Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

MF cuts Irish growth forecasts due to post-Brexit risks

INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND WARNS IRISH BANKS COULD BE HIT BY UK’S WITHDRAWAL

   

IMF MANAGING DIRECTOR CHRISTINE LAGARDE: WASHINGTON-BASED FUND FORECASTS IRISH GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT EXPANDING 3.2% NEXT YEAR.

The International Monetary Fund cut its Irish economic forecasts following the UK’s decision to quit the European Union and warned banks would be hit as Brexit weighs on their UK operations and prospects for companies, employment and investment.

The Washington-based fund now sees Irish gross domestic product expanding 3.2% next year, having previously estimated 3.6% growth, according to its main annual review of the country, published on Thursday. It trimmed its forecast for this year marginally, to 4.9% from 5%.

“The rebound of the Irish economy has been exceptional,” the IMF said. “The positive economic performance is expected to continue, but the UK vote to leave the EU amplifies downside risks.”

The IMF has chosen to ignore the Central Statistics Office’s recent upward revision of Irish GDP for last year to 26 per cent in its analysis and policy recommendations, as the data “would distort the true representation of the underlying economic developments”.

Staff at the fund recommended that Irish officials develop additional gauges that better reflect the country’s underlying activity.

MANAGEABLE IMPACT

In a separate report on the country’s financial system, the IMF said the impact of Brexit “could be large, but should still be manageable”, adding the longer-term consequences will depend on the nature of the future relationship between the UK and the EU, especially regarding trade, financial flows and labour movement.

The report gave strong backing to the Central Bank’s introduction of mortgage lending limits last year, which the Irish regulator has insisted will remain a permanent feature of Irish banking even as it reviews the rules this year.

The caps are “well-justified, even though credit conditions have normalised and real estate prices are estimated to be close to equilibrium”, the IMF said.

HOUSE PRICES

The latest CSO data shows Irish house prices rose almost 7% in the year to May. However, values are still one-third off their 2007 peak. The country’s unemployment rate has fallen to 7.8% from a peak above 15.1% at the height of the financial crisis, in early 2012.

The IMF noted the Government has placed a “high priority” on boosting housing supply, having recently unveiled a plan aimed at delivering 25,000 new houses per year by the end of the decade.

The IMF said that households and companies have lowered their borrowings in recent years – they remain highly leveraged, with 100,000 home loans estimated to be in negative equity at the end of last year. While banks have lowered their non-performing assets as they restructure soured loans and the economy improves, the overall level of troubled loans remains a challenge, it said.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan welcomed the publication of the reports on Ireland’s economy and financial services landscape.

“The IMF also recognises that the Government is fully committed to sound budgetary policy in the years ahead and that Ireland’s financial regulatory and supervisory frameworks have been significantly upgraded and the financial soundness of the banking sector has improved,” he said.

However, the fund noted that “increased fragmentation” in the new Dáil, “reform fatigue” and Brexit may complicate the Government’s job.

The IMF also urged the Government to proceed with further bank share sales, even though Mr Noonan has effectively ruled out an initial public offering of Allied Irish Banks, which received a €20.8 billion bailout during the crisis, until the first half of next year at least.

Ireland’s office workers must exercise for at least an hour a day to counter death risk

   

AROUND ONE IN FOUR ADULTS GLOBALLY AND 80% OF SCHOOL-GOING TEENAGERS ARE FAILING TO MEET THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION RECOMMENDATION OF 150 MINUTES OF MODERATE-INTENSITY EXERCISE PER WEEK. 

Irish workers, who have sedentary jobs, may eliminate some of the harmful effects of sitting if they do one hour of physical activity daily, new research reveals.

The findings, in the ‘Lancet’, which are part of a series measuring global levels of physical activity since the last Olympics, also warn that lack of exercise is linked to one in 20 cases of dementia in Ireland.

Physical inactivity is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and some cancers, leading to around five million deaths across the world annually.

Scientists said sedentary lifestyles were now posing as great a threat to public health as smoking, and were causing more deaths than obesity.

As more employees have no choice but to spend eight or more hours a day sitting down, the risks are on the rise.

However, the study from the University of Cambridge in the UK and the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, which looked at over one million people, said one hour of exercise such as a brisk walk or cycling for pleasure may eliminate the increased risk of death associated with prolonged sitting.

