ClearForest (http://www.clearforest.com), a leading provider of text analytics solutions, announced today that Fuld & Company has rated ClearForest highly in its annual review of competitive intelligence products.

The annual Fuld & Company survey included a review of 17 software packages, employed over 120 criteria, and ranked products across each of the five steps in the Competitive Intelligence Cycle. In the report, ClearForest scored highest of all vendors evaluated in Analysis & Production, the ?intelligence generator? step where an analyst transforms the collected data points into a meaningful assessment that uncovers both implications and possible outcomes. As stated in the report, ?this phase of the intelligence cycle is where ClearForest stands out among competitive intelligence solutions.? ClearForest also ranked above average in four out of the five steps.

Since the last Fuld review in 2002, ClearForest?s text analytics software has matured, now offering role-based analytic interfaces and out-of-the-box extraction modules that are intuitive and easily adaptable for competitive and market analysis. ClearForest?s solution is ideal for competitive intelligence professionals who are looking to extract a variety of vertical, functional and business problem oriented concepts and relationships.

?We are happy to be included in this report and enthusiastically support Fuld & Company?s emphasis on the need for not just technology alone, but technology which complements both people and process,? says Jay Henderson, Director of Product and Corporate Marketing at ClearForest. ?For companies with the right people and processes in place, text analytics software, like ClearForest, can significantly enhance the value that competitive intelligence brings to organizations,? Henderson says.

To see the new Fuld report, please visit: http://www.fuld.com/Products/ISR2006/HomePage.html

About ClearForest

ClearForest Corporation is a provider of text analytics solutions, supplying the analytical bridge between two previously disconnected worlds of information–unstructured text and enterprise data. In allowing both to be analyzed simultaneously, ClearForest makes unified business intelligence a reality. Our award-winning solutions enable text driven business intelligence for customers such as Eastman Chemical, Reuters, Elsevier Science and International Finance Corporation to turn large volumes of contextually-based information into proactive business intelligence.

Corporate headquarters are in Waltham, MA. For more information, please visit http://www.clearforest.com. ?2006 ClearForest Corp.

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Dublin (PRWEB) August 22, 2006

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c40877) has announced the addition of Antiviral Therapeutics: Pipelines and Competitive Dynamics to their offering.

Antiviral Therapeutics: Pipelines and Competitive Dynamics assesses the compounds, the clinical data, the companies, and the market-shifting developments in the antiviral therapeutic category. Sales of antiviral agents currently constitute 25% of the anti-infective drug market. The ability of viruses to develop resistance against drugs, coupled with sub-optimal treatment outcomes as a result of failure of patients to comply with the full course of therapy, will continue to provide the commercial and medical incentive for intense R&D activity.

Until recently, much of the effort to develop new antiviral agents was directed toward improved agents for the treatment of HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV). While these indications continue to attract research dollars and to make measurable progress with respect to dosing, deliverability, and efficacy, several new developments have reignited interest in antiviral disease R&D. These include concern about the evolution of avian influenza into a lethal pandemic and recent approvals for vaccines against certain strains of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) that are associated with high rates of cervical cancer.

Antiviral Therapeutics: Pipelines and Competitive Dynamics survey the 5 major viral disease categories and their sub-indications- HIV, Hepatitis, Herpes Viruses, Human Papilloma Viruses, and Respiratory Viruses.

For each indication, the report provides:

Pathophysiology, incidence and prevalence, symptoms and sequelae.

Assessment of current treatment options.

Assessment of unmet medical need.

Assessment of compounds in development (by agent and by mechanism of action).

Profiles of companies active in antiviral R&D

Indication-specific highlights from the study include:

HIV. 28 NCEs are in various stages of clinical development for HIV, and 5 will apply for regulatory approval through 2008. Agents in development include reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors, including fixed dose combinations, as well as new mechanistic approaches such as integrase inhibitors, fusion inhibitors, attachment inhibitors, maturation inhibitors, and replication and entry blockers.

HCV. Current HCV treatment, a combination of interferon and an antiviral agent, is lengthy, expensive, and effective in only 50% of patients because of poor compliance. Treatments in development are mostly oral agents, with 27 such drugs in various stages of early and mid stage human trials.

HPV. With the exception of a Phase II gel formulation analog of imiquimod, there is limited interest in HPV as a therapeutic target for the development of novel antivirals. However, the development of prophylactic vaccines is of considerable interest because of the high association of infection by certain HPV serotypes with the development of cervical cancer. The recent US approvals of Merck’s Gardasil, and the possible EU approval of GSK’s Cervarix in late 2006, are the first entries.

Individuals in R&D, business development, marketing, and strategy who need to stay on top of competitive developments in this fast-moving field will benefit from Antiviral Therapeutics: Pipelines and Competitive Dynamics.

About the Author TBD

Peter Norman, M.B.A., Ph.D., spent 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry in research and development and competitive intelligence before becoming an independent pharmaceutical consultant, analyst, and author. Dr. Norman has authored a number of original scientific papers in major journals and is an inventor with 11 patent applications. He provides consultancy services to several European, American, and Japanese companies and regularly reviews drugs and patents for Thomson Current Drugs and Ashley Publications. Dr. Norman has written reports analyzing most therapeutic areas.

Chapters Include:

Chapter 1. Viral Disorder and Therapeutic Approaches

Chapter 2. Review of Major Viral Disorders

Chapter 3. Current Treatment

Chapter 4. Compounds in Development: New Antiviral Agents

Chapter 5. Company R&D Profiles

Chapter 6. EXPERT INTERVIEWS: Dr. Michael G. Cordingley, Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd.; Dr. Stef Heylen, Tibotec; Professor Bertil Samuelsson, Medivir AB

Glossary

Company Index with Web Sites

Tables and Figures

The Companies Mentioned inside this Report include:

Abbott

Achillion

Boehringer Ingelheim

Biota Holdings

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Chiron

Coley

Enzo Biochem

Gilead Sciences

GlaxoSmithKline

Hoffmann-La Roche

Idenix Pharmaceuticals

Japan Tobacco

Johnson & Johnson

Medivir

Merck & Co.

Novartis AG

Panacos Pharmaceuticals

Pfizer

sanofi pasteur

Schering-Plough

Trimeris

Valeant

Vertex

ViroPharma Incorporated

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c40877

Laura Wood

Senior Manager

Research and Markets

Fax: +353 1 4100 980

# # #

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

(Vocus/PRWEB) February 17, 2011

AHA Solutions, Inc., a subsidiary of the American Hospital Association (AHA), announced today a new alliance with CapSite, a health care technology research and advisory firm. CapSite provides data services and information to health care providers to allow them to make more informed, strategic purchasing decisions. AHA Solutions is actively focused on improving the operational performance of the nation’s hospitals, providing them with field leadership, education and research. The alliance with CapSite provides additional resources to hospital leaders seeking solutions to their operational challenges.

For hospital executives looking to evaluate a variety of technology solutions, CapSite can be an invaluable and unique resource. Hospital executives can access in-depth due diligence and Request for Proposal (RFP) information from hundreds of vendors and solution providers, all provided by an objective source. Because AHA Solutions is uniquely positioned in understanding the needs of the health care provider community and focuses on finding ways to help health care providers improve operations and patient care, they have entered into an agreement to expand awareness of the CapSite Services to AHA members and other health care providers.

“The research phase is a critical step in any significant capital expenditure,” said Anthony Burke, President and CEO of AHA Solutions. “With high quality and breadth of research, the data that CapSite has amassed and optimized will bring capital projects to the next level very quickly and efficiently. We have been charged by our members to provide tools and resources that will help them achieve operational excellence. In fact, CapSite answers that call with a robust database providing comprehensive information while saving hospitals time and effort.”

CapSite’s database is easily searchable, facilitating searches by factors such as date range, facility size, etc. CapSite provides subscribing providers with current information about the availability of new products and services for the health care marketplace. It offers detailed, fact-based data to make prudent, informed capital expenditure decisions.

According to Deborah Gash, VP & CIO of Saint Luke’s Health System of Kansas City, MO, “Our organization has found immediate benefit from leveraging the CapSite service. It provides valuable information about health care technology products, cost and contract language that has aided in product selection and contracting. Well worth the investment!”

Lianne Stevens, VP of Information Technology/CIO of The Nebraska Medical Center, says, “The Nebraska Medical Center has found CapSite to be an effective source for market intelligence on non-commodity technology solution purchases. CapSite is a now a component of the due diligence process used by our organization to make informed capital budgeting and expenditure decisions.”

Gino Johnson, Sr. VP and GM of CapSite noted, “We are very pleased to have an opportunity to partner with AHA Solutions and enable the AHA membership to take advantage of the unique transparency that CapSite provides. Hospitals are operating in a very dynamic environment today with evolving reimbursement models, increasing pressure on margins and rapid advances in health care technology. CapSite provides detailed insight to assist hospitals in making informed health care technology decisions.”

Johnson continued, “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and HITECH Act represent significant opportunities for AHA members to adopt Healthcare IT (HIT) and CapSite is uniquely positioned to assist AHA members in their Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Health Information Exchange (HIE) adoption strategy.”

Additional CapSite information is available on AHA Solutions’ website at http://www.aha-solutions.org or CapSite’s website at http://www.capsite.com.

About AHA

The American Hospital Association is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals committed to the health improvement of their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which includes nearly 5,000 hospitals and health care systems, networks, and other providers of care, and 37,000 individuals. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit http://www.aha.org.

About AHA Solutions

AHA Solutions, Inc is a resource to hospitals pursuing operational excellence. As an American Hospital Association (AHA) member service, AHA Solutions collaborates with hospital leaders and market consultants to conduct product due diligence and identify solutions to hospital challenges in the areas of finance, human resources, patient flow and technology. AHA Solutions provides related marketplace analytics and education to support product decision-making. As a subsidiary of the AHA, the organization convenes people with like interests for knowledge sharing centered on timely information and research. AHA Solutions is proud to reinvest its profits in the AHA mission: creating healthier communities. For more information, contact AHA Solutions at (800) 242-4677 or visit http://www.aha-solutions.org.

About CapSite

CapSite is a health care technology research and advisory firm. Their mission is to help health care providers and vendors make more informed strategic decisions that will enable them to accelerate the growth of their business through the use of CapSite™ data and consulting services. CapSite™ data is available through our trusted, easy to use online database, providing critical knowledge and evidence based information on health care technology purchases. The CapSite™ database provides detailed pricing and packaging transparency across more than 120 health care technology categories and 800 vendors. For more information, please visit http://www.capsite.com.

