Fiona McCann
|
Looking for tender mercies
This last week, I have clicked over here to look at this blog and had a pang or two about how I didn't feel like writing anything to it or even copying and pasting anything because it was all I could do to post the news to the other site; and of course this year marks the 25th anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike, but then I know it doesn't matter to most of the people here, but it generates a lot of stuff to include if you are archiving.  I got some more bad news from my cousin, who is closer to me than anyone else, after he saw his cardiologist. He was born with a severe heart defect, which they remedied as best they could at that time, but he's had all sorts or problems and procedures and emergencies since. Bottom line is that the doc thinks his heart is on its last legs and that he might need a transplant. Down side is that the establishment gave my cousin hepatitis C when he was a wee babe from a tainted blood transfusion. As you might imagine, no one is too keen to give a heart to someone with hepatitis C. They want to do all kinds of tests now to see how bad it is (it hasn't presented itself, really, symptom-wise). It just pisses me off and turns my thoughts to violence because if my cousin needs a heart and can't have one because of something the medical people and the blood supply industry gave him due to their not wanting to spend the money necessary to test donated blood thoroughly for these things back then, then I am not sure what I will be capable of. You won't want to see it. Then my mom was so sick all week with the chemo she couldn't leave the house. She spoke to the doc on the phone who let all this get out of hand anyway, and he suggested she could take a chemo pill rather than to come into the office once a week. They are trying to arrange that now. I coerced my ma into changing oncologists even though they all work together, but she doesn't want to call him or make him call her to specifically see what he thinks about all this. I keep telling her she will have to stand up for herself and not assume these medical marvels know their arse from a hole in the ground. She's too tired to fight it, however, and she won't turn me loose to do it for her. It's a terrible feeling being helpless to help people deal with all the assholes in their lives. Well, so much for my whingeing in public. Let me see if I can find something positive to write about. My wee bird is feeling better after a bout of being sick. I have heard from an old friend--always nice. I get to see my mate online when he is there--in other words, I'm not blocked! Always a blessing. I got my puter upgraded at school and promptly took a bunch of spying shite off it. It didn't want to boot up then, but I fixed it, thank feck. Well, that's about it. Those are my tender mercies. Here is something for you. I've mentioned this software before, but it was upgraded in January. It's a wee browser you can carry on a floppy (yeah, I know, floppies are passé). It's great for sites you just have to get to but which have so much shite on them (belfast Telegraph, for instance) that you can't navigate (am I the only one who has this problem???) It has tab support now and looks deceptively simple, but there are lots of different settings to play with: "The Off By One Web Browser may be the world's smallest and fastest web browser with full HTML 3.2 support. It is a completely self-contained, stand-alone 1.2 MB application with no dependencies on any other browser or browser component. For Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Now, with a tabbed browsing interface." You can get it quickly right >>here. Does it seem a bit deserted over here at 20sux to you? I don't get many email notifications of posts. Is everyone jumping ship like wet rats? Well, so be it. I am staying. I'll talk to myself if I have to. I'm totally used to it. |
|
|
5.3.06 02:09 |
|
|
Plea over touring circus animals
Breaking News.ie 07/03/2006 - 06:53:58 Animal rights activists today demanded an end to travelling circuses touring across the island of Ireland. Kicking off the cross-border campaign against alleged cruelty, director of Animal Defenders International Tim Phillips said the culture of violence had to stop. “Travelling from place to place, week after week, and setting up on what land is available, animal circuses can never adequately meet the needs of the animals in their care. “And then there is the culture of violence that we have so often caught on video. We are asking to stop the beatings, confinement and deprivation.” He claimed around 150 animals are touring around Ireland with travelling circuses. The campaign, run jointly by Animal Defenders International and the Animal Rights Action Network, will begin in Belfast today before heading to Dublin, Limerick and Clare, urging locals to help bring about the end of animal circuses. A giant ADI billboard van will be touring Ireland highlighting the suffering of circus animals. |
|
|
7.3.06 11:19 |
|
|
New legislation to ban use of mobiles while driving
Breaking News.ie **Here's one for Alan, who probably hates mobiles as much as I do, if that's possible... 07/03/2006 - 07:50:23 A long-awaited move to outlaw the use of mobile phones by motorists will reportedly be included in legislation due to be published in the coming weeks. Reports this morning said the new Road Safety Bill would include measures to impose two penalty points on motorists caught using hand-held mobiles while driving. Research shows that using mobile phones while driving significantly increases the risk of a crash. However, the practice is not illegal in Ireland at present and a garda can only prosecute if he believes the motorist is driving carelessly as a result of using his or her phone. |
|
|
7.3.06 11:45 |
|
|
Cat-astrophe averted by a whisker, but it almost brought the house down
Irish Independent Peter Gleeson CURIOSITY, they say, killed the cat, so when Richie the female feline disappeared last Friday, the Casey family thought all hope was lost. That was until Ita Casey was hanging out clothes on the washing line two days later and she heard faint miaow sounds coming from under the house. So began a rescue mission that ended in the Caseys causing thousands of euro worth of damage to their home in a desperate effort to save the hapless moggie. Ita, her husband Sean and children, Ayrton (5), Bailey (3) and Corey (1), who live in Garrenroe, Thurles, Co Tipperary, realised that Richie, one of their cats, had gone missing on Friday. When Ita heard the animal's faint cries on Sunday, she discovered the cat was stuck in a pipe deep under the floors of their new house. By Monday morning things were getting desperate as the cat, a six-month-old female, had been in the pipe for four days without food or water. Tom contacted Tipp FM and made an appeal for help freeing the cat from what turned out to be a radon gas vent pipe. Two local companies responded to the appeal - drainage specialists Quick Start, and Wise Assistants, an electronics security company with special camera equipment. A tiny camera on a probe was inserted into the pipe which relayed pictures back onto a screen, showing that the cat was trapped under the box bedroom floor. With electricity in the area shut off for repairs, the rescue team had to bring in a generator to operate an air compressor drill to cut a hole through the bedroom floor. In the drilling process they burst a pipe and a plumber had to be called to prevent flooding of the house. The rescuers had to break the radon box under the ground to get at the cat, but after four hours of digging the cat was rescued. Tom, who runs a video production company in Thurles, filmed the entire rescue operation. |
|
|
8.3.06 05:46 |
|
|
THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS
My 'net mate' from 20six, Al from The Alan Benefit Diaries (which you should definitely read if you appreciate fine writing talent - and start from >>the beginning) turned me on to this link from the Independent on the impact the internet has on people going through soul-shattering trials and crises. In this article, the writer gains solace from a group of parents experiencing the same ordeal with their children; however, the premise this story is based on applies and is pertinent to many different situations an individual goes through in this life. Whereas formerly we might have viewed ourselves as lost and lonely in a universe of indifference, the net has the tendency to globalise our experience and prove to us that we are not alone and that we don't have to suffer by ourselves.  