Most of us will spend hours on the couch watching the world’s fittest athletes during TV coverage of the Olympics, which begin in Brazil next week.

But since the last Games four years ago there has been little progress in increasing levels of physical activity.

Around one in four adults globally and 80pc of school-going teenagers are failing to meet the World Health Organisation recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.

Physical activity is a valuable part of any overall body wellness plan and is associated with a lower risk of brain decline.

In order to reduce the risk of dementia, we should engage in cardiovascular exercise to elevate the heart rate.

This increases the blood flow to the brain and body.

It reduces potential dementia risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.

The researchers also looked at time spent watching television all day and found sitting for over three hours looking at the goggle-box was associated with increased risk of death, except in the most active.

The authors said: “For many people who commute to work and have office-based jobs there is no way to escape sitting for prolonged periods of time.

“For these people in particular, we cannot stress enough the importance of getting exercise, whether it is getting out for a walk at lunchtime, going for a run in the morning or cycling to work.

IDEAL ACTIVITY AN HOUR A DAY?

“An hour of physical activity per day is the ideal, but if this is unmanageable, then at least doing some exercise each day can help reduce the risk.”

Overall, the ‘Lancet’ reported that while in the past four years more countries have been monitoring progress in physical activity, the evidence of improvements is scarce.

Earlier this year, Ireland launched its first National Physical Activity Plan, with the aim of increasing the number of people taking regular exercise by 50,000 a year over the next decade. Seven out of 10 adults are too inactive and fail to get the necessary 30 minutes a day of moderate activity five days a week, which is recommended for 18- to 64-year-olds.

The plan involves supporting more community walking groups, getting doctors to prescribe exercise for patients and encouraging employers to bring in standing desks to avoid staff having to sit all day.

The plan, which comes with €5.5m funding, also involves introducing a new school subject, Well-being, from September as part of the new Junior Cycle.

Dolly’s cloned sheep ‘twins’ alive and kicking well

   

FOUR GENETICALLY-IDENTICAL COPIES OF DOLLY THE FAMOUS CLONED SHEEP, WHICH SUFFERED ILL HEALTH AND DIED PREMATURELY IN 2003, ARE GOING STRONG AT THE ADVANCED AGE OF NINE, A STUDY SAID TUESDAY. 

Debbie, Denise, Dianna and Daisy — identical sisters of Dolly, though born 11 years later — were “in pretty good health”, according to researchers who studied whether cloned animals can live long, healthy lives.

The quadruplets were made from the same mammary gland cell line that yielded Dolly — the first mammal cloned using a technique called somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).

Born 20 years ago on July 5, 1996, Dolly developed crippling knee arthritis aged five and died of lung disease at the age of six — about half the life expectancy of her breed of Finn-Dorset sheep.
Dolly’s ill health and early demise raised red flags that clones may be sickly and age prematurely compared to naturally-conceived peers.

Cloned lab mice, too, have shown a propensity for obesity, diabetes, and dying young.

Kevin Sinclair of the University of Nottingham and a team conducted thorough medical exams on the four “Dollies” born in July 2007, as well as nine other sheep clones from different cell cultures.

All 13 animals, aged seven to nine, were the product of lab studies seeking to improve the efficiency of SCNT.

Experts measured the sheep’s glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, blood pressure and muscle and bone strength, in what they said was the first comprehensive assessment of age-related disease in animal clones.

A few of the sheep had mild osteoarthritis, the team found, and one a “moderate” form of the ailment — though this was not unusual for their age. None of the sheep were lame, as Dolly was.
– Ageing ‘normally’ –

Despite their “advanced age”, none of the sheep were diabetic, and they had normal blood pressure.

The data, said the team, was “compelling, indicating no detrimental long-term adverse effects of SCNT on the health of aged adult offspring.”

SCNT involves removing the DNA-containing nucleus from a cell other than an egg or sperm — a skin cell, for example — and implanting it into an unfertilised egg from which the nucleus had been removed.

Once transferred, the egg reprogrammes the mature DNA back to an embryonic state with the aid of an electric jolt, and it starts dividing to form an embryo.

No human is known to ever have been created in this way.

In spite of recent improvements, the technique remains inefficient, and expensive, with a small percentage of cloned embryos surviving to birth.

“For those clones that survive… however, the emerging consensus, supported by the current data, is that they are healthy and seem to age normally,” said the study in the journal Nature Communications.

