An exhibition has been launched in Dublin to share the real-life stories from Irish women who have travelled for an abortion. The project highlights the impact the 8th Amendment has had on the lives of women and their families in Ireland.

About the exhibition

Caoimhe Anglin launched Everyday Stories after her experience of travelling for an abortion in 2016 following a crisis pregnancy. When speaking about her own experience, Caoimhe said "I was accessing a normal healthcare service but – to do so – I was subjected to needless hardship: I had to travel abroad, stay in a hotel, find the money to cover all these expenses, and get time off work. And I had to do all this under a cloud of secrecy because of the Eighth Amendment and the restrictions it has caused."

She felt inspired to start this project to share her story and the stories of other women. Last year, 10 Irish women travelled every day to the UK to have an abortion, each with their own reason and their own story.

Each story in the exhibition is illustrated by a different Irish-based artist, and share experiences that range from crisis pregnancies to cases of fatal foetal abnormalities. 

According to Caoimhe Anglin, the aim of the project is to show abortion as “an everyday, essential healthcare service accessed by thousands of Irish women each year”.

Where to see Everyday Stories

The exhibition in Filmbase, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 is curated by Amy McKeogh and will be open until Thursday 9th November. An online project is available at www.everydaystories.org and is managed by Caoimhe Anglin. Members of the public are invited to submit their own stories through the website. A new story will be published online every two weeks.

Everyday Stories hope to bring the exhibition on tour in 2018.

Dress for Success Dublin have launched a month long campaign to highlight the gender pay gap and raise money to support more women back to work.

The gender pay gap is the difference in the average total earnings between men and women. In Ireland, women earn approximately 14% less than men over the course of their careers.

According to Dress for Success, this means that women stop earning equal to men in the middle of November, which effectively means that women work for free for around 7 weeks of the year.

Low paying jobs

The majority of workers in low-paying jobs in Ireland are women. Many of these women are on part-time or zero-hour contracts, with fewer educational qualifications. When the gender pay gap is discussed, women in these situations are often left out of the conversation.

Women also retire on a lower pension than men because they are more likely to take time off work to care for children or other family members than men across their working lives.

Dress for Success argue that addressing these gender inequalities and introducing things like mandetory shared parental leave, affordable childcare, and finding ways to bring and end to gender stereotyping are another way to close the pay gap between men and women.

Equal Pay Day 2017

This year, Equal Pay Day 2017 is on 10th November because this is the date in the year that women stop earning compared to men. For the rest of the year, women are effectively working for free.

To mark this day, Dress for Success will be holding a panel discussion at the Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar. You can register for the event here.

Dress for Success is a charity offering career development tools to women including professional clothing, interview preparation, workshops and mentoring. Click here to learn more about the Equal Pay campaign.

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) are encouraging students across the country to #GetRegd this Wednesday November 8th for National Voter Registration Day.

You have until November 25th to get yourself on the draft register in order to vote in next year’s referendums. To check if you’re already on the register, visit checktheregister.ie.

If you’re not on the register, not to worry – applying for the draft register is straightforward, and the USI are here to make it even easier for you.

Click here to download the RFA1 form in English or Irish.

Am I eligible to vote?

In order to vote in a referendum in Ireland, you must be:

If you turn 18 on or before February 15th 2018, you can still apply to be included on the draft register.

I’m a student, how do I register?

If you’re a student, then you can pick up the voter registration forms (form RFA1) at your SU. They will tell you everything you need to know about filling it out, and they’ll even send it off for you for free.

So all you need to do is pick it up and fill it out. Let your SU take care of the rest!

I’m not a student, but I still need to register.

If you’re not a student, or if you’re away from college and can’t visit your SU, then you can download the RFA1 form here. Simply fill it out and send it or drop it into your local county or city council.

Make sure to send it off before November 25th.

Want to know more? Click here for more information about registering to vote.

Twitter has announced that they will be rolling out new safety policies over the next few months. The new policies will change some of the rules around what is allowed on Twitter and also aim to improve the experience of reporting a user for inapproriate behaviour.

Here’s an outline of some of these changes and what they’ll mean for users on Twitter.

