Firecall Spring 2023

THE BIG DAY

A Great St Patrick’s Day +

THE DECADE OF CENTENARIES

A PERSONAL REVIEW

BRINGING HISTORY TO LIFE

THE DFB ARCHIVE PROJECT

DUBLIN FIRE RESCUE EMERGENCY AMBULANCE SERVICE

DUBLIN FIRE RESCUE EMERGENCY AMBULANCE SERVICE

PROTECTING THE CITY AND COUNTY SINCE 1862

Protecting The City & County Since 1862

EDITOR LETTER FROM THE

Editor: Adam Hyland

Consulting Editor: Dan Fynes

Contributors:

Dan Fynes, Las Fallon, John McNally, Tony McCann, Paul McCann, Ger Ryan

Designer: Neasa Daly

Cover Credit: DFB

Photography: Dublin Fire Brigade, Dublin City Council, Ray McMonagle, Trevor Hunt, John McNally, Las Fallon, Adam Hyland, Tony McCann, Paul McCann, A Watch Kilbarrack, Alan Sexton, Darren Donovan, Stephen O’Reilly, Vintage, Granta, New Island Books, Four Courts Press, Radiocoms Systems Ltd, Abu Dhabi Civil Defence, Fire and Rescue New South Wales.

Sales Manager:

David Byrne

Production Executive:

Claire Kiernan

Publisher: Chesterfox Ltd, T/A Firecall Magazine, P.O. Box 6766, Dublin 2. Tel: (01) 432 2200; Fax: (01) 6727100

Managing Director: Gerry Tynan

Chairman:

Diarmaid Lennon

Distribution by: Magazine Mailing

Ashville Media Group

Unit 55, Park West Road, Park West, Dublin 12 Tel: (01) 432 2200 Fax: (01) 676 6043

Publisher’s Statement:

The information in Firecall is carefully researched and believed to be accurate and authoritative, but neither the Dublin Fire Brigade Sports & Social Club nor the publisher can accept responsibility for any errors or omissions. Statements and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Editor or of the publisher.

Copyright ©2023

Firecall Magazine

No part of this may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher.

Dear readers,

Welcome to the latest issue of Firecall.

The last few months have been a time of change in the DFBSSC, but Firecall continues as always in striving to bring you interesting features, recaps of recent events, and regular contributions that I hope you enjoy.

The work being done by FF/P Darren Donovan to archive and digitalise photographs from DFB past and present is a great endeavour, and it was fascinating to hear about his e orts and his plans in what is a highly-recommended read.

Also of great interest is Las Fallon’s personal review of the ‘Decade of Centenaries’ in which he looks back at an important part of not just Irish history, but his own journey as a historian, researcher and author. Las has been a regular contributor to this magazine and we are in debt to him for his excellent work.

It is great to also have regular contributions from the DFB Pipe Band and the Retired Members Association, while the most recent retirement party is also covered. Many thanks for the contributions!

It was also great to talk to D/O EMS Training Paul Lambert and RCSI Programme Manager Patricia Fitzpatrick about the very successful partnership between DFB and the RCSI, and to hear from Captain Jason Smith of Montgomery County Fire Service as part of our international profile.

Thanks must also go to A Watch Kilbarrack, who welcomed me for the station profile, particularly S/O Gilbert and FF/P Brennan, and it was fascinating to hear how their station redevelopment is pointing the way forward for fire stations across Ireland and the world.

Also in this issue, I spoke to A/C/F/O Greg O’Dwyer about the recent ERCC recruitment campaign, FF/P Alan Sexton about his charity climb of Mount Kilimanjaro, and FF/P Stephen O’Reilly about the DFB trip to Boston. All are very much worth the read.

On a personal note, I’d like to thank D Watch North Strand for allowing myself and family to visit recently. Thanks to S/O Derek Rooney for setting it up, to S/O Graham Parkes, O icer Ger Cummins for letting us in, to Gary Dawson for showing us around, and to Derek Singleton for letting the boys loose on the hose.

St Patrick’s Day is always a major event in the DFB calendar and it was great to hear Dan Fynes’ account of the day. On the subject of Dan, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for all the fantastic work he has done in producing the magazine with me. It was a pleasure to work with him and I wish him all the best as he steps down as DFBSSC Secretary. I look forward to working with Ger Ryan on future issues.

As always, I would encourage anybody who wants to talk about any upcoming endeavours, or who has an idea for a story, to get in touch. This is your magazine. I hope you enjoy the read,

Adam Hyland

THE DECADE OF CENTENARIES

A Personal Review by Las Fallon

HONORARY SECRETARY’S

FOREWORD

Welcome readers to our spring 2023 issue of Firecall. There has been a lot going on within DFBSSC lately, not least of which is the formation of a new Committee for the coming year, and I’m confident that they will continue to provide excellent support to all members over the next 12 months.

St Patrick’s Day was once again a brilliant event, with the days before and after filled with a huge amount of activities for both DFB members and our visiting guests from around the world. Huge thanks must go to all who helped to make it so memorable.

I must also express my thanks to one of those visitors, Captain James Smith, of Montgomery County, Maryland, Fire Service, for making himself available for our international station profile. It was a pleasure to meet him, and the feature is well worth the read.

Las Fallon has been a regular contributor of excellent features for many years and I must thank him for his work. Thanks also to John McNally and Tony McCann for their regular contributions,, and to Paul McCann for recapping the most recent Retired Members Party, which was a great night for everyone in attendance.

This issue features some very worthwhile endeavours by DFB members, and congratulations must go to Alan Sexton for his epic climb on Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for a very worthwhile cause, while Darren Donovan’s project to collect, archive and digitalise photos for DFB records and exhibitions is a major work that deserves a huge amount of both support and applause.

I urge any member who may have photos from their time in DFB that they think might be of interest, or who have information about photos Darren needs context for, to get in touch with him. Ours is a shared history, so let us help gather and tell it together.

The partnership between DFB and RCSI is now 20 years strong, and it is very interesting to hear from both D/O EMS Training Paul Lambert and the RCSI’s Patricia Fitzpatrick about each organisation’s views on the relationship and how it has gone from strength to strength.

Before I sign o , I would like to wish Ger Ryan the best of luck as he takes over the Consultant Editor role. I would like to thank Adam Hyland for his continued hard work in producing a great magazine, and all his help to me over the years.

I would also like to thank CFO Dennis Keeley and ACFO Greg O’Dwyer for their continued support throughout my tenure. Thanks to Declan Rice and Simon Finglas, it’s been a challenging and enjoyable time working on the Executive Committee with you both.

And lastly, the role of Secretary of the DFBSSC requires a lot of commitment, and is only possible with a strong support network around you, from the Committee to the Station you’re in, and most importantly at home. Thanks to Maria and the kids for their patience and understanding that provided me with the time to fulfil my obligations under the role.

Thanks to all who contributed, or who took the time to be interviewed. Enjoy the read.

Dan Fynes

If you haven’t already done so, please order your new ID card by emailing idcards@dfbssc.ie with an attached headshot (on a neutral background), your name, pay number, station, watch and location.

We are trying very hard to make sure that all DFBSSC members receive their copy of Firecall. Anybody who is not receiving theirs should email the editor Adam Hyland with their address: adam.hyland@ashvillemediagroup.com

DAN FYNES

SPORTS AND SOCIAL CLUB UPDATE

WE TAKE A LOOK AT RECENT AND UPCOMING EVENTS FOR MEMBERS OF THE DUBLIN FIRE BRIGADE SPORTS AND SOCIAL CLUB (DFBSSC)

Iwould like to start by thanking all the committee members who have decided to step aside this coming year. A special thanks goes to Declan Rice and Dan Fynes who, a er serving as Chairperson and Secretary of the club for the last ve and eight years respectively, and many more years before that on the committee as reps. is year, Dublin Fire Brigade celebrates 125 years of operating our emergency ambulance service. We hope to mark this signi cant milestone with events during the year.

NEW COMMITTEE

For the rst time in many years, we had more people looking to become reps on the committee than we had spots. is is a re ection on how the club has gone from strength to strength over the last number of years. Our club membership is now at nearly 800 members.

COMMUNICATION

Over the last few years, we have been trying to improve how we get updates and news out to our members. We have had good success with our social media pages. Your station reps have been updating the station WhatsApp groups. If you’re not in one and want to be added, contact your station rep. Now with every re ghter being provided with their own personal work email, we will start to use this channel as well to spread our news and club updates.

JOIN IN

PRIZES

We continue to have our monthly prize draws take place, with each winner receiving a €100 Press-up group voucher. e social media giveaways have been a great success. We have expanded our prize selections recently by adding FAI premium level tickets to Ireland’s home games this year, adding to GAA, 3 Arena concerts and much more. If you’re not on social media, but want a chance to win, have a family member join one of the pages on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, and send us a message telling us who they are.

EVENTS

A er the success of the cinema day last year in the Savoy, we organised another day during the Easter midterm break. is event will hopefully become a regular one on our calendar bi-annually. Other events to note for the diary that are provisionally booked in are:

Summer Social Nights: May 11, 18, 25 and June 1.

Summer Family Day: September 3 (B watch)

Winter Social Nights: October 12, 19, 26 and Nov 2.

Cinema day: First week in November (Date TBC)

Children’s Christmas Party: December 10 (D watch)

If any DFBSSC members have suggestions on other events to help improve our club, please contact your rep and they can be discussed at our committee meetings.  Incoming Secretary, Ger Ryan

If you aren’t on your Station Sports and Social Club WhatsApp group and would like to be, please contact your station rep, or if you aren’t following us on social media, please feel free to do so also.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DubFireBrigade

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dubfirebrigade @DubFireBrigade

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dubfirebrigade @dubfirebrigade

MONTHLY DRAW WINNERS

January:

J Rogers B1

R O’Doherty B1

P McGurrell D13

N Slevin A7

B Loughran DHQ

February:

M O’Reilly D3

T Tilley C6

C Morris AHQ

J Regan CHQ

K Young Skerries

March:

S O’Brien AHQ

A McNally A6

J Lee A8

C Roche C4

M Redmond A2

DFB SPORTS AND SOCIAL CLUB COMMITTEE 2023

STATION REPRESENTATIVES

Aidan Leavy

Aidan O’Sullivan Phibsboro

Alec Gri in North Strand

Brian Kelly HQ B Watch

Brian Tracey Rathfarnham

Darren Donnelly Dolphin’s Barn

Deirdre Berry ERCC

Gemma Kiernan Donnybrook

Glenn Fitzgerald Retained

Joe Moran Kilbarrack

John Connolly Dolphin’s Barn

Jonathan Regan HQ C Watch

Keith Mason Tallaght

Kevin Conlon Finglas

Mark Ryan Dun Laoghaire

CLUB COMMITTEE

CHAIR Paul McCann

TREASURER Simon Finglas

HONORARY SECRETARY Ger Ryan

TRUSTEES

TRUSTEE Dave Snee

TRUSTEE

Tony Devoy

TRUSTEE Willie O’Leary

Mick Ratchford North Strand

Neil Quinn Blanchardstown

Ray Campion ERCC

Richard McDonald Logistics

Richard Sutton Donnybrook

Sean MacDomhnaill Dun Laoghaire

Siobhan Talbot HQ D Watch

Stephen Breen Swords

Stephen O’Neill HQ A Watch

Stephen Weldon Training Centre

Tom O’Reilly Tallaght

DFB IN BRIEF

A recap of Dublin Fire Brigade news and events over the spring months

ABOVE: Dolphin’s Barn played host to RTC Ongar as part of a series of fire prevention talks and station visits BELOW: Colleagues and family gathered at Donnybrook fire station to bid C Watch S/O Shane Somers farewell after 33 years of service

ABOVE: We said farewell to D/O Larry Byrne after 38 years of service in April. Joining us in 1985, Larry has been involved in every aspect of the profession

ABOVE: A busy week for the paramedic class with a visit to the RCSI SIM Centre, guest speakers from PHECC, and lectures on medical law and ethics

BELOW: Presenting a cheque for €15,000 to St Joseph’s School for the Visually Impaired in January following the hugely successful Daft Funk Brigade video fundraiser by C Watch North Strand

ABOVE: Sometimes the shortest ladder will do the job, as firefighters were able to assist two people in a city centre park after they became locked in after dark BELOW LEFT: DFB was part of a multi-agency response to a person in need of assistance at Poolbeg in February, working with Dublin Port, the RNLI and Gardaí

BELOW: Dealing with dozens of tyres on fire on waste ground in the Kinsealy area in January

ABOVE: A turntable ladder from Tara Street fire station secures a glass pane at Grand Canal Dock in April LEFT: Firefighters from Skerries, Balbriggan and Swords attend a fire in a recycling centre in January BELOW: We said farewell to Sub-O cer and cycling club member Derek Walsh in March after 38 years of service on A Watch Kilbarrack and then North Strand

ABOVE: One of the families who enjoyed our 2nd Cinema Day at the Savoy in April, where 370 people attended what was a great day of fun and film

LEFT: Colleagues and family were on hand in February to mark S/O Dave Lanigan’s final turnout at D Watch Donnybrook after 33 years of service RIGHT: We were saddened to hear of the passing of retired District O cer John Daly in January, and our thoughts are with John’s family, friends and colleagues

ABOVE: Firefighters from Finglas and Phibsboro fire stations respond to reports of a large fire near housing in February BELOW: Visiting the site of the new Children’s Hospital in February

BELOW: Attending a fire in a derelict building at the rear of Dundrum Main street in April

ABOVE: Donnybrook firefighters live up to the stereotype to rescue a cat in March LEFT: Colleagues of Sub-O cer Joe Scully from Skerries fire station give him a send-o after 36 years of service

RIGHT: One DFB member entering high expansion foam as part of a breathing apparatus course at the start of February RIGHT MIDDLE: Firefighter/paramedics from Rathfarnham fire station respond to a roll over road tra c collision on the Killakee Road near the Hellfire Club in January

ABOVE: A Donnybrook FF/P helps a duck and her o spring o a road

ABOVE: Congratulations to FF/APs Martin, Quigley, Delmer and O’Brien who graduated from the UCC MSc Specialist Paramedic programme in March

LEFT: It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of retired Firefighter John Hunt in March. Stationed on C Watch in Tara Street Fire Station, John was a trusted mentor to young Firefighters

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DubFireBrigade

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dubfirebrigade @DubFireBrigade

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dubfirebrigade @dubfirebrigade

ABOVE: D Watch Donnybrook found time between callouts to wish Firefighter/Paramedic Damien O’Neil a Happy Birthday in February

ABOVE: Firefighters from Rathfarnham Fire Station extinguish a car on fire on the M50 at the start of April

ABOVE: Firefighters from B Watch HQ celebrate Firefighter / Paramedic Alex Daly’s birthday at the end of March

In the last entry in our diary, I mentioned some of our members were going on a Spain, Gibraltar & Canary Islands Cruise from Monday, 21 November 2022, to Tuesday 29 November 2022. ey got a good deal from Cassidy Travel, which meant that all food and branded drinks for the duration of the cruise were included. Aidan Carroll and Bob Hedderman give us an overview of the trip.

On Monday 21 November, ying Aer Lingus from Dublin to Lisbon, our group boarded the Norwegian Sun cruise ship, which was scheduled to sail at 6pm that evening for Madeira.

We were at sea all day on Tuesday, and spent it relaxing, and on Wednesday morning, the ship arrived in Funchal, Madeira’s biggest town and home to legendary footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. Guests disembarked and went their separate ways, some taking the Monte Cable Car to visit the Botanical Gardens or the Monte Palace Tropical Garden, while others visited the Old Town to shop and view sights such as the Street Art of Rua da Santa Maria and the Farmer’s Market.

Our group headed back to the ship to discuss their day over drinks and prepared themselves to sit down to a fabulous dinner. To nish the day, people enjoyed a show in the theatre, relaxed and enjoyed a music session or karaoke in one of the lounges. Meanwhile the Norwegian Sun was quietly under way to the next port.

On ursday, we arrived at Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Our group dispersed to walk around and see the sights before returning to the ship for drinks before dinner. Following dinner, the group adjourned to the various pubs and entertainment centres on the ship, while the ship set out for the next port of call.

