Trevor Laffan

Cancer is one of the biggest killers in our community so there can’t be many people who haven’t had some personal experience of this disease. I doubt there is a person alive who hasn’t lost a friend or relative to cancer.

So, you would imagine with it being so common and so destructive that every available resource would be thrown at it to tackle the damn thing.

That’s not the case in this country though but then again, I shouldn’t be surprised because our politicians, regardless of party affiliations, have plenty of experience of getting things wrong.

The new children’s hospital is one example. It’s been under construction for seven years with a seemingly endless budget and not a single child has been treated there yet. We have a homeless crisis, a housing shortage, a broken health service, and a struggling police service but we can still manage to build a bicycle shelter at a cost in excess of three hundred thousand Euro.

In the meantime, while they faff about in the Dail blaming each other for all the shortcomings, cancer patients are being let down on two fronts. Firstly, in terms of early detection and early treatment and secondly, at the other end of the scale in terms of care for end-of-life patients.

According to the Irish Examiner, The Irish Cancer Society’s helpline has received a large volume of calls from cancer patients who cannot access life-saving radiation therapy. As many as 60% of cancer patients are likely to need radiation therapy, but they’re “falling through the gaps” due to under-investment.

The National Cancer Strategy says people should start radiotherapy within 15 days but almost 40% of patients are not getting access within the recommended timeframe which could lead to poorer results for patients. 

We’re constantly being reminded by the experts that early detection and early treatment is essential in treating cancer, but that’s not the case for everyone and far too many are being let down.

Many patients nearing the end of life are also being let down. Dr Karie Dennehy, Palliative Medicine Consultant, Marymount University Hospital and Hospice and Cork University Hospital, said recently that palliative care is everyone’s business.

Dr. Dennehy is spot on. It is everyone’s business, and we don’t realise the value of it until we need the service. Then we learn very quickly, and I for one can’t speak highly enough about the Marymount organisation and their palliative care teams.

When my father was dying of cancer, he wanted to spend his last days at home. As a family, we were determined to make that happen and that would only change if a time came when we couldn’t provide the care he needed, or his suffering became too much.

It wasn’t easy. Anyone who has been through it with a loved one will be well aware of the difficulties involved. It’s frightening, confusing, stressful and uncertain. The medical professionals can give a reasonable estimate of when the end is likely to come, but they can never be precise and there is a practical concern attached to that.

The most important thing is to ensure the patient doesn’t suffer and that was my biggest worry. I had heard the palliative care team could only allocate ten days care to each terminally ill patient, and I wasn’t qualified to determine when that ten-day period should start. What if I called them in too soon and we ran out of days?

It doesn’t work that way of course. The GP knew when to notify the palliative care team and he set the ball rolling. A member of the team called to the house and went through the process with us. When I told her of my biggest fear, she reassured me that they would never leave us in the lurch.

The palliative care team were absolutely fantastic from the moment they got involved, and the care they gave my dad was second to none. The night nurse moved in for his final few days and made sure he was comfortable right to the end. They are amazing people, and we would have really struggled to cope without them.

In this day and age, nobody should have to endure undue suffering at the end of their lives but unfortunately that’s not the case. Another story in the Irish Examiner highlighted the fact that many terminally ill cancer patients cannot afford to heat their homes and as a result they are enduring hardship in their final weeks or days in cold, damp houses.

One in three night nurses from the Irish Cancer Society who provide end-of-life care across the country have told how they have seen patients in homes without any heating and unable to keep their houses warm because of worries about energy bills.

At a time when the families of the terminally ill can be pushed into a financial crisis, three nurses in five reported how households struggled to pay bills such as mortgage, rent and utilities. Nearly one in two said there was no central heating in patients’ homes. Some patients were huddled in blankets and hot water bottles.

Cancer patients are more vulnerable to the cold. Patients’ home heating may also need to be kept on during the summer because of their frailty. Patients on cancer drugs can feel the cold more readily and because they are terminally ill their requirements are higher. Worrying about the cost of the energy bill should not be an issue.

I don’t know what the government plan to do with the Apple windfall but before they fritter it all away on more badly planned projects and cost overruns, maybe they should spare a thought for the sick and the dying. Cancer service providers shouldn’t have to rely on the generosity of our citizens.

My daughter moved to Australia at the start of the year with her husband and three boys. They were fed up with the cost of living and poor services in Ireland and having lived in Oz previously they knew what they were getting into. They decided to give it another go and off they went.

Their initial plan was to return home after a couple of years, but that conversation changed almost as quickly as it began. Soon there was talk of three years, then three or four years and I reckon it would be foolish to bet on either.

And that’s fine. Sure, we miss watching the grand children grow up but it’s great to see them all enjoying the quality-of-life Australia has to offer. Vicki and Ian both have good jobs, the children are in good schools, and they live in a nice neighbourhood.

Cooper, the ten-year-old, has already developed an Aussie accent and as an outdoors, sporty kind of guy, he couldn’t be in a better place. The kids have built up a good social network with lots of school mates and friends and they’re happy so it’s all good. Well, maybe not completely.

Australia couldn’t be further away. It’s literally at the opposite side of the world and there is no easy way to get there, unless you can afford to fly business class. For the rest of us, it’s a hard slog no matter how you go about it.

I’ve made that journey a couple of times already and I swore I would never do a long-haul flight again. We had a stopover in Singapore after being in the air for what seemed like an eternity, but we were still only halfway there, and I was already exhausted. 

