Mindfulness…Jo Lavelle investigates the new buzzword that’s set to infringe on us from all sides this year.

Everyone’s talking about it – Paul McKenna’s using it to make droves of Americans lose weight on Living TV, The New York Times Bestseller, Eckhart Tolle’s ‘The Power of Now’ is flying off bookshelves. People are now, more than ever, looking for ways to derive enjoyment from their daily lives as the world becomes a more complex, more driven place than ever before…and apparently being mindful is the way to do it.

Generally, living in the now can be quite a challenge – at breakfast, you’re thinking about what you’ll have for lunch, or you’re trying to gauge just how bad the traffic will be, or you’re looking forward to getting back into bed again that night. How difficult, or undesirable is it to live in the moment when you’re snowed under with work and deadlines are looming? Better to set your mind on the evening ahead, on that city break you have planned. But for those who live fast lives, who are always on the go, with little time for contemplation, life literally just flies by. One minute you’re 25, living it up, feeling like a lifetime is a long time, next thing you’re going on 40, you can barely remember the last three years of your kids’ lives, never mind your own and there’s no end to the madness in sight. Ever look at a beautiful sunset only to think, if I wasn’t so busy, have so much on my mind, I’d really enjoy that sunset’?

According to the teachings of Buddhism, the only way to true happiness and contentment is through being present in the moment, and being mindful of everything you do – that includes eating, drinking, talking, doing, and working, basically living.

My first encounter with the term mindfulness, or the fact that it was missing from my life came about at a ‘Mindfulness’ meditation weekend some years ago. Work had been manic, my social life was hectic, and I fancied getting away from all the madness for a weekend. So I arrived on my retreat and set about spending a weekend of sitting and walking meditation…in silence. By the time the lunch bell would ring, my legs couldn’t carry me fast enough to get to the kitchen. Once there, I’d proceed to gobble down everything in sight - and it wasn’t through hunger. There were two other people on the retreat – a man and a woman. The man, like me, seemed on a similar mission to eat himself into oblivion. The woman sat calmly chewing all her food and eating slowly…this, our retreat leader (a buddist nun), told us later was ‘mindfulness’. It’s doing everything purposefully. Apparently this happened quite regularly on the retreat with people who weren’t used to being in ‘the now’. With all that meditation and being with yourself for hours upon hours, when the chance came to lose yourself, most people went ahead and did that in the only form available on the retreat – food.

Eating is probably one of the most things we do without thinking, without truly enjoying. This is now being blamed for weight problems across the board…and it really makes sense. This year is set to be the anti-diet year; instead, experts are turning to the mind and appealing to the natural order of the human brain to help people lose weight. It all sounds very much like common sense, but when you’re reminded to tune into your body, after so many years of tuning out, amazing results can be seen.

Health and aesthetic issues aside, with the current economic situation, society seems to be taking after it and after several manic years of people working and partying themselves to the bone, are slowing down. After too much time of taking things to the limits, people are feeling the need to go back to basics – and what better time to take stock and start living life a bit more mindfully.

So you’re not 21 anymore. You have a mortgage, you’re getting engaged, getting married, having kids or furthering your career. You’re moving on, everything’s changing, except for one thing - your drinking, writes Jo Lavelle.

In your early 20s, going out and getting into the obligatory drunken stupor was not just ok; it was totally acceptable. But now you’re drinking just as much, if not more, it’s having an increasing negative impact on your life and the guilt is setting in. One of the biggest faux pas in Irish society is to tell someone just how much of a fool they made of themselves the night before. It’s not done – you don’t want to cause them any more damage than the hangover’s already doing.

But ignoring it is just what’s adding fuel to an already out of control fire says Joe Treacy, Alcohol Addiction Counsellor with the HSE (Health Service Executive) West, Galway who suggests that the city is now facing an epidemic of female binge drinking – and it’s impacting on our health, our children, our relationships and our careers. “It was a taboo to find a woman in treatment ten to 15 years ago. I remember being in treatment settings with nine men and maybe one woman and usually, she was very well advanced. There was a reluctance to engage women into treatment in the past. It’s a macho thing; like it’s ok for men to go to the pub. But women tend to drink at home, secretly and that prevails all the time. In our last treatment programme here, we had five women and six men – the taboo is gone. You didn’t see that ten years ago. It’s a rarity now for a woman not to drink and they try to drink on a par with their male counterparts. They can do it successfully for a time but because of women’s bodily functions, they are more susceptible to liver damage and that’s what we’re seeing,” states Treacy. He blames the increase in binge-drinking in women on the increased stresses and pressures of today. “The stress of women is incredible. It leaves me breathless when I ask a woman to describe her working day. I’m suddenly realising that she has a day’s work done before she arrives into work. I’m continually amazed with what women are trying to juggle in their lifestyles. Women are working like dogs and they’re wrecked before their time. They’re stressed up to their eyeballs, trying to juggle work and home life.”

One of the main fall-outs of binge drinking is the number of children being taken into care due to their mother’s drinking. “Sadly enough, a lot of the women that are referred here are referred due to childcare issues. Somebody has noticed that a child’s behaviour has changed, a child goes missing, or a teenager is reacting at home and suddenly it comes out that it’s mum’s drinking. Women feel very aggrieved about this - they’re saying, ‘Why point the finger at me? They have a dad as well.’ But women are the main refuge of children, particularly small children - nobody does it better than mum. It’s very, very extreme to remove children and the HSE goes to extraordinary lengths to keep children at home. The fact that it’s happening is a testament to how severe the problem is.

“The amount of children in this health board being taken into care because of parental drinking is dramatically increasing every month and every year. We didn’t see that five years ago; home alone, children wandering the streets, the case of the child wandering around the Eyre Square Centre, deliberately abandoned by his mother who was drinking, children being locked in Isuzu jeeps one race week when guards had to
break in.”

Another major effect that binge drinking is having on women in the city is that their sexual health is being put at serious risk, states Treacy. “We’ve had a large degree of unreported aggravated sexual behaviour directed at women in Galway because
they’re drunk. Many women have said they didn’t report it because they just didn’t want the embarrassment or the hassle that goes with it. We’re now referring women to sexual health clinics because of their drinking; that’s a growing phenomenon. There’s a predatory nature in the city – men in nightclubs are watching girls getting drunk. Spiking of women’s drinks is a phenomena that has attracted much attention. In instances where women said their drinks were spiked in Galway, we found no substances, but found that their concentrates of alcohol would knock a horse out, let alone themselves. We saw 900 people last year and still haven’t got a sample to say the date rape drug was in their drink.”

Treacy also suggests that Galway could be the highest dispenser of the morning after pill in the country. “If there’s a festival or a party, there’s an increase in the number of women requesting the morning after pill, which is their right, but it’s an indicator of the level of recklessness or carelessness. We have an all-year round drinking festival.”

