Month: June 2016

Why is it that so many English football fans seem to be incapable of behaving themselves? They have repeatedly left down their clubs and country with their disgraceful conduct and outrageous violence. And it never seems to be their fault.

England is a country that prides itself on its patriotism, stiff upper lip attitude, good manners, cricket and a love of queuing. But when it comes to following their national football team the wheels seem to come off the bus.

You don’t hear too much negativity surrounding the supporters of English rugby, cricket or tennis but when it comes to football, hooliganism seems to be a recurring story.

It is a very difficult subject for Irish people to get their heads around because violence in sport is simply an unknown concept. Our supporters in all sports have a reputation for having fun with the opposition, friendly banter and a few drinks.

Hurling, Gaelic football and rugby are aggressive, competitive sports that can get the adrenaline flowing in supporters and emotions can very often run high. Yet it is very common for supporters to be mixed without incident. You will often find an opposing fan sitting in the midst of the ‘enemy’ but apart from some friendly slagging and abuse the lone supporter will come to no harm.

I can remember as a young lad in 1972 my father brought me to see Leeds United play Cardiff City in in Cardiff. It was my first ever live English football game. We were walking from the railway station to the football ground when we were approached by an older man.

He suggested to my father that I should hide my Leeds United scarf under my coat in case we met any trouble. I did as I was told but I was only fourteen years old and I was disappointed not to be able to show support for my team.

As we got closer to the stadium I remember seeing all the shop windows boarded up to avoid being smashed. Soon after, there was a sound of chanting and shouting from what sounded like a large group. When we rounded a corner I saw hundreds of Leeds fans at one end of the street facing up to hundreds of Cardiff fans at the other end.

The atmosphere turned sour very quickly and spoiled what was supposed an exciting day out to watch some football. The older man directed us away from that scene as both groups charged at each other. It was a very frightening experience.

I have in recent times been lucky enough to travel to Anfield, on several occasions with my own son, to watch Liverpool play. I had thought that all violence at football grounds had been consigned to the history books because my experiences at Liverpool have always been positive. Anfield is a great stadium and is well marshalled with efficient and good humoured stewards.

Recent events with the England fans in France however would suggest that all is far from being rosy in the garden.

Looking at photographs of these hooligans it is plain to see that many of these guys are old enough to be parents and grandparents. Middle aged men standing in the street, with their bare chests, throwing chairs and bottles look completely ridiculous. Surely they must see how stupid they look.

It reminds me a little of watching a talent contest when someone comes on stage to sing and he hasn’t got a note in his head. He is delighted with himself while everyone else watching is cringing and hiding their faces behind their hands. Everybody is wishing that he would just go away. And you wonder how he possibly has the nerve to stand there and mortify himself.

Surely there must be someone in the family who knows that this guy can’t sing. There must be someone who can pull him to one side and give him a dose of home truth, for his own sake. A bit of honesty might be a bit painful but would have to be preferable to total humiliation on a grand scale at a later stage.

It’s the same thing with these adult hooligans. If you know one of these bare-chested, chair-throwing grandads please have a little word in his shell like. You might hurt his feelings a little but you could be subtle and just tell him that he looks like a complete dope.

You could also advise him that chairs are for sitting on, bottles are for drinking from and taking off your shirt at that age is something you do in the privacy of your own home before taking a shower. You could also remind him that football is a sport that is enjoyed by many and it is not a war. Let him know as well that he is a hopeless role model and a pitiful specimen of a man.

Maybe football needs to take a look at itself as well and accept that it has a part to play in improving behaviour off the pitch by improving behaviour on it. It could start by dealing with the way officials are regularly abused by players. Rugby is a much more disciplined sport and players are taught at a very young age to respect the officials. The referees’ word is final and is never questioned and it all works very well.

That could be a good place for the Football Association to start. Shouting offensive comments at the officials sends out the wrong message to young fans. That mentality won’t change overnight. It’s too late for the bare chested grandads to mend their ways but we should start working on the next generation sooner rather than later.

 

 

 

 

 

Bonfire night is almost upon us. It’s a strange tradition that only seems to be recognised in some counties in Ireland, Cork being one of them. It’s a tradition that we could do without in my humble opinion.