Click to view - Map of the Internet from The Opte Project Internet 'families' provide support for parents with sick children By Niki Shisler 14 March 2006 The Independent Sometimes, when you're least expecting it, life throws you a curve-ball. A little under eight years ago, after a period of peaceful stability, my own life somersaulted into chaos. I had been in recovery from alcoholism for a couple of years and, after great effort, had finally got my life back on to an even keel. My son Joey was 11; I was newly married to my soulmate, Danny; we had bought our first house together and, best of all, I had a new daughter, Evie, who was turning out to be a dream baby. My alcoholic rock bottom had been as grim as these things usually are, so having turned my life around so spectacularly felt like a real achievement. After years of misery and darkness I was, at last, standing in the sunlight. Then, with Evie just three months old, I fell pregnant again - this time with twins. It is safe to say that the idea of having three babies in a year didn't exactly fill me with delight. Suddenly this perfect little life that I'd struggled so hard to build was in danger of being shattered. I was still locked into the intense love affair with Evie that a mother has with her newborn; these two new babies felt like intruders, stealing me away from their sister before either of us was ready. As the weeks passed I became increasingly alarmed by this sudden expansion of my family. How would my body cope? How would I be able to go out alone with three babies? Did they even make triple buggies? I worried about our finances, and I worried that my sweet little Evie would be permanently scarred by the inevitable battle for attention with her siblings. No matter how hard I tried to remain positive, nothing seemed to help. In the end it was Danny who found the solution. He went online and signed me up for a support group, Twins List. That night, I sat and poured all the weight in my heart out into the ether. I don't know what I expected the result to be, but I woke to find dozens of e-mails from women all around the world telling me that they understood. I was astonished; letter after letter recounted experiences that paralleled my own. I learnt that my fears, misgivings, guilt and even anger were " normal"; even some of those who had conceived after years of heartbreaking fertility treatment found themselves shocked by a wave of negative feelings. Most importantly, each letter, without exception, promised me that these fears would pass; and that, by the time my babies were born, I would be more than ready to love them. I soon slipped into the daily banter of the group. Virtual communities are similar to physical ones in many ways; they have in-crowds and popularity queens, wise "elders", try-hards, eccentrics and clowns; they also have rules, both explicit and implicit; in-jokes and, inevitably, conflict. There were also, I found, real parallels with the 12-step groups I had been involved in: the principle of anonymity in both kinds of groups allowed for a degree of intimacy to develop that was unmatched in most real-world communities. At a time when we are less likely to know our actual neighbours, these virtual communities have blossomed, as though fulfilling some fundamental need for casual friendships and group identity. As my pregnancy advanced and I became unimaginably vast, my anxieties about the twins melted away, just as I had been told they would, and I began to prepare for the birth with mounting excitement. On 12 April 1999, Theo William Shisler and Felix Samuel Shisler arrived and suddenly everything changed. The twins were born with a mystery illness and, instead of the mountains of nappies and sleeplessness I was expecting, I found myself catapulted into the twilight zone of the neonatal intensive care unit. It is not unusual for twins to need a bit of extra help in the early days, usually due to prematurity (which was clearly not the issue for my full-term babies), and my virtual friends were quick to offer support and reassurance that we would all be home together soon enough. But, as days grew into weeks and then months, Felix and Theo looked no closer to being discharged. Danny and I were almost numb with shock; it felt as though we had been accidentally dropped into the wrong life, surreal. To call the next few months a roller-coaster in no way does justice to the nausea-inducing highs and lows of the ride. The boys were ferried between University College Hospital (where they had been born) and Great Ormond Street, where they underwent a bewildering array of tests and treatments (including having feeding tubes inserted when it became apparent they were unable to swallow). I focused on putting one foot in front of the other, coping with one day at a time, and at night I would sit at the computer and pour out my frustration and fear to the mothers who, despite the fact that I had never met them, felt by now like dear and trusted friends. Around the world, thousands of strangers shared our triumphs, struggled with our setbacks, and did what friends do - they were there for us. Each day I would awake to find another batch of e-mails offering encouragement, reassurance and love; and each day I drew enormous strength from them. After one particularly rough patch, the group secretly clubbed together and bought me a rocking-chair "to rock the babies in" when I finally brought them home. I was overwhelmed with love and gratitude. The babies themselves were gorgeous, though, and, despite my misgivings at the start of the pregnancy, I was utterly won over by their charm. Their physical similarity was startling - even I had difficulty telling them apart on occasions - but their personalities could not have been more different. Felix, the younger by two minutes, was a feisty little thing and incredibly sociable. He was also strong-willed, and you could see in his eyes that he was a fighter. Theo, on the other hand, was an altogether more peaceful soul. He had an air of serenity about him that everyone noticed and, while Felix liked to be in the thick of the action, Theo was happy to watch from the sidelines. Separately they were charming; together they were completely irresistible. They slept together in one big hospital cot, snuggled up and holding hands and I was glad that they had each other for the times when I couldn't be with them. Felix and Theo had been beset by chest infections and various bugs since day one but, seven months after their birth, both boys picked up a particularly vicious virus and Theo, always the weaker of the two, was finally beaten. He died at 5am one Saturday morning aged seven months and one day. At the hospital I held his still-warm, silent little body in my arms, trying to find a way to say goodbye to my son; and I felt, really felt, my heart break. Back at home I sat at the computer and tried to find words to tell the world that Theo had gone. It had been so unexpected; we knew there was a problem with the twins, but we had never really considered the idea that they might not make it. Denial, I suppose, and probably not a bad thing either, but it all added to the sense of bewilderment. The response to this terrible news was extraordinary: I received hundreds of e-mails within the space of a few hours. The shock was palpable. All around the world, people who had never met my son sat at their computers and wept. Felix and Theo's story had unfolded so publicly; many told me that reading the daily update on the babies was the first thing they did each morning. Danny opened a condolences book online and, over the next few days, the messages poured in. Though nothing could ease the pain of our loss, knowing that Theo's short life had touched so many people, that he had mattered in the world, made that pain a little easier to bear. As we held his funeral in London, my online community took their own children out and released white balloons into the sky, so that "Theo would have something to play with in heaven". I stayed around the twins list for a while. I felt so bonded to the group and, naturally, they were still keen to follow Felix's progress. I promised that I would stay until we got him home, while silently praying that he would make it. At nine months he was diagnosed with a severe form of nemaline myopathy, a rare neuromuscular disorder. Though cognitively normal, Felix's muscles were weak; swallowing, breathing, sitting and moving would be a struggle for him. He was given a tracheostomy in preparation for a life on a ventilator. Once we had a diagnosis, we turned a corner and started to plan the system that would support Felix at home. He was finally discharged from hospital aged 18 months. Leaving the group felt like another loss, another step away from Theo and " the twins". My virtual friends told me I was welcome to stay, but it was time to move on. I had, by now, connected with some other groups online for nemaline myopathy and disability parenting. What I experienced on the twins list was almost miraculous. Everyone who was there was profoundly affected by it; the public unfolding of our story became a part of the story itself. There was an intimacy that was incredibly powerful even though very few of the participants had ever met. Despite the trauma Danny and I went through, there was something magnificent about the humanity we saw. People, strangers, reaching out with love and compassion; a thousand tiny lights, shining in the darkness. Helpful sites Twinslist.org A discussion site covering all aspects of twins and multiple births, from pregnancy through to the realities of life as an adult twin. Includes information and mailing lists on multiple pregnancy and on bereavement after the loss of one or more twin. Tamba.org.uk The website of the Twins and Multiple Births Association and based in the UK (unlike Twins List). Support, resources, information and discussion, including an e-mail group for parents of children with special needs. Angels4ever.com A site for those who have lost a baby, with e-mail support groups (including one for loss in multiple birth), chat sessions, memorials and grief resources. Childbereavement.org.uk A UK-based site for families who have lost a child, including lots of advice and resources and also the invaluable Families' Discussion Forum. Our-kids.org Covering all aspects of parenting a disabled child, offering advice and resources. Run by parents who, between them, have a wealth of experience and knowledge, it also has a very supportive e-mail group. Nemaline.org A support and resources website for anyone seeking information on nemaline myopathy, the rare neuromuscular disorder that affected Felix and Theo Shisler. Fragile by Niki Shisler is published by Ebury Press, £14.99. To order your copy at the special price of £13.99 plus free p&p call Independent Books Direct on 08700 798 897, or order online at www.independentbooksdirect.co.uk |
|
|
15.3.06 03:31 |
|
|
Irish Firefox
|
|
|
16.3.06 19:02 |
|
|
Happy St Patrick's Day! 
