Donie's all Ireland Blog Wednesday

Increasing suicides numbers over the bullying of young Irish people & the big debts of 26-45 year olds

   

Cyber-bullying and peer pressure has led to a massive increase in the number of teenagers seeking help for suicidal tendencies or self-harm.

Some experts say that there is now particular concern about the growing number of young girls needing support.

“The women we see usually have attempted to take their own life previously; however women use less lethal methods than men, so they’re more likely to survive,” said Joan Freeman, CEO of Pieta House.

And mortgage worries have led to a worrying jump in the number of 26-44 year olds contacting Pieta House.

Pieta House, the suicide and self-harm crisis centre, has today reported that it gave assistance to nearly twice as many teenagers last year as 2010.

The 93pc jump in under-18s seeking help was largely contributed by girls.

Statistics suggest that young males were at a much higher risk of suicide than females but that gap is now closing.

“The increase in the under-18 category is particularly worrying. We are seeing people because of family breakdown — particularly parents who can’t afford to separate and continue to live together — bullying, including cyber-bullying and peer pressure,” said Ms Freeman. “There is a gap in mental health services in the 16-18 year old age group and Pieta House is plugging this gap.”

There was also an 86pc increase in the 26-44 age-group in 2011, who make up nearly one third of those accessing Pieta House’s services.

“The recession is having a direct impact on the 26-44 age-group. This age group reflects a high proportion of mortgage holders and the people we’re seeing are finding it difficult to deal with their financial circumstances,” said Ms Freeman.

Pieta House’s annual fundraiser — the Darkness Into Light Walk — will take place on Friday night/Saturday morning, May 12, at 4am.

Following a record turnout in Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Cork, Clare and Kerry last year, the event will take place in 14 locations around the country.

For more information & help, see http://dil.pieta.ie.

Irish banks are looking at freezing Mortgages for hard pressed home owners

     

The top banks in Ireland are looking at ways of freezing mortgages for thousands of struggling homeowners.

THE new plans for cash-strapped families would allow them put their home loan “on ice”.

The mortgage holders would pay off what they can and put the rest on hold until they are able to pay the balance.

Bank of Ireland and its subsidiary ICS are already looking at the proposal while AIB and EBS confirmed they too are examining ways of introducing “split-mortgages”.

Sources said that, in effect, distressed mortgages would be “frozen” under the plan.

Financial institutions said the plan works where part of the loan would be temporarily set aside so that it accrues no further interest and doesn’t require repayments.

This simple move would ease the financial burden on up to 53,000 homeowners who are in serious arrears.

Eamon Ó Cuív to remain within the Fianna Fáil party

   

Eamon Ó Cuív has announced he is staying in the party despite his muzzling by the the party leader Michael Martin.

The Galway West TD Éamon Ó Cuív has said he is to remain a member of the Fianna Fáil party.

Speaking to the media outside Leinster House this evening, the party’s former deputy leader said he was not quitting, despite his continued opposition to the EU fiscal treaty.

Deputy Ó Cuív, grandson of Fianna Fáil founder Eamon de Valera, said attaining the leadership of the party was not his aim, but he believed with “all his heart and mind” that the EU fiscal treaty referendum is a “mistake”.

“I believe that the only way to make a sustained impact in politics over a long period is as a member of a political party, particularly a party such as Fianna Fáil with a large membership around the country,” he said.

“This has been one of the most difficult decisions of my career.

“After careful consideration of the situation, I believe that the best contribution I can make is as a member of Fianna Fáil.”

The 61-year-old said he had been heavily influenced by the advice of supporters, who urged him to work for change from within Fianna Fáil.

He dismissed speculation that had any intention to join another political party, and said he would not be making any further media comment in relation to the upcoming referendum on the EU fiscal treaty.

“There has been some speculation in recent times as to whether I would ever join another party. I would like to make it clear once and for all that I see no other party other than Fianna Fáil that represents my political views,” he said.

The complete text of a letter from the Fianna Fáil whip Seán Ó Fearghaíl to Éamon Ó Cuív:

May 4th, 2012.

Mr. Éamon Ó Cuív, T.D.

Leinster House,

Dublin 2.

