Trevor Laffan

I’m only in my mid-sixties and I could hardly describe my childhood as deprived, but as kids we had to make do with lots of things and we didn’t mind because we didn’t know any different. In many ways I think we were better off.

People had a lot more common-sense then too. They were practical and could be inventive when they needed to be. If they had a problem, they found a solution. If they couldn’t buy the part they needed, they made it and if the proper materials weren’t available, they improvised.

Many years ago, a few of us were out of town in a Morris minor and on the way home, it broke down as it did regularly. When we opened the bonnet, the problem was obvious, and it needed to be because none of us had a clue about engines. The fanbelt had disappeared, so the car was overheating.

We walked into town and one of the lads took a pair of his gran’s nylons. We returned to the car and used them as a temporary fanbelt just to get the car home and it worked fine. For non-mechanically minded people we were delighted with ourselves.

These days, when something starts to give trouble, the first thought that comes to mind is to throw it away and get a new one. Money can buy anything. You simply need to go online, find out where in the world a replacement can be found, enter your credit card details, then sit back and wait for a man in a van to drop it at your door.

The idea of trying to find a practical common-sense solution to a problem doesn’t enter the equation. A perfect example of this is the recent government decision to allocate €9 million in the Budget for equipment to store students’ phones during school hours.

The government planned to fund schools to buy pouches and lockers, so kids wouldn’t have access to their mobiles during the day. Telling them to leave them at home or not to be playing with them during class is way too complicated and might just stress the little Johnnies out.

Better to buy ‘pouches’ with special locks or electronic lockers. Once the phone is put into the pouch or other storage system, it is sealed and can only be opened by the school, which will be done at the end of the school day.

The idea is that students can still have the phone on their person so that parents can contact them on their way to and from school but that the student is prevented from using the phone during school hours. 

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland said schools are in a worse position to tackle “the challenges posed by mobile phones” now than they would have been years ago, adding that “pastoral supports must be enhanced” to help students deal with challenges.

I think it’s the adults who need help dealing with modern challenges. We didn’t have mobile phones in my school days but if we did and one of us attempted to use it, we would have been punished and we would have been reluctant to use it a second time. If phone usage in class became an issue, here’s what would have happened.

One of the teachers would have arrived in the class with a cardboard box. He would have collected the phones and put them in the box. The box would have gone into the principal’s office and would have remained there until after school. That would have cost nothing and would have been just as effective.

In my time, if a parent needed to contact a student for any reason, they phoned the secretary’s office and little Johnny would be summoned to the office to answer the call. If little Johnny wasn’t feeling well, he went to the office and rang home.

Calls like that were rare though because kids were taught to go to school and get on with it. You would want to be close to death to disturb the class, or your parents, during school time or your next call would be to the local doctor. Parents were too busy trying to make ends meet to be worrying about little Johnny feeling stressed.

Cycling to school was very popular in the sixties too. We cycled in the hail, rain and shine and it didn’t cost us a thought. Nearly every kid had a bike, and we had a bicycle shed too which was pretty full most of the time.

As far as I can remember, the one in our school consisted of a corrugated iron roof which was supported by a few metal poles in front and secured to a stone wall at the rear. When it rained, the bikes stayed dry – it wasn’t rocket science.

I doubt if the Dail bicycle shed will perform any better than our old school version but that seems to be the way of things now. When dealing with public money just pick a number, add your first thoughts to it, then double it and hey presto, you have a price. 

This applies to security huts too it seems. In my early days in An Garda Siochana, I did many tours of duty in security huts that were of dubious construction. They weren’t designed to be comfortable or even warm, but they did what they were supposed to do and kept the rain out. Well, most of the time anyway.

So how is it that these basic items are now costing millions. Have we lost the ability to appreciate value for money or have we all just become accustomed to waste. Don’t even get me started on the new National Children’s Hospital.

Movember is upon us once again and a time when guys get up to all sorts of antics to promote it like Jon Montgomery for instance. He’s a Canadian Olympian and television host who sent his moustache on a solo mission into space to kick off the start of Movember. 