About Saint Luke’s Health System

Saint Luke’s Health System consists of 11 area hospitals and several primary and specialty care practices, and provides a range of inpatient, outpatient, and home care services. For more information, visit http://www.saintlukeshealthsystem.org.

About The Nebraska Medical Center

The Nebraska Medical Center is known for excellence, innovation and quality patient care. As the teaching hospital for the University of Nebraska’s health sciences programs, this 624 acute-care bed facility is Nebraska’s largest health care facility – with more than 4,900 employees and more than 1,000 physicians on staff. For more information, visit http://www.nebraskamed.com.

# # #

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Tujunga, CA (PRWEB) February 27, 2006

In a recent press article from The Indian Express it is reported that the HIV problem afflicting much of the Western world is making itself felt in India, as well. The large number of Indians suffering from HIV due to intravenous drug use has led UNAIDS (The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) to suggest the use of methadone to combat the problem.

Methadone, originally developed by German scientists in the 1940’s as an opiate-based painkiller, has long been one of the primary treatments in “replacement” therapy for heroin addicts. The alleged benefits of substituting methadone for heroin include modified behavior (the addict becomes more engaged in their lives and less apathetic), reduced criminality and reduced risk of needle infection.

Less well known are the risks involved in methadone use. Most people do not realize that methadone is addictive itself and recent years have seen a marked increase in street sales and abuse of methadone. Individuals who abuse methadone risk becoming addicted to it, and methadone addicts often report that it is more difficult to withdraw from than heroin itself. Withdrawal can involve excruciating muscle and bone pain, severe respiratory problems, nausea and vomiting, tachycardia, intestinal spasms, involuntary kicking and twitching movements as well as anxiety and depression, combined with suicidal thoughts. Withdrawal involves a longer length of time than does heroin withdrawal, according to addict reports.

Overdosing on methadone poses an additional risk. According to a report by the National Drug Intelligence Center, the Drug Abuse Warning Network reported that methadone was involved in 10,725 emergency department visits in 2001, a 37% increase from the previous year.

It is difficult to estimate the extent of methadone abuse in the United States because most data sources that quantify drug abuse combine methadone with other narcotics. Information provided by the Treatment Episode Data Set does reveal that the number of individuals who were treated for abuse of “other opiates” (a category that includes methadone) increased dramatically from 28,235 in 2000 to 36,265 in 2001. These individuals were predominantly Caucasian and were nearly evenly split between males and females. They also represented a variety of age groups. The NDIC also states that methadone abuse among high school students is a concern. Nearly 1% of high school seniors in the U.S. abused the drug at least once in their lifetime, according to the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future Survey.

Some of the problems associated with the use of methadone as a heroin alternative include the situation where addicts are sometimes given a week’s or even a month’s worth at a time and then selling much of it on the black market. School children have been found in possession of prescription methadone in Great Britain. In 1996, more than twice as many people died in the UK from methadone-related causes than died from taking heroin.

In Canada, a report by Correctional Service of Canada states that withdrawal from heroin is a two-stage process: withdrawal from heroin (to methadone), and when stabilized on methadone, withdrawal from it. It is this part (withdrawal from methadone) that has proven problematic, per the report. In addition, while heroin relapse rates exceed 90%, relapse rates from methadone are only very slightly less, at 85%.

Methadone has been accused of acting only as a palliative to the problem of heroin addiction and simply prolongs drug addiction within an individual. Prescription of a substitute for heroin offers no incentive to abstain from using drugs and many addicts simply use it as a free “top up” to their existing illicit drug consumption.

While methadone prescription for a short period to counteract the symptoms of heroin withdrawal might have a place in addiction treatment, its widespread use could actually increase the number of chemically dependent individuals. This is because abuse of methadone maintenance programs is notoriously common.

Joanna Young, national president of the Drug Addiction Help Line, adds, “In a country as poor as India, to believe that free prescription methadone will not be considered a valuable commodity on the black market is foolish. There is no reason to believe that methadone abuse will not occur in the same pattern seen in the other countries currently using it as a treatment for heroin dependency. It is only substituting one strong, dependency-creating drug for another. Although efforts may be made to control its distribution and use, these efforts are not perfect and addicts are adept at finding ways to abuse the system. It’s inevitable.”

For help with overcoming drug and alcohol addiction, go to;

www.DrugAddictionHelpLine.com


http://addictionhelprehab.blogspot.com/


http://www.drugaddictionsolutions.com/


http://www.drugaddictiontreatment.ca


http://centralcalcoalition.org/


http://www.addiction-rehab-success.com/

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Gardening in ones yard or developing vegetables on a farm in 1905 was most most certainly natural given that chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides did not start to be in use until eventually just after Entire world War II. Now, in our existing day setting, it is a favourite pass time for quite a few persons, which include myself and numerous of my neighbors, from toddlers to centenarians all all around the entire world to grow a backyard.

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(PRWEB) September 16, 2000

PRESS RELEASE

FROM: TREATY STONE PUBLISHING.

ASHES POUR FROM LIMERICK LANES TO CYBERSPACE

American e-book publishing giants Greatunpublished.com have this week launched the electronic edition of Limerickman Gerard HannanÂ?s controversial national bestseller Â?ASHESÂ? which was written and published in response to Frank McCourtÂ?s international multi-million sales ANGELAÂ?S ASHES.

According to Kathy Lindenmayer, Assistant Editor at Greatunpublished, Â?I can say unequivocally that Mr. Hannan is the first Irish author whose book is for sale globally as both an e-book and paperback title and we are very excited and thrilled about the launch.Â?

Hannan, who is about to embark on a short American promotional tour opening with a speaking engagement at the College Of Charleston in October has confirmed his excitement at the prospect of global sales for his book.

Â?Since the outset of my campaign to have the other side of Frank McCourtÂ?s story told I have never dreamed that an opportunity like this would come along,Â? he said this week.

Hannan is also hoping that his second book Â?TIS IN ME ASSÂ? will also become available at Greatunpublished later this month.

ASHES is available in paperback or electronic form at http://www.greatunpublished.com

ENDS

CONTACTS:

Gerard Hannan

Limerick: 061 315668

Mobile: 087 4186081

Kathy Lindenmayer (Assistant Editor)

Greatunpublished.com

USA Â? 001 -8435790000

____________________________________________

FURTHER INFORMATION:

What other papers have had to say on this debate:

There was an old town…

By Paul Daffey /Evening Standard

Two families were feuding over ascendancy in the drug trade. A member of one family was walking along a footpath when a car sidled up to the kerb. A member of the opposing family jumped out of the car and stabbed the pedestrian in the stomach – with a pitchfork.

The weapon of choice threw a rural twist on an urban tale. It was emblematic of an Ireland that, in the final decades of last century, was wrangling with itself over the shift from rural backwater to urban dynamism.

The pitchfork incident could have taken place in Dublin or Cork, maybe even the light-spirited Galway, but somehow this seemed unlikely. Right or wrong, it did suggest merit behind Limerick’s reputation as Stab City.

It is a reputation that Limerick hates, largely because it is distasteful, but also because the sobriquet was applied 30 years ago and the city has changed since then.

In the ’70s, the development of high-tech industries and the University of Limerick, which specialises in science and technology, brought a measure of wealth and vitality to the city. But it also created an income gap, with residents of rugged housing estates resenting the new order.

Crime and violence were the inevitable result. The rest of the country gained the impression that stabbings were frequent. It titillated some to think of Limerick, with its reputation for inwardness and pious Catholicism, as a bloody frontier.

Violence in Limerick lessened in the ’90s after, among other things, the formation of “combat poverty” groups with funds from the European Union. EU money was also put towards restoration of the town’s fading buildings.

The Civic Trust, formed in the late ’80s as the first restoration body in Ireland, was instrumental in giving the worn city a facelift that impressed the rest of the country, although not enough to stop the stabbing slurs and the tittering.

Limerick is proud of its recovery but, after years of scorn, it is defensive. When the Angela’s Ashes phenomenon broadcast the city’s folly to the world, it became too much for some.

Frank McCourt’s depiction of the squalor in the city by the River Shannon in the 1930s and ’40s raised the hackles of one resident so much that he bothered to write a retort. Ashes, Gerard Hannan’s memoir of a rosier childhood in Limerick, has hardly set sales records but the author considers its publication a success.

Described disparagingly in the Limerick Post as a bookseller and part-time disc jockey, Hannan was reported in that newspaper as saying that Angela’s Ashes should be reclassified as fiction.

“I think it has been a successful campaign because there are people out there now saying this (the book) is not 100 per cent accurate. This is the object of the exercise, so mission accomplished.”

His crusade also includes talkback sessions on his radio program. A good percentage of callers support his sunny view of the city’s past. The dissenters, according to the Limerick Post, get cut off, an act the newspaper describes on its website as that of a schoolyard bully. The fact that he only polled 65 votes in recent local elections only adds to their scorn.

“He can hardly be said to represent the views of the people of Limerick,” the Post says. “While he accuses McCourt of holding up our city of the past to ridicule and condemnation, he, in the guise of being Limerick’s champion, is only exposing our modern-day Limerick to mockery.”

Frank Larkin, the public relations officer for Shannon Development, says half the city claims the poverty in the book is exaggerated. “People felt it reflected poorly. They claim they had happy childhoods and were happy in Limerick. You have that dichotomy of discussion. But there’s certainly a contrast between what Frank McCourt described and today.”

He says Alan Parker, the creator of the Angela’s Ashes movie, barely filmed in Limerick because the city now lacks the requisite decay. “We weren’t able to come up with any of those buildings and lanes because there weren’t any left. They had to go to Dublin and Cork to find rundown buildings and derelict lanes…nothing against the people of Dublin and Cork.”

Larkin is unable to put a figure on Angela’s Ashes importance to the city, although he admits it has become a huge selling point. Other attractions include castles, cathedrals, Georgian architecture, the Limerick Expo in March and the International Marching Bands Festival, also in March, which attracts 40,000 people.

The city’s push – and for that matter Ireland’s push – to improve the poor quality of mid-range restaurants has spawned the International Food Festival, which is held annually, and the Good Food Circle of Restaurants. We tried only the Mogul Emperor in Henry Street, where the food was much like Indian food anywhere in the Western world.