|
|
|
17.3.06 05:30 |
|
|
PASSING THE POUND
Telegraph Asbestos-risk British ship is scrapped in Pakistan despite international ban By Jasper Copping 19/03/2006  (photo from Navy Photos)A British warship, riddled with asbestos, is being dismantled in Pakistan in contravention of an international agreement. Sir Geraint, a veteran of the Falklands War, is being broken up at the Gadani shipyard, despite a ban on the trade of hazardous waste to developing countries that should have prevented the vessel leaving British waters to be scrapped. The ship was allowed to sail despite suspicions that it may be sent to a scrapyard on the subcontinent. Critics say the shipyard workers are poorly protected against asbestos and other harmful substances. When the Ministry of Defence sold Sir Geraint to Babcock Support Services, in January last year, it secured a promise that it would not be sent for scrapping in the subcontinent. Babcock included the same clause when it sold the vessel to Regency Projects, which buys ships and sells them to breakers overseas. Late last year, when the ship, which had been renamed Sir G, prepared to leave British waters, the Environment Agency, responsible for monitoring where ships are scrapped, suspected it could be destined for the subcontinent. It allowed Sir G to sail after receiving assurances that it would not be dismantled. However, when the ship reached Pakistan it was sold to Bismilla Maritime Breakers and the dismantling began. Martin Besieux of Greenpeace International yesterday said the MoD and the Environment Agency should have done more to prevent it leaving. "The authorities must have known it was going to be scrapped when it left British waters so why didn't they act and stop it?" An MoD spokesman said: "It has all been a bit unfortunate. The Environment Agency and the MoD have been working together and we do need stronger clauses when selling these vessels on. "This particular ship went through so many hands that it all got slightly messy. It identified a problem and all steps have been taken to prevent it happening again." A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: "We did have concerns about the ship, but, at the time of our inspection, we were satisfied it was a fully functioning vessel. We were assured that the intention was to keep it in service." No one from Regency was available for comment last night but the company has previously said it had nothing to do with the ship being scrapped. |
|
|
19.3.06 07:39 |
|
|
Iconic symbol up for sale
Sunday Life John McGurk 19 March 2006  A poignant face from Ulster's troubled past is set to be one of the 'stars' at a top London art sale.For a poster of Belfastman Anthony O' Shaughnessy's appearance on the cover of a classic 1980 rock album is due to go on sale - with an asking price of up to £650! The startling image of Anthony fleeing the sectarian trouble which erupted on the day internment was introduced - August 9, 1971 - was used as the cover picture for Dexy's Midnight Runners' album, Searching For The Young Soul Rebels. Anthony, who was only 13 years old at the time, was pictured clutching a small suitcase and a holdall bag of belongings, as he and his family fled from Cranbrook Gardens in Belfast's Ardoyne area. The heart-tugging picture - later found in a pile of snaps in a London studio - made Anthony the centre of media attention upon the album's release in 1980. Now, nearly 26 years later, the image will feature among a galaxy of stars, including Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, in the Explosion! exhibition. More than 40 classic original rock and pop posters, custom-framed album covers and other rock artefacts, will be displayed for sale in central London's Movie Poster Art Gallery this summer. Gallery spokesman Tim Maddison told Sunday Life: "Posters like this rarely survive. I had never seen one before and it is my own favourite from the show." The poster, which is conservation backed on Japanese paper, is on sale for £350 (unframed) or £650 (framed). Other famous faces and iconic images in the Explosion! sale include Bob Dylan, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Johnny Cash and Led Zeppelin. |
|
|
19.3.06 21:45 |
|
|
Netscan: Memory tests & other goodies
Sunday Life Joe Mitchell 19 March 2006 Netscan: Memory tests The University of Amsterdam's psychology department is involved in on-going research into memory performance, and has set up an online test which determines a participant's ability to remember news facts. Consisting of 10 fill-in-the-blank posers and 20 multiple-choice questions, it takes about 15 minutes to complete. According to the Dutch academics behind the test, the good news is that it is possible to improve your memory by applying basic techniques. The site details a number of systems ranging from the simple to the highly sophisticated, and most come with downloadable online training software which will help sharpen those wits dulled by age and excess. http://memory.uva.nl The award-winning Exploratorium site has been plugging the cause of science education online since 1993. Now with more than 15,000 pages, it's an info-rich and instructive overview of this vast subject. This superbly designed and signposted site covers hundreds of different topics, and is a perfect example of the educational potential of the web. Check out in particular how the site explains Einstein's extremely confusing special theory of relativity. According to the famous prof, your motion through space is linked to your motion through time, which means that if you're a spaceman or woman, the faster your spaceship goes, the more slowly the clock on your spaceship moves compared to a clock back on planet Earth. Confused? You won't be after taking the Exploratorium's flight to the star Epislon Eridani 3, ten light years away, which explains everything. Enjoy the journey. www.exploratorium.edu The Bigfoot Field Researchers' Organisation is dedicated to pursuing that most elusive of creatures - the north American sasquatch. The organisation set up its site in 1995, and since then has amassed a vast database of what it terms 'credible sightings', which it claims are thoroughly probed by its network of volunteer investigators. Interestingly, it states that only one in 10 of the sightings submitted is 'credible' and blasts many other bigfoot sites which it claims are filled with bogus reports. A sighting posted last week from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, is typical: "My uncle looks out the back door, and yells 'hey, come here!' So I run over to where he's standing and see this big black hairy thing running down the hill..." http://www.bfro.net And for a more sceptical view of the sasquatch's possible existence, check out http://skepdic.com |
|
|
20.3.06 00:22 |
|
|
Canadian embassy picketed by seal cull protesters
BN.ie 23/03/2006 - 13:45:29 Animal right activists today stepped up their campaign for a ban on seal hunting by taking their protest to the Canadian Embassy. Picketing outside the St Stephen’s Green building, demonstrators urged consumers across Ireland to boycott all Canadian seafood until its annual cull is stopped. Organiser, Limerick-based activist John Carmody of the Animal Rights Action Network (Aran), pleaded with residents to join their appeal. “We are asking people in Ireland to contact the Canadian officials and voice their disgust in the violent barbaric slaughtering of seals and boycott Canadian seafood,” he said. “These seals are hacked, picked to death or clubbed or shot and die very slowly. Some have even been skinned alive or choked on their own blood. “This is the world’s largest slaughtering of any marine mammals, with thousands of seals already killed this year alone.” Celebrities all over the world have joined the protest against the killing of 325,000 young seals by registered hunters who claim they decimate cod stocks. John added: “This seal hunt takes place once the fishing season is over and the fur is sold, mainly in south east Asia. “We hope this is the last year this takes place, but if the Canadian Government doesn’t stop it we know a worldwide boycott will work. “We have identified that €126,000 worth of Canadian seafood is sold annually in Ireland. “There has been a huge boycott in America and we now are stepping up our campaign in the UK and Ireland.” The seal hunt will begin in the Gulf of St Lawrence this week. |
|
|
23.3.06 20:52 |
|
|
ALERT: Child dies after swallowing bracelet link
RTÉ 24 March 2006 12:01  Gift bracelet Recalled by Reebok over lead A child has died from lead poisoning in the US after apparently swallowing a link from a charm bracelet imported by sportswear firm Reebok. Reebok recalled the gifts following the death of the four-year-old from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The jewellery contains high levels of lead, posing a risk of lead poisoning and adverse health effects to young children. Advertisement The company and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission have now recalled the bracelets, which have been in circulation for the past two years. The Chinese-made bracelets, with a heart-shaped charm, were being given away free by Reebok with purchases of children's footwear. Up to 145,000 of the gifts were circulated in Britain and Ireland. A further 300,000 were given away in the US. They are also to be recalled in Canada, the rest of the EU, Asia and Latin America. Separately, discount retailer Dollar Tree Stores Inc was yesterday recalling 580,000 necklaces and rings due to high levels of lead. No incidents or injuries had been reported in connection with the Dollar Tree products. |