If some unfortunate alien happened to find himself wandering around Cork City on 23^rd June he would be surprised to find people setting fire to the place. He would probably conclude that he had called at a bad time and start up his spaceship and try his luck on another planet.

Apparently this strange activity is part of Midsummer celebrations and traditionally takes place on the eve of The Feast of St John. I’m not sure why St. John is associated with fire, maybe he was an arsonist back in the day, but those responsible for coming up with this form of veneration could have done us all a favour by designing something more mundane.

The bonfire got this name because in the past old bones were burned in the fire. In fact in the Irish language the bonfire is called “Tine Cnáimh” which literally means fire of bones. Stick with me and you’ll learn stuff.

In olden days the fires had to be lit in a circle exactly at sunset and had to be watched until the next morning. They would burn turf, furze bushes, firewood and weeds. Prayers would be said to get God’s blessing for healthy crops. There would also be some singing and dancing and general hell-raising.

There were lots of superstitions associated with Bonfire Night and those with new homes would use the flame to light their first home fire. They also used the flame to light fires around their homes to keep the fairies away. Other items were burned so as to bring bad luck to an enemy and they would also take ashes from the fire and spread them over their land to protect their crops.

As might be expected in Ireland, there was plenty of eating and drinking!  As the flames and sparks shot up, loud cheers would arise from the crowd, horns were blown and some people beat on tin cans. The musicians did their thing and the dancers did theirs. Songs were sung and stories were told.

There were two fire traditions, the large communal fire, lit by the townspeople, or perhaps by the inhabitants of the entire parish, and the small, family fires lit by the members of a household. The communal fires were a place for merriment while the family fires were subdued occasions marked by ceremonies invoking protection on flock or fields.

This was all fairly harmless stuff back then but fast forward to more recent times and it became obvious that these celebrations were becoming a bit of a problem. The original concept of Bonfire Night had become lost along the way and it had now become more of an excuse for people to burn their rubbish.

In the days leading up to Bonfire Night, youngsters would be drawing all kinds of stuff to be burned. Timber, boxes, pallets, bushes, tyres and old furniture. As it got closer to the event, many used it as an excuse to get rid of rubbish and that too was thrown on the heap. It didn’t matter whether it could actually burn or not.

Fireworks are illegal but it was not uncommon to hear them on Bonfire Night. Anti -social behaviour was associated with most fires along with drunken noisy disorder that often went on throughout the night. It sometimes continued through the following day as well.

It wasn’t unusual for things to get completely out of hand resulting in injuries from brawls and drunken assaults.

I can recall looking out over Cork City on several Bonfire Nights in the early hours of the morning and looking at scenes that were reminiscent of a disaster movie. A cloud of thick black smoke as far as the eye could see. I can remember seeing fires lighting on streets and main thoroughfares, next to houses and factories.

Over the years, Bus Eireann has suffered damage to their fleet and at times this had led to the withdrawal of the bus service from certain areas. The Fire Service too has had equipment damaged and some personnel have been injured as a result of anti- social behaviour.

Many of these bonfires were getting out of control and Bonfire Night was becoming a problem night for the emergency services. Many residents across the city were fed up with it so something had to change.

And change it did. Cork City Council, Cork City Fire Service and An Garda Siochana put structures in place to regulate bonfires and the anti-social behaviour that has traditionally been associated with them. The long term aim of the initiative is to replace unauthorised bonfires with controlled events suitable for families.

In recent years a more civilised form of celebrating Bonfire Night has replaced the havoc that previously existed. A number of Park Events have been organised throughout the city each year which include entertainment for kids and teenagers and a number of controlled bonfires. Each location is supervised by City Council officials and RAPID Coordinators and Community Gardai.

Cork City Fire Service has dealt with fewer calls since this initiative was introduced and incidents of anti-social behaviour and public order have also greatly reduced.

I’m not so sure what St. John makes of this development but I’m certain that many of the living are very grateful for this intervention. Not only is life more bearable for many residents on Bonfire Night but the city has also become a less frightening spectacle for any visiting aliens.

