2020 EMERGENCY SERVICE AND MEDICAL REVIEW
AMBULANCE IRELAND
IN THE SADDLE
THE GARDA MOUNTED SUPPORT UNIT
KEEPING THINGS MOVING THE DFB'S SERVICE SUPPORT CENTRE
FORCES OF
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RECAPPING IRISH DEFENCE FORCE WORK AT HOME & ABROAD IN 2019
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DUBLIN FIRE RESCUE EMERGENCY AMBULANCE SERVICE
PROTECTING THE CITY AND COUNTY SINCE 1862
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4TH JULY
SPORTS AND SOCIAL CLUB
CONTENTS 2020
07 10 03 EDITOR’S LETTER 04
IRISH NEWS
06
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
07 COMMUNITY AIR AMBULANCE Funding shortage threatens to ground service
08 COAST GUARD ROUNDUP The Coast Guard had a busy 2019
10 DEFENCE FORCES ROUNDUP Work at home and abroad in 2019
14 NATIONAL EMERGENCY SERVICES DAY Celebrating frontline personnel
16 KEEPING THINGS MOVING
The DFB’S Service Support Centre
22
22 IN THE SADDLE
The Garda Mounted Support Unit
28 THE PEELER’S NOTEBOOK
Policing Victorian Dublin
32 TECHNOLOGY 34 ROAD SAFETY REVIEW
Keeping our roads safe
38 TRAVEL
The wonders of Berlin
42 MOTORING
Volkswagen’s greener approach and the new Audi Sportback
47 BOOKSHELF
38 AMBULANCE IRELAND
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When a child loses their home, they lose their entire world. There are almost 4,000 children homeless in Ireland. Donate now.
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EDITOR’S LETTER Editor: Adam Hyland Contributors: Adam Hyland, Colin White, Andrew Jennings Creative Director: Jane Matthews Designer: James Moore Cover Credit: Sergeant Karl Byrne Photography: James Moore, An Garda Síochána, RSA, Audi, Dublin Fire Brigade, Gill Books, Merrion Press, Penguin/Random House, Mercier Press, TECDRON, Flir, Pixabay, iStoc, Flaticon.com Production Executive: Claire Kiernan & Julie Dunne Publisher: Ashville Media Group, Unit 55, Park West Road, Park West Industrial Estate, Dublin 12, D12 X9F9. Tel: (01) 432 2200, Fax: (01) 676 6043 Managing Director: Gerry Tynan Chairman: Diarmaid Lennon Distribution by: Magazine Mailing Publisher’s statement: The information in Ambulance Ireland is carefully researched and believed to be accurate and authoritative, but the Publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions. Statements and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Editor or the Publisher. Copyright © Ashville Media Group Ltd. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the Publisher.
letter from the
EDITOR W
elcome to the 2020 edition of Ambulance Ireland. As always, we bring you the latest news and features covering Ireland’s medical and emergency services sectors, as well as interesting and inspiring stories from our frontline personnel and from around the globe. Keeping emergency vehicles on the road 24/7 is an endless but critical task, and the staff at the Dublin Fire Brigade’s Service Support Unit were more than happy to show me that they go far beyond simply maintaining and servicing vehicles. It was fascinating to learn about the extent of their multi-faceted role, and I hope you enjoy reading about it. Working with horses on a daily basis might sound like a dream job, but the men and women of the Garda Mounted Support Unit are faced with many challenges and a lot of hard work. It was a pleasure to talk to them about what is involved in looking after and working with such magnificent animals, and how important it is to have their visible presence in the community. It was also a pleasure to talk to historian Barry Kennerk about his latest book, The Peeler’s Notebook, which details what life had in store for the policemen of Victorian Dublin. Dealing with Fenians, garrotting gangs and rabid dogs in a difficult environment, these Peelers were faced with incidents and conditions that were at times frightening and at other times bizarre, and Barry illustrates this very well. In our Defence Forces and Coast Guard roundups, we review the increasing level of activity seen by the men and women who protect us on a daily basis. Their contribution to society can’t be overestimated, and a look at the roles they fill and tasks they complete demonstrate how important they are in keeping us safe. Elsewhere, we look at the latest road safety campaigns, and see what’s new in the world of motoring and emergency services technology. Best wishes,
Adam Hyland AMBULANCE IRELAND
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IRISH NEWS
news
The latest in nationwide health, medical and emergency services news.
INJECTION CENTRE GO-AHEAD
supervision of a medical professional. Welcoming the decision, Merchants Quay Ireland said the 18-month pilot scheme will allow them to reach people who are currently isolated and vulnerable, offering them vital healthcare and treatment options. “With one death every day in Ireland from a drug overdose, this facility will save lives,” a spokesperson said. Over 120 such facilities exist in countries across the world, including Australia and Canada. The 2016 Programme for Government contains a commitment to open facilities such as this, and laws were passed in 2017 allowing for such centres to open and be run legally.
TB BREAKTHROUGH
Planning permission was finally granted for Ireland’s first medically supervised injecting centre in December. Plans to build the facility at Merchants Quay Ireland’s Riverbank Centre on the city’s south quays have been in the works for over three years, but in July of last year Dublin City Council refused the initial application following fierce resistance from local businesses and residents. Some 99 objections were lodged against the plan. However, on appeal, An Bord Pleanála approved the application at the end of 2019. The facility will consist of seven injecting rooms where drug users can go to inject drugs under the
Scientists at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) have made a breakthrough that could lead to improved treatment options for tuberculosis in the future. The team have discovered how TB affects the immune system and how to restart the immunity process. Dr Frederick Sheedy said of the study detailed in the Cell Reports journal: “We found that when TB-infected cells are treated with a key ‘interferon gamma protein signal', which is normally produced following vaccination, they will remove this microRNA to effectively relieve the brake and restore our normal immune response". He insisted that this could have major implications for the future treatment of TB, adding: “Scientists should be able to develop improved immunotherapies or vaccine strategies to help in the fight against TB infection."
HOSPITAL BEDS NEEDED Thousands of new hospital beds are needed during the first two years of the next Government, according to the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO). Dr Padraig McGarry, president of the IMO, said: “We are facing a health system crisis that needs real solutions for the sake of our patients.” One major problem is overcrowding, which the IMO said is due to the removal of hundreds of hospital beds from the system a decade ago. This has left Ireland's rapidly ageing population with the fourth-lowest hospital bed per capita ratio in Europe.
The IMO insisted that until there is an adequate amount of beds in the system, the number of patients on trolleys will continue to grow. As a solution, it is calling for "an accelerated programme of investment in acute hospital capacity of at least 5,000 beds to meet patient demand and to ensure doctors can treat patients in a timely manner". It said that 2,000 of these beds should be made available within the next two years. However, this will require "significant upfront investment and recruitment of doctors and other healthcare staff".
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IRISH NEWS
MENTAL HEALTH HOTLINE
HIV STIGMA CAMPAIGN The HSE has launched a new campaign aimed at tackling HIVrelated stigma. Campaign posters with the tagline: “Effective treatment means you can’t pass HIV onto partners,” will appear in public transport, social venues and college locations across the country, as well as on digital platforms. The campaign also references the global U=U campaign (undetectable equals untransmittable). The campaign was developed by the HSE in consultation with community groups and sexual health NGO organisations. Funding for the campaign was provided by the Department of Health as part of the HIV Fast Track Cities Initiative. Maeve O’Brien, Interim Lead for Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy, said: “There is still a lack of understanding around HIV and what it means to live with HIV today, and it’s important to address this. This public awareness campaign will improve people’s understanding of HIV and highlight the importance of early testing and treatment.”
LIFE EXPECTANCY RISES Irish people are living for longer, with much of the increase in life expectancy due to big reductions in major causes of death such as cancer, the Department of Health announced in December. A new report, Health in Ireland – Key Trends 2019, shows that Irish people are adding an average of three months per year to life expectancy over the past decade. Irish women now have a life expectancy of 84, up from 82 in 2007 and 78 in 1997. Men’s life expectancy is now 80, compared to 77 in 2007 and 73 in 1997.
DEFENCE FORCES EXODUS
A new 24-hour mental health phone line was launched in late-2019 to assist people in accessing supports and services. Callers to the 'Your Mental Health' information number will be connected to the most appropriate service provider for their needs, nationally or locally, by trained National Ambulance Service (NAS) personnel. The freephone service can be contacted on 1800 111 888. Speaking at the launch of the phone line at the National Emergency Operations Centre of the NAS in November, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said there are extensive mental health services in Ireland but "it is often the case that they are not well joined up, they either overlap or there are gaps between them". He added: “The new dedicated phone line will allow people to access the mental health service they need, when they need it and where they need it." Along with the phone line, there are also plans to roll out online counselling initiatives and a national crisis text line in 2020.
Defence Forces officers have paid substantial amounts of money to buy their way out of their military careers early rather than continue to serve the time they initially agreed. Some 24 officers across the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service who were sent to university as part of their training opted to pay their way out early over the last five years. Many of them gained specialist skills in university, such as computer forensics, cyber security and combatting cybercrime. One officer is said to have paid €67,000 to leave his post early, while others have paid sums of €39,234, €33,427, €32,248 and €31,503. A third of those who paid to leave early had studied nautical science, while others studied engineering, financial maths, geomatics, financial management, strategic risk management and global security. Raco, which represents Defence Forces officers, said many young personnel had been “driven out” as barracks closures resulted in “impossible commutes” and plummeting numbers in the Defence Forces had left a culture of “double and treble jobbing”. Defence Forces personnel who complete courses during their military careers must sign an undertaking to continue to serve for two years for every year they spent in university. Raco general secretary Comdt Conor King said critical skills were draining out of the Defence Forces. Unless steps were taken to ensure better retention of personnel, the “dysfunctional cycle of turnover” that had worsened in 2019 would continue. AMBULANCE IRELAND
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
news
Medical and emergency services news from around the world.
FIREMAN SAM DROPPED AS UK MASCOT
SWEDEN INVESTS IN AIR AMBULANCES The Swedish air ambulance service Svensk Luftambulans has ordered three new helicopters, with delivery expected this year or in early 2021. The operator will also have its three existing models retrofitted to the same standard as the new aircraft, and will significantly increase take-off weight capabilities as well as provide state of the art communications both on the ground and in-flight. The investment was necessary as the counties of Norrbotten and Vasterbotten have joined Varmland, Dalarna, Vastra Gotaland and Uppsala in the number of territories and increased population covered by the service.
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AUSTRALIAN PARAMEDIC BODY CAMERAS
Paramedics in New South Wales have begun wearing body cameras as part of a 12-month trial aimed at deterring abuse and assaults. Paramedics from the Sydney Ambulance Centre at Eveleigh, and the towns of Liverpool and Hamilton, will participate in the voluntary trial involving 60 cameras. NSW Ambulance chief executive Dominic Morgan said more cameras could be rolled out across the state of the program is successful. "The cameras will be another set of eyes for our paramedics and in addition to hopefully deterring abuse, there is scope to use them for training purposes further down the line," Dr Morgan said in a statement in January. Australian Health Minister Brad Hazzard hopes agitated individuals will modify their behaviour when they realise they're being recorded. "Paramedics are there to help us and it is never okay to abuse them. Assaults carry heavy penalties and, if needed, bodycam footage will be used as evidence when prosecuting people," Mr Hazzard said.