Limerick might be trying to improve its culinary standing but it has no doubts about its sporting prowess. The city thumps its chest about being Ireland’s sporting capital. It is, at best, a dubious claim, but one that receives support every autumn when Limerick hosts the battles between Munster and touring rugby sides from the Antipodes. Munster, the province that takes in the six counties in Ireland’s south-west, attacks the touring teams with a fervor that inevitably attracts “Gael force” headlines. In 1978, the attack was so effective that Munster defeated New Zealand, a feat that was barely believed across Europe, and less so in New Zealand. The victory remains an Irish side’s only win over the All Blacks and it is not surprising that each player was guaranteed free pints for life.

At a humbler level, Limerick soon will be the home of Ireland’s first 50-metre swimming pool. In recent years it has hosted the World Medical Games and the UK and Ireland Corporate Games. The World Soccer Cup for Lawyers is also on the list of achievements, although it must be said a city is trying too hard when it celebrates playing host to thousands of lawyers.

The city has every right, however, to claim a rich history. Its city charter, drawn up in 1197, is the oldest in the British Isles, which includes Ireland and Britain, and King John’s Castle is a feature of the Heritage Precinct. The castle, built at the beginning of the 13th century, was the stronghold of the British empire in western Ireland and its presence is a reminder of Limerick’s struggles under a hated foreign power. The Heritage Precinct also includes the Castle Lane project, which is the reconstruction of a street from two centuries ago.

Downriver are the docks, which are undergoing a makeover not seen since the Vikings sailed up the Shannon in the ninth century. A handful of pubs in the city centre have also been refurbished. Some are modern and gleaming, but I preferred those with a traditional touch, such as WJ South’s on O’Connell Street. South’s is where Uncle Pa Keating bought the 16-year-old Frank McCourt his first pint. It looks like your average poky Irish pub from the street but opens out generously inside. It was a local for the men from the lanes of Limerick; now the clientele ranges from young professionals to older regulars. The floorboards and decor have been tastefully scrubbed up and Pa Keating would probably wonder where all the sawdust on the floor had gone. The bulldust, though, remains as thick on the ground as ever.

The Limerick banter is fun. Wit and irony are staples and all sentences are delivered with a delightful lilt. The accent is less distinctive than the sing-song carry-on in neighboring Cork but, since the publication of Angela’s Ashes, the language of Limerick is among the most distinctive in the world. Which, if anyone were in any doubt, just goes to show that the pen is mightier than the pitchfork.

Struggles of the artist

When you’re Jewish, Irish or Palestinian,

The question of identity is a troubling one.

Gary Younge /Guardian Newspaper

Josephine is on line four.”You alright Ger?” she calls out to Limerick’s late night radio DJ Gerard Hannan. She doesn’t need to say who she is. Hannan recognises her voice. Like Whispering Phyllis, Giggling Breeda, Peg, who sings a song over the phone once a week, and Jim from Oola, who likes to play the listeners tunes from his gramophone, Josephine is a regular who punctuates Limerick’s late-night airwaves with local banter.

It is the night of the premiere of the film, Angela’s Ashes, the Pulitzer prize winning story of Frank McCourt’s impoverished childhood in Limerick, and Josephine is in the mood for reminiscing. Josephine says she used to play bingo with Angela and she cannot recognise her in the wan character portrayed in the book. “She had big, fat jaws and her body was as fat as mine,” she says. “I’m the same age as Frank McCourt and I don’t remember cobblestones or anything like that.”

And so it goes on, all night, most nights. With Hannan’s encouragement – he has already made a name and is fast making a career out of criticising the book – Limerick’s older citizens call to complain that their story has not been told. “Poverty is nothing to be ashamed of but he has misrepresented the innocent people of this town,” says Hannan. McCourt was born in America, came to Limerick as a young boy and left for the States as a young man.

“He came here from America, he didn’t like it and then he left. But a lot of people stayed and made a life there and there was a great spirit that is not reflected in Angela’s Ashes which is the fruit of bitterness and begrudgery. When they [the older citizens of Limerick] look back on their childhood they did not see themselves as miserable, Irish Catholics. It’s a beautifully written book. But it’s not about the real Limerick. My problem with it is that he should have called it what it was: a work of fiction.”

But this is more than a battle between fact and fiction. Some accuse McCourt of straying from the truth by exaggerating his impoverished upbringing in the lanes; but even more are annoyed by the fact that he remained too faithful to real life by putting local people’s real names in the book and relating accounts of his mother’s sex life. Many will argue, in the same sentence, that he was both too honest and not honest enough.

What is at stake here is the question of authenticity. It is a faultline that goes beyond the pages of Angela’s Ashes and the streets of Limerick to the arbitrary codes and signifiers which define identity. It is the yardstick we use to determine who is and who is not eligible for inclusion in the panoply of tribes which are available to us such as class, religion, race, ethnicity and region. It provides the parameters for describing who we are, and often what we can say.

The consequences of these issues are far from academic. In Israel a debate is raging over who, for purposes of immigration, qualifies as a Jew. When the country’s law of return was passed in 1950, anyone with even one Jewish grandparent had an automatic right to Israeli citizenship. Now that people of Jewish descent are pouring in from eastern Europe there is a move afoot to redefine what it is to be a Jew. “These are not people who are suffering from anti-semitism or who have any connection to the Jewish people,” said Yuli Edelstein, the deputy speaker of the Knesset. If they do change the rules it could mean that people who were sufficiently Jewish to be gassed by the Nazis will not be Jewish enough to enter Israel.

You can hear it in John Prescott’s tortured accounts of his own social standing. A few years ago, when he was deputy leader of the opposition, he provoked great intrigue by describing himself as “middle class”. Last year, when he was on a higher salary and wielding greater power as deputy prime minister, he had returned to the toiling masses. “Make no mistake about it. I’m proud of being working class,” he says. “I’m not changing my attitude or culturing my voice or even getting my grammar correct.”

Last year, critics of the intellectual Edward Said raised doubts about his credentials as a refugee as a means of trying to discredit his entire body of work on the Middle East. “I had never had much respect for the intellectual integrity of Professor Said,” said a spokesman for the former rightwing Israeli government. “This proves that my suspicions were not groundless.” The attack put Said in the Kafkaesque situation of brandishing documents to prove that he is in fact who he has always said he was.

But there was more at stake, he believed, than his own integrity. “It is an attempt,” said Said, “to pre-empt the process of return and compensation for the Palestinians. It is a way of furthering the argument that the Palestinians never belonged in Palestine… If someone like Edward Said is a liar, runs the argument, how can we believe all those peasants who say they were driven off their land?… It is part of the attempt to say that none of this actually happened.” Undermine Said’s authenticity, went the logic, and you undermine the credibility of the Palestinian cause.

And so it goes on. To have had the real Limerick experience you have to have stayed; to be truly Jewish you must have suffered from anti-semitism; to be working class you need bad grammar. Each assertion reveals an attempt to establish the idea that identities are fixed, universal and cohesive when in fact they are fluid, varied and disparate.

None of which is to say that the complaints about Angela’s Ashes are not understandable. McCourt has dismissed his detractors’ complaints by insisting that Angela’s Ashes is “a memoir, not an exact history”. But, since the lives of Limerick’s working class rarely make it to the international stage, it is not unreasonable for them to want to see themselves portrayed accurately and sensitively.

It is a constant irritation to those on the margins that they are often ill-represented by those who make it into the mainstream. “We who survived the camp are not true witnesses,” wrote Primo Levi of his time in a Nazi concentration camp. “We, the survivors, are not only a tiny but an anomalous minority. We are those who through prevarication, skill or luck never touched bottom. Those who have, and have seen the face of the Gorgon, did not return, or returned wordless.”

The burden of representation on those who do emerge from desperate circumstances is a heavy one. But that is no excuse to try to deny the validity of their voice. In the case of Angela’s Ashes there is, of course, no such thing as the Limerick experience but, instead, several Limerick experiences.

Nobody voted for McCourt so he is under no obligation to represent anyone. The story that McCourt told is not Limerick’s but his own.

Angela’s Ashes Rakes Up A Storm

Alex Renton/London Time Out

There’s a cruel joke going round Limerick about the movie that’s to

open in the city next Wednesday. “Worse than the film of an ordinary

miserable childhood is the film of a miserable Irish childhood, and

worse yet is the film of the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

This will mean little to anyone who has not read Frank McCourt’s

Angela’s Ashes, but the millions who have ploughed through the

1990s’ best-selling example of tears ‘n’ smiles Irish ghetto

literature will spot the parody of the book’s first paragraphs.

Some people in Limerick are utterly fed up with Angela’s Ashes and

its story of the McCourt children who lived in the city’s slums

(excepting those who died in the family’s communal bed) in the

middle of this century. There are those who don’t believe Frank

McCourt’s memoir, and those, such as Brendan Halligan, editor of the

Limerick Leader, who wish Angela, the Ashes and everyone else would

just go away. The book is a ghost haunting modern Limerick life: “It

overshadows everything.”

Arguments over the veracity of McCourt’s account have, in the three

year’s since publication, caused endless fuss. The Limerick Leader

is well-used to receiving letters that point out flaws in the

McCourt children’s saga, and the filming has touched nerves again.

“Frank McCourt’s book,” said a recent editorial wearily, “generated

more controversy in Limerick than anything since the opening of the

interpretative centre in King John’s Castle.” And that was more than

six years ago.

Nearly 200 Limerick people have undertaken to demonstrate outside

the screening, in defence of their city’s good name. That’s hardly

surprising – for Limerick, her cruel streets, hard-hearted

shopkeepers and hypocritical clergy, is the chief villain, the prime

child abuser of Angela’s Ashes.

Brendan Halligan says: “It is difficult to understand how a gloomy,

depressing and backward look at a make-believe Limerick would

necessarily show today’s real Limerick in a kindly light,” he wrote,

opposing the campaign to get the film to come home. “Good riddance

to it.”

There’s no question that Limerick has changed since McCourt’s day.

The Irish boom and economic aid from Brussels have seen the city’s

slums transformed – indeed the city is quite proud that Alan

Parker’s team were unable to find a suitable tenement “lane” for

filming in Limerick, (they had to build their own slum in a car park

in Dublin instead). John O’Regan, who organises Angela’s Ashes tours

at £4-a-head for fans who arrive weepily from across the world,

enjoys showing off the business centre and apartment blocks that now

dominate the old red-light district of the Shannon docks. Even

Sutton’s Coalyard, outside which Angela and her sons scavenged for

fuel, is now Jury’s Inn, a “posh” hotel.

