegian Arctic in the summer when the ice has melted, they have never been observed during winter or spring when the sea is usually still covered in sheets of ice.

But Norwegian scientists have reported a strong retreat of ice and two nearly ice-free winters in recent years which they said could have attracted the dolphins further north, where they probably became trapped by the sudden arrival of dense ice blown into a fjord by strong northerly winds.

Aars said the bear he photographed had probably caught the two dolphins when they surfaced to breathe through a tiny hole in the ice.

“Even if they saw the bear, the dolphins did not necessarily have any other choice,” he said.

In the photos a skinny old male bear devours one of the dolphins and appeared to have stored a second one under snow for later – something which scientist had never seen before.

“We think that he tried to cover the dolphin in snow in the hope that other bears, foxes or birds would have less of a chance of finding it. Maybe to be able to eat it a day or two later, once he had digested the first one,” Aars said.

After the first incident in 2014, a further five cases of dolphins stranded or captured and then eaten by bears have been reported.

“I don’t think that this signifies a great upheaval” in the diet of the carnivores, Aars said. “It’s just that the polar bear is coming into contact with species they have not been used to meeting until now.”

Polar bears are opportunistic predators that are also known to feed on small whales if the opportunity arises.     

Donie's News Ireland daily BLOG

Top US politician Jerry Brown launches assault on Irish tax laws 

   

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Silicon Valley’s best young whizz kids were left embarrassed as California Governor Jerry Brown took a sledgehammer to the Irish tax laws that lure US corporations here.

The Enterprise Ireland event in San Francisco was held to celebrate Irish-American links and the new wave of Irish entrepreneurs heading to the west coast in search of a fortune in new technologies.

Instead there was barely concealed hostility as California’s most senior politician gave a withering attack on our tax system and the US corporations who benefit.

He said his state of California would become an “independent country” if it had the same tax regime as Ireland.

It was one of several jibes about Irish taxation made after Taoiseach Mr Kenny had heralded the relationship between Ireland and the US.

And Mr Brown said that Apple was now an “Irish company” that benefited from what he described as “creative accounting”.

“I don’t know how you got to have Apple to have so much of their business in Ireland, we thought they were a Californian company, when you look at their tax returns they’re really an Irish company… it’s called creative accounting,” Governor Brown said.

The no-holds barred assault on fiscal policy caused deep unease among the Irish contingent in the boardroom.

His speech was met with gasps after he remarked about the relationship between Ireland and Britain.

After stating that both the Irish and Californians swim “against the stream”, he added: “The Irish have had to live next door to the English for all these centuries.”

Governor Brown then alluded to the number of Irish barmen working on the very street where he was making his controversial remarks.

“We have a lot of your countrymen that come to San Francisco, they run a lot of establishments here, on Geary Street you see a number of them,” he said, to polite laughter. But it was his continued focus on Irish tax laws that raised most eyebrows, even among the officials from the Government, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland.

The event – designed to assist Irish start-up firms seeking to break into the US market – was also attended by Irish ambassador to the US, Anne Anderson, several IDA officials including chief executive Barry O’Leary and dozens of Irish business people.

Governor Brown’s outspoken remarks come as the European Commission is poised to launch a formal probe into allegations that the Revenue Commissioners have offered special deals to multi-national companies.

The probe, which may begin as early as Wednesday, could result in businesses being asked to repay money.

When asked about the matter during his visit to Silicon Valley, Mr Kenny said: “Clearly when the Commission decide to make a statement on the matter, Ireland will react to it.

“We believe our legislation is robust, that the application of that legislation is ethical and obviously we will be prepared to defend that very strongly in the event of any further statement or requirement from the European Commission.”

In his own speech at the Enterprise Ireland event on Saturday, Mr Kenny spoke about his aims for Ireland to become “the greatest small nation on Earth”. He added that Dublin was “becoming a magnetic attraction for young people from all over the world”.

The Taoiseach said these young people were “changing the frontiers up ahead”.

Galway cancer survivor’s medical card withdrawn without any notice

  

A Galway carpenter who had a bone marrow transplant and aggressive chemotherapy treatment for a rare cancer nearly 22 years ago that left a legacy of side effects, was among those whose medical card was withdrawn out of the blue.

Now James Mullen, 59, is among tens of thousands hoping they will get their medical card back after the Government’s U-turn forced by their humiliation at the ballot box in last month’s local and European elections.

In 1993, James, from Clifden, Co Galway, underwent a bone marrow transplant that saved his life.

