Back when mobile phones first came onto the market in Ireland, my friend got one. It was the size of a brick. I told him he was wasting his money and I predicted they would never catch on. Not one of my finest moments but I take comfort from the fact that I wasn’t the only one lacking vision.
Twenty years ago, Professor John Sutherland of Modern English Literature at University College London, called texting “penmanship for illiterates” and referred to emojis as “face symbols.” He said texting was just a phase that would pass in “a year or two.”
Well, we were both wrong. Texting is still with us and has changed how we use the English language and not in a good way as far as I’m concerned. If you don’t believe me, just look at some comments on Facebook and Whatsapp. Lots of that stuff could have been written by people who attended school for a few weeks but got fed up and left again.
There are no rules. It’s a free-for-all as far as spelling is concerned and grammar is irrelevant. Sentences are usually constructed using abbreviations, combined with a collection of emojis, GIFs and other symbols and even these can be confusing for those not up to speed with the new lingo.
I heard a conversation recently about the use of emojis, and apparently the smiley face and the thumbs up symbols are already considered to be old fashioned. You can only use those if you were born in the fifties. The clapping hands symbol is also out of date, I’m told. I’ve just discovered where to find these things and already they’re old hat so I’m behind the times before I even start.
This new-fangled shorthand is convenient for messaging each other, especially when you’re trying to do it with one hand, but it is having a detrimental effect on the English language. On the other hand, some will argue that the English language is continually evolving anyway and now it’s the turn of the current generation to have a go. Maybe, but I still don’t like it.
For some people, incorrect use of language is not important but for others, mainly the older generation, it is a source of annoyance. If reading or hearing the words ‘I seen’ or ‘I done’ doesn’t bother you, then consider yourself lucky because it’s becoming more common.
Youngsters would probably accuse me of being snobbish, but I would argue that it’s just as easy to write correctly as it is to use bad grammar and incorrect spelling. It’s easier on the eye too, and if you don’t believe me, then have a go at reading a book called ‘A Pickle for the Knowing Ones’ without getting frustrated.
Written by Lord Timothy Dexter, this book is a collection of anything and everything that came into his head. The title made no sense and neither did the book. He made up words and spelled them as he wished, and if that wasn’t bad enough, he left out punctuation. He put all the punctuation marks in the last page and suggested the reader should place them wherever they pleased.
According to Samuel Knapp, who wrote about his life, Dexter was a strange character. In the first instance, he was no more of a Lord than I am. That was a title he bestowed upon himself because he decided he deserved it. In reality, he was born in Boston in 1748 to a family of farm labourers and at sixteen he got an apprenticeship with a Boston leather craftsman. He later met and married a wealthy, widow and lived in Boston’s well-to-do Charlestown neighbourhood.
His neighbours didn’t like him though. They considered him to be crude, uncouth, uneducated and loud. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut either, but he wasn’t stupid and knew how to make money.
Continental dollars were printed during the American Civil War and became worthless within a few years which led to the phrase ‘not worth a continental’. Dexter bought up as many Continental dollars as he could get with his wife’s money and got them for little or nothing. His neighbours sniggered at his stupidity but in 1790, Congress declared these dollars could be traded in for treasury bonds resulting in Dexter becoming instantly wealthy.
He built a massive house overlooking the sea to impress everyone but went completely overboard and turned it into a monstrosity instead. He had 40 giant carved wooden statues erected around the property, each depicting a great character in American history, including one of himself.
The neighbours wanted to get rid of him so they gave him some bad advice in the hope that he’d end up broke and would have to sell up. They told him there was a shortage of coal in Newcastle and advised him to start shipping anthracite there. He didn’t even know there were coalmines there already but took their advice anyway. The arrival of his coal coincided with a miner’s strike, and he ended up making a fortune from the venture.
But he still wasn’t winning any favour with the neighbours and felt that most of them were only pretending to respect him, so he decided to test them. Dexter faked his death so he could find out what they really thought.
