Category: Uncategorized

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I heard a conversation on the radio recently about reverse aging. The panel were discussing the need some people have to look younger than they really are. My first thought was why would anybody even bother? What’s the point in trying to look like a forty-year-old if you are sixty years of age, after all, you can’t fool your body clock. And who cares anyway?

The wrinkles and lines we have are earned from the lives we’ve lived. They’re signs of experience, but many people prefer to be without them, opting instead for cosmetic surgery which I’m sure doesn’t come cheap. It doesn’t come pain free either.

A facelift is one method but from what I’ve seen, trying to cod Mother Nature can often backfire. Research suggests that 76% of people look younger than they did before the operation but that means 24% could end up with a face like a trout. They also say that 21% of facelifts relapse after five and a half years so the whole business seems to be a bit of a gamble.

This procedure is not as common in men because it can be harder to achieve a natural appearance after surgery, due to the hair we have in front of our ears. Men are more prone to bleeding after a facelift too apparently so that’s that for me then.

They say there are two certainties in life, death and taxes, and whatever about dodging the Revenue, there’s no escaping the Grim Reaper. We’re only here for a short time and I can think of better ways to spend it than trying to roll back the years on my appearance, but it is a big deal for some.

Anyway, back to the radio programme where an expert on skincare suggested that there was a much easier to way to have better skin and fewer wrinkles. Just use sun block from an early age and avoid exposure to direct sunshine, simple. You would imagine that wouldn’t be such a big job for those of us living in Ireland but apparently, we are just as much at risk here as they are in sunnier climes.

I like nothing better than feeling the heat of the sun on my bones, but I’m not much of a sunbather. I get bored when I lie in a sun lounger for too long and I always had an aversion to suncream, especially when it mixed with sweat and dripped into my eyes. I have improved in recent times though mainly due to medical advice.

We know the sun’s rays can take a toll on our skin in the short-term in the form of sunburn, but there can also be long-term consequences lurking within the skin, even if we don’t experience a burn.

According to Yale Medicine, the sun prematurely ages the skin, called photoaging, and this can lead to skin cancer. It happens when ultraviolet (UV) light hits skin unprotected by sunscreen, causing DNA changes at a cellular level. Because photodamage happens in the deepest layers of the skin, it can take years before the damage surfaces and becomes visible.

Ultraviolet light from the sun and/or tanning beds permanently damages the skin’s structure too. To see the difference between chronological aging and photoaging, compare skin on an area of your body that is not exposed to the sun with the skin on your face.  

Everyone is susceptible to photoaging, but how much damage you sustain depends on things like how much unprotected sun exposure you’ve had over time and your skin type. In general, lighter skin is more susceptible to photoaging and skin cancer.

Knowing this, you would have to wonder about using sunbeds at all. The Irish Cancer Society tell us using sunbeds is not a safe way to get a tan because of the increased risk of skin cancer, the fastest growing cancer in Ireland.

There are over 13,000 new cases of skin cancer diagnosed each year and by not using sunbeds and taking care when outdoors, most of these cases could be prevented. The UV rays from sunbeds can be fifteen times stronger than the midday Mediterranean sun.

The World Health Organisation has some frightening statistics. They tell us that even one sunbed session can increase your risk of developing squamous cell skin cancer by 67% and basal cell skin cancer by 29%. If you have ever used a sunbed your risk of melanoma increases by 20%. Using it before the age of 35 increases your risk by almost 60%.

Some people are at greater risk than others and should not use a sunbed under any circumstances such as those with fair or freckled skin, or those who have a lot of moles. People with a family member who has had skin cancer should avoid sunbeds too.

If you’re still concerned about wrinkles and premature aging though, don’t panic, help is on the way. The search for the secret of eternal youth is big business. CNN reported that in Boston labs, old, blind mice have regained their eyesight, developed smarter, younger brains and built healthier muscle and kidney tissue.

The experiments show aging is a reversible process. Some experts believe a loss in the cell’s ability to read its original DNA causes cells to forget how to function in much the same way an old computer may develop corrupted software. Now scientists believe they are getting closer to finding the switch to reverse that.

Billions of dollars are being spent on anti-aging research trying to find a method to turn back the clock. I don’t expect to see it in my lifetime and I’m not sure I would want to either. I get a bit squeamish at the thought of messing with our DNA. That’s how we ended up with the Incredible Hulk.

