Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

EpiPen via Shutterstock

Tragic death inspires push to get lifesaving EpiPens in public places

An online petition has been started by a councillor who was horrified by the death of a teenage girl in Dublin.

A PUSH IS underway to get the potentially life-saving EpiPens and other epinephrine (adrenaline) drug pens available in Irish restaurants, workplaces and public places.

It comes months after a 14-year-old Dublin girl passed away after going into anaphylactic shock from unknowingly eating satay sauce (which contains peanuts). She had been unable to get an ephinephrine pen from a chemist as she did not have her prescription.

‘We were very upset by it’

Ennis councillor, Paul O’Shea was so affected by the news of the young teen’s death that he has set up a campaign to get these devices available in public places around Ireland.

I have five kids, and a daughter who was the same age as [the teen].

We were discussing it after Christmas and were very upset by it.

He noted that food allergies are estimated to affect 25 per cent of the population in Ireland.

O’Shea said he has received support from the outgoing Chairman of the Irish Federation Hotel Industry, Michael Vaughan, and chairman of the Irish Restaurant Association, Adrian Cummins, in his push to get the pens brought into premises that serve food.

EpiPens and similar devices are used in the case of anaphylactic shock, which can be brought on by allergies, for example to foods such as nuts, shellfish, or eggs.

O’Shea told TheJournal.ie he has received much support for his campaign and that he hopes to meet with the Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly, on the issue.

He said that he has contacted teachers’ unions the INTO and TUI to find out how feasible it would be to provide such pens in schools.

Long-term illness

Yesterday, Sinn Féin party leader Gerry Adams called on the Minister for Health to define anaphylaxis as a long term illness, under the Long Term Illness Scheme, as is the case with diabetes, epilepsy and other diseases and conditions.

He has also urged the establishment of a state-wide education programme to alert people to the dangers of anaphylaxis.

In addition, he has, like Cllr O’Shea, asked the Minister to look at introducing a scheme to make EpiPens available in schools, workplaces and other public places.

Adams said this could be “similar to the provision of defibrillators” and that a scheme could be introduced to train volunteers as first responders.

Defining Anaphylaxis as a long term illness would allow those suffering from it to access free drugs and medicines for the treatment of their condition.

Minister Reilly recently told Adams that adrenaline pens, as injectable medicines, are prescription-only under EU law and may only be supplied to someone who has a valid prescription.

However, there is provision in the current Medicinal Products (Prescription and Control of Supply) Regulations 2003 (as amended) which permits pharmacists, in emergency circumstances, to supply certain prescription only medicines without a prescription.

His department is “considering a review of the Medicinal Products (Prescription and Control of Supply) Regulations 2003″.

Read: Appeal for Irish to take part in global food allergy study>

Read: Emergency allergic reaction pens found to be defective>

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
25 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Honeybee
    Favourite Honeybee
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 11:39 AM

    Please release the 1926 census, this will help families to link their information, it’s pointless releasing earlier information if people cannot join the dots.

    191
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Conoroconnor
    Favourite Conoroconnor
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 12:35 PM

    @Honeybee: I’m sure it will be uploaded eventually, I’d imagine it’s a slow process

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Honeybee
    Favourite Honeybee
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 3:51 PM

    @Conoroconnor: Must be, they agreed in 2012 to release them.

    23
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
    Favourite Fiona Fitzgerald
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 10:58 PM

    @Honeybee: Sure they’re probably swamped with passport applications as it is. I’d say as soon as they catch up with themselves there, there will be a rake of new applicants just in time for Paddy’s Day of some future year.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sequoia
    Favourite Sequoia
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 11:44 AM

    A welcome move, but PLEASE release the next census records. There’s nothing between 1911 & 1926. Six more years is way too long to wait.

    Maybe reduce the waiting time from 100 to 75 years. That would mean we could have 1926, 1936 & if they were very generous, 1946 in one fell swoop.

    122
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rosiemonstre
    Favourite Rosiemonstre
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 2:50 PM

    @Sequoia: 1936 onwards are governed by laws that would require a constitutional amendment to change, but 1926 is, crucially, not. There is a petition to release 1926 early but even starting to work on preparing it for release would be good, since it is all still boxes of paper. The CSO has been intransigent about this in the past but attempts to lobby are being made.

    Please sign the petition here:
    https://www.change.org/p/leo-varadkar-release-the-1926-irish-census

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SB. Sedentary.
    Favourite SB. Sedentary.
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 11:44 AM

    Now we just need the long-promised 1926 census to be made available.

    90
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mary Mc Carthy
    Favourite Mary Mc Carthy
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 11:39 AM

    Money spent on allowing Irish people access to their Hertiage is well spent . We are still years away from having up to date records but it’s another step in the right direction . Well done

    91
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Bríd Uí Mhaoluala
    Favourite Bríd Uí Mhaoluala
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 12:08 PM

    What about letting adopted people find out their own personal details?

    77
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dav Nagle
    Favourite Dav Nagle
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 12:54 PM

    @Bríd Uí Mhaoluala: No, we are not allowed know anything about ourselves regarding birth records because we are ghosts according to this government and it’s predecessors

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eric Davies
    Favourite Eric Davies
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 12:09 PM

    i have been trying to trace my irish ancestry (through ancestry .co.uk and ireland )for many years – i have had some success with one side of my family but cant get any further back than 1864 -the other irish side of my family i cant get back further than 1900 . i have tried the tithe books , griffiths registry, local church records and bishops registers . i have managed to trace my welsh ancestry back as far as the year 756 ,but the irish records are incomplete – i was told by a lady in meath that this is due to a lot of records being destroyed in the fire at the four courts during the war of independence .