Dear Eamon

Thank you for the time you gave me yesterday to discuss the Referendum situation. Following our meeting, I met with the Leader and discussed your position. He agreed to your request that we write to you, with details of what is expected of you as a member of the parliamentary party for the duration of the referendum campaign. I fully accept your assurance that you want this to be constructive and I acknowledge the co-operation that you have given me throughout.

As the Leader has said to you at every stage, you are fully entitled to your personal opinions on policy issues, as is every member of the party. Unlike the position on any referendum for the past 50 years, Oireachtas party members had a say before our position was decided. Following the recent successful Ard Fheis any observer will have to admit that Fianna Fáil welcomes and encourages debate. It was there that you got full support for your policy positions on issues such as the registration of septic tanks. The value of your campaigning work on behalf of the Party across the country is recognised and acknowledged by all.

In relation to this referendum the parliamentary party reached a decision. Your views were expressed at the parliamentary party, have been expressed in public, and are now well known. Your right to express your personal view is respected, however, we are a party not just a collection of individuals.

Each of us signed a pledge when we accepted the Fianna Fáil nomination in the last election and we agreed to clear and long established parliamentary party rules about respecting party policy. It is not feasible for individual party members to campaign as they wish irrespective of the parliamentary party’s formally adopted position, and in our party’s history there is no example of the party agreeing to a member spending a lengthy period publicly campaigning against party policy. I accept that you have never indicated an intention to undertake “a campaign”, however, any media exposure advocating a No Vote between now and Referendum Day cannot be presumed to be anything other than “campaigning”.

There is nothing in the party’s rules or history which would allow a senior member to participate in campaigning against the party’s agreed policy. The party needs to be allowed to put its position to the people without being confronted at every turn by a challenge from within the party. While there are a handful of examples of TDs disagreeing with the party’s position on a referendum there is no example, that I can recall, of a TD doing so over an extended period and after their views were made public. You know that our membership requires us to be coherent.

As was shown on Tuesday night’s TV3 debate, the party’s position on Europe is a strong one and we can take the fight to the other side. What the members of our party want above all is for us to show the public that we are working together in as cohesive a way as possible.

Our position is in line with the policy established within the party for over 50 years, asserted under seven leaders and supported consistently at Árd Fheiseanna and every other level of the party. We all worked together to get the Lisbon treaty passed in October 2009.

As was seen yesterday at our party press conference, the continued participation of a senior member of the party in speaking against the agreed party position directly undermines the party’s ability to actually put its position. By some margin the majority of the questions and coverage of our stance has ignored our case and focused on your own position.

I think we need to put this controversy aside, respect the party’s rules and traditions and move on to the wider and more important challenge of showing how Fianna Fáil offers a credible alternative to this government. You have a very valuable role to play in this process.

Very best wishes

Yours sincerely,

Seán Ó Fearghaíl, T.D.   Fianna Fáil Whip

How healthy do you think your doctor is?

   

Dr Padraic Doherty in his surgery at Sallynoggin, Co Dublin: “Mindfulness has helped me to reduce my stress levels and this in turn has had a knock-on impact on my work with patients.

GPs often neglect their own health, but many can restore the balance through mindfulness, 

(GPs) in Ireland may be good at assessing the health of their patients, but when it comes to minding themselves, many fail to do so. Numerous studies have shown that GPs are among the worst offenders in terms of self-care, with high rates of addiction, as well as physical and mental health problems.

Moreover, when GPs do realise they have difficulties they often seek to treat themselves rather than turning to others. An Irish Medical Journal study published in 2007 revealed that 49 per cent of trainee GPs admitted to neglecting their own health, while 92 per cent had self-prescribed on at least one occasion.

A more recent study carried out by Prof Colin Bradley, from the Department of General Practice in University College Cork, and Dr Andrée Rochfort, director of the Irish College of General Practitioners’ Health in Practice programme, and published in Occupational Medicine last year, showed that selftreatment is strongly embedded within the culture of both physicians and medical students and seen as an accepted way to enhance and support work performance.

