speakyourmind

dealing with

Stigma

The Magazine for Glenmalure and Friends

Spring 2011 Vol 3 (2)

StigmaMental Health

Prejudice and Discrimination

INSIDE Miriam O'Callaghan and John Moloney launch See ChangelJohn McCarthy of Mad Pride asks ‘Is it time?’ lBrent Pope’s ‘Outside In’ Exhibition

AcknowledgementsWe, the editorial committee would like to thank everybody who gave up their time and energy to write an article for this magazine. We would like to welcome Tony Francis who has recently joined the committee and who has made a major contribution to the production of this edition.

To Pat Joe Looney and the residents of Glenmalure House; a big thank you for your continuing support.

To Declan Gould for his networking skills in mobilising articles.Thank you to the National Lottery for their generous contribution which enabled the publication of this edition.

Our gratitude goes to ‘INSPIRE’ Design and Print for producing the magazine, and particularly Sophie Pentek and Sara Haggerty for doing such a great job for us.

Also a special thanks to Margaret Griffi n of Griffi n’s Garden Centre, Dripsey for her generous offer of a FREE SCONE for any visitor bringing their copy of the Magazine.

Congratulations to Kathleen Lynch on her deserved appointment as Minister for Mental Health. She is a strong and empathetic advocate for people suf-fering from mental health problems. It is an encouraging sign that the new government will follow through on its commitment for mental health reform and to continue to tackle stigma.

Also our best wishes to John Moloney who, in his short time in this position, identified personally with the role and made significant contributions, particularly launching the anti stigma campaign.

“

“

ContentsEDITORIAL 2

WHAT IS STIGMA 3Niamh Murphy

HEAR MY VOICE – PREDJUDICE AND DESCRIMINATION 6Amnesty International

THE LAST GREAT TABOO 7See Change

STIGMA 8Averil McMahon

ADDRESS TO SEE CHANGE MEETING 8Declan Gould

SIMONS STORY 10Ciaran O’Carroll

PATRICKS STORY 10

SUZANNES STORY 11

WHAT IS SCHIZOPRENIA 12

THE SLÍ EILE SOCIAL APPROACH 13Joan Hamilton

THE NOOLY NIB 13Gavin Francis

GRAMHOR AND CORK TO TORY 13Eugene Crowley

THE BUTTERFLY 13Regina O Flynn

IS IT TIME TO DECRIMINALIZE HUMAN EMOTIONS? 14John McCarthy

FRIENDS OF GF 17

BRENT POPE’S “OUTSIDE IN” 18Brent Pope

PROFILES 20Brent Pope, John Saunders, Marguerite Neville, Sarah Byrne, Tony Francis, Margaret Coughlan, Bill Murray, Donal Cronin

GARDENING MAKES ME HAPPY 23Margaret Griffi n

WATERY PLANET 24John A. Donavan

TWO POEMS 24Dave Murphy

TO FOCUS 24David Jordan

MEMORIES OF A FISHERMAN 25Margaret Couglan

MY TIME IN BILBAO 26John Murphy

SCHOOL BAG 27Michael O’Riordan

SONNET – A BRIDE 27Donal Looney

INTRODUCING YOU TO WEST CORK 28Sean Crowley

THE DAY MACROOM WELCOMED 30PRESIDENT ROBINSONStephen Lynch

VIBRATIONAL CLINICAL DOWSING 30Margot Francis

PERCEPTION 31Martin Murphy

FOLLOW THAT BREATH 32Greg White

A JOURNEY INTO THE FUTURE 32Bernice Seymour

KITCHEN HEAVEN 34Catherine Jackson

QUIZ 36

Cover PhotoSee Change launch: l-r; john Tracy, CEo of the irish Sports Council; Shane o’Donoghue, BBC and rTE Golf Broadcaster; john Saunders, Director of Shine and See Change; Miriam o’Callaghan, rTE Broadcaster; Micheál o’Muircheartaigh, rTE Gaelic Games Commentator and Minister john Moloney, Minister of State at the Department of Healthy and Children.

speakyourmind

dealing with

Stigma

The Magazine for Glenmalure and Friends

Spring 2011 Vol 3 (2)

StigmaMenta

l Health

Prejudice a

nd Discri

mination

INSIDE Miriam O'Callaghan and

John Moloney launch S

ee Change

● John McCarthy

of Mad Pride asks ‘Is

it time?’ ● Brent Pope’s ‘Outside In

’ Exhibition

2 speakyourmind

EditorialWelcome to this the fourth edition of our magazine, ‘glenmalure

and friends’. The theme for this edition is ‘stigma’ and its effects.‘We have restyled the magazine to ‘speak your mind’ in order

to broaden its appeal and make it less parochial; as you will see we have dramatically changed and improved the graphics, we hope you enjoy this new layout.’

For many people stigma is about limited opportunities and hardened attitudes resulting in self doubt and inner pain.

This magazine started in order to enable people to express them-selves and their feelings on any topic they chose.

We are delighted to have received so many articles and in fact were over subscribed for this edition.

We will endevour to catch up in the next edition and so enable those of you who aren’t published this time to be so in september.

As always, included this time is an eclectic variety of topics: garden-ing, cookery, poetry, stories, profiles, travel, quiz, events, art and holistic therapy.

We hope you will enjoy this edition and send us any feedback you wish to catherine jackson at

(021)4292651 | (086)3053696

Cathjackson2001@yahoo.com

Glenmalure and FriendsGlenmalure House Blackrock Road Cork.

Mary Corcoran is a 53-old artist whose paintings we are publishing for the first time in this edition. Mary comes from Cork City but now lives near Macroom. She has been painting for the past twenty years and is entirely self-taught. At a point in her career Mary suffered a breakdown, but this has not curtailed her ongoing work as an artist. We present her here as an inspirational figure. Examples of Mary’s work are included throughout the magazine.

Stigma

What is Stigma?

Since biblical times people who experience mental health problems have been discriminated against and segregated from society. Al-though staff attitudes and hospital based treatments dealing with mental health issues in modern times have changed in the favor of the individual, it still seems to be socially acceptable within some communities and workplaces to discriminate against people with a mental health problem. The reasons behind such discrimination are numerous and this article will explore this with reference to the types of discrimination that seem to be prevalent in modern

society and how we can try to address it.

speakyourmind 3

speakyourmind 54 speakyourmind

Stigma, myths and generalizationsStigmatizing words are widely used in reference to mental health. They are used to describe the social identity of a person that is de-valued or different. These words show social disapproval, marking an individual as different to normal people. It is easy to see that poor attitudes towards mental health are partially due to lack of knowledge and ideas of what psychiatric diagnoses can mean, and how people will or might behave. Myths and generalizations can then lead to confusion and wrongly labelling groups and indi-viduals within the mental health services. Examples of these are that “schizophrenics are violent and dangerous,” that they have a split personality, that there is no hope for people with mental illness, and they can never work, all as a result of bad parenting. With attitudes like these being the accepted truth, it is easy to see why discrimination is a problem in our society.

Discrimination within friendships and the community

Mental health problems are not very well understood by the pub-lic. The ambiguity around the subject frightens people, as they don’t understand the behavior of an individual service user or a group and this lack of understanding can often lead to discrimina-tion. Discrimination can affect people in different ways, friend-ships and community attitudes being a main component in this. For example, long term hospital users may begin to find that they only socialize with other users of the mental health services rath-er than those outside of this. Service users feel that other people will not understand what they have been through and what they may still go through, during the process of their illness and pos-sible recovery. Families of service users may feel that they have lost the support of the community and that they are isolated. Sup-port for these families is essential because there is a high rate of depression and anxiety among the caregivers of people with a mental illness.

The benefits of public awareness campaignsRecognizing the inaccurate knowledge the public already believes about mental health, public awareness campaigns can be use-ful in promoting a more positive approach to mental health. This can be part of the role of the mental health nurse, as well as the government. The mental health nurse has a responsibility to teach the client about his or her difficulty, but also to assist the family or support of the client in understanding the nature of the mental health problems. In a more public way the government and health service has the responsibility and capability to educate and enhance public awareness of mental health. This has been partially achieved by mental health awareness advertisements on the television run by the HSE and the National Office for Suicide Prevention. These promote the idea that mental health is some-thing we should all take steps to protect in the same way we look after our physical health.

Employment or unemploymentEmployment is an area where there is seemingly a lot of discrimi-nation towards those with mental health problem. This affects not only psychological well-being, but also affects their social and personal lives. To reveal to an employer about the existence of a mental health problem can significantly reduce the chances of maintaining employment or finding a job. Employers perceive that employees with a mental health problem will perform poorly and are not capable of working to an acceptable capacity. There may also be discrimination within the work place with regard to co-workers, with employees being bullied or given demeaning jobs, below their level of performance.

The failure to improve the general health of mental healthcare clients

Discrimination within the workplace, communities and within

speakyourmind 76 speakyourmind

ConclusionIn conclusion, it seems that there is still a prevalence of discrimi-nation against those with mental health problems and it is appar-ent that there is a lot more work that needs to be done on behalf of these. This includes physical health promotion, continued men-tal health promotion and possibly awareness campaigns within communities that would allow people to see those with mental health problems as people, not to be avoided or treated as differ-ent but part of the diverse make up of a community.

friendships can lead to greater problems to the service user than the mental health problem itself. Problems with the socio -eco-nomic status of the service user can be seen as a direct result of the inability of the individual to find employment due to their mental health problems. This can in turn affect diet, clothing and childcare. Community mental health facilities also do not provide for the physical health care needs of service users. With the de-mands of counseling and psychotherapy a service user may be unwilling to visit a general practitioner for their general health care as well. There may also be discrimination here involving the inexperience of general practitioners in treating the physical health needs of someone with a mental health problem and they may believe that the client is not capable of making decisions that concern their general health.

Violation of the Mental Health Acts In 1959, The Mental Health Act was established which allowed mental health patients to become aware of their rights and began to humanize the mentally ill. Subsequent acts such as the Mental Health Act 2001, states that a person has the right to dignity, pri-vacy and respect. These individuals have a greater risk of physical assault, violence and abuse. The reality is that “people with men-tal health problems are more likely to be attacked than they are to attack others”.

The move towards community careIn recent years, changes have been made to focus on care in com-munity based settings. If the service user is unable to live at home without support, a community based residency program can be arranged which keeps the individual out of an institutional setting and incorporates them in the community. Communities have pre-conceptions about “madness” and safety and are reluctant for the construction of facilities for sufferers of mental health problems, despite the obvious need for them.

You may have noticed a new poster campaign adressing the issue of stigma and mental health. These distinctive yellow posters are part of a campaign launched by See Change in

conjunction with Amnesty.See Change is Ireland’s national programme working to pos-

itively change social attitudes and behaviour so that there is a reduction of stigma and discrimination associated with mental health problems, ensuring that every one enjoys the same rights on an equal basis.

The See Change vision is that every person in Ireland can be open and positive about their own and other’s mental health.

See Change aims to:

lCreate an environment where people are more open and positive in their attitudes and behaviour towards mental health;lPromote greater understanding and acceptance of people with mental health problems;lCreate greater understanding and knowledge of mental health problems and of the health services that provide support for mental health problems; lReduce stigma associated with mental health problems and challenge discrimination.

This is Ireland’s FIRST EVER national stigma reduction partnership and we exist to inspire a social movement in Ireland to reduce stigma and discrimination of mental health problems so that they are treated as part and parcel of being human – in the workplace,

SEE CHANGEExtracts from the See Change 2010 Annual Report

Fighting the last great taboo – talking about mental health problems

at home, out and about, in the media and everywhere else.See Change includes a growing band of organisations who

have signed up to at least one big action to support the move-ment. To date, 39 organisations have signed up.

People with mental health problems and their relatives con-sistently identify stigma and discrimination as major barriers to health, welfare and quality of life. In fact, a recent study into men-tal health attitudes in Ireland found that while 94% of people in Ireland feel that mental health problems can affect any one, I in 2 people would not want anyone to know if they had a mental health problem.

According to the WHO, depression alone is ranked as the lead-ing cause of disability worldwide. The impact of prejudice, igno-rance and fear around mental health problems can be devastating for people, families, communities and society collectively. Stigma may prevent people seeking mental healthcare when they need it. It stops people with ability getting the jobs they are qualified to do. It can stop people building new friendships and mean they lose existing ones. It can mean that everyday activities like going to the shop, pub or community centre are impossible.

With one in four adults experiencing mental health problems at some point in their lives and over 1 in 50 experiencing more severe mental health problems, thousands of people live in the shadow of one of the last great taboos – mental health problems. See Change was primarily initiated by Shine and Minister John Moloney. It was launched on 15th of April 2010 by minister Molo-ney and celebrity ambassadors Miriam O’Callaghan and Eileen

Hear my voice: MEnTAl HEAlTH prEjuDiCE & DiSCriMinATionAmnesty International

In Ireland there is little research about the nature, extent and impact of discrimination that people with mental health problems face, especially from the perspective of

that group itself. As part of Amnesty International Ireland’s mental health and human rights campaign, they commis-sioned Dublin City University’s School of Nursing to interview more than 300 people with mental health problems about their experience of unfair treatment in Ireland today. Hear them give voice to this under-reported area. Here is what some of them had to say;

“I can’t get a job, I’ve tried and tried…They’ll say well where have you been? And I’ll say well I was in a psychiatric hospital and you can see the look and it’s all downhill afterward

and you never hear from them again.-”

“Initially no one wanted to know, I was mar-ginalised from the group. No one would ask

how you were. Written off would be the term I would use.”

