Month: September 2018

I heard that Irish Rail are adding a new initiative to their service to make travel more comfortable for pregnant women. Maybe they’ve already done it but anyway, it’s their belief, that expectant mothers should be treated differently to other passengers, so they’re introducing a badge for pregnant women. A ‘Baby on Board’ badge.

They want to alert customers to pregnant passengers and hopefully, that will encourage others to offer up their seat for them. It would also help to avoid the awkwardness often felt by some pregnant women in having to ask for a seat. I think it’s a good idea, but it’s sad reflection on modern society that we need it in the first place.

I’m not completely surprised by this development though, because lack of manners is a huge issue these days. I have commented on this in the past and I think it’s a shame how we have left our manners slide.

The way people speak, or don’t speak, to shop assistants, waiters, bar staff and the like, leaves a lot to be desired. Nobody seems to say please or thank you anymore. Customers regularly conduct their business in complete silence and often leave without saying a single word to the assistant behind the counter. Consideration for others has also disappeared.

I went to a pharmacy recently and I saw a lady driving into one of the mother and child spaces outside. She jumped out of her car and toddled off to a supermarket nearby. She certainly didn’t have a child with her and she didn’t go into the pharmacy, so why did she park there? She did it because she felt like it.

It didn’t bother her that she might be making life more difficult for someone with children who needed to go to the chemist. It suited her and to hell with everyone else. Another guy pulled up in a small car and abandoned it. You couldn’t call it parking because the front of the car was in one space and the rear end was in another. It wasn’t much bigger than a supermarket trolley, but he still managed to take up two spaces.

I was standing at the express check-out in a supermarket and there was a woman in front of me with two large baskets of groceries. While she was unloading the contents on the counter, she remembered something else she needed and went off to get it.

I had a newspaper and a loaf of bread, so I expected her to tell me to go ahead but that didn’t happen. She had enough items to fill a small trailer, but she didn’t care. She suited herself and the rest of us waited.

At another supermarket I visit, it’s common to find cars abandoned at the fuel pumps. The drivers get their petrol and then go inside to do their shopping. This ties up the pumps for others, but they couldn’t care less. The staff regularly make announcements advising drivers to park elsewhere once they get their fuel, but they may as well be talking to the fish fingers.

This kind of behaviour is not life threatening and maybe it’s not very important to a lot of people. But it demonstrates a growing lack of consideration for others and it is an indication that some people are just totally consumed with themselves.

There was a time when it was normal to open doors for people and to give up a seat for an elderly person or a pregnant woman. They didn’t need a “Baby on Board” badge. These days, the pregnant lady could deliver the baby and raise it to maturity before being offered a chance to sit down.

In the old days, gentlemen escorted their partner on their left arm and walked on the outside of the footpath to protect her from the dust, mud and sewage that could splash up from passing horse carriages. Nowadays they’d use her as a shield.

Women wore long dresses then and they had to use both hands to keep them off the dirty ground, so the gentlemen opened doors for them. The gentleman also pulled out a chair for a lady and always offered their seat if there were none available.

Now it’s every man and woman for themselves but some people are fighting back.

A guy went into a coffee shop in Paris one day and took a seat. He worked as an information security consultant, so he was well used to modern technology. He was sitting there, minding his own business, but there was a group of people sitting next to him and they were being loud and obnoxious.

They were annoying everyone else in the place and it was obvious that they didn’t care. They refused to quieten down even when staff asked them to. He could see that the waiters were really stressed but there wasn’t much they could do without putting their jobs on the line.

This group was discussing a new company they were starting up. When they started shouting and high-fiving themselves about the perfect name they had come up with for the business, he heard it and it gave him an idea.

While they were celebrating and congratulating each other, he went online, and he quietly bought the domain name. This meant that when they would eventually get around to registering their new company and setting up their website, they would be in for a shock. Their new name wouldn’t be available because he now owned it.

He wanted to teach them a lesson about how being rude to staff, being overly loud in public spaces and not having respect for others might have negative consequences.

