Northern Ireland has been at the centre of European, even world politics, over the last three years, as a result of a referendum in Britain that was held with little, if any, thought of the possible consequences for Ireland.
If an alien zooming towards Earth burst through the atmosphere and was faced with the Western European Archipelago (WEA), it might figure these islands should be an obvious Free Trade area or if not that each of the two main islands should be Free Trade areas. And in 1660 the world’s first Free Trade proposal covered Ireland and Britain – a Britain that at the time was trying to shake off European influence.
When Free Trade works, everyone should benefit. But it can go wrong and suck life out of regions, concentrating wealth centrally. Pressure then builds to re-balance the system. Ireland’s Protestants initially led the push to re-balance but a century ago when the system finally broke open and created the conditions for re-balancing, things went wrong.
Northern Ireland emerged and quickly became a failed political entity. Success was always likely to be difficult given its location and size. An all-island entity was a better bet. A WEA entity with differences within it could work as could a European entity but not two small entities on a small island owing allegiance to two different polities. These are the points where visionary leadership is needed rather than a scrambling for political advantage.
Spotlight
Unless you live on the island, Northern Ireland likely looks like a backwater, Even the English barely know where it is, or knew where it was had it not been for the regular place it occupied in news bulletins. A place to avoid if you were a tourist.
A currently ongoing 7 part BBC series – Spotlight on the Troubles: A Secret History – might change your views about whether the N Irish issues were just local. This extraordinary retelling of the story of the Troubles (1966 to 1998) raises the most profound issues about the role of the State in any of our lives – anywhere in the world. Those who are now worried about the treatment of the Uighurs by China would do well to look at this series – its well worth trying to find pirated copies if you live outside the BBC remit.
While it might seem obvious why a program about N Ireland should be shown at this critical juncture in the Brexit debate, it’s difficult to avoid the question – why is this program being shown now.
Even taking into account that States have right and left hands with one not necessarily knowing what the other might be doing, there is a pressing question as to why or how a program about the murky, likely illegal, depths to which the State seems willing to descend could be made and continue to air
In lectures and other settings over a 20 year period, I have regularly used the example of the Guildford Four as an illustration of what is going on in the case of suicide on antidepressants or other deaths linked to on-patent drugs. Following bombs in a Guildford pub, 4 innocent Irish people were locked up. After this became clear, senior British jurists argued on the record they should remain in jail forever as otherwise the public would lose confidence in the rule of law.
See In the Name of the BBC and In the Name of the BMJ.
Its the same with drugs. For some, a link between death and injuries and treatment has to be denied for fear the public will lose confidence in medicine.
What Spotlight exposes as happening in Northern Ireland was of a piece with the Guildford Four scenario – but worse – an elimination of the innocent. Many among the media and politicians had a very clear idea about what was going on over 30 years ago but did nothing.
If even States claiming adherence to the law are prepared to sponsor the elimination of their own citizens, or write off their deaths when convenient, what might they do when it comes to drug (or vaccine) induced injury and death?
It has taken the BBC and some elements of the British State over 20 years to even hint at what appears to have been a policy of extra-judicial executions of innocent people.
In avoiding the issues surrounding antidepressants and suicide – executions of innocent people – the BBC and other major media outlets have done more than almost anyone to create the epidemic we now have – and continue to do so.
Suicide
There were 3,600 deaths linked to the Troubles. As of 2018 there had been over a thousand more suicides since the Troubles (4,600+) than deaths in the Troubles. Efforts were being made in civil society to draw attention to these deaths. Deaths that are being attributed to nervous problems, anxiety, PTSD and related problems now attributed to the Troubles – see Here.
What is not mentioned is that Northern Ireland has one of the highest rates of antidepressant consumption in the world – see Here.
It suits the interests of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the largest “Protestant” party, and Sinn Fein, the largest “Catholic” party, to milk this one for political gain. More money for more mental health services and more drugs – none of which is likely to help but for which politicians can take credit. This is a time for cross-party, and cross-community leadership, not scrambling for political advantage. Neither community is spared these senseless killings – SSRIs are neither Catholic nor Protestant.
Stephen O’Neill’s death in 2016, and the reaction of the “system” to his death, makes visible the failures of basic decency and leadership deaths like his involve. The next few posts will shine a Spotlight on these Troubles.
(Editorial Note: There is always breaking news about drugs and health which lead to comments. The comments after these posts will be restricted to the topics that come up – linked to death from treatment and the cover-up by the authorities. Other comments should go to posts on DH or RxISK dealing with pertinent topics).
“The experts, who include representatives from the Royal College of Psychiatry, will call for initiatives including a new regional trauma centre in order to deal with the region’s specific mental health problems, particularly the Troubles’ legacy as a factor in the spike in suicides.”
Really Good Links provided, on this Spotlight –
The Main Protagonists, the Pharmaceutical Companies, do not involve themselves in any of the ‘troubles’ or any other ‘political/societal’ problems – they give us their pil leaflets and they then fight litigation, as and when it occurs..
The Northern Ireland problem is apposite because it is head-on newsworthy, agendas are agendas, and it is unfortunate that the top news stories fall like a blanket on to the real issues of drugs causing suicides and homicides.
Then there are the trade deals, Witty in China at the very moment, that GSK were probed for the bribery of doctors scandal.
I thought this couple of examples might be useful, to help explain the disparity; how press reports are lagging behind the times, and making much of the times, to create “trans-generational trauma” as the back-bone to exonerating mass over-prescribing
Suicide Among the Ceasefire Babies
In the years following the Troubles, a period of intense violence in Northern Ireland, young people have been killing themselves in alarming numbers.
Lyra McKee
Jan 20, 2016
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/conflict-mental-health-northern-ireland-suicide/424683/
If I count their names on my fingers, I run out of digits. The tragic irony of life in Northern Ireland today is that peace seems to have claimed more lives than war ever did.
