ireland

Blog, Diaspora Diary., Reverie

Diaspora Diary: Prioritise A Driver’s License Over Western Union.

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I haven’t jogged for some time. I‘ve just been doing short 2–3km walks on the banks the river Lee instead of the usual hour-long jogging. To get back to routine, I decided to jog for two hours this morning. The exercise took me through a route which was a favourite for driving schools and I was reminded of the frustrating days I passed through to get my driving license. It seems a long time now but the memory still lives vividly with me today. I will narrate my story and the importance of a driver’s license to inform the newbies and potential migrants to the western world. I had been driving for three decades before relocating to Ireland. I had also been driving for ages across the western world during vacations and visits. Most car rental companies will usually accept your Nigerian driving license and International driving permit so long as you have a credit card to hold down the required deposit. However, it becomes a different ball game when your status changes to “resident”. Regardless of your driving experience, you are required to go through the full driver licensing procedure if your nationality falls outside the ‘mutual recognition’ agreement category. You must first pass a driver theory test, get a learner permit, complete a course of Essential Driver Training(EDT) and pass your driving test before you can legally drive here. Notwithstanding that the EDT is 12 one-hour sessions of driving lessons you still have to drive with a fully licensed driver whenever you mount the wheels with your learner permit. Crazy right? Well, I didn’t think it was much of a problem considering my wealth of experience in driving. My missus fondly hails me “formula 1” each time I do my signature reverse parking very close to the kerb. As a matter of fact, I have never been involved in a crash while driving. The most have been a bump or a scratch on the side with danfo drivers usually the culprits. In any case, I passed the theory test without failing a question. It was easy because I had done a similar one while living in the UK some years back. The only reason I didn’t get a full UK driving license back then which would have saved me the stress here was because I moved back to Nigeria. I just keep moving! I was issued with a learner permit and I started the driving lessons thereafter. Believing it will be a formality I didn’t take it seriously. My only headache then was the bill. The €30/lesson summed up to €360. And then I had to hire a manual transmission car @€150 for the test, plus another €85 test fee. Adding all these up didn’t amuse me when I figured the naira equivalent. All the same, I finished after a boring 9-month period repeatedly interrupted by travels to Nigeria after which I often forgot where I left off. The first sign of trouble I got was when I requested to hire my driving instructor’s car for the test. His response was that I wasn’t ready yet. Goodness me! This oyibo was trying to extort me for further lessons after I had done the requisite minimum of 12. I laughed and bade him “au revoir”, after all, there are countless driving test car hire services out there. On the day of the test, I was brimming with confidence which would be deflated 10 minutes into the test proper. I had made several mistakes and by the time we returned to the test centre I knew I had failed. You are given feedback immediately on a sheet of paper to help you improve on the areas you were found wanting. My commonest mistake was ‘coasting’. It simply means driving with your clutch pedal down. Easy to shake that off one would think. But not so my dear, old habits die hard. I can bet 99% of Nigerian drivers coast and will fail their 1st driving test here. My friend in Dublin failed thrice, his wife 5x and another one I spoke to recently said he cannot count the number of times he has failed. These are all folks with decades of driving experience back home. My second test was even worse. I was so livid with myself that the car hire guy — bless him — refunded my money out of pity. I was to pass the third time but not without a stroke of good fortune. It came through an Albanian van driver whom I hired for removals. In the midst of haggling, I told him I could hire a van and do the job myself for half the cost. “So why did you call me? Do you love wasting money?” He had asked sarcastically. We both laughed heartily when I narrated about my driving test ordeal. He said, “so today, you pay me and after I give you good driving teacher, my brother has the best driving school in Cork”. He recommended his brother who owns Neptune Driving school when I revealed during our chat that I was still using a learner permit. During the pre-test rehearsal, the guy just asked me a few questions and concluded that my problem was overconfidence. He told me that besides coasting I needed to drive like a ‘confident’ rookie for the 20–30 minutes my test would last. So we spent the first half-hour dealing with coasting and the next learning how to drive like a rookie, both hands on the wheel, 10 to 2 position and all the boring details. But you must get them right for the test duration. I passed easily. The test didn’t even last 15 minutes and the tester was satisfied with my driving. It has been a huge relief ever since and besides the countless benefits of a full driving license, I believe it is advisable especially for immigrants to prioritise getting this all-important document. For instance in the US where some states issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants

Blog, Monishots

The outcome of an abortion vote is predictable in a liberal Ireland.