|
|
24.3.06 12:17 |
|
|
Predator in the badlands
Guardian It was a 40-year trail of violence and murder that began with the attempted rape of a six-year-old in 1965 and has finally ended with Robert Howard jailed for life. Susan McKay investigates. Saturday March 25, 2006 The Guardian  Priscilla Gahan says, "I'm the luckiest person in the world sitting here. There is no way he was letting me out of there alive after what he'd done." What Robert Howard had done was to rape Gahan repeatedly, "in every way", tightening a rope around her neck when she tried to stop him. "I was roaring, crying, and he told me to shut up, that he was going to do what he was doing whether I was alive or dead," she says. This ordeal took place in Howard's flat on Main Street, Castlederg, near the Irish border in County Tyrone.On the third day, while Howard was asleep, Gahan crept upstairs and found a window she could open in the second-storey room where he kept caged birds. She jumped, and then ran to the heavily fortified police station round the corner. She was 16. It was 1993. What she didn't know was that she was far from being Howard's first victim. Nor would she be his last. Howard, now 61, is serving a life sentence in Frankland Prison, Durham, for raping and murdering 14-year-old Hannah Williams in Kent in 2001. He is the only suspect for the murder of 15-year-old Arlene Arkinson in 1994, and in recent months he has been questioned about the rapes and murders of several other women and girls in Ireland and England. He is known to have attempted to rape a six-year-old child in 1965, when he was 21, a young woman in 1969, and an older woman in 1973. Gahan, now 28, is angry. Howard got away with what he did to her. Hannah Williams' mother is angry. She believes Howard should have been in jail at the time he preyed on her daughter. The Arkinson family is angry, believing he could and should have been convicted of murdering Arlene, whose body has never been found. "We need a full public inquiry into how this man got let go again and again to do the things he did," says Arlene's sister, Kathleen.  The case of Robert Howard suggests that the authorities - from the police to the prosecutors to the judiciary - simply haven't taken rape seriously enough. Howard got nine days in borstal for the assault on the six-year-old. He got six years for attempted rape of the young woman, and was free within three. After he raped the older woman, a psychiatrist warned that Howard was a dangerous psychopath and should be jailed for as long as possible. He got 10 years and was out in seven.In 1994, after Howard raped Gahan, another psychiatrist warned that he was dangerous to women and becoming more so. He got a suspended sentence. Howard moved easily between the Republic of Ireland and the north, and across the Irish Sea to England and Scotland. He was rarely monitored, and never for long. Liaison between police forces was minimal. Gahan, who has moved back to the Irish midlands where she was born, is still deeply traumatised by the violence Howard inflicted on her. She left home as a 15-year-old emerging from a troubled childhood. Her mother had been killed in an accident when she was five. "My father was finding it hard to control us," she says. "There were 10 of us. My friend had moved up to the north and I decided to follow. I was running away from Daddy, really, but it wasn't his fault. I was wild." Her friend's boyfriend knew a middle-aged woman called Pat Quinn, who said Gahan could stay in her house in Castlederg, where she lived with her own teenage daughter, Donna. Castlederg is one of those small Northern Irish towns that is well described by Yeats's phrase, "Great hatred, little room." It was deeply afflicted by the Troubles. Gahan liked it. She got a job washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant. She became part of a circle of teenagers, including Donna and Arlene Arkinson. Their social life revolved around nights in bars and discos in Castlederg and neighbouring towns in Tyrone, and in Donegal in the Republic, reached by a network of narrow, mountainous roads through woods and bogs. The border meanders crazily across this lonely territory. Robert Howard, then nearly 50, was Pat Quinn's boyfriend, though he was more interested in the teenage girls he met through Donna. He let them stay at his flat on Main Street. "He knew I had nothing," says Gahan. "He knew everything about me. He bought me cigarettes and runners and things. He used to bring us up to the bog to cut turf. He brought me out for drinks. I knew him as Bob. He called me Mick. He was so nice to me. He was from the south, like me. I'd left Daddy, and he was like a daddy who let me do what I wanted. I thought the world of him." A few months after Gahan had arrived in Castlederg, Howard suggested an elaborate plan to her. Ostensibly, he was fixing her up with a young taxi driver she fancied. She was to tell everyone she was going away for the weekend, get a bus to the next town, and then come back secretly to meet Howard - and the taxi driver - at his flat. Except the taxi driver never came. Howard took Gahan to a pub in the village of Sion Mills that night, but left when they saw someone they knew. "I was afraid," says Gahan, "but I don't remember why. When we got to the flat, I had a pounding headache. He gave me some pills. I remember sitting on his knee. I remember nothing then until I woke up the next morning naked in his bed. He started coming on to me, and I said no. He said I hadn't said that last night. He started getting annoyed then, and that is when he put the rope round my neck." When she escaped, after three days held captive, Gahan told police she'd been raped, but she felt they didn't believe her. "They banged the table and shouted at me," she says. They wanted to know why she hadn't tried to get away sooner, and why she did not, initially, tell them about her interest in the taxi driver. Looking back, she can see the control Howard had over her. "It was the way he had me thinking," she says. There was compelling evidence to back her account of what had happened: strangulation marks on her neck; her fingerprints on the windowsill from which she had jumped; a rope. Gahan was taken to a children's home and soon afterwards returned to her family, then to a job in England. Howard was arrested and released on bail. He was ordered to stay with the Quinns, even though this was a household that included the teenage Donna. He was instructed not to go out at night, or into pubs. In the summer of 1994, Gahan was informed by the police in Northern Ireland that her case was coming up. She returned to Ireland, but was not, in fact, called to give evidence. Howard had originally been charged with five rapes and with buggery. But the charges were dropped. Instead, Howard agreed to plead guilty to unlawful carnal knowledge. The implication was that Gahan had been a willing partner and that the offence lay only in the fact that she was, at 16, under the legal age of consent (17 in Northern Ireland). Her statements had been heavily edited. A prosecuting lawyer told the court that no rope had been found. Judge David Smyth ordered that a psychiatric report be prepared on Howard, and said that if it was satisfactory, he would not be sent to jail. He was released again on bail. This was extraordinary - by that stage, Howard was suspected of having murdered 15-year-old Arlene Arkinson. On August 13 1994, Arlene was babysitting at her sister Kathleen's home on a housing estate in Castlederg. Kathleen returned home at about 11pm, and soon afterwards Donna Quinn arrived to pick up Arlene. "She said it was her and her boyfriend and her mother and Bob Howard that were going out," says Kathleen. They were going to a disco at the Palace Hotel in Bundoran. An old-fashioned resort full of boarding houses and bars and amusement arcades, Bundoran is perched on the chilly edge of the Atlantic in Donegal. Donna said they'd be back by two the following morning. Kathleen said good night to her youngest sister. She never saw her again. "Arlene was wild, like me," Gahan recalls. "We were alike, too, because I had no one telling me what to do and nor had she. We got on great." Arlene's mother had died when she was 11. She lived between the homes of her older brothers and sisters, though she sometimes returned to her father's house. "I used to hear her upstairs, crying, 'I want my mummy,' " he remembers, as he sits in his living room, looking at photographs of his lovely, laughing daughter, missing now for more than a decade. At first, after Arlene disappeared, the Quinns covered up for Howard, claiming Arlene