Deaths from crashes on Irish roads have surpassed the 100 mark this year, up on the figure for this time last year. That’s in spite of all the road safety campaigns, awareness programmes, GoSafe vans and other speed enforcement measures by An Garda Siochana. Nothing seems to be working and in the meantime the carnage continues.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has just launched a new campaign of advertisements in its latest effort to raise awareness of dangerous behaviours on Irish roads, such as speeding, drink driving, distracted driving, not wearing seatbelts and drug driving.

The ads, we’re told, are specifically designed around insights gleaned from younger men who drive on rural roads to ensure that they are relevant to that sub-audience.

The Department of Transport has welcomed the campaign which they say complements the important measures introduced earlier this year by the Road Traffic Act 2024. The Act seeks to target the most dangerous driving behaviours through harsher penalties, safer speed limits and mandatory roadside drug testing for drivers involved in serious collisions.

Last year, 2023, the RSA ran another campaign asking all road users for their support in changing their behaviour to make Irish roads safer. They were encouraging people to “have a conversation with friends, family members and colleagues” and to “look at their own behaviour and commit to making one positive change that would contribute to safer roads”.

These campaigns are well intentioned, but do they achieve anything? The messages are important, but do they actually reach their target audience? If they do, are they having any impact? The fact that road deaths are increasing would suggest not. I’ve heard some of these ads and I think they are amateurish to be honest. I can’t see them having much of an impact so what next?

Well, the garda commissioner said he wants to increase the punishment for bad driving. He says consideration should be given to graduated fines to ensure drivers travelling at higher speeds are more severely punished. Mr. Harris said the introduction of a graduated penalty point system in proportion with the relevant offence would deter poor driving and bad behaviours on Irish roads. I don’t agree.

I don’t see the point in dreaming up further legislation or increasing the existing penalties because what we have at the moment is perfectly adequate but it’s not being enforced. That’s the real problem – lack of enforcement. Maybe that’s due to lack of resources, but the strength of An Garda Siochana today isn’t that far off what it was twenty years ago so where are they?

Back then, performing check points was a routine part of a tour of duty for uniformed gardai on regular outdoor duties, particularly during the night shift. Gardai could perform several of these during their tour and they could pop up anywhere on the main thoroughfares or the back roads.

They were effective on several fronts. When they were performed regularly, they were seen as a normal feature of community life and became a topic of conversation in the locality. That alone acted as a road safety awareness campaign. On the practical side, they led to the detection of traffic offences, made life difficult for travelling criminals and encouraged drivers leaving the pubs at closing time to consider leaving the car behind.

I have no idea what the current policy is in relation to checkpoints, but the population of Ireland has increased to over five million so it’s fair to assume there is a lot more traffic on the roads these days than there was when I was a serving garda. That suggests to me that there is more of a need for checkpoints than ever.

I was stopped recently on Water Street in Cork. It was after mid-night, and I was on my way to collect people from the airport. I’m pretty certain it was the first time I’ve encountered a checkpoint since I retired in 2015. If that’s a national trend, then it’s sending out the wrong message to motorists.

I don’t have any faith in the RSA adverts either. There is a cohort of drivers who won’t take a blind bit of notice of ads on TV or radio. Their poor driving will only improve after a life changing accident or through a face-to-face interaction with a member of An Garda Siochana or a judge in the District Court. There is no substitute for being caught in the act and facing a prosecution, fine or caution.

Much of the bad driving we see these days is because there is no fear of detection. I was driving home the other morning about 9.30am and I met a guy driving towards me. He was overtaking a line of parked cars. He had a mobile phone in one hand while steering with the other. Almost immediately after that, I met a woman driving into town and she too had a mobile phone up to her ear.

Examples of bad driving are easily found, and that complaint is being echoed across the length and breadth of the country. Jump into your car and take a short spin around your area and you will quickly see enough offences being committed to put a nice dent in any official garda notebook. That’s because offenders have no fear of being observed by a member of An Garda Siochana and why would they?

It is widely accepted that there is a distinct lack of garda visibility under the Drew Harris regime and the strength of the Garda Traffic Corps, has fallen by 17% in the last ten years. The RSA has called for a significant ramping-up of visible enforcement and that’s the crux of the matter.

Visibility is key. We have enough legislation so let’s have fewer ads and more action.