Animal cloning is used in agriculture, mainly to create breeding stock, as well as in the business of “bringing back” people’s dead pets.

Despite initial high expectations, it has not found a place in the field of medical therapy for humans.

Women with later start to periods, menopause more likely to reach age 90

   

WOMEN WITH LATER MENARCHE AND LATER MENOPAUSE ARE MORE LIKELY TO REACH AGE 90 THAN THOSE WHOSE REPRODUCTIVE MILESTONES COME AT EARLIER AGES, SUGGESTS A NEW STUDY.

“People have always wondered whether the timing of reproductive events affect longevity, but no study to date has evaluated that relationship,” said lead author Aladdin Shadyab, of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

The research team used data collected from 16,251 participants in the Women’s Health Initiative, starting between 1993 and 1998 and continuing until August 2014.

All the women were born before September 1924; 8,892, or 55%, survived to age 90.

Women who were at least 12 years old at menarche were about 9% more likely to reach age 90 than those who were younger.

And women who were at least 50 when their periods stopped were about 20% more likely to reach age 90 than women who entered menopause before age 40. This was true whether menopause was natural or surgical.

A longer reproductive lifespan was also tied to longevity. Women who menstruated for more than 40 years were 13% more likely to reach age 90 than those who had less than 33 reproductive years, the authors reported in a paper released July 27 by the journal Menopause.

Shadyab and colleagues can’t say why later periods and later menopause are tied to longer life, but the link could be related to lifestyle factors and genetics.

“It is possible that those who begin menstruating later and those who experience menopause at older ages are in better health long term,” Shadyab told Reuters Health.

There could also be genes that affect both the start of periods and menopause and a woman’s length of life, he added.

“Further studies are needed to determine why reproductive factors predict living to age 90 in women,” he said.

Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who is executive director of The North American Menopause Society, agrees that lifestyle factors and genetics are likely behind the link between later reproductive milestones and longevity.

Pinkerton, who was not involved in the study, said research suggests that hormones that may protect women’s hearts are lost during menopause.

Also, she said some behaviors, such as smoking, have an impact on overall health and on the timing of menopause.

Look at the size of this jellyfish that was washed up on Portmarnock beach Dublin

   

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO GO BACK IN THE WATER? and Thanks to the warm weather we’ve been experiencing so far this summer, thousands of people who wouldn’t go near the water in the depths of winter have been dipping their toes in the sea off the Irish coast.

The need to stay safe in the water is paramount and those heading to the beach should be aware of the dangers before going in for a swim.

The Lion’s Mane jellyfish (giant jellyfish) is the largest known species of jellyfish and is commonly found in cold waters like the Irish Sea; certainly anyone walking along Portmarnock beach yesterday evening could hardly have missed the one that had washed up on the shore.

Karen Purdy spotted the jellyfish at approximately 9.30pm last night and told us it was still moving when she came across it.

If you ever happen to be stung by a jellyfish or are providing first aid for someone who has, check out the advice issued by Irish Water Safety here.

MEANWHILE BACK IN THE UK.

Beach users urged to report jellyfish

     

THE LION’S MANE JELLYFISH IS OFTEN FOUND OFF THE NORTHUMBERLAND COAST.

Beach users are being urged to report jellyfish finds on beaches, including the Lion’s Mane which has the most painful sting in the UK and is rarely seen south of Northumberland.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS), the UK’s leading marine charity, says the number of jellyfish blooms – when jellies mass together – in UK coastal waters is on the increase as our seas start to warm up.

Every summer hundreds of reports of jellyfish sightings are made to the MCS National Jellyfish Survey – now in its 14th year. The survey is providing valuable information about where and when jellyfish occur in UK seas amid global reports of a rise in jellyfish numbers.

Jellies to look out for in UK waters include the Lion’s Mane (Cyanea capillata), which has the most powerful and painful sting of the UK species. It blooms during the summer but is rarely seen south of the Irish Sea, or south of Northumberland, with most reports coming from Scottish waters.

According to the MCS, Lion’s Mane have been spotted in Northumberland in July, as well as in Aberdeenshire, Hebrides, Orkney, Angus and Ceredigion.

Up until July, it’s been a relatively quiet year for jellyfish reports, unlike the last two years when record numbers of barrel jellyfish were reported around UK seas through the spring and summer.