“I did an interview which went very well and I got the job, I was asked what was the

nature of my disability and when I told her it was schizophrenia she never got in touch with

me after that.”

“It was soul destroying, soul destroying. You don’t exist you know.”

The current phase of our mental health campaign is running from June 2009 until June 2011. The campaign will focus on using the human rights framework to demand action from Government. It will campaign for a social approach in re-sponse to mental health that is focused on people’s rights, in particular the right to live a full life in the community and the right to choice in treatment.

Overall goalMental health is a human rights issue and the Government must make it a political priority.

For copies of the reports from these two research projects please refer to the Amnesty web site www.amnesty.ie

speakyourmind 98 speakyourmind

Dunne; at the same time a video was produced generously sup-ported by well known Irish personalities from the world of sport , media and entertainment: Claire Byrne (RTE), Barry Murphy (Com-ic), Ristard Cooper (Actor), Eamonn Coglan (Olympian Athlete), Mick Dowling (Olympic Boxer), Micheál O Muircheartaigh (RTE), Colm Murray (RTE), Johnny Murtagh (Champion Jockey) and many others.

Stigma Towards people using The Mental Health ServicesAvril McMahon

What is Stigma? Stigma is to put a mark on someone as being different. It always has a negative connotation and causes huge distress to the people being ‘marked as negatively different’.

I personally believe, even in 2011, that many people feel and are being stigmatised because of their Mental Health or other peoples ‘perception of Service Users Mental Health’ and people’s perception of ‘Mental Health Service Users’!

Every human being, to my mind, is a physical, mental and spir-itual being. So we all, every one of us, have mental health needs as well as physical needs, and I have Spiritual ones too. So be-ing human, no matter who you are, what job you have or you haven’t, what age you are, how intelligent you are, none of us are exempt from having difficulties in any of these areas.

People being stigmatised are being put into a box labelled ‘not acceptable’ ‘not like us’ ‘to be avoided’ ‘shameful’ etc. We don’t all fit into one box!!! I have used the mental health services so I have been a ‘patient’ but it’s not all I am. I am a good friend, a sister, an aunt, a worker, a daughter, a neighbour. But would I be stigmatised for being a sister, or a good friend. Then why would people want to pick one part of me and judge the whole of me by their opinions (most often totally unfounded opinions) of one aspect of who I am.

There is a huge difference between being empowered and giving our power away. In relation to stigma I can take on people’s ideas of me and I can keep myself in the stigma box. Taking on board what people think of me is me giving other people a huge hold over me -whether it is in relation to what people think of my mental state, or the work I do, how I look or dress, is my home clean or not. When I’m concerned about what people think of me I am always going to be upset and disappointed because I’ll never please all the people all the time and even if I did, I wouldn’t be pleasing myself! If I go around trying to live up to what other peo-ple think I should be; they’d be many more disappointed because every human being has different ideas, thoughts, hopes and ex-pectations of themselves and others.

I can choose to let go of what others think of me if it’s negating me and putting me in a stigma box, because I know myself, that boxes can be opened and I don’t want to be in a box - do you? And as I wrote earlier-there wasn’t just one box to fit me in there were many, Service User box, Daughter box, Sister box, Employee box, Friend box. So believe me I can’t find the one box that fits all yet. One size box doesn’t fit all. I can’t change other people but I can change myself and that’s what I’m responsible for. When change happens it often has a ripple effect and that can change how the people around me see me or react to me. But remember I’m not responsible for the attitudes/reactions of others, they are.

We are all different and unique and if we can love ourselves and know we are all here for a reason and a purpose, then we must know we are of huge value to our society as well as our-selves. We all should be treated with dignity and respect, but if I treat myself with dignity and respect, that can often change how other people perceive me for the better.

I am not the best on statistics but I have heard 1 in 4 Irish peo-ple will go through some form of mental distress in their lives. So everyone in the whole country knows someone who has, or has had issues with their mental health and well being. So if we are stigmatised by people, they are also stigmatising someone they know-a family member, a friend, a colleague. And they too may go through it themselves. No one can afford to judge unless they have walked completely in another person’s shoes.

Just to conclude I would like to add that everyone has a part to play in not allowing people to be stigmatised. People who judge others need to change but also the people who are judged, in this case mental health service users, need to love themselves enough to know they are as important as anyone else in this world.

Judge not-lest you be judged yourselves in the same manner!

Address to the SeeChange/Amnesty meeting re Stigma in Mallow.

Artist - Mary Corcoran

Declan Gould

The Mental Health Movement of Ireland is growing with both Yin and Yang qualities in it. Isn’t it the same with all of us? What is stigma? According to Collin’s Dictionary, it is a distinguishing mark of social disgrace. I suggest it is also an attitude of disapproval or hostility; looking down our noses at someone or group. That sort of thing. In this regard I feel we all have a bit of visual adjustment to do.

Who are the victims? Jews; during Nazi Germany; those with the ‘wrong’ address; wrong accent; ‘wrong’ job or no job; city people living in the country and vice versa.; old people; young people; people who don’t look too good; rich people; poor people; politicians; travellers; gypsies. Is there anyone left? Celebrities? Are they the de facto Icons of our society!

Stigma is a state of mind and therefore it can be changed.

Struggling SoulsThere are struggling souls in the Psychiatric Institutions of this country and it is for these people that a growing number of us are speaking out. These souls are largely ignored by our society and excluded from the maelstrom by virtue of their secluded lifestyle and economic circumstances. Integrative work is needed, but ask a nurse if she would like to come for a coffee and usually the pro-fessional guillotine will come down on the spot.

The Stigmatic DanceIn Hindu philosophy Life is likened to a Dance; the Lila. This corre-sponds to science’s concept of matter as dancing energy

Modern social dancing is freer than its predecessors; anyone can dance with anyone else and anyone, male or female, may ini-tiate a dance. In this sense the Health Service is in the days of the ceili: staff over here; clients over there; advance retire; advance retire; keep the mixing to a minimum. It’s a bipolar social system which teaches you to know your place, determined by whether you arrived in your own car or in a squad car.

The stigmatic WorldHow do we deal with stigma, that amorphous mind set which can be as much in the head of the sufferer as in that of the general

public? Turn it upside down. Make it cool to have been in hospital. That’s what Mad Pride is all about.

This is not a new thing. The Quakers were given the term ‘Quaker’ as a derogatory reflection of the fact that they ‘quaked’ when speaking the truth. They simply accepted the term and, four hundred years later, still use it. Upturn the stigma and be proud of it; after all it was hard earned:

Make Change; See Change; Makes sense.

Bus StopsRegularly I talk to people at bus stops and, if the conversation is flowing in the right direction, I tell them of my conversion from in-sanity to sanity. They immediately reassure me that I don’t seem crazy to them, which reassures me that I am on the right track. From time to time one of them tells me that they have a relative who is in hospital or that they themselves have been there. If we are to build a community of the formerly and presently wounded, and others, wherever we meet them, we must be prepared to link up with them; receive their blessings and return it with ours.

low spiritsWe are all familiar with the cough mixture ad which shows this guy walking around with a cloud over his head; low spirits; low self esteem; suffering from a cold condition, which is then cured by a tincture of a proprietary product. It may work on television but blowing away stigmatic feelings is not so simple if one is in low spirits.

I know a guy who wouldn’t go to the Mad Pride event in Fitzgerald’s Park in Cork, in case he was seen.

EmploymentSimilarly, applying for a job is tricky if one is inclined to stick to the literal truth. How does one account for the time spent in hospital and recuperation? Bend the truth. Tell them one was looking after the family. It’s no business of a potential employer what goes on in one’s personal life.

The irish SceneI can’t speak about Irish psychiatry at large, because, probably like many here, I have had only a limited experience of it. From the

points of view of Design, Maintenance and Quality of Care, it has been a disaster at times and great at times; love being the miti-gating factor. I hear stories of serious neglect, in run-down build-ings. For me, it could have been a lot worse and it could have been a lot better, but if these stories are real we’d better do something about it, fast.

Cork I live in Cork City and there, the building which was most in need of extensive upgrading was St Catherine’s, in St Finbarr’s Hospital, on the Douglas Road. It was not quite as much a home as an in-stitution; however, that has been changed now. Glenmalure has a lot of positive features.

The Mental Health Movement and pharmacopeiaSpeaking of the Mental Health Movement in our country; from where I am looking, it is coalescing, though it is early days yet. The organisational style we have at present is the one we want; decentralised, issue orientated; otherwise we wouldn’t have it. I don’t want a monotone organisation with layers of bureaucracy where members get lost.

We are building a movement which is a precious thing and requires great care in getting it and keeping it together. Our goal is mental health which has in it elements of free thought and free expression. We ought to espouse influences which would gag this free flow. Pharmacopoeia is an old Art and we shouldn’t be overcome by it.For a full version email: declanpgould@hotmail.com

10 speakyourmind

Simon’s StoryCiarán O’Carroll

This week a fourteen year old was admitted to a Waterford adult mental health inpatient unit. Stopping this practice isn’t a luxury item in a recession; it can be a matter of life and death.

As a kid I used to look up to my friend Simon, he was five years older than me, a 14 year old teenager listening to Metallica, popular with girls and banging the door on the way out to house parties. He was exactly everything I thought was cool and what I wanted to become.

But last Friday I attended Simon’s funeral, struggling to fold enough mass booklets in time as devastated mourners overflowed the church. Simon had experienced mental health problems, most notably schizophrenia, and took his life on the banks of the River Dodder.

His battle with mental illness lasted 14 years, it was valiant and inspirational. He wasn’t just fighting to re-cover, he had dreams and goals he wanted to achieve and he was going to accomplish them with or without his illness. But he couldn’t get better in Ireland, life in a mental health unit had no meaning for him, he wanted to work and feel empowered. But in Ireland, despite the boom years, we did not invest in sufficient holistic community-based facilities and Simon went abroad for treatment.

After spending time in St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, with its excellent staff, his mother managed to get a visa for him to travel to Gould Farm in Berkshire County, western Massachusetts. Gould Farm is a residential ther-apeutic community, dedicated to helping adults with mental health problems move towards recovery, health and independence through community living, meaningful work, and modern clinical support. It’s here that Si-mon said he had the best years of his life; Gould Farm empowered him and provided a community environment. One day his friend asked him what he wanted to do with his life, the answer was scuba diving, and the photo on his coffin was of him diving off the coast of Massachusetts. He was living life and enjoying it. However, Simon’s visa did not allow him to work for money in the USA, so he returned to Ireland to try and find a meaningful job and begin a new happy life at home. Tragically he could find no work in the recession, was admitted a mental health unit, stopped taking his medication and didn’t survive.

If there was a Gould Farm in Ireland, chances are that Simon would still with us. If we are serious about treat-ing mental health then more funds must be made available for this kind of facility in Ireland. It’s good news the Minister of State for Mental Health John Moloney has identified this as a problem and said the budget must increase, but just this week it was reported that at least 100 children under the age of 18 have been admitted to adult psychiatric facilities this year despite a commitment by the HSE to phase out the practice.

We need to see change, end discrimination against people with mental health problems and demand that our mental health services are given the funding and facilities they desperately need. Because, as we see from Simon’s story, it is a matter of life and death.

Then neither will ever be satisfied. It is time for separation and true cooperation on a level playing field.

There was a time when Patrick actually enjoyed hearing the voices. Of course, they were worrying to begin with. He couldn’t understand where they came from or why they were

talking to him. Several times he had to go and check he hadn’t left the radio on.

But as time passed the voices became more familiar and he began to get used to them. After all, he had been feeling pretty lonely since moving to Dublin to continue his studies. And while the voices might be a bit confusing, at least they were company.

For some reason, Patrick found it hard to make friends with his new fellow students. He’d never had a problem socializing when he was growing up back home. But now, talking to people seemed to take more and more effort and after a while he sim-ply couldn’t be bothered. He even stopped going to the cafeteria with the other students for lunch. He just didn’t seem hungry any more.

After lectures he would go back to his room and bury himself in his studies. If the voices came, he would sit back and listen to

On November 10th and 11th there was a ‘Critical voices on psychiatry’ Conference in Cork. It was a conference to show people that recovery from ‘severe mental illness’ is possi-

ble and that there is more to life then medication and ECT.I was one of the keynote speakers during the first day. Togeth-

er with my colleague of the Dutch Hearing Voices Movement, we did a talk about a different approach towards voice hearing, called efc: experience focussed counselling.

Research shows that voices are connected to someone’s life history and that medication is only helpful in 33% of the peo-ple. Romme and Escher developed the Maastricht Interview. It’s a structured way to explore and learn more about peoples voices and experiences. Using this tool, will answer two important ques-tions: whom do the voices represent and what problem do they represent?