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Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves ~ Ronald Reagan There has been close to 9 million abortions in the United Kingdom since the implementation of the 1967 Abortion Act. A rather mind-numbing figure. To put it more starkly, approximately 500 unborn babies who were killed daily under the law over the past fifty years. And to add salt to the injury another disturbing stat states that 97% of these were healthy pregnancies aborted for social reasons while 38% were repeat- abortions. As the campaigns for the abortion referendum wraps up here in Ireland we have been treated to hot debates over all the media platforms. Most have been as interesting as they were revealing and I must admit that my pro-choice position had been under review for the last few months. A yes vote will permit the lawmakers to amend the laws and perhaps even make it laxer than what obtains in the UK. Leading the charge to repeal the law is none other than the PM himself, not oblivious of the chilling stats listed above Mr. Varadka has said in a recent report that there may not be another chance to vote on the issue of abortion for a “long time”, and that a No-vote would send the wrong message to women and the world about Irish society. But such narrative riles the No-campaign who despite the fact that an average of 9 women travel daily for abortions stated through a spokesperson that the only way “to prevent the adoption of an extreme abortion law is to vote No” as a Yes-vote will likely go “far beyond dealing with limited difficult cases”. For a small country (Ireland has less than 5 million people) that is historically known to have deep conservative traditions, it amazes me how the changes are coming thick and fast. We are talking about a country where you could only access contraception with a satisfactory proof of marriage less than 40 years ago. As a matter of fact, any pregnancy outside of marriage back then could get the lady ‘imprisoned’ in care home and children born out of wedlock were considered ‘illegitimate’ or ‘bastards’ to be less palatable. Fast forward to 2015, Ireland set the record of becoming the first nation to legalise gay marriage by popular vote. That was when 62% of the electorate voted in favour of gay marriage and the country’s parliament enacted the 34th amendment that permitted marriage to be contracted by two persons of the same gender. And in 2017 the country’s parliament elected Leo Varadka, a 38-year-old, openly gay son of an Indian immigrant as the Prime Minister. Making him the youngest person and the first from a minority ethnic background to hold the highest office in the land. Now we are heading to the polls again, this time to decide on repealing or keeping the abortion law which prohibits abortion barring severe health risks. I have observed the debates with keen interest. The nosey parker in me also extrapolated the issue beyond what is often found in the media to ask some pertinent questions. Is the push to repeal the current law be a covert strategy by the government to stem the rising population which peaked at a decade high in 2017? While it may be true that governments use loose abortion laws as a tool for population control, especially if you consider the Prime Minister’s position on the matter, one cannot underestimate the activists and nerds whose influence is beyond the reach of government control. Buoyed by the country’s young population this group has demonstrated in the past that smartphones and loudspeakers are the only tools necessary to push through any societal reform. I recollect that the evaluation of my position on the matter started a few weeks back when my 13-year-old daughter made a point during school-run as we drove past a group of activists gathered in front of the Mardyke Arena. “Daddy, I’m torn on this one”, she had said, “much as I believe that unborn babies shouldn’t be punished with death for an act they knew nothing about, I also think women should determine what happens to their body” she added. Growing up as a teenager in Nigeria I never gave it a thought that a day like that would come, my parents didn’t discuss such topics with my older sisters, at least not that I know of. But here we are, in a world that is increasingly liberal and I’m having a hearty discussion on abortion with my teenage daughter, I only can imagine that many parents now discuss same with their kids back in Nigeria let alone here. So as we await the official results of today’s vote, one does not need rocket science to project the outcome in a country where the elderly conservatives have recently lost the battles against contraception, divorce, and gay marriage. I believe the Ayes will have this one.

