The Story: The people of Creeslough and the loved ones they’ve lost
As is so often the case with ‘stories’, to term this as such seems dehumanizing, detached from the agonising reality that 10 people were killed in an explosion in the County Donegal village of Creeslough last Friday, but its impact has without doubt been uppermost in the hearts and minds of people across Ireland and beyond.
From the youngest of those killed, five-year-old Shauna Flanagan Garwe, to the eldest, local farmer 59-year-old Hugh Kelly, the losses are cruel and incomprehensible.
Numb with grief and shock, the only words many could summon to convey the depth of sorrow was: “There are no words”.
A touching article by Irish Times journalist Keith Duggan came close to capturing what has happened in “one of the most beautiful places anyone could hope to lay eyes on”.
On the sidelines: Appeal for mother and baby mental health unit in Northern Ireland
About 70 women a year are admitted to hospital with post-partum psychosis in Northern Ireland, but as BBC NI reports, it is the only place in the UK that has no dedicated inpatient service for women with serious post-partum health issues.
On Monday, individual women, charities and organisations delivered a letter to the Health Minister Robin Swann appealing for a mother and baby perinatal mental health unit to be established.
It would enable mothers to bring their babies with them to the unit.
The number: 63
The poorest Irish have a standard of living almost 63% higher than the poorest in the UK, according to Financial Times columnist John Burn-Murdoch, who crunched the numbers.
What’s happening: In Iran right now?
An estimated 222 people have been killed in or after protests surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in police custody in Iran after being detained for wearing her hijab improperly.
While the BBC has managed to identify 45 men, women and children who have died, this episode of The New York Times The Daily podcast lays out the events leading up to Mahsa’s death, the nature of the protests that have followed and why some say this movement for change ‘cannot be reversed’.
The recommendation: Stretch Marks podcast with Caroline Foran and Sinead O’Moore
For the mothers (and fathers) out there holding their babies and wondering if they’re going crazy, this new podcast series might offer some reassurance.
It’s about the rarely anticipated changes and challenges that come with entering motherhood, from rough relationship patches to identity crises to feeding chaos.
Experienced podcasters Foran and O’Moore go through it all, and while their listener polls show everyone’s journey is different, one thing is clear: Once you enter motherhood, there’s no ‘snapping back’ to the person you were before.