On Friday, we arrived at Santa Cruz de La Cruz, La Palma. Guests disembarked and went to explore this beautiful location, discovering the Plaza de Espana, the main square of the town famous for its Canarian architecture, the Church of El Salvador, the Naval Museum of Santa Cruz De La Palma, or to relax on the beautiful black sand beach at Playa de Santa Cruz.

at evening, our group dressed up and went to the various restaurants for dinner and the evening’s entertainment in the

THE RETIRED MEMBERS ASSOCIATION DIARY

It’s been a very busy few months for the DFB Retired Member’s Association, with great trips away, poignant ceremonies and a lot of fun had, writes Secretary Tony McCann

The group gets dressed up for dinner on the cruise

theatres, while the ship headed to Arrecife, Lanzarote.

Arriving at Arrecife on the Saturday morning, guests disembarked to visit the capital city of Lanzarote, and that evening, the ship headed for the next port of call, Gibraltar.

Sunday was spent at sea, so late breakfasts were enjoyed, religious services were attended, and used the gyms, swam and went for walks.

Monday morning saw the Norwegian Sun tying up at Gibraltar. ere were a variety of tours available, including a bus tour to the Rock of Gibraltar, e Great Siege Tunnels, Ocean Village and Harding’s Battery, e Convent, King’s Bastion and of course the usual walkabout viewing the buildings, shops and restaurants.

Back on the ship, we enjoyed relaxing, dinner and entertainment, while we headed towards the nal port of call, Malaga, where we arrived on Tuesday, 29 November, and headed to the airport to look back on a great holiday that was de nitely one to remember.

CHRISTMAS PARTY

On Friday, 9 December, DFBRMA celebrated our annual Christmas Party in Ayr eld Community Club. Members living on the Southside were catered for being delivered door to door in subsidised taxis. We had a delicious menu of Christmas fare, and live music, with people singing and dancing until late. It was a night to remember, so roll on Christmas 2023.

WESTPORT

From 16 to 20 January, a group from the DFBRMA visited Westport, Co Mayo. Castlecourt Hotel is a four-star familyowned luxury hotel located on the doorstep of the Wild Atlantic Way. e food and bedrooms were top class, and we had music every night. ere are a variety of interesting pubs in Westport, with Matt Molloy’s well-known as a traditional music venue.

Tuesday was spent relaxing, going for walks, using the hotel spa and swimming pool, doing a bit of shopping, and having a delicious dinner, before we retired to the

bar for a musical evening.

On the Wednesday, we had a hilarious Bingo session, with each table accommodating ten members of our group, and for two hours we laughed our way through €100 with one table winning all the prize money and the other unfortunate table getting nothing. A very disgruntled Bob Hedderman said somebody must have been cheating! Many thanks Bob for the craic.

On the ursday, we headed o on a luxury coach to tour a section of the Wild Atlantic Way. We encountered beautiful scenery, marvelling at the snow-capped mountains along the route. Following a short drive, we arrived at Murrisk at the foot of Croagh Patrick, known as a site of pilgrimage for more than 5,000 years. From this holy mountain, St Patrick was said to have banished the snakes from Ireland, but to this day I’m not too sure if he cleared them all!

We visited the National Famine Monument in Murrisk, comprising a bronze co n ship with bronze skeletons and bones making up the rigging. It was sculpted by John Behan and is Ireland’s largest bronze sculpture, and has to be seen. We headed to Leenane, nestling under the Maamtrasna and Maamturk mountains, a picturesque village at the head of Killary Harbour, which was the location for the movie e Field.

A er lunch, we headed for Cong, another quaint village situated on the borders of Galway and Mayo, the setting for the lm e Quiet Man, and it was interesting to see the actual pubs and cottages used in the lm.

In all, it was an interesting tour which took most of the day to complete, so ursday was spent relaxing again, with another great dinner and musical session, and on the Friday we returned home happy.

STARDUST MEMORIAL SERVICE

e families of the victims of the Stardust Fire held a Memorial Service for their loved ones on February 11. e service took place close to the original site of the re and is identi ed by a striking eight metre high permanent presentation depicting a beautiful picture and names of each of the 48 victims. ere was also a separate plaque

Visiting the statue of John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara from The Quiet Man in Cong village

on the wall of the building recognising journalist and news presenter Charlie Bird for his dedication and help to the Stardust Committee. Charlie and his wife spoke about the endless hard work Antoinette Keegan and the Committee did from 1981 to the present day to get justice for their families.

DFBRMA members were invited by the Stardust Committee, while Dublin Fire Brigade’s presence was in the form of uniformed personnel and re appliances. e DFB Pipe Band gave a beautiful lament while a wreath was laid by our member Paul Hand, historian and curator of the DFB Museum, and Paul Shannon, retired re ghter and a member of the DFB Pipe Band. In all it was a moving experience which, I am sure helped to bring some small closure to the still grieving families of these children.

RETIREMENT PARTY

DFB Sports & Social Club held their retirement function at the Castleknock Hotel on 17 February. DFB Sports & Social Club Hon. Sec. Dan Fynes hosted the function and did a most professional job. Chief Fire O cer Denis Keeley presented the retired re ghters with their statuettes, introducing them to a life of no more turnouts and peaceful nights.

We were there to recruit new members to eventually replace our own ageing members, and were kindly given the opportunity by the DFB Sports & Social Club to set up a stand to talk to the retirees. is we did in a very opportune location, between the function room and the gents, and it worked! We signed up 11 of the best people that I’m sure will make a di erence to our organisation in the future.

AGM

On 28 February we held our DFBRMA AGM at the Teacher’s Club. ViceChairperson Willie O’Leary addressed the members present, remembering the DFBRMA members and non-members who had passed away during the year.

Treasurer Aidan Carroll read the nancial report for the year, before the

following members were elected to the Committee:

Chairperson: Willie O’Leary

Vice Chairperson: Bob Hedderman

Secretary: Tony McCann

Assistant Secretary: John O’Neill

Treasurer: Aidan Carroll

Assistant Treasurer: Tommy Ellis

Chairperson Willie O’Leary thanked the members and welcomed the new committee and new members, hoping 2023 would be as good as the previous years.

TITANIC EXPERIENCE

At present, the Committee are organising a trip in early May to the Titanic Experience Centre in Belfast.

e above account shows what the DFB Retired Members Association endeavours to accomplish during the year, and welcomes every retired re ghter to come and join us.

Members are not committed to attending monthly meetings regularly, but are very welcome to sit in at the Teacher’s Club on the last Tuesday of every month and have a bit of craic and a couple of pints.

Attending the Stardust Memorial service

FROM WITHIN THE CIRCLE

DFB Pipe Band Secretary John McNally on a busy few months of activity

Since our last article, we have been as busy as ever with practice and gigs by the band and solo pipers.

STARDUST MEMORIAL

In mid-January we were invited to play at the unveiling of a new memorial to the 48 victims of the Stardust Fire in 1981. We gratefully accepted the invitation and attended the event on Saturday, 11

February at the site of the tragic re in Artane.

e band played a lament while the memorial was unveiled by Charlie Bird. e band then provided a wreath that was laid by DFB Pipe Band tenor drummer Paul Shannon and Band Trustee Paul Hand, both of whom attended the Stardust re on the night. We concluded the event by playing Amazing Grace.

RETIREMENT PARTY

A week later on 17 February, the band performed at the DFB Sports & Social Club function for retirees at the Castleknock Hotel. While families of recently retired members of the DFB were seated, the band played the guests of honour into the room followed by a number of sets. We were particularly delighted to attend this year as our Chairperson, John Daly, was being honoured.

Pipe Major Damien Fynes talking to Charlie Bird at the Stardust Memorial event

Paul Shannon and Paul Hand lay a wreath at the Stardust Memorial

A DFBPB Wreath (with 48 Roses representing the 48 victims) laid at the Stardust Memorial

HONOUR

On ursday, 16 March, we were both honoured and delighted to play at the unveiling of a plaque in appreciation of Paul Hand and Jack O’Rourke, who restored an 1884 wooden wheeled escape ladder that is currently on display in the courtyard of the OBI. Paul Hand was present and was delighted with the presentation, with his family present also.

ST PATRICK’S DAY

e biggest day of the year for the band is the St Patrick’s Day Parade, which the band have been participating in since the late 1980s, and in keeping with our tradition, this year’s parade was another great success. is is due to a lot of hard work in the background and months of preparation. From the Band’s perspective, a lot of practice nights are required along with checking of instruments and uniforms.

A lot of hard work is required by committee members in the search for an appropriate venue for the a er party. A special mention to drummer Eddie Du y who worked tirelessly in order to secure the best venue available on the day. is

Drum Sergeant Alan Corcoran looking at the Stardust memorial wall in Artane

The band with Paul Hand with the 1884 Wheeled escape that he restored

The band playing at the unveiling of a plaque in appreciation of Paul Hand and Jack O’Rourke

year again saw a joint venture with the Band, DFB Sports & Social Club and DFB management coming together to ensure that a great day was had by all involved, along with their families.

CEREMONY

As is DFB Pipe Band tradition, the ceremonial part of the morning started with the reading of the names of deceased members from the previous year by the DFBPB Grand Marshall, A/S/O Paul Greene, who since retired at the end of March. Band drummer Tom McLoughlin played a drum roll for the lowering of the National ag followed by the band playing our tune “Tribute to Dublin Fire Brigade” written by our piping instructor Dave Rickard. is was followed by the band playing the National Anthem “Amhrán na bhFiann”.

PARADE

e band, colour party and marching body then set o for the short march to the parade starting point at the Black Church. At 12 noon, the parade started with the DFB directly behind the Lord Mayor. Right out in front was student drummer Trevor Monaghan with Rory the Irish Wol ound. A special mention must go to Kathleen Kelly of Nutstown, Co. Dublin who as always kindly allows us to borrow one of her beloved Irish Wol ounds for every parade. Next was our Grand Marshall, Paul Greene, with the Band banner followed by the band itself. e colour party followed

Warming up before the St Patricks’s Day Parade

The Colour Party led by Ger Corcoran

Rory the Irish Wolfhound with Trevor Monaghan

Preparing to march from Parnell Square

with the Irish Tricolour, DFBPB ag and the ags of all re stations. Next, a large marching body of uniformed DFB re ghters along with visiting re ghters from the USA and UK, and retired members. It was also great to see the current paramedic students from the most recent recruit class who took up the rear of the group wearing their re tunics.

All along the parade route the streets were lined with huge crowds who cheered us along with a fantastic atmosphere in, thankfully, dry weather.

Finally, the parade came to an end in Cu e Street where the band assembled with the colour party to play the National Anthem.

en it was o to Dicey’s at the Russell Court Hotel for the parade a er party. e large group gathered to enjoy food and refreshments during the day before the Band played for the crowds in Dicey’s Garden in the late a ernoon, followed by celebrations continuing late into the night.

BAND

As always, we are asked to provide solo pipers for funerals of DFB family members and retired members. We also provided solo pipers for the last parade functions of retiring members. It has been great to see our new students continue to come down to practice over recent months to both the pipe and drum corps. As always, we are always here to welcome new members to the band as new blood is vital to ensure that the band survives into the future.

John McNally DFB

NEW MEMBERS

Our new recruitment poster was distributed around all work locations within the DFB recently. If you would like to give it a try, why not come along to the OBI any Monday night from 7.30pm and learn a new instrument? Beginners are always very welcome and musical ability is not a requirement at all. We would also like to welcome previous members back as well as people who may already have piping or drumming experience. You will be given top class instruction by our two world class instructors Dave Rickard (Bagpipes) and Ciaran Mordaunt (Drums).

The band can be reached at any time through any band member, social media or by emailing: dfbpbsec@gmail.com

Pipe Band Secretary

The Band playing at the DFB Sports & Social Club function for retired members in the Castleknock Hotel

FIRE REVEALS ARCHITECTURAL FIRST

The massive re that engulfed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris four years ago has revealed a previously unknown aspect of the iconic building. Following the blaze and neartotal destruction of the famous landmark in April 2019, when much of the structure collapsed or was laid bare, a

Secrets of Notre Dame Construction Uncovered

huge restoration project was begun to restore it to its original glory. In the process, archaeologists have discovered that it was the rst Gothic cathedral in which iron staples were used extensively throughout construction to provide structural reinforcement.

e construction of the cathedral in the heart of the French capital began in

1160, and was not completed until almost a century later, and as the tallest building of its time with vaults reaching up to 105 foot high, modern-day architects have until now struggled to explain how its relatively thin walls could stand so tall while retaining structural integrity.

e blaze in 2019 exposed iron staples used to hold the cathedral’s stone blocks together, with some revealed in the frame of the building, while others fell smouldering to the ground in the heat of the re.

“Notre-Dame is now unquestionably the rst known Gothic cathedral where iron was massively used to bind stones as a proper construction material,” a study published in the journal PLOS ONE concludes.

STUDY

Maxime L’Heritier, an archaeologist at the University Paris and the study’s lead author, said some elements of the building’s construction remained

unknown, even a er all these centuries.

It was not clear how the builders “dared — and succeeded — in putting up such thin walls to such a height,” he said. Lacking much documentation from more than 900 years ago, “only the monument can speak” about its construction, he added.

L’Heritier’s study highlights the various architectural features that contributed to the construction of such a tall structure, saying: “All these architectural feats were indeed crucial for the construction of Notre-Dame to succeed. But were they su cient?”

He explains the lack of understanding to date behind Notre Dame’s previously undiscovered iron reinforcements: “ e contribution of the types of materials was never really addressed among the construction techniques. ey are recorded merely as lists in the remaining folios of the archival record books, even if sometimes the reason for the choice made is succinctly described, most of time about the stones (proximity of the quarry, colour and workability).

“Nevertheless, the material properties clearly determine the structure’s stability. e implementation of iron and its functions in the initial design of several 13th century cathedrals is now well known, but has never been explored this far in the case of Notre Dame. As in all these monuments, iron also played a major role in the cathedral’s elevation from its earliest construction campaigns.

“ e use of iron armatures was long considered as a feature of late restoration (usually 19th Century) and was therefore rarely studied in the past. Up to the 1980s, following this opinion, certain monuments bearing such iron reinforcements were mutilated, such as Beauvais cathedral where iron tierods were removed, leading to major structural issues for the monument. So far, the earliest Gothic monuments in which iron armatures have been discovered were built in the beginning of the 13th Century, or in the late 12th Century, but only small iron pins were sometimes used inside some of the columns.”

PROOF

He explains that through scienti c dating of the iron used, it can be proven that they were indeed incorporated into the design and build of the structure from its earliest stages.

“ e results show that all samples are contemporaneous with the construction phases of Notre-Dame in the middle of the 12th or beginning of the 13th Century, thus indicating that they were probably produced and implemented at the beginning of the erection of the cathedral. e results also show that the samples taken are dated as not later than the 1160s, whereas the top wall samples can be possibly later than the 1200s, suggesting approximately a 50 years shi .”

e cathedral could have more than a thousand iron staples, the study said, ranging from 10 to 20 inches long, and some weighing up to a few kilos.

ey were found in many di erent parts of the cathedral, including in the walls of the nave, the choir tribunes and in parts of the cornice.

“ is is the rst truly massive use of iron in a Gothic cathedral, in very speci c places,” L’Heritier said.

Iron staples have been used in construction since Antiquity, including in Rome’s Colosseum and Greek temples, but in those cases they were simply used to keep large stone blocks secure on the lower oors.

Notre-Dame has a “much more dynamic conception of architecture,” L’Heritier said.

Iron would go on to be used in this way in numerous cathedrals across France.

More than 200 scientists are working on restoring Notre-Dame, whose iconic spire is expected to back in place by the end of this year.

