A Historic Week - and Conference Craic in Kilkenny

Having a laugh with colleagues from the Waterford Branch

Getting ready to party at the Gala Dinner

This past week has been memorable for many reasons - it was a bit of a rollercoaster as Friday saw the Royal Wedding where all commentators suspended reasoned judgement and went into sycophancy overdrive. In Ireland where we scorn such monarchic shenanigans as unworthy of a republic there was a dip in ESB Electricity usage for the duration of the broadcasting - indicating that the only appliance in use was the TV - nary a kettle or a cooker in sight! Seems they can monitor such things, and it reflects our ADLs (as in the Barthel Index used in nursing assessment) - our Activities of Daily Living! Despite that little aside - I did watch what was on view in the various homes I visited and saw the bride's arrival at the altar. Kate did look good, but her sister Pippa looked better. True to form, within hours there was a Facebook fan page set up for her rear-end attributes. The sheath dress she wore called for a total ban on any surplus adipose tissue (=fat) or cellulite - or the Spanx-type compression undies that haven't been seen since Victorian corsetry and wasp-waists were the order of the day and which many of my generation can't live without at functions and weddings. I have refused thus far to be reined in by such a garment and WYSIWYG in my gladrags. Comfort rules above convention and at my age I will endeavour to look good but to enjoy myself as well.

Minister for Health Dr. James O'Reilly's Address

 Which brings me on to the social events that went with the Annual Delegate Conference of the INMO - tge Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (some day they'll have to put in apostrophes - I know, it pains my inner grammar geek). This was held in Kilkenny and we had a busy 3 days of motions, debate, addresses, keynote speakers (the new Minister for Health, Dr. James O'Reilly) and lots of card-waving to pass or reject motions. That was by day - come evening and we let our hair down as only nurses know how - and we partied into the night. It always amazes me that regardless of how much partying nurses get up to they are fresh and ready the following morning - whether for duty or for another round of debates.

I had a motion to speak to from our PHN (Public Health Nursing) section and unfortunately it didn't get an airing until late on the last day by which point everyone's motioned out and there was no time for debate - just voting. It was carried unanimously so there was no problems bar my difficulty in limiting my address to the requisite max of 3 minutes - even after judicious editing I was timed out by the bell.

Claire and Mary (with the Gobnait O'Connell Award for Outstanding Service to the Branch) with Liam Doran Gen. Sec. INMO

Me and my new Twitter friend Dean

 On a lighter note, I was tweeting a bit during the lulls in the debates and between speakers and discovered another tweeter at the conference - a young student nurse from the Sligo branch. We met up at the Gala Dinner on the final evening and had a bit of a laugh at the joys of Twitter, as he had been chatting with Fergal Bowers, the RTE Health Correspondent, who was reporting on the Minister's address. The media got a hammering over their negative reporting on the public sector - we have been so vilified in recent years that you'd  think we were responsible for all the woes in the country.

Nicholas Mosse Pottery Shop, Bennettsbridge

Kilkenny is a lovely small city with narrow streets and a lot of lovely old buildings. It rained almost incessantly for the duration of the conference but on our free afternoon the sun appeared so I went to see the Nicholas Mosse pottery in Bennettsbridge and the gallery in Kilkenny Castle. The Kilkenny Craft Exhibition was on and had some lovely pieces on display. Unfortunately I was too late to see inside the Castle and one of the main galleries, the Butler, was closed but I enjoyed the bit of culture - there were lots of ceramics on display.

Dessert mmmm.....!

As is now the norm at these conferences we had a Table Quiz for local charities on the opening night, which was a good laugh even though we didn't win. The following night we were entertained by the Kilkenny Gospel Choir which was upbeat and uplifting. That was followed by an Irish Dance troupe who were brilliant - none of the wigs and fake tan that's become synonymous with Irish Dancing Championships like the recent World Championships in Dublin which brought down the wrath of the public over the homogenisation of the dancers - like Oompah-loompahs with mop heads, all distracting from the marvellous skills they have. Thankfully our troupe were more Riverdance than St. Tropez and their elegance was matched by their expertise. To everyone's delight, one of the student midwives, Danny Oakes from Alaska and Dundalk put on a spontaneous show of spectacular skill. You can enjoy the video clip below. Michael Flatley won't want for a successor if this guy decides to do a nixer from the labour ward.



The final evening's Gala Dinner was good fun though everyone was pretty exhausted by that stage. We had lovely food and danced if off afterwards, and the camaraderie and craic made it an enjoyable few days which has become a bit of an annual reunion for the nursing diaspora of Ireland.
 
