Driven Mad by Menopause

RTE's Liveline has been lifting the lid on our society's collective attitude towards menopause characterized by blindness, ignorance, apathy, neglect and even cruelty.
In many cases, it is not that the medical profession has been unaware of the menopause and its attendent impacts. It just seems that it is not taken seriously enough to warrent treatment and the neglect of thousands of womens' suffering seems willful.
For many Irish people, particularly Irish women, it will not be surprising to learn that indifference towards the menopause rather than ignorance of it has a long history in Ireland.

While browsing through the institutional sections of the online 1911 Census records of the National Archive, I noticed that many routine milestones in the reproductive life of a woman were cited as root causes of mental disease in some female patients diagnosed with illnesses such as "Mania", "Melancholia" and "Dementia".

The so-called Return of Idiots and Lunatics in Institutions (Form I) has some poignant entries, especially when one sees how long patients have suffered with their conditions.

It may be that the classification of mental patients into three narrow categories (Mania, Melancholia, or Dementia) was enforced by the Census rules rather than the prevailing medical system but the extra field provided for "Ascertained or presumed cause of insanity" provides more freedom for respondents.

For most patients no root cause is given for the diagnosis but for others this field includes Previous Attack, Hereditary/Congenital, Epilepsy, Diabetes, Head Injury, Drink, Intemperance, Disappointment in Love/Life, Grief, Puberty, Puerperium, Lactation, Sunstroke, Masturbation, Irregular/bad Living, Venereal Disease, Too much study, Religious excitement/fervour, and Excessive Tea Drinking.

What is remarkable, however, is how many of the underlying causes of insanity are simply biological milestones in the natural life of a woman; menstruation, childbirth, lactation, puerperium and menopause (or one of its synonymous terms "Change of Life", "Amenorrhea", "Climacteric").
While it is true that such events can be traumatic and trigger neuroses in certain individuals, the frequency in these records must be worth examination.

Some examples below come from St. Mary's Hospital, Shanakiel in Cork. Record 72 shows a 72-year-old woman who has been suffering from Mania for 27 years and 2 months due to "Change of Life"

(Row 73 shows a surprise case of Male menopause. Although, I suspect the diagnosis (for 72) was initially written in the wrong row.)

Other synonyms for Menopause are listed in the following patient records:

• Patient 384             Change of Life
• Patient 515              Menopause
• Patient 613              Amenorrhea
• Patient 1044            Menopause
• Patient 1115              Change of Life
• Patient 1155/1158    Change of Life
• Patient 1173              Change of Life

This is just a snapshot of one Institution in Cork in 1911.

The patients of the Portraine Lunatic Asylum show a broad social mix which includes a Protestant governess from Rathgar alongside "paupers" from Baldoyle, all suffering from the same "disease", menopause:

• Patient 21154              Climacteric
• Patient 24272             Climacteric
• Patient 23072             Climacterica
• Patient 22090             Climacteric
• Patient 16945              Menopause
• Patient 13502              Change of Life

There's a Phd study in it for someone to look at the broader picture of citizens recorded in institutions throughout the country and the underlying causes of their diagnoses.
But with the current "discovery" of the stresses and torment some women can suffer with this transition, it is illustrative to see how such symptoms left untreated in the past lead to women being diagnosed as mentally ill and incarcerated long-term in Asylums run with brutal regimes..

 

 

 

Links to Institutions (in Census 1911)

Armagh

• John Street, Lurgan, Co. Armagh
• Corporation, Co. Armagh
• Ardrea, Kilmore, Co. Armagh

Antrim

• Holy Well, Co. Antrim
• St. Anne's, Falls Road, Belfast
• St. George's Hospital, Lisburn Road, Belfast
• St. George's Hospital, Lisburn Road, Belfast

Carlow

• Strawhall, Carlow, Co. Carlow

Clare

• Dulick, Ennis, Co. Clare

Cork

• Skahabeg House, Blackrock, Cork
• St. Mary's Hospital, Shanakiel, Cork
• Youghal Lands, Youghal, Co. Cork