He built a lavish tomb and a fancy coffin and engaged the help of a few of his trusted employees to arrange the funeral. Dexter watched from a hiding place as three thousand people turned up to eat and drink their fill and everything was going well until he left his hideout to join in the festivities as if nothing had happened, much to the surprise of the mourners.
A few years ago, I was about to get into my car outside the front door, when a bird relieved himself on top of me. I can’t remember where I was going but it must have been somewhere special because I was dressed up for the occasion and that’s not like me.
I’m a jeans and t-shirt person but I had a suit on that day, so it was either a funeral or a wedding but either way, I was destroyed. I had a foreign substance all over my head and running down my neck which wasn’t pretty. It didn’t smell great either.
My first suspect was a bird, but I couldn’t be certain. It could just as easily have been the contents of the waste tank of a passing Boeing 747. There was a lot of it and it’s hard to believe it could have come from a living creature. Not a regular bird anyway, at the very least it was an albatross with a serious bowel complaint, but I’ll never know because I was afraid to look up.
I went back into the house to get changed, and when my wife saw the state of me, she was very amused. I got little sympathy, in fact she told me I should be grateful because it was a sign of good luck. I wasn’t convinced that being covered in bird crap was going to bring me any good fortune and I reckon I was right.
I had tickets booked with Cobalt Air for a trip to Cyprus around that time. I booked them early in the year to get the best price but before I got a chance to use them, the airline went wallop. They went out of business, and my tickets went with them.
Not long after that, I ended up in hospital for a bit of surgery so as far as I’m concerned, that bird did me no favours. How a dollop of smelly, nasty bird poo on your head could ever be considered as a moment to be cherished is beyond me.
Apparently, we can thank the Russians for it. It was they who came up with the theory that the odds of being dumped on by our feathered friends are so small, you have a better chance of winning the lottery. So, being a designated target for bird poo is a sign of good fortune.
I’m not superstitious but I know many who are and there’s nothing wrong with that as long as it isn’t taken to extremes. Some people have great faith in horoscopes, piseogs and lucky charms and so on and more power to them. I know one family who insist on having a horseshoe in their house to protect them from harm.
The origin of the lucky horseshoe goes back to Saint Dunstan who died in 988 AD. According to the legend, Dunstan, was a blacksmith and he was commanded by the devil to shoe his horse. He didn’t want to help the Devil, so he refused. That led to an argument and when things got a bit heated, he nailed a horseshoe to the devil’s foot.
The devil screamed in pain and pleaded for help, but Dunstan refused to remove it until he received a guarantee that the devil would stay away from any house with a horseshoe on the door. The Devil agreed so the nail was removed.
It’s not clear which way the horseshoe is to be hung though so there are a few interpretations. Most of the horseshoes I’ve seen here are hung with the open end facing the floor but, in some countries, they’re hung with the open end facing the ceiling to stop the luck from falling out.
In many cultures, a horseshoe is the luckiest of all symbols, especially if you find one with the open end pointing toward you. If you come across one of these good-luck charms, you’re supposed to pick it up with your right hand, spit on one end, make a wish and toss it over your left shoulder and leave it where it lands.
It would be wise to check over your shoulder first though because I suspect those instructions were issued in a time when population density was nothing like it is now and the streets were much quieter. Heavy traffic back then probably meant there were two horses on the road at the same time. Throwing a lump of metal behind you these days is not recommended.
Sometimes, luck comes to people without the benefit of bird poo or horseshoes. The story of Frane Selak is well known in Croatia and while much of it hasn’t been verified, it hasn’t been discounted either.
Mr. Selak was born in 1929 and grew up to be a music teacher in Croatia. In 1962 he was on a train that derailed and plunged into a river where seventeen passengers perished. He survived and managed to swim ashore with just a broken arm.