THIS IS THE FIRST TRULY MASSIVE USE OF IRON IN A GOTHIC CATHEDRAL, IN VERY SPECIFIC PLACES”

Photo: John Byrne,Owner Maynooth

THE BIG DAY

Dan Fynes looks back at a great St Patrick’s Day

Crossing the city

The DFB Pipe Band lead the way

Our vistiors enjoy the parade

From Wednesday to Sunday of the week of St Patricks Day, it was all systems go for the DFBSSC as we hosted visitors in for the festivities. On Wednesday, the rst of our group arrived in to Dublin from Southampton, New York, and were welcomed by DFB members Peter Fitzgerald, Richie Hunter and Aidan Leavy. ey were brought to Avoca in Malahide for some breakfast, then into visit the Castle in Malahide, swi ly on to Howth to see the sights and have a welcome drink in Findlaters. Once checked in, they were brought around town where they met up with some DFB personnel for a catch up and a pint. On ursday morning, the rest of the Southampton visiting party arrived in Dublin, all be it four hours later than expected... but for the crew already here, they got to enjoy our presentation to retired member Paul Hand and breakfast in the Training Centre. It was then into the city where our visitors got to enjoy a fantastic whiskey tasting experience by Derek King of Exploration Irish Whiskey in the enchanting setting of the Palace Bar that had celebrated its 200th birthday earlier that week.

VISITS

Once all the late arrivals had checked in, we made our way over to Trinity College to visit the book of Kells and the long Library, then over to e Pavilion bar for some food and refreshments. anks very much to Cathal Ryan and Trinity College for looking a er our visitors so well. A er a quick change, it was over to e Church Bar on Jervis Street for welcome drinks with all the visitors who would be joining us for the parade the following day. It was there we met Fire ghters from all over the USA, Canada, and Europe who were marching with us. A great night was had by all and huge thanks to the Church Bar sta for accommodating us on such a busy night.

PARADE

An early start on St Patrick’s Day had us all in Phibsboro station for 9am, where breakfast and co ee were just what the doctor ordered - thanks to Ken and co from C watch for their hard work on the morning. Following on, it was time to adjourn to the ball alley, where the now annual whiskey toast took place with all the visiting parties. Huge thanks to Lauren from Bushmills for providing this for us on the morning. en it was on to the ceremonial part of the morning and the main reason we meet and form up in Phibsboro: to remember all our colleagues who have passed away in the previous year. anks to Retired A/S/O Paul Greene who was our Grand Marshall for the day, for his role in this. When the time came, we all formed up and made our way to the start of the parade. Once in place, it was time to soak up the atmosphere which was a taste of things to come in the parade. It was as busy a parade route as I have ever seen, with amazing

Lieutenant Tim Cosgrove Jones and Captain Michael Lorentz from DC Fire EMS

The families of visiting firefighters were shown a great day out.

Not Prince Harry but Patrick Terry, a firefighter from New York

Dicey’s was lively

support and encouragement from all there to see the parade pass by. It was a great experience for all who took part, and one I would strongly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t done it yet. Following the parade, it was straight into Dicey’s in Harcourt Street for food and well-earned refreshments. anks to everyone who took part and helped in organising a great day for all. anks to the sta of Dicey’s for their hard work on the day too.

EXPERIENCE

e day a er the night before, we met with our guests and regrouped in the Ha’penny Inn to gather our thoughts while the families who were visiting were whisked away for a treetop adventure in Avondale, Co Wicklow. A huge thanks to Maria Markey for organising, and to Brian Gunning who was on driving duty for the day. A day that was unlike all our visitors had ever encountered, and one hopefully they remember for a long time. For the rest of us, where better to watch the Grand Slam e orts of our rugby team in the Guinness 6 Nations than in the home of Guinness? Following the tour of Guinness organised by Ed Walsh, we watched the Irish team win a deserved grand slam, a feat that hadn’t been accomplished since 2018. Although, we watched that happen with visitors from

The families of visiting firefighters were shown a great day out.

We had visitors from all over the US, Canada and Europe

A great visit to the Guinness Storehouse

Welcoming vistiors from the US

Southampton that year too, maybe they are good luck charms for the Irish rugby team, a point made by more than one of them on the day. anks to Guinness for looking a er us so well. Following on from Guinness, we made our way to e Giddy Dolphin in Temple Bar where we nished o the night with good company and great live music. A tting end to a busy few days. e following morning, we met for the last time to see o our visitors at the Trinity City Hotel and wish them safe travels for their journey. ere was plenty of water for the bus journey…

THANKS

A lot of organisation goes into trips like these from both sides, so I would like to thank all who made the trip to Dublin, and we hope you enjoyed your time here as much as we did having you. To all of those from Dublin, it wouldn’t be possible to organise a trip without the commitment and time given up by you all. Not only by the individual, but the people at home who enable it to happen, so a massive thanks to all who made it possible. While I acknowledge that it takes many people, I would like to pay a special thanks to Matt Shimkus from Southampton Fire Dept. Matt has put massive amounts of work into making this happen since our friendship with the SFD started in 2018. Not only for the trips here, but also the return visits we have had to the Hamptons, and he has been my point of contact for many months over the last six years. anks for everything. Lastly, I would like to thank all the DFBSSC committee, DFB personnel, DFB Management for their work and contribution in making this a busy and memorable trip for our visitors, with a special mention to Aidan Leavy, (our logistics manager who coordinated the collection and delivery of our guests for the duration of their visit) e Executive Committee of the DFBSSC (Simon, Paul and Ger) and Declan Rice, without whom, none of it would have happened.

Sampling a well-deserved pint

Remembering those who have passed away

The now annual pre-Parade whiskey toast, courtesy of Bushmills

TAKING CONTROL

A New Recruitment Campaign for ERCC Staff is in Progress

Following a successful and imaginative recruitment campaign for Fire ghter/ Paramedics at the end of 2022, Dublin Fire Brigade began another campaign to recruit new members to the East Region Communications Centre (ERCC) at the start of this year, with applications closing at the start of March.

e search for emergency services controllers tasked with handling re, rescue and emergency calls for Leinster, Cavan and Monaghan was once more heavily promoted on all social media platforms, with radio adverts, bus stop posters and billboards also prominent.

MESSAGE

As with the recruitment campaign for FF/Ps, the messaging was

particularly eye-catching as DFB sought to underline to people that they may have the skills needed for such a career.

“It was very much in line with the message from the previous campaign,” Assistant Chief Fire O cer Greg O’Dwyer says. “Where we had used the slogan of ‘We need your strengths’ for the rst one, the ‘Made for the Brigade’ slogan showed the message that we are making people aware of what the job entails, and that they may have the skills and aptitude for it, that they may be ‘made for the Brigade’.

“But it was also important in this campaign to highlight a di erent aspect of working with Dublin Fire Brigade, and to highlight it as a possible entry point into DFB by becoming an Emergency Service Control Room member.”

SKILLS

e job speci cations looked for people with a good knowledge of the services provided by DFB and re services in Ireland, who have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, excellent organisational skills, hold a pro ciency in IT and have an ability to work as part of a team, but it was also important to be capable of taking instruction, following procedure and collating information.

“We need people who can process a lot of information rapidly, who can keep a clear head and stay calm, because obviously people who are calling might be having the worst hour of their lives,” A/C/F/O O’Dwyer says.

“You need to be able to calm people down, retain and record information accurately, and decide on the appropriate resources needed. We need people who can operate under

pressure, who have a good eye for picking out the important details from a phonecall, and who can act accordingly. Also, because everything in the Control Room is procedure-driven, we need people who can follow these procedures and instructions well.”

In total, just under 1,000 people applied for the advertised positions, and as the campaign has only recently nished, the demographics of the applicants is not yet known, but A/C/F/O O’Dwyer is con dent that it attracted a diverse range of people.

“With the FF/P recruitment campaign, 20% of applicants were female, so we have witnessed a vast improvement in terms of diversity, and we would hope that this campaign goes along the same lines. We are following the same protocols to get that diversity into DFB,” he says.

COMPETITION

Competition for places will be high as Dublin City Council’s HR department take candidates through the next steps that include an online aptitude test, followed by a supervised aptitude test, interview and medical examination. Following that, successful candidates will join a panel awaiting induction training, then on-the-job mentoring and ongoing training.

“We are looking for a smaller pool of candidates than we would have for FF/P recruitment,” A/C/F/O O’Dwyer says. “We need 40 or 50 new ERCC sta , and the most we can take on in a training class at any one time is ten, so ideally we would be looking to have our rst class started by the summer.

“Up to now, the vast majority of ERCC sta have gone on to become FF/Ps,” he tells me, “so there is an opportunity for them, if they complete four years of satisfactory service in the Control Room environment. ey can then go on to do the re ghter physical and medical exams, and if they pass those, can train to become re ghters.

“Either way, it is a very good position and we look forward to seeing the successful candidates join the DFB team.”

STATION PROFILE A WATCH KILBARRACK

ATMOSPHERE

“ e best part of my career was working in a one-pump station, and I was here for 12 years, with a very tight crew and great craic. We were always very busy, just as we are now, and being busy helps a lot with the atmosphere. ere is no time for boredom, because we are out all the time and the craic that goes on in the re truck when we are returning from a callout is great, and it really brings me back to when I started many years ago.”

When asked whether the new-look station helps with that atmosphere, S/O Gilbert is quick to say yes. “You can see it in the facilities, such as the kitchen and eating areas, which are like a modern restaurant kitchen now, and the crew will always congregate there for a cup of tea and a chat.”

e introduction of the innovative study pods is highly praised by all members of A Watch, and while they enable crew members to take time away to themselves, they don’t take away from the team spirit, because the crew is eager to spend time together.

“ e crew go o to the pods to do their LearnPRO, but that is all,” S/O Gilbert says. “I’m 23 years in the job now and what I’ve noticed is that there are always phases in a station. When I was rst here, we went mad for table tennis, but now the crew has gotten a dart board upstairs and all they want to do is play darts. So, nobody is going o to a room to hide.”

CREW

e crew is relatively young, S/O Gilbert tells me, but have shown a very keen interest in developing their skills.

On a visit to meet D Watch at Kilbarrack station in the summer of 2021, Phase 1 of an ambitious refurbishment plan was well underway, but still in a period of transition. When I returned to talk to the crew of A Watch recently, the full scale of the development became a lot clearer, and both Station O cer Brian Gilbert and the man behind the redesign plan, FF/P Frank Brennan, were on hand to talk me through it.

Although he only started as S/O here in January, Station O cer Gilbert says he feels very much at home, not just because he lives locally but because this was the rst station he worked at when he joined Dublin Fire Brigade.

“I was an O cer in HQ before this post and was in North Stand before that, but this was where I was rst sent when I joined, so I have done the complete circle now and am back where I started,” he tells me.

“It is de nitely a young crew, with one of the crew, Adam McNally, not even born when I joined DFB, so that makes me feel old,” S/O Gilbert jokes. “But they all get on very well, and display a huge interest in the EMS side of the job, which is really important here because EMS makes up around 80% of our work.

“Our senior re ghter Gordon McArdle is currently at the Training Centre so we have James Eagers over from North Strand, we have one

Adam Hyland visits the crew to hear about life and work as their refurbished station nears completion

Advanced Paramedic and another, Ciaran Halpin, who is here seven years, halfway through his course at UL and is one of two crew members who are currently studying to become EMS Assistant tutors.

“Because such a huge amount of our work is EMS, the majority of our senior crew members have picked up the mantle and become or are training to become APs, or tutors, or both. ey give a really strong helping hand to the newer re ghters, who are also showing a very keen interest.

“You have to have that interest in order to keep the skills and knowledge up. ere is also a great energy there with this young crew, particularly because as a one-pump station you are either on the ambulance or covering it.

“One-pump stations like this are a great place to start your career. You learn your trade, you get the experience, we are so busy but they all just want to learn and get that experience, and you get to cover all scenarios and incidents very quickly.”

REDEVELOPMENT

Talk turns to the station’s redevelopment, and as we walk through the building to the kitchen, the crew have all gathered for a cup of tea. “You can see how good the facilities are and how well designed it all is,” S/O Gilbert says, “so all we need now is a decent chef!”

From the games room, complete with the aforementioned dartboard, we can see the roo op garden that will be completed in Phase 3, and are joined by FF/P Brennan, who tells me about the plans behind the station’s redesign.

Having worked as an architect in Dublin, he moved to New Zealand following the 2011 earthquake to work on the rebuild project, and joined DFB in 2017 a er he returned to Ireland, and he was instrumental in getting the station laid out in a way that served the needs of the crew while enhancing its capabilities and energy e ciency. To enhance his credentials, he completed a one-year Fire Safety Engineer Postgrad in Trinity. “ at helped a lot,” he says. “It wouldn’t have done if my design didn’t

pass re safety compliance!

“ e whole thing came about at the end of 2019 when renovations were planned for the showers and toilets,” he tells me. “All four Watches were approached and asked if we had any suggestions, and we were asked to form a Working Group with representatives from each Watch. With my background as an architect, I was made the lead rep liaising with the Maintenance Manager Andy Kavanagh and the construction crew. I worked well with Aidan Leavy who was on my Watch but has recently transferred to Phibsboro. He showed a very keen interest in how the station works, with his father also having been stationed at Kilbarrack. I was able to bounce ideas o him and lean on his experience.

“We got approval for our proposals for Phase 1, addressing the locker room accessibility, and from there we got approval for our proposals for Phase 2, which was the rest of the Ground Floor. We had large dorms previously, but we proposed converting them into the

A Watch Kilbarrack

LearnPRO pods that give us the space to study.

“We also switched the o ce location and now have the EMS supply storeroom adjacent to the ambulance bay so they can replenish without even having to go into the building.”

When I rst visited, COVID-19 was still very much a factor, and the individual pods proved to be a godsend in terms of allowing social distancing, but FF/P Brennan says that while they weren’t introduced because of the pandemic, they immediately showed the bene ts of having separate rooms.

“It certainly gave the idea of having these a push,” S/O Gilbert agrees.

HISTORY

On a side note, I mention a recent photo taken at the station of a group

of veteran DFB members, and S/O Gilbert and FF/P Brennan explain.

“Brigade Training O cer Brendan Carroll and a group of othersAssistant Chief Fire O cer Richard Hedderman, D/O Brian Murray, and Sub-O cers Liam Wilson and Jim O’Neill included - came up to have that picture taken because they were being awarded their 40-year service medals and they had all trained here when they rst joined. ere is a lot of history to this station as a result of it being used as the Brigade Training Centre all those years ago, and a lot of people have come through here.

“We have here a good link between the past and the future, when you think about all the people who

trained here, and now we have a station built for the future that is a blueprint for how a station should look.”

e redesign of the upstairs section of the station is something FF/P Brennan is keen to illustrate.

“We have new female locker rooms – we don’t have any females on A Watch but there are four at the station – and we wanted to achieve a sense of equality, focusing on giving both their dignity and privacy. Times have changed and now we want a level of privacy that this new design a ords.

“ e female toilets and locker rooms are a comfortable space now. e female locker room looks exactly the same as the male locker rooms too, so it is all about equality. Everybody has the exact same facilities, standardised.”

ERGONOMICS

When asked how he managed to get so much of his innovative design proposals accepted, FF/P Brennan is magnanimous and says the key was in nding those things that made the most sense.

“It was di cult to get it to this stage because you have 40 other people with 40 di erent opinions,” he admits, “but the Working Group was e ective. You can lter it all back and go to the Maintenance Manager with a solid, sensible plan. It is a nice and comfortable place to work, and everything here is accessible and more ergonomic.

“What we looked for wasn’t crazy stu , so I think we got the majority of things we wanted because they made sense for the station. For example, the LearnPRO pod area is a compartment in itself and is separated from the muster area, so there is no contamination of dirty PPE coming into the other areas, the enlarged locker room with an adequate amount of lockers, which we didn’t have before… it all just made sense.”

When I ask what his favourite

IT IS A NICE AND COMFORTABLE PLACE TO WORK, AND EVERYTHING HERE IS ACCESSIBLE AND MORE ERGONOMIC”

The refurbished games room is just one example of a redesign providing adequate space and comfort

The currently popular dartboard

aspect of the new layout is, FF/P Brennan says: “ e single rooms are a big win for us. We are the rst station in Ireland to have these, but the main thing is that everybody enjoys coming into the station to work now, and all of the crew have a bit of pride in the station. A lot of the work I did on this was done on my own time, and the reason I did it was for the crew, so they could all have a bit of comfort and the facilities they need.”