Once you found the answer to these questions, you can start working on the relationship with your voices and the underlying issues.

I’m a voicehearer myself. I’m 34 years old and I have been hearing voices for as long as I can remember. As a child the voices were my friends and they helped me survive. I was growing up in a family where there was a lot of physical and emotional abuse and violence. I was told to be a child of the devil, they broke my bones, locked me up in the shed without food or water and many more horrible things. These voices warned me if they knew ‘bad things’ were going to happen and they also kept me company so I was never alone. They were my friends.

Later in my life they turned into my worst enemies. They told me to kill myself, to cut or burn myself, to hurt others and I got so scared of them that I always tried to find a way to obey them, so they would get quiet. I never told anyone about the voices, it was my ‘new secret’. I was so occupied with these voices that I didn’t have a life of my own anymore. They ruled my life, they were my life.

One day the voices told me to walk on the motorway, so I did. The police came and collected me and they brought me to the ‘psychiatric crisis centre’. The nurses didn’t know what to do with me because I didn’t talk to them, I lived in my own little world, so they called my crisis manager (psychiatrist) and he came to talk to me.

I studied psychology and I knew that he was specialized in voice hearing because he did a lecture in university. He asked me straight away if I heard voices and I said yes, expecting that this was going to be the end of my life. He would send me off too hos-pital, put me on lots of medication and I wasn’t going to be able to finish my study etc. But instead of all of this he asked me very normal questions: how many voices do you hear? Are they male/female do they have names? Do you know them? Etc.

Then he asked me if he could talk to my voices and one of them immediately said yes. So the psychiatrist asked questions directly to the voice, the voice answered (in my head) and I told the psychiatrist what the voice was telling me. This conversation made it clear to me that the voice was there to help me.

The method this psychiatrist used is called Voice Dialogue. The psychiatrist sent me home and we made an appointment to start working on the voices. He taught me how I could talk to my voices myself. That took a while, before I was able to do this. But learn-ing to talk to them changed my life. My worst enemy became my best friend again and I don’t want to miss him!

The psychiatrist also introduced me to other voice hearers. That was a relief; I always thought I was the only one. Talking and listening to them gave me hope. Once they were in the same situation as I was in; not having a life of their own, but they recov-ered, still heard voices, but were able to live functional and satis-fying lives. If they could recover, then why shouldn’t I be able to??

Now thanks to the efc approach, the Voice Dialogue and the hearing voices movement, I have my life back. I still hear voices, but I’m the one in control!!!

what they had to say. But recently the voices had turned nasty. Before, they used to say such things as: How he has destined for glory; How God had chosen him save mankind; How only he could expose the terrorist cell that had infiltrated the student flats.

What they were saying now was dark and frightening: the ter-rorists were on to him; they were in league with the secret police and they were watching him through the CCTV in the street. Then one night the voices woke him, shouting out a warning: the ter-rorists were coming; they would be here any minute; he had to escape. Patrick screamed out into the night for help. He could hear his neighbors shouting, sirens in the street, banging on his front door.

A few hours later Patrick’s parents arrived. The doctor, who had come to Patrick’s flat with the police, had called them and told them what happened. He explained that Patrick had expe-rienced an “acute psychotic episode” and would need hospital treatment immediately

Patrick’s Story

Suzanne’s Story ‘One day the voices told

me to walk on the motor-way, so I did. The police came and collected me and they brought me to the ‘psychiatric crisis centre.’

speakyourmind 11

For every four people discharged from psychiatric hospital this week, three will be readmitted – a revolving door that has a soul-destroying impact not just on the person but their wider

circle of family and friends. People say that the main reason for re-admission is the stigma, the isolation and loneliness they en-counter when they leave hospital.

Slí Eile was set up as a practical solution, a way out of this re-volving door and also to tackle the stigma. Our pilot, residential project in Charleville Co. Cork is a social approach that provides support for up to 5 people at a time. As well as supported accom-modation, we now have a small home-baking business, provid-ing a structure and meaning that has contributed hugely to the increased confidence, self-belief of the tenants. Of the ten who have availed of the service in the past four years, only two were

Schizophrenia is an illness of the most complicated organ in the human body “The brain”. Although we do not fully understand why the brain malfunctions in people with schizophrenia, we do

know that people with schizophrenia, certain parts of brain produce excessive amounts of a chemical neurotransmitter known as dopa-mine, while other parts of the brain may have too little dopamine.

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects one in every hundred people worldwide.

Anyone can develop it. Schizophrenia occurs in all ages, from all classes and ethnic backgrounds in both young and old people.

There is evidence to suggest that schizophrenia does run in families, the truth is we do not know the true cause of schizophrenia. However environmental factors can increase the cause of schizophrenia such as stress.

Although the symptoms can occur at almost any stage of life, they are more prominent during late adolescence and early adulthood.

Men tend to develop symptoms in their late teens or early twen-ties, however women tend to develop symptoms in their twenties early thirties.

The symptoms of schizophrenia affect the way people think, feel and act.

re-admitted to hospital and both for a far shorter stay than previ-ously.

Slí Eile is now proposing to set up a community farm. As well as accommodating sixteen tenants the farm will include allotments and a farm shop. It will be a model that others can and will follow. The cost to the state to maintain a patient in hospital is in excess of €100,000 per year. In the Justice System, where all too often people end up, the cost is in excess of €200,000. The cost of a place at Slí farm will be €20,000 per person per year. Quality of life… Priceless!

At this workshop, staff and tenants will discuss Slí Eile social approach and plans for the farm

Joan Hamilton is the Executive director of Slí Eile

What isschizophrenia?

Artist – Mary Corcoran

These symptoms can be divided into three categories:

lPositive symptoms- such as seeing, hearing, smelling or tasting things that are not there and delusions, which can take many forms, e.g. persecutory, telepathic, grandiose, religious, sci-fi or paranormal.

lNegative symptoms- such as low motivation or emotion and withdrawing from family and friends.

lCognitive symptoms- such as difficulties with attention, memory problems or being unable to concentrate.

Facts versus Fiction

lSchizophrenia can be treated. One in four people with schizo phrenia completely recover within five years. For others symp- toms can be decreased and well being improved at different levels.

lPeople with schizophrenia do not have split personalities. Although they may behave unusually at times, they do not suddenly change into a different person.

lIt is rare for people with schizophrenia to be violent or dangerous.

lSchizophrenia is not caused by bad parenting.

lWhat people with schizophrenia see or hear is absolutely real to them – no matter how bizarre or unrealistic others may find it.

lRelapse can make it difficult for people with schizophrenia to re turn to their previous level of well – being. This means it is vital to continue taking medication and attending therapy sessions, even when the symptoms seem to be under control.

The Slí Eile Social Approach and Plans for Slí Eile Farm

joan Hamilton & tenants;

CORK TO TORYEugene Crowley

By train to SligoBy bus to Bun Beag

By Ferry to ToryA four roomed hostel

A pepper steak dinnerLe cairde anocht

THE NOOLY NIBGavin Francis

On the Seventh Day God stood back and looked aroundAnd all he saw was good and great yet still incomplete

Through its perfection, mundaneness and banality were aboundSo he gave the world its missing piece without which none could be complete

So he gave them loons, who poured forth their wackinessBut these fragile creatures needed shelter, so he made the Nooly Nib,

And this was good, all day it generated well meaning happinessAnd it also had dignity, seldom was there need for a bib

But soon the Nooly Nib became home to a paradoxSuch as changing the mood of those trying to come to terms with themselves

Or pumping drugs in those trying to detoxNo longer were they away with the fairies, following the elves

Yet the wackiness did not die, there was still a prevailing humourEven though the loons were sedated and tranquilised out of their minds

But there was a stink and a general feeling of rancourFor what was once uplifting now became their binds

And on the Eighth Day God inspected what he had doneHe thought he had wrote a sweet melody with his mighty scroll and pen

But now when he looks back he sees his foresight had not wonAnd in retrospect he simply says ‘Shit I done it again’

GramhorEugene Crowley

Come dance with me to Kilcrohane

We are a generous peopleGreat Sadness, Happiness

We danceAs we pass

Where is the butterfly gone?I want to shout

Can a pill take away emotion?Is it wrong to feel?

To express the truthTo say you feel hard done by

I cannot say – I love youMy heart is near to the surface

To feel all good and badI do love you but

Your ways are hardI feel like shouting

Get up and be an able bodyOne makes the road

That you walk alone onYou cannot change anything

Yet is it fair?The tears flow, flow silently

Once I had nothingNow I have something

But am I yet the same, oneCan extremes decide what you are?

Do episodes decide your future?Do pills make or take awaythe pain – the right to feel

This is my poem, the poem of meThe World cannot be wrong

One day I’ll sing the song againAs for now all one can do

Is to try and dance the dance of lifeThe butterfly will return again

In the springtime and fly

The Butterfly regina o Flynn

speakyourmind 1312 speakyourmind

speakyourmind 1514 speakyourmind

Is it time to deconstruct the medical model of modern psychia-try that at its centre of complex language has nothing to substan-tiate its right to diagnose?Is it time to question every pill being dispensed as to the cause and effect behind that pill?Is it time to break down the barrier of fear that says it is dan-gerous to question your doctor?Is it time to demand time, care/not prescriptions from our psy-chiatrist?Is it time to demand that psychiatric nurses, social work, psy-chology, step forward and look to respecting their place in the pecking order, take leadership; stop walking two paces behind the master, psychiatry?Is it time to put the prescription pad into second place and to go back to holding and caring for people?Is it time for old fashion love to become the first word to be written on a prescription pad?It is time to separate users and carers, we have different needs. At every conference we hear users and carers users and carers. My wife has different needs to me. If we continue to allow the system to combine our needs then neither will ever be satisfied. It is time for separation and true cooperation on a level playing field.Is it time to shut down suicide help lines that close at night? Is it time to put a helpline in place that can ring a backup up team, people who will go to the house of the person in distress; simply, sit and listen and hold them until the crisis passes?Is it time to open early intervention houses that will be manned by people who understand and are not afraid of anger. (Not early intervention with meds).People who will allow anger to dissipate without fear. People who will respect the patient’s right to decide and not assume the right to assess that capacity. People, who will listen to the bab-ble of excitement, understand the temporary nature of confusion behind that babble. People who will laugh at that babble sit with love with understanding and hold the person babbling until they calm down. Dance with them, if that is what is required.These early intervention houses manned by people who are trained to find a safe way to be close to the person in need of a temporary place of safety to express a difference, and not be afraid of the difference.Is it time to stop loneliness, time for the community to step up and get involved in a real sense in halting this epidemic of loneliness?Is it time for the mad community to take responsibility for its own inaction and actions, begin to question this attitude of hope-lessness and helplessness that we can become addicted to so easily.

Do we, the mad community, really want change; then if we do, we have to lead it.

Leadership is something you take on, but if you do then with it comes a responsibility to perform, without excuses.

We of the mad community are intelligent creative members of society and like all other sections of society comprise of good and bad, we must get over being “precious” about being self criticized.

We must step up to the plate if we want equality that means we must be answerable to the law if we break the law. Equality has responsibility built in. Legal capacity has a price.

We must ratify the UNCRPD without Irish amending legislation to pull the teeth out of that convention.

We must put binding advanced directives in place.It is most certainly time to stop the use of force as the primary

instrument in fulfilling a doctor’s duty to care, psychiatry being the only medical profession that demands the protection of the law in order to destroy some people’s lives.

It is time for plain language around this subject.We have people locked up for the whole of their lives in this

country based on nothing more than a medical opinion.We have people being forced medicated based on medical

opinion, resistance to that force being cited as psychosis at tribu-nals, trained by that educated ignorance in the belief system, like religion, that needs NO science simply belief to be true.

I have never met anybody who could clearly define for me the function of the Holy Ghost within the trinity, God the father cre-

ated it all, God the son Jesus saved it all, but what was the func-tion of the Holy Ghost, nobody knows it’s a mystery.

And to be a true believer in psychiatry you must believe in the mysteries of the miracles that will occur when you decide to become a true believer. But from there you not only become a believer you become a follower and in some cases a fanatic.

If somebody then attacks your core beliefs, then you are a threatened within that communal comfort zone of the true be-liever.

Some must suffer so that others may gain happiness it is the supposed nature of things.

Diagnosis is the God that created it all, the prescription pad is the Jesus that will save us all, and ECT is the holy ghost who is the mystery we must all believe in order for the first two to function.

Nobody knows how or why ECT works just that sometimes it does; a mystery or a lottery you tell me.

We made the casual use of lobotomies a legal nightmare and they stopped, but it did nothing whatsoever re the legal use of forced treatments and the principal of using force within psychi-atric units.

The real fear here is that if the legal right to use forced ECT goes by deleting 59b the whole belief system around force, will crumble.

That fundamental belief; that force has a place in the medical model, needs to be questioned. The stats would encourage ques-tioning, more suicide, more diagnosis, more prescriptions, and of

course we will be told it is down to lack of money, we have never in the history of this state spent more money in real terms on mental health. If mental health were a business it would be redundant.

