Wheely getting on my nerves!

Yet again as I go about my daily business, I am left growling under my breath as yet another cyclist elbows me as they zoom by on their bicycle.
The shock at nearly being knocked over, is amplified by the fact there is a perfectly good cycle lane adjacent to were I'm walking, thus the incident could and should have been avoided.

Cyclist knowking over a toddler; Photo: Daily Mail

There has been a massive increase into the number of people cyclng around our capital city, a mixture of government incentives, and the increasing cost of insurance and parking, lead more and people to plonk themselves on the saddle and set off.
I think this is a great thing, as it helps our environment, and our health system in the long run, as those on two wheels get a great bout of exercise everyday.
I would love to be able to cycle here and there, but do to balance issues, due to ear problems and so forth, I wouldn't last three seconds on a bike before falling over.

And yes I agree with the cycling lobby that there needs to be more done by the local authorities to ensure more of our main thoroughfares are places were cyclists can safely travel along these roads without their heart missing a beat every few seconds.
For example we should have a route from one end of the city centre to the other that would be pedestrian and bicycle only.~
This I think could very well tempt more people to cycle to work, and would mean less cars on the road, which means commercial vehicles can get from A to B faster, which is good news for our economy.

Photo from: Irishcycle.com

But back to the topic of my blog post Ahem!
There are many roads now that DO have adequete cycleways and so forth for bicyles to go down, yet many STILL cycle on foothpaths -WHY??
As for the roads that do not have provision for cyclists, forcing them to ride in front of and behind various types of vehicles, that is NOT an excuse to zoom along the FOOTpath, forcing me to dive for cover, whacking my knee against a wall (again!).
If you cannot cycle on the road amongst cars buses and trucks THEN WALK OR TAKE THE BUS!
Just because other road users are blind or simply ignorant as to your presence on the road, does not mean you have to scare te living daylights out of us walkers who use the FOOTpath.

Photo from: Pinterest

And don't get me started on the amount of cyclists who cycle with NO protection, not a helmet or a hi-viz in sight!
(Though the dude with the flowing long hair who used to go flying up South Richmond Street on a Rally chopper was a legend in my eyes!)

Cyclists are a very vocal lobby and you'll oft hear their spokerspersons on the radio, and on brief clips in the news.
I think it's about time us walkers had our own lobby too!

Who dares to speak of the 8th?

(Part of college Specialist Publications) assignment

 Source: Dallas News

It is now 35 years since the Irish people voted in favour of the eight amendment on the right to life, but the issue has continue to rumble on and on since.
I was only 4 years of age when the 8th Amendment was voted into law, but thanks to the wonderful people who put archive footage from the time into Youtube, For example:

Source: IrishCatholic86

 

Source: TheY2JMc

and (skip to 15.59) 


You can get a flavour as to just how bitter and divisive the campaigns on both sides were in 1983, a chorus of megaphone diplomacy that sadly continues to this day.
It's rather like that distinctive smell you remember from your late grandparents house down the country.
It may have been years since visited that dwelling, but you can still sense the odour as if you had only been there yesterday.

Source: Life Institute

To say the position on this issue that the majority of the population have taken is complicated, is putting it very mildly.

It is clear that many do not want to see another tragedy  like the late Savita Halappanavar case, but at the same time, they are firmly opposed to adopting the U.K. model.
People I know personally have articulated such a viewpoint to me.

An Irish Times IPSOS/MRBI poll from last October  showed a significant majority (55%) wanted to see limited abortion in this country. 
 18% wanted to keep the eight amendment, whilst 19%.wanted it totally repealed.
Yet tune into a discussion on abortion on radio or TV, and nine times out of ten you will not see/hear somebody de facto representing the 55% on the panel.
As per usual it will only be persons representing the extreme ends of this debate.
Thanks to large amounts of funding from outside organisations, (for example Chuck Feeney, and evangelical groups in the U.S.) both the pro-life and pro choice sides of the debate have the resources to make themselves seen and heard to a level that far outweighs their actual physical size; very much drowning out any sort of rational reasoned debate on this subject.

Source: Journal.ie

For many years Fine Gael and Fianna Fail politicians avoided this subject at all costs.
But this all changed on February 26th 2017.
The people had voted in the General election and Fine Gael quickly realised it needed the support of independents to stay in power.
Some of those independents made it quite clear in the negotiations to form a  government, that abortion was a red line issue for them, and wanted legislative change.
Enda Kenny and Co. knew they had no choice but to grasp the nettle, regardless of how painful it might turn out to be down the line.

Thus on the 15th of October the newly created Citizens Assembly met, and the 99 persons were given a run down by its chair Mrs. Justice Laffoy, as to what lay ahead for them.
The enormity of their first task could not have been made more clearer when the Assembly received over 13,000 submissions on the issue of abortion, more than double those received by the Constitutional convention on the issue of marriage.

I contacted groups on both sides of the debate to ask them as to their position on the citizens Assembly and the challenges it faced.
 