Given the goings on in the rest of the world - Osama taken out by Obama - what a difference a letter makes!- and the triumphal euphoria of the West being slowly replaced by cautious optimism as the radicals threaten revenge, it  has been a strange week of polarisation. Ireland awoke on Saturday morning to the prophet of doom Morgan Kelly's diatribe against the Central Bank director Patrick Honohan over the bank bailout - he predicted bankruptcy for Ireland in the coming year or two as we struggle to bring our head above water let alone keep it there. It was so vitriolic and personal that I wondered - as did most of the Twitterati - what agenda is being played out.

Today hubby and me are heading to Dublin to see Eric Clapton at the O2 - a birthday treat for Jan who loves Clapton forever. I'm looking forward to it too, one of the rock stars I'll enjoy seeing before he hangs up his Stratocaster.

Conference and "Craic" in Killarney

I have spent the past three days in Killarney at the Irish Nurses Organisation's Annual Delegate Conference ( or INO ADC -we prefer acronyms for brevity!) The conference took place at one of the largest conference venues in the country, the Gleneagle Hotel and Conference Centre, which makes it about the fourth time I've been there in recent years. Killarney and Cavan's Slieve Russel Hotel are about the only two venues outside of Dublin's Citywest that can accomodate the 350-odd delegates under one roof.

Liam Doran, INO Secretary General.



There are plenty of conference centres big enough but not many that can house us all, which is one of the bonuses of the INO conference, as I have been to others like the Labour Party conferences where we've had to find a B&B nearby. Nothing ruins the ambience of the evening more than the prospect of heading out in the rain and cold (usually!) inadequately clad in party attire and probably killer heels to head back to the often cold dark confines of a B&B at 3 a.m. This usually entails either waiting in the hotel lobby for ages for a taxi and missing the fun in the hotel bar, or having to abstain all evening as the designated driver if you decide to bring the car - not that I'm a mad drinker but I like a glass of wine with my dinner and a Bailey's afterwards, and wouldn't risk driving after even one glass, though I might be technically under the Irish limit.

This event is a good opportunity to meet up with colleagues from around the country and there is a social aspect to the conference as well as very full days of talks, debates on the various motions submitted by the branches and sections. I am in the Waterford branch and also the PHN (Public Health Nurse) section, so there is a wide range of interest for me along with the broader policy and national issues.

The state of the economy underpinned practically every debate at the conference as the cutbacks in health have such far-reaching impact. In earlier posts I have alluded to these, and things are not getting better. So while the INO might be seen as only dealing with members' pay and conditions, which of course is any trade unions' remit, it also highlights the patient advocacy role of nurses, and indeed the conference theme was patient safety.





The conference debated the impact of cutbacks and their many adverse human and economic consequences. The fact that there will be few if any jobs for the newly graduating nurses, many of whom will emigrate demonstrates this as a poor investment return for Ireland - it costs about €80,000 to train a nurse over 4 college years - and if they leave never to return it doesn't make economic sense. The Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, spoke yesterday and got a fairly cool if polite reception. Her support for increasing privatisation of the health services in Ireland is strongly opposed by the INO as it will only worsen the existing inequity in our unique two-tier public-private healthcare system. Healthcare has to be based on the patient's needs, not ability to pay, and this should be fundamental to any civilised country.


A number of delegates took time to support colleagues in Killarney Community Hospital who had a lunchtime protest against the loss of a senior nursing post in their hospital. They are a small hospital and it was a good morale boost to have 3 busloads of delegates join them on the picket line for an hour and hopefully the accompanying media spotlight will help their cause.





Some of the Waterford branch members - Mary, Kerry, Claire and myself.
The weather was dreadful for most of the conference, but as we were in a bubble for most of the time in a huge hall with no natural light we didn't really mind. It was nice to go for a swim in the leisure centre at the end of the day, and we enjoyed the "craic" or fun of the social evenings. There was a fun table quiz on the first night, which raised over €1,000 for a Cambodian street childrens' charity that a Killarney nurse is involved with. The questions, set by Dave Hughes, the deputy Gen. Sec., were often cryptic and raised much laughter, and a clever delegate incorporated many of them the following day when speaking to her branch's motion!

The food was excellent and we all overindulged, force-fed like Gascogny geese - a detox for the next week or so seems very appealing right now. We danced to local musicians on two evenings, and were entertained after the lastnight's gala dinner by comedian Alan Shortt of RTE's Bull Island fame, who did some very funny impersonations of various politicians. This year is the INO's 90th Anniversary which is certainly a cause for celebration; from very small beginnings to a union with over 40,000 members is no mean feat. They had a wonderful cake to mark the anniversary (see above photo) and a DVD with the history of the organisation from 1919-2009. Hope I'll be around for the Centenary celebrations - and not pensioned off !