But it is not the fact that Parker and McCourt’s Limerick maligns

today’s Limerick that will cause the demonstrations outside the

Dooradoyle Omniplex on Wednesday. Those will be staged by the people

who simply don’t believe the story told in Angela’s Ashes. “A few

fanatics and self-publicists” is how sensible Limerick dismisses

them (though sensible Limerick asks not to be named – it’s a small

city). But the anti-McCourtists include men who were at school with

McCourt. Men like Paddy Malone, who, when Frank McCourt returned to

Limerick for a book-signing, asked the author if he remembered him

and then ripped the book in half, shouting: “You’re a disgrace to

Ireland, the Church and your mother.” Malone is now threatening to

sue McCourt.

There is, in fact, a mini-industry in getting at Frank McCourt. Two

contemporaries have published their own accounts of their happier

Limerick childhoods, while a local bookshop owner and disc-jockey,

Gerard Hannan, has published Ashes – a “true story of two brothers

growing up in the Limerick Lanes”. Next week he will publish a

sequel to that book, just as McCourt has published ‘Tis, his own

sequel to Angela’s Ashes. The new book is cheekily titled ‘Tis in Me

Ass – authentic Limerick street slang, apparently. Hannan, whose

hounding of McCourt has taken him from US TV news to Melvyn Bragg’s

South Bank Show, says he is simply attempting to right a grievous

wrong done to Limerick’s reputation and history. “You will have been

led to understand that I am a two-headed lunatic,” he says gravely.

“But there are hundreds of people behind me, and I have letters from

across the world to prove it.”

Such disputes are part of the territory – an almost inevitable

after-effect of making money out of live history is that others who

were there too will stand up to argue about what really happened.

And, of course, McCourt has many defenders. His editor at

HarperCollins, Philip Gwyn Jones, follows the common argument that

McCourt’s story is a memoir, it doesn’t claim to be autobiography.

Behind the subjective reporting is greater truth. “People come up to

Frank, who were either there, or knew someone who was at that time

And say, “Oh, Frank, you’ve got it all wrong: Mrs. So and so didn’t

live at number 7, it was number 5.” Maybe he did get little facts

wrong, but it is a work of non-fiction, and he has written it as

true as he can remember. Of course we support Frank’s interpretation

as plausible and authentic. But the truth looks different to every

different pair of eyes. That’s the nature of historical truth.”

The problem for the pro-McCourt camp is that their man’s mistakes

are just the one’s that are likely to cause maximum offence among

the people of Limerick, and the guardians of the truth. Queuing at

that Limerick book-signing was another contemporary from the

Limerick Lanes, Willie Harold. Mr. Harold, now dead, appears in the

book at his first confession, telling a priest how he has sinned,

looking at his sister’s naked body. The problem is, Mr. Harold never had a sister. Many older Limerick people are incensed at the

portrait of Angela herself. There’s no doubt that Mrs. McCourt would

not like her son’s portrayal. Shortly before she died, in 1981, she

was taken to see Frank and brother Malachy perform a stage show

about their early lives. She stormed out, shouting: “It didn’t

happen that way. It’s all a pack of lies.”

Other stories have emerged that throw doubt on McCourt’s

reliability. The clergy of 1940s Limerick – where “you couldn’t

throw a brick without hitting a priest” – come particularly poorly

out of the book. Recently McCourt told the Los Angeles Times that

the film-makers weren’t allowed to use any of Limerick’s churches,

because local clergy, led by the Bishop of Limerick, opposed the

film. When the Limerick journalists investigated this claim they

found that only one church, that of the Redemptorists, had refused

to co-operate with filming. The Bishop’s office had gone out of

their way to help – a fact that the film’s producer’s confirmed.

No one in Limerick denies that there was awful poverty in the city

60 years ago, but further investigation has led them to wonder just

how poor the McCourts really were. Some people have pointed out how

fat Angela and some of the children were, while the Limerick Leader

dug up photographs of McCourt in his boy scout’s uniform. Scouting

was expensive and usually for middle-class boys – “Is this the

picture of misery?” asked the newspaper.

Perhaps the most sensible verdict comes from another Limerick

contemporary, a John Conran who lives now in Birmingham. He wrote to

the Limerick Leader after reading McCourt’s book, to say how much he

had enjoyed it. ” I lived in Limerick at the time. I had nine

sisters and one brother. I did not feel all that misery. I enjoyed

my schooldays at St Munchin’s CBS. We had the Shannon and the hills

on our doorstep. The problem with the McCourts was not Limerick, the

Church or the priests. The father was an alcoholic. He failed in New

York, the promised land. He would fail in any city – and did.”

John O’Regan, who on his Angela’s Ashes tours daily watches people

from all over the world weep as they remember the sufferings of

their own childhoods, says he knows Frank McCourt was not lying.

“I’ve seen enough people to know that Frank spoke for all of them.

What he wrote was his truth: Angela’s Ashes is a mirror of those

times.”

Additional reporting by Gita Mendis

Rising from the ashes

Anne Molloy/Irish News

Frank McCourt wrote in Angela’s Ashes that there was only one thing

worse than “a miserable Irish childhood” and that was “a miserable

Irish Catholic childhood.”

It was such strong and ultimately disparaging statements that made

McCourt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel unforgettable and for it’s

detractors unforgivable.

For the three years since its publication Angela’s Ashes has

continued to cause rancor in his childhood home of Limerick where

there is a clear division between those who would like to pillory

the McCourts and those, like the former mayor, who want to give them

the freedom of the city.

“Lies, lies, lies, lies,” decried one Paddy Malone, who attended the

same school as the young McCourt, and claimed that Frank

“prostitutes his mother” in the book.

Another self-appointed McCourt opponent is Radio Limerick presenter

Gerard Hannan who sees Angela’s Ashes as a straightforward attack on

the city and its people and is publishing his own riposte Â?Tis in Me

AssÂ? a play on McCourt’s second autobiographical work Â?Tis.Â?

McCourt has at times tried to distance himself from the continuing

row and said that the book was not about the city “it was about

poverty.”

But that is too much of an oversimplification by the author as a lot

of the anger from McCourt (and his younger brother Malachy) is

directed not at their alcoholic father but their downtrodden mother.

McCourt implies that Angela takes the boys to live at her cousin’s

home and sleeps with him in return for a roof over their heads when

Malachy finally deserts them, apparently for good.

The adolescent Frank makes it clear (as does his brother Malachy in

his own autobiography A Monk Swimming) that he cannot deal with the

situation and it would appear that they never forgave their mother

for this (though this does not mean they didn’t love her) and they

seem to have made their peace with their father before he died.

To outsiders this seems strange because Malachy (Snr) would appear

to have been at the root of most of the McCourt’s difficulties ñ or

as one Limerick contemporary has pointed out “we were just as poor

but the difference was our father didn’t drink.”

Malachy McCourt (portrayed by outstanding British actor Robert

Carlyle in the film) was originally from Toome in Co Antrim and was

often decried by his wife’s family as the next best thing to a

Presbyterian, particularly because of the way his hair stood up: “He

had Protestant hair.”

He would be pleased to know that in some respects little has changed

in the intervening 50 years as an article about the film in the

Limerick Leader assured its readers recently.

“The specter that haunts Limerick is not that of Angela or any other

Limerick person but of her alcoholic Ulster husband.”

The geographical pinpointing of the source of the problem is

revealing in itself and goes a long way to rebuff the notion that

modern Limerick is at peace with itself and its new found wealth.

It’s often the hurry to forget the bad memories of an impoverished

past that reveals the insecurity of the nouveau riche.

Many of the older generation in Limerick (as elsewhere in Ireland)

are not keen to talk about the difficulties of past times and the

younger are too busy making money to care.

As Frank McCourt said: “My mother hated me uncovering the past: the

only place for confessions is to a priest, she thought: she wanted

curtains drawn over all the poverty and sordidness.”

And he admitted that writing the book was “similar to cleaning out

the sewers, dredging up that stuff.”

But he didn’t just sit down and write the book after he retired from

teaching in America, he was scribbling bits for years though he

didn’t complete it sooner “because all those years I was too busy

marking other people’s essays. And the timing wasn’t right. My

mother had to die and I think I had to grow up. And it took me a

long time.”

The fact that he waited until his mother’s death before publicising

their life together at least indicates that McCourt was not

indifferent to his mother’s feelings despite what his detractors

would have us believe.

When it came to filming Angela’s Ashes last year in Limerick there

was some nervousness on the part of director Alan Parker, who was

aware of the vocal opposition in some parts of the city to the book.

“It’s an exaggeration to say that there was enmity towards us making

the film in the city where it is based, but I think it’s fair to say

that there was some trepidation on our part, a feeling that we were

not entirely welcome but that could have been my own personal

paranoia.”

Parker, in his personal diary of the filming, is however critical of

the churches in Limerick who refused to let them film though he

admits they were treated “cordially”. Interior church scenes were

eventually filmed in Dublin and Parker does reveal the problems for

Churches of having a “hundred film crew noisily go about their

business particularly for a film which takes place in a period

before Vatican II.”

He also reveals the truism of the old adage of never working “with

animals or children” as AngelaÂ?s Ashes involved working with dozens

of children who portray not only the McCourts but their

contemporaries at different stage over a 15-year period.

“I have to say that these were the most difficult scenes I’ve ever

directed with young children, and I’ve done a considerable amount of

filming in this area. Although a shrieking child might be what

you’re after for the scene, you have to keep reminding yourself that

it’s not just the illusion of film and that, close by, behind the

set, stands the real mother of this small child, suffering

considerably herself as her offspring cries real tears for the

camera.”

Parker, whoÂ?s numerous films include that other Irish-based success

The Commitments, however is generous in his praise of Newry actor

Michael Legge who portrays Frank McCourt as an older adolescent.

“He has great subtlety and application and, as with all good actors

who make things look easy, there is a fierce intelligence at work.”

See you in court, McCourt

For local radio host/journalist and author

Gerry Hannan ‘Angela’s Ashes’ is a vicious slur on his city

Rob Brown/The Guardian (UK)

Frank McCourt must have done scores of interviews to plug ‘Tis, the

sequel to Angela’s Ashes, his global bestseller about growing up

dirt poor in the priest-ridden, rain-sodden slums of Limerick. But

all these encounters put together could not have been anywhere near

as painful as the prime-time television appearance he made back in

his native Ireland recently.