The fact of the matter is the medical model does not believe I have the ca-pacity to be an equal citizen of this coun-try, that is their truth.

It is down to that false belief. In the basic ethos, converted to real-

ity, if a person does not believe in the medical model of treatment then that medical model will ignore that patients needs.

When early intervention with loving care is the primary need, the system awaits the crisis to evolve, which it in-evitably will without that early interven-tion and then very smugly they will send in the lads with the white coats, pick you up and lock you up and the god of force with kind religious like fervour will force cure you into compliance and make you dizzy with the revolving door of re-ad-mittance.

Educated ignorance! Fear comes from force and there is

huge fear around psychiatric units in Ire-land.

We have citizens cured into a fog of compliance by cocktails of anti depres-sants and antipsychotics.

I am constantly accused of being anti psychiatry and anti meds, I take two sleeping tablets a night now they knock me out ,I need sleep now to combat pain.

When I was on a cocktail of drugs for madness, a cocktail I was told I had to take for life; the ingredients of the cock-tail changing at the whim of every new doctor; I was like a punch drunk alcohol-ic. I had no ability to engage or be af-fected by life and that was the accepted condition and price of cure.

I walked away.I am not anti psychiatry or drugs I am

anti arrogance and educated ignorance.Language is a powerful tool if you

keep saying over and over again this is

Is it time to decriminalize human emotions?

John McCarthy www.madprideireland.ie

speakyourmind 1716 speakyourmind

the body and blood of Christ then people will believe. When I was a child I was terri-fied to bite the Host; it would bleed. If you dropped the Host a nun would rush to wash the spot.

Disease, illness, Mental disorder, if you repeat these often enough and if you have power and put those who believe into posi-tions of power then you have belief system that can convert, and more significantly can force that belief on the non believers for their own good.

That is real CAPACITY The true believers believe that I, as a cit-

izen, lack real capacity and therefore they have a duty to take my place in the deci-sion making process, and like religion of old when I am ungrateful enough to challenge their right to my capacity, then they can force me to accept and continue to imple-ment that force until I comply.

Mandatory testing in our schools for “mental illness” is on the way. I heard an American psychiatrist in Brussels make the unchallenged statement that mass screen-ing of our two year olds for ADHD is a mat-ter of urgency in Europe.

Tribunals held as secret courts where over 90% of psychiatric opinion is up held, these have to stop; we need the full protec-tion of the common law not to be excluded from it.

Blind tests and double blind tests now prove that placebo is every bit as effective as drugs. Belief is the reality.

588 forced ECT treatments in 2008 50% of them to OAPS. We had to fight to get these figures.

I was at a suicide conference in Tullam-ore recently, the suicide prevention officer displayed charts giving all sorts of informa-tion and statistics. The coroner stood and told of alcohol levels, hash, cocaine and heroin but nobody had recorded the level of prescribed medication in the blood stream of those that die of suicide.

I would ask the mental health commis-sion as a matter of urgency to make it man-datory to record this information at inquest and to also to record the stated suicidal side effects of some of these drugs and who prescribed any such legal drugs to the vic-tims.

The interconnectedness of the medical profession and the pharma companies is not healthy. Hardly a neutral position for which to teach questioning minds on a belief system that has a great dependency on turnover in patients and money. Ref: Oireachtas report

Psychiatry demands the right to treat and a duty to care as its guid-ing principles.

The difficulty here is that all the treatment given within the medical

model is based on a false at worse and very questionable unproven theory of the chemical imbalance in the brain.

How? What? Where?When theory masquerades’ as proven sci-

ence when unproven fact is given the power to force practise by law then suffering is bound to follow.

How? What? Where?If Eugenics selective process was well to-

day then where would Stephen Hawking be? If the diagnostic model of forced treatment of

mind altering drugs continues, if “teen screen-ing” now raging across US schools where all students are “forced tested” for “mental illness” was law in Ireland as we are slowly being in-doctrinated to believe it should be?

If ADHD our newly invented unproven/unquestioned convenient child disease of the brain was alive and well in the past would Sal-vador Dali, Yeats, Da Vinci, Newton, Byron, Hans Christian Anderson (a complete oddball) or indeed Freud himself every one of them would today in their recorded disturbed child-hoods would have been diagnosed ADHD and prescribed Ritalin to sedate them.

Are we drugging our future oddballs our future genius into compliance, killing creativity with mind altering drugs?

The bill for all of this is in the post it will be delivered in the near future I hope we can pay it!

What point debate if the participating prin-cipals have agreed the principles prior to the actual debate. Now you are simply exercising semantics, swinging lips uttering hollow use-less sounds.

Rather like having a synod of catholic bish-ops to debate the divinity of Christ as a son of god. Belief in that fact being a requirement to participate.

Atheists who believe that a pill is not the cure for every ill locked outside the door of edu-cated ignorance that true believers insist is the price of admission.

Religion; we can be educated to believe god is a Christian, a Muslim a Jew some aw-ful things have been done by good people who were educated into this educated ignorance.

Psychiatry is insane, drunk on the power we have granted it by law because they take on those we society are too tired to care for.

We elevate psychiatry to positions of respect in society as we have historically done with all others we granted the right to abuse; those society wish to ignore, because they interfere with how we in society interact in our comfort zone.

Society has the duty towards all its citizens including us the nor-mally mad community; to listen. The debate is one sided presently that is what we should seek to change.

‘Do we, the mad, really want change; then if we do,

we have to lead it.’

The Friends of GF are a registered charity set up to raise funds to provide patients with equipment and services not nor-

mally available on the unit. Basically we are a group of volunteers (including nursing, medical and secretarial staff) who give up their spare time endeavouring to enhance the therapeutic environment and experi-ence for patients/clients in the acute unit of the South Lee Mental Health Service.

In the past we have been involved in a number of fund-raising activities which has included entering teams in the Cork mara-thon and hosting popular coffee mornings/raffles on the unit. We have also held a very successful quiz night in the Bishopstown bar. Prizes were provided by local busi-nesses and associations including the Cork Mental Health Association and Cork City FC. We raised well over €2000 and a good night was had by one and all.

Using the community meeting, held on the unit every Saturday morning, we dis-cuss with the patients what extra equip-ment and groups they would like to see. We have made a number of purchases for the unit including a pool table, musical instru-ments and fitness equipment. Services in-clude the paying of outside professionals to provide groups including music and drama. We have also funded Christmas parties on the unit paying for a local band, presents and food. We are always on the lookout for new and inventive ways to raise money and any suggestions are warmly welcomed.

Thanks for reading and your continued support!

THE FRIENDS OF GFCORK UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

Donal O’Malley and his team from The Watergate Centre, Bandon

won 1st Prize

John Murphy and the Glenmalure Team won 2nd Prize

Aoife collecting her bottle of wine from Tom Cahill

Congratulations to Lorraine Jones and Adrian Crowley on their wedding in August 2010

Courtesy of Shine

18 speakyourmind

Artist – Harry Elliot Artist – Noreen McCaffrey

Artist - John Kelly

Artist - Brendan Lawless Artist – Anthony Lynch Artist – Noreen McCaffrey

The “Outside In” Gallery

Brent pope’s

“Outside In”Art Gallery & Exhibition SpacePark lane Spencer Dock, North

wall quay

“outside in” is a gallery/exhibition space estab-lished to give genuine outsider or Brut artists voice through art. it is a celebration of artists who have experienced adversity and exclusion in their lives, and in doing so promote greater awareness and understanding”

The ‘Outside In’ art gallery was conceived and set up by Brent Pope (rugby commentator) with support from Shine. Great interest has been shown in this exhibition since its opening in No-vember. At the opening night 45 artists exhibited over 100 pieces of work, on the day almost a third of the exhibits were sold. Despite the weather conditions in early January attendance has been very good, as a result the exhibition was extend-ed and is still running in early March. Brent Pope tries to be there for all open nights despite his confl icting commitments to commentating on the Six Nations.

Supporting organizations: lSHinE: Supporting people affected by mental health.

lArTlinK- rEHAB Group:

lDuBlin SiMon Supporting homeless in Dublin

lDoWn SYnDroME irElAnD

speakyourmind 19

speakyourmind 2120 speakyourmind

SARAH BYRNEoCCupATion: Development Worker, Basement resource Centre.

1: What was the best thing that happened to you in 2010?

Getting a position in SHINE and moving back toIreland.

2: If you were to have a superpower what would it be?3: List three of your best personality traits.

I have a good sense of humour, I am kind, I empathise well with people.

4. What do you value most in your life?Tolerance

5. List one thing you would change about yourself?To have a better work/life balance

6. If you could visit anywhere in the world where would it be?Machu Picchu, Peru.

7. Name one thing you miss about being a child?Being able to play all day

8. If you could have three wishes what would they be?That nations would be at peace with one another. A more equitable society. People to be more kind to one another

9. What is your favourite song of all time?Jim Buckley- Sing a Song for You.

MARGARET COUGLANoCCupATion: i attend Dosco rehab.

1: What was the best thing that happened to you in 2010?

I have a new baby nephew, Harry, he was born in 2010.

2: If you were to have a su perpower what would it be?

I would like the power to be able to create peace and harmony in the world.

3; List three of your best personality traits.I am Charitable, I am friendly, I would help anyone in any way I could.

4. What do you value most in your life?My mother and my father.

5. List one thing you would change about yourself?I wish I didn’t suffer from depression.

6. If you could visit anywhere in the world where would it be?I would love to live in South Africa.

7. Name one thing you miss about being a child?Not having to worry about anything.

8. If you could have three wishes what would they be?To have Peace in the World, That nobody would ever go hungry or thirsty in the world, To make my Dad better.

9. What is your favourite song of all time?I like Michael Jackson’s song “The Way You Make Me Feel”.

JOHN SAUNDERS

oCCupATion: Director of Shine. Supporting people Affected by Mental ill Health

1: What was the best thing that happened to you in 2011?Having my first collection of poetry (After the Accident) published by Lapwing Publications, Belfast

2: If you were to have a superpower what would it be?To be able to time travel back in history and forward.

3; List three of your best personality traits.Diligence, Rational thinking, Problem solving

4. What do you value most in your life?The lives of my children

5. List one thing you would change about yourself? To become less impatient

6. If you could visit anywhere in the world where would it be?My favourite country is Africa, particularly central & southern parts

7. Name one thing you miss about being a child?The fantasy

8. If you could have three wishes what would they be?A guarantee of good health, The ability to play music, To worry less

9. What is your favourite song of all time?Bob Dylan’s, You’re Gonna Make me Lonesome when you Go.

IRENE MARGUERITE NEVILLEoCCupATion: Bruac rehab

1: What was the best thing that happened to you in 2010?

I continued my job into 20112: If you were to have a su-

perpower what would it be?I would develop artistic skills to create beautiful Embroidery and Tapestry

3; List three of your best personality traits.I am kind, tactful and honest

4. What do you value most in your life?My Boyfriend who I visit and who visits me,My mother who visits me also.

5. List one thing you would change about yourself?Change my style as regards clothes.

6. If you could visit anywhere in the world where would it be?Strafford on Avon in England, where Shakespeare was born

7. Name one thing you miss about being a child?The attention and care from my parents.

8. If you could have three wishes what would they be?Health, open employment and pull myself together to be cheerful

9. What is your favourite song of all time?Mary Hopkins “Those Were the Days My Friend”

Profiles

BRENT POPEProfile

What was the best thing that happened in 2010?I needed some time on my own so in the sum-mer I did something I always wanted to do, I rented an apartment on the Upper East Side in New York from a fire-man friend Pete Rodri-guez who had been so much a part of 911. Every day I got up had my big American eggs over easy breakfast and then went explor-ing, each day for nearly 3 months I explored this

wonderful city, trips out to Coney Island, Jones Beach, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Long Island the Bronx you name it I went there, using the subways and on a tight budget. The early evenings were my favourite times; I sat in Central Park, went to art galleries, movies and off Broadway or just sat with a slice of pizza in Greenwich Vil-lage and people watched. It was hard at times being on my own and unbelievably hot and humid but it was a dream come true.

I was also lucky enough to be able to open my Outsider Art Gallery in Spencer Dock. I am passionate about art and the chance to showcase art from people that many regard from the margins of society drawn from such charities as SHINE, Dublin Simon, Rehab Ireland and Down Syndrome was also one of the best things that happened in 2010.

If you were to have a superpower what would it be? To fly so I could visit New Zealand without a 40 hour long haul flight, and visit all the places I have ever wanted to see.

List three of your best personality traits.I feel a bit egotistical doing this, but I would like to think that kindness, humour and creativity are my best traits. I would like to think that I treat all people with respect and with a smile on my face, life is too short. Sometimes being in the public profile can be hard, but I always value other people’s opinions and try and take it on board. Sometimes people will not like you without meeting you.

I try not to judge others until I really know them. My creative side has me thinking every day, I have written children’s books, film scripts and features,

I am constantly thinking up new TV programme ideas and I love art and theatre, that is my creative side coming alive, I have a vast and vivid often child like imagination

What do you value most in your life?My health and my family I guess. Being so far away from my par-ents and brother can be emotional and hard sometimes especial-ly as my parents get older. I love Ireland, but at times especially during Christmas it can be very lonely. At times I regret the fact that I have not been there while my parents get on in years and in many ways they have missed 20 years of my life.