In an attempt to bolster better health among physicians, the ICGP’s Health in Practice programme is designed to help GPs help themselves. In addition to offering training in such areas as leadership skills and cognitive behavioural therapy, one of the increasingly popular programmes endorsed by the ICGP is an eight-week course focusing on stress reduction and mindfulness.

Based on the work of US physicians Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn and Dr Michael Krasner, who have been at the forefront of promoting mindful meditation in clinical settings, and with specific adaptations for doctors in general practice in Ireland, the course has been running since February 2010 and has been well received by GPs. Mindfulness is about bringing awareness to the present moment. It is a simple, practical skill which helps people find calm and stability in their relationships with themselves and others.

While it hails from Eastern spiritual traditions, mindfulness has in recent times been adapted into well-researched, secular programmes that are widely used in medical, mental health and wellness settings. The ICGP, the body responsible for

education and training of the State’s 18,000 GPs, is a supporter of the mindfulness programme, which it believes can go a long way to helping general practitioners take better care of themselves.“We know that doctors need specific targeted help to counteract the barriers that they have to their own healthcare.

“Their professional training shows them how to look after the health needs of others but does not teach them how to appropriately manage their own health. It is not in their psyche to behave as patients do,” says Rochfort. “The course is an additional activity which we would see as being of benefit to GPs and it would certainly seem to have made a positive contribution so far,” she adds.

Debbie Correll, a psychotherapist, accredited supervisor and trainer who operates the course, has herself been overwhelmed by its popularity. “What did take me aback a little bit was the receptivity from GPs from the beginning,” she says. “I wasn’t surprised the ICGP was so open to the idea of the course because the evidence surrounding mindfulness internationally is so prolific.

“But I did wonder how open GPs would be to it. In the end I experienced little or no resistance to me or to the programme, which I realise now is not as unexpected as you’d think because once doctors are told of the body of evidence surrounding mindfulness, they tend to be more open to it.”

According to Correll, the quantifiable learning outcomes collated since the programme began in February 2010 consistently indicate development in all areas of emotional intelligence (EI), including advanced empathy, resonance and relational competencies. She adds that participating GPs themselves said how much they valued their increased levels of awareness, not just because it allowed them to be more responsive to their own healthcare needs, but because it enabled them to be more attuned to the needs of their patients.

Padraic Doherty, who has a general practice in Sallynoggin, Co Dublin, and who recently participated in the course, says he would happily recommend the course to other GPs. “It exceeded my expectations overall. I knew I was stressed but didn’t know quite how stressed till I took part in the course. I found the course to be deeply life-changing as it helped me reconnect with my life again and the people on it.

“There’s a compassion fatigue or burnout in general practice whereby if you don’t care about your patients then you’re not involved, and yet by caring you are risking involving yourself too much, leaving yourself exhausted. “Mindfulness has helped me to reduce my stress levels and this in turn has had a knock-on impact on my work with patients.”

He adds: “GPs are activity-based and feel like they have to fix clients, give them medication, send them for tests, etc and sometimes we forget about the power of just being with them and listening to them. Mindfulness has reminded me of the importance of this and I think it has a very positive role to play in medicine generally.”

Son is charged over the death of his farmer Dad

      

A 33-year-old mechanic John Biggins was charged in court with the shooting and death of his elderly father at the family farm in Glencorrib, Co Mayo.

THOMAS Biggins (71) died from shotgun wounds after being shot with his own legally registered firearm on Sunday.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead a few hours later.

His son, John Biggins, was arrested at the scene and was charged last night Monday.

He is expected to appear again before Ballina District Court next Friday.

A steady stream of friends, family and neighbours were yesterday seen visiting the family home near Glencorrib, Co Mayo.

Mr Biggin’s widow Kathleen and three other children were being consoled by loved ones.

His fifth child died in recent years following a long illness.

The victim’s brother-in-law, Jackie Hyland, said the family was “devastated”.

All Ireland news by Donie Sunday

Mayo FG TD says ‘We have too many one night stands in Ireland’

        

Fine Gael deputy Michelle Mulherin

THE TD who shocked the Dail by saying most unwanted pregnancies stem from “fornication” denies she is old-fashioned, adding: “We have too many one- night stands.”