Back then, the chemotherapy regime that accompanied his successful cancer treatment was extremely aggressive – unlike the carefully targeted therapy available today.

It left James with a legacy of medical issues. At one stage he was on 22 tablets a day to treat blood pressure, stomach problems and other side-effects of his cancer treatment.

He told the Sunday Independent: “It’s a small price to pay. I’m glad to be rid of the cancer. Without the bone marrow transplant and the treatments I was told in 1993 that I would be dead within five years.”

Since then James has had a discretionary medical card – until about eight weeks ago.

He received no official notification. He found out that his medical card had been withdrawn by the HSE when he went to his pharmacist to pick up his prescription.

“I had to pay €140 for my medicines,” James added.

It is a large monthly bill the married father of four can ill afford.

“I rang the HSE and was talking to someone in there. I told them I was a cancer patient on twice yearly check-ups in Galway and Dublin. The chap said to me that back in the Nineties it was easy to give out medical cards because cancer patients didn’t live that long, but that has changed now,” James said. He has still not got his medical card back and has written to the HSE stating his case.

“They did send me a GP visit card to replace the medical card but that is not worth anything to me, I never go near a GP,” he said. “If I have a problem I have to see the specialist in hospital. What I need is help meeting the bill for medicines and drugs.”

The Irish Cancer Society (ICS) and other groups representing patients who had medical cards withdrawn in the latest health fiasco have been promised by Minister James Reilly that the mess will be sorted out before the Dail rises for Summer.

An emotional Dr Reilly was joined by Junior Minister Alex White for meetings with a number of groups on Friday, including Down Syndrome Ireland, the Jack & Jill Foundation, ICS and the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association.

The Our Children’s Health group, which has been campaigning for the return of cards and also met the Minister said: “We would like to acknowledge Minister Reilly’s sincerity and commitment to expedite the introduction of the new framework while also moving quickly to deal with those that have lost their medical cards.”

The group said the minister had “committed to identify and reinstate medical cards for all those affected” and added that this would be undertaken by the time the Dail breaks for the summer recess on July 17.

A spokesman for the group said Dr Reilly became “quite emotional” as he spoke to them.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “On the issue of those persons who lost a discretionary medical card through the review process, the groups were advised that the goal of the Government is to resolve that issue before the summer.”

It has now emerged that both Dr Reilly and the HSE furiously opposed the “medical cards probity” savings of €113m in 2014 advocated by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Eventually, after that battle, the savings sought under the heading “Medical Card Probity” were reduced to €23m and approved by cabinet.

On Wednesday, Dr Reilly apologised to his Fine Gael colleagues for the way the medical card issue had been handled, but appeared to cast some blame on cabinet colleagues for forcing unrealistic savings on his department.

A range of options to treat prostate problems

HALF OF MEN OVER 60 HAVE SYMPTOMS OF ENLARGED GLAND

  

As men age, an undeniable aspect of men’s health involves beginning to think the prostate.

According to Men’s Health Network, more than 50 percent of men in their 60s and as many as 90 percent of men age 70 or older have symptoms of an enlarged prostate. More than 230,000 men each year are diagnosed with prostate problems and 30,000 men a year will die.

The prostate is part of a man’s sex organs. It is a small gland that produces semen. The walnut-sized organ surrounds the urethra, a tube that takes urine from the bladder to the penis, and also carries semen during ejaculation. In men, the prostate gland grows in puberty and then stops until about age 40 when it starts to grow again. In some men, the prostate gland does not stop growing after that.

There are three conditions associated with prostate growth. It can result in an enlarged prostate, a non-cancerous condition that can lead to frequent urination, difficulty going and an incomplete emptying of the bladder. This condition can lead to pain, sleep disorders, incontinence, bladder stones, kidney infections or damage to the bladder, kidneys or urethra.

Prostatitis is an inflammation of the prostate and can have complications related to infections, including fever, and illness.

Physicians advise a prostate exam at about age 50, earlier if there is a family history of prostate cancer.

“When we do the exam, we are looking to gauge the size of the prostate,” said Dr. Cullen Jumper of Core Physicians’ Atlantic Urology Associates in Exeter. “We check for hard spots (nodules) which might be concerning. If we need to, we biopsy and discuss the results. Once they reach this age group, all men should at least be discussing this test with their primary care physician. If they have concerns, they need to ask the questions. Many men do not, and they should.”

Dr. Steven Kahan of Atlantic Urology Associates said benign prostate hyperplasia, BPH, is the common term for the condition where the prostate grows to the point that it begins to interfere with urinary function.

