Letters to the Editor: Visitors enjoy a warm welcome in Cork
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I always wanted to visit Cork City and I finally got around to it. I came with my wife, Judith, from May 9 to May 11. We are both in our 80s and she uses a walker.
All the people we met were so friendly and helpful — that was no problem to them.
We first went to the English Market which was very impressive and I had already booked a meal in the café. There was a problem getting the walker up the stairs, but a woman came from behind a counter and carried the walker upstairs, whilst I helped my wife to get up the stairs.
What a great gesture by this woman. I was able to take down the walker myself.
I would also like to thank taxi drivers for the taxis we used. They were brilliant.
We visited Blarney Castle and had a great day and a lovely meal. We also visited couple of bars and had good conversation with other customers.
Best of all on our last evening we wanted to go Oliver Plunkett St but were unable to get a taxi. We decided to walk and hopefully flag a taxi down on our way. We stopped and asked a couple where Oliver Plunkett St was. They walked us there and then walked back to the church they were going to. We could not thank them enough.
We went to Market Lane restaurant, which was recommended by a nice girl in one of the shops we visited. The meal was out of this world. Clare, the waitress who served us, was fantastic, along with other staff members. I thank them for the service.
The final words from my wife were: “I’ve never been in a place where the people were so welcoming and kind.” This is a genuine version of our stay in Cork.
Today is World Schizophrenia Awareness Day, dedicated to destigmatising and raising awareness of a mental illness that affects more than 20m people worldwide.
Whilst in recent years, huge strides have been made in destigmatising schizophrenia and mental health issues, there is still a long road to go.
One barrier is that society is still hesitant to use the phrase “mental illness” when talking about mental health issues. Using euphemisms or avoiding directly addressing mental illness inadvertently perpetuates the stigma surrounding it. A linguistic shift would help remove the veil of silence, and encourage open dialogue about mental illness, normalising the experience and fostering compassion.
Recent research undertaken by Shine’s ‘See Change’ programme tells us that almost three quarters (72%) of people say they would not want to live with someone with a severe and enduring mental illness. Yet the majority (75%) say they don’t know what a severe and enduring mental illness is.
People struggling to identify with the term ‘severe and enduring mental illness’, shows us that more work needs to be done to find new ways of making the language around mental health more accessible.
Using the term “mental illness” will challenge harmful stereotypes and misconceptions. A shift in language will challenge the damaging perception that individuals with mental illness are different, and will instead create parity with the way we discuss and describe physical health and illness.
This will help pave the way for a more inclusive society.
Our vision in Shine is of a more compassionate Ireland where those affected by mental illness and stigma are supported and included in all aspects of society. Our national conference in Cork today, May 24, with the theme ‘Speak up — Shine Conversations for Change’, aims to empower individuals and communities in the fight against mental health stigma.
Together, let’s create a future where conversations around mental health are catalysts for positive and transformative change.
He is no leader if he stoops so low as to use those with slow learning difficulties as a negative weapon so as to denigrate a political party and their policies.
This is exploitation; it is abusive as well as quite shocking.
It shows that he is not averse to cleaning his dirty shoes on a vulnerable group of people in Ireland.
As for his policies they continually exclude disabled people almost entirely as useful and functioning members of society, so his remark is not entirely without surprise.
“Watching Sinn Féin, it is like politics for slow learners,” says Leo Varadkar on the front page article of Saturday’s Irish Examiner. Yet on page four in an exclusive interview with Paul Hosford the bold headline at the top of the page states unequivocally “We should have acted earlier on housing, says Varadkar”.
Is the Taoiseach psychologically projecting his own failings, and those of his party, on to Sinn Féin?
Projection is a common defence mechanism when one does not like to admit something negative about themselves and instead attributes it to someone else. Deflection in other words.
Tom McElligott, Listowel, Co Kerry
Everyone needs to change their behaviour in some way to make a difference.
The 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, surely require more than sympathetic memorialising, although that at least keeps the tragic travesty alive in the minds and hearts of all those who were so brutally affected.
However, the remembrance ritual dutifully deserves, even at this late stage, to move towards some serious, salient and substantial inquiry to, once and for all, uncover the full and true machination which resulted in the perpetration of this cowardly, evil act.