US LEGISLATION FOR EQUIPMENT SAFETY
Fireman Sam has been dropped as a fire service mascot, following claims he is not inclusive enough. Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service said it made the decision after receiving negative feedback about the mascot based on the popular children’s TV show. Lincolnshire CFO Les Britzman said the mascot was outdated and did not help sell the fire safety message. London Fire Brigade supported the decision, saying the use of the term “Fireman” instead of “Firefighter” ingrains especially in the young that it is a male only role. Earlier this year, the fire service criticised both Fireman Sam and Peppa Pig of being sexist for using the term “Fireman”. Lincolnshire’s Fire Service will now use their other mascots, fire extinguisher-shaped Freddy, Filbert and Penelope, for promotional material.
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Two US Senators have introduced new bipartisan legislation that would take important steps towards addressing health concerns regarding firefighters’ occupational exposure to harmful chemicals through their personal protective equipment. The Guaranteeing Equipment Safety for Firefighters Act, introduced by Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Cory Gardner, would authorise a comprehensive study of the PPE worn by firefighters to determine the identity and concentration of harmful PFAS chemicals, and the risk of exposure to them. The legislation would also establish a federal grant programme to advance the development of safe alternatives to these PFAS chemicals in personal protective equipment. “Firefighters have enough to worry about when they’re on duty – the last thing they should be concerned with is the safety of their own protective gear,” said Senator Shaheen. “We know PFAS is in certain types of firefighting foam, which means our firefighters are already more likely to face exposure. With research indicating these harmful chemicals have also been found in firefighters’ personal protective equipment, it’s imperative that Congress take action to keep our first responders safe.”
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AIR AMBULANCE
CORK AIR AMBULANCE AT RISK OF BEING GROUNDED Funding shortfall leaves Irish Community Rapid Response needing €400,000 to continue.
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he charity-run Irish Community Rapid Response (ICRR) air ambulance service in Cork has had to appeal for the public’s help after its funding efforts fell short, operators have said. This has led to concerns that the service, which came into operation in 2019 and works in conjunction with the National Ambulance Service, could be temporarily grounded within weeks. It has been used some 250 times since it was first launched, assisting more than 200 patients by getting paramedics to the scene of an accident quickly. ICRR, which receives no Government funding, estimates that 600 missions could be flown in 2020, but this is now in doubt. ICRR pilot John Murray has said that the Government has been approached in an attempt to cover the €1.5million per year running costs, but is awaiting a response.
Both Kerry and Cork county councillors demanded that the HSE and Health Minister Simon Harris bail out the service, with the Minister believed to have requested the same, but in January the NAS said it was not going to provide the funding shortfall. However, a HSE spokesperson said later in January: “The National Ambulance Service is not involved in the funding of the ICRR, which is a charity organisation. It is important to note NAS continues to provide its ground service of emergency ambulance and air assets available (Aer Corp, Irish Coast Guard, ICRR) are an additional resource to the ground service.” A Department of Health spokesperson said: “As requested by the Minister, the National Ambulance Service has engaged with Irish Community Rapid Response and is working with that organisation to ensure that every effort is made to protect service provision. The Minister urges both sides to further their efforts.” The ICRR itself said in January: “The Air Ambulance, has been reduced
to a five-day-a-week service, with immediate effect to ensure the service can continue for another six weeks. “However, this cost-saving measure is a temporary fix to ensure six weeks of continued service before the financial viability of the service is reviewed again.” The ICRR had raised €700,000 through donations, benefactors and public fundraising campaigns. In an efforts to recover the shortfall, attempted to raise €400,000 in fundraising through a GoFundMe page, but by January had only raised €35,514. This was boosted by a generous donation of €12,000 from jockey David Mullins, who rode Michael O’Leary’s Rule the World to victory at the Aintree Grand National in 2016. He was airlifted by the ICRR after a fall at Thurles Racecourse last October, when he broke his T12 vertebrae and clavicle and needed rapid emergency medical help. “The ICRR Air Ambulance came to help me when I needed it the most, a serious fall like I had could have been life-changing,” he said.
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COAST GUARD ROUNDUP 2019
SAVING LIVES AT SEA The Irish Coast Guard continued to provide a vital service in 2019.
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he Irish Coast Guard had another busy year in 2019, with the three Rescue Coordination Centres at Malin Head, Valentia Island and Dublin handling 2,487 incidents. The number of incidents is similar to those of the past two years, with 2,647 in 2018 and 2,503 in 2017.
AT SEA The RNLI were requested to launch by the Coast Guard on more than 815 occasions in order to rescue people at sea, with Coast Guard units overall responding to 1,075 call outs throughout the year.
BY AIR The Coast Guard helicopter services provided under contract by CHCI and operating a fleet of Sikorsky S92 helicopters out of bases in Dublin, Shannon, Waterford and Sligo, saw more than 770 missions in 2019. These included inland searches for missing persona in support of An Garda SĂochĂĄna and Mountain Rescue Teams.
Apart from maritime search and rescue services, the Coast Guard also provides support services to the offshore islands, and in 2019 there were 123 emergency missions undertaken by the nationwide network of more than 940 volunteers from these islands to the mainland. Coast Guard helicopters also provided Helicopter Emergency Medical Services to the NAS, including inter-hospital transfers.
PLANS The publication of a new National Search and Rescue (SAR) Plan, overseen by an independent committee, and a National Oil Spill Contingency Plan, were two highlights for the service in 2019. The SAR plan replaces the preexisting framework and affords equal recognition to the three components of Search and Rescue: Maritime, land and aviation, with an added emphasis on oversight arrangements.
FOCUS In 2020, the Coast Guard says it will continue to focus on the importance of Prevention as a core safety theme, and will
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COAST GUARD ROUNDUP 2019
shore-based colleagues of intended activity and anticipated return time. Particular attention is attached to Lives Saved, with the Coast Guard estimating that 378 individuals were categorised as such in 2019. continue to work with colleagues in Water Safety Ireland, the RNLI, Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the Irish Sailing Association in promoting water safety and identifying key risk areas. The service also plans to re-launch its Safety on the Water website this year. This focus supports earlier campaigns aimed at educating the public, such as the Raise the Alarm and Stay Afloat campaigns that are central to preventing drownings at sea or in inland waterways. The message of Stay Afloat Stay in Touch continues to highlight the importance of never engaging in any boating activity without wearing a fullyserviced life jacket or personal flotation device, coupled with a capacity to raise the alarm via a VHF radio, personal locator beacon (PLB), an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB), or mobile phone (although the Coast Guard cautions that mobile phones should not be relied upon as the only means of emergency communication at sea, due to unreliable coverage and susceptibility to failure when wet). The Coast Guard also continues to remind people that these actions should always be supported by informing
BEACONS MRCC Dublin, which processes alerts from all emergency beacons registered in Ireland, as well as any beacon alerts from foreign vessels or aircraft operating within the Irish Search and Rescue Region, handled 195 satellite beacon alerts in 2019. Although the majority proved to be false alerts due to accidental activation or expired equipment, this still represented a significant workload.
THANKS Coast Guard Director, Eugene Clonan, said of 2019: “The publication of the National SAR and Oil Spill Contingency plans were two significant achievements in the past year, and I want to acknowledge the very constructive engagement that we had with a multiplicity of stakeholders.” He added: “I want to also acknowledge the commitment and professionalism of our Volunteer members. In addition to the three core services that they provide, they are an integral part of community resilience and continually act as the eyes and ears of our RCCs in responding to any coastal emergency.”
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DEFENCE FORCES 2019 ROUNDUP
The Irish Defence Forces had another busy year, both at home and abroad, in 2019.
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t home, the Defence Forces conducted a wide range of Defence and Security Operations in Ireland in the last year. Supporting An Garda Síochána, the HSE, Local Authorities and other agencies of the State on a daily basis. These included almost 200 operations involving explosive ordnance disposal, prisoner escorts, explosives escorts, major cash escorts and search operations, with 336 personnel deployed to assist in 14 searches at the request of Gardaí. Some 2,614 personnel were deployed for the visits of US president
Donal Trump and vice-president Mike Pence, while members of the Defence Forces continue to provide a permanent armed guard at Portlaoise maximum security prison, as well as the Central Bank and Irish Industrial Explosives, and contribute personnel and expertise in supporting the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment’s National Cyber Security Centre. Approximately 120 personnel were deployed to assist civil authorities during multiple operations, including combatting gorse fires in Wicklow, Donegal and Mayo, while Defence Forces ambulances and crews were deployed on seven occasions to assist the National Ambulance Service in Dublin, Cork and Kildare. Offshore, the Naval Service fleet conducted 780 boarding operations and detained 12 vessels for alleged
infringements of fishing regulations in support of the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority. This was supported by the Air Corps, who conducted more than 130 maritime surveillance patrol flights over territorial waters in 2019. Patrolling an area 12 times the size of Ireland, maritime defence and security over 220 million acres of sea is no easy task, so the commissioning of the new LÉ George Bernard Shaw in April is a welcome addition to the fleet. The Naval Service Diving Section were also deployed for 26 operations in 2019, following requests from An Garda Síochána and the Coast Guard. In the air, as well as assisting the Naval Service, the Air Corps completed more than 230 Emergency Aeromedical Services Missions supporting the HSE in providing a medical service for seriously ill patients in isolated rural communities.
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All images courtesy Óglaigh na hÉireann.
DEFENCE FORCES 2019 ROUNDUP
They also provided more than 30 inter-hospital Air Ambulance service support operations in response to timecritical medical emergencies, with 20 of these flights requiring patient delivery to the UK or mainland Europe. The Air Corps also participated in a multinational pollution monitoring operation in the North Sea.
INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS The longest unbroken record of overseas service with the United Nations continues for the Defence Forces, with personnel serving overseas on missions with the UN, NATO, EU and OSCE Peace Support and Security Operations across 14 missions in 13 countries.
There are currently 595 Defence Forces personnel serving overseas, with the largest deployment in South Lebanon with UNIFIL, where 338 Defence Forces members help maintain a safe and secure environment. This deployment is in partnership with Poland and the Armed Forces of Malta. Ireland also has 138 personnel currently deployed with the UN Disengagement Observer Force in Syria’s Golan Heights, where the Armoured Personnel Carrier upgrade programme saw nine new APCs deployed in November, enhancing force protection and mobility for troops. The first deployment to the UN Multidimensional Integrated
Stabilisation Mission in Mali also commenced in September, with the Defence Forces contributing staff officers in Force HQ in Bamako and Army Ranger Wing personnel working with the German Reconnaissance Task Force. Ireland also has three personnel working in the Operational HQ of the EU Naval Force Mediterranean on Operation Sophia in Rome, with the objective of disrupting organised criminal networks involved in illicit activities including smuggling of migrants, human trafficking and terrorism. During 2019, the Defence Forces also deployed one ordnance officer, on three occasions, as a member of the Joint Technical Group on
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DEFENCE FORCES 2019 ROUNDUP
Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration to Mozambique, while in August 2019, ten personnel were deployed as part of the Force HQ Staff with the EU Battlegroup 2020 to Stadtallendorf, Germany.
TRAINING AND EDUCATION The significant focus on recruitment, training and education within the Irish Defence Forces ensures that personnel develop their skills in order to be prepared for complex operating environments at home and abroad, and in 2019, 461 recruits (21 females) and 96 cadets (14 female) began their military training. Approximately 166 personnel completed traditional Honours Degree courses, of which two completed Masters Courses through Continuous Professional Development programmes. There were 1,051 Skill Courses conducted in 2019, with 13,412 student days developing and maintaining Defence Forces capabilities, while 601 personnel underwent 35 Career courses, developing their leadership, planning and decision-making skills. Some 1,900 Defence Forces personnel also underwent overseas pre-deployment mission readiness training, ranging from counterimprovised explosive devices (IEDs) to medical first responder training, radio and communications skills to armoured vehicle driving.