“Traditionally, in the past this was treated with surgery, called TURP (transurethral resection of prostate), and that may still be done if needed, but there are also a variety of medications now to treat this,” Kahan said. “Some of the medications used were designed to treat high blood pressure, but we discovered they work well for this condition, too. Now we treat with medication and only consider surgery if that does not work.”

Besides the TURP surgery, Kahan said options include green light laser and ablation of prostate surgical methods.

Cancer of the prostate is treatable if caught early. A physical exam by the physician and possible biopsy tests are required to diagnose prostate cancer.

Dr. Gary Proulx is medical director of radiation oncology at Exeter Hospital’s Center for Cancer Care. He said that even if cancer is detected, treatment may be postponed in favor of “active surveillance” because prostate cancer is usually a very slow-growing disease.

“It is a typical misconception that men die from prostate cancer and that is usually not the case,” Proulx said. “Active surveillance means we simply monitor the cases where there such a low volume of the disease, where it is early grade cancer. We will generally biopsy it one year after discovery, to gauge the growth. Of course, if it is progressing we will treat it.”

Treatment of prostate cancer can involve surgery to remove the cancer followed by radiation treatments. Proulx said there used to be a push to treat immediately, but thinking has changed.

“It was thought that the prostate was generally being overtreated, and I would tend to agree,” Proulx said. “We are leaning the other way because sometimes it is just not necessary. Obviously, if the cancer is in the intermediate to high grade, we will act. Autopsies of men in late age, in their 80s, will often show the presence of prostate cancer, where the men never had any prostate issue in their lives.”

While there are no specific lifestyle changes recommended for prostate health, Proulx believes diet is a factor.

“Japanese men living in Japan never get prostate cancer,” Proulx said. “They eat a lot of fish and a generally lean diet. When they come here and take on a fatty diet, they get prostate cancer.”

A new ‘solitary’ dolphin’s moved to Irish waters

SWIMMERS ARE BEING URGED TO KEEP THEIR DISTANCE

 

Clet, who originated in French waters, is described as a “non-social solitary dolphin who does not seek out and engage with swimmers”.

Some people may remember a series of warning being issued last summer after a number of swimmers were injured while interacting with a dolphin off Co Clare.

As many as five people were injured by the mammal known locally as ‘Dusty’. Warning signs were placed around Doolin harbour, a favourite spot for the animal.

Well — as we head into the summer swimming season once again, a new warning’s being issued concerning another dolphin who’s recently relocated to Irish waters.

The dolphin in question, known has Clet, has been spotted recently in scenic West Cork — in particular, Glandore, Schull and Baltimore harbours.

According to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, the mammal — who originated in French waters — recently moved the southwest coast from the Isles of Scilly.

According to the IWDG’s Paul Kiernan he is a “non-social solitary dolphin who does not seek out and engage with swimmers”.

In an article on the group’s website this week, Kiernan set out the dangers posed by swimming with any wild dolphin, pointing out that the practice poses “significant potential to increase the risk to the health and safety of swimmers”.

He writes that while many dolphins “spend long periods of time in shallow waters facilitating encounters with small groups of people” their behaviour often changes as more and more people seek to share the experience — especially if they grab at the mammal or attempt to be towed along…

Natural, normal behaviours such as diving, feeding and resting behaviours decline in frequency in the presence of humans.

The animal seeks out interactions, becomes increasingly forceful in these interactions and begins to exhibit behaviour hazardous to swimmers in the water.

Documented behaviours include preventing swimmers from leaving the water by repeatedly swimming in front of them to intercept their exit, increased activity levels and force of activity, tail slapping and breaching in close proximity or on top of swimmers.

Dolphins have also been shown to bite or butt swimmers.

As humans, we do not possess the power to communicate with these animals and therefore we cannot understand how our actions will be interpreted by a wild dolphin, regardless of whether that dolphin is seeking contact with humans or not.

Clet was spotted swimming around sail boats in Glandore harbour on Thursday. The IWDG is encouraging people to get in contact if the spot the mammal, as hope to monitor his movements around Irish waters.

Great white shark EATEN by even larger mystery animal 

 

The 8-foot-long shark was eaten, possibly by an even bigger shark, say researchers.

Scientists are baffled after they discovered that 8-foot long great white shark has been eaten by even bigger “mystery sea monster.”

Researchers have no idea what animal could be responsible for killing and eating the shark.