Non-consensual nudity

Twitter’s Current Policy

Currently, anyone who posts non-consensual nudity will be asked to delete the tweet and will be temporarily blocked from their account. This happens whether they tweeted the material on purpose or if they unknowingly shared something non-consensual. 

If they post non-consensual nudity again, their account will be permanently suspended.

Twitter’s new policy

Unwanted sexual advances

Twitter’s current policy

Pornography and sexually charged conversation is generally allowed on Twitter. The only time Twitter will take enforcement action is if/when a participant in the conversation reports the conversation. This is because it can be hard to tell if the sexual content is wanted or consensual to a bystander, so it is up to the participant to report it.

A person who is not involved in the conversation cannot report this as an unwanted sexual advance.

Twitter’s new policy

Hate symbols and imagery

Twitter considers hateful imagery to be logos, symbols or images whose purpose is to promote hostility and malice against others based on their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or ethnicity/national origin. 

From Monday 18th December 2017, hateful imagery will not be allowed in an account’s profile image or profile header. It will be permitted in Tweets, but only when marked as sensitive media. 

Sensitive Media

Violent groups

Twitter’s rules around violent groups specify that users cannot make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people.

Abusive profile information

Twitter now prohibits using a profile username, display name or bio to engage in abusive behaviour, such as targeted harassment or expressing hate towards a person, group or protected category.

Glorifying violence and violent threats 

Twitter prohibits content that glorifies acts of violence in a way that could inspire others to replicate it and cause real offline danger, or where people were targeted beause of their membership in a protected group.

Click here to find out more about Twitter’s range of enforcement options for policy violators. 

Explaining these new rules

In order to make sure Twitter users fully understand the new rules and policies on what is and isn’t allowed on the platform, Twitter will be taking these steps:

Read our fact sheet about staying safe on Twitter.

Critical media literacy means being able to analyse, assess, and evaluate media in a critical way.

Critical media literacy is important because it helps us to understand the messages behind the different types of content we access and consume online and on other media platforms.

This covers all forms of media including television, radio, newspapers, video and online content.

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has developed a media literacy policy to outline the key elements of media literacy and measures for success, we’ve summarised the policy below.

Here are ways to become more media literate in today’s digital age:

Make informed choices around the media you use.

This includes:

Access and use media in a safe and secure way.

This includes:

Creating content online in a responsible way.

This includes:

For more information and to download the full policy see the BAI website.

 

The Ana Liffey Drug Project are inviting young people aged 12-25 to enter the annual “Let’s Talk About Drugs” National Youth Media Awards Competition.

The competition, in its fifth year, aims to get young people thinking about drugs and alcohol issues and find creative ways to talk about them.

To enter, participants need to create a piece of original content, which can be a short video or animation, an audio podcast, a news article or a poster. Read the tips for entering to find out more. Participants can enter as an individual or as a group.

There are four age categories with different themes.

For ages 12-14 and 15-17 the themes are:

For ages 18 -21 and 22-15 the themes are:

Each winner from the four age categories will receive €250 in One4All vouchers. The overall winners of the 12-17 and 18-25 age groups will each receive vouchers to the value of €1,000.

The deadline to enter this competition has been extended until the 9th of April 2018. If you have already submitted your entry you can submit additional entries until the closing date.

For more informtaition visit www.drugs.ie/awards

Late on Sunday evening, Met Eireann, Ireland's national meteorological (weather) service issued a 'Wind Warning' with a 'RED Status' for Ireland for Monday, 16th October 2017. Here's what you need to know:

What is a RED weather warning?

There are three levels of weather warning; YELLOW (be aware), ORANGE (be prepared), and the most serious is RED (take action).

According to Met Eireann the issue of RED level severe weather warnings is a rare event and means people in areas issued with a red warning should take action to protect themselves and/or their properties. 

This could be by moving themselves and their families out of the danger zone temporarily; by staying indoors; or by other specific actions aimed at reducing the effects of the weather conditions.

What is this particular RED warning for?

Met Eireann have issued a 'Wind Warning' for the whole of Ireland.

As ex-Hurricane Ophelia is forecast to move directly over Ireland during daytime Monday, violent and destructive gusts are forecast with all areas at risk and in particular the southwest and south in the morning, and eastern counties in the afternoon.

