TERAPROOF:User:conoranthonyDate:12/09/2013Time:22:11:11Edition:13/09/2013ExaminerLiveXX1309Page:
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Irish Examiner Friday 13.09.2013
Greyhound Board aims to restore fortunes
Fricker reveals physical abuse by her mother by Audrey Ellard Walsh “We were always bleeding,” Brenda Fricker has revealed, speaking about her childhood of abuse. The Oscar-winning actress was speaking with Miriam O’Callaghan yesterday morning to promote her new film, A Long Way From Home. Written and directed by friend Virginia Gilbert, the role was created for Fricker, someone Gilbert says she admired since seeing her in My Left Foot. That was the role which ensured Fricker’s nod from the academy, something which she says she is proud of. “The Oscar has had a travelled life though from being left in the back of taxis to being thrown into a swimming pool at a party.” She was eventually convinced to put up a shelf to keep it safe. The actress believes her career began “by accident” when she took part in a radio play at the age of seven. Intending to follow in her father’s footsteps as a journalist, she was working in The Irish Times when an audition for Tolka Row was advertised. She says on her boss’s advice she tried it out and “here I am”.
It hadn’t been a charmed life before this point for the Dublin woman however. She revealed how it took her 20 years to erect her mother’s gravestone, considering the inscription carefully to avoid the word “beloved”. While she is “beginning to forgive her mother and understand her”, their relationship in life was “difficult” stemming from a childhood of abuse. “We were always bleeding. She would do it below the knees so that my father wouldn’t see it when we wore knee socks.” Fricker says that she was “petrified” of her mother, afraid that every time she moved it was to hit her. “It was extremely violent.” She told of how neighbours recalled “seeing our mother beating us with broken orange box bits and us bleeding”. They knew that it was not the norm and questioned calling the police, she says, but there were no child protection laws. She was angry for a long time, something which she is still working to overcome. “It made me very insecure and frightened, all the things that you are when you’re beaten like that.”
by Conor Ryan Investigative Correspondent
‘My Left Foot’ co-stars and Oscar winners Brenda Fricker and Daniel Day-Lewis. Fricker’s statuette now sits on a shelf after leading a ‘travelled life’. Picture :David Mcgough/DMI/Time Life Pictures/Getty Things are better now though, “I’m doing great. I can go out to the grave and I don’t feel any pressure, I don’t get an anxiety attack so that’s good.” When asked why she visits her mother’s grave she replied “because my shrink tells me to”. She also spoke about being sexually abused as a child by a family friend. “You name it, it happened to me.” She reported it, but nothing was done. “But someone went down to his house and scared the
bejesus out of him and that was enough for me, that was my revenge.” She credits her late husband Barry Davies with helping her overcome the trauma. “It was love at first sight, it was quite amazing. I can remember the tingling now. We lived together for 20 years and then we got married. He was the most beautiful person in the world.” Depression has shadowed Fricker’s life, but is not something she attributes
to her upbringing. “As Stephen Fry says it’s like the weather. If you’re walking down the street and it’s sunny and it suddenly starts to rain. People with depression don’t have the trigger to tell them that it’s going to stop.” When asked whether she is affected by it now she coyly replied: “Well I have an Oscar for acting... I’m not saying anything that isn’t true, I wouldn’t do that to you or anyone but I do have to put on a little act to
be energetic at this time of the morning.” Acting is something that has helped her. “You can hide behind the character… yes, that does help.” Though officially retired, she has a short list of exemptions for whom she’ll come back — including Virginia. “There are about four people I will work with. I miss the place between action and cut.” A Long Way From Home debuted at the Edinburgh Film Festival in June.
Girls take study honours for 3 core Junior Cert subjects by Niall Murray Education Correspondent Girls are still far more likely than boys to study the three core school subjects to higher level for Junior Certificate. Figures released by the State Examinations Commission also reveal that girls do better in most of the 26 subjects, with more
getting As and honours grades (A, B or C) in the vast majority. Significant improvements in uptake of Irish and maths to higher level were evident again in this week’s results, largely attributed to curricular and other reforms. But far more female students still chose the tougher exam than boys, with one of the biggest
variations being at Junior Cert Irish. In a school with 50 girls and 50 boys who sat the exams in June, for example, 30 girls but only 22 or 23 boys would have done honours Irish. Boys still trail girls in doing higher level maths, although half of the 30,155 male students doing the subject sat the higher level in June — just
below the 53% of females. Almost equal proportions (41% of girls and 42% of boys) did ordinary level maths, and slightly more boys (7.5%) than girls (6%) sat foundation level papers. In English, almost 79% of girls but only 68% of boys sitting the higher level papers this year. This meant double the proportions of boys compared to
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girls taking English at ordinary (29% compared to 14%) and foundation levels (3% as against 1.5%). The trends continue among other popular languages, with four girls doing higher level French for each one sitting ordinary level, compared to a 3:1 ratio among male students. For Junior Cert German, studied by just over
10,000, the numbers are very similar, although very slightly more balanced, with 79% of girls and 71% of boys doing higher level. Of 22 subjects in which figures are provided for higher level, maths, Latin and metalwork were the only ones in which more boys got As, while more boys than girls got honours in just Latin and metalwork.