I love that guy and I thank him on behalf of the rest of us.

It’s very difficult to put a value on having good neighbours and thankfully, we have been very lucky as a family in that regard. And that’s exactly what it mostly comes down to, luck.

In the early eighties we bought a site in the countryside and built a house there. Our nearest neighbours had built their house on the adjoining site and we lived side by side for 25 years. Our properties were separated by a low hedge and as far back as I can remember there was a gap in that hedge, where we could pass freely from one house to the other.

I don’t remember any conscious decision being made to create the gap, it just evolved. Later we widened it and made it big enough to get a ride-on lawn mower through and, that machine made frequent trips back and forth.

They weren’t just neighbours either, they were more like family. They were as welcome in our place as we were in theirs and we shared many happy events together over the years including the births of our children. We were also there for each other during the bad times.

We have great memories of those days including the free musical concerts we were treated to from time to time. The neighbours’ daughter, Jacinta, learned to play the violin when she was a tiny tot and she used to love to come over and dazzle us with her skill.

She would arrive into the house unannounced, bursting to play a new tune that she had just learned, and she would stand in the middle of the kitchen and give it holly. She demanded our full attention. The tune would be completely unidentifiable but as far as she was concerned, this was a performance worthy of The National Concert Hall.

The fillings in my teeth would send shock waves to my brain while she struggled to find the right note, but that didn’t matter. We all had to keep smiling and clapping and when she was finished, she would toddle off back home, delighted with herself. We were delighted too, because we secretly loved her little concerts.

She still plays, but thankfully, she’s older now and has grown into a talented musician but she still gets embarrassed when I remind her of her early efforts.

When we moved closer to the town twelve years ago, one of the most difficult aspects of the move was leaving those neighbours behind. We knew that wherever we ended up we could never hope to have the likes of them beside us again. Those relationships don’t come along every day, and we are still in regular contact with each other.

Our new location is a small estate on the edge of town and initially, it was a new experience for us to have people living in such close proximity. But again, we struck it lucky and we have a great bunch of neighbours around us once more.

I know from experience, that this is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted because it’s not always the case and not everybody has this good fortune. As a former policeman, a good deal of my time was spent dealing with disputes between neighbours, so I know how easily, disagreements can turn friends into enemies.

There is no doubt that a bad neighbour can make life miserable and as you have no say in choosing who lives beside you, it’s all a bit of a lottery. I heard a recording on local radio some time ago that was made by a person who had a difficult neighbour.

She could be heard screaming abuse over the garden fence at the top of her voice, and she was calling him all sorts of names. It didn’t sound very pleasant from a distance, so I imagine that it was much worse having to listen to it from over the garden wall.

He was frustrated with the lack of response from the local gardaí, so he took his case up with the media. He claimed that the gardaí had told him that it was a civil matter and there was nothing they could do.

In a separate incident, a friend of mine told me of a problem he had with a difficult family living near him. He lives in a large settled estate and there were no issues with the neighbours until a property close by, went up for rent and a family moved in. From what he told me, ‘The Family from Hell’ would be an accurate description.

They had to put up with constant noise, day and night. They had no refuse collected and instead they just dumped it in the front garden. They were rude and abusive towards their neighbours, many of whom were elderly, and they felt intimidated.

This family obviously had no regard for anyone else and the residents were blue in the face from complaining to the landlord, but they were getting no satisfaction from him. As far as he was concerned, he was getting his money, so he didn’t care. The locals were reaching the end of their tether and crying out for help.

There’s no simple solution to dealing with dodgy neighbours but a legal approach is better than taking the law into your own hands like Michael Lawton did in the UK.

The last straw for him came when his windows were smashed, his car tyres were deflated, and eggs were thrown at his house by his neighbours. He had enough, so he set fire to the adjoining petrol station with the intention of blowing up the entire street.

It didn’t work, but he succeeded in turning the rest of the neighbours against him. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

My grandson, Cooper, will be starting primary school next year and this could prove to be very interesting because he’s not a child who likes to sit still. He’s only just turned four, but he’s already had a plaster cast on his foot after he broke it jumping off a bed and he’s been stitched up a few times after various falls and mishaps.