Heavy rain and storm surges (rising water) along some coasts will result in flooding. 

There is potential risk to lives, and this warning should be taken seriously.

Should I be worried, how bad is it going to be?

Ireland has not experienced wind speeds like the ones predicted for Ireland on Monday in a very long time, so it's hard to know what will happen.

Weather forecasters are urging us all to stay indoors as a precaution and to take certain steps to stay safe (see more below). 

It is a good idea to check on vulnerable people (older people, people living with disabilities, and others) to make sure they will be safe tomorrow and that they have everything they might need.

Hopefully, the storm will pass over Ireland with little damage, but it is best to be prepared for the worst case scenario.

Do not worry too much as it can sound scary, especially with the media hype, but this is a rare weather event and the warnings help us to prepare and take the storm seriously. 

How will I be affected?

Everyone is being advised to stay indoors on Monday and all unnecessary travel is to be avoided.

The Government have confirmed all schools, colleges, universities, and creches will be closed for the day. It has also been confirmed that primary and secondary schools will remain closed on Tuesday, October 17th.

Many hospitals have confirmed that appointments have been cancelled, although Accident & Emergency Departments will remain open. 

Many local authority services like libraries and leisure centres will also be closed.

I work, what should I do?

If you work and you haven't yet been given insructions by your employer, it might be an idea to get in touch with your boss to check the situation.

Some employers will suggest employees work from home, and if they don't you could suggest it yourself.

If you think travelling to work would put your safety at risk you should stress this with your employer and inform them you are staying indoors at home.

If you have no choice and have to travel into work tomorrow, make sure you travel safely, keep an eye out for falling debris, fallen power cables and definitely don't cycle a bike to work in high winds.

Keep an eye on social media for travel disruption updates.

RTE Radio One's Morning Ireland programme has promised to keep commuters up to date in the morning also, so it would be a good idea to tune in.

What happens if I run into difficulty?

In an emergency, call 112 or 999 immediately and ask for the emergency service you need; gardai, ambulance, fire brigade or coast guard.

If you see power cables down, call the ESB (1850 372 999) or if you suspect a gas leak call Gas Networks Ireland (1850 205 050).

If there are trees down in your area or you notice other things which your local authority can assist with, you should give them a call. 

Other advice from the National Emergency Coordination Committee on Severe Weather:

Follow @emergencyIE and @MetEireann on twitter for further updates

Transport Cancellations 

Here are some of the updates on transport around the country:

Bus Eireann

Dublin Bus

Irish Rail

LUAS

Dublin Airport

Some helpful updates as of Sunday night:

Ibrahim Halawa’s family are celebrating today after his release from prison, over one month since he was acquitted of all charges in an Egyptian court.

Ibrahim was arrested in Cairo in 2013 when he was just 17 years old, following protests against a military coup which had happened earlier that year. His three sisters were also arrested but later released on bail. All four were acquitted last month.

Ibrahim’s sister Fatima spoke of the surprise and excitement when they found out her brother was released saying that they “didn’t expect him to be released today at all”.

Ibrahim had been held in an Egyptian prison for 4 years and his trial had been postponed more than 30 times. He was tried as part of a mass trial with 493 other defendants.

The Minster for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveny, has said that they hope Ibrahim can return to Ireland by Sunday or Monday, and the Taoiseach has confirmed that the family are receiving consular assistance on the ground to help get Ibrahim back home.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and President Michael D. Higgins are among those to welcome Ibrahim's release.

 

Looking for something to do with your friends that doesn’t involve alcohol? There are plenty of fun events and activities you can take part in, alone and with a group, that don’t involve drinking.

Venues, bars and clubs

There are a number of venues and clubs that are alcohol-free, from late-night coffee shops to places you can go for a dance.

Alcohol Free Activities

This list has just some of the things you can plan with friends to enjoy a day, evening, or whole weekend without drinking.

As part of our campaign ‘Alcohol and You’, SpunOut is encouraging you to consider your relationship to alcohol and how it makes you feel. By making small changes to your drinking, you can feel big improvements in your mental and physical health.

As part of the campaign, you’ll find content on social alternatives to drinking, so you can keep your social life busy but your drinking at a minimum. You’ll find information on how to cope with social anxiety at parties without having to drink alcohol, how to cope with hangovers and alcohol’s impact on anxiety, and how to approach a friend who may be drinking too much. There is also information on addiction and support services.