The only theory they have so far come up with is that was attacked by a “colossal cannibal white shark.”

Researchers had tagged the healthy shark to track its movements.

But the tracking device washed up on an Australian beach four months later.

Data shows there was a rapid temperature rise along with a sudden 2,000-foot plunge, That, scientists believe, proves it eaten by something much bigger, saying the records indicate the shark went inside another animals’s digestive system.

Donie's Irish daily news BLOG update

Irish Postmasters to seek suspension to electronic welfare payments in lieu of cash

  

Postmasters will today ask the Government to suspend the planned migration of welfare payments from cash to electronic transfer until the future of post offices is clearly laid out.

With the Department of Social Protection moving towards the elimination of cash payments by 2017, the Irish Postmasters’ Union wants the post offices to play a role in how the electronic transfers are managed.

It says 50% of current welfare transactions take place via cash payment and overall that activity accounts for 30% of post office business. The union pointed to a recent Grant Thornton report which concluded that the move to electronic transfer would result in 550 of the country’s 1,100 post offices closing.

Brian McGann, general secretary of the union, said it recognises that electronic transfer is a modern medium of choice for many consumers and organisations.

However, he said a specific plan needs to be developed which modernises how welfare payments are paid and in parallel modernises how post offices provide services by making them “part of the solution and electronic future”.

Making the call to suspend electronic transfer, he said a likely solution would be the development of “a full banking service through the post office”.

The union recommended the establishment of a working group to report within an agreed timeframe.

It is also calling on the Government to give priority to its proposal to provide motor tax renewal through post offices. It will raise the issues when it meets with Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte today.

It said other issues it will be raising include: 

* Exploring the possibility of providing insurance advice services through post offices following An Post’s acquisition of Aviva; 

* Asking the minister to instruct An Post to pull back from talks with Tesco and other multiples regarding services which is “unacceptable to postmasters”; 

* The appointment of a facilitator to establish an appropriate mechanism to resolve issues between An Post and postmasters.

Review of governance structures at University Hospital Galway

UNDER WAY IN THE WAKE OF SAVITA’S DEATH

 

Report says recommendations being addressed including early warning score system across hospital. 

A review of governance structures at University Hospital Galway is under way in the wake of the death of Savita Halappanavar in October 2012.

The review is one of many recommendations arising from separate investigations into her death by the HSE and the Health Information and Quality Authority.

A report on progress in implementing the recommendations has been released by the HSE to The Irish Times under freedom of information legislation.

Recommendation

One recommendation was that the Galway-Roscommon Hospital Group should “review its current governance structures and arrangements, including cross- committee membership, in order to ensure that these are in line with the principles of good governance”.

The report says a review of governance structures took place on December 19th, 2013, and a follow-up meeting was scheduled for February 5th.

Ms Halappanavar died at University Hospital Galway on October 28th, 2012, having presented a week earlier with back pain. She was 17 weeks pregnant and was miscarrying. She asked several times for the pregnancy to be terminated. This was refused, however, as the foetal heartbeat was present.

Ms Halappanavar went on to deliver a female foetus, but was transferred straight to the hospital’s high-dependency unit and then to intensive care, where she died of septic shock.

Her death led to three inquiries, including a coroner’s inquest. Shortcomings in her care were identified, including that blood tests were not followed up; lactate samples were not tested; a lack of communication between staff about her deteriorating condition; the absence of an early-warning system; and lack of clarity about who was leading her care.

This report focuses on progress in implementing 15 local recommendations and 18 national priorities.

It says these are all being addressed, including that a new handover process for the hospital’s maternity unit is in place every morning; the “roles and responsibility for following up investigations has been clearly outlined”; and an early-warning score system is in place across the hospital.

Nationally, guidelines are being developed on such issues as the management of miscarriage in the first and second trimester; sepsis in pregnant women; the role of the consultant on call; and the delivery of training programmes for all maternity sites in obstetric emergencies.

One in four Irish people affected by problem drinkers

 

HSE launches report on the extent of harm caused by alcohol in Ireland.

One in four Irish people have experienced problems because of someone else’s drinking, according to a new report on the extent of harm caused in society by alcohol.

Alcohol’s Harm to Others in Ireland was published by the HSE today. It examined alcohol harm to people other than the drinker in three Irish settings – the general population, the workplace and children and families.

The report confirmed there is very significant harm associated with alcohol, extending far beyond that experienced by the person drinking, in each of these settings.

Women are more likely to experience family problems while men are more likely to report assaults due to other people’s drinking habits.