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Declan Edward
    Favourite Declan Edward
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 1:00 PM

    @Eric Davies: I think it was in the Customs House that they were held

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Honeybee
    Favourite Honeybee
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 1:40 PM
    11
    See 7 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dónal Mac Cormaic
    Favourite Dónal Mac Cormaic
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 2:08 PM

    @Eric Davies: I wouldn’t mind seeing if I can find anything that might help you. Genealogy is my hobby.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rosiemonstre
    Favourite Rosiemonstre
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 2:48 PM

    @Declan Edward: No, it was the Four Courts during the Civil War. Censuses from the 19th century were the main loss, followed by Church of Ireland records and wills.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eric Davies
    Favourite Eric Davies
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 4:05 PM

    @Honeybee: thanks honeybee ,i’ll give that a go .

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kevin O'Shea
    Favourite Kevin O'Shea
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 7:41 PM

    @Eric Davies: in Ireland you will struggle to get church records going back further than the 1750s because the churches did not exist (coz of Penal Laws) and civil registration only mattered in the urban centres and this appears to have only started in mid 19th century.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
    Favourite Fiona Fitzgerald
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 11:10 PM

    @Eric Davies: I don’t know if you want to try this, but I know several Irish people who had more luck tracing relatives with the various DNA companies. Amazing reunion parties for some – and a couple turned out to be related to friends they already knew! You have a better chance as a man of tracing it back further that way.

    Also, maybe Glasnevin Trust might have some relevant info? Their records are free, online and go back to 1828.

    Best of luck with your search.

    https://www.glasnevintrust.ie/genealogy/

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nosmo King
    Favourite Nosmo King
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 11:40 PM

    @Fiona Fitzgerald: Glasnevin Trust records are not free. Nothing is free in Glasnevin Cemetery. It has become a money making concern now rather than a solemn place of rest.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rosiemonstre
    Favourite Rosiemonstre
    Report
    Jan 9th 2020, 9:35 AM

    @Nosmo King: Glasnevin is a not for profit organisation. You pay to see the records but all the money goes back into the Glasnevin Trust.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute pomerleau
    Favourite pomerleau
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 12:09 PM

    I don’t exist ……..

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Siobhan Tangney
    Favourite Siobhan Tangney
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 3:28 PM

    Marriage records from 1845. Just tried to find details of my g-grandparents who married in 1846 and not listed.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Honeybee
    Favourite Honeybee
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 3:51 PM

    @Siobhan Tangney: The records are not complete, I am unable to get a birth cert for my grandfather born around 1898 or death certs for his twin sisters who died in infancy but I have discovered family members I did not know about.I also discovered my other grandfather had been registered under a name that none of us had ever heard so keep trying,enter the surname only or the wife’s maiden name etc,just don’t stop trying.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SB. Sedentary.
    Favourite SB. Sedentary.
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 3:57 PM

    @Siobhan Tangney: They only exist for Protestants, so unless they were, you won’t find them. As the article above says, “civil registration of Catholic marriages did not commence until 1864″

    7
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nosmo King
    Favourite Nosmo King
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 11:42 PM

    @Honeybee: Try for a Baptismal certificate for your grandfather. You may have more luck with that.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute HuffnPuff
    Favourite HuffnPuff
    Report
    Jan 9th 2020, 12:22 AM

    @SB. Sedentary.: it didn’t become law until 1864. There are lots of parishes that kept records before this, Skerries and Westland Row being two that come to mind.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jennifer Roche Bermingham
    Favourite Jennifer Roche Bermingham
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 2:04 PM

    I think 100 years has to pass before records of census can be released. And a lot of the national archive papers was destroyed by fire at the four courts during 1916 and war of independence

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Derek McDonnell
    Favourite Derek McDonnell
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 7:22 PM

    I gave been trying to find family members. My grandmothers birth in 1920 was not registered and she only got it 40 years later when she applied for her passport. I still cant my grandfathers birth cert either in Ireland or UK. Records are incomplete.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Smiley
    Favourite Smiley
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 8:08 PM

    @Derek McDonnell: if parents didn’t register their child/ren it’s tough researching them. I think many families couldn’t afford the registration fee.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute HuffnPuff
    Favourite HuffnPuff
    Report
    Jan 9th 2020, 12:25 AM

    I was born in 1962 and because the local GP forgot to register my birth I wasn’t registered until 1966 when it was discovered I had no birth cert to start school. Always check around the years in question as registration was much looser particularly with home or nursing home births.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pat Kelly
    Favourite Pat Kelly
    Report
    Jan 8th 2020, 3:01 PM

    What about all the deaths the government have covered up? How many people actually believe this. Dont belive me look at the figures released by previous governments theres still a massive disparity even with there own figures.. Catholic church know where the bodies are buried literally! One and watches the other, both have the blood of the collectively forgotten.. no just society would allow the dead babies in Co. Galway to remain there, left and forgotten.. how many more are there? How long till we know the truth? Does anyone care ?

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds