THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS
ISSUE 34 • SUMMER-AUTUMN 2016
THE SHARING ECONOMY Digital Nirvana or hi-tech race to the bottom?
THE ROAD TO PAY RECOVERY WORK & MATERNITY DRESSCODE HEEL HELL
ALSO INSIDE FUTURE EDUCATION POLICY. MEET THE NEW PRESIDENT. IAESA BRANCH TAKE-OFF. COMMUNITY SERVICE. TEAM BUILDING. BOM DIA LISBOA. RACING FASHION. PLUS BOOKS, NEWS, PRIZES AND MORE.
www.impact.ie
In this issue
work &life Summer-Autumn 2016 WORK
LIFE
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3.
THE SHARING ECONOMY
4. From Uber to Taskrabbit to Airbnb, the future is digital. A brave new world or just old fashioned exploitation?
10. 12. 14. 16. 20.
THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION IMPACT outlines its priorities for the Government’s consultation on education.
18. 22. 24.
32. IMPACT AND THE RISING Con O’Donovan.
40.
FASHION A day at the races – Win a weekend ticket for the Longines Irish Horse Racing Championship. IMPACT’s biennial delegate conference, INEC Killarney 18-20 May.
CAREERS Team building.
44.
FOOD
Work & Life is produced by IMPACT trade union's Communications Unit and edited by Niall Shanahan. Front cover: The Sharing Economy. Photo: dreamstime.com Contact IMPACT at: Nerney's Court, Dublin 1. Phone: 01-817-1500. Email: info@impact.ie
SPORT Fight Club – the rise and rise of combat sports.
NEWS
HELL IN HIGH HEELS The campaign to knock some sense onto the workplace dresscode.
COMMUNITY SERVICE We meet the IMPACT members working with offenders returning to the community.
PHOTO ALBUM
IMPACT PEOPLE Meet IMPACT’s new President, Pat Fallon of the Sligo branch.
RIGHTS AT WORK A new study examines the career costs of motherhood.
READY FOR TAKE OFF Aviation members are rebuilding the IAESA branch and planning ahead.
BOOKS The secret history of the Irish pub.
Low n’ slow on the barbecue grill.
28. 30.
MOVIES A profile of buddy-actioncomedy writer and director Shane Black.
38.
UNION BUSINESS News from the conference liveblog.
PRIZES
MUSIC The boss, the big and the small.
46. 47.
Win €50 in our prize quiz. Rate Work & Life and win €100.
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WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS
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THE BIG PICTURE
That was then - 1916
IMPACT AND THE RISING - FOUR LIVES
Photo by Getty Images.
As part of our continuing series to mark the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, we look at the role of four members of the various organisations that form today’s IMPACT organisation. These stories have been drawn together in the Four Lives publication by IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody. In this summarised extract we look at the involvement of Con O’Donovan.
Photo by Conor Healy.
CON O’DONOVAN, originally from near Clonakilty in West Cork, was President of the Institution of Professional Civil Servants from 1945 to 1947 and remained on its executive council. He worked in the Department of Lands, as a Land Commission Inspector, having previously worked as an Agricultural Instructor. He was described in the 1950 IPCS Journal, Scientific Service, as a staunch associationist and an experienced negotiator. O’Donovan was also one of three former pupils from a small national school who participated in the Rising. The others were Michael Collins and Seán Hurley, who was killed in the fighting.
IMPACT members working at Childminding Ireland (pictured left to right; Bernie Griffiths, Anne McCourtney, Fiona Turner and Jacquie Donnelly), protested with IMPACT colleagues and supporters from other trade unions outside the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in June. The four workers were on strike in a dispute over compulsory redundancies at the State-funded body, as the employer refused to engage with the union. Following the protest, IMPACT and the employer attended mediation at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). As Work & Life went to print discussions were ongoing.
STRANGE WORLD FATHER THOMAS Dowling (1874-1950), a Capuchin priest who had studied social reform, set up the first Conciliation Board in an English speaking County Cork in the early years of the 20th century. The board had an equal number of employer and trade union members and helped resolve many trade disputes. In 1918, in recognition of his arbitration work, the Cork & District Trades & Labour Council donated a large stained glass window to Holy Trinity Church, on Fr Mathew Quay, Cork, and elected him as honorary president of the council. The celebrated stained glass artist, Harry Clarke, was commissioned for the work. However, it was not an easy working relationship. Among their list of demands, the Council wanted a very lengthy inscription at the bottom of the window, naming all of their officials. Clarke refused, and almost abandoned the project, but his original design was eventually adopted. It was not widely known to be a Clarke original until this was verified by historian Patricia Curtin-Kelly in 2015. The window depicts Christ and St Francis, and the lower panels depict angels, surrounded by devils, weeping over the Cork city skyline. These images are thought to have been inspired by the events of the 1913 Lockout O
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In the late 1950s he submitted a witness statement to the Bureau of Military History, detailing his memories of his participation in the 1916 Rising. A member of the IRB and the Irish Volunteers, he was due to have returned to his home in West Cork. However, he remained in Dublin and was available on a full time basis in the lead up to the Rising. By Easter Monday O’Donovan described himself and his fellow volunteers as being “in the thick of it” as part of his battalion occupied the Four Courts. On Tuesday, O’Donovan was installed in the Four Courts complex and ‘was, in some informal fashion, accepted as leader and, from that on, I arranged times on duty and all the others’. His recollection of the fighting and killing left nothing to the imagination;
Roger Casement ROGER CASEMENT was a British diplomat of Irish extraction, a humanitarian activist, Irish nationalist, and poet. Described as the “father of twentieth-century human rights investigations”, he was honoured in 1905 for the Casement Report on the Congo and knighted in 1911 for his investigations of human rights abuses in Peru. He then made efforts during World War I to gain German military aid for the 1916 Easter Rising which sought to gain Irish independence. In the early hours of 21 April 1916, three days before the rising began, Casement was taken by a German submarine and was put ashore at Banna Strand in Tralee Bay, County Kerry. He was discovered at McKenna’s Fort and arrested on charges of treason, sabotage and espionage against the Crown and taken to Brixton Prison.
“We were really suffering from the strain of looking Despite appeals for clemency, Casement for a soldier to fire at, and I remember well the was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London callous and, shall I say, brutal pleasure I felt when on 3rd August 1916, at the age of 51 O I “picked off” one who was crossing Grattan Bridge, although he dodged from side to side, and kept his head low most of the time. Another who fell to one of our group was too easy a mark. He walked out of Charles Street, in full kit. Our man at a loop-hole saw him, and asked me what would he do. Well, what could we do? Here was a soldier, armed and probably looking for a chance to fire on us? One bullet did it, and then the marksman raised his hat, and said, “He’s dead, or dying now, anyhow. May the Lord have mercy on him!” After the Rising he was court-martialed and sentenced to death, commuted to penal servitude. He was an active participant in the War of Independence but his military service pension application records state that he was inactive in the Civil War following his marriage in July 1922. In 1916 he had only one term remaining before securing his agricultural degree. He completed that term in 1924 and secured employment in the land Commission in 1934, ten years after his first application. Con O’Donovan died in 1965 and is buried in Sutton, Co Dublin. FOUR LIVES is available from IMPACT trade union. If you would like to receive a free copy contact info@impact.ie or your union branch O
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IMPACT IMP PACT T people What are your interests? Spending time with my children Sarah and Ellen. Politics. Trade unionism. Current affairs. And supporting Sligo Rovers. From a very early age my late Dad took me to see Rovers at every opportunity, and I developed an affinity with the ‘Bit O’ Red,’ as they are fondly known.
Do you cook? A little. My current speciality is vegetable stir fry, sometimes with prawns.
What can’t you leave home without? The mobile phone.
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? Cuba.
Who would you choose to have a pint with? James Connolly.
What inspires you? I want to leave behind a society and a country that’s better for children than the one I grew up in. That’s what inspires me to keep going.
Meet Sligo man PAT FALLON, who was elected union president at IMPACT’s recent conference. How would you describe yourself?
How did you get involved in the union?
I’m a loving dad. I’m caring, compassionate, trustworthy, considerate, and a loyal friend.
When I started work I went to join the union and my supervisor, who’d gone to school with my Dad, said there was no point as I was temporary. I joined anyway and the shop steward asked me to join the branch committee. I went on to become training officer and branch chair.
Tell me about your job. I’m a stores supervisor in the HSE. We supply aids, appliances, dressings, and other essentials to occupational therapists, public health nurses and other health professionals. It’s been downsized because of cuts, but more because of an agreed transfer of parts of the service to HSE procurement. In the past we dealt more directly with the public.
Why did you want to become IMPACT president? Having been an activist for over 30 years, I thought I had something to offer. My apprenticeship has been very long, but it gave me extensive experience at various levels of the union.
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It’s still extremely important to recruit temporary staff. Many are young people with no previous exposure to the workplace or the union. We have a lot to offer temporary workers. Most of them probably don’t know that unions have won legislation to protect their rights. And no organisation that fails to recruit young people is going to survive.
What’s the best thing about being involved in the union? Having the opportunity to help members and build lifelong friendships. X
What do you want to do as president? Continue to restore pay and conditions, and help create a larger – and better – public and civil service union. I also want to see members getting more involved and familiar with their union. Nobody intentionally set out to create a disconnect between the union and its members, but it’s there. We need to develop strategies to make a better connection. In Sligo we visit workplaces at lunchtimes, perhaps with a bit of food and some IMPACT merchandise, and make sure members meet their local committee and officials. In recent years we were firefighting all the time. We’re not doing that now, and I want to put the emphasis on connecting with members.
What’s your favourite book? The Tunnels of Cu Chi by Tom Mangold and John Penycate. It deals with the Vietnam War. The Vietnamese put a lot of their infrastructure underground and the Americans had to adapt to that. While I would have supported the Vietnamese in the war, it’s a harrowing story of absolute heroism on both sides.