While alcohol-related problems are evidently on the rise, women are still reluctant to seek treatment due to a sense of shame and it usually takes some kind of catalyst for a woman to seek help for an alcohol problem. Treacy says that it can be something from a minor road traffic accident, to presenting at work with a smell of alcohol from the night before or relationship problems. It can be childcare issues, or it can just
be a blood sample which shows high levels of alcohol in the blood. “Women are sometimes totally unaware of the units of alcohol that are acceptable. They are amazed that their limit should be 14 units a week – a unit is a glass of wine or a half of Guinness. If you’re a woman and you go to your GP and say you’re depressed, they’re a hundred times more likely to give you an antidepressant than they would a man. We’re saying that GPs should certainly be listening more. There’s a somewhat
quiet apprehension in engaging a woman and saying, ‘What about your alcohol consumption?’ Because the attitude is, if she presents well and looks well, leave her alone.” Treacy adds that while our cultural attitude to alcohol needs to be
looked at, another major factor in the rise in binge drinking and alcohol-related problems is the huge amount of money being spent on advertising by the drinks industry. “By international standards, Ireland has major problems with alcohol. We
spend €150 million a day on alcohol and the cost continues to rise. The implications are massive from a health perspective, particularly in women as it encroaches on every aspect of their lives.”

…..EXCERPT

Ireland is the most hostile country to victims of rape in the whole of Europe when it comes to support from the legal system with Ireland having the highest attrition rate in Europe, writes Jo Lavelle.

According to Kate Mulkerrins, Legal Coordinator with the Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI), while attitudes in Ireland have come along in leaps and bounds from the repressed Ireland of old, the hostile legal climate, in addition to the nature of sexual violence, means that rapists are getting off scot-free. For every hundred cases reported in Ireland, you have a fall-off of 95 cases until only five cases result in a conviction - this is the attrition rate.

“What is obvious immediately is that there are various points of attrition. The highest point of attrition is between those cases reported and those cases detected and very worrying in the Irish context, is that the number of cases detected is plummeting. So that’s a huge cause of attrition,” says Kate Mulkerrins, adding that only 20 per cent of RCNI’s clients even report to the Gardai. “Most sexual offences, if not all, occur in private with no other witnesses and with little corroborative evidence and particularly if people don’t report quickly, any forensic evidence that could support their claim is lost. Police call the hours immediately after any crime ‘the golden hours’ - the hours immediately after a crime that you’re likely to gain the best evidence. The difficulty with sexual crimes is that all the factors that would ordinarily encourage people to report crime quickly don’t happen when it’s a sexual crime because unlike any other crime, people go to this psychological place of withdrawal, of disbelief, of minimising, of shame.

“One of the ways we psychologically cope with profound difficulty is if we can’t make ourselves big enough to cope with it, then we make the thing we’re trying to cope with smaller to fit within our capacity to deal with it. Or people will say, ‘Was that really rape?’ Somebody will give you an account of what happened and as an objective observer, you will be able to identify clearly that this person was raped, without any ambiguity. But they will analyse that same data they gave you as: ‘Maybe as a result of me doing this, as a result of me being here, of saying this, of wearing this, of drinking that, maybe I sent the message of consent’.”

Kate suggests that historically, Irish society was one of the most repressed modern 20th century societies, which wasn’t a safe venue in which you could safely say that someone in a position of power or authority over you had done this. However, she believes that as a society, we have made “enormous” progress since. “That would be for me one of the most significant changes that has been evidenced in the last 15 years and that is as a result of the scale of sexual offending in our communities becoming evident to people. Because nobody is out there not believing, as a result of the Ferns inquiry for instance. The investigations into clerical abuse were certainly one of the windows that opened a societal picture into what was occurring.” She believes that what needs to be looked at within the legal system is to implement practice change, policy change and legislative change. The other area in which change needs to happen is in our education programmes. “At the end of the day, our sexual relationships are those that we negotiate, other than those that are forced upon us. The healthiness of our sexual relations determines to a greater extent acceptable or unacceptable norms of behaviour and there’s a great deal we can do, particularly with young people in how we give them a comprehension of what free and informed consent looks like. You’re not born with that knowledge. We give people a great deal of assistance about how to negotiate the world of mathematics and yet not how to recognise when you’re in a healthy and non-abusive relationship. How do you see the early signs that you’re in danger of being in an abusive relationship? How do you know that you have free and informed consent? What does that look like? So we have a great deal we can do in education.”

Kate also cites an increase in public awareness as essential to taking action towards amore informed and safe society. “Because it is you who can sit on juries and if you have been fed a diet of misinformation, all these myths and stereotypes we talk about, you bring those beliefs with you. So, unless somebody has put out into the public realm that trauma doesn’t make you present in a way that would make you a recognisable victim, it can be the reverse. You could look unusually calm. Also, unless we’re modelling healthy relationships for our children, in the home setting as well as everywhere else, then how are we expecting them to grow up to be able to negotiate healthier relationships?” Kate continues that by keeping in the dark
our difficulties, by making it shameful to come forward and say that things are not
going so well in our family and we need a bit of help, it is only reinforcing the problem. “We had a society that made that virtually impossible. We had the lace curtain society that above all else looked for the preservation of decorum and standards and privacy. So you do undoubtedly need resources available to
people to reach out in a way that allows them to do so and retain a sense of pride and dignity,” she says.

Tanja Alanko-O’Malley, Coordinator at the Galway Rape Crisis Centre, also believes that much work needs to be done on attitudes in our society. She is also adamant that instead of expecting women to change their behaviour in order to prevent them from being the victim of a sexual crime, the onus is on society to ensure that these crimes do not occur, or are, at least, minimised through education. “A lot of our myths are based very much on the values and beliefs of a patriarchal society. Take for instance girls wearing short skirts; it is still often perceived that they are somehow responsible if someone attacks them just because they are wearing a short skirt. So what we are doing is putting the blame back on a woman, even though she is the victim of a crime. If you’re robbed or mugged, our first instinct is to protect the victim but if a person is raped, our first instinct is to say, ‘What did you do? Why were you there? Why were you in that alleyway? Why were you drinking? Why didn’t you protect yourself?’”
Tanja believes that this attitude is due to the fact that not only is the crime a horrendous one, but it is also a crime that has a lot of shame attached to it. “It is a crime about sexuality. Sexuality is still very much a taboo subject in society, with double standard messages prevailing.”

