On 10 September 2009 - World Suicide Prevention Day - the Inspire Ireland Foundation was officially launched by the Australian Ambassador to Ireland Anne Plunkett at a function held at her Killarney residence and attended by over forty senior business, government and community representatives.
The guest of honour, Irish Minister for Health Mary Harney, spoke passionately of the importance of Inspire's work and the need for the Reachout.com service to be available to the young people of Ireland 24/7. Minister Harney also shared with the gathering her own personal experience of having lost a friend to suicide when she had been at University and said she was very much looking forward to the launch of the Irish version of Reachout.com later this year.
[Rear R-L: Susan Hennessy, Brendan Tuohy, Jonathan Nicholas, John Foong. Front R-L: Jack Heath, Ambassador Anne Plunkett, Health Minister Mary Harney, Colin Hunt]
In launching the Foundation, Ambassador Plunkett spoke of the extensive ties between Australia and Ireland and the very substantial contribution Reachout.com could play in helping the young people of Ireland.
[Inspire Ireland Team: Rear R-L: Brendan Tuohy (Director), Ian Brunswick, Vincent McCarthy, Derek Chambers, John Foong (Director). Front R-L: Jack Heath, Colin Hunt (Chairman), Susan Hennessy, Jonathon Nicholas. Rachel O'Connell (Director,absent)]
Inspire Chairman Colin Hunt, Irish Head of Macquarie Capital and former senior adviser to the now Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, spoke of his reasons for taking on the Chairmanship of Inspire Ireland. He made the case that in the same way Governments had been able to reduce the road toll they should look to do the same with suicide and called for all sectors to work hard to reduce the stigma of mental illness. Colin also pointed to Inspire Ireland's goal for 450,000 young people in Ireland to be aware of Reachout.com by 2012 with more than 125,000 having accessed the service. Colin expressed Inspire's deep appreciation for the very generous grant from the One Foundation which had enabled the Foundation to be established. Colin thanked Tony Bates and the team at Headstrong for their warm welcome to Inspire, their great support and the exciting partnership opportunities as Headstrong and Inspire join forces to work with the young people of Ireland for their benefit.
So all in all a great evening and very warm thanks to the Ambassador for hosting such a great kick-off for Inspire Ireland and to Health Minister Harney for giving her time and support to the launch. Please stay tuned for the launch of Reach Out in early November - most likely without the ties and suits!
Congratulations Jack and Jono, and all that have been involved. I know this has been a really long road with lots of waiting in anticipation but it has all paid off and baby Inspire Ireland is finally born!!!
I am so excited to know that the impact that we've made in Australia is now spreading globally!
Congratulations Inspire Ireland team!
Posted by: ehon | September 18, 2009 at 08:04 AM
New suit, Jack?
Well done on a great leap forward. Looking forward to seeing what's next. xx
Posted by: bellairs | September 29, 2009 at 11:16 AM