CEREMONIAL REPRESENTATION The Defence Forces participated in more than 50 significant military and State ceremonial events in the last year. These included the commemoration of the 103rd anniversary of the Easter Rising at the GPO, the 1916 Leaders Commemoration at Arbour Hill, and the National Day of Commemoration at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. Personnel also took part in the National Famine Commemoration in Sligo in May.
State ceremonial honours were afforded on the occasion of the State visit to Ireland of the King and Queen of Sweden in May, the King and Queen of the Netherlands in June, and the president of Cuba in October, while honours were also afforded to President Higgins on the occasion of his departure for a State visit to Germany in July. The Defence Forces also participated in a series of monthly ceremonies at Ă ras an UachtarĂĄin, where a total of 35 Ambassadors presented their credentials to President Higgins. A special State ceremony was also held at Collins Barracks in April to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Reserve Defence Force, with a parade held at which Minister of Defence Paul Kehoe, TD, conducted a review of the Reserve Defence Forces.
The Defence Forces Remembrance Ceremony was held at The National Memorial, Merrion Square, in December, to remember those members of the Defence Forces who have given their lives in the service of the State. As part of this ceremony, Minister Kehoe laid a wreath, along with families of deceased members. Overall, 2019 was another busy but rewarding year for the Defence Forces, and 2020 will no doubt see the same high levels of dedication and development from the personnel who work so hard to keep us secure.
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Welcome to those in need Bro. Kevin would like to thank those who have donated to the Capuchin Day Centre, enabling us to provide 850 meals a day and 1,700 food parcels a week for the people who attend the centre. We have a doctor’s clinic, dental clinic and chiropodist on-site and showers are provided every day.
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Please send a donation, no matter how small to:
An exclusive backstage experience with access to areas usually reserved for players. Take a look behind the scenes in the players dressing room, media centre and pitch side. Including a look at some of the IRFU and FAI’s amazing artefacts on show in these special areas. Open seven days a week, with tours running at 11:30am, 13:30pm and 15:30pm. Call us on 01 238 2312 or email tours@avivastadium.ie to book a tour.
Bro. Kevin Crowley ofm cap. Capuchin Day Centre, 29, Bow Street, Dublin 7. Telephone: 01-8720770
or donate online
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EMERGENCY SERVICES DAY
A DAY OF THANKS The National Ambulance Service and other organisations were honoured at the National Emergency Services Day activities in September.
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ore than 1,500 members of the emergency services took part in a parade on 7 September to celebrate National Emergency Services Day, with frontline responders once again making an impressive mark on the occasion. Now in its sixth year, the event is the official day of recognition of Ireland’s frontline emergency services, and gives the public an opportunity to thank them for their valuable work. The day opened with a skills display from members of the frontline services that included everything from abseiling to
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EMERGENCY SERVICES DAY
bomb disposal, followed by the Garda Band, alongside the Dublin Fire Brigade band and other visiting bands, taking centre stage to lead the parade from Parnell Square to Dublin Castle. The Day continued with further skills displays at Dublin Castle, with the public invited to inspect and experience up close the equipment and vehicles used in the frontline, while food and family fun was on hand to keep everybody happy. The previous Saturday, a special concert took place at the National Concert Hall to honour all of those personnel who bravely serve us on the frontline of the emergency services
on a daily basis, with the Garda Band appearing along with Jack L, Sibeal, The Bonny Men and October Fires. Lord Mayor Paul McAuliffe said: “It was an honour to attend the parade today, and I’d like to thank all of the frontline emergency services for all you do.” Taoiseach Leo Varadkar echoed these sentiments, saying: “Our emergency services operate nationwide and are part of the fabric of every community. Making this event a national one will ensure these important services get the public recognition they so rightly deserve across the entire country.”
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SERVICE SUPPORT
KEEPING THINGS MOVING The DFB’s Service Support Centre plays a pivotal role in making the DFB operational 24/7.
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SERVICE SUPPORT
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hen people hear garage, they think of a small workshop, but this place is much bigger than that and has a lot more roles than just fixing and maintaining vehicles,” A/D/O Martin Cooke explained to me on a recent visit to the Stanley Street site. “That’s no small task in itself, given that there are 115 vehicles in the fleet that need to be maintained and serviced, but we are more than just maintenance: we supply an extensive and comprehensive service that enables the DFB to keep moving on a daily basis. That’s why we are now called the Service Support Unit, rather than the garage.” As he showed me around the massive store rooms, workshop, decontamination unit, laundry and pharmacy, that point became clear, and while civilians may not even know the place exists, the sheer volume of work done here may be news to some DFB members too. A few months later, Third Officer John Guilfoyle, who has been overseeing operations here for five and a half years, echoes the thoughts of A/D/O Cooke as he too shows me around. “There is so much to cover here. People joke with us that we do nothing down here. They don’t see it, but they don’t complain about the service support, and that’s a compliment for us. DFB members arrive into their station and have everything they need, everything is working. From our point of view, if we are doing our job well, we usually hear nothing. In many ways it’s the unglamorous part of the operation. The key to it is planning and supply change management, but it’s a very broad role. “Part of my brief is to oversee logistics and equipment. Our principal function is to offer the support services required by operations – that includes the fleet, equipment, buildings overseen by property maintenance manager Andy
Kavanagh, and the maintenance and compliance of our equipment: All the supports that keep the operational show on the road. Our vehicles cover 1.7million kilometres annually, with our ambulance service alone covering in the region of 90,000 calls across 12 ambulances, and those 12 cover 1million kms. Our fire fleet do roughly 35,000 calls, and they would cover about 800,000 kms per year. So, it’s a big operation in terms of fleet.”
THE FLEET While routine checks are done on all vehicles at their stations, the ambulances are brought into the garage weekly, while the fire fleet are brought in every three months, and with more than 4,000 routine repairs done every year, managing this involves a huge amount of planning. “We have a fleet inspector, who makes out a structured fleet management plan, and that is structured across the fleet annually,” T/O Guilfoyle tells me. “On top of that, all our HGV vehicles undergo CVR testing. In terms of activity, on average we cover around 4,000 non-scheduled repairs that are
Third Officer John Guilfoyle oversees operations.
booked in on a daily basis. If crews at the stations find anything wrong, they report it to us through a central reporting system that comes in here. “We also manage and maintain in the region of 12,000 pieces of operational equipment, ranging from hydraulic gear to general firefighting tools, hoses, pumps, all the firefighting and EMS gear. Some is done in-house and some by external contractors, which has to be compliant because it is life-critical safety equipment. “It’s a huge operation that involves a structured plan dictating key performance indicators and key activities we must complete. I have a reporting system that is fed in through the staff here, so at a management level I can see where we are in terms of maintenance, certifications, etc.” While the amount of work done is immense, there is a relatively small team, all of whom play a pivotal and mostly unseen role for the DFB. “We have an inspector, five mechanics, a D/O, and five people in our equipment section, so it’s a tight little operation, despite its size,” T/O Guilfoyle says. “We also have two admin staff here looking
The PPE laundry is one of the most advanced in Europe.
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after accounts and vehicle records – Altona and Noleen - and an accounts section in Tara Street, working in the background, processing more than 2,500 supplier payments and purchase orders per year in the required prompt fashion, and monitoring expenditure. That’s a key function that is often overlooked too, but they are key.”
STORES Keeping track of the numerous comings and goings of equipment, vehicle parts, stock and consumables would be almost impossible without the proper systems in place, and T/O Guilfoyle shows me around the store rooms to show how this is done. “We have seen a major increase in the use of IT, which helps produce a lot of management reports and data, which enables us to structure the service in terms of having the right equipment in the right place at the right time,” he tells me. “Our asset management system also helps us to plan in terms of replacing assets, and this also manages testing, servicing, etc, flagging what tests are due and giving us structured reporting. So, if you have 12,000 pieces of equipment, we can key in end of life data, and that enables us to form a strategic five-year plan to see what is coming up this year, next year, etc. If we can project that, we can project the financial requirements. So, certainly, IT plays a big role now.” Asset Manager A/S/Off Paul O’Toole shows me that is involved. “We take each piece of equipment as it comes in and scan it so that it is added to the system,” he says. “All information about that piece of equipment can then appear on the system – service dates, end of life, any repairs – and the system is automated with colour coding to tell us when it is due to be serviced, replaced, etc. This system, which T/O Guilfoyle brought in a few years ago, is critical to how we operate now. “Each serial number and code is unique to each piece of equipment,
A/S/Off Paul O’Toole and FF/P Stephen Cleary.
and this is an essential tool to have because we need to be able to monitor all information regarding each piece of equipment in order to ensure they reach safety compliance and are fit for purpose for our members.”
EQUIPMENT As we walk through the vehicle parts stores, we are met by A/S/
Testing vehicle hydraulics.
Off Stephen McMenemy, who is in charge of equipment maintenance. “Stephen is what we like to call our quartermaster,” T/O Guilfoyle says. “If he is having a bad day, I am having a bad day, because he is key to the operation working. “When the crews check their equipment on the road or at the station and make out their list of what
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The nuts and bolts of the operation.
A/S/Off Stephen McMenemy.
DFB Pharmacist Ken Kelly.
they need, they send it in by email so that we can get it ready. Stephen deals with all of the stores and stock, and requests for equipment. There’s a balance between having all of the equipment that is needed, and not having too much that it has to be disposed of. It’s a fine line.” A/S/Off McMenemy tells me that like with any major operation,
logistics is hugely important. “This place makes sure that everything is 100% all of the time, that every vehicle has everything it needs on it, from a crowbar right up to essential lifesaving equipment. We have a very good stock management system called Imprest Stock. It’s like a minibar in a hotel, when you take something off the shelf it is recorded on the system,
and it works very well because we have never run out of parts.”
PHARMACY Moving into the main warehouse, I see the shelves are filled with everything from stretchers to HGV wheels and pallets of water, but to the side is the new dedicated pharmacy run by FF/P Ken Kelly, which
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distributes controlled medications to the ambulance crews. “In line with Clinical Practice Guidelines, there are more drugs a paramedic can use, so we have quite a lot of medications in the supply chain that have to be managed, and that has a lot of requirements in terms of dates, storage, etc,” T/O Guilfoyle says. “The medicines have to be kept separately from other supplies, with some of the medications stored at specific temperatures. Shelf life has to be strictly adhered to, so again everything is put onto a management system by Ken, which also keeps track of what is coming in and going out. “He receives all orders for medication and makes sure there is nothing on the list that they are not authorised to have, so it is an important part of the job.” A/S/Off McMenemy adds: “The pharmacy is really well run, and it has to be. Everything needs to be in the right place and records need to be kept immaculately. Ken is great at that. He set it up in 2018, and has been working wonders ever since. When he is off, we have to try to keep to his high standards, which is a tall order.”
GARAGE We go down to the garage workshop, where the team are busy running checks on a HGV, and while foreman Fran and John “Horace” Fitzgerald oversee things, mechanic Keith Lambert is pushed into frame for a photo. “Keith is a top mechanic,” S/O McMenemy tells me. “We still call him the apprentice because he is the newest here, even though he has been here a good few years now. He and the other mechanics have to work to very high standards, and you can see that it is a multi-faceted job they have.”
PPE Maintaining equipment includes all of the DFB PPE gear, and T/O Guilfoyle tells me that they now have one of the leading PPE management systems
in Europe. “We have a database that tells us what we need to know about every garment - where it is, what conditions it has been subjected to - and we do the washing and maintenance here at our dedicated laundry facility to ensure they all comply to the standards in place for structural firefighting PPE. “We encourage our members after any heavy-duty incident to send their PPE back. Everybody has a spare set, so for their long-term health we don’t want people wearing smoky gear. It gets a certified wash, dry and inspection. Our expert in garment care from Hunter’s, Tatiana, is the external contractor for this part of the operation, and she individually inspects every garment. They are all sent back out within two days, ready to be worn again. We process, clean, inspect and repair more than 2,800 sets of PPE every year.”