I don’t mind flying. We’re told it’s a safe form of transport and I believe that. With highly trained pilots and onboard computers ready to deal with any emergency that may arise I reckon we’re probably at more of a risk crossing the road than we are up in the clouds. So, time to sit back and relax.

There are people though, who prefer to add a bit of excitement to their time in the sky, like parachutists for example. They’re not content to just sit there and enjoy the ride, no sir. They prefer to exit the aircraft before it lands, putting their faith in a parachute which is little more than a piece of silk attached to a few strings.

I can’t think of a single inducement that would encourage me to do that. My daughter did a charity jump years ago and I was sick at the thought of it. Falling to Earth at 200 km per hour armed with only a backpack is not my idea of fun.

But there are plenty who enjoy it and they’re even happy to pay for the privilege. There are parachute clubs all over the world to cater for these thrill seekers, including one in Ireland, where people can throw themselves out of a plane at heights of ten to thirteen thousand feet. Enthusiasts will tell you that you haven’t lived until you have enjoyed the thrill of free fall at speed attached to a parachute.

The experts tell us that while skydiving is a lot safer than most people think, it does carry risks and it’s the ‘risk’ bit that sticks in my mind. They also tell us that most skydiving accidents happen with the parachute open, usually due to poor judgment or avoidable risks taken during the landing. Broken legs, sprained ankles, and fractured pelvises are heard of far more than a fall where the parachute is unflyable.

On the rare occasion that a parachute doesn’t open, there is a reserve canopy in place. This backup parachute will deploy if the main parachute doesn’t open. The chances of a parachute not opening are greater than one in 1,000, and the possibility of the reserve also not opening or being unflyable is more than one in a million. OK, the odds are good, but I’m still not convinced.

The experts have some advice too if for any reason, your main parachute doesn’t open or is faulty. Apparently, the thing to remember is to stay calm; the most significant risk to the reserve parachute not saving you, is panic. That may well be, but I can pretty much guarantee if I was hurtling towards the N25 with a nicely folded parachute refusing to get out of its bag there would be lots of panic.

If both parachutes do fail to open, the advice is to spread your body out as wide and horizontal as possible in an X shape; any speed reduction you can cause will help. Then it would help if you started planning the safest possible landing spot. Anything that can absorb the impact will be best, such as snow, tree branches, marshy areas, or a freshly ploughed field, then brace for a strong impact.

There have been some incredible instances of people falling out of airplanes without parachutes and surviving. Alan Magee, an American airman survived a 22,000-foot fall from a damaged B-17 bomber over France in 1943. Thrown clear of the aircraft and rendered unconscious, he fell four miles before crashing through the glass roof of St. Nazaire train station, shattering it and miraculously surviving, but with severe injuries.

On July 6th, 2021, a British soldier miraculously survived a 15,000-foot fall over the skies of Atascadero, California. The British parachutist’s training exercise went awry when his chute failed to properly deploy. He crashed through the roof of a bungalow, fell through the attic, and landed in the kitchen. When he was found, the soldier was conscious and complained of some pain but incredibly wasn’t seriously injured. Thankfully, no one was home at the time.

At 4,000ft, Jordan Hatmaker pulled the string and realised something was very wrong. A series of unfortunate incidents combined to leave her heading for the ground without a parachute. Seconds later, she crash-landed in a field and remembers the blades of grass in her mouth as she prayed out loud and screamed for help. She knew she had broken her back, but it was only three weeks into her hospital stay that she realised the full extent of her injuries.

She had broken several vertebrae, one of which had also crushed her spinal cord. In the operating theatre surgeons discovered she was leaking spinal fluid. In addition, she had hit the ground with her left leg first, causing her tibia to break near the ankle. Two years later, Hatmaker went back to work.

Emma Carey was on a European backpacking holiday when she went on a tandem skydive in Switzerland. When she jumped, she remembers the incredible feeling of being at peace. But the feeling of euphoria was short-lived for the 20-year-old backpacker.

It seems that when the instructor pulled the parachute it got tangled with the emergency chute that had been triggered at the same time. The parachutes didn’t open correctly and got tangled around the instructor’s neck, strangling him until he passed out.

They hit the ground, hard. Emma landed on her stomach and the instructor landed on top of her. She was awake for the entire ordeal with a broken back, a broken pelvis, jaw and teeth. Thankfully she survived and has the date of her accident tattooed on her arm as a reminder that every day is a blessing.

