Above: Making a point about PREP at the last Pride march in 2017. Photo courtesy of Tonie Walsh. New HIV diagnoses are being recorded at one every 18 hours – a record high. The LGBT community has been particularly impacted. Jim Gallagher finds that Ireland’s response to the upsurge in new diagnoses has been piecemeal, patchy and ill-informed. There has been no coordinated national response to the surge in new … Read More
Frontier Psychiatry.
The Wonder Eye: Meetings With Ivor profiles a pioneering and radical Irish Psychiatrist. Ivor Browne is celebrated as someone who played a public role in destigmatising mental illness, encouraging alternatives to the institutionalisation that characterised irish society. Caitriona Devery caught up with Alan Gilsenan to find out more about the making of the documentary. You’ve made socially engaged documentaries about mental health in the past – was this in the … Read More
We Need More Than Talk.
Above: A still from the Youtube promotional video for the Green Ribbon campaign. Watch it here. This month sees the roll out of the Green Ribbon campaign, one of them cosmetic marketing pushes that state departments channel millions of euro into in order to create a nationwide perception that your government is being proactive. Sean Finnan says it’s far from enough. The Green Ribbon Campaign is rolling out over … Read More
The Long March For Medicinal Marijuana.
Above: Medical cannabis campaigner Vera Twomey on the march in Littleton. Photos from Gino Kenny’s Facebook page. Her long march for medicinal cannabis put Cork Mother Vera Twomey in the news as she battles on behalf of her daughter. She’s returning to protest at the Dail this Wednesday and we’ve a feeling she won’t be on her own. Fergal Eccles and Beggars take us through the background to the Medical Cannabis Bill … Read More
Green Ribbon Month.
May is Green Ribbon month, when people wear green ribbons to show they’re thinking about, and willing to talk about, mental health. There are many films out there that focus on mental health, often very ignorantly, sometimes just plain offensively. So when a film like Two Days One Night comes along, it is all the more special. Two Days One Night is a film about a woman, Sandra, who returns … Read More
Pharmaceutical Assistance?
One of our readers got in touch about some shenanigans within the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland that is going to adversely affect a predominantly female and part-time workforce. Ailbhe Ní Bhroin’s ma is a pharmaceutical assistant and she claims that the PSI is basically trying to force her and her colleagues out of the work force. They want to redefine their qualifications some 30 years after conferring them. We’ll let … Read More
Women To Blame.
This weekend (after the March for Choice) you can catch an exhibition documenting the struggle to oppose the 8th Amendment. Over four decades, women in Ireland have been subject to repression, shaming and criminal sanctions in their attempts to express their sexuality and reproductive rights. Women’s bodies have been the subject of Tribunals, Referendums, accusations and censorship. Women to Blame visually represents the events before, during and after the Eighth … Read More
In Sickness And In Wealth.
The Minister for Emigration Richard Bruton TD, whilst on a jolly to the Gulf States in April, announced that Mater Private Healthcare Group has secured an agreement with the Dubai Police Force to provide a healthcare solution for its employees, family members and retired officers. The new agreement will see over 100,000 Dubai residents afforded access to state-of-the-art healthcare at the Mater Private Healthcare Group (Cork, Dublin and Limerick). INMO Trolleywatch: … Read More
The More Things Change…
My Name is Saoirse is set in 1980s Limerick and is a dark comedy about shifting, peanuts and abortion. Director Hildegard Ryan and writer/performer Eva O’Connor chatted to Rashers Tierney about how the religious orders still need to loosen their vampiric grip on our schools and of course their play, which was our hands down favorite at this year’s Dublin Fringe Festival. Can you tell me something about … Read More
#soapBox: An Open Letter To Minister For Health.
Cian O’Daly emailed Health Minister Leo Varadkar with this plea for help. This was in response to learning just yesterday morning that, his son, Henry’s medical card application was refused. “Dear Minister Varadkar, My son, Henry Bolger O’Daly, was diagnosed pre-natally 5 years ago as having Hypo-Plastic Left Heart Syndrome. He was born with the entire left-hand side of his heart missing. He has endured a series of arduous and … Read More