Firecall Summer / Autumn 2023

DISASTER RESPONSE

BUILDING A NETWORK

THE

TO THE RESCUE

THE EU CIVIL PROTECTION MECHANISM TEAM IN TURKIYE AND SYRIA

WOMEN’S FIRE SERVICE NETWORK

GRIMP Day Marseille and Rescue Great Day Seville

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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: Adam Hyland

Consulting Editor: Ger Ryan

Contributors: Ger Ryan, Las Fallon, John McNally, Tony McCann, Dave Connolly, Brian Tracey, Darren Donovan, Tom Geraghty, Aidan Leavy

Designer: Neasa Daly

Cover Credit: DFB

Photography: Dublin Fire Brigade, Dublin City Council, Adam Hyland, Ger Ryan, Trevor Hunt, Greg O’Dwyer, John McNally, Las Fallon, Tony McCann, Darren Donovan, Tom Geraghty, Dave Connolly, Skylotec, Aidan O’Sullivan, Shaun Maher, Aidan Leavy, Aidan Raynor, Anthea Browne, Paul Rock, Stephen Weldon, Brian Tracey, John Chubb, Random House, Sandycove, Wildfire Books, New Island Books, Venari, Squishy Robotics, Excelerate.

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.

I’d like to open by welcoming Ger Ryan as the new Secretary of the DFBSSC and co-editor of this magazine. It has been a pleasure to work with him on this issue, and I look forward to working with him into the future.

It’s been great to see many of DFB’s many sporting and social clubs taking part in events and activities over the last few months.

The Rope Rescue Team’s participation in two major events makes for a very interesting read, not least because of their rapid response to an injured motorcyclist that made the news. The DFB Soccer Team have been back in action, and congratulations to them for their recent successes and fundraising e orts, while DFB Strong looks to be a very exciting opportunity for DFB members to maintain strength. Thanks to Dave Connolly for his feature, and to Aidan O’Sullivan and Shaun Maher, and Stephen Weldon for their time and input.

On the social side, the Summer Nights Out were again a great success, and Brian Tracey of the DFB 1875 Club shares his experience of this year’s Whiskey Live event. My thanks to them too.

The Recruit Family Night was another great success, and thanks to Aidan Raynor, Paul O’Riordan and Rachael Lee for taking the time to tell me about it.

My conversation with Anthea Browne, Chair of the Women’s Fire Service Network, was a fascinating discussion, and is recommended reading, as is Paul Rock’s experience as a Team Leader for the EU Civil Protection Mechanism Team’s response to the devastating earthquake in Turkiye and Syria this year.

There’s a strong sense of reflecting on the past too. Following on from his debut feature last time out, Darren Donovan has once more shared pictures from his archives, while Tom Geraghty provides another snapshot of history and Las Fallon, as always, covers an important campaign to honour the lives of firefighters who have died in service. My thanks to all of them for their contributions. On a similar note, Aidan Leavy also writes eloquently about the Deceased Member’s Mass.

A visit to B Watch Blanchardstown for our station profile was very enjoyable, so thanks to S/O Francis Kelly and all the crew, as well as to recently retired D/O John Chubb for sharing his thoughts on his career and insights on what the future holds for DFB.

As always, I’m grateful to DFBRMA Secretary Tony McCann and DFB Pipe Band Secretary John McNally for contributing great pieces again, and to everybody who gave their time to produce this issue.

Finally, we also have a new quiz for you to try. The answers can all be found within these pages, so read up and send your answers to me at the following address: adam.hyland@ashvillemediagroup.com

I hope you enjoy the read,

EDITOR’S

PICKS

23 BUILDING A NETWORK

The Women’s Fire Service Network

43 DISASTER RESPONSE

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism Team’s response to the Turkiye/ Syria earthquake

64

TO THE RESCUE

The DFB Rope Rescue Team’s Busy Summer

HONORARY SECRETARY’S FOREWORD

Welcome readers to our summer/autumn 2023 issue of Firecall.

It is my honour and privilege to take over the reins as Consultant Editor of this magazine from S/O Dan Fynes. Over the last few years, he has produced a very informative and entertaining magazine for our members, and I hope to do the same in the coming years.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Dan, and Declan Rice, for the time they gave up to bring the club to where it is now. Membership has grown year on year and now stands at nearly 800 members, which is remarkable.

The new DFBSSC Committee is firmly in place and busy working behind the scenes to support our various clubs, organising our traditional social events as well as trying new ideas like our hugely successful cinema days, and the latest, co ee mornings in the Phoenix Park. We endeavour to keep growing on the success of our social giveaways to members, which so far this year included Ireland V France tickets, premium seats for Katie Taylor’s homecoming fight, concert tickets in the 3 Arena and Premium level tickets to the All-Ireland Final.

Dublin Fire Brigade has always had among its ranks members who play important roles in other areas, and in this issue, we hear from two past members. Paul Rock shares his experiences working as a Team Leader on the EUCPM response to the earthquake in Turkiye and Syria, while former DFB Executive Fire Prevention O icer Anthea Browne discusses the work of the Women’s Fire Services Network.

The regular contributions from Las Fallon, John McNally, and Tony McCann make for excellent reads, and I’m delighted to see Darren Donovan continue to share pictures from his archives, while Tom Geraghty also shares a great snapshot of DFB history.

Also covered in this issue are the endeavours of the DFB Rope Rescue Team, who took part in two gruelling events this summer, but also saved the life of a motorcyclist in urgent need of medical assistance. Their participation in these events heightens the skillsets we can all share, and their swift actions in doing what they do best shines a very positive light on our organisation around the world.

The important work of the CISM team is also highlighted through coverage of their latest Recruit Family Evening, which underlined the supports in place for all DFB members and their families, and it is worth repeating that if any member needs to reach out, there will always be someone to listen.

Other recommended reads include the Retired Member Profile with D/O John Chubb, the recent successes of the DFB Soccer Team, the 1875 Club’s visit to Whiskey Live, and for anyone interested in maintaining strength and fitness, the article on new DFB club, DFB Strong.

Finally, I must thank Adam Hyland for his patience and the help he has given me so far in my new role as consultant Editor. Thanks again to all who contributed, or who took the time to be interviewed. Enjoy the read.

We are always trying to improve our methods of communications. Each station has a WhatsApp group that is administered by the station DFBSSC Rep. If you wish to be added to the group, contact your station Rep for details.

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

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)

The new DFBSSC Committee has taken up the mantle of previous committees and continues to work hard to ensure our members can enjoy a full calendar of sporting and social functions, and as you will see in this issue, there have been a number of hugely successful events in the past few months.

Our monthly draws continue, and we continue to increase our social media giveaways, so keep an eye on the various channels of communication to be in with a chance to be a winner.

RECENT EVENTS

Our clubs and societies have been busy, with events supported by DFBSSC including:

• e Golf Society’s Captain’s Day in Forrest Little, Swords

• DFB Strong’s Barbell Workshop and open classes

• CISM Family Night, with refreshments on the night sponsored by DFBSSC

• Recruit Class Charity Car Wash, at which DFBSSC provided food and drinks

• DFB Soccer Team’s many events supported by DFBSSC

• DFB RTC & Trauma Team event

• DFB DASH in the Park co ee mornings

• DFB Rope Rescue’s trip to Seville

FAMILY DAY

Our Family Fun Day returns this year and will take place on Sunday, 3 September, which we are delighted to hold a er the event couldn’t go ahead during COVID-19 and with last year’s big day cancelled at the last minute due to bad weather. We hope to put on a spectacular event for all of our club members and their families. Along with the usual in atable castles and obstacle courses, we will have funfair rides, carnival games, and bungee trampolines, along with amazing entertainment with a DJ hosting the day, a magic show for all ages, a reptile exhibition, and plenty more on the day to keep everybody entertained. ere will be an ice cream van, as well as catering provided by Firehouse Pizza and Not Another Burger and Chicken Joint.

WINTER NIGHTS OUT

e Summer Nights Out were once again a very enjoyable evening for all this year, giving our members the chance to socialise and meet up with members of all ages and rank from across our stations. e Winter Nights Out will take place in October.

Provisional dates have been set as:

ursday, 12 October: B Watch

ursday, 19 October: A Watch

ursday, 26 October: D Watch

ursday, 2 November: C Watch

e venue is TBC, so keep an eye on our messaging platforms for updates.

CINEMA DAY

Following the great success of our rst Family Cinema Day last November, and another in April of this year, with Mario Bros proving to be the popular choice and more than 350 adults and children attending, we will be hosting another one this year.

e Day will take place on 30 October at the Savoy on O’Connell Street, with the selection of movies to be announced closer to the date. Registration for tickets will once again be done through Eventbrite for DFBSSC members and their children only.

DECEASED MEMBERS MASS

Aidan Leavy has written eloquently in this issue about the Deceased Members Mass, and I urge any members who can spare a few hours to attend and help pay respects to those who have passed away. It will take place in St Saviour’s Church on 19 November. If you would like to get involved, please contact Aidan Leavy, A Watch, No.3, or any DFBSSC rep.

CHRISTMAS PARTY

A er last year’s much-anticipated return to the Castleknock Hotel for our annual Christmas Party, we will once again hold the big day there on Sunday, 10 December.

More details about the day will be circulated to al members through their DCC email accounts, on our social media pages, in the DFBSSC

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)

Station WhatsApp groups and on notice boards in November.

A reminder that this event is strictly for current DFBSSC members, their partners and children only. Admittance on the day will only be granted to those who have pre-registered for tickets on the Eventbrite page when it is published.

RETIREMENT PARTY

We are also working hard to organise the next big Retired Member Party, which will take place on Friday, 1 March, 2024. ese events have proven to be one of the most enjoyable xtures on the DFBSSC calendar each year, and we look forward to welcoming the latest retirees and their families.

We will be contacting retired members over the next couple of months to notify them of the event. We are still working through a backlog of retirees due to events

JOIN IN

having to be postponed during COVID-19, but if you are unsure, please feel free to get in touch with a member of the Executive Committee. A reminder to all that you must be an active member of the DFBSSC on retirement to be eligible to be invited to this event.

THANKS

anks to Ste Breen, who has been kept very busy on our social media pages with all the competitions and giveaways to our members, to Kev Conlon for looking a er the Eventbrite registrations, our sub-committee for organising the DFB Dash co ee mornings, Aidan Leavy, Aidan O’Sullivan and Stephen O’Neill.

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.

MONTHLY DRAW WINNERS

April:

D Cash B3

C McNally A4

K Markey Senior Management

J Kennedy B ERCC

M Fay A9

May:

E Cooley D3

B O’Reilly C8

J Mulligan B3

G Carberry B HQ

D Singleton D4

June:

R Fox A4

A Stanley D5

J Casey B5

N Jackson Senior Management

E Dempsey B9

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

DFB IN BRIEF

A recap of Dublin Fire Brigade’s news and events over the last few months

LEFT: Firefighters from Donnybrook and Rathfarnham prepare to enter a vacant building in Clonskeagh to extinguish a fire in May. RIGHT: In May Station O cer Pat Teehan gives his last lessons to his crew after 31 years of service and we wish him the best of luck with the new chapter.

ABOVE: Responding to a well-developed house fire in Rialto in May.

ABOVE: Firefighters from HQ received a visit from members of the Employment Plus Programme at the Central Remedial Clinic in May. LEFT: Firefighter Brownrigg was surprised with a cake while working his birthday in June.

RIGHT: Dolphin’s Barn firefighters received on the job training from the children of Drimnagh Castle Primary School while visiting them in July. LEFT: D Watch Tallaght were on hand to help cool down the children at Palmerstown GAA after their Colour Run in June.

RIGHT: Our Fire Prevention Team got a warm welcome on Africa Day at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in May as they carried out fire safety at the event. LEFT Congratulations and huge praise to our Senior Fire Prevention O cer Keith Brunkard who gave his 100th blood donation to GiveBlood in June. RIGHT: Congratulations to Rachael Lee, who won the 2.2km Escape from Ireland’s Eye sea swim in June, beating more than 250 competitors to the finishing line.

ABOVE: DFB members paid a visit to Howth Hill to see some of the 37 newborn goats and named one Uisce. BELOW: Dolphin’s Barn firefighters took part in the Darkness Into Light walk for Pieta House in May.

LEFT: Class 1/2023 on parade on their second day of training at the end of May. RIGHT: Station O cer Tom McLoughlin took part in a Citizens Assembly in May to discuss drug use in society and how first responders engage with the issue as part of their profession.

ABOVE: DFB’s Extrication Team placed first for Incident Command in the Extrication Challenge at the Rescue Org Ireland event in May. RIGHT: The North Strand D Watch crew advertised the GiveBlood platelet recruitment campaign at the end of June. BELOW: Senior Firefighter on A Watch and former DFB Soccer team player and manager Derek Mcardle gets a fitting send-o at HQ after 32 years of service.

ABOVE LEFT: We were saddened to learn of the passing of retired firefighter Stephen ‘Macker’ McDonald, In April. ABOVE RIGHT: In May, we were saddened to hear of the passing of retired firefighter Con Linehan, who served on C Watch in both Finglas and Tara Street fire stations.

ABOVE: The A Watch colleagues of Sub-O cer Liam ‘Willo’ Wilson gave him a great send o in May after 41 years of service in which he mentored generations of firefighters, presenting him with a great picture. BELOW: US President Biden with the Dublin Airport Fire and Rescue Service recruit class during his visit in April.

ABOVE: Firefighters from B Watch Phibsboro perform a dry drill at the new Rock Wing at Mater Trauma, including horizontal evacuation of patients followed by vertical evacuation using the firefighter lift. LEFT: We said farewell to FF/P and international water polo player Brian McLoughlin of D Watch in May after 32 years of service at Dolphin’s Barn and Donnybrook stations.

LEFT: Firefighters from D Watch in Tallaght met up with Katie Taylor at the Golden Cobra boxing club in May.

ABOVE: We decked out our vehicles to take part in Pride 2023 in June.

ABOVE: Firefighters from Dolphin’s Barn, HQ and Phibsboro respond to an apartment fire in the city centre in April, with one FF/P tasked with rescuing the family pet.

LEFT: In April, after 31 years of service, we said farewell to D/O Derek Cheevers, a senior D/O who also trained personnel in EUCPM operations worldwide BELOW: Family and colleagues assembled to give firefighter/paramedic Ian Stubbs a great send o at Dun Laoghaire fire station as he finished his last shift after 18 years of service.

ABOVE: FF/Ps from Kilbarrack and Phibsboro worked with Howth Coast Guard and RNLI to assist an injured person on the cli s in May. BELOW: FF/Ps from Finglas, Kilbarrack and Skerries prepare to extinguish a roof and attic fire in a house in North Co Dublin in April.

ABOVE: Firefighters from Tallaght got to meet some of the My Canine Companion puppies in the Square in June. LEFT: Firefighters from Donnybrook, HQ and Dun Laoghaire conducting an inter-agency exercise at the NORA storage facility in Poolbeg in May.

ABOVE: In May, B Watch HQ assembled to say farewell to D/O Brian Murray after 41 years of service and 30 years as a union o cial. RIGHT: In May, we said farewell to FF/P Frank McDonald after 36 years of service across stations including Dolphin’s Barn and Tallaght before becoming a supervisor in the Eastern Region Communications Centre.

ABOVE: Sub-o cers Brennan and O’Neill with Firefighters Scully and Evans receiving Dublin City Council’s Three Castles Award in June for DFB’s dedication during the pandemic.

BELOW: Firefighters from HQ received a visit from members of the Employment Plus Programme at the Central Remedial Clinic in May.

ABOVE 1: The DFB Recruits held charity car wash events at the Training Centre and Drogheda Fire Station to raise money for St Francis Hospice in July. ABOVE 2: Four engines and a turntable ladder responded to a fire o Francis Street in July.

RIGHT: A Watch HQ carry out on-station familiarisation with our new 42m turntable ladder in May.

ABOVE: Four engines, a foam tender, turntable ladder and water tanker responded to a large fire in an industrial unit o the Kylemore Road in July. BELOW: Firefighters from Phibsboro and HQ attended a domestic fire in Stoneybatter at the end of July, with a BA team rescuing a dog.

@dubfirebrigade

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

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

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ABOVE: In June, we said farewell to Acting Sub O cer Paul O’Toole, who left the ranks of the DFB to take up the role as Fire Prevention O cer with the HSE. LEFT 1: Six units attended a large fire o Ossory Road in East Wall in June. LEFT 2: In June, Firefighters in Tallaght had a visit from junior Firefighter Ollie who used some of his birthday money to get biscuits for his uncle Derek and the crew. BELOW: Firefighters from Swords, Kilbarrack and Skerries at an industrial unit on fire in Donabate in June.

Acknowledgement:

MICHAEL KEOGH

Gretta, Brendan and Claire would like to thank everyone who called personally, sent Mass Cards, Sympathy Cards, text messages and condolences on rip.ie following the death of Michael Keogh, Ex C Watch, DFB, Blanchardstown and Tara Street.

It is with gratitude that we acknowledge the e ort of those who attended the funeral home, funeral Mass and burial in Maynooth, and wish to extend our thanks to include those who were unable to attend.

ABOVE: In May, A Watch North Strand gathered to say farewell to D/O Paul Hendricksen after 32 years of service as an immensely talented o cer who worked on many key DFB projects.

LEFT: A Watch HQ came out to support the Irish Blood Transfusion Service’s Platelet Recruitment campaign and signed themselves up to become platelet donors in May.

RIGHT: Some of our Marine Emergency Response team who took part in a multiagency exercise o the coast of Galway in May.

LEFT: Three fire engines and a water tanker responded to a fire in a vacant building at Rush harbour in June.

Hogan’s Bar

T: 01 677 5904

35 SOUTH GREAT GEORGES STREET, DUBLIN 2

GAME ON

The DFB Football Team Is Back to Winning Ways, writes Adam Hyland

The DFB Soccer Team have been busy this summer. With several matches under their belt, they are looking to once more grow and attract new members, and recent matches have shown the appetite for many to get their boots back on.

One of the big matches was an eagerly anticipated game at Tolka Park against Firesport UK, the umbrella organisation that represents re services across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland,.

“ e soccer team used to be quite busy, and we always had games running through the summer months, but a er COVID-19 it slowed down and nothing was really happening for a while,” team manager Aidan O’Sullivan of A Watch Phibsboro tells me. “We played the UK team previously in 2016, but the plans for a rematch went o the boil until

recently, when we managed to organise it, predominantly through Ian Kelly from D Watch Phibsboro, who did a huge amount of planning and logistics to make it happen.

“Between the two of us, who have been involved in the soccer team for a long time, we decided to get the team going again, and this match was a good way to give it a kickstart. We wanted to grab the interest with a big match because there would be a lot of people who are relatively new in DFB and who may not have known we have a soccer team, so we wanted to catch their attention, as well as bring back in some other people who have been around for a long time.