 

 

A recent claim for compensation has highlighted the compo culture that has crept into Ireland. There was a time when we looked towards our American cousins in dismay as they seemed to be constantly suing each other. We cocked a snoot and tut tutted and counted ourselves lucky. How times have changed

A Dublin housewife, who has previously climbed in the Himalayas and has made her way to the base camp on Mount Everest, has sued the Irish National Parks and Wildlife Service for €40,000 following a fall on the Wicklow Way. The National Parks and Wildlife Service said that it’s the first time they’ve been sued for negligence after a walker’s fall.

The woman said that as the result of a cut to her right knee she can no longer climb or run marathons. She said that she had to receive seven stitches in a gash to her knee after falling in the Wicklow Mountains National Park. Her foot had apparently snagged in a hole in an old railway sleeper.

There seems to be no doubt that the unfortunate woman cut her leg but you would imagine that an experienced hill walker would be aware that what she was doing was considered to be a sporting pursuit that had certain risks attached to it. It’s also hard to see how a cut to the knee could merit a payment of such magnitude.

If I decide to take up parachute jumping as a hobby then I would have to assume that there are certain risks that go with that activity. If I’m daft enough to chuck myself out of an airplane at ten thousand feet then I can hardly start whinging if I land awkwardly and hurt myself. I shouldn’t be able to go to the ‘Jumping Out Of Planes Association of Ireland’ and sue them because I got a bruise on my butt after landing badly.

Now, if it was a case that the Park Ranger in Wicklow had laid a trap for bears on the main pathway and didn’t put up a warning sign and that resulted in someone losing a leg, then you might be inclined to think, well, that was a bit careless so let’s give them some compo to get a replacement limb.

In the case of this lady, her leg was not amputated and she is by all accounts the same person she was before the mishap. In any event, she considers that she has suffered and it’s going to take €40,000 to make her feel better again.

It seems that there have been hundreds of falls over the years by walkers in the various national parks and many have resulted in broken bones.  But this is the first time that the Service has been sued for negligence and breach of duty and it could have serious repercussions for the future of hillwalking.

Compensation claims come in all shapes and sizes. In the U.K., the Ministry of Justice has said litigation involving prison inmates has reached £29 million. They have ordered an independent audit to make sure they are not being taken for a ride.

In one case, a convicted terrorist tried to claim more than £1,200 for an invasion of his privacy. He is serving a life sentence for a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners with liquid bombs and he sued for compensation. He alleged that two boxes containing his personal possessions, including legal mail, were opened, searched and removed. His case was dismissed, but like many such claims, the Ministry of Justice had to invest thousands of pounds mounting a defence.

Another case involved a convicted three-time killer who successfully sued for compensation. This guy is serving life for the murder of three fellow drug dealers in Hertfordshire in 2008. He was awarded £1,000 after a judge ruled that a guard squirted shampoo on his CDs during a prison transfer. He was also awarded more than £800 after items including his nose hair clippers were damaged in jail.

A burglar attempted to claim £6,000 after banging his head while play-fighting with another prisoner. He tried to claim he had slipped on water caused by a leak at HMP Manchester.

The Belfast Telegraph reported that one inmate lodged a compensation claim for sunburn after he climbed on to a roof in Maghaberry Prison on a hot day to stage a protest. We don’t know if the claim was successful as the Prison Service said that to release details of specific claims would breach human rights under the Data Protection Act. No doubt there would be another compo claim if that happened.

A few years ago a prisoner in Cork Prison sued the state after falling from the roof of a building within the prison grounds. The court ruled that he shouldn’t have been able to climb up there in the first place and so it wasn’t his fault and he was successful in his claim.

He was an adult and he was a prisoner. I would think that it’s fair to assume that the guy knew that he wasn’t supposed to go up on the roof. As a prisoner I’m certain that he was well aware of where it was he could and couldn’t go. But he still chose to go up on the roof and he promptly did a Humpty Dumpty job and he got rewarded for his stupidity.

Compensation isn’t free money. It’s paid for by us all one way or another. While I have no difficulty in compensating genuine hardship cases, I do have a huge problem with money grabbing opportunists.

If you don’t like the idea of getting a scratch on your knee then stay indoors and take up knitting. Alternatively, stick to watching Countdown on the telly and leave the outdoor stuff to Bear Grylls.

