Month: November 2019

I know I’m going to sound like my grandfather, nevertheless, I have to say that the world is a different place to what it was when I was a child. Especially since the introduction of the Internet. That has been the biggest influence on modern living since the invention of electricity but unfortunately, not everyone has access to it.

When I was growing up, in the sixties, life was pretty basic by today’s standards, but we didn’t know any different. We had everything we needed, and we were grateful for that and while it couldn’t be described as a privileged upbringing, we were happy.

It was a time when phones were being introduced into our homes, street lighting was new and exciting. TV was on the way and even though broadcasting only started about 4 in the afternoon and finished at midnight with the national anthem, we were thrilled. Everything was in black and white, but that didn’t matter.

Colour was introduced gradually, and this was huge. Maire de Barra, a continuity announcer with Radio Telefis Eireann would tell us what programme was due on next and with a big smile she would say “and it’s in colour.”

We didn’t see anything wrong with the world as it was then and as a kid, I was happy with my lot. I couldn’t imagine how life could get any better. Dunlop even introduced a new timber tennis racquet, the Maxply, and surely, we couldn’t improve on that.

But of course, we did, and we have witnessed huge advancements in technology since then but access to the internet is still problematic for many.

I often wonder what our grand kids will be saying in 2060 about growing up in 2019. Will they look back at this time and wonder how they even survived the experience, or will they remember it fondly?

They’ll tell their children about how poor the Internet was and that it was only available in certain parts of the country. And how some people even had to drive a few miles to find a spot where they could get a signal to send an email. They probably won’t believe it.

By 2060, the technology may exist to plank a satellite strategically over Ireland to provide the Internet for everyone without digging up half the country but as of now, that’s what we’re planning to do at an enormous cost to the taxpayer.

There will be other changes too, especially in the way we select our candidates for public office. The system we’re currently using seems silly even now so our grandchildren will get a great kick out of hearing the stories of how people voted back in the day.

They will be told that in 2019, we closed the schools so the citizens could pile into empty classrooms across the country to vote. Voters put an X on a two-foot long piece of paper that was then hauled off to another location where hundreds more citizens spent days counting these bits of paper to find a winner.

They won’t believe we had over seven and a half metric tonnes of paper in one of the count centres in Cork after the European election. They’ll have a good chuckle at us, and they’ll be right.

When I walked into my polling station on 24^th May last, I was taken aback. I was given three pieces of paper. One for the divorce referendum which was straight forward with a choice of two boxes to tick, yes or no.

The second one was for the local elections and had a bigger choice, but it was the third one that took the biscuit.

The ballot paper for the European election was two feet long with twenty-three names on it. It was like a roll of wallpaper. By the time I got to Mick Wallace, who had the misfortune to be at the bottom, I was exhausted.

That paperwork caused huge logistical problems for the people counting the votes. They had to sub-divide the papers into separate groupings or they would never have got through the process. Then there was a recount in Cork which some predicted could last until the end of time at a cost of €1 million. Thankfully it was sorted quicker than that.

They will find all that hard to believe, but wherever they hear about it, it’s unlikely they’ll be reading it in a broadsheet or tabloid newspaper because the Internet has changed everything. Young people don’t buy papers, they get their news online but they’re not the only ones using that medium.

Many of us do our banking online, communicate with friends and relatives online, organise holidays, book flights, arrange accommodation and rent cars all online. We get our passports, drivers’ licences, motor tax and insurance through the Internet too. We have passwords that allow us to do it securely and it works fine so why can’t we vote online and save paper and man hours.

An attempt was made to introduce electronic voting in 2002 in three constituencies. It worked well as far as I can remember, and the votes were counted quickly but when it came to rolling it out across the country, we chickened out.

We couldn’t possibly trust these voting machines because there was no proper auditing and no paper trail and no tallymen, so it was decided to scrap the idea in favour of pouring back into the classrooms with our lead pencils.

A lot has changed since then and the time has come to look at this option again. Our young people live their lives online and if we expect them to engage in the democratic process, then we must meet them at their level. They are the future and the future for them is the Internet.