“Women are expected to adjust their behaviour, for example by curtailing their movement, their behaviour, their mode of dress. There needs to be a complete reassessment of societal values and attitudes, rather than allow the victim of a sexual crime to take on the blame.” While Tanja believes that the fundamental roles of men and women will never be changed, she does believe that much can be done from a safety aspect and that this can only be achieved through education. “In schools, at homes, educate professionals working in fields like the Gardai, teachers, social workers and educate them about the reality of sexual crime, about gender issues. Fifteen to 20 years ago, if you were a woman and a government worker and you got married, you were expected to leave work. Now, not only is it ok for a female to work, but society couldn’t cope if women didn’t work. So it’s possible to change mindsets. We should be going into the schools and teaching our young people about sexuality, about relationships and respect. And taking that stigma out of being a victim of a sexual crime.” Such education can be particularly complex, as there is such a large number of grey areas relating to human relationships, which are by nature, very complex. Just when does sex become rape? Is there a line that somebody crosses where consensual and loving sex turns to rape? Tanja says that yes, there is. “It’s the responsibility of a person that when you are about to enter into an intimate encounter, to make sure that your partner is at or over the age of consent, for example, 17 years old, not under the influence of a substance and has a clear understanding of what they are consenting to.”

“Irish society has undoubtedly come a long way in terms of attitudes and openness. But with just one per cent of reported rape cases ending in a conviction, our legal system has a long, long way to go to protect the men and women of its country.”

Marie Todd was diagnosed with breast cancer last October. She underwent a mastectomy in November and has just completed her last chemotherapy session last month. Marie, who is an advanced nurse practitioner in diabetes, is planning reconstruction at a later stage. Marie has three children, all girls, and is also a grandmother. Here she talks to Jo Lavelle about her experience of breast cancer.

“It was a devastating blow when I found the breast lump and I knew from the word go that it was malignant, I just felt myself it was. I didn’t tell anyone and within a week, I had the mammogram and the biopsy. Then I went home and told the children that this had happened. It’s really made me take stock of my life and sit back and take time out for me.

“I had split from my husband some months before I was diagnosed. My counsellor believed that it was very significant in my recovery with the breast cancer; I had been through so much trauma that it actually gave me the strength to deal with the challenges I faced with breast cancer. I think it was significant, we were still in a state of shock and we had another shock and improbably the worst day of my life was the day I had to tell my children. And from day one I’ve been honest and open with them. Even the schoolteachers say you’d never know anything happened in your house this year because the children are so well adjusted. Because I’m upbeat and I’m fine they just act accordingly as well. Don’t think there were times there weren’t tears, but they’re very short-lived because there’s so much living to do now.

“I’d always view that the glass would be half full rather than half empty, but it’s given me time to reflect. Every day, instead of jumping out of bed, I reflect and I’m thankful for the things I’ve got in life - my beautiful children, my grandson my family, my friends, my colleagues, my patients. The page of life is now clear for me to write my own script and I’ve learnt through all of this that nobody can create happiness but yourself and that’s what I’m going to do. And I look to the future with complete optimism and blue skies. Now, I’m not that naive as a health care professional to know that people cannot get recurrences, but I just feel you take the treatment let the health care professional deal with the management of the cancer and my job is to heal myself from within, which I have been doing all the time.

“I would say to anybody that it happens to, firstly, the key is early detection and diagnosis, even though it’s frightening; you don’t want it to be happening to you. Then have a balance of rest and exercise, social activity and diet and do something for yourself every day. I might put music on and dance – that’s what I like to do. Some other people might read or watch a movie. But I think it’s time for you to take something back and I think throughout it all you’ve got to accept what you can’t change and change what you can’t accept and say ‘no’ a little bit more, which I had never done in my life. So this has been the positive and I was so overwhelmed by people’s generosity, of their thoughts, and flowers and gifts. The one thing I keep thinking is, ‘Well I didn’t have to die to realise I was appreciated’, and I’ll always be thankful for that. There’s more thought now between family and friends. You know we’re all really busy and it’s easy to say I can’t do it, I can’t see her, I can’t be there, but that’s all changed in my life. We now spend more time with family and friends. It’s not perfect, everyone will have their ups and downs but we just view life very differently.

“It’s been such a positive experience, but you do need help. You need to get help from professionals, counsellors, you can’t get through it on your own and anything you don’t want to do, you just say, ‘Well, I’m just not going to do that anymore’ and anything I do want to do I just do it. My motto now is I wake up each day like it’s the first day of the rest of my life and I’m dying to live, I’m not living to die. And it has been a fantastic experience, although there has been times when there’s been not so good days but you’ve got to succumb to that as well because that’s what happens. It has given me time to reflect on life and change my direction and really embrace and enjoy the rest of the years that I have. Something’s going to happen to all of us and all we can hope for is hopefully a peaceful and pain-free death but life is for living and I’m going to live everyday as if it’s the first day of the rest of my life. It’s been marvellous in many respects and people have been so good.”

“I’ve been given a chance to reflect on life and move forward and I’m very grateful for that, very grateful.”

Joanne Hynes is one of the country’s most innovative stars in the world of fashion. Jo Lavelle caught up with the Galway designer on a brief visit to the city to launch her latest fashion venture.

Hailed as one of Ireland’s leading designers, it’s no surprise that Joanne Hynes is difficult to catch up with. Spending her time traveling between London and India, Joanne’s life is a whirlwind of fashion shows, glamour …..and sheer hard work.

A native of Tuam, Joanne attended the Corralea Presentation Secondary School. At 18, she left home to do a BA in fashion in the Limerick School of Art and Design, later graduating in 2001 with an MA in Womenswear Fashion Design at Central Saint Martins in London. There, her collection was chosen as the finale collection for the end of year MA show, going on to be sold in Fred Segal LA, The Pineal Eye and Concrete London, as well as boutiques in Japan, Dubai, Belgium and a number of stores in Ireland.

Since making her debut in 2003 with her first solo collection ‘Rue de la Tristesse‘, things have been on the up for the extremely talented designer. It didn’t take long for the fashion world to sit up and take notice and in 2004, Joanne took part in the Designer Bandana Auction held at Selfridges, along with Alexander McQueen, Zandra Rhodes, John Galliano, Chloe and Yves Saint Laurent.

In 2005, Joanne also collaborated with Top Shop to produce a diffusion range called Joanne Hynes for Topshop, sold exclusively in the flagship store in Oxford Circus, London and in Dublin.

Joanne’s creations have been featured extensively in the likes of Vogue, Elle, Harpers and Queen, The Telegraph, Harpers Bazaar and Glamour, with celebrities Natalie Imbrulia, DJ Zoë Ball, Roisin Murphy and The Corrs all fans of the designer’s quirky, contemporary and utterly stunning designs.

Joanne says that growing up in Tuam with her dad, Josie, who owns Hynes Bookmakers, her mum Josephine and bookmaker brother Paul, gave her a definite edge over other designers at college, particularly in London.