On the back of this project, FF/P Brennan has also been given the opportunity to survey every DFB station and give design proposals to show how what has been achieved at Kilbarrack station can be achieved elsewhere.

FUTURE

“Kilbarrack is a blueprint for what other stations can do,” he says, “and for me personally, it is nice to be able to combine my work as a FF/P with my former job as an architect.”

S/O Gilbert agrees that the pods are an excellent feature that he expects will become standard across the majority of stations, and are perfect for his particular crew.

“Anybody doing the extra bit of studying that many of our crew are doing can go o and do that because of these pods,” he tells me, “so the station provides the means for people to learn and further improve their skills and knowledge, which can only be good for DFB.”

When the crew gathers for a photo,

S/O Gilbert and FF/P Brennan are joined by other members of A Watch and their energy and camaraderie are immediately evident, and true to S/O Gilbert’s words, they are a young crew who all reply that they “love it” here.

eir dedication and love of the job stands to them as they, like their newly-designed station that holds a lot of history but has developed to become a blueprint for other stations, represent the future of Dublin Fire Brigade.

WE HAVE HERE A GOOD LINK BETWEEN THE PAST AND THE FUTURE, WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT ALL THE PEOPLE WHO TRAINED HERE, AND NOW WE HAVE A STATION BUILT FOR THE FUTURE THAT IS A BLUEPRINT FOR HOW A STATION SHOULD LOOK”

FF/P Frank Brennan, who oversaw the station redevelopment that features ergonomic design, accessibility and comfort

Station Officer Brian Gilbert

BOSTON THE TRIP TO

A group of DFB members went Stateside and Received a Great St Patrick’s Day Welcome, FF/P Stephen O’Reilly tells Adam Hyland

While Dublin Fire Brigade members play a central part in the St Patrick’s Day festivities in our own city, others have taken to the skies to celebrate in other cities across the globe, and this year saw a group y to Boston to take in a particularly Irish welcome. e group of 18 was made up predominantly by FF/Ps at D Watch Dolphin’s Barn, but also included members

from HQ, Rathfarnham and Tallaght. “As with many good things, the idea came out of us sitting in the pub one evening, but also from sitting in the re station and talking, and we were saying there hadn’t been a trip to Boston since before COVID-19,” FF/P Stephen O’Reilly tells me. “So, we thought it would be something worthwhile to do, especially because they have a very big St Patrick’s Day Parade over there. We’d also heard good things about

Boston, so it all fell into place as we talked.” Planning the trip was “a group e ort” he says, with key organisers including Mark FitzHarris, Joe Fallon and himself, but with several others playing roles from logistics organisation to designing a special logo for the trip.

DEMOGRAPHIC

“ ere was a good mix of ages represented, going from members in their 20s to their 60s, some who had been in the job 20 years and others who were only in two years and were on their rst DFB trip away, so there was a wide range of experience and

Visiting Boston for St Patrick’s Day was a trip to remember

BOSTON BEING BOSTON, ONCE THEY HEARD WE WERE OVER AS A DFB GROUP, A FEW CALLS WERE MADE, AND ALL OF A SUDDEN WE WERE IN THE PARADE”

knowledge, and di erent ranks. We had our Sub-O cer Tony McLean with us, as well as ‘our mascot’ retired member Tadgh Fallon, whose two sons were also with us. For those on their rst trip, it was a great experience to march in the parade over there, but it was great for all of us.”

ITINERARY

Arriving in Boston the day before St Patrick’s Day, a fast-track journey through immigration was followed by a welcome with photo op featuring Irish and US ags, and because in Boston the Parade happens on the Sunday, the group went on the Whitey Bulger Crime Tour of South Boston on St Patrick’s Day. ey stayed in the wellknown Omni Parker Hotel in the nancial district just beside Boston Common, where both Ho Chi Minh and Malcom X had worked in their youth, and where numerous famous American authors and artists have taken up residence over the last two centuries.

“It was a lovely spot,” FF/P O’Reilly tells me. “Apart from the many famous guests, Bill Clinton got engaged and had his stag party there, so it was a well-known place.”

ey watched the Six Nations nale on the Saturday, before Sunday saw the big day unfold, and in terms of marching in the parade, FF/P O’Reilly says it came about through unconventional means.

“We had reached out to a few Boston

Fire Chiefs about being part of the Parade over there, but hadn’t heard back,” he says, “so what happened was that we picked a pub run by some Irish people called e Dubliner – actually a chain of pubs they own – to gather in every day, and Boston being Boston, once they heard we were over as a DFB group, a few calls were made, the owner rang a friend who rang a friend, and all of a sudden we were in the Parade.

“One of the group, Darren Donovan, said we should bring our full uniform with us just in case, and we were glad we did.” is led to an experience they would never forget.

PARADE

“ e Boston parade is like the Dublin Parade taken to the extreme,” he tells me. “ e intensity, the crowds, was like nothing I have ever seen before. We were halfway through the parade and we asked a police o cer how long was le , and he just said you haven’t seen anything yet. We turned the corner and it was just unreal, the crowds were amazing and people were inviting us into their homes to use their restrooms, throwing drinks to us from roo ops, screaming from the very start to the end, it was intense. It was more like Mardi Gras!

also got to meet some of the dignitaries who were there, some Irish TDs and Senators, which added to the occasion.”

By chance, they also got to meet rising music star Dermot Kennedy, with a sel e they took bringing a lot of social media attention to the trip.

“ e Dubliner pub looked a er us very well,” FF/P O’Reilly says, “and they told us Dermot was coming in for a small gig. One of our group happens to know Dermot very well, so we got an invite for a closed-doors gig and were given a special area. When Dermot came in he was told to stand in a certain spot, but he said no, he wanted to stand with us, so he joined our group

and played a few tunes, so that was a great memory to take home with us.

“ e Dubliner said they would look a er any group of DFB members if they go over for another visit, so that’s a nice contact to have for the future!”

THANKS

FF/P O’Reilly is quick to thank the people of Boston for showing them such a great welcome and enthusiasm, as well as the sta and owners of e Dubliner – Oran McGonagle, Will McCarthy and Aidan McGee, the Boston PD who helped out with ad hoc journeys, Boston FD, and the DFBSSC for providing support for the trip.

“We got such a great welcome and they were so appreciative that we had chosen to go to Boston when we have our own St Patrick’s Parade at home. We couldn’t have gotten a better welcome. ey were thrilled to have a real Irish Fire Service there. We The welcome was amazing

With Dermot Kennedy in The Dubliner

• Emergency & Specialist Vehicles

• Fire Appliances – New & Refurbished

• Rapid Response Vehicles

• Customised Vehicles

• Certification of Equipment

• Training, Servicing & Supply

T: 091 553 269 | E: info@sidheanteo.ie www.sidheanteo.ie

Specialising in:

Roller shutter doors | Fire resistant shutters

Compact fire shutters | Fire curtains

Smoke curtains | Rapid roll/fast action doors

Sectional overhead doors

DoorFix Limited (Head Office), Unit A4, Canal Bank, Hume Avenue, Park West Industrial Park, Dublin 12, Ireland

T: +353 1 620 7000 F: +353 1 620 7060

E: sales@doorfix.ie www.doorfix.ie

Offices also at: Limerick, Antrim & the UK

Hammond Metal Recycling Limited

Head Office

Pigeon House Road, Dublin 4

Tel: (01) 667 5335 | Fax: (01) 667 5345

Branches

Ringaskiddy, Cork

Tel: (021) 437 8014 | Fax: (021) 437 8195

Garycastle, Athlone, Co. Westmeath

Tel: (09064) 73366 | Fax: (09064) 76472

Crag Terrace, Clondalkin Industrial Estate, Clondalkin, Dublin 22

Tel: (01) 457 6852 | Fax: (01) 457 8158

Deepwater Quay, Finisklin, Sligo

Tel: (071) 9153360

Best Wishes to the Fire Services

AGENTS FOR: GODIVA PUMPS • MODITECH • SUPPLY + BAMBI BUCKETS • LUKAS RESCUE TOOLS

PARAMEDIC PARTNERSHIP

Although this partnership for the paramedic programme began in 2003, there was an existing relationship between the two organisations through the DFB occupational health at Mercer’s Medical Centre.”

D/O EMS Training Paul

Lambert and

RCSI

Paramedic Programme Manager Patricia FitzPatrick talk to Adam Hyland about a Successful 20 Year Partnership Between the Two Organisations

Dublin Fire Brigade and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland have enjoyed a rewarding partnership for 20 years, and in January of this year they marked the occasion with an event to celebrate and acknowledge the work of all involved in making it such a success.

Upon completion of their re ghting training, all DFB members must complete a Level 7 Diploma in Emergency Medicine Technology

through a PHECC-accredited training institution, and this is where the RCSI comes in.

ORIGINS

Programme Manager Patricia FitzPatrick tells me: “DFB Assistant Chief Fire O cer Brian Power approached RCSI through Prof. Bill Shannon, RCSI’s Professor of general practice at the time, about establishing a partnership for the purposes of EMS education provision for DFB personnel.

e move was necessary, D/O EMS Training Paul Lambert says: “It is part of our accreditation requirement for PHECC that we are aligned with a tertiary institute, and we previously had a partnership with North Eastern University, but when they le Ireland, the RCSI were the medical school we wished to be aligned with.”

Ms Fitzpatrick adds: “We were interested in the partnership because we already had an established relationship with DFB Occupational Health at Mercers Medical Centre, which was part of RCSI, so there was an existing relationship to build on prior to our partnership.”

BENEFITS

e bene t to the DFB of having this partnership with an institution as prestigious as the RCSI is not just that

D/O EMS Training Paul Lambert with Gold Medal recipients Con Naughton, Brian Casey, and Eric Flanagan

it allows for the teaching of paramedic students to PHECC-accredited practitioners, it also serves to ensure DFB paramedics are as highly-skilled as possible.

“We have a Programme Medical Advisor at RCSI who helps give us direction whenever we need practice guidelines on how we are going to approach something from a teaching point of view,” D/O Lambert says.

“We also have a Partnership Board that brings a high level of governance to the programme, in which we have quarterly meetings and everything that is happening within the programme from the point of view of educational design to how the classes are progressing is all discussed. Because the Board is made up of some of the high level players such as the CFO, Assistant Chief, D/O Martin O’Reilly and their counterparts in the RCSI, there is very good governance and oversight to make sure we are delivering quality product.”

Ms. FitzPatrick says: “We are delighted with the relationship as it broadens RCSI interests to the pre-hospital

environment. Prior to this, the main prehospital engagement would have been through GP training in Mercer Medical Centre, so it helps to close the loop in the continuum of care of the patient from pre-hospital through to physiotherapy and pharmacy at the other end.”

ere are also practical bene ts to having the RCSI’s facilities available to DFB’s paramedic students.

“Our students are lucky enough to be able to use the Simulation suites within RCSI,” D/O Lambert says, “which are very valuable scenario-based and casebased learning areas where our students can interact with high-quality simulation mannequins and we can assess them to see how they would interact with real patients. ey get access to cadaver specimen labs, so they can look at all body systems up close and personal.

“ ey also get to interact with the RCSI in a formal way, because we carry out their end of process panel interviews, conferring, etc so they have to go in their full dress uniforms and go before a panel to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise, and deliver their case

The RCSI Group: Niamh Collins, Hannah McGee, Kilian McGrogan, Mark Ruddy, Patricia Fitzpatrick and Kate Whelan

CFO Dennis Keeley speaking at the event

THERE IS A VERY GOOD GOVERNANCE AND OVERSIGHT TO MAKE SURE WE ARE DELIVERING QUALITY PRODUCT”

studies, before they are signed o with full registration. It is great for them and their families as well to be able to go into RCSI to be conferred with their educational award.”

CONFERRING

Regarding the conferring, Ms FitzPatrick is quick to point out that the ceremony for DFB paramedics is standalone, so it is only for the DFB members and their families.

“As they are not mixed in with other graduates, the day is more personal and

we have on occasion been able to allow extra guests, which could not happen at a larger ceremony.”

As an established Medical School, RCSI attracts thousands of students from all sectors and all demographics, but Ms FitzPatrick says the DFB paramedic students stand out from the crowd.

“ ey are di erent in that most of them have lived lives before going to college. ey are not school leavers coming straight in without having developed life skills. ey would be more like graduate medical students because

they would be of a similar age pro le.

“Many of them have families and other responsibilities, so they are di erent from the typical undergraduates who are coming straight from school, or the international students who are living away from home for the rst time.

“DFB students are adult learners and in that regard are more like the graduate entry medical students as they are older, have had previous careers and responsibilities and they are not school leavers. As a result, they are better able to communicate their wishes and needs, which can be di cult for younger students at times.”

D/O Lambert adds: “ e students bring the culture of DFB along with them. We are a disciplined organisation, good with communication skills as part of our training, have good technical expertise. It is a very intensive programme, so we do it full-time rather than term-time, and it is high intensity, but we feel it gives a very good education.”

EDUCATION

at high-quality education combined with the DFB mindset means that many of those who have undertaken the course have gone on to become tutors a few years later.

“It is a good indicator that all of the tutors from the last class and from the current one have all come through the programme themselves,” Ms FitzPatrick points out.

“Some of our high-level lecture material that previously we would have had to get external lecturers in for can now be delivered by our Paramedic and Advanced Paramedic tutors,” D/O Lambert adds, “so the level of knowledge and expertise they have gained as part of the partnership means they can then go on and deliver that education. We have the expertise needed to do so, thanks to the partnership.”

As any operational FF/P will know, the programme is indeed high-intensity, and is only one aspect of the overall Paramedic training requirements for DFB members.

Programme Manager Patricia Fitzpatrick with Michael Walsh and Prof Bill Shannon

WE ARE DELIGHTED WITH THE RELATIONSHIP BECAUSE IT BRINGS THE RCSI INTO THE PRE-HOSPITAL ENVIRONMENT”

PROGRAMME

“ e programme is 14 weeks long, and we try to blend it as much as possible by having, for example, a theory session in the morning followed by a practical session in the a ernoon, to make it as user-friendly and interactive as possible for the students.

“ ere are assessments such as MCQs and Objective Structured Clinical Exams where we look at both their knowledge and application of that knowledge, and debrief them a er every assessment to see where they can improve. We target their communication skills, get them used to medical terminology and handling patient handovers. e process of patient assessment, give them a structured approach to taking vital signs and making decisions, so they can make a clinical diagnosis and use that information to pass on to the next level of care, which is the hospital.”

“It’s frontloaded, and the students do a full work-week rather than the typical term-time week, so it is a huge amount of content in a relatively short space of time,” Ms FitzPatrick adds. “ ey then have their internships where they engage directly with patient and act on their learnings.”

D/O Lambert adds: “Once they complete their rst set of PHECC exams a er the course with external examiners making sure they are t to practice and safe to go out on the road as undergraduate interns, we put the students on an ambulance for a month supernumerary, seven day shi s and seven night shi s, with registered paramedics, where they observe and learn how to communicate correctly, so it is a safe environment for all concerned.

“We want them to learn and nd their feet, to interact with crews in a safe way, and are under no pressure to treat a patient in that time. Once we are happy with that, they go on the ambulance as second person and are fully supervised, working alongside a registered paramedic. ey are starting to treat patients with the aid of a fully registered paramedic as a safety net. During this time, they also do clinical placements which Patricia organises.”

is, she says, involves attending four di erent hospital departments – adult emergency, paediatric emergency, primary care, and the maternity delivery suite – and they also spend a day on the Advanced Paramedic vehicle, amounting to around 80 hours of placements.

Both tell me that during the internship stage, the students also have to undertake case studies on patient interaction and treatments they would have engaged with, and present these before the examiners.

“ ey have two eld case studies which are based on experiences on the ambulance, and one clinical case study based on experience in a clinical placement,” D/O Lambert explains. “ ese are graded by our tutors, and once they have been completed, they complete an International Trauma Life Support programme, and prep for their Part 2 PHECC exams.”