DECONTAMINATION Also on site is a decontamination unit, where ambulances can drive in and have the vehicle and crew cleaned thoroughly. While the vehicle and every part within it is sterilised in a two-hour process, personnel take turns to move through the unit and disrobe, shower, and change one by one in a warm, sterile and private cubicle. Anything that can’t be cleaned is disposed of. “We have never had anyone actually get contaminated, but rather than taking the chance of someone bringing contamination back to their station, or even the psychological side of it, we go through the procedure carefully,” A/S/Off McMenemy tells me. “The fact that it never happens only goes to prove that it is 100% effective. “Ambulances also come in on a scheduled basis from each station for a deep clean done by Noel Donovan, who is very thorough, taking two weeks to clean every single part.” While there is so much to do here, the Service Support Centre is seeing an increased workload as new
vehicles, equipment and management systems come on board.
CONSTANT IMPROVEMENT “As well as advancements in our PPE, our drug storage, and monitoring of our equipment, which has been completely updated, we have a continuous cycle of improvement, which we are constantly reviewing. That includes environmental issues, so one of the things we are looking at now is the removal from our supply chain of PFOS foams, which can be environmentally damaging, so we have a two-year cycle where we want to compare it to more environmentally-friendly firefighting foams, which is a big step. That would require taking in every firefighting vehicle, looking at the foam delivery system and calibrating it for an environmentally-friendly foam. This would require a lot of technical work. “Then we have the new swift water rescue equipment, and this year we have brought in some new vehicles. We have introduced a new Tunnel Response Vehicle, three new Class B fire tenders, we are introducing three new D/O vehicles, a new paramedic vehicle and 4x4 vehicles for challenging weather conditions, so it has been quite interesting, but busy.” With the increased use of IT, constant modernisation and a dedicated team, the Service Support Centre is able to manage all of this work, which is in itself a remarkable achievement. The sheer number of responsibilities are a major challenge, but are also rewarding. T/O Guilfoyle says that keeping everything in service operational within financial constraints is difficult. “We need to have a good logistical and financial plan in place,” he says, “but we have a well-oiled machine, and the most rewarding thing about the job is knowing that we have played our part in keeping the operational show on the road.”
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COMMERCIAL PROFILE
SEASONAL FLU VACCINE As we move through the winter months, the HSE is calling on people to protect themselves against influenza by getting the seasonal flu vaccine.
I
nfluenza (flu) is a highly infectious acute respiratory illness caused by the flu virus. Flu affects people of all ages, with outbreaks occurring almost every year. Flu symptoms come on suddenly with a fever, muscle aches, headache and fatigue. This is different from a cold which is a much less severe illness compared to flu. A cold usually starts gradually with a sore throat and a blocked or runny nose. Symptoms of a cold are generally mild compared to flu. Flu is predictable. In some instances, flu can be severe and can cause serious illness and death. Serious breathing complications can develop, including pneumonia and bronchitis, to which olderpeople and those with certain chronic medical conditions are particularly susceptible. Pregnant women may need hospital treatment and hundreds of people die from flu each winter. This year the seasonal (annual) flu vaccine protects against four common virus strains.The flu virus changes each year this is why a new flu vaccine has to be given each year. The best way to prevent flu is to get the flu vaccine. The vaccine is recommended for
• All those 65 years of age and over • pregnant women • those with long term medical conditions e.g. heart or lung disease • all frontline healthcare workers including carers Vaccination should ideally be undertaken in September or early October each year. Flu vaccines have been used for more than 60 years worldwide and are very safe. Flu vaccine contains killed or inactivated viruses and therefore cannot cause flu. It does, however, take 10-14 days for the vaccine to start protecting you against flu. • The vaccine and consultation are free to those within the recommended groups who have a ‘Medical Card’ or ‘GP Visit Card’. • GPs and pharmacists charge a consultation fee for seasonal flu vaccine to those whodo not have a ‘Medical Card’ or ‘GP Visit Card’. More information is available from your GP, Public Health Nurse or pharmacist.
www.hse.ie/flu provides details about flu vaccination, along with answers to any questions you may have about flu.
PNEUMOCOCCAL VACCINE If you are over 65 or have a long term medical condition you should also ask your doctor about the pneumococcal vaccine which protects against pneumonia, if you have not previously received it. You can get the flu vaccine at the same time as the pneumococcal vaccine. #YourBestShot
FOR MORE INFORMATION Find out more about the seasonal flu vaccine and how you can take action atwww.hse.ie/flu
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IN THE
SADDLE The Garda Mounted Support Unit may seem like a dream job, but it is a challenging one too, writes Adam Hyland.
“
I
t is easy to come to work when you love it,” Sergeant Brendan Duffy of the Mounted Support Unit tells me as he shows me around the grounds of their headquarters behind Áras an Uachtaráin in the Phoenix Park. “If you don’t enjoy working here, there is something wrong with you.”
That sentiment is echoed by Garda Laura Doolan, who is busy cleaning her horse Fiachra. “If I ever get bored with work, I just look at the bridle on the reins, which were originally used on the Guinness horses, and am reminded of the pride and the history connected to them. I also think about how much of a joy it is to work with horses every day. When my friends ask me why I like the job so much, I show them a picture on my phone that is the ‘view from my desk’.” Fiachra is a stunning white horse, and is enjoying the attention as we gather around him. “He’s not as tall as some of the others, but he looks like he is because he holds himself up very straight and high,” Laura says. “He’s got a real ego to him.” The beauty of the horses is reflected in their setting, a converted model farm that was gifted to the Unit in 2000 by then-President Mary McAleese, and Garda David Earley, who rides a huge brown horse called Donagh, shows us that everything the Unit needs to do its job can be found here, including stables, an equipment room, feed room, and on-site farrier room where Master Farrier John Boyne works his magic. “We were established in 1998 but moved up here when it was still under construction,” Sergeant Duffy tells me, “and we renovated the existing buildings and built new
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ones opposite it to house the horses. There was a lot of attention to detail to keep all the original materials and the authenticity of the building. It’s a perfect location for us, because we are a 45-minute walk from the city centre, we are close to the M1 for transport around the country, and we have the perfect grounds to do training on. The beauty of being here is that there is no financial value to selling it, we are invited guests of the President, on their land. So, there is no danger of us being moved on. “What people don’t realise is that it takes an incredibly long time to build up a Unit with expertise, it’s not something you can switch on and off, or provide fast-track training like in other units.” While the horses look great, a lot of work goes into making them so presentable, which Sergeant Duffy stresses is a very important part of community policing. “People see us out and about and they are drawn to us because the horses look magnificent,” Sergeant Duffy says, “but they don’t necessarily understand the amount of work that goes into making them look so good. The job is very physical, very hands-on, there’s a lot of upkeep and maintenance, and we would get criticism from the public if the horses were too thin, or dirty, or not shod properly, or not behaving themselves.” Sergeant Duffy, who had previously served in the Garda
Water Unit, has been with the Mounted Support Unit since its inception, when An Garda Síochána acquired seven horses from the Yorkshire Police. “Those horses were dreadful,” he says, “but I think that was as a result of the horses not being used properly. When you see what we have now, and how far we have come, it’s amazing. Each horse still has its own quirks, but they are ideal for the job. We have never been busier, and we are near our maximum strength, with 14 horses, and are expecting another one shortly to reach the maximum of 15 for the first time.”
DUTIES The current 14 horses, one sergeant, 13 gardaí and two garda staff, are kept busy with numerous duties. “We are a multi-purpose unit, and do high-visibility proactive policing patrols, crowd control and public order, searches, community policing, some ceremonial work, and a lot of
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policing engagements at events across the country, because we are a national unit. “The normal routine is that all of the horses are fed and mucked out first thing in the morning, and that means all hands on deck. After breakfast they will go on proactive patrols if they don’t have a specific job on. Because we are based in the city and most of the headline crime is happening here, we tend to patrol the city, but we go out to other counties as well. “If we don’t have a specific task we proactively deploy and do the likes of car checks, community visits, events and concerts, match days – it’s a big scope. We have numerous roles, a lot of different jobs rolled into one that no other unit provides, a comprehensive package. We also work a lot with the other support units – mountain search, dog, water, etc. We have a huge search capability because we can get into inaccessible areas, we have a high vantage point so we can see into ditches and over hedgerows. Also, visually, the presence of the mounted unit can show people in the community that the gardaí are out there working, actively looking for a missing person. “When we finish, each person has to bring the horse back, clean and groom them, clean their tack (saddles, reins, etc), make sure they are nice and warm, feed them, etc. We keep them in the stables with a bar divider because they are pack animals and they want to be able to see each other, they are interactive, so we try to replicate their environment as much as possible. “Crowd control and public order is something that keeps us busy, but visually, our presence has an enormous impact, and if something kicks off, we know that our members are properly protected.”
VISIBLE PRESENCE This is just one advantage of having gardaí on horseback. “The high visibility is a big advantage,” Sergeant Duffy agrees. “A garda going down Grafton Street is lost in the crowd, but if you have a horse going down the street, he’s visible from 300 yards, and there is a certain reassurance in that. Irish people also have a very big affinity with all things equine, and they are very interested and engaging, they come over and chat and want to look at the horse, and that is a very big positive. It gives a very good image of the gardaí, which is badly needed. Anything positive we can bring, as well as having a practical policing role, is great. And that’s not just me saying that because I am here 21 years!” Other countries are recognising this importance too. Denmark is planning to bring back its mounted unit disbanded in 2012, while Holland is planning to expand theirs. “I attended a conference in Hungary last year, and the amount of interest from police forces all through Europe was very notable,” Sergeant Duffy tells me. “The positivity created by horses is huge. They also did a study in Oxford
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University about the positive effects of police forces having a mounted unit, and the results were extraordinary. I am still blown away by the awe with which people look at the horses, and the respect and interest shown. The communication and engagement with the public is phenomenal.” The Unit predominantly uses Irish Draught breeds, although Sergeant Duffy tells me that with these becoming scarce, he is open to acquiring any suitable breed. “But they have to be even-coloured, so they can’t be piebald, they have to be a minimum of 16,3, they have to be visually attractive, they have to pass an initial veterinary inspection, they are subject to a six-week trial, a final veterinary inspection, and then their training starts in earnest.” That training mostly consists of exposing the horses to the type of things they are going to see and experience on the job, complemented by what they learn from being around more experienced horses. “We have a dedicated training staff here that work with the younger horses, and they have done advanced training courses both here and abroad. You learn quickly what levels the horses are at and whether they are going to cut the mustard, but right up to the final week they can get spooked by something unfamiliar. “As their training goes on, they are being handled properly, they are getting good food, their energy levels grow, and that’s when you can really see what you have. If you take a horse from a grass-fed livery, they can be very docile, but when you feed them the high-nutrition
stuff their dynamic changes. We are very mindful of that, because we have to be very careful. No matter how welltrained they are, if a horse freaks out or canters off into a crowd, we have a big problem on our hands because these animals weigh between 700 and 900 kilos. That danger is always there.”