“When I was in college in London a lot of people would have had very similar tastes and styles- especially those from bigger cities like London and Tokyo where there is a strong aesthetic in terms of fashion. I find a lot of students from the country are a lot more driven. As well as that, when we lived outside town when I was young, I spent a lot of time on my own drawing and making things, so when I went to college, I was very skilled with my hands and was visually aware.”

Joanne was particularly interested in art and fashion growing up and much of her days were spent down Quay Street perusing all the second hand stores with her school pals. While she had intended on pursuing painting in particular, she says she just kind of fell into fashion design - the fast pace and quick turnover of ideas suited her much better than fine art.

From very early on in her career, Joanne’s ambition was to work for herself. “I always knew I wanted to work for myself and the most important thing for me was to design. I had worked with other fashion designers in London but I always knew I wanted to design for myself. I was offered jobs with various international designers, but I’m glad I never took them. So it began to happen from there.”

While Joanne has been extremely successful throughout her career, she’s not one to rest on her laurels - or waste time patting herself on her back for a job well done.

“I can’t remember the last time I went on a holiday. When I can take two weeks off, I’ll know I’m doing well,” she laughs. “I don’t sit back and think, ‘Oh I’ve done really well’ but I am very happy with the Joanne Hynes range and the new jewellery range called Jewel which is a separate entity to the Joanne Hynes mainline.”

Joanne says that it takes a very confident woman who’s happy to make an impact to wear her designs and says she also focuses on real women when designing. “I design with a lot of friends in mind. When you come out of fashion college, it’s all quite fantasy-based. But now I’m thinking more about real women, the women who will wear my designs and what they want.”

Joanne’s focus on designing for the real woman means that she finds it difficult to understand the current obsession with the very unhealthy and unrealistic size zero.

“I think the most shocking thing for me is the likes of Victoria Beckham who are actually really proud of being a size zero. I don’t have any concerns about a woman being a size zero if they’re healthy; some models are very tall and naturally thin. But there are a lot of girls out there who are misinformed or vulnerable. Also, I think the whole thing has escalated. Irish models are very healthy and beautiful and have a head on their shoulders. It seems to be celebrity-driven and a lot of the girls’ magazines seem to have hyped it up. It’s easy to play on people’s insecurities in the media - it’s the oldest trick in the book. I certainly don’t think you can blame designers though.”

While Joanne doesn’t get to spend much time in Ireland, as she spends half her year in India and is based in the UK for the other six months, she says she will be visiting Galway a lot more with the opening of a new jewellery store called Jewel on Shop Street. She says that jewellery has always been an important part of her label and has always made a big statement. “I’m very excited about the brand new jewellery range we have developed called Jewel which is a range on its own with a different price range. With Jewel I am in partnership with a business person, a local Galway man, so we found the perfect location and I love Galway. There’s also a real hunger for fashion in Galway, so for me it made sense to open an accessories store here.”

The jewellery range signature is what Joanne describes as a ‘spontaneous mix’ of accessories for all situations. “I am not interested in designing traditional jewellery; it’s a style statement as well as design. There are also subtle pieces for the less adventurous and I’m delighted to be able to do that. With Jewel jewellery and accessories, we wanted to reach different age groups, it’s a new customer for me, which is a challenge and the shop caters for 15 to 60 year olds. The philosophy behind Jewel is young, carefree, fresh and interesting. Where as the Joanne Hynes label is different to that- you could say more intense!”

With the focus firmly back on her home town, Joanne is also set to stock her Joanne Hynes mainline clothing label in Galway for the first time in September,when her range will be available in Demora on Cross Street and Joanne feels the time is just right. “Looking around Galway, women are a lot more individual than women in most other cities; there are not so many clones.”

Check out Joanne’s latest designs on www.joannehynes.com.

Looking good is important to the majority of us; we want to look good, we want to be attractive, desirable. And while we might allow ourselves to feel nice when we’ve lost a couple of pounds, when we’re wearing a cute dress, and when we’ve been ‘good’ that week, what about the other six days of the week when we just feel like ourselves?

So many women view their bodies as the enemy; something they’re constantly trying to control, contain, repel. We scold our bodies for being rounded, our thighs for having cellulite, our breasts for being too big/too small. When we’re not feeling great about ourselves, we stuff ourselves with ‘bad’ food (for a ‘bad’ body), as if we weren’t feeling bad enough. We punish ourselves with unrealistic goals and punish ourselves when we don’t achieve them.

I’m generalising, but there is not one woman I know who believes, or who will admit, that she is happy with herself, her shape, her body. It’s easy to blame society, or the media, or men for women’s warped view of their bodies, but is it not our own responsibility to take the power back?

Views of what constitutes a good body has undoubtedly changed from the curvaceousness that was cherished in the 50s, to the lean and mean which is now revered over the more meaty among us. Something else that was accepted as the norm in the 60s and 70s were little bellies and cellulite (think a scantily-clad Barbara Windsor jiggling about the place in the Carry On movies). Not much of a chance these days of seeing a woman with such credentials finding her way onto the small screen as a desirable woman in today’s anti-cellulite society. But when the reality is that most women look more like this, why can’t we just accept the things we can’t change and change the things we can?

Let’s face it - being obesely overweight has never been attractive. Flab has never been attractive. And why should it be? It’s unsightly, unhealthy, and it’s covering up your true form. But that’s another issue - just where do you draw the line between curvy and overweight? I’ve asked numerous guys to comment on this issue and they all seem to differ hugely in what they consider to be curvy. One particular guy I asked seemed to balk at the word ‘curvy’, saying it’s just a pretty word for being fat. When I asked him to define fat, I think ‘rolls’ were mentioned, so I’m guessing he had a large lady in mind, and that wasn’t to his taste. Others think that curvy is slim, but not skeletal. But men, like us, like aesthetically pleasing bodies; they don’t have to be tiny, just healthy looking and relatively firm. And while it can be quite a depressing thought, that’s life, who said it was fair?

Where men are concerned, it’s all too easy to look around and see our men dribbling over a picture of a stunning stick thin model, feel inadequate, and instantly want to lose a stone . But the model probably walked onto the shoot looking pale and pasty and about as sexy as a toad - that’s real life. Welcome on stage the make-up artists, lots of tan, lighting, hours of touching up. And then of course there’s the airbrushing, which, believe me, can work wonders. And what have you got? An illusion. Most men worth their salt will know that. And we all like to dream. We women are just as guilty of dreaming; it’s just that we might not be as obvious when checking out a hot guy.