A year on the ambulance follows, where they have full autonomy, but still have to work alongside a registered paramedic, with tutors sent out to monitor them over three half-day sessions.

“We have to make absolutely sure that they are t for purpose, keep up their study, and are professional in every interaction with the patient,” D/O Lambert points out. “ ey also then have to undertake three postgrad case studies based on experience gained from being on the ambulance.

ey face the nal viva interview where these case studies are presented in full dress uniform, and upon successful presentation, are presented to PHECC for nal veri cation, bringing to an end close to two years of intense education.”

EVOLUTION

With the ongoing developments in patient care and the roles required of DFB members, the programme has inevitably evolved since it was rst introduced as part of the partnership.

“It started as a six-week course,” Ms FitzPatrick tells me, “but Clinical Practice Guidelines have changed signi cantly since then, and the programme has had to adapt and

THE STUDENTS BRING THE CULTURE OF DFB ALONG WITH THEM”

change to incorporate all of these. at has mostly been done by Paul and the expert tutors working with him, because while we have a lot of medical expertise in RCSI, none of them are paramedics.”

“ ere have been a lot of additional medications added to the scope of practice for paramedic practitioners,” D/O Lambert adds, “additional equipment, new clinical practice guidelines, so we need to make sure the paramedics can operate each of these guidelines to safely treat patients.”

“ e job is therefore very di erent from what it was when the course rst started,” Ms Fitzpatrick says.

Now there is a vast range of medications that can be given to treat a patient pre-hospital.”

ANNIVERSARY

In terms of the 20th anniversary event itself, Ms Fitzpatrick tells me it was a very informal gathering, but it was held in very high importance by all who attended, with all RCSI tutors past and present invited, as were all Gold Medal students from the past two decades.

“It is an achievement for the partnership to have grown over the past 20 years,” she tells me. “RCSI’s Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic A airs, Professor Hannah McGee, spoke on behalf of the RCSI, and CFO Keeley spoke from the DFB side, so their presence indicates how important it was. But we just wanted to celebrate the partnership, and got to look back at all of the events that have developed over the years. It was also great to invite retired A/C/F/O Michael Walsh, who was involved from the beginning, and Professor Shannon, and it was nice for them to see where the programme has come to since it was rst started. It was a very heartfelt occasion for both organisations.”

An early photo of Tallaght Fire Station

While Dublin Fire Brigade has a long and rich history, and those who have served within the organisation have many memories to share, it is not always easy to preserve those stories once members retire, or a er time has passed. However, FF/P Darren Donovan of D Watch Dolphin’s Barn, who has been in the Brigade for 20 years, has begun a project that aims to change all that, by compiling, digitalising and sharing DFB photographs from days gone by to the present day.

e idea to start such a daunting but rewarding project began earlier in FF/P Donovan’s career.

“I was in Dolphin’s Barn when DFB historian Las Fallon was on C Watch, and he had gathered and put up a lot of photos from

the station, and I came up with the idea to put up a display cabinet to house them,” he tells me.

“Las had a lot of printed photos so we added them to the display, and the idea for the project grew from there. It is still very much in the development stage, but I approached all Watches and the senior re ghters at Dolphin’s Barn, and they provided a lot more photos.

“I also spent a few days with Brigade Training O cer Brendan Carroll at the Training Centre going through photos, but there are thousands out there that have to be scanned and digitalised, and it is a major challenge to get the names to put to the photographs… otherwise they are just photos.”

GROWING PLAN

e initial display at Dolphin’s Barn soon proved too small for the number of photos coming in, so FF/P Donovan came up with the idea to preserve them all.

“ ere is only so much wall space,” he says, “so the idea to digitalise them all came next. I got talking to Paul Hand at the

Training Centre Museum while doing a course, and he told me there were thousands of photos in the Museum. I told him what I was doing at Dolphin’s Barn and we went from there. I scanned lots of photos and saved them so that we could display them on a screen at the station.”

is proved very popular at Dolphin’s Barn to start with, FF/P Donovan tells me.

“We put the rolling photo slideshow on during the day and A Watch came in a er us, and when I came in the next morning, they were cursing me because they found themselves taking the chairs out of the kitchen and sitting down in front of the TV for hours! But it’s a good complaint, and it shows that it is of huge interest to DFB members.”

e idea for the rolling display has spread to the Training Centre, where a TV has been installed in the Museum for display purposes, and the plans are to have a larger TV installed in the main hall at the Training Centre, and in the canteen, as a way of displaying the ever-growing number of photos that are being gathered and preserved.

Drills at the Training Centre

FF/P Darren Donovan of D Watch Dolphin’s Barn

“BTO Carroll told me that even the photos of each recruit class are so important to keep hold of and remember,”

FF/P Donovan says, “and the TV is a new way of displaying everything in one space the size of a TV, rather than across every wall. It’s something that just wasn’t being done and it would be a shame if the history and legacies weren’t preserved.”

MEMORIES

e importance of preserving these images is something that he feels very strongly about, because he recognises that memories fade, especially when a member retires.

“ e way I look at it, these re ghters have spent a huge amount of their lives, 30 or 40 years, working with DFB,” he tells me, “and then they retire. ey are not forgotten by those who know them, but others might not remember them when their presence and their service is no longer in front of you, and I think it is important to retain that and have it on record for all to see. So, this is a good way to remember people and what they have done in their time in DFB, because it is a big chunk of

their lives, away from their families.

“Also, many times the families of members who pass away could come across a box of old photos and they throw them out, but if we can get them instead that would be great, because it would be a shame for so many vivid memories and stories to be thrown out, as so many probably have over the years.”

FF/P Donovan says he has always been interested in hearing these stories and having photographic records of times passed really brings DFB history to life.

“I have always been into the Fire Brigade itself and have read all the books by Tom Geraghty and Las Fallon,” he tells me, “but just hearing the senior re ghter’s stories when you sit down for a cup of tea in work, or when you go out on a social night, I just became very interested in that, and this is just my way of trying to preserve the past and bring it into the future, for all to see.”

INFORMATION

As FF/P Donovan mentions, getting the names, information and context behind some of the photos has proven to be the

most challenging aspect, but he has received great support and assistance.

“I enjoy scanning all the photos because I love looking back at the old photos, and I have been in contact with a lot of retired members and senior men who are all very eager to get involved, and a lot of them can really help with putting names to the pictures and giving all that information that would otherwise one day disappear,” he tells me.

“Las Fallon, Paul Hand and James Leigh on Facebook have been great. e Museum, retired members, the DFB

Putting recruits through their paces at the Training Centre

Work starts on converting the O’Brien Institute into the DFB Training Centre

social media, people at the station, they have all been very useful sources, but I really want to get my hands on the older stu . Hopefully the displays will be a combination of old and new.

“James is going to give me access to his huge amount of photos, and the idea will be to set up a Facebook chat group where I can put up a picture, and if I need help with the information or context behind it, hopefully someone can provide that information. BTO Brendan Carroll and ABTO Willie Maher have been very supportive too.

“ ere is also a lot of interest from retired members. I have the contact details for a number of them who I am very keen to talk to because I know they will have a lot of photos, but at the moment it is just about nding the time to talk to them properly.

“We have very good records of the modern times in DFB thanks to Trevor Hunt and Ray McMonagle, but the older stu is really great to get hold of too.”

Interest has already come not just from DFB members but from the families of retired members, keen to source a photo they can keep as a memento, and FF/P Donovan wants to be able to provide them with those memories, and to present them for all DFB members past and present to see.

“People spend so much of their lives in DFB, and we don’t want their memory to fade, they deserve more than that,” he says.

ASSISTANCE

He is putting the call out for anybody who has photos, or information about photos, to get in touch and help build on the digital archive.

“It would be great for anybody who has some old DFB photos to get in touch with me. e photos will be well looked a er, scanned and returned to you. I have an email set up that people can send the photos through to if they have them on a drive or on their phone. Las, Paul, John McBride - all those guys can give their knowledge - but if anybody else has info that would help, it would be great to hear from them.”

e current plan is to have the photos

DFB members gather on the stairs in Tara Street

A BA familiarisation course for District Officers

presented on a rolling slideshow at the Training Centre’s main hall on an 80 inch TV, as well as in the Museum and canteen, with a very ambitious long-term plan in the works too.

AIMS

“ e end result for me would be if we could get the whole archive and photo database incorporated into the Museum,” FF/P Donovan explains, “so that if someone were to come in and say that their father or grandfather used to be in DFB, we could type in the name and see what photos of them come up, so we could give them to family members. It would be a great interactive feature to have.”

He also sees the digital archive of photos as a way to show a nice touch to retiring members, with the ability to nd all photos including or relevant to that person and have them on a rolling display on a TV at their station on the day they retire.

“ at’s the importance of getting the names associated with the faces in the photos, to get as much information as we can about our members past and present, because we want to be able to remember them and their experiences.”

CONTACT:

If any DFB members or their families want to get in touch with FF/P Donovan with photos or information about photos, you can contact him at dfbphotosdfb@gmail.com

FF/P Alan Sexton climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for a great cause in February

NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH

Dublin Fire Brigade members have long been known to go to any lengths or heights to raise money for a good cause, and in February, FF/P Alan Sexton took this to the extreme when he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for paralysed man Eoghan Gorman.

Tallaght-born Eoghan, a keen mountain biker, global traveller and mixed martial arts fan, was in an accident while mountain biking on

Ticknock mountain in Dublin some 18 months ago, fracturing his C3 vertebrae and leaving him paralysed from the neck down.

Upon hearing about the accident, members of Tallaght Fire Station’s D Watch got together to raise money for him through a bucket collection at e Square, and it was some with fortuity and serendipity that FF/P Sexton read about this on social media while he himself was hiking on Ticknock.

FF/P Sexton, who joined the ERCC

in 2016 before becoming an FF/P on C Watch Tallaght three years ago, got into hiking a couple of years ago, and having explored the nearby Dublin Mountains, began to hike in places around Ireland, completing the Four Peaks Challenge last year. On one long hike in the Dublin Mountains, he saw the social media post and decided that he could help.

DETERMINATION

“I was planning to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for charity anyway,” he says, “because a er doing the Four Peaks I was looking for something bigger, but a er reading that, I decided I would do it for Eoghan. My colleagues on D Watch were telling me about him, so I went to see Eoghan and stayed for several hours hearing his story, and I was blown away by his positive attitude and determination. He had been told he would be on a ventilator and tube for the rest of his life but he was already o that when I met him, so that

ABOVE: Eoghan Gorman was a keen mountain biker and sportsman before his accident.

LEFT: Unfurling the fightwitheoghan banner.

BELOW: Pointing the way to the top.

determination was just mind-blowing. A er meeting him, I knew I wanted to climb the mountain to raise money to help him.”

e dormant volcano in Tanzania stands almost 6,000 metres above sea level, so it was a big step up from hiking up Irish mountains, but FF/P Sexton says he prepared well.

TRAINING

“ e best kind of training you can do is getting out hiking with a heavy bag on your back,” he says. “You want to hike for six to eight hours a day for two days in a row with that weight on you, and if you can do that consistently, every couple of weeks for a few months, you shouldn’t have any trouble taking on Kilimanjaro.”

FF/P Sexton did the climb as part of a group called Earth’s Edge, which consisted of 16 people, including a guide and doctor, and though he had never met any of them before, everyone got on very well and rallied around when members of the group were struggling, which was necessary because the going was sometimes understandably hard.

CHALLENGING

“It is tough over there,” he says. “ e days are long, you are out of your comfort zone, getting patchy sleep on the ground, in a tent, you are eating food that isn’t the best, day in and day out. For the rst three days, I think I got a total of six hours of broken sleep, so some days could be hard. at’s not to mention the very steep inclines. ere isn’t much actual climbing that needs to be done on Kilimanjaro, but there is a lot of scrambling over rocks, and a lot of very steep inclines, so it is a tough slog. “ ere were times where I was thinking, this is tough, I was battling against weather changes, altitude, shortness of breath and there were a couple of times where I thought of Eoghan to get me through it. It drove me on.

“Hiking at night was extremely tough. For the Summit night, for example, we got up at 6am to start hiking from 7am to 2pm, then took a break until 11pm, then at midnight set o again to

reach the summit by around 8.30am the next morning. We were walking in -12C temperatures, up a very steep incline, with the air getting thinner the higher you go, weighed down by the multiple layers of clothing you need to wear.”

FF/P Sexton says the determination to reach the summit was always there, especially as the end drew near.

REACHING THE TOP

“I just put my head down and kept going,” he says. “ ere were times when we were really tired, but on that summit hike, at 6am you know you only have two or so hours le before you reach the top, you have trained for six months to get there, and you have walked uphill for six days, so you are not going to stop with just a couple of hours to go.

“You get to a certain place called Stella Point, and a er walking through the night, from there you can see the sunrise. It is hard to explain, but you get a second wind because you can actually see the summit from there, whereas for the previous few hours you’ve been walking uphill in the dark, seeing nothing but the ground in front of you. When you see the summit in the distance, you say, right, nearly there, and to actually get to the top is an unreal experience.”

Eoghan Gorman’s family had given FF/P Sexton a special banner to bring with him, which he proudly unfurled at the summit.

“I had brought the banner with me on warm-up hikes around Ireland and would take a picture of it at the top of every

mountain I climbed, and used it for my fundraising, so it was great to have it with me and to y the ag for Eoghan when I got there,” he says.

FUNDS

In total, FF/P Sexton raised €3,500 for Eoghan through the climb, and presented him with a cheque in March, which proved to be an opportune time.

“Eoghan is in the National Rehab Centre in Dun Laoghaire for close to a year and a half, and they need to free up his bed to give to somebody who has been more recently injured,” he says, “and just a er I got back, I found out that he had been given his own wheelchairadapted place in Lucan. e house needs a lot of repair and refurbishment to make it accessible for Eoghan, needing a bathroom downstairs and a li to the upstairs part, so the money I raised for him is going towards making the house suitable for him ahead of him moving in. I managed to raise a small amount towards these costs, but every bit helps.”

In terms of the next adventure, FF/P Sexton has his sights set on Mont Blanc, which he plans to climb in mid-2024.

“I will need a fair bit of training for that, because there is a lot of climbing involved, some of it using ice picks, so I would need a year and a half to prepare,” he says, so from here it is onwards and upwards.

To donate to Eoghan Gorman’s fund, go to www.gofundme.com and search for # ghtwitheoghan.

FFP Alan Sexton at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.

THE DECADE OF CENTENARIES: A LOOK BACK

Las Fallon reviews an important time of commemoration

As we move towards the end of the ‘Decade of Centenaries’, as the Revolutionary period (de ned as 1912 -1923) was called in the o cial program of events, it might be time to cast an eye back over the events remembering those years with a particular eye on DFB involvement.

Commemoration is a strange thing, and o en speaks more to today’s society than it does to the original events. Who commemorates what? Who ‘owns’ the

right to commemorate? Do some attempts at commemoration go too far? All of these questions arose over the 11 years of the ‘Decade’. I think it is fair to say that Ireland acquitted itself well, but o en the best of the content was community and nonGovernment group driven, rather than Government-led.

By coincidence, the initial year of the State commemoration of the Revolutionary years also coincided with the 150th Anniversary of the DFB as a municipal re service in 2012. e DFB events were not

linked to Decade of Centenary events and stood alone. State events that year included the commemoration of the founding of the Irish Volunteers, which was marked with exhibitions, books and ceremonies.

On the DFB front, I had stepped away from my role in the DFB Museum in 2011, where I had been curator from 2008, and was not involved in any of the DFBs commemoration events. As I have mentioned before, I was genuinely surprised that no coverage was given to the 300th anniversary of the rst city re service in 1711, but I think it fair to say that the 2012 events were more about celebration than commemoration, which is a quite legitimate road to take.

MILESTONE

2012 was a very important year for me personally. I decided to make positive use of years of research and collecting and, with the encouragement of a number of historians who are good

The public’s response and support of the O’Donovan Rossa funeral re-enactment showed an appetite for commemoration

mounted an exhibition with SDCC on the 300 years of Dublin’s re service history in the County Library in Tallaght.