hadn't gone to Bundoran. However, it quickly emerged that after the night out in Bundoran, Howard had dropped off the others before driving away with Arlene. He claimed that he had dropped her off in Castlederg, and that he'd seen her in a car in the town the next day. He was not believed. Pat Quinn admitted Howard had got back home much later than she had originally said. The terms of his bail on the charges concerning Gahan included a curfew, which he'd broken, but still he was not held in custody. A petrol bomb was thrown into the Quinns' house. Howard was driven out of Castlederg by members of Arlene's family. He sold the car he'd used the night Arlene disappeared. For a time, he lived rough in a van across the border. Again, he was moved on by local men who knew his reputation. It was a full six weeks after Arlene disappeared before he was arrested. One of Arlene's sisters recalls something a local RUC officer said at this time: "He said, 'I wish I could show you that man's file. You wouldn't believe it.' " Still, at the time he was neither charged nor brought to trial. As an adult, Robert Howard called himself the Wolfman and the Wolfhill Werewolf. He gave himself a new middle name, Lesarian, believed to be a reference to a mythical child killer. He was born in Wolfhill, County Laois, in the south-east of Ireland, in 1944. He was a tall, gangly boy, bright enough at school, according to some of those who knew him then, but edgy, easily distracted. "He mitched [played truant] a lot," says one contemporary. "His father worked in the local brick factory and drank heavily in the local pub. His mother had nine children to raise. There would have been very little money brought home." By the time he was 13, Robert was in trouble. Convicted of burglary, he was sent to St Joseph's Industrial School, in Clonmel, not far from his home area, a reformatory run by priests and brothers. The truth about how such Irish Catholic institutions were run has begun to emerge in recent years. "These people were monsters," says one former inmate. "The place was unbelievable. We were starved. We were beaten with leather straps with coins sewn into them until we were bleeding. We had to gather turnips and stones for the local farmers. You had no name. You had a number. There were boys in there going around like zombies. We were terrified, all the time - a lot of us were damaged for life. Love was never spoken of, never shown. There was never a comforting word. Just relentless violence." There was also sexual abuse, and Howard would later claim to have been a victim of this. On his release, his father threw him out of the family home. The 16-year-old lived rough in barns and outhouses, and possibly in old shafts and tunnels from the days when Wolfhill had coalmines. One man, a child in the 1950s, recalls making a disturbing discovery in his father's hayshed. "We found old cans and blankets and things - Howard must have been sleeping there. We also found a diary. It was all about how he wanted to break into women's houses when they were in the bath, and the violent things he'd do to them. My father caught us reading it and took it away." Another local man recalls being told by a neighbour that, while out hunting one day, he had come upon a local farmer performing a sexual act on the teenage Howard in the woods. The man didn't intervene, but fired a shot into the air. Howard continued to steal. He'd rob from local shops and take cars. He was sent to a second reform school, St Conleth's, in Daingean, County Offaly, another of the most notorious of Ireland's brutal institutions for young offenders. A former priest who worked there said the priests were "programmed with an extraordinary level of violence" and that "most of the boys ended up totally disturbed". Howard moved to England. In 1965, when he was 21, he broke into a house in London and ordered a six-year-old girl to undress, claiming he was a doctor. He attempted to rape the child, and hurt her. A week later he returned and tried to break in again. This time he was caught. His punishment was nine days in a borstal, after which he was sent back to Ireland. At that time it was common for Irish criminals to be sent home in this way, a system of informal deportation. He didn't stay. In 1969, Howard broke into the home of a young married woman in Durham and attempted to rape her. She ran, naked and screaming, from the house. He grabbed her by the throat before neighbours managed to drag him away. He was sentenced to six years in jail, and served three, in Frankland Prison. During his time there, he assaulted a female member of staff. By 1973, he was free, and was again sent back to Ireland. Using the name Lesley Cahill, he got a factory job in the then prospering seaside town of Youghal, County Cork. One night in May that year, a 58-year-old woman who lived alone woke up to find Howard in her bedroom. He had broken into her house, which was beside his lodgings. He made her hand over her money and keys, then forced her upstairs again, breaking her ankle in the process. He tied her to her bed, stuffed her mouth with cotton wool and raped her, before driving off in her car. "She was a very vulnerable person," says Willie Doyle, then the local Garda sergeant. "She might have suffocated, but luckily for her some relations called the next morning and found her. She was very traumatised." Howard was arrested at Dublin airport. "He was very soft-spoken," recalls Doyle. "You would never imagine he could be violent." Psychiatrist Dr David Dunne, who interviewed Howard at the time, says he, too, was surprised by Howard's "extremely courteous" demeanour. "He was a very refined man, but I had seen his record and knew he was also extremely dangerous. I sensed and feared he had already killed someone. I knew his violence was likely to get far worse, especially towards women. I believed him to be an explosive psychopath. I wanted him to be sent to jail for an indefinite period." Howard could have got life. Instead, he got 10 years. He was out again in 1981. An internal Garda bulletin noted that he had returned to Wolfhill and "local opinion is that he is not going to waste any time before returning to his old tricks". A woman who remembers him from this time had her own horrific experience of sexual brutality. She was the teenager who would become known a decade later as "the Kilkenny incest victim". In 1981, aged 15, she was pregnant with her father's child. He was beating and raping her routinely, and used to take pornographic pictures of her which he'd show to other men in local pubs. "Bob used to come to our house sometimes at night, and he and my father would drink whiskey and poitín together," she says. "My father would say to him, 'Where have you been?' He'd say, 'I've been visiting relations.' My father would laugh. I always felt it was some sort of code. He was creepy. They were birds of a feather." Her father was eventually jailed for seven years. In 1983, Howard got married to a young woman he met in a Dublin hospital. The marriage lasted three years. They lived at various addresses in Dublin. She, too, was described as vulnerable, with emotional troubles; her friends revealed recently that Howard was violent and cruel to her. In 1988, he was jailed for 15 months for larceny. He went to Northern Ireland in 1990 to attend an alcohol treatment unit run by nuns in Newry, County Down. It was at around this time that he met Pat Quinn and moved to Castlederg. He lived at first in a caravan park on the edge of the town, a down-at-heel place where many of those awaiting public housing lived. Not long after his arrival there, in 1991, a young woman came from Dublin to stay with him. He was 47, she was 22. He tied her up and raped her repeatedly, was extremely violent and kept her as a prisoner until, three weeks later, her parents arrived and took her home. The woman became pregnant as a result of the rape and now has a 14-year-old child. The details of what happened to her did not emerge until her family told gardaí six years later, in 1997. Police decided she was too vulnerable to give evidence and Howard was not charged. His next known victim was Gahan. "He has a strong desire to dominate teenage girls both sexually and physically," wrote Dr Ian Bownes, the forensic psychiatrist asked in September 1994 to provide an assessment of Howard to assist Judge Smyth in sentencing him for the "unlawful carnal knowledge" of Gahan. "He has the propensity not only to commit further offences of a similar nature ... but also to escalate his offending behaviour." His activities were premeditated, involving the identification and targeting of "a vulnerable victim" and the use of a "sophisticated grooming process". Bownes said he was pessimistic about Howard's ability to undergo any treatment programme - his pattern of behaviour had been established over many years and would be "extremely resistant to change". When Howard appeared in court again for sentencing in January 1995, despite the damning psychiatric report, Judge Smyth gave him a three-year suspended sentence. As he freed Howard, the judge told him to stay away from teenage