He was also involved in a plane crash that claimed the lives of nineteen people and three years later, he was involved in an accident on a bus that killed four people, but he was unhurt. A few years after that, he suffered burns and hair loss when a car he was driving, burst into flames after a petrol leak.
Twenty years later he was knocked down by a bus in Zagreb, while crossing the road but survived with cuts and bruises. Maybe it was that final brush with death that convinced him to buy a ticket in the Croatian Lottery and in 2003 at the age of 74, he won €600,000.
He promptly gave it away to his family and friends and returned to the simple life he enjoyed as a teacher.
As of now, the Wimbledon Tennis Championships are scheduled to go ahead on June 28th which is great news for tennis fans. There will be restrictions for players and fewer spectators than normal so it will be different to what we’re used to, but I don’t care. The French Open went ahead with smaller crowds and even though they had to vacate the complex by 8pm, it was great to hear real people cheering again.
Tennis has a large global following, but its popularity could be about to increase following the news that it might be the secret to longevity. It has been suggested that if you want to live to a ripe old age, forget about the gym, the running track, special diets, or the exercise bike; just buy a tennis racquet.
I have played this sport since my early teens, not very well, but well enough to get me out in the fresh air and running around a bit. I found my own standard many years ago and never had any interest in advancing beyond that. I played for fun and that suited me fine because I’m not much of a competitor. In fact, I don’t have a competitive bone in my body, so I found some like-minded souls and stuck with them.
It has given me a lot of pleasure over the years, so I was delighted to read that it’s not only good exercise, but it can extend your life by as much as ten years. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) reported that tennis could increase life expectancy by a decade.
The Copenhagen City Heart Study suggested that the type of exercise you get in tennis – short bursts of activity rather than slow, steady plodding exercise – might be better for you. The authors of the study noted that short, repeated intervals of higher intensity exercise appear to be superior to continuous moderate intensity physical activity for improving health outcomes.
The cardiovascular study examined people over a 25-year period and evaluated improvements in life expectancy through participation in various sports and leisure-time activities. In total, 8577 participants were examined for all-cause mortality between 10 October 1991 and 16 September 1994 until 22 March 2017, with various sports found to improve and increase life expectancy.
Tennis topped the charts for potential life expectancy gains by some considerable distance, with results suggesting as many as 9.7 years could be added to an individual’s existence. More than other sporting activities like badminton, football, swimming, jogging, and calisthenics.
Tennis: 9.7 years
Badminton: 6.2 years
Soccer: 4.7 years
Cycling: 3.7 years
Swimming: 3.4 years
Jogging: 3.2 years
Calisthenics: 3.1 years
Health Club Activities: 1.5 years
A further conclusion of the study suggests that leisure-time sports which involve greater levels of social interaction are associated with the higher levels of longevity. That’s common sense when you think about it because if you mix with friends for a game of tennis and have a laugh while getting some exercise, that must be good for you. The bottom line is that regular exercise is better than sitting around all day and will help you live longer.
That explains a lot to me because my club, Rushbrooke Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, (RLTCC) is one of the oldest in the country. It was founded in 1870 and I think some of the original members are still playing. That’s an exaggeration but there are lots of lads in their seventies and eighties who continue to hit a good ball.
I often play with these guys and even though I’m a lot younger, I struggle to keep up which proves that tennis is good for the muscles, heart, lungs, and mind. The social side has its benefits too.
Many people feel tennis is an elitist sport and it’s not for them which was certainly the case at one time. RLTCC was originally a croquet club where military officers and professional gentlemen from the locality could relax and enjoy the leafy surroundings in the company of the gentry. It was no place for mere peasants like me.
Back in the 1970’s, as members of a much smaller club, Mount Crozier, we often looked over the hedges at the grass courts of Rushbrooke with envy knowing that our genealogy wouldn’t support our application process, so we stuck with our concrete courts. Thankfully, those times are long gone and RLTCC is a very welcoming club today.
