Bicycle blackspots and Covid-19 domestic violence: Latest news from Noteworthy

More of your ideas have been turned into proposed investigations as part of the team’s pandemic project.

By Maria Delaney

WITH TWO INVESTIGATIONS published and another in progress, it’s been an extremely busy month for our community-led investigative platform, Noteworthy.

Last month, they asked you what you were you most concerned about when you looked six months into the future. A number of your submissions have now been turned into investigation proposals. 

Your Covid-19 stories

REAPING THE HARVEST: Have years of neglect left horticulture at a tipping point that has been provoked by the current crisis? This project will examine what the State can do to ensure food security for our island. 

If you’d like to know more about the horticulture industry, read this feature by Noteworthy reporter Niall Sargent which was published yesterday: The hard graft of horticulture makes it difficult for the sector to grow.

CHILDCARE CROSSROADS: The economy’s dependence on childcare solutions has been thrown into stark relief by Covid-19. When this is over, how do we construct a childcare system in Ireland that works for everyone? 

COVID CONSCIOUSNESS: Irish society is set to come out the other side of this as an altogether changed nation. With an already overstretched health system, can we prevent a pandemic-induced mental health crisis?

CARING FOR CARERS: What’s life like for care workers in the time of coronavirus? This project will look into whether the current standards and regulations meet the complex care needs of clients and their families.

SUSPENDED ANIMATION: Artists were among the first to lose work and income as Covid-19 hit Ireland. How can we help them get back on their feet?

Submit your concerns 

Noteworthy hope to supplement this project through their general contributions fund. If you wish to support that drive, contribute what you can here.

However, it’s not too late to send them your ideas and you can do this by sending them a note on what worries you most about what Ireland will look like in six months’ time to noteworthy.ie/entry.

Published: Trapped with tormentors 

The Noteworthy Covid-19 project began with the funding and publication of their first coronavirus-related investigation. This project was fully funded by you, our readers, within 36 hours of being first launched. 

Reporter Peter McGuire then took two weeks to collate data relating to current trends in domestic abuse being reported across the country, as well as the historical patterns which have made it such a problem in Irish society.

The first article focuses on domestic abuse patterns and the interventions needed to better protect men and women throughout this pandemic and beyond. The second piece looks at the challenges facing at-risk children right now and explores how we can best look after them.

Published: Bicycle blackspots


Over the past two months, Noteworthy reporter Maria Delaney analysed 12 years of Road Safety Authority collision injury data as well as thousands of cycling-related complaints.

By concentrating on junctions and sections of road where cyclists were killed or seriously injured, she mapped the most dangerous blackspots around Ireland. These are detailed in the first part of the investigation

The second article reveals the top cycle-related complaints to city councils, how poor infrastructure is affecting cyclists and how this can lead to injuries which can cost local authorities thousands in public liability claims. 

Noteworthy numbers
  • 82 - Articles published, funded through proposals or our general fund.
  • 61 - Open proposals compiled from ideas sent to us by the public.
  • 5- Proposals on their way to being funded soon:  Parent Rights (90%) tackling legal limbo of same-sex couples; Academic Uncertainty (65%) looking at precarious contracts at third level; Selling Our Genes (57%) investigating public funding of private DNA collection; Speak or Survive (52%) on support for survivors of sexual abuse; and Dead End (47%) investigating Galway’s planned ring road.

Last week, Noteworthy also wrote an article about concerns over timing of an opt-out ‘publicity campaign’ for genomics research which ties into their proposed ‘Selling Our Genes’ investigation.

Follow the links above if you want to find out how you can get these projects over the line. The investigations can’t begin until the proposals are funded so please spread the word via friends and social media.

How to help 

You can also help Noteworthy in a few other ways:

  • Fund their Covid-19 project through the general fund
  • Fund a specific proposal
  • Share a proposal and tell your family and friends about their work 

To find out how contributions are used, or anything else about how Noteworthy works, click here. You can also sign up to their Insider Newsletter or find them on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to email [email protected]

Thanks so much for your continued support!  

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