Health is your wealth and I as I approach 50 years of age I am lucky to feel fit and active. I lead a much healthier life now, and had a full health MOT last year, it is important that as we get older that we regularly check our health, it is always a shock to hear of people getting seriously ill at my age, I just thank God that nothing serious has happened to me apart from a few old rugby wounds that play up from time to time.

List one thing you would change about yourself? Negativity. Sometimes like most people I can suffer down days as to seriously wondering where my life has gone or is going. Despite achieving a lot of things in my life both on the sporting field and beyond and despite pinching myself that I am lucky to be working in a field that I love sometimes I find myself wonder-ing what will happen next. I would love to have been married and had children. I write children’s books and love the relationship I have with friends kids, but regret never having my own, people often think that I prefer to be on my own, but I don’t, things just have not always worked out, maybe it’s not too late and 2011 will be my year.

If you could visit anywhere in the world where would

it be? I love South America. I love the food, passion, fashion and music. I have been lucky enough to visit Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and other South American countries and I really enjoyed it. It was a few years ago now, time passes so fast and I would love to go back. In June I am taking a host of ex Irish rugby players to Zambia to build houses for Habitat for Humanity, I cannot wait; I hope it will be a life changing trip for all of us, being able to give some-thing back is crucial for me. I hope to be able to do it every year in different countries where people are struggling to live normal lives, I owe it to these people to at least try and make some sort of a difference.

Name one thing you miss about being a child? Oh God, the lifestyle in New Zealand. Long summer days spent running around bare foot spending playing sport, swimming in the local river with friends, riding horses. I would be outside from daylight to sundown everyday all summer, what a wonderful care free life it was.

If you could have three wishes what would they be? Continued good health and happiness for my family and myself. To be able to make a real difference to society in some way would be great, meaning everybody has a better life would be reward-ing and I don’t mean that in a flippant way, it’s not all about mon-ey although I see how people are struggling now I can sympathise and empathise with that too, but it has never really brought any-one true happiness. I would love to have my own family one day, someone I can share my life with.

What is your favourite song of all time? I have a good few and they tend to be songs with an emotional message, I like songs that make you think about your life, it may be heartache but it may be happiness too, it may take you to a time or place where you remember where you were or who you were with, but it still evokes memories. At Christmas I love Chris Rea’s Driving home for Christmas, because I can just picture someone driving home and cannot wait to see their loved ones. I love a song that I heard last year by American country artist George Straight called Take your breath away, listen to it if you have time, it has a great message- life’s not about the breath you take, but the moments that take your breath away, so true.

Nothing better than driving somewhere on a sunny day when your favourite song comes on the radio and you can sing along till your heart’s content Arragh thank god for car windows…

OCCUPATION: rTE rugby panellist, journalist

speakyourmind 2322 speakyourmind

A day in the garden and close to nature is the best way to de-stress and it’s all for free.

How can one not marvel at the arrival of spring? The first sight of Snowdrops, Daffodils, Crocus and the Primrose, the first rose of spring, fills my heart with happiness and reminds me of spring-time walks with my mother when I was a child.

Did you know that primroses love gritty stony soil? Just think of where they grow naturally, in ditches and stony ground close to ditches and dykes. Therefore when we plant them in our garden we need to copy that growing situation and sow them in gravelly stony soil. You can achieve this by purchasing Horticultural Grit and mixing it with the soil. Look at the angle of the primrose when it is growing in ditches. It is always placed in such a way that the rain will run off it. Containers and Pots. I love them! I love them! I love them! Why? Because they require very little effort. No weeds, very little main-tenance, mobile, flexible. What more could you ask for? Pots and containers provide instant colour and that’s what I love about them at this time of year. Pop in a few primroses and daffodils and you have a wonderful miniature garden. Placed in the correct position it will cheer me up while I do the cooking and washing up. If you have a conservatory make sure you look out at bright cheerful containers full of seasonal colour at any time of the year. Even this past winter I had three pots of pansies which survived all the frosts and snow and they are still cheerfully looking up at me as I write this article. They remind me of monkey faces as they smile. I love them because they are so undemanding.Daffodils, Do you like them? Everybody loves daffodils when they are in full flower but not so many people like them when they are dying back into the ground and not looking cheerful. Well I can help you with this. I plant my daffodil bulbs into small plastic pots (good way of recycling) and then I plant my pot into the ground covering it totally so nobody can see any plastic. Why? I hear you ask. When my daffodils flower I adore them and when they are finished flowering and I know I must let them die back into the ground, all I need to do is pull the pots out of the ground and store them behind some shrubs or anywhere once I’m not look-ing at the foliage dying off. I can then pop something else into that area like spring pansies and other colour plants. Everyone walking past my garden is mystified as I always have colour. Lit-tle do they know that I’ve my flower-ing pots hidden away? Out of Sight, Out of Mind! Don’t you think this is a clever idea? Does your front door have a ‘Wow factor’?

So the winter was bad, we had snow and frost and biting easterly

FeaturesDaffodilsMark R Slaughter

i fell in love – Taken by the innocence of

Child-face daffodils; Their perky April fanfares,

Clarion calls from yellow-ochre brass bands

presaging, rejoicing, calling us: ‘Here we are! Here we are! ’

Gardening Makes Me HappyMargaret Griffin, Griffins Garden Centre, Dripsey

winds and everything looked bad. There was one shrub this win-ter that still looked great. I know because I had it outside my front door. It’s a ‘Skimmia Redruth’, what a plant, what a per-former, it was astonishing with its bright red berries and shiny leaves unaffected by the harsh frost. Skimmia ‘Super plant of the big freeze’ – that’s my title for this plant. Grow it in a container; it really is a super plant.

What should you do with your dead Cordylines? Everyone is asking me this question and I’ve come up with the best solution. Even if I say so myself, I think my idea is going to be a winner.

Cordylines of all sizes are looking pretty awful. I suspect all you have left at this stage is bare wood. My theory is that if these plants come back to life, it will be from ground level so you may well have 6’ or 30’ of bare wood. Think of this as an advantage…… a prop, a structure in your garden. How much would it cost to build a pergola or archway 30’ high? What am I getting at? What I’m trying to convey is that you have a perfect prop for a climber e.g. Sweet Pea, Climbing Rose, Honeysuckle, Clematis etc. Plant a climber at the base of your ‘dead’ cordyline and you’ll have a spectacular feature in your garden. A feature which all your neighbours will envy. If your cordyline re-shoots from the base (which is what I feel will happen) you will have the best of both worlds. You will have your Cordyline back and beside it you will have a wonderful climbing feature. Try this, it will be stunning. My favourite climbers are ‘Wedding Day Rambling Rose’, 20-25 feet high, and Sweet Pea. Plant them together. Wow! Wow! Wow!

Before I finish talking to you today I must let you know that for me a garden without a fragrance is not a real garden. I just love ‘Smelly Plants’ One of my favourites is ‘Dianthus Mrs Sinkins’ – the common name for this plant is ‘the first communion carna-tion’ a wonderful clove rock fragrance. Another is the old fash-ioned Woodbine – again reminiscent of country walks as a child. What is your favourite scented flower? Why don’t you grow it in a pot? Then you can move it to your front door when it is at

its peak. Open a window and allow the lovely scent waft into your room. An-other plant to grow in a pot is ‘Night-Scented Stock’. This is just heavenly. Do you know the phrase? ‘You are closer to God in the Garden than any-where else on earth’ Maybe this ex-plains why gardeners are such happy people.

I hope to talk to you soon and re-member to visit me at Griffins soon. Bring this article with you and we will treat you to Tea and a Scone.

Happy Gardening!

outside to be with friends and to play games and have adventures.

8. If you could have three wishes what would they be?To develop a worldwide system of government which is seen as trustworthy and expert in bringing humanity to a better futureTo get a first hand view of where humanity will be at a number of future points in time such as 500 years, 50000 years and 1 million years timeTo eliminate suffering and the causes of it in this world, to “spread the love” so to speak (unfortunately this aspiration may be a bit idealistic as I know we wouldn’t have evolved to where we are now without some sort of winning/losing and pain/no pain equations in life).

9. What is your favourite song of all time?‘Golden Brown’ by ‘The Stranglers’. However it is very difficult to single out any one song , and some of my favourites are not songs at all as they are instrumental pieces such as ‘Albatross’ by Fleetwood Mac and a number of Jean Michel Jarre’s compositions I guess it is quite a mix of styles that I like to listen to.

TONY FRANCISoCCupATion: retired Chartered Accountant, now taking a History phD at limerick university 1: What was the best thing that happened to you in 2010?

I started a vegetable plot, being a city lad I had never grown anything before. Although we had some failures we have had some great successes. I had never seen Swiss Chard before but it grew prolifically and once I had tried a few recipes we found it a very good vegetable, elephant garlic was also new to me but we had a great crop. Carrots, parsnips, lettuce, spring onions and runner beans were also successful. The radishes, broccoli, beetroot and sundry others never made an appearance, but there is a new season this year so we can now try again.

2: If you were to have a superpower what would it be?The ability to explore the bottom of the oceans

3: List three of your best personality traits.I like to think I am honest, truthful and considerate

4. What do you value most in your life?My family and my health

5. List one thing you would change about yourself?My habit of procrastinating

6. If you could visit anywhere in the world where would it be?This is a tough question as there are so many places I would like to go. I would like to return to Chile which was a country I enjoyed immensely many years ago. Korea was very interesting, but I only made fleeting business trips, so I would like to see it properly. I have always wanted to visit Bhutan after reading a National Geographical article about 30 years ago; it has now opened its borders to visitors so I may yet get to visit.

7. Name one thing you miss about being a child?Climbing trees

8. If you could have three wishes what would they be?That my son recovers from his schizophreniaThat we get an effective working health serviceThat there is less inequality in the world

9. What is your favourite song of all time?Another tough question; Procul Harem’s ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’, ‘Eye of the Tiger’, Tina Turner’s ‘Simply the Best’. I get very sentimental when I hear ‘Sometimes when We Touch’ and of course not forgetting ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’.

DONAL CRONINoCCupATion: CnM2

1: What was the best thing that happened to you in 2010?

I had a great holiday in Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain.

2: If you were to have a super- power what would it be?

The power to make peace3: List three of your best personality traits.

Shy but willingI’m easy but not cheapI try to get the best from people.

4. What do you value most in your life? Contentment5. List one thing you would change about yourself?

I wish I wasn’t as lazy as I am.6. If you could visit anywhere in the world where would it be?

Any mountain range7. Name one thing you miss about being a child?

I miss not looking forward to Santa coming. 8. If you could have three wishes what would they be?

To stay physically and emotionally wellTo draw the pension for 30 yearsTo get to heaven

9. What is your favourite song of all time?“It’s hard to be humble”

BILL MURRAYoCCupATion: Assistant Director of nursing

1: What was the best thing that happened to you in 2010?

Bought Kayaks and started kayaking with my children.

2: If you were to have a super- power what would it be?

Be a peacemaker such that if I am ever in the presence of someone who is in some way cruel or abusive towards others that I could in an instant convince them to be caring and respectful towards others. As a consequence I could then eliminate wars, greed and manmade suffering.

3: List three of your best personality traits.I am very open, which translates as having an appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, imagination, curiosity, and variety of experience. I am very agreeable, meaning that I am generally considerate, friendly, generous, helpful, and willing to compromise my interests for others.I’m a long distance planner and usually eventually put those plans into action, even if years down the road

4. What do you value most in your life?My family, particularly my children.

5. List one thing you would change about yourself?My memory, it can be a bit sieve like at times and of course I would like to have a memory such that I never forget birth dates, faces or people’s names.

6. If you could visit anywhere in the world where would it be?I spent a few months in India and Nepal in the early nineties and travelled off the beaten path on a motorbike, an experience which I still value for several reasons and which has had a lasting impact on my perspective of life. I have plans to travel through Africa for a few months a little later inlife.

7. Name one thing you miss about being a child?All that playing, the thing foremost on my mind was going

speakyourmind 25

Staring over the headland with the sea raging down below. The old man his hands old and wrinkled from wear and tear and his body bent from hard work. Old memories and

thoughts fl ooded his mind as he watched the skippers coming in and out of the harbour. The sails proudly perched in the blue sky driving the waves as if they were almost cutting the water. His bent old body pulling in nets, with jumping fi sh over the side of the boat, basically sorting out the good from the bad. The good old days were well treasured.

On stormy days the skipper would be torn apart from the raging water driven by the stormy winds, tossing about in the raging sea. Many toyed with the idea but few ventured. Memories of his father fl ooded back, the strong powerful mus-cles dancing on his shoulders. He was as proud as a peacock when he looked at his father. His father looked like a giant when he looked up into his eyes. On a nice sunny day his father would allow him to stare at the skipper, he felt so honoured and sometimes other fi sher-men would say what a great fi sherman he would make, just like his dad. The beautiful and wonderful memories of the past almost tasting the sea on his lips.

