News
Cyber bullying top problem behind 100 calls a day to Galway Childline
Bullying, and in particular cyber-bullying, is one of the main concerns of children who contact Galway’s Childline office, which answers almost 100 calls a day.
The economic recession also continues to be a major issue playing on the minds of our youth, according to volunteers manning Childline phones.
Mental health problems, including depression, anxiety and worries, are other prominent concerns while the strictly confidential service continues to be an outlet for children who are suffering abuse.
New figures show that the Galway office of children’s charity helpline, Childline, received some 35,243 phone calls in 2012, which equates to roughly 96 daily on average.
In addition, the charity dealt with more than 23,000 ‘contacts’ through its text message service and its online email and web chats. That included 17,550 ‘text conversations’ and some 6,176 ‘web conversations’. In May of this year the service received its five millionth call proving the facility is still a huge part of children’s lives in Ireland.
The phones are operated by volunteers of the ISPCC (Irish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children).
The Galway office, at Galway Retail Park on Headford Road, has a cohort of between 80 and 100 volunteers for its Childline service and mentoring and advocacy services.
Outside of Dublin, the Galway call-centre is the biggest and busiest of eight centres in the country.
Fiona Jennings, Regional Volunteer Organiser of ISPCC in the west, said around 9,000 of the calls received in Galway related to bullying.
That’s about 25 percent of all calls, and increasingly it’s cyber-bullying over the internet and on social networking sites that is the worry rather than traditional school-yard bullying.
Typically the children are aged 13-16 but they have received calls from children as young as six.
“Cyber bullying is huge at the moment,” said Ms Jennings.
“In the past the ‘traditional bullying stopped at the school gates or after the youth club closed its door but with cyber-bullying it’s continuous – they are being bullied on the phone or on their computer.”
The bullying on social network sites include putting up photos of children without their permission, name-calling and ‘slagging’ but also social exclusion – not inviting a child to a party that everyone else in the class is going to; or excluding children from groups or blogs on the internet.
The figures were released to coincide with a fundraiser Cheerios Childline Breakfast Together Week, the charity’s biggest annual fundraiser that took in over €225,000 last year. This year’s event runs from October 7 to 13. To donate people can text BREAKFAST to 50300 to give €2 to Childline.
Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
