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The Internet is a wonderful tool when it’s used for legitimate purposes but unfortunately, criminals can also manipulate it for their own ends. We saw that with the hacking of the HSE computer system during Covid. The interference with hospital patient’s records caused delays with essential treatments for many patients which was cold hearted and dangerous.

Placing a ransom demand ahead of patient’s wellbeing proved that greed and criminality are alive and well in cyber space, but we already knew that which is why we need to be extra vigilant with our online activity in the run up to Christmas. Opportunists will be out in force. Most of us have experienced some form computer fraud, hacking or cloning at this stage and it can be costly.

I suffered at the hands of these pests and my laptop computer went into the bin as a result. I learned my lesson and since then I wouldn’t dream of being without anti-virus protection. I back up everything on a remote hard drive too and a few short years ago I wouldn’t have even known what these were, but you learn the hard way.

Online dangers come in many forms and need to be taken seriously especially when it comes to our children. Nobody wants our young people to be exposed to harm while using their phones and computers but there is plenty to be nervous about.

A recent report in the Irish Examiner highlighted a new scourge of cyberflashing, the sending of unsolicited nude images to someone else’s device without consent. It is a form of image-based sexual harassment, steeped in the dark and murky power games of all forms of sexual abuse.

Academics in Dublin City University have just completed a study with 15-17 years olds on their experiences of sexual and gender-based abuse and harassment during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the focus groups, the girls reported that receiving unwanted ‘dick pics’ had become so normalised that they were almost de-sensitised to it.

17.4% of boys and 33.3% of girls had received unwanted sexual photos or videos online and the frequency of this had increased since the start of the pandemic. According to a 2018 British survey, 41% of women between 18-24 years old had experienced cyberflashing.

Deviants were around in my day as well long before computerisation. They often turned out to be the people we trusted, and it wasn’t only the bad apples in the clergy we had to worry about.

A popular TV show at the time was Top of the Pops, presented by Jimmy Saville. A huge young audience watched every week to see who was at number one in the charts. Saville went on to host another programme for kids called ‘Jim’ll Fix It’. He was so popular that he was knighted by the Queen but in reality, he was one of the UK’s most notorious paedophiles.

Gary Glitter was a performer who appeared regularly on that show and was one of the biggest artists at the time. A bit over the top with the glamour and the big platform shoes, but he had a massive following. He started performing in the 60’s as Paul Raven but later changed his name to Gary Glitter and sold over 20 million records. Little did we know he was a prolific paedophile.

Rolf Harris was another guy who was doing well at the time. He also had his own show which was a mixture of music and art. He was the uncle you wished you had but he went to prison for indecent assault, so he wasn’t the ideal uncle after all.

I Spy was an American TV series about two secret agents, starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby. It ran from 1965 to 1968 and was very popular. Culp posed as a tennis player and Cosby was his trainer. Cosby later went on to star in The Cosby Show, playing the part of Cliff Huxtable and gained the reputation as ‘America’s Dad’, a reputation that has been tainted since with numerous claims of sexual assault made against him.

Many of those we looked up to as kids found ways to groom children long before the existence of the Internet. Modern technology has provided predators with a much greater ability to interact with children and new opportunities for paedophiles and those inhabiting the dark web.

On the positive side, there is a growing awareness of the dangers posed to our children and grandchildren. We are more educated about Internet safety and the evil that exists in cyberspace, which is great, but for many of us of a certain vintage, it’s not easy keeping up and I, for one, am very aware of how little I know.

Back in my working days, Avril Ronan of Trend Micro organised an Internet safety awareness day for community policing members in Cork and what I discovered that day was frightening. They provide online technology security, and they did an experiment with us to demonstrate the amount of information they could learn about us from a tiny piece of data. It was scary.

The Internet presents an unrivalled opportunity for sexual exploitation, abuse, bullying, and other forms of nefarious activity and we also need to recognise that our young people are vulnerable to its dangers. An Garda Siochana have some useful online safety advice.

They say the anonymous nature of the Internet makes it easy for people to pretend to be something they are not, so we should always be careful about the kind of information we give out. Where children are concerned, they should be encouraged to report instances where they feel something is suspicious or not quite right and to tell an adult or someone they trust.

It’s important to remember that people aren’t always what they seem online.

According to The Sunday Times, the results of a new poll commissioned by Dignity in Dying in the UK and published this month, found 72 per cent of Irish voters who have seen a terminally ill person experience pain or suffering support legalising voluntary assisted dying. The survey found that more than three in five people who support changing the law want reform in the next year.

Peter Boylan, the former master of the National Maternity Hospital, has said he also supports the campaign to legalise voluntary assisted dying in Ireland and that the assisted dying debate “needs to be had”. He said, “We all make life decisions and the decision to die is something that people who are in full control of their faculties and not influenced by other factors perhaps should be allowed to make.”

I didn’t take part in that poll, but if I did, I would have been part of the 72 per cent. I’m not good with pain and suffering. I can tolerate the usual flu-like symptoms; a fever, sweating, the shivers but I can’t even cope with a blocked nose.

I hate the thought of suffocating in my sleep, and I would rather prop myself up with a few pillows and read for the night, than close my eyes and succumb to the inevitable. I can’t even watch other people struggling for air and when I see someone trying to catch their breath, my breathing automatically increases.