STRESSFUL ENVIRONMENTS For Sergeant Duffy, this is what makes what appears like a very calming, almost ideal job, actually very stressful. “If something goes wrong… that’s what you are always trying to manage. You have a lot to look after, you need to keep the horse calm. It’s all very fine sitting up on one of these horses, but in a full public order situation, you really earn your money. Even when going through town, there is a basic stress level there – you need to be aware of and watching what is going on around you all the time. Whether you like it or not, sometimes your heart will be in your mouth. You just never know when a horse will react badly to something. “It can be great fun when it’s nice and leisurely and things are going well – there’s nothing nicer – but when you have to go to a public disorder incident, or a protest, it is hard work because you have to control the horse in a difficult and potentially frightening environment for them. You can’t teach a horse to be prepared for every possible scenario. They are flight animals, primarily. If they are threatened, or think they are, that’s what they do. We try to get them used to those things that might unnerve them, but there is only so much you can do.
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IN DEMAND
“You have a major responsibility with the horse, as you can’t just switch him off or walk away from him, because the first thing he is going to do is run from the city centre all the way back to the Phoenix Park. They have a massive homing instinct. But it wouldn’t be pretty, because he wouldn’t respect traffic lights, or cars, or people. So, there is a huge responsibility, and you have to think ahead all the time, and be able to react properly. “Overall, the Mounted Unit is the most high-risk unit in all of policing, statistically and in actuality, nothing comes close. Here we have had broken necks (Sergeant Duffy broke two bones in his neck once), broken toes, broken fingers, broken collarbones, bruises, bites, you name it, we have had it.” This is why extensive training is required for both horses and garda personnel, and only those deemed to have the right personality are allowed to join. “We have people here with varying experience,” Sergeant Duffy says. “Some are born in the stable while others come to it later in life, but what I look at is a person’s personality – are they a good team player, are they social, do they have a positive outlook on life, are they ok with being asked a thousand times what the horse’s name is? We look at their equine background, if they have one, and they are assessed, but what we are really looking at is how they engage and interact, with other gardaí and with the horses. “If we are happy with what we see, they go forward for interview, and if successful, start a 16-week training
Interest in positions in the Unit is huge, with more than 280 applicants for the most recent two vacancies. “About 80% of them were female,” Sergeant Duffy tells me. “Maybe its because women tend to have an affinity with horses. But I try to keep a balance between males and females, and at the moment our Unit is 50/50. It just works well.” Despite the demands of the role, members of the Unit tend to stay for as long as possible. “We don’t have a big turnover because people tend to want to stay here,” Sergeant Duffy says. “Even when promotions come up, none of the personnel are that anxious, because it would mean moving away from what they absolutely love. People really do love it and appreciate it when they get in here, and so they should. “Every day presents a new challenge, especially when you have a young horse, and sometimes personnel may have trouble with a horse’s behaviour, but we sit down and try to work out what is happening and try to fix it. Sometimes, you just have to let the horse go back to being a horse again for a while, before returning to him. When we have the numbers we have now, we have the luxury of being able to do that, to have horses for courses, if you will pardon the pun.” Although the expectation is that every member of the Unit should be able to ride every horse, personnel are usually assigned an individual horse with which they form a strong bond. “That works really well because if you have a happy team, you have a good team,” Sergeant Duffy says. “The same goes for the horses, it has to work for both of them. That relationship comes from putting the work in.” Garda Lisa Halligan works a lot with the younger horses. “The way she works with them, her attention to detail, is just incredible,” Sergeant Duffy tells me. “She is extraordinary. If there is a horse that is slow to get up to speed, she takes them under her wing and works wonders every time. People sometimes ask how come her horses are all so well behaved, and I say, why do you think? It’s the work she puts in. “A lot of teamwork goes into this job,” Sergeant Duffy adds. “To get these horses doing what they are doing, as well as they are doing it, doesn’t just happen. We are a very useful part of the police force. We need to get back to basics when it comes to visual presence on the beat, and I think we are definitely the most noticeable in that respect.”
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INTERVIEW
KEEPING THEM PEELED A Peeler patrols the foggy streets of Dublin.
Patrolling the streets of Victorian Dublin as a policeman was a difficult and dangerous job, as Barry Kennerk, author of The Peeler’s Notebook, explains to Adam Hyland.
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“
n Victorian times, there was just a complete disregard for health and safety. It was no holds barred, anything goes,” author Dr Barry Kennerk tells me. “So much so that a man, Rossini, could stand from a window out on to 20-foot stilts on Grafton Street and race a tram around St Stephen’s Green as an advertisement for his circus. He was winning until one of the circus horses jostled against his stilts and he fell. It seems like you could just do anything back then, judging by the weird and wonderful stories.”
Those weird and wonderful stories have been unearthed and compiled in The Peeler’s Notebook (reviewed later in this magazine), the fifth book from the Dublin historian, in which we discover that while these bizarre events made the streets of Dublin a colourful place, it also made them very difficult to police. Barry’s previous works include the acclaimed Moore Street: The Story of Dublin’s Market District, Shadow of the Brotherhood: The Temple Bar Shootings, The Railway House: Tales from an Irish Fireside, and Temple Street: Portrait of an Irish Children’s Hospital. As an archivist with Temple Street Hospital and part-time teacher in History and English, he has used his skills in finding hidden gems of social history to very good effect. Currently turning his PhD into a book about the British Secret Service and Fenianism in Ireland in the 1890s, he has used that and his previous works as a source and inspiration
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INTERVIEW
to write about the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP), or Peelers as they were commonly known, after Sir Robert Peel, who had founded the modern police force in London. The story of Shadow of the Brotherhood was of two police constables, Patrick Keena and Sergeant Stephen Kelly, who were shot on duty in 1867 by a Fenian on his way to murder a witness held at the Crown Witness Depot in Chancery Lane. They were taken to Mercer’s Hospital where they were “subjected to horrific treatment by today’s standards,” as Barry says. “I was hugely interested in this because Mercer’s would have been known back in the day as the DMP man’s A depiction of the shooting of RIC Head Constable Thomas Talbot by a Fenian gunman. hospital. Keena succumbed to his injuries, but Kelly was held down by two medical orderlies, police reports will give you the complete picture, often and the surgeon felt for the location of the bullet by touch. what you are relying on is a combination of those reports, When they pulled it out, the bullet was marked with the newspaper accounts, secondary sources,” Barry says, “but I letters ‘Po’ from where it had hit his tunic button with the have tried to combine those approaches in my work to give word ‘Police’ on it. Those kinds of stories are fascinating a fuller picture.” to me, because of the curious details, and working on my Those other sources include accounts by a range of thesis and being interested in the Fenian era, you can’t characters, from street traders and constables, right up to come to that but through police files. The Fenians didn’t Ned Broy, the Dublin Castle civil servant made famous in really tend to leave records.” the Michael Collins film. RESEARCH Research at times proved difficult and frustrating for As a result, he has spent countless hours at the National Barry. “When I was researching the book, the first port Archives over the years, “poring over Dublin Castle of call was those Chief Secretary Office index books, and reports in that very distinctive blue paper,” the result I started at 1836 and went right up to the 1880s, and then of which is a deep knowledge of the people involved in beyond that to the Lockout in 1913. policing at this turbulent time. “One of the really frustrating things was that I found “You get a sense of who these people were,” Barry tells index references to the gallant attempt by a Constable me, “and while I was looking at these papers, I started Sheahan to save a group of sewer workers who had been to notice a lot of quirky little details about the DMP that overcome by gas – there is a monument to his memory at weren’t recorded anywhere else, and which I didn’t have Burgh Quay – and there are lots of references with follow room for in my thesis. For instance, that you could get on numbers, but you could spend half an hour waiting for arrested for flying a kite, or throwing snowballs, or how the archive staff to bring up a file, only to be told there was the police dealt with rabid dogs. I accumulated all of these nothing there.” pieces of information and found that they would work Having said that, when previously untold stories come to really well under an umbrella project, and that became light, there is a great sense of satisfaction for Barry. “One The Peeler’s Notebook.” thing that was fantastic was the City Morgue book, because In compiling all of this information, painstaking not only did I find information about Sheahan there, but research was necessary. “Archives by their nature are quite also information about some of the workers who had been bitty and incomplete, and as much as you are hoping that injured during the Lockouts. So, sometimes you find a set
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Peelers tackling a rabid dog on the streets of Dublin.
of records or an index book that will cover several bases at once, and you walk away thinking that was a great success, but other times you come out empty handed.”
STRANGE TIMES The stilt versus tram race is just one of the many bizarre stories to come out of The Peeler’s Notebook, including an Apache attack on Parnell Square and a deer that was court-martialled, but Barry has a clear favourite. “My favourite chapter to write was by far the one about how the police dealt with rabid dogs. I was fascinated by that subject, because over the years I have come across reference to that issue so many times. Dubliners at that time were terrified of rabies, and you just can’t imagine that today. “Victorian times are in some ways familiar to us, because the police bureaucracy, the machinery of government, was very similar to today. All of that had its roots in Victorian Britain and Ireland. But because of that familiarity, we wrongly believe that if we were to suddenly be transported back to the streets of Victorian Dublin, we would be able to manage. There were so many very unusual and strange things that the average person of today would be very surprised with. The idea of dogs with rabies is one, and policemen going out from various police stations, armed with guns (most were only armed with
their truncheon) to dispatch rabid dogs, is incredible.” The climate of Dublin would also be a major jolt to someone transported back to Victorian Dublin, according to Barry, when every winter saw 60 days of thick fog descend on the city. “It was so bad that mail trucks would get lost on their way to the GPO, and that is hard to imagine,” he says. That fog not only made policing the streets more difficult, it also had a detrimental effect on the Peelers who were exposed to the elements for long periods. “Those conditions that policemen worked in led to a lot of rheumatism and TB, and they had to lobby for the right to wear a beard as protection from the cold.” On top of that was the violence that lurked in the fog and shadows, with garrotting gangs a particular danger. “Such was the frequency of garrotting attacks, people could actually buy anti-garrotte collars,” Barry tells me. “People in fear of being attacked could wear a steel collar, or a collar with spikes in it. Or they might have a glove with spikes on them, or if you were a gentleman, a sword cane. That kind of Dublin is so alien in comparison to today’s city. “These stories give people a more realistic idea of Victorian times, not the sanitised version they might get from watching Sherlock Holmes on TV. Really, it was a bizarre time.”