Sarah and Ellen, who give me immense joy.
Any pet hates? Ill-mannered and disrespectful people.
Tell us something that few people know about you? A big part of my life was being away at a special school in Dublin between the age of five and 19. It’s part of my life that I’ve recently had to confront through counselling. But it’s something that has made me stronger as an individual, because you had to fight your own corner. It also explains why I have great time for the SNAs because, these days, I wouldn’t have had to go to a segregated school. Those were different times.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? Give life all the love you can, because love gave life to you.
What advice would you give your 18 year-old self?
Photo by Domnick Walsh-.
Determined to connect
Who or what is the greatest love of your life?
Be true to yourself.
Describe your ideal day Any time spent with my children is an ideal day O Interview by Martina O’Leary and Bernard Harbor.
WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS
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Opinion
The future of work – sharing the load? The advent of smartphone apps that provide access to renting anything from a holiday apartment to a taxi ride are portrayed as another liberation of the digital age. But is this bright new future undermining the world of work and creating a new generation of precarious workers who are encouraged to see themselves as entrepreneurs? LUGHAN DEANE argues that the real ‘Sharing Economy’ is closer to home. INOCULATION works on the logic that by purposefully infecting someone with a mild strain of a disease, you train the immune system to fight the real thing if ever it attacks. It’s all about internalising the threat – keeping enemies closer than friends. The global economic system nearly collapsed during the crisis of 2008. At the very least, it experienced a major wobble on its axis. While this dominant system of economic and social organisation was sustaining critical damage, other worldviews (especially those of the left) enjoyed a brief moment of public attention. In particular, movements such as Occupy Wall Street or the rise of Syriza in Greece demonstrated the public’s willingness to look again at ideas of socialism and communism. We all know what a capitalist system feels like, we live our everyday lives in and through one. The Oxford English Dictionary provides this formal definition of the term capitalism: “an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.” The same dictionary defines communism, meanwhile, as “a theory of social organisation in which all property is owned by the community and each person contributes and receives according to their ability and needs”. These two systems of economic organisation are famously at odds.
Ideas for rent It’s only when the capitalist system is pushed to within an inch of its life, and its bloated financial institutions are stripped back by crisis, that the system’s underlying lean,
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The result of this process of self-inoculation is the so-called “Sharing Economy”, the most recent frontier of modern capitalism. At its most basic level, the Sharing Economy (variously known as the ‘Gig Economy’, ‘Collaborative Economy’ or ‘On-Demand Economy’) is the financial trading of excess capacity. The business model is simple: a mobile phone application is used as a platform to connect people who own assets they are willing to rent, short-term, to potential renters. There are a number of well-known major brands operating in this manner – Airbnb, Uber, and TaskRabbit are three particularly well-known examples In developing the Sharing Economy, the capitalist system hit upon an adaptation that resolved the three great risks to its survival brought about by the 2008 financial crisis. At once it inoculated itself against growing left-wing dissent with its emphasis on ‘sharing’ and ‘community’, it invented appbased busy-work to occupy the armies of newly unemployed workers and it found a way to re-commodify all the excess product that had been accumulated by consumers during nearly two decades of economic boom, just as consumption ground to a halt.
Access trumps ownership The mantra of the Sharing Economy is “access trumps ownership.” Goods such as cars, houses, bikes and other physical assets are consumed as services. Those who use the sharing economy only want assurance that they can access the equipment they need. They have no interest in ownership or the responsibility that comes with that. Ownership, and its associated costs, are outsourced. ‰
The genius of the Sharing Economy is that it commodifies the aesthetic of socialism without ever coming close to adopting the system. The community or company doesn’t own the cars in the case of Uber, ordinary people do. It’s not that the burden of ownership and maintenance is shared, it’s that it’s outsourced. The Sharing Economy may look like socialism, but under the hood it is definitely not. By reappropriating the left-wing rhetoric of the cooperative, the Sharing Economy at once neutralises the threat of alternative world views and advances its own brand of aggressive, dynamic capitalism. The sharing economy manages a sophisticated sleight of hand – it creates an economy of the commons. The Sharing Economy is responsible for the financialisation of everyday life. It opens up new commodity frontiers between people from which it then extracts rent. Marx famously predicted that all human relations would ultimately become money relations. To a large extent, the Sharing Economy is the literal manifestation of that forecast.
the other, private contractors who do organise to agree on acceptable terms and conditions of employment could be accused of price-fixing and forming an illegal cartel. For these reasons, many have seen the sharing economy as an attempt (polished by slick PR) to bypass a body of employment and workplace law that has been built up over decades. The internet has a history of being used as a way to organise large groups of people outside of state control. Far from being entrepreneurs, however, most workers in the Sharing Economy represent the most precarious workers of all. They have been referred to as an entirely new class of worker – the ‘precariat’. The result is that Sharing Economy companies have massive disposable workforces without the accompanying payroll costs.
Tech Utopia and the real Sharing Economy The companies involved in the Sharing Economy – Airbnb, uber etc. – are giant corporations that are highly integrated into existing business interests and whose goal it is to foster traditional monopoly power. These organisations are not socialist ones. Uber is backed by Google and Goldman Sachs – it is hardly representative of the ‘little guy’ or micro-entrepreneur.
“Platforms such as Peers.org are little more than insurance dressed up as union protection”.
Pseudo unions A striking example of capitalism’s ability to incorporate the aesthetic of socialism is the Sharing Economy’s answer to the trade union movement. The Sharing Economy has developed app-based platforms (Peers.org being the most famous) that offer, for a fee, some of the income-related benefits of unionisation but without the right to organise or ability to engage in collective bargaining. Platforms such as Peers.org are little more than insurance dressed up as union protection. They aim to fulfill a desire for solidarity without exposing corporations to the potential hazards that come with genuine union activism. These platforms function as pseudounions. Of course, traditional unions make no sense in the context of the sharing economy. On the one hand, people act as independent micro-entrepreneurs in competition with one another and are disincentivised from organising. While, on
Many of the sharing platforms will ultimately be co-opted by monied interests. Zipcar, for example, a platform for short-term car rentals and one of the original Sharing Economy success stories, was quickly bought up by an established, mature player in the market – Avis. This is nothing new. The advent of the internet originally saw a flurry of commentary about the web’s revolutionary democratising potential. This era of tech-utopianism quickly gave way to the giant monopolies of Google, Facebook and Amazon. Renting is not, and can never be, sharing. The good news is that there is a real, functioning Sharing Economy already in existence – it’s called the public sector. A public library, a park, or a swimming pool are all examples of an actual collaborative economy. Through taxes we pool resources and invest in services that we all get to use. That’s the real ‘Sharing Economy’ l
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Images: dreamstime.com
A big question of the crash was whether communism would rise to fill the power vacuum opened by the financial forest fire of 2008, or whether capitalism might somehow find its way off life support in order to regain its dominance. The public anger towards the (emphatically capitalist) financial establishment was possibly at a higher level than it ever had been before.
muscular dynamism is revealed. Rather than struggling against socialist rhetoric, the capitalist system incorporated it. It commodified the dissent that existed against it. It brought opposing forces into its own logical framework. It allowed a little of its enemy in. In other words, it inoculated itself against the potential for a real attack.
That mantra, “access trumps ownership”, sounds somewhat like the definition of communism we encountered earlier. The Sharing Economy is cutting edge neoliberal capitalism masquerading as socialism.
Public service pay restoration The economy’s soaring. The recession is over. So the legislation that imposed public service pay cuts and pension levies should simply be repealed? Well, yes and no, says BERNARD HARBOR.
The way to pay recovery
But, while all unions want to see the back of this divisive legislation, we are now grappling with the realities of meeting different priorities when it comes to restoring what was lost during the economic crisis. Opinions differ both within and between unions. There’s agreement that those on low and middle incomes should be prioritised, although unions that represent higher paid staff – who lost most in absolute and percentage terms – say their members mustn’t be forgotten either. But some say restoring working time is as important (or even more important) than the money. For others, including younger staff in parts of the public sector, changes to allowances or even overtime had as big an impact on pay packets as the pay cuts themselves.
that the economic collapse is behind us. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform says the public service pay adjustments will cost €844 million a year over the lifetime of the deal. There’s also a €90 million price tag attached to reducing the levy on public service pensions. IMPACT and other unions have called for an acceleration of this process, on the basis that economic growth – and the related improvements in the public finances – is stronger than anyone expected when the Lansdowne deal was done. Unsurprisingly, the new public expend- Paschal Donohoe TD iture and reform minister Paschal Donohoe has taken a hard public stance on this. In both Dáil Éireann and in media interviews, he’s ruled out any acceleration, saying only that he would abide by Lansdowne Road, which expires in September 2018.
“If workers lost more when growth was slower than expected, they can – and should – gain more when it’s faster than expected.”
Most of these measures were imposed by legislation – without union agreement – in the early years of the crisis. But FEMPI has since been amended to underpin a series of agreements reached after the pension levy and pay cuts were imposed. These include the 2013 Haddington Road agreement – which delivered additional savings of €1 billion, through measures like increased working time and additional temporary pay cuts for the 13% of public servants who earned over €65,000 a year. Last year’s Lansdowne Road deal, which finally started the process of pay recovery in the public service, was also put into effect by amending FEMPI. The Lansdowne Road improvements (see boxes) demonstrate that FEMPI can be a vehicle for staged pay restoration now
IMPACT counters by saying that both the Lansdowne Road and Haddington Road agreements changed the terms and timetables of existing deals – the latter taking more from public servants specifically because economic growth was slower than expected. The message from IMPACT leaders at the union’s May delegate conference was clear: If workers lost more when growth was slower than expected, they can – and should – gain more when it’s faster than expected. The union’s outgoing president Jerry King put a timetable on it, saying that talks on a successor to Lansdowne Road – which officially expires in September 2018 – must get underway in the first half of next year. ‰
Salary
January 2016
September 2017
Up to €24,000
2.5%
€1,000
€24,001 to €31,000
1%
€1,000
€31,001 to €65,000
0
€1,000
€65,001 to €110,000
Deal expires September 2018.