My biggest fear is that I would acquire a disease that would asphyxiate me. If I’m ever in that situation, I would like to know that there was an alternative available. Something that would allow me to check out at my time of choosing. I’m not alone in this and there is growing support for the idea but, at the moment, euthanasia is still a crime in Ireland.

The right to die debate is emotive, especially in a predominately Catholic country like Ireland but talk of euthanasia, assisted suicide or mercy killing is a growing topic of conversation. Because we’re living longer, we’re experiencing more age-related illnesses.

Modern medicine and machinery can keep us going for longer now, sometimes even when our bodies have thrown in the towel. But many believe we should be able to call time on our own lives instead of being sustained artificially and I’m inclined to agree.

Spain’s parliament voted to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide for people with serious and incurable or debilitating diseases who wish to end their life. This makes Spain the fourth country in the European Union to take that step along with the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Canada and some US states also allow it while Switzerland allows assisted suicide but not euthanasia.

The new law will apply to adults with legal residence in Spain but not everyone is happy. Some groups are determined to prevent it becoming law and will carry on the fight in court believing that despite the oversights, and the legal and medical requirements, euthanasia could be used for nefarious purposes. That’s a genuine fear but the strict protocols suggest that it is well regulated.

Opponents argue that it could put pressure on those requiring care to choose this option if they thought they were being a burden on those looking after them.

My sister-in-law, Carmel, died from Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). These symptoms are similar to Parkinson’s, and not unlike Motor Neuron Disease, and it does not respond to medication. It’s a horrible illness.

MSA is a progressive neurological disorder which causes problems related to movement, balance and other unconscious body functions such as bladder function, but deterioration is very individual. As the illness progresses, more help is needed with everyday activities and it’s very difficult to watch someone deteriorating from it. If I ever had to face that diagnosis, I would be looking carefully at my options.

Like many people, I have been in the unfortunate position of having to care for relatives dying from cancer including my parents and my sister. I say unfortunate but there are two aspects to the experience.

On the one hand, it is a privilege to play a part in preparing a loved one for the end of their life. In my mother’s case, she came to live with me for the last few months of her life and we were all able to spend time with her and give her the care she needed. I was delighted to have had that opportunity.

On the other hand, it’s extremely challenging. Without the support of family, friends and the medical professionals, caring for patients in their own home would be impossible. Even with all that help, the time often comes when a professional facility becomes a necessity. It’s a difficult time for all involved and very stressful.

In my situation, the specifics were different in each case in terms of the length of the illness, surgeries and other treatments etc, but the end result was the same. The time eventually came when medicine lost out to nature, and it simply became a waiting game.

They each reached a stage, where it was just a matter of trying to keep them as comfortable as possible for the time they had left. With no hope of recovery in sight, the focus changed to pain relief.

My mother was fortunate in that she didn’t suffer. Her GP ensured that her last few months were comfortable, and she remained alert which was what she wanted. As deaths go, it was probably as good as you can get, but not everyone dies easily. When there is no prospect of a recovery and pain, incapacity and death are inevitable, I think it would be comforting to know I had the option of ending it on my terms.

There was a time, and it’s not that long ago either, when you couldn’t go on a holiday without the help of a travel agent. It would have been unthinkable to attempt organising a trip on your own. It was too complicated and too risky, so it was best left to the professionals.

The first step was to find a reputable travel agent. Then get their brochure and see what deals were available and once you had decided on your destination, they would present you with an appropriate package.

They sorted your flights, accommodation, transfers to and from the airport and they usually had a representative on site in your chosen location as well just in case anything went wrong. All you had to do was go to the bank for your travellers’ cheques and you were ready for road. Or sky as the case may be.

Foreign travel was very mysterious in those days, but not anymore. Now most of us can book a hotel room or an apartment online, find suitable flights, check in online, download the boarding passes to our phones and that’s it, done and dusted. All sorted before getting up for breakfast.

Banking was another mystery back in the day. I can remember in Cobh as a young lad we had the Munster and Leinster Bank and later the Cork Savings Bank. Those were the days when you could go into a local bank and deal with a real human, but they were intimidating places full of important people doing stuff that ordinary mortals couldn’t possibly understand.

It might seem strange to younger readers to learn that in those days, banks actually encouraged customers to come through the doors. That ended when online banking got rid of the important people. There was no longer a need for tellers to pass money over the counter when a machine could do the same thing out on the street.

Like it or not, the Internet has changed many aspects of our daily life. Many businesses don’t want to meet real-life customers anymore. They’re too time consuming. They would prefer to keep us at a distance and deal with us online and that got me thinking about where this is going to end. You can pretty much arrange everything over the Internet now so what’s next?

Could we ever see the day when it would be possible to organise a funeral online for instance? I did some checking and guess what, that time has already arrived.

Funeralsonline.ie is advertised as a service that offers a completely new approach to funeral arranging in Ireland. They say they can provide you with a quality, cost-effective funeral, tailor-made to your requirements and carried out at your chosen location.

Their website guides you through a process that allows you to create the kind of service you would like. Once you have made your choices, you will be invited to select a username and password and you can save your arrangements and file them away for future reference.