My mother loved flying. It was part of her holiday, and she took those journeys in her stride. As far as I’m concerned, long-haul travelling is a nightmare but now I have to face it again if I want to see the family.

I did suggest to my wife that maybe facetime is just as good and that making that woeful journey was unnecessary, but the look I got told me the topic was not up for discussion. So, we’re off.

Off to a country where even after you arrive you can’t relax because there is no shortage of creatures that want to bite, sting or eat you. Jeremy Clarkson was writing about the wildlife in Australia recently, and he said you only have a 50-50 chance of surviving a trip to the bottom of the garden.

Just to remind us of that, Vicki sent a video of a large snake making its way across the top of her garden fence and another photo of a Huntsman spider wandering around the house.

Some spiders are poisonous and can hide in your shoes, so you have to make sure there’s nothing in there before you put them on. You don’t have to worry about finding a Huntsman in your shoes though, because they’re big enough to wear them. They’re enormous.

On a previous visit, I unknowingly went for a swim in a part of the ocean that was inhabited by a few sharks who were, as it turned out, not that far away from me. I still shiver at the thought of it, but Australians have a more relaxed approach to dealing with critters. Their advice for anyone encountering a shark is to swim away from the pointy end.

Aussies must have good survival techniques though because I came across a report on the Internet that suggested Australians on average, are living longer than previous generations.

A new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare explored trends in Australia’s increasing life expectancy and found that over the last fifty years, life expectancy there has increased by 13.7 years for males (to 81.3) and by 11.2 years for females (to 85.4). It has increased at a rate of 3 months per year since the start of the 20th century.

Australia has one of the highest life expectancies in the world ranking fifth among 38 other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Japan is at the top closely followed by Switzerland, Korea and Spain.

The increased life expectancy is largely attributed to an active outdoor lifestyle, lower rates of smoking and drug abuse, improved medical knowledge and technology, health care availability such as the widespread accessibility to antibiotics and vaccines, improved living conditions and an overall better quality of life.

They don’t seem to take life too seriously either which probably helps but there’s some good news for us on this side of the world too.

A piece in the Irish Examiner suggested that a typical Mediterranean diet could lower the risk of dementia by almost a quarter. Even for people who are genetically more predisposed to developing dementia, a diet of seafood, wholegrains, nuts, fruits and vegetables reduces the likelihood of developing it, researchers have said.

Apparently, eating more fish and olive oil and less processed food, sugary food and red meat, could help to reduce the risk.

Other new research suggests that exercising between 7am and 9am may be the key to weight management. Although evidence regarding optimal timing of physical activity has been controversial, a study has found the start of the day appears to be the best time to enhance the positive impact of daily physical activity on obesity.

So, there you have it. If you want to live long, healthy, dementia free lives with lean bodies, move to Australia but stick to a Mediterranean diet and get up every morning at 7am and go for a run. Be careful where you exercise though because there’s a bunch of beasties just waiting to cut your life short.

Having spent over thirty-five years in An Garda Siochana I’ve learned that there are two kinds of people in most communities. The first type consists of those who only think of themselves and selfishly guard their right to be obstructive, awkward and unhelpful. No shortage of those.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, you have people who go out of their way to help create a better environment for themselves, their neighbours and the community in general. They give their time and energy freely as volunteers to various groups because and they enjoy it and because they are givers. Thankfully there’s no shortage of those either.

I met up with my buddy, John O’Connor, for a coffee recently and we were discussing some of the characters we encountered during our time in uniform. He reminded me of an incident that occurred in the early nineties when we were both operating out of Mayfield Garda Station.

We were in the patrol car together this particular day and as we drove up Wellington Road, we came across a hold up in the traffic. We soon discovered the cause. There was a car double parked at the top of York Hill and the driver was unloading goods from his car into a house.

John got out of the patrol car, approached the man and suggested he should park the car properly as he was causing a problem for other drivers, and traffic was grinding to a halt. The guy replied that he was only delivering household goods for his daughter and didn’t see what the problem was. A common response from selfish motorists.

John once again explained that not only was he badly parked, but he was also at a junction and causing a build-up of traffic. He advised the driver to park the car properly from where he could carry on with his business to his hearts content.

Once again though, the driver decided that he was doing nothing wrong and refused to move. At that stage John’s patience had run out and he took out his notebook and pen. He demanded the driver’s name and address at which point our friendly driver realised that he was in a spot of bother.

He shouted in a panicked voice to his wife who was sitting in the passenger seat, “He’s booking me darling; he’s booking me.” That made me laugh because those of a certain vintage will remember the 1970’s TV series Hawaii Five-0 featuring Jack Lord as Detective Steve McGarrett and his trusty sidekick Danno, played by James McArthur.

McGarrett always got his man and at the end of each episode when the culprit was finally arrested, he would issue the same instruction to his partner, “Book ‘em Danno.” Maybe our bad driver friend had grown up on a diet of Hawaii Five-0.

We dealt with characters like that regularly, but the decent people far outnumbered them. The ten years I spent in Mayfield were memorable ones even though I had a different impression of the place when I was first posted there in 1990. I thought I had landed in the Bronx.

Mayfield had a tough reputation in those days and not without justification. There were a lot of social problems, a high rate of unemployment and incidents of anti-social behaviour and criminality were rife. Burglaries, criminal damage, car theft and joyriding were nightly events, so it was a busy place.