It wasn’t Pat Kenny, host of The Late Late Show, who gave him a hard

time. The trouble came from a member of the Dublin studio audience.

“You have been peddling lies about Limerick,” the man bellowed into

the microphone. “You are a liar, a self-confessed liar.” McCourt

could only raise his arms to the heavens and appeal to his accuser

in his strange but weirdly soothing mid-Atlantic accent: “I don’t

know why you’re so obsessed with me. Why don’t you get a life and go

and do something?”

His plea fell on deaf ears, for a large part of Gerry Hannan’s life

is now devoted to stirring up controversy around McCourt. His

personal crusade to “set the record straight” will crank up a gear

next week when the movie version of Angela’s Ashes rolls on to

cinema screens. Hannan, who combines local broadcasting with running

a second-hand bookshop in Limerick, has even penned two books as

direct ripostes to McCourt’s memoirs. The first was called simply

Ashes. The second, due for release next week, is even more

opportunistically entitled ‘Tis In Me Ass, an expression straight

from the language of the Lanes, the now notorious backstreets on the

north side of Limerick where McCourt endured his miserable childhood.

The main outlet for Hannan’s literary vendetta isn’t his books ñ

which will never rival their targets in the bestseller lists ñ but

the late-night phone-in programme he presents on Limerick 95. The

radio station provides a regular platform for critics of McCourt,

who seem to be both numerous and vocal in the author’s native city.

No one is getting terribly worked up about ‘Tis, which tells of

young Frank’s escape from Limerick to America and what he found

there. Hannan’s tribute to “the people who didn’t run off to America

but instead stayed at home to help build a city” doesn’t pack

anywhere near the same animus as Ashes, which was a far more pointed

attack on Angela’s Ashes.

According to his arch critic, McCourt’s upbringing wasn’t anywhere

near as brutal as he makes out. “When you read Angela’s Ashes, it’s

misery, misery, misery all the way,” says Hannan. “That’s not how it

is remembered by anyone else who lived there. Of course there was a

lot of poverty and suffering, but there was also a great spirit to

the place. People helped each other through the hard times.” For

him, the situation was best summed up by an elderly listener who

called in to say: “Ger, everyone loves Frank McCourt except the

people who knew him. And everyone loves Angela’s Ashes except the

people who know the truth.”

Angela’s Ashes is a particularly searing account of the author’s

childhood in the Lanes of Limerick, depicted as a living hell where

he and his brothers (those who didn’t die in the cot) begged for

food while neighbours looked on with cruel indifference and the

local Catholic clergy humiliated the most wretched members of its

flock.

The book, which won the 1997 Pulitzer prize for biography, begins

with this now famous opening passage: “When I look back on my

childhood I wonder how I survived it at all. It was, of course, a

miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while.

Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish

childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

Ger, as his fans affectionately address him, seems a bit of a local

hero in Limerick. When we met up in the city’s Bewley’s café

(Dublin’s famous coffee house has become a fast-growing chain),

several people came up to tell him what a grand job he was doing or

to alert him to some local injustice he should sort out on the

airwaves. Hannan claims to have received a hero’s welcome after his

showdown with McCourt on The Late Late Show. “I think they wanted

his head brought back to Limerick on a plate,” he recalled, beaming.

He admits to having got a frostier reception at the University of

Limerick, which conferred an honorary degree on McCourt two years

ago. “I know it annoys the intelligentsia to see some little

gobshite stand up to the great author, but I’m only concerned about

the common people and they’re on my side.”

Being only 40 himself, Hannan cannot draw upon his own experiences

to contradict McCourt’s recollections of the 1940s, far less the

1930s. But several of his relatives are contemporaries of McCourt,

and it was they who first raised his suspicions about the book. His

late uncle Martin, who went to school with Frank McCourt, fed him a

lot of the background information for Ashes, which was billed as

“The real memoirs of two boys from the Limerick Lanes”. Paddy

Hannan, his 74-year-old father, was particularly affronted by

McCourt’s portrayal of his mother, Angela, whom he remembers as the

angel of the Lanes. “He makes her out to be good-for-nothing. Anyone

who cuts their own mammy down like that deserves nothing.”

McCourt is also accused of scandalising the family of Teresa Carmody

by telling the world that he had sex with her just days before she

died of tuberculosis. McCourt maintains that she never existed and

that the name was made up.

Such explanations have failed to silence his detractors, including

those on the local newspaper The Limerick Leader. At one point it

published a half-page of photographs showing McCourt as a member of

St Joseph’s Boy Scouts. Pointing out that this particular scout

troop was regarded as the Elite of Limerick, the headline asked: “Is

this the picture of misery?”

McCourt, a handsome, snow-haired figure who penned his memoirs after

teaching for many years in New York high schools, tried to laugh off

such assaults. “Begrudgers,” he told the Boston Globe. “Where would

Ireland be without them?” He dismissed the complaints as

“peripheral”, describing Angela’s Ashes as “a memoir, not an exact

history”. He has owned up to one falsehood. In the book, schoolmate

Willie Harold is depicted walking to his first confession

“whispering about his big sin, that he looked at his sister’s naked

body”. Willie Harold never had a sister, a point he brought to

McCourt’s attention when, in the advanced stages of cancer, he

queued at a book-signing to set the record straight. McCourt claims

to have settled the matter amicably by granting his old chum a free

copy. It is impossible to verify this, as Harold has since died.

He’ll have to do a lot more than sign a free copy to silence Gerry

Hannan, who is plainly basking in the limelight of his vendetta. In

the back office of his bookstore he has a fat file containing all

the stories his claims have generated on both sides of the Atlantic.

He also got to vent his spleen on The South Bank Show when it

profiled Frank McCourt recently. Is he obsessive? Gerry Hannan

doesn’t think so. “I’ve got a lot of other things in my life, but I

do have a tremendous sense of loyalty to my listeners, who inundated

me for weeks and weeks with their heartfelt complaints about Frank

McCourt.”

Whatever, the feud will enter a new chapter as Alan Parker’s film of

Angela’s Ashes hits the screens. The producers of The Late Late Show

would doubtless be keen to stage a second bout. Whether McCourt will

allow himself to be ambushed again is highly doubtful. Hannan, who

was carefully primed by an RTE researcher for his first ever

appearance on prime time television, is certainly up for a rematch.

“I don’t just want to eyeball him in a television studio,” Hannan

told The Independent. “I want Frank McCourt to take me to court,

where the truth about his book will come out for the whole world to

see.”

Limerick, Rising From ‘Ashes’

A bittersweet memoir is luring people to this once-grim Irish City.

They’re in for a surprise.

By K.C. Summers/The Washington Post

Limerick’s Windmill Street is a postman’s nightmare. Its small,

two-story stucco row houses are numbered 25, 2, 41, 1, 42 . . .

there are three No. 1′s alone. But the house I’m looking for doesn’t

seem to have a number at all. Painted pale yellow with a green door,

its only distinctive feature is a stuffed Garfield the Cat stuck in

the upstairs window.

It’s an ordinary house in an ordinary city, so unexceptional that no

one would give it a second glance. Yet millions of people know it

intimately, because it’s one of the places Frank McCourt, author of

the best-selling memoir “Angela’s Ashes,” lived when he was growing

up poor and desperate in the slums of Limerick, Ireland, during the

1930s and ’40s. This is what it was like on the McCourts’ first

night in this house:

Dad and Mam lay at the head of the bed, Malachy and I at the bottom,

the twins wherever they could find comfort . . . Then Eugene sat up,

screaming, tearing at himself . . . when Dad leaped from the bed and

turned on the gaslight we saw the fleas, leaping, jumping, fastened

to our flesh. We slapped at them and slapped but they hopped from

body to body, hopping, biting. We tore at the bites till they bled.

We jumped from the bed, the twins crying, Mam moaning, Oh, Jesus,

will we have no rest!

It’s hard to reconcile the misery depicted in McCourt’s book with

that Garfield up in the window. But in a way, the stuffed cat says

it all. The terrible days of life in Limerick that McCourt wrote

about so eloquently is gone, and good riddance to them. Yet it’s a

measure of how moving his book is — and how much things have

changed in Ireland — that people are coming back to Limerick to see

how it was.

Frank McCourt, with his evocative, funny-sad memoir, has done the

unimaginable: He’s turned Limerick into a hot tourist destination.

This is a bit like drawing tourists to the United States to spend a

week in Toledo. Unfairly or not, Ireland’s fourth-largest city has

long had a reputation as a gritty, somewhat grim place, with few

attractions for visitors beyond its proximity to Shannon

International Airport. People tended to use it as a starting and

ending point when they visited Ireland, but few spent any time there.

It’s easy to see why. This isn’t the Ireland of leprechauns and

blarney stones; it’s a working city — computers, manufacturing –

without the slick trappings of tourism. Which is precisely why it’s

worth visiting. It hasn’t been Disneyfied. There is no Frank

McCourt T-shirt shops. The little yellow house on Windmill Street

hasn’t been turned into an Angela’s Ashes B&B; Yet.

“Angela’s Ashes” long ago went from being merely popular to

something of a cult object. It’s been widely praised for its

luminous prose, selling close to 2 million copies in little over a

year, and topping the bestseller lists since its publication. It’s

won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award,

and was voted Book of the Year for 1997 by the American Booksellers

Association.

The book is not for the squeamish. In fact, as McCourt says, it’s a

wonder that he survived to tell the tale. He was born in New York of

immigrant parents who moved the family back to Ireland when he was

4. Big mistake. They had already lost one child in New York, and two

more would die in Limerick. The father drank away his wages (when he

worked at all), the mother begged for charity and the children

mostly fended for themselves as the family moved from one squalid,

flea-ridden flat to another. A number of villains emerge: members of

the Catholic clergy, sadistic schoolmasters, callous social workers

and — not the least — “the gray city of Limerick and the river

that kills.”

It sounds horrible, depressing, nothing you’d willingly want to read

about — much less visit. But people are. “Throngs of them,” sighs

the bartender at the venerable W.J. South pub, newly famous as the

favorite watering hole of Frank McCourt’s father. “Busloads of them.”

“Oh yes indeed, it’s been quite popular,” says Breda Bourke,

supervisor of the Limerick tourist information office. “It started

off with Americans and now we’re getting a lot of inquiries from the

Germans and the Japanese. It’s very, very popular. It’s bringing

people to the city that we might not otherwise have.”