Restoration of Haddington Road pay reductions starts in April 2017 and will be completed in January 2018
Assuming that improvements in the public finances continue to outpace expectations – and a word of caution is appropriate here, not least because of the possible impact of Brexit – it’s likely that this will indeed happen. But what approach will unions take given the many, often competing, priorities that have been voiced? At our conference in May, IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody sounded a note of caution about the simplistic call for an immediate repeal of FEMPI. He said that – affordability aside – the highest paid public servants would be by far the biggest beneficiaries if the legislation was simply scrapped when Lansdowne Road expires.
LOW PAY FEWER HOURS
That’s because the complete repeal of FEMPI in 2018 would give a worker on €30,000 a total gain of less than €450 a year, while someone earning €125,000 – rare as they are in the public service – would stand to gain almost €20,000. Few union members would thank their negotiators for delivering such a regressive outcome. Instead, IMPACT believes we should negotiate deals that deliver continuing improved living standards for those on low and middle incomes, with a fair and balanced unwinding of FEMPI for all over time. As the recovery strengthens we need to return to normal industrial relations where pay is set by agreement, not legislation. Bernard Harbor is IMPACT’s head of communications l
From 1st January 2016, the threshold for paying the public service pension levy increased from €15,000 to €26,083. It will increase again – to €28,750 – on 1st January 2017. As a result of these two changes, public servants who earn less than €24,750 now pay no pension levy, and staff earning less than €28,750 will pay none from 1st September 2016. Those who still pay the pension levy will see their deduction reduced by €1,000 a year from September.
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Image: dreamstime.com
THE RECENT union conference season heard many calls for the immediate or eventual repeal of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI) act, which imposed the pension levy back in 2009, and was amended to add pay cuts across the public service the following year.
MORE OVERTIME ALLOWANCES FEMPI ABOLITION
PENSION LEVY REDUCTIONS WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS
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Public policy
IMPACT’s contribution to the government’s latest consultation on education priorities focused on staffing, funding and tackling educational disadvantage. GOVERNMENTS THAT don’t have enough TDs to govern have to find other things to do. So, despite having just run an election campaign featuring daily launches of detailed policy documents, a degree of ‘consultationitus’ has broken out among ministers. We’re promised an Oireachtas committee to develop a crossparty consensus, on a ten-year ‘vision for health’ (good luck with that), a citizens convention to examine the eighth amendment, and yet more deliberation on wind farms. But first out of the traps was new minister Simon Coveney’s consultation on education strategy for the, ahem, first two years of the new administration. Not that we’re complaining.
IMPACT says education policy should: Photo by Michael Crean.
Invest in the future
WHAT WHA AT EDUCA EDUCATION ATION T SHOULD SHOU ACHIEVE
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; ; Place due weight on the impor tance of education and skills during all life phases including early years, primary, secondary, third level, and lifelong learning ; ; Place priority on equality of access to high-quality education and positive educational outcomes regardless of economic background ; ; Promote plurality and a broad understanding of the world we live in ; ; Provide choice and diversity to foster personal growth, expression and fulfilment ; Give students the skills, knowledge and understanding ; they need to have fulfilling employment and careers ; Ensure that Ireland has the skills and knowledge ; necessary to compete in the modern global economy
Educational psychologist Sorcha O’Toole, with Eaven Griffin, Learning Support Resource Teacher.
IMPACT willingly took up the invitation to argue again for a high-quality and equitable education system where workers are respected. Having articulated the principles we think should underpin education policy (see box), IMPACT’s submission focused on the need for more staff, extra funding for higher education and measures to tackle educational disadvantage. The union, which now represents over 10,000 education workers, welcomed the limited easing of recruitment restrictions in some parts of the sector, as well as new government commitments to increase staffing in areas like the national educational psychology service (NEPS). There was another boost in June with the announcement of an extra 860 SNAs in our schools next year.
Strengthening But IMPACT says the strengthening economic recovery, together with demographic and other challenges facing schools and colleges, means faster and more ambitious recruitment plans are both needed and affordable. “The recruitment moratorium continues to place a huge burden on services and the people who deliver them. In some cases, it has led to the inappropriate use of contract staff, internships, and other labour market activation programmes,” according to the union’s submission. Uniquely among unions, IMPACT says vital support roles have been hard hit by the recruitment embargo, and argues that hiring should not be restricted to teachers. “While administrative and other support workers constitute a relatively small proportion of staff, they perform functions vital to the effective delivery of education services. They have also felt the full force of employment control frameworks, and should be included in the easing of staffing restrictions in the coming period,” it says.
Kevin Callinan, IMPACT deputy general secretary: “Evidence shows that investment in ‘early years’ education delivers huge benefits for children”.
; ; Improve the quality of education services
A number of professions and grades have outlined the impact of staff reductions on services in recent years. These include X
special needs assistants, specia educational needs organisers NEPS staff, the education and welfare service, school completion officers, primary and post-primary inspectors, and staff in institutes of technology and educational training boards.
Disadvantage We also highlighted the need to tackle educational disadvantage by increasing funding for early childhood provision, bolstering suppor t for children with special needs, developing the DEIS (delivering equal oppor tunities in schools) programme, and improving access to higher education.
; Respect everyone who works in education, regardless ; of their role.
GDP on childcare, compared to an OECD average of 0.8%,” he says. The union’s submission called on the government to bring reland’s state investment up to the OECD average, and advocated the professionalisation of all early years’ staff o enable them to deliver the range and quality of services hat children need and parents demand. It said people who provide services must be properly rewarded with decent pay, regular working hours, and a modern career structure. We criticised repeated funding cuts in the schools’ completion programme and the education and welfare service, which both strive to improve the educational prospects of disadvantaged children and young people.
Mental health We also outlined less visible approaches to tackling educational disadvantage including food pover ty and hunger prevention in schools, ar ts and social inclusion, and the need for enhanced emotional and mental health suppor ts. On the latterr, IMPACT welcomed the new government’s commitment to a limited expansion in staffing in NEPS, but said more specialist staff were needed. IMPACT also vehemently opposed the introduction of student loans in a separate submission with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and three other trade unions. Pointing out that industry is one of the main beneficiaries Amy Amy Rice and Mary Mary Nor Norton, ton, at at St. John John of God School School at at Islandbridge, Islandbridge, Dublin. Dublin. of the education system, the five organisations called instead for increases in public investment, coupled IMPACT deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan emphasises with an increased employers’ contribution to the costs of the need for enhanced investment in the early childhood higher education. sector. “Evidence shows that investment in early years’ services delivers huge benefits for children, par ticularly The full submission is available in the education pages of those from lower income backgrounds, and for society and IMP PACT’s website O the economy more generally. Ye et Ireland spends just 0.2% of
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Rights at work
Massive pay penalty for motherhood in Ireland
“A major cause of Ireland’s massive maternal pay gap is the extremely high cost of childcare.”
While the gap in Irish labour force participation rates between men and women continues to narrow, women with children continue to pay a huge cost, and Ireland still languishes in the lower ranks when it comes to the proportion of women in senior management and at board level. LUGHAN DEANE and NIALL SHANAHAN look at the findings of a recent study that reveals the continuing pay disparity for working mothers. A RESEARCH paper entitled Which Countries in Europe Have the Best Gender Equality in the Workplace? was published recently by the recruitment company Glassdoor. The analysis spans 18 Western-European countries and uses the US as a benchmark. The focus of the research is on the status of women in the workplace. The research has shed some light on the manner in which the gender-pay gap manifests itself in Ireland. Surprisingly, the median earnings of Irish women who have no children and who are aged between 25 and 44 are 17.5% higher than those of their male counterparts. Ireland’s pay gap lies elsewhere. Of the 19 countries surveyed by the Glassdoor research, the cost of becoming a mother is highest in Ireland. Irish women aged 25 to 44 with at least one child earned, on average, 14% less than their male counterparts and 31% less than women without children. Of the countries surveyed, Ireland has the most pronounced gender pay gap for women with children.
Gender equality Among the European countries examined in the survey Sweden, Norway, and Finland rank highest for best overall gender equality. By contrast, Greece, Italy and Ireland ranked as having the lowest overall gender equality in the workplace, while the US saw gender equality ranked near the middle of the pack at 8th among the 18 countries. Over the past decades, more and more women have entered Europe’s labour force, with women’s labour force participation rates increasing almost everywhere. The one exception is Denmark, where it was already relatively high, while increases have been particularly significant in Spain and Ireland.
Which Countries in Europe Have the Best Gender Equality in the Workplace?
According to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) women represented 44.7% of the labour force in 2011. Half of the labour force in the age group 20-24 was female, the highest proportion across all age groups. The labour force participation rate for women increased from 48.1% in 2001 to 54.5% in 2007 before falling slightly to 53.3% in 2011. The participation rate for men rose from 71.7% in 2001 to 73.6% in 2007 and then decreased sharply to 68.4% in 2011.
KEY FINDINGS
Last year, a survey by the Irish Independent found that a mother would need to earn around €30,000 a year just to fund the cost of childcare for two children, with the cost of a crèche place for a baby and a toddler costing up to €2,035 per month.
Between 2001 and 2011 the gap in the labour force participation rate between men and women narrowed from 23.6% to 15.1%.
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The implication of those high costs are demonstrated in the report, while a separate study (by the Mummypages website) shows that 77% of Irish mothers feel they can't afford to go back to work, but can't afford not to either.
A long way to go
A major cause of Ireland’s massive maternal pay gap is the extremely high cost of childcare. Given that childcare in Ireland consumes such a relatively large proportion of earnings, women who have had children often do not return to work or return to work on a part-time basis in order to mitigate childcare costs. In fact, 40% of working mothers in Ireland work part-time.