Experts are becoming more concerned that young people, who were not even born when the conflict was going on, are now feeling the effect too – so-called “trans-generational trauma”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-49357887
“In avoiding the issues surrounding antidepressants and suicide – executions of innocent people – the BBC and other major media outlets have done more than almost anyone to create the epidemic we now have – and continue to do so.”
Hope this is on topic As a woman who suffered more than enough after a termination of pregnancy – how much worse it would have been if my ancestors hadn’t had to flee from Ireland
The Conversation
Abortion ban in Northern Ireland likely to worsen mental health crisis
June 20, 2018 11.39am BST
Authors
Karen Galway
Lecturer in Mental Health, Queen’s University Belfast
Sharon Mallon
Lecturer in Mental Health, The Open University
Partners
The Open University
Queen’s University Belfast
The Open University and Queen’s University Belfast provide funding as founding partners of The Conversation UK.
The Conversation UK receives funding from these organisations
Northern Ireland is one of only two regions in Europe where abortion effectively remains illegal (Malta being the other). This is a confirmed breach of human rights – one that threatens to deepen the mental health crisis of women in Northern Ireland.
Abortion is not allowed in Northern Ireland unless the life of the mother is in danger. There is no access to abortion in cases of rape or fatal foetal abnormality. Under the current law, woman have to declare suicidal intent in order for abortion to be permitted.
Around 800 to 1,000 women travel to the UK every year for an abortion. Laws banning abortion are increasingly being upheld. A mother is being prosecuted for obtaining abortion pills online for her daughter and, in 2016, a woman was given a criminal conviction for taking abortion pills.
Mental health statistics highlight the grave emotional situation experienced by many of the 2m residents of Northern Ireland. Mental health problems are rife. Post-traumatic stress disorder rates are the highest in the world and female suicide rates in Northern Ireland are among the highest in Europe at 9.2 per 100,000 deaths.
Most people want to see a change in the law and have actively supported the campaign for change. In an incredible show of solidarity, Irish expatriates from Australia, Brazil, the US and beyond returned to the Irish Republic to vote to allow women to have safe and legal abortions.
The abortion debate in Northern Ireland is welcomed – but, as with the Republic of Ireland debate, it relies heavily on the individual stories of women who have suffered as a result of their lack of access to abortion. As such, it brings with it a risk of re-traumatisation for those who have experienced these human rights infringements. These experiences act as a reminder of personal and tragic loss.
Not something chosen lightly
No one chooses to have an abortion lightly. An abortion is a stigmatising loss that is difficult to discuss with friends and family. Isolation, social disconnectedness, bereavement and abandonment by an otherwise universal health service all add to the trauma. Also, promoting a public sense of shame on abortion – with members of parliament publicly comparing abortions to putting babies “in the bin before they are born” – could create a lethal mental health cocktail.
Research suggests that we should be concerned. Our recent research, examining GP visits before suicide, identified no cases in which abortion acted as a trigger. But we found relevant associations – female suicides were linked to threats to female identity, similar to those threats to masculinity that are frequently cited as a factor in male suicide. Sexual abuse, fertility difficulties, relationship conflicts and financial pressures of parenting all featured in female death by suicide.
Shaming creates a lethal mental health cocktail. EPA/Paul McErlane
Suicide deaths and mental health problems rarely conform to a simple pattern of cause and effect. Nevertheless, state-sponsored oppression of female human rights, in a vulnerable post-conflict setting, is unlikely to help the females of Northern Ireland, who, since the Republic voted to end the ban, now find themselves surrounded by more compassionate humanitarian arrangements.
A continued delay to legal reform is upsetting for anyone who has been personally affected by the abortion ban, including women forced to carry medically nonviable pregnancies, or pregnancies borne of domestic sexual abuse or rape. It is also upsetting for the mothers, fathers, siblings, partners and friends who have watched a loved one suffer and tried to support them through the devastating consequences of this archaic ban.
There is cause for hope. An existing and well-organised lobby for change is strengthening. Political pressure is mounting to bring Northern Ireland in line with UK and Europe, but those with power to act in Northern Ireland and the UK are not acting and suggest nothing may be done until devolved power sharing in Northern Ireland is restored. But that could take a long time.
Meanwhile, the women of Northern Ireland and their families are being traumatised and re-traumatised by the current laws. The UK is witnessing a state-sponsored threat to female identity and autonomy. Within this climate, the existing mental health crisis in Northern Ireland can only get worse.
A year later –
Abortion law: NI politicians return to Stormon
Related TopicsAbortion in Northern Ireland
Image caption
Abortion and same-sex marriage laws will change unless devolution is restored by midnight on Monday
NI’s Stormont Assembly is sitting for the first time in nearly three years after being recalled in a last-ditch attempt to stop abortion law changes.
Unionist parties, who oppose the upcoming liberalisation, triggered the recall with a petition.
Proceedings have been delayed, amid reports of legal moves to try and block the changes.
NI has been without a devolved government since January 2017 when the power-sharing parties split.
Image Copyright @BBCGarethG@BBCGARETHG
Report
Abortion laws will change at midnight unless devolution is restored but the recall is seen as largely symbolic.
Without an executive in place, Stormont cannot affect the laws.
It is unlikely an executive will be established as it needs support from both the unionist and republican communities.
LIVE: Follow all the action at Stormont
Why have politicians been recalled?
Stormont’s power-sharing government collapsed amid a bitter row between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin.
Several rounds of talks to restore the executive have not succeeded.
MPs in the House of Commons have since passed some key legislation for Northern Ireland.
