To a website linking Canada and Ireland, the details of a recent World Health Service table of health systems based on their efficiency is of interest. Health care in both countries has been number one on the list of concerns noted by their citizens in recent polls. The systems which provide that health care have now been analyzed by the World Health Organization which conducted research embracing a total of 191 countries.

It should be noted that the results, released in August, 2001, are based on an analysis of figures between 1993 and 1997, and do not imply that countries with the highest levels of health have the most efficient health systems.

The rankings derived from the study, published in the British Medical Journal, place Ireland 32nd and Canada 35th in the table.

Diet, climate, and other factors such as road and work place safety, were not factored into the analysis.

But rankings of 32nd and 35th cannot give cause for complacency in either country.

Leaving aside for a moment the present-day pre-occupation with health matters as evidenced in television news casts, newspaper reports, medical columns, and multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical advertising, once in a while along comes a reminder that good health and longevity are not always due to modern medicine, health care systems, and corporate pill pushers.

Recently much ado was made about a former monarch’s 101st birthday in Britain. Much less attention was paid to Cassie Sweeney, the 106 year old resident in the Rock Nursing Home in - where else? - Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, who in July was served with a summons for jury duty at a sitting of the circuit court in Donegal Town.

A native of Kilcar, Cassie survived babyhood, adolescence, and most of her adulthood without the health care facilities and systems that we, in Canada and Ireland, very much take for granted today, and which we yearn to improve in this, the third century of Cassie’s life.

Footnote: Cassie was excused from being called for jury duty, she being 41 years over the statutory legal age limit.