Blog, FEATURES, Lifestyle

What you need to know about Ireland’s abortion referendum.

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  The Republic of Ireland is holding a referendum on May 25 that could dramatically change its stance on abortion. Here’s a rundown of what is happening, when and why. What is Ireland voting on? The referendum is about taking action that would result in the repeal of article 40.3.3 of the Irish Constitution (commonly referred to as the 8th amendment), allowing the Irish government to change the law on abortion, which is currently illegal unless a woman’s life is at substantial risk. Voting yes would repeal the amendment, while voting no would keep it in place. What is the 8th amendment? The eighth amendment was passed by referendum in 1983. It says that “the state acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right”. It is commonly viewed to equate the life of a pregnant woman with the foetus, making abortion unavailable in almost all circumstances. It is also seen as affecting maternal healthcare because a woman loses her right to refuse consent to medical treatment in pregnancy. Why does Ireland have this clause in its constitution? When contraception was legalised in Ireland in 1974, there was a widespread belief that liberal abortion laws would inevitably follow. An amendment campaign emerged in 1981, brought together various “pro-life” groups to lobby for constitutional protection of the “unborn”. Their campaign was helped by the fact that in the political instability of the early 1980s, successive Taoisigh (prime ministers) were conscious of alienating the dominant conservative vote. Ireland’s attorney general warned at the time that the wording of the amendment was too ambiguous and could have potentially negative consequences for women’s healthcare. But momentum had gathered and the referendum resulted in a two-to-one majority in favour of the amendment. Is Ireland unusual in having an amendment of this kind? Yes. Regulation of abortion through a constitution is rare (because constitutions are difficult to change). It has left Ireland with some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world, which have been regularly criticised by a number of international human rights bodies. Why is this vote happening now? There have been a number of high profile, distressing cases in the recent past which have highlighted the inadequacy of the current law. Just two examples (there are many more) are the death of Savita Halappanavar in 2012 from sepsis after being refused an abortion during miscarriage and the case of Amanda Mellet, who was forced to travel to England to terminate a pregnancy with fatal foetal anomaly. Mellet’s case reached the UN Human Rights Committee, which concluded that Ireland’s near total abortion ban was discriminatory and amounted to “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”. In 2017 the Irish government convened a Citizens Assembly to consider evidence on abortion law reform. The 99 randomly selected citizens, after hearing extensive evidence, voted voted 64% to 36% in favour of having no restrictions on termination in early pregnancy. What is the Irish government’s official position on the vote? The government is split on the vote, with many undeclared. However, it appears that more support “yes”. Party leaders are supportive – Leo Varadkar (the Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael) is openly pro-repeal, however his party is allowing a free vote. Micheál Martin, leader of the opposition party Fianna Fáil, has also backed repeal, although many in his party think differently. Sinn Féin supports repeal but not abortion without restriction. Members of parliament for Labour, the Green party, Social Democrats and Solidarity-People Before Profit support both repeal and access to abortion up until 12 weeks into a pregnancy. Independents are mixed. What happens if the 8th amendment is repealed? Repeal of the 8th amendment would allow the government to legislate on abortion. The proposed legislation will bring Ireland into line with the majority of European countries, allowing for abortion on request up to the 12th week of pregnancy (subject to medical regulation). After 12 weeks abortion would only be available in cases of fatal foetal anomaly, if the pregnant woman’s life was at risk or if her health was at risk of serious harm. Cases after 12 weeks would have to be approved by two doctors. What happens if Ireland votes to keep the 8th amendment? Nothing would change. The constitution, in conjunction with the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, only allows for abortion where there is real and substantial risk to the life – as distinct from the health – of the pregnant woman. She can only access abortion when doctors deem that her life is at risk due to medical complications, or she is at risk of taking her life. Women in their thousands would continue to travel to England and further afield to access abortion or procure abortion pills online illegally, risking criminality. The impact of Brexit on women’s ability to travel freely remains unknown. Who is opposed to repealing the 8th amendment and why? Groups who describe themselves as “pro-life” say they are protecting the foetus through their opposition to any change to Irish abortion law. Many of these groups are supported from abroad, in particular from America, and often align themselves with religious views, in particular the Catholic Church. What is the main argument for repealing the 8th amendment? The main argument is that criminalising abortion does not prevent abortion. In fact countries with liberal abortion laws usually have lower rates of abortion. Women living in Ireland have abortions, either abroad and at their own cost, or illegally in Ireland with the abortion pill. All a “yes” vote will do is allow the government to legislate for women to access healthcare legally in Ireland. Is it likely that the vote will result in repeal? Polls have indicated that marginally more people support a “yes” vote. There has been concern over voter manipulation, in particular foreign interference with both