You can find a list of the content below:

As well as that, you can hear from real young people about their experiences with alcohol:

For more support and information, see AskAboutAlchol.ie

Hello Sunday Morning

As part of our Alcohol And You campaign, we're asking people to sign up to Hello Sunday Morning's Daybreak app. Daybreak is an app that encourages you to rethink your relationship with alcohol by taking a break from drinking and seeking support from others. Find out more here.

Social anxiety can be described as a fear of social situations and interaction with other people in everyday life. People can experience social anxiety around just one or all interactions and situations.

While it can be normal to experience some level of anxiety in many social situations, especially in new social settings, for some people the anxiety can be worse and more persistent.

Many people use alcohol as a way to calm their nerves and ease their social anxiety when they enter into a social situation. While this may seem to help, there is a danger that you could become dependent on alcohol in order to cope.

If you are trying to reduce your drinking, take a break from alcohol or quit entirely, you may find it a big adjustment to socialise without the use of alcohol. Here are some tips to help you deal with anxious feelings without drinking.

How to handle social anxiety without alcohol

If you suffer from social anxiety and there’s a social event coming up that you feel nervous about, do what you can to prepare in advance.

Take time to imagine the situation

Take a moment to sit down and think about where you’re going. Try to picture it and imagine yourself there, feeling relaxed and confident. This image can help to make you feel better as you get ready and head out. Each time you get anxious, try to picture things going well and tell yourself it’s going to be fine.

Try relaxation techniques

Before you go, try doing a relaxation technique to calm yourself ahead of time. This can be a few deep breaths or a longer meditation, whatever works best for you. Doing a mindfulness exercise might be helpful to ground you and help you feel calm before you head out. It could even be something you take a moment to do while you’re out if you need to.

Know what to do if you’re overwhelmed

Most importantly, think about what you will do if you start to feel overwhelmed. This way you’ll know what to do if the panic starts to kick in without needing to turn to alcohol to calm your nerves. This might be breathing, taking a short walk, giving yourself some space, or something else that will help to calm you down. Try not to be hard on yourself if you get overwhelmed – you are doing your best.

Find out who will be there

Going to an event with social anxiety can be daunting. If you’re avoiding alcohol as a way of settling in, then you might find it helpful to start off by talking to people you know.

If you can, find out in advance who will be there that you might know. When you arrive, strike up a conversation with them. Most likely they will introduce you to others, and you can work out from there.

If you’re going to an event where you won’t know anyone, ask if you can bring a friend. If someone invited you to the event, then remember that you do know at least one person, and you can talk to them. If that’s not possible, try not to panic – take a look around the room, find an opportunity to speak to someone and take it one step at a time.

Set small, achievable goals

Before you head out the door, set yourself small goals that you’ll aim to achieve when you’re out. This could be ‘talk to 3 new people’, ‘ask 5 questions’, or ‘dance to one song’. If you manage to achieve your goal, don’t put pressure on yourself to do more than that.

You could also set a time goal by deciding how long you will stay, and leaving once the time is up. This could be as short as 20 minutes, and you can aim to stay a little longer each time you go out.

Allow yourself to take breaks

Give yourself permission to take breaks every now and then to give yourself a chance to get some space and calm your nerves. Take opportunities to go to the bathroom and do some deep breathing, get outside for some fresh air, or even just step aside and take a moment to yourself. Remind yourself that you’re doing your best, and you don’t need alcohol to handle the situation.

Leave when you’re ready to leave

If you’ve managed to achieve some of the goals you’ve set for yourself and you’re feeling like you want to leave, then give yourself permission to go when it feels right to you. If you decided you were going to stay for an hour and the hour is up, then allow yourself to go.

Even if things are going well at that moment, sometimes it’s better to leave when you’re feeling good instead of waiting for the panic to drive you out.

Feeling overwhelmed or want to talk to someone right now?

If you are a customer of the 48 or An Post network or cannot get through using the ‘50808’ short code please text HELLO to 086 1800 280 (standard message rates may apply). Some smaller networks do not support short codes like ‘50808’.