Photo: dreamstime.com
The report demonstrates that, in the world's most advanced economies, women are generally better educated than men but are severely under-represented in senior positions across the globe's key industries.
There is a deeply embedded, socio-structural expectation in Ireland that women will take up the unpaid domestic labour associated with raising a family. Consequently, Irish mothers are left with less time in which to earn outside the home. Moreover, because career progression works on the basis of momentum, women who take breaks from work to have children are less likely to reach the highest echelons of the workforce, and this exacerbates the gender pay gap at senior levels. 12
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The gender employment gap persists. While more women are
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Women are particularly under-represented in senior management posts: fewer than 40% of managers across Europe are women.
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Women are also underrepresented at the board level, too: fewer than 40% of the board members of the largest listed companies are women. In Ireland this figure is at around 10%, making us the worst performers alongside Estonia, Greece and Portugal.
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The cost of motherhood remains large. The increase in the gender pay gap for working mothers is most severe in Ireland at over 30%. The cost of motherhood is lowest in Italy, Spain, and Belgium (3% or less).
entering the workplace, there are still fewer women than men in the workplace. This gender gap in employment is largest in
Legislation to introduce paid paternity leave for fathers is due before the Dáil ahead of the summer recess. This is expected to introduce a social welfare payment of €230 each week for two weeks, taken at any stage within 26 weeks of the birth of a new child. Employers will have the option of topping up the payment, and the move sees us once more playing catch-up with other EU countries. What all of this information reveals is that Ireland still has a long way to go on ensuring that women’s participation in the workplace is fully recognised and valued l
Italy, Greece, the US and Ireland. The gap is smallest in Finland, Sweden, and Norway. l
Further education significantly increases a woman’s probability of being employed. The gender gap in employment internationally, for those who have gone through higher education, is around half of what it is for those who haven’t. Across Europe more women than men are now enrolled in third level education.
You can read the full report at http://bit.ly/1THNz4A WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS
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In the workplace
Walk a mile in her shoes Should women be forced to wear high heels? Believe it or not, it’s still legal in Britain and Ireland for employers to require that female employees wear high heels. This is despite the fact that a large body of medical research has proven that years of daily wear can cause irreversible health problems. LUGHAN DEANE looks at how the issue came to light and what happens next. WHEN 27-year-old Nicola Thorp arrived for her first day as a receptionist at the London offices of Price Waterhouse Coopers she was sent home because she was wearing (formal) flat shoes, rather than high heels. The media picked up on her story after she posted about her experience online. Around the same time, a Canadian woman named Nicola Gavins posted a photograph of her blood–soaked tights on Facebook. Gavins, who worked as a waitress in Edmonton, sustained her injuries because she was obliged to wear high heels at work. The post went viral and was shared almost 13,000 times.
Petition Capitalising on the media and public attention, Thorp set up a petition online calling on the UK’s parliament to “make it illegal for a company to require that women wear high heels at work”. The petition was signed by 142,539 people, enough to ensure that the matter is debated by MPs.
Photo: dreamstime.com
Part of the petition process involved collecting testimony from members of the public affected by this issue. Some of the online submissions make for harrowing reading in 2016. The following quotations are all taken from the public submissions (available at parliament.uk/high-heels-petition-forum).
I'm no stranger to blood soaked tights – ‘Charlotte’ Many of the 730 submissions detail the damage that constant wearing of high heels can do. ‘Mia Haughton’ says that “after 14
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Nicola Gavins and her viral social media post.
How is this legal?
busy days” it was “hard to even walk home”. A number of the posts talk about high heeled shoes leading to bleeding. ‘Tecla Vilona’ says “every girl bled. I still have scars, and bled minimum of once weekly”. ‘Rags’, meanwhile, writes that “we were supposed to wear nude tights, which I had to throw away regularly as I couldn't get the blood stains out”. Much of the testimony relates to the long-term health effects of wearing high heels every day. A number of the posts describe irreversible, permanent damage. ‘Jane BainesHolmes’, for example, writes that she now has “very slow healing Morton's neuromas,” a condition caused by trapped nerves in the foot. Wearing high heels every day at work also gives rise to a whole range of physical safety issues. In her submission, for example, ‘Elizabeth’ says she remembers “wobbling around on [high heels] especially on the fire escapes, during a fire drill”.
I've been terminated because of this issue of high heels – ‘Vanessa’ A number of women write in their submissions about the feeling of being objectified. ‘Sarah Saunders’, for example, writes that her boss “said that [she] was there to be aesthetically pleasing”. ‘Jane’, meanwhile, recalls feeling that her boss “was using [her] as a piece of meat to win a contract”. Numerous posts on the petition’s page talk about the implications that looks and dress have on a woman’s career prospects. A shocking number of posts describe being fired ‰
Thompsons, a major UK employment law firm, has advised that “it is perfectly legitimate for employers to tell their employees to dress in a certain way at work”. It is necessary, however, that employers are “consistent in their approach” and have a “good reason” for imposing a given dress code (for example, requiring hard hats be worn on building sites is a matter of health and safety). or passed over for promotion as a result of failing to wear high heels. ‘Elizabeth’ recalls that when she said she would not be able to manage four hours of serving drinks in heels, she “was sacked on the spot.”
Challenge A sense emerged from the public testimony that women who dared to challenge the high heel requirement were not likely to be met with much understanding. A few of the posts recall that, when a complaint was lodged, management’s response was to suggest the complainant resign. ‘Emma’, for example, recalls that her “query was met with a reminder of the company’s strict policy and a 'quip' that I could rest my feet all I wanted if I became unemployed”. Similarly, a post under the name MRS_SJ says that she has “previously challenged this to be told it's my choice where I work and I could choose to work somewhere that doesn't require me to wear heels”. Although many organisations won’t fire women who do not wear high heels, they find other ways to register their discontent. ‘Alison’, for example, says that “high heels have a positive impact on how well you're regarded and how likely you are to progress”. ‘Cat’, meanwhile, remembers that “on starting as a graduate trainee we were advised that if we did not wear high heels and makeup we should not expect to succeed in our careers”. ‘Kim Farrington’ remembers how she “could not walk at speed and male colleagues would often stride into meetings leaving [her] trailing behind. This left an impression that as a female manager [she] was always a step behind”.
“I've been terminated because of this issue”. Thompsons says that “an employer can dismiss someone fairly for refusing to comply” with a dress code, provided it is reasonable. However the employee must “have been given prior warnings and adequate time to comply”. The law firm also claims that employers can “treat men and women differently”, provided they don’t treat one of the sexes more favourably.
Parliamentary inquiry Following the success of the petition, a series of parliamentary hearings took place in June. MPs on the Petitions and Women and Equalities Committees heard testimonies from a number of the women who had contributed to the forum, including Nicola Torp, as well as employers and the TUC’s women’s equality officer, Scarlet Harris. The aim of the inquiry is to gain a clear understanding of what the current law says about the issue and how it is affecting people. Committee inquiries can, but do not always, lead to reports that make specific recommendations to the Government. What’s clear is that Nicola and all of the women who contributed their experience to the petition have laid down a timely challenge to antiquated ideas about dress codes at work l WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS
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Branch Branch acti activism vism
R Ready eady ffor or take off
Joe Joe Collins, Collins, Des Mullally Mullally and IMPACT IMP PACT organiser Adam O’Maolagain.
Shannon, one from Aer Lingus, and the rest were DAA,”Joe explains. Des says there’s a lot more work to do in terms of regenerating the branch within the three employer organisations, each of whom face different challenges. “DAA are in a very successful growth phase, Aer Lingus have been taken over by IAG, and Shannon faces its own unique set of challenges too,” he says.
THE CLOUDS were sitting low and heavy over Dublin Airpor t as I went out to meet branch activists Des Mullally and Joe Collins of IMP PACT’s IAESA branch. The taxi driver observed that the grey skies were one of the reasons more people are travelling abroad this year for their holidays, “A And of course, they have a few more bob in their pockets, sure why wouldn’t they?” Ta alk turned to that night’s European Championship game they need to do is win” the driver said, “Y against Italy y. “All A th You o have to stay optimistic.” Of course, he was right, and the game rewarded that optimism when Robbie Brady nailed the winner into Italy’s net. When I arrived at the hotel where the branch were meeting with other unions, about the Dublin Airpor t Authority’s ‘Better Together’ programme, I got a text from IMPACT organiser Adam O’Maolagain to say they were running over time. I wasn’t surprised. The group of unions at the DAA, including Siptu, U and UCA AT TT) Mandate and the craft unions (Unite, the TEEU have a lot of work to do in advance of a potential ballot on an agreement in September emberr. As Adam, Des and Joe emerged from the meeting with IMPACT official Johnny Fox, I found myself in another conversation on the theme of optimism. “We expect this to be a groundbreaking agreement.” Johnny is never one to mince his words. “These are major discussions arising from a Labour Cour t recommendation designed to create a new engagement model, including an internal resolution process. We’re also discussing operational change and, crucially y, a new pay and reward model that will affect every one of the 2,500 employees of the DAA,” he says.
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Des Mullally lly y, branch chair and a retail sales suppor t manager who’s worked with the DAA for 33 years, puts it in perspective. “The DAA is currently in a hugely positive place. Passenger numbers and profits are going through the roof, the timing of these discussions is appropriate, as we’re dealing with a huge amount of organisational change. The challenge for the DAA is to continue to move forward and manage the growth, and to maintain the facilities alongside that growth. So management needs an agreement in order to do that,” he explains. Johnny gets into the details. “The discussions have been broken into three modules dealing with each of the areas; dispute resolution, operational change, and the pay and reward model. We’re dealing with each of them in that order before they’re merged into one document. “The process is a good example of how unions should work Everyone is listening to each other and we’re working togetherr. E to a set of agreed principles on each module. I think it’s working extremely well. Our hope is that we’ll be putting proposals on all three modules to a ballot of members by the end of Septemberr,,” he says. Johnny has worked on similar processes s with IMP PACT branches at the state forestry company Coillte and the Irish Aviation v Authority. With this experience behind him, Johnny knows the outcome for members has the potential to be very positive. Des points to the early positive signs, as the union has succeeded in achieving the restoration of 2009 pay cuts three years early. Johnny adds, “The trade unions have used this process to achieve a 4% pay increase, backdated to July 2014, and an early restoration of pay cuts. The current process X
Photo: IMPACT Communications Unit.