Liam O’Hanlon, chairman of the Limerick Tourist Trade Association,

has led walking tours of the city for years. Until recently, his

routine was unvarying: King John’s Castle, St. Mary’s Cathedral and

other highlights of Limerick’s medieval district. “It was the

historical things that people were interested in,” he says. “Now,

suddenly they’re walking in with `Angela’s Ashes,’ wanting to know

where the lanes are. They expect to see what Frank McCourt has

written about — but what he’s written about no longer exists.”

Well, not exactly. In addition to South’s pub, quite a few sites

from the book remain, including the Leamy National School, the

People’s Park, a slew of exquisite old churches where the young

Frank frequently sought refuge, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society

town house where his mother, Angela, queued up for charity. But as

O’Hanlon emphasizes to visitors, the slums McCourt described so

unflinchingly are gone, cleared away during the 1950s and ’60s.

The Irish economy is booming, thanks in part to the recent influx of

European Union funds, and Limerick is no exception. An urban renewal

project begun in the 1980s has had dramatic results. Construction is

everywhere — hotels, apartment blocks, pubs, restaurants. Blocks of

once-elegant, 19th-century Georgian row houses are being lovingly

restored. There’s an undeniable air of prosperity. On a bright fall

weekend, the downtown streets are jammed, the shops and restaurants

packed.

Down by Arthur’s Quay on the banks of the Shannon, there are posh

stores, antiques shops and a gleaming new tourist information

center. The prestigious Hunt Museum, with an impressive collection

of antiquities, recently moved here from its former digs on the

outskirts of the city. Lovely old churches abound, and they’re not

even locked, should you be seized by a sudden desire to confess your

sins.

When the walls of Limerick were torn down and the city was rebuilt

in the mid-18th century, this area became the city’s focal point. By

the time Frank McCourt was knocking around town, the elegant

Victorian buildings had become tenements and Arthur’s Quay was known

as a desperate place.

Everyone in Limerick knows these houses are old and might fall down

at any minute. Mam often says, I don’t want any of ye going down to

Arthur’s Quay and if I find ye there I’ll break yeer faces. The

people down there are wild and ye could get robbed and killed.

Now the pendulum has swung again, and the upscale shopping mall

there is full of Nike-clad teenagers and their equally well-dressed

elders. You can buy a boombox, or a bottle of fine wine, or a

hand-knit sweater to die for. In Quinnsworth’s, a supermarket as

bright and garish as any Giant or Safeway, I wandered down aisles

stocked with 12 different kinds of marmalade and more brands of

chocolate than I even knew existed. There I bought a bag of Odlums

flour, which a local had recommended to me as “quite brilliant”

(“brilliant” being the Irish word for anything great). I was hoping

to re-create the taste of Irish bread when I returned home.

Ah. Irish bread. I’d become be sotted with it during my stay. Truth

to tell, I’d been pleasantly surprised by Irish food in general. Of

course, a “full Irish breakfast” can be a somewhat alarming sight

first thing in the morning, with lots of fried everything. But many

places serve fresh ingredients now, and the seafood, especially, is

delicious. At dinner that night, I headed back to Arthur’s Quay and

feasted on fillet of sea bream with crispy leeks and a smoked salmon

butter sauce at a cool neighborhood restaurant called the Green

Onion. Not all my meals in Limerick were as memorable as that one,

but it’s safe to say that Irish dining has successfully made it into

the ’90s.

It wasn’t just the food and the shops that drew me back to the

narrow streets of Arthur’s Quay again and again. It was the history.

Limerick is oozing with it. You can be walking down the street,

thinking about that hand-knit sweater you just tried on, then look

up to find yourself passing a 13th-century castle. England’s King

John ordered this fortress built in 1212 to guard the entrance to

the city. Today, you can climb the tower’s steep stone staircase,

peer through the narrow slitted windows and imagine yourself

shooting arrows at the passersby below. (Hard to get a good angle!)

When you finally reach the top, you can stride across the

battlements for commanding views of the city, and scan the

approaching traffic on the Thomond Bridge. Except instead of varlets

on horseback, there are cars whizzing by, and people on bicycles.

From the castle, it’s a short walk to St. Mary’s Cathedral,

Limerick’s oldest surviving building. Built in 1172, it’s famous for

its 15th-century choir stalls, made of dark oak with fanciful

carvings. Outside, there are towering old trees, a wonderful,

atmospheric cemetery with crumbling Irish crosses, and a bench where

you can ponder your puny existence.

As a backdrop to all this, the River Shannon is a constant — and

increasingly lovely — presence. For years the city turned its back

on the river, and has only recently rediscovered it. Now there are

waterfront parks and benches and monuments, and rowing sculls and

boathouses. It’s a delightful scene on a quiet Sunday morning, with

people riding by on bicycles, and strolling couples admiring the

swans — yes, swans — gliding on the river.

Above all, there are kids. Most adults of childbearing age seem to

have at least two or three children attached to them. The streets of

Limerick are clogged with rosy babies in strollers, pudgy toddlers,

freckle-faced grade-school kids in parochial school uniforms,

exuberant packs of teenagers.

It’s a far cry from the vision of the city summoned by Frank

McCourt. And still . . . Remnants of his Limerick remain, in mute

testimony to harder times.

Tour guide O’Hanlon is used to getting a bit of flak from the

residents of Limerick. The first time he visited the former McCourt

house on Windmill Street, he says, a woman came out of her house

with her hands on her hips. “She saw that I had the book and she

asked if I’d read it. I said I had. `Isn’t it filth?’ she asked.” He

shrugs. You run into that kind of attitude a lot on the “Angela’s

Ashes” circuit.

Just a few blocks away on Hartstonge Street, past rows of Georgian

town houses and offices and something called the Victoria Club

Leisure Complex, is a somewhat forbidding, Gothic-looking red-brick

building with a crenellated roof. This was Leamy’s National School,

home to cruel and/or demented schoolmasters and legions of barefoot,

underfed students.

There are seven masters in Leamy’s National School, and they all

have leather straps, canes, blackthorn sticks. They hit you with the

sticks on the shoulders, the back, the legs, and, especially, the

hands. If they hit you on the hands it’s called a slap. They hit you

if you’re late, if you have a leaky nib on your pen, if you laugh,

if you talk, and if you don’t know things.

They hit you if you don’t know why God made the world, if you don’t

know the patron saint of Limerick, if you can’t recite the Apostles’

Creed, if you can’t add 19 to 47, if you can’t subtract 19 from 47,

if you don’t know the chief towns and products of the 32 counties of

Ireland, if you can’t find Bulgaria on the wall map . . .

The school houses offices now — a tailor shop, a brass plaque

company. Inside, it’s carpeted and renovated, with not a trace of a

classroom remaining. A man with a tape measure around his neck comes

out of the tailor’s, sees us and rolls his eyes. Have there been a

lot of “Angela’s Ashes” pilgrims poking around? “There have.” Has he

read the book? “I haven’t.” (Nobody in Ireland says “yes” or “no.”)

“A lot of people in Limerick are a bit sour over it,” he explains,

adding, “The book’s got it all wrong. ‘Twasn’t like that. Not atall.”

Right next door is another “Ashes” landmark: the four-story,

red-brick town house of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, where

Frank’s mother, Angela, queued up for charity.

Mam goes to the St. Vincent de Paul Society to see if there’s any

chance of getting furniture. The man says he’ll give us a docket for

a table, two chairs, and two beds . . . She wipes her eyes on her

sleeves and asks the man if the beds we’re getting are secondhand.

He says of course they are, and she says she’s very worried about

sleeping in beds someone might have died in, especially if they had

the consumption. The man says, I’m very sorry, but beggars can’t be

choosers.

The society is still a source of clothing and furniture for

Limerick’s poor, but “it’s much more user-friendly today,” says

O’Hanlon. “You don’t find people queuing up outside anymore.”

Onward, to the People’s Park, where Frank took his small brothers to

distract them from their hunger. Even on a rainy day it’s inviting,

with well-tended rose gardens, a fanciful Victorian drinking

fountain and the greenest grass I’ve ever seen. I end up coming back

here several times during my stay — it’s such an appealing place,

full of all manner of kids, guys kicking soccer balls, dog-walkers,

mums with prams, people on benches. On the facing Pery Square, a row

of striking Georgian row houses with elaborate fanlights is being

renovated.

Down Barrington Street, past doctors’ and solicitors’ offices with

lovely painted doors — Limerick has great doors — is Barrack Hill,

site of another McCourt residence.

We move to Roden Lane on top of a place called Barrack Hill. There

are six houses on one side of the lane, one on the opposite side.

The houses are called two up, two down, two rooms on the top, two on

the bottom. Our house is at the end of the lane, the last of the

six. Next to our door is a small shed, a lavatory, and next to that

a stable.

Roden Lane, where the McCourts shared that single lavatory with the

rest of the block, is gone now, but St. Joseph’s Church, where the

young Frank received his First Communion and Confirmation, is a

looming presence. That’s where Frank applied to be an altar boy, and

there, visible through the white wrought-iron fence, is the door

that was slammed in his face.

Perhaps Frank found more comfort in the massive, century-old

Redemptorist Church on South Circular Road, a dark and beautiful

refuge, with flickering votive candles, an intricate mosaic-tiled

floor and eye-popping, elaborately gilded alcoves. Farther north, on

Henry Street, is the huge Franciscan Church where Frank prayed to

his patron saint, Francis of Assisi. With its huge pillared front it

looks more like the Supreme Court than a place of worship, but

inside it has the same welcoming feeling and lovely smell of incense

and candle wax. Old women click their rosary beads as shoppers pop

in, genuflect and say a quick prayer. Anyone raised on modern

ecclesiastical architecture and streamlined statuary will never want

to leave.

You can’t escape “Angela’s Ashes” in Limerick. Everyone has an

opinion about the book, and is only too eager to share it. Store

clerks, waitresses, taxi drivers, people in pubs — if they aren’t

related to someone in the book, they went to school with them or, at

the very least, know one of the characters.

Sabine Sheehan, a desk clerk at Jurys Inn on Lower Mallow Street, in

the dockside area where the young Frank once scrounged for bits of

coal, watches all the “Ashes” hubbub with amusement. She’s a

descendant of Ab Sheehan, Angela’s brother, and her stepmother is

related to one of the masters at Leamy School. “The book’s prompted

a lot of peoples’ memories,” Sheehan says. “People say he has no

right to dredge all this up, but I wouldn’t agree. That’s the way

’twas, and that’s the way ’twas.”