And so they were right he had ma-tured into a fi ne strong man and would have made his dad so proud. His life was humble in the little village that was full of gossipers who loved to chat to each other. No stone was left unturned. In summer the village would be bom-barded by tourists. It brought life to the town. They were of all nationalities. A lot of Americans were attracted to the vil-lage. With their fancy clothes and lingo, some wouldn’t even need to open their mouths to know they were from across the water. Of course the trawlers would be delighted with the business they brought.

In winter the place was as cold as death with the grey mist wrapping itself around the mountains and blanketing the sea. Not many people ventured out dur-ing the cold dreary nights. He turned from the headland to walk back to his house. The breeze took his breath for a moment. His mind wandered back to his younger years. Not only was he an excellent fi sh-erman he also had a way with the la-dies. One glorious spring day he caught himself the most beautiful girl. She was young and fair and danced with her blond hair dipping over her shoulders. In the sun light it would sparkle like golden strands. She had ruby red lips. He would never forget how she looked that day at the doors of St. Joseph’s church. The day they became man and wife. Love blossomed and they were soon blessed with two beautiful girls. Angel faces like their mother. The second one especially Rosie adored her father from the moment she set eyes on him. A small tiny white face and red pink cheeks with her pink cheeks and her blue eyes. He loved the two of them dearly but Rosie was always going to be her dad’s girl, the apple of his eye. He still fondly remembers the days spent with his young family. Rosie who was well able to pull the right strings and steer the boat with the help of her dad, while her sister Ellie was quiet and shy. He looked down on the bay now

o SWEET lorDDave Murphy

O SWEET LORD YOU’RE WITH ME TODAYEVEN THOGH YOU SEEM TO HAVE

DESERTED ME

O SWEET LORD, MY IMAGINATIONSRUN RIOT TODAY BACK TO THE

BLACK DAYS OF MY PAST

O SWEET LORD I KNOW YOU’RELIVING WITHIN ME AND ALL

THIS WILL PASS.

24 speakyourmind

To FocusDavid Jordan

Focus, I want to thank you, all of you,For making me feel something I hadn’t felt

In many years - a part of it.A part of the group.A part of the games.A part of the music.A part of the energy.

The voices, the opinions, the listening ears,The sweet laughter, the mellifluous song

Of society.I say, again, thank you.

So now we must partAs all of you, soon, must part from each other.

And we will all go to different streams as We all came from different streams and

Remember the time we were a powerful riverRunning strong in daylight and dark,

Always looking out for each otherBefore we had to part.

Goodbye Focus and farewell.

All Things passDave Murphy

These words by thomas mertonAlways meant a lot to me

in the deepest darkness theyWere saying there’s a light to see.

i always repeat those words Whenever i’m feeling low

‘All things pass’ and i know i’llContinue to grow.

Artist - Mary Corcoran

Memories of a FishermanMargaret Coughlan

covered by the mist and rain and thought back to the time when they were all much younger. Those long hot summer days. How he enjoyed his family and those long sunny days spent by the beach enjoying the sea and picnics.

As he wiped the tears from his eyes he looked at his wrin-kled old weather beaten hands and remembered that those days were gone forever. The girls had grown up and gone to col-

lege and were off living their own lives. Tears came quickly as he thought of his wife’s burial and how broken hearted his girls were. On sunny days he could almost see her long blond hair and her red lips. He could almost smell her scent; see her dancing in the meadow before him. God how she had broken his heart, left him here alone. As he approached his front door he suddenly realised that memories were all he had left to live for. A man his hands old and wrinkled from wear and tear and his body bent from hard work. Old memories were all he had left.

Watery PlanetJohn A. Donovan

‘Three quarters of the surface of the earth is covered by sea water. ’

Three quarters of the surface of the earth is covered by sea water. Six oceans and numerous seas bound the seven con-tinents. The North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, The North Pa-

cifi c, The South Pacifi c, The Indian Ocean and the Arctic Ocean are the seas. They surround the continents of Europe, America, Asia, Africa, Australia, the Arctic Continent and the North Antarctic continent.

Sea water is undrinkable because of its high salt content.Billions of fi sh and sea creatures inhabit the sea. They range in

size from the gigantic Blue Whale, to the tiniest half inch multicol-oured fi sh of tropical waters.

Ninety-fi ve percent of all trade in the world is done by sea.At the beginning of civilisation thousands of years ago our fi rst

ancestors built their fi rst towns and cities on the coast where fresh water rivers met the sea.

It is thought by scientists that all land creatures originally came out of the sea.

A visit to the sea is invigorating and health-giving, and revela-tory of the large area that encloses us on all sides even though we seldom remember it.

One week after September 11 happened I left Ireland to live in the Basque region of Spain. It was a big cul-ture shock for me as I left Ireland for a place where

I knew nobody. There are many similarities between the Basque country and Ireland many of which I was to discover. I moved to Bilbao the capital of the Basque country which is ethnically mixed containing a large amount of both na-tive Basque and ethnic Spanish. Population wise Bilbao is roughly twice the size of Cork city that is around the same population as Belfast. Bilbao and Belfast share more similar-ities than just size. Politically the Basque country and North-ern Ireland have links as there are large sections of these two areas that want independence from Britain and Spain respectively. Both of these places also have in the past had their own paramilitary organisations, both of which are at the time of writing this are either defunct or on ceasefi re. The IRA in Northern Ireland and ETA in Spain. Allegedly these two organisations have links, the IRA having suppos-edly trained ETA. I found this out for myself when there was a bomb scare in the university I was attending.

Because of the political situation there is a certain amount of animosity between the Basques and the police. I saw this in action when I witnessed a good humoured carnival turn into a riot as youths turned on police by throwing bottles while the police replied by fi ring plastic bullets at the rioters. I asked one of my Basque acquaint-ances why the riot had started he sighed and told me that riots like this were commonplace but used to be much more common when he was growing up. I lived in Bilbao at the time that Ireland was playing in the 2002 world cup. I assumed it would be easy enough to fi nd a bar or some kind of venue that was showing the world cup despite the fact that it was only being shown on satellite TV. There are around 40 or 50 Irish pubs in the greater Bilbao area. The problem is that the majority of these pubs are Irish in name only. Most are not actually run by Irish people and thus like most pubs in Spain have no TV. Thus it took a long time to fi nd a pub that was actually showing the fi rst Irish match against the Cameroon.

We eventually did fi nd an Irish pub in the end. When Ireland scored their fi rst goal I was so overcome with joy I hugged my friend who was standing in front of me. What I didn’t realise was that he was holding a pint in his hand. He ended up soaking two people in front of him with beer. I was really embarrassed but the two people saw the funny side thank God.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the nine months I spent in Bilbao. It was probably the best year of my life so far and I hope to revisit it again sometime in the future.

My Time In Bilbao

John Murphy

Artist - Mary Corcoran

26 speakyourmind

Artist - Mary Corcoran

Sonnet:

A BrideDonal Looney

It’s here at last yourWedding day

You soon will be a Bride.Today you’ll leave this little church

With husband by your side.Just reminiscing, looking back

As I stand in the pew.The time has flown so quickly

Where have the years gone to?I turned to see my little girlCome walking up the aisle.Leaning on her father’s arm.Her face a beaming smile.

Her eyes are filled withTenderness.

And mine and filled with tearsAs I look back on childhood days.

And then to teenage years.We have had so many lovely times,

We’ve shared so many things Thoughts, ambitions, dreams,

desires.And hopes that soared on wings.

But now I have to let you go.My thoughts are in a whirl-This lovely radiant woman

Is still my little girl.

Schoolbag Mick Riordon

Over in the corner classroom near the muddy bank we sat wondering. Mr. Breathnach made the ink bottle with the powder and water and we waited while he came around

with the plastic bottle with the spout in the top and poured some of the contents into each of the little clay wells in the middle of the top of the old timber desks. “Dúch” he called it.

Next came the timber handles onto the end of which the shiny brown nibs were fi xed in a little roundy frame. I still did not know what to do with the assembled apparatus, but somehow I had an idea that this was not going to be a straightforward exercise. That morning we had been doing sums in the box copies with our pencils and so this was a new departure for us.

We had the new lined copy books with the blue and red lines, The idea was to write the small letters in between the blue lines and the capital letters and some of the small letters which had a loop or a tail in them had to be put in between the red lines at either side. Somehow we managed to accomplish this feat of me-chanical engineering without too much diffi culty. Mr. Breathnach helped us with the loops and curves and so we had a pretty good idea of what to do after a while.

Dipping the nib into the inkwell every so often we laboured furiously with the exercise and the scraping and scratching of metal on paper made a noise like an army of mice playing in an orchestra. “Right” says he after a while “I would like each of you to write a few lines on My New School Bag”, and with his back turned to us for a brief moment while he wrote the heading on the blackboard, there was a hush of anticipation and excitement. Now at last we would be like the older children down the cor-ridor and writing with real ink and pens instead of the pencils all along. Mind you the pencil would have been a better job and at least there would not have been so many blobs of dúch all over the pages.

“Hands up” who can spell School Bag, all the hands went up and in the excitement there were a few of us with splashes on the back of our necks as we still had the ink pens in our hands. I suppose that is what they mean by having writing in the blood. That was bad enough but about half way down the page Corney Casey sitting in front of me threw his elbow up on the desk just as I was dipping the nib into the inkwell and after a great effort to get so far now all I could see was a big black blob in the middle of the copybook.

Not knowing what to do about the situation I did nothing. “Muckey how many spaces between the...” he never managed to fi nish the question and we both tried to clean the mess with the sleeves of our pullovers but it did not do much good.

Typing this on the screen in the parish offi ce across the road now from that same school makes me remember back to those distant and happy times. I suppose the newsletter will be late again this month.

speakyourmind 2928 speakyourmind

Ardgroom

I come from in a small village on the Beara peninsula called Ardgroom. The irish for Ardgroom is Dhá Dhroim, meaning two drumlins, the reason it was given this name is because of its location. Ardgroom is geographically located between gravelly hills

deposited by a glacier during the melting of the ice age. These two gravelly hills are called Dromárd and Drombeg.

local amenities include a shop which is also a post office, café, internet café and a petrol station. There is a warm cosy pub in Ardgroom called “The Village inn.”

Ardgroom is located on the coastline and overlooks Kenmare bay. The Beara penin-sula is a very scenic part of the country and there are a number of historical monuments to be seen around the area such as stone circles, ring forts, and ogham stones.

When i go home from the city i really appreciate how quiet and peaceful it is in the country side. During the summer i really enjoyed coming home and fishing off the rocks in Ardgroom. The location i like to fish is Cuas where you can catch mackerel.

Castletownbere

This is the nearest town to Ardgroom Village, it is a small town that is located on the southwest coast of ireland on Berehaven harbour near the entrance to Bantry Bay.

The town has a population of about 875 residents in the town it’s self and about 1000 including the catchment area.During the summer Castletownbere becomes a very popular tourist destination. Tourists come here for many reasons, the

quiet location, the scenery, hill walking, fishing and of course the Guinness. When tourists visit Castletownbere they can spend a typical day climbing hungry hill, fishing off the rocks, fishing trips with local fisherman, touring the historical sites located all around the town by going around the Beara way and then finish off the night with a few drinks while part taking in the “ceol agus craic”

in the local pubs for example the famous Mac’Carthey’s bar. Fishing is the chief economic activity in town even though fishing only properly started up in the 1950s. Castletownbere is proud of having the largest white fishing port in ireland and the second safest natural harbour in the world apart from Sydney. it is also home to the irish Fisheries training school, BiM.

This is the location where i am from and i often enjoy coming home to relax and get away from the stress and constant movement and noise of the city.

Let me introduce you to a piece of West Cork… Seán Crowley

30 speakyourmind

Mary Robinson, during her term as President of Ireland, visited Mac-

room in 1996, amid great eu-phoria and excitement in the local area. In the Boy’s National School, our principal Mr. Browne put in huge and varied prepara-tions for the big day, as did the rest of the teachers. The task of each class in the school was to form a guard of honour for President Robinson’s arrival. In what was to be the fi rst visit by a President to the town, no

stone was left unturned in terms of preparation and organization.

On that momentous day, the entire town was decked out in the national tricolour of green, white and gold, and it certainly wasn’t long before the footpaths throughout the entire neigh-bourhood were surrounded by local inhabitants of all ages. In ad-dition, the many vantage points in the area were occupied by the local Gardai and security personnel, who kept a watchful eye on

proceedings for the big day. At exactly 3.00pm that afternoon, the President arrived in Mac-

room by state car, before a large and quite cheerful crowd who greeted both Mrs. Robinson and her husband. She was then intro-duced to the town mayor, and fi nally escorted onto a podium, just in front of the local Town Hall, from where she gave a passionate and memorable speech to the huge crowd, who converged in great numbers around the town square. After she delivered her address, President Robinson was then presented with a large and impressive portrait of the town’s 19th century poet and novelist, Art O Laoighaire. The public responded in kind, with a tremen-dous round of applause, which continued when the President was driven by state car to the Macroom Community Centre.