In reality, real men love real women. They just love women, and everything that comes with that. Most men find confident women appealing, especially those who are also confident about their bodies, and all the little imperfections. I remember an ex of mine saying he loved a certain part of my body, because I loved it myself. It was the first time I had any awareness that confidence inspires confidence. Do you ever notice how if you are feeling particularly attractive and loving yourself, or indeed, a particularly part of your body and your partner just can’t keep his hands to himself?  - the power of self-love. Or what about those times when you’re feeling particularly unattractive and your repellent attitude is somehow transferred onto your partner?

So many women I know are on a constant battle to lose weight, and out of all of them, I can’t ever recall even one woman saying, ‘I’m happy; I’ve reached my goal, now I can just focus on other, more important things’. Just how long does this self-punishment go on for, till you’re 40, 50, 60?

I recently found an old diary from when I was 14 or 15 and with each entry, there was a little mark at the top of each page with a different weight goal on each entry. As I was documenting my weight, how much I had to loose, how long it would take me to loose it, I would also discuss with myself how great I would feel, how happy I would be, when I reached my goal. But it hadn’t started there either; I remember, at 12 years old, eating nothing but rivita and apples because I desperately wanted to be 7 ½ stone. That was in the 80s; there’s a lot more pressure today.

I’ve never really been overweight by more than say half a stone, but there’s never been a time in my life, since I became aware of my body, that I’ve been completely happy with it, even when I’m at my ideal weight. Like most other women, I feel I  could always look better, be thinner, be more toned.

Really, in a perfect world, we would look after ourselves, accept and love the way we are, enjoy life, enjoy our bodies, and just stop obsessing…what will it take for women to make peace with the female form?

The long, dreary winter might be over, but living in such turbulent times can bring its own darkness. Jo Lavelle looks at the devastating consequences of depression.

We all have periods in our lives when things aren’t going so great - but we can usually pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off. However, for thousands of others who are prone to getting down, these fallbacks can be the start of a long and treacherous battle with depression.

Particularly in these uncertain times, when jobs are on the line, financial worries are rife, and with little stability ahead, incidences of depression are set to become a lot more common.

Depression is a seriously debilitating and devastating illness. Affecting over 400,00 people in Ireland, its affects on the sufferers and their family and friends are more disturbing than many imagine.

Fifty-four-year-old Maeve suffered from severe depression for four years, which culminated in her attempting to take her own life. The downward spiral of Maeve’s depression began when she was encouraged to take early retirement, having worked for almost 30 years in the same job.

“At the time I used to run marathons; I was constantly on the go, but then I developed an injury and I became a lot less active. So that, coupled with the fact that I wasn’t working for the first time in 30 years, and couldn’t find work to match my skills, I began to think, ‘At my age, who wants to employ me?’ It doesn’t take a lot to start to feel very bad about yourself.”

Recounting the effects that depression had on her, Maeve says it basically robbed her of four years of her life. During this time, she was fatigued, couldn’t get out of bed, could barely wash or dress herself, describing such small daily tasks as “mammoth”. “Depression stole from me my self-esteem, my self-worth, my energy, my vitality, my will to live. We all experience a little bit of the blues now and again, but when the Monday blues turn into the Tuesday blues and goes through the week onto the next week and goes on forever, it turns to black. Feeling down all day, every day  - that was me.”

“I only slept for about two hours a night for four years; I was constantly waking, constantly walking around the house. The only time I’d have any comfort would be during the night because the phone wouldn’t ring, the doorbell wouldn’t ring and people wouldn’t be asking about me. My concentration went completely - that was one of the most frightening things. And I was completely indecisive. I couldn’t be bothered to pay bills. I lost about two stone. I had no interest in food; it all tasted the same - of nothing. I did everything out of character. I spent a year apologising for things I had possibly said to people. Depression changes your way of thinking - I underwent a complete personality change. And I upset so many people. Life was completely dull. My self-worth was completely gone. Life didn’t mean anything, I just wanted a way out basically. I can only describe it as like being down in a dark, dark barrel with a lid on and you can’t crawl up out of a barrel very easily.”

It was during her six-week stint in a psychiatric unit following an attempt to take her own life that Maeve began to recover, very slowly at first. One of the major catalysts in Meave’s recuperation was befriending another lady in the unit who was suffering from depression, but was also battling cancer. From channelling her energies toward helping her friend, Meave says the depression slowly began to lift.

Five years on and Maeve has recovered from her depression “100 per cent”. She now spends her much of her time doing voluntary work for Aware, and stresses the importance of support and counselling in getting through depression, which she says assisted her in getting her life back on track.

According to PRO of Aware, Sandra Hogan, there are coping skills that can be developed to help get you through a rough period, and help to prevent the likelihood of developing depression. “Difficult life events will happen to us all, but we can learn new ways to cope with difficulties and minimise the impact they have. Don’t bottle up feelings: talk to someone about them. A good diet and regular exercise is essential for both physical health and mental health. Alcohol and drug use do have a negative impact on mood so be aware of this. Get enough sleep, and address any causes of stress or anxiety in your life.”

If you or anyone close to you is experiencing any of the below signs, seek help as soon as possible by contacting your GP or by contacting one of the organisations below.

• Name has been changed to protect identity.

Are you depressed?

The signs of depression:

• Changes in mood e.g. if they seem very down or are crying a lot;
• Low energy levels;
• Changes in sleep pattern;
• Excessive tiredness or fatigue;
• Difficulty concentrating;
• Loss of interest in pastimes or social life;
• Being self-critical;
• Communicating a loss of interest in living, or feeling that they don’t want to continue to live.

(Aware)

Support:

Aware  Support Group 1890 303 302 www.aware.ie

Samaritans 1850 60 90 90 www.samaritans.org.uk

Positive Mental Health   091 596567 www.positivementalhealth.ie

Schizophrenia Ireland 1890 621 631

OANDA 01 833 8252

Grow 021 277 520 www.grow.ie

Recovery 01 668 1855 www.recovery-inc-ireland.ie

TeenLine 1800 833 634 www.teenline.ie

Childline 1800 666 666 www.childline.ie

The first time we heard about HIV was in the 1980s, and along with it, horrifying images of gaunt people on death’s bed. It was a frightening sight, a frightening time. Here was a new disease, something that literally sapped the life out of the infected person and ensured a slow and very painful death. Almost worse than the imminent death though, was the shameful stigma attached to the disease and the fact that those who contracted it were shunned, considered to be dirty and untouchable. HIV or better know as AIDS at that time, was the modern day equivalent of leprosy.

Since then, remarkable progress has been made in the treatment of HIV. But there is still no cure. People who have acquired HIV can now expect to live a long life with new medications that have been discovered. So while a little less doom and gloom is now attached to the illness, it is no longer associated solely with homosexuals and drug users. Today, heterosexual infection is more common than homosexual. HIV is now everyone’s problem.