Derry

• Strand Road, Derry City

Donegal

• Glenties, Co. Donegal
• Knocknamona, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal

Down

• Russell's Quarter, Downpatrick, Co. Down
• Ballydollaghan, Breda, Co. Down

Dublin

• Bloomfield Private Asylum, Donnybrook
• Portraine Demesne, Donabate
• Richmond Women's Asylum, Grangegorman
• St. Patrick's Hospital, Usher's Quay

Galway

• Townparks, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway
• Bovinion, Mount Bellew, Co. Galway

Kerry

• Ballydribeen, Kilarney, Co. Kerry
• Ratass, Tralee, Co. Kerry
• Curraghatoosane, Listowel, Co. Kerry

Kilkenny

• Maudlinsland, Co. Kilkenny
• Hebron Rd., Kilkenny City

Laois (Queen's County)

• Beladd, Maryborough (Port Laois), Co. Laois

Limerick

• Skagh, Croom, Co. Limerick
• Spitland, Limerick City

Longford

• Glack, Co. Longford

Mayo

• Knockaphunta, Castlebar, Co. Mayo

Monaghan

• Rooskey, Monaghan, Co. Monaghan

Sligo

• Ballytivnan, Co. Sligo

Tyrone

• Cranny, Omagh, Co. Tyrone

Waterford

• John's Hill, Waterford City

Westmeath

• Spittlefield, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath

Wexford

• Killagoley, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford

δημοκρατία (dēmokratiā) EU 2015

The craven man in his seat

observes through his one-way screen
others of similar means
others who've have taken a stand
who have stood up and said "Enough!"
who have said "We are not Irish!"
who are putting their own people first
and feels phantom pain in his soul

Easier turn from the light of their hope
and hope against, that they will fail
and like him know their place
these deluded children of Solon
could they possibly win? by sheer power of will?
having given Democracy take it back for themselves?
leave the rest with it only in name
seeking an oppressor while already on their knees

Fear and loathing in Las Angelus

 As the American Psychiatric Association tells us  “Fear” is the normal response to a genuine danger.  

A phobia is defined as an irrational or disproportionate fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that compels one to avoid it.

Since the early 20th century, Psychiatrists have documented a great variety of phobias, which have provided a rich source of material for the question setters of  pub quizzes.  
The classical phobias (agoraphobia, arachnophobia, astraphobia, claustrophobia, coulrophobia, pyrophobia etc.) are related to obsessive compulsion and neurosis. Sufferers have very little control or volition over their emotions, re-actions and behaviour.

Alongside these pathological fears, has grown up a lexicon of other words bearing the suffix "phobia", which also have fear at their root but which actually describe the opinions and attitudes that are chosen by those who "suffer" from them.  

The trouble is that when a person has xenophobia, homophobia, islamophobia, judeophobia or negrophobia it is usually not them but other people who suffer.

Although all prejudices are rooted in fear (and most demonstrably false), holding a prejudice is so different from suffering from a phobia that few such "voluntary phobias" have made it into common parliance.

For most people the terms chauvanism, anti-semitism, racism, bigotry and sectarianism are far more accurate descriptions of prejudice than the euphemisms listed above.

Homophobes are people who are prejudiced against homosexuals.
People who would seek to limit the rights of  homosexuals to form long-standing monogamous relationships may be suffering from blindness but they are not suffering a debilitating phobia.

Envelope (not Tweet!) Cost Sean Gallagher the Election

In John Patrick Shanley's excellent play, "Doubt" (filmed with Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in 2008), Sister Aloysius uses a lie to extract a tacit admission of his paedophile tendencies from Fr. Flynn.
Had he not had a history of molestation on his conscience, he would have steadfastly protested his innocence against the lie.
Although the nun has no real proof, she takes his resignation as an admission of guilt.

All through his presidential campaign Sean Gallagher was at pains to portray himself as some kind of community youth worker instead of the Fianna Fáil insider he is.

Despite his recent membership of Fianna Fáil's National Executive and pictures of him rubbing shoulders with Bertie Ahearne, the PR seemed to be working.


However, it seems that someone who understood the true nature and history of the man decided to put the cat among his pigeons.