“We held a couple of open training sessions in May and we had brilliant numbers for those, so we knew the interest was there and formed a panel, and had a few friendlies in the run up to the match.”

The teams for the DFB B Watch Vs DFB FC game at Dalymount Park

B Watch present a cheque for €7,122 to Louisa Kennedy of CHI after the charity match at Dalymount Park

A presentation to Jimmy Dignam of Bohemians FC to thank them for their support in getting behind the charity event

and Aidan was happy to jump on board and help with getting the teams together.

“One thing led to another, word got out to the other B Watch members across the stations, and although there is a crossover between B Watch members and DFB team members, we tried to be as fair as possible when picking the teams, so we weren’t taking too many of their players from them.

“We had a great charity to raise money for in Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) Temple Street, so everyone got on board and helped out with fundraising and selling ra e tickets, and it was also a great chance for people to get a run out at Dalymount Park, which was a big draw for our players.”

With a few ex-pros also called in to play, the match was a great experience, Shaun says, played over three half-hour segments, ensuring everyone got to play at least half an hour of football.

e DFB team won the rst segment 1-0, with the second a stalemate, before the B Watch team levelled things up with a 1-0 win in the third, but the scoreline was secondary as the match raised a total of €7,122 for CHI.

“It was brilliant to raise that much money,” Shaun says, “and we had a lot of great support, with 14 of the 15 prizes put up sponsored, so I must thank all who donated to the event. anks must also go to Ian Kelly and Aidan O’Sullivan for helping make it happen, and to Trevor Hunt for the photos. It was a great experience, and we hope to do it again over the next few years. Also, it was a great warm-up for the match against Firesport UK!”

FUNDRAISER

One of those build-up games was a hugely successful charity fundraiser held on 11 June and organised by Shaun Maher of B Watch Tara Street, who as an ex-player, has close ties with Bohemians.

“ e idea came about to have a game for charity at Dalymount Park,” he tells, “and we thought we would keep it in-house because we wanted to include everybody we could. We have played inter-Watch matches before, and because the DFB soccer team were starting back up again with Aidan O’Sullivan and Ian Kelly, we thought it a good idea to arrange a match between players from B Watch and the rest of DFB. As a coach of the DFB team, I know a lot of the players already,

The DFB team for the match against Firesport UK

The victorious DFB team after the Cup final against Ely Woodlawn

The Firesport UK team for the match at Tolka Park

UNDERDOGS

e match against Firesport UK on 22 June was a big deal for the DFB soccer team, because, as Aidan O’Sullivan says, they can pick a squad from a huge catchment of four countries.

“We were massive underdogs because they have such a huge pool to pick their squads from,” he tells me. “ ey would be one of the biggest sporting organisations around. I’ve played in international competitions and come up against them before, and they are always very competitive, either reaching nals or winning tournaments outright. is was a big game for us, because they are such strong opposition.”

Dalymount Park was in use that night, so Aidan and Ian Kelly got in touch with Shelbourne FC, who were very accommodating, letting the teams play on their pitch, and opening the bar for a few post-game refreshments.

MATCH

As for the match itself, the underdogs came out on top with a 1-0 win.

“It was extremely fast-paced, very competitive, a really tight and tactical game,” Aidan says. “ e speed was incredible, so I’m glad I wasn’t playing myself!

“It ebbed and owed, an evenly matched game that could have gone either way. One of our players, Dean, made a phenomenal block just before half time to save us from going in one down, and at half-time we tweaked a few things we could improve on. Shaun Maher is a brilliant coach and tactically very aware, so he identi ed a few things we could change in the second half and it really worked.

“We got on top of the game, and Stephen Cullen was our super sub, coming on and scoring the winner, a great lob, with one of his rst touches. Our Captain Karl Young and his brother Conor played really well in the middle of the pitch, with Karl winning

Man of the Match, as voted for by both management teams.

“It was a great result for us, and we hope to get over to the UK for a return match before the year is out,” he adds. “A big thank you to all who helped: Shaun Maher as coach, Ian Kelly from an organisational point of view (we would have been lost without him), Gavin Hoey and Chris Bergin, the rest of the management team, who were all as important as each other in getting this done. anks must also go to Brian Tracey who acted as one of the o cials for the match, as well as our sponsors across all our games, DFBSSC and DUBCO.

PRIDE

e games continued to come quick and fast, with Shelbourne inviting the DFB team to take part in their Pride Cup ve-a-side event three days later.

“We played three games, one of which was against the Shels sta , which included ex-internationals Damien Du and Joey O’Brien,” Aidan tells me. “ ey went on to win it, but it was a great experience for us to play against people of that calibre.”

Next up was the Civil Service League nal against Ely Woodlawn on 10 July, which the DFB team won 2-1, with goals from Shaun Hayden and Damien Elebert, and with that success, this is just the beginning of the rebirth of the DFB football team.

JOINING

“We have our eye on the European Championships next year, or the World Police and Fire Games the following year,” Aidan tells me, “that’s what we are looking towards.

“We want to get back to playing as many games as we used to, and are always looking for more players. It is open to anybody who is interested. Obviously, there is a competitive element when it comes to games such as those against the Firesport UK team, but the Civil Service League o ers more of a social aspect because it is not as highintensity, and everyone can get a run out, as they can with the many charity games we play in. So, anybody is more than welcome to come out and join us.”

If you are interested in joining, contact Aidan O’Sullivan of A Watch Phibsboro, and keep an eye out for posters across the stations for details.

About to kick off at Dalymount Park

DFB FC with Damien Duff at the Shelbourne Pride competition

FROM WITHIN THE CIRCLE

The DFB Pipe Band Has Had a Busy and Varied Few Months, writes Secretary John McNally

As always, we have been very busy since our last article in the spring edition of Firecall.

As far back as November 2022, we were contacted by the production o ce of André Rieu with an invitation to play with him and his orchestra in Dublin. We were delighted

to be invited to perform with the great violinist and conductor Andre Rieu, and there were many months of communication and practice.

3ARENA

Finally, we got to perform on the two nights of concerts in the 3Arena on

21 and 22 April. e band spent two long days and nights, which included sound checks and rehearsals, before playing on stage in front of more than 8,000 people each night. It was a real pleasure to take part, and a great experience meeting André Rieu and his orchestra. We provided solo pipers for many

André Rieu on stage with the DFB Pipe Band Bass drum in foreground

BELOW: It was an honour to perform alongside Andre Rieu. RIGHT: Performing at the 3Arena. BELOW RIGHT: The Band on stage with André Rieu at the 3Arena in April

various events over the last few months, including the funerals of DFB family members and the funeral of retired re ghter Stephen McDonald RIP. We also provided solo pipers for many recent retirements of DFB members.

PAUL HAND

Sadly, our Band Trustee, retired DFB re ghter Paul Hand, passed away a er a long illness in late May. At the request of Paul’s family, we had the honour of providing a full band for his funeral, where solo pipers played Paul into and out of the church and the full band played ‘Amazing Grace’ at the altar. We then led the DFB marching body to

DFBPB Pipe Major Seamie O’Rourke playing at the Commemoration of the burning of the Custom House in May

DFB Pipe Band lead the marching body at the funeral of Paul Hand RIP BELOW: DFB Pipe Band with Paul Hand

DFBPB Pipe Major Seamie O’Rourke at the Commemoration of the burning of the Custom House with Maeve Taylor (95) who was the model for the statue in the background

AT THE REQUEST OF PAUL’S FAMILY, WE HAD THE HONOUR OF PROVIDING A FULL BAND FOR HIS FUNERAL”

bring Paul to his nal resting place at St Fintan’s cemetery in Sutton, followed by a lament at the graveside. Paul will be sadly missed by everyone. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

On 25 May, our Pipe Major Seamie O’Rourke played at the 102nd anniversary of the burning of the Custom House, which has become an annual event for our solo pipers who are always glad to be part of the occasion.

UNVEILING

On 19 May, the band performed at the unveiling of a plaque to mark the site of the deaths of two Dublin Fire ghters, Inspector Christopher Doherty and Fire ghter Peter Bourke, at a re in Westmoreland Street on 20 May, 1891. is was a DCC led event and is covered elsewhere in this magazine by Las Fallon.

CONGRATULATIONS

On 14 June, recruit class 1/2023 had their family CISM information night in the Training Centre. As in recent years, the band were delighted to perform at the closing of the night. We would like to wish all of recruit class the very best with the rest of their recruit course: See you at the passout!

e band would also like to congratulate DFBPB Piper Mark Shaw and his wife Ciara on the recent birth of baby Lucy.

We have many gigs coming up over the next few months and we will report back in the next issue of Firecall.

NEW MEMBERS

Finally, as always, we are looking for new 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. 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. If you would like to give the band a try, why not come along to the Training Centre 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

LIVING THE DRAM

The DFB 1875 Club Thoroughly Enjoyed This Year’s Whiskey Live Event, writes Brian Tracey

Our annual pilgrimage to Whiskey Live happened in May, when 58 members of the DFB 1875 Whiskey Club descended on the RDS. With four sessions over two days, it o ered great exibility for our shi system so that as many members could attend as possible.

For anyone who doesn’t know what Whiskey Live is, it’s Disneyland for whiskey enthusiasts, with more than 90 of the world’s nest producers of whiskey (or whisky for Scottish distillers) all setting up camp in the RDS, o ering samples of their produce. Every year they have their core ranges, but also some new releases and special bottles (under the counter) for the select few.

Some of our members getting into the spirit at Whiskey Live

Commandeering John Teeling, the Godfather of Irish Whiskey

Sampling something special from the Great Northern Distillery

EVENT

Our Whiskey Club is now four years old and getting better all the time, so no better way to spend an a ernoon or evening than meeting up with friends and fellow members and hitting all the stands to try some new whiskeys, whilst also getting out for the day and bagging some goodies from the distillers.

is year, I went to the Saturday Evening session, which closes Whiskey Live, so usually the big giveaways are done near the end of this day and I have on previous occasions le with bags of whiskey goodies.

During each session, distillers run masterclasses separate to the main hall. ese are private tastings where the distillers get to show o some new whiskeys and do research into what is working with the public, but also as a whiskey lover you can get to try whiskeys that are extremely rare and expensive for a small fee. ese sessions are fantastic to nd out what’s coming down the line during the year, and also to get amongst the top dogs of the industry.

We always turn up to Whiskey Live wearing our club tops as we have built a good reputation with the brand ambassadors over the past few years, and these are like having a golden ticket when you approach a stand, as it lets them know to o er us the good stu and some really special bottles.

HIGHLIGHTS

During this year’s event, we had some amazing whiskeys o ered to us, we went around the hall in groups of three or four, and when one group found a special drop, we let others know and then descended on the Stand.

One such whiskey that we almost missed was a 29-year-old Redbreast that spent 23 of those years in a port pipe. is whiskey is used in the Redbreast 27-year-old, but this one was an exceptional cask, and we swarmed around the Midleton stand and actually nished the last drop.

Some of the less famous producers (but nonetheless o ering amazing drams) were sampled. One highlight

was an Old Comber blend which was at the Echlinville stand, an old-style Trad Pot still whiskey which has been resurrected by the Northern Distillery Echlinville (famous for Dunvilles) and it will be a new release in August. is is a new take on it, as the original one dating back to the old days was a pure pot still, but they have now added a grain whiskey to make it more a ordable and market friendly.

Another highlight was the Glenfarclas 12-year-old, a Scottish Malt nished in Sherry casks, which was amazing for the price. Generally, Fire ghters are a bit afraid of Scotch because of the element of Peat in the whisky, but this is unfair to Scotch as they have loads of amazing brands that don’t use peated barley.

Near the end of the session, myself and Simon popped over to the Loughree stand and discussed some upcoming whiskeys with them. e head distiller took a bottle out from under the counter - an upcoming release called “ e Bridge Inchenagh”, a 21-year-old whiskey which is from the same batch of casks that e Irishman 17-year-old came from - except they haven’t nished this in Sherry casks and have le it in the cask for a further four years. is turned out to be my second favourite of the day, although this is being released at €300 a bottle, which is very steep.

APPRECIATION

When we wandered up to the Great Northern Distillery, we noticed that

John Teeling (Godfather of modern Irish Distilling) was being interviewed in depth by one of our members - a real Teeling fanboy - and it was like he just met Santa Claus for the rst time. Anyway, we managed to distract Ollie and wrestle John away from him so he could go back to dealing with the public.

I then made my way to the Celtic Whiskey Shop Stand for my nal dram. Celtic Whiskey are the people behind the whole Whiskey Live event. ey are based on Dawson Street and are good friends to our club. We have always supported their events and have been lucky enough to be invited to be judges in the Irish Whiskey Awards.

ey produce a wonderful series of whiskeys called e Celtic Cask Series, and this year they have a wonderful couple of releases. On the day they had three to try, but the one that really amazed me was the Celtic Cask 45. is is a double distilled whiskey rst aged in ex bourbon casks, then put into a small 53 litre Olorosso sherry cask and le for seven years to create an exceptional dram.

Only 57 bottles of this are being released and it has a price tag of €185, but in my opinion it is worth every cent, it is like a dessert in a glass, and to top it o the two lads, omas and Darragh, had a plate of chocolate brownies to nibble on.

We all le the event with bags of goodies and some nice treats and headed into the Palace Bar for a debrief and a few stories over pints. We will do it all again next year.

The outstanding Glenfarclas 12-year-old

The 29-year-old Redbreast Port Pipe edition

BUILDING A NETWORK

The Women’s Fire Service Network aims to support female participation and recruitment within Irish fire services, Chair Anthea Browne tells Adam Hyland

Although Dublin Fire Brigade has made tremendous e orts to increase diversity and inclusion in its personnel in recent years, across the country women are under-represented in the re services. e Women’s Fire Services Network (WFSN) aims to address this matter and provide their assistance and knowledge wherever it is needed to see more women join and

enjoy a career as a re ghter.

Chair of the WFSN, Executive Fire Prevention O cer Anthea Browne, recently of Dublin Fire Brigade, says: “ e overarching aim of our Network is to provide a support network for women in the re service. In Dublin, there are far more full-time operational re ghters than there are in other counties, so that network is important for those people who may not have female peers in the workforce.”

STATS

She outlines the gures: “According to the most recent statistics, there are 129 females in the re services in Ireland (not including 33 working in Control Centres or as admin sta ). Compared to the 3,373 males in the re service, that gives a percentage of 3.82% of re service personnel being female, which is a shockingly low gure.

“In Dublin Fire Brigade, there are 59 women and 937 men, giving a

Chief Fire Officers Sheila Broderick and Celina Barrett with former London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton at the launch of the WFSN at the Chief Fire Officers Association Conference in 2019. Celina started in DFB as a firefighter and worked her way up through the ranks to become Chief Fire Officer of Kildare Fire and Rescue Service

percentage of 6.2% of personnel being female. ere are 45 female operational re ghters compared to 742 males, amounting to 6%. DFB accounts for almost half of all women in the re service in Ireland, which is a great achievement, but there is a lot of work still le to do. Hopefully we can start to improve these statistics and help to enhance and modernise the re service in Ireland by making it a more diverse and inclusive place to work.”

is is something EFPO Browne has felt keenly herself. Having joined the re service in Cashel in 2001, she spent 18 years as a retained re ghter and Sub-O cer before returning to college to do a Masters and receive the quali cations to become a Senior O cer. is led to her becoming an Assistant Fire O cer in Cork City in the area of re prevention, then, a er more than three years, to her role as Executive Fire Prevention O cer with Dublin Fire Brigade.

“It’s di erent in Dublin, but when I was in Cashel, I was the only female operational re ghter for nearly 15 years,” EFPO Browne tells me. “I

never met another woman in the re service in that time because there were no others in the county!

“ at is why the WFSN is so important. It provides that network where you can reach out for support and advice, and this can be about very practical things, but it is really anything and everything, and we share positive news about what is happening in the re service. Of the 27 Fire Authorities, 15 have two or fewer females, which shows the need for the WFSN as a platform for enabling members to provide mutual support, cultivate a sense of camaraderie, and strengthen the professional community of female re personnel in Ireland.”

ORIGINS

e WFSN rst came about in March 2019 when a group of female re ghters and O cers led by Celina Barrett and Sheila Broderick – the Chief Fire O cers in Kildare and Meath respectively – who were interested in starting a network for women, similar to those in other countries, put a call out to every

woman in the re services around the country, including Control Room personnel.

“ ey were trying to gauge if there was an interest in forming a network, and they saw there was a huge response,” EFPO Browne says, “so at the Chief Fire O cer’s Association conference that year, we launched the Network with Celina and Sheila as co-Chairs and myself as Secretary. en at last year’s AGM, I was elected as Chair.”

POLICIES

As well as discussing challenges and sharing practical tips, the Network also looks at the issues women in the re service face, and aim to represent the female re ghter’s voice when it comes to policy and best practice.

“We are looking at things such as uniform t and kit, because in some re services the kit is designed for men, and women have to wear smaller sizes of this, and it doesn’t really work, and becomes a health and safety issue on the reground,” EFPO Browne tells me.

“We also discuss and advocate to be

EFPO Browne (front row, second from left) at the National event in November 2019

The attendees at the initial meeting in Athlone in 2019 to gauge interest in forming a network

a part of discussions around facilities in re stations, as well as national maternity policies, because di erent re services and authorities can change these policies, even from one pregnancy to the next, because there isn’t a set policy in place.

“We are trying to improve the policies that are out there, and in uence the ones that aren’t, such as menopause policies, not just for councils, but speci cally within the re services, because there are physical considerations that make this a di erent issue for re ghters.”

CAREER

On top of that, the WFSN also strives to promote being a re ghter as a viable and rewarding career for women, and to raise awareness of the job and the opportunities presented to women who may, due to stereotypes, feel they don’t have what it takes.

“We are trying to address issues and to promote the re service as a career option for women and girls, to try to put it in their mind early, to look at it as a career choice, because for a lot of women they would never even dream of it,” EFPO Browne tells me.

“Being a re ghter is not a career that suits everybody, woman or man, but there are a lot of women out there who, if they were shown what the job entails, that it is a brilliant and exciting and rewarding job, would have a di erent view regarding their eligibility, and we want to promote that to show it is a good, viable career option.”

ADVOCACY

Although the Network has been focusing on internal communications among its 120-strong membership (roughly 75% of all women in the re services in Ireland) through emails and Facebook, it plans to expand to external communications next year, and its presence is already being felt.

“Personally, I have given advice to several re services in terms of

recruitment drives, how to help promote more applications from women,” EFPO Browne says. “It is about having and using women in the re service for the advertising material, to show that there are women in the re service.