 

 

 

 

 

Parking a car is a task that some people find impossible to do properly. Pick a spot someday and just take a bit of time to observe some of the efforts. It is a good spectator sport. Most of us seem to manage it ok but there are those among us who just can’t handle it and should really stop trying.

I have seen drivers making several attempts to reverse into a space only to find themselves three feet from the footpath each time. I have also seen drivers drive into a space and then go backwards and forwards fifty times only to find themselves back where they started.

In Cyprus, a car is considered to be parked properly if any part of it is in the parking space. So if you have enough room to fit the front of the car in, or even one of the wheels, then the car is parked ok even though the rest of it might be sticking out and blocking the roadway.

But before we start to take the mickey too much, we should stop and consider the possibility that maybe they just can’t help themselves. There could be a reason why some drivers find it so difficult.

It could be down to the fact that they lack ‘spatial awareness’. You may not know what this is but it is something that can affect your daily life and might even prevent you from putting your car into a space.

Spatial awareness is needed for a wide range of activities in life. If you lack spatial awareness then you may find many ordinary activities more difficult to carry out or understand. Certain activities that are seen as second nature to the average person on the street will prove to be very difficult for someone dealing with this issue.

The simple task of trying to make your way home can get complicated. Trying to determine the direction to head off in could prove to be a significant challenge especially when north and south are indistinguishable. Trying to work out how far you have to travel to get home can get complicated too when you can’t work out whether you live ten miniutes away or ten miles.

This is difficult for us to understand but that is the world of spatial awareness. Most of us, when we go out, just automatically know how to make our way home again. But someone suffering from a lack of spatial awareness has to be on the alert. Constantly checking for landmarks and being very conscious of their surroundings at all times. Some will stick to the main streets and not move from them for fear of getting lost.

Ironically, one of the best ways to increase your spatial awareness is to get lost. Apparently getting lost makes you feel anxious and, as a result, increases brain activity. Getting lost also helps you find exit solutions and plot routes that connect you with what is familiar.

So the next time you see some poor soul struggling to get his car into a tight space spare a thought for the fact that he might be suffering from a lack of spatial awareness and be grateful that he’s not trying to berth a cruise ship.

I watched one of these ships berthing at the quayside in Cobh recently and it is some feat.

MS Independence of the Seas is a cruise ship operated by the Royal Caribbean cruise line. It’s enormous and it is a regular visitor to Cobh during the summer season. It has fifteen decks and can accommodate 4,370 passengers. It has a crew of 1,360 and is one of the largest cruise ships and passenger vessels yet built. It is 1,112 feet (339 m) long.

The Independence of the Seas has a water park, a dedicated sports pool for volleyball and basketball, whirlpools, and an internal shopping “street”, the Promenade, lined with shops, pubs and wine bars.

There is also the two story theatre with seating for 1,200, and a complete conference center. On a lower level there is an ice skating rink, heated, fresh water pools, a rock climbing wall, a basketball/hockey court, a mini golf course, and a Flow Rider for surfing.

It is almost an insult to call this a ship. It’s actually a floating city and you don’t really appreciate the size of it until you stand next to it when it berths. That’s parking to you and me.

When this liner calls to Cork Harbour, it ties up at the quayside in Cobh. Before it ties up it has to turn around completely to face back out the harbour again. Standing at 1112 feet long and fifteen stories high, it turns on a sixpence between Haulbowline and Cobh, before it glides to a halt at the pontoon at the quayside.

So that got me wondering about what would happen if the captain was one of these guys who couldn’t park a car? Let’s just imagine for a miniute that he was suffering from a touch of this spatial awareness business.

He’s not going to get too many chances to get it right. If a ship this size gets out of control then things are going to get very messy. It is a big responsibility for the captain. One mistake and he could sink the entire Irish Naval Service or turn the main street in Cobh into a canal without too much difficulty.

I think if I’m ever going to travel on one of these cruises, I’ll just wait for the captain to come to work in the morning and I’ll watch to see how he parks his car. If he is having any kind of bother then I’ll just grab my suitcase and leave quietly.

 

 

 

So the Summer Olympic Games of 2016 is almost upon us and will take place in Rio in Brazil from 5^th August to 21^st August. Over ten thousand athletes will take part in twenty eight Olympic sports, all hoping to capture the ultimate prize of an Olympic medal.