So, you plan your funeral on the web site, save your choices and notify your solicitor or executor and FuneralsOnline.ie will keep a record of your arrangements indefinitely, or until you require the service. It seems straightforward enough but nothing in life, or death, is simple and end of life issues are no different.

Traditional burials in cemeteries and graveyards have been overtaken by cremations and that’s getting expensive. According to The Sunday Times, rising energy bills have created cost-of-dying crisis for Belgian crematoria. The manager of a crematorium in Liège said energy bills for its ovens had quadrupled over the past year from €9,000 in 2021 to €36,000 in early 2022. The worldwide rise in energy costs since then have surely impacted funeral and cremation services further and Belgium faces a crisis.

There is however, a more energy friendly alternative system that seems to be growing in popularity called aguamation or resomation. Funeral directors say it offers a more environmentally friendly option for burials. The process breaks down the body using a solution of hot water and alkaline chemicals in a large chamber where temperatures reach 160C.

Scotland looks set to become the first UK nation to approve “water cremations.” It’s already available in a number of American and Canadian states as well as in parts of Australia, Mexico, South Africa and the Netherlands and the Scottish government has confirmed it is considering new regulations that would allow for the introduction of resomations.

The Dutch have a more immediate problem though. The Times UK reported previously that an increase in the size and weight of Dutch people is forcing the country’s funeral industry to introduce bigger coffins, more pallbearers, wider crematoria ovens and longer cremation times. It appears overweight or obese people take 15 miniutes longer to cremate.

A study by the NRC Handelsblad newspaper found that the Dutch funeral is changing as people in the Netherlands get fatter. Official health statistics show that half of Dutch people are overweight, with 35 per cent moderately chubby and about 15 per cent classed as obese.

In recent years most coffin makers have increased the size of caskets to, as one manufacturer put it, match “the average stature of the contemporary Dutchman”. Van Wijk funeral caskets, in the undertaking business since 1925, have added an inch to the width of their coffins “due to increasing demand”.

The bigger coffins and larger corpses are increasing the weight with implications for funeral corteges with the number of pallbearers rising from the traditional six to eight more frequently.

That’s one problem that can’t be solved online. To prepare for burial, we need to get out and exercise. So, it would seem we need to be fit to live and fit to die. Time for the gym.

Bullying in the workplace is a hot topic these days. It’s not something I’m very familiar with but I did come up against some difficult characters in my working life. When I started out in An Garda Siochana, it wasn’t unusual to encounter a cranky supervisor who liked the sound of his own voice.

They liked to be heard even though they would have been better off remaining silent because they were generally incompetent and exposed themselves even further every time they opened their mouths. They weren’t called bullies because bullying wasn’t really recognised back then. They did have lots of other names though, most of which wouldn’t be suitable for print.

Coming from a self-employed background, I was used to working on my own, so when I went to Templemore, it took me some time to get used to being told what to and when to do it. It worked out fine in the end and the vast majority of people I dealt with in the Force were decent but there were others who couldn’t survive in today’s environment.

Those characters would be in serious trouble by modern standards but in those days, over enthusiastic supervision was mostly seen as par for the course. It was accepted and we got on with it.

I did experience it in the seventies when I had a temporary job as a teenager, working for the local authority. The boss and I had a few disagreements during my short tenure. He was an excitable man and tended to shout a lot while going red in the face.

He would have been a serious hazard during the pandemic if he was still alive. A sturdy face mask would have been essential to protect those around him from spittle. He sprayed a lot when we were together because he didn’t have much time for me. Come to think of it, he didn’t have much time for anyone.

Things came to a head one day and I had had enough. I handed him a hammer and suggested he insert it in a particular part of his anatomy. He didn’t appreciate that and performed a jig in the middle of the street while having a rant. Not surprisingly, I was fired.

I thought those days were long gone but I was talking to a friend of mine recently, and I was amazed to hear she has been suffering at the hands of a bully in her workplace for some time. I have known her for the bones of thirty years and during that time I have never heard anybody being anything but complimentary about her.

I’ve always found her to be a very capable and efficient individual with a constant smile on her face. She is also very easy to get along with, so I was surprised to hear that she was almost driven to the point of throwing in the towel because of this other character.

Apparently, bullying in the workplace is a common problem. The actual extent of it is difficult to measure because many adults feel that to admit being bullied at work could be seen as a sign of weakness. But it is estimated that as many as one in three employees could be affected.

According to the Anti-Bullying Centre at Dublin City University (DCU), which was established to carry out research into the subject, the effects of workplace bullying on individuals are widespread and include stress, anxiety, depression, substance abuse and even suicide.

Many victims prefer to just accept it and struggle on in the hope that the bully will move on, or it will somehow just fizzle out. While they may discuss their circumstances with family and friends, few are prepared to make a complaint or admit openly that they are being bullied because of the fear that people may think less of them.

The Health and Safety Authority gives examples of behaviour that may constitute bullying such as purposely undermining someone, targeting someone for special negative treatment, manipulation of an individual’s reputation, social exclusion or isolation, intimidation, aggressive or obscene language.

Jokes that are obviously offensive to one individual by spoken word or email, intrusion by pestering, spying and stalking, unreasonable assignments to duties which are obviously unfavourable to one individual, repeated requests with impossible deadlines or impossible tasks. That covers a multitude.