girls. Bownes heard the news on the radio. "I was somewhat surprised by the leniency of the sentence," he says. "In retrospect, we can see the system failed disastrously." Bownes never saw Dr Dunne's 1973 report on Howard. He was not told that Gahan had alleged Howard used a noose. What Howard would later refer to as "dark days in Castlederg" were over. In March 1995, he moved to Scotland, where he told local housing authorities that he had left Northern Ireland "in a hurry". He said the IRA was after him. He was given a flat in the rough Glasgow suburb of Drumchapel, near two schools. Pat Quinn came over from Castlederg to join him. The Northern Ireland police informed Strathclyde police about Howard's criminal record - and that he was the chief suspect for the murder of Arlene Arkinson. Howard returned to Ireland several times, but kept his Scottish base. Pat Quinn left in October, by which time Howard already had another girlfriend, a woman he'd met in a pub. She had a 10-year-old daughter. Then the Sunday Mail, presumably acting on information obtained from the police, outed Howard. The newspaper printed a photograph of the "Face Of Evil" over a piece about the "twisted child sex fiend" that detailed his criminal record and described him as "one of Ireland's most dangerous sex offenders". The sub-headline had a simple message: "Kick him out!" Within hours, a crowd had descended on the tenement house and the windows of Howard's second-floor flat were smashed. He used a rope to escape from a back window. Howard was on the move again. A police surveillance team located him at a hostel in Hither Green, south-east London, but he was hounded out by other residents who found out about his past. He disappeared for a time, and was later traced to Brockley, then to Catford. A child protection officer noted at the time that Howard was a difficult subject to monitor. By 1999, he was living with a woman called Mary Scollom at her house in Northfleet, Kent. Scollom had formerly been involved with the father of Hannah Williams and had remained friendly with the girl after the relationship ended. Scollom would take her for walks with her dogs around the Blue Lake at the back of her house. Hannah Williams' parents had separated before she was born. When she was four, she had been sexually abused by a boyfriend of her mother's and had spent some time in care. In 2001, she was 14 and living with her mother in the outer London suburb of Deptford. She had learning difficulties and was described as immature. Howard met Hannah through Scollom and showed a great interest in her. In February 2001, he took a home video of her, cuddling the dogs at the house he and Scollom shared. On April 21, she left home to go shopping in Deptford market, around the corner from her home in Elgar Close. She had very little money, but she liked looking at clothes. Her brother, Kevin, who had a Saturday job in the market, heard her answering her mobile and having a very brief conversation. She told the caller, "I'm going now." By 10pm that night, Hannah's mother, Bernadette Williams, was worried. Hannah had been supposed to meet a friend that evening but hadn't shown up. She wasn't answering her mobile. By 5am, Bernadette was frantic. She went to the police. She felt she wasn't taken seriously - several officers have since been disciplined for their role in the initial stages of the investigation. Bernadette made her own "Missing" posters and took them round local shops and bars. But Hannah was gone. Almost a year later, a workman was using a digger to clear dense undergrowth on land near the Blue Lake at Northfleet as part of the Channel Tunnel development. He found a badly decomposed body wrapped in a blue tarpaulin. Police initially thought it might be another missing girl, but when they released a description of the clothes, Bernadette knew it was her only daughter. "I finally found out my daughter was dead, and that her body had been found, by watching it on the telly," she says. "To find out that way was unforgivable. I screamed and then I cried and cried." Hannah's coffin was placed in a carriage drawn by white horses. "She would have made a beautiful bride," says her mother. "But instead of a white wedding, we had a white funeral." Hannah had been raped and strangled. The blue rope that had been used to kill her was still wrapped around her neck. Howard was arrested in March 2002 and charged with her murder. During his trial, at Maidstone, Kent, in October 2003, it was revealed that he had used his girlfriend's mobile to call Hannah to her death. Detective Inspector Colin Murray (now retired), who led the investigation, had no witnesses and no DNA evidence. However, he had circumstantial evidence and he was also able to rely on "similar fact" evidence. A traumatised young woman gave evidence that Howard had brought her to the same place where Hannah Williams' body was later found, and that he had tried to sexually assault her. She had escaped. Gahan came over from Ireland to give evidence that showed Howard's grooming techniques. Crucially, she also described how, when he was raping her, Howard had put a noose around her neck. Kathleen Arkinson gave evidence about Howard's part in Arlene's disappearance. It took the jury just three hours to convict him. Sentencing him to life imprisonment, Mr Justice McKinnon said, "It is clear that you are a danger to teenage girls and other women, and have been for a long time." Reporting on the trial was severely restricted because Howard had, by this time, also been charged with murdering Arlene. "Mrs Williams hugged us at the end of Hannah's trial and said, 'See you in Ireland,'" says Kathleen Arkinson. "We assumed that she would be called, and the others, too." But the public prosecution service in Northern Ireland did not attempt to introduce similar fact evidence. It has not explained this decision. The jury that heard the case in Belfast's crown court in the summer of 2005 knew nothing of the patterns of behaviour Howard had established in a career of sexual violence that spanned four decades. He was acquitted. Weeks later, he was also acquitted of other charges of sexual abuse against a 17-year-old girl in the 1990s. Police from Northern Ireland, the Republic and England have already held a one-day conference to discuss other crimes with which Howard might be connected. The police ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Nuala O'Loan, has launched an inquiry into the handling of complaints against Howard there. Gardaí in the Republic have applied for permission to question Howard in connection with the disappearances of at least two young women in the 1980s and 1990s. British police questioned him earlier this year about 13-year-old Amanda "Milly" Dowler, abducted and murdered in 2002. Barry Cummins, a journalist who has written a book about missing Irish women and children, says a thorough investigation into Howard's life is now needed. "This was a man who travelled freely all over Ireland and the UK, and lived in many places," he says. "The police should be looking at all unsolved disappearances, murders and sex crimes against women and girls during the periods when he was at large. They should be asking, 'Where was Howard?' " Ireland established a sex offenders' register only in 2001, and liaison on the monitoring of sex offenders between the authorities in the North and the South, and between Ireland and the UK, is seriously underdeveloped. Howard was a skilled hunter. He carried out random attacks on some of his victims, while others were groomed. He could live rough, but also knew how to play the system to get accommodation. He favoured poor areas. It was easy to win women with low expectations. He tracked down socially marginalised women to use as cover while providing access to vulnerable young girls. The ones he chose had typically already had bad experiences with men, and were relatively unprotected. He faked kindness, and deceived many.  In the desolate boglands around Castlederg, the search for Arlene Arkinson's body continues. |
|
|
25.3.06 04:25 |
|
|
LIGHT A CANDLE
gratefulness.org **This is a really nice website even for those who are not traditionally religious. It's very restful, peaceful and contemplative and gives you lots of good thoughts.  "Now: 3,536 candles from 81 countries are shining.In many different traditions lighting candles is a sacred action. It expresses more than words can express. It has to do with gratefulness. From time immemorial, people have lit candles in sacred places. Why should cyberspace not be sacred? You may want to begin or end your day by the sacred ritual of lighting a candle on this website. Or you may want to light a birthday candle for a friend. One single guideline is all you need: Slow down and do it with full attention. From here on, you will be guided step by step." >>Begin |
|
|
25.3.06 23:26 |
|
|
Canadian Seal Hunt Begins Amid Protests
