At the age of thirty-seven I had not anticipated being thrown into the menopause practically overnight. The ‘change’ was something that I had always associated with much older women but I felt that when the time came, I would take this natural part of the ageing process in my stride. Perhaps I would not have been quite so smug if I’d known what was just around the corner. My menopausal journey really began when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. …
A good friend invited me for dinner where I met his charming elderly mother and when she established my profession she asked if I would be willing to help her “end it all” when that time came. Certainly, I giggled, and we got down to discussing the upfront fee only to find that she wasn’t joking and she had less restraint and a more pragmatic view on assisted-suicide than I. I politely, and I hope sensitively, back-tracked as I realised …
“You can take all the tea in China Put in a big brown bag for me. Sail round the seven oceans, Drop it smack dab into the deep blue sea.” Van Morrison, Tupelo Honey Splat !!!! Following the announcement on Monday 21 September of new NI wide restrictions on both indoor and outdoor social gatherings, I was talking with a friend. A friend who was somewhere between despondent, cynical & despairing. Superficial positivity, however well-intentioned, really is not my thing. …
It’s interesting how the framing of the Covid crisis is beginning to subtly change. There seems to be a realisation that this is going to be long war, not a short campaign. The news of two new Covid deaths in Northern Ireland is carried by most major titles… Both victims were aged between 60-79. One of the deaths took place in the Newry, Mourne and Down council area, and the other was in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon. A further …
So Van Morrison has brought out some new tunes which include “criticism” of the government’s Covid policy. I’m as much a fan as the next Ulsterman, but it seemed a good moment to reflect on the way expressive individualism is pulling us away from our obligations to each other. Even Henry Ford understood the immense value that lies in others, “if there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of …
It would be difficult to look at the scenes from the Holylands of Belfast in the last number of days and not be very concerned. Scores of students partying until the early hours of the morning caused understandable frustration and fury among residents and a media furore. Either the young people in question do not fully understand the risk to themselves and others around them, or, the public awareness campaign is not persuading them sufficiently, or, they both understand and …
It’s hard to think of a working sector in society that delivers quite so much social, cultural, and economic benefits to society at large but where the living for those talented individuals who often devote their lives to it is quite so precarious than in the Arts and Cultural industries. In today’s Cargo of Bricks, I speak to Ali FitzGibbon and discover how the long slow and steady bottom-up development of Northern Ireland’s cultural industries over the last thirty years …
The data is clear: people in ethnic groups living in the UK are more likely to die if they contract the SARS-Co-2 virus. Public Health England – currently being scraped and scape-goated to protect the government in its handling of the pandemic – concluded (Link 1) that BAME communities are more susceptible due to social deprivation. This certainly fits the current political narrative well but may not explain that poor clinical outcomes could simply be down to a lack of …
I am in a glum mood today. The inability of our government to do the most basic tasks like sort out a water system or put in some bike lanes depresses me. Thankfully emotions are like the weather, and in a while, this gloom shall make way for the bright rays of emotional sunshine. Something that did lift my mood was the news that polio has been eradicated in Africa. From the Irish Times: Water-borne infection at one point paralysed …
One thing that has kept me sane during lockdown is the resumption of my habit of taking a daily nap after lunch. I come from a long line of nappers. When I was young, you could walk into our living room and find us all snoozing away merrily after lunch. The napping habit died out a bit with the advent of daytime TV and the Internet, but I found lockdown to be so emotionally exhausting that I needed a break …
Evidence-based policy-making is largely absent from government in Northern Ireland, but the new Pivotal think-tank has been established to correct that, says its director Ann Watt. She was speaking in the last of the second series of Holywell Trust Forward Together podcasts. The aim of Pivotal “is to help improve public policy in Northern Ireland,” says Ann. “It’s got a strong emphasis on research and evidence and on using evidence better in public policy.” The very first Pivotal report, published in November last year, …
When a friend asked me to write a piece about Covid-19, I was reluctant. Apart from a short poem I’d written very early on in the pandemic, I found it difficult to pen additional thoughts in prose, for how could I add to what had already been said? But all of us have a Covid-19 story and perhaps it’s edifying to take time to look back and appraise our experiences thus far. So here is part of my story – …
I came to statin treatment in a bizarre way. I went to my bank to arrange a loan and having agreed to the amount the bank asked for additional life cover. The life assurance company, in view of my advancing years (I was 48), required a medical and everything came back tip-top except my cholesterol level that weighed in at a handsome yet shocking 9.2 (average is 5.2). I was put on a statin and a decision on the life …
Obesity is hitting the headlines again and we’re all being encouraged to be a bit more fit and a lot less fat. Which reminds me of my favourite food stories. A couple of years ago I was out for lunch with my children in a bustling local café. Above the background noise, we couldn’t help but overhear a customer at the next table loudly proclaiming her request to have all fat removed from the bacon in her toastie that she …
Good article by Derek Thompson over at The Atlantic on Hygiene Theatre. As you may remember Security Theatre is the name given to the practices at airport security that don’t actually do much to reduce terrorism but let the government pretend they are doing something. You know the taking your shoes off, no water bottles, frisking 80-year-old grannies from Cullybackey within an inch of their lives etc. Covid-19 has given rise to a similar phenomenon where people are cleaning their …
I broadly agree with Tom Kelly’s assessment (£) of the Executive’s performance during Covid, which is that it has broadly been good, but has at times suffered from the lack of a unified message. Tom argues that the science should be listened to… …professionals like Dr McBride and Professor Young have to provide advice based on the science as this unpredictable virus reveals itself. After much deliberation they presented their considered view that the wearing of face-coverings should be mandatory. …
Over the last four months, the percentage of the population in Great Britain wearing face masks in public has steadily increased. However, data from YouGov suggests that the percentage of the population wearing masks in Northern Ireland has remained flat over the last few months, and as a result the percentage of the population wearing masks in Northern Ireland is now lagging significantly behind England, Scotland and Wales. The chart above shows how mask wearing rates by region in the …
I am still smarting from a recent suggestion by the highly competent technical boss of this erudite platform. He rightly chastened me for setting out in a post the vexed problems of addiction without offering any solutions. Fair point, I thought but Brian there is nothing new under the Sun only the prevailing ideologies that are neither right nor wrong just what society, at any given point in time, is willing to tolerate. With a lack of political will to …
Open wide! this week I chat with Dr David Suitor who has been a dentist in Belfast for over 17 years. We chat about the general state of dentistry in Nothern Ireland as well as the specific challenges of Covid-19. Normally dentists can see 4 or 5 patients per hour but Covid-19 precautions have dramatically reduced the number of patients they can see. This has repercussions for the ability of patients to get treated as well as the financial viability …
Q. What is the similarity between the DUP’s Christopher Stalford, the SDLPs Paul McCusker and the N. Ireland Office. A. An interest in drug addiction services. But there the similarity more or less ends. I feel genuinely sorry for Christopher Stalford for falling into such a simple trap. He was only doing what politicians do, supporting and articulating the concerns of his constituents, in this case, those living in the Donegall Pass and Botanic area. Christopher is concerned that the …