I’ll wait until the plane lands before I get off thank you very much.

I came across an interesting story recently on Allthatsinteresting.com about a guy called Buford Pusser. It immediately brought to mind, images of ‘Dirty Harry’ Callaghan, the character played by the 6 foot 4 inch Clint Eastwood in the 1970’s movies. Harry Callaghan was a no-nonsense police detective in San Francisco who fought a war against crime armed with his trusty 44 Magnum. He rarely took any prisoners and neither, it seems did Buford Pusser.

Pusser was born on December 12, 1937, in Adamsville in McNairy County, Tennessee to the son of the police chief of that town. He was a natural athlete and played on both the football and basketball teams in high school. By the time he reached adulthood, he stood at 6’6” and weighed 250 pounds, a physically intimidating specimen. He later joined the U.S. Marines but was discharged when he was diagnosed as asthmatic.

In 1957, at a loose end, Pusser moved to Chicago and entered the local wrestling scene. Because of his massive size and strength, he earned the nickname “Buford the Bull.” It was there that he met Pauline Mullins, who he would soon marry. Shortly thereafter, they returned to Pusser’s hometown of Adamsville, Tennessee where he joined local law enforcement.

Though he was just 25 years old, the strong, no-nonsense Pusser was soon elected chief of police, a position that he would hold for about two years until 1964, when a car accident took the life of the McNairy County Sheriff, James Dickey.

Dickey, a U.S. Army World War II veteran, was driving near the Mississippi-Tennessee state line when he had a blowout. Having lost control of his car, he veered off the edge of the road, tumbled down an embankment, and crashed into a wooded area. There was a suggestion at the time that organised crime had a hand in the accident.

Following Dickey’s death, Pusser was elected to fill his shoes and at 27 years old, Pusser became the youngest sheriff in the state’s history. Organized crime was becoming so violent that law-abiding citizens feared for their safety, but they noticed a change after Pusser took office.

He threw himself into his work, turning his attention to fighting the Dixie Mafia and the State Line Mob, two organized crime groups operating on the border between Tennessee and Mississippi making thousands of dollars from the illegal sale of moonshine, illegal gambling, prostitution, robbery, and murder.

Pusser was virtually the only member of law enforcement focusing on organized crime in this region at the time and he made some enemies. Not long after his election, he was assaulted by members of the moonshining ring and stabbed seven times. They were trying to prevent Pusser from shutting down their operation.

It wasn’t the only attempt on his life. He survived multiple gunshot wounds and other assassination attempts over the years too. He also fended off physical attacks, once fighting off six men at the same time, sending three to the hospital and three to jail. On another occasion, he was run over by a car.

The most devastating assassination attempt though came in August 1967. At around 4:30 a.m. on August 12, 1967, Pusser received a call that there was a disturbance near the state line. Buford’s wife, Pauline, didn’t like him going there on his own so she insisted on riding along with him.

As they approached the area, a car suddenly pulled up alongside them and opened fire on Pusser’s vehicle. The initial shots missed Buford but struck his wife in the head. Pusser sped away to shake off his attackers and when he thought he had lost them, he pulled over and tended to Pauline’s wounds. The other car then suddenly reappeared, and Pusser’s car was riddled with bullets again. Pauline was shot a second time and died while Buford Pusser’s was shot in the face.

The second car took off and Pusser was left for dead. He was soon discovered and taken to the hospital where he underwent multiple reconstructive surgeries on his face. After 18 days he was released vowing to avenge his wife’s killers. He could identify the four alleged assassins including Dixie Mafia leader, Kirksey McCord Nix Jr., as the mastermind who had orchestrated the ambush.

Pusser believed the assassination attempt was related to a case from the previous year, where he was shot at while investigating a robbery. He returned fire and killed Louise Hathcock, the common-law wife of Kirksey Nix. Pusser was never able to bring Nix, or any of the others, to trial, but Nix was sentenced to life in prison in 1972 for a separate murder and was later charged with ordering two more murders while behind bars.

One way or another though, the three other killers eventually paid the price for their crimes. One of them, Carl Douglas “Towhead” White, was found fatally shot in Mississippi in 1969. Rumours quickly swirled that Pusser himself had a hand in the killing, though this was never confirmed.

Not long after that, the last two alleged hitmen, George McGann and Gary McDaniel, were also found shot to death in Texas in 1970. Again, many believed that Pusser had orchestrated their deaths, but this was never proven either. His alleged revenge for his wife’s death and the virtual one-man war he waged against organised crime made him a widely revered figure in Tennessee.

