5 weeks in...

One eye and ear constantly open for a story. The deadlines. The early mornings. The satisfaction in seeing a person's story being told to people through the medium of a newspaper or the web.

You can learn these aspects of journalism in college and scribble notes in a lecture hall, but they really don't seem true until the working world comes whisking around, grabbing the luxurious college morning lie-ins and the lengthy six week deadlines away from you.

Nearly three months into this real grown-up life already and I am coming to realise all these aspects of journalism only make it more enjoyable for me. And there is something strangely satisfying about making the early bus on time.

A confident feature-writer, my lack of experience with news-writing was daunting at the beginning. But a few weeks hard work teaches someone a lot. 

Here are some of the best so far; 

In June I spoke to a lady in Cork who lives with HIV. Too small a city to be comfortable with discussing her story publicly, this lady was still eager to warn people to be sexually careful and to show people that living with HIV is not a death sentence.

Having HIV is not a death sentence, Irish Examiner

The June floods affected parts of Cork that had never experienced flash flooding before and forced hundreds of families from their homes. I wrote stories about the government refusing to provide direct funding to help these families, about the hiked insurance premiums and refusal for flood cover the families from the 2009 floods are now dealing with and about a small town in West Cork people seemed to have forgotten about...

Residents refused cover and forced to pay hiked up premiums since 2009 deluge


"Closure of the road has affected everything"


Flood-hit families to get no aid from government


Insurance will go through claims with a fine tooth comb

The abysmal summer we are suffering at the moment affected other pepole around the country too. Farmers have spent the past few months trying to cope with a massive decrease in crops produced and the even bigger financial cost of keeping their animals indoors.

Farmers will need "at least three years" to recover

Listening to people's stories and life struggles can test the emotions too. One woman told me about her daughter, who has autism, who is being refused her last three years of government funded education and care because of budget cuts. Her daughter, Antonia, is 18 years of age and waits at home every day for her bus to bring her to school.

Teens with autism refused school places due to cuts

Even ceremonies so central to the peoples' religions and traditions have been affected by the recession. The government is proposing to add a small fee to funerals to fund a funeral director watchman, something the industry does not have.

Funeral fee would fund regulator for directors

Nothing like a bit of inter-county rivalry. A few Excel spreadsheets later and it's clear Dublin hosts the country's "worst drivers".

Motorists in the capital top the penalty points league

West Cork stands tall with its reputation for arts and culture.

Wall of art captures imagination with creativity


Musical pupils play with pipes

Crosshaven also does its bit for Irish culture and heritage...

Restored tunnels in Fort Camden to open to the public

Find more online at www.irishexaminer.com.

"Keep Her Lit"- Vita Cortex Sit-In 2012

Find below a link to a short radio documentary I produced as part of a college project. 

Link to the radio documentary 

 

A Visit to Vita Cortex

The Vita Cortex 32 dispute has dominated headlines since December 16, 2011. 

It is now more than four months later and the 32 men and women are still sitting in at the factory on the Kinsale Road, Cork City. 

I visited the factory on Saturday, April 7, 2012 to speak to the protesters as part of a radio documentary I was producing. 

See below a blog post I wrote for the VC32 online campaign blog a week after my visit. The post is called 'A Visit to Vita Cortex'.

The 'Support the Vita Cortex Workers' blog.

My sincere wishes and goodwill to all involved.

A Night to be Remembered

The thoughts of a journalism student my intro reads. So I write about my thoughts today.

Good food, good music, good wine, good people.

I cannot think of what could make for a better night. The University of Limerick Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences ball was held last night in the Strand Hotel, Limerick. My feet and head are hurting today but it was all worth it.

A great night spent with some of the best people in my life, the majority of whom I did not know before four years ago. Final Year Projects, exams, lectures and essays were forgotten about, the shoes were literally kicked off and the atmosphere buzzed.

Manicured nails, immaculate hair-dos, many a 'gúna deas' and the intense smell of cologne. Hours of preparation paid off as the cameras began flashing.

The much-anticipated food more than satisfied the grumbling tummies and Transmitter struck up their first chord with an enthusiasm that did not falter. The night was too short. Well-fed, drank and danced students piled onto the bus home.

It was, for most of us, our first college ball. And it is, for a lot of us, our last. A friend thought aloud about the next college ball we could be attending, the Graduation Ball.

Our futures may still not be certain, although a best friend signed a contract for a year working abroad today. College may sometimes be a matter of worry or stress. But we are growing up fast and these nights should be appreciated, enjoyed and remembered.

One thing is for certain, last night certainly will be.



The housemates, friends and neighbours before the UL AHSS Ball 2012.



Generation Emigration-The Captured Moments

Darkness has fallen over the city of Dublin, capital of our Emerald Isle. A young man sits on the wall outside his house. He gazes at the home in which he grew up, the front path dark but the comforting lights of the kitchen creating a warm glow in the garden. His mother moves around slowly inside, putting the dishes away after dinner. His father sits at the table, chatting animatedly to her.

The home he is now leaving for better prospects. But he doesn't gaze alone. Dublin photographer David Monahan captures the moment and saves it, to be presented as part of his Leaving Dublin photography collection.

It started as a simple request on Monahan's website. People who were in the last stages of planning emigration, leaving Ireland, would contact Monahan and he would capture their last moments in their home country before walking up the plane steps to a better future.

Pictures courtesy of David Monahan's blog (see link)

Monahan's blog has since attracted over 40,000 hits and he has taken almost 80 individual photographs of young adults, families, couples and students, all only days before they emigrate.