There were some remarkable people in Mayfield too though working hard to make a difference. I was searching the Irish Examiner Archives recently and came across a report in The Evening Echo from 1979 which covered the sixth annual general meeting of the Mayfield Community Association held at the Mayfield Youth Centre.

It would have meant very little to me back then if I had seen it but it mentioned people like Cllrs. Ted Tynan, Frank Nash and Maureen Quill, Rev. Fr. Donal Lenihan and the chairman, Joe Mullane, Una Sheehan, Con Quirke, Mary Watt and Avril Daly.

The AGM received reports from Community Games, Festival Committee, Summer Recreation Scheme, Youth Club, Glen Action, Information Centre Turf Scheme, Building Committee, Senior Citizen and Fund-Raising Committees. There was a lot going on.

There were others beavering away in the area too like Brid Houlihan, Dan Sexton, Noel Sheahan, Tom Walshe, Mary Connolly and many more. Some, sadly, are no longer with us but they made a difference, and their legacy lives on. Little did I realise how much that Echo piece would relate to me in later years.

Community policing was in its infancy in the early nineties when I got involved and I was immediately impressed with the enthusiasm of the volunteers involved in the various community groups. I worked with many of those mentioned in The Echo piece and we proved that with the local authority, gardai and the community working together, much could be achieved.

Unfortunately, the economic downturn in the late noughties undid a lot of the success. There was a reduction in the resources available to community gardai and to the City Council and the wheels came off that particular wagon, which was a huge mistake in my opinion, but we’ve been over that ground before.

I still remember fondly the good times we had and the families I met. People like Mary Connolly who lived in Boyne Crescent. We remained friends for nearly thirty years and long after I had left the area.

Mary was involved in the Community Games, Brian Dillons Hurling and Football Club, St. Josephs Community Association, the local resident’s group and Neighbourhood Watch. She was the essence of community spirit.

Activists like Mary will always be missed by their community whereas characters like the guy who refused to move his car are soon forgotten.  

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has once again thrown the cat among the pigeons as he is wont to do. There’s no such thing as bad publicity they say, and the Ryanair man certainly knows how to create a headline.

He caused a stir recently when he suggested that there should be a limit on the amount of alcohol consumed by intending passengers in airports to reduce the disorder on flights. Mr. O’Leary said passengers should be restricted to two drinks per journey to curb what he says is an increase in antisocial behaviour and violence.

He doesn’t specify how many drinks should be made available to his passengers once they’re aboard the Ryanair plane though, but he did complain that violent outbursts were occurring weekly with alcohol and in his opinion, it was difficult for airlines to identify inebriated people at the gate, especially when boarding in a group.

They don’t seem to have a problem identifying an oversize cabin bag though whether part of a group or individually, but that’s another story.

Mr. O’Leary continued, “As long as they can stand up and shuffle, they will get through. Then when the plane takes off, we see the misbehaviour.”

 The airlines can’t absolve themselves of responsibility as easily as that though. The rules are clear according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Whether deliberate or not, it is a criminal offence to be drunk on an aircraft. In fact, the act carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

As well as that, passengers can only drink alcohol provided by the airline on the flight. You can bring duty free drinks on to the plane but cannot drink them on board.

Disruptive passengers may also be asked to reimburse the airline with the cost of a diversion which typically range from £10,000 – £80,000 depending on the size of the aircraft and where it diverts to, but I don’t know if this is enforced.

A few months ago, I wrote about an incident I encountered while travelling through Gatwick Airport in London. I called into a bar/restaurant for some breakfast at about 9.30am and the place was busy. There were six guys in their mid to late twenties sitting at a table and the drink was flowing.

They were extremely loud. They were playing drinking games while noisily cheering and roaring each other on. Their behaviour was way over the top and I wondered about the condition these guys would in by the time they were due to board.

I expected a member of staff to approach them and advise them to calm down. I was there for about 45 miniutes and I didn’t see that happen, but they were served with more alcohol when it was obvious they had enough. Surely the bar staff have a responsibility there.

And what about the responsibility of airline staff? Drunk passengers must present their passport and boarding pass at the boarding gate. Should staff there assess the condition of drunk passengers and question their fitness to travel?

Disruptive passengers don’t just suddenly get drunk as they approach the boarding gate. It’s also highly unlikely that the first time their behaviour becomes unruly or noticeable is when they take their seat on the plane. From my experience, you can spot these characters a mile off and well before they need to start thinking about getting on the plane.

The guys I saw in Gatwick Airport, were worse for wear long before their flight and should have been identified before they got into that state. An early word of advice might prevent further carnage. If my guys had been approached by security or by some other official and advised that their behaviour was being monitored and could result in them missing their flight, it might have had an impact.

Similarly, people approaching the boarding gate in a drunken state should be refused further progress.

I was on an Easyjet flight last week out of London Gatwick and across the aisle from me were two guys, mid-thirties, drinking small bottles of spirits. They were acting immaturely and spilled a drink over the other chap in the window seat beside them. They weren’t out of control, but they were messy. They were buying double measures and whenever they asked for more alcohol they were given it, no questions asked.

Further up the plane there were two females, late thirties/early forties. I spotted them earlier and they looked tired and emotional as they say, and about forty-five minutes out of Larnaca Airport there was a bit of disruption. The women were being called out by other passengers sitting nearby for vaping.