Since the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland yesterday upheld Sean Gallagher's complaint against RTE, his supporters in the blogosphere have been busy saying that RTE changed the election by broadcasting a lie they received via Twitter.

For those who care to read the BAI's finding itself, it is only the attribution of the Tweet to someone from Martin McGuiness's campaign that is considered erroneous.
The BAI criticises RTE's failure to verify the source despite the fact that the content of the tweet subsequently proved to be true.


"While the Broadcaster states in its response to the complaint that the content of the tweet turned out subsequently to be correct, the Committee did not believe that the subsequent truth or otherwise of the content removed the basic responsibility of the Broadcaster to verify its content and provenance during the programme as it was being broadcast."


Regardless of the allegation itself, it is the source that is deemed to have been false and RTE let itself down badly by not verifying it.

As in the case of Fr. Kevin Reynolds, RTE's journalistic standards were found wanting.
However, unlike Fr Kevin Reynolds, Sean Gallagher did not steadfastly defend his innocence.
Live on national TV, he equivocated and said that he may have collected an envelope.

Rather than the tweet from a mischievous source, it was this tacit admission from his own lips that cost him the election.

Yes he was ambushed by the tweeted story on live TV and did not have time to compose himself and put out his usual story.
On mature reflection, the next morning he was back on message but by then it was too late.
His mask had slipped and everyone had seen it.

As far as I am concerned the originator of the mischievous tweet did the country a great service and so did Martin McGuinness and Pat Kenny by putting the allegation to Sean Gallagher.
They gave him the rope. He did the rest himself.

As Sister Aloysius says "Sometimes to right a wrong, you must move away from God".

Stable Door is just fine wide open, Thanks

As reported in the Irish Times of July 8th 2011, "Garda sources said there were currently no criminal investigations into phone hacking by journalists in the Republic because there had been no complaints about the practice."

On Today FM's  Sunday Supplement with Sam Smyth, communications minister, Pat Rabbitte, assured us he saw no need for an investigation of voicemail hacking in the Irish Republic as there was no evidence of it.
He did allow that his position might be naive but can naievity be the defense of someone who in 2006 was himself reportedly concerned about the vulnerabilities of Leinster Houses's voicemail.

Minister Rabbitte's placement of his head in the sand seems to reflect a general tendency in Irish political and media circles to blindly ignore the following facts:

1. There is indeed evidence of journalists in Ireland hacking the voicemail boxes of politicians and private individuals.  See the list of stories below.
2. Voicemail hacking is not the exclusive preserve of journalists or Private Investigators.  Because it is so well documented and demonstrated on several web sites, why should we assume that only journalists would be interested?  Why not also criminals, terrorists, currency speculators, political enemies?
3. Irish Mobile Operators continue to operate their voicemail systems with the most lax security procedures, relying on subscribers to voluntarily set passwords and providing no defense against software that can dial from a configurable caller ID.

If  your neighbour's house is burgled, why would you continue to leave your doors and windows unlocked at night?  

Pat picks up a voicemail

When you are minister for communications why would you allow this to go on?  

Evidence of Journalistic Hacking in Ireland

• Alex Marunchak, Slovak-born editor of the Irish News of the World paid a hacker to intercept emails from the computer of a British army intelligence officer. (But he wouldn't pay for voicemails would he?)
• Paul McMullan, who worked for the Irish News of the World in the 1990s, said the tactics used in Ireland on some stories were the same as those used in the UK.
• In Northern Ireland, the media is suspected of hacking the voicemails of politicians and private individuals.  Are they so much more interesting? 
• The Irish Mirror hacked the voicemail of several Irish politicians back in the late 1990s

There is little evidence that Irish Mobile Operators or corporate voicemail vendors have improved their security since that time and there seems to be no will on the part of the communications minister to force them to take the measures required.


What if Facebook or Google treated their users' private communications like mobile operators treat voicemails?  "We provide a standard password for all new users. You have the option to set a unique one if you want and if you connect from your home IP address, we won't check for a password anyway!"

Who would sign up for that?   How long would the service providers stay in business?