In fact, the infection has come so close to home that we know there are at the very least 100 people in the West living with HIV/AIDS. 4,251 people in Ireland are listed as being HIV positive. But considering that it can take up to ten years for someone who has contracted HIV to even begin to see symptoms, there are undoubtedly hundreds more people out there who have been infected and who are not aware. These people may be sexually active and infecting others unknowingly.

Orla Nugent Irwin, general manager of AIDS West, believes there may be at least a thousand people currently living with the virus who are unaware that they are infected. “If you contract HIV today, and are tested tomorrow, the virus will not show up. It will take a minimum of three months for you to have a HIV positive result. If you don’t have a HIV test, you may not know you’re positive for many years and chances are you won’t find out that you’re positive until you start to become ill - that could take ten years, fifteen years, it could take five. For instance, someone who is using heroin and living on the streets, abusing alcohol and so on, would progress at a faster pace than someone who has been living a healthy lifestyle and takes care of themselves. HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system. If your immune system is being attacked by other things, HIV will progress at a faster pace.”

It’s a frightening thought and Orla believes we underestimate the rate at which HIV is being contracted.

“When HIV was first reported, it was considered to be a gay and drug- user infection. Today, the heterosexual community is at the highest risk. The most recent HIV statistics show that there were 927 MSM (men who have sex with men) infections whereas heterosexual infections were up at 1,200; that’s quite a significant difference. We need to remember that it’s in our community, it’s urban and it’s most definitely rural. It’s present and it’s not just a gay or a drug user’s infection.”

According to Orla, young females in their early 20s are more susceptible to contracting the infection. It’s easier for a man to pass it on to a woman than it is for a woman to pass it on to a man.

“I worked in the area of HIV in the States from 1993 to 1999. Through my work I met lots of women who were HIV positive, many didn’t know what to do when they were diagnosed.  So I set up a women’s group called Darma for what we called the invisible women. They felt like they were the invisible because they didn’t fit into the stereotypical image of HIV. They had either been infected by their partners, or a needle stick injury, their partner had been a drug user and they never knew or their partner had had sex with somebody and they didn’t know about it. They were your housewives, teachers, nurses and mothers who no one thought could be HIV positive - yes these people do exist. There was one lady who had been positive for ten years and she never had any inclination at all until she started to get sick. She never felt she had cause to have an HIV test as she never associated herself with risky behavior. That’s why I always recommend that if you’ve previously had a sexual partner and you’re moving into a new relationship, sit down with that person and suggest that you both go and have a full sexual health screening, because everyone has a past.”

In addition, Orla believes that the number of people with the HIV virus is also under-reported due to the massive stigma attached. “When someone is initially diagnosed, I would say the first year is just like a roller coaster for them - the fear of death, the fear of what they are going to do. It would take at least a year for them to accept that they are HIV positive. Some of them don’t ever accept it. How do they deal with it? Some of them don’t, some become extremely depressed, because of the fear of telling family and friends. The stigma is huge. There are people in Galway who are HIV positive; they’re not going to disclose their status and I don’t blame them. I would never recommend anybody disclose their status without sitting them down first to discuss the consequences of disclosure, as the response may be negative. There are always ignorant people out there who believe that it’s God’s punishment or you deserved it. Remember, it’s hard enough dealing with the condition without dealing with that mentality too.”

Due to the fact that alcohol abuse has reached crisis point throughout the country with less and less care being taken by both women and men to protect themselves when having sexual encounters, coupled with the fact that so many infected people are unaware that they are infected, HIV is spreading at an increasingly alarming rate.

“I would say that in at least 70 per cent of our helpline calls, people stated that alcohol was involved. Thanks to funding from the Western Regional Drugs Task Force (WRDTF) we have just employed a new Drugs, Alcohol and Sexual Health Education Co-ordinator to address this problem. You can promote positive sexual health all you want but when alcohol comes into the scene on a night out, it’s extremely difficult. That’s why it should be inherent in us to use condoms. During the winter, you wouldn’t put on a shoe without putting on a sock first. It should just be the norm to use condoms when having sex. Until that happens, we’re going to see the rates of HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) climb.”

So, while HIV is considered to be the most serious infection, according to Orla, other STIs can have a profound effect on people’s lives.

“By the year 2005 over 85,000 cases of STIs had been diagnosed in Ireland (since 1989). The yearly figures are on the increase rather then decline, and show that many people are taking sexual risks. 85,000 people infected with STIs indicates that either people are just not listening to the safer sex message or are so unaware of the risks associated with unprotected sexual intercourse, that they take risks.  Though all STIs are notifiable, many are not reported.  I believe there are a lot of infections not being notified which indicates that the 85,000 may be a conservative figure.”

“STIs can be broken down into two categories, viral and bacterial. Bacterial STIs such as Chlamydia, Gonorrhoea, Non-Specific Urethritis, Vaginosis etc. can be treated with a course of antibiotics. However, with Chlamydia (known as the silent infection) between 50 and 80 per cent of women who are infected may not know they are infected and due to this, don’t get tested until they have developed further complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease. Viral STIs include Hepatitis B, Herpes and Genital Warts and are more difficult to treat.”

An STI with more long term and psychologically damaging effects is Herpes, which although it can be treated, can come back repeatedly throughout a person’s lifetime, says Orla.

“If somebody gets Herpes at the age of 19, both the medical and emotional consequences may stay with them for the rest of their life. Though the Herpes lesions can be treated, the virus stays in your system and may come back repeatedly, especially if you have a suppressed immune system. What you do at age 19 may affect all future sexual relationships. By right, you should inform any future partner about the infection, giving them the chance to take precautions. This may sound easy but when do you tell someone you have Herpes? Before the first sexual encounter or wait until the relationship is well established and you feel that a partner is able to handle such news? Remember, you are putting them at risk of contracting the infection; they have the right to know. There is sometimes a feeling of guilt and the questions we commonly get asked are, ‘how do I tell my partner that I picked up a sexually transmitted infection maybe eight or ten years ago? Do I tell my partner prior to sleeping with him or her? Are they then going to stay or leave? Do I sleep with them for a while and use condoms, in the hope they don’t get it before I tell them?’

However, while the majority of STIs are easily treatable, Orla says that people are sometimes reluctant to get tested. “There may be a sense of denial, or they may be worried that they will meet someone they know in the STI clinic - remember going to the STI clinic and having a full sexual health screen does not mean you have an infection, it means that you are taking care of your sexual health, the same as one should take care of their mental health.”

“The service that both the HIV and STI clinic provide in Galway is fantastic. They are totally confidential and free to all members of the community. If you are concerned, I suggest you either give our helpline a call or call the STI clinic for an appointment. Clinics are also available in Portiuncula Hospital Ballinasloe, and Castlebar.”