Image caption
Sarah Ewart, who was denied an abortion in NI in 2013, is among those outside Stormont
In July, MPs voted for legislation which requires the government to liberalise abortion and extend same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland if devolution is not restored by 21 October.
The bid to recall the assembly was proposed by Northern Ireland peer Baroness O’Loan, who opposes any reform of the existing abortion law.
Clock is ticking for NI abortion law
NI abortion law found to breach human rights
How many abortions are carried out in the UK?
The petition was signed by 27 DUP assembly members, Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann and his party colleagues Robbie Butler and Roy Beggs, as well as Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister.
Proceedings in the assembly chamber have been delayed by an hour and are now due to start at 13:00 BST.
It is not clear if MLAs (members of the legislative assembly) will be able to debate the abortion law changes as they first have to elect a speaker with cross-community support.
What are the current rules on abortion in NI?
Northern Ireland’s abortion legislation is very different from the law in Great Britain.
The 1967 Abortion Act, which liberalised the rules in England, Scotland and Wales, was never extended to Northern Ireland.
Currently, a termination is only permitted in Northern Ireland if a woman’s life is at risk or if there is a risk of permanent and serious damage to her mental or physical health.
Rape, incest or diagnoses of fatal fetal abnormality – where medics believe that a baby will die before, during or shortly after birth – are not grounds for a legal abortion in Northern Ireland.
What could happen at midnight?
Abortion will be decriminalised if the devolved government is not restored.
The legislation brought in by MPs at Westminster means the UK government will assume responsibility for introducing new regulations to provide greater access to terminations by next April.
The SDLP did not sign the petition either but it has a number of MLAs who are opposed to abortion and are understood to be considering attending the recall sitting in spite of party leader Colum Eastwood branding the move a “stunt”.
The SDLP has described itself as a “pro-life party” but its politicians are free to vote with their conscience on abortion laws.
Stormont is returning but not to hold talks – the focus is on the issue of abortion
The DUP MLA Gordon Lyons said his party wanted to return to Stormont to “take decisions on issues that matter to the people of Northern Ireland”.
The Ulster Unionist Party said its 10 MLAs would go to the chamber and it has also proposed a second petition to recall the assembly on Tuesday.
The UUP’s Doug Beattie said his party’s petition was for MLAs to express anger about the collapse of devolution more than 1,000 days ago.
He denied the UUP was engaging in “stunt politics” of its own and said something needed to be done given the absence of formal talks to restore power-sharing at Stormont.
Image caption
Both sides of the abortion debate are holding protests at Stormont
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said none of her party’s MLAs would be attending and she described the recall as a “cynical political stunt”.
“The intention of this recall is not to block abortion law and equal marriage but to create the illusion the DUP are trying to do so,” she added.
The Green Party leader Clare Bailey said it was a “shameful pantomime” and that she would not enter the chamber.
And a year later
What would the state do, what would the BBC do? The recent BBC documentary “Conspiracy Files: Vaccination Wars” blackguarded Dr John Wilson for raising the issue of DPT safety in a 1974 ITV documentary (a piece of history I didn’t even know) just as it blackguarded Andrew Wakefield over MMR. We were assured by Dr David Salisbury that after the most sophisticated statistical analysis there was found to be no association between this product and infant harm, we assured by journalist St Brian Deer that he had looked into the matter himself and there was nothing in it, but the reality is that the British state played for time by introducing the Vaccine Damage Payment Act in 1979 and quietly paid off 600 cases in the first three years meanwhile the same vile product stayed in use for a further quarter of a century:
https://www.bmj.com/content/366/bmj.l4460/rr-0
but as the vaccine programme accelerated beyond recall the payments dried up – at last count the government had managed just four payment in the last 9 years, at least three of which were ordered by the appeal court. Nothing is written: the MSM are intimidated into silence by government surrogates Sense About Science, Science Media Centre – latterly also the Gates Foundation, GAVI and the WHO. We watch the Prime Minister daftly and obsequiously get his flu jab on the No 10 Channel. We should also not forget how the Department of Health has heartlessly wasted decades over investigating the contaminated blood business and the Camelford disaster:
https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/10/30/handling-camelford-incident-department-health
But to come to Northern Ireland, at least because the executive is separate from Westminster they have managed to record the wildly accelerating rate of autism in schools from 1.2% a decade ago to 3.3% this year (5.6% in Belfast), 1.9% at Education Stage 5 (therefore at a serious level of disablement):
https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/health/asd-children-ni-2019.pdf
It will be something like this in the rest of the U.K. and in Ireland where pharma can also depend on health minister Simon Harris to deny everything about Gardasil and Pandemrix. In the UK a new special schools seems to be announced every week but no one dare say there has been a rise.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/536265/response/1323604/attach/2/Redacted%20correspondence%20CMO%20and%20John%20Stone%20003.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1
We promote war on disease with the human population as collateral.
John – The State we are in gets more authoritarian by stealth , by seeing how far they can go. For example the police violence on demonstrators and psychological tactics on those who oppose such as vaccination policies. After 5 minutes in the Job Matt Hancock Health Minister was threatening and scaring people into getting children vaccinated before they were made compulsory, That hasn’t happened yet but some who were wavering were facing castigation at their childrens’ schools. I have heard on the news several times that home education is increasing – I wonder if their is a link – doubt whether parents would openly say so now That is the State we are in .I am at the age where flu jab propaganda is being sent to my home via patronising leaflets advising me to keep warm, pick up the many drugs I am supposed to need etc These messages are sent to people who have been looking after themselves and others for decades. My ‘Your free flu jab’ is available from my (non existent) GP, or a pharmacist somewhere could stick one in my arm, there are no warnings whatsoever no references as to where to go for information if I hadnt had the internet. This year another vaccine has been slipped in – to protect against pneumonia. Again no information about it. I know as I have had a bout one Summer that pneumonia is not just a Winter illness.