“ ere is work ongoing from the National Directorate on equality and inclusion, and this has come out of the retained re service review where one of the actions they need to work on is increasing diversity and inclusion within the re service. We are going to be taking part in meetings to try to gather information on the issues and how to make it a more attractive proposition for women to join. at is one of our main objectives: To be involved with anything that helps promote women in the re service.”

In this respect, EFPO Browne praises the latest DFB recruitment campaign.

looking for.”

EFPO Browne is particularly pleased with the results of this approach.

“Out of 5,000 applications, almost 1,000 applications were from females,” she tells me. “ at’s 20% of all applications, which, when you look at the national gures quoted above, is huge. Following a psychometric and interview process, a panel of 216 suitable candidates was formed, and 26 of this panel are female, which is 12%.  is is triple the national average, so DFB is de nitely making strides in the right direction, and hopefully the initiative by the National Directorate will also help both within DFB and nationally.”

DIVERSITY

“DFB are obviously doing a good job because the diversity and inclusivity is improving, and I think not just in Dublin but across the country it is

“I think it was very successful,” she tells me. “ e campaign images were so professional and they did a great job with the messaging. It just shows that at the heart of the re services, it is about helping people, and it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman.

“Dublin Fire Brigade members, and re services all over Ireland, are professional, empathetic, it takes a special person to be a re ghter, and within the job there is a bond between everybody, and that came across in the DFB campaign. It is not a profession, it is a calling, and we want to show people that this is what the job is, and to inform people who think they can’t do it, that they can do it, they have the skills we are

about reaching out to young people earlier to show them what the job is. People think of the operational re ghter role, but there are so many other areas of the re services people can come in at. People don’t even consider it, so it is about getting that message out there to have a better understanding of what the re service is.

“ e social media messaging is great, showing the di erent aspects of the job and the di erent roles people have within the organisation. A lot of people have in their minds the re ghter stereotype of a big, burly man, but now it is becoming more about being a t, intellectually and emotionally strong, multi-skilled man

THE OVERARCHING AIM OF OUR NETWORK IS TO PROVIDE A SUPPORT NETWORK FOR WOMEN IN THE FIRE SERVICE”

or woman. We come in all shapes and sizes!

“It takes all types of people to create a good team, which is what the re service is. Being 5 foot 2, I’m not a typical re ghter in build. You do need a certain physical tness that is achievable if you really want it, if you work at it, and you do need to be determined and to love the job to get in and stay in, but anything is achievable if you really work towards it.”

e tness levels required is something that can present a challenge to some female re ghters, but the WFSN is also working to provide support in this area.

“We are working on the physical requirements, and we are trying to break them down into targeted actions, especially for women, to try to make sure they can achieve that tness level needed when they apply,” EFPO Browne tells me.

“A number of women in our committee have a background in physical tness and they are looking at the di erent requirements in authorities across Ireland – it would be better if there was one national set of requirements – and trying to create a tailored physical training programme, advising on what equipment you might need to train on, and how best to use it.

“We are also looking at areas such as physical recovery a er pregnancy, illness, menopause, in addition to the physical requirements for recruits, because these are life and health changes most women have to deal with in life, and it will help people

work through it or return to work.”

Although only recently joining Dublin Fire Brigade, EFPO Browne’s background, experience and interest in Major Emergency Management (she is involved in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and along with retired D/O Derek Cheevers, trains people to deploy on these missions) meant the chance to exposed to a role more focused on MEM means she has now moved to such a role within Kildare Fire Service. However, her position as Chair of the WFSN means she will remain an ongoing presence in the betterment of Dublin Fire Brigade, and re services across the country, for not just women, but all personnel.

EVENTS

e COVID-19 pandemic put much of the WFSN’s expansion on hold, but plans are rmly in place to hold another event later this year.

“It is open to everybody, and we know not everyone will be able to attend due

NEW MEMBERS

to shi s, but we are hoping to get as many people as possible,” EFPO Browne says. “It will have a similar approach of lectures, seminars and a social aspect, and will take place in the Midlands in October or November.”

EFPO Browne also mentions that there are several smaller events being held throughout the country, and encourages all members to keep an eye on the Facebook page. “ e only requirement is that you are in a re service in Ireland,” she tells me. “We also hope to create a more public presence, either on Facebook or Instagram, or both,” she adds.

“We are looking at forming a ladies Gaelic football team, and have been approached by the women of NIRFS about a match, so we will be looking for interested members to form teams. We also have other exciting projects in the pipeline, so we will have more opportunities to meet up and have fun within a supportive and empowering community.”

If you’re not already a member and want to join the Network, search for Women’s Fire Service Network on Facebook to get involved, or email abrowne@kildarecoco.ie

WE ARE TRYING TO ADDRESS ISSUES AND TO PROMOTE THE FIRE SERVICE AS A CAREER OPTION FOR WOMEN”

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THE PRESIDENTIAL VISIT

DFB played an important role during the recent visit of US President Biden, A/C/F/O Greg O’Dwyer tells Adam Hyland

Avisit to Ireland by an American President is always an enormous event, but it demands very high levels of security, and DFB were heavily involved in ensuring the trip by President Joe Biden in April was a safe one.

Having visited Belfast and Louth over two days, ursday, 13 April saw the US President come to Dublin for a day of events before heading to Mayo, and DFB provided 24/7 re cover at locations across the city throughout his stay. is involved months of work in advance creating pre-event plans for Áras an Uachataráin, Farmleigh, Leinster House, Dublin Castle and the Conrad Hotel, where President Biden was staying.

PLANS

“We actually had a plan for the Conrad Hotel already,” A/C/F/O Greg O’Dwyer tells me, “so we updated that with the additional safety measures we needed to put in place for an American president, and checked all the re safety systems and the layout of the building.

“We worked with the US Secret Service for weeks before the visit, and they were in constant contact with us on various aspects of the trip. ey requested the 24/7 re picket at the hotel, so we had a crew there for the whole time, with myself and Assistant Chief Michael O’Reilly the main points of contact.”

As well as a visual presence, a senior

DFB member was also stationed in a control room at the hotel for the duration of the stay alongside the Secret Service, CIA, senior gardaí and hotel management. A re picket was also required at the landing zone in the Phoenix Park, with an appliance on standby, while a D/O was also stationed in Dublin Castle’s Major Incident Control Room – India Base – for three days.

SECURITY

Although A/C/F/O O’Dwyer says the Secret Service were “very accommodating”, the strict security and secrecy of the President’s schedule presented a challenge in terms of knowing what was required at any given time.

“ ere were so many meetings before the visit between all of the di erent agencies involved, both at home and from the US, that we needed to stay on top of, but the hardest part was the constant changing of plans,” he tells

me. “We didn’t really have a full picture of what was happening until the last minute. Even the Secret Service were being told things on a need-to-know basis, so it was very hard for them to give us information at times because of the changes in plans and various unknowns.

“Normally, at any major event we would be putting out internal communications to all of our members to let them know what was happening, but we obviously couldn’t do that for the presidential visit, because the security was so tight. We were asking our members to operate in the dark to some extent.

“From our initial meetings, we worked out everything we needed to do, and we had to give the contact details of everybody involved, and we had to be ID’d. e DFB personnel going into the hotel as part of our safety measures all had their names given to the Secret Service in advance, and they all had to carry ID with them, but it all went smoothly in the end.”

“NORMALLY, AT ANY MAJOR EVENT WE WOULD BE PUTTING OUT INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS TO ALL OF OUR MEMBERS TO LET THEM KNOW WHAT WAS HAPPENING, BUT WE OBVIOUSLY COULDN’T DO THAT FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL VISIT”

It is tting that DFB played such an important role in ensuring the safety of President Biden, as he has o en spoken of his a nity with re ghters. is goes beyond any savvy recognition of a voting group and is founded on a deep personal relationship. Shortly a er he was rst elected to the US Senate in 1972, a drunk driver hit the car his wife, two sons and daughter were in. Tragically, his wife and daughter died but local re ghters were able to save his sons.

In 1988, he had two brain aneurysms and was rushed by re ghters to hospital during a blizzard so doctors could perform the surgery that saved his life, and in 2005 when his home was struck by lightning and caught re, re ghters arrived in time to save the bulk of his home.

He has been central to numerous

pieces of legislation ensuring the welfare of re ghters in the US, and one month before his visit to Ireland, addressed the International Association of Fire ghters to personally thank them for their dedication.

APPRECIATION

He expressed his appreciation and admiration for re ghters on his trip to Ireland, and asked that his heartfelt thanks to DFB be passed on to all DFB members. At the Conrad Hotel, he also spoke a line he would go on to repeat at other venues: “God created men and women, and then he created re ghters to look a er them. You are God’s greatest creation.”

Before leaving for Mayo, President Biden asked to meet the people responsible for looking a er his safety during his visit so that he could thank

them personally, and although A/C/F/O O’Dwyer asked if someone else could come with him, the strict security meant only one person from each agency could be there.

“My name had been on the list provided by the White House, and it couldn’t be changed,” he says. “So I got to talk to him for a few minutes, and he was really appreciative of us, talking at length about how brilliant re ghters are. He shook everybody’s hand for about ten seconds, but when he came to me, he must have been shaking mine for what seemed like three minutes, and went into a big speech about how great the re service is and how they have helped him over the years.

“ e a nity he has with re ghters is real, and he has a lot of time for the re services, and for Dublin Fire Brigade.”

A/C/F/O Greg O’Dwyer meets US President Joe Biden

STATION PROFILE B WATCH BLANCHARDSTOWN

went to B Watch Phibsboro as a Floating Station O cer, and was there four years before coming back to Blanchardstown. So, I have been around the block.

“ e transition to S/O here was easy enough for me because when I was here before I was on C Watch, and it would have been hard to come back on my old Watch because there were still people here I worked with back then. It is generally recommended that you don’t come back to your old Watch because you can fall into the trap of over-familiarity with people. e dynamic has to change when you become an O cer, but coming back here was something I really wanted.

“I knew the station, the logistics and the demographics of the area, and am con dent of what is around. Plus, I’m from Trim, born and bred, but it is only half an hour from home, and Blanchardstown is actually the rst station you pass coming into Dublin, so it has worked out well for me.”

VARIETY

He also tells me that his role provides an interesting amount of variety, because he is also a senior power boat instructor with the Irish Sailing Association and oversees all of the powerboat courses run by DFB, alongside ve other instructors.

e delivery of a new training boat a week previously meant that as well as his S/O role, he got to spend time doing sea trials.

It was a sweltering Friday evening in June when I went to visit the crew of B Watch Blanchardstown, and was met at the door by S/O Francis Kelly. e ambulance was out, as it usually is, and we walked past the water tender to the cooler environs of his o ce to talk while the crew busied themselves in the background.

He mentions his young son Louis, almost certainly a DFB member of the future, who visits the station any chance he gets and pores over issues of Firecall, and how he will

be thrilled to read this feature.

Although he has only been Station O cer here for a few months, S/O Kelly says he feels at home, having previously worked as a re ghter at this station.

“I’m coming up on 26 years in Dublin Fire Brigade, having started in Finglas, then moving to HQ, then North Strand, then here for eight years until I was promoted to Sub-O cer in 2012 when I spent my time in that role at HQ again,” he says. “I then got promoted to S/O and

“It is a very interesting aspect of the job for me because I have a huge background in sailing and water sports such as scuba diving, so it felt natural to me to progress to training DFB personnel in this. ey think I know what I am talking about anyway!,” he says.

“We are developing courses for familiarisation with the new boat, and I’m involved in a lot of training on the Li ey, basic powerboating courses that involve a lot of work, a constant ow of getting people in, trained, and certi ed, then familiarising them with new technology that comes out. So, with this and the work at the station, there is a lot of variety.”

Variety is something that we return to several times.

Life on B Watch Blanchardstown is Full of Variety, S/O Francis Kelly tells Adam Hyland

CREW

It’s a crew of nine re ghters, and S/O Kelly is full of praise for their work ethic and they way they interact. Senior Man Eoin Fitzpatrick is also the mess man who does all the cooking, but a lot of praise is also given to FF/P Jennifer Dooley, who “makes a lot of cakes and brings them in to fatten us up, there are always goodies from herself here that means we have to head to the gym a erwards”.

He tells me that while everyone gets on really well, he feels con dent they can handle any scenario when called upon.

“Although we have Hi-Line and SRT capabilities here, we don’t have any specialised group in the same way North Strand has the Port Tunnel, Phibsboro has Hi-Line, HQ has the water rescue boats, we have more of an all-rounder aspect,” he says.

“ ey are all relatively young, although we only have two members who are in less than two years – Conor Morrison, an ex-Garda, and Eoghan Dempsey, an electrician, who is around

25 – and the rest are in and around 30 to 35,” S/O Kelly continues. e crew also includes Ciaran Clare, Keith Tracey, Paddy Quinn, and Oliver Dunne.

CAMARADERIE

“Our Senior Man Eoin has been here maybe 25 years, and there are several others who are in around the same amount of time, so we don’t have the stereotypical old, wise senior man,” he tells me. “He actually came in with two other people from his recruit class, so they are in and around the same age, and I have to say they are all great at their job and great people. As all-rounders, the crew are great at problem-solving and have a great attitude, so there is never any issue with them. ey go out and do everything they need to without being asked, and while I have my drills and plans, I o en look out and see them using their own initiative to get them done.

“ ey have good craic and, importantly, they really look a er

each other, and cover each other when needed. ey work to a good system whereby two of them will start on the ambulance so that those marked down for ambulance duty can get something to eat before they take over, and likewise on the evening shi the two marked down will start, and when they come in around 9pm they can get something to eat while two others take over for a while.”

S/O Kelly tells me that B Watch at the station has two newly-quali ed drivers and another in training, so with the three they already have, they will soon have six fully-quali ed drivers on the Watch.

“ at eases the load on everybody,” he says. “One thing that happens here, that I don’t think I have seen at any other station or on any Watch, is that Eoin the mess man, who is one of our drivers, if he sees that someone has done the ambulance the day before and we are short of drivers for any reason, he will step down for that day and give

The crew present on the night (from left): Conor Morrison, Neil Johnson (on loan from Swords), S/O Francis Kelly, Eoin Fitzpatrick, Jennifer Dooley, Keith Tracey

mess duties to a non-driver, and he will go and do his stint on the ambulance for the day. He forfeits his ‘handy’ day of cooking, and will turn out on the ambulance to save someone else from having to do it too o en. I think that is not usual in the job, but it is an example of how close-knit they are.” ere’s also a lot of social interaction outside of the station, S/O Kelly tells me, and they look forward to inviting retired members from the area in for a Christmas dinner.

“We do try to involve the retired members as much as we can,” he tells me, “because they can miss the craic and banter, but it doesn’t take long for them to get back into it. You can say anything here, because it is all taken in

good spirit. I think that is bred into us and it never leaves you.”

AREA

at camaraderie and initiative is important, because B Watch covers an enormous amount of ground and their all-rounder approach matches well with the types of calls they get and work they are required to do, which again, brings up the subject of variety.

“We cover as far as Lucan and down to the Halfway House on the Navan Road,” S/O Kelly tells me. “We also sometimes back up Dunshaughlin and Leixlip if needed, and recently got a call to a re in Maynooth because all of their trucks were out, as were those from Leixlip, so we were the nearest

available appliance, so it is quite a large area to cover. We also have the M50, Connolly Hospital is a big risk factor in the area, we have a lot of nursing homes, we have industrial sites, the shopping centre, the M3, a lot of new builds around Ongar and Clonee, the canal, the Li ey at e Wren’s Nest, so it is quite a mix of risk around the area. We are always on the go!

“ e most challenging aspect at the moment for us is tall and complex buildings, because we have a lot of them, so we are constantly doing a lot of training as it is one of the bigger risks that is relatively new, but we have a plan and are familiarising ourselves well with the specialist equipment and tactics.

“Another major challenge is e Wren’s Nest, which is probably the most dangerous part of the Li ey in Dublin’s operational area, and it happens to be in our area. e big weir can be very dangerous because, with water, the risks and dangers are constantly changing. Water is unpredictable, and you just don’t know what is going to happen once you get there. Children swim in this stretch of water in the summer, so we are down there quite a lot, training and preparing ourselves for the inevitable.”

COMMUNITY

As well as being busy in their day-to-day duties, S/O Kelly feels it is also important to be a visible, positive presence in the surrounding community.

“People see us around the area a lot at callouts and at the hospital

AS ALL-ROUNDERS, THE CREW ARE GREAT AT PROBLEMSOLVING AND HAVE A GREAT ATTITUDE, SO THERE IS NEVER ANY ISSUE WITH THEM”

Blanchardstown Fire Station S/O Francis Kelly

and nursing homes, given the older demographic of Blanchardstown village and Castleknock, but we also get a lot of requests to visit creches and schools, and we visit the IT for their Open Day, because we want to have a pro le,” he says.

“We try to get out and do drills, for example at the canal, the Ninth Lock, where everyone can see us going across the bridge and doing our thing, and in my opinion, rather than doing drills and exercises at the station, if we can get out and do it outside, all the better. It isn’t that you want to be seen by anyone in particular, but if you do, for example, a suction li out by the canal, you are not just doing important drills, you are raising awareness of what we do. Visibility is important because you want people to see you in a di erent light, rather than just at an emergency, or holding up tra c, to see us working away, that is a very positive thing. It’s nice for people to be able to see us go

about our business in a positive light, rather than only when something bad happens.”

POSITIVE

When asked what the best thing about working at B Watch Blanchardstown is, S/O Kelly is quick to answer.

“It’s the crew, who get along great, but also the variety of calls we get. We have a massive range of calls from RTCs on back roads and motorways, to people in the water, house res, plus there’s the interaction with the likes of Leixlip and Dunshaughlin, the inter-agency or cross-boundary work, because it is good to have a

working relationship with everybody in the vicinity. It makes it all more interesting. Variety is the spice of life.

“I have to mention the food is great too,” he laughs, “and the goodies Jen bakes too. e crew is always trying out something new to cook, constantly trying new things, but the one thing that stays the same is that they go out there and do their job without having to be asked.

“I have to say it is a great station and Watch to work with. As a new S/O, you know where you want to be stationed, you have your preferences, and I am very happy to have been placed here with this crew.”