“In relation to telling people about the risks of STIs, sometimes you feel like you’re banging your head against a brick wall. You’re trying to get the message out there and yet again you’re trying to get it across in a positive way. We are all born sexual beings. It’s inherent in people to have a sexual drive. We need to promote positive sexual health, where people enjoy the act but are also responsible. Sex with a person you care very strongly about is much more fulfilling and meaningful then a one-night-stand. Communication is so important and people need to feel comfortable with each other to talk about sex.”

So, in a country where condoms were only legalised in 1993, along with the decriminalisation of homosexuality, sexual freedom has advanced at a very fast rate. But this rapid so-called advancement of our society has not left time to prepare people for these changes. Orla says that while we are now a very sexualised, modern and advanced society, we are still so behind in terms of how we deal with our sexuality; it is still a taboo subject.

“In the 1950s, and 60s the Irish sexual culture was one ruled by the Church. Sex outside marriage was shunned and the act was for procreation rather than recreation. We were told it was against the rules of the church to use contraception - many people listened. Then come the late 60s and early 70s and we had a sexual revolution. Things started to change, travel became more affordable and people started to holiday in other countries. Around this time we started to see an increase in the spread of infection. It would be wrong to say the infections were not there prior to this time, as they were, but as sexual activity changed so also did the incidences of infection.

Within a period of 35 years, we as a society have gone from one of being overly conservative to sexually awakened, it is a massive jump in such a short period of time. Remember, condoms were illegal before 1993, to get them you had to prove there was a medical necessity. Today rather than condoms being illegal, they are just outrageously expensive making them unaffordable to some members of the population.”

“Sometimes I think, we’re still not getting the message across but then I have to think of the growing population size. Our helpline calls are increasing which indicates that people know services are available free of charge. But unfortunately, they usually get to us at a stage where they have had unprotected sex and may have contracted an STI. So really, it’s trying to get the message across that it’s ok to talk about sex and sexuality. We need to normalise it and it’s only when people start to do that will we see a decrease in the spread of HIV and STIs.”

Looking to the future, Orla says that she has great hopes for the prevention and treatment of HIV. Microbicides, a cream or a gel that a woman can inset internally to prevent the spread of HIV is due to come on the market in the near future. “This is a major advancement for the developing countries because in a lot of those regions, condom use is not acceptable. But with the microbicides, women can take control of their sexual life without men necessarily knowing. Work is currently being done to find a microbicide that will prevent HIV and allow pregnancy, and a microbicide that will prevent HIV and can be used as a form of contraception as well.  We really look forward to that day.”

This is an extract from “Anna’s Story” a story of HIV and  hope which will be published by AIDS West for Irish AIDS Day, June 2007

I’d been to see Dr O’Brien again that January and he suggested that I should make an appointment with the doctor in the hospital. He also said it would be a good idea to make a list of questions that I wanted him to answer for me. The clinic was in a very old part of the building and offered no privacy; two different doctors sat at two separate tables in the same room. They were making do with the only premises they could find for this new infection. It was a cold place and not very uplifting. My first impressions of this doctor, I have to admit, weren’t up to much but armed with my questions, I started. ‘How effective was the treatment? How would I know when to start treatment?’ I plodded along asking them one by one until I got to my final question. “What is the likelihood of me developing full blown AIDS?”

“I’ll put it to you this way,” was his answer, ” you’re dying”.

I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say to him. I got up and walked out the hospital gates. All that went through my head was “I’m dying. I’m dying”. I could think of nothing else for days and at some point I must have rang Jean, my befriender and told her the news. She was as shocked as I was. “How does he know? Does he think he’s the almighty? How does he know he’s not going to be dead before you?”

I laughed. Jean couldn’t believe that someone in his position could still be so un-informed about the virus. Had we come nowhere in the past ten years? Had people learned nothing? Jean soon settled me down. She was always there to listen and offer sound advice.

My next encounter with the doctor wasn’t any better, but this time I was ready for him. I was again in his clinic for a check-up, when he said, “I think I need to refer you to our Social Work Department.”

“And what do I need to see a social worker for?”

“Because you’re destitute and in need of help.”

“Destitute? Where are you getting ‘you’re destitute’ from? I’m by no means destitute. I’m a young mother with young children and I’m HIV positive. Not destitute. My name is Anna, Anna Mahon and I’m not just another number on your chart. Do you hear me? My name is Anna and I’m not destitute, just HIV positive. Ok?”

Taking off his glasses, he stared at me. I could feel his eyes going through me. I didn’t move. “I’m sorry Anna. You’re right.”

I replied; “I just want you to see me as a person, not a number. Numbers don’t have feelings.”

I needed him to see that I was still a person; that I wasn’t the virus nor was I ever going to be the virus. HIV was something in my life that I was going to have to live with because there were so many more important things in it already, my children for one thing. I was not going to be labelled by anyone, no matter who they thought they were.

From then on Mr Doctor and I got on just fine.

HIV- the facts

HIV (Human immuno-deficiency virus) is a virus that affects the immune system. AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is as a result of both the progression of the HIV virus and the depletion of the immune system over a long period of time.

No one has ever been cured of HIV.

HIV can be passed from human to human through:

Sexual contact, heterosexual or homosexual involving the exchange of body fluids with an infected person.

Sharing injection needles and equipment with an infected person

From an infected pregnant mother to her baby

(Health Service Executive)

High Risk

Having unprotected sex with an infected person

Having oral sex with an infected person

Being unaware of your partner’s sexual history

Abusing intravenous drugs, particularly if you share needles

Having a blood transfusion in a country where screening services are inadequate

(Health Service Executive)

STI Clinics

UCHG 091 525200 (Monday and Friday by appointment only) Wednesday - walk- in clinic, please phone for details

AIDS West - Information, Education and Support in Sexual Health, Ozanam House, St. Augustine Street, Galway. Telephone 091-566266, Helpline 091-562213. Opening hours: 9am to 4.45pm - Monday to Friday.

Nights on the town too numerous to count, weekends away with the girls, endless phone conversations about boys. Jo Lavelle ponders the joys of being single.

Finding yourself single when all around you are falling in love, getting engaged, getting married, having children, can be pretty daunting. When it seems like everyone around you is moving onto the ‘next’ step, you feel stationary, like you’re moving nowhere. But there’s something about being single that causes you to become more determined to have fun, to prove wrong all the loved-up couples who believe that life is nothing if there’s not two of you to experience it together. And it’s this adrenaline, or pig headedness if you like, that, if channelled in the right way, can result in you having the best time of your life.