If someone exercises the morning after a heavy night of drinking alcohol, it will have an effect on their concentration and coordination, not to mention the likelihood of a headache. Whether you want to hit the gym or you have a match to play, there’s a lot to be said for staying off the drink before you exercise.

How does alcohol impact on fitness?

There are a whole host of ways that alcohol can affect your athletic performance. Being aware of these may help you to plan better, and to start avoiding heavy nights out the day before you are planning to exercise.

Alcohol dehydrates you

It’s important to stay hydrated when you exercise. The body needs water to maintain the flow of blood throughout the body, keep your joints lubricated, and to provide you with the nutrients and vitamins that give you energy.

Alcohol is a natural diuretic, which basically means that when you drink, you pee more often. This causes you to become dehydrated, which is why you might find you wake up the morning after drinking with a dry mouth.

What happens when you become dehydrated?

Dehydration reduces the electrolytes in your body. Electrolytes like magnesium, potassium, and calcium are important for muscle action and coordination and fluid balance. After a night of drinking, you don’t have as much of these important electrolytes in your system to help with your exercise.

When you are dehydrated, you also lose water-soluble vitamins like Vitamins B6, B12, and Vitamin C. This means you’re more likely to feel run down and prone to illness, which could hamper recovery time and keep you from performing at your best.

Why is dehydration bad for exercise?

When you exercise, you become even more dehydrated as your body temperature heats up and we start to sweat. After you’ve been drinking, you’re already dehydrated, and exercising can actually make it worse. This can all lead to feelings of dizziness or light-headedness, nausea, muscle cramps, and a rapid heartbeat.

How does alcohol impact our energy levels?

In order to perform your best when you exercise, you need to have enough energy. Exercise is fuelled by glucose released from the liver into the body’s blood stream. This essential blood sugar is what keeps you going. When you drink, the liver isn’t able to produce glucose like it normally does, meaning you’ll have less energy.

The body also needs something called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as a source of energy to muscle cells. The more your muscles move while you exercise, the more ATP is needed. When you drink alcohol, the body produces less ATP.

Alcohol slows your reactions 

Especially if you play a team sport, reaction times can be crucial to your performance in the game. If you play after you’ve been drinking, you may find yourself letting your teammates down because your reaction time, balance, and hand-eye coordination are all thrown off. This is because alcohol is a sedative, so it slows you down and knocks your concentration.

Drop in cardio performance

Cardio exercise requires the body to pump oxygenated blood to the heart, which in turn delivers oxygen to the muscles, keeping you moving throughout your workout. Alcohol slows this process down, meaning we can’t give our best performance. Combined with low energy levels because of low blood sugar, you can’t be on top of your game after a night of drinking.

We’re more likely to cramp after we’ve been drinking

If you drink alcohol within a 24 hour period before exercising, you’re at a higher risk of cramping and muscle fatigue because of a build-up of lactic acid. This can be painful and frustrating, especially if you’re taking part in a match or trying to hit a personal best.

Complications from injuries

There are a number of ways alcohol can cause complications from injuries by slowing down healing time and masking pain. This won’t just affect your training the next day but could impact on your exercise routine for a few weeks while you try to recover.

You can often be less aware of an injury after you’ve been drinking because of alcohol’s ability to mask pain. If you don’t notice it straight away, you could potentially cause further damage.

Slowing down healing time

Alcohol increases the blood flow in your system, so if you get a soft tissue injury such as a bruise, cut, or sprain, the blood will swell around the injury, slowing down healing time. Alcohol also reduces testosterone, which is needed for muscle development. With lower levels of testosterone in your system, the time needed for repair and recovery will be longer.

Alcohol affects our quality of sleep

Sleep is necessary to our performance when we exercise because it helps to repair and rebuild muscle.

Alcohol reduces the amount of time you spend in REM (rapid eye movement) when you sleep. This stage in the sleep cycle is important because it’s the most restorative. Without it, you’ll be feeling pretty groggy the next day.

While you sleep, the body produces something called Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which helps to build and repair muscle, essential for exercise. If your sleep has been impacted after you’ve been drinking, the production of HGH will also be impacted.

To learn more about the different ways alcohol impacts our bodies, visit AskAboutAlcohol.ie

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