STATION PROFILE A WATCH TALLAGHT

transfers over the years, so I knew many of the crew already, especially a er I was on B Watch at the station, and then I took over from the excellent Gary Fitzpatrick,” he says, before discussing his approach to the day-to-day.

“It’s di erent coming in as an S/O to a tight-knit group like this,” he admits, “but it is your responsibility to oversee how things run, not just operationally, but in terms of crew welfare, morale, the station itself, and the crew has been very good in helping me. A good chunk of them are of the same vintage, they are well-experienced, have been there and done that, so from my point of view, I’m not coming in and trying to change too much, just sprinkling my own experience and training from my time instructing on top of what is already a really good crew. You don’t have to try reinventing the wheel.

“John Lynch is the Sub-O cer here, which is a great help. I used to work with him during my time at Dolphin’s Barn, and I learned so much from him. He is a great re ghter and we have a very good relationship here, as is the case with the senior man Paul ‘Calf’ Britton, an ex-Cork re ghter who has been here 13 years, and the crew, who have all been very good.”

Variety

With a huge geographical area to cover, callouts are non-stop, and S/O Brady says the variety of these calls are what makes working here so interesting.

On a night that could only be described as “mad busy”, A Watch at Tallaght Fire Station managed to nd half an hour to hand the phone to one another and talk to me about what it’s like to work there, and the word ‘busy’ comes up a lot.

Across the board, they say this is a major positive of working here, and S/O Paddy Brady agrees.

“ e crew get a lot of experience in every part of the job, including EMS, very quickly here, which is really important,” he tells me. “We get a lot of challenging and unusual cases, but the normal calls are massive in volume, so you get to learn your trade very well, very quickly.”

S/O Brady, who was previously a FF/P in Dolphin’s Barn, then a Sub-O cer on B Watch in Tallaght, became an S/O in 2019 and was made permanent on A Watch here one year ago.

“I would have been on and o here on

“ is District are RTC specialists, and we have a large area of the M50 to cover that keeps us busy, but the crew can do everything, and we get such a wide spectrum of calls. In my rst year here, we have had countless domestic res, we have the RTCs, and face di cult terrain when we are up in the mountains, plus everything in between. e area is growing upwards as well as outwards - the amount of new apartment blocks – it is just hug, so there are massive challenges ahead of us in terms of the population surge.

“We are going from Brittas and the Dublin mountains all the way over to

Lucan and Rathcoole, so it is a challenge in terms of covering ground to get to a scene, but it is the quantity of calls more than anything else.”

With several members here for ten or more years, new blood has been very well-received.

New Blood

“We have a very tight-knit crew but in the last two years we have had four new recruits come in (one of them just days before our call), and the crew have been very welcoming to them, bringing them in and making them feel at home.”

Tallaght, he has learned from training recruits, is a sought-a er station. “ ey hear stories from operational personnel about what a great place it is to go because it is very busy and is a great place to learn your trade,” he says. “New recruits coming in get great experience with domestic res, RTCs, interesting incidents and injuries. It is also a great place to be an S/O because I’m still learning, but for recruits, it is great to get that experience from the very start.”

Community

e relationship with the community is also something S/O Brady highlights, following a recent win in the Tallaght person of the Year Awards for crew member Geo Tracey, who was rewarded for his artworks across the area, and a nomination for FF/P Daragh Fahey in another category.

“We have a very good relationship with the community,” he tells me, “because we are a part of it. e crew, many of whom are local, are proud of where they are from. Tallaght has its challenges, but the people here are all here to serve the community, and treat everybody with the same dignity and respect, which is important in what is a very diverse area.”

Apart from a fundraising car wash in the summer, A Watch Tallaght also hold a Christmas party every December, and S/O Brady says it is a vital part of the calendar.

“A Watch primarily organise this party and it’s a great way for the crew and their families to get to know each other. It is really important for the station and for morale within the Watch and the station. It makes for a happy working place, which makes us all better at our job.”

S/O Brady laughs when he tells me that Gary Mason, who has been on A Watch here for years, joked that he has been around for ages and as soon as he is o work, Firecall comes calling, so I determine to talk to him, but rst, I talk to FF/P Barry Guilfoyle, who has been on A Watch for ten years following time at Tara Street, Dun Laoghaire and Donnybrook.