A Canadian broadcaster reported that Montgomery took one small step for man and one giant leap for men’s health by sending his moustache into space when he launched his whiskers to the edge of the stratosphere as part of the annual month-long campaign. 

“If you’re going to raise funds and awareness you might as well have fun with it,” he said. Montgomery’s moustache was sealed in an acrylic case and sent on its way. It was a “no brainer,” he said, since his dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2016 and was successfully treated for it.

So, what exactly is Movember? The Movember Foundation explains that this annual global campaign encourages men to grow moustaches and participate in various activities to raise awareness about men’s health issues.

The month-long event focuses on promoting physical and mental well-being among men, addressing issues such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health challenges, and suicide prevention.

While there is a fun side to the campaign, Movember also provides a platform for men to discuss their health openly, seek support, and take proactive steps towards a healthier and happier life.

It aims to challenge the stigma around men’s health issues, spark conversations, and promote early detection and intervention.

It all started in Australia twenty years ago when a group of friends decided to grow moustaches to raise awareness about prostate cancer and depression in men. It has since evolved into a global movement with millions of participants and supporters and has funded numerous men’s health projects and initiatives and has become a symbol of solidarity and awareness.

Let’s face it, (no pun intended), men are notoriously bad at dealing with medical issues and we are even worse at talking about them which is completely stupid because ignoring a potential illness will only complicate any possible medical intervention.

That’s why I’m taking this opportunity to beat the awareness drum again. Modern medicine is advancing all the time and these days a simple blood test can tell us so much about the current state of our health that it makes no sense not to have one on a regular basis.

Many of us avoid it because we fear a blood test might reveal something unpleasant. It might indicate that there is something wrong with us, which of course it might. So rather than take that chance, we pretend there’s nothing wrong and carry on.

But surely, it’s better to make that discovery early so it can be dealt with rather than living in ignorance until it’s too late. Especially now as results from blood tests are becoming more sophisticated and in time, they may even be able to warn us about potential dangers coming down the track.

I came across an article in The Sunday Times recently that said a simple blood test could one day forecast the likelihood of contracting more than 60 conditions as much as a decade in advance.

This means that patients could be diagnosed sooner if they do contract a disease and many more could be alerted that they were at risk. They could then be offered advice on how to alter their lifestyle to lower the risk.

That sounds very promising, but it is very much at the discovery stage. In the meantime, another article in the same newspaper, stated that a coalition of Britain’s leading prostate cancer specialists have called for GPs to start proactively offering high-risk men, blood tests that can help detect the disease.

The simple test measures levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein which can be elevated in men with prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, with 52,000 cases and 12,000 deaths each year in the UK and according to the Irish Cancer Society, almost 4,000 men are diagnosed with it each year in this country. Early detection is vital in the treatment of the disease and the PSA blood test can be used alongside other measures to detect early signs.

The use of PSA tests is controversial in medicine, as they have historically been seen as too unreliable and flawed to be rolled out as a routine screening tool, as three quarters of men with a raised PSA do not have cancer, and 1 in 7 men who do have cancer will have a normal PSA result.

However, a new paper argues that improvements in technology mean the balance has now tipped in favour of offering some men blood tests, as those with raised levels will be sent for accurate MRI scans to confirm a diagnosis and to determine whether treatment is necessary.

It says GPs should “proactively discuss” the PSA blood test with men over the age of 45, and with men who have a family history of prostate cancer. All men over 50 should feel empowered to request a PSA test, it says.

Speaking from experience, I would encourage all men, regardless of age, to have a discussion with their GP about prostate cancer as soon as possible. Especially if there is a history of it in the family. Don’t wait for symptoms because they might never appear and don’t wait until you reach the age of fifty either.

Early detection is vital in the treatment of this disease and a simple blood test is one of the tools they use to find it. It just takes a few minutes out of your day to give a blood sample, but it could add years to your life in the long run.

We had a close call with scammers recently. While we were in Cyprus, my wife got a message from what she thought was our bank at home. It looked genuine and, to cut a long story short, it sucked us in. She spoke to a guy on the other end of the phone who was very convincing. He even told my wife to hang up and he would call her back just to ensure the call was genuine.

