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Wednesday, 28 May 2014

3 Irish Guys dance around the world

Now this is what I love to see - people going out there and grabbing their bucket list by the @@@! Fair play these lads from Lucan, Dublin, Ireland.
Kevin Cobbe, Chris McGrath and Iain McNamara
The lads went on a trip around the world - 23 countries in one year.


For more info see their blog www.thewirld.org
“the aim of creating interest in Ireland among young people who wouldn’t know a lot about the country”.

Tuesday, 27 May 2014

Pawel Kuczynski satirical illustrations

Polish artist Pawel Kuczynski has created 29 thought provoking images on politics, social media, religion, poverty, the food chain and - the one that we (obviously) are most interested in - death. See the two below and click on the links for more. What are your thoughts?



https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pawel-Kuczynski/222849284410325

http://www.pawelkuczynski.com/

Friday, 23 May 2014

Dr Ken Murray "doctors die, they don't die like the rest of us"

An article by Dr. Ken Murray, an American general practitioner:

"It's not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don't die like the rest of us.

What's unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.

 Of course, doctors don't want to die; they want to live. But they know enough about modern medicine to know its limits. And they know enough about death to know what all people fear most: dying in pain, and dying alone. They've talked about this with their families. They want to be sure, when the time comes, that no heroic measures will happen - that they will never experience, during their last moments on earth, someone breaking their ribs in an attempt to resuscitate them with CPR [cardio pulmonary resuscitation] (that's what happens if CPR is done right).

Almost all medical professionals have seen what we call "futile care" being performed on people. That's when doctors bring the cutting edge of technology to bear on a grievously ill person near the end of life. The patient will get cut open, perforated with tubes, hooked up to machines, and assaulted with drugs.

Some medical personnel wear medallions stamped "NO CODE" to tell physicians not to perform CPR on them. I have even seen it as a tattoo. To administer medical care that makes people suffer is anguishing. Physicians are trained to gather information without revealing any of their own feelings, but in private, among fellow doctors, they'll vent. "How can anyone do that to their family members?" they'll ask. I suspect it's one reason physicians have higher rates of ... depression than professionals in most other fields."

Monday, 19 May 2014

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

20th Anniversary


Jacqueline Lee "Jackie" Bouvier Kennedy Onassis July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994 

She was wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy until his assassination in 1963. Five years later she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis until his death in 1975. 

On that fateful day - November 22 1963 the First Lady heard what she thought to be a motorcycle backfiring but it was gunshots. The final shot struck the President in the head.

At Dallas' Parkland Hospital, she went to be by her husband's side and when a nurse stopped her and attempted to bar the door to prevent her from entering, she persisted saying "I want to be there when he dies".

Later, when his body was in a casket, she removed her wedding ring and put it onto the President's finger saying "Now I have nothing left."

 After the president's death, she regretted having washed the blood off her face and hands and continued to wear the now infamous blood-stained pink chanel suit as she went on board Air Force One and President Johnson took the oath of office saying "I want them to see what they have done to Jack."

Jackie took an active role in planning the details of her husband's state funeral, which was based on Abraham Lincoln's. The service was held at Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, Washington D.C. and the burial at Arlington National Cemetery where the widow lit the eternal flame (that just recently came to Ireland) at the gravesite - a flame that had been created at her request.

On October 20, 1968, mere months after Robert F Kennedy's assassination, she married Aristotle Socrates Onassis who was able to provide the privacy and security she sought for herself and her children.

Jackie Kennedy-Onassis' funeral was held on May 23, 1994 where her son John described three of her greatest attributes as the love of words, the bonds of home and family, and the spirit of adventure. She was buried alongside first husband and President Kennedy, their son Patrick, and their stillborn daughter Arabella at Arlington National Cemetery Virginia.

Her Children:

  • Arabella Kennedy - August 23 1956 - Stillborn 
  • Caroline Bouvier Kennedy - November 27, 1957 - Caroline is the last surviving child of JFK and Jackie and she has two daughters and a son. 
  • John Fitzgerald "John-John" Kennedy, Jr. - November 25, 1960 - July 16, 1999 - Married to Carolyn Jeanne Bessette. They died in a plane crash, along with Carolyn's sister in a plane piloted by Kennedy. 
  • Patrick Bouvier Kennedy - August 7, 1963 - August 9, 1963 - Died from infant respiratory distress syndrome. Born over 5 weeks premature his lungs hadn't fully developed.