We’re all busy these days. Everyone is on the go, between getting to work, organising kids for school, collecting them again in the evening, having dinner and doing homework. It’s especially tough for those with a long commute and for them, there isn’t much time left in the day for anything else.

There are many who leave home early in the morning and don’t return until late in the evening. They’re so busy with their own lives that they have little interaction with their families let alone their neighbours and sometimes they don’t even know who their neighbours are.

That has consequences for us all and one of the casualties of this modern-day living and lack of community engagement is that we can become isolated. Self-preservation becomes the norm and looking out for each other is no longer a priority.  In many cases we have more of a relationship with our phones and laptops than we do with our neighbours. We keep to ourselves and mind our own business.

The Mayor of Galway told a story about how he came across a woman who was having difficulty with a man on the street, late at night in the city centre. He approached the guy and told him to leave the girl alone and he received a smack in the face for his trouble.

That didn’t bother him too much but what really annoyed him was the fact that there was a crowd gathering and they were more interested in filming the scene with their phones than they were in helping or contacting the gardai. That’s not something for society to be proud of but it’s the way we’ve gone.

I came across an older gentleman recently and he was telling me about how he hates the thought of the clock going back because that signals the start of the long winter evenings. I thought he was going to tell me that he hates the wind, the cold and lighting fires and so on but that wasn’t the case.

It had nothing to do with the weather. He has a fear of crime and he gets very nervous in the house because he is afraid of being broken into during the night and being assaulted.

These are ordinary decent people who have worked hard all their lives and just want to enjoy the remainder of their lives in peace but both he and his elderly wife are worried about their security and feel very vulnerable. They hear stories on the news about elderly people being victims of crime and they’re conscious that it could happen to them.

It’s hard to blame them for feeling insecure and it’s very understandable that they feel vulnerable to attack. The closure of many rural garda stations, the shortage of manpower in An Garda Siochana and the lack of visibility of its members on patrol are contributing factors.

Reports of murders and aggravated burglaries in the media also help to fuel the fear and while these types of crime are not hugely prevalent, they are usually widely reported when they do occur. Older people read about serial criminals escaping justice, even though they may have dozens of previous convictions recorded against them, and that adds to the fear.

News of a burglary in rural Ireland travels quickly and can strike fear throughout the locality. That has an effect on the wider community so it’s not only the victim that is suffering. Their sense of security is threatened and that can impact the way they live the rest of their lives, often becoming afraid to leave the house.

Macra na feirme is an organisation that is well aware of the fear being experienced by communities in rural Ireland and they encourage neighbours get to know each other and establish a support network. According to their research, keeping in contact with elderly neighbours is very important to their members and knowing their neighbour on a personal level is also important to many.

Any initiative that encourages neighbours to get to know each other better makes total sense. It doesn’t matter whether you live in a rural or urban environment, the best form of security you can have is a good neighbour.

But, for those who feel like prisoners in their own homes during the hours of darkness, it’s important to keep things in perspective. The chances of being attacked in their own home are slim. It happens of course, but not as often as you might think.

Most burglaries are committed by opportunists on the lookout for an easy target. They search for the open window, an unlocked door or an insecure garden shed. They prefer the soft options and when an opportunity presents itself, they take it.

When I was growing up, the key was always left in the front door and that door was often left open. People came and went all the time because that was the age we lived in. But times have changed, and we can’t do that anymore. Neither can we leave the key under the mat or under the flowerpot.

It might come as a surprise to some of you, but these are not great hiding places. The thickest criminal will think of looking there so you better find a better hiding spot.

There are simple steps we can all take to reduce the risk of becoming victims of crime but it’s worth repeating that the best form of security is a good neighbour. Taking notice of callers and being seen to be a little inquisitive is a great deterrent to a would be criminal.

But for that to happen we must put the phones aside and spend some time finding out who our neighbours are and get back to looking out for each other again.

In The Echo recently, Ann Murphy reported that Cork has been allocated just 138 Garda recruits since the reopening of the Garda college in 2015, compared with 1,322 recruits allocated to Dublin.