Other things have changed too. We’ve become more health conscious, more knowledgeable, and better served by modern medicine which helps us enjoy ourselves for longer. People like my grandfather would have benefitted from a bit of tennis back in the day. Health and wellbeing weren’t serious considerations back then and in 1964, he died at the age of 74 when I was about six. According to his death certificate, his heart was in bad shape, but he probably didn’t even know it.
I remember him as a small old man who sat around the house, listening to the radio in his retirement which wasn’t uncommon because anyone over seventy thought they were washed up. The average life expectancy of a male was around sixty-five in those days, so retirement signalled the end for many. They passed their time waiting for the grim reaper to give them a knock. There wasn’t much emphasis on having an active, healthy retirement because statistically they weren’t likely to be around for much longer anyway.
There’s a lesson there for the rest of us. It’s up to us all to give ourselves the best chance we can by staying fit and healthy. Moving is a big part of that and it’s great to discover that tennis is one of the best all round exercise activities. It’s also relaxing, even if you play badly like me.
Tony Mulcahy, Buddy Stoat, Brian Espy, Joe Keane, George Wallace, Billy Leahy
What’s the connection between a Cork tugboat, Britain’s worst environmental disaster and a daring helicopter rescue at sea? Read on to find out.
Back in February 1996, an oil tanker ran aground off the Welsh coast and spilled 72,000 tons of crude oil along the Pembrokeshire Coastline. It’s difficult to visualise that amount of oil but it would go down in history as one of Britain’s worst environmental disasters ever. The Sea Empress was a super-tanker, loaded with more than 130,000 tonnes of crude oil when it hit rocks in the middle of the channel.
Local tugs from Milford Haven Port Authority were sent to the scene and attempted to pull the vessel free and re-float her, but they soon realised the job was too big. Several rescue attempts were made but each time the ship broke free of the tow ropes and grounded repeatedly which caused further damage to the hull and allowed more oil to escape.
The authorities needed more help, so a full-scale emergency plan was activated. Thirteen tugs in all went to the aid of the Sea Empress and over the following few days they battled night and day to stabilise the stricken tanker. One of those tugs, the Eskgarth, skippered by Tony Mulcahy, answered the call and travelled from Cork to lend a hand.
Tony was a 56-year-old, highly qualified tug master with “Irish Tugs limited”, based in Cobh. He had 32 years sea going experience behind him and his tug, the Eskgarth, was considered the biggest harbour tug in both Britain and Ireland at the time. He remembers being at home on the morning of 16th of February 1996, watching Sky news while preparing to go to work. He heard a large tanker had run aground the previous evening, just outside the port of Milford Haven in South Wales.
When he got to work at 10am, he tuned the radio to BBC to follow developments. He had a feeling that Irish Tugs Ltd would be asked to release a Cork tug to help and if that happened, in all probability, the Eskgarth would be the vessel to go. In anticipation of the call, he headed for the jetty at the Whitegate Oil Refinery and topped up with fuel and fresh water, just in case.
At 8pm that evening he got the call he was expecting and immediately headed for Wales with his five crew mates, Joe Keane, George Wallace, Buddy Stoat, Billy Leahy and Brian Espey, all experienced seamen. 12 hours later, they entered the port, and saw the destruction for themselves as they passed close to the Sea Empress with the four Milford Haven tugs alongside her.
The Cobh tug was initially put to work unberthing and berthing ships in the port to free up the local tugs to deal with the tanker, but their orders soon changed, and they were assigned to help with the salvage of the Sea Empress. That was the beginning of what they would later describe as the most frightening experience any of them had been through previously.
There was a pilot on board the Sea Empress and he was directing operations from the tanker and communicating with all the tugs and ships in the area by VHF radio. By now, many tugs had towlines connected to the tanker at various points and Tony was requested to attach his. He reversed the tug to the bow of the tanker, which was already underwater, and the crew paddled waist deep in water to accept the towline.