In short, there are lots of ways for a bully to intimidate or upset someone but the fact that the subject is being discussed more openly now is a good thing for those who might be suffering. Bullying can often be subtle and difficult to detect.

The traditional bullies are easy to spot. They like to shout at people, convinced that the louder they shout, the more important they become. They spit when agitated and the more animated, they become, the wetter you get. These people are generally incompetent and try to mask their own lack of ability by deflecting attention onto others.

Cyberbullying is a more recent phenomenon and is probably more sinister. It can be done remotely and anonymously through mobile phones, computers and social media sites and text messages etc. It can happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and can affect anyone but at least it’s being spoken about and there is plenty of advice on how to deal with it.

I’ve always thought that the best way to deal with bullies is to confront them. This is easier said than done and for many it’s possibly a step too far but it’s important to speak out and let them know you won’t take it. If that’s not possible, talk to someone else. Don’t suffer in silence. Most organisations have a bullying policy to advise you on what steps to take and who to talk to.

If you’re someone who likes to wear a traditional wristwatch, then I have some bad news. I read recently that while regular watches are still very popular, smartwatches are beginning to eat into the sales of traditional watches as they become more advanced and feature rich. Sales of smartwatches are on the rise, while traditional watch sales are on the decline.

This isn’t good for traditionalists like me but, because smartwatches offer a host of features that ordinary watches can’t match, they’re more attractive to a younger cohort. Smartwatches can track your fitness activity, monitor your heart rate, and even act as a mobile payment device which appeals to some people.

My local jeweller told me that watch repairing is a dying trade. There is no demand for these skills anymore because young people use their phones and have no interest in watches. Those who do like to wear a watch, just throw it away when it breaks and replace it with a new one. Maybe I’m just being old fashioned, but I think that’s sad.

When I was about five years old, I spent some time in the Mercy University Hospital in Cork after surgery for what was effectively a duodenal ulcer. I remember very little of that time but what I can recall is very vivid.

I can remember going to the window to watch my mother heading for the train home after her visits, but I don’t recall being upset or lonely and as far as I know, I was in there for a few weeks. Maybe that early training is the reason I enjoy being on my own so much.

Anyway, my other outstanding memory of that time, is of my mother giving me a present of a watch shortly before I left the hospital. Not sure why she did that, maybe it was just to give me a boost. I can’t imagine being very concerned about timekeeping at that age, but I did get a kick out of it. Ever since then I have always thought a watch was a nice present to give and to receive.

I was given another one as a present about fifteen years ago by my wife and kids. It was a Dalton piece, not the most expensive watch in the world by any means, but I liked it. Over the years, bits and pieces have gone wrong with it but because of its sentimental value I’ve always had it repaired. At this stage, there is probably very little of the original watch left. It’s a bit like Trigger’s broom.

I cracked the screen a few times and had new ones fitted. Then one of the hands fell off, so I got that fixed. When I worked in Cyprus, I stupidly left it on whenever I went swimming because it was waterproof, but I think that just meant it would survive a shower of rain. It wasn’t designed to be worn by someone who thought he was Michael Phelps. The entire mechanism threw in the towel after that and had to be replaced.

Not long after that, my children bought me a Garmin watch for Christmas, and I enjoyed the novelty of that for a while. It tracked my steps and kept me on the move, alerted me to incoming phone-calls, text messages and emails and was a fun piece.

After a few years though it started to annoy me. I found it intrusive, so I decided to give it a break and I went back to my Dalton. It was a dead duck by then after hibernating in the drawer and needed a new battery, but it still didn’t work when that was replaced. They broke the news gently to me that the innards had corroded and needed to be replaced again. So, off it went once more, back to the repair guy.

It was returned a couple of weeks later and I was delighted with myself until the clasp on the bracelet became difficult to open and close. Eventually, it just refused to close and hung loosely on my wrist so back I went to the jewellers. I innocently thought that would be a five miniute job, but I should have realised by now that nothing associated with this time piece is straightforward.

Apparently, the strap was designed to be integrated with the watch and as the manufacturer had gone out of business, I was told it may not be possible to get a new one. They tried their best to fix it, but it defied them and as we speak it has been sent back to Daltons. Even though they’ve gone out of business, it seems they might be able to do something with it.

By now, I have spent more money on keeping this watch alive than it cost originally but I don’t mind. I like it so I’m prepared to suffer for the cause but I’m running out of options. The watch repair guy has retired.

One option is to go for the more durable Victorinox Swiss Army watch. The manufacturer has tested it by running an army tank over it, boiling it, freezing it, washing it in a machine on a 90 degree cycle and throwing the kitchen sink at it and it survived.

Or there is also the Hallucination, a Graff Diamonds creation. The Hallucination was the world’s most expensive watch when it was unveiled in 2014 and came with a price tag of 55 million dollars.

It’s the culmination of thousands of hours of work from a team of designers, gemologists, and expert craftsmen with a kaleidoscopic array of 110 carats of different coloured diamonds in a range of different cuts, set into a platinum bracelet.

Sounds cute, but how long it would last under a tank?