This led to some heated exchanges between the passengers and when the cabin crew got involved, they got some verbal abuse for their trouble. When we landed, we were instructed by the captain to remain in our seats as the police would be boarding the plane.

The two women were waving to everyone as they were escorted off the aircraft and they didn’t seem the least bit remorseful. Meanwhile the rest of us were stuck in our seats until their foolishness played out.

Our flight was an hour late already and this latest incident delayed us further while people waited in the arrivals hall to collect friends and relatives. It’s easy to identify drunk passengers before boarding and the airline has a legal obligation at that stage to send them packing. If drunk passengers were refused entry more often, it would reduce the amount of disruption, delays, diversions and bad behaviour.

So maybe the authorities should start enforcing the legislation that already exists for dealing with drunks which would make life more comfortable for everyone concerned and would be a lot easier to enforce than trying to marshal a two-drink rule.

Two things caught my eye from the coverage of the recent anti-immigrant riots in the UK. The first was the guy who was face down on the ground struggling with police officers who were attempting to put handcuffs on him. He could be heard shouting “I’m English, I’m English.”

That fact that he was loudly declaring his nationality told us all we needed to know about his mindset. In his warped thought process, his nationality absolved him of all responsibility. He was perfectly within his rights to behave like a hooligan to protect his country from invading foreigners.

He was convinced the police had made a mistake until he found himself in the back of a police van and if that sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve been dealing with the same bigots here. Our heroes wrap themselves in the tricolour which they believe gives them licence to set fire to buildings and assault gardai. Inspired by false information, they engage in criminality.

The second incident showed a big adult male, aggressively taunting a line of policemen in riot gear standing behind full body shields. At one point, he got too close to one policeman who shoved his shield forward knocking the guy on his backside.

Another character who filmed the incident on his phone focussed on the shoulder number of the policeman concerned. He shouted the number repeatedly, triumphantly proclaiming the fact that he had identified the culprit.

He was certain his evidence would have the officer hauled over the coals for his unwarranted assault on a peaceful protester and might even get him dismissed from the force. He must have been surprised the following morning to discover that the tables had turned.

Some of his counterparts were already before the courts and facing time in prison. He was probably stunned to find he had become the bad guy while the policeman was getting a pat on the back for a job well done.

Something else that might sound familiar too is the reaction of these characters in the court when faced with the wrath of the magistrate. There is a common theme – apologies, a sense of shame, regret and the usual lame excuses. It was the drink that did it, I was just following the crowd, I didn’t mean any harm etc etc.

I have been advocating for a tougher stance in this jurisdiction when it comes to civil disobedience, and I have taken some flak for it but I’m sticking to my guns. We have seen a gradual increase in the level of violence towards gardai during the so-called ‘peaceful protests’ and if this is allowed to continue it will only get worse.

I experienced a few skirmishes with small mobs in the course of my policing life and it was difficult to maintain discipline while being assaulted by thugs who had no respect for the law and didn’t follow any rules. Facing rocks and stones armed only with a piece of timber and a plastic shield for protection was no fun. Police officers should not be expected to have to tolerate that nonsense. 

Matthew Syed wrote a great piece in The Sunday Times where he gave some insight into what the police faced during those incidents:

‘In Liverpool, police officers, men and women, stood firm as a baying mob pelted them with fireworks, petrol bombs and rocks. Footage later emerged from a helmet-cam and it was like something out of a war zone. Frankly, I’d have understood if they had all fled.’

‘But these people feel an acute sense of duty, a recognition that public safety sometimes requires that they confront danger. Listen carefully and you can hear them encouraging each other as the missiles fly: “Stay strong!” and “We can do this!”

‘In Rotherham, police officers faced attacks with concrete slabs, fire extinguishers and a makeshift battering ram as they stood shoulder to shoulder against a crowd hellbent on entering a hotel to commit mass murder. Split-second decisions during scenes of utter chaos are the only thing that prevented an atrocity of an unprecedented kind.’

‘Officers were bloodied, one knocked unconscious, but they didn’t buckle. One asylum seeker was in tears as he paid tribute to those who prevented his lynching.’

What has been very refreshing is the public response to the tough stance taken in the UK. It has been hugely positive and that shouldn’t be a great surprise because the vast majority of people everywhere are decent law-abiding citizens. The peaceful anti-racism marches that followed in the wake of these disturbances prove something.

They prove it’s possible to stage a protest without causing injury to people or damage to property. It shows too that the silent majority can be a powerful force when they speak up. They delivered a kick up the backside to the anarchists and that’s what we should be doing here.

I said recently that our lack of police action is emboldening these miscreants and encouraging more outrageous behaviour. Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee said, “We’ve seen many hundreds of protests. The vast, vast majority peaceful but a small number where a violent element has tried to undermine our society.”

She condemned utterly and completely any attacks on gardaí and said any such attack represents an attack on our entire community, an attack on our very democracy and our fundamental rights. There was a serious example of that recently when An taoiseach, Simon Harris and his family were the victims of an online death threat.

You can’t get much closer to the very heart of our democracy than that. He has responded with a warning to social media giants that he plans to tackle online threats and harassment. That’s very welcome but it’s time to come down heavily on the offenders in the real world too.

I was reminded recently of an incident that happened a few years ago involving my late mother-in-law, Moyra Swords. She was in her nineties at the time and her eyesight was fading badly. Her hearing wasn’t great either. She was travelling from Dungarvan with her daughter Ann, when they were stopped at a garda checkpoint.