ANOTHER MAJOR CHALLENGE IS THE WREN’S NEST, WHICH IS PROBABLY THE MOST DANGEROUS PART OF THE LIFFEY IN DUBLIN’S OPERATIONAL AREA, AND IT HAPPENS TO BE IN OUR AREA”

FROM THE ARCHIVES

A collection of photographs sent to Dublin Fire Brigade show scenes from call outs in 1966, writes FF/P Darren Donovan

In my e orts to archive the vast collection of photographs of DFB personnel at work over many decades, I have come across a lot of very interesting images. e great majority of these have been either supplied by our members past and present, or discovered among countless public, private and personal records, but some that have been preserved for austerity have been sent by members of the public. In 1966, a civilian and amateur photographer called Denton Walter, who had an interest in all things DFB-related, sent a letter to the Chief Fire O cer outlining his hobby and including a collection of some of his work. ese

The letter from Mr Denton Walter

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

A firefighter on a ladder fights a fire near the old Cattle Market between North Circular Road and Prussia Street

were kept safe in storage and have now been unearthed. Here is a sample of some of those images, all featuring re ghter crews from Tara Street as they answer calls around the city. ough few of them give details of the whereabouts of each particular re, they may spark an interest for readers of this magazine who might recognise the buildings, streets or personnel at the scene. We don’t know if Mr Walter continued with his hobby, but we are grateful that he shared these images with us at a time when on-scene photography was a rare occurrence, and helped paint a picture of the DFB at work in times gone by.

Children look on as firefighters exit the house in Cabra

Firefighters at the rear of the house on the North Circular Road in October, 1966

A fire on Annamoe Road, Cabra in September 1966

A fire in a house on North Circular Road in October 1966

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STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

A new club focusing on strength training is now open to DFB members, Stephen Weldon tells Adam Hyland

Anew club has been formed for any DFB members interested in increasing or maintaining strength and tness.

DFB Strong is the brainchild of FF/ AP Stephen Weldon and FF/P Cathal McNally, both of A Watch in Swords, and aims to provide the necessary training, programmes, equipment and expertise for anyone who wants to work on their strength.

Both Stephen and Cathal have taken part in strongman competitions, with Cathal having featured in this magazine previously a er he rst took part in the World’s Strongest Fire ghter event run by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2022, and it was from this competition that they started to think about putting together a club for DFB members.

Stephen, who accompanied Cathal on that rst trip, says: “ e idea came about not long a er Cathal went over to the US for that competition, so it was something that was on our minds for more than a year, but it was only a er he went back over to compete again this year that we decided to launch it.”

For him, regular strength training is “more of a tness thing, trying to keep at a healthy weight rather than to compete at the level Cathal does”, and he says that since he joined DFB 14 years ago, he has always wanted to stay t with some sort of li ing or gym work.

He is also keen to point out that while the club will be of great bene t to anyone interested in weightli ing and strength competitions, DFB Strong is not just for super-strong DFB members.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE LIFTING 300 KILOS TO BE INVOLVED. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ANY WAY IN STRENGTH TRAINING FOR WHATEVER REASON, THERE IS A SPOT FOR YOU”

Members of DFB Strong before a training session

“We are aiming to get di erent types of people interested,” he tells me. “Firstly, the rst-timers or beginners who have never done any strength training before, to try to get them introduced to the idea that it is a very worthwhile activity, introducing them into the idea of li ing for the sport of it, and to get stronger and tter, no matter what your starting point is.

“One of our main aims as a club is to promote an evidence-based approach to strength training, due to the bene ts to re ghters both in work and for longterm health.

“Equally, we are also looking for DFB members of Cathal’s calibre, people who can compete at national or international level, and give them access to highquality trainers and programmes that they might not have otherwise.

“But this isn’t just strongman stu , it is anything strength training-based, whether that is weights or cross- t, or anything else that will help with strength. You don’t have to be li ing 300 kilos to be involved. If you are interested in any way in strength training for whatever reason, there is a spot for you and we would love to have you there. It is suitable for everybody, from beginners who want to give it a try, up to very experienced athletes. ere is something for everybody to get out of it.”

An open training session was held in May, with a second taking place in July, to give a rst taste of what to expect and to gauge the interest, and Stephen says these went very well.

“ e rst session had 16 or 17 people there, and a good number of them were reasonably new to weightli ing and strength training, but we also had a few people who have been li ing a long time, so it was brilliant to have them there and to tap into their experience. For the beginners, they were introduced for the rst time to some of the strongman li s, such as the log press, axle bar deadli s, things they would never have seen or tried before, and they enjoyed it and showed a lot of interest.”

e second session was a deadli workshop with powerli er John Kenny, focusing on one li from an expert

in that eld, and Stephen says further sessions will focus on various other aspects of strength training and tness.

“It is going to be varied,” he tells me. “We are hoping to have sessions where we pick a speci c li or a movement and really go at it, trying to get people working well, with the help of high-level coaches and equipment.

“Our long-term aim is to build up our own equipment and have our own base for training, to have varied sessions, with an almost sports-based feel to give an all-round training experience. All

of the re stations have well-equipped gyms now, and ultimately our aim is for people to work on their own strength, with our sessions providing resources and individual programmes for our members, whether it be for general tness or to be stronger, or to compete in competitions.

“A couple of people have already expressed an interest in taking part in a competition for the rst time, so we can make speci c sessions and programmes for them to try to put them through the movements and li s they need to work on ahead of that. We can make bespoke programmes for anybody.”

e plan is to have sessions every month or two months, with membership costs minimal, so if you are interested in joining, keep an eye on the DFB Sports and Social Club social media and WhatsApp groups for news of future sessions, or look for DFB Strong on Facebook or Instagram for details.

Member Jen Dooley performing a log press

Stephen Weldon performing a log press

Cathal McNally lifting a 150kg atlas stone at UK and Ireland’s Natural Strongest Man this year

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DISASTER RESPONSE

The 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria on 6 February brought devastation and destruction to countless people, and saw the deployment of the largest ever response to a natural disaster by the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM).

More than 30 UCPM experts from 13 Member States, 32 Urban Search and Rescue teams totalling 1,832 personnel, ve Emergency Medical Teams of more than 540 medical personnel working in huge eld hospitals, ve ERCC Liaison O cers and Technical Assistance O cers, more than 229,000 personnel overall, and more than 50 large cargo aircra were activated when Turkiye triggered the Civil Protection Mechanism. At the forefront of this response, former Dublin Fire Brigade

Paul Rock talks to Adam Hyland about leading the EU Civil Protection Mechanism Team’s response to the devastating earthquake in Turkiye and Syria this year

Preparing to send a large cargo plane with aid and EUCPM personnel to Turkiye

Having team members on the ground was vital in coordinating aid requirements

Sub-O cer Paul Rock became the rst Irish person ever to lead an EUCPM team into a disaster zone.

e a ected area was twice the size of the Netherlands, 1.9million people were displaced, and 583,634 people were successfully evacuated, 26,000 buildings collapsed, and a further 191,864 buildings were assessed due to heavy damage. In short, the destruction was far and wide, creating an enormous task for the response teams that was complicated further by geography and the war in Syria.

CALL

With numerous quali cations in Emergency Management and Civil Protection gained while working as a re ghter, Paul moved on to become Senior Assistant National Fire Advisor at the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management leading on Emergency Management from a National perspective, a member of the National Emergency Coordination Group, an EUCPM expert, as well as a Disaster Assessment and Coordination Specialist (UNDAC) with the UN. Having worked on important EUCPM exercises, trainings and missions across the world, he was once again called into action when the earthquake hit.

“ e EUCPM were looking for a team to go to Turkiye as soon as possible a er they sent a request for assistance,” Paul tells me. “Normally you have less than 24 hours from phone call to departure. Team Alpha was already on the ground dealing with the immediate urban search and rescue response, because you need to deploy quickly as the rescue e orts are time-critical in regards to lifesaving operations. I got the call asking me if I would go as a Team Leader, and I didn’t hesitate.

e team I was in charge of had 12 members, where normally UCPM teams are smaller in nature, with three or four persons covering Logistics, Information Management, and Assessment and Coordination, so we had a very large team including a Norwegian trauma doctor to assist with Emergency Medical Teams coordination.

“Normally when you get the call

you go through Brussels and have a formal meeting, you’re given a safety and security update as well as a mission mandate. But in this case, we ew directly to Ankara, and I developed my plan of action on the plane. Some of the team met brie y in Ankara while others went straight to the heavily-a ected Gazientep/Hatay area in the south.

“We still had people from Team Alpha there, who formed a bridge of knowledge between them and ourselves, sharing vital information. We were there to essentially move the mission from the search and rescue phase into recovery and medical phase, dealing with the a ermath of the earthquake.”

is meant coordinating and

overseeing the arrival of ve huge EMT eld hospitals from Belgium, France, Spain and Italy, from the European Civil Protection Pool and RescueEU operating under World Health Organisation guidelines, to provide urgent medical care to those a ected. All of this alone required 52 large cargo planes to transport it into the country.

More than 10,500 a ershocks up to magnitude 5.3 were recorded while the response team was there, but Paul’s role as Team Leader meant he had to stay fully focused.

ROLE

“My role was to put together a strategic plan of action for my team. I knew the Team Alpha leader well, so we spoke before I arrived, and because I had the CVs of all my team members, I knew their quali cations and skillsets, so I could look at the situation on the ground and decide where best to deploy each of them.

“It was the rst time the EUCPM team had been deployed in so many

THE AMOUNT OF AID THAT FLOWED THROUGH WHILE I WAS THERE WAS IMMENSE”

Paul Rock (back row, centre,) with members of his EUCPM Team

di erent locations, which poses enormous challenges, in various On-Site Operations and Coordination Centres (OSSOCs): six in total. I was based in Ankara in the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority AFAD’s HQ, with an ERCC, EU Commission Liaison O cer and an Information Manager linking in with the Government in an area classed as the Dome, where all political and response agencies were based, but I dispersed the rest of the team throughout Turkiye – Ankara, Adana, Gazientep, Adiyaman, Malatya and Hatay. ese were ve to seven hours from Ankara by road, so it was not an ideal situation, and e ective communication was key.”

One of the team was retired D/O Derek Cheevers, a hugely experienced and valued EUCPT member, and Paul says he availed of his many skills over the course of the mission.

“I sent him to Gazientep rst, but his role changed because of the situation on the ground,” he tells me. “He was initially overseeing Logistics, but then I moved

him to Information Management, then Assessment and Coordination. He did an exceptional job. I kept him busy!”

MANDATE

As Turkiye is technically outside the EU, but is a participating country in the UCPM, the overall mission was led by the United Nations, who had a Disaster and Assessment Coordination team of their own in place in various locations, and while all of the EUCPM teams were embedded within the UN’s OSSOCs, they had di erent mandates.

“ e UN had a more long-term humanitarian mandate, while we were focused on Civil Protection in the immediate term, forming an intra-

country response trying to support and assist the local emergency management agencies, which in this case was AFAD, by coordinating in kind humanitarian assistance from all Member states and participating countries. AFAD had more than 3,600 personnel on the ground,” Paul says.

“ e devastation was immense, with the epicentre near Gazientep/Hatay, but our mission objective was clear: to facilitate the coordination of incoming assistance, and to support national authorities and cooperate and liaise with the UN system.”

LIAISON

While based in Ankara, Paul was

OUR MISSION OBJECTIVE WAS CLEAR: TO FACILITATE THE COORDINATION OF INCOMING ASSISTANCE, AND TO SUPPORT NATIONAL AUTHORITIES AND COOPERATE AND LIAISE WITH THE UN SYSTEM”

An OSSOC meeting to coordinate emergency management and aid distribution

tasked with liaising with the Turkish government to explain and outline what the EUCPM was doing, and how it could support the national response, and this, he says, was a challenge.

“ e whole of the Government was in the Dome, which is something I had never seen before,” he tells me. “In the meeting of ministers, very hard questions were asked of what we were doing and how we were doing it, ensuring the humanitarian assistance got to everyone in need, with the needs of those in Turkiye and Syria equally important. We needed to help everyone in the same way and I think we achieved that, despite the problems and challenges.

“ e Mechanism is normally a short-term response where we go in to stabilise the situation and then hand over to the humanitarian side of DG ECHO, but although the Humanitarian

colleagues were already in situ working on capacity building in Turkiye, they were also a ected by the earthquake, with colleagues and friends killed or injured, and we had to support them.

“Initially, we had our 32 teams from the EUCPM, with 90 countries o ering USAR capabilities, 60 people per team, and more than 5,000 USAR personnel on the ground, but no matter how you describe it, you can’t do justice to the sheer scale of the operation. We did, however, see tangible results, and our ve EMTs treated more than

17,000 patients with all sorts of medical interventions ranging from minor wounds to amputations.

“People were afraid to go to medical centres to work or be treated in them because of all the a ershocks and associated fears, so only for the EMTs a lot more people would have died of their injuries.”

COOPERATION

Paul says that the working relationship with the Emergency Management agency AFAD was very good, helped in no small

WE WERE THERE TO ESSENTIALLY MOVE THE MISSION FROM THE SEARCH AND RESCUE PHASE INTO RECOVERY AND MEDICAL PHASE, DEALING WITH THE AFTERMATH OF THE EARTHQUAKE”

Inside one of the large field hospitals provided by member states

part by the camaraderie he shared with their rep Erkan.

“He seemed to know me better than I knew him,” he admits. “At our rst meeting, he came over to me and gave me a big hug and said ‘Great to see you Paul.’ I had no recollection of the man. I’ve been on so many courses, exercises and deployments, and met so many people, and normally I’d remember most of them, but he was a key facilitator for us.”

ere was also an uncanny meeting with the Irish ambassador to Turkiye that day.

“I went to the EU delegation to give a brie ng to all of the EU Ambassadors and the Task Force, but before I went, I noti ed the Irish embassy in Turkiye that I would be in the country, and a erwards, because the embassy was in the same building, I introduced myself at the reception desk. I didn’t know that only ve minutes before this, the Ambassador had sent me a message saying that if I was anywhere near the embassy to call in. He was amazed that I showed up so quickly!”

ere were many others who also helped to make the task that little bit easier, Paul tells me, which was needed the further into the country the EUCPM team went. “We had a rep from AFAD at a very high level integrated into our OSSOC in Ankara who could sort out any problems as they emerged,” he tells me, “but as you went down the chain of command around the country, the knowledge of EUCPM and what we do was not always there.

“ e Government recalled Turkish ambassadors from overseas and linked them in with the OSSOCs in the most a ected areas to assist with the response, which proved invaluable. ey could communicate what we were doing, and opened doors regarding the obstacles we met, and this eventually worked out well.”

Paul is quick to give praise for the e orts of many of the local responders in what was an unimaginably di cult time for them.

“ ese responders who were working on the ground had been there for nearly three weeks and they were a ected too –they had family members who had been killed or were missing, so you can’t even begin to imagine the headspace they were in, but they kept working.”

SYRIA

Paul was also tasked with facilitating aid into northwest Syria, which presented major challenges beyond the earthquake itself.

“ e con ict there made things very di cult,” he says. “Keeping the border open between Turkiye and Syria was a challenge due to a myriad of reasons.

ere were more than 4million refugees in the area many of them living in tents. ey could only move within a certain distance of the camps, but there was some exibility because of the earthquake, and I had to constantly liaise with the government in Turkiye to understand the situation and needs there.

“I gave weekly brie ngs to the European ambassadors, and I had to be very diplomatic in how I explained what we were doing in both Turkiye and Syria. We needed to keep the border open and convince the Turkish government that this was the right thing to do.”

Not being able to base a team in Syria due to the con ict added to the challenges Paul and his team faced, but they got weekly brie ngs themselves f rom the ERCCs, who would “ ll in the blanks” regarding what was happening in the country.

“ ere was no EUCPM team there because we can’t enter a con ict zone,” Paul explains, “so you are relying on the NGOs such as the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the World Food Programme, who were tasked by the ERCC to gather whatever information they could regarding the requirements in northwest Syria and to distribute the humanitarian aid.”

e equitable in ux and distribution of aid for both Turkiye and Syria was also something the team needed to keep a very close eye on, as the amount of aid arriving at the various reception and departure centres was immense, but again Paul says he received a helping hand that shows the international reach of Irish aid personnel.

“I had a problem locating some aid that was destined for Syria, and I was sitting in the hotel trying to think of what I could do to resolve the problem when I heard an Irish voice. I went over to say hello to this Irish woman who was having breakfast, told her I was with the Mechanism, and

she replied that she had just own in as the logistical expert with the IOM. So, I said, ‘Just the person I need to speak to!’ and within an hour the aid was located and was on its way to the right destination. at was serendipity.”

LOOKING BACK

A er almost three weeks, Paul and his team le the next phase of support to the humanitarian section of the EUCPM and UN missions, saying there has since then been an enormous pledge internationally to nance this with a donors conference held in Ankara.

He also looks back on the mission as a huge success, not just in terms of what was done, but in the legacy that is le behind both diplomatically and on the ground with those a ected.

“I was there for 17 days in total. While there, the adrenaline keeps you going, and it wasn’t until I returned home that I realised how tired I was. But the relationships we built up with the national authorities will only grow from here, so that can only be a good thing.

“Most importantly, I think the Turkish people may not remember us pulling their relatives out of the rubble due to the overwhelming trauma endured, but they will remember the Belgian, Spanish, Italian and French EMTs treating them, so in the future they will say that a French doctor, for example, helped me with my wounds or kept my son alive, and that is the value.

“ e amount of aid that owed through while I was there was immense and the logistical challenges were high, but were overcome because I had a very experienced and excellent team on the ground, set up in the right locations.

“ e Turkish Government, and the rest of the world, saw the value of the EUCPM at rst hand, and in hindsight, I wouldn’t have done anything di erently, so I am proud of what was achieved.

“It was a real honour being the rst Irish team leader, and that bleeds down to Ireland stepping up and being more involved, and having all the training and skills. We are a very talented group of people and we are showing that on a global stage.”

PROTEST OUTSIDE DÁIL ÉIREANN

On the morning of the 19 April, members of the DFB Retired Members Association travelled to the Dáil for a very important protest.

We are a liated to e Alliance of Retired Public Servants (ARPS) and the National Federation of Pensioners Association (NFPA). e connection we have with these groups is very important as the Alliance is composed of retired teachers, psychiatric nurses, prison o cers, ESB, Airport, Garda, Dublin Port, etc. e NFPA includes all the retired, active and pensioners associations.

Many thousands of pensioners are represented by these associations, which give them great power and importance to politicians as every single pensioner is a voter. is arrangement works very well for retired persons as the unions that catered for them in their working life may not represent them once they retire.

Pensions can be gradually eroded over time by cost-of-living increases, and there’s nothing the lone pensioner can do about it. Cost of living increases are eventually granted by Government agencies, which can be in the form of CPI or Parity, and can make a di erence depending which form is used, and as far as we are concerned parity with the workforce is the preferred way to go.