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DANGER All told, life for a Peeler in such turbulent times was dangerous. “When I was working on the Brotherhood book in 2010, something that occurred to me was that those two Peelers who were shot, they went out armed with only truncheons,” Barry tells me, “and throughout the history of the DMP, there were various flashpoints: the height of the Fenian troubles in the 1860s, the 1913 Lockout. At times, you get the sense that members of the DMP were under enormous stress. Aside from the normal vicissitudes of life as a Peeler, and the difficulties that brought, having to go out and run the gauntlet of gunmen on the streets was a big thing in the 1860s.” To back this point up, Barry tells me of the tomb of a Constable Charles O’Neill in Glasnevin Cemetery, the first policeman in Ireland to be shot on duty. “He was shot in 1866 during the Fenian troubles, and his epitaph says he was assassinated – that’s a very political statement to make. When Keena died, there would have been a huge funeral cortege, hundreds of policemen, and with Constable Sinnott when he was blown up during the ‘dynamite wars’ in 1892, there was again a huge show of strength against the Fenians, to say ‘we are not to be intimidated’. “I really got a sense of that again in 1913,” Barry adds. “From the records we can avail of today, you can find details of specific Policemen from their badge numbers, and you can see that some of them were involved in numerous stressful incidents – putting down riots, going into tenements to quell disturbances, 1916, dealing with looters after rioting. I would imagine that many of them were suffering from PTSD. If you were a Peeler between 1913 and 1922, you were exposed to things on the beat that you would not be exposed to as a Garda today. “Of course, there is a huge drug and gangland problem today, but I think it is nothing compared to that ten-year period. The city was almost destroyed, hundreds of civilian and military casualties, riots on a regular basis.” Apart from these flashpoints, the Peelers of Dublin were generally held in good esteem by the city’s population, Barry explains. “Although the 1913 Lockout was a turning point, before that, as much as any police force could ever be popular, they were fairly well regarded,” he says. “Even after 1913, they didn’t lose their popularity, and what stands out for me is that even after we got independence in 1922, the DMP persisted into the early years of the Free State in a way that the Royal Irish Constabulary didn’t. The RIC, who policed the island apart from Dublin city, were reviled, looked on as doing the work of the British Crown (especially Head Constable Thomas Talbot, who was described as a “hog
in armour” and was eventually shot by Fenians). DMP men, in contrast, were predominantly Catholic, were able to discuss the issues of the day such as Home Rule, and some of them were openly nationalist.” Working on a compilation historical book to mark the 200th birthday of Ashbourne, where he now lives, Barry tells me of one contributor, Tóla Collier, who has written a fantastic piece about the Battle of Ashbourne in 1916, in which he remarks that the RIC men there were not only predominantly Protestant, they were also an armed force, both of which made them less popular than their DMP counterparts. “You had a strange situation where you had a DMP man patrolling the beat in Rathmines, unarmed, and in Rathfarnham, not far away, you have a green uniformed RIC man patrolling with a rifle. So, it was a different kind of dynamic,” he says. Not everyone saw the DMP in a good light though. “Being set upon when arresting a prisoner did happen,” Barry says. “There were also citizens of Dublin who did look on beating up policemen as the popular amusement of the day. So as much as we can wax lyrical about them being regarded in somewhat popular terms, it wasn’t always easy for them.” Barry’s Moore Street history book will make its third print run in March, while he is looking towards the 200th anniversary of Temple Street Hospital and an expanded history to commemorate that, but for now, he can relish the stories he has brought together in such fine detail in The Peeler’s Notebook. “When I was writing my PhD, I needed to pare back some of the detail of these stories, and it was a joy for me to be able to reinsert all the drama and detail of certain incidents,” he says. “The detail of the explosion that killed Constable Sinnott, for example, during the ‘dynamite wars’, when all the plate glass windows were blown out on Dame Street, and Madame Margotte, who ran a pet shop, waking up under a pile of glass, with her parrot saying ‘Oh Mama, what’s the matter?’ – to be able to find that detail in police reports and to share the story is very enjoyable.”
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TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS
THE LATEST INNOVATIONS FOR THE WORLD’S EMERGENCY SERVICES.
SENTINEL A new robot designed to assist firefighters and emergency responders with dangerous and physically demanding tasks during operations has been designed by French engineering company TECDRON. “Sentinel” is a remotely operated platform equipped with electric motors and caterpillar tracks, enabling indoor and outdoor operation for up to six hours. It is suited to fires with restricted visibility and very high temperatures such as underground fires, or those with a risk of explosion, such as at warehouses, industrial sites or refineries. Various accessories such as thermal cameras, motorised water cannon,
LED projectors, smoke extraction fans, electric winch and sensors can be attached to the robot, making it extremely versatile and able to perform several successive tasks during the same mission. The robot can carry up to 800kg of equipment, considerably easing the
firefighter’s progression into hostile environments. A state-of-the-art system interface enables real-time monitoring of the robot’s components, higher security checks and remote pre-diagnosis in case of incident, while a data logger allows the operator to access the logs and operations history of the robot, accelerating diagnosis should it require maintenance or repair.
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GAS MONITOR A new multi-gas detector specifically built for drones or other unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has been launched in the US. The FLIR MUVE C360 enables drone pilots to fly the UAS into a scene for initial assessment, with a photoionisation detector and a suite of advanced electrochemical sensors providing a real-time continuous monitoring of chemical hazards such as carbon monoxide, chlorine or other combustible gases. This capability will enable firefighters and other emergency responders to assess situations remotely and select the appropriate personal protection equipment. Fire crews using the device can monitor air quality surrounding active scenes before entry, and assess the flow of hazardous vapours both at source and in the air. As a UAS, it can bypass difficult terrain and enables response teams to quickly draw a perimeter and map known hazards, while pre-set alarm thresholds can help command units make quick and correct decisions. “With greater accessibility to drone technology than ever before, the purpose-built MUVE C360 will provide response teams with improved situational awareness that can help save lives,” said FLIR’s senior vice-president Jeff Frank.
POWER SAVING Smart mobile power systems company Stealth Power has created idle reduction technology for the New York Fire Department (NYFD). The technology, based on Azure and Windows 10 IoT Core, has been installed in almost 400 ambulances in the last year. The system automatically turns off a vehicle’s engine when idle, while keeping its electrical communication equipment, heat and A/C running, significantly reducing idle time while keeping critical medical and communication devices running. The reduction in fuel consumption (up to 34%) can significantly lower costs and CO2 emissions. It is estimated that by eliminating ten hours of idle time on each ambulance, the NYFD can prevent 330 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and save 15 gallons of fuel each day, amounting to savings of $3million in fuel costs. Each vehicle has also been equipped with Internet of Things technology that gathers data through an onboard module and sends it wirelessly to the cloud, where it can be analysed to provide real-time alerts and predictive analytics about vehicle usage and engine performance. This enables fleet managers to improve operational efficiency and proactively reduce maintenance
costs. “By connecting our idle reduction system to NYFD vehicles, we can give real-time insights into operational performance,” says Stealth Power CEO Devin Scott. “They see the monetary results of lower fuel consumption, reduced maintenance and decreased engine hours, all of which extend the warranty life of the vehicle, as well as the lifespan of the vehicle itself. And an ambulance is an expensive asset for any city.”
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PROMOTING ROAD SAFETY Road Safety remains a crucial message as fatality and crash figures rise again.
I
rish Road Safety Week 2019 took place from Monday, 7 October to Sunday, 13 October, with the campaign including a range of awareness-raising events and activities across the country. The campaign was once again jointly run by the Road Safety Authority (RSA), the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and An Garda Síochána, with contributions from other organisations such as the Irish Tyre Industry Association (ITIA). As well as a nationwide media campaign, the National Road Safety Education Service travelled the length and breadth of the country, delivering
road safety education programmes to crèches, schools, universities, workplaces and communities, while other events also took place across the week. While 2018 saw road fatalities decrease to the lowest on record, the provisional figures for 2019 suggest that, with 124 deaths by 5 November, compared with a year total of 136 fatal collisions resulting in 142 fatalities in 2018, those numbers were on the rise again.
THE CAMPAIGN The campaign kicked off on Monday, 7 October, with the Annual Academic Lecture in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the theme being Drug Impaired Driving: prevalence, risks and detection. This year’s event heard from international and national experts
Sue O’Neill, CEO, ITIA, with Garda Superintendent Eddie Golden and Moyagh Murdoch, CEO RSA.
ROAD SAFETY
on drug driving, including Professor Denis A. Cusack, Director, Medical Bureau of Road Safety, who discussed drug impaired driving in Ireland; Dr Vigdis Vindenes, Head of Research, Dep. of Forensic Sciences, Oslo University Hospital who presented on impairment based legislative limits which have been imposed in Norway; and Assistant Commissioner, David Sheahan of An Garda Síochána, who discussed enforcement of drug driving in Ireland. Figures unveiled at the lecture show that drug driving is a major problem on Ireland’s roads, with 68% of drivers with a positive roadside drug test between April 2017 and July 2019 showing a positive test for cannabis. Some 37% of roadside tests revealed a positive test for cocaine. The Medical Bureau of
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Road Safety (MBRS) findings also demonstrate that cannabis is now not far behind alcohol in blood and urine samples it examined. Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Mr. Shane Ross said: “Driving under the influence of drugs has been a statutory offence since 1961 but it wasn’t until 2017, with the introduction of Preliminary Drug Testing, that we had a drug testing device capable of testing for the presence of drugs in drivers at the roadside and in the Garda station. It’s clear that its introduction has resulted in an increase in drug driving detections, but the results presented today show that a continued enforcement and education effort is required to tackle this killer behaviour.” Moyagh Murdock, Chief Executive of the RSA said: “The analysis of blood and urine samples sent to the MBRS by the Gardaí and presented today, and the analysis of toxicology reports of driver and motorcyclist fatalities, are starting to give us a clearer understanding of the prevalence of drug driving in Ireland. And it’s concerning, because they confirm that drug driving is a major problem on our roads. We will continue to educate drivers on the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs and work closely with the Gardai to support their enforcement activity. But we will do more to examine the factors around drug driving and examine international best practice to find interventions that can be applied here to tackle drug driving. Today is an important step in this direction.” Wednesday, 9 October, was Tyre Safety Day, with ITIA members promoting information on tyre quality and inviting all motorists to call in for a free tyre pressure check and thread depth inspection during the week. RSA CEO Moyagh Murdock said: “Your tyres are the only point
of contact between your car, van, or SUV and the road, and yet their importance to a vehicle’s safety and fuel economy is often overlooked. RSA research shows that there is no component in your vehicle that is as likely to contribute to a crash as your tyres. It was found that tyres were a contributory factor in an average of 14 road deaths per year.” She added: “Each month 8,500 vehicles are classified as being dangerously defective for ‘Tyre Tread’ and ‘Tyre Condition’ across the NCT and CVRT testing systems. Driving on dangerous or under-inflated tyres puts your life and the lives of other road users at risk so don’t wait until your NCT comes around to check the health of your tyres, get to an ITIA dealer this week.”
The same day, a free seminar for employers on Driving for Work was hosted by the HSA, RSA and An Garda Síochána in the Clayton Hotel Galway and then the next day at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Blanchardstown.
CHILD SAFETY Child Safety Day took place on Friday, 11 October, incorporating the Beep Beep Day and Check It Fits campaigns. The Day focused on educating our most vulnerable road users on the importance of their safety on the roads, whether walking, cycling or as passengers in cars or buses. Beep Beep Day took place in creches and Montessori schools nationwide, with the RSA distributing high-vis vests to pre-school services and provider sin advance of the day.
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continues throughout the year to ensure Irish road safety improves year on year. The rise in fatalities again this year is therefore a concern, which Ms Murdock spoke about in the lead up to Road Safety Week. “Clearly, the progress we have made in road safety over the last two years is at risk of stalling,” she said. “The vast majority of deaths and injuries on our roads are preventable. If we want to prevent any more tragedies on our roads, we need to focus our attention on where the greatest risk is. We want to see more targeted enforcement by An Garda Síochána at weekends if we are to reverse this worrying increase in 2019. The RSA are going to be focusing on enforcement activities in the commercial vehicle sector. We have also reduced Driving Test waiting times to their lowest ever, so there is no excuse for people to be relying long term on a learner permit. I am calling on these drivers to take professional lessons, which will prepare them for the test and make them better drivers.”
TYRE SAFETY
Ms Murdock said of the campaign: “It is imperative that we do everything we can to protect our children on the roads. Irish Road Safety Week aims to involve and educate everyone, young and old. We encourage parents and teachers to educate their children on the importance of being vigilant and being seen on our roads. Initiatives like Beep Beep Day and StreetSmart help our pre-primary and primary school children to learn safe behaviour when out walking and cycling. Our Seatbelt Sheriff and Hi Glo Silver poster competitions, as well as the Safe Cross Code dance competition, assist our educators in making the learning of the rules of the road and the safety required on the road fun for our youngsters.”