When the garda approached the driver’s window, Moyra immediately began rummaging through her handbag to find some change for the garda. She thought it was someone collecting for a charity and happily handed money to Ann to give to the garda.

Ann was mortified and told her mother to put the bag away in case the gesture was construed differently. She had visions of poor old Moyra being hauled off in handcuffs for trying to bribe an officer of the law. Thankfully the garda saw the funny side of it.

Moyra always insisted on leaving a tip wherever she went so she would have survived well in America given her willingness to hand over money. She wouldn’t have had a problem with their tipping culture unlike some of her counterparts.

It was reported recently that a restaurant owner in America wanted all Europeans banned from the country because they were useless tippers. He had obviously been upset by some customers from this side of the pond but having an issue with Europeans not tipping is ironic given that it was the Europeans who introduced tipping to the States in the first place.

According to Businessinsider.com the origins of tipping are uncertain, but historians say it likely began in Europe during the Middle Ages, when many people lived under a feudal system. Tipping emerged as a master-serf custom in which masters would tip their servants for good service. By the 1700’s, it extended to customers tipping service-industry workers. 

Historians say tipping in the USA was almost non-existent prior to about 1840 but in the years leading up to the Civil War, many wealthy Americans discovered the practice on their travels to Europe. When they returned, some began tipping as a way to signal their status and show off their worldliness. Europeans also began immigrating to the US, bringing the custom of tipping with them. 

Initially, most Americans didn’t take to tipping in part because they said it encouraged classism and further distinguished the wealthy from the common person. Anti-tipping sentiment persisted and in 1904, the Anti-Tipping Society of America was founded and its 100,000 members pledged to not tip anyone for a year.

In 1915, Iowa passed legislation that said anyone convicted of accepting a tip of any kind would be fined or imprisoned for a maximum of 30 days. In Arkansas, any waiter found guilty of accepting a tip was fined $10. But in 1919, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the state’s anti-tipping law was unconstitutional, and by 1926 all anti-tipping laws were off the books. 

Now, Americans are tipping more than ever before so what about us? Well, for those of us not familiar with the rules of the tipping game in this neck of the woods, Irishgraves.com offer the Complete Guide to Tipping in Ireland.

They suggest that while it is not mandatory, it is a way to show appreciation. Around 10% of the bill is usual for restaurants, and 10-15% for taxis and tour guides. Service staff prefer cash tips, but it’s also okay to tip with a credit card but they tell us to always check if there’s already a service charge on the bill.

In pubs, tipping isn’t expected per drink but rounding up or giving about 10% of the total bill for table service is polite and for hotel staff like housekeeping or porters, €1 to €2 per day is appreciated if you liked their service. At restaurants or cafes in Ireland when a service charge is not added, tipping your server 10-15% of the total bill is customary.

I have an issue with that. Staying in a hotel in Ireland is expensive and so is eating out. I was at a restaurant recently with the family and our drinks bill alone, two pints and two glasses of house wine, came to €27.30. Add that to the cost of the meal, then include a tip of 15% and that amounts to a tidy sum.

I didn’t leave a tip on that occasion and I’m slow to tip in this country because we pay too much for pretty much everything already, including eating out, hotel accommodation and alcohol. I spend a lot of time in Cyprus where restaurants are reasonably priced so going for a meal isn’t a major consideration and I will happily leave a tip.

Maybe in Ireland we could learn something from Japanese culture. Tips in Japan are considered an insult according to Readers Digest. The Japanese consider exceptional service to be part of the job, and employees take great pride in their work. The advice for visitors is not to tip regardless of whether you’re dining at a high-end restaurant in Tokyo or taking a taxi in Kyoto.

Instead, Japanese culture emphasizes hospitality, known as “Omotenashi,” which ensures customers receive the best service possible without the expectation of additional compensation.

Taxi drivers in Japan do not expect tips and that includes telling them to keep the change. The exact fare is all that is required. Professional tour guides and translators in Japan don’t expect tips. A heartfelt thank-you or a positive review will suffice as an expression of your appreciation. 

It’s also worth noting that in some places, tipping is even considered to be offensive. So, to avoid upsetting anyone and in the interest of being respectful, I’m opting out of the tipping culture.

The next time a tip is required, I’m going to offer a heartfelt thank you instead.

I was listening to the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk recently and he was interviewing Fine Gael Senator Maria Byrne. She was promoting the idea of pop-up garda stations which she said could be used to deter crime and restore confidence in communities. She said the link between anti-social behaviour and a lack of policing presence was clear.

“It would be a temporary Garda station, a unit that isn’t on the main street in our towns, villages, and cities, which Gardaí could use to have a presence and provide information,” she said. “It’s all about having a greater presence on the street, it increases confidence which is something we all want.”

“The roll out of more pop-up stations on a temporary basis would provide those living in rural communities, greater access to Garda services and provide a greater sense of security especially to the elderly in these communities.”

That last sentence caught my attention. Had she had forgotten who was responsible for closing those rural garda stations in the not-too-distant past? It was the security of those very same elderly people that many of us were concerned about at the time of those closures, but our concerns fell on deaf ears.

The then Minister for Justice, France Fitzgerald, assured the rural communities they would have a better garda service as a result of the closures, but Senator Byrne seems to have doubts about how that worked out.