Susanne
According to a report from North Yorkshire last December homeschooling had gone up by 800% in four years due to a significant segment of the child population being no longer able to cope with school:
https://www.thescarboroughnews.co.uk/news/number-of-north-yorkshire-children-being-homeschooled-has-increased-by-over-800-1-9474423
This fact was transmitted by me to the outgoing CMO in a letter (footnote 17) who seemed unconcerned about it or other catastrophic data about autism and chronic disease which I certainly didn’t make up. The acceleration of vaccine bullying is probably new this year and cannot be factored into this yet.
I doubt whether the pneumococcal is more recommendable than the flu vaccine.
http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/health-and-social-care-committee/antimicrobial-resistance/written/86156.pdf
From “The Times” 23 October 2019
“Parents despair at special needs ‘chaos’
Rosemary Bennett Education Editor
“Families are being made to “wade
through treacle” to get educational
support for special needs children in a
system that breeds conflict and despair,
MPs have said.
“Members of the cross-party Com-
mons education committee rebuked
the government for “presiding serenely
over chaos” for the past five years
before seeing that “things were not
going quite as planned”.
“The Children and Families Act 2014
was supposed to transform support for
Send (special educational needs and
disability) children by making it easier
to identify their requirements. How-
ever, the government deeply underesti-
mated how many children had special
needs and the number of children with
education, health and care plans
(EHCPs) soared. Schools and councils
struggled to fund the support….”
The legacy of cruelty and oppression reverbarates down the centuries
The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849 by Cecil Woodham-Smith
Emmett McIntyre’s picture
Submitted by Emmett McIntyre on May 1, 2017 – 7:50pm
Famine Memorial Dublin
The horror of what is casually referred to as the “Potato Famine” is meticulously chronicled in the superb and immensely readable “The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849”, by Cecil Woodham-Smith. The first paragraph sets the tone:
At the beginning of 1845, the state of Ireland was as it had been for nearly seven hundred years, a source of grave anxiety to England. Ireland had first been invaded in 1169; it was now 1845 yet she had been neither assimilated nor subdued. The country had been invaded not once but several times, the land had been conquered and redistributed over and over again, the population had been brought to the verge of extinction – after Cromwell’s conquest and settlement only some half million Irish survived – yet an Irish nation still existed, separate, numerous and hostile.
The population had increased during the period following the rape of Ireland by Cromwell in 1649, to 8 million in 1845. It was during Cromwell’s war on Ireland that an estimated 40% of the land was confiscated and transferred to the ownership of the English Nobility. Two hundred years later the population of Ireland was poor, landless and 3 million Irish are said to have subsisted on a diet of potatoes alone. The blessing, and the curse, of the potato is that it is nearly the perfect food and with a wee bit of milk, it is possible to live a healthy life on the potato alone. The Potato Blight made its appearance in 1845 and by 1846 had destroyed the Potato Crop. As 1847 arrived, three million souls were in immediate danger of death by starvation. The blow dealt by blight was followed by the monstrous actions of the land owning aristocrats, the majority of whom lived their lives of luxury in England funded by rents extracted annually from the Irish Celt. The land owners were estimated to have caused the eviction of a half million Gaels from their homes during the famine years. The combination of famine and homelessness led to the unspeakable deaths of one million Celtic souls, many dying in road side ditches.
This book is widely accepted as one of the most comprehensive and authoritative accounts of the Famine due to Woodham-Smith’s expert use of official archives. She was from an aristocratic and wealthy background and benefitted from an upper class British education. However, hidden beneath this petite sophisticated persona was the burning heart of an Irish Patriot. Woodham-Smith, born Cecil Blanche Fitzgerald, was the descendant of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who died in a Dublin prison from the wounds suffered when he resisted arrest on charges of Treason for his leading role in the failed Irish Rebellion of 1798.
The events of 1847 stand out in Woodham-Smith’s telling. For it was 166 years ago this Spring that the Coffin Ships began to ply their deadly trade across the Atlantic transforming into a flood of horror, disease and unspeakable human suffering. Desperate to get out of Ireland and misled by agents who promised assistance upon arrival in Canada, an estimated 100,000 made the passage that year. In many cases the landlords paid for the ocean passage and in one last act of savagery too often did not provide sufficient food and water for the crossing. Typhoid and dysentery plagued the vessels and scenes from hell were common. The Toronto Globe reported in August 1847 on one of the worst of the arriving ships:
A medical officer at the quarantine station at Gross Isle off Quebec reported that ‘the few who were able to come on deck were ghastly yellow looking spectres’.
Yet throughout the agonizing recanting of what is the “Celtic Holocaust”, the author resists assignation of blame for the horrifying deaths of over one million Irish people, blame which many historians have easily pinned on the inaction of the British Government. This was a government whose primary objective according to the author “was not to improve Ireland but to bring her more completely into subjection”, the very same objective that drove Cromwell to pillage Ireland two hundred years earlier. What better way to achieve this evil objective than to allow a million Irish to starve and force a second million souls to flee, too many consigned to the hell of the “Coffin Ships”.
The bitter legacy of the famine was not confined to Ireland. The author makes a profound observation on the unintended consequences of the perceived actions, or inaction, of the British Government:
The famine emigration, the exodus from Ireland, in which hundreds of thousands of Irish, with fever on the one hand and starvation on the other, fled from their country because to remain was death, is historically the most important event of the famine. It was the famine immigrants – leaving their country with hatred in their hearts for the British and the British Government – who built up communities, above all in the United States, where the name of Britain was accursed, and whose descendants continued to be Britain’s powerful and bitter enemies, exacting vengeance for the sufferings their forebears endured.