Both the book (launched by my good friend, the late Shane Mac omais) and the exhibition were popular and well received generally. It opened doors to me which would take me to a new level in studying and speaking on our history, especially in the Revolutionary years. Over the following years, I would have the privilege of giving talks in all sorts of locations from the chamber of Seanad Eireann and the bench of the Supreme Court, to parish halls, schools, universities, Garda Stations(!) and Men’s Shed groups. I would later return to heritage projects within the DFB and really enjoyed my time doing that in 2015 and 2016, but still feel that changing course in 2012 was an enriching experience and a good decision.

LOCKOUT

One of the early ‘big events’ of the Decade was the anniversary of the 1913 Lockout. I remember attending a ‘History Ireland’

conference in Glasnevin Cemetery in 2012 where the theme, looking at the years ahead, was ‘who do we remember –Volunteer or Fusilier?’ It soon became clear that there was room for both traditions in the events ahead, but the coming one was possibly slightly di erent.

In the questions and answers session of the conference, I asked with tongue in cheek if it was proposed that events around the centenary of the Lockout would include an event to commemorate Dublin Metropolitan Policemen and Royal Irish Constabulary constables who had played their part in suppressing the striking workers. e view of those at the conference was that there would be no

remarked to me that the question had, intentionally (if not subtly!) thrown a brick through the window and made people more aware of the more di cult aspects of the coming years. In 2020, a decision by the Fine Gael government to commemorate the Royal Irish Constabulary and by extension their integral elements in the Black and Tans and Auxiliary Division RIC, led to massive public outcry and a rapid change of heart by the Government.

2014 and 2015 were quiet enough on the commemoration front, with much of what did happen aimed at remembrances of those who had fought in the British Army of WW1 rather than events at home. An exception was the commemoration (and indeed recreation) of the O`Donovan-Rossa funeral in 2015. It pointed to a di erence in methodology between the o cial Government line and the more popularly based commemorations which would de ne the anniversary of the Rising.

At the opening of the exhibition at City Hall with then Lord Mayor Críona Ní Dhálaigh

COMMEMORATION IS A STRANGE THING, AND OFTEN SPEAKS MORE TO TODAY’S SOCIETY THAN IT DOES TO THE ORIGINAL EVENTS”

APPETITE

On the morning of the O`DonovanRossa centenary, there was a small-scale Government ceremony which was dwarfed by the a ernoon’s events organised by a committee including Sinn Féin and the O`Donovan-Rossa family, which recreated his lying in state in City Hall, the funeral procession from there to Glasnevin and the famous speech by Pearse at the graveside. I attended this event as an interested spectator and later walked in the procession to Glasnevin, where I was lucky enough to get a ticket to allow access to the events inside the graveyard. It was an amazing event and one which I was delighted to take part in. What it also did was show the appetite among the general public for events commemorating an aspect of Irish history which had been played down to a great degree in recent decades.

year to mark the 1916 centenary. CFO Fleming’s interest in, and recognition of the importance of these events for the DFB, was crucial. It was a turnaround for the DFB in terms of addressing our history and using it to tell our story to the public. Without his personal interest in the projects, nothing on the scale of what was done could have been achieved. I was transferred to Projects work in HQ (a er 30 years in Dolphin’s Barn) and tasked with looking at how the DFB could be involved in the coming commemorations, what we could do ourselves, and how to get support for this among our own people. Working initially with then-CFO Fleming, and later with a small group, plans were made. One obstacle to be overcome was

that initially the Government plan was that only organisations involved in the 50th anniversary in 1966 would take part in a planned parade in Dublin to commemorate the Rising. Our problem was that the DFB had not taken part in the 1966 events. Quite a bit of lobbying of interested parties was called for. In fairness, there was a sympathetic response and soon we were part of the planning for the national parade, principally by the Defence Forces. John Keogh represented the DFB on that committee and did sterling work on the Brigade’s behalf.

EXHIBITIONS

Soon there was a list of events in various stages of planning, from living history displays in the Training Centre in January 2016, through commemorative events in Glasnevin to mark the graves of DFB 1916

The 1916 badge

The 1916 plaque

Part of a 1916 memorial at HQ

Comhaltas Ceolteoirí Eireann in the church in the Training Centre, talks on the role of the DFB in 1916 to various groups including former members of the Oireachtas in the Senate chamber, a small scale version of the DFB2016 exhibition, and a commemorative event for the DFB in the Mansion House.

I was tasked with curating an exhibition on the Dublin Fire Brigades, to include DFB, Rathmines, Pembroke and the works re services in Powers and Guinness who

Week 1916. is was a highlight of the year for me. I got to design the exhibition cases which were based on ones in use in the National Gallery, but ours were wheelchair accessible, tailored to our requirements, locally made, and 50% cheaper than comparable cases available.

It also took me into the world of design and printing as I produced information panels and images to tell the story of the various brigades during that week in 1916. Using my own collection and contacts

in the history and collecting world, I was able to track down relevant items for display and had the full help and cooperation of Paul Hand in the DFB Museum. Paul was, as always, not just a huge help, but he also threw himself 100% in to the project and became, with John McCrory, our living history ambassador –attending events in a replica DFB uniform from the 1916 period. Paul, John and the others who helped in this role played a very important role in getting our message across.

e exhibition, initially in smaller form in the Training Centre in January, was due to be in City Hall for three months, but due to public interest it was extended to the full 12 months of 2016 (actually my last day’s work in the DFB was dismantling that exhibition and returning the items to the lenders). Mention of the replica uniforms reminds me of the e ort to put them together. Sourced from a variety of places including a lm props suppliers in Wales (German WW2 boots

Living history ambassadors Paul Hand and John McCrory with DFB Pipe Band’s Damien Fynes (centre)

City Hall

and American Civil War hats – both items then tweaked to suit here in Dublin), red shirts made to the original pattern by a major Dublin tailor at cost price and replica DFB brass helmets from India.

e trousers were a problem until I found an army surplus dealer in England with a small stock of woollen, navy blue trousers with no belt loops and a red stripe on the leg. Apparently, they came from a recently discovered stock of 1950s-made trousers for the British Army’s Brigade of Guards. So, our living history personnel and mannequins were dressed in an eclectic mix of gear to achieve an historically accurate look.

e question of insignia to mark the year came up and there were various ideas. A red band on DFB dress hats to remember the red shirt of the Revolutionary period did not work out, nor did an issue of red lanyards for the same purpose. e idea of a red chevron on the sleeve of the dress tunic as issued to the Brigade in 1916 and 1923 was also lost in the process.

As the brigade had recently issued medals to mark the 150th year of the municipal brigade and the 114th year of the DFB ambulance service, the idea of yet another medal was addressed. My suggestion of a replica of the cap badge worn from 1862 to 1941 to be worn as an award above the ribbon bar was adapted as it commemorated the foundation of the Brigade, the Revolutionary years and the 75th anniversary of the DFB and DLFB members volunteering to go to that aid of Belfast in 1941 (2016 was the 75th anniversary). A full-sized version of the badge was issued to all members who took part in DFB/DCC or national events and all employees received a 75% size badge as a remembrance of the year.

A medal would later be issued by the Government to all re service personnel, but the DFB badges mark an award in the only re service which actually took any part in the events of the Rising.

EVENTS

It was a busy year with events not only in Dublin, like the ceremony at the graveside of the 1916 CFO, Captain Purcell, in Deansgrange, but follow on events, like

being asked to speak over two nights at an awards ceremony for Kilkenny FRS members, where Captain Purcell had learned the re ghter’s trade as a member of the Kilkenny Volunteer Fire Brigade. Paul Hand, John McCrory and I represented the DFB at events to mark the 75th anniversary of the Belfast Blitz in April, and myself and Peter Barriscale attended a commemoration ceremony in East Belfast at Glentoran Football Club grounds in May to mark the ‘ re raid’ of 5 May, 1941.

APPRECIATION

While this is very much a personal look back rather than an o cial history, I should mention some people who were crucial to the DFBs contribution to the 1916-2016 events. People such as thenCFO Pat Fleming, CFO Dennis Keeley, Paul Hand, Dan Fynes, Jonathon Forbes, Danny Fitzpatrick, Declan Rice, John McCrory, Dave Snee, John Keogh, the DFB Pipe Band, the DFB Honour Guard, and so many others. In many ways it is dangerous to list names in case equally important ones are omitted, but my very sincere thanks go to all who were involved in the events of that year.

I retired from DFB in January 2017. In the years since I have been involved in some heritage projects for DFB and other groups, including the committee for the centenary of the Fire Brigades Union in 2018 when I was invited to London by the FBU to take part in their events.

I contributed articles to Firecall on a regular basis through the year but also was asked to do articles for the Defence Forces magazine ‘An Cosantoir’ for their 1916 commemorative issue, as well as for various papers including the Irish Examiner and some DCC publications. I was also asked to contribute the chapter on the story of Dublin Fire Brigade in 1916 to the o cial DCC history, ’Dublin City Council and the 1916 Rising’. An added bonus in that work was that my eldest son Donal also contributed a chapter on Major John McBride, as he was the biographer of McBride in the ’16 Lives’ biography series on the executed leaders. Another very special piece for me was a plaque naming the members of the DFB who fought in the Rising as members of the Irish Citizen Army and Irish Volunteers, and giving details of their DFB service. is project was put together in-house in our workshops on a plaque provided by Dave Snee, and with artwork done by Ernie Harold RIP, a hugely talented artist. It was unveiled at the ceremony in Glasnevin to mark the graves of our 1916 veterans and now hangs in the entrance hall of the Training Centre.

e commemoration of much of the ‘Tan War’ (1919-1921) phase of the Revolution was lost to COVID-19 and important events (many with a strong DFB involvement) had to be remembered in isolation. Zoom talks became the norm and I contributed some to various groups and events, and was involved in the o cial remembrance online video of the Burning of the Custom House centenary. I felt many events were worth more than the pandemic would allow, but have been heartened to see the strength of commemorations around the events of the Civil War this year as things have opened up again.

Now as we come to the end of the Decade of Centenaries, there are still some projects I hope to see through, including some plaques to be erected and unveiled. One I would love to see completed is a plaque in Dun Laoghaire re station to mark two former members of the old Dun Laoghaire Fire Brigade who were pre-Truce IRA Volunteers in the same battalion, split during the Civil War when they took opposite sides, but who both later joined Dun Laoghaire re service and worked together to serve and protect the people under their care. It might be a tting bookend to the long decade for the DFB.

IT WAS A TURNAROUND FOR THE DFB IN TERMS OF ADDRESSING OUR HISTORY AND USING IT TO TELL OUR STORY TO THE PUBLIC”

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND

Captain Jason Smith talks to Adam Hyland about life and work in Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, and a memorable St Patrick’s Day visit to Dublin

Among the many visiting re ghters who took part in the St Patrick’s Day Parade as guests of Dublin Fire Brigade was Captain Jason Smith of Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service. Two weeks a er he returned home, I caught up with him to hear what life is like at his station in the Bethesda area of Maryland.

“I got to tag along to Dublin with a friend of mine, Captain Jamie Birney, who is originally from Derry, and whose father was a re ghter there,” he tells me. “He came to the States for college and stayed when he got hired by Montgomery County, and we’ve been

friends for 27 years. As a member of our Pipe Band, he’d met DFB Pipe Band members at a World War II memorial, got talking about St Patrick’s Day, and the rest is history.”

CAREER

From a military family, Captain Smith originally intended to follow his father into the Navy, but a severed Achilles ruled him out, forcing him to seek a di erent career path.

“I bummed around for a few years, not knowing what to do, and met a bunch of people, and the happiest of them seemed to be re ghters, so I asked how to go about getting hired, went back to college to qualify as

Captain Jason Smith, Station Commander No.6 Station, Bethesda, Maryland

A Montgomery County, Maryland engine and tiller truck

a paramedic, worked as a volunteer re ghter with Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, and eventually got hired fulltime in 2005.

“Most of us start out as volunteers, and that was the case with me,” he adds. “We actually have the biggest combination department in the US, consisting of career and volunteer re ghters.”

e move up from volunteer to career re ghter and on to o cer status in Montgomery County is similar to Dublin Fire Brigade, but with a few nuances and di erences.

“You are hired as a recruit and do six months of training to become a Fire ghter 1, with another six-month probationary period in the eld,” he explains. “ en you become a Fire ghter 2, take a few classes and work for a couple of years, and if you meet the criteria, you become a Fire ghter 3.

“A few years and a few more classes later come the rst level of competitive promotions, the rst of which is Master Fire ghter, which is the driver/operator of the units. A er that you can go for Lieutenant, the rst line supervisor in charge of apparatus and equipment, then comes Captain, in charge of a station, then Station Commander, who is ultimately responsible for everything that happens at their station.”

“Above that is Battalion Chief, responsible for up to eight stations, then Assistant Chief, Division Chief and ultimately Fire Chief.”

By his own admission, Captain Smith “moved up the ranks pretty quickly” to become Captain and Station Commander at No.6 rehouse in Bethesda, modestly saying he “got lucky and scored well on all the tests”.

CHALLENGES

Describing it as “a huge place”, Captain Smith says the Bethesda area keeps his rehouse extremely busy, with the volunteer compartment an essential supplement to the career re ghters across A, B, and C shi s who work a 24 hours on, 48 hours o schedule.

“Bethesda is called Mini Manhattan, because it has lots of high rises, and urban centre with businesses and retail, lots of suburbs, schools and everything else. It’s

very densely populated – lots of people, lots of businesses, lots of money.

“We have a little bit of everything from apartment buildings to townhouses to family homes, 30-storey high rises with ve-story below ground parking area, and the second deepest metro underground system in the world, so we are kept on our toes with a huge variety of callouts and things we need to keep on top of.

“In the US, the construction of buildings is di erent from Dublin –everything is made of wood over here, and with all that wood, a building can fail within seven minutes of a re starting, so we are all about getting there and getting water on it quickly, so we have a lot of pre-connected hose lines.”

No.6 station has an engine company consisting of Master Fire ghter, Captain, Fire ghter and Fire ghter/Paramedic so that every callout has a paramedic present, a tiller truck with three personnel, and an ambulance, and as is the case with almost all re stations, the EMS calls are the most frequent.

CALLOUTS

“We get a lot of emergency medical calls that run the gamut from cardiac arrest to very minor,” Captain Smith says. “We get a lot of road tra c accidents, but also res, re alarms, gas leaks. It is probably

no di erent from DFB, but every time someone calls 911 and no crime is being committed, the Fire Department goes to it, no matter if it is a water leak, gas leak, a re, smoke detectors that are beeping and they want you to change the batteries… pretty much everything.”

Every truck in the area carries rope rescue and extrication equipment on board, and when the need arises, can call on a number of specialist teams within the County.

“We cover 500 square miles and a million people, so we have 35 re stations and two rescue squads, 122 frontline pieces of apparatus, and within them we have specialist teams dealing with HazMat, urban search and rescue, swi water – the busiest in the nation because the Potomac river runs right through our area – rope rescue teams, trench collapse teams, con ned space teams, and if we face a very complex scenario we’ll call these specialist teams out.”

When callouts come in, the huge volunteer section works hand in hand with the career re ghters, travelling together on the re truck, and are seen as a very valuable asset to the department.

“It used to be 100% volunteers in Montgomery County,” Captain Smith tells me, “and some 80% of the re service in

The engines are kept busy in ‘Mini Manhattan’

the US is still volunteer, especially in rural areas, but Montgomery County has gotten so large and we have gotten so busy, with around 130,000 callouts per year, so it is a lot to ask people to do for free!”

e growth of the area has been gradual, but is ongoing, with Captain Smith saying there are currently seven new high rises being built in the next three years in Bethesda, so the chances of being even busier are high.

Being located just outside Washington DC, the rehouse also gets called to a lot of tech and Federal jobs, with all of the jurisdictions around DC also expanding very quickly.