Source: Open Democracy

The group ‘Students For Life’ in their submission, urged the Assembly, “As Members of the Citizens Assembly, we encourage you to take a deeper closer look at what is being proposed by those seeking repeal of the 8th Amendment”
Another group to contact me on the Pro Life side, was the’ Life Institute’, they have urged people to look beyond the Citizens Assembly; “It’s important to remember that the really significant discussions on abortion are now taking place, not in the Assembly, but on doors, on the streets, in the public square, and with ordinary people.”

On the Pro Choice side, the Abortion Rights Campaign had this to say in their submission:
“We hope that ours and other submissions will show the 99 citizens that a referendum to repeal the 8th is urgently needed, and that the Government will finally show some leadership on this issue and quickly implement the recommendations of the Assembly’s report”

Source: Imgur

It is no wonder that the people sitting on the Citizens Assembly sought advice from experts on constitutional law as they strove to come to a definitive proposal on the issue of the eight amendment.
Trying to find a solution that would fit in with the majority viewpoint on this issue, will be a very hard job indeed, and media reports of their meetings bear this out.
And Fine Gael TD’s must also be feeling very uncomfortable at the thought there is little or no road left to kick the can down this time.

TD's warned of serious challenges in the health system due to sharp rise in over 75's.

At a presentation in Leinster House organised by Fianna Fail TD John Lahart, and attended by TD's from Dublin South West and South Central, Doctor Ronan Collins of Tallaght Hospital gave a stark warning to those present as to the challenges the country, and in particular the Dublin-Mid Leinster catchment area faces due to people living a lot older than before. In 1950, the percentage of the population over 75 in Ireland was 1.2% This is expected to increase to 11.8% by 2050. In 2011, 8,525 people in Tallaght were aged over 75, and this will rise substantially to 30,600 by 2031, just 15 years away. Dr Collins remarked "All our policies, be they in health or public transport should take particular notice of the needs of our aging population."

While he welcomed the opening of extra nursing home beds in the area, he was concerned that these facilities were under no stipulation as to the patient mix they take in. Therefore such facilities can admit persons from outside their area who are of a low dependency, and don't require major care, while elderly patients who are of high dependency are often left in limbo, often stuck in a hospital ward.

Ireland is 6th in the OECD, per head of population for fractures, and many of these people spend weeks if not months lying in beds in hospital wards because there is nowhere else for them to go during the recuperation process. Many of these are not elderly patients, but young people who've suffered a fracture playing sport etc, but you rarely hear that mentioned in the media.
He then spoke about St Brigids Nursing home in Crooksling, describing the vital services the facility provides, and at 23 acres, a good area of it, could and should be extended with more bed capacity added. Councillor Deirdre o' Donovan praised the staff at Crooksling for the care they gave her late grandmother which she said was "second to none", but opined that "the reality is we don't cherish our elderly".

Presentation organiser, John Lahart TD said "new nursing home construction being added into the county development plan, is always warmly received by councillors". He also remarked how "people do not see Nursing homes as places were elderly people are nursed, but rather as a place where they are being minded."

Joan Collins TD spoke of the work the future health committee she in on was undertaking, and how it related to what Doctor Collins had spoke about in his presentation, and Paul Murphy TD got agreement from the other TD's present that they would seek to have the issue debated in The Dail next week. Seán Crowe TD spoke of his concerns at the amount of paperwork nurses and doctors have to fill out, and nursing homes sending patients to A+E for very minor illnesses such as colds, and clogging up the system even further.

Clondalkin campaigns calls on FF TD to support Anti-evictions bill

A group of local activists protested outside the constituency clinic of Fianna Fail TD John Curran to demand he support an anti-evictions bill, tabled by the Anti Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit Party in the Dail.
The campaigners who are part of the newly formed “Clondalkin and Lucan Housing Group”, setup to highlight the homeless crisis in the area, and demand the construction of more social housing by South Dublin County Council to address this problem.

Two councillors where in attendance at the protest, Ruth Nolan of Independents4Change, and Madeline Johansson of AAA-PBP.

 Councillor Nolan said -
“We are here today to protest in support of the anti-evictions bill due to be voted on in The Dail on January 17^th. And to pressure John Curran T.D. to support the bill.
We should stop these vulture funds from evicting people at the rate they are”

 Madeleine Johansen then spoke -  
“We are here saying to the local TD’s that the AAA-PBP bill that’s before the Dail should be supported by them.
Anti-eviction laws are in place in many European countries, and stops landlords evicting people for spurious reasons, so we should do the same here”

Campaign organiser Seán Phelan condemned the decision by a majority of councillors to vote in favour of allowing the council to sell off a specially adapted house  in Clondalkin.
He added “The council should be providing extra social housing, not selling off existing stock.  There are many families with a disabled child or parent who badly need specially adapted accommodation.
The campaign calls on the council to reverse the decision to sell the house, and accommodate a family that needs it immediately”

The group plans to join the protest outside the Dail on January 17, as the AAA-PBP motion is being debated, and will hold a public meeting in Lucan in the coming weeks.