Fine Gael deputy Michelle Mulherin stunned many of her Dail colleagues when she claimed fornication — the term for sex outside of marriage — was the main reason 4,500 Irish women have abortions every year.

THE WORD FORNICATION’S LATIN ORIGINS

• The word ‘fornication’ comes from the Latin word for Romans having sex with prostitutes.
• It stems from ‘fornix’, meaning a vault or arch. This was used to refer to the vaulted cellars and similar places where prostitutes would consort with men.
• Later Latin used the verb ­‘fornicari’, meaning ‘to commit fornication’. The word was first recorded in Middle English in 1303.
• The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as: ‘Voluntary sexual intercourse between a man (in restricted use, an unmarried man) and an unmarried woman. In Scripture extended to adultery.’

The comments were dubbed “disgusting” by Socialist TD Clare Daly, who said she had “played out a Monty Python sketch in the Dail”.

However Ms Mulherin, a first time TD, today stood by her use of the word ‘fornication’, adding that many people’s views towards sex are “in the shadows”. She told the Herald: “People are not looking at the bigger picture here. They are looking at one word which in the dictionary means consensual sex between two people outside of a relationship. There’s no doubt this is the cause of abortions and we need to have a debate about this.

“I’m not being judgmental. I’m not pushing my views down people’s throats. I’m merely saying that we have serious issues in this country, such as one- night stands and that is resulting in terminations.”

The 40-year-old’s comments were made during a debate on a bill which called for abortion to be allowed in the event that a woman’s life is in danger.

The bill, proposed by Clare Daly, was defeated.

However during her speech, Ms Mulherin said that nobody should be having unprotected sex in Ireland, adding: “Fornifcation … is probably the single most likely cause of unwanted pregnancies in this country.”

Ms Mulherin admitted that she had received plenty of “adverse reaction” but said she stands firmly behind her views.

The Government’s €12m funding will help to keep researchers in Ireland

The Government is to provide over €12 million in research funding to encourage early career scientific researchers to remain in the country and help develop technologies and products that will benefit the economy.

Minister of State for Research and Innovation Seán Sherlock said the funding will support 44 researchers and postgraduate students over four years through Science Foundation Ireland.

Ireland had developed “an internationally recognised credible research base” in recent years and it was essential to achieve scientific excellence to yield a competitive advantage that would provide for future economic growth and job creation, the Minister said.

Announcing details of the funding at the National Tyndall Institute in Cork yesterday, Mr Sherlock said researchers in areas relevant to Irish enterprise would benefit from the €12.3 million channelled through SFI’s starting investigator research grant programme.

The researchers are based at nine higher education institutions

A history of Ireland in 100 objects and the 1640 O’Queally Chalice and the cup of salvation

This superb silver chalice declares its origins very clearly. Engraved on the base in Latin is “Malachy O’Queally Doctor of Sacred Theology from Paris and Archbishop of Tuam had this chalice made for the convent of friars minor ofRosserrilly [Co Galway], (The Friary above right) 1640.” O’Queally,with his continental connections, was representative of the key role of the Franciscans in re-creating an Irish Catholic identity after the Flight of the Earls. Driven by the scholar and historian Luke Wadding, the order established the Irish colleges at Louvain and Rome and re-established their own houses in Ireland.

With its inscription “I will lift the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord”, and its bold engravings of the Crucifixion alongside O’Queally’s own coat of arms, the chalice speaks of a resurgent and militant faith. It is not surprising that, with the outbreak of a Catholic rebellion the year after it was made, O’Queally himself took up arms in its cause.

After initial rebel successes in Ulster, government forces quickly regained the upper hand, and by the summer of 1642 the rebellion was close to collapse. But in August civil war broke out between King Charles and his parliament in England. The government offensive ground to a halt. The war in Ireland settled down for seven years of bloody stalemate.

The indigenous and Old English sides of the Catholic elite formalised their alliance as the Confederate Association, with its capital in Kilkenny and its military organisation strengthened by the return from continental wars of veteran soldiers, most notably Owen Roe O’Neill. It was ostentatiously Catholic – its banners bore images of the Virgin Mary – and its effective leader was the nuncio, Archbishop Rinuccini.