The embattled Irish Greyhound Board has announced a plan to reorganise the company and turn its fortunes around before its debt problems come to a head. It believes new structures, a doubling of sponsorship revenue and making betting products more available will improve its income streams significantly by 2017. The company, which is heavily in debt and has been blighted by integrity issues, has proposed a new internal reporting structure. The five-year strategy, prepared by independent consultants, said the current system has 16 management heads reporting directly to chief executive Adrian Neilan. This, it said, was inefficient. “This is poor use of the CEO’s time and a major reason why the IGB can appear to move slowly and also why issues can fester and become public before they are addressed or an effective PR response developed. “The proposal is that a new executive be established to manage the IGB. The executive will consist of five direct reports to the CEO covering the key areas of the organisation. Additionally, he will also have the head of HR and the internal auditor reporting to him,” it said. Currently the internal auditor is on extended sick leave after he and a colleague finalised a scathing report into a race fixing scam in Dundalk.
The report said the management team at the company had to be seen to be “responsive, understanding and accessible” if it was to succeed in improving its reputation. The chief executive’s function is in the spotlight as Mr Neilan’s contract is running out. The board has asked Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney to relax the rules for the commercial semi-state sector which prevent his reappointment. The five-year plan also revealed that there are plans to announce a major new sponsor for the controversial Limerick stadium. Selling the naming rights to the stadium had previously been investigated but no deal was done. The company’s finances have been under scrutiny by the Department of Agriculture in recent years after its bank debts rose to nearly €25m following the construction of the new stadium in Limerick. Its debts are on an interest only basis until 2016 after which it will be faced with annual installments of more than €4m. However, the plan said it can more than double sponsorship revenue from €900,000 and it can raise its tote incomes from €21m to €28m. It expects to make its product more accessible through mobile phone betting apps and strategic partnerships with late-opening betting shops. The plans wants prize money to be increased along with the number of top class dogs racing.
Councils ‘will lose planning powers’ by Louise Roseingrave Local authorities will lose their powers over planning and housing from Jan 1 under radical new local authority reform structures. Under Environment Minister Phil Hogan’s Putting People First proposals, the country’s town councils will be replaced by municipal district councils from 2014. Changes outlined in a document prepared by the Department of Environment’s advisory group to oversee the reorganisation of local government will be implemented over of the coming year. The Transition Plan for Town Council Integration document sets out four phases for the changes to be implemented, with each
council to set up an integration committee in order to be ready to begin the transfer of power in 2014. Besides the loss of planning and housing functions, town engineers and town clerks will be expected to preside over expanded areas. The details were revealed by mayor of Clonakilty, Cllr Phil O’Regan, at the 101st Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland (AMAI) conference at Inchydoney, Co Cork, yesterday. Mayor O’Regan issued an impassioned plea against the reorganisation, branding it “a gross erosion of democracy”. “The truth is it’s a massively dangerous process. It’s tantamount to the abolition of any kind of democratic principles and it’s making
government a great deal less accountable rather than more. People need to be aware what is happening,” she said. The changes will see fewer elected councillors represent larger jurisdictions and town councils will effectively become subsidiaries of the county council rather than independent authorities. People will find that they might want to go to their local councillor about something, but they won’t have the local councillor,” mayor O’Regan said. Mayor O’Regan pointed out that once town councils are abolished on Jun 1 next year they cannot be reinstated. In her opening address to delegates, she said levels of local representation will be decimated if the
proposals are introduced. “Democracy is being sacrificed to be replaced by some unbelievable system of no influence,” she said. Clonakilty town councillor Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin (SF) outlined how people’s access to their local representatives in West Cork will be greatly diluted with the loss of Skibbereen, Clonakilty and Bantry town councils. “Each council has nine councillors and with 12 county councillors, that’s 39 people doing their best for the people that elect them. Under the proposals that number will be cut to eight councillors representing 56,000 people. It’s a huge geographical area spanning from Clonakilty to the Kerry border,” he said.
Rebels replace Che on the double by Gordon Deegan
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Locals in Kilkee have rebelled against Clare County Council’s decision to scrub out a mural of Che Guevara by replacing it with two more. The appearance of the historic figure in two murals on private properties in recent days follows the Council removing a large mural of Guevara on the Alley Walls in the west Clare town last week. The drawings — one on the side of the Marine Hotel complex — comes ahead of the third annual Che do Bheatha festival celebrating his visit to Kilkee in 1961. Local businessman and founding member of the Kilkee Chamber of Commerce, John Williams, described the erection of the murals as “a spontaneous reaction
The mural of Che Guevara at the Marine Hotel in Kilkee, Co Clare. by local people to the high-handed way in which the council removed the mural”, as it contravened legislation. Mr Williams said: “There isn’t anything organised about it. It is people showing their own frustration at what the council did. From talking to people, ” I would expect that there would be around six Che Guevara murals to be in place around Kilkee.” He said that the erection of the new murals “is in the spirit of Che Guevara”. Chairman of Kilkee
Tourism, Tom Byrne, said he is “not surprised” by the new murals. The founder of the Che Do Bheatha festival said: “There was such a negative reaction to the Council’s heavyhandedness this year that it seemed inevitable that more such images have now appeared.” Mr Byrne accused the council of being “very selective and prompt in its enforcement of planning legislation where they consider something graffiti”. “Nothing, however, will replace the original mural
Picture: Eamon Ward
on the Alley Walls which the Cuban ambassador, Teresa Trujilio has said was the best replacement of the original one done by Jim Fitzpatrick outside of Cuba.” Businessman and Libertas founder, Declan Ganley, has previously hit out at plans for a Galway memorial to Che Guevara as a “monument to a mass murderer”. Commenting on the appearance of murals of Che Guevara on private property in Kilkee, Mr Ganley commented: “There are no laws against bad taste.”