“We also have ve re stations for Federal facilities, and it is unique for us that within our County we also have Federal land, and can be called in to assist when necessary. We’ve also been called to several major incidents over the years, including the Pentagon on 9/11, the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, so our specialist teams have a long history of involvement in major incidents.”

ATMOSPHERE

With this in mind, Montgomery County has a very comprehensive CISM system in place, with Captain Smith a member of the CISM team.

“We have a psychologist and a therapist who work just for us, and we have a lot of peers spread out around the department o ering support where and when it is needed,” he says. “It’s necessary. ere is a stigma that we are the ones who people call for help, so we don’t need it ourselves, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. We are nally turning that corner and realising it is a necessity and that it is ok to talk to people because you will, in your career, respond to calls that will mess with your head and you need a healthy way to deal with that.”

e atmosphere within the department is “very positive” Captain Smith tells me, saying that he works hard to ensure this is so because he is “ultimately responsible for morale at station level”.

One thing Captain Smith highlights is that 80% of re ghters working for the department don’t live in Maryland itself

because it is too expensive.

“People come from all over,” he tells me. “ e majority live within 50 miles, but a lot of people come in from Virginia, Pennsylvania, we have some driving all the way from New Jersey for their shi , but I guess it shows they enjoy the work. We have a very good set-up here. We have excellent equipment and top-notch training, and it is a nice area to work in.”

BENEFITS

Crew members can also pick what area they want to work in, with transfer meetings held every three months to hear request for moves to other stations.

“Some people really like working in the rural areas that don’t have hydrants and water tankers, whereas others like the urban areas, and we have a lot of speciality teams if you want to go down a certain route, so there are a lot of options

and that is a great bene t. You can pick where you want to serve. You get assigned to a station and if you like it, great, stay as long as you want, and if you don’t like it, you can easily put in a transfer.

“Some people really love their speciality. ere is no push – you don’t have to join a specialist team. And that is a good thing because the people on those teams are there for the right reasons: they want to be there, they pick what they are most interested in and work towards that.

“Another big thing about Montgomery County is our diversity,” Captain Smith adds. “We are one of the most diverse areas in the nation. Being close to DC, we have people from all over the world living in Montgomery County, so it is very nice to be able to interact with di erent cultures and to meet di erent people and hear a lot of di erent languages.

“Within our Fire department, we put a big emphasis on diversity in our hiring because we want people who can relate to everybody. At the moment, we have the second highest percentage of female re ghters in the country, just behind San Francisco.”

DUBLIN

Going back to his recent visit to Dublin, Captain Smith is full of praise for the reception he and his colleague received, saying it was a memorable experience.

“It was a fantastic day. We ew in the day before, marched in the parade, and then the next day we went up to Derry and stayed there for four days, touring around Northern Ireland. We have parades here, but not to that scale. It was amazing. All of the people I met were very welcoming, allowed us to join in. It was such a phenomenal experience and it was amazing to see the sheer number of people - there were no breaks in the crowd for the entire length of the parade! Everybody cheering as we walked past, a very unique experience, especially being at the front of the Parade as DFB are. It is neat that DFB leads it every year.

“I’d love to come back. I have talked with my people at work about coming back. I’d like my family to come too because they would enjoy it, so I would love to return because it was fantastic.”

Extrication equipment is carried on every engine

Taking in the St Patrick’s Day Parade experience in Dublin

A FITTING SEND-OFF

A Great Evening Saw 24 Retired Members of DFB Sports and Social Club Honoured for their Service, writes Paul McCann

With Friday, 17 February agreed as the date for the 2023 Retirement Ceremony, preparations began in earnest once again to ensure a successful and memorable event.

e Organising Team of Dan Fynes, Simon Finglas, Ray Campion, John Connolly and Paul McCann set about booking e Castleknock Hotel and contacting all the recent retired

sta to invite them to the event. Ger Ryan arranged the printing of invitations and, with assistance from the 5th Floor, sent the invites to all 24 Retirees, inviting them and their chosen guests to this special night.

e event allows DFB Sports and Social Club the opportunity to acknowledge the retirees’ careers, and also to acknowledge their families and the support they have also provided over the years. e Chief Fire O cer Denis Keeley and Assistant Chief Fire

O cers, together with the Retired Members Association, were also invited to attend.

e Committee arranged entertainment for the evening, including a Band (Electric Blue) and Joe the Magician, with owers (provided by Gra on Flowers) for the wives and partners, and ensured everything was in place to provide for a great night. All that was needed was for everyone to turn up… and they did!

The Retirees have more than 800 years of service between them

PARTY

All guests were invited to arrive for a drinks reception in the foyer of the hotel, and this also allowed for a meet and greet and catch-up with old friends.

All guests except the 24 Retirees took their seats in the Function Room. Once everyone was in place, the Pipe Band started up their distinctive sound, and preceded the Retirees into the Function Room, creating a fantastic sense of occasion as always.

is group of 24 Retirees had

accumulated more than 800 years of service to Dublin Fire Brigade between them, so it is very tting that this commitment and dedication was acknowledged and commemorated.

HONOURS

With the meal over, it was time for the o cial business of the night. Chief Fire O cer Dennis Keeley provided a very sincere thanks to all the Retirees. He then presented each Retiree with a very special statuette, which was specially

commissioned by DFB Sport and Social Club, and individually made and numbered by Irish Artist Barry Ormond.

e statuette depicts a Dublin Fire ghter rescuing two children from a re at the turn of the century, wearing the original DFB uniform. It is only made for the Club, so a very special piece to signify the Retirees’ long and successful career with DFB.

Ray McGonagle was also in attendance, to ensure each Retiree will have an o cial photograph to mark the

The drinks reception gave everyone the chance to catch up before the ceremony

occasion. Tommy Doyle, founding Member of DFB Sports and Social Club, was also presented with a commemorative 50th Anniversary Medal on the night, acknowledging his hard work, dedication and commitment to the Association over so many years as he steps down from his role as Retired Members Rep. Tommy’s commitment and dedication to the Club will very de nitely be missed.

THANKS

A night of music, dancing and fun continued until the early hours, and no one was in a hurry to go home. A special thanks to Guy ompson, Syed, Niamh and Andrew and the sta of the Castleknock Hotel for their excellent service, nothing was too much trouble and they went out of their way to accommodate any requests made of them.

e Organising Team were also very

THE RETIREES:

SHANE MCGILL

KEITH PEARCE

PAUL FOLEY

DEREK COWLEY

JOHN ROGERS

THOMAS BUTLER

MARK O’NEILL

DAVID LEACY

NOEL CUNNINGHAM

PAUL ELEBERT

FINTAN BARKER

MICK DUGGAN

JOHN FITZGERALD

grateful for the help and assistance of the other DFBSSC Committee Members who attended and helped make everything run smoothly on the night.

It is also tting at this time to acknowledge Dan Fynes, who has stepped away from his role as Secretary of the Sports and Social Club. e Retirement evening was one of Dan’s last gigs in this role, and it was testament to his hard work and commitment that the night was a huge success, and he leaves his role on a high.

e next Retirement event is provisionally booked for 1 March, 2024, again in the Castleknock Hotel. Any member lucky enough to be retiring over the coming months, and any recently retired member who could not attend the February event, please mark the date in your diary and the Committee will be in touch.

STEPHEN DILLON

DAVE KAVANAGH

SEAMUS GILL

PAUL GREENE

FRANCIS KIERNAN

JOHN DALY

MARTIN GILBERT

IAN DUFFY

NIALL KINSELLA

DAVE O BRIEN

BRIAN DOYLE

Tommy Doyle is welcomed on stage by Dan Fynes to be presented with a special 50th Anniversary Medal in recognition of his dedication to the Sports and Social Club

BINGE WATCHES

WHAT TO STREAM THIS SEASON

HAPPY VALLEY

e rst series of this gritty crime drama in 2014 was followed swi ly by a second, but viewers had to wait another seven years for the third instalment, and now it’s dropped, it has been receiving rave reviews. Few series manage to build the tension as well as this Yorkshire-set story about a veteran policewoman, Catherine Cawood (a brilliant Sarah Lancashire) with many domestic troubles trying her best to get by in a community crumbling under the pressures of drugs and organised crime, but Happy Valley does it with aplomb. e repeated connections to the main villain may stretch belief at times, but the story is always handled well, and just when you think Catherine’s life couldn’t get any messier, comes another gut punch. Well worth watching.

DOPESICK Disney+, 1 series

This miniseries based on the book Dopesick: The Dealers, Doctors and Drug Company that Addicted America, is both a riveting and uncomfortable watch, with outstanding performances throughout, not least by the superb Michael Keaton. Focusing on the epicentre of America’s struggle with opioid addiction, it casts a cold eye over the practices and tactics of Purdue pharmaceutical salespeople as they push the dangerously addictive but mis-labelled OxyContin drug on the medical profession, and a sympathetic telling of the lives they a ected when those doctors start prescribing it under the impression it is non-addictive. The sheer scale of the problem they created is hard to imagine, but this retelling works well to show just how much power Big Pharma can have, and it’s frightening.

THE LAST OF US Sky Atlantic, 1 series, another to follow

By now you’ve probably heard that the latest apocalyptic drama to take the TV world by storm is based on a video game that portrays an imagined 2023 where, 20 years a er a mutated fungus has turned almost all of humanity into zombie-like creatures, survivors struggle to get through each day. Sent on a mission to deliver a girl who is immune from infection, and who may or may not hold the answer to restoring society a er its inevitable collapse, smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) brings his young cargo (Bella Ramsey) on a dangerous trek across the US. is series takes its inspiration from the compelling and complex world of the video game and runs with it, creating outstanding TV that will pull you in with every twist and turn.

BBC iPlayer, Netflix, 3 series

KINGDOM

Netflix, 2 series

FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE

Disney+, 1 series

Few actors can portray an uncomfortable man in an awkward situation as well as Jesse Eisenberg, and in this drama series he nails it again as Dr Toby Fleishmann. Recently divorced and using dating apps for the rst time to nd a new romance, and with a new promotion at work, the world is opening up to reveal new possibilities, but then his ex-wife goes missing, leaving him to juggle his job, children and new romantic interests in a chaotic Manhattan. With long-overdue introspection, he begins to realise that he won’t nd out where his ex-wife is until he re-evaluates their marriage, but does he want to? And will that be the end of it? You’ll have to watch to nd out.

THE GOLD

BBC iPlayer, 1 series

Everyone loves a good heist story, and they don’t come much bigger than the 1983 Brinks-Mat robbery that saw £26million (more than €100million in today’s money) in gold bullion stolen from a warehouse near Heathrow airport and melted down to evade its recovery. So huge was the amount that it is thought any gold jewellery bought in the years a er the heist was likely to have at least some of the stolen amount in it. is dramatic retelling of the events outlines the operation and all those involved in its the , melting and dissemination (many of them men with families to support), from the East End gangsters to the scheming lawyers, as well as the police investigation that tried to catch the perpetrators and the haul before it vanished. A gripping true crime story.

If you’re familiar with these pages, you’ll notice there’s a been a slew of recommendations for South Korean TV series over the last few issues, and for good reason. This was actually the first of many Netflix-produced series from that country, and holds nothing back in presenting a slow-burning drama that starts o as a complex political thriller and turns into an all-out zombie horror. Set in a 16th-century fictional version of Korea, it is full of courtly intrigue and espionage, with a dark and foreboding shadow of rumoured plague on the horizon, that finally creeps out and causes mayhem. If you like Game of Thrones and subtitles, this is for you. After watching it, check out the spin-o feature-length oneo Ashin of the North.

EXTRAORDINARY

Disney+, 1 series, another to follow

This o -beat British comedy (featuring a few Irish names) is an enjoyable take on the world of superheroes, and dishes out an enjoyable mixture of laughs and drama. Unlike most stories in the genre where one or perhaps a group of people are endowed with superhuman skills, in Extraordinary, every single person gets one when they turn 18. That is, apart from Jen, a 25-year-old costume shop worker who struggles to deal with the fact that she is unique in the one way she doesn’t want to be. A fun array of superpowers ranging from superstrength to shapeshifting to rewinding time by ten seconds gives the creators a lot of room for gags, making this an enjoyable, non-taxing watch.

THE PATIENT

Disney+, 1 series

Although he is primarily a comic actor, Steve Carell has already more than shown his serious acting credentials in Foxcatcher and The Big Short, and here he is once again superb as a psychotherapist called Alan Strauss who wakes up to find himself imprisoned in the home of serial killer Sam (our own Domhnall Gleeson). While Sam (Gleeson again showing he is one of the world’s best actors) claims he wants Strauss to help curb his homicidal tendencies, but struggles to resist his true nature, they both engage in a battle for the upper hand, each flitting between hope, desperation and acceptance throughout the ordeal, until things start turning really ugly. Squirm-inducing.

FROM THE DEPTHS TO THE HEIGHTS

THE RHÔNE ALPS OFFER AN ARRAY OF SUBTERRANEAN AND OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES FOR THE THRILL-SEEKER, WRITES ADAM HYLAND

The Rhône Alps, which incorporate Savoie Mont Blanc, Isère, Loire and Rhône, may be synonymous with skiing and other winter sports (having hosted the Winter Olympics three times), but in the warmer months there are so many things to do on, around, and even under the mountains, it almost seems unfair.

e quaint and secluded village of St Christophe de la Grotte in Savoie is the perfect place to start o on a subterranean adventure, where you can enter the Échelles caves and soon nd yourself balancing on a narrow ledge while maneuvering around a stalactite some 50metres above a cave oor.

UNDERGROUND

Upon entering the caves, you start o with what seems like a nice saunter into the underworld, with dark corners illuminated by interior lights and sha s of sunlight spilling in from outside, but soon it becomes clear why the jumpsuit with harness, and an assortment of buckles, ropes and a helmet are issued to you on your tour.

Getting the full spelunking, or caving, experience involves zip-wiring across a chasm, then proceeding slowly, one clamp or buckle at a time, switching from rope to rope as you make your way deeper into the caves.

At times it becomes so narrow that you have to throw your rucksack ahead of you, while at other times it becomes so open that you look down at a gaping nothingness below, so it is at once invigorating, terrifying and enormously fun.

e expert guide from Les Grottes des Echelles and ultra-safe procedures mean there is no chance of this spelunk going spelaatt. It is very safe in the right hands, and will leave you feeling like you have just conquered the underworld as you reappear, bleary-eyed, out of the darkness.

You can check out what is on o er at www.sport.isere.fr/outdoor and www.animgrotte.com

At the foot of these hills stands the delightful La Ferme Bonne de la Grotte, a converted farmhouse that still has many remnants of its rural ancestry in its décor. ere are many quaint places full of rustic charm around France, but what sets this small place apart is its personal touch. It’s the perfect spot in which to nd relaxation

and peace, while also serving as a great base to head out and explore the surrounding countryside and all it has to o er, including many cycling trails, mountain hikes and walks, some of which start right outside the door. www.gites-savoie.com

If you prefer the water, you can head to Lake Aiguabelette, a tranquil and

Entering the Échelles caves

placid lake with a sheer wall of mountain on one side that gives conditions perfect for rowing, canoeing and kayaking.

SCALING HEIGHTS

Being the Alps, it is only right to head to the hills too, with a visit to the Chartreuse Regional Park and its stunning Cirque Du St Meme – a natural ampitheatre of mountain cli s that curve protectively around forested hills and beautiful waterfalls, most notably the Grande Cascade.

e hiking trails here are outstanding, beautiful and very rewarding, while the park itself is full of wonders for fans of history, ora and fauna. On top of that, the Chalet restaurant and hotel serves up delicious food and excellent accommodation in what is truly an idyllic setting. For more, see www.chartreuse-tourisme.com

is is a casual hike, but for the more adventurous mountain sportsperson there is the Raidlight Station and Spa entre Oreade. ink of it as like Everest Base Camp, but with expertise, advice, trails, a communications centre, top of the range sports clothing to sample, showers and an excellent café/restaurant.

ere’s also hot tubs, a sauna and relaxation yurt on o er to relax in a er your mountain adventure.