The 16th annual ‘Seatbelt Sheriff’ and ‘Hi-Glo Silver’ competitions also opened for entries, for children in first and second class in primary school. The competition encouraged children to get involved in saving lives on the road by teaching them the importance of buckling up and wearing high visibility clothing. Check It Fits - the RSA’s Free child car seat checking service – celebrated child safety day with parents and guardians having their child car seats checked and fitted in Toyota, Long Mile Road, Dublin 12 from 10am-5.30pm.
ONGOING WORK While the week-long campaign brings road safety to the forefront of the public’s mind, the work of the RSA
As mentioned by Ms Murdock of the RSA, a vehicle’s tyres are an essential part of road safety, and the ITIA was heavily involved in Road Safety Week, particularly when it came to Tyre Safety Day. “We are the representative body for all aspects of the tyre industry in Ireland, including manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, retailers, recyclers and equipment suppliers to the industry, so it covers the whole gamut,” says CEO Sue O’Neill. “We raise the profile of the industry and actively promote the members we have to be committed to be best in industry standards. We also promote to the public the importance of tyre safety and the value of dealing with industry experts. We also act as the body for prioritising industry concerns to Government and the relevant stakeholders – the RSA, HSA, An Garda Siochana – and provide any expertise we can
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to those organisations with a view towards improving tyre and therefore road safety.” The organisation underlines the need to have good quality tyres on every vehicle, with CEO O’Neill saying: “When you are buying tyres, you have to make sure that you are dealing with a proper, licensed premises and a proper expert. When you are buying tyres, you have to have the right ones for your car, because there are different tyres for different types of car or vehicle, and they need to be suitable. You have also got to make sure that you are buying tyres with the proper EU label on it telling you about fuel efficiency and grip, etc. If the tyre is not correctly marked with this, it is not legal. You also need to know about thread depth, and make sure you have the right thread depth on your tyres. The minimum legal thread depth is 1.6 millimetres.” Apart from the importance of having the right tyres fitted by an expert, buying good quality tyres also makes sound financial sense, which is something Sue is keen to emphasise. “People tend to buy second hand cars and look at buying second hand tyres, but you can get a false economy doing that,” she says. “For example, if you buy a second hand tyre that costs you €30 and it has a thread depth of 3.6mm, it only has 2 mms of thread before it gets to the legal limit. That works out at about €15 per mm of thread, whereas a new tyre will have 8mm, which leaves you with 6.4mm of use before they go down to the minimum depth. So that works out at €12.50 per mm. So, it’s an economical reason to choose new tyres, as well as a safety one.
TYRE PRESSURE “You must also make sure that your tyres are at the right pressure, that they are inflated properly, and again you need an expert to be doing that,” she adds. “The same goes for wheel alignment, you’ve got to be balanced, and that will mean that your tyres will last longer.”
In order to ensure there are enough tyre experts available to meet the demand the tyre industry wants, the ITIA provide training to its members so that they are all trained as tyre technicians. “Our training programme is the first of its kind, because it is dedicated to creating a career path within our industry, giving the skills of a tyre technician, ensuring that they are competent. With the advancements of new technologies, it is really critical that those people are experts – you’ve got tyre pressure monitoring systems in cars, wheel alignment. Look at electric vehicles – people need to know how to fit tyres to these vehicles because there are new technologies that might sit in the way of the tyre. Again, what we are all about is making sure that the people fitting tyres are highly trained.”
TYRE CHECKS Involvement throughout Road Safety Week was important for the ITIA. “Although Tyre Safety Day was just one day, we really had a campaign running throughout the week in which we partnered with the RSA and An Garda Síochána to carry out roadside checks specifically for tyres,” Sue tells me. “Gardaí were pulling people over and checking for tyres, but also giving them awareness of what they need to do to check their tyres are safe, with RSA experts and our experts handing out information leaflets, so it was an educational piece. We backed that up with some media appearances, getting home that important message of checking your tyres. “It was very successful – we actually saw a 30% increase that week in people calling us looking for their nearest ITIA member, and how they can get their tyres checked. We had a social media campaign running as well, and received more than 300 likes on our Facebook page. We ran a competition offering €150 towards a driver’s next set of tyres, and we got more than 2000 engagements on that. We really got the message out and between ourselves, the RSA and An
Garda Síochána, it had a great effect.” That solid work during Road Safety Week, and throughout the year, is starting to have a positive effect, according to Sue. “I think people are becoming more and more aware of the importance of tyre safety,” she says. “Unfortunately, defective tyres are a contributory factor to approximately 14 deaths per year, and that is a huge number, and it is something that is so easy to check. It’s an important message that we really need to get out there, and I must say An Garda Síochána are great at getting that message out there as well. They have started to take photos of tyres they are pulling people over for, and there is nothing more powerful than an image like that. “We don’t just do a campaign for one week, we do it all year round, and we have a very good relationship with the RSA and An Garda Síochána. All of us have safety at the forefront in our minds, and I think we have been able to get the message across.” That year-round initiative includes all ITIA members offering free tyre checks. “Anybody can pop in and our members will do a free tyre check for them, any time,” says Sue. “An expert will also show you how to check your tyres properly. Everybody should be checking their tyres once a month, and these experts can show you how to do it yourself to make sure they are safe. Checking your thread depth, pressure, etc. It doesn’t take long to do it, once somebody shows you. You can check your thread depth with a €1 coin, but until someone shows you how to do it, it is not easy. So, a visit to one of our members will help you know how to make sure your tyres are safe, and that will help you to stay safe on the roads.”
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BERLIN e c a l p e h t e b must
With a long-standing reputation for being a cultural and creative hub, Berlin has plenty to offer to both business travellers and tourists, writes Andrew Jennings.
W
e all love a good ranking. Whether it is Top 10s, Top 50s or Top 100s, they often tend to garner both interest and debate in equal measure. One puzzling oddity in the annual ranking of ‘Europe’s Top Most Visited Cities’ is that the German capital Berlin can never squeeze into the top ten, while in Euromonitor International’s ‘Top 100 City Destinations 2018’ report, it only ranked the 36th most visited city globally. It is head-scratching stuff for anybody who has spent any time in Germany’s largest and most diverse city.
Berlin, at some point, became synonymous with the word “cool”. A special kind of cool. Something very, well. Berlin. It’s hard to put your finger on it but Berlin just has its very own style and flair, not surprising given the city’s long tradition of being a creative and capital hub. The locals in Berlin do like to remind the world that the city was once a cultural hotspot and a liberal, free city in the 1920s, before history took over. Berlin today is the type of Bohemian capital that once made many artists, philosophers and writers famous. Regular visitors for either business or pleasure will undoubtedly struggle with words
GETTING THERE
BY AIR: Ryanair and Aer Lingus both direct from Dublin to Schönefeld. From there it is a quick cab ride or S-Bahn to the city centre.
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WHERE TO MEET...
Hotel am Steinplatz It’s in the chic Charlottenburg district, so it’s very easy to get around to meetings in the city centre and it’s just a couple of kms from the ICC Exhibition Grounds. Its meeting/conference facilities are superb, with two large event rooms and a number of smaller meeting rooms. hotelsteinplatz.com
EAT... Facil
Located at Potsdamer Straße 3, this fine-dining eatery has just the right ingredients for an important business dinner or lunch. It has two Michelin stars and is set within the most amazing oasis right in the heart of the city. facil.de/en/
SLEEP...
The Ritz-Carlton
when trying to explain why they love this city of 3.5 million people so much. The most refreshing thing about Berlin for the business traveller, beside its great hotels and outstanding meeting/ conference facilities dotted throughout, is that when it’s pens down that very cool, creative undercurrent can make a work trip seem just that little more like play. Though the city is alluring throughout the year, there’s something particularly sublime about an autumn visit, all the cosy bar banquettes, the golden light and the locals’ penchant for oversized outerwear, while in winter during those long dark nights there’s one thing that just about everyone looks forward to in Berlin: Christmas markets. So with such a long list of things to see and do, where do you start?
If you’re organising large events, this five-star hotel is exemplary – with the opulent Grand Ballroom sure to impress delegates. But even for regular business travellers, the luxurious surrounds and superb amenities make it a popular choice. ritzcarlton.com/en
SEE...
Brandenburg Gate The most iconic landmark of the city. While you’re ogling the magnificent architecture of the gate, however, don’t forget to take in the elegant Pariser Platz as well. visitberlin.de/en/ brandenburg-gate
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KNOW before you go
BIKING Berlin is famous for its broad and safe cycle lanes. There are dozens of great cycling tours that you can take advantage of and take a spin. A great way to see the city.
Museuminsel Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe
PARKS
TRANSPORT Berlin's public transportation system is world-renowned and is the best way to travel this sprawling German city. Ride the UBahn, SBahn, trams, buses or even catch a ferry.
FESTIVALS Berlin is famous for its hosting of international music, art, culture, food festivals all year round. Check local listings before you go or when you arrive. Karneval der Kulturen (2-5 June) is one the bigger street festivals.
CHRISTMAS MARKET Gendarmenmarkt For a bit of the traditional in a beautiful setting, especially at night as the Konzerthaus (Concert Hall) and nearby churches and buildings are lit up. Gift stands tend to be handicraft-oriented or luxury-focused.
Berlin is one of the greenest (and most cyclefriendly) cities in Europe, thanks in part to the serious square footage of Tempelhof Feld. Set on the site of a former Nazi airport, this park is lined with pathways ideal for an afternoon stroll or a more ambitious bike ride. If it’s late autumn foliage you’re after, Tiergarten is one of the city’s most elegant options. On the weekends you can hunt for vintage finds at Berliner Trödelmarkt, the oldest flea market in Berlin, or head to one of Berlin’s buzzing farmer’s markets. Winterfeldt Markt in Schöneberg is one of the best, with fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers and lots of snacks. Use a cloudy day to dig into Berlin’s art scene. Berlin’s art scene isn’t just about cutting edge art – it’s also about unexpected gallery spaces.
CULTURE Berlin is a world leader when it comes to culture. It has an annual cultural budget of almost €1 bn per year. Some of Europe’s finest museums are clustered on the Unescolisted Museum Island in central Berlin, all within easy walking distance so you don’t even need to use the excellent public transport system. The interesting thing about Berlin is how the past keeps sticking out of its eclectic mix of architectural styles. The soaring Fernsehturm – the television tower – in Alexanderplatz recalls East Berlin’s modernist aspirations. Berlin is a city where nothing stands still for long, and, over the last few years, the city has become a magnet for a new breed of young, contemporary artists, whose influence has
Hackesche Höfe
been felt nationwide. The Hamburger train station, a monument to industry, has been converted into the Museum für Gegenwart, a temple of modern art. At the same time, Berlin’s Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg have become home to a modern gallery scene which often provokes international interest. The numbers are mightily impressive: Berlin has three opera houses, over 1,500 theatres and stages, more than 175 museums and collections, roughly 300 galleries, in excess of 250 public libraries, 130 cinemas and a multitude of other cultural possibilities. Meanwhile, Berlin’s nightlife scene is legendary, and for good reason: never-ending nightclubs and anything-goes attitude. There’s a very good spread of establishments, from oldschool corner pubs (kneipen) and smart wine bars to grungy indie bars and live gig venues. Although difficult to choose, the best areas for nightlife are still Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg, not to mention sprawling Kreuzberg. Friedrichshain is popular too. All of these districts are in the eastern part of the city. There you will find countless small and hip nightclubs.
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what’s on your
You’re not alone when it ComeS to CopinG www.turn2me.org
Forums, Group Support, 1to1 Counselling, iphone enabled
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MOTORING
greener A
APPROACH
Electric mobility, smart mobility and digital transformation are the key strategic issues for the future at Volkswagen as it initiates a system changeover to e-mobility with the production of the ID.3.