At the community centre, the President presided at the offi cial launch of a book on the history of the parish which was entitled, Macroom Through the Mists of Time. Again, many people fl ocked to the venue to catch another glimpse of the President, where she addressed the public and had a chat with the book’s author.

The visit of President Robinson remains to this day, as a true and cherished landmark event in the history of Macroom and the local community. Equally for everyone that was present in Mac-room on that momentous and historic day, it was a very proud moment. In short, people can truly say, they were there!

The Day when Macroom welcomed President Robinson

Stephen Lynch

Student Art Therapist Jenny Kiely

Dowsing is an ancient skill used to fi nd water, oil, minerals etc. Everything has a different vibration and the experienced dowser is able to pick up and interpret this information. In

Ireland dowsing is often used to fi nd water for a domestic well for houses not serviced by the town. The common image of a person dowsing for water is through the dowser using a forked stick.

Dowsing is used by trained people for health purposes; in place of the forked stick dowsers often use a pendulum. The body is made up of 50 to 75% water, making it an excellent medium for dowsing. Each person and each situation is unique. We recognise that every cell, tissue, gland, organ and body system etc needs to vibrate at an ideal frequency for a person to achieve optimal health.

The aim of the healer dowser is to fi nd the underlying cause of the problem and fi nd the specifi c direction towards the remedial action required.

I am a fully qualifi ed Vibrational Healer Dowser. My fi rst intro-duction to dowsing was through Jack Temple who helped greatly when we needed it for one of my children. We had been going to a number of specialists who could not identify the cause of the problem or remedy it.

Jack Temple was a renowned healer dowser and on our fi rst visit he hit the nail on the head. He identifi ed that the child’s prob-lem was the result of an operation I had during my pregnancy. He proceeded to treat the child with great results.

He invited me to a workshop/lecture day to learn from him, which I thought would be impossible for me. I joined with great trepidation a very large group of about 80 people from all trades and professions, all with a common interest in dowsing.

Little did I know that this day would change the rest of my life and that of my family. The pendulum which I now use every day, really responded straight away for me and I took to it like a duck to water. That was 25 years ago. I spent the next eight years training and working under Jack’s guidance, as one of his fi rst graduates.

The focus of this healing is subtle vibrational energy. The skill and knowledge of the dowser provides the precise and specifi c direction towards the remedial action required. Each person and each situation is unique. I now work in a clinic attached to my

Vibrational Clinical DowsingMargot Francis Dip. Vib. Med

home in Youghal and in Dublin, treating people with a variety of health problems; such as – Back pain’ Pain in general, Bone prob-lems, Migraine, Respiratory, ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, Anxiety, Diges-tive problems and Bowel circulation etc.

There are a few ways to look at human perception but when you think about it for a while you realise that it’s not as straightforward as you might initially suspect. Simplistically, the fi rst model of perception says that we all perceive things the same way because we’re

all human with the same sensory apparatus. Two people put their hands in a basin of hot water and they both feel heat. That model doesn’t account for everything though as we shall see – far from it.

The next model is more subtle and realistic and says that two individuals looking at the same painting for example will not only see the same picture but will pick up on different aspects of the work based on who they are as people , their own past experiences and so on. The same is true of music and art in general and basically whatever we perceive around us. Perception becomes subjective and personal not merely uniform.

But how well do we really perceive things? Before answering that question we must con-sider how we perceive things at all. Humans perceive objects using sensory data from their fi ve senses which is transmitted from parts of the body to their brain. Here these electrical signals are interpreted, giving us the sensation of something heard or seen, etc. As well as the physical experience of sensation we can refl ect on it and use it in some way. This is all fi ne but we have only fi ve senses and the brain. It’s possible that if aliens exist they have more senses and more powerful brains leading to higher, more acute levels of perception.

But there is an idea put forward by Kant which means there will always be a defi ciency in perception for any individual being. He said an object has a phenomenal aspect which is how we experience it - as above, how it seems to me but there is also a noumenal aspect which is the object as ‘it is in itself’. We can’t know this because as perceivers we only use a few par-ticular senses to glean information about something; we will never have absolute knowledge of an object. It’s almost as if we are all walking around in a permanent foggy twilight dimly perceiving things around us or, as if in normal light, everything has a shadow crossing it rep-resenting the unknowable part. So, you may think you are familiar with something because it’s common and ordinary like an apple but you’re not, you just perceive it in the human way and more generally as just a perceiver, you don’t really ‘know’ it at all.

It’s worth noting that an ‘object’ in this discussion could be something very general and might not just be something in our surroundings that we look at like a rock or a chair. It could be something auditory like emotive music or the sounds of nature or a distinctive taste or scent – indeed whatever we can sense. It could also be more complex and be a person, place, event, situation, idea, thought – basically anything we can encounter, experience and respond to. It’s interesting that an object in the Kantian sense above is ‘X’ in essence but for one it’s ‘A’ and for another ‘B’ and so on. In a world with so many individuals and so many areas that are subjective it’s a surprise that we can agree at all or call something great as an overwhelming majority.

Returning to ourselves, while it is true we only have fi ve senses and our brains there are actually other valid ways of experiencing something. There is the emotional response which is sensing something and responding to it with joy, fear, sadness, etc. That’s experiencing it too – perception has been enhanced. Related to emotion and bringing in the idea of a more global perception rather than just a specifi c form is that some people are, for us, attractive or sexy. Again this is subjective and depends on many things. Something that also seems unique to us as humans among all the species we know of is that we have a sense of humour; we can fi nd a situation funny. Like trying to explain some jokes it can be diffi cult to rationalise why we fi nd some things funny, we just do. Some also believe that certain people have an extra human sense – the psychic ability to see the future and read minds, etc. More commonly and prosaically, there is the intuition some people have for choosing the right option with limited information or just sensing danger for example. These are all ways that we experience differ-ent situations that go beyond the basic senses and brain model. They are the extra dimension of human perception that augments it.

Coming back to Kant, he believed that certain fundamental features of the universe are actually just aspects of human perception. For example, we experience everything in terms of space and time but he maintained that these are not in fact fundamental nor should we nec-essarily believe these exist objectively and independently of us. He also said we see things around us in terms of cause and effect because again that is part our makeup, how we view and understand the world as humans. Most people would think these basics exist anyway and aren’t just human constructs but perception is a tricky thing!

Then there is the part of perception that colours how we look at everything happening around us into bright or dark tones. Do we habitually see what is good or bad? Are we opti-mistic or pessimistic? This may see far from sight and hearing, etc. but it is part of how people perceive their own reality so it’s still worth mentioning.

Finally, there are the cases of those few individuals who see deeply into the nature of things, who have a profound understanding of human life. These are the founders of religions, philosophers and other leaders who can identify the problems of human existence and put forward solutions. They have great insight which is a powerful form of perception and this also occurs in a different way in the arts and sciences. These people try to help those around them and those that follow after with a meaningful message. So, that’s my summary of per-ception from looking at an apple to looking into the heart of man.

PerceptionMartin Murphy

Humans perceive objects using sensory data from their five senses which is transmitted from parts of the body to their brain’

‘

speakyourmind 31

speakyourmind 3332 speakyourmind

Points to Ponder★ Every man has three characters, that which he shows, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.

★ He who is good at making excuses is seldom good at anything else.

★ If you want to be original, be yourself. No two people are alike.

★ The greatest failure is the failure to try.

★ Bad representatives are elected by good citizens who refuse to vote.

★ Laughter lightens the cloudiest day.

★ Be kind – everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

★ The brain is as strong as its weakest think.

★ Manners are a happy way of doing things.

★ Always keep a pad and pencil nearby so that you can write down ideas, solutions and thoughts as they occur.

★ Be graceful when you’re feeling bad.

★ Life is a song to sing.

★ The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

★ Show you care and others will care for you.

★ It’s nice to be important but it’s important to be nice.

★ Happiness is an inside job”

★ “You are the gardener of your life keep the weed s out”

★ “Don’t take yourself so seriously, No one else does”

★ “You can’t change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future”.

★ “Take time to laugh, It is music for the soul”.

★ “If you don’t like something change it, If you can’t change it, Change the way you think about it”.

★ “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood”.

★ “Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you”.

As a psychotherapist and ex-cop and enduring advocate for human rights in mental health I confess to learning more about ‘mental illness’ from those who suffer it, than those

who profess to cure or heal it. So to the realization of the urgent need for some simple self-empowering preventative technique for those suffering early symptoms.

This technique would necessarily either help avoid the need for (a) institutional care and (b) mind numbing dangerous and addictive psychiatric drugs altogether, or at least provide one with enough space and time for an arm’s length view of all options, not the fatal alternative ones offered by the system.

This technique is borrowed from Oriental wisdom, psychology and spiritual practice, aided and abetted by my own imaginary processes. I have been practicing it myself now for a number of years and can personally stand over its power.

It is the conscious sigh. But first the unconscious sigh!?As the lamas point out, as sentient beings, we are living and

dying at one and the same time. So when and if we ordinarily only associate joy with the experience of being alive, we can only feel sad with our dying. That sadness is exacerbated by the un-conscious sigh. Notice for example when we ask someone who is sad how they are, how that sigh is readily incorporated uncon-sciously in their reply. Then be aware how you do the same thing.

When and if that sighing becomes habitual and addictive it can only lead to morbidity and what is commonly called depression. This would obviously be exponentially exacerbated because of

Follow That Breath!!The Sigh Key (psyche)

Greg White

unconscious grief, following loss of loved ones and trauma. Ex-periences of repressed morbidity and depression underpin all so called mental illness.

So to the conscious sigh. The conscious sigh reverses this pro-cess, making you ultimately conscious of both, living and dying, of being truly alive.

So with this intention, start when you are relaxed lying in bed and without distraction. First observe your breath and with a smile, notice how you’ve been sighing unconsciously and holding your breath for quite some time.

Now sigh consciously. Allow yourself the luxury of a slow, gen-tle, calm, full exhale but in the form of a sigh. If you can, at the end of your sigh, just pause awhile. Believe it or not, that conscious pause will eventually give you access to the breathless `letting go wonder’ you once experienced as a ‘pre-potty trained’ contented child. Letting go will empower you to begin to understand, that you are, and always were, more than your suffering.

Continue doing this for as long as you are comfortable with it. Please don’t be a ‘bull at the gate’. You can expect it to gradually bring up both positive and negative emotions for you and it’s all too easy to project them onto those close to you.

In time you will learn to catch yourself doing just that too and learn the deeper truth of Carl Jung’s assertion, “What is not made conscious within, manifests outwardly as fate”. To learn this is to unravel why you are here, your human destiny…

On the 18th of September 2009, I found and met my natural mother for the first time ever, the day before I turned 30 in the Clarion Hotel in Cork city. Her name was Kathleen and

she was from Co. Louth, She was married with three sons of her own, a 12 year old, a 14 year old and a 19 year old. Her 12 year old son has dyslexia and I was born with epilepsy on the 19th of September 1979. She gave me a picture of my 3 natural brothers and told me that she would tell them all about me and that her husband knew all about me and was in full support of us meeting up with each other.

From what Kathleen told me that day when we chatted in the Clarion Hotel, She led me to believe that we were going to have a relationship and that there would be more meetings in the fu-ture with both Kathleen and hopefully her three sons. I was very excited about that and looking forward to it, we wrote to each other for a while through the adoption society, St. Patrick’s Guild in Blackrock, Dublin. Kathleen rang me once or twice and I pushed her to tell her sons about me and to let me meet them so that I could get to know all of them. I thought we could all be friends but she never told them anything about me and she misled me all the way and led me to the biggest fall of my life.

After that meeting on the 18th of September 2009, I went into a deep depression and as the months went by I got more and more down and was feeling very low in self-esteem and self-confidence. I was crying constantly every day, I didn’t want to eat, I didn’t want to work. All I wanted to do was to drink alco-hol and sleep constantly. In fact it got so bad on the weekend of August 21st, 2010 when I was supposed to be moving into my new house instead, I decided to jump out in the middle of a car which happened to be my parents and tried to commit suicide. I knew exactly what I was doing at the time and I was 100% sober, I was just so depressed and too far gone to come back and there was nothing left there for me to live for but unfortunately the car wasn’t moving fast enough and I only split open my left elbow.

I spent over a month and a half in GF which was very embar-rassing for me as I work in the CUH and everyone knows me there and I like to keep my private business outside of work but the staff of GF were very good to me and whilst I was there, I took part in a lot of relaxation therapy and AA classes every Sunday

A Journey To The FutureBernice Seymour

evening. Today I’m off alcohol over 15 weeks and I have a lot of plans for the future. These include taking part in an 8 week crea-tive writing course and possibly writing my own autobiography in the future about my life. I’m also doing an anxiety management course at the present in “Tosnu” Resource Centre in Ballincollig which is very helpful in my recovery. I hope to be back at work in the CUH by early December because I miss my work colleagues and I realise now how good it is to be alive and how much my family and friends would have missed me if I had succeeded in killing myself.