With so many tugs involved, it was difficult for the pilot to remember all the names or indeed where each tug was attached to the ship, so he designated each tug a number. He called all the tugs and told them his plan was to try and pull the Sea Empress off the rocks, turn her around and take her out to sea. Tony thought that was a good idea given that the weather was due to deteriorate, he felt taking her ten miles out to sea would give them some room to manoeuvre if anything happened. They could also ride out the storm in safety.
The tanker was currently facing into the harbour, so they had to turn her 180 degrees to point her in the opposite direction, but they had to re-float her first. All tugs were working in unison, either pushing or pulling at maximum power to try and move the tanker and after about 2 hours, the pilot detected some movement. Shortly after, she was afloat and under command of the pilot while being controlled by the tugs.
About a mile outside the harbour, the pilot asked all tugs to stop as he was going to drop anchor. Tony wasn’t expecting that and at first thought he had misunderstood the order. The initial information from the pilot was that they were going out to sea, so he radioed the pilot to see if he had misunderstood. The pilot repeated the order and told him that he had been instructed to drop anchor and not to take the tanker further out to sea.
They now had a disabled tanker, loaded with over 130,000 tons of crude oil, in a very dodgy position. Shortly after she anchored, the rest of the tugs released their tow lines. Tony was under the impression that all tugs would be dismissed, and they would return to Milford, but the pilot called and told him they were to stay in their position for the night.
That left only two tugs still attached to the tanker and Tony was concerned because the weather was deteriorating, and the forecast was bad. He still believed that with such a bad forecast and a damaged ship perilously near the coast, this was the time to heave the anchor and head to sea to ride out the gale. But it wasn’t his call.
The storm blew and things were getting hairy on the tug. They were being battered from the wind, and the waves. The guys who were supposed to be resting suddenly appeared from their bunks. They couldn’t sleep with the noise and because the tug was rolling so heavily, it was threatening to throw them from their bunks. The heat in the accommodation area was almost unbearable as the engine was going continuously since they left Cork. It was like an oven down there.
Sleep was the least of their worries now though because the tanker suddenly started to move again. Tony was worried. He didn’t think two tugs would be strong enough to hold a super tanker against the powerful waves. They were already under pressure and very close to one of the channel buoys with its flashing red lights. The tug was rolling through an arc of close to 80 degrees and Tony had to jam himself between the control consul and the side of the wheelhouse. George Wallace had control of the towing winch and he was jammed in a similar position.
Tony struggled with the controls to maintain position as best as he could, but he soon realised that the Sea Empress had dragged her anchor and had gone aground again. That presented a dangerous situation because they didn’t know exactly where the cable from the anchor was and it could seriously damage their rudder or propeller if they hit it. If that happened, the chance of any of them being rescued was slim.
They battled on through the night and at about 0430 hours Tony recalls the most astonishing statement he had ever heard in his entire sea-going career. The Pilot advised him; “This vessel we believe is about to blow-up. We have ordered helicopters to evacuate the ship, but we want you to stay here”.
While considering their options, the decision was made for them because the rope snapped. They could have left then but they agreed that as the weather was so bad, they would stay close by in case the helicopters needed assistance.
Two Sea King helicopters arrived on the scene to remove the crew from the tanker in treacherous conditions. Large waves were hitting the bow of the tanker and travelling all the way down the deck and smashing against the accommodation housing. As the waves hit the base of the structure, the force of the water rose upward towards the bridge and exploded into spray. Tony was full of praise for the skill of the helicopter crews that night and described the rescue as truly astonishing.
The tug was rising and falling and rolling as the waves hit them and he watched as the first helicopter tried to hover over the deck just clear of the waves and as close to the house of the ship as he dared to go. The second helicopter hovered above and behind the first one and they were rocking from side to side in the gale force winds and bobbing up and down like boats in a big swell.