TD Brid Smith and her party, People

THE RETIRED MEMBERS ASSOCIATION DIARY

Memorable trips, important protests, commemorations, and a sad passing have marked the last few months for the DFB Retired Member’s Association, writes Secretary Tony McCann

Before Pro t, are working on passing a Bill - e Industrial Relations Provisions Bill 2020 - which aims to protect the pensions of public service, private and semi-state workers. is Bill would give retired workers representation when changes are proposed to their existing pension schemes, and give them the right to take cases to the Workplace Relations Commission. Our a liation with the ARPS and the NFPA connects us to

thousands of retired people and its strength is something we are trying hard to get across to retiring members of Dublin Fire Brigade.

We travelled to the Dáil to support Brid Smith, with pensioners organisations and our members standing outside holding banners advocating change. If this Bill doesn’t go through, we and hundreds of our pensioner friends will be back outside the Dáil.

Demonstrating outside the Dáil in support of the Industrial Relations Provisions Bill

TITANIC EXPERIENCE

On Tuesday, 9 May, a group of our members le for Belfast in our 52-seater luxury coach. Our venue was the Old Harland & Wol shipyard in Belfast, which now houses the Titanic Experience.

Arriving at the Titanic Quarter under the shadow of the big yellow cranes, the Titanic slipways, the Hamilton Graving Dock, the Harland & Wol Drawing O ces, the Titanic Building itself, it was easy to enter the atmosphere of RMS Titanic.

On entering the building, we were handed a set of audio/visual phones to listen to the commentary and follow the designated route beginning at the area

UNVEILING A PLAQUE

describing Boomtown Belfast to see what Belfast was like in those hard days, and how the shipyard and its workers was the centre of commerce supporting that area.

Continuing the experience, visitors arrive at a section where some areas of the vessel were constructed, but better still, one could stand and look at a larger-than-life tour to every part of RMS Titanic described in a huge video presentation.

e next section of the tour took the breath away - e Shipyard Ride - where the visitor was introduced into what was like the Ghost Train in a funfair that whisked us around and up four storeys through what was a mock-up of the ship’s hull as it was being built.

Everything there was as it was in the 1900s, including the res to heat the rivets white-hot. Workers were used to climbing up through girders four storeys over ground level to get to their workno such thing such as Health & Safety in those days. We experienced the actual noises, men shouting above the din, the constant hammering of the riveters, the heat from the res, and the cold winds from outside: it must have been hell.

is was of huge interest to me personally, as my Dad was an apprentice iron turner at Harland & Wol in the 1900s.

e tour carried on to where the Titanic was launched, and of course to where she hit the iceberg and started to sink. e sinking was related in detail, down to the names of all the passengers, the situations passengers and crew found themselves in, and the calmness, sel shness, and heroism of some.

e tour terminates in an excellent audio-visual portrayal of the a ermath of the Titanic sinking, describing the e orts of a team of scientists led by oceanographer Robert Ballard to locate the wreckage lying on the ocean bed for decades. e shipwreck was eventually located some 13,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic, 370 miles southeast of Newfoundland.

Boarding our coach later in the a ernoon, we headed south for the Fairways Hotel where we tucked into a feast prepared and waiting for our group. Stu ed and happy, we had a few beers and a bit of banter before boarding our coach once again and travelling down the M1 and home. Great day.

Many thanks to Chief Fire O icer Dennis Keeley for inviting our members to the historic unveiling of a plaque at 30 Westmoreland Street to commemorate the deaths in 1861 of two brave firefighters at this location. CFO Keeley and Lord Mayor of Dublin Caroline Conroy unveiled the plaque, and CFO Keeley paid tribute to the “sacrifice of those who went before us”, describing the DFB as “a well respected, progressive, forward-looking fire, ambulance and rescue service which trains and prepares for the needs of today’s city and plans for the future.” He added: “In doing so, however, we are also very aware that expertise is born from experience.” No truer words have been spoken.One thing this particular fire demonstrated was the folly in those days of combining living accommodation, usually on the top floor, and commercial businesses on lower floors in a multistorey building. It also led to e orts being made to improve e iciencies in the early days of the Dublin Fire Brigade. Our capable historian Las Fallon, I’m sure, will give us an in-depth account of this fatal but interesting fire.

Enjoying a drink while touring the Titanic Experience in Belfast

PAUL HAND’S PASSING

Our dear friend and member Paul Hand passed away a er a lengthy illness on 25 May this year. He is sorely missed by Lily his wife, his family and everyone who had the privilege of meeting him, and I certainly am aware of a void in my life that can’t be lled.

I was lucky in previous years to accompany and assist him in guiding groups around the DFB Museum and Training Centre. His love and care shown to visitors was unbelievable and there was no time limit to their stay at the centre.

I remember the day the Stardust Committee came to view the display of their children’s names on a board that Paul and the Training Centre sta had installed in the Museum. e kind treatment they received from Paul and the beautiful lunch they were treated to, courtesy of the sta , made their day.

Another special day in the hearts of the Stardust families was that poignant day on 11 February, 2023, when Paul was part of the wreath-laying ceremony, “ ey Never Came Home”. Antoinette Keegan and her fellow committee members will never forget him.

A special thanks must go to Brigade Training O cer Brendan Carroll and his sta at the Training Centre for the help, courtesy and respect shown to Paul and myself while we were there.

Paul spent huge amounts of time in the Training Centre working at his beloved museum and if not there, he would be working at home in his workshop on bits and pieces he picked up. e wooden wheel escape displayed in the courtyard of the Training Centre shows the tremendous skills and work Jack O’Rourke and himself put in, working for months to produce this amazing exhibit.

As trustee of the DFB Pipe Band, everyone knows the physical work he put in, driving vans and helping out charitable fundraising and pump pushes in the early days, whenever and wherever he could: he was Paul Hand!

Paul o cially retired from the Dublin Fire Brigade in 2010, but looking back now at his retired life, those that knew him know he never really retired from the DFB.

His funeral on Tuesday, 30 May, was unbelievable. Paul deserved this fabulous send o by Dublin Fire Brigade, workmates and friends, it was something he would have loved to have seen himself, and who knows, maybe he did.

We congratulate the DFB Pipe Band on their fabulous input into the ceremony, particularly the long march up the road to St Fintan’s Cemetery - that drumbeat will stay in our minds for a long time.

e number of young and not-soyoung uniformed re ghters marching demonstrated the amount of friends Paul

had in the DFB. He is now laid to rest under the tree in that beautiful resting place by the sea, along with many of his comrades who went before him.

Paul’s wife Lily and his family wish to thank CFO Dennis Keeley, all his sta at HQ , BTO Brendan Carroll and Training Centre sta , the DFB Pipe Band, Retired Members Association and the uniformed re ghters who marched behind his co n, for the tremendous work they did in creating a funeral service to remember!

Rest in Peace Paul Hand, we will never forget you.

PAUL DESERVED THIS FABULOUS SEND OFF BY DUBLIN FIRE BRIGADE, WORKMATES AND FRIENDS, IT WAS SOMETHING HE WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE SEEN HIMSELF, AND WHO KNOWS, MAYBE HE DID”

Our much-missed colleague and friend Paul Hand

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REMEMBERED FOREVER

The first of four planned plaques in memory of fallen firefighters was unveiled in May, writes Las Fallon

On 19 May, then-Lord Mayor Caroline Conroy unveiled a plaque in memory of two DFB members who lost their lives ghting a re in Westmoreland Street in 1891.

e plaque was the rst in a series to be erected in memory of DFB re ghters who lost their lives on duty in the city. I have always felt that it was wrong that the places where DFB members

had lost their lives in the line of duty were not marked in an o cial way. I have mentioned it several times over the years, but the implementation of the DCC plaque scheme in 2014 nally o ered a possible route to seeing this achieved. e plaque scheme allows people to request a plaque be put in by anybody who can make a case to have one erected. e proposal is then examined by a committee, and either given the go ahead, or rejected if it does not meet the criteria set down.

I have attended several unveilings of plaques around the city over the years and, having talked about the possibility of DFB-related plaques to Councillor (and former Lord Mayor) Micheál MacDonncha of the Commemorations and Naming Committee, I was invited to make a submission, which was considered and accepted by the committee.

PROPOSAL

I put in a proposal for four plaques to mark the places where a total of seven DFB members lost their lives between 1884 and 1938. I consulted Chief Fire O cer Dennis Keeley, who gave his support to the proposal and met with members of the committee to move the project forward. Brendan Teeling of DCC has been hugely supportive of the project, and put in the hours of background work to make it happen, and I`d like to publicly thank him.

Las Fallon with then-Lord Mayor Caroline Conroy, CFO Keeley and CCT’s Neil Gallagher

e standard DCC heritage plaque is made of polished granite, with the lower quarter in blue for standard heritage plaques. Plaques with a connection to the 1916 Rising or Revolutionary period have the lower quarter in green. For the DFB plaques, it was decided to use red for the lower quarter to mark them as Fire Brigade plaques.

I was delighted with this as it not only linked the plaques directly to the DFB, but was also a tip of the helmet to the ‘red plaque’ scheme run by the Fire Brigades Union in the North and in Britain. eir red plaque scheme to mark where re ghters died in the line of duty was introduced as part of the centenary of the Fire Brigade Union in 2018, and is paid for by the Fire ghters 100 charity.

I have been greatly honoured to have been invited to the unveiling of a number of plaques in Northen Ireland, and in fact the rst plaque (a general plaque to all who lost their lives) was unveiled in Belfast in 2018 when Dublin Fire Brigade Pipes and Drums

played at the unveiling which was also attended by CFO Pat Fleming (Retired).

NEED

One event that really reinforced the need for these plaques to me came in late 2015 when I was in HQ working on the Brigade’s events for the forthcoming anniversary of the Rising. I got a phone call from the front desk one day to come and meet a man who had called in to HQ with his family. Tony Darmon had lived in HQ in the 1930s when his father was a re ghter stationed there. I was aware of his dad, Jack Darmon, as I had written about him in two of my books due to his service during the War of Independence and Civil War.

Tony was on holiday in Ireland from his home in Canada and had called in with his family to see HQ and, if possible, to see if there was a plaque to his father who had been killed on duty in HQ in 1938: he was electrocuted while working on an ambulance in the old garage area.

ere was no plaque to show them. In fact, Jack Darmon’s death was largely forgotten as it occurred at a time of major reorganisation and upheaval in the job in the a ermath of the 1936 Pearse Street deaths. I was able to present Tony with

I HAVE ALWAYS FELT THAT IT WAS WRONG THAT THE PLACES WHERE DFB MEMBERS HAD LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE LINE OF DUTY WERE NOT MARKED IN AN OFFICIAL WAY”

The plaque commemorating Inspector Doherty and Firefighter Peter Burke

An illustration detailing the fatal fire at Westmoreland Street

copies of my books, which included photos of his father, and decided to do my best to ensure that men like Jack Darmon, killed in the course of his duties, would be remembered.

e only plaque ever erected to mark the deaths of Dublin re ghters in the city was the one erected in the 1990s, a er a lot of hard work, by Tom Geraghty at the site of the Pearse Street disaster in 1936. It is a ne plaque, and I was delighted at the time to be invited to the unveiling. As the three men who died at Pearse Street were among those I wished to commemorate, I spoke to Tom about his thoughts on the new plaque scheme. He is in favour of the new standard plaque being erected at all sites. We share the view that there should be equality in recognition of their sacri ce and each site

should be marked in the same way.

e beautiful plaque which his committee erected will still stand at the site accompanied now by the new DCC ‘DFB’ plaque as we both felt that it is better the site be marked by two plaques which have their own history and background, rather than be le unmarked as it was for 60 years.

CEREMONY

e rst plaque completed all the necessary paperwork and regulations, including permission from building owners, and was erected in Westmoreland Street on the 19 May, one day short of the actual anniversary.

e permission for the plaque was readily forthcoming from the owner of the building, Neil Gallagher of CCT, who also laid on a reception with refreshments on the morning

of the event for guests. I would really like to thank him for his generosity and absolute support for the project.

I will quote from the DCC press release covering the unveiling:

e Lord Mayor of Dublin Caroline Conroy has today unveiled a Dublin City Council Commemorative Plaque at the spot where two re ghters died while ghting a large re in Westmoreland Street more than 130 years ago.

e re broke out at the premises of Graham’s chemists and Lafayette’s photographers, now part of CCT College.

Graham’s chemist occupied the rst two oors, with Lafayette’s photographers on the next two, and living accommodation on the h oor. At approximately 2am, a re was discovered on the third oor. ere were four occupants on the h oor, two of whom managed to escape to the street and raise the alarm, but two women were trapped on the h oor.

During the re service response, Inspector Christopher Doherty, who had 25 years of service in Dublin Fire Brigade and was the holder of three chevrons for bravery for saving

WE ARE VERY MUCH AWARE OF THE HERITAGE WE INHERIT AS MEMBERS OF DUBLIN FIRE BRIGADE, A HERITAGE BORN FROM THE HISTORY, WORK, AND SACRIFICE OF PAST MEMBERS”

The DFB Pipe Band played at the ceremony

life on previous occasions, and Fireman Peter Bourke, three months of service in Dublin Fire Brigade, paid the ultimate price in their role as re ghters and lost their lives here while saving the life of a civilian.

Speaking at the unveiling, the Lord Mayor said: “In unveiling this plaque today we remember the sacri ces made by two brave remen in the service of their city and its citizens. In doing so we are also acknowledging the great service that their successors in today’s Dublin Fire Brigade give to our city, day in and day out.”

e Lord Mayor thanked CCT College and its president Neil Gallagher for agreeing to have the plaque erected on the building.

Also speaking at the unveiling, Chief Fire O cer Dennis Keeley said: “ e Dublin Fire Brigade of today is a wellrespected, progressive, forward looking re, ambulance and rescue service which trains and prepares for the needs of today’s city and plans for the future. In doing

so, however, we are also very aware that expertise is born from experience. We are very much aware of the heritage we inherit as members of Dublin Fire Brigade, a heritage born from the history, work, and sacri ce of past members - of lessons learned in the heat of res and emergencies gone by - and sometimes in the sacri ce of those who went before us. is, the rst in a planned series of four DFB-related plaques marking places where Dublin re ghters lost their lives while on duty, is being erected to mark the site of the death of these two Dublin Fire Brigade members on 20 May 1891.”

REMEMBERED

e members who will be commemorated on the current round of plaques are Fireman John Kite (Trinity Street, 1884), Inspector Christopher Doherty and Fireman Peter Bourke (Westmoreland Street, 1891), Fireman Peter McArdle, Fireman Robert Malone and Fireman omas Nugent (Pearse Street, 1936) and

Fireman John Darmon (Tara Street, 1938). Other DFB-related DCC plaques are also in the pipeline.

ese members of Dublin Fire Brigade lost their lives in the pursuit of their duty. ey le families and loved ones behind them, and they deserve the respect of our remembrance. At last, through the DCC commemorative plaque scheme, they are all being remembered. My sincere thanks to Brendan Teeling of DCC, Councillor Micheál MacDonncha of DCC Commemoration and Naming Committee, and Chief O cer Dennis Keeley for their support for, and work on, this project. anks also to Rosa Vickers for all her help, DFB Pipe Band and the DFB Retired Members Association for attending on the day, and all who supported the project.

Details of future plaque unveilings will be announced in advance by DFB Social Media and internal communications systems.

THESE MEMBERS OF DUBLIN FIRE BRIGADE

LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE PURSUIT OF THEIR DUTY. THEY LEFT FAMILIES AND LOVED ONES BEHIND THEM, AND THEY DESERVE THE RESPECT OF OUR REMEMBRANCE

Then-Lord Mayor Caroline Conroy unveils the plaque on Westmoreland Street

A SNAPSHOT OF HISTORY

An Article from a 1910 Publication Details the Purchase of a New Fire Engine

Retired D/O Tom Geraghty is an invaluable chronicler of Dublin Fire Brigade history, and his research and collection of DFB documents and memorabilia has helped to shed light on the rich heritage of the organisation for many years.

e historian and author of the de nitive book e Dublin Fire Brigade: A History of the Brigade, e Fires and the Emergencies, has once more unearthed an interesting piece of information, which he was kind enough to send on to me to share with Firecall readers.

Among his many records and old publications, he discovered an article from February 1910 in the British magazine Fireman, which discusses the sale of a Merryweather re engine with Hat eld pump to Pembroke Fire Station.

It is of particular interest not just because it became only the second motor-driven re engine in Dublin Fire Brigade following the 1909 purchase of a Leyland engine designed by then-Chief Fire O cer omas Purcell, but also because of its features.

Apart from being a noticeable white, or as the article author says “daintily nished o in white and lined with blue and gold” rather than

the traditional red, “the motor was more powerful than the Leyland and the Hat eld pump could deliver a larger 140 lbs of water compared to the Leyland’s 120lbs,” Tom Geraghty writes. “ e original model had solid tyres, but these were replaced with pneumatic tyres while in service in Pembroke.”

e Fireman article goes into great detail about the arrival and public trial of the Merryweather re engine which took place at the Dublin Tramways Depot under the supervision of Mr CJ Hutson, Chief O cer of the Pembroke Fire Department. e event seems to have caught the interest and imagination of a range of people, with curious attendees including representatives from Cork Fire Brigade, City Council, and a local Reverend.

A crew of ten re ghters drove the re engine to the depot, where it “drew water from a large quarry and set to work with three lines of hose each at a pressure of 110lbs”. is was followed by a test of two lines of hose at 120lbs pressure, then 130lbs, then 140lbs with a full jet reaching a height of 180 .

A demonstration involving a test through a single 3/8 inch jet from the main pump followed, with the article author remarking that: “It was interesting as a demonstration of the

way in which the pump, in spite of its large capacity, could throw a small jet for rst aid, enabling small res to be extinguished with a minimum water drainage.”

Another test involved the engine throwing a horizontal jet of water to demonstrate the force of the stream, with the nozzle directed on to a couple of large cable reels, with the distance covered reaching 250 and the cable reels “shi ed about as though they were merely playthings”.

e article also stated: “In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the machine for picking up water without priming being necessary, the suction was then taken out of the water and the pump run dry. On the suction being replaced and the engine started, the water was up the suction and through two lines of hose in 12 seconds, with 30 of suction pipe in use and the li being 14 .”

e new engine was also put through its paces with a hill climb of 1:9 gradient over a ¼ mile distance, managing to reach a 15mph speed over the hill and 32 mph on level ground while carrying all ten men with full equipment.

e author wrote: “ e engine throughout proved most satisfactory, and experts agreed that Pembroke was to be congratulated on having secured such a powerful and up-

to-date engine for coping with res. Mr Wells, the Chairman of the Public Health Committee, said he regarded the machine as the best in Ireland, while Captain Hutson of Cork Fire Brigade considering that Pembroke was now provided with the best re ghting appliances in the country.”