The main point she was trying to get across though was that the physical presence of gardai on the streets increases public confidence and deters criminality. She won’t get any argument from me there. The various garda representative associations have been saying that for years.

Having gardai on the beat was a strategy An Garda Siochana followed for decades. It was an essential element in maintaining law and order. Towns and cities were divided into small sections called ‘beats’, patrolled by gardai on foot, twenty-four hours a day.

Gardai on foot patrols prevented and detected crime, built a rapport with the local community and gave communities a sense of safety. The patrols were easily organised and didn’t cost much but not everyone appreciated their value.

There were many who wanted to change the policing style under the guise of modernisation. The Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland (CoFPI), The Garda Siochana Inspectorate, The Irish Policing Authority, Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission and endless policing plans over the years have had their say on how policing should be managed.

Many reports have been published, strategies identified, proposals and recommendations adopted and plans for the future of the policing in Ireland unveiled. Vast quantities of ink and paper were used to print forest loads of paper and what did we end up with?

Well, for starters we have an under resourced police force, led by senior officers from outside jurisdictions and we have a force that is struggling to recruit new membership because it is not seen as an attractive career.

We have reached new depths too. For the first time ever, a motion of no confidence was expressed in the garda commissioner by the rank-and-file membership. We have a leadership that can’t find a candidate to replace the current commissioner when he retires because of a financial issue which, if it isn’t resolved, is likely to result in the appointment to the top job of another officer from outside the jurisdiction.

It’s fair to say that despite all the restructuring, the organisation is in crisis. Between them all, they have managed to strangle An Garda Siochana with paperwork and oversight, and in my opinion, policing has been set back thirty years.

And the future isn’t looking too bright either when the politicians think the solution lies in pop-up garda stations, especially without considering the implications.

The County Limerick Senator told Pat Kenny that her aim was for “people to have confidence” by seeing Gardaí on the street. “A Garda presence on the street is very welcome and has started to increase, especially here in Limerick,” she said. “I do believe that having a Garda station where guards can come and go is really important.”

She criticised how commonplace drug dealing has become on the streets. “We need to keep fighting against it.” she said. “The presence of Gardaí on the street and the roll-out of body cams is beginning to help deter it, and that’s something we need to build on.” She also suggested that these pop-up garda stations would be handy if gardai wanted to interview someone or bring them in for questioning.

As a legislator, Senator Byrne should be more familiar with the legal requirements surrounding the detention and questioning of people in custody. Specifically, The Criminal Justice Act 1984 (Treatment of Persons in Custody in Garda Síochána Stations) Regulations 1987 might have something to say about having prisoners in pop-up stations

She also suggested recruiting more civilians to run some of the offices to put more Gardaí back out on the street, but I was under the impression that the civilianisation programme in An Garda Siochana was well underway. Not before time either. I can remember being told that civilianisation was imminent when I was stationed in Dublin over forty years ago but maybe the senator is better informed.

If her opinion on policing is indicative of the current thinking of our legislators, then the future of policing in Ireland looks bleak. The new Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023 is due shortly which will add to the growing pile of consultant’s reports, expert working group findings, strategies, and designing programmes and who knows what that will bring.

In the meantime, I have a suggestion. Let’s return to the best strategy of them all – put gardai back on the beat where they belong.

I went to Spain for the first time back in the mid-seventies and I was made to feel very welcome. The locals were happy to have me and even happier to take my pesetas. I was glad to accept their hospitality and their sangria but in recent times, their attitude seems to be changing.

Residents in some of the holiday spots around Europe have become less tolerant of tourists. Anti-tourism protests have been a common sight this summer, with demonstrations taking place in several countries such as Spain, Netherlands, Greece and others. In July, protesters marched through areas of Barcelona spraying visitors with water pistols while chanting “tourists go home.”

More recently, thousands protested on the island of Mallorca, with locals bemoaning the lack of affordable housing, which they blame on short-term rentals, and overcrowding caused by the cruise ship industry.

Protests have erupted in the Canary Islands, Menorca and Malaga too. Amsterdam plans to ban cruise stops at its main terminal by 2035 and has also blocked new hotel development.

Tens of thousands of people also protested across the Canary Islands demanding a freeze on visitor numbers, because they say life is becoming unaffordable for residents. Authorities in Mt. Fuji, Japan have introduced a daily visitor cap and charges hikers a toll for some trails. Bali charges a “tourist levy” and in Iceland, the national government has reinstated its tourist tax.

Back in 2021 Venice took a decision to ban ships weighing over 25,000 tonnes from entering certain areas because the heavy-weight ships were causing damage to the ecosystem and eroding the old foundations of the palaces and the streets of Venice. The city was struggling to cope with the thousands of passengers crowding into Venice’s narrow streets. 

Santorini also has an issue with hordes of visitors invading the island and authorities there have joined in calling for a cap on visitors. They say the growing number of foreign tourists is putting pressure on its outdated infrastructure and is pricing islanders out of the housing market.

Many residents complained about the noise levels, the clogged roads and the pollution from the never-ending busloads of tourists. Armed with selfie sticks and phones, the tourists flood in from everywhere to watch the island’s famed sunset and many of Santorini’s 20,000 permanent residents, have had enough.

I can understand that to a certain extent. My wife and I spent a couple of weeks in Cinque Tierra in Italy last year. It was during August, peak holiday season, and the place was thronged with tourists. At times it was difficult to walk around in comfort, especially when the cruise ships pulled into the small port.