The March of the Masses

Saturday saw the biggest mass gathering of angry citizens and workers in recent memory who collectively marched in protest against the government's approach to the economic crisis. I wrote in my last post about the inequity of the proposed pension levy on public sector workers, and the turnout for yesterday's march organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) showed the level of emotion felt by many in both the private and public sector.

The INO group gathering at the Garden of Remembrance

Jan and myself set off at 6:00a.m. for the 130 mile trip to Dublin for the afternoon march, preceded by a morning joint Labour Party/PES (European Socialist Party) Summit in Dublin with the theme "The State of the Nation". It was inspiring to hear such committed speakers offering valid and viable solutions to the crises we are mired in and depressing to hear how abysmal our fiscal reputation has become in international circles, we are a notch above junk bond status and our interest rate on borrowings is over 2% higher than that paid by more stable economies like Germany, such is our perceived risk.

Can you read the poster held by one of the INO staff? Not very complimentary on "Sherriff Brian"!

The march was led by the recently laid-off Waterford Crystal workers who have been told their pensions may be no more, despite having paid for years into a pension scheme or, for those laid off a few years ago when the Dungarvan factory closed, invested their redundancy money into shares, and the newly redundant may not even get decent redundancy pay.

SR Technics also fronted the march, they are the workers from former Team Aer Lingus who have been told their jobs in aircraft maintenance are going from Ireland - not to a low pay country like somewhere in the Far East, but Switzerland! That is just unbelieveable, that Ireland loses jobs to a non-EU country with a higher standard of living than here. I don't know too much of the background to this story, but it showed the solidarity between those in the private sector and the public sector that they marched together in what the government had been spinning as a protest by the greedy public sector against paying a fair share when many are losing jobs. We are the last handy scapegoat, I guess.

I was with the INO (Irish Nurses Organisation) group and we were there in good numbers; totally it was estimated that between 100,000 and 120,000 marched. Jan marched under the Labour Party banner, along with Jane, another Lismore member. The mood was upbeat and the sense of anger palpable, but there was no violence like that which marred some marches a few years ago, nor was there any sense of hostility from the bystanders, which was great as we were given to understand that the private sector would be no way sympathetic to the march. It has got good international coverage as I have just watched it on Dutch TV.

Every trade union was represented from the teachers and nurses, gardai (police) of all ranks, the military, fire service, civil service of all ranks, and the umbrella unions like Unite who comprise a number of bodies It was heartening to see the diversity of the gathering, and there were marching bands and funky drummers keeping the spirits of the marchers going.

Two views of O'Connell Street with the Spire (a.k.a the Skewer by the Sewer or the Stiffy by the Liffey!) in the background.

Have a look at the photos on the Irish Times slide show which have some great shots of the day. I have some of my own photos up as well.

The banking scandals continue to take us by surprise, or the revelations are being drip-fed to us in the vain hope of off-setting an even angrier reaction - the latest on the blighted bank we are all co-owners of, Anglo-Irish, is that 15 of their clients each owe half a billion Euro (that's 500 million/€500,000,000 for those confused about the zeros and the difference between European and American billions.) Total owed by 15 people = 7.5 billion Euro. This bank was for the elite developers and fatcat clientele, not for the ordinary Joe Soap. There seems to be faint hope of that money ever being repaid, and given the plummeting value of assets held as collateral the true value of the debt may never be realised, with property plummeting as the bubble has well and truly burst.

A good vantage point from the Daniel O'Connell monument's angels!

All this puts the pension levy into perspective in the overall context of the state of the economy - it will barely register a blip on the national debt and yet it will have a hugely negative impact on those affected, spending power and disposable income will be way down and the knock-on effect of less buying will be seen in shops and businesses closing as they are each week, with more joining the dole queues. The cost of social welfare is skyrocketing, with every job lost resulting in one less contributor paying tax and costing the exchequer in payments and allowances, which will barely keep the recipient above the breadline, if not the poverty line.
The INO group arriving at Government Buildings and below, some of the posters on the railings of the National Gallery

I hope that there will be some positive outcome for the protesters, not least a rethink on the scope of the levy to include the higher paid private sector and semi-state bodies, and the president and the judiciary, who, by some arcane constitutional clause, are exempt. If there was a sense of fairness in the distribution of the pain then I feel there would be more understanding from the general public. If it was seen that there was genuine action taken against the perpetrators of the bust like the bankers and developers who have flouted protocol and procedure and gambled away the boom with our money, then the government could call in our patriotic duty with some justification.