The bitterness and hatred of the Irish in America towards Britain was still a formidable factor in the desperate competition between the Allies and Germany for American support during the First World War. A competition eventually won by Britain due in part to the devious support of Britain by Woodrow Wilson and the East Coast elites. But it was by no means a certainty that the United States would enter the war on the side of Britain. The attitudes of the Irish in America towards the conduct of the United Kingdom during the Famine nearly cost Britain America’s decisive support which led to an allied victory.
In his 2013 work, “America’s Greatest Blunder – The Fateful Decision to Enter World War I”, Burton Yale Pines describes the impact of the legacy of the Famine on the struggle to win America’s support for the Allies. Second only to German-Americans as a percentage of the population of the United States who numbered 8.2 million, Irish Americans numbered 4.5 million strong based on the 1910 census. The bulk of the Gaels being descended from the refugees who fled the horror of The Hunger. They blamed the English. The Author writes:
By 1914 the Irish were playing leading roles in America’s labor movement as well as wielding enormous influence in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church and were beginning to take control of big city politics. What counted for Germany was that all America’s Irish were deeply hostile to Britain. The Gaelic-American, the Irish World and other Irish newspapers, several which began receiving adds from German firms, incessantly attacked Britain and strongly and repeatedly urged Irish-Americans to take actions to prevent America from leaning towards London. Organizations such as the United Irish-Americans Societies, among other things, mobilized their members to demonstrate at cinemas, forcing them to cancel British propaganda movies, while the American Truth Society, an Irish-led group (with many German-American members), acted to counter British propaganda directly.
The ending paragraphs of this riveting account of death and misery point to the consequences of the famine on Ireland’s relationship with Britain. Consequence which extended into the mid twentieth century:
Time brought retribution. By the outbreak of the Second World War, Ireland was independent, and she would not fight on England’s side. There was also a more direct payment. Along the west coast of Ireland, in Mayo especially, on remote Clare Island, and in the dunes above Six Mile Strand are a number of graves of petty officers and able seaman of the British Navy and Merchant Service, representatives of many hundreds who were drowned off the coast of Ireland, because the Irish harbours were not open to British ships. From these innocents, in all probability ignorant of the past, who never heard of failures of the potato, evictions, fever and starvation, were exacted part of the price for the famine.
So the mind wanders who or what was to blame for the carnage? Was it the spore of the Potato Blight that turned the staple of the Irish diet into a stinking putrid mass or was it the British Governments facilitation of continued agricultural exports from Ireland as the Gael starved in mud huts within sight of the river traffic? Was it a deliberate policy of Ethnic Cleansing carried out by London under the mask of bureaucratic obfuscation? Was it the viciousness of the majority of landowners who capitalized on the potato blight to rid themselves of unruly tenants? Perhaps the culprit is simply the malevolent indifference of the British ruling class. Upon an honest read of this monumental work on the “Celtic Holocaust”, one is forced to decide.
dr. Healy and John Stone:
Autism is on the rise, and strangely high numbers too.
Transgenderism (sorry, don’t know exact phrase),feeling as if you are not born in the right body, is on the rise.
(A parenthesis, male fertility is possibly also affected)
Ok, so I’m not a rocketscientist, nor a neurologist, but couldn’t there be a link between the two and possibly a common denominator to what is causing it?
I have this strange feeling it could be different effects of the same cause.
And perhaps off topic: dr. Healy, when I take my ‘beloved’ Seroxat pill each day, do I metabolize the contents fully or do I (urinate) some of it?
Ove2019
Ove – pretty undeniable I think – it is poisoning fish and other creatures , I guess if people taking the drugs are also eating fish in some areas, the harm to them is increased as well. Funny how there is so little research on the damage to crops..and what does that do to the brains of people and the animals which are eaten – We don’t know what the impacts are exactly I don’t think it too far fetched to wonder if suicidal thoughts could be triggered caused by eating drug contaminated food ,as well as other adverse effects
Environmental Health – Toxic Substances Hydrology Program
Antidepressants in Stream Waters! Are They in the Fish Too?
USGS scientist removing the brain from a white sucker fish
USGS scientist removing the brain from a fish (a white sucker) collected from Fourmile Creek near Ankeny, Iowa. The scientists tested the fish’s brain for the presence of antidepressant drugs. Traces of antidepressant drugs were found in fish and also in the water from Fourmile Creek.
For some fish living downstream of sewage treatment plants the answer is yes. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists and their colleagues published a paper in Environmental Science and Technology documenting that specific antidepressants and their degradates found in wastewater discharged into streams by municipal wastewater treatment plants are taken up into the bodies of fish living downstream of the plants. The antidepressants were found in fish collected over 8 kilometers (approximately 5 miles) downstream of the location of the wastewater discharge. The scientists detected several commonly used antidepressants in water, streambed sediment, and the brain tissue of white suckers, a native fish species. Fish collected upstream from the wastewater discharge did not have antidepressants present in their brain tissues. The study was conducted in two streams, Boulder Creek near Boulder, Colorado, and Fourmile Creek near Ankeny, Iowa.
More of What the Scientists Found
This study is the first to demonstrate that the concentrations of these antidepressants in stream waters do not necessarily correlate with the concentrations or presence of antidepressants that are found in fish tissue. Other factors come into play that determine which antidepressants are taken up by the fish.
The most frequently detected antidepressants in wastewater and stream water were venlafaxine, bupropion, and citalopram. In contrast, the most frequently detected antidepressants in fish brains were fluoxetine, norfluoxetine (a transformation product of fluoxetine), sertraline, and norsertraline (a transformation product of sertraline).
Graph of average concentrations of antidepressants in water, sediment, and fish neural tissue.