It was uncomfortably busy on those occasions, and it must be irritating for the locals who still have to go about their daily business. Many of them though make a direct living from tourism and the area benefits too so there needs to be a balance. 

Thankfully, we don’t have that problem in Cork yet. The natives still have a very healthy attitude towards cruise ships, particularly in Cobh which is just as well because we play host to most of them. There will be over one hundred liners paying a visit to the harbour town this season alone.

Port of Cork announced its Cruise Liner Schedule for 2024 earlier this year which showed an increase of 23% more vessels expected to visit the Cork and Cobh terminals. An impressive 116 cruise vessels will call between April and November, surpassing the 2023 figure of 94 ships that brought 180,000 passengers to the region. 

It is estimated that cruise tourism contributes €17 million to the local economy and Toddy Stafford, President of Cobh & Harbour Chamber, shared his anticipation for the busy year ahead and said the increase in cruise calls this year is testament to the collaboration between Port of Cork and local stakeholders and businesses.

“We eagerly anticipate another successful season that will not only boost local trade and tourism through the influx of passengers and crew but also bring a wave of visitors to Cobh to view these majestic cruise ships in Cork Harbour.“   

He’s right of course to be enthusiastic. We are unlikely to suffer from overtourism in Cobh so we’ll happily take all the visitors we can get. Most of these liners carry thousands of passengers and on a sunny day, there is always an atmosphere in the town with tourists and locals mingling and enjoying the outdoor music.

Apart from the flow of passengers, the liners also attract other visitors to the town. The massive ships are an attraction in their own right and everyone is certainly made to feel welcome. As the ships leave the port in the evening, the Cobh Confraternity Band usually gives a recital on the quayside to give the passengers a good send off.

Is there a downside? Of course there is, but nothing that’s insurmountable. On days when the liners are visiting, parking around the town is a bit of a problem but that’s not unusual. Parking in Cobh is a pain at the best of times. A bigger issue is the amount of traffic getting on and off the island.

Thousands of passengers leave the cruise ships at the quayside to be ferried by busses to other tourist spots in the region. As they navigate a path through our infrastructure, they must pass over the island’s only bridge at Belvelly which is several hundred years old and must be feeling the pressure. We still have only one road into Cobh, so it doesn’t take much to create a blockage.

We’re still happy to see the liners though and the local economy would take a hit if they stopped coming. Countries involved in over-tourism protests should be careful what they wish for.

In the aftermath of the recent riots in the United Kingdom, the judiciary showed their teeth when it came to dealing with the offenders in court. Justice was swift and caught everyone by surprise. The effect was immediate and the one hundred or so riots predicted to take place over the following few days never materialised.

Sir Kier Starmer, Prime Minister of the UK and former Director of Public Prosecutions is being credited with the crack down. As an experienced prosecutor, he knows how to use the law, but his predecessors in the Middle Ages were no slouches either when it came to punishment.

In medieval times an accused person could lose their head, literally, on the whim of a disgruntled magistrate. The death penalty was a possibility for a relatively minor offence and a stint in prison wasn’t much easier if what I read of medieval gaols is accurate.

I’m reading the Shardlake series of novels at the moment. They’re described as historical mystery novels set in 16th century Tudor England. The main character, barrister Matthew Shardlake, solves crime while trying hard to avoid the wrath of Henry VIII.

The stories contain many descriptions of what it was like to be a prisoner in medieval times in stone walled dungeons with straw on the floor that was changed so infrequently it often stank. Full of fleas, the cells were damp with no fresh air and were regularly overcrowded. Men, women and children were often kept together with hardened criminals mixing with first time offenders.

The quality of care often depended on what money was available from relatives or friends on the outside to bribe the prison guards. A few pence in the right hands could ensure clean straw or an extra helping of gruel. Not much of a treat, but it did help to keep them alive.

According to Digitalponoptican.org, many eighteenth-century statutes specified death as the penalty for minor property offences which meant people tried at the Old Bailey could be sentenced to hang for as little as stealing a handkerchief or a sheep.

Felonies were originally punishable by hanging, but those found guilty of lesser crimes were sentenced to other punishment such as the stocks, imprisonment, whipping and fines. Execution was a public spectacle, and convicts were drawn in a cart through the streets to the gallows, where they were given a chance to speak to the crowd to confess their sins.

Women who claimed they were pregnant when they were sentenced to death could “plead their belly”. Such women were then examined by other women present in the courtroom, and, if found to be “quick with child” – if movement could show signs of life – their punishment was delayed until after the baby was born.

In principle, the punishment could then be carried out, but in practice sympathy for the newborn child or concern for the cost of caring for it meant that the mother was often pardoned.

By the 1840s, the death penalty was abolished for all offences except for murder and High Treason. Women found guilty of either treason or petty treason were sentenced to be “burned alive at the stake”, though executioners usually strangled women with a cord before lighting the fire.

Men found guilty of treason were sentenced to be “hanged, cut down while still alive, and then disembowelled, castrated, beheaded and quartered”. The bodies of those found guilty of murder and hanged were either delivered to the surgeons to be “dissected and anatomised” or “hung in chains”.

Some convicted of lesser crimes were punished publicly in the stocks as a way of destroying their reputations. Stocks were set up in busy streets where crowds could easily gather, and the culprit would be placed on a platform with his arms and head secured through holes in the wooden structure.