What people think of the book depends on their age, says Liam

O’Hanlon. “Younger people have no personal knowledge, and accept the

book as one person’s recollections of his childhood as he remembers

it. What he’s writing about is just another part of Limerick

history. But there are a lot of people in Limerick in their late

sixties who see the book as a challenge to a way of life that they

remember with rose-tinted glasses. He’s confronting them with what

they don’t want to hear.”

Indeed, while opinion about the book is divided, the naysayers may

have the edge in Limerick. When McCourt comes back to the city for

book tours, irate residents are there to meet him, challenging his

memory and questioning his anecdotes. “Every time he comes to

Limerick and puts his head above the parapet, there’s someone firing

at him,” says O’Hanlon.

“There’s a lot of begrudgery about it in the home town,” agrees

Eddie Daly, a clerk in O’Mahony’s bookstore on O’Connell Street,

where a table in front is piled high with something called “Ashes,”

a copycat memoir by Gerard Hannan. “That book was written as a

retort to `Angela’s Ashes,’ ” Daly says, “but it doesn’t have the

same feeling. Hannan has an ax to grind.”

While “Angela’s Ashes” continues to sell well, Daly says, “it’s

probably selling better on a nationwide basis. A lot of people in

Limerick are still a bit tender. But that’s the Irish — we’re a

nation of begrudgers. You see one of your own doing well, you want

to give him some slag.”

But even if you can’t look at “Angela’s Ashes” objectively, Daly

adds, “you still have to admire it as a fine piece of work. Times

were hard, but such was the situation for the vast majority of

people in Limerick at the time. I’m a native myself, and I really

enjoyed it. The humor is amazing. He’s a great storyteller.”

If the bone-crushing poverty of Frank McCourt’s Limerick is gone,

certain things in Ireland are eternal. On a rainy fall afternoon,

waves of mist roll in from the River Shannon, down the Dock Road and

through the streets and lanes. It’s a perfect day to wander into

South’s pub and curl up with a pint.

South’s seems ageless with its ancient mahogany wood, marble bar,

etched-glass partitions and cozy alcoves called “snugs,” but “Och,

’tis changed,” says a guy nursing a Guinness. In McCourt’s day, he

says, it was a third of the size. ” ‘Tis an old establishment. There

were terrible characters from the docks, before. It’s all different

now.”

But it doesn’t take long to find someone who grew up with Frank McCourt.

“The lanes were full of rats,” Jerry, a South’s regular, is saying.

“Full of rats they were. We’d wait for the full moon to come out.

We’d put our boots on and tuck our pants legs in our boots, and a

gang of us would go out. I’d kill about 80 on a good night — hit

‘em with a stick. That was our entertainment.”

Has he read “Angela’s Ashes”? Big grin. “I’m waiting for someone to

give it to me.”

George, over on the next stool, went to school with Frank’s brother

Malachy — they had the same master, “Hoppy” O’Halloran. “You’d be

frightened for your life,” he said. “He’d run after you with a big

stick. He’d bring you up and give you six slaps. Really hard, now.

He’d leave Malachy in charge when he went away. Now Malachy, he was

a very clever fellow . . .”

Times were tough, they say, but happy. “You could leave your door

open,” Jerry says. “There were very good people in the lanes — very

neighborly. Everyone looked after one another. They were grand

people. You could always get food from someone. You could get a bun

and a bit of tripe . . .”

“I didn’t like what Frank said about where we were living,” George

says. “It’s not true. We weren’t that badly off. I wish him luck,

but I don’t agree with the stuff he put in that book. But he’s got

his money now.”

“Frank’s a decent enough fellow,” Jerry says. “I don’t begrudge him

his success. He survived, and that’s it in a nutshell, isn’t it?”

LIMERICK BURNS OVER ‘ANGELA’

By Mike Meyer /Chicago Tribune

Michael O’Donnell is not your average tour guide.

Gerard Hannan is not your average bookshop

owner. Frank McCourt is not your average memoir writer. Yet the

three men’s fates have crossed in Limerick, an average Irish town.

And none of them, city included, were prepared for the attention

that “Angela’s Ashes” would bring them from outside the community,

and the controversy it would create from within.

I spent the first weeks of January touring the great writers’

environments of Ireland — Joyce and Shaw’s Dublin; Heaney’s Ulster

coast; Yeats’ Sligo. Remarkable about each of these areas was the

preservation of ambience; you could feel what the land coaxed out of

these men and onto the page. Yet Ireland treasures and promotes its

writers beyond the postcard stand, as well, and you’ll find ample

sections of Irish Literature, Irish History and Irish Politics

fronting bookseller’s shelves, including the works of Frank McCourt.

As I traveled, McCourt’s name increasingly cropped up in the Irish

Times and Independent national newspapers more than any other writer

did. More than Bono even, who weighed in frequently with editorials

about forgiving Third World debt or U2 receiving the freedom of the

city award in Dublin in March. For the top half of January, McCourt

vied only with Gerry Adams for most-mentioned celebrity, due to the

premiering of the film version of “Angela’s Ashes.” On the film’s

opening day, it was the Independent’s front page story, right

underneath a headline declaring “Pope planning to step down next

year.”

Another writer’s stomping grounds had turned tourist attraction, I

figured, and so I headed to Limerick for the film’s opening and to

walk the streets that had etched themselves for half a century in

McCourt’s mind.

But as I made my way south to Limerick, another set of stories about

“Angela’s Ashes” began to appear in the UK and Irish press. They

told of a Limerick writer/bookshop owner/popular radio host who

publicly challenged the accuracy of McCourt’s memoir and, thus, its

merits for receiving the Pulitzer for non-fiction. The stories began

small, but as the film’s premier drew nearer, they ballooned to the

point where the man became a household name and saw himself being

discussed at the premiere press conference by director Alan Parker

and star Emily Watson. Within a week, Gerard Hannan had become both

bete noir and celebrity, Limerick’s second-most-famous writer.

Arriving in the city, I walked across the Sarsfield Bridge over the

River Shannon. The description of the river was the only passage I

remembered from “Angela’s Ashes,” about how his mother could hear

the river sing. The water surged quick under my feet, slicing the

town in two, running the color of Guinness, all black flow and tan

swells. It sang a song of urgency, and the first thought that struck

me as I looked at Limerick was: This is a very pretty place.

A footpath edged the bank and I followed it west toward the ocean. A

pair of swans swam calmly toward me, and past. There were no ashes

here, only tranquility and the opposite bank lined with luxury

hotels. I asked a few passersby what they thought of “Angela’s

Ashes” and about the controversy, but their responses were

noncommittal. “Good book, oh yeah, we listen to Hannan’s show.” This

did not make good copy. Drastic action was needed.

I checked in at the gleaming modern tourist information center at

Arthur’s Quay Park on the southern bank of the Shannon. The smartly

dressed agent behind the desk provided me with a Web address to find

current information, outlined the historical sites of King’s Island,

and pointed me to shelves full of curios of the “Kiss Me I’m Irish”

ilk to carry back home. Nary a mention of Limerick history or

“Angela’s Ashes.” I pulled out my dogeared copy of the book and

started plotting the street names McCourt mentions onto my city map.

The going wasn’t easy. Limerick has changed, and with it, her place

names. I approached the agent again. “I sort of had more of a

walking tour in mind,” I told her. “Something about true Limerick

past, like King John’s Castle over there and the Treaty Stone.”

“Yes, you can do that,” she said, “or take the `Angela’s Ashes’

tour.” She phoned the St. Mary’s Development Center, sponsor of the

Limerick walks. Though it was late in the winter day and the sun

would set at 4:30, tour guide Michael O’Donnell agreed to lead a

walk. He showed up within minutes with a Radio France reporter in

tow who was in town to cover the premiere of the film.

O’Donnell pumped my hand and began talking as we walked. “Frank

McCourt said to me, `Mick, I just wrote a book. I never dreamed this

success would happen.’ But we get people who come all the way here

to Limerick just to take the `Angela’s Ashes’ walking tour. From

England, from America, all the way from America, can you believe it?

But that’s the powerful effect the book has had on people.

Twenty-six languages it’s in, sold four million copies.”

We stood on Arthur’s Quay, a flat green park fronting the Shannon

where once stood the lanes, a maze of poverty and damp. O’Donnell

raised his voice above the traffic din.

“Of course, people want to see the Limerick from `Angela’s Ashes,’

but it doesn’t exist. The city has changed so much, and I’m proud of

that.” O’Donnell walked quickly, belying his age of 65. He flicked

out a Major and lit it in one quick mo

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Contact:
Joe Govreau
713-783-5147

GALWAY, IRELAND–(Marketwire – March 4, 2010) –  Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) — The controversial Kingsnorth coal-fired plant in Kent, England, could become the hub of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) pipeline network, according to a report submitted by plant owner E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany). The company’s environmental scoping report outlines a carbon capture pipeline that could see the 1,940-megawatt (MW) Kingsnorth plant sitting at the centre of a cluster of carbon capture projects in the Thames region.

For details, view the entire article by subscribing to Industrial Info’s Premium Industry News at http://www.industrialinfo.eu/showNews.jsp?newsitemID=156809, or browse other breaking industrial news stories at www.industrialinfo.eu.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy related markets. For more than 26 years, Industrial Info has provided plant and project opportunity databases, market forecasts, high resolution maps, and daily industry news. For more information send inquiries to europe@industrialinfo.co.uk or visit us online at Industrial Info Europe (http://www.industrialinfo.eu).

Contact:
Joe Govreau
713-783-5147

Losing weight after pregnancy is not that hard for many mothers. Since immediately following the delivery, women lose about twelve pounds which corresponds to the weight of the baby, placenta, amniotic fluid and blood. Next in the following weeks another five pounds is dropped by losing the excess water. But on the long term basis, women actually lose weight fast through breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding is the feeding of a newly born baby or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts. It is highly proven that breast milk is the healthiest form of milk for infants. Mostly, mothers breastfeed their babies for six months or more, recognizing the greater beneficial effects of it. Health benefits to babies include greater immune health, fewer infections, less tendency to develop allergies, protection from sudden infant death syndrome, higher intelligence and other long term health effects.

Along with the health benefits breastfeeding provides the child, it also significantly presents benefits to the feeding mother and one very notable effect is quick weight loss. After the first month, women who breastfeed can expect a drop of about one to two pounds each month.