According to the article, the choice of the Hat eld was not down to luck, but “exhaustive enquiries made in numerous towns already possessing self-propelled re apparatus”.

In his letter to me, Tom Geraghty also describes the rich history of this particular engine, saying it served in the Pembroke district until 1931, when it became part of the DFB eet, was painted the traditional red and acquired the DFB logo.

Both the engine and pump were re-conditioned by Dublin Fire Brigade, and the vehicle became a standby

engine stored in Buckingham Street Fire Station. However, its importance to DFB didn’t end there as it was also one of the engines sent to Belfast to assist in tackling the major res and destruction the city su ered at the hands of German bombers in 1941, and remained in use until 1945.

ough the descriptions of a crowd of interested onlookers witnessing a re engine being put through its paces may seem quaint today, and the capabilities of the Merryweather

Hat eld may seem less impressive when compared to modern re appliances, the spectacle must have been something to behold in 1910, showing that Dublin re brigades were progressive and modern for their time.

It is with great thanks to Mr Tom Geraghty that this article has been brought to light to share this very interesting information that helps continue to paint the story of the re brigade in our city.

“THE ENGINE THROUGHOUT PROVED MOST SATISFACTORY, AND EXPERTS AGREED THAT PEMBROKE WAS TO BE CONGRATULATED ON HAVING SECURED SUCH A POWERFUL AND UP-TO-DATE ENGINE”

The Merryweather engine with Hatfield pump was one of the first motor-driven engines used in Ireland

Immerse

YOU’RE

SUPPORTING NEW RECRUITS

The Recruit Family Evening Outlined the Supports the CISM Team Provides

The annual Recruit Family Evening held by the DFB CISM team took place on 14 June at the Training Centre.

CISM Coordinator and Clinical Lead Aidan Raynor says that the evening that educates the families and loved ones about the challenges recruits will face in the job and the supports they can receive brought a welcome return to an inperson event that had been forced online due to COVID-19 in recent times.

“It was great to have it in person again,” he tells me, “to be able to talk directly to recruits and their families about what the job entails, and to have the Pipe Band playing. It really showed that Dublin Fire Brigade is very protective of our mental health.”

With Sub-O cer Rachael Lee once more acting as compere, she introduced speakers including CFO Dennis Keeley, EMS Training O cer Paul Lambert, ird O cer Brendan McNicholas, who spoke about the re ghter side of

the job, and FF/P Paul O’Riordan, who spoke about CISM within DFB, and a er a break for refreshments and some music from the Pipe Band, DFBSSC Secretary Ger Ryan spoke about the many social aspects of the organisation.

“On the CISM side speci cally, Paul O’Riordan outlined how the system works for recruits and their families, how we protect our re ghters at all times,” Clinical Lead Raynor tells me. “He also outlined very well the level of training involved, how in-depth it is, particularly on the paramedic side.”

For FF/P O’Riordan, it was important to highlight the realities, but to emphasise that the supports are there for anyone who needs them.

SUPPORT

“You are trying to give the families, partners and loved ones an idea that despite the fact it is obviously a tough job the recruits are going into, that they will see critical incidents throughout their career, that we recognise that and there

are support services to help and support them,” he says.

“We also outlined that the families are an important part of the chain, that if they recognise their loved on has symptoms or signs of being in di culty, that they can contact us too, they have a vital part to play in the a ercare of their loved one, they are as important as the CSM team.

“You are educating the family members on what their loved ones will be doing, emphasising the point that as dramatic as it may sound, their very rst case could be a di cult one to process, but as an organisation we are very good at dealing with these situations and in supporting each other.

“ ere is also an emphasis on mental health, underlining that we are moving with the times, encouraging our members to talk to each other, or to family members if they feel under stress.”

He says that while what is being relayed is serious, keeping it light is the key to getting the message across.

CISM Coordinator and Clinical

Lead Aidan Raynor

Rachael Lee

Paul O’Riordan

“I mentioned that you have to have a thick skin coming into DFB, not because of what you see in the job, but because of what is said in and around the station by your colleagues by way of slagging. But when somebody is in need of help, we are there for them, and we are very conscious of a person’s mood because we spend so much time with them.”

All of this is echoed by Clinical Lead Raynor, who feels the evening was a great success and really opened the eyes of family members regarding the life of a re ghter.

EDUCATION

“ e families got a lot out of it,” he tells me”. Speaking to some of them, they told me they got a lot more information and helpful advice out of it than they expected, so that was great. e main message we gave is that from the day they walk through that door, the CISM

Team is there for them to help look a er their mental health, there is a peer support network available from day one.

“We explained how they can talk to their loved ones in those situations. We nd that family support is really the best protector of mental health for people who work in DFB.

“We also detail that not only is there peer support but they have access to other support systems, our Corporate Health Provider, a psychologist specialising in trauma counselling, GPs who are experienced talking to re ghters, that we also have access to psychiatrists if needed. We also detail that I am available 24/7 too as a trained psychotherapist and a working re ghter, as the mental health professional for the DFB.

“ e idea is that we stop problems in their infancy, and that is an important aspect of what we do. We want to get

people to the appropriate services to provide the support before the problem develops into something more serious.”

He also explains the reach of the CISM Team, which is growing to provide even more support for those who need it, with a new team of 24 personnel being trained up and mentored by the current 12 members.

is new team will undergo courses in providing assistance to individual and group crisis intervention, done through the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, now accredited through South East Technological University (setu.ie) with a Level 8 CERT in CISM.

“Being able to teach the course at university level, which is a great quali cation to have, shows we are constantly trying to improve our peer supporters and peer support in general,” he tells me.

Slideshows outlined the various types of critical incident the new recruits will face

BENEFITS

Although the Virtual Family Evening held last time around was a great success, Clinical Lead Raynor and FF/Ps O’Riordan and S/O Lee say that being able to host the event in person was of huge bene t.

Compere for the evening Rachael Lee tells me the in-person gathering allowed her to gauge the audience reaction to what was being outlined, but also gave it more of a sense of being an event.

“It is great to be there in person, to have them see you standing there,” she tells me. “It brought home the idea that it’s a family and a support network they are joining, it is not just becoming a re ghter. It gives people a sense of relief and comfort, as well as excitement. We got the message across that you’re not just starting on a new career path, you are starting on an adventure.

“Genuinely, I think people were intrigued by it all, and it brings home the enormity of the job they are going into. I think it is a real indicator that this is it, I am now in Dublin Fire Brigade, like a preparation for things to come.

“I’d like to congratulate and welcome

the new recruits into DFB. ey put in the long days of training, and we appreciate them coming to the CISM night. Also, thanks to the Syndicate O cers and District O cers who were all there from morning to night. We can’t do this without the help and support of the Training Centre and the CISM Team. I wish the recruits the best of luck, and if you ever need us, get in touch, there will always be somebody to talk to.”

Clinical Lead Raynor is also quick to thank those involved.

“ anks must go to the people on the CISM team, as well as the support from HR, Management, for the development of the course, in particular Brendan McNicholas, DFB, and all of the CISM teams past, present and future. A lot of the work is done behind the scenes that can sometimes go unnoticed so it is important to recognise that.”

“Having the evening in person makes it very real to the families,” FF/P O’Riordan adds. “Once it is put up there on the slides, and they learn about the many di erent challenging incidents their loved ones will be called out to, it does bring a good sense of realisation

to the family members what their loves ones are going to go through. I think everybody leaves the evening with a good sense of pride, both the families who see what an undertaking their loved one is doing, and the recruits because they know their family have a really good understanding of what they are doing.

“We play on the ‘I’m a bit of a big deal’ thin on the evening, but in seriousness, we are saying that as well as the challenging times, your loved one or family member will be helping people and saving lives. ey may come face to face with challenging incidents, but they are well trained to deal with these incidents and have a ‘normal reaction to abnormal events’, and also to cope with them. It’s important that we highlight that side.

“ e Pipe Band too: whatever it is about the hall, the acoustics, you get hairs standing up on the back of your neck, and you can see that with the families as well. If some family members didn’t think their loved one joining the Dublin Fire Brigade isn’t that big a deal, they certainly think it by the end of the night.”

The Pipe Band put in an impressive appearance

The Recruit Family Evening was once more held at the Training Centre

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TO THE RESCUE

The DFB Rope Rescue Team Have Been Busy, Including an Unexpected Emergency Response, Writes S/O Dave Connolly

Aer last year’s success at GRIMP day in Belgium, the DFB Rope Rescue Team was opened up to everyone to come and train and be given the opportunity to learn and compete in future events. is year, DFB sent two di erent teams to compete in ‘Rescue Great Day Seville’ and ‘GRIMP day Marseille’. Each team had a mix of experience, with previous casualties progressing on to become rescuers. e idea is to expose as many people as possible to the intense competition arena so they can avail of fast-track learning and development of our skills.

A common theme across both event’s

Coming to the aid of a motorcyclist in critical condition on the way to the airport

scenarios was the application of rope rescue techniques in the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) arena: For example, setting up rope systems to provide safe access and retrieval for Search and Rescue (SAR) dogs and their handlers, as well as for specialist medics.

We got to talk to international rescuers from Hungary and Spain who had been deployed to the recent tragic earthquake in Turkiye, and hear rsthand their experiences and see how they use rope rescue techniques at these incidents.

SEVILLE

We collected our equipment from N0.5 re station. A big thank you to Aramex, who had the unenviable job of ensuring its safe arrival in advance

of the team. e rest of the day was all about registration, equipment checking, and leader’s brie ngs followed by some last-minute practice to settle ourselves.

DAY 1

We head o on a 90-minute drive to the awe-inspiring ‘Cierro del Hierro’ national park to start our rst scenario at 8am. is scenario saw us driving metal stakes into the ground as anchors for us to access a dog and handler in a ravine and retrieve them back up. is was followed by rescuing an injured climber stuck 25metres up a crag with a fractured leg. Finally, we were faced with splitting the team in half, 100metres apart across a gorge to build a ‘Reeve’ to rescue a tourist stuck below. e intense physicality and mental strain of the scenarios is so di cult to articulate: You’re carrying in excess of 45kg each in equipment all day, plus all your water - litres and litres of it! As if that wasn’t tough enough, we were further challenged by having to perform in the relentless 36°C heat.

DAY 2

A complete shi from the previous day’s

striking and harsh natural environment, but not from the heat. Today is all about urban-based rescue.

First up is a con ned space rescue down a ventilation sha , accessed via narrow louvres, with all the rigging done internally suspended on lines, and the patient packaged for a horizontal raise.

As soon as we’re done, the equipment is re-established and it’s on to the next location: A massive conical structure with a maintenance worker stranded inside. We had to set our own rescue lines with an 8 catapult, climb up, treat and recover the patient… then came the curve ball. Our rst rescuer up, as part of the scenario, became ‘seriously unwell’ and also had to be rescued. e choc-ices a er this one never tasted so good, but still no rest. Scenarios 3 and 4 took us on to the roofs of some wonderful structures to test our stretcher rigging skills and edge transitions.

DAY 3

e nal four tests in four iconic locations. First up, Portada de la Fiera required us to navigate a darkened maze of sca olding by head torch, to take an unwell worker out the underside of the arch, accompanied by a resuer.

Next on the list was a simulated building collapse requiring multi-level access through narrow openings to get a patient back up to safety. When that’S done, we’re o and moving to the rst of two stadiums, one being home to Sevilla FC, the other Real Betis. e

THE IDEA IS TO EXPOSE AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE TO THE INTENSE COMPETITION ARENA SO THEY CAN AVAIL OF FAST-TRACK LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF OUR SKILLS”

Rescue Great Day Seville team Dave Connolly, David Hosback, Juan O’Raw, Richie Elliott, John Ryan, and Cameron Hyland

context here was that a crowd surge had collapsed some of the stand and we had to get an unresponsive trauma patient up and over the outside of the structures.

EMERGENCY

With all the exercises complete, the closing ceremony behind them and the equipment packed and ready to be shipped to France for GRIMP day, the team headed out on the 2 ½ hr drive to the airport, but there was one more surprise in store.

En route, they came across an accident on the motorway, with an unresponsive male lying prone a er coming o his motorcycle. e team instantly switched into response mode, fending o , tra c management and patient treatment. e patient was pre-arrest with a head injury and agonal breathing.

e helmet was removed and airway secured with a jaw thrust by Juan O’Raw. ese actions undoubtedly saved the man’s life and prevented him going into

respiratory arrest resulting from impact brain apnoea (IBA). is is a condition common in motorcycle collisions, but not o en seen by paramedics because by the time they arrive it has progressed into respiratory and cardiac arrest.

D/O Richie Elliot has a long history of training bike marshalls and has witnessed IBA more than 20 times on the racing circuit. He was instantly alert to the danger and guided treatment alongside our AP Dave Hosback.

Cameron Hyland did some topdrawer detective work getting into the patient’s phone (in Spanish) to access his continuous glucose management implant data in his arm, while John Ryan was exposing and examining for further injuries. e injuries and critical information were communicated to the Spanish emergency services using a translator, to ensure the appropriate medical response.

is critically ill man was being kept alive by the actions of the DFB Rope

Rescue Team and was handed over to the care of the doctor on the ambulance attending. A few details were passed to the Guardia Civil and the team continued on their way to catch their ight, happy in the knowledge they’d done a good deed. ey thought no more of it until they turned their phones back on a er landing in Dublin airport.

Turns out the event went viral in Spain and was picked up by several media outlets. e patient su ered, amongst other things, a sub-arachnoid haemorrhage, several rib fractures, and poly-contusions. He spent some time in ICU with a central line tted, and the good news is he discharged several days later, to recover at home.

While we might see this kind of incident in work, where we get to prepare ourselves for it en route and have all our safe systems of work and PPE to protect us and the patient, the thing that stands out for me is, despite the obvious danger to their safety, there wasn’t a moment’s

The GRIMP Marseille team Peter ‘Dishy’ Conroy, Dave Connolly, Martin Hunt, Richie Elliott, Aisling Buffini, Neal Billings and John Ryan

hesitation by the team in setting about helping this stranger, even without all the normal equipment and back up.

is intervention is possibly the greatest demonstration of the espoused values of DFB by a crew I’ve seen in my career, and I’m proud to call them friends.

GRIMP DAY MARSEILLE

GRIMP day 2023 was the rst ever French edition, hosted by Sapeurs Pompiers-13 around the city of Marseille, with 24 teams from across the world including Chile, USA, Japan, Hong Kong, Lebanon and a host from other European countries. e French re ghters organising this year’s event were also using it as a platform to raise money for a charity close to their heart, ODP, which helps orphans and families of Fire ghters. With this in mind, the DFB Rope Rescue Team organised a bucket collection and raised €1,040.07

for the charity, presenting the cheque to the organisers on the rst night by way of thanks for all their hard work in organising GRIMP day 2023.

11 exercises were completed over the three days, with a bonus “fun” 2hour climbing and abseiling session around ‘Cap Canaille’, the tallest sea cli s in France, on the rst day as a warmer upper! e days are long and arduous, each person carrying over 45kg in equipment all day, starting at 6am and nishing at 6pm.

e rst day’s exercises were based around the 87metre-high Bimont Dam, and tested raising and lowering skills in biblical levels of rainfall, but it couldn’t dampen the spirit of Team DFB. e next day was more about urban search and rescue (USAR) scenarios, accessing and treating ‘victims’ in an old mill and mine works. Another skills test in the rescue centre saw us raising a 250kg load from one location to another whilst rescuers

are suspended from lines in the roof. e last day was simply epic. Located in the shipyard of La Ciotat, all 24 teams from across the world lined up in a straight head-to-head race – climb the 86m crane and rescue the ‘victim’ using a stretcher in two hours. Our nal scenario was a complex medical/trauma exercise in the dry docks, involving access, treatment, multiple rescues and deploying advance medical care to the scene.

AWARD

With all the exercises complete, it was time to pack the equipment up for shipping back to Dublin and grab a quick shower before heading to the closing ceremony. e mood was good as we knew we’d given a very good account of ourselves. It got even better when we were called out for the “Best Medical Team” award.

All of us in DFB know we are good at patient care, now the rest of the world knows it too. Being the best medical team in the world makes me deeply proud of the team and all their hard work. At the end of the day, there is only one reason why we are here… to help someone in need, and this international recognition is a just re ection of who we are and what we do… we help people!

THANKS

I’d like to say a big thank you to HR for sorting out the transport, accommodation and the myriad of other background tasks, and to S/O Richie McDonald in the Logistics department for supporting the team’s needs with equipment, from radios to ropes. Also, a big thank you to DUBCO and the Sports and Social Club for supporting the team’s work. And nally, to all the team members who put in the training, keep it up, there’s more to come…

THIS INTERVENTION IS POSSIBLY THE GREATEST DEMONSTRATION OF THE ESPOUSED VALUES OF DFB BY A CREW I’VE SEEN IN MY CAREER”

RETIRED MEMBER PROFILE

D/O John Chubb

Although he has only just retired, D/O John Chubb has a lot to look back on from his career with Dublin Fire Brigade and is happy to share his experiences, as well as his views on the future of the organisation.

His last posting has seen him work on a special project for the last year, with his nal day coming on 12 August, and though he admits he will miss the job, he is happy to recognise that “it’s time to move on”, as he tells me.

Working as a post o ce clerk at the GPO, John only went for a job with DFB in 1985 because he applied with a friend who needed moral support.

“As these things go, he didn’t get it, but I did,” he laughs, “but it was the best thing I ever did, the most wonderful experience for almost 37 years.”

VARIETY

Working across all Watches and many stations, his career has been varied, with ve or six-year stays a common motif. Starting in January 1986, John was rst posted to HQ, where he spent ve years, but lled in at other stations when required before being moved to North Strand and then Phibsboro, both for ve-year stints. When promoted to SubO cer, he returned to HQ to work in the Control Room and Operations.

A year later, he went to Donnybrook and stayed there for two and a half years before again being promoted to Station O cer. He moved back to HQ and oated for two years before getting a permanent S/O position in Tallaght, where he spent three years.

“I moved again to Dolphin’s Barn and spent six years there,” he tells me, “until the position for D/O was advertised, and I got that and went back to HQ, where I spent six years.

“I enjoyed all of it,” he adds, “but I loved the busiest stations. I had the great privilege of working with terri c re ghters and o cers.

ey all had a very positive approach to continuous improvement; people were always willing to take the opportunity to share and learn from their experiences. It was just a natural process among outstanding people.”

NEW CHALLENGE

John spent a productive and enjoyable six years with a young enthusiastic B Watch crew in HQ but felt there were other projects he wanted to take on, saying: “I could have retired, but decided not to. COVID-19 came along, and while I wanted to stay in the job, I felt I needed a new challenge; a unique project came up, and I was intrigued by it, so I became D/O in Organisational Intelligence.