Figures supplied in answer to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil TD Michael McGrath showed Cork City received just seven Garda recruits this year, while five were allocated to Cork North. Cork West has not been allocated any this year.

Ten recruits due in Cork earlier this year from the most recent graduation class from the Garda college were re-allocated to help boost numbers in Dublin and Drogheda, because of gangland crime.

It’s not unusual for gardai to be pulled from one place to fill a gap somewhere else because there just aren’t enough to go around but you wouldn’t think that if you listened to Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan who said: “This Government has not been found wanting in providing resources to An Garda Síochána”.

Deputy McGrath has addressed this issue previously; “I have been raising concerns about Garda numbers for some time. This issue must be addressed as part of a wider initiative to tackle open drug dealing in Cork. Unless the government wakes up to this incredibly serious problem and allocates the resources needed, the situation will continue to spiral out of control”.

We didn’t get here overnight though. Back in 1980, the Fianna Fail Minister for Justice, Gerry Collins, said that the Government would not be found wanting when it came to getting resources for An Garda Siochana. It’s been repeated many times since, but the problem remains.

I passed out from the Garda Training Centre in Templemore on the 8^th May 1980. There were 92 of us and like everyone else in my group, I was hoping for a posting close to home but most of us knew that was unlikely.

Crime was spiralling out of control in Dublin. Drugs were a major issue and gardai were getting injured by joy riders and criminals so there was a clamour for law and order. Dubliners wanted more gardai on the beat, so my fate was sealed.

I went to Blackrock in Dublin as a red raw member of An Garda Siochana. I had a lot to learn so I didn’t anticipate there would be too much expected of me initially but when I read one of the Dublin papers the following day, I got a fright.

According to that paper, even though we were the new kids on the block, expectations were high. We were hailed as the new crime busters, going to save the day. Those responsible for writing that story obviously had no idea who they were dealing with, because in reality, we were probably just about capable of writing a parking ticket.

The story went; ‘The garda war against centre-city crime took a major step forward yesterday with the appointment of 75 new recruits to Dublin, 18 of them to city-centre stations. The move follows top-level talks involving-Justice Minister Mr. Gerry Collins and the Garda Representative Association, whose members have been the target of joy riding youths and vandals in the city centre.’

So, 75 of us ended up in the Capital, which left 17 for the rest of the country and when you fast forward to 2019, almost forty years later, it seems that not a lot has changed.

200 new recruits left the Garda College in Templemore earlier this year and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said that more than three quarters of the new gardaí were being allocated to stations in parts of the country worst affected by organised crime, with 182 of the 201 garda graduates being sent to Dublin where ongoing criminal feuds continue.

Commissioner Harris said that gangland murders were increasing because of turf wars between organised crime groups and that they were becoming even more vicious but gardai were determined to reassure the communities of their ongoing commitment to tackle those gangs in these areas.

The allocation of three quarters of the gardaí graduating to Dublin and Drogheda, areas currently worst affected by organised crime was “very deliberate.”

Good news for some but not so good for the rest of the country who lost out.

So, the long and the short of it is, I didn’t do a very good job of curtailing the criminal fraternity back in 1980 and it’s become even more lawless and violent since I left. Dublin has grown since then too of course and it seems it still doesn’t have enough resources despite the promises of Gerry Collins, Charlie Flanagan and all the Justice Ministers in between.

Resources for An Garda Siochana have always been an issue and certain commissioners must take some of the responsibility for that too because they often claimed to have everything they needed at a time when they clearly didn’t, presumably to avoid falling out of favour with their political masters.

Commissioner Harris, the most recent garda boss, launched a new modernisation programme back in August and he too was assured of the full backing of the Minister for Justice.

Mr. Harris must have been delighted at the time to hear that news, but the ink was hardly dry on the launch invitations when the commissioner was told to tighten the purse strings because of the high cost of the Trump/Pence visits. Those security costs came out of the garda budget and made a substantial hole in it.

So it would seem that resources are still an issue and until such time as that is resolved, those of us who live outside the Pale will have to make do with the crumbs that fall from the Garda Commissioners table.

And most of the new students in the Garda Training College can continue to prepare for a life around the M50.

My five-year-old grandson, Cooper, just started primary school and it’s great to see him skipping out the door to school in the morning, happy as Larry without a care in the world. Delighted with himself.

I was minding him recently and we had a chat about his classmates, his teacher and what work they were doing in school, and he was very positive and full of enthusiasm. The most notable aspect of his account was the lack of fear. He didn’t once mention being afraid of his teacher or the environment and that’s good because school wasn’t always like that.

I am delighted for him because that’s how it should be, unlike years ago, when primary school wasn’t a wonderful experience for everyone. Corporal punishment featured prominently in my early school days and I’m sure many others of my vintage will have similar stories to tell.

The Presentation Brothers were responsible for my early education and I don’t have too many happy memories of those times. I’m thankful that Cooper and his buddies won’t have to deal with the reign of terror that was inflicted upon us by those who should have known better.

Modern schools have done away with blackboards. It’s all white boards now and electronic tablets so there’s no need for dusters anymore. That’s good, because these things were regularly used as missiles by brothers anxious to restore order in a classroom.

Dusters were made from timber and were about the size of a modern mobile phone only thicker, with material on one side to wipe the chalk off the board. If you got a slap of one of those on the head, you’d know all about it especially if you were struck by the wooden side.

We had one brother who liked to pinch the locks of hair by your ear and lift you up from the seat until you were standing on your tip toes and he would keep pulling until your eyes watered. Getting a slap on the head from a brother as he passed behind you was nothing unusual either and this behaviour went on every day.

The principal was responsible for carrying out the real punishment though. I can still picture him standing there in his black robes and it didn’t seem to bother him too much that he was hurting young children.

His favourite weapon of torture was a piece of a cane which as far as I can remember was about two feet long. He would raise it in the air, then bring it down across the palm of your hand with enthusiasm. Three of these on each hand and you would certainly feel the pain.

If you moved your hand while he was in mid-flight, the stick would catch you across the tips of the fingers and that was particularly sore. If you flinched and pulled your hand away altogether, the punishment was increased.

There was often a queue in the hallway outside his office and the noise of the stick coming in contact with the skin of the current offender, would filter back to the rest of us adding to the tension and mounting anxiety.

I remember having to face him a few times and I have no idea what my offence was, but I’d be surprised if it was anything serious because I wasn’t a bold child by any means. There was no point in complaining because it wasn’t a democratic process. There was no point in saying anything to our parents either because in those days, members of the religious orders were beyond reproach.

After receiving the punishment, we would have to make our way back to our classroom, usually with our arms folded and our hands tucked tightly into our arm pits trying desperately to make the stinging sensation go away. Then there was the shame of having to face the teacher as the newly branded terrorists we had become.

I remember being in school one day and there was a story going around the playground that one of the enforcers had been involved in an accident. It wasn’t looking too good for him and it says a lot about the kind of character he was, that this news was received with delight. When it was later announced that he had died, many of the children cheered.

The fact that children celebrated the death of an adult in such a way does help to explain the atmosphere that existed in our school at that time. We were lucky enough to have had some good lay teachers and at the end of every school year, it was always tense, waiting to see if you would be lucky enough to get one of those for the following term.

The alternative meant having to face another year of misery, and behaviour that would now be classified as assault. Happily, those days of oppression are long gone.

There is a completely different approach to educating children these days. In my time, those who couldn’t keep up were considered lazy and troublesome and were often the ones who suffered the most. Now, there is more awareness of children with specific academic needs and there are supports available to them.

I sometimes wonder how many children in primary school in the sixties were beaten and abused without having the slightest idea why they were being punished. Children with learning difficulties were never going to improve their capacity to learn by being slapped with a cane but that was the only solution our educators could come up with.

Some argue that the education system has gone too much the other way now and children are not being reprimanded which is making life difficult for teachers. Maybe so, but I know which system I want Cooper to grow up in.