The photographs are dark, an eerie amalgam of darkness and light framing the subject, always accompanied by a battered suitcase-the recurring prop thoughout the photgraphs. He is capturing a new Irish culture - the culture and to emigrate.

The long queues at recent international job fairs should be warning signs enough that our country's youth have turned their back on Ireland's prospects. The "land of milk and honey" no more. Young adults are leaving the country to find work for a few years, optimistic that they can return to a vitalised Ireland in five or six years time. Families are taking the decision to move wholesale, not for a lifestyle choice, but to fend for themselves.

A lot of people speak of the flip-flop and barbeque lifestyle in Australia-how young people are looking for a bit of sunshine, a change of scenery. Be someone twenty-two or fifty-two, it is never an easy decision to leave home. Advantages and disadvantages are weighed. The prospect of earning good-worked for money is tempting. The thought of not seeing your family but for a crackling Skype screen for a year or more is frightening.

It is unnatural for parents to say goodbye to their children for so long. Opportunities, of course, should be grabbed with enthusiasm. But good employment opportunities used to be available on our front doorsteps. The notion of emigrating but for choice had not crossed anyone's minds in twenty years.

Pictures courtesy of David Monah's blog (see link)

Meanwhile, the Irish government squirm in discomfort. Ironically, a recent Fianna Fáil event, cue Micháel Martin's apology to the country for his party's actions, was held next door to a room that hosted a mile-long queue out the door and the opportunity to work abroad.

Recent developments in the entrepeneurial and job sector show no hope whatsoever. The decision to replace local enterprise boards with a central body and communication links through local authorities is going to be disastrous in its outcome. Aspiring entrepeneurs, the country's hope, should feel an affiliation with their enterprise board, have an opportunity to receive finance, mentoring, hands-on support. With the best will in the world this will not happen with a central enterprise board in Enterprise Ireland. Unless one is employing fifty tomorrow and importing millions next week they won't have any interest.

We thought all we needed was a change of government. A cure doesn't come about easily, we understand that, but the medicine should be immediate and effective-hitting the sectors it needs to. We were patient and now we're growing tired. Proper solutions are needed-our emigrants are not leaving for the chance to lie on a beach in December, they're leaving because they have to.

Music In Kerry

Starting somewhat local. .. .fingers crossed next time I may be posted further afield than Kerry!

Just a small piece on music in Kerry for the Irish section of the MyDestination.com travel information website.

Denise

Music in Kerry, a picture from the article on www.mydestination.com/Ireland

Aid Agencies and Journalists-The International Risk

Nervous, she sipped at water before speaking. Sharon Commins did not seem used to facing a room of eager faces, all ready to hang onto every word she spoke.

We were not to press discussion on her own personal ordeal abroad working in the international aid realm but Sharon would speak to us about the risks and threats of working in international aid, global security and humanitarian work.

Sharon Commins began as a press secretary for GOAL after completing an undergraduate degree in journalism and a masters degree in international relations in Dublin. Looking back now after so many years of working first-hand abroad with international aid, she says she cringes when she sees some of the press releases she wrote at the beginning of her career. Everything was so simple, either black or white, she now knows that's not the case.

Sharon Commins was kidnapped from a compound run by the GOAL aid agency in Darfur, Sudan with her Ugandan colleague Hilda Kawuki on July 3, 2009. The kidnap lasted until October 18, 2009 and was Darfur's longest running kidnapping involving foreign humanitarian aid workers. It was the first time any of GOAL's charity workers had experienced a kidnapping whilst in action and the Irish, Sudanese and Ugandan governments all refused the demand for a ransom to be paid. The kidnapping ended peacefully and Sharon returned home to Ireland and was reunited with her family late in the night of October 19, 2009.
But this is not to say Sharon's ordeal was easy. Nor is it to say all is well now in the world of humanitarian and international aid.

The recent death of Marie Colvin, the award-winning American journalist who worked for the Sunday Times, at the siege of Homs in Syria has placed even further emphasis on the dangers of supplying humanitarian aid and reporting the story from areas of violent dispute abroad.

Regarding the risks and threats of working abroad, the three most violent countries to work in are Somalia, Sudan and Afghanistan. The definition of a risk or threat in international aid accounts for anything from kidnappings to personal health or stress.

2008 has been the most violent year in recent times with an estimated 165 violent incidents affecting aid workers taking place. 2010 had 129 violent attacks, affecting 242 victims in total. Although Sharon has an avid interest in these statistics and regularly checks reports on the risks of international and humanitarian aid, she admits herself she does not know how these attacks are counted, kept track of and even if her own kidnapping has been taken account of in reports.

There are two reasons international staff from aid agencies are targeted abroad; the first being political, for the kidnappers in question to promote their cause to the media, the second being purely financial. Sharon knows her kidnappers' intentions were purely financial, they did not have any political motives in mind.

The new attitude on the aid agency scene is to manage risk, not avoid it. This change in thinking has arrived in the last decade. New measures like military escorts in countries of high safety risks did not come as an easy decision for most aid agencies. Sharon believes humanitarian work is more dangerous now than it was ten years ago. This has come as a result of the new war of terror, the often negative perception of humanitarian work and the blurring of lines between politics, military and humanitarian action.

New initiatives for international aid workers have been appearing recently like a hand-held security and information device quite like this one of the US Marine Corps. Times are changing, international politics is changing and the degree of danger in which international aid and journalists are placing themselves in is changing also.

The work has to be done. The story has to be told. But a priority for governments, international aid agencies and newsrooms across the world should be the safety and the learning of effective survival skills for the people who place themselves in this danger.