As recently as 2012, the IAESA branch of IMPACT couldn’t send any delegates to the IMPACT conference following a huge loss of staff from the Dublin Airport Authority. This year the branch were able to send a full delegation, while early pay restoration, and working with an IMPACT organiser, have seen the branch regenerating at a healthy pace. NIALL SHANAHAN caught up with the team as they continue negotiations on a ground breaking new agreement with the DAA. would not have commenced without that pay restoration, and shows just how effectively the unions have been working togetherr.” .
Regeneration The conversation continues in this vein for a while, and it’s clear that there is an energetic process developing. This was not where the branch was a few IMPACT general IMP PACT assistant g eneral shor t years ago. “The branch secretary Johnny Fox. secr etary J ohnny F ox. has regenerated over the past couple of years. We lost a lot of active people from middle management grades due to targeted redundancy schemes, which led to a loss of 50% of our membership. “Those middle management numbers are now growing again, so our focus is on recruiting them as members into the union,” explains branch secretary and treasurer Joe Collins. Joe has been with the DAA for 30 years and works as a project manager in asset management and development. “There’s an energy around it, the pay restoration element has really helped, which has drawn the attention of current members, which has allowed us to reform the branch committee. At conference in 2010 and 2012 we didn’t have a branch delegate at the IMP PACT conference. In 2014 IAESA had four delegates at conference, myself and Des were joined by two Aer Lingus colleagues. But this year we had eight, a full IAESA branch committee, made up of two members from
Organising Both say there’s a sense of momentum around what’s happening with the branch. They say this is also due to IMP PACT’s organisational policy, which has seen organiser Adam O’Maolagain working closely with the branch to build on its strengths. “Bringing a new organiser in was a key to re-building the branch,” Joe explains.
“The company has been recruiting a new generation of younger staff, and most of these are not union members. With Adam working with us now we’re organising open days and different events in order to do that, and the outcome of the process we’re currently engaged in will demonstrate the value of union par ticipation to those younger staff,” he says. Des adds, “I think the DAA has recognised the value of being able to do business with a union representing their middle management staff also.”
Show value Adam says the aim is to demonstrate the value of union membership to the newer staff who’ve come in. “No matter where you’re organising you have to be able to show the value of what you’re doing. “The key message we’re going out with is that the process we’re involved in is going to have a huge effect on DAA staff, whether or not you’re a union memberr, but if you want to have a say in what happens, it’s only union members that can vote for whatever is finally presented,” he says. In July the branch will be hosting an open day for DAA staff, where they’ll host a Q&A session on the ‘Better Together’ process and they’re currently organising information packs to distribute in the workplace. “If they want a voice in their workplace, they need to be members. We can’t rely on hoping that people are aware of what we’re achieving here, we need to get out there and tell them, so that’s what we’re doing,” says Adam. And on that note the four re-group to head back into discussions. Not alone optimistic, but determined too. Watch this space O
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Fashion
A day at the races Occasionally referred to as “the sport of kings”, horse racing has never been more popular. Aside from the focus on gambling and prize bloodstock, a day at the races has an enduring appeal for the style-conscious. PATRICIA O’MAHONY offers advice on dressing up and stepping out to admire the form at the parade ring. HORSERACING IN Ireland is more popular than ever before, drawing record numbers of punters from Ireland and beyond. It’s a recreation enjoyed by the very young, the young at heart and everyone in between. It’s more enjoyable and accessible because race meetings are more like festivals, with lots of fringe events like artisan food fairs, live music and dancing, fashion boutiques, jewellers, milliners, art and photography by local artists, all to stave off any boredom. Nearby towns organise festivals that bring life and revenue into the area with a spin off for the locality. There’s usually some sponsorship for flowers, shop front competitions and the like. The horseracing industry employs over 14,000 people directly, and thousands more indirectly. It’s an essential contributor to Irish tourism and an integral part of our culture. It is ranked second only to rugby as the sport which provides Ireland with the most international prestige and media exposure. Anyway, enough about that and back to the matter of what to wear. There’s no official dress code required at race meetings and that’s a good thing. Anything from smart casual upwards usually fits the bill. The simplest dress, jumpsuit, or two piece skirt and top will do the trick. If you feel comfortable, you will feel confident, and enjoy yourself. Remember less is more and understated has its place at the races too. Avoid going overboard with colours and accessories. 18
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Best dressed lady and ladies day If you are entering the best dressed lady competition, especially on ladies day, the style stakes rises a notch or two, and some type of head piece is essential. Maybe that explains why millinery is a growing, successful niche in Ireland’s fashion market. With 26 racecourses, and hundreds of meetings annually, maybe it also explains why best dressed lady, or prizes for elegance are sought after. With prizes in excess of €25,000 on offer at some race meetings it really is a competitive and lucrative market. In fact there are a number of women for whom this has become something of a career, and they are there with the sole intention of winning. If you already have the outfit, maybe bought for a wedding, or communion, then you have nothing to lose and maybe a lot to gain. And wouldn’t it be a shame not to get an excuse to wear it again? These competitions are not normally won by expensive outfits. What appeals most of all to the judges is imagination, individuality and appropriateness. Many’s the winner has incorporated their mother’s hand-medown jacket, or the bag from the charity shop, or best of all is when they have made their own winning garment. Some men go all out for the occasion too. Suits, waistcoats and multi-coloured dickie bows are unashamedly commonplace. There isn’t as much focus on prizes for their efforts, but more meetings are beginning to recognise their fashionable flair and include stylish man awards.
Stand out from the crowd If you want to be noticed, especially by the judges, and avoid overkill, let your headpiece do the work. Your clothes can be quite simple and understated, but your headpiece is your attention seeker. Creations resembling flower pots, satellite dishes, shrubs, flying saucers, wigwams or even birds’ nests just look foolish, and are almost impossible to carry off. ‰
Go for something more contemporary and timeless. Be yourself. If you’re happier blending into the crowd, but at the same time want to make an extra effort, wear something smaller like a pill box hat. Penneys have floppy felt hats at a cost of €5 that result in a more bohemian and eclectic look. It may not win Best Dressed Lady, but hey, life doesn’t always have to be about winning. Looking at the variety of winning ensembles from different race meetings, you can see a pattern of themes that appeal to the judges. If you’ve a statement piece of clothing, dress, jacket or coat, let it be the stand-out piece by paring everything else back. Work with one colour, maximum two, and carry that through your ensemble. Incorporate different textures and shapes for optimum individuality. Fabric choices for summer racing are more varied, with silk and cotton always strong favourites. For winter races choose wool, velvet and satins; they’re luxurious and eyecatching with fur (faux) completing the outfit and adding warmth.
Comfort and practicalities Because you’re on your feet all day, and hopefully outdoors, bring a bag big enough for an umbrella, jacket or wrap. Flat shoes stashed away in there could be your best decision as the day goes on. Different race meetings have different procedures for competitions. Check it out first on goracing.ie. All that is left for you to do is get out there, strut your stuff in the vicinity of the parade ring, and let the judges do the rest l
Horseracing Ireland are offering Work & Life readers the chance to win two weekend tickets for the Longines Irish Championship weekend. Tickets are valid for Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September at Leopardstown and the Curragh. Just answer this easy question and send your answer to Trish O’Mahony, Communications Unit, IMPACT, Nerney’s Court, Dublin 1 before Friday 5th August. You must be an IMPACT member to win. Multiple entries will not be included. How many racecourses are there in Ireland? WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS
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Serving the community Returning to civilian life after serving a custodial sentence requires specialised support and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by former prisoners returning to the community. This type of specialised work is undertaken by the community return programme run by the Probation Service and the Irish Prison Service. That work was recognised last year, when the service won the ‘Excellence in Innovation’ award at the Civil Service Excellence and Innovation awards in 2015. MARTINA O’LEARY talks to three IMPACT members engaged in this vital work. THE COMMUNITY return programme helps exprisoners resettle into their communities. The scheme provides for earned temporary release under which offenders, who are approved suitable by the Irish Prison Service, are offered early temporary release in return for supervised community service. Probation officers assess their suitability and motivation to complete the community work.
“This supervisory role entails pro-social modelling with adult offenders which aims to reduce reoffending, reduce the use of custody and promote inclusion. It provides free labour, typically in support of not-for-profit community-based organisations, Tidy Towns Committees, sporting facilities and one-off projects, while not displacing any workers. About 300,000 hours are done each year,” says Tom.