The stocks rotated so that crowds on all sides could get a good view and could express their disapproval of the offence by pelting the offender with rotten eggs and vegetables, blood and guts from slaughterhouses, dead cats, mud and excrement, and even bricks and stones.

Those days are long gone and maybe that’s a pity. Leniency seems to be the order of the day in our courtrooms and respect for the officers of the court is disappearing. There was a time when disrespectful behaviour wasn’t tolerated, certainly not by some of the judges I knew. Things change.

The Irish Examiner reported on a bail application being considered by a judge in Cork District Court. During the hearing, gardaí became aware that a young woman had texted another person telling her to pretend she was a relative of the man in the dock if gardaí rang to check if the defendant would be welcome to stay at her address.

The judge said this information effectively scuppered the bail application for the accused person who then stood up in the dock and said loudly, “Just leave it off — I am sick of this shit.” The judge then told the young woman to leave the courtroom immediately.

In other cases, a serving soldier who beat a woman unconscious in a random street attack, and boasted about it on social media, walked free from court after being given a fully suspended sentence which the victim described as “not justice”.

And a former GAA star avoided a criminal conviction for assault after paying compensation to two men who were punched by him in what was described as an unprovoked attack. He pleaded guilty to assaulting the men and the judge stressed to the defendant that such behaviour would “not be tolerated”. He still walked free though.

I wonder how much of that bad behaviour would improve if the stocks were still available to the courts. But then, would judges use them.

I had a nostalgic moment recently while reading the latest issue of Siochain magazine, a publication for retired members of An Garda Siochana. There was a photograph of a young Garda Moses. P. Maguire, in full uniform taken around 1960. It took me back because he was my first sergeant when I went to Blackrock in Dublin in May 1980.

M.P. Maguire was widely respected with a reputation for being a decent and competent policeman. Looking at the photo I was reminded how quickly time passes. The 5^th of December this year will mark 45 years since I first walked through the gates of the Training Centre in Templemore and a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. That photograph set me off on a journey down memory lane.

I was a twenty-one-year-old recruit and came from a background of self-employment, working with my father who was a small-time building contractor. Suddenly I was in a disciplined organisation with a membership of about 12,000.

There was a specific chain of command and I soon realised I was at the very bottom of it. Being told when to go to bed, when to get up and when to get your hair cut took a bit of getting used to. My plan was to keep the head down during training and follow orders but that didn’t last long.

We had our meals in a large mess hall. There were a few hundred recruits there at the time plus a large staff so cooking for that amount of people must have had its challenges. Most of the time the food was ok but there was an occasion when stew was added to the menu, and it wasn’t going down well – literally.

It had a peculiar taste. Not nasty, just unusual and it appeared on the menu three days of the week. Usually, we had a choice of two main courses, but the alternative course was always snapped up by those at the head of the queue leaving the stew for the rest of us. Everyone was moaning about it.

In the classroom one day I happened to mention it to our training sergeant, Dan Corrigan, an experienced man who put many recruits through his hands over the years. He told me to lodge a complaint. I immediately regretted opening my mouth, but I was committed now. He showed me how to compile an official written report which he countersigned and sent to the staff office.  

A few days later while sitting in the classroom, there was an announcement over the tannoy system instructing me to present myself at that same office. This is it, I thought to myself. This is where my short life in An Garda Siochana comes to an abrupt end.

I’m about to be dismissed for daring to question authority. The commissioner himself would probably take a personal interest in the matter. What would my parents think? I had brought shame on the family. I would have to change my name and I was mentally going through the various countries that might grant me asylum.

Surprisingly, there was no drama. I received a cordial reception, presented my case and the stew disappeared. I was the new hero.

I survived the training period and was sent to Blackrock in Dublin in 1980 where I met Sgt M.P. Maguire for the first time. He showed me the ropes and we got on well until later that year when there was an incident that could easily have ended our relationship.

We were working the night shift, and there was a plan to have a dinner in the early hours of the morning when things had quietened down around the city. I don’t remember what the occasion was, but all the food had been prepared in the kitchen and it was just a matter of cooking it up.

At the briefing before going on duty, the sergeant reminded us about the meal and arranged the breaks accordingly. He also advised us that it would be useful if we could avoid filling the cells with prisoners as that would only complicate things. That made sense.

I was on beat duty in the Stillorgan area, and the night was relatively quiet. In the early hours, when the pubs and clubs had closed, I made my way back to the station. I strolled along casually, looking forward to my dinner.

As I passed the South County Hotel, I heard a commotion. It sounded like raised voices, but I pretended not to hear and quickened my step. The thought of getting involved in an incident and returning to the station with a prisoner had me in a panic. Suddenly a man appeared in front of me. He was excited and pointing in the direction of the hotel entrance.

What was unfolding in front of me was not good. There was a guy, completely off his head, dancing on the roof of a taxi. He was shouting and roaring and threatening to beat the world. There was no reasoning with him, and it was obvious there was only one course of action to be taken. I called for a patrol car, arrested him and conveyed him to the station.

He caused havoc when we were placing him in the cell, and it didn’t end there. Not long before we were due to have the grub, the prisoner acted up in the cell. He stripped naked and urinated everywhere. Sgt. Maguire entered the cell area and duly ended up on the floor having been knocked by the prisoner. His clothes were in a bit of a state.

I don’t remember much about the dinner after that. I think I spent the entire time going over the asylum application in my head.