Fortnight Publications Ltd.

New MenuAuthor(s): Paul DonnellySource: Fortnight, No. 369 (Mar. - Apr., 1998), pp. 8-9Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25559430 .

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IRPI

A? ?- - WEEM

I., mmom .

MCM Pity the poor

emigrant

Jeanette Blair

Irish immigrants living in Britain came under the media spotlight last month when it was revealed that they have the poorest record

of both physical and mental health

of any ethnic minority. An over view of health research, entitled 'Ethnicity and Health: An Irish

Dimension' and published in the BritishJournal of Psychiatry, makes for grim reading. Mortality rates for the immigrant Irish commu nity exceed those for all residents of England and Wales by approxi mately 30%. Irish immigrants are

'grossly over-represented' in ad missions to British mental hospi tals, and are over 50% more likely to commit suicide than British

born people. Irish men are the only migrant group whose life expectancy actually worsens on

emigration to England. The report's Irish-born author,

consultant psychiatrist Dr Patrick Bracken, undertook a survey of the existing published research after becoming alarmed at the number of expatriate Irish pa tients he came across while prac tising in inner-city Birmingham.

His concerns were compounded when the scant empirical data available appeared to confirm his

experience.

"I'm hoping that in future when health and social researchers are

studying ethnicity and health they'll stop using the category 'white' as if it's homogenous," he said. "What we are arguing for is an Irish dimension.

"The statutory agencies in Brit

ain and the Irish government, which also has a responsibility, need to take responsibility for

funding further research. Hope fully this would lead to policy ini tiatives aimed specifically to help Irish community."

Only one study examined by Dr

Bracken takes class into account, but it found mortality rates were

higher for the Irish-born across all economic groups. Even more

controversially, these rates ap peared to persist among the Brit ish-born children of Irish

migrants, leading its author, R Balarajan, to suggest that the health of the Irish may suffer be cause they have a problem assert ing their cultural identity.

Despite being quoted in the na

tional press as saying that the Irish in Britain may become depressed

because they believe their native born neighbours associate them

with terrorism, Dr Bracken didn't wish to speculate on the causes underlying the findings. But he did suggest one prospective area of research: "Hospital admission rates are driven by a number of factors-poor housing, unem ployment and social isolation all feed into upping the admission rates. The Irish community has, for example, a history of poor housing. It would be straightfor ward and very useful to look at this issue, and research could lead to the setting up of projects spe cifically to address this problem."

Meanwhile London-based weekly the Irish World invited Irish ex-pats to "have their say in the

ongoing (sic) peace process". The

paper set up a phone-in referen dum for its readers to record their wishes for the future status of Northern Ireland. A whopping 80% of the 5000 respondents

wanted the North to be part of a

united Ireland, and as polling drew to a close anxious callers, unable to get through to the del

uged "united Ireland voteline", started ringing the lines set aside for other options to make sure

their votes were registered. A fur

ther 12% of callers favouredjoint London-Dublin rule, 6% thought Northern Ireland should be an

independent state, and 2% sup ported its continuation as part of

the United Kingdom. The referendum was the brain

child of Irish World editor Damien

Gaffney, who last year called on

his readership to make a "positive impact" on the political process through forging links with the Irish lobby in the USA. In his leader of 5 December he wrote:

"The Irish in Britain should have more of a say and more of an

influence on developments. "The British government

should take more note of the views of the Irish in this country. And the Irish in America should be

brought to a position where they too are taking note of what the one million (at least) Irish-born citizens in Britain have to say."

The Irish World is forwarding a full breakdown of the results to each of the Northern Ireland po litical parties and to the British and Irish governments.

New

menu

Paul Donnelly

New Agenda, the network of bodies from civil society wishing to aid the political process towards a successful conclusion, launched its new publicity campaign on

Tuesday24thFebruaryatthe gates of Stormont, unveiling its bill board advertisement depicting two children with the slogan "We paid the price. They're owed some peace." Attracting much media attention, the network's political discussion packs were also launched and are now being dis tributed throughout Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the

Republic. The packs, in menu form, discuss political concepts

which New Agenda see as provid ing the contours of any settlement accommodating unionists, nation alists and others.

Public reaction to the New

Agenda programme has been ex

tremely encouraging. In addi

tion to nearly 11,000 discussion

packs being ordered prior to the launch, the NewAgenda helpline on (01232) 233334 and the re

sponse coupons from advertise ments in the local press have

resulted in another two hundred enquiries within three days of the launch.

8 FORTNIGHT MARCH/APRIL 1998

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~ BIEFN

The discussion packs can be used by individuals or by groups and evidence is quickly emerging to suggest that groups who previ ously had difficulty in making or

maintaining contact are using the discussion documents to workwith each other, particularly amongst church and community groups.