This weight loss becomes steady while nursing because the process of lactation (milk production) uses the extra body fat that was stored during pregnancy. Every time the mother feed the baby, her body promotes lactation with about 500 calories from stored fats. With this, breastfeeding women can lose weight sooner and get to their pre-pregnancy figure after the first three months.

However, mothers should also take precaution not to overly carry out weight loss plans while breastfeeding because of their desire to rapidly get back in shape. Reducing calorie intake can diminish milk production and may bring to halt the breastfeeding goal. As much as the mothers should eat well during pregnancy, they should also continue eating healthy while breastfeeding to satisfy the amount of nutrients she and the baby need.

In addition, regular physical exercises along with healthy diet contribute in steady and more permanent weight reduction. Instead of planning to adhere in extra dieting measures, just keep in mind that breastfeeding provides natural healthy weight loss. It is already nature’s way to make the moms reduce a considerable two pounds each month after delivery.

Choosing To Be A Doctor Or Nurse

When people look at medical care career the majority of the time they think of being a doctor or a nurse. These two careers can be very rewarding in many ways. The ability to have a hand in healing and caring for people is fantastic. These health careers are usually well paid and well respected. To achieve becoming a physician or a registered nurse will require a degree of intelligence and a lot of hard work. It will require a large commitment to completing difficult educational requirements but will be well worth the time and effort.

Other Hands On Health Careers

There are many other medical care careers that will have direct contact with the patients but offer different types of study. Physical therapists, Respiratory therapists, Occupational Therapists, and Dieticians are just a few of the many people who will work in the health care field providing patient care. These careers all require college degrees and time training in the field. The variety of the fields allows a person to choose a medical care profession that can involve other courses of study. For example, if a person is very gifted in the area of science but does not want to become a physician they may want to consider studying foods and nutrition. The dietician will take more science courses in college than most other health care professions will.

Other Options For Medical Care Careers

There are many other health care careers which people do not generally think about and do not require much patient contact. There are careers in the business and administration area of hospitals and clinics that are critical to good medical care. Other careers such as maintenance, electrician and environmental service careers have become vital over recent years in the medical care industry. There are many options for health care careers with the many advances that have been made in medicine. Every area from understanding how to run a hospital to how to clean a hospital will offer a choice in the health care industry. Any person can choose to be a part of healing and caring for others.

Introduction

            Now we are living in the technological modern world. With the help of science and technology we have developed in all fields. India is a developing country. We have lot of human resources after China. But the literacy rate is very low when compared to other developed and developing countries in the world. India is a rich country, but Indians are poor. With the help of science and technology and by utilizing all sources in the proper way it is possible to India to become a developed country in the world. In the modern world people living with high tension. The student in schools and colleges are also living with high tension because of heavy competitions. It is necessary to introduce psychology as a general subject in all the classes both at school and college levels. Yoga and meditation is also necessary for each and every one in the world.

Definition of Education

Ø      Education is the learning of human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them?

–        John Ruskin

Ø      Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it is his hands and at whom it is aimed.

                                                                                                    – Joseph Stalin

The word education is derived from the Latin educare, meaning “to raise”, “to bring up”, “to train”, “to rear”. Education means the gradual process of acquiring knowledge. Education is a preparation for life. Education is also defined as the profession of teaching (especially at a school or college or university).

Importance of Education

India is a union comprised of twenty eight states and seven Territories. The Constitution provides directives regarding the development of education throughout the country. The areas in which the respective central and state governments have domain have been identified in the Constitution as the central list, state list and concurrent list. Until the late 1970s, school education had been on the state list, which meant that states had the final say in the management of their respective school systems. However, in 1976, education was transferred to the concurrent list through a constitutional amendment, the objective being to promote meaningful educational partnerships between the central and state governments. Today, the central government establishes broad education policies for school curricula development and management practices. These serve as guidelines for the states.

Generally, at the start of a very young age, children learn to develop and use their mental, moral and physical powers, which they acquire through various types of education. Education is commonly referred to as the process of learning and obtaining knowledge at school, in a form of formal education. However, the process of education does not only start when a child first attends school. Education begins at home. One does not only acquire knowledge from a teacher; one can learn and receive knowledge from a parent, family member and even an acquaintance. In almost all societies, attending school and receiving an education is extremely vital and necessary if one wants to achieve success.

Educational Psychology

Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Although the terms “educational psychology” and “school psychology” are often used interchangeably, researchers and theorists are likely to be identified as educational psychologists, whereas practitioners in schools or school-related settings are identified as school psychologists. Educational psychology is concerned with the processes of educational attainment among the general population and sub-populations such as gifted children and those subject to specific disabilities

            Educational psychology can in part be understood through its relationship with other disciplines. It is informed primarily by psychology, bearing a relationship to that discipline analogous to the relationship between medicine and biology. Educational psychology in turn informs a wide range of specialities within educational studies, including instructional design, educational technology, curriculum development, organizational learning, special education and classroom management. Educational psychology both draws from and contributes to cognitive science and the learning sciences. In universities, departments of educational psychology are usually housed within faculties of education, possibly accounting for the lack of representation of educational psychology content in introductory psychology textbooks.

Uses of Educational Psychology

For finding Individual differences and Disabilities

            Each person has an individual profile of characteristics, abilities and challenges that result from learning and development. These manifest as individual differences in intelligence, creativity, cognitive style, motivation, and the capacity to process information, communicate, and relate to others. The most prevalent disabilities found among school age children are attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disability, dyslexia, and speech disorder. Less common disabilities include mental retardation, hearing impairment, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and blindness.

Although theories of intelligence have been discussed by philosophers since Plato, intelligence testing is an invention of educational psychology, and is coincident with the development of that discipline. Continuing debates about the nature of intelligence revolve on whether intelligence can be characterized by a single, scalar factor (Spearman’s general intelligence), multiple factors (as in Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences), or whether it can be measured at all. In practice, standardized instruments such as the Stanford-Binet IQ test and the WISC are widely used in economically developed countries to identify children in need of individualized educational treatment. Children classified as gifted are often provided with accelerated or enriched programs. Children with identified deficits may be provided with enhanced education in specific skills such as phonological awareness.

 For Social, Moral and Cognitive Developemnt      

To understand the characteristics of learners in childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age, educational psychology develops and applies theories of human development. Often cast as stages through which people pass as they mature, developmental theories describe changes in mental abilities (cognition), social roles, moral reasoning, and beliefs about the nature of knowledge.

For example, educational psychologists have researched the instructional applicability of Jean Piaget’s theory of development, according to which children mature through four stages of cognitive capability. Piaget hypothesized that children are not capable of abstract logical thought until they are older than about 11 years, and therefore younger children need to be taught using concrete objects and examples. Researchers have found that transitions, such as from concrete to abstract logical thought, do not occur at the same time in all domains. A child may be able to think abstractly about mathematics, but remain limited to concrete thought when reasoning about human relationships. Perhaps Piaget’s most enduring contribution is his insight that people actively construct their understanding through a self-regulatory process.

Piaget proposed a developmental theory of moral reasoning in which children progress from a naive understanding of morality based on behavior and outcomes to a more advanced understanding based on intentions. Piaget’s views of moral development were elaborated by Kohlberg into a stage theory of moral development. There is evidence that the moral reasoning described in stage theories is not sufficient to account for moral behavior. For example, other factors such as modeling (as described by the social cognitive theory of morality) are required to explain bullying.

Developmental theories are sometimes presented not as shifts between qualitatively different stages, but as gradual increments on separate dimensions. Development of epistemological beliefs (beliefs about knowledge) have been described in terms of gradual changes in people’s belief in: certainty and permanence of knowledge, fixedness of ability, and credibility of authorities such as teachers and experts. People develop more sophisticated beliefs about knowledge as they gain in education and maturity.

Psychology and Teacher

            Teacher is a national builder. He has a power to change the world through education. According to our Indians teacher is a third god. Teacher plays a prominet role in the development of society. Educational Psychology is a main subject in  teacher education at D.Ed., B.Ed., and M.Ed. levels. It is necessary for each and every teacher to know about psychology. Becausse it is necessary to know the behaviour of the students in the class. Teacher has different roles  like father, advisor, councellor, administrator and well wisher. The future of any country is in the hands of teachers. So it is necessary to give importance for teacher education. So our government introduced psychology subject in teacher education curriculum.

After undergoing the course, the student teacher

1)      Explains psychology and its relationship with Education.

2)      Classifies different branches of psychology and explains their significance.

3)      Explains the importance of heredity and environment and its influences in educational process.

4)      Explains the different aspects of the development of the child.

5)      Explains the growth and human beings and their behaviour.

6)      Describes the individual aspects of the development of the child.

7)      Explains the primary needs of the children.

8)      Explains the secondary needs of the children.

9)      Explains the theories of learning and the factors influencing learning.

10)  Explains the concept of socialization.

11)  Explains the different types of learning.

12)  Understands the concept of motivation and the steps to be taken to motivate the children.

13)  Explains attention and its uses.

14)  Develops skill of observation, listening, responding and understanding.

15)  Describes memory, remembering and forgetting and identifies conditions of good memory.

16)  Describes the effects of different methods used for learning process.

17)  Explains thinking process and its uses-perception, conception, apperception for different ages.

18)  Explains the role of creativity and its development.

19)  Explains the meaning of intelligence and understands the changing concept of intelligence.

20)  Enhances personality development of pupils.

21)  Describes the mental hygiene and mental health.

22)  Understands exceptional children and their significance.

23)  Practices guidance and counseling for school pupils.

Conclusion

          Educational psychology is an application of the principles of psychology for effective learning and modification of behaviour on desirable dimensions.  Knowledge of educational psychology makes a teacher effective in motivating the pupils in their learning.  In short it is an inseparable part of strategy in education. Education gives knowledge, wealth and health. Education is a solution for all types of problems in the society. Through education only it is possible overall development of a person in the society. Through education it is easy to know about behavour of the students and persons in the society with the help of psychology. So it is necessary to study psychology all persons in the society in the modern world. Educational Psychology helps the overall development of the student.

References

1. Educational psychology a cognitive view by Asubel, D.P. 

2..Element of educational psychology by Bhatia, H.R. 

3. Psychology applied to teaching by Bichler, R.F. 

4. Educational psychology by Cole, E.C. and Bruce, W.F.

5. http:/ www.google.com

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