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Dublin: 13 °C Saturday 25 May, 2013

The 5 at 5: Thursday

5 minutes, 5 stories, 5 o’clock…

Image: Elena Schweirzer via Shutterstock

EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you the five stories you need to know before you head out the door.

1. #NORTHERN IRELAND: A Northern Ireland prison officer has died after being shot at in his car as he drove to work in Armagh this morning. Justice Minister Alan Shatter has described the killing of the officer as “brutal and barbaric”.

2. #MISSING: Police in North Wales who have been searching for missing vet Catherine Gowing say they have found human remains in a shallow pool in a field in Flintshire. Catherine’s family have been informed of the find and a post mortem is due to be carried out on the remains later this evening.

3. #BANKS: More than 16,000 Bank of Ireland customers have had to have their mortgage restructured while 120 have had their homes repossessed, the CEO of the bank has told an Oireachtas committee. Richie Boucher also defended his salary of more than €600,000 before the committee, saying that he had taken a salary reduction in 2009.

4. #DISABILITY: More than 13 per cent of the population – almost 600,000 people – have a disability, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office.

5. #HUG A HOODIE: A large crowd of dedicated teenagers braved the cold weather to be among the first to enter the Abercrombie and Fitch store in Dublin’s city centre, which opened its doors earlier today. Here’s what it looked like.

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Comments (5 Comments)

  • Please queue in the cold to be in with a chance to get into our store, where you will have the opportunity to pay buckets of cash for awful looking clothes. Do one Abercrombie

    Reply
  • #DISABILITY:

    For those with mental health issues (see Figure 19 in the article on disability) there was a lot of discussion about the need to change the Mental Health Act yesterday because of a specific tragedy that happened in Cork 2 years ago. Good article in the Irish Times today “Resources, not new laws, needed in mental health” http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/1101/1224325980300.html

    Some of the medication dished out by doctors and Psychiatrists for mental health issues can be quite disabling eg “anti-psychotics” or “mood stabilisers” which have a very sedating effect. Especially if they are over prescribed. And a certain % of people who are put on “anti-depressants” go on to develop more serious mental health issues because of the medication ie Bipolar disorder/Manic Depression.

    The current approach to mental health in the Western world is serious flawed. A more Psychosocial approach is needed, where people in emotional distress get therapy and advice and can go back to being productive members of society. I am referring to some people, as every individual is different. But the current system revolves around the medical model ie drugs. The one area of our mental health system that is good is Occupational Therapy (OT).

    Young children are been put on Ritalin which has similar chemical properties to cocaine.
    While the parent and teachers may see short term benefits, long term the child’s mental health is been
    put at risk.

    Someone that has done a lot of research in this field is Robert Whitaker, author of “Anatomy of an Epidemic”. http://robertwhitaker.org/robertwhitaker.org/Anatomy%20of%20an%20Epidemic.html

    Note: Never stop or change medication without consulting a good doctor due to the dangers of withdrawal.

    Reply
  • Im not surprised at that CSO figure..every day in Dublin I see people walking around holding crutches with no limp whatsoever..although I suppose you can’t use a crutch properly while holding a can or plastic bottle

    Reply
  • Hipsters occupy Dublin’s first Abercrombie and Fitch store to buy. No sign of any Gardai, in riot gear, on segways, on horses or otherwise

    Reply

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