At work, one in ten people reported having to work extra hours or had experienced accidents or close calls due to a co-worker’s problematic drinking.

Men and workers in the youngest age group were the most likely to experience the negative consequences due to co-workers who were heavy drinkers.

The overall rate of reported harms in the Irish workforce was double that in comparison to the Australian findings for each of the measures used.

One in ten parents or guardians reported that children experienced at least one negative consequence as a result of someone else’s drinking in the past year. These included verbal abuse, being left in unsafe situations, witnessing serious violence in the home and physical abuse.

Parents who themselves were regular risky drinkers were more likely to report that children experienced at least one of these harms due to others drinking, after controlling for demographics.

Dr. Stephanie O’Keeffe, National Director for Health and Wellbeing with the HSE said the report had been commissioned in response to a growing recognition of alcohol related harm.

“Significant public health and safety concerns are raised by the harm caused to other individuals and to wider society – where we see that a quarter of the population has experienced harm due to another’s drinking,” she said.

Diabetes Ireland has called on a collection of 1 & 2 cent coins for diabetes

   

If every person with diabetes in Ireland filled a one litre plastic bottle with 1 and 2 cent coins, millions of euro for diabetes services could be raised, Diabetes Ireland has said.

The charity has just launched a new coin collection initiative, aimed at getting people to collect their 1c and 2c coins.

The numbers one and two are synonomous with diabetes as they refer to the main types of the condition.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition, not related to weight or a sedentary lifestyle. It is not preventable or reversible and is most commonly diagnosed in childhood.

Type 2 diabetes is associated with poor lifestyle behaviours and diet. Being overweight and leading a sedentary lifestyle increases the risk. The condition usually develops in people over the age of 45, although it is increasingly being seen in younger people too.

An estimated 190,000 adults in Ireland are affected by type one or type 2 diabetes.

According to Diabetes Ireland, if all of those affected filled a single one litre plastic bottle with these coins every year, €3.4 million per annum could be raised.

“These coins have recently been the subject of media attention with regards to eliminating them from circulation in Ireland on the back of a trial in Wexford and so we are hoping this initiative becomes successful for a couple of years before these coins disappear,” the charity said.

The initiative is being supported by Today FM DJ Ian Dempsey, comedian Karl Spain and stylist Naomi Clarke, all of whom have diabetes.

“While not all of us are inclined to be jumping out of planes or running marathons in order to fundraise, I think this is a very simple but great idea and one that everyone affected by diabetes should support. I certainly will have a bottle with the sticker in my house and would further encourage people to get one placed in their workplace,” said Mr Spain.

Is selfies activism now letting women down?

  

If you’re a Facebook user, you may have noticed a crop of photographs appearing over the weekend accompanied by the #nomakeupselfie hashtag. The campaign (and the term must be used loosely) began sweeping through the UK last week before hitting the Australian zeitgeist sometime on Friday afternoon.

Inexplicably, it aims to ‘raise awareness for cancer’. Given there’s no identifiable organisation behind the trend, it’s unclear what kind of targeted effect participants imagined a series of photographs of people’s bare faces would have. Like similar viral campaigns before it, its purpose seemed less about the vague idea of ‘raising awareness’ for a disease so widespread that it will affect 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women before the age of 85, and more about highlighting the remarkable reach of meaningless social media campaigns.

I’m generally uncomfortable by the kind of clicktivism that has people thinking a hashtag in and of itself has the ability to change the world. Hashtag activism is very successful in creating moments and moods, and bridging the gaps between people separated by any number of demographic descriptors. These connections may be fleeting or long-lasting, but they’re all meaningful in their own way.

A few good examples of this are the ongoing conversations started by Laura Bates’ #Everyday Sexism project; Mikki Kendall’s#solidarity is for white women and Hood Feminism’s #fasttailedgirls discussions; the #itooamharvard and #itooamoxford projects; and Suey Park’s #not your Asian side kick. Social media campaigns like these are successful in regards to ‘raising awareness’ because they highlight issues that suffer from a real lack of public understanding or acknowledgement rather than a deficit of funds.

But cancer is a different beast entirely. It doesn’t need ‘awareness’. It needs cold, hard cash and a committed effort from funding bodies (including the public) to facilitate research development that might one day stop people from dying painful, early deaths. I don’t know if scientists will ever develop a cure for cancer, but as one of the millions of people whose lives have been irrevocably changed because of it, I hold out hope.

