Letter to the Editor: Worrying drug trend among our young people
A report has shown increase in the number of young people taking drugs.
The latest report from the Health Research Board makes for very troubling reading — Surge in cocaine-related hospital emergencies among young people (Irish Examiner, June 8).
With cocaine use among young people in Ireland the second highest in Europe, it seems clear to me that we are deep in the throes of a drug use epidemic in this country.
This is especially, but not exclusively, among young women and the younger cohort of the population in general.
We have known about this for some time — as far back as 2016 it was widely reported in the media that an average of two people a day lost their lives due to drug misuse — so what has been done to address this problem in the interim? It would appear not much at all; if anything the problem has worsened.
Imagine the inevitable outcry and uproar if this were the case on our roads — the most recent spike in deaths over the bank holiday weekend garnered much attention.
However, virtual silence meets what is now a decade-long annual report on worsening numbers of drug-related deaths for families and communities across the country.
While it is commendable of the media to continually highlight these worrying trends, statistics mean little to grieving families and the young lives that have been tragically and needlessly cut short by the scourge of illicit drugs and those that push them.
There is a serious drug problem in this country that needs to be tackled by all sections of society with urgency, consistency and determination. How many deaths will it take for us as a country to say enough is enough?
Tom O’Driscoll believes that if passengers living in the southern region supported the routes on offer in Cork Airport, airlines would offer extra and more frequent routes — How to get more flights from Cork (Irish Examiner, Letters, June 6, 2022).
Unfortunately, many current routes are either seasonal — only available over summer months — or to “hubs” where one must get a connecting flight on to the actual destination one wants to reach.
So what happens when one wants to travel the rest of the year?
What happens if one does not wish to spend five hours traipsing through endless mega-airport shops and cafes trying to keep a clutch of bored and resentful kids, whose body clocks are totally out of sync thanks to being woken at 3am to catch a flight from Cork, pacified?
What happens if one tries to cut the wait in the connecting “hub” to say an hour or so to avoid going completely insane waiting round as above, only to risk missing the connection or arriving without suitcases because the departing flight from Ireland gets delayed?
Given those options, most passengers will continue to opt instead to make a three-hour, 500km round trip to Dublin to catch a direct flight all year round. So it’s a catch 22.
Airlines will continue not to offer such routes until enough passengers make use of Cork Airport.
I’m sure Cork Airport and airlines have heard of market research and I’m equally sure if they bothered to ask, most people living in the southern half of the country would tell them they’d prefer to travel 10 or 50 miles to Cork Airport than 180 miles to Dublin, with its massive queues, if decent regular routes were on offer.
When passengers continue to prefer the latter to the former, it should be a clear sign something is wrong.
I cannot leave the long article on SUVs go unchallenged (‘Catherine Conlon: Bigger is not better — the case against SUVs’ (Irish Examiner, June 5).
The writer has clearly done extensive research, the result of which (oddly?) all points an accusatory finger at “this great lumbering vehicle”.
Had the writer had a five-minute chat with your own excellent in-house motoring correspondent Declan Colley I am quite sure she would have benefited from a balanced, objective, and honest assessment of the SUV segment.
Or, if she had undertaken another five or six minutes of research, like I have just done, she would have found that:
- At least 12 of the top auto manufacturers produce two-wheel drive SUVs. These include Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Hyundai, and Skoda. (Reading the article one would think that all SUVs are 4x4s. This is not so.)
- At least 10 of the top auto manufacturers produce hybrid SUVs, all contributing to a greener environment. (These include Volvo, BMW, Audi, Toyota, etc.)
- The Range Rover Evoque is available as a hybrid and/or two-wheel drive, while for those with deeper pockets, the top of the pile Range Rover is also available as a PHEV (a plug-in hybrid).
For the record I am not, and never was, in the motor trade; I’m just an ordinary Joe Soap, with perhaps a greater-than-average interest in all things motoring, and I am therefore disappointed, even annoyed, to see such a one-sided negative, representation of the SUV segment, with many of the arguments from experts less than convincing.
Let’s have better balance the next time please.
I suffer with my mental health. The highest rate of suicide is among the Travelling community. There are children as young as 11 upwards taking their own lives.
Why? Because no one gives a damn about them and they face discrimination and racism.
To quote Nelson Mandela: “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background or his religion. People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
What these people need is somewhere to go, like a workshop and someone who they can talk to about their mental health.
I’m an activist and I believe that everyone — no matter what gender you are or what race, colour, or creed — should be treated with the same respect as anybody else.
What an excellent article — Michael Moynihan: Why is it that noisy people show no consideration for others? (Irish Examiner, 9 June).
I thought I was the only one who is being driven mad by this new fashion of broadcasting.
Initially, it was having to listen to one side of a boring phone conversation; now it’s compulsory to hold the phone at arm’s length and have video on, hence we get both sides of the same drivel.
It seems she has to take all her calls in the back garden. All the houses in our area know where and when she’s shopping; what she bought; what the kids’ sleep habits are; how she’s going “on the sick” for the summer, etc.
I’ve lived here for 40 years and have never come across this carry-on before.
When I’m out I try my best not to disturb others and also to keep any calls as discrete as possible.
Sorry for the rant but seeing I’m not alone in feeling this way was good.
The nomination of three women for Freedom of the City awards by the Lord Mayor of Dublin Alison Gilliland should be seen as just a first step in correcting the gender discrepancy associated with recipients of this honour.
Perhaps Dublin City Council might consider introducing a retrospective nomination process whereby those women who served Ireland and her citizens, acting on selfless motives, might be considered for the Freedom of the City award.
We in this country have been very fortunate with the calibre of citizens who, on the premise of volunteer participation, gave sterling service to assist the poor, the sick, and the marginalised and are worthy of recognition by the State.
Dr Kathleen Lynn is one who would surely fall into this category. Dr Lynn was chief medical officer of the Irish Citizens’ Army during the 1916 Rising and was the first female doctor to work at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear hospital when she was appointed in 1910. Subsequently, she went on to establish the volunteer St Ultan’s Children’s Hospital.
Dr Lynn, a distinguished medical graduate, feminist, suffragette, trade unionist, politician and comforter of the poor, set high standards of care for the less well off and destitute among us at a time when the nascent Irish Free State could not cope, and was a major contributor to the shaping of modern Ireland.
With her lifelong partner Madelaine ffrench Mullen, she worked in the soup kitchens in Liberty Hall during the 1913 Dublin Lockout. Dr Lynn left a rich tapestry of cultural influence on Irish society.