Average concentrations of antidepressants in water, sediment, and fish neural tissue from Boulder Creek just below the point where wastewater from a sewage treatment plant is discharged (USGS Site ID 400305105103901). Since concentration units differed for each sample type, the concentrations were normalized to the highest single antidepressant concentration in each sample type (highest concentration was set to equal one). The graph shows that fish selectively absorb some antidepressants more than others.
The scientists collected the brains of white suckers because antidepressants are designed to modulate the concentrations of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters (such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine). Thus, brains are the location in fish most likely to be affected by antidepressants.
The study was conducted in collaboration with scientists from the College of Wooster, Ohio; St. Cloud State University, Minnesota; and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
References
Schultz, M.M., Furlong, E.T., Kolpin, D.W., Werner, S.L., Schoenfuss, H.L., Barber, L.B., Blazer, V.S., Norris, D.O., and Vajda, A.M., 2010, Antidepressant pharmaceuticals in two U.S. effluent-impacted streams–Occurrence and fate in water and sediment, and selective uptake in fish neural tissue: Environmental Science and Technology, doi:10.1021/es9022706 (Advanced Web release).
Painter, M.M., Buerkley, M.A., Julius, M.L., Vajda, A.M., Norris, D.O., Barber, L.B., Furlong, E.T., Schultz, M.M., and Schoenfuss, H.L., 2009, Antidepressants at environmentally relevant concentrations affect predator avoidance behavior of larval fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas): Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, v. 28, no. 12, p. 2677-2684, doi:10.1897/08-556.1.
More Information
Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Investigation
Ecological Effects, Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Investigation
“The most important observation in our study is that you cannot necessarily predict which antidepressants are present in aquatic tissue from antidepressant concentrations in the water the organisms are living in. This study clearly documents selective uptake of specific antidepressants into fish brain tissue that were minor components in corresponding water samples. There are many reasons why this selective uptake may occur – including differences in fat versus water solubilities of the targeted antidepressants – but these results suggest other, as yet unidentified mechanisms may also be involved that warrant further study.
We also do not yet fully understand the implications for fish health and populations from exposure to these antidepressants. However, we have collaborated in laboratory experiments (Painter and others, 2009) documenting a slowed predator avoidance behavior in larval fathead minnows exposed to antidepressant concentrations similar to those observed in this study. A slower response to predators is probably not helpful when you are on the lower end of the food chain.”
Edward Furlong, USGS research chemist, corresponding author
Related Science Features
Sources of Contaminants to Congaree National Park–USGS and National Park Service Working Together
New Study Documents Crop Bactericide, Nitrapyrin, in Iowa Streams
Human Contraceptive Gestodene Affects Fish Reproductive Behavior
Swine Manure Application as a Source of Hepatitis E Virus and other Livestock-Related Pathogens
Complex Mixtures, Complex Responses–Using Comprehensive Approaches to Assess Pharmaceutical Effects on Fish
Potential Exposure to Bacteria and Viruses Weeks after Swine Manure Spill
Chemicals Found in Treated Wastewater are Transported from Streams to Groundwater
Neuroactive Pharmaceuticals in Minnesota Rivers
Toxins Produced by Molds Measured in U.S. Streams
Biological Activity of Steroid Hormones in U.S. Streams
Chemical Combo and Intersex Fish Found at Smallmouth Bass Nesting Sites
Complex Mixture of Contaminants Persists in Streams Miles from the Source
Hormones in Land-Applied Biosolids Could Affect Aquatic Organisms
Antibiotics in Groundwater Change Bacterial Ecology
Improvements in Wastewater Treatment Reduces Endocrine Disruption in Fish
Estrogenic Contaminants from Plants and Fungi Found in Iowa Streams
Do Combined Sewer Overflows Increase or Decrease Wastewater-Related Chemicals in Receiving Waters?
Hormones Degrade in the Environment!
Algal Blooms Consistently Produce Complex Mixtures of Cyanotoxins and Co-Occur with Taste-and-Odor Causing Compounds in 23 Midwestern Lakes
Tackling Fish Endocrine Disruption
Measuring Antidepressants, Fungicides, and Insecticides in the Environment
Detergents in Streams May Just Disappear
Emerging Contaminants Targeted in a Reconnaissance of Ground Water and Untreated Drinking-Water Sources
Biosolids, Animal Manure, and Earthworms: Is There a Connection?
Wastewater Indicators Shown to Degrade in Streams
Endocrine Disruption Found in Fish Exposed to Municipal Wastewater
Pharmaceuticals Found in Soil Irrigated with Reclaimed Water
Are Pharmaceuticals in Your Watershed? Understanding the Fate of Pharmaceuticals and Other Contaminants in Watersheds
Book Chapter on Exposure Modeling and Monitoring of Human Pharmaceuticals in the Environment
Glyphosate Found in Wastewater Discharged to Streams
Tracing Wastewater – Using Unique Compounds to Identify Sources of Contamination
USGS Scientists Contribute to New Book on Pharmaceuticals in the Environment
USGS Scientists Develop New Method to Measure Pharmaceuticals in Water
Developing Methods to Measure New Contaminants in Aquatic Environments
Glyphosate Herbicide Found in Many Midwestern Streams, Antibiotics Not Common
National Reconnaissance of Pharmaceuticals, Hormones and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in U.S. Streams is Making an Impact
“National Reconnaissance of Pharmaceuticals, Hormones, and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in Streams” Named as One of the Top 100 Science Stories of the Year
What’s in Our Wastewaters and Where Does it Go?
Ove
You are not the first to make a connection – there was an issue as reported in the Mail last year as to whether autistic children were being manipulated into thinking they are the wrong sex:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6401593/Whistleblower-teacher-makes-shocking-claim-autistic.html
But I am not at all sure this provides the entire explanation.
A recent study on fish (!) and SSRI, and something I heard a while back on fishes inability to spawn in numbers is what prompted me to think in these terms.
