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SpunOut.ie Blog
August, 2007
SpunOut.ie suicide prevention: on the radio
SpunOut.ie blog - youth board member Ian Howley on the Pat Kenny radio show.
SpunOutters continue to reach the nation and this week (Monday August 26th) 22 year old Youth Board member Ian Howley spoke with our friend Caroline McGuigan of Suicide or Survive on the RTE Radio 1 Pat Kenny show.
Ian taked about his teenage suicide attempts, his journey to survival and his recent work as an advocate for positive social change.
Show your support for Ian and SpunOut.ie by calling, texting or emailing the show.
- Email: todaypk@rte.ie
- Text: 51551
- On-air Phone: 1850 715 900
- GB & N. Ireland: 0845 7857777
Listen online and via podcast
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/todaywithpatkenny/
SpunOut.ie on binge drinking
SpunOut.ie blog - advocating on the airwaves.
As part of SpunOut.ie's advocacy and campaign work, we recently took part in a national radio discussion on young people and binge drinking.
The discussion on RTE Radio One's Tom McGurk show (23/08/07) was in response to a new Centre for Health Promotion at NUIG report on teenagers and binge drinking.
You can listen to the discussion online by inserting the following link into your browser:
rtsp://streaming2.rte.ie/2007/0823/
23082007rte-todaywithpatkenny-tpk.rm
The feature takes place 1.49minutes into the programme (after a cracking Neil Young song!).
SpunOut goes super dooper!
SpunOut.ie Blog: New accessibility features now online.
As of today SpunOut.ie is breaking the mould when it comes to web standards. The entire website is now fully accessible, with some great new features, all conforming to the very highest standards.
Check out all our new accessibility features here.
By: Sean Bryceland
Inspiration through helping others
SpunOut.ie Blog: 17 year old Niamh Frances tells how she organised a fundraiser for SpunOut.ie.
Niamh Francis recently organised a fundraising event and give her first ever piano recital for SpunOut.ie. With just 8 weeks to prepare for the event, she successfully raised awareness and funds for SpunOut.ie as well as giving an amazing performance on the night. Here she talks about the experience of preparing for the event and performing in public.
Looking back on the piano recital, it was a much bigger success than we anticipated! The 85-seat venue was almost full and people who were unable to attend donated generously. The audience looked pretty big to me. It was very strange to think that all these people had come to see me play!
The most nerve racking bit of any performance is just before it starts, when you're all alone in the green room, waiting for your name to be called out... but the moment you walk on and take your place, you realise that it's too late for panic and all you can do is your best.
By no means was it a perfect performance. Plenty of nerves and plenty of mistakes- but I learned that audiences are very sympathetic. They won't start throwing tomatoes at you for a few slip-ups at your first gig!
At the end of the recital, I felt a little disappointed in my performance because of the nervous hesitations and because I'm rather hard on myself about these things. But after I took my bow, to my huge surprise, the whole audience rose to their feet and the applause went on!
The effect was as if the entire interior of the building was rising up like a gigantic volume switch! I wasn't so pleased when an encore was requested, being totally unprepared for it, but nobody cared how scrappy it was.
The very end of the recital was the most inspiring part for me. I stood at the door to thank each person for coming along and I met so many people who I hadn't seen in so long- my last piano teacher, two of my primary school teachers, some school friends, relatives, and a whole bunch of locals I'd never spoken to. I will never forget the compliments, the congratulations, the hugs and kisses and grateful smiles that greeted me continuously until the hall was empty. It was definitely one of, if not the happiest night of my life, no exaggerating.
In the space of these 8 weeks, I have changed so much. I can pick up a phone and ring anyone I want to without feeling nervous about it. I can meet new people and not feel excessively self-conscious. I feel as if my true personality is being released from an old cage! Above all, I have realised that no matter what kind of personality you have, you will always be loved and appreciated by those around you, more than you could ever understand.
My honest belief is that the only way to gain true happiness and discover your "purpose" in life is to find something you are interested in and have a passion for, and use it to the best of your ability.
Your purpose could be anything in the world. I considered being an architect once! I have never confessed this to anyone, but I was once seriously suicidal when I was 13, when I was without piano lessons or any sort of inspiration. But when I finally got the chance to take piano lessons again, remembering how much I used to love it before my teacher left, I began to realise that this was the road for me.
I wasn't born with any special ability, I wasn't born into a musical family nor does anyone else in my house even listen to classical music! And now that I've brought my musical ability up to this standard, successfully established myself as a musician, and used my skills to help others rather than myself, nobody can ever take that away from me.
Read Niamh's earlier blog about the fundraiser.
By: Niamh Francis
The SpunOut.ie team are appealing for significant funding and sponsorship to help us stay afloat and succeed on an even bigger scale. To donate online or to find out more, click here.