An Irish Times article of July 7th, quotes a spokesman for the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner saying that while "there was no evidence to suggest phone hacking was prevalent within the Irish newspaper industry ...That does not mean, however, it is not happening, just that we have no proof that it is taking place,” He added that legislation was in place “to protect people”.

Legislation does not protect people from burglary, locked doors and windows do.

Hacked off Mobile Operators Cover Their Tracks

There is general outrage in the UK following recent revelations about employees of media organisations "hacking" into the voicemail boxes of not just celebrities and politicians but also of murder victims and their bereaved families.  

People are, quite rightly, disgusted by the scurrilous intrusion of such snooping, which even distorted the evidence in one missing persons investigation when it was thought that Milly Dowler herself was alive and listening to her voicemails.

Despite the public and political outrage, there has been little comment on the part of  the Mobile Network Operators in the UK, still less any admission of responsibility.

For many years these networks have presided over systems so insecure that the term "hacking" flatters those who breached them. Mobile operators deployed voicemail systems in such a way that convenience took precedence over security, with:

• Voicemail boxes easily derived from the phone numbers of subscribers (eg. add 5 to the beginning)
• The same initial PIN is provided to all new subscribers who are not required to change it
• PIN validation  by-passed when voicemail is accessed by the owner’s Caller ID
• Once accessed, a voicemail box can be used to return a calls to any caller that has left a message

Indeed many of the operators published the information that enabled the "hacking" on their own websites. 
Oh they have cleaned up their acts now, removing the instructions from their websites and some of the vulnerabilities and lax practices that allowed them but many of the hacking sites on the internet still have postings from 2004-2008 which document how easy it was at the time.

(Irish Article 2006    US article 2005)

If Facebook or Google handled personal communications in such a flagrantly insecure way, they would be out of business.  O2, Orange, T-mobile and Vodafone have done their best to cover their tracks but there are still plenty of hacking websites that publish their past vulnerabilities:

• http://www.textfiles.com/phreak/VOICEMAIL/
• http://www.cashloopholes.co.uk/free-mobile-phone-loopholes-secrets/3669-hacking-voicemail.html
• http://www.break.com/usercontent/2007/8/HOW-TO-HACK-INTO-CELL-PHONE-VOICEMAIL-342982.html
• http://100waystogetrevenge.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/cell-phone-voice-mail-hacking/

Even today, mobile operators  are doing little to enhance the security of their voicemail systems apart from suggesting subscribers set a voicemail PIN,.   

Even when a subscriber sets a PIN, however, it can easily be derived by the dialing robot scripts used by hackers.

Because the systems are still set up for convenience, many include a feature that bypasses PIN validation when accessed from the owner's phone.  Most operators don't give their subscribers the option of using this feature or not.
Spoofing hackers exploit it using software that can be configured to dial using any configured Caller ID. With full access to the mailbox they can then listen to voicemails, change the greeting and return calls (again made with the dialling software) to international and premium numbers.
See the video posted here for a demo.

In one famous case, a US operator presented their customer with a $12,000 bill.

The same vulnerabilities have been exploited since the mid-90s and due to internet sites, the vulnerabilities of voicemail systems are well known to hackers – ranging from amateurs to organised crime families.

Isn’t it time that more was done to protect the privacy and accounts of mobile subscribers?

For starters the operators could put in place the following  simple security features to prevent hacking attempts:

• Subscriber opt-in for voicemail access based on caller-ID
  The Voicemail System should disable PIN-bypass by default and allow the subscriber to consciously activate it at his or her own risk.

• Voicemail access through complex random PIN with 3-strike locking
  To hinder a security breach because of customers not setting a PIN, the VMS should send a complex, random PIN by SMS to voicemail subscribers upon registration to the service. This PIN code can have multiple different locks on the VMS's Interactive Voice Response and  web interfaces. If an incorrect PIN is entered  more than 3 times, the account is then locked and can only be released with operator permission.

These measures would show that the Operators are serious about protecting their subscribers against snooping and fraud and gives the subscriber the freedom to choose convenience or security for access to their private messages stored on the mobile operator’s systems.