A good social life is of paramount importance in a single girl’s life. Throw in a good party girlfriend, a great wardrobe, loads of energy and a willingness to let go a little - and you’re in for one hell of a fun time. You’ll probably need at least one partner in crime - someone who’s more likely to be whiling away weekend mornings huddled under the duvet, only to rise in time to stick on a wash, go for a blow dry and head out on the town again.

There’s something deliciously exciting about being single; it’s that not knowing what’s around the corner. Not knowing who you might bump into and what that might lead to. Options are endless, and the world’s your oyster. Then there are the dates, the dizzying excitement of meeting new people. When you’re single you accept invitations that you would never have considered otherwise, have no problem spending half a day getting ready, squeezing into that little black number. You party till 5am, flirt outrageously (and are rarely admonished for it).

The single girl has a licence to live life to the max - to party hard, have fun, be a bit wild. She has a licence to blow all her wages on a pair of D&Gs if she so wishes, or spend her entire food budget for the week on Prosecco and olives.

A great wardrobe is also one of the by-products of a single life. So much time to focus on yourself - those hours trying on dozens of jeans looking for one that gives you the perfect ass; the self-indulgent splurging on the prettiest dresses, the must-have shoes…all because you deserve it.

Then there’s that absolute independence, the feeling that you could pack up and leave for some exotic destination in the morning, even if you never have any intention of carrying through all the threats.

And while being single may not always be a walk in the park; there’s always going to be times when you’d give anything for a cuddle from a pair of big loving arms, chances are you won’t always be single. So embrace it, enjoy your time on your own. Chances are you’ll look back in 20 years on these days as the best time of your life. Enjoy!

by Jo Lavelle.

Organic has become somewhat of a buzz word in recent years and while the experts agree, somewhat reluctantly, that it’s de rigueur right now, they are keen to emphasise the importance of organics in a healthy lifestyle and not as a fashion statement.

Organic production is basically a method of producing food that is as pure as possible. Generally, that means growing produce without using  pesticides and herbicides and without any chemical inputs. So organics is basically growing food as naturally as possible to produce as good a quality produce as possible.

Editor of Organic Matters, Cait Curran, has been an organic grower for the past 16 years. She grows half an acre of an entire range of crops outdoors and also has six poly tunnels. Cait has been selling her produce at the Galway Market for the past 16 years and also sells directly to restaurants and shops.

Cait says that since she started out producing organically, she has seen a fairly steady growth every year in demand for produce but still has a lot of the customers she started out with. She says the idea that buying organic food has become something of a social status among some circles, which she says does no favours for the industry in general, as she says that healthy eating is not a fad, it’s for life.

In general, Cait feels that people are very much unaware of how their food is treated and what they’re eating. “The difficulty at the moment is that you’re not seeing fresh produce much in supermarkets. We’re very much going towards the packaged ready meals and those sort of things are the worst possible things we could be eating. I mean, if you look at the ingredients on those things, it’s pretty frightening. We’re consuming things like hydrogenated vegetable oil and artificial sweeteners which are proven to be bad for our health. As well as that, when people buy vegetables in a shop, they are looking at very nicely presented produce that looks perfect and there’s no way of knowing what it’s been treated with. What concerns people mostly is the health aspect. A lot of my customers would be mothers with children who are very concerned about what their children are eating.”

While organic food has become a lot more widely available, many people are still unaware of where to get the best, freshest and most reasonably priced produce. Cait’s advice? Go straight to the source.

“Because of the rising demand, most places stock organic produce now but your best chance of getting good quality fresh produce is in the market because you get local producers who will be harvesting their produce the day before bringing it into the market and selling it. I find myself that people want Irish produce as opposed to imported food and they will ask specifically for Irish grown produce, so people are becoming much more aware of that. So if you want to get really good quality fresh stuff, the market is your best bet. You could go to the supermarkets, but again what you’re looking at is 99 per cent imported produce in all of the major multiples.”

However, the difficulty that the organic industry is facing at the moment, which is also having a knock-on effect for organic consumers is  that the local producers are pretty much inundated and are at their capacity and meanwhile, there are very few new people coming into the business.

For many people, the cost issue associated with organic produce may act as a deterrent, but Cait says that if you buy from a reputable producer, the mark-up should be relatively low.

“Obviously there is a cost element built into it. There is a perception that isn’t necessarily true that organic produce is much more expensive than conventional produce and I think that has been fuelled by supermarkets who have put a very big mark-up on organic produce. As well as that there are probably some very unscrupulous people out there who are selling stuff at a very high mark-up. But generally speaking, you should be paying somewhere in the region of 20 per cent premium for organic produce. For a few products which are very labour intensive, it might be more because obviously, there is a lot more work involved  in producing stuff organically. For example, you’re not allowed to use chemicals or weed control, which is a fairly big issue for organic producers.”

Jim McNamara is Educational Director for the country’s only dedicated organic collegethe An tIonad Glas Organic College in Dromcollogher Co Limerick.

Established 15  years ago, the further education college offers courses in organic food production, growing, sustainable development and farming courses.

Surprisingly, while an interest in organics is growing at a very fast pace, the interest in learning about producing is not. Jim puts this down to the fact that unlike more profitable careers, a career in organics isn’t as rewarding financially as it is personally.

“There is an increase in organics generally around the world. But doesn’t mean you get huge interest in production because the margins are very tight with regard to growing and food, so it’s not like the IT industry where profits go way up every year. Our numbers grow a little bit every years. In Ireland, there’s suddenly a bit of money around and people are now more mature to value things like food and the environment and animal welfare.

Jim believes that it is not only health-wise that people can benefit from producing organically

“It’s probably the single most important thing that you could do for your own body, to watch the food that you produce. Even if you’re involved only on a small scale in producing it organically, you are getting the benefits of contact with the earth, of life balance and being sure of what you’re eating. It’s a lifestyle, it’s not just about the food,” he says.

Jim says that he does not believe that the growing interest in organics can be dubbed as a fashion.

“Fashion can come and go but the point worldwide is that as people get a little bit more money and become aware of health, they want to do things that enhance their health and that’s not fashion, that’s logically-based. It’s not magic - you can actually grow stuff with a small bit of discipline and a little bit of knowledge, so it’s all very doable, even if you only have a very small patch.”

Another large area in which organic produce is getting great press is in that of the idea of treating illnesses with good nutrition.

“Price isn’t an issue because they suddenly realise that you can pay massive money to people in the health world and it can be something as simple as that the medicine is in the food and the food is the medicine.”

Organics, unfortunately, are lagging behind in the food industry, and this is down to the fact that inadequate funds are being put towards research and development, says Jimn

“The amount of research going on in organics is tiny because its not being funded by people who want to sell it. We’re at the very early stages of devoting serious money and research capacity to looking at alternative ways to grow food and to produce animals with minimal chemicals,” he says.