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THE DEATH OF twins in Limerick from a suspected overdose has prompted a city councillor to speak out about how to tackle drugs in the city.
The twins, who were named locally today as Peter and Kevin Moran, were found dead in an apartment on Steamboat Quay in the centre of Limerick city yesterday. A post-mortem is due to be carried out on their bodies today and it is understood that foul play is not suspected.
Limerick City Councillor Michael Hourigan, who is also head of the city’s Joint Policing Committee, told TheJournal.ie that the problem of drugs in Limerick needs to be tackled.
As the chairman of the Joint Policing Committee I would be very concerned about the level of drug use in the city, especially among young people. A tragedy like this is enormous for the family.
He commended the gardaí on tackling drugs in the city and said they “have done wonderful job in relation to drugs and the main ‘drugs people’ have been put away” but that drugs still need to be tackled.
Fine Gael’s Cllr Hourigan said he believed there are a number of ways to do this.
I’m convinced myself the role of community guards must be enforced as strong as possible. They are hugely important in the city of Limerick
He said that communities begin to trust them and “they know what’s going on, especially among our teenagers in that age group”. Cllr Hourigan added that the age level is dropping for the usage of drugs, from “very early teens right up to the top teen years”.
We need to create awareness through education in schools – at national school level. We need to tackle it at a very early age, especially in national schools, the danger of using drugs.
The city councillor added that a report out this week showed that people “can be affected very seriously” and there can be “very serious brain damage from cannabis”. The report from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland found that cannabis use makes physical changes to parts of the brain when smoked by adolescents.
Cllr Hourigan added that the media is also important to “bring our message home to people”. “Young people maybe don’t read the papers but they will go on Twitter and on all the vehicles we have. We should make full use of that,” he said.
He concluded that yesterday’s deaths were “a tragic event particularly for the family, and the two young men to lose their lives at such a young age with their whole lives ahead of them.”
The findings of the post-mortems on the brothers’ bodies are expected later today.
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Reporting of assaults, not actual assaults and figures also need to be adjusted for population growth. Lazy reporting.
@Mark Bow: No it’s not lazy reporting. You’re a lazy reader who doesn’t want to acknowledge facts. A 36% increase clearly cannot be accounted for by population growth, nether can the increase in reports of previously uncommon sexual violent acts such as choking. We need to acknowledge that young boys in this country have a serious problem and drastic changes to the way we talk about issues surrounding sex and gender equality in schools are needed immediately.
@Nicky O’Donnell: ‘We need to acknowledge that young boys in this country have a serious problem’ what’s the serious problem then? Do you mean all young boys? Most are sound but folk like you make them out to be monsters, no wonder they kill themselves such numbers!
@Mejo: what’s the serious problem? That pornography consumption is utterly ruining boys’ idea of sexuality and they’re inflicting that view on girls. Don’t dare act like we aren’t facing some big problems with how boys view girls. “Not all boys/men” obviously, but clearly not enough of you “good ones” are taking to your brothers that have warped views.
For gods sake a young girl was recently murdered by two boys and you have the gall to suggest that talking about this is leading boys to kill themselves??
@Veronica: obviously girls don’t look at porn.
@Nicky O’Donnell: I did reply to this before, but moderated our apparently. I’ve raised a lot of money for Cari. Just think the reporting is lazy and now I can add that the reporter is censoring out their own failure.
@Nicky O’Donnell: correction, “ young boys and girls” there fixed it for you!
I like most others, have had the internet in my home now for 25 years – that’s an entire generation.
Free porn on demand for 25 years and still little to no evidence, despite research, that porn is actually harmful.
If anything there’s international evidence, particularly fron the US, that teens are having less sex than previous generations.
25 years of free porn, yet it’s only now, this year, that ‘choking’ has become a worrying development?
How is that so? It’s difficult to explain.
@Perlum Sprite: 100% agree – free porn at the touch of a button gives teens a warped view of reality.
@Perlum Sprite: it’s not difficult to explain at all.
Has the porn online changed in terms of violence and brutality and extremity in those years? Was DP or rosebudding mainstream things 25 years ago?