“My job was to facilitate the design of a strategic model to understand risk, to establish the Unit in terms of personnel, and ultimately to set up a process of moving from a paper-based data acquisition and dissemination model to a digital model,” John tells me.

“ e data analytics undertaken will be a key decision-making tool for Dublin Fire Brigade to improve the way we approach things, such as where we build stations or identifying new types of training we need to incorporate,” he says.

The recently retired D/O and Instructor talks to Adam Hyland about his career

WE DON’T OWN THE JOB OF DUBLIN FIRE BRIGADE FIREFIGHTER, WE ARE JUST HOLDING THE BATON, PROTECTING THE INTEGRITY OF THE JOB, READY TO PASS IT ON TO THE NEXT PERSON”

“ e fundamentals of organisational intelligence are data-driven, based on incident reports and analysis, as well as CSO databases.”

EXPERTISE

It is no wonder he was given this role, as across John’s career, he has repeatedly shown an interest in and aptitude for specialist approaches and insights that have seen him at the forefront of innovation and training within DFB.

“When you make Sub-O cer,

you are encouraged to undertake Specialist training in certain areas, and the areas that interested me were breathing apparatus and compartment re behaviour,” he says. “ ese are the core skills of a re ghter. I was inspired by a programme on Channel 4 called Into the Fire, about Swedish re ghters, which captured my imagination. I asked if I could go to Sweden, and the DFB very kindly supported that, so I went to Revinge in the south of the country in 2002 and did an advanced

re ghting course in their training centre.

“ at changed my view of the way re ghting has evolved. One particular person, Dr Stefan Svensson, became a mentor for me. e Swedish approach had a very integrated model regarding how they approached re ghter training, so when I came back, I proposed for DFB to emulate this, which they supported. I was fortunate to be a part of a very innovative group of young instructors, and we overhauled how we trained re ghters to include tactical ventilation, breathing apparatus, and re behaviour training.”

John’s international connections broadened, and he says he met many people who signi cantly in uenced him.

INFLUENCES

“As well as Svensson, I was in uenced by Roy Hedin, FDNY Battalion Chief Jerry Tracy, and another FDNY Chief John Norman, who had been at 9/11. e most in uential person I met was Dr Paul Grimwood, author of several books on re ghting tactics and re engineering. I appreciate that DFB allowed me to develop our integrated training model from all of this. I was allowed to bring in accredited training working with a very strong group of people, using ultra-modern equipment and re ghting techniques.”

His interest in tactical ventilation also led John to become involved in a High Rise research project that evaluated and changed how DFB approaches re ghting in tall buildings, which he saw as a necessary opportunity to evolve the organisation’s training.

“ e way International re services evolve is usually a reactive process: What generally causes this reaction?” he explains. “ e primary thing is disasters or tragic events. Other causal factors would be changes in the built environment or technological changes.

“Ireland, and in particular, Dublin, is going through signi cant changes in the built environment, in terms of higher population density, taller

Taking up sailing has replaced one set of challenges with another

buildings and more complicated buildings incorporating new building techniques.

“DFB was and still is an e cient, hands-on organisation, but the changes in the built environment put us in positions we had to adapt to. I contributed to a multidisciplinary group of experienced and knowledgeable people, so there was an eclectic mix. e research project looked at what was happening across the Atlantic, in Europe and the UK. Within that group of people, we developed innovative training, tactics, techniques, and procedures to such a

level that it started to generate interest from overseas.

“It’s a common practice for re services to be inward-looking and conservative, but when people saw that we were very progressive, they became very interested in how we approached it. We then started to incorporate this training into the professional development of re ghters as part of their BA refresher training, which is ongoing to this day.”

CONTRIBUTION

John was also heavily involved in Incident Command training and is

proud of his contribution to a broader team e ort.

“We have a very progressive training o cer in Brendan Carroll, and he encouraged a very positive approach to review what we are doing to teach incident commanders and to look outwardly and develop a model both to improve on existing norms and mirror best practices internationally,” he says.

“I was a contributory member of the group who devised a model based on many di erent perspectives. is combined virtual reality training and a collaborative style of adult education encouraging incident commanders to think critically in problem-solving. At the same time, we wanted them to be aware of the psychological stresses an incident commander can experience that can cause them to lose situational awareness. It was very cutting edge, so that was exciting to be a part of.”

THE BIGGEST AND BEST RESOURCE DFB HAS IS THE PEOPLE WHO SERVE WITHIN THE ORGANISATION. THEY ARE VERY CAPABLE PEOPLE, AND I AM VERY PROUD TO HAVE WORKED WITH THEM”

D/O John Chubb presents some of the new training tactics to DFB members

CHANGES

Looking back over his time in DFB, John says he saw massive changes within the organisation and regarding the challenges presented to them.

“When I joined in 1986, DFB invested heavily in training and recruitment.

ere was colossal work done in establishing the Training Centre. However, at that time, there was no live re training, Swi water rescue, Hi-Line, or modern HazMat training. All of that has come on tremendously over the course of my career.

“ e other big change is on the EMS side. We all did the ambulance in our time and were very busy, but we were essentially well-trained rst aiders; now, DFB members are all paramedics and advanced paramedics, and the academic challenges to achieve this are considerable for modern re ghters.”

CHALLENGES

In terms of the changes in the challenges DFB faces today, John says many will require a continuously proactive approach to training and tactics.

“ ere have been so many rapid changes in the built environment; it is now a di erent Ireland,” he says. “ e big challenge is managing that change. DFB must develop a proactive change model and formally establish a research and development section. is is a huge opportunity.

“ ere is considerable innovation going on in the private sector – how you manage people, manage problems, how you nd solutions – and that is the key to the future of the re service. It is all about education, a business approach, and incorporating the best private sector practices. If you can collect data e ciently, analyse and disseminate the results e ciently, your strategic decisions become proactive and e ective.”

John is con dent that DFB has the expertise to meet these many challenges.

LOOKING FORWARD

“ e biggest and best resource DFB has is the people who serve within the organisation. ey are incredibly capable sta , and I am proud to have worked with them. I think DFB has the people

on the ground to continue to serve the people of Dublin at a very high level, and that makes me very happy.”

Stepping back from his job of over 36 years, John plans to live life to the full away from DFB.

“I think that for anybody who joins DFB, it isn’t a job; it’s a vocation,” he tells me. “ ey are paying you to do something you love doing. Working in a team setting, with solid camaraderie, banter, ongoing problem-solving, and of course, the emergency element where people are working at a very high rate of performance, there is an edge to that, that challenge, is something I will miss.

“We tend to see the world through re ghter’s eyes, which has positive aspects, but it also has a component you need to move away from when you retire. I will miss it but also ll my life with other things.”

Having joined a sailing club, which he says, is “replacing one set of challenges with another”, he also plans to start a photography course and an academic

course in a subject such as history “to learn how to look at the world outside the red lens of the Brigade”.

He is also getting married in October, and expecting his rst grandchild this Christmas, “so I will have my hands full, but in a good way!”

To nish, I asked John what he felt was the best thing about his DFB career.

“I think the sense of service to the public,” he says. “ ere is a massive sense of satisfaction in saving someone’s life or bringing a life into the world and this brings out the best in us. It has been a privilege and an honour to have been able to be part of this terri c organisation.

“In my time, I have seen people go beyond what is required of them and put themselves at risk to serve the public; this should never be undervalued. In my opinion, we don’t own the jobs within Dublin Fire Brigade. We are just holding the baton, protecting the integrity of the job, and getting ready to pass it on to our successors.”

Being presented with an award for his dedication by CFO Dennis Keeley

Starting in 1974, and led by Jim Fleming a er the death of his colleague and friend FF Michael Mulligan, the mass for deceased members of Dublin Fire Brigade was rst held in Westland Row. Since then, it has moved to the St Saviours Church, Dominick St. With thanks going to Jim Fleming and Retired D/O Adrian Sutton, the mass, which takes place in November, is due to celebrate it’s 49th annual service this year.

In the early years, there was a large uniform presence for this celebration of colleagues and friends who have sadly le us. A body of re ghters and o cers would march from DFB HQ to the church, and during the service operational sta would participate in the readings, o ertory procession and ag bearing duties.

It is supported by the DFB Pipe Band, who have always ensured there is a piper available on the day. As well as large numbers of family members of the deceased, in attendance on the day is the Lord Mayor, City managers from the four councils we serve, and members of DFB senior management.

We have been very lucky to have had great musicians and choirs over the years, some of whom are members of Dublin Fire Brigade. Unfortunately, the number of operational sta has reduced in recent times and most of the participation has fallen on our retired re ghters and o cers.

I was myself guilty for not attending this service up until my own father Paddy Leavy (retired member) sadly passed away in 2013. I remember the rst mass my family and I attended. ere was a strong uniform presence and for my family it was a sign that my father was still remembered by the job he had worked in and loved for so long.

As time went on, I have continued to attend the mass to show all the other families who have lost their loved ones that they indeed have not been forgotten, and hopefully that brings them some comfort in hard times.

I also view the mass service for Deceased Members of Dublin Fire Brigade and Dun Laoghaire as an opportunity to pay my respects to friends and colleagues I have been lucky to work alongside who have

THE ANNUAL MASS

unfortunately passed on during my service in DFB. ese are the people who gave their time to the unions and sports and social clubs that we all have today, who wore the uniform proudly while serving the people of Dublin, and should be remembered for all those things.

ere are very few occasions where operational sta and our retired members get to meet. ere are refreshments in the Teacher’s Club on Parnell Square a erwards, sponsored by DFBSSC, a

perfect setting to meet old friends and share stories of DFB past and present. I would love to see more uniformed operational sta get involved on the day. It is only a few hours of your time, but it will mean so much to those attending.

The mass will take place in St Saviours Church on 19 November. If you would like to get involved, please contact me, FF Aidan Leavy, A Watch, No.3, or any DFBSSC rep.

The Deceased Members Mass is a Chance to Pay Respects, writes Aidan Leavy

The DFB Pipe Band always make sure a piper is available on the day to help pay respects to colleagues and friends who have passed away

WINNING WAYS

Another Big Medal Haul for FF/AP Eithne Scully at the World Police and Fire Games

The World Police and Fire Games took place in Winnipeg, Canada between 28 July and 6 August, and once more DFB FF/AP Eithne Scully was among the medals.

Having enjoyed great success at the Games in the past, FF/AP Scully held on to her titles and, remarkably, took home gold in all her individual events. ese included the 400metres, 800metres, 1,500metres, 5,000metres, 5,000metre cross-country race, and

the Stair Race.

She was also part of the Women’s 4x100 and 4x400metre relay team that took home silver in both races, the Women’s Stair Race team that took gold, as well as the silver-winning Mixed Relay 4x400 team that was

Eithne Scully once again won gold at the Games Another gold for Eithne Scully

competing for the rst time this year, and the Mixed Stair Race team that won a bronze medal.

“ e Mixed Stair Race was a great event for me to take part in,” FF/AP Scully says, “because we had an all-Irish team, consisting of myself, some people from Dublin Airport Fire Service, and my friend Jackie, who, even though she competes for London Metropolitan Police, is actually Irish.

“For me, though, winning the 800metres was the best achievement. If I only took home one medal, I would want it to be in that event. Most people nd it very di cult but I really enjoyed it. It is very tactical and I got my tactics just right, so I was delighted with the win.”

Although FF/AP Scully was the sole representative of the DFB at the World Police and Fire Games, she was happy to meet up with other Irish athletes, including the Dublin Airport Fire Service team, several gardaí, a retired re ghter from Kilkenny and retired Garda George Mayberry.

“I also got to meet up with my regular gang of friends who meet at this event every time it is held,” she adds, “and taking part in these events is a great way to see the world.”

A er a well-deserved rest, FF/AP Scully says her focus will now be on the DFB Extrication Team’s participation in the World Rescue Challenge in October.

“I also need to get back to my other interests such as horses,” she adds, “and to keep running, because the whole idea for me is have longevity in my job by staying as t as possible.

“I also have to thank Dublin Fire Brigade Sports and Social Club for their ongoing support. ey paid my registration for the event, which was a great help because it is expensive to go to these events, and they have always supported everything I have done, and I have done a fair bit over the years!

anks must also go to my friends and family who have always been a great support to me.”

Taking to the podium after the Mixed Relay

The Stair Race team

Taking home the gold

Eithne with her relay team

7 THINGS YOU MUST DO IN BERGEN

With the great news that Norwegian airline Wideroe have started direct ights between Dublin and Bergen, now is the perfect time to see what this beautiful city has to o er. In less than two hours you can be at the ‘Gateway to the Fjords’. Compact and easy to get around, but surrounded by beautiful mountains and shining seas, you could spend weeks here, but for a short trip, here’s seven highlyrecommended things you should do.

TAKE THE FLØIBANEN

e Fløibanen funicular is one of Norway’s most popular attractions, and for good reason. e 5-minute trip brings you up to Mount Fløyen, which stands 320 metres above sea level, and o ers outstanding views of the city and out into the ords. Up here, you and the family can enjoy a range of activities from paddleboarding or canoeing in the lake to mountain biking and hiking. ere is also an exercise park and two excellent playgrounds. Or, you could just sit and relax, sipping a cold drink as you look out over the stunning vista.

https:// oyen.no/en

VISIT THE FISH MARKET

Even if you don’t like sh, this market right in the centre of the old town is a sight, sound, smell and overall experience to behold. For those who do enjoy seabased cuisine, you can get everything from cod to giant crabs, lobster to whale (don’t eat whale), all as fresh as it can possibly be. Most stalls double as small restaurants so you can pick out what you want and watch them cook it in front of you. For those who don’t like seafood, there are many other things to choose from, including traditionally cured and packaged reindeer and moose, as well as cheeses, fruit and vegetables. A freshly cooked moose burger topped with lingonberry jam is a highlyrecommended snack you will want to try. Trust me.

NORWAY’S SECOND CITY OFFERS A HUGE VARIETY OF ACTIVITIES Bergen from Floyen

Bryggen from the water

The majestic Hakonshallen

The fjords

STROLL THROUGH BRYGGEN

e picture postcard Bryggen is a UNESCO World Heritage site that stands out for its history and beauty. e striking, di erent coloured wooden buildings on the old wharf in the heart of the city means you can’t miss it, but it is well worth taking a walk through the narrow alleyways and perusing the shops there. It is an interesting reminder of the town’s importance as part of the Hanseatic League’s trading empire that began here in the 14th century, and re ghters will be interested to read about the countless res (most recently in 1955) that have threatened its very existence. Any rebuilds must follow old patterns and methods to preserve the area’s integrity, so it looks just like it would have done all those centuries ago.

SWIM AT NORDNES SJØBAD

e seawater swimming pool at Nordnes Park, just 20 minutes walk from the city centre, is a great place to relax and get some exercise at the same time. Set in a stunning location, the 25metre pool overlooks a ord and mountain, with the water heated to a balmy 30 degrees. ere’s also a children’s pool and a sauna, with excellent changing rooms, and if you are feeling adventurous, you can take a plunge into the ringed o ord water just over the wall, which is a lot, lot colder. Going early in the day is a good idea as this spot is very popular with locals and lls up on warm evenings.

https://nordnessjobad.no/

SEE THE FJORDS

If you go to the gateway to the ords, you really should head out on a sightseeing boat tour of the ords themselves, and in Bergen there are numerous operators who can take you on trips ranging from two hours to all-day jaunts around the stunning scenery of this beautiful land. You can also choose from a wide range of boat types, from larger, modern ferries to RIBs, that can take you past quaint villages, picturesque islands and jawdropping mountains into Nærøy ord, itself a UNESCO World Heritage site, which has to be seen to be believed.

VISIT HAKONSHALLEN

Fans of Vikings, history, and viking history will love this medieval stone hall built as a royal residence and feast hall under the reign of King Håkon IV, who ruled Norway from 1204 to 1263. Set in the Bergenhus Fortress at the end of Bryggen, it is a majestic setting quite literally t for a king.

ough modernised to host banquets nowadays (it was restored in the 1950s a er a Dutch ammunition ship was blown up in the harbour directly below it in 1944), a walk around the hall and castle gives you a great insight into what the living conditions were like for both royalty and those who served them from the lower levels.

https://bymuseet.no/museum/theking-hakons-hall

GO INDOORS

When the sun shines in Bergen, the city is magnificent, but it is the rainiest city in Europe, so it is worth planning a few indoor activities, and thankfully there are many to choose from. The Aquarium is a brilliant place to take the family, and features all manner of marine life including penguins, sea lions, crocodiles, otters, iguanas, snakes and fish of all types and sizes. A walk through the 60+ aquariums and tunnels is both tranquil and fascinating, and there’s plenty of activities on hand to entertain the children.

www.akvariet.no/en

The Natural History Museum at the University of Bergen is also a great option. While it holds scientific collections of more than 2million specimens of animals, fungi, plants and minerals, and has great exhibits of stu ed animals, it di ers from our own Natural History Museum in that the emphasis is very much on the living planet and how it has evolved over time. Tectonic plate movement, rock formations and the impact of aeons of time are explained in fun and interesting ways that will leave you amazed.

www.uib.no/en/ universitymuseum

FLIGHT DETAILS:

Wideroe flies direct from Dublin to Bergen twice a week.

www.wideroe.no

Take a boat tour of the fjords

QUIZ

Test Your Knowledge of This Issue of Firecall

1. What two areas were most heavily a ected by the earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria in February?

2. In what city was GRIMP Day held this year?

3. At what football ground did DFB FC play a team from Firesport UK this summer?

4. What hotel did US President Joe Biden stay in when visiting Dublin this year?

5. Who is known as ‘the Godfather of modern Irish distilling’?

6. What was the name of the Attorney General in whose house doublemurderer Malcolm Macarthur was found hiding?

7. On what street is there a new plaque in memory of two DFB members who lost their lives fighting a fire there?

8. In what century did the Hanseatic League’s trading empire begin in Bergen?

9. Which oceanographer led a team of scientists to successfully locate the wreckage of the Titanic?

10. Which Irish actor stars in the Apple TV series The Big Door Prize?

Send your answers

BINGE WATCHES

WHAT TO STREAM THIS SEASON

ALICE IN BORDERLAND

Netflix, 2 series

Fans of escape rooms will love this slick Japanese thriller series based on a Manga series that falls somewhere between Battle Royale, Cube and Squid Game. ree layabout friends hide from the police in a Tokyo subway toilet cubicle, only to walk back out into a world where everybody has disappeared. at is, until they follow signs that point them towards the rst of several elaborately planned escape room scenarios. Soon joined by various other puzzled people, they realise that losing a game means death, which becomes increasingly likely as the di culty levels grow. Additional characters are introduced well over the course of both seasons, and the idea expanded on brilliantly to become a blast of ultra-violence and mind games, leaving you unsure what happened, but in a good way.