ABC News Sealers Take to the Ice in Canada to Begin Annual Hunt, Get Confronted by Animal Rights Activists  In this photo released by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), a hunter drags a seal back to his boat after it was shot on the first day of the 2006 Canadian commercial seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada on Saturday March 25, 2006. IFAW experts were onsite to observe and document the hunt. (AP Photo/IFAW, Stewart Cook, HO) By PHIL COUVRETTE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE Mar 26, 2006 (AP)— Sealers took to the thawing ice floes off the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, the first day of Canada's contentious seal hunt, confronting animal rights activists who claim the annual cull is cruel. Protesters dodged flying seal guts pitched at them by angry hunters on the first day of the spring leg of the world's largest seal slaughter. Reporters and activists tried to get as close as permitted to the hunt on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but their presence infuriated sealers hunting for scarce animals on small, drifting ice pans. At one point, a sealing vessel charged up to a small inflatable Zodiac boat carrying protesters, and a fisherman flung seal intestines at the observers. "They threw carcasses at our Zodiac and they came rushing at us in their boat and tried to capsize us in the wake," Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society told The Associated Press. "This is standard behavior out here; the sealers feel that they're completely above the law." The fishermen in the isolated island communities of Quebec and Newfoundland say the hunt supplements their meager winter incomes, particularly since cod stocks have dwindled dramatically during the past decade. They resent animal-rights activists, who they say have little understanding of their centuries-old traditions. The hunt brought $14.5 million in revenue last year, after some 325,000 seals were slaughtered. Fishermen sell their pelts, mostly for the fashion industry in Norway, Russia and China, as well as blubber for oil, earning about $60 per seal. The federal government maintains Canada's seal population is healthy and abundant, with a population of nearly 6 million in the Arctic north and maritime provinces. Regulations require the sealers to quickly kill the seals with a pick or bullet to the brain. The pups also must be over 2-3 weeks old and have shed their white downy fur before being killed. Mark Small, president of the Northeast Coast Sealers Coop, has been sealing off Newfoundland for about 40 years. He said the activists do not understand how important the hunt is to family fishermen. "I think the Canadian public realizes these are coastal people who live off the sea and depend on the hunt to survive in small communities where the fish stocks are not there," Small told the AP in a telephone interview from St. Johns. Animal rights activists claim the fishermen often skin the seals alive or leave some pups to die if they are not immediately knocked unconscious. The Humane Society has had high-profile allies in celebrities like Paul McCartney and his wife, Heather Mills McCartney, who traveled to the Gulf of St. Lawrence two weeks ago to pose with the newborn pups. In a video message from London, the McCartneys proposed that Canada could end the slaughter by offering a license buyback program to sealers. The French film legend Brigitte Bardot came to Ottawa earlier this week. She said she was stunned that a developed nation would still let such a practice continue, three decades after she first came to Canada to frolic with some pups in an attempt to end the slaughter. The unseasonably mild temperatures in the Gulf of St. Lawrence have made the ice thin and many of the harp seal pups appear to have drowned, prompting protesters to call for the quota of 325,000 kills to be lowered to compensate for the natural deaths. John Grandy, a veteran animal-rights activist on board a plane chartered by the Humane Society to monitor the hunt and report any abuses, also said fewer pups were on the ice this year. "That tells us many have died, they fell through before they could swim," Grandy said. Roger Simon, spokesman for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, disputed concerns about a high natural seal mortality this year. "There will always be some mortality and some drowning," Simon told The Canadian Press. Aboriginal and Inuit hunters began the commercial kill in November in Canada's frozen Arctic waters; the spring leg will move off the coast of Newfoundland in April. The St. Lawrence hunt can last from three to 10 days, depending on hunting conditions. Martin Dufour, a helicopter pilot from Quebec who was ferrying the Humane Society protesters out to the ice, said he was not opposed to the hunt, only the way in which the seals are killed. "I don't know why they use the picks," he said. "It's a savage way and the seals are too young." The hunters prefer to use spiked clubs called hakapiks to crush the seals' skulls, rather than possibly damage the pelts with bullet holes. On the Net: Federal agency Fisheries and Oceans Canada: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca Humane Society of the United States: http://www.hsus.org International Fund for Animal Welfare: http://www.ifaw.org |
|
|
26.3.06 08:47 |
|
|
'My living hell'
Sunday Life **Here's a story for when we start feeling sorry for ourselves Stephen Breen 26 March 2006  An innocent survivor of a bloody loyalist feud today speaks for the first time about the barbaric gun attack that left him BLINDED and WHEELCHAIR-BOUND.Brave David Hanley - who was just two millimetres from death after being cut down in a hail of bullets by an LVF gunman - told Sunday Life about his amazing fight for life. "I was scared to live at the start but I am now refusing to lie down," said the 21-year-old north Belfast man. "I have decided to tell my story because I hope it will provide hope to those who are also suffering in life." David, whom police say has no links to any paramilitary organisation, was just three days away from his 21st birthday when he was shot. He was walking his dogs - Cracker and Bud - when a lone LVF gunman jumped from an alleyway on the Upper Crumlin Road and shot him in the head. The evil terrorist then stood over his prone body, pumping five more bullets into his stomach. The round fired into David's head went in one side and emerged out the other, rupturing his optic nerves and shattering part of his brain. David, who suffered severe internal injuries and has undergone a series of major operations since, decided to speak to us in the hope his remarkable story can provide hope and inspiration to others. He said: "I approached death's door but God closed it for me. I think I have survived this attack because I am here for a reason. My Lord is looking down on me. "The holes in my body are not nice and my life may be in tatters, but I'm determined to do my best to make the most of the time I have left on this planet. "I have lost my sight but I hope I will see the light again some day. I know that God will help me through the days that lie ahead." He hopes his story will inspire others who are suffering. "I want to tell them to keep fighting and to keep a stiff upper lip. "I suffered horrendous pain but I am refusing to take anti-depressants because I know that my Lord is with me every second of every day." David lost his sight, the use of one of his legs, was fitted with a colostomy bag, and: • His skull was left shattered; • two titanium plates will have to be fitted to his head; • both his stomach and liver were damaged; • for seven months he could not open his mouth more than 6mm; • had brain fluid leaking and lost a number of teeth; • surgeons performed two major colostomy reversal operations; • his weight dropped from 12st to six-and-a-half stone. Added the 21-year-old: "It is a miracle that I am still here talking about what happened to me. I don't know of anyone else who has suffered the injuries I did and survived. "My dad, who lives in Texas, thought he was coming home to Northern Ireland to bury his son. When I was in intensive care my family thought I was going to die. "My family were physically sick when they saw me after the shooting, and I know they must have thought they would never get to hear my voice again. "Sometimes I think I'm immune to pain after everything I've been through. "Nobody can believe the way my body is building itself up . . . I will keep going and make my family proud." David refuses to waste time on the gunman who shattered his life, saying: "I wouldn't lower myself to think about them. "They will have to answer to God, and when I'm judged I know I will have nothing to worry about. "I obviously remember that day but I don't choose to go there because I'm still traumatised about it. "I would also like to see justice some day because I don't want these people doing to any other innocent person what they did to me." Although generally confident of making a good recovery, he remains haunted by the fear his injuries could lead ultimately to his premature death. "When I am gone I just want to tell people to carry on," he said. "I know it won't be the same, but I don't want them to feel the pain." David, a big Manchester United fan, is also determined to remain as