Enthusiasm

“ e atmosphere is great here,” he says. “We are mostly within ten years of each other, and that has been added to with the newer members who are all very enthusiastic, making it a great station and Watch to work in. People are just happy to be here. Because it is so busy, it’s not a station to be in if you don’t want to be here. Everyone wants to work and get stuck in.”

Like S/O Brady, FF/P Guilfoyle says the sense of community is something he sees as important.

“A lot of the crew live around here, so they are working within their own community, and that makes a big di erence,” he tells me. “Enjoying work and life here all comes down to the people we work with, and it’s a joy to come in every day.”

He too sees the rapid expansion of the Tallaght area as a challenge, but one to be embraced. “It’s expanded massively,” he says, “everywhere you look, where there was an open eld, it is being built on, where there was farmland there are now industrial estates. Tallaght has always been big, but the huge increase in houses in the last ten years has been phenomenal, and there are so many calls, but that is what makes it so interesting to be here.

“One thing about this Watch is that very few people leave. A lot of us have been here a long time, and are here because they want to be. People come here and stay, and that’s the sign of a good Watch.”

Experience

FF/P Niamh Slevin came straight from recruit training to work on A Watch two years ago, and says that the busy nature of the work is something she looks forward to every day.

“Straight away I was getting the full variety of experiences, so it was a great place to start out, and I’d love to stay here as long as I can because I’ve really enjoyed my time here so far,” she tells me.

“Coming here was de nitely a big adjustment for me because I come from a banking background, so the shi work and nature of work itself was so di erent, but the crew were very quick to tell me how things were done, everybody helps out, and I found I was able to t in quickly.”

Although she is only at A Watch two years, there are three crew members more junior, which she describes as “a bit crazy, because I feel like I am still junior myself and have a lot to learn, even though I have had so much experience so quickly.”

For FF/P Slevin, showing that same welcome to newer recruits is important.

“I found it very bene cial when I started here to not only have the senior men show me the ropes, but also to have the next most junior, because it is di erent when you start, so I do my best to try pass on as best I can the advice and know-how I was shown.”

It’s several days later when I catch up with FF/P Gary Mason, who has been on A Watch Tallaght since 2008.

As with several other members, FF/P Mason has a DFB family legacy, and as S/O Brady told me when he mentioned Gary was currently o work, “it has been a long time since we didn’t have a Mason at this station”.

His father worked on D Watch, retiring eight years ago, while brother Keith was on A Watch for many years before his promotion.

“I really enjoyed working with my family in the same station,” he tells me. “I actually did a few ambulance shi s with my father, which was an interesting experience, just the two of us going around to housing estates and pubs where we knew the people, because it was very familiar to us. With my brother here for years it then felt like we were part of the furniture for a while.”

FF/P Mason share that sense of pride in serving his own community. “It’s actually two-fold,” he points out, “in that we are proud to be in one of the busier stations and are getting a lot of exposure and a lot out of the job, but also proud because it is our area, and we have family and friends here.

“ e area has changed so much but what hasn’t is the feeling that we are all growing older together, because the majority of us started out here with no children and now almost all of us are married with children, so we have grown, watching our own circumstances change.”

I ask his thoughts on the newer members joining a well-established crew, and FF/P Mason is quick to tell me it is a very good thing.

“We have been here for so long that we need new blood every now and then. During the recruitment embargo, our junior member was the new recruit for nine years before anyone else came in, and that is rough, to be the new person for that long!

“You run the risk of becoming too familiar with each other, but in the last couple of years new members have brought new personalities and new dynamics, and it forces us to avoid complacency. You also have your own professional pride, and you want to impress them, so you up your game!”

Lastly, I ask if he has any advice for these newer members.

Confidence

“I think con dence is a huge part of it,” FF/P Mason says, “because the nature of the job we do is fairly dynamic, and because everyone is trained to a certain standard, people will always do the work that needs to be done, and if you don’t put yourself forward the job will just be done without you. You have to step in and apply yourself, say to yourself that you know how to do the work, so just go and do it.

“DFB is very supportive, but the job itself can be ruthless and you can’t wait to be asked to do something, you have to be con dent and trust that you have been trained and the people at the station have welcomed you in and trust you, so go ahead and do what needs to be done.

“Once you’ve done it the rst couple of times, you have that con dence and you are part of the team. You are stepping forward and trusting yourself. It is hard, but you’ve got this!”