Irish Red Cross
Encyclopedia
The Irish Red Cross Society , commonly referred to as the Irish Red Cross , is the National Red Cross
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human...

 Society in the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. It was established by Nurse Elizabeth O'Herrin either on 1 July http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZSI206Y1939.html#ZZSI206Y1939A2 or 1 August http://www.redcross.ie/about_us__1/irish_red_cross/history 1939 on the approach of the Second World War. Another Red Cross Act had also been passed by the Oireachtas
Oireachtas
The Oireachtas , sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the "national parliament" or legislature of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of:*The President of Ireland*The two Houses of the Oireachtas :**Dáil Éireann...

 in 1938, establishing a Red Cross Society, pursuant to the 1929 Geneva Convention
Geneva Convention (1929)
The Geneva Convention was signed at Geneva, July 27, 1929. Its official name is the Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Geneva July 27, 1929. It entered into force 19 June 1931. It is this version of the Geneva Conventions which covered the treatment of prisoners of war...

.

The organisation has been supervised by the Irish Department of Defence
Department of Defence (Ireland)
The Department of Defence is the department of the Government of Ireland that is responsible for preserving peace and security in Ireland and abroad...

 and it receives €1 million p.a. from the State; its management is currently being reformed.
Formerly the Irish White Cross had worked in the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...

 in 1921-28.

The society is organised on a voluntary basis. In Ireland, its activities include mountain rescue
Mountain rescue
Mountain rescue refers to search and rescue activities that occur in a mountainous environment, although the term is sometimes also used to apply to search and rescue in other wilderness environments. The difficult and remote nature of the terrain in which mountain rescue often occurs has resulted...

, first aid
First aid
First aid is the provision of initial care for an illness or injury. It is usually performed by non-expert, but trained personnel to a sick or injured person until definitive medical treatment can be accessed. Certain self-limiting illnesses or minor injuries may not require further medical care...

 education of the public, the provision of first aid and ambulance
Ambulance
An ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient...

 services at public events, as well as other community services including therapeutic hand care for the elderly and training of carers. Outside of Ireland, the society provides relief and humanitarian services in response to natural disasters and in regions of conflict.

The headquarters of the Irish Red Cross is located at 16 Merrion Square North, Dublin 2. The society is a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is a humanitarian institution that is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement along with the ICRC and 186 distinct National Societies...

.

Organisation

The first aid services section of the society is organised into regions, areas, branches and units for command and administration purposes.

There are five regions in the country each with a Regional Director of Units who is responsible for coordination of the units in his/her region through their Area Directors of Units.

There are 28 areas in the Irish Red Cross (The Red Cross in Northern Ireland is part of the British Red Cross). Areas are normally divided up to match county borders i.e. the Clare Red Cross area has the same geographical bounders as county Clare itself. In this way the Red Cross differs from other organisations like the Civil Defence which is divided according to local authority areas. The only exception to this being with Red Cross Areas in Dublin, they are aligned to local authority areas due to the population of the city and outlying areas, this meaning there are four Red Cross Areas in Dublin.

Each area is commanded and administered by an "Area Director of Units" shortened normally to "ADU". This person is appointed for a three year term by the Central Council. The Person however is a Volunteer and receives no payment for his/her work as are all person involved in the uniformed section, the person will normally have been a volunteer for a number of years and risen through the ranks. The ADU will normally appoint a deputy director of units (DADU) and a number of assistant area directors (AADU) to assist him. The DADU is second in command of the area and may take responsibility for a particular duty (e.g. Ambulance cover on public duties). The AADU's will normally have charge over a particular section within the area (e.g. cadet members) or a particular responsibility (e.g. equipment and training)

The ADU is assisted by the Area Committee, whose members are elected from the branch committees in the area each year at an A.G.M.

Each Area will have a number of branches in it, the number varying according to area. The branch is run by a committee of its own
members, also elected at an A.G.M. each year.

Each Branch has the has a number of units in it the number again varying according to the branch. The unit is the main training group within that area, there may for example normally be only one unit in a village or group of village depending on population, whereas a city may have a number of units due to the population. The Unit is commanded and administered by the "Unit Officer" a person appointed by the ADU. The appointment last for one year but the person may be re-appointed continually. The Unit Officer is assisted by a "Sub-Unit Officer" and by "Assistant Unit Officers" also appointed by the ADU. The unit is where all members of the IRC would training and also where public first aid courses would be run from. Depending on the size of the Branch there may be different units for different age groups.

Persons may join the Irish Red Cross from 5 years of age, there is no maximum age. The Age profiles are broken as follows:
  • "Teddybear" 5yrs-12yrs
  • "Cadet" 12yrs-16yrs
  • "Novice" 16yrs-18yrs
  • "Senior" 18yrs+


Not all areas currently have units for the youngest age range as they area a new inclusion, within them very basic "First Aid" is taught, things such as how to call an ambulance to putting on a plaster, progressing to higher levels as the member grows older.

Ranks

The Ranks in the IRC are in descending order:
  • Regional Director of Units (One silver star surmounted with laurel leaves and red cross mounted in center)

  • Area Director of Units (Three silver stars, red crosses mounted in centers)
  • Deputy Area Director of Units (Two silver stars, red crosses mounted in centers)
  • Assistant Area Director of Units (One silver star, red cross mounted in center)

  • Unit Officer (Two silver bars)
  • Sub Unit Officer (Three silver chevrons)
  • Assistant Unit Officer (Two silver chevrons)

  • Unit Member (Navy epaulet bearing the Red Cross on a white background)


All the Ranks are on navy epaulets, worn on the shoulders for the working uniform.

