Terry Maguire

Just before my visit last week, the botched execution of Christa Pike was already an international news story. Nashville’s Centre of Correction executing a woman prisoner in 2026 was indeed something that demanded attention. This judicial killing attempt articulates the harsh conservatism that defines Nashville. On the surface a care-free, hedonistic city, a mecca for country music yet underneath a much more complex and nuanced place. Where it comes from. The family names of the city founders puts Nashville’s origins …

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US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last week that all military personnel aged 30 and over will be annually screened for testosterone deficiency. Those with “low testosterone” will be offered testosterone replacement therapy (TRT).   “Warriors” under 30 will be able to opt in for testing but the Pentagon is saying nothing on whether TRT will be available to women. The evidence for an association between aggression and testosterone levels exists but it is weak according a 2019 study (a meta …

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A few years back, at a junction close to where I live, a neighbour while driving out of the street was struct by a motorbike, driving at speed up the main-road, probably on the pavement. It was dark. The motor-bike was without lights so it was unseen and the rider without helmet, was catapulted with his bike over the bonnet of the car and badly injured. Tragically he died a few days later in hospital. The police interviewed my neighbour …

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A needle and syringe exchange service (NSES) can bring its challenges with the stereotypical drug-addled vagrant seeking “gear” for his next hit, annoying customers and lowering the tone of the neighbourhood as fellow-travellers congregate outside to “deal” in the street. The reality is nothing like this. Those injecting narcotics, and who have indeed pretty chaotic lives, are generally respectful and informed and normally come and go without any hassle or disruption. This is also down to how the service is …

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When I arrived at the temporary studio not only was the door locked but the inside security shutter was down and I couldn’t get in. My phone rang; it was an assistant asking was I close as I was on-air in a few minutes. Having explained, he directed me to the back entrance two streets away. I sprinted off. An anxious Chris met me at the gate, handed me a visitor’s lanyard and hurried me through myriad security doors, up …

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Donald Trump continues to claim that paracetamol taken in pregnancy causes autism, ADHD and is linked to impaired intelligence. He most recently made this claim last Monday (January 2026) yet it has been a key element of his administration’s health policy during his first year in office. And his claim is now supported by US health officials who maintain that “many experts” have expressed concern over paracetamol’s use in pregnancy. In a speech in September 2025, President Trump said his …

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Fascinating podcast this week from the BBC State of Us team Declan Harvey and Tara Mills. The sensational headline that our cocaine use is so great it has found its way into our much treasured loughs (Neagh and Erne), and rivers (Bush and Lagan), has been widely disseminated across the BBC. These much-loved bodies of water, so integral to our local environment, are being poisoned, we are told, by the legal and illegal drugs we have become so addicted to. …

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Last year, the NHS paid 3.1 billion in compensation claims. A relative born in 1932 lives in poor health. Unable to stand or move unaided she needs increasing care and attendance. A few months back she was relatively independent, living alone with a package of care that consisted of four short daily visits from highly supportive and caring staff. Over the summer this has changed dramatically and her needs now are much increased. She is fortunate to have a daughter …

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After a lifetime in pharmacy and healthcare politics, in which I like to think I was able to hold my own, I now realise I vigorously avoided engagement with politics more generally. For good reason, too. I knew no matter how difficult health politics might be, party politics is a wholly different game and fraught with more pitfalls and dangers. From my teenage years I had little love for party politicians and where I have strong personal political convictions, like …

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Today, Wednesday, Sean will be cremated at Roselawn Crematorium.   You will not know this as he left strict instructions there would be; no death notices, no mass, no eulogy, no memorial cards. Sean is not even his real name.  His remains, transferred privately by his nominated funeral director, will stay in their chapel before transfer to the crematorium and only three people will be present; his brother, his daughter andher husband.    It was a tragically predictable end for …

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Even after sixty-years, it was not difficult to find. The house at the bottom of the lane had been replaced by a modern bungalow but this was certainly the lane; overgrown and now, one hundred meters in from the road, blocked by a farm-gate. We parked in front of the gate and crossing it, we started walking. My son, having aligned a recent interest in Irish mythology and a story I told him of a great aunt who owned a …

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Slugger’s energetic commissioner asked me to post about what I do all day. Who would be in the slightest interested in such quotidian ennui, I replied. We need to understand how each part of the Health Service works if we ever hope to fix it, he more or less suggested. Well-intentioned while somewhat naive, he was interested in which medicines GPs prescribe that could be pharmacy supplied so GPs can get on with what they should be doing all day. …

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In many quarters, there will be a warm welcome to this week’s announcement by Health Minister Mike Nesbitt to set up a Regional Obesity Management Service (ROMS). The community-based service will allow access to Wygovey and Mounjaro– better known as the “skinny-pens”. The minister said it was a “very important day for public health”. At the end of last year, I took part in a BBC radio discussion about “skinny-pens”. NICE had just published its direction on tirzepatide (Mounjaro), and …

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The wonderfully erudite William Crawley featured Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan recently on his BBC Talkback programme. Susanne, a doctor working in the NHS, is author of The Age of Diagnosis which is currently getting considerable attention and is available on BBC Sounds as a book of the week. The response was such that Talkback continued the theme the next day where a panel of local experts considering feedback from listeners discussed if we had a problem of overdiagnosis in N. Ireland. …

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Alice Descends It started with Fergal Keane and an “In-Depth” article on the BBC website on a Sunday morning in January. I soon realized this was the entrance to a rabbit-hole, that once I went in, I would fall down and be there for some time. In Fergal’s excellent piece – he cannot write anything else- he opened up about his mental health challenges; a problem with alcohol, PTSD and periods of deep depression that had him in and out …

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There has been an irritating shortage of methylphenidatemedicines used to treat ADHD as manufacturers struggle tosatisfy demand.   The NHS waiting list for an ADHD referral is in the region of 7 years so it’s unsurprising many patients who think they might have the condition are seeking out private practitioners to gain a diagnosis.   This can then create conflict with GPs unwilling to accept private–practicediagnoses given the drugs they are being asked to prescribe are controlled with potentially significant …

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President Donald Trump has just written to thank Irish Poet W. B. Yeats for his poem. The poem it appears was commissioned to mark President Trump’s second inauguration, January 20th 2024. The Second Coming Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while …

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I have tried really hard not to fall down rabbit-holes when it comes to science and medicine in case I resurface in a land of; crackpots, antivaxxers and delusional conspiracy theorists. I should be able to make some sense of the data provided on medicines but it has been a struggle and people such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr has not been very helpful in this pursuit. RFK Jr, has just been nominated by President Elect Trump’s nomination as head …

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The Belfast Telegraph reported this week that a respected colleague was forced to leave the profession for doing what, 50 years ago, every pharmacist did; make and supply medicines for his patients and clients. Known as nostrums, the content of these medicines often remained a trade secret and could add considerably to the value of a pharmacy business as good nostrums were commercially very successful. Patients would travel great distances to get the “pink stomach medicine” or the special “Tonic”. …

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Northern Ireland will introduce a temporary ban on puberty blockers on 27th August in line with a ban that has been in place in GB since March 2024. A report in April 2024 by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass ignited an ideological war. Report here (PDF). On one side are those who support and promote the manipulation of natural biological processes in young people so that they can eventually transition and change their biological sex. On the other side are mostly …

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