I can ofcourse not say what is cause to what.
But I can easily say my opinion is that this is all man made.
We do it.
Ove
Yes, I fear we do – or perhaps “they” do it.
John
Ove – this what i found by a google search but I’m not knowledgeable about drugs so I dont know how reliable it it. I think you could get info on the Rxisk Blog under Drugs
Re Recovery Village and Wikipidia
How long does paroxetine stay in your system?
The half-life of Paxil is documented at 21 to 24 hours, which means that 50% of the drug is eliminated from a person’s system within 21 hours after stopping the medication. For example, if you took a single dose of 10 mg of Paxil (paroxetine), in 21 hours, there would be 5 mg of medication left in your system.
menu
1. How Long Does Paxil (Paroxetine) Stay In Your System?
5. Half-Life Of Paxil (Paroxetine)
6. How Paxil (Paroxetine) Affect The Brain and Body
7. Factors That Influence How Long Paxil (Paroxetine) Stays In Your System
8. How Long Does Paxil (Paroxetine) Stay In Your Urine And Blood?
How Long Does Paxil (Paroxetine) Stay In Your System?
While some people have found that Paxil is a particularly effective drug, other people have experienced a number of adverse effects including birth defects, nausea, suicidal tendencies, weight gain and other complications.
As a result, some people who take Paxil decide to go off the medication. Withdrawal from Paxil, however, can result in very serious complications. Because of this, many people inquire about how long Paxil remains in your system after stopping the medication. In response to these questions, this article will review some of the important information that you should know about withdrawing from Paxil.
Half-Life Of Paxil (Paroxetine)
To understand how long Paxil (paroxetine) will remain in your system, it is important to understand the half-life of the medication. The half-life of Paxil is documented at 21 to 24 hours, which means that 50% of the drug is eliminated from a person’s system within 21 hours after stopping the medication. For example, if you took a single dose of 10 mg of Paxil (paroxetine), in 21 hours, there would be 5 mg of medication left in your system.
After another 21 hours, this amount would further reduce to 2.5 mg. Due to this half-life, Paxil tends to stay in a person’s system for approximately five days. While Paxil is classified as one of the SSRIs with the shortest half-life, this does not mean that withdrawal from the medication is not without some potentially serious complications.
How Paxil (Paroxetine) Affects The Brain and Body
While further research is needed on the subject, SSRIs like Paxil (paroxetine) are believed to work because the medication blocks serotonin from being reabsorbed by the nerve cells from which they are released. While serotonin that is reabsorbed into the brain and nerves does not help to stabilize mood outside of the brain, these neurons are particularly effective at decreasing depression and other various conditions.
Paxil (Paroxetine) How Long Does It Stay In Your System?
Factors That Influence How Long Paxil (Paroxetine) Stays In Your System
Several factors influence the seriousness of side effects that a person can experience while withdrawing from Paxil (paroxetine), which include the following:
Stopping Methods. Stopping cold turkey frequently results in more complications than gradually tapering off of the medication.
Dosage. Paxil (paroxetine) is administered in doses of 10 mg, 20 mg, 40 mg and 60 mg. Controlled versions of the medication also come in 12.5 mg, 25 mg, 37.5 mg and other doses. The difference between controlled release and standard Paxil (paroxetine) is that in the controlled dose, the medication is released more slowly. The larger the dosage that a person takes, the more difficult it is to withdraw from the condition.
Individual physiology. There are a variety of physiology factors among different people that influence the length and ease with which Paxil (paroxetine) withdrawal occurs.
The time that a person was on Paxil (paroxetine). The amount of time that you were on Paxil plays a significant role in how your body responds to stopping the medication. Generally, discontinuing the medication if you have taken it for an extended period of time results in more serious complications.
How Long Does Paxil (Paroxetine) Stay In Your Urine And Blood?
How long Paxil (paroxetine) remains in a person’s blood has already been discussed, but there is also a risk of traces of Paxil (paroxetine) showing up in a urine test. 64% of Paxil (Paroxetine) is excreted from the body within urine primarily in the form metabolites and a smaller unchanged amount of paroxetine. As a result, there is a risk that Paxil (paroxetine) might remain in your system after use.
“while further research is needed….” is also what the swedish panflet said on several possible sideeffects back in 1998. I had to go see the Royal Swedish Library to find the actual paper copies of what warnings I could/should’ve gotten back then. Even if my doctor would’ve used ‘worst case scenario’, he wouldn’t have been able to learn possible sideeffects from the patient/prescriber leaflets back then.
But society expects me to somehow have been able to adapt to sideeffects that I couldn’t possibly know about.
Ove
You probably got this leaflet around the same time as I did
Always made me laugh – Keep this leaflet You may want to read it again
These tablets are not addictive
Now that you have seen your doctor, found out what is wrong, and discovered it can be treated, you are already starting to get better
http://mcs.open.ac.uk/nlg/old_projects/pills/corpus/PIL/data/SmithKline_Beecham/Seroxat/Seroxat.html
Date this leaflet was prepared: June 1995.
All sounded quite harmless, eh, Ove…
Demonised for trying to be a good mother: When an autistic teen asked to change sex, the school, GP and psychologist agreed. Yet the mother, desperate for them not to rush, had one ally in her legal battle: an ex-nurse at top gender clinic, finds SUE REID
This is a case snagged in one of the thorniest controversies of our time.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/familyhealth/demonised-for-trying-to-be-a-good-mother-when-an-autistic-teen-asked-to-change-sex-the-school-gp-and-psychologist-agreed-yet-the-mother-desperate-for-them-not-to-rush-had-one-ally-in-her-legal-battle-an-ex-nurse-at-top-gender-clinic-finds-sue-reid/ar-AAJjAwR
Sue Reid for the Daily Mail
16 hrs ago
A mother of a teenager with autism, born ‘Katie’ but who now prefers to be called ‘Jon’, has joined forces with a former nurse to take legal action against the NHS children’s gender clinic, the Tavistock, over its use of ‘experimental’ puberty-blocking treatments for youngsters.