Activities

The Irish Red Cross has a fleet of both road and off-road ambulances in Ireland. It also has specialized Support vehicles, Command vehicles, mountain bikes, search dogs and a boat. The vehicles in the Area depending on locally need and decided upon by the ADU. These Fleets along with all IRC members provide a backup to the ambulance service in case of major emergency.

The IRC offers members of the public a number of courses. In particular Practical First Aid and Occupational First Aid, as well as skin camouflage and hand care. The Irish Red Cross is a provider of First Aid Certification in Republic of Ireland. As a PHECC
PHECC
The Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council is an independent statutory organisation responsible for implementing, monitoring and further developing the standards of care provided by all statutory, private and voluntary ambulance services in the Republic of Ireland...

 training institute it also offers the Cardiac First Response (C.F.R.) course.

If a person is a member of the Red Cross they can go on to Complete other courses such as:
  • Intermediate First Aid
  • Ambulance Procedures
  • Emergency First Responder (E.F.R. PHECC course)
  • Radio Operators Course
  • Emergency Medical Technician (E.M.T. PHECC course)


However a member while encouraged to do some of these courses need not and can help the society by other means, such as fundraising activities, relief work or other areas.

The Irish Red Cross provides ambulance and medical cover at a large amount of public events and functions the year round and across Ireland, including events such as concerts, motor sport events, equestrian events, rugby, soccer and GAA matches. While the events organizers are normally charged a fee, this money however does not go to the people on duty but rather to help fund the activities of the local branch.

The Irish Red Cross also provides relief services locally, nationally and internationally. Locally services range from "meals on wheels" to home visits and transport of the elderly, to nationally disaster relief such as in the wake of the flooding in Ireland in 2009. Internationally the IRC will collect donations for major relief works such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake
2010 Haiti earthquake
The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...

, and will also send members abroad to assist with relief works.

Use of Red Cross insignia

Section 4 of the 1938 Act created the offence of using "for the purpose of trade or business or any other purpose whatsoever" a ".. heraldic emblem of the red cross on a white ground formed by reversing the Federal colours of Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 or any emblem closely resembling such heraldic emblem" without the express permission of the Minister for Defence
Minister for Defence (Ireland)
The Minister for Defence is the senior minister at the Department of Defence in the Government of Ireland. Under new arrangements this department is being merged with the Department of Justice over which Mr. Shatter will also preside....

.

Controversies

In 2009 some financial irregularities were revealed anonymously on a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

 by a whistleblower
Whistleblower
A whistleblower is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company...

, Noel Wardick, who was head of the international department. The Irish Red Cross sought court orders to obtain Mr Wardick's identity from UPC and Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

, which were granted. Wardick was dismissed. Wardick had revealed that €162,000 collected locally for the 2004 Asian tsunami had remained unspent in a bank account years after the event.

In 2010 an internal enquiry into Mr Wardick's allegations found other such bank accounts, and proposals to overhaul the IRC's management were discussed in the Dáil on 15 December. Questions were answered by Tony Killeen
Tony Killeen
Tony Killeen is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was a Teachta Dála for the Clare constituency from 1992 to 2011, and also served as Minister of Defence from 2010–11.-Early and personal life:...

, then the Minister of Defence.

In 2011 Donal Forde was appointed as the new secretary-general on a salary of €95,000 p.a.. In 2002-09 Mr Forde had formerly been managing director of Allied Irish Banks
Allied Irish Banks
Allied Irish Banks p.l.c. is a major commercial bank based in Ireland.AIB is one of the so called "big four" commercial banks in the state. The bank has one of the largest branch networks in Ireland; only Bank of Ireland fully rivals it. AIB offers a full range of personal and corporate banking...

, which collapsed and was effectively nationalized by late 2010. In 2008 Mr Forde had described the bank's lending policy to an Oireachtas
Oireachtas
The Oireachtas , sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the "national parliament" or legislature of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of:*The President of Ireland*The two Houses of the Oireachtas :**Dáil Éireann...

 committee as "very prudent", but acknowledged in 2011 that ".. we were wrong".

See also

  • International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
    International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
    The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human...

  • St. John Ambulance Brigade of Ireland
    St. John Ambulance Brigade of Ireland
    The St. John Ambulance Brigade of Ireland is a charitable voluntary organisation in the Republic of Ireland. For constitutional reasons it is not a full member association of the Venerable Order of Saint John and the international St. John Ambulance movement, but rather is classed as an...

  • Order of Malta Ambulance Corps
    Order of Malta Ambulance Corps
    The Order of Malta Ambulance Corps is the largest voluntary ambulance and first aid organisation of its kind in Ireland. The Order of Malta is engaged in teaching first aid, providing ambulance cover at large events, patient transport, community and nursing services...

  • Civil Defence Ireland
    Civil Defence Ireland
    Civil Defence Ireland is the national civil defence organisation of the Republic of Ireland. It is operated at local authority level in conjunction with the Department of Defence....

  • PHECC
    PHECC
    The Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council is an independent statutory organisation responsible for implementing, monitoring and further developing the standards of care provided by all statutory, private and voluntary ambulance services in the Republic of Ireland...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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