What is community service? Community Service is a direct alternative to a prison sentence. On a judge’s direction a probation officer will assess if the offender is suitable or not to do community service. Convicted offenders may be given the oppor tunity to perform unpaid work for the community, between 40 and 240 hours, which must be completed within one year. Some on community service are assigned to individual work placements. ‰
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Tom Madden
What about the clients? One of the key skills of the community service supervisor is their ability to motivate and support their clients in the workplace. “Our job has an element of social work, an element of encouraging young offenders to do the work and to look at other progression routes, while also providing a service to the wider community. Good communications is so important to our job, the community service order is won or Alan Duffy lost in the first few hours. You have to create a non-threatening environment on day one, otherwise the likelihood of succeeding is reduced,” explains Tom. At its core, the Probation Service believes that every person has the capacity to change and that, with the right positive intervention at the right time, offenders can stop their criminal behaviour. “You must always remember that the alternative to community service is prison, so most, but not all, are glad to get the opportunity to do this work,” says Alan Duffy, IMPACT branch treasurer and newly elected IMPACT honorary secretary and community service supervisor. “You take a lad whose education stopped when he was about 12, he only knows the group he hangs around with. They are completely outside of society, they are hyper defensive. “Our job is to get through this, so you get to the real guy. Keeping confidentiality and building trust are huge elements of the job. Some of the stories you hear would give you nightmares, we build up relationships. The community service supervisor shows him how society really works, and how to operate in that society”, explains Alan. The role has evolved over the years. “2005 saw the introduction of a new model of community service, it’s a task based system. We look after attendance, deal with host organisations, hire equipment, get materials and we deal with suppliers. We are constantly juggling things to get the work
done. You are basically dealing with everything on site,” says Paul Butler, community service supervisor based in the South of Ireland. It’s a difficult job, making sure clients do the hours set by them from the Court, ensuring there are no personality clashes on site. “This can be tricky, peer pressure can be difficult to deal with. There could be certain tensions within groups, or you could have several clients with difficult histories between them. It’s about making sure you are aware of the individual case, and making sure the community service is safe for them. The overall aim is that they repay their debt to society and don’t reoffend,” says Alan. Does it work? Community service works in a lot of cases, you can turn someone around, you can provide a progression route for that person. I’ve had clients go back to education and are now holding down full-time employment,” explains Tom.
Structure “Community service puts structure on the client’s life. They need to think of it as a job, in many cases this is the clients first experience of any work, having to turn up on time, learning what a day’s work entails, how long a lunch time is, what time do they finish at. Education is non-existent,” says Alan. The probation officer is responsible for bringing the case back to court for any failure by the offender to complete the order. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of the 3,761 placed on probation or community service in 2008 (most recent CSO study published in 2013), almost 60% did not reoffend for up to three years after the Court order.
Paul Butler
“Community service does three things. It’s mainly about the young offenders, not turning them into prison fodder and putting a structure on their lives. It saves money by not keeping them in custody, it gives back to society and it enables the host organisations to get jobs done that they could never otherwise achieve,” says Alan l
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Photo: Dan Linehan
This community service work is supervised by community service supervisors who are members of IMPACT’s Civil Service No.1 branch. Branch secretary Tom Madden explains community service supervisors have been providing a very valuable and worthwhile service to communities throughout Ireland for more than 30 years.
Once the community service order has been set, it is the job of the community service supervisor to make sure all goes according to plan. Together with the probation officer the community service supervisor sources suitable work projects, the supervisor instructs and guides clients in relation to the work to be done. They record and report the client’s attendance on a daily basis, and are accountable for each client.
Photo: Domnick Walsh
Photo: Reg Gordon
Public service
Your career
Assemble the team THE VALUE of teams and team-working is increasingly recognised in today’s workplace. Even those organisations structured in a traditional and hierarchical manner are striving to develop a workplace culture where working together on shared objectives, in a collaborative and cooperative manner, is the norm. A strong team is more than the sum of its parts, and it is this synergy that makes team-working so valuable and desirable. A diverse group of people, with different experiences and perspectives, coming together to work on complex problems will deliver outcomes beyond the scope of individuals working alone. The accompanying sense of camaraderie and achievement is frequently experienced as a more motivating and fulfilling way to work.
Greater diversity Core to the success of teamwork is diversity. A strong team can include a diverse mix in terms of age, nationality, gender, culture, experience, expertise and outlook on life. A diverse team is more likely to include the necessary range of skills to work more effectively. Experience shows that teams where everyone is the same, or teams of experts, are actually less likely to collaborate. However, diversity can also be one
of the biggest challenges to team-working as, embedded within these differences, is the potential for conflict. Another challenge to the effectiveness of team working is the size of a team. Sometimes, the larger the team means that effective collaboration becomes a challenge. The capacity to cooperate and collaborate can also diminish with distance, so geographically separated teams, or virtual teams dependent on technology, are more challenged than teams that interact regularly.
Team building Experience and research have revealed that the effectiveness and efficiencies that arise from team working are actually related to the quality of the relationships between the team members, rather than their individual skills and expertise. These high quality interactions can also help overcome the challenges of diversity, size and distance. Team building needs to focus on fostering good quality interactions and effective communication patterns and the interpersonal and communication skills needed to sustain them. Effective leadership is also important, the most effective team leaders are those who are equally able to focus on both the team tasks and the relationships within the team, and who have the flexibility and agility to switch between the two when they recognise that the situation demands it. When those in the senior organisational positions also display these abilities and agilities then you are more likely to foster a successful team culture. Mentoring and coaching help teamworking cultures develop. Providing new team members with an oppor tunity to spend some dedicated time with their manager or team leader has been proven to help them acclimatise and embed within the team culture.‰
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Communications The most effective communication patterns are those where all team members are directly communicating with, and listening, to all other team members. This can be seen in meetings where everyone gets an opportunity to talk, voice an opinion and make suggestions; people’s contributions are short and focused and no one person is allowed to dominate the conversation. Seating arrangements where people can see each other and look at each other directly, when in conversation, facilitate the most effective, interactive and energetic conversations characteristic of high performance teams. Active listening should be practiced by everyone; give each other space to talk, focus on what the person is saying and ask questions to clarify. Brainstorming is frequently engaged in as a quick way to create a supportive, focused discussion space where everyone gets involved. This type of engagement in meetings creates a sense of energy that is motivating and has a positive impact on performance. Outside of meetings, engagement and face-to-face communication between people needs to remain high and this needs to be recognised as important and encouraged. Some research has found that high performing teams that take breaks together perform better. Some organisations have even redesigned space and working time to encourage this informal engagement and communication. Face-to-face direct communication is seen as being most effective for encouraging collaboration and indirect methods prove to be the least effective. While not as useful as face-to-face, phone and video conversations are always better than email if the aim is collaboration. How useful these are can depend on the size of the team.
BUILDING TEAMS The basics Images: dreamstime.com
While the sharing economy might be forcing workers to operate alone, a strong team is still a vital component to a happy and successful working environment. ISOBEL BUTLER looks at the dynamics of building a good team in the workplace, and finds that diversity and good communications are essential ingredients.
For longer standing team members a coaching approach works well to help develop them and ensure their role is clear. These are also oppor tunities for leaders to model the types of communication they want to develop.
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Voice your opinion and make a contribution
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Be focused and concise
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Don’t dominate or show off
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Value all team contributions
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Admit when you don’t know the answer
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Encourage team members to talk together informally outside meetings
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Get the team together over coffee and chat
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Avoid email for communicating about things that need discussion
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Encourage active exploring of ideas and different ways to do things
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Encourage each other, give positive feedback, say thanks.
Isobel Butler is an independent organisational psychologist who works with people on a wide range of workplace issues including conflict management, dealing with change and solving problems. If there are specific issues you’d like her to tackle in these articles send them in via the editor, Work & Life magazine, Nerney’s Court, Dublin 1 or info@impact.ie.
So building a high performance team does not involve going out and selecting a group of high performing individuals. Gathering together the people who have the range of complementary skills and knowledge to get the job done, and fostering an effective, open style of communication and interaction between them, are crucial. Finally, a functional organisation will ensure a strong model of communication is supported. On these foundations, you can build strong teams l
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In the kitchen through the Caribbean, where they saw the natives cooking whole animals splayed on a pit, and brought with them the seeds of the red chilli pepper, which became a key seasoning ingredient.
The essence of barbecue is heat and smoke rather than fire.
While our summer weather remains an unpredictable affair, the Irish passion for barbecue continues to grow. However, there’s more to this outdoor cooking tradition than overcooked burgers and undercooked chicken. DANIEL DEVERY prods the sausages and explores the rich history of grilling outside. IN HIS 1929 publication, Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud traces the control of fire to the moment when man first overcame the urge to extinguish fires he chanced upon by urinating on them. This urge had proved irresistible for thousands of years. Men would compete to see whose aim was most effective, most likely hindering civilization’s development. When man eventually figured out how to use and control fire, that became the focus of their competition.
Ritual sacrifice The earliest offerings by humans to appease the gods were in the form of animal sacrifice. The idea was that, because the gods were celestial, the best way to offer them something to eat was in the form of smoke. This was the burnt offering, and under this arrangement, the gods got all the smoke but there was nothing left of the animal apart from the bones.
Photo: dreamstime.com
Over time the approach was modified so that, while the gods were still offered the smoke, the people had something to eat after the gods had their fill. In ancient Greece, roasting meat over fire was carried out by the army chiefs, dividing out the food to the troops. The animals were blessed before their slaughter and the whole affair was imbued with ritual. These feasts are documented in great detail in Homer’s epics, the Odyssey and the Iliad, and show that tending the fire and distributing the food are social activities that bond their community and demonstrate status. Elements of this remain in the modern barbecue, the gathering together of family and friends to eat together in a sharing ritual, connecting the ancient ritual to the modern barbecue gathering. Charles Lamb’s essay, A Dissertation upon Roast Pig (1822) attempts to tell the original story of roasting meat, but his 24
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real intention was to satirise passionate vegetarian Percy Bysshe Shelley.
A proper roasting Lamb’s essay claims that all meat was eaten raw until the art of roasting was accidentally discovered, in China, by a young man named Bobo, the dimwitted son of a pig farmer named Ho-ti. One day, while Ho-ti was off gathering food for his pigs, Bo-bo (described as “a great lubberly boy who liked to play with fire”) accidentally burnt down the family home, and in the process incinerated a litter of piglets. While he was trying to figure out what to tell his dad, he was struck by a wonderful smell he’d never encountered before. As he reached down to check for signs of life among the piglets, he burnt his fingers and instinctively stuck in his mouth. That first taste of crackling proved irresistible.