Looking back on the 'Tough Times' campaign
Report on the campaign is now available online.
The recent 'Tough Times' campaign paved the way for much needed change in helping young people understand the importance of good mental health and in addressing suicide in Ireland.
The campaign was a partnership between ourselves at SpunOut.ie and Console, the 3Ts, the HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention. It succeeded in reaching millions of people via a combination of TV advertising, comprehensive media coverage and online marketing.
A report on the campaign is now online at:
http://www.spunout.ie/uploads/Files/CampaignReport.pdf (PDF, 8 megabytes)
The report includes a background to the campaign, overall impact assesssment, photos, youth written blogs, sample press clippings and testimonies from the SpunOut.ie discussion forums.
The campaign was a resounding success with:
- Over 1 million TV ad viewers
- 7 national TV features
- 18 national press features
- 6 national radio + hourly news features
- Over 31 regional press and 30 regional radio pieces
- Increased traffic and 'help' orientated behaviour via SpunOut.ie
Suggestions
We're always open to comments and suggestions on how we can improve and develop SpunOut.ie so please feel free to contact us or tell us what you think at any time.
For the latest SpunOut.ie news and views see our blog or sign-up at www.spunout.ie for e-newsletter updates.
Related articles and links
Read Ian Howley's blog about the campaign.
Watch the Frank and Walters playing at the launch.
Watch the Hassle Merchants playing at the launch.
Everybody goes through tough times
Read SpunOut.ie Youth Editor, Marie Duffy's poem from the Tough Times launch.
Marie Duffy talks about the launch
Want to get involved or to know more? Contact us.
Resources
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For PR Information please contact Sarah Gahan Tel: 087-6846088
SpunOut.ie fundraiser
SpunOut.ie blog: 17-year-old Niamh Francis is using music to raise awareness and funds for SpunOut.ie.
Niamh Francis is an inspirational young person from Co. Clare, who has organised a fundraising event for SpunOut.ie. Niamh is a classical pianist and will give her first ever piano recital at the Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare this Saturday, August 18th at 8pm sharp.
To sponsor the event or reserve tickets, contact info@niamhfrancis.com or call 087 2672748 / 065 7077069.
See the poster for the event: http://www.niamhfrancis.com/
Niamh tells her story below:
In the middle of last June my cousin died by suicide. He was almost 26. The morning after the wake I was trying to do some piano practice as usual, but I wasn't able to concentrate. It didn't feel normal to think that only the day before, my biggest worry was my first piano recital, to be held at the end of summer. Then an idea occurred to me. I decided to use my recital as a way of raising awareness for Spunout.ie, which I had only heard about days before, so that maybe we could help save more people like my cousin.
I'm not a particularly confident person, so the whole idea was a little frightening for me but I still wanted to do it. I have never played an hour-long programme, I'm not used to mini grand pianos and I'm too shy to even have the simplest conversation with someone, but my determination to help other young people out of misery and low self-esteem has now helped me to overcome these barriers myself.
Organising the whole thing involved picking up the phone to ring complete strangers, walking into pubs and shops to get sponsorship- which meant asking for money from people I head never met- and taking it into my own hands (literally!) to master an hour of advanced piano music in 8 weeks with no teacher!
This time two years ago, I had only been playing piano for 4 years and when I spoke about my dream to be a concert pianist, I was laughed at, ignored, and even told by my parents to consider a more realistic career. Now, here I am at 17, making my debut in the world of classical music.
With only days to go until the recital now, I feel like a slightly more confident person and a lot less hopeless about my shy problems. And as there has been a great response to the event so far, with more than half the tickets sold, I'm looking forward, if a little nervously, to the performance.
What I am hoping to achieve is not only to raise as much funding and awareness as possible for SpunOut.ie, but also to inspire other young people with the same passion for music, and to prove that anything is possible in life. No matter how absurd your ambitions may be or how much discouragement you may suffer along the way, you should always follow your dreams.
By: Niamh Francis
The SpunOut.ie team are appealing for significant funding and sponsorship to help us stay afloat and succeed on an even bigger scale. To donate online or find out more click here.
SpunOutter Ruairí to 'do a mooney'
SpunOut.ie blog: Catch Ruairí on the radio this Wednesday.
Wednesday afternoon, August 8th (between 3.30pm and 4.30pm) SpunOut.ie's Founder Ruairí McKiernan will be speaking on RTE Radio One's Mooney show.
Speaking on the 'County Champs' segment, Ruairí will talk about his motivations for setting up SpunOut.ie, his travels abroad and his time living in Cavan, Donegal and now Galway.
You can tune into the show on your wireless, online or later via podcast at http://www.rte.ie/radio
Ruairí is interviewed after 1hour 12 mins, 35 seconds.
Enjoy the show and spread the word to other SpunOut.ie fans!