V
olkswagen’s electric offensive is picking up speed as the company recently launched the start of series production of the ID.3. The first car in the new generation of electric vehicles (EVs) rolled off the assembly line watched by Federal Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel and Group CEO Dr Herbert Diess. The Volkswagen Group plans to sell some 22 million EVs worldwide by 2028, thus helping EVs make the breakthrough. The company’s Zwickau facility has a key role to play in this endeavour: for the first time, a large car manufacturing plant is being entirely converted to e-mobility, with investments running at €1.2bn and Zwickau is already scheduled to produce some 100,000 electric models next year. From 2021, up to 330,000 EVs will leave the assembly line each year, making the site the largest EV factory in Europe and a trailblazer in the transformation of Volkswagen’s global production network. “The ID.3 will make an important contribution to the breakthrough of e-mobility. It makes clean individual mobility accessible to millions of people and is a milestone for
ID.3 MEB chassis
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MOTORING
Protection climate project on the Indonesian island of Borneo. With the phased transformation of the Zwickau factory, Volkswagen is fully converting a large car manufacturing plant to e-mobility for the first time. Serious financial clout is behind the conversion. In the final expansion stage from 2021, six MEB models from three Group brands will be built in Zwickau. Qualification measures are preparing all 8,000 employees for EV production and working with high-voltage technology. In total, the Zwickau team will have completed some 13,000 training days by the end of 2020, thus ensuring future-proof jobs at the Zwickau plant. “The ID.3 is a high-tech car from a high-tech factory. With some 1,700 robots, driverless transport systems and fully-automated manufacturing processes, Zwickau gives a contemporary insight into the shape of forward-looking highvolume production of EVs,” Thomas Ulbrich, Volkswagen Brand Board Member for E-Mobility, commented. “Ultimately, though, it is the people who build the cars who are the key to success: Our team in Saxony mastered the two-
Ceremony with Federal Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel
our company on the road to becoming climate-neutral by 2050,” Group CEO Herbert Diess said at the ceremony in Zwickau.
CARBON-NEUTRAL The ID.3 is based on Volkswagen’s Modular Electric Drive Toolkit (MEB). This is an all- electric platform that leverages to the full the opportunities offered by e-mobility. Consequently, the ID.3 has a long range, a very spacious interior and dynamic vehicle handling. The basic version is priced at under €30,000 in Germany. The ID.3 will be launched almost simultaneously on markets throughout Europe in 2020. Over 35,000 international customers have already reserved an ID.3 and paid a pre-booking deposit. The ID.3 aims to set new benchmarks in sustainability. Production is carbon-neutral, which means the car is delivered to customers with a carbon-neutral footprint. Green power is exclusively used in energy-intensive battery cell production for the ID.3, for example. Emissions from the entire production process that are currently unavoidable are offset, among other things through investments in the Katingan Mataya Forest
year conversion phase culminating in today’s SOP with much know-how and dedication.”
A STRONG CLUSTER With its resolute entry into e-mobility, Volkswagen is hoping to make an important contribution to climate protection and thereby creating long-term perspectives for employees at its plants. “Germany must drive the change and achieve proficiency throughout the e-mobility value chain. That is why we are producing EVs and have at the same time taken the decision to develop and manufacture electric motors, as well as battery cells and systems. A strong cluster for EVs will emerge in the coming years,” Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess said. Apart from manufacturing at the Zwickau factory, the Components plants in Brunswick, Kassel, Salzgitter and Wolfsburg are also involved in ID.3 production. They manufacture key components such as the electric motors or the battery systems. The car manufacturing plants in Emden and Hanover are scheduled to begin building EVs from 2022. Moreover, the Group is also cooperating with Northvolt to set up a major battery cell factory in Salzgitter.
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MOTORING
Sportback
TO THE
FUTURE A The new Audi Sportback has hit the Irish market. Here’s all you need to know about the German automobile manufacturer’s latest release.
t the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Audi presented the RS 7 Sportback as a wide bodied five-seater for the first time, and also showcased the performance and efficiency delivered by a mild hybrid system. The new Audi RS 7 Sportback sits low to the ground. The flared wheel arches emphasise the relentlessly sporty nature of the high-performance model from Audi Sport. The new RS 7 Sportback shares the coupé-like lines of the base model’s body, but only in four areas: the hood, the roof, the front doors and the tailgate. The RS-specific exterior design gives the grand tourer a character all of its own. The front of the new RS 7 Sportback features a broad, flat single-frame with no contrasting border. The radiator protective grille with its RS-specific threedimensional honeycomb structure has retained its gloss black appearance. Large front air inlets and vertical fins in gloss black add to the aggressive styling, while a horizontal blade marks a distinctive downward edge to the front end.
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AUDI RS 7 SPORTBACK
MOTORING
The rear end’s curved trailing edge and strip of lights linking the main rear lights make it one of the characteristic defining features of the RS 7 Sportback. The RS exhaust system, with a large, chrome-coloured oval tailpipe on each side, sits beneath an RS-specific bumper with a rear diffuser and design elements in gloss black and it also comes with LED headlights fitted as standard. The Sportback will sprint from zero to 100km/h in only 3.6 seconds and the top speed is electronically limited to 250km/h. The four-litre engine produces a full-bodied and sporty V8 sound and the Audi drive select dynamic handling system allows adjustments to the loud growl of the power unit. The power produced via the standard eight-speed tiptronic transmission with optimised shift times and a new launch control function to the quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. Drive forces are distributed to the front and rear axles in a 40:60 ratio via the purely mechanical centre differential. If one wheel slips, more drive torque automatically goes to the axle with the better traction. Up to 70% can flow to the front wheels and up to 85% to the back wheels.
AGILITY AS STANDARD Five-link front and rear axles handle the lateral and longitudinal forces independently on the new RS 7 Sportback, while the air suspension can be set to three modes and includes automatic level control. In the normal position, the body of the new RS 7 Sportback sits 20mm lower than an Audi A7 Sportback with standard suspension. At speeds
• Top speed: 250km/h • Engine: The 4.0 TFSI • CO2 emissions: 265 – 261 g/km • 0 - 100km/h 3.6 seconds
above 120km/h, it will drop by a further 10mm and offer a lift mode enabling the vehicle to be raised by 20mm if requested. A driver can determine the character of an RS 7 Sportback using the Audi drive select dynamic handling system. There are six profiles available: comfort, auto, dynamic, efficiency and the customisable RS-specific RS1 and RS2 modes, which can be enabled directly via an RS Mode button on the steering wheel. A stripped-down look with sporty accents are the key stylistic elements in the interior of the new Audi RS 7 Sportback. Much like the exterior design, the design language combines taut, sinewy surfaces with clearly defined contours. There is plenty of space for the driver and passenger, with the architecture of the interior accomplishing a seamless transition to the futuristic user interface. Special RS displays use the Audi virtual cockpit to provide details of tire pressure, torque, performance, oil temperature, boost pressure, lap times, acceleration, and g-forces. The shift light display prompts the driver to upshift when the rev limit is reached. The RS7 Sportback is available at dealerships in Ireland now.
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOKSHELF THE PEELER’S NOTEBOOK, POLICING VICTORIAN DUBLIN:
Mad Dogs, Duels and Dynamite By Barry Kennerk
ALL IN
By Jamie Heaslip with Matt Cooper
V
ictorian Dublin was as unsettling and dangerous a place as the London of that era, with violent tenement mobs, garrotte-wielding thieves and Fenian rebels lurking in the ever-present fog. For the Metropolitan Police, or “Peelers”, established in 1836, keeping the citizens of the second largest city in the British Empire was at times a thankless task. Under the instruction of Robert Peel, who had established the Metropolitan Police in London, this new force replaced the outdated Dublin Charleys, who operated a sort of night watch on the streets. Their duties were varied and dangerous, from catching rabid dogs to dealing with duels on Bull Island, and from catching grave robbers to cracking down on the countless brothels littered across the city. Drawing on archival sources, newspapers and first-hand accounts from policemen, street traders and residents of the inner city, author Barry Kennerk introduces us to this murky underworld to reveal the very real dangers and challenges of being a policeman in this era – being attacked by mobs when attempting arrests, sleeping in their uniforms in preparation for emergencies, and dealing with unruly but privileged students from Trinity and other wealthy young men - but he also paints a vivid and compelling picture of Dublin’s streets and its memorable characters. Through fascinating snippets of history, this book tells a range of strange tales, including how 400 policemen petitioned to defy orders and keep their beards when new rules required shaving them off, and of a morbid scam run by a doctor and coroner involving dressing corpses in another person’s clothes and throwing them into the canal so that upon their recovery, they could collect the subsequent post-mortem fees twice. Sometimes gruesome, sometimes funny, but always interesting, this miscellany of tales and anecdotes brings the past to life, and is a must-read for anybody interested in the history of Dublin city, and the weird and wonderful people who have lived in it.
For rugby fans of a certain vintage, Jamie Heaslip will always be remembered as Leinster and Ireland’s No.8. With more than 230 appearances for Leinster, 95 caps for Ireland and two Lions tours under his belt, he has seen it all, and in this enjoyable autobiography, he shares his stories of life in a golden age for Irish rugby. Ably assisted by Matt Cooper, who pulls the strands of Heaslip’s life story together, this is a book full of humorous anecdotes and inspirational lessons, combining the sporting characters we may be familiar with, and some details we may not have known before.
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BOOK REVIEW
THE TESTAMENTS
By Margaret Atwood With The Handmaid’s Tale first published in 1985, and with the recent TV adaptation fuelling huge interest, the follow-up from Margaret Atwood has been hotly anticipated ever since the author announced it was in the works. Taking place 15 years after the events of that first novel, this sequel doesn’t disappoint. This time, the story is shared among three very different voices – the privileged daughter of a Commander, a young Canadian resistance supporter, and Aunt Lydia, the iconic matron who oversees the Handmaids’ training. The return of Aunt Lydia will appeal to fans of this cruel yet strangely likeable character, particularly as she is given an illuminating backstory, and while the prose is less literary than expected from a Booker prize-nominated work, the story is gripping throughout.It would have been very easy for the author to draw strong parallels with current affairs, but the novel’s strength lies in its subtlety and the drip-feed of information that keeps the reader on their toes.
BOULEVARD WREN AND OTHER STORIES
By Blindboy Boatclub
Satirist, comedian, podcast presenter, musician, author: It’s safe to say that Blindboy Boatclub, one half of the Rubberbandits, is a man of many talents. This second collection of short stories picks up where his bestselling The Gospel According to Blindboy left off, offering us a glimpse into his surreal mind. The stories range from Famine times to the present day, and while each is very different, with some based in the very real and others in absurdity, they are all laced with a heady mix of humour, sadness, social commentary and his own distinctive insights into the Irish psyche, our culture and our history.
THATCHER’S SPY:
My Life as an MI5 Agent Inside Sinn Féin, By Willie Carlin
Derry-born Willie Carlin, AKA Agent 3007, was recruited by MI5 in 1974 to infiltrate Sinn Féin. Over the next 11 years, he became one of Britain’s most valuable agents in Northern Ireland, forming close relationships with Martin McGuiness and Mitchel McLaughlin to give the British State unprecedented insight into IRA strategy. Fraught with obvious danger, Carlin’s life story is fascinating and frightening, from his initial infiltration, through his growing commitment to republicanism when he withheld information from his handlers, right up to when his cover was blown in 1985 and had to be extracted by Margaret Thatcher’s private jet. With the author now never safe, it is brave of him to tell his story, and any fan of Northern Irish history, or espionage in general, will enjoy this book.
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