He did receive a lot of information before the call ended. A few minutes later however, we got another phone call. This time it was from the Fraud Section of the PTSB who told us they had discovered a suspicious transaction on our account which they thought looked peculiar. Someone was trying to relieve us of two and a half thousand Euro.

The bank blocked the transaction immediately and put a hold on our account. The scammers were good but fortunately for us, the fraud guys were better, and they prevented us from losing a substantial sum of money. Apart from the potential financial loss, these fraudsters cause a huge amount of inconvenience too.

The bank had to cancel our credit cards and that’s the second time it’s happened to us out here Because our cards were cancelled, we had to order replacements and as happened previously, they were sent to our home address in Cork. We had to arrange to get them out here to us but in the meantime, our standing orders were bouncing back to us, so we had to rearrange all those as well.

These thieves have caused us an amount of inconvenience and stress and it’s all very frustrating. I only hope that someday, the law will catch up with them and give them their just rewards. In the meantime, I wish them all kinds of excruciating pain for the remainder of their miserable lives.

It is also very embarrassing that someone who has spent thirty-five years in An Garda Siochana should have been duped so easily. My wife isn’t feeling too good about being codded either. She is annoyed because she would have considered herself to be street wise too.

We’re both computer literate and reasonably tech savvy for our years but I know many of my generation and older who would be even more trusting than we are which makes them soft targets for scammers. I wonder how many more vulnerable people are being robbed on a daily basis?

So, how do we protect ourselves? Well, for starters there is plenty of professional advice available and we need to start listening to it.

FraudSMART is a fraud awareness initiative developed by Banking & Payments Federation Ireland, and they aim to raise consumer and business awareness of the latest financial fraud activity and trends and provide simple and impartial advice on how best they can protect themselves and their resources.

They are advising consumers to be on alert for text message and phone scams currently in circulation claiming to be from your bank. These are very convincing and sophisticated scams. 

I have merely glanced over this kind of advice in the past because I thought I was really tuned in and could never be caught. But when you get a call or a message, that has all the appearance of being genuine, advising you that you are at risk of losing money from your account, it kind of throws you into a bit of a spin.

The professional scammers are very practised in what they do and once you take the initial bait, they skilfully reel you in. As someone who has had a close call and feels a bit foolish, I would encourage everyone to read the advice from FraudSMART. Not just to read it but to actually take it in and be ready for the scammers when they come calling.

So, how does the scam happen? You may receive a phone call and/or text message which creates a sense of urgency in relation to a ‘suspicious payment’ from your account or other security issue. A text message may ask you to click on a link, call a number or even expect a call from their security team using a landline or private ID.

If you do click the link, you may find yourself on a fraudulent online banking login page that mimics the real bank login page. In some cases, you may receive an authorisation code and be asked to input it on screen to ‘reactivate your account’ or ‘cancel a fraudulent payment’ – however this actually gives the fraudster access to your account.

If you receive a fraudulent call, the number may mimic the genuine number of the bank. The fraudster will try to get personal, financial and security information. The fraudster may imply that if you don’t act immediately, it will have negative consequences, for example, that money will be lost from your account.

Remember that a bank will never text/email/phone you asking for personal information, will never send you a link on a text message, will not ask you to delete your banking app or to avoid logging into banking online. A bank will never ask you to click on a link or for personal information.

If you take nothing else from this piece of advice, heed this. If someone is pressurising you on the phone to take urgent action, hang up and call the number on the back of your debit / credit card. Never give away personal information, bank card payment details, bank account details or security details such as your PIN or online password to anyone. Block the sender of a suspicious email or text message and delete the message.

Anyone can be a target of this kind of scam as I found out. 

I was out walking some time ago and I spotted a liner berthing at the quayside in Cobh. Once the mooring ropes had been secured to the anchor points on the quay wall, I saw a crew member fitting plastic discs to the ropes. They’re called rat guards, and they fit around the mooring lines.