But jellies are starting to pick up as the waters around the UK warm up, with mass strandings of both species in South West England and Wales.

Dr Peter Richardson, Head of Biodiversity and Fisheries at the MCS, said “There’s evidence that jellyfish numbers are increasing in some parts of the world, including UK seas.

“Some scientists argue that jellyfish numbers increase and then decrease normally every 20 years or so, however, others believe and these increases are linked to factors such as pollution, over-fishing and possibly climate change. The MCS jellyfish survey helps provide some of the information we need to understand more about these ancient creatures.

“We still know relatively little about jellyfish and what drives changes in their numbers, so reporting even a single one can help. One thing we do know is that Leatherback turtles travel to UK waters to feed on jellyfish and are usually recorded along the west coast of the UK between May and October – this year we’ve already heard of sightings from the south west of England and the Irish Sea.”

MCS says that anyone who comes across a jellyfish at sea or on the beach should look but don’t touch, but report their sightings via the MCS website.

Jellies to look out for in UK waters:

Moon (very mild sting) – most widespread species, occurring all around the UK coast from May.

Blue (mild sting) – less common than the moon but can turn up anywhere.

Barrel (very mild sting) – can grow up to 1 metre in diameter and weigh up to 40kgs, totally harmless despite its size and is largely limited to the Irish Sea and adjacent waters to the north. Can be spotted all year round, even in winter, but blooms tend to start in March.

Lion’s Mane (powerful sting) – has the most powerful and painful sting of the UK species. It blooms during the summer but is rarely seen south of the Irish Sea (west coast), or south of Northumberland (east coast), with most reports coming from Scottish waters.

Compass (mild sting) – has bizarre compass-like markings and is found throughout the UK coast.

Mauve Stingers (powerful sting) – occasionally recorded from the southwest in early spring, but large numbers were reported off Britain’s west coast during November 2007, 2008 & 2009.

Portuguese Man-of-War (dangerous sting) – rare in UK waters but MCS received many reports from beaches in south-west England in the summers of 2007, 2008 and 2009.     

Donie's news Ireland update BLOG

A great, great poet who changed my life says Bono about Seamus Heaney

 

Bono described Seamus Heaney as “a great, great poet” who “changed my life”

“In so many things he was a gentle genius, whose words challenged us with the grit and beauty of life as much as they gave us solace. He wrote with a brevity that strangely spilled to the brim,” he said.

“We all envied how he made that most complicated of things, the balancing of work and family, appear so simple. In Marie he found his other whole. And it is a joy to be around his kids. . . Michael, Chris and Catherine Ann. They have all of his humility in their sharpness.”

And Bono revealed he carried Heaney’s poetry with him, including on a recent trip to Liberia. “I’m bewildered to think Seamus is no longer with us. Because his words will be around forever, it seemed so would he.”

Actor Liam Neeson also said: “He crafted, through his poetry, who we are as a species. By doing so, he defined our place in the universe. May he rest in peace.”

Fretting about money can make you a stupid person, A study finds

   

Financial worries create cognitive deficit equivalent to 13-point loss in IQ, research shows

Finding it hard to make ends meet can impoverish the brain and reduce your ability to think, say scientists. Financial worries tax the brain so much they create a “cognitive deficit” equivalent to a 13-point loss in IQ, a study found.

The problem is distinct from the effects of stress and results from too much “mental bandwidth” being used to fret about money. Someone overwhelmed with worries about rent, feeding and clothing children, and paying household bills can suffer a genuine mental handicap, the research shows.

This in turn may lead to poor decisions, such as racking up debt, creating even more difficulties in a vicious cycle. Economics professor Sendhil Mullainathan, from Harvard University in the US, said: “Our results suggest that when you’re poor, money is not the only thing in short supply. Cognitive capacity is also stretched thin.

“That’s not to say that poor people are less intelligent than others. What we show is that the same person experiencing poverty suffers a cognitive deficit, as opposed to when they’re not experiencing poverty.

“What happens is that your effective capacity gets smaller because you have all these other things on your mind. You have less mind to give to everything else. “Imagine you’re sitting in front of a computer and it’s just incredibly slow. But then you realise that it’s working in the background toplay a huge video that’sdownloading. It’s not that the computer is slow, it’s that it’s doing something else, so it seems slow to you. I think that’s the heart of what we’re trying to say.”

