Irish Examiner view: Insights can reveal the way forward

Irish Examiner

4 hours ago

Readers can see the results of the Irish Examiner's national women's survey in these pages today, distilling the attitudes and experiences of over 1,000 women from across the country.
Those women articulated their experiences of fertility, birth and pregnancy loss, mental health services, cosmetic treatments, menopause, and other matters — offering valuable insights into the realities of women's lives.
For instance, while we may be familiar anecdotally with the difficulties some people have accessing GPs, the survey shows that two in five of Irish women feel it is difficult to get a GP appointment.
If more than 40% of the women in Ireland share that experience, then surely this is one of the starkest yet least-publicised crises in our healthcare system.
The survey also gives us hints and indications of how other contemporary challenges impinge on women.
One in four said they would delay childbirth until they had achieved financial or career goals, and it is easy to discern the housing crisis lurking in the background here. Childbirth is a major theme in the survey, with clear signs that family size in Ireland is likely to continue to fall — half of the mothers surveyed with a single child indicated that they would like a second child, a major change from the large families of the 70s and even the 80s. This is a finding with clear demographic implications for the country going forward.
The role of the State in women's lives is weighed up here, with plenty of support for the State-funded hormone replacement treatment programme, but its faltering introduction is echoed in the cold facts: Just 48% of women in menopause have availed of the scheme.
The information about specific areas of women's lives in this survey should inform how policy is determined, and how those policies are subsequently implemented. That is the true value of data like this.
However, there are also more general challenges to be found among these results. For instance, it should certainly give everyone pause to read that 38% of women surveyed often feel lonely or isolated.
That is an astonishing revelation. It may be some consolation to some of those women to see that they are not the only ones to feel that way, but a far greater consolation would be the provision of better and more accessible health services for women across the board.
A worrying trend in public life
As reported here, the Cork office of Taoiseach Micheál Martin was vandalised recently.
This is far from the first time the property has been attacked, however, it was splashed with red paint and graffiti left on the walls on this occasion. In the recent past, the Taoiseach has also received personal threats and has been warned that he will be prevented from going about his job in public spaces.
Robust exchanges are a natural part of politics, but this is going beyond the pale and should be condemned in the strongest terms. Such vandalism and threats are completely unacceptable in and of themselves, and also as markers of a worrying trend in Irish public life.
Issuing threats and the use of other intimidatory tactics are indicative of an increasingly dangerous atmosphere in Irish politics. Ours is not the only country witnessing a coarsening of public discourse, but there are lessons to be learned from other jurisdictions.
For instance, the growth of far-right groups in Britain was linked directly to the killing of MP Jo Cox in 2016. In the US, there has been a sharp rise in political violence in recent years, ranging from the invasion of the US Capitol in January 2021 to the killings last weekend in Minnesota of Democratic state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, while another local politician and his wife were also shot several times though they are recovering in hospital.
Readers may point to significant differences between Ireland and the US in particular, where the sharp polarisation of political views, the toxic influence of president Donald Trump, and the wide availability of guns make for a deadly mixture.
However, there is no room for complacency here when the person in the highest elected office in the land has his premises vandalised and faces threats to his safety.
The operation of a free and open democracy is predicated on the safety of all citizens, who are entitled to live without fear or intimidation.
Golden ticket
Any reader who did not reflexively check a EuroMillions ticket in the last day or two either possesses superhuman restraint or is simply lying.
News that an Irish player is in line for a €250m payday has probably led to many a daydream.
Though the figure is so high as to be difficult to grasp, that is hardly a bar to idle thoughts of Caribbean hideaways and fleets of luxury cars.
The general advice from the National Lottery to the winner is to have a cup of tea and stay calm, which is reasonable.
Older readers may recall the likes of Viv Nicholson, who blew a pools win in the 1960s, and whose chaotic life remains a cautionary tale for those who suddenly wake up rich.
For the benefit of any reader who may be fishing a ticket out of their coat pocket or from behind the couch, the numbers are 13, 22, 23, 44, 49, and the Lucky Stars were 3 and 5. Get in touch if they look familiar.