As the name suggests, they are designed to keep rats from climbing across the ropes and entering the vessel. I knew these things were used in the past, but I had assumed that a combination of modern technology and engineering had come up with something more sophisticated to keep rodents at bay, so I was a little surprised to see them.

I never considered that rats might be an issue for modern cruise ships but when you think about it, rats have always been a pain for mariners. Ships provide an abundance of food for rodents and an endless supply of hiding places and there was a time when ships even employed rat catchers to keep the vermin under control.

That got me wondering about whether they are still managing to board modern liners and according to Flyfreshflight.com, they are. But, they say, it’s important to note that the number of rats on a cruise ship is typically very low, and they are rarely seen by passengers.

That may well be but just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there and now I can’t get that out of my head. The mayor of New York said recently that nobody hates rats as much as he does but I reckon I’d beat him into second place. The thought of being in close proximity to one on dry land makes me heave but if I knew I was sharing a ship with them I would probably head overboard.

They have always been a problem for seafarers though and in the early days of shipping, rats were a major cause of death for sailors. They were responsible for spreading diseases such as bubonic plague, typhus, and cholera and they also caused damage to the ships and their cargo.

It wasn’t only the sailors they annoyed either. Rats were a problem for soldiers too in the trenches during WWI. The unsanitary conditions provided an ideal environment for rats to thrive. The trenches were perfect for rats, with ample food sources from discarded scraps and the bodies of fallen soldiers.

The rats grew to an unusually large size due to the abundance of food, sometimes reaching lengths of over a foot and soldiers often found them in their sleeping areas and even on their bodies while they slept.

The rodents were notorious for scavenging the dead bodies of soldiers and in some cases, they even attacked living soldiers, gnawing on their flesh.

Rats are resilient creatures and despite the development of new pesticides and rodenticides, they continue to be a problem today. According to an article in the New York Times, there are an estimated three million rats in New York City alone. The place is crawling with them.

They can chew through anything softer than steel and live no more than 100 feet from a reliable food source. National Geographic said Rats live in families and have two to 14 pups at a time, keep their nests relatively clean, and patrol small territories.

When the pups reach puberty, as early as 10 weeks of age, they move out and look for mates and could grow as many as 270 pups by the 30th week and wrap up with a whopping 11,907 rats by year’s end. Reproductive rates are highly dependent on environment so the more shelter, food, and trash, the higher the rat count.

There’s no shortage of these vermin in Ireland either and our unusually mild autumn may have contributed to an explosion in rodent numbers ahead of the inevitable winter chill that will send many of them indoors.

The Echo reported that rodent control experts Rentokill are experiencing a 100% in call outs related to rat problems in homes and businesses in Cork. And they expect to be very busy over the coming weeks and months, as rodents seek warmth and shelter indoors.

They are urging home and business owners to be mindful of the presence of rats in their premises after an increase in rat-related callouts was recorded. The company said it witnessed a substantial rise in rat callouts in January 2024 in Cork when compared to the same period last year.

No-one knows exactly how many rats we have in Ireland, but a recent estimate put the number at 10.5 million. That number of rats would eat about 210 tonnes of food every day and contaminate with faeces, urine and hair very much more than that.

New York has come up with a novel approach to its rat problem – targeting the rodents with birth-control pills. Under a plan approved by the city’s council, contraceptive pellets will be placed in special rat-accessible traps in a small section of New York and hopefully the creatures will eat their way to a lower birth rate.

In the meantime, Rentokill have some suggestions to keep rats at bay. They say a small hole in the wall can become much greater very quickly if a rodent is lurking nearby, so they advise sealing them up as soon as possible. Also, don’t leave doors open for extended periods at this time of year as rodents will be looking to come in from the cold.

Another suggestion is to place cloves of garlic around entry points to the house because rats hate the strong smell so it’s worth placing garlic cloves around entryways if you’re worried about an infestation.

As an added bonus, you have a better chance of warding off vampires too.

When I was a young lad, I thought America was the most amazing place on the Planet. Of course, that was based solely on what I saw in the movies and on TV. It seemed everyone had beautiful open plan houses with white picket fences and perfectly manicured lawns or yards as they called them.