BLUE LIGHTS

BBC iPlayer, 1 series, one to follow

THE BIG DOOR PRIZE

Apple TV+, 1 series, one to follow

Chris O’Dowd stars in this intriguing and slow-burning comedy drama that centres on a small American town where a mysterious machine suddenly appears in the local grocery store that can seemingly predict the “life potential” of those who use it. With locals unable to resist trying it out, many make radical life decisions to pursue that potential, but surprisingly few ask the obvious questions: Where did it come from? How does it make these predictions? And what does it all mean? That is, apart from O’Dowd’s Dusty, who plays the part of sceptical but intrigued family man to a tee. Part sci-fi, part drama, what stands out here is that behind the mystery lies a sweetness that unlike many other sci-fi based shows, rarely threatens to become overly dark.

Being a member of the PSNI in Belfast must be one of the toughest jobs going, and this wellworked drama illustrates the challenges faced policing still heavily-sectarian areas. e series focuses on three rookies going through their probationary period as they take to the streets and are met with all sorts of setbacks, both professional and personal, with great background stories adding to the tension for each. With wily veterans trying to help them through the mess they face, we see the rookies learn on the job and develop their own outlooks on what policing means, but danger and potential tragedy are never far away in this tense and intelligent drama.

BASED ON A TRUE STORY

Peacock, 1 series

SECRET INVASION

Disney+, 1 series

ose looking for their Marvel x will most likely be happy to see a return to the traditional approach in what is the rst series from the 5th Phase of the MCU (for those still keeping track), following o -piste but entertaining productions such as Wandavision and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Samuel L Jackson returns as Nick Fury to lead a band of superheroes in a battle against an invasion by shape-shi ing Skrull who, as it turns out, are already on Earth and replacing key people of power. e story has been hinted at in previous Marvel outputs, and some nice weight is provided with the addition of big-hitters Olivia Colman, Emilia Clarke, Martin Freeman and Love/Hate’s Killian Scott.

THE BEAR

Disney+, 2 series

is American comedy-drama is considered one of the best workplace-based series since Mad Men, and is well worth a watch. Having revelled as a chef in the world of New York’s ne dining scene, idealistic Carmen reluctantly returns home to Chicago to take over his family’s Italian beef sandwich shop following the death of his brother, who le the business in a mess. Drama and comedy are combined well as the unruly and disgruntled sta initially reject Carmen’s attempts to modernise, and everything that can go wrong in running a restaurant, does. It’s funny and dark at the same time, with brilliant characters, directing and acting, especially from Jeremy Allen White as the unravelling Carmen.

The number of true crime amateur detective podcasts (and now TV shows) means the genre was ripe for a take-down, and this clever comedy-drama-satire has just enough self-awareness to take an irreverent view while remaining just outside becoming what it mocks. Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina star as a married couple who listen to true crime stories and are inevitably drawn into a mystery they have to solve themselves. It’s all good-humoured enough to not o end enthusiasts, who will actually enjoy the show’s take on the cliches and tropes that arise time and again in the genre. Something to tune into when you have otherwise tuned out.

POKER FACE

Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, 1 series, one to follow

This thoroughly enjoyable and o -beat crime drama/ comedy has received many plaudits, and deservedly so. Taking the Columbo-esque approach of showing the murder first, then introducing the person who will solve it, it’s “case of the week” style is also reminiscent of standalone shows such as Quantum Leap, which is always a good thing. Fresh from the success of the similarly quirky Russian Doll, Natasha Lyonne plays a woman on the run from a casino owner and crime boss, who has the peculiar talent of being able to tell immediately if somebody is lying. As she travels across smalltown America, her talent lends itself to solving crimes in a haphazard but ultimately successful way, just like the esteemed and dishevelled detective mentioned above. Highly recommended.

THE GALLOW’S POLE

BBC iPlayer, 1 series

If you’ve seen Shane Meadows’ This Is England, you might be forgiven for thinking this story set in rural Yorkshire at the start of the 18th century industrial revolution would be somewhat grim, but it is in fact a very well written and surprisingly funny fictionalised three-part drama. With local weavers and land workers facing ruin as industrialisation approaches, one man returns home with a plan to make money in a less honest way, culminating in a fraud that almost broke the British economy. There are weird elements, but at heart it is an intriguing and thoroughly enjoyable story of a community coming together to make a better life for themselves against the odds.

SUMMER IN THE CITY

The Summer Nights Out Gave Each Watch a Chance to Meet Up and Unwind

The DFBSSC’s annual Summer Nights Out took place once again at the Church Bar on the junction of Mary Street and Jervis Street in May and June. The nights kicked o on 11 May for D Watch, followed by 18 May for C Watch, 25 May for B Watch, and on 1 June it was A Watch’s turn to let the hair down. As with last year, which marked the first time we could really unwind without pandemic restrictions, this summer saw an increase in the number of attendees from across all Watch nights. As always, our thanks to the Church Bar and their sta for accommodating us each night, and also to the station reps who attended on the night to make sure everything went smoothly. The Winter Social Nights will kick o on 12 October with C watch, followed by B watch, then A, and finishing o with D watch on 2 November. The Venue will be confirmed at a later dateLook out for details on our social media platforms.

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EMERGENCY SERVICES

FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

ITALY NURSING HOME FIRE TRAGEDY

Six elderly people – five women and one man - died and more than 80 were taken to hospital when a fire broke out in a nursing home in Milan in July. The fire started at around 1.20am in the Case per Coniugi nursing home in the south of the city. There were 167 people in the home at the time, all of whom were rescued “one by one” by responding firefighters. It is thought the fire was caused by a cigarette being dropped in one of the residents’ beds.

INDIA THOUSANDS GET FIRST RESPONDER TRAINING

TURKIYE MOTORCYCLE AMBULANCES INTRODUCED

A fleet of 60 motorcycle ambulances has been rolled out across the country to provide urgent medical assistance to patients within minutes on busy boulevards, narrow streets, parks and recreation areas. The motorcycles carry a paramedic and emergency medical technician to perform the first intervention to the patient, as well as almost all equipment available in a regular ambulance. Two motorcycle ambulances were deployed in the capital Ankara and within two months had treated approximately 500 patients, and there are now 142 personnel working on the 60 vehicles around the country. One of the motorcycle paramedics, Osman Eriklioglu, said he gets around ten cases a day and 250 per month, and added: “The feature that distinguishes motorcycle ambulances from regular ambulances is their ability to reach a patient more quickly, especially in our frequent tra c jams, to make the first intervention and stabilise the patient.”

More than 85,000 people in the contested area of Jammu and Kashmir have been trained as rst responders in re safety, prevention and precautionary measures by the region’s re and emergency services. A total of 640 schools and 300 hospitals and medical institutes were covered by the department’s new awareness programme, with 15,000 personnel from these medical institutions and a further 70,000 civilians trained “We are spreading awareness among the masses to prevent re incidents and are focusing on rst re responders, who have specialised training as those among the rst to arrive at a scene and provide assistance during emergency situations,” Alok Jumar, director of the re and emergency service department said. ere are 176 re stations in the territory, but there were almost 6,000 re incidents in the region in 2022, with this year set to see similar numbers. “ e department is aiming to decrease this number through this programme,” Jumar added. e re service is also being strengthened with upgraded machinery and equipment, including a turntable ladder brought in from Finland that can access 14-storey buildings.

BANGLADESH FIRE STATION ATTACKED

The Fire Service of Bangshal has filed a case with police accusing between 250 and 300 unidentified people of attacking and obstructing them during a devastating fire in the Bangazabar shopping complex in the capital city of Dhaka. According to the case statement, the large crowd carried out attacks and vandalism on the Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters when the fire broke out, with some firefighters injured in the attack when they tried to block the damaging of government property. While firefighters struggled to deter the crowd, the fire spread from the shopping complex to nearby markets, burning several thousand shops that le t traders with nothing ahead of the important Eid-ul-Fitr festival.

EU 2022 WILDFIRES SECOND WORST ON RECORD

CAMEROON FRENCH LOAN FUNDS FIRE DEPARTMENT

Cameroon has received a €50million loan from France to strengthen its fire department, with the money to be used to purchase 227 new fire and rescue vehicles over the next few years. The equipment will be supplied by French manufacturer Desautel, which specialises in the supply of civil security equipment. Of the 37 fire department centres in the country, 15 are currently not operational, due to a lack of equipment and qualified personnel. “This will undoubtedly bring Cameroon a high-performance risk management system, designed to e ectively tackle the continuously evolving challenges, particularly those associated with risk prevention and the protection of individuals and assets against accidents, disasters and catastrophes,” said Minister of the Economy Alamine Ousmae Mey.

USA CALFIRE’S NEW TECH OFFICE

Last year was the second worst wild re season in the EU since 2000, when Copernicus’ European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) records began, surpassed only by those of 2017. EFFIS observed res in 45 countries around the world in 2022, amounting to 16,941 separate res that burnt 1,624, 381 hectares of land, equivalent to the whole of Montenegro. Excluding war-torn Ukraine, Spain was the most a ected by wild res, with a total of 315,705 hectares burnt: three and a half times more than in 2021. Romania, Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and France were also in the top ve countries most a ected. Some 365,308 hectares of protected areas were also destroyed by res in 2022, with Spain, Romania and Portugal accounting for more than 75% of this. In the EU, res were mapped in 26 of the 27 EU countries (all except Luxembourg), burning 837,212 hectares of land, representing an 86% increase on 2021 gures. Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia had the highest increases in burnt area compared to 2021, while Finland, Greece and Sweden saw a decrease.

e California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection – CalFire - has opened a new o ce for research into emerging technologies that may assist with emergency responses. e O ce of Wild re Technology Research and Development, which has a current sta of seven, is tasked with researching new tech to see if it can be applied to the needs of re and rescue services speci cally. Marcus Hernandez, a CalFire deputy chief assigned to the o ce, said: “We have all this great innovation out there, but we’re here to help them understand what we’re actually looking for.” He added that for existing projects, his o ce will play a supporting role to agencies already involved, including projects related to satellites, drones and imaging, but will also lead on new projects where the re department has gaps in its capabilities, such as tracking personnel in the eld a er they’ve disembarked, or providing last-mile communications platforms in remote areas.

A THREAD OF VIOLENCE: A STORY OF TRUTH, INVENTION AND MURDER

Interest in what was one of Ireland’s most notorious cases – the two murders committed by Malcolm Macarthur in 1982 – has never waned. e character of Freddie Montgomery in John Banville’s e Book of Evidence was based on the killer, while the last couple of years have seen two true crime podcasts on the story - e BBC’s Obscene: e Dublin Scandal, and Irish Times correspondent Harry McGee’s GUBU, which he has since turned into a just-released book e Murderer and the Taoiseach.

It is not surprising that the story continues to fascinate, because it is so strange, or to use the GUBU acronym coined by Conor Cruise O’Brien, “grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, unprecedented”.

To summarise, Macarthur was a dapper socialite who rubbed shoulders with high society, his lifestyle funded by his inheritance. When he had squandered that, he decided to rob a bank, but he needed a car and a gun. He bludgeoned nurse Bridie Gargan to death in Phoenix Park, stole her car, and drove to Edenderry a er seeing an advertisement for a ri e for sale. Before completing the transaction with young farmer Donal Dunne, he shot the man in the head. He went on the run, only to be found hiding out in the house of the Attorney General Patrick Connolly, a long-time friend of Macarthur’s partner. e fall-out almost toppled the Government.

McGee’s book is a straightforward account of the story, but in Mark O’Connell’s work, the author gives a fascinating insight into what it means to cover such a story and talk at length with the man who committed the crimes, some 40 years a er the fact.

He knew of the story from an early age, but he had also completed a doctoral thesis on the work of John Banville, and pictured Macarthur every time he saw the character of Freddie Montgomery.

By chance, he met Macarthur, who had been

AUTHOR: MARK O’CONNELL PUBLISHER: RANDOM HOUSE

AVAILABLE: EASONS, HODGES & FIGGIS, DUBRAY

PRICE: €14.99

released in 2012, and managed to convince him to do something the double-murderer had not done before: meet and discuss the case.

rough the independent reporting of their tense exchanges that veer from confession to evasion, O’Connell manages to not only take a fresh look at the brutal act, but to also examine the inherent dangers in reporting it, and giving voice to a killer. We come to see not only the enormity of the murders, but the damage in icted when a life is rendered into story, something the author is only too aware of, and with which he constantly struggles to be at ease with.

As such, it is a very interesting and enjoyable insight into the murky depths of crime reportage, and is well worth a read.

AUTHOR: EIMEAR RYAN

PUBLISHER: SANDYCOVE

AVAILABLE:

EASONS, HODGES & FIGGIS, DUBRAY PRICE: €14.99

PERPETUAL COMEDOWN

It’s safe to say you won’t read another book this year quite like this one from debut novelist Declan Toohey. Brilliantly clever and surreal, experimental and thought-provoking, it is both bizarre and gripping at the same time. A doctoral student at Trinity comes across a literary journal whose contents seem to mirror his own past, confirming for him the existence of an alternate Ireland and a conspiracy to keep it hidden, but while revealing his findings to the world could bring academic fame, is he willing to sacrifice his own sanity and his relationships with his loved ones? If there’s an alternate world, is he even living in the right one? It’s a story of academic intrigue, youthful irreverence and varying brain functions that combine to create a sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always entertaining first novel that swerves from surrealism to the all-too-real as the truth of the matter slowly emerges.

THE GRASS CEILING: ON BEING A WOMAN IN SPORT

Author, publisher and Camogie player Eimear Ryan is in a uniquely qualified position to write a book on the issues facing women and girls in sport, not just from an athletic standpoint, but also from the psychological point of view. This personal musing explores what it’s like to be female in a male-dominated sporting world, what e ect playing sports with boys, only to be treated as an outsider, has, how to accept that when you play with other women, you have to accept smaller audiences, diminished status (and for professions, lower pay), and in her own situation specifically, what if the sport you play has a di erent name when women play it, even if the rules are the same? Ryan digs deep into the merging subjects of gender and sport to face the questions that arise about identity, status, competition and self-expression. While women’s sport continues to rise in popularity but still faces an uphill struggle to realise equality, this sharp exploration of issues that a ect everyone who loves sport is both timely and welcome.

THE MESS WE’RE IN

The DJ and broadcaster better known as Annie Mac has tapped into her own life experiences to create this thoroughly enjoyable novel about a young Dublin woman who, at the turn of the millennium, leaves her home town to move to Kilburn in London to pursue her dreams of producing music, with a little debauchery thrown in. The former BBC Radio 1 DJ left that post after 17 years in 2021 and immediately found success with her debut novel Mother Mother, and this is another worthy read. Song lovers (and fans of the author’s DJ work) will enjoy how she writes about the e ects and nuances of music, while there is also worthy coverage of the Irish emigrant experience and the challenges of a woman working in a male-dominated environment, all told in her direct, honest and witty style. It’s her young life on paper.

AUTHOR: DECLAN TOOHEY

PUBLISHER: NEW ISLAND BOOKS

AVAILABLE:

EASONS, HODGES & FIGGIS, DUBRAY PRICE: €15.95

AUTHOR: ANNIE MACMANUS

PUBLISHER: WILDFIRE BOOKS

AVAILABLE:

EASONS, HODGES & FIGGIS, DUBRAY

PRICE: €18.99

TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS

NEW LITHIUM ION BATTERY EXTINGUISHER

Venari Group and Rotec Engineering have teamed up to develop new lithium-ion extinguishing technology that can help re ghters deal with Electric Vehicle (EV) res more e ciently. e Vanquish, which was demonstrated to senior re ghters in the UK earlier this year, is a piece of rechargeable equipment capable of being mounted on a small, agile pick-up chassis to enable access to di cult areas. It can also be retro tted on to large vehicles. e equipment expels a specially developed substance called Aqueous Vermiculite Dispersion (AVD) as a high-volume cone of micro droplets that combats lithium-ion battery res speci cally. Vermiculite is a group of hydrated laminar aluminium-ironmagnesium silicates consisting of thin, at akes containing microscopic layers of water. is yields a stable aqueous dispersion that extinguishes the re by encapsulating the fuel source, creating an oxygen barrier and preventing reignition. A reduction in thermal output is instantaneous. Coating adjacent areas or objects using the Vanquish system also prevents re from penetrating the coated surface, making it an ideal re break in EV re scenarios. e substance is not electrically conductive and is considered twice as e ective as water on Class A res.

FRANCE LAUNCHES FOREST FIRE APP

President of France Emmanual Macron announced the launch of a new national forest re app and website in June as he met with re ghters in Nimes to discuss forest re prevention. e Météo des fôrets app gives real-time information about the risk of res and o ers a map of the country displaying a degree of risk for each area ranging from green (low risk), to yellow (moderate risk), to orange (high risk) to red (very high risk) for the current and next day. Risk levels are calculated by considering meteorological parameters such as temperature, rainfall, wind strength and air humidity, as well as the dryness of vegetation. More than 19,000 forest res were recorded in France last year, with an area seven times the size of Paris destroyed overall.

SPACE PROBE HELPING FIRST RESPONDERS

A scientist working with NASA to develop probes that can help with interplanetary exploration has founded California-based Squishy Robotics Inc to apply their use to emergency responses on Earth. Dr Alice Agogino realised that because her spherical skeleton robots can be released from huge heights without damage to sensors due to their tensile integrity (tensegrity), they could become invaluable in numerous emergency scenarios such as res, hazardous material leaks and wild res. anks to their ball-shaped skeletal system made of rods and elastic cables, the technology can be dropped into dangerous areas to collect crucial real-time information and pass it on to rst responders. “We thought that if we can do this on the Moon, we could do it on Earth and help save lives,” says Dr Agogino. e devices can be folded at for travel and once unfurled, the instruments and sensors are suspended in the centre to protect them from the impact of a fall from height. e team at Squishy Robotics interviewed and worked with 300 rst responders in Florida, Oklahoma and California as part of research and development, putting miniaturised chemical gas sensors inside the tensegrity robot and dropping them from aircra to take readings. e data collected will inform re ghters, for example, whether they need to don hazardous material gear before entering the scene.

DRONE FOOTAGE STREAMING

e Excelerate group has developed new streaming equipment that allows live footage from re ghting drones to be accessed by multiple users rather than just the UAV pilot. By plugging the new solution into an existing drone system, live footage is streamed over public or private networks securely via a video app called ExStream, which can then be accessed anywhere via any authorised device with an internet connection. e equipment has an intuitive touch-screen interface so users can easily select streaming, resolution and frame rate options that can be con gured to organisational requirements, and includes recording and post-incident exporting capabilities.

INSURING IRELAND