The Legal Case
The court papers demand the Tavistock and NHS England agree to ‘desist from the further prescription of hormone blockers to under-18s, unless an application is made to a court to rule if it is in the child’s best interests’.
‘If no such agreement is forthcoming, it is our intention to commence proceedings for judicial review to challenge the continued use of under-18s hormone blocking treatment which we consider is unlawful…’
Texas divorcees dispute over transgender intervention for child:
https://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/texas-divorce-case-opposes-two-views-of-child-transgenders/13260
No doubt now to be replicated millions of times in courts across the globe.
The video is worth a watch. The Tavistock is full of wonky people who claim they have the knowledge and skills to ‘help’ others yet as this prog reveals they don’t have the guts to speak out to protect children from the harm being caused at the clinic. They have simply resigned and apart from a few blowing the whistle anonymously they walk away -and still have every right to practice elsewhere.
#Covid19 #BBCNews #Newsnight
NHS child gender clinic: Staff welfare concerns ‘shut down’ – BBC Newsnight
23,722 views•18 Jun 2020
Newsnight has seen transcripts that show staff say they were discouraged from raising welfare concerns at England’s only NHS child gender clinic. Subscribe to our channel here: https://goo.gl/31Q53F
Leaked documents reveal that staff at England’s only children’s NHS gender clinic say concerns about patient welfare were shut down.
Clinicians reported worries that some patients were referred onto a gender transitioning pathway too quickly.
BBC Newsnight has seen transcripts of some staff interviews from a review into the Gender Identity Development Service. The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the service, defended the review and its practices.
The review was published in spring 2019 after the Trust asked its medical director, Dr Dinesh Sinha, to investigate serious concerns about children’s welfare raised by staff in an internal report.
This investigation is by producer, Hannah Barnes, and reporter, Deborah Cohen.
Website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsnight
Guildford Four, Central Park Five- history repeats itself, overlapping again and again – a dizzying picture. Our Justice Department has now opened a criminal inquiry! into the Russian election meddling investigation. How’s that for the pot calling the kettle black? One must just come to terms with the reality that there are those who have no moral compass. It’s kind of like the Buddhist first tenant that all life is suffering. We just have to know this is the truth, then act to change things. Speaking the truth is a starting point.
recovery&renewal Retweeted
Prof. Peter Gøtzsche @PGtzsche1 38m
Dr Aileen Blower, vice-chair of the child and adolescent faculty in Scotland for the Royal College of Psychiatrists says depression pills “definitely reduce suicide risk” in children https://bit.ly/2PqCH3J . They increase suicide risk. Why do leading psychiatrists lie to us?
Mental health prescriptions rising fastest in 10-14-year-old Scots
Exclusive by Helen McArdle @HMcardleHT
Health Correspondent
4 hrs ago
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17994753.mental-health-prescriptions-rising-fastest-10-14-year-old-scots/
“What there is is a very effective marketing campaign by the drug companies. It’s a known strategy they’ve used for 50 years: once they’ve saturated the adult market, for which there is research and regulation, they push beyond that in two directions.
“They push them into old people’s homes, and they push down into the under-18 and under-16 bracket for which there is practically no research – certainly no long-term research – on the effects of these drugs on children’s brains.
“We just have no idea what effect these chemicals have on the developing brains of our children.
“It’s utterly unethical and certainly unscientific to be using these drugs on kids this young.”
Four years ago I was in Edinburgh supporting a petition to the Parliament to dissolve Scotland’s links with the London based Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation – the Petitions Committee cowered always from dealing with JCVI’s extreme conflicts, and I was astonished to watch a video another meeting at which the committee (same members) ripped mercilessly into the Scottish health minister and chief medical officer over gaps in provision of thyroxine products – they weren’t scared of them, but they are quite evidently in thrall to GSK investment.
http://www.parliament.scot/S4_PublicPetitionsCommittee/General%20Documents/20160129_PE1584_D_JStone.pdf
The Scottish nation would be immensely wealthier without the human collateral damage but it would not get the political patronage.
Dangerous opinions
THANKS to The Herald on Sunday for covering the alarming increase in antidepressant prescribing to 10 to 14-year-olds in Scotland (Surge in children on antidepressants and sedatives, News, October 27). It was disturbing, however, to learn that Dr Aileen Blower, speaking for the Royal College of Psychiatrists, thinks antidepressants “definitely reduce suicide risk”.
There is no reliable research evidence whatsoever to support this misleading assertion. There are, however, multiple studies showing that antidepressants actually increase suicidality, particularly in young people. Some of the drugs even come with a written warning about increased suicidality in children.
Dr Blower, and the college, have been asked to retract this statement.
It is no longer acceptable for senior health professionals to make public statements on serious public health issues based on anything other than scientific evidence.
Perhaps such unquestioning acceptance of drug company marketing, by psychiatrists and others, has contributed to the overuse of psychiatric drugs on our children, and the rest of us, in the first place?
Professor John Read Clinical Psychology, University of East London
Beverley Thorpe Researcher, Inverness
Marion Brown Psychotherapist, Helensburgh
recovery&renewal @recover2renew 29m
Letter from @ReadReadj @medsconsult and @recover2renew to @heraldscotland published Sunday 3 Nov 2019 ‘Dangerous Opinions’ regarding #antidepressants & statement in Herald Sunday 27 Oct by @RCPsych representative: https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/18011286.herald-sunday-letters-readers-talking-week/?c=wwj4b2 …