They drove nice cars, except for poor Lieutenant Columbo who had a banger, and there seemed to be no shortage of money. If you lived in one of the cities, you probably had a cool apartment, got a cab everywhere, bought your paper from a vending machine and walked the streets in safety because the cops were on the ball and had guns.

In the 1960’s, young lads over there wore Wrangler jeans, runners and t-shirts, and drove convertibles which was fine because it never rained. I was envious because in Ireland we were constantly damp and still wearing trousers, leather shoes and long-sleeved shirts.

That was the standard dress code here all year round. It was formal wear when we were going to Mass, and it became casual wear when we were playing football in the street. The mothers were constantly giving out about the scuff marks on the shoes and grass stains on the pants, but we carried on anyway.

The Americans had it all. Everyone wore sunglasses and they never had to cope with the cold and the dampness that made its way into the bones so it’s no wonder so many Irish made their way over there in search of that lifestyle.

Most of us probably had ambitions to visit there at some point but a lot has changed since those days. I for one have never been and I have no intention of going either. Whatever attraction the place held for me has long since fizzled out and as I get older the interest wanes even more.

There are a few practical reasons too why I won’t be going. In the first place, I spend a lot of time in Cyprus which I consider to be my little piece of Heaven and that has to be paid for. Secondly, my daughter and her family moved to Australia this year and that means travelling there if we want to see them. That has to be paid for too and it doesn’t come cheap.

Thirdly, Donald Trump’s America doesn’t appeal to me and those idiots shouting “Get in the hole” at golf tournaments have put me right off the American accent. America has become a bit of a basket case with their whole gun culture and their obsession with MAGA.

I have another bone to pick with our American cousins too. I blame them for introducing us to chewing gum, the scourge of Irish footpaths. Discarded gum makes a mess of the streets, looks unsightly and causes me to use many profanities when it sticks to the sole of my shoe or the wheel of a buggy.

I was in Singapore in 1994 when they had only recently banned the use of chewing gum, so it was very topical at the time. In 1992 they introduced laws that created heavy fines for spitting gum on the ground and for dropping cigarette butts or matches on the street.

They also enforced strict rules in relation to litter, graffiti, jaywalking, spitting, expelling “mucus from the nose” and urinating anywhere but in a toilet. If it’s a public toilet, you are legally required to flush it.

It worked and the cleanliness of the footpaths was striking. The lack of dirty gum blots was very impressive, but I bet our ancestors never thought that one day in the future, legislation would be required to keep gum off the streets? And maybe I’m wrong in blaming the Yanks too.

According to history.com, there is evidence that 9,000 years ago some northern Europeans were chewing birch bark tar for enjoyment as well as medicinal purposes, such as relieving toothaches.

In the Americas, the ancient Mayan people chewed a substance called chicle, derived from the sapodilla tree, as a way to quench thirst or fight hunger. The Aztecs also used chicle and even had rules about its social acceptability.

Only kids and single women were allowed to chew it in public and married women and widows could chew it privately to freshen their breath, while men could chew it in secret to clean their teeth.

In the 20th century, chewing gum made William Wrigley Jr. one of the wealthiest men in America. He had plenty of competitors, so he spent heavily on advertising and direct marketing sending free samples of gum to millions of Americans and to children on their second birthday.

So, chewing gum has been with us for a long time and you’d wonder why it is so desirable when you consider what goes into the stuff. Gum producers guard their recipes tightly, but most modern gum is made up of a nondigestible, rubbery base to give gum its chewy quality.

Then they add resin to strengthen it and hold it together, fillers to give it texture and preservatives to extend shelf life. Softeners are added to retain moisture and prevent the gum from hardening, while sweeteners and flavourings give gum the desired taste.

In this health-conscious era I would have expected chewing gum to be getting the heave-ho, but that’s not the case and that’s fine if people get a kick out of chewing it but it’s what they’re doing with it when the flavour is gone that bothers me.

Apart from being a pain, it can also be ingested by wildlife, causing internal injuries, digestive problems, and even death. Birds, fish, and marine creatures often mistake these colourful particles for food so maybe we’d all be better off without it.

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.