The end of the tobacco harvest in the southern US would be marked by slow-cooking a whole roast pig over charcoals. Both black and white tobacco workers would sit down together to mark the end of the harvest, even in the days of strict segregationist laws. Southern barbecue is all about cooking ‘low and slow’, allowing the low temperature to break down the meat over time, with the smoke infusing flavour. Pit-masters will barbecue a whole pig overnight, and in recent years, this southern style has found its way back into cosmopolitan tastes. New York now hosts annual barbecue festivals, giving rise to the popularity of ‘pulled pork’ which is everywhere now. Pulled pork comes from the shoulder, a hard working muscle, which would be tough and inedible unless cooked for a long time at low temperature l
Light your barbecue coals an hour or two before you intend to cook. You want white hot coals, not flames. Marinate your meat the day before if you can (lots of butchers are doing pre-marinated meat selections at this time of year) and make sure to let the grill bars sear (but not burn) your food. For your own marinade, keep it simple. Something sweet, something acidic, a little heat and seasoning is all you need. Mix a couple of spoonfuls of honey with equal amounts of orange juice and sunflower oil. Add some crushed garlic, chilli powder (according to your own preference) salt and pepper and a little red wine or balsamic vinegar. Mix up to a dark syrup and use it to coat whatever meat you’re cooking. All manner of salads are the perfect side dishes, with bread or baked potatoes. But if you fancy something sweet to finish, split the skin on a banana, drizzle the banana with a little honey, seal up the skin again and wrap in foil. Throw it on the bars of the grill, lid down, and leave for about 20/30 minutes. When it’s soft and blackened, the banana inside will be like semi-liquid caramel. Serve with a little natural yoghurt or vanilla ice cream. Yum. Some Irish barbecue enthusiasts are spreading the word on the low and slow methods. bbqmasterclass.net blog is well worth checking out for the variety of cooking methods you can achieve on a domestic barbecue.
Ho-ti returned to find his cottage in ruins, and his idiot son feasting on the remains of his piglets. Bo-bo convinced his father to have a taste, and both agreed it was best to keep quiet about this delicious discovery. However, the neighbours became suspicious when it appeared that Ho-ti’s house burned down with alarming frequency.
Smoke The essence of barbecue is heat and smoke rather than fire. Most of us have attempted to cook food on the barbecue while the coals or charcoal are still flaming away, and all you end up with is food that is burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. The key is heat, letting the coals get to that white hot simmer. But in traditional Southern barbecue in the US, it’s all about smoke. This arrived in the American south with the slave trade. African slaves had passed ‰ WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS
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Gardens
ITA PATTON our gardening expert recommends some resilient plants for difficult growing areas.
Recently I was asked to recommend a selection of tough seaside plants able to withstand harsh salt laden winds in their coastal garden. I listed some of my usual favourites including rosemary, tamarix, artemesia, olearias and crocosmias and they were satisfied with my answer. However, as they walked away I had a mild nagging feeling that I had forgotten
to mention one super and too often forgotten perennial. I chased after them and when I caught up I panted the word Kniphofia!
Poker shape Species of Kniphofia which hail from South Africa are commonly known as red hot pokers or torch lilies. In fact the term “red hot poker” specifically applies to the tough and impressive looking Kniphofia uvaria, which, in late summer bears thick dense poker shaped heads of small red flowers opening to yellow at the base and can reach heights of almost two metres. This plant is often used in seaside planting schemes because of its ability to tolerate those harsh winds and to bulk up quickly. Unfortunately, it can look a bit rough and unkempt if it doesn’t get a regular tidying, but used properly, it is a welcome addition to any large border. Torch lilies offer the gardener a huge variety of shapes and sizes from miniatures measuring as little as 45cm to the ‘big fellows’ reaching more then two metres tall. Flower colour ranges from soft and creamy whites through to yellow, orange, bronze and deep red. They also offer a diverse range of attractive foliage from the grass-like Kniphofia galpinii to the more succulent looking Kniphofia caulescens. When, as a student I first saw the latter in Glasnevin I was amazed by its distinctive broad grey-green leaves – so different to my idea of what a Kniphofia should look like!
Small gardens For those with small gardens, where space is at a premium the beauty of kniphofias can be enjoyed. The dwarf forms are ideal for the front of a border as they contrast with horizontal growth. The late flowering variety ‘Bressingham Comet’ with its show of orange pokers and neat grassy foliage is a reliable favourite. ‘Little Maid’ was discovered and named by the legendary Beth Chatto and has rush-like foliage with spikes of greeny yellow flowers in autumn. It is a very popular and easily available choice. Most torch lilies prefer a dry and well drained soil in wintertime, but quite X
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M & Ē Ē : Ē đ B đ
like moisture in in summer summer and and thrive thriveininaasunny sunnyaspect. aspect. Fortunately most are are fairly fairly adaptable adaptableand andwill willgrow growwell well in all but but very very dry dry or or boggy, boggy,wet wetsoils. soils.They Theyprefer prefertotobebe divided or planted planted in in late late spring, spring,but butcan canbe, be,and andoften often are, left undisturbed undisturbed for for several several years. years. Cut Cutdown downthe the faded flower spikes spikes to to encourage encouragenew newblooms bloomsand andininlate late autumn/early winter the the foliage foliage can can be becut cutdown downtotothe the base. A will improve the A liquid liquid feed feedininthe thefollowing followingspring spring will improve overall looklook and and vigour of the the overall vigour of plant. the plant.
D Deadhead all plants frequently, especially roses, annuals
Larger gardens
D Keep camellias well watered to avoid bud drop. The soil
For those with with aa bit bit more more space, space, there thereisisa awonderful wonderful selection of larger larger varieties varieties to to choose choose from, from,such suchasas Kniphofia ‘Samuel’s scarlet red ‘Samuel’sSensation’ Sensation’with withbright bright scarlet blooms or Kniphofia ‘Percy’s‘Percy’s Pride’, aPride’, large distinctive red blooms or Kniphofia a large and dramatic plant with deep yellow ever distinctive and dramatic plant withpokers. deep The yellow popular Kniphofia ‘Tawny Kniphofia King’ is another, with dull pokers. The ever popular ‘Tawny King’ is orange which openbuds to cream flowers in mid another,buds with dull orange which open to cream summer early autumn. flowers intomid summer to early autumn. The late late flowering flowering Kniphofia Kniphofia rooperi rooperiisisparticularly particularly spectacular ininautumn robust darkdark greengreen leaves autumnwith with robust and bi-coloured orange orange and orange leavesmagnificent and magnificent bi-coloured and yellow This isThis a hefty, robust, ‘don’t-messorange flowers. yellow flowers. is a hefty, robust, ‘don’twith-me’ plant that a height of twoofmetres mess-with-me’ plantcan thatreach can reach a height two and form clumps almost almost a metrea across. Its tubular metres and form clumps metre across. Its flowers attractive to bees, atotrait of a alltrait torch tubular are flowers are attractive bees, oflilies. all torch lilies. So, the next time I’m asked to recommend a plant for coastal garden, in fact for any garden, I will So, athe next time I’m or asked to recommend a plant remember mention the hot from ISouth for a coastaltogarden, or in fact for heads any garden, will Africa! O to mention the hot heads from South remember Africa! O
and perennials.
D Continue pruning deciduous shrubs, such as deutzia and philadelphus, after flowering. Photos by dreamstime.com
DO YOU ever have a conversation in which you’re asked a question and your reply is really not to your satisfaction? This sometimes happens to me when I’m asked an on-the-spot gardening question. I answer and then later reflect on what I should have mentioned or recommended. It could have been a specific plant, a pest control method or a special nursery issue.
Red hot pokers around their roots should not dry out for long periods.
D Take semi-ripe cuttings of shrubs such as ceanothus, fuschia, olearia and hebe.
D Prop up heavily laden branches of fruit trees. D When temperatures drop, reduce watering and ventilation in the greenhouse.
Ita Patton is a craft gardener in the National Botanic Gardens O
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At the movies The Nice Guys
A man called Black Our movie expert MORGAN O’BRIEN takes a look at the work and career of screenwriter, director and purveyor of quippy dialogue Shane Black. FEW SCREENWRITERS can lay claim to having the same level of star power as the actors that speak their words or even the directors that transfer their stories from page to screen. In the 1970s, Robert Towne and William Goldman were exceptions, earning plaudits The Last and popular acclaim. Boy Scout While more recently Aaron Sorkin has equally been recognised as a writer with an identifiable style of storytelling. While the name Shane Black might not be instantly recognisable, there is every chance that you will have seen at least one of the films he’s written, or, more recently, directed. For a period in the late 80s/early 90s Black was the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood, trading in well crafted action films interposed with note-perfect wit. His scripts have been noted for featuring short annotated descriptions and a concise style, with Black citing William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid/All the President’s Men) as an influence. 28
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After initially working on script re-writes Black made his name, aged just 23, after penning Lethal Weapon (1987). The film carries the hallmarks of much of Black’s subsequent work, interspersing violence with wry humour. In particular, Black’s writing took the conventions of action films of the 1980s and infused them with a more knowing character. Equally, the elements of buddy comedy in Black’s script would be pursued in later work. The film’s success meant Black was a rising star, and, after securing the favour from producer Joel Silver of a small acting role in Predator, he set ‰ Lethal Weapon
about putting together a sequel to Lethal Weapon. The experience was chastening for the writer, his script was rejected for being too violent but Black refused to do rewrites and quit the project. He has since suggested that he feels the script was his best work and was unhappy with the subsequent instalments of the Lethal Weapon series. Black has maintained a consistent position that the violence in his scripts is necessary for audiences to relate to the danger characters face, and that it is used for the development of the plot. While the film alters much of his original script, Black earned $1.75 million for The Last Boy Scout (1991), whose violent punctuations might be seen as a way for the writer to work out his frustrations on Lethal Weapon 2. The film, though uneven, nevertheless retains the Black’s flair for dialogue and action in telling the story of a detective investigating corruption in American football. Black subsequently earned $1m for rewrites on the box office flop The Last Action Hero (1993) and earned the record fee of $4 million for the unfairly maligned The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996). While again Black claims his script was significantly reworked, the story rehearsed elements of his previous work with Geena Davis as an amnesiac who hires a detective, played by Samuel L Jackson, to help uncover her past. While the film was moderately successful, Black disappeared from screenwriting for almost a decade and has subsequently indicated that this hiatus resulted from failing to get projects off the ground, as well as his drinking. However, he returned in 2005 with his darkly funny directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Based on his own script, in the film Black sharpened elements of his previous work into a finely tuned mix of neonoir, action and comedy brought to life by the unlikely (but thrilling) double act of Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer. The critical success of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang helped sufficiently revitalise the career of Downey Jr, winning him the role of Iron Man. Black’s successful partnership with the actor can also be seen as contributing to his getting to direct Iron Man 3 (2013). While some fans were unhappy with alterations to the source material, it is arguably the best of the series, with the film marked by a darker tone and infused with Black’s trademark irreverent humour. More recently, Black returned to more familiar ground with The Nice Guys starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. The film is a buddy detective comedy set in 1970s LA. In the vein of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang the film showcases Black’s ability for playing with action movie archetypes and mixing satirical humour and violence. The writer/director appears to have settled into his own second act with preparations underway on The Predator, a sequel to the 80s classic, and the comic book adaptation Doc Savage l
COMING SOON The Legend of Tarzan (8th July) Alexander Skarsgard plays Count Greystoke, formerly Tarzan but now living the life of an English aristocrat, who returns to Africa and is drawn into a web of corruption. Samuel L Jackson, Margot Robbie and Christophe Waltz also feature.