Blog, Resources

Scholarship for Nigerian students in Ireland.

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Ireland is a little Island in western Europe separated from the North East of the United Kingdom by the North channel of the Atlantic ocean. With a population of just six and a half million and a GDP?capita of over $62,000, it is a destination of study with many prospects. Studying in this part of Europe can be expensive but there are still ways to get around that for the determined student. There are scores of scholarships available for international students including Nigerians from different sources such as the Government of Ireland, the Irish higher education institutions and other local and international organisations. The scholarships are mostly awarded at the discretion of the individual organisations based on set down qualification criteria. Yours truly have put together a number of sites to aid potential students to explore numerous means of getting a scholarship to study in Ireland. scholarship positions 3ciconsulting and Top careers More details may be found on the education in Ireland site. As usual, you can thank me later.

Blog

Irish PM reminds Trump that immigrants built America.

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“We believed in the shelter of America, and the compassion of America, and the opportunity of America. We came, and we became Americans.” ~ Enda Kenny Talk about Irish mojo and the Taoiseach Enda Kenny comes to mind. The Irish Prime Minister who was a guest at the White House in line with a long held tradition on St. Patricks day seized the opportunity to give a rousing speech in which he reminded everyone including US President Donal Trump about the beauty of immigration. In the speech which has since gone viral with close to 35m views as at press time, Mr Kenny said that St Patrick whose day was being celebrated around the world was an immigrant and was, in many ways, the patron saint of immigrants along with being the patron saint of Ireland. He said, “Ireland came to America because we were deprived of liberty, deprived of opportunity, of safety, of even food itself, the Irish believed, and four decades before Lady Liberty lifted her lamp – we were the wretched refuse on the teeming shore”. “We believed in the shelter of America, in the compassion of America, in the opportunity of America. “We came, and we became Americans. We lived the words of John F. Kennedy long before he uttered them. We asked not what America could do for us, but what we could do for America – and we still do.” he added. It was indeed a short but powerful speech. Coming a day after Trump’s new immigration ban was halted by a federal court many opinion leaders applauded the message. Some sections of the US and UK media have gone further to extrapolate that it was an indirect criticism of the American President’s controversial immigration policies. Occupy Democrats posted the video on their Facebook page captioned “Irish PM SCHOOLS Trump: ‘St. Patrick Was An Immigrant’ Right to Trump’s face!” Opinions will vary on this one but I can tell you it felt proud to be Irish watching the Taoiseach courageously saying what the British PM who rushed to visit the White House first couldn’t say. You can watch a video of the full speech here.  

Blog, Reverie

This Irish woman is the world’s best mum!

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Her story is an emotional one which has dominated the news for the past few days. The poor woman said her daughter sometimes suffer up to 20 seizures in a day and watching her suffer has become unbearable hence her decision to embark on this protest.

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