Prof Mullanathan’s team carried out a series of experiments in the US and India to highlight the mental cost of poverty. In the first, conducted in a shopping mall inNew Jersey, around 400 people were randomly chosen and asked to ponder how they would solve hypothetical financial problems, such as paying for a car repair. Some problems were easier, that is, cheaper, to sort out than others. For instance, the car repair bill could be either 150 dollars, or 1,500.

At the same time, the volunteers had to undergo simple computer tests of IQ and mental performance. They were split into “poor” and “rich” groups based on their income which ranged from 20,000 dollars per year to around 70,000 dollars. The results, reported in the journal Science, show that when the financial problems were not too severe, both groups performed equally well in the tests. But when they were forced to consider difficult, costly problems, people with lower incomes had significantly worse scores.

In fact, the effect was so strong that for those generally preoccupied with money, merely thinking about a tricky financial problem led to a 13-point dip in IQ. That is on the same scale as losing an entire night’s sleep.

The scientists followed up their study with a visit to rural India where they tested a group of sugar cane farmers who rely on the annual harvest for at least 60 per cent of their income. Since the harvests occur once a year, the farmers find themselves poor before a harvest and rich after it. Given the same tests as the New Jersey shoppers, they did significantly better when they sat them after the harvest.

The impact of poverty on mental capacity reflects a more general phenomenon related to scarcity, say the researchers. Lacking something, whether it be money, time, social ties or even calories, puts a strain on the brain. Co-author Jiaying Zhao, from Princeton University in the US, said: “These findings fit in with our story of how scarcity captures attention. It consumes your mental bandwidth. “Just asking a poor person to think about hypothetical financial problems reduces mental bandwidth. This is an acute, immediate impact and has implications for scarcity of resources of any kind.”

Professor Eldar Shafir, another member of the Princeton team, said: “When you’re poor you can’t say, ‘I’ve had enough, I’m not going to be poor any more, or ‘forget it, I just won’t give my kids dinner, or pay rent this month’. “Poverty imposes a much stronger load that’s not optional and in very many cases is long lasting. It’s not a choice you’re making, you’re just reduced to a few options. This is not something you see with many other types of scarcity.”

Services to the poor should take account of the mental effect of poverty, for instance by providing simpler forms and making it easier to seek assistance, said Prof Shafir. “The poor, who our research suggests are bound to make more mistakes and pay more dearly for errors, inhabit contexts often not designed to help.”

Permanent TSB is on course to get back to profit by 2017

   

Permanent TSB remains on course to return to profitability — on a group basis — by 2017, with its so-called ‘good bank’ core element likely to make a profit as early as next year, management said yesterday.

On the back of an improving set of interim results showing an annualised reduction in pre-tax losses from €587m to €131m, group chief executive Jeremy Masding said “great progress” had been made this year and PTSB’s core banking element was on track to be profitable, on a pre-provision basis, “in the next 12 months”.

Management’s ‘Bank plus Two’ restructuring strategy, which will see a ‘good’ core lending bank split from a non-core division, and a specialist asset management unit, is expected to be approved by the European Commission by early December.

In the six months to the end of June, PTSB showed an operating loss, before exceptional items, of €449m, down from a figure of €457m a year earlier.

The after-tax loss was €141m, as opposed to €565m last year.

The pre-tax loss figure includes provisions for impairment of €430m and net exceptional items of €318m.

The ‘good bank’ alone made a pre-impairment loss of €12m and a post-impairment/underlying loss of €39m, leading management to say “it’s getting to where we want it to be”.

Mr Masding said PTSB’s recent financial performance had been “firmly in line” with its restructuring plan.

He said the performance showed the bank could, at its core, be a viable business and “an asset of value” to the Irish taxpayer.

Current management had, earlier this year, considered shutting the bank down in order to deal with its problems.

“We are achieving what we said we would achieve,” Mr Masding said, although he did admit that the reduction in group losses was “flattered” by technical accounting issues.

However, he also noted there had been “a modest improvement” in the bank’s like-for-like operating performance, “despite an ongoing prudent approach to impairment provisions”.

PTSB had signed up nearly 30,000 new current account customers to date, this year, and he said it would add “a lot more customers” over the rest of the year.

“We’ve made a good start in re-establishing ourselves as a competitive force for mortgages, deposits and current accounts and we’re very much open for business,” Mr Masding said.