Artist - Mary Corcoran

speakyourmind 3534 speakyourmind

Healthy EatingThere is no doubt that the food we eat has an important effect on our health and wellbeing. A healthy diet can help us live longer and remain healthier; help protect against heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. it can also increase our resistance to colds and to other infections, boost energy levels and help us cope better with the stresses of modern living.

The good news is that choosing a healthy diet doesn’t mean that you are condemned to a life of eating Mung-beans, brown rice and cottage cheese. nor does it mean saying goodbye to the foods you enjoy. Small changes in the food that you choose and the way you prepare them can make a big difference and can be a positive step towards better health.

Here are some recipes which have been submitted by readers, the ingredients being natural and unprocessed. i would like to thank all the contributors and i would like to invite anyone who wishes to submit a favourite recipe to do so.

Fats, oils and Ssweetsuse sparingly

+ Calcium, Vitamin D, Vitamin B-12Supplements

Milk, Yogurt & Cheese3 Servings

Meat, poultry, Fish, Dry Beans and nuts

2 Servings

Fruit2 Servings

Vegetables3 Servings

Fortified Cereal, Bread

rice & pasta6 Servings

Water 8 Servings

Kitchen HeavenFooD pYrAMiD

Delicious Vegetable Soupby Honor Cashell

INGREDIENTS4 Carrots peeled and chopped2 Onions sliced3 Sticks Celery chopped½ Turnip chopped1 Parsnip chopped1 T-Spoon Mixed HerbsSaltPepper3 Table Spoons Oil250ML Cream (Optional)3 Pints Water3 Stocks Cubes (Chicken)2 Potatoes Peeled And ChoppedMETHODHeat the oil in a saucepanAdd all the veg and stir to coat the vegCook for 5 minutes and stir againAdd the herbs water and stock cubesAdd salt pepper to tasteCook until all the veg is softBlend until smoothAdd cream

Crab Cakesby Melissa Healy

Serves 3 - 6.INGREDIENTS450 g / 1lb fresh white crab meat1 egg, well beaten5ml / 1 tsp Dijon mustard10 ml / 2 tsp prepared horseradish10 ml / 2tsp Worcestershire sauce8 spring onions, finely chopped45 ml / 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley75 g / 3 oz / 1 and a half cups fresh breadcrumbs15 ml / 1 tbsp whipping cream (optional)115 g / 4 oz / 1 cup dry breadcrumbs40 g / 1half oz / 3 tbsp buttersalt and freshly ground black pepperlemon wedges and fresh dill sprigs, for serving.METHODIn a mixing bowl, combine the crab meat, egg, mustard, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, spring onions, parsley and fresh breadcrumbs. Mix gently, leaving the pieces of crab meat as large as possible. Season to taste. If the mixture is too dry to hold together, add the cream. Divide the crab mixture into six portions and shape into round, flat cakes. Spread out the dry breadcrumbs on a plate. Coat the crab cakes on both sides. Melt the butter in a frying pan. Fry the crab cakes for about 3 minutes on each side or until golden. Add more fat if necessary. Serve with lemon wedges and dill.

Shephard’s pie recipe

By john Harrington

Serves 4 PeopleINGREDIENTS4 large potatoes1lb 4oz Minced Lamb1 tablespoon Sunflower Oil1 large onion

Health & Lifestyle

1 large carrot1 Beef Oxo Cube1 mug water4 teaspoons Gravy granules1 additional mug water¼ lb grated Cheddar Cheese1 head of broccoli ½ lb Frozen peasMETHODPreheat the oven to 180deg. Peel, wash & boil the potatoes. Peel, wash & boil the Carrots. Peel & chop the Onion. Heat the Sunflower oil in a frying pan. Fry the onions until golden brown. Add the mince to the onions & fry until cooked. Dissolve the Oxo cube in a mug of boiling water & add to the frying pan mixture. Dissolve the Gravy granules in a mug of boiling water & add to the frying pan mixture. Add the boiled car-rots to the mix. Place mince, carrot & onion mix into a casserole dish. Drain & mash the potatoes. Spread mashed potatoes over the mince mixture. Sprinkle grated cheese on top of the potatoes. Put dish into the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Boil the broccoli & peas, Serve.

poached Salmon served with a White Wine Sauce

By Seán Crowley

Serves 4INGREDIENTS4 Salmon steaks 12-16 Baby potatoes 4 Cloves of garlic 1 knob of butter4 Corn on the cob1 Lemon For the sauce25g butter25g plain flour 300ml milk25ml white wine1 Red pepper METHODTo poach the salmon place the salmon steaks into a saucepan of water with salt, pepper and one or two slices of lemon. Leave the salmon boil for about 20-30 mins on full heat. Wash and place the baby potatoes into a saucepan of water with salt and boil for about20-30 mins as well. Also put corn on the cob in a saucepan of water and let it boil for 15-20 mins. While the salmon, corn on the cob and potatoes boil, you can make the sauce, first melt the 25g of butter in a saucepan, then add the flower and keep stirring. Slowly add the milk and stir until the sauce is a thick liquid. Then dice the red pepper and add to the sauce, then add the white wine and let it simmer stirring regularly (as the sauce can burn very easily). Crush the cloves of garlic and mix with the knob of butter. When the food is all cooked place the salmon steak on a plate with the corn on the cob on the side and some baby potatoes. Allow the garlic butter melt over the potatoes and drizzle the sauce over the salmon.Serve to your dinner guests with a glass of white wine and enjoy. ** Tip- Warm your plates up in the oven before serving as fish can go cold fast**

Chicken risottoBy Margot Francis

INGREDIENTSParsley – Finely choppedLong Grain Rice – One Cup (two people)1-2 Chicken breasts - choppedWater – Two Cups (per cup of rice)Stock Cubes (Vegetable or Chicken) - Two (dissolved in the water)Peas & Carrot mix – Birds Eye pack – FrozenGarlic – 2-3 cloves ChoppedOnion – Medium – Finely ChoppedOil – For Frying

METHODMake stock with boiling water and stock cubesUse largish potFry onions til slightly see through (aprox 5 minutes) then add garlic and chopped chicken breasts stir 1-2 minutes, then add rice stirring all the time for five minutesAdd stock and stir only once, then leave to boil until water is absorbed or evaporates. Keep watching only takes 5 – 10 minutes Put lid on pot, remove from heat and leave for 10-15 minutes – DO NOT LIFT LID again during this time.In separate pot cook frozen vegetable- do not over cook. Strain.Check if rice is cooked; if so gently stir in vegetables.Add Chopped parsleyServe it with some condensed Chicken Soup or Sweet Chilli Sauce

Apple Fritters by Stephanie Shine

INGREDIENTS1lb (450g) cooking or eating applesBATTER4oz (110g) flourPinch of salt1 egg, free range if possible¼ pint of milkGood quality oil for fryingCaster sugar METHODTo make the batter, sieve the flour and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre and drop in the egg. Use a whisk to bring in the flour gradually from the edges, slowly add-ing milk at the same time. Leave the batter in a cool place for about an hour. Heat the oil in a deep fryer to 180C/350F. Peel and core the apples with an apple corer. Cut into rings not more than ½ inches (1cm) thick. Hold each ring on a skewer to dip into the batter then lift out with a skewer and allow any surplus to drain off. Drop the rings straight into hot fat. Don’t put too many fritters in at the same time. Fry until golden brown. Drain well on kitchen paper and toss in caster sugar. Serve immediately with softly whipped cream.NOTE: the fritters can be shallow fried in pan if more convenient

36 speakyourmind

Painless ways to save Euros!

“When buying vegetables, remove all plastic packaging and place vegetables in paper bags or even large old envelopes. The veg will keep for two to three weeks rather than a few days.”

Fast Fix: You’ve lovingly made a lasagne or apple crumble…… and the fillings gone and bubbled over and is now a burnt mess stuck hard to the oven floor. Worry not: all you need to do is sprinkle with dishwasher powder, cover with a couple of sheets of wet kitchen paper, leave a few hours, then it’ll come off very easily with a damp cloth.

It’s a stick-up! How annoying is it when you’ve removed a sticker and you’re left with glue residue that just won’t budge? Just spray the area with WD-40, leave for 30 seconds give it a wipe with kitchen roll and the sticky residue will dissolve before your eyes. If there are any stubborn marks left gently take a plastic scraper to them.

Hot tip from top chef!“When adding pieces of fruit to a cake mix, dust them first with a little flour to stop them sinking to the bottom” says Saturday Kitchen chef Rachel Allen.

Got five minutes??For a daily cellulite blitz, massage a handful of Demerara sugar mixed with ground coffee and 1tbsp of olive oil into dimples.

More Thoughts★ For every minute you are angry with someone, you lose sixty seconds of happiness you can never get back.

★ Even when you have pains you don’t have to be one.

★ Today’s mighty oak is just yesterday’s nut, that held its ground.

★ A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

★ Sometimes one has to have a break down to have a breakthrough.

★ If you love life, life will love you back.

★ Don’t think you are on the right road just because it’s a well-beaten path.

★ Friends are those rare people who ask you how you are and then wait for the answer.

★ That too shall pass.

★ Life and let life.

★ Nothing in life is for sure; nothing you see today will always be here.

★ Being challenged in life is inevitable; being defeated is optional.

★ Cherish your yesterdays; dream your tomorrows but be young at heart and live your todays.

★ A journey of a thousand miles begins in front of your feet.

★ You will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the things you did.

QuiZ AnSWErS143; Hockey; Always on my mind; George Michael; Bob Geldof; 1996; Chelsea; Gagarin; joan Burton; niel Armstrong; newbury; Sam Maguire; 1956; look; 12; Armagh; Sydney; john the Baptist; Steven Spielberg; The ear; Aversion to sun-light; Meter; Séan T o’Ceallaigh; St David; 21; Skin; St Dymphna; love me do

lWhat is the highest-achievable break in snooker?

lIn what sport do players take long and short corners?

lWhich cover of an Elvis song gave the Pet Shop Boys a number one in 1987?

lWith whom did Elton John release a live version of ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’ in 1991?

lWho has daughters called Fifi Trixibelle and Peaches?

lIn which year did Robbie Williams leave Take That?

lWhich football club broke the British transfer record in January 2011 by paying Liverpool F C £50million for Fernando Torres?

lWho was the first man in space?

lWho is the eldest of these three Irish Politician, Eamonn Gilmore, Joan Burton or Richard Bruton?

lWho was the first man on the moon?

lAt which English racecourse did two horses collapse and die in the parade ring due to electrocution, in February 2011?

lWhat is the name of the trophy presented to the winners of the All-Ireland hurling title?lIn what year did Ronnie Delaney win the 1500 meters at the Olympic Games?

lHow many Counties in the Province of Leinster?

lWhat is the smallest County in Northern Ireland?

lNear what city is Bondi Beach?

lAccording to the gospel of Luke, Zachariah and his barren wife Elizabeth were the parents of which great Biblical character?

lWho directed the film “Jaws”?

lWhere are the smallest bones in the human body?

lWhat is Photophobia?

lWhich is longer, a yard or a metre?

lWho was the second President of Ireland?

lWho is the patron saint of Wales?

lHow many spots are there on a six sided dice?

lWhat is the biggest organ in the body?

lWho is the Patron Saint of madness?

lWhat was the Beatles first hit single?

QUIZ

The Magazine for Glenmalure and FriendsBackground information

The Magazine for Glenmalure and Friends is a new concept in the thera-peutic development of people with mental health issues and in the rela-tionships between these people; their carers and friends. The magazine mirrors the call, in the government; ‘A vision for change’ for the involve-ment of service users in the evolution of the system which provides their care.

The genesis of The Magazine for Glenmalure and Friends was the deci-sion in the summer of 2008, of a number of residents of Glenmalure House on the Blackrock Road in Cork City, to publish a magazine as a way of giving themselves - and their peers in other mental health centres around the city - a voice. No limits were put on the range of topics to be considered. Glenmalure House is home to eighteen people who have been through the mental health system. The magazine was also conceived as a means of ex-panding and consolidating their community. Service providers and friends were invited to contribute to the magazine and the result was the first edi-tion; which was launched on 11th September, 2008 by Cllr John Buttimer, Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork.

Aims and objectivesTo foster creative writing in the mental health community in Cork City; by providing a medium for its work.

To strengthen the sense of community in this constituency; by enabling it to communicate through the holding of seminars on such topics as ‘The Right to Work for Service Users’ and on ‘The Need for Sheltered Accom-modation’

Main ActivitiesPublishing a semi annually magazine for people in the mental health com-munity in Ireland, with emphasis on the Cork City area. This community includes service users; carers; nurses; medics; managers; policy makers and friends.

Placing the content emphasis of the magazine on the contributions of ser-vice users.

Soliciting funds from sympathetic individuals and organisations in Ireland to cover printing and distribution.

Visiting service user centres, promoting the magazine and inviting contri-butions; building up contacts with users and providers friends and policy makers.

Catherine jackson; EditorDeclan Gould; CreativityBrigid o Flanagan; Committeejohn Murphy; CommitteeAnne Shine; CommitteeBill Murray; CommitteeTony Francis; Committee

Inspire Design & Print | www.inspire.ie