The first helicopter lowered a winch man to the ship which was now powerless and in complete darkness, so they only had the use of the helicopter flood lights. As the water cleared the deck between waves, the man on the winch would indicate to one of the men to be rescued to run to him. He would then grab the guy and strap him to himself and lift him to safety. They repeated that process until every member of the crew was rescued.
With the tanker grounded again and the crew all safe, the Eskgarth headed back to port, and dropped anchor to get a few hours’ well-earned sleep. Later that morning, one of the Welsh tugs pulled up beside them and gave them some newspapers. It was only then they found out that the media people covering the story had been removed from the area during the night.
Every house within two miles of St. Anne’s Head had been evacuated as the authorities became aware that the ship was in danger of exploding. That explosion could have potentially wiped out a large section of the local population.
Tony and his crew were under the impression they were finished and ready to return home, so they were surprised when they got new orders. A Chinese tug had arrived to help with the salvage and was attached to the bow of the Sea Empress. It got itself into trouble and needed assistance because her towline was fouled. The storm was still raging when the Eskgarth left the harbour to return to the scene.
George Wallace told me, “We got an unmerciful battering that night and it was worse the second time when we went out to help the Chinese tug.” When they got there, everything went dark, and it wasn’t until Joe Keane opened the wheelhouse door and nearly broke his neck that they discovered the reason. The oil that was leaking from the tanker was being whipped up on the waves and had blackened the windows. The tug was completely covered in crude oil.
They eventually sorted out the Chinese tug and headed back to the safety of Milford Haven where they threw out the anchor and waited for a space to berth in the busy harbour. While they were waiting, they received radio messages congratulating and thanking them for a job well done. They were exhausted by now and at 4am they finally tied up at the dockside and went to bed, physically and mentally drained. They had been working continuously for over 50 hours since leaving Cobh.
Monday and Tuesday were idle days for the lads and on Wednesday they got orders to proceed to the Sea Empress once more. As they got near her and saw the amount of oil on top of the waves, they realised that she had lost a lot of her cargo. This was the first time since the previous Saturday afternoon that they had seen her in daylight. The task now was to get the tanker re-floated and taken to a secure berth.
Thirteen tugs in all were attached to the Sea Empress and shortly after they started towing, she moved and was brought into Milford Haven to an abandoned jetty of a defunct refinery. Their job was done but there was to be no rest. Back in Cork, a large tanker was due to berth in Whitegate Refinery at 2am the following morning and they needed to be there for that job, so they had to leave straight away.
Tony paid a special tribute to his five shipmates and said if he had to hand pick a crew, he couldn’t have picked a better bunch of lads.
In January 1999, Milford Haven Port Authority (MHPA) was fined a record £4m after pleading guilty to the offence of causing pollution under the Water Resources Act 1991. The MHPA was also required to pay a further £825,000 prosecution costs by agreement. The cost of the clean-up operation was estimated to be £60m. When the effects to the economy and environment are taken into account, the final cost is estimated to have been twice that, at £120m.
An official report blamed pilot error for the tanker’s initial grounding, and said other factors such as bad weather, and a lack of understanding of the tidal currents were also at play.
I got a phone call recently letting me know that P.J. Coogan of 96fm and Cork City Councillor Ted Tynan were discussing anti-social behaviour in Mayfield on the radio and my name was mentioned. Apparently, some incidents had occurred over the previous weekend and Cllr. Tynan was lamenting the loss of community policing. He suggested the work John O’Connor and I were doing back in the nineties was an example of effective community policing.
It was nice to hear my name mentioned in such a positive light. As Ryan Tubridy often says, every puppy likes to have its belly tickled. I’m glad the impact we had on the community is still remembered after all this time. I left Mayfield on promotion in 2000, over twenty years ago, and I would have thought I’d be long forgotten by now. Not so apparently.