Porn is a huge problem, and instead of championing young people having less sex (don’t know if you’re ultra religious or what), we should be helping young people have a healthy view of sexuality so that they can enjoy mutually fulfilling sex lives. Sex is such an important part of life for most people, and we should want young people to enjoy exploring it in loving ways, rather than choking each other and expecting it to be violent.
@Veronica: I’m just off to google Rosebudding….. Sweet Jaysus V we are all doomed
@Veronica: Crikey Veronica, I don’t live under a rock but I genuinely had to google ‘rosebudding’, not alot of people would know I’d imagine, I’d say it’s not a stretch to guess what you’re into. :\
@Rachel O’ Meara: I had to look it up, too. Yikes!!!
@Veronica: Rosebudding – holy god tonight!
@Rachel O’ Meara: I didn’t think I came across as the sort of person who didn’t practice what I preach :D
I don’t consume porn, it doesn’t get me off and even if it did I can’t stand to see women being abused. I am a fan of erotic fiction and spending “quality time” with my partner though (wink wink nudge nudge). I definitely find my sex life much more fulfilling now than I did in late teens when I did watch porn. Sensuality is where it’s at, especially with another person!
@Dave Lynch: yeah it’s awful isn’t it. It’s not even considered that extreme anymore, there’s much worse out there’s that readily available on “mainstream” sites.
I’m glad yous are finding it upsetting too though. Imagine what seeing this kind of images and videos is doing to children’s view of sex.
@Veronica: Please do explain how old Ireland was 100 times more twisted?, all kinds of abuse on tap from all kinds of sickos and nothing ever done…….it was well well worse back then.
This is an example of what happens in an immoral society where no one
knows, and or cares, about the possible serious consequences resulting from their actions.
@WreckDefier: immorality has nothing to do with it. Its our hopelessly inept education system.
@Mjhint: Parents have ultimate responsibility for social education, initiating and continuing communication on issues like these.
@Smidgen Dublin: very individualist view. Society as a whole has a responsibility. Media is completely doninated by hypersexuality, very little of it healthy. We all play a role in society, and we all play a role in how we want our society to be shaped.
Out of curiosity, how do you suggest that parents keep their children away from pornography? Ban them from phones? Ban them from internet? Ban them from friends? Ban them from school? Obviously talking to your children is incredibly important, but there’s no way to prevent them from coming across pornography the way things currently are.
@Veronica: I believe you’re right. This is a societal issue, one that we’ll probably only see the full effects of in the decades to come. It effects our youth, both boys and girls, who won’t stay young, and whatever psychological problems it causes them will very often manifest in adulthood. I’ve heard it said that the child can contain and cope with a problem, it’s the adult who can’t cope and often has issues.
As for dealing with pornography, I agree. It’s impossible to contain it now, even tech savy parents can do their utmost to block every porn site on their home router, only to have their kids access them on their phones or a friends WiFi. Or be even more tech savy themselves and get around any attempts to block access.
The best defence it talking to them, if I’m honest here I used to run a mile from this but my good wife was brilliant at it, no question was ever too embarrassing. I got better. And I’m glad to say, for me at least it worked. On one occasion one of my sons was at a party, it got rowdy and a young girl was passed out upstairs. One lad decided he was going to take advantage of her, however my son politely told him he didn’t know who she was, but he wasn’t. End of story. The bigger lad insisted and my son beat the bejaysus out of him. I heard about this 18 months later, my son was worried I’d be annoyed about him fighting. I was, he won’t always win, but I was proud that he protected that wee girl too, she was someone’s daughter. We kind of need to instil that.
@WreckDefier: Please do explain how old Ireland was 100 times more twisted?, all kinds of abuse on tap from all kinds of sickos and nothing ever done…….it was well well worse back then.
It has to do with access & the prolification of Smartphones & handheld devices. 25 years the Internet may be around but for many years, it was accessed on a desktop where children could be monitored more easily and probably were.
Now, in the last 10 yrs, they’ve been handed portable, handheld devices and off they’re sent to use them privately, from very young ages; with a good percentage of them never having a parent casting an eye over what they’re doing/watching/accessing (a whole other debate)
If a teen study were done, I believe there’d be a correlation between unfettered Internet access & the rise in teen sexual assaults, of today. It’s certainly showing anecdotally.
Parental education with increased monitoring & legislation on age verified, porn access needs to be addressed.
Dafuq is wrong with people – seriously.
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