Pusser himself came to an untimely end in August 21, 1974, when he suddenly lost control of his car and crashed into an embankment. The car burst into flames, and he died in a similar fashion to the sheriff who preceded him. He was just 36 when he perished and while the crash is officially recorded as an accident, many believe he too was murdered by the criminal underworld.

I’m on the verge of quitting Twitter, or X as it’s now called. I joined in 2011 and it was fun for a few years. I used to check in every morning to see what happened overnight and to enjoy some witty comments. It was a pleasant way to pass some time, but those days are gone.

It’s no longer a place for friendly interaction and banter. There are too many half-wits full of hatred and anger – from all walks of life – who like nothing better than to hurl abuse at everyone and everything without the slightest regard for facts, truth or reason.

It’s impossible to visit the site now without coming across numerous videos of people screaming foul, threatening and grossly insulting language at people they disagree with, often accompanied by threats of actual violence. It seems nobody is immune when it comes receiving vile attacks online, and I’m fed up with it.

In recent years they have taken their hatred onto the streets and into the real world. More recently they have targeted the family home of An Taoiseach and whether you agree with his politics or not, intimidating his wife and children is not acceptable.

And before the usual nut-jobs jump up and down, screaming about freedom of speech and the right to peacefully demonstrate, let’s be realistic. The people behaving like this are not peaceful protesters or genuine demonstrators. They champion no cause but their own and most of the time I suspect they have no idea what that even is.

They don’t have as much support as they claim to have either as the recent local election results showed. They are incapable of presenting a coherent argument, and when they are challenged on their beliefs, they revert to type using the only tactic they understand – cursing and swearing loudly in the language of the trenches.

These characters were around in my day too. Not as many maybe but they were there. There was no social media back then, but they did like to play to a crowd which was the next best thing. They had similar profiles too.

Back then, there were many decent people living on social welfare for a variety of genuine reasons, but the characters I’m referring to were usually unemployed, not because they couldn’t find a job – they were just too lazy to work.

They got up at lunchtime and made their way to the bookies. Then headed to the pub where they spent the rest of the day drinking and educating likeminded souls on what was wrong with the country and how to fix it even though they wouldn’t lift a finger themselves.

I’ll give you a quick example. Many years ago, the community in one of the local authority estates organised a clean-up day. It was a lovely Saturday morning and everyone in the area was out with lawnmowers, strimming machines, shovels and brushes doing their bit to tidy the place for the summer.

Close to lunchtime, one of the aforementioned wasters, stood at his front door after getting out of bed. He leaned on the doorframe smoking a cigarette while he sniggered at the others. A few of the neighbours suggested that he might lend a hand, but he only laughed and ridiculed them for doing the work of the council. He would probably boast of that encounter later to his mates.

In my thirty-five years in An Garda Siochana, I met lots of those people. As a friend of mine used say – they were too lazy to work but too cute to starve. They were always first in line to get any kind of benefit from the State and the first to moan about it afterwards. The only queue they were never keen to join was the one that offered employment.

The advent of social media has given these modern day deadheads a platform. They don’t even need to make a coherent statement. They can scream and shout to their hearts content in the certain knowledge that someone with a phone will record it and upload it so they can share it with their friends in their local.

The abuse I’ve seen recently goes far beyond anything I experienced. I took my fair share of it just as police officers the world over do, but it was never delivered with such venom. I marshalled many demonstrations over the years and most went off without a hitch. If someone got out of hand, they were dealt with by the courts, but that policy seems to have changed.

The lack of police action today is emboldening these miscreants and encouraging more outrageous behaviour. I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but this level of anti-social behaviour goes way beyond what is acceptable to most ordinary people. It has to stop.

Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee said recently, “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. Throughout every one of these events, garda members respected the democratic right of people to protest, to make their voice heard, while upholding the law and responding appropriately to the shameful acts of violence.”

“I know that I’m joined by every single person in this country who values our freedom and our democratic rights when I condemn utterly and completely any apparent attacks on gardaí. Any such attack represents an attack on our entire community. It is an attack on our very democracy and our fundamental rights.”

She knows the thin blue line is wafer thin and under resourced. There may come a time when it may not be in a position to defend the attack on the democracy that she talks about so passionately.