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IRISH-AMERICAN PHILANTHROPIST Chuck Feeney has made a major financial contribution to finding a cure for dementia.
Atlantic Philanthropies, the organisation that he founded, will be giving €138.4 million to Trinity College Dublin and the University of California, San Francisco to allow them to jointly establish the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI).
The sum of money is the biggest philanthropic donation in Irish history.
The grant will be revealed later today when Taoiseach Enda Kenny speaks at the announcement in Trinity College Dublin during a live link-up with the University of California.
How big a problem is dementia?
Currently the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland (ASI) estimates that there are around 48,000 dementia sufferers in Ireland.
In September a report released by Alzheimer’s Research UK described the problem with dementia as a “looming national health crisis” and said that one in three people born in the UK in 2015 would suffer from the condition.
The ASI predicts that the number of dementia sufferers in Ireland could rise to 132,000 by 2041.
The condition affects around 48 million people internationally.
Who is Chuck Feeney?
While Chuck Feeney founded Atlantic Philanthropies, it is currently helmed by president and CEO Christopher Oechsli, who has worked with the organisation for the past 17 years.
Feeney has already been in the headlines a couple of times this year.
Back in March he featured in a report by The Irish Times into donations made to Sinn Féin’s US fundraising arm Friends of Sinn Féin – when it was revealed that he had donated around $780,000 (€730,000) over 20 years.
He also faced scrutiny in the run up to the marriage referendum in May when Senator Ronan Mullen claimed that Feeney had provided significant funding to the Yes campaign.
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I’m sure he gets loads of pints in the dail bar
@Justin Tighe: These days I’d say he has to take a slurp under the duvet with all the curtain twitchers watching him
Only at golf functions
i wouldn’t give you fizzy water because of the bubbles to your head
Anti Alcohol.
@Peter Coen: and probably Uncle cigarettes too
Does Martin drink ???
@John Farrant: Pint of Milk.
A pint of milk? A man went into a pub, the barman asked the man what would he like to drink? The man says a pint of milk.The barman says Another pussycat.
two cows walk into a pub, the barman says “what are you having”
Like People don’t slip up
Helps raise 6 million .well feck sake .
O to have a pint without being forced to eat your dinner first like a child.
have your say