This article is from page 11 of the 2008-02-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
A GIFTED mathematician who was last week sentenced to more than nine years in an American prison for armed robbery, is believed to be suffering from a mental illness that affects one per cent of the Irish popu- lation.
Niall Clarke from Kilrush was a top student in his final year at Trinity Se NSM Deer WatoremebicmecDeevE WANED ANI became concerned about his men- tal health. He started to get serious panic attacks.
His father Michael told a Maine Federal Court that his mother, Niall’s grandmother, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
The distraught father said he felt let down by the health services here for failing to help his son.
Before Niall was arrested for the robbery of Bank of America in Maine in October 2006, his father said that he had taken his son to a GP who, after a 10-minute evaluation, said that he would be all right.
On Tuesday last, Mr Clarke’s de- fence team argued that he had com- mitted the offences “while suffering from a reduced mental capacity”’.
Cork-born psychiatrist Dr Niamh Holohan, who is based in Bangor, Maine, gave evidence that the Kil- rush man had symptoms of schizo- eavne tb eee
She had been working with Ni- all for a year and told the court he had an IQ in the top two per cent in
the world and was “very honest and straightforward in explaining what happened”’.
The psychiatrist explained that Niall said he was driving through Maine when the idea to rob a bank came to him and “crystallised” in such a way as he just had to do it.
“Niall did not understand he had schizophrenia and did not understand the consequences of his actions. He needs therapy,” she said.
According to sources within the Clare mental health service, an aver- age of 45 people in Clare are diag- nosed with schizophrenia every year. The good news is that as many as one third of the population diagnosed with the illness can be completely cured, once treated.
Another third of the population can have “partial remission” but require
medicine for the rest of their lives to prevent the onset of the disease.
Others may require an “environ- ment of care’, whether in the home or institutionalised.
Following Mr Clarke’s sentencing, which is to include medical treat- ment, his father told reporters, “Niall appears to be in remission because he is in an institutionalised environ- ment.” The Kilrush father was in no doubt that had his son received the proper treatment in Ireland, he would not be in a high-security American prison today.
According to Schizophrenia Ire- land, this serious mental illness is characterised by disturbances in a person’s thoughts, perceptions, emo- tions and behaviour. The first onset commonly occurs in adolescence or early adulthood although it can also OLererty am -NkodanbO DB Kon
There are a number of signs and symptoms that are characteristic of schizophrenia. However, the expres- sion of these symptoms varies greatly from one individual to another.
Symptoms are divided into two groups: “active” symptoms that re- flect new or unusual forms of thought and behaviour; and “passive” symp- toms, that reflect a loss of previous feelings and abilities.