When he is let loose in the school playground after being confined to a desk for a few hours, I’m pretty sure I know what’s going to happen. He’s going to run and jump and if there is something to climb, Cooper will be at the top of it. If there is a ball of any kind within his reach, he’ll be on it in a flash because that’s the kind of child he is.

He’s at his happiest when he’s on the move and that might present a problem if what I hear is right. Apparently, some schools are afraid of litigation, so they are tightening up on what kids can get up to while they’re on their break. Running and playing football could be outlawed because of a fear that a child could fall or be hit with a ball.

There say there are two things that are certain in life, death and taxes but I’ll add another one. Children running and playing football will fall and will be hit with a ball at some stage but it’s unlikely that any injury sustained will be fatal. Kids playing will have mishaps and no amount of intervention will change that.

Like others of my generation, I have scars on my body that stand out as reminders of different incidents and accidents that happened to me over the years, particularly during my childhood. I didn’t have to receive the Last Rites for any of them, but I imagine they were probably uncomfortable at the time. I survived the trauma and managed to reach adulthood relatively unscathed.

My parents never sued for compensation and I can’t recall any case where a civil action was taken against the school and there were probably a lot more reasons to do so back in those days than there are now. Those accidents were just accepted as part of growing up and nobody was held to blame. There was as much of a chance back in the sixties, of getting injured in the classroom or the head masters office as there was in the playground.

My primary school was run by the Christian Brothers and they weren’t slow when it came to dishing out pain. The principal was a particularly unpleasant man who liked using the cane and the usual punishment was three lashes on each hand. That was enough to make the eyes water and the fingers would sting long after the numbness wore off.

Things have changed since then but not always for the better. There was a case heard in a Dublin court not too long ago, where a child sued the school through her mother, for injuries she suffered after a fall in the playground.

She based her case on the belief that the staff had been negligent in failing to stop a game of chase during a lunch break in the school yard. The child fell and broke her arm and she sued the school for €38,000.

Thankfully, the judge ruled that games of chase in school yards throughout the country could not be prohibited. “I just cannot accept the proposition that they should. She was engaged in a game of chase pure and simple and, while it is most regrettable that she became unbalanced and fell, this was simply an old-fashioned accident and I fail to see any liability on the part of the school for that accident,” he said.

It was a sensible judgement. Any other decision would have had far reaching consequences for schools across the country and would have created a major headache for teachers. Just imagine trying to explain to several hundred children that they can either walk around the playground or stand completely still. Good luck enforcing that.

But anecdotally, there are stories circulating of schools restricting the activities of children in the playground because of the fear of litigation and increased insurance costs if someone gets injured. According to teaching unions, some schools have implemented a ban on students running in the yard because they are so fearful of accidents.

The insurance industry has said it is not responsible for restricting activities in schoolyards and as far as they are concerned, it’s up to school staff to decide what is appropriate for the children in their care. They have issued guidelines in relation to the supervision of children during their breaks, but nothing more than that.

But I suspect the school staff may have an ulterior motive for preventing the children getting too excited in the playground and rather than trying to prevent injury to the kids, they might be trying to prevent accidents of another kind.

Fianna Fail TD, Fiona O’Loughlin, said that some schools are asking students to bring their own toilet paper to school because of rising costs. She felt it wasn’t fair on students to have to bring their own supply and I’m inclined to agree with her. According to Ms. O’Loughlin some schools can’t afford to buy toilet rolls.

Back in the day, outside toilets often had pieces of newspaper hanging on a bit of string that acted as a toilet roll holder. Maybe we’re going back to those days.

Either way, schools better come up with a plan because if you have hundreds of children running and jumping around the school yard without as much a single square of toilet paper between them, things could get very messy.

There’s no doubt that modern day policing has its challenges and the boys in blue never know from one shift to the next what they are going to encounter. While that has always been the case, society has become a lot more violent in recent times and life for the average policeman is way more complicated than it was 100 years ago.