Men lose their desire for physical challenges over the years “a research shows”

 

THE DESIRE FOR ADVENTURE AND THRILLING ACTIVITIES HAS DECREASED IN MEN OVER THE PAST 35 YEARS, ACCORDING TO RESEARCH.

A team from the school of psychology and neuro-science at St Andrews University discovered men are less willing to take part in physical challenges such as skydiving than before.

The findings of the research led by Dr Kate Cross which was published in the journal Scientific Reports and was co-authored by Dr De-Laine Cyrenne and Dr Gillian Brown.

Researchers focused on the sensation-seeking personality trait which has been described by the university as the desire to pursue novel or intense experiences even if this involves risk.

A sensation-seeking scale, version V (SSS-V) questionnaire was used to find out if people were willing to try various activities.

In the late 1970s more men were more likely to try parachuting, scuba diving or mountaineering than women, but over the years their desire for thrills has decreased.

The male average is now closer to the female average, backing up the argument that some sex differences in behaviour have decreased which is linked to cultural changes. It is thought the reason for this decrease could be because people are less fit.

Dr Cross said: “The decline in the sex difference in thrill and adventure-seeking scores could reflect declines in average fitness levels, which might have reduced people’s interest in physically-challenging activities. Alternatively, the questions were designed in the 1970s, so could now be out of date.”

The activities suggested in the 1970s may be viewed as less intense now – such as skiing.

Ancient Donegal monastic find could be the next ‘Clonmacnoise’

    

Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient monastic settlement of ‘huge national importance’ during project work for a church car park.

The treasure trove of discoveries in just 48 hours is set to put a boggy field beside an old rural parish church on the archaeological map of Ireland.

Expert Mick O’Droma compared the find in Co Donegal this week to the settlement at Clonmacnoise.

The field beside the Drumholm Church of Ireland graveyard, near the village of Ballintra, is set to be classified a national monument as a result of just two days’ excavation work.

Archaeologist Mick moved onto the site on Monday after being commissioned by the Anglican parishoners to survey the one-acre plot as part of a planning application for a car park and cemetery extension.

“We had mapped the area from above ground, taking pictures and readings and I could see then that it could be exciting,” said the expert from Wexford-based Wolfhound Archaeology.

“When we cut five exploratory trenches to take a closer look it became clear very quickly that we were standing on the remains of a early Christian settlement, probably from around the 7th century.

“The exterior walls of the site are clearly there and there is what could be the remains of a round tower on one part of it. I can’t over-state the national importance of this, it is very very exciting.”

Legend has it that St Ernan, nephew of the late 6th century St Colmcille, was buried in the Drumholm area.

“It is very likely we have found the monastic site where Ernan was based,” said Mick.

A Neolithic axe was discovered two fields away in the 1920s close to an ancient cairn.

“This site beside the old church and graveyard dates back 1300 years and we know from previous discoveries in the area that there has been human activity going back to at least 5,800BC,” he said.

And yesterday he made another discovery in the church field which had this archaeologist even more excited.

He produced two pieces of pottery found in one excavated trench – one from the gaelic tradition and one from the Anglo-Norman tradition.

“We know from the Annals of the Four Masters that the English arrived here at Drumholm and settled with the O’Connors from Munster in 1242 in pursuit of the chieftains here in Donegal,” said the archaeologist.

“And here in my hand is pottery from that time, that was made between around 1200 and 1350.

“This whole site is like a time capsule of a period from the 7th century until the 16th or 17th century.”

Yesterday afternoon as his work was coming to an end, he said he now believes there was a ‘cathedral-style’ church at one end of the plot, the foundations of the outer walls visible under the boggy earth.

He also found ancient animal bones, evidence of a woven wooden footpath and areas used to make iron ore implements.

“Our work is finished here now,” said Mick.

“Our job was to check the site to see if it was of any archaeological importance before any development went ahead.

“I will be reporting the discoveries here to the National Museum of Ireland and to the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht so that it can be declared a national monument and protected.

“Perhaps some day there might be funding for a project or a university project that can come back and explore further but there is no doubt that this is one of the most important discoveries here in many years,” he added.

A spokesman for the Church of Ireland said the parishoners had met yesterday to discuss the find and would now withdraw the car park planning application.

“We will work now with the authorities to have the site protected,” he added.