independent as possible despite his disabilities. It was initially thought that David's mum Valerie would have to give up her job to care for her him, but she remains in work as David prepares to move into his own flat next month. He added: "God saved my life but I also could not have got through this without the doctors, my 'golden' friends and my family. "Just because I have lost my sight doesn't mean I have lost my independence and I'm looking forward to moving into my own place next month. Once I am settled in, I intend to join a church group so that I can maybe help others and continue to pray to God. "Before I was shot I was very active and I am now trying to build up my strength again by lifting a few weights and eating the right food. "I also hope to get a voice-activated computer and phone so that I can rest, relax and rapidly recover over the coming months. "My mum's obviously heartbroken at what's happened and I also want to give her strength. I get by on four hours sleep a night but that's enough for me as I continue to build up my life." Brilliance of surgery team hailed The brilliant surgeon who saved David's life revealed that he had been just millimetres from death. In his only interview since the LVF attempt to kill the 21-year-old, Kishor Choudhari - a consultant neurosurgeon at the Royal Victoria Hospital - said Davd was "very lucky" to be alive. The neurosurgeon, who hopes to have a case study on David's injuries and recovery published in a medical journal, will keep in contact with his patient and his family during his long road to recovery. Said Mr Choudhari: "In normal circumstances, I would expect someone who received the same injuries as David to die. "But he went through a marathon operation and this is what saved his life. "If the bullet in his head had been a few millimetres to the left or right, he would have died - he is very lucky. "As his optic nerves were unfortunately damaged, there was nothing we could do about his sight. The few millimetres made the difference between him being alive or dead." The neurosurgeon, who has worked at the RVH for 11 years, refused to take credit for saving the David's life. "The fact that David is alive is down to everyone who has helped care for him at the Royal. I co-ordinated the management of his care, but everyone - surgeons, nurses and staff in intensive care, radiology and physiotherapy - have all played a part. The teamwork was excellent." |
|
|
26.3.06 17:21 |
|
|
Research backs theory that vitamin C shrinks tumours
Belfast Telegraph **This is a welcome story because it offers some hope for people who, like my ma, cannot tolerate the toxicity of standard chemo treatments By Jeremy Laurance 28 March 2006 New research suggesting that vitamin C can be effective in curing cancer will renew interest in the "alternative" treatment for the terminal disease. Three cancer patients who were given large intravenous doses over a period of several months had their lives extended and their tumours shrunk, doctors reported yesterday. A 49-year-old man diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer in 1996 was still alive and cancer-free nine years later, having declined chemotherapy and radiotherapy in favour of regular infusions of vitamin C. A 66-year-old woman with an aggressive lymphoma who had a "dismal prognosis" in 1995 was similarly treated and is still alive 10 years later. A 51-year-old woman with kidney cancer that spread to her lungs diagnosed in 1995 had a normal chest X-ray two years later. The findings were confirmed by pathologists. Although they do not prove the vitamin cured the cancer they do increase the "clinical plausibility" of the idea, the researchers say. Vitamin C therapy was first promoted by Linus Pauling, the Nobel prize winner, 30 years ago. Dr Pauling's claims sparked the continuing boom in sales of vitamin C, but attempts to confirm his findings failed and high-dose vitamin C became an "alternative" therapy. The latest study, published in the Canadian Association's Medical Journal, could trigger renewed interest in Dr Pauling's claims. Studies show that vitamin C is toxic to some cancer cells but not to normal cells. The problem has been delivering a high enough dose. The researchers say attempts to replicate Dr Pauling's work failed because they used oral doses of the drug which is rapidly excreted. However, injections achieve blood levels 25 times higher that persist for longer. At these very high doses, the blood level of vitamin C is high enough to selectively kill cancer cells. Several clinical trials of vitamin C therapy are about to start, including one at McGill University, Montreal, the authors say. |
|
|
28.3.06 18:28 |
|
|
Belfast film charts ring's sad story
BBC Filming has begun in Belfast of an epic love story based around tragic events in the city during World War II. Closing the Ring begins in 1942 when an American B-17 bomber crashed into the city's Cavehill while returning to its Northern Ireland base.  The film concerns a B-17 gunner's dying wish The story centres on a gunner in the plane's dying wish to have a gold ring returned to his girlfriend in America. The film is being directed by Lord Attenborough and stars include Shirley MacLaine and Pete Postlethwaite. Also in the film are Mischa Barton from TV's OC, Brenda Fricker and Christopher Plummer. Producer Jo Gilbert said some of the stars of the film would arrive for filming in the next three weeks, but added that those who were already in Belfast were very impressed. "The ones who have arrived have just gone- 'this place is just wonderful, everyone's so friendly and it's great we never knew it was like this'. "Because they don't. They don't realise that Belfast is one of the most burgeoning, fantastic cities in north west Europe. They love it," she said. The film is set in Belfast and North Carolina. The gunner's gold ring is discovered by a young Belfast man 50 years after its owner's death and the film follows him as he tracks the gunner's girlfriend and the history of the ring. The film is loosely-based on real events following the crash of an American bomber which was returning to its base in Nutts Corner near Antrim.  Lord Attenborough is directing the film "This landmark co-production with Canada marks an incredible opportunity for the film industry of Northern Ireland," Jo Gilbert added. "To have a British film icon like Richard Attenborough, and actors and filmmakers the calibre of Shirley MacLaine and (cinematographer) Roger Pratt filming this movie here in Belfast with local crew and actors is a phenomenal achievement for this community. "In addition to forging a new and strong link with Canada, it will show the rest of the world that Northern Ireland has a vibrant film industry and that we are indeed, open for business." Closing the Ring will be shot on location in Belfast and at the new Titanic Studios, and in Toronto in Canada. |
|
|
29.3.06 20:26 |
|
|
THE KITCHEN BITCH
A mother was working in the kitchen listening to her 5-year-old son playing with his new electric train in the living room. She heard the train stop and her son saying, "All of you sons of bitches who want off, get the hell off now... cause this is the last stop! And all of you sons of bitches who are getting on, get your asses on the train...cause we're going down the tracks." The horrified mother went in and told her son, "We don't use that kind of language in this house. Now I want you to go to your room and you are to stay there for TWO HOURS. When you come out, you may play with your train...but I want you to use nice language." Two hours later, the boy came out of the bedroom and resumed playing with his train. Soon the train stopped and the mother heard her son say... "All passengers, please remember your things, thank you and hope your trip was a pleasant one. We hope you will ride with us again soon." She heard her little darling continue..."For those of you just boarding, remember there is no smoking in the train. We hope you will have a pleasant and relaxing journey with us today." As the mother began to smile, the child added, "For those of you who are pissed off about the TWO HOUR delay, please see the bitch in the kitchen." |
|
|
30.3.06 07:29 |
|
|
SWEARING AT WORK
--Forwarded to you by the Human Resources Department-- Dear Employees: It has been brought to management's attention that some individuals throughout the company have been using foul language during the course of normal conversation with their co-workers. Due to complaints received from some employees who may be easily offended, this type of language will no longer be tolerated. We do however, realize the critical importance of being able to accurately express your feelings when communicating with co-workers. Therefore, a list of 18 New and Innovative "TRY SAYING" phrases have been provided so that proper exchange of ideas and information can continue in an effective manner.
|
|
|
30.3.06 07:37 |
|
[next page]
 |
| Admin |
| 20six front page |
Blogroll of favourites  |
| >>fuise<< |
 |
| Search 20six |
| Belfast weather pixie |
| email me |
 |
| 20six news |
Category:
| my gaff |
Design & © by
freiken douhl