Thirty years ago, during my policing days, I often travelled to Mosney for the national finals of the Community Games just to lend a hand. My role mas mainly that of delivery man, bringing the kit, food and supplies for the Cork contingent to the Co. Meath venue in the garda community relations minibus.

The late Mary Connolly, her husband Ray and son Derek were actively involved in the community games in those days and were also involved in pretty much everything else that was happening in the Mayfield area, and we became good friends. Mary had a great way of getting what she wanted and after having tea with her one day, I left the house scratching my head and wondering how I had been talked into heading to Meath with a fully laden van.

Anyway, during one of those weekends, the finals of the tennis were due to take place, but they had no umpire. Knowing that tennis was my pastime, they nominated me to step in. I don’t recall any discussion taking place, it was more of an instruction.

I took my place courtside on the highchair while the kids were warming up and it’s worth remembering that they were just children. The match started, and we weren’t long into it when some of the parents started getting over excited. At one stage I lost track of the score, but I wasn’t concerned because at that age, kids are well able to keep track themselves and are usually very honest. The mistake I made was verbalising the fact I didn’t know the score by asking the kids.

Some of the parents seemed to take this as a personal insult. They moaned and groaned and a few hurled insults at me. They were attempting to outdo each other in the cheerleader stakes and seemed to lose sight of the fact that it was a game, and these youngsters were supposed to be enjoying themselves and having fun. I sat there for a couple of hours before deciding there and then that officiating wasn’t for me.  

That pales into insignificance when compared to the behaviour of the modern-day parent. There was a report in the Irish Examiner recently about a child being assaulted during a hurling match. The child was under nine years of age and was participating in a hurling blitz when it is reported he had been hurt after a nonplaying individual entered the playing area and allegedly grabbed the child by the throat.

The gardai were contacted after the incident and the Munster Council is investigating the alleged assault which follows a series of flashpoints at club games in recent months. Former GAA president Sean Kelly MEP said the GAA “needs to get a grip” on the problem of abuse through stiffer penalties, to show it is not acceptable for adults to behave this way.

Mr Kelly also called for each club to establish its own code of conduct and make it known to players, officials, and parents that it is “not acceptable to abuse referees or players.” I completely agree with his comments but unfortunately these calls for action are regularly made but continue to fall on deaf ears.

Roscommon GAA is investigating an incident involving an altercation with a referee during a minor championship match. The referee, who was officiating at the underage game, required medical attention after he was allegedly assaulted during the second half of the game. An ambulance was called, and the match was subsequently abandoned.

In other incidents, a referee and an umpire were subjected to violent behaviour following a junior A group game in Wexford town recently and there was another incident in an U17 game later the same day. The referee is regarded as one of the most experienced in Wexford and was allegedly attacked at the end of the game. He was hospitalised in the wake of the incident and released the following day after suffering from concussion.

This problem isn’t just limited to the GAA. Earlier this year, the Dublin Branch of the Irish Soccer Referees Society condemned an assault on a referee in his sixties and announced they had withdrawn their services to a particular club after an incident involving one of their officials. 

They said the referee, was chased onto the field of play and assaulted. The official was refereeing the game alone, and the Referees Society said the incident could have been worse had it not been for the intervention of members of the opposing team. 

There was another incident during a match in the west of Ireland involving an adult non-player and an under-17 player. This led to one of the clubs being removed from the competition and fined €1000 but the club was later reinstated, and the fine was reduced to €250 while one of the players had his ban reduced from 96 weeks to just two.

That doesn’t send out a very positive message about the intent to tackle bad behaviour and we’re not going to see an improvement until incidents like these are taken seriously. There seems to be a culture in many sports that all’s fair in love and war. It’s only high jinks. Heat of the moment kind of stuff, nothing to see here, move along.

It’s contagious. Footballers have been disrespecting soccer officials for many years and it’s getting worse. Premiership football managers, and their support staff, are also getting in on the act with unruly behaviour in the technical areas and being sent to the tunnel is almost seen as a badge of honour. But that’s not the example they should be setting.

Competitive spirit and a desire to win are necessary in sport but violence and abuse is not acceptable in any sporting occasion, particularly when children are involved.

I only recently learned about an amazing bunch of people known as the ‘Balloon Busters’. According to historyisnowmagazine.com, ‘Balloon Busters’ were regarded as the daredevils of World War One. They were fighter pilots who specialised in flying high-risk missions behind enemy lines, destroying enemy observation balloons.

The balloons were usually filled with helium and attached to a winch by a cable. Baskets carried observers whose job it was to monitor enemy movements from a high altitude and provide vital intelligence to the troops on the ground.

They also acted as artillery spotters. From their vaulted vantage point, they could advise their troops on whether they were hitting their targets or not and instruct the gunners on necessary adjustments to improve their accuracy.

These balloons were heavily protected by anti-aircraft guns and machine guns and the infantry who were encouraged to fire at any enemy aircraft that came within range so getting close to them was a risky business. A shortage of helium in Germany meant they were often filled hydrogen instead which exploded when mixed with air and any kind of flame.

The balloons were often booby-trapped too. Straw dummies dressed in uniform were placed in the basket along with explosive charges and left at a tempting altitude for enemy fighters. When the pilots got close enough, the bombs were detonated. That made life difficult for attacking fighter pilots, so they had to get in and out quickly.