To fuel up, a dinner at L’Auberge du Morge, is an excellent treat, if you can nd it, because the food is of outstanding quality. ere may not be a menu – they o en just bring the dish of the evening

to your, con dent in the knowledge you would like it. And you will. www.aubergedumorge.com/en/

FLIGHT OF FANCY

You can go higher into the mountains by taking an incredibly steep funicular from Grenoble to St Hilaire du Touvet, especially recommended if your trip coincides with the bizarre and brilliant Coupe Icare, an annual exhibition of air sports, including everything from paragliding to hot air balloons to gliders, named a er the man who made those famous wings to see if man truly could master ight.

is is the Woodstock of air sports –and be prepared to see some weird and wonderful sights to rival the stunning mountain views all around. Even if you are not into hurling yourself o a cli or reaching for the skies in an e ort to emulate the aforementioned Greek Icarus, there is plenty to keep you and your family entertained here, from ight demonstrations to balloon making to bird of prey exhibitions, as well as street performances and music.

e highlight, however, must be the fancy dress hang gliding and paragliding competition, in which daredevils in bizarre costumes try to out-do each other in the fashion and ying stakes by taking a long run up before launching into the air from a cli top. It promises to last long in the memory.

is year the Coupe runs from Sep 22 to 24. www.coupe-icare.org

GRENOBLE

Grenoble itself is a lovely little city of about 550,000 people nestled under mountains (with a view of Mont Blanc in the distance for the very keensighted). The historical city has all sorts of attractions, from the Bastille, accessible by the city’s famous bubble cable cars, to the fascinating Musée Dauphinois. Fort de la Bastille o ers stunning panoramic views of the city and surrounding mountains, and o ers a great day out for families with nearby caves and an indoor parcour and orienteering centre for children. On top of that, the restaurant there is excellent and an open-air lunch in the warm sunshine on the rooftop of the world will serve as a fitting finale to an Alpine adventure, reminding you that this is a place where you can have great fun and relaxation, no matter what the season.

FLIGHT DETAILS:

Fly with Aer Lingus from Dublin to Lyon, or Aer Lingus to Geneva, and catch the train to Grenoble to start your adventure.

www.savoie-mont-blanc.com

The view from Grenoble’s Fort de la Bastille with Mont Blanc in the distance

Rowing on Lake Aiguabelette

St Christophe de la Grotte

EMERGENCY SERVICES NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

CHINA HOAX VIDEO GOES VIRAL

A video of a rescue robot was shared on social media and viewed tens of thousands of times, falsely claiming that it showed an “automatic corpse disposer”, following a surge in COVID-19-related deaths at the start of the year. e 53-second video appears to show medical personnel wearing PPE assisting people on the street while a machine scoops up a person, with a Chinese narration saying the Chinese government had started the production of “automatic corpse machines” amid the rising death toll. e claim began circulating a er China’s strict COVID-19 containment policy was li ed, which resulted in hospitals being inundated with patients, pharmacies running out of medications, and crematoriums overwhelmed. e video, which had been doctored, was traced back to the Tokyo Fire Department, who had posted it on YouTube in 2012 to demonstrate rescue robots, and which used dummy models. ey said the robots had not been in use since 2020.

NORWAY SHIPPING COMPANY BANS ELECTRIC VEHICLES

A Havila Kystruten, which operates coastal passenger services in Norway has banned the transport of electric, hybrid and hydrogen vehicles on its ships due to their re risk. While the company states that its ships were built with the latest systems and meet all safety requirements, they claim the danger posed by alternate fuel vehicles is too great.

CHILE STATE OF DISASTER DECLARED

Chile declared a state of disaster in February a er a devastating heatwave sparked forest res that le at least 13 people dead in several centralsouthern regions. More than 100 homes were a ected and 47,000 hectares of forest destroyed in three days. Two crew members of a helicopter ghting the res also died when their aircra crashed, and another re ghter was counted among the dead. More than 2,300 re ghters and 75 aircra were deployed to combat the res in the Nuble, Biobio, Maule and La Araucania regions.With temperatures reaching 40C, Chileans feared a repeat of the 2017 disaster in which res in the same region le 11 dead, destroyed 1,500 homes and a ected 467,000 hectares of forest.

“MA of Havila Bent Martini, said: “Our risk analysis shows that a possible re in fossil fuel vehicles will be able to be handled by the systems and crew we have on board. A possible re in electric, hybrid or hydrogen cars will require external rescue e orts and could put people on board and the ships at risk.”

Insurer Allianz has warned the shipping industry of the increased re danger posed by lithium-ion batteries in these vehicles, citing the four main hazards of re, explosion, toxic gases and thermal runaway.

Electric vehicles are widely believed to have contributed to the re last year that destroyed the car carrier Felicity Ace while the vessel was in the middle of the Atlantic.

CANADA

BEHAVIOURAL HEALTH TREATMENT WEBSITE

A new dedicated landing page for Canadian re ghters who are also members of the International Association of Fire ghters (IAFF) has been launched to provide easy access to behavioural health treatment services. e site at www.ehncanada.com/ia provides detailed information about health services, including the types of challenges present and options for the treatment for depression, anxiety, trauma and PTSD.

IAFF members in Canada will also have priority access to addiction and behavioural health programmes that serve general populations. “Our jobs are dangerous and stressful, which is why behavioural health resources are so important,” said IAFF General President Edward Kelly. “Canadian members struggling with behavioural health and addiction need to know they’re not alone, and there’s no shame in reaching out for help.”

ARMENIA UNEXPLAINED FIRE AT MILITARY BARRACKS

At least 15 men were killed in a re that broke out at a military unit in the village of Azat in the east of Armenia in January. e blaze started in the barracks of an engineer and sniper company unit in the early hours “under circumstances that have yet to be determined” according to the Ministry of Defence.

e incident follows a large blast in August of last year at a warehouse in the Armenian capital of Yerevan that saw 16 people die and 60 others injured.

ISLE OF MAN

PART-TIME FIREFIGHTER CALL

Employers in the Isle of Man have been encouraged to give their sta permission to become part-time re ghters on the island.

A new liaison role has been created by the re service to help rms understand the potential bene ts of their employees signing up, as part of a drive to boost the number of oncall re ghters. Part-time re ghters make up two thirds of the 150 sta employed by the Isle of Man re service, and provide emergency cover across six of the island’s seven re stations. Divisional and Liaison O cer Carl Kinvig said some candidates “struggled to get permission” from their bosses to commit their time to the service, admitting that a part-time re ghter’s main job “takes precedence, and it is up to the employer to say ‘yes you can go on this call’ or ‘no, I can’t spare you at this time’.” He did point out, however, that having sta trained to work under pressure and who also have rst aid and re safety skills would be bene cial to employers.

PORTUGAL CIVIL PROTECTION MECHANISM PREPARES FOR 2023

e European Civil Protection Mechanism hosted a workshop in Lisbon in January to review their performance during the 2022 wild re season. Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarçiç introduced the “Lessons Identi ed from the 2022 Wild re Season” workshop saying: “Every wild re season brings with it new lessons, new discoveries, and new opportunities to strengthen our common work. e 2022 season broke many records, showing us three lessons we should draw from: We need to step up wild re prevention, improve our preparedness, and boost our response capacities across Europe.”

He also con rmed that the Mechanism is to double its re ghting capacity before the 2023 wild re season, with the addition of ten light amphibious aircra and three helicopters to their eet.

e 2022 season saw the highest number of wild res since 2006, with the EU Civil Protection Mechanism activated 11 times, mobilising 33 planes, eight helicopters, and 350 re ghters and other supports for wild res.

OLD BABES IN THE WOOD

The huge success of e Handmaid’s Tale has made Margaret Atwood a household name, but while that work and its follow-up e Testaments, have shown the twice Booker Prizewinning author is adept at imagining an entire world, her attention to detail and interest in the minutiae of life is evident throughout her work.

at skill is perfectly presented in Atwood’s collection of 15 short stories (eight never printed before) that display the sheer range of her imagination, creativity and humanity. If one of these stories is not for you, and that is a big if, you will certainly nd another that intrigues and entertains.

At the heart of the collection, and what holds it together, is a stunning sequence that follows a married couple as they travel the road of life together, the moments big and small that make up a long life of love - and what comes a er. Nell and her husband Tig appear in many of the stories here to form one of three sections to the collection, and in the former we see a good deal of Atwood herself, most notably in those later stories that show a lived experience of loss. is is evident in the poignant dedication to her late partner, and adds a certain gravitas and sometimes heart-breaking depth to the ways in which she expertly describes the inconsequential things in life that bring back feelings of sadness around another’s death.

Indeed, the themes of grief mixed with enduring love, perseverance and wonder at the small things that make up the human experience are in contrast to the other sections, and what is remarkable is the way in which the much-celebrated author can switch between genres, from literary to science ction, with such ease, and here we are aided by the way in which the collection is divided into three groups.

ere are tales including two best friends disagreeing about their shared past, an examination of the right way to stop someone from choking, a daughter determining if her mother really is a witch, and what to do with

inherited relics such as World War II parade swords.

Fans will be familiar with Atwood’s mastery of dystopian science ction, and in the mid-section we see her give voice to a range of characters and topics as diverse as a confused snail enduring its own version of Ka a’s Metamorphosis, an imagined interview with George Orwell, the musings of philosopher-astronomer-mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria, and an alien tasked with retelling human fairy tales. roughout this book you will nd moments that grab you, and full stories that stay with you. A highly recommended read.

AUTHOR:

MARGARET ATWOOD

PUBLISHER:

VINTAGE

AVAILABLE:

EASONS, HODGES & FIGGIS, DUBRAY

PRICE:

€30

THE IRISH DEFENCE FORCES, 1922-2022

Covering the 100-year history of the Irish Defence Forces in one book is a tall order, but as the managing editor of the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of Irish Biography, author Eoin Kinsella has honed the art of presenting only the most essential information.

In this richly illustrated book, he explores the foundations, landmark successes and achievements, struggles and mistakes of the Defence Forces since 1922. Highlighting the men and women who have served in the Army, Air Corps, Naval Service and Reserve, he o ers the first complete overview of the development of the Defence Forces to the present day.

Upon reading this very interesting work, what emerges is a story of an institution that has, since the foundation of the State, formed an essential safeguard of Irish democracy, which is something that at times in our last 100 years, has not always been a guarantee.

AWAY DAYS: THIRTY YEARS OF IRISH FOOTBALLERS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

AUTHOR: GARETH MAHER

PUBLISHER: NEW ISLAND BOOKS

AVAILABLE:

EASONS, HODGES & FIGGIS, DUBRAY

PRICE: €17.95

Irish football fans are not alone in being obsessed with the English Premier League, and the most likely reason is the consistent presence of players from this country who have graced it.

In this very entertaining book, author Gareth Maher argues that the Irish have been at the very heart of the rise of the most watched league in the world.

Combining exclusive interviews with many of the best Irish players to ever play in the Premier League with an analysis of their involvement, he showcases the contribution the Republic of Ireland has made to the self-coined ‘greatest league on Earth’.

Insights from legends such as Seamus Coleman, John O’Shea, Shay Given, Niall Quinn, Jonathan Walters and Kevin Doyle, make for a great read as they uncover the good, bad and downright ugly aspects of playing in a league that has been home to almost 200 Irish players since its inception in 1992.

BIRNAM WOOD

With her sprawling epic The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton became the youngest recipient of the Booker Prize, and a TV adaptation for the BBC in 2020 brought her much acclaim for her dedication to “making plot matter again”.

In her latest novel, she returns to New Zealand for a tale of land-grabbing, trust and betrayal with a story that lends more than a little to Shakespearean motifs, with a range of deeply-drawn characters that cry out for another TV version.

A landslide has cut o the town of Thorndike, leaving a farm abandoned, and presenting an opportunity for a gardening collective called Birnam Wood that plants crops wherever nobody will notice. Their eyes light up at the chance to claim the land, but when they face a rival in an American billionaire, ideologies are tested, and trust goes out the window.

A brilliant tale of intentions, actions and consequences drawn out in a stunning setting, it’s an unflinching examination of how far we will go to ensure our own survival.

AUTHOR: EOIN KINSELLA

PUBLISHER: FOUR COURTS PRESS

AVAILABLE: EASONS, HODGES & FIGGIS, DUBRAY PRICE: €27

AUTHOR: ELEANOR CATTON

PUBLISHER: GRANTA

AVAILABLE: EASONS, HODGES & FIGGIS, DUBRAY

PRICE: €15.99

TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS

ROBOT FIREFIGHTER UNVEILED

A remote-controlled robot re ghter that can work for 20 hours has been unveiled at a tech show in Dubai by the Abu Dhabi Civil Defence.

e ermite Robot has a two waterspouts, the larger of which can pump 2,500 gallons of water per minute, a specialised arm in front to push away obstacles weighing up to 1.5tonnes, and a hook with retractable wire to pull items weighing up to 1.5tonne.

It runs on diesel and can operate for 20 hours without need for a re ll, can be controlled with a remote from a distance of up to 300 metres, and includes a fan that can be used to expel smoke.

It is also equipped with a temperature sensor, cameras and wheels that allow it to run on rough terrain, including train tracks.

“ e biggest bene t of using this robot is that even if it is destroyed in a re, we can still replace it,” said an Abu Dhabi Civil Defence spokesperson. “However, if you lose a life, it is irreplaceable.”

LONDON GETS NEW COMMS

London Fire Brigade has signed a new seven-year deal with Radiocoms Systems Ltd to deploy a DMR radio communications eet to support the 100 re stations across the 33 boroughs of the city.

e new technology will consist of standard and Intrinsically Safe 9IS) ATEX-rated two-way radios and accessories, while incident command vehicles and reboats will have an installed unit to support realtime communications between Incident Command O cers, Entry Control O cers and re ghters.

e new comms eet will comply with the UKFRS National Operational Guidance (NOG) and are backwards compatible with analogue radios to ensure interoperability between neighbouring Fire Rescue Services for cross-border incidents.

DRONE LASERS COMBAT BUSH FIRES

State-of-the-art colourised laser technology has been added to Fire and Rescue New South Wales’ eet of drones, giving re ghters the ability to more accurately identify bush re threats. e Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors also enable better management of fuel loads by mapping bushland density, producing precise three-dimensional point data fully integrated with red, green and blue high-resolution imagery.

“ is technology gives our re ghters a greater understanding of the bush, so during a re they can better protect properties, and during a hazard reduction operation they can more e ectively target areas with higher fuel loads,” said Australian Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience Steph Cooke. “Having lasers tted to drones in Fire and Rescue NSW’s €5.4million eet will give re ghters greater capability to keep our communities safer and stronger throughout periods of increased re danger.”

During a hazard reduction operation, laser imagery collected before and a er the burn will allow re ghters to determine how much bushland has been treated. e LiDAR sensors can also be used during ood recovery operations by measuring the volume of ood debris and giving a better visual of what it is made up of.

“ at information takes a lot of the guesswork out of ood recovery operations, leading to a faster and more e cient clean-up,” said FRNSW Deputy Commissioner Megan Sti er. “ is technology, which can work in any light conditions is a real game-changer, and signi cantly increases our aerial re ghting capabilities.”

CHINESE FIREFIGHTING AIRCRAFT TESTED

China’s latest large amphibious re ghting aircra has entered the ighttest phase of its development. Two AG600M airplanes arrived at the ight test centre in the Shaanxi Province in February for tests necessary to obtain the certi cation required to join the Chinese re service. Codenamed Kunlong, or “water dragon”, the aircra is being developed to serve emergency rescue missions and can be used in forest re ghting, maritime search and rescue, and other critical emergency rescue missions.

Its maximum take-o weight is 60tonnes, with a water-carrying capacity of up to 12tonne and a ight range of up to 4,500km.

Capable of low-altitude ying, the AG600M made the water carry and drop test in 2021, and is set to become the rst large special-mission aircra developed according to civil airworthiness standards.

As part of its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), the State Council of China has unveiled a plan to boost the development and capabilities of the modern emergency management system over the 2021-2025 period by increasing aircra for forest re- ghting missions and expanding airrescue capacities to cover key forests and grasslands across the country.

INSURING IRELAND