Having said all this, there are aspects to the backlash against #nomakeupselfie that I find troubling. Some people are far too eager to write the female participants off as being self involved and more enamoured with their own vanity than invested in anything as selfless as cancer research. (This is despite the fact that, thanks to some clever engineering from Cancer Research UK, the #nomakeupselfie movement has surprisingly raised over £2million – so, I guess I was just one of many who were wrong about the kind of effect a campaign like this can have, however unplanned.)

But instead of following Cancer Research UK’s lead and working with the already existing social media traction to do something positive, there has instead been a sneering wave of derision focused on the bare faced women themselves. In an otherwise very good piece,Sali Hughes referred to it as a ‘mass exercise in narcissism’ while another (also very good) piece by Lauren Davidson questioned the ‘smug sense of self-congratulation that seems to accompany some of these selfies.

’ Other people took to Twitter to post screenshots of their donations as proof of their actual contribution – failing to acknowledge that these donations were still prompted by the #nomakeupselfie tag, even if just to prove a pompous point about social consciousness.

Why does the legitimate querying of a campaign’s effectiveness have to manifest in once again tearing women down? I relate entirely to Hughes’ revelation that, for women like her and me, makeup isn’t the lifeblood that the beauty industry would have everyone believe. And I strongly oppose the idea that it is an act of bravery to appear without said makeup, as if women are so weak and cosseted that sacrificing our eyeliners and foundation for a day is akin to erecting the barricades of revolution.

I don’t like selfies and I don’t like the objective that asks women to prostrate themselves before an audience in order to prove their strength. Throughout history, women have demonstrated a fortitude and resilience that far outweighs anything demanded of men. We have survived in the face of enormous oppression, subjugation, violence and attempts to dehumanise us entirely. We don’t need to sit bare faced in front of a computer screen to show the world how brave we are.

But while campaigns like this deserve to be critiqued for their short-sightedness and for their adherence to patriarchal norms, this can be done without reinforcing the kind of boring sexism that likes to punish women for daring to engage playfully with the very thing they’ve always been told brings them most value – their looks.

Unfortunately, women are damned if we do and damned if we don’t. We’re urged by the patriarchal directive to ‘take care of ourselves’ (read: keep ourselves attractive) while making sure to always keep our egos in check by suffocating them under a thick layer of self doubt and self loathing. This, too, is a form of control.

It doesn’t matter that so many of the #nomakeupselfie photos being posted on social media now include CRUK’s text number link to donate £3; the narrative has already been decided, and it once again portrays women as facile, frivolous egomaniacs who will use even the Very Serious Issue of cancer to indulge their already out-of-control vanity and desperate need to be praised. Because sexism is still sexism, even without the lipstick on.

If you would like to donate to the Australian Cancer Research Foundation, you can do so here. For a very handy interactive guide to the facts and statistics about cancer in Australia, please see this from the Cancer Council.

Irish swimmers warned away from the dangerous Doolin dolphin

 

A Dolphin who became a celebrity and tourist attraction is now too dangerous to swim with, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) has warned.

Last summer, ‘Dusty’, a powerful bottlenose dolphin, attacked a female swimmer who had to be dragged to the pierside in Doolin, Co Clare, after she was hit in the ribs in an unprovoked but deliberate attack.

The young woman sustained significant injuries and footage of the incident went viral on the world wide web.

That show of aggression by the dolphin followed a number of unsavoury incidents in previous months, during which the female adult dolphin was abused.

One of the incidents included an attempt by a group of drunken young campers to pour cider down the dolphin’s blowhole.

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group issued the advisory after a newspaper report suggested that only those who “had developed a relationship” with Dusty should swim with her.

This, the group said, is wrong and dangerous advice.

“The IWDG strongly urges all members of the public to avoid entering the water or trying to swim with Dusty.

“Dusty is a wild animal, and as such her behaviour cannot be predicted. Any suggestion that it is at all possible to ‘build up a relationship’ with a wild animal such that interacting with that animal becomes safe and risk free is irresponsible and ill-informed,” they said.

“Any perceived ‘relationship’ between a human and a wild animal is a projection of human values on to the wild animal.”

They added that Dusty is both large and powerful and this species has been shown to demonstrate aggressive behaviour in the wild.

“Bottlenose dolphins routinely attack and kill both harbour porpoises and the smaller common dolphin. They are known to engage in infanticide and there’s at least one documented case of a bottlenose killing a human.

“Dusty has demonstrated the potential to carry out aggressive behaviour towards humans at several sites in Co Clare over a number of years.”