It wasn’t a job for the faint hearted and one man who took on the challenge was Major Edward Corringham “Mick” Mannock. He was a British First World War flying ace and while his exact place of birth is uncertain, some sources say he was born in Ballincollig, Co. Cork.

In an article by O’Brien Browne published in an issue of Aviation History, it was revealed that Mannock was born in Cork, Ireland, on May 24, 1887. As soon as he was old enough, he joined the British Army and as he wanted to become a pilot, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps.

His instructor noted that Mannock was a natural flier who needed very little instruction or encouragement. He didn’t lack confidence either and when he was sent to the Western Front in April 1917, he wasn’t slow in giving advice to pilots who had been there far longer than him.

They accepted his arrogance though because he proved himself to be a skilful pilot. They were further impressed when Mannock volunteered for a strike on German observation balloons. He destroyed one and notched up his first victory of the day but later wrote in his diary: “My fuselage had bullet holes in it, one very near my head, and the wings were more or less riddled. I don’t want to go through such an experience again.”

It didn’t stop him though and he had tallied 73 victories by the end of the war. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) and the Victoria Cross (VC) as a flight commander. In his VC citation in the London Gazette of July 18,1919 Major Mannock is described as “a highly distinguished officer who during the whole of his career in the Royal Air Force was an outstanding example of fearless courage, remarkable skill, devotion to duty and self-sacrifice which has never been surpassed.”

He gained a reputation for being ruthless and for being one of the greatest fighter pilots of the war, but he also developed a phobia about being burned to death in mid-air. Mannock became upset when he saw one of his victims catch fire on its way to the ground and from then on, he always carried a revolver with him in his cockpit and promised to shoot himself if he ever found himself in that situation.

Just days after warning a fellow pilot about the danger of flying low into ground fire, Mannock did just that. On 26 July 1918, his fighter plane was set on fire, and he was killed in action.

He took a rookie pilot, New Zealander Lt. Donald Inglis, on a mission to get his first kill on a dawn patrol. The two left the base at 5 a.m. and flew out towards the enemy lines. Mannock spotted an enemy plane on a routine reconnaissance sortie. He led Inglis into the attack and shot the plane down near the village of Lestremme.

Mannock waved to Inglis and then broke his own rule by making a couple of low passes over the burning wreckage. He dived to the crash site to view the wreckage and while crossing the trenches, the fighters were met with a massive volley of ground-fire. The engine of Mannock’s aircraft was hit and immediately caught fire and crashed behind German lines.

One account of the incident described how Mannock’s body was believed to have been found, about 250 yards from the plane wreckage although that was never proven. The implication being that he may have jumped. The body showed no gunshots, but Mannock had always said he would shoot himself first.

Inglis said they were over the German trenches when he noticed a bluish flame on Mannock’s engine cowling. The left wing then fell away and it entered a death spin into the trenches where it exploded in a ball of fire.

Initially it was thought that Major Mannock’s remains were obliterated in the fire, but it is now known that he was buried by an unknown German soldier, who later returned his notebook and other personal effect via the German Red Cross.

His grave was never found but the condition of his identity discs and the reported condition of his notebook indicate that he may have jumped or fallen from his aircraft, or that he may have even shot himself as he said he would.

I have always been a bit of a bookworm. I’ll read anything and I’ll give every book a fair chance, but I don’t have endless patience either. I’ll stick with it for a hundred pages or so but if by then I’m still struggling, I’ll chuck it to one side.

Over the years, I’d built up a decent collection and until recently, all my books were languishing in various piles in the attic gathering dust. I had planned at some stage to organise a small library for myself but like many other things, it went on the long finger. I’ll never get around to it now though because it’s too late, thanks to Covid-19.

During the various lockdowns, my wife passed her time by cleaning and tidying. When she was finished, she cleaned and tidied some more. When she’s in that kind of humour, nothing is safe and because she was always complaining about my books cluttering up the place, I knew it was only a matter of time before they got the treatment.  

With military precision, plastic bags full of books were removed from the house in the dead of night and delivered to an unidentified co-conspirator. It was a slick operation involving shadowy figures, codewords and disguises. As a result, I no longer need a library because what I’m left with would fit comfortably on top of a small coffee table, with plenty of space left for the coffee.

It was a shock at first but after some medical intervention and an appropriate period of mourning, I pulled myself together. In all honesty, some of the books were no great loss but others were priceless.

One book in particular I was anxious to hold onto, was a satirical novel I first read over forty years ago called Catch 22. It was written by American author Joseph Heller and unfortunately was one of the casualties.

The story is set in a military camp on an island off the Italian coast in the Mediterranean Sea during World War II. A young soldier named Yossarian was stationed there with the United States Air Force. The war was raging, and they lived in poor conditions surrounded by madness.

The commanding officers had little regard for the welfare of their men and were only interested in making themselves look good to their superiors to improve their promotion prospects. (There is a ring of familiarity about that.) The pilots were constantly being sent on dangerous bombing missions with instructions to capture good aerial photographs of explosions. It didn’t matter if their targets were destroyed as long as the photos were good.