On the other hand, I was disappointed to hear of these disturbances because I spent ten years in that part of the city, and I can honestly say I loved every miniute of it. Mayfield had a reputation in those days for being a tough spot and some of that was justified. There were some seasoned criminals living there who were largely responsible for most of the negative publicity attached to the area. Hardy characters who kept us on our toes.
Joy riding, burglaries and criminal damage were rife in the late eighties and early nineties in many towns and cities and Cork was no different. It was common for cars stolen during the night to be found in the Mayfield District the following morning. Gardai on the early morning shift regularly checked the area for abandoned cars and it was unusual not to find one. Mayfield was often referred to as Beirut but that didn’t tell the whole story.
A few dodgy families in an estate can give a place a bad name which is completely unfair to the other residents. I met some of the finest people living in areas with the toughest reputations. Decent people who didn’t have it easy but worked hard and did the best they could for their families. I made lots of friends there and I’m still in contact with some of them.
We’ve seen many examples over the years of troublesome families making life miserable for their neighbours, and according to Sally Hanlon of the Support after Crime Services, it’s still happening. She said recently in this paper that people with a history of intimidating behaviour are being rehoused by Cork City Council, leaving their new neighbours to deal with the intimidation and harassment.
That was a common problem in my time and while there is no magic wand solution, empowering the community and giving the majority a voice did help. Community policing drove that philosophy with specific gardai interacting with locals through Neighbourhood Watch schemes, community and resident associations, sporting organisations and schools etc.
It took time to develop those relationships but as engagement increased, mutual trust and respect was established. Residents found the confidence to stand against criminal and anti-social behaviour and it worked but it took twenty years to get there.
Sadly, not everyone appreciated it. Governments and garda commissioners change, and priorities change with them. We were lucky in Cork in so far as community policing was generally well supported by management, but it was still a struggle. The financial crash didn’t help either and community policing was the first casualty of that. A manpower shortage required community gardai to return to regular policing duties.
Community engagement is not a part time activity. It begins with the children in primary schools and continues until they reach adulthood. It’s a continuous process and takes years and a great deal of effort to develop these relationships. That investment pays off in the long run but not everyone in garda management accepted that which is a pity because it worked. I’ll give one example.
There was an incident in Mayfield in the nineties when the staff of a local business arrived for work one Monday morning to find the property had been destroyed with graffiti over the weekend. While it covered a substantial area and was unsightly, it wasn’t crude or offensive. In fact, some of it was tastefully done with impressive artwork. There were some nicknames there too, so it wasn’t too difficult to track down the culprits.
There were five or six teenagers involved, decent youngsters who were never likely to end up as Ireland’s most wanted so I arranged for the youngsters to repair the damaged area. The company supplied the paint and the gang set to work one Saturday morning armed with their paint brushes and rollers. The company also provided the hungry labour force with Mars bars and cans of Coke and by the end of the day, the building was restored to its former glory.
The company and the gardai were satisfied with the outcome. The youngsters were happy because they avoided an early introduction into the criminal justice system while learning a valuable lesson at the same time. They had some fun too, so it was a good result all round.
I’m retired now but my former colleagues tell me that dealing with an incident in that way would be more difficult today. PULSE, the garda computer system, would generate a stack of paper demanding an appropriate outcome and would probably blow a fuse trying to recognise a common-sense solution. Health and safety would be another stumbling block.
Times have changed but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that we’ve always had a community-based model of policing in this country. Working with the community to develop relationships and generate trust was paramount during my thirty-five years in An Garda Siochana and that should always be the priority.
According to Eoin English, writing in the Irish Examiner, the regeneration of Cork’s city docklands has been provided with funding of €405m by the Government. €50m of that will be spent on a facelift for the city centre. It’s the largest allocation for a single local authority in the country and will include a new central library as part of a €46m revamp of the Grand Parade, and a revamp of Bishop Lucey Park.