I have been looking at some of the incidents that ended up in court in 1915 as reported by the Cork Examiner at the time. Society might have changed a lot over the years, but some things still remain the same and alcohol was playing a part in court reporting back then just as it is now.

A publican in the city centre, was summoned for a breach of the Licensing Laws on a Sunday in 1915 and two women were summonsed for being on the premises during prohibited hours.

Constable Conlon was on duty at the time with Constable Carroll at 12.40am. While they were passing along Cove Street they heard a noise coming from the pub. They saw the side door was slightly ajar and went in and found three women and four men on the premises. They also found freshly drawn stout or porter in vessels in the same room.

The women were not there, according to the publican, for the purpose of getting drink. One of the women was described as being a servant in the house, and another was described as ‘a gossip of a woman who lived upstairs’. They claimed they were there to visit a lady, who was ill in bed, but the publican was fined 20s, and the women were each fined 2s 6d.

Pat McCarthy, was summoned by Sergeant Gloster for having allowed his donkey to wander on the public road. The sergeant said that this was not an ordinary case at all. This was a very vicious donkey, and a woman had shown him that her child had been bitten by it. The donkey was a great source of danger in the locality. It had actually chased the sergeant himself, and this brought laughter to the court.

The defendant claimed that he had put the donkey into private property, but youngsters had broken down the paling and allowed it out. It was only when the children annoyed the donkey with sticks that he chased them. Sergeant Gloster said there was no paling and the owner was fined 1 shilling.

In a separate case, a licensed publican on Gerald Griffin street, was prosecuted by District Inspector Simey, for having unlawfully permitted drunkenness to take place on her licensed premises.

Sergeant Clarke stated that he entered the publican’s premises on the day in question. In the tap-room he found Joseph Cummins helplessly drunk. He was seated on a bench with his head on his bands, and the floor had the appearance of vomit, and he was covered with ashes and sawdust.

There was a glass full of porter near Cummins, but the publican said it belonged to another man. Two men lifted up Cummins, who was unable to stand, and he had to be assisted home. The publican said he had tried his best to eject him and the case was dismissed.

A licensed publican in Wolfe Tone St., was summoned for having allowed a woman to be on the premises during unlicensed hours. Sergeant Gloster gave evidence that he saw her enter the premises, and she subsequently left with a jug containing a pint of porter under her shawl.

The publican gave her the drink on the representation that it was required for a woman who was nursing a sick child, but he was still fined 20 shillings.

Anne O’Brien, a shopkeeper, was prosecuted for having sold to Sergeant Brady, an Inspector under the Food and Drugs Act, a pint of new milk. It was not of the nature, substance and quality of pure new milk, being deficient of butter fat. Three per cent was the standard percentage of butter fat required but the analyst showed that there was only 2.4 per cent in the sample.

The defendant said she sold very little milk and what she bought was intended principally for use in her own house. What milk she sold, would not leave half a crown profit in the year. There was very little milk in the pan when the sergeant came in, but she was fined 2s. 6d.

I’m sure the lads in Anglesea Street today would be quite happy if their biggest cause for concern was detecting shop keepers who were watering the milk around the city.

Michael Healy, a hackney car driver, was summoned for having furiously driven a horse on Saturday, at 10 p.m. in George’s street, and for having used obscene language on the same occasion. The constable stated that on the night in question he was on duty outside the Post Office, when the defendant drove his horse along George’s street at such a furious pace that the crowds of people had to run out of the way. As the driver passed, he made use of obscene language.

The solicitor who appeared for the defendant contended that, though the constable no doubt believed that his evidence was correct, he maintained that it was exaggerated. He could not understand how the constable could possibly hear the obscene language, if the horse was going at such a furious rate and making such a row when galloping on the hard pavement.

The driver had six previous convictions recorded against him and was fined 15s. and costs for the furious driving and 5s. and costs for the obscene language.
Fortunately, hackney drivers these days are a much more pleasant bunch and would never dream of swearing at the public or driving furiously.