The crews were told they could go home when they had completed a certain number of bombing runs, but the number of missions kept rising so no one ever got to go home. Yossarian was completely frustrated and couldn’t understand why he appeared to be the only one who understood what was going on.

He hated the idea that strangers were trying to kill him, and he didn’t want to die while trying to kill people he didn’t know either, so he stopped flying and began visiting the camp doctor, complaining of various illnesses. The doctor was a clueless alcoholic who was starting to go a bit mad.

Yossarian discovered it was possible to be discharged from military service by reason of insanity so, he claimed he was mad too. But by claiming to be insane, he was actually proving his sanity because only insane people would want to fly bombing missions in the first place. In other words, he was proving he was sane by not wanting to take part in dangerous missions, and that was what kept him flying. That was catch 22.

There were other characters in the camp too like Major Major who was so useless that he hid from his own sergeant and refused to meet anyone. He would lock the door of his office and climb out the window to avoid making decisions. (There’s that ring of familiarity again).

Then there was the Camp Chaplain who ran off and lived alone in the woods, and Captain Block, who ordered everyone to sing “The Star- Spangled Banner” before they used the salt and pepper.

It’s a great read and I was reminded of it again in 2014 when I found myself stationed in a small military camp in Famagusta on the island of Cyprus called Camp General Stefanik. It was very basic and has remained the same since it was built in 1974. That was confirmed to me one day when I met a group of visiting Swedish military guys who had been stationed there in 1974. I asked one of them what had changed since his time and after looking all around he said, “Absolutely nothing.”

It reminded me of the camp in Catch 22, so I dug out a copy and read it again and as I was working in a military environment with some great characters, I could identify more easily with those in the novel.

I had a problem with my back at one stage and the military guys decided I should see the camp doctor who was affectionately known as “Mengele”. The real, Josef Mengele, was a Nazi doctor, responsible for carrying out medical experiments in the concentration camps during WWII so I wasn’t filled with confidence when they brought me to see him. Turned out he was a nice guy.

A Liutenant Colonel from Croatia entered the office every day singing a morning greeting to everyone in operatic style. He made up the words and included all our names in the greeting. He was a lovely character, and we became good friends.

I witnessed lots of marching, saluting and patrolling, but thankfully there were no bombing runs.

I don’t like speeding and I suspect anyone who has ever worked for the emergency services will have a similar outlook. Attending to victims of serious road collisions is never easy and much of that carnage could be reduced if we all slowed down a little. I’m in favour of the enforcement of our speed limits but I’m not sure we always get it right.

I sometimes do a school run for the grand kids and every time, without fail, I see examples of driving that make my blood run cold. Anyone who makes these journeys will be familiar with the scenes outside the school gates in the morning.

Cars going in both directions, cars parked on either side of the road and in places that are clearly marked as no-parking zones, double parking, children everywhere, stepping out from behind parked cars and running to catch up with their friends.

Add the normal passing traffic to the mix, with many driving as if they are on an open road, and you have a recipe for chaos. If one of those kids suddenly breaks free of its parent or trips while running and falls into the road, those cars will have little chance to stop suddenly. In bad weather it’s even more dangerous with reduced visibility for everyone, and I have yet to see speed enforcement near any of the schools.

GoSafe vans get a lot of stick and I reckon much of that comes down to the fact the many people consider them to be in the wrong locations most of the time. The GoSafe company would probably argue that they are advised by An Garda Siochana on the areas they need to target.

According to the Garda Siochana official website, 61 new safety camera zones became operational on 26th July 2022, bringing the total number of safety camera zones nationwide to 1,373. The primary purpose of safety cameras is to reduce speed-related collisions, lessen injuries and save lives.

Safety cameras operate in areas where there is a history of speed related collisions known as speed enforcement zones. All zones are available on the Garda website and available for GPS Navigation providers to download.

An Garda Síochána has completed an updated collision analysis of the road network based on recent available collision statistics. New locations were selected following an analysis of the data acquired from fatal, serious and minor road traffic collisions and from further consideration given to locations of concern highlighted by local communities through local Garda Community engagement.

So, just to be clear, safety cameras operate in areas with a history of speed related collisions, but they can also be deployed in school safety zones and locations of concern highlighted by local communities.

There’s also an interactive map on the Garda website that enables users to zoom into their locality or any region in the country to see where safety cameras may be enforcing speed limits. By clicking on a highlighted zone, you can see how many speed-related minor injury, serious injury, and fatal collisions have occurred on that particular road.

I did that for the section of roadway near the site of what was once IFI, opposite the entrance to Cobh Golf Club to see the statistics for that area. These statistics have determined that a GoSafe van should be located there and bearing in mind that the GoSafe monitoring began in 2010, I would assume these statistics are covering a twelve-year period.

In that twelve-year period from 2010 to 2022 these are the accidents that occurred on that stretch of roadway according to official data on the interactive map: Fatal Collisions: 0.  Serious Collisions: 1. Minor Collisions: 5. Total Number of Collisions: 6. Six accidents in 12 years on the main road out of Cobh.