At the same time, the Scottish Covenanters sent troops, under Gen Robert Monro, to Ulster to protect Protestant settlers; some of them committed revenge atrocities against Catholic civilians. The three armed forces in Ireland – royalist, confederate and Scots – became four in 1644, when the royalist commander in Munster, Lord Inchiquin, defected to parliament.

Archbishop O’Queally raised troops for the confederacy from the early stages of the rebellion. In October 1645 he led his forces to attempt to retake the port of Sligo, which had fallen to the parliamentarians. He was killed in a surprise attack by Scots and his army routed.

A similar fate met confederate troops in 1647. After the king’s defeat in England, Ormonde surrendered Dublin to the parliamentarians, under Michael Jones, who then routed a large confederate army outside the city at Dungan’s Hill. Large numbers of prisoners were put to the sword. Shortly afterwards, the confederates suffered further losses when Inchiquin, reinforced with fresh men and supplies from England, launched a bloody offensive in Munster.

In 1648 a second civil war erupted in England, stalling this parliamentary offensive. Owen Roe O’Neill, disgruntled over a renewed peace deal between the confederates and the royalists, agreed a temporary truce with parliamentary commanders. The following year, Jones repulsed Ormonde’s attack on Dublin, defeating his forces at Rathmines, clearing the way for the landing of the triumphant parliamentary New Model Army, led by Oliver Cromwell

The department of Environment rejects claim’s on water meters

   

A spokeswoman for the Minister for the Environment has rejected a claim that one-third of households are not suitable for the installation of water meters.

Department of Environment has rejected claims that one third of households are unsuitable for water meters

Executive manager with Dublin City Council Tom Leahy is quoted by the Irish Times as saying that one third of homes will always be on a standing charge and will never have water meters installed.

This would amount to around 533,000 households – based on an estimate of 1.6 million households in the State.

Mr Leahy said that apartments would pose particular problems – as would houses built between the 1940s and 1960s.

A spokeswoman for Minister Phil Hogan said that, according to the Department’s figures, a maximum of 300,000 households are likely to be without water meters after the initial stage of the metering process.

She said the quickest and easiest homes would receive meters first, and the figure of 300,000 would come down as the metering process continued.

The exact number of homes to receive water meters in the initial stages would be a matter for Irish Water, she added.

Still £283m of punts in circulation in Ireland

       

Check under your blankets and the side of the sofa – there is still £283 million of Irish pound currency knocking around the country.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan told Sligo-North Leitrim TD Tony McLoughlin (FG) just before the Dáil broke for Easter that there remained £185m of banknotes and £98m of coins in punts still in circulation. This figure was correct on 15 March.

The total – £283 million, worth €359m – is a full 7.5 per cent of the value of the punts notes and coins that were in circulation at the end of 2001. The euro was introduced to Ireland on 1 January 2002 – and by 9 February 2002, the punt ceased to be legal tender.

Don’t panic though – at the moment there is no deadline on the Central Bank accepting an exchange of punts for euro. However, it’s worth keeping an eye out on the situation – the Central Bank has said that the exchange facility costs €368,600 to run every year and that at some point, it may have to review the provision of the service.

In February the Central Bank said that it was still exchanging just over €10,000 a day from punts to euro. (At that revelation, Justice Minister Alan Shatter had to move to assuage fears that such a large figure had anything to so with criminal activity.)

Around £2m worth of punts have been exchanged between mid-February and mid-March this year.

Do you think your punts might be worth something to a coin collector? Sadly, unless they are in mint condition – ie, were never used in circulation, and were a special edition coin, eg, the 1988 Dublin Millennium 50p – you’re not likely to get more than face value for them.

This collectors site, irishcoinage.com, has interesting tables that put a guesstimate value on punt coins. One note from the author says that one coin to look out for, and which is “extremely rare” is a 20p coin, dated 1985:

In 1985 prior to the introduction of the new twenty pence piece in 1986, a quantity of coins dated 1985 were struck for testing. Some of these coins escaped being melted down and are in private hands. I have heard of only a very small number of exchanges of these coin and the prices I have heard for them varied widely. I believe that the minimum number identified in collections (as opposed to sitting gathering dust somewhere without its value being understood by its owner) is four.