As a youngster I used to get excited in the run up to the games but drugs cheats and doping scandals have dimmed my enthusiasm. Over the years, I have become extremely cynical.

Nowadays when I see some sports person standing on a podium to receive an accolade I automatically find myself questioning how genuine the victory was and whether or not the performance was enhanced by drugs.

It’s a natural reaction given the wholesale abuse of drugs in sport in recent years. And just when you think that we are getting a handle on it up pops a new scandal that puts us back in our cynical box again.

In the seventies we used to question Eastern European weightlifters who were lifting shopping centres while other mere mortals were struggling with normal dead lifts. And that was only the women. When the Chinese won medals we just threw our eyes up to the heavens and accepted it.

So, given what we now know about performance enhancing drugs and their widespread use and abuse, can we look forward to a level playing field and fairer games this time round? I suspect not.

Drugs cheats from the London Olympics are close to being exposed after 31 athletes tested positive following a re-examination of samples from the Beijing 2008 Games. All are facing possible bans from Rio 2016 thanks to retests carried out using the latest techniques in the fight against doping.

The International Olympic Committee announced that at least 6.8% of 454 defrosted samples analysed from Beijing 2008 contained banned substances, with the results for 250 London 2012 samples expected to be revealed shortly.

What this means in ordinary language is that these athletes got away with using performance enhancing drugs in 2008 and possibly cheated their way to the podium while denying genuine athletes their rightful recognition. The only reason that they got caught is because now there are more sophisticated techniques available for finding the stuff than there were in 2008.

The IOC also confirmed plans to reanalyse samples from the 2014 Winter Olympics following the latest allegations that Russia ran another state-sponsored doping programme in Sochi, one involving the swapping of dirty samples for clean ones.

There is some talk that there could be a total ban on the Russians competing at the Rio Games but then, that would be unfair on those athletes who have independently proven test records. Winning a medal without competing against Russian athletes would surely diminish the achievement of the other athletes as well.

A wider re-testing programme of medallists from Beijing and London will eventually take place, including anyone reallocated a medal as a result.

Testing, re-testing and re-testing those who were subsequently upgraded following re-tests is now very complicated and should possibly be considered for inclusion as an Olympic event itself.

So then, what can we look forward to in Rio? Well, we are promised that there will be stringent testing and cheats will be dealt with. But only if they can find exactly what it is that is making them go faster, jump higher or throw further. The organisers will freeze samples for another ten years and by then there will be more sophisticated machinery available for finding drugs that are still currently undetectable.

We will probably have winners on podiums receiving medals that will be taken off them in a few years and given to other athletes who went home early because they couldn’t keep up.

But it’s not only the athletes we have to worry about. Drugs are also an issue outside the Olympic Stadium in Rio. In a recent shoot- out between the police and a drugs gang, a police helicopter was shot down and an officer was killed.

Police in Brazil shoot more, kill more and die on duty more than anywhere else in the world apparently, according to police officer Marcus Azevedo. He claims that he has to use his 50,000 volt Taser almost every day in pursuit of robbers and pickpockets.

One police officer is killed almost every three days in Rio. Of his 2011 graduation class of 60 officers, one is already dead and another has been blinded in shootings. His older colleague Sergeant Santana says, “My old headquarters looked like a Swiss cheese because it had so many bullet holes.”

Most of the low level crimes are carried out by teenagers on bicycles who snatch necklaces, phones or handbags. Some criminals use knives and there are also occasional swarms of young thieves who rampage across the beaches, stealing everything from the tourists.

I’m sure this is all very comforting for those planning on travelling there for the games.

There is another point of interest. The Olympics have not yet begun, but the first record has already been set with the number of free condoms being handed out to the athletes.

Officials will be distributing 450,000 condoms to the athletes on the day the Olympic Village opens, that’s an average of 42 condoms per athlete and a three-fold increase over the number of condoms distributed at the London Olympics.

Brazil considers itself to be a leader in the world when it comes to AIDS prevention and wants to encourage safe sex and also wants the athletes set an example to the general population.

With all the sport, drugs and condoms floating around, this Olympics may well be worth watching after all.