I fail to see how that road fits the criteria for a hot spot, but it’s a regular parking area for a GoSafe van. As you drive out of Cobh heading towards Cork, you have to accelerate up the hill towards the golf club. It’s a 60k per hour zone and as you breach the top of the hill, the speed van awaits. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

A new location in Cobh, Spy Hill, has now been added to the list of GoSafe areas. It is known locally as the Bishops Road, due to the fact that the Bishop resides there. I have never heard anybody expressing concern about this being a dangerous patch of road so, I clicked on the interactive map to see what damning statistics designated this area suitable for enforcement. The search revealed one serious collision and one minor one.

I wonder then why a road like the Tay Road for example, is not included despite numerous complaints by residents over many years about speeding. It was resurfaced a few years back by the Cork County Council and unfortunately that encouraged some drivers to treat it like a racetrack.

Originally designed to allow the horse and cart to get from one side of the island to the other, the Tay Road was never intended to cater for the volume of traffic it currently experiences. There were many accidents over the years when I lived there. My garden wall was struck by a car on one occasion and more recently a driver went through the garden wall of another property on that road.

If the statistics for that area were examined over the last twelve years, I reckon they would present a strong argument for inclusion as a GoSafe location, and I would prefer to see a speed van there rather than have it lying in wait over the brow of a hill like a sniper.

With winter coming, school safety zones might be worth considering as suitable locations too.

I retired from An Garda Siochana in May 2015, so you would think by now the trials and tribulations of that organisation wouldn’t bother me too much, but they do. I am currently out of the country and instead of lying by the pool enjoying the sun, I’m sitting in the apartment bashing the keys on my laptop.

The source of my frustration comes from the footage I viewed on social media of an incident in Cherry Orchard in Dublin where a garda patrol car was rammed by a stolen car while a crowd of onlookers clapped and cheered. Other cars could be seen driving recklessly and performing stunts to the amusement of a group of young people standing on the side-line. Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt this time.

The incident itself wasn’t new to me. I saw plenty of it in the eighties and early nineties in Dublin and Cork. Stolen cars entertained gangs of onlookers on a regular basis back then too and I witnessed one incident where a stolen car crashed head on into a patrol car in Gurranabraher injuring both gardai. So called ‘joyriding’ was a regular activity in those days.

What really annoyed me was the official response from our authorities to that event. Garda Commissioner Drew Harris described the incident as “disgraceful” and “very concerning” and warned others not to engage in copycat activities. He said a full investigation was underway and the public order unit had been stood up.

It’s fairly obvious that the incident was “disturbing” and “very concerning” and sending in the public order unit is a reactive response that unfortunately won’t prevent this kind of thing happening again. It’s a short-term fix, not a long-term solution but not everyone has the appetite for long-term strategies.

The Taoiseach Micheal Martin had the answer though. He said, “I think more specifically there’s a multi-layered response that is required to this, in terms of both making sure we put services in and continue to add services and empower the community to deal with this from a bottom-up approach and from a community-based approach and support the gardai in terms of resources.”

He said, “The gardaí will get handle on this, they will be able to deal with this. We’ve dealt with similar episodes in the past in different locations around the country. There are ways of dealing with this, as I say, in the multi-layered way through community interventions, through supporting various services, but also then making sure the gardai have the resources, both at the community level and in terms of specialist services to deal with the issues.”

When you dig through all that waffle, what he’s actually saying is that we need to get back to basics. State and voluntary agencies need to work with the various communities to develop relationships and regain the respect and trust of the people on the ground, especially the young people.

That sounds like a plan that could work. In fact, we know for certain it could work because it’s exactly what we did in Cork back in the nineties and the noughties with great success. At least that was until the then garda commissioners, and the politicians of the day flushed it down the toilet.

Having spent the bones of twenty years in community policing, I have some idea of what’s involved in supporting communities. That model we had in place a quarter of a century ago was developed over years of trial and error and was replicated in other areas to great effect.

It was based primarily on mutual respect, but that respect didn’t just appear overnight, it was hard won. Communities had been let down previously and were slow to trust this new concept of community policing, but anti-social behaviour and crime were spiralling out of control, and people were looking for answers.

It took fifteen years or so to bring about change. Models of best practice were developed involving the community, the local authority, gardai, youth workers, community wardens and the department of justice. That resulted in youth projects for the marginalised, diversion projects for those on the verge of criminality along with other initiatives. And they worked.

The tide eventually turned thanks to the hard work and commitment of many dedicated people who had a genuine belief in what they were doing and that’s why I’m so annoyed today. All that hard work was for nothing. When the economic crash happened, the model as we knew it was discarded and since then there has been a steady decline in community engagement.

We’re seeing the consequences of that short sightedness now. The clock has been wound back twenty years and I fear there is new wave of unrest ahead and no amount of waffle will prevent it.

The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, said the ramming of the garda car was “absolutely unacceptable” and she wants a co-ordinated response and has already been engaging with the commissioner, local gardai, local authority, Dublin City Council to make sure there is a comprehensive response and plan in place to support the community.

She wants to make sure gardaí are working with local authorities and local communities to get to the “heart of some of these issues.” One councillor from Clondalkin, said, “We need a new approach to dealing with these kids. If there is no intervention at a very early stage, they just become lost to crime.”

I have news for her. We figured that out in the 80’s and it’s not a new approach that’s needed but a return to the old one. Ms. McEntee is far too young to remember the models we had in place back then but if she is serious about her commitment to community engagement, she should talk to the people who do.