Ghostbusters (15th July) Paul Feig directs, and there’s been no shortage of internet chatter, particularly among (male) fans of the original. Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy feature among the titular heroes and their pedigree with the director suggests there’s hope for this reboot.
The BFG (22nd July) Mixed reviews at Cannes greeted Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic tale. Ten-year-old Sophie is in for the adventure of a lifetime when she meets the Big Friendly Giant (Mark Rylance).
Star Trek Beyond (22nd July) With JJ Abrams otherwise engaged in Star Wars, Justin Lin takes the helm for the further adventures of the Enterprise. This third instalment of the rebooted franchise sees the crew stranded on an unknown planet with Idris Elba as the alien antagonist.
Finding Dory (29th July) A belated sequel to classic animation Finding Nemo sees the forgetful Dory journey with Nemo and Marlin to discover her family.
Jason Bourne (29th July) After the interregnum of The Bourne Legacy, Matt Damon makes a welcome return as the eponymous spy who resurfaces in his continuing, and seemingly unending, fight to find the truth of his past.
Suicide Squad (5th August) Long-awaited adaptation of the DC comic book series, which sees a team of villains and anti-heroes recruited by a secret government agency for dangerous missions. WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 29
Play it loud
The Who
Does size matter? From Glastonbury to Lisdoonvarna and from Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads, the summer months are punctuated by large scale concert events. This year’s visit by ‘The Boss’ to Croke Park has prompted two very different takes from the Work & Life team. MARTINA O’LEARY is a passionate Springsteen fan and shares her memory of his Friday night slot at Croker, while RAYMOND CONNOLLY voices his preference for more intimate gigs, and casts a jaundiced eye on event mania.
Born to rock – Martina O’Leary I WAS lucky enough to get a ticket for Bruce Springsteen’s Friday night gig in Croke Park in May, it was my fourth time to see The Boss. My introduction to his dynamic brand of performance took place ten years ago at the Seeger sessions at Point Theatre in Dublin. My mum was in hospice care at the time and the gift of a ticket for the show was my friend’s way of cheering me up. While I sat in the arena crying for most of the night, I was blown away by Springsteen and his band. This year’s concert was equally brilliant. Springsteen never disappoints, the energy and passion he brings to the stage is amazing. Every song is infused with story and I love the poetry of his lyrics. His song about infidelity, Back in Your Arms, moved many to tears, including one woman caught on screen who instantly won the audience’s sympathy (there was an audible “aaawh…”). The whole concert had this emotional charge. My friend and I always go for standing tickets if we can, and this year we struck gold when we came across a steward giving out the coveted wristbands granting access to the pit area, in front of the stage. We had a great view of Bruce and the band, the sound quality was excellent and the 85,000-strong audience were enthralled. Among my own personal highlights were The River, Promised Land, Born to run and Dancing in the Dark.
The on-stage screens provided lots of additional views of the band on stage and people in the crowd, adding even more to the occasion. He rocked in a three and a half hour show, only stopping to meet the curfew, and probably would’ve played on. He finished singing This Hard Land alone with his guitar. A phenomenal night, despite what Raymond Connolly might have to say about it!
Editor’s pick of the best big and small gigs
Drive-by fruiting – Raymond Connolly Despite my clear preference for smaller indoor venues, I had always wanted to see my idols, The Who, play in their own home town. I finally fulfilled my wish last summer and I was swept away by the sense of occasion on a June evening in London’s Hyde Park with 60,000 Who fans for company.
BIG
SMALL
The Police – Croke Park, 2009: Some punters were confused by any song that wasn’t on the Greatest Hits album, but the band were outstanding.
Echo & The Bunnymen , SFX Hall, 1986: A late night Killing Moon with the scowling scousers in top form.
Simple Minds – Croke Park, 1986: An anthem-filled show. Big hair, shoulder pads, and a lightning storm finale to a spectacular light show.
different train of thought entirely. What struck me pleasantly about the gig was the absence of pomp and ceremony despite the significance of occasion. Compare this with the recent Bruce Springsteen gigs in Dublin. Journalists and ordinary punters alike were clambering to say “I was there”. I just don’t get that. Us inhabitants of this humble little sod don’t half like chasing a big event. Someone excitedly said to me “I believe he played for three and a half hours on Friday night!” Did nobody shout “stop” on humanitarian grounds? I realise I speak as part of a small minority when I say that Springsteen’s music bores me to oblivion. I also realise that the man himself is a top guy (even if I fail to reconcile the man with the union card being labelled ‘The Boss’…too close to management I say).
Summer-Autumn 2016 solutions
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Tom Waits, The Olympia Theatre, 1986: The stuff of legend. Swordfishtrombones and a pork pie hat.
U2 – Phoenix Park racecourse 1983: Apart from their performance, other highSimple Minds stole their thunder, but lights included having my pint forcibly this was a band on ‘the edge’ of world removed from my grasp by a randomly domination. chucked mango. The irony isn’t lost on me. I do concede that being hit by a flying mango at a Who concert isn’t quite time, avoiding the event-chasing populous, as well as the Woodstock. It’s the sanitised world of latter-day rock ‘n’ roll. Croker-Big-Event-Security mob with their mantra “You can A local geezer quipped “hey mate that was a drive-by only drink beverages on the pitch which were purchased on fruiting!!” I thought to myself…hmm…didn’t we sort you lot the pitch.” Had I been there, I would have been against that out in 1921 and in Stuttgart in ’88, and build your roads and too. I’ll take the mango. railways? Then the band launched into 5:15 and I was on a
I’m seeing a double standard here and I, for one, am against it. No I certainly wasn’t at the event. I was, however, perched on a barstool in Dorset St at the
Bruce Springsteen
The Beat, The Academy, 2015: Dublin’s rude boys and rude girls danced until they couldn’t. Top class.
(From page 46)
8 1 3 6 2 4 9 7 5
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4 1 7 9 3 5 6 8 2
5 2 8 7 4 6 9 1 3
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Difficult
I can’t understate just how much of a blessing it was that the Garth Brooks Croke Park project collapsed in an embarrassing heap. I firmly believe that the media scrum, and our islanders’ thirst to say “I was at the big event” would’ve dwarfed even the bombastic hype of Springsteen. A nation of cowboys dressing as eh…cowboys. A small piece of sartorial advice folks…very small check design is cool, very large check is Hicksville, especially with short sleeves. Among my favourite gigs I’ve been to through the years are Imagination at the National Stadium (although that may have been Just an Illusion), Kid Creole & The Coconuts at the RDS in 1983 and The Beat at The Academy last year. I can go smaller. A couple of years ago I saw The Christians at a 200 capacity venue on Leeson Street. The gig absolutely sizzled from start to finish. Small indeed can be great. As Mark Twain said “it’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog.” l
Spring-Summer 2016 Crossword Solutions See page 46 for the competition winners from issue 33.
ACROSS: 1. Posts 5. Lucky 8. Tabasco 9. Liver 10. Trace 11. Apricot 14. Teddy 17. Opted 20. Schemer 21. Bets 22. Hank 23. Expertise 24. Pesto 27. Peggy 30. Beetles 32. Lisle 33. Arena 34. Several 35. Naive 36. Monet. DOWN: 1. Pilot 2. Saved 3. Stray 4. Sari 5. Lotto 6. Chart 7. Yield 12. Reverence 13. Celestial 15. Essence 16. Dessert 18. Pay here 19. Earning 24. Palin 25. Sushi 26. Obese 27. Psalm 28. Green 29. Yeast 31. Tied. WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS
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Photos: gettyimages.ie
He has an amazing voice and brilliant stamina, and twice he went in among the crowd, popping up right behind us at one point. He took requests from the audience and ‰
the band launched into them with ease. The band, including Steven Van Zandt, Patti Scialfa and Nils Lofgren were first class and played a blinder.
Travel and trips
The majestic port city of Lisbon, Portugal, played host to not one, but two members of the Work & Life team in April. On very separate adventures, NIALL SHANAHAN and PATRICIA O’MAHONY explored some of the delights on offer in this charming, ancient city.