Supporting the initiative are, among others, the Confederation of British Industry, the Federa tion of Small Businesses, the Irish

Congress of Trade Unions, the Northern Ireland Council for VoluntaryAction, the Rural Com munity Network and the Wom en's Forum, alongside former Catholic primate Cardinal Cahal Daly, Church of Ireland Bishop Samuel Poyntz, former Presbyte rian moderator Rev DrJohn Ross, former Methodist president Rev

Kenneth Best, and Queen's pro fessors Adrian Guelke and Eliza beth Meehan. New Agenda has been developing an inclusive dis cussion process which allows civil society to engage with the greater political process. This ongoing and all inclusive strategy provides New Agenda with its defence to some of the comments made about it by antagonists. On the broader political scene the UKUP, DUP and IRSP have all attacked the initiative from their various perspectives.

As the staging of referenda in early May looks increasingly likely to occur, New Agenda are argu ing that we can provide for open and inclusive approaches to the final proposals. Predictably there have been accusations that New

Agenda has a 'hidden' agenda but, as Dr Feargal Cochrane from the Centre for the Study of Con flict at Ulster University argues

"The nine points put forward by NewAgenda represent a useful road map which may help us navi gate our way through. . . ". Ex actly. New Agenda seeks to facilitate public discussion when ever and wherever to allow us to

work out our future together. Anybody interested in New

Agenda or wanting discussion packs should call Paul Donnelly, Debate Co-ordinator on (01232) 233334. New Agenda can also provide groups with discussion facilitators for those who require them.

Sifting

the 'net

Gary Kent

The Internet is rapidly becom ing a key source of information.

Besides its complexities and costs (about ?1000 for a decent com

puter, maybe ?20 a month sub scription plus local phone charges) it's essentially a person alised library.

Some scorn the Net for the crin kle of their own papers. Others see it as organised plagiarism. I

write as one accused of lifting the title of Ian PaisleyJnr's review of the recent Gerry Adams biogra phy. It is the same -"Will the real Gerry Adams stand up". I must have seen it on the Net but defend my right to usejournalistic cliches.

Irish politics is well served on the Internet. Serving a vast Irish diaspora, many Irish papers place their entire contents on the Web.

Others place significant extracts. But it takes time to browse the Net for the relevant papers. Now a new service, Newshound, has emerged to make things easier.

John Fay, an American who lives in Ireland, started the service in 1996. It was originally intended for Americans who receive lim ited news about Ireland and

Northern Ireland. "The idea was to provide as wide a range of arti cles as possible so that they could get an in-depth understanding of the various political positions, an idea as to what life is like in North ern Ireland and some of the back ground to the current situation."

Newshound's primary objective is to provide the user with a news 'sifting' service. This means that

articles about the Northern Ire land situation that I deem as rel evant and interesting are included in the daily catalogue. I currently limit myself to the major daily and Sunday papers. Everyday I go through 15 to 20 English language papers from around the world (Sydney, Hong Kong, Johannes

burg, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, NewYork, Phila delphia, London, Belfast, and Dublin) looking for articles that I think would interest my users."

The Newshound catalogue also includes book reviews and infor

mation on Irish historical topics. "The Newshound is not a money

making operation" says Fay al though he hopes he has secured sponsorship for the next year to help cover his costs. "The spon sor will get an ad across the top, but will have no influence over the operation of the Newshound.

The Newshound is free to the users and that's how it will stay for the foreseeable future." (The address for Newshound is http:/ /www.nuzhound.com/)

Number

crunching

Jeanette Blair

The intrepid number crunchers at Ulster Marketing Surveys have just released the Northern Ire land edition of "Prognostications for 1998: An International Sur vey". And aside from all the seri ous stuff about employment prospects and the peace process, there's some comfort to be had from the fact thatwe're, officially, far from being a nation of miser able sods.

When asked "Will the world be more or less troubled with inter national disputes in 1998?" North ern Ireland emerged as the second

most optimistic country of those surveyed (remember we're talk ing intemational disputes here).

We were pipped to the number one spot by Russia-a touching triumph of sanguinity (or Stolichnaya) over experience, one feels. The UK occupied sixth place, and US nationals were least likely to believe 1998 would be free of conflicts. At the time of

writing it is not clear whether its people's expectations will be dis appointed or fulfilled by the Clinton administration.

The Northern Irish also came a respectable fourth in the cheeri ness stakes when asked "Will 1998 be better or worse for you than last year?" The Republic of Ire land came top of the optimists, a result the pollsters mystifyingly

MARCHIAPRIL 1998 FO R T N I G H T 9

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