Freshwater Jellyfish Discovered In Fermanagh’s Lough Derg lake

 

One angler’s disbelieving discovery in Lough Derg has led to a surprise new marine wildlife find for Ireland’s inland waterways.

Pat Joyce from Caslteconnell in Limerick nearly fell off his fishing stand when, in early August, he spotted what looked like a single small jellyfish pulsing in the water in front of him.

The jellyfish disappeared and Joyce thought that perhaps he was mistaken since, as everyone knows, ‘there is no such thing as a freshwater jellyfish’.

Two weeks later, again angling for bream in the tranquil surrounds of Scarriff Harbour, just off Lough Derg, Joyce noticed not one but hundreds of tiny jellyfish moving on and below the surface.

He immediately contacted the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) to seek clarity, and they put him on to Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI). Staff from the Clare region of IFI’s Shannon River Basin District sped to the scene and collected up to 20 live specimens. They really did exist!

IFI’s Colum Walsh and Dave Germaine contacted Dr Joe Caffrey, invasive species specialist with IFI, who immediately organised a site visit to Lough Derg with a team of marine science experts. These included Dr Tom Doyle, a jellyfish expert from the Coastal & Marine Research Centre in UCC, and Dr Dan Minchin from the Lough Derg Science Group.

The survey revealed small numbers of the jellyfish at Scarriff Harbour, but specimens were also recorded from two other locations within the lake – at Rossmore Harbour and at Dromineer.

So what is this jellyfish, where did it come from and why was it never spotted in Ireland before?

As soon as specimens were collected IFI forwarded them to Dr Doyle, who identification them as the free-swimming life stage of a species called Craspedacusta sowerbii. This marks the the first official record for this species in Ireland.

This freshwater jellyfish hails from the Yangtze River Valley in China but currently has a worldwide distribution. It was initially discovered in exotic aquatic plant tanks in Regent’s Park, London in 1880 but has since spread to widely throughout the globe.

The jellyfish is about the size of a euro coin and broadly resemble their marine cousins. It is more or less transparent with a distinctive white/greenish cross and a white/cream circular outline, and possesses in the region of 250–300 small tentacles.

These jellyfish have two distinct life stages; one is a tiny attached polyp and the second is what we know as the jellyfish or medusa stage. The polyp buds off medusa under warm water conditions, generally when water temperature reaches 25 degrees centigrade.

The species is known to occur in single sexed populations, and Dr Doyle confirmed that all of the specimens he examined from Lough Derg were female.

It is probable that the discovery of this jellyfish relates to the wonderfully warm summer that we experienced in Ireland this year, when water temperatures in many watercourses exceeded 25 degrees for prolonged periods. This probably stimulated the budding off of the medusae or jellyfish, which pulsed in the warm water in search of plankton prey. It is noteworthy that jellyfish were also reported from Lough Erne in recent days.

Experience in other countries suggests that blooms of such freshwater jellyfish occur only sporadically and that they last, in any one year, for only a few weeks. So it is possible that we may not see such a sight again for many years.

It is important to state that the freshwater jellyfish is not harmful to humans and that, while they do capture their tiny prey by stinging, the stinging cells are not sufficiently powerful to harm humans.

In addition, the jellyfish do not appear to have any significant effect on the biology or ecology of the waters they are recorded in, probably due to their sporadic occurrence and the short period that the jellyfish blooms are in any water body.

“Anglers are the eyes and ears on our rivers and lakes,” said Minister of State Fergus O’Dowd following this amazing discovery. “I ask all anglers to continue to assist in the protection and conservation of this resource, reporting any invasive species they come across to the IFI Hotline immediately.”

One serious cause for concern relates to the pathway whereby this jellyfish – and many other non-native and potentially harmful or invasive species – was introduced to Ireland.

The fact that the two watercourses from which the jellyfish was recently recorded (Loughs Derg and Erne) are both internationally renowned navigation waterways suggests that boating and perhaps ballast water from newly introduced craft may represent an important causative agent.

Boats and cruisers are commonly imported from abroad and are introduced into our waters without having to prove that they were cleaned and disinfected before leaving their country of origin.

“This practice is unacceptable and poses a significant threat to biodiversity in our waters and to their functionality, be it as recreational, amenity or municipal waters,” said Dr Caffrey. “It is imperative that boats being imported into this country carry certificates of disinfection prior to being granted entry if we are to stop the ever-increasing spread of harmful invasive species.”