The city’s vast docklands site has been earmarked for development as a new urban quarter with the potential to house over 25,000, and a mix of apartments, schools, sports and recreation facilities as well as transport infrastructure, including two new bridges.
This massive undertaking will transform the recreational, residential and commercial areas, and prime the docklands for significant follow up private sector development. Hopefully there will be a positive outcome but without wishing to rain on the parade, there are potential pitfalls too.
Simple design failures in a development like this can create opportunities for anti-social behaviour and criminal activity further down the line. It has happened before in Europe to the extent that some places became no-go-areas. This isn’t the first development of this type and size, so it makes sense to have a look at similar projects to see how they got on and to learn what worked and what didn’t.
Back in 2006, when the docklands project was first proposed, An Garda Siochana took part in an EU funded project to examine similar projects under construction across the EU in relation to the crime prevention techniques being employed in the design of urban renewals.
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, CPTED as it is better known, is a crime prevention philosophy based on the theory that proper design and effective use of the built environment can lead to a reduction in crime and the fear of crime, as well as an improvement in the quality of life for the community. It is best employed by engaging all stakeholders in a consultation process at the design stage of a proposed development.
In plain English, it means using suitably qualified police officers to study the drawings of a proposed development at the early stages of the design process to identify the potential difficulties that may materialise from a crime prevention perspective before the work actually begins. It makes sense.
For example, back in the nineties during my community policing days, there was a laneway on the northside of the city leading from a housing estate onto the public roadway. There were private gardens on both sides, lined with trees that provided shelter for the residents, and cover for the ne’er do wells. The gardens became a handy dumping ground for cans, bottles needles and other rubbish.
The laneway eventually became a rat run and haven for anti-social behaviour. The residents were driven demented. They wanted action and the best solution was to block off the laneway but that was easier said than done. There were many obstacles to be overcome so it took a few years but eventually the laneway was absorbed into the surrounding gardens and promptly disappeared along with the anti-social behaviour.
With the knowledge, experience and expertise we have at our disposal in relation to crime prevention now, it makes sense to use what we know and that’s what CPTED is about. A similar laneway being proposed in a modern housing estate today would be identified as a potential hot spot by CPTED and altering a line on a drawing could solve the problem before it became an issue.
CPTED is commonly used in other jurisdictions and is now a big business. It’s successful because the technique works. Identifying potential problem areas at the design stage makes them easier to solve.
It’s a simple matter to erase a pencil mark on a drawing or a plan but it’s more difficult, and more expensive, to alter it later when that pencil line turns into concrete. This is particularly relevant in terms of alleyways, alcoves and similar areas that can provide access, egress and cover for criminal activity. Once they’re in situ, they are difficult to remove. There have been many projects of this type across Europe in recent years and we visited some of them.
Oud-Krispijn, a neighbourhood in the city of Dortrecht in the Netherlands, was experiencing social problems which were becoming progressively worse. Drug abuse and criminality were reaching such proportions that the area became the first ever neighbourhood to be designated as a Problem Accumulation Area.
The government gave financial assistance to the local authority to address the issue but despite their best intentions, it got worse. The physical environment was a major issue so in the early 2000’s they decided to try a new approach. The housing associations and the police joined forces to develop a substantial reconstruction programme.
This programme was at an advanced stage when we saw it in 2008 and was due for completion in 2013 but by then, 1000 houses had been demolished and 500 new properties were constructed using CPTED principles. The effect was impressive, and the environment looked and felt safe.
They also wanted to extend the city centre in The Hague. Lack of space had become a serious issue for the local authority, and they planned to relocate an industrial area to beyond the city limits and use the vacant site to develop commercial and residential properties. This project is similar to our proposed Docklands Project and they also used CPTED principles. So did the Rheinau Port in Cologne, in Germany and their docklands area was developed at a cost of €700 million.
The project planned for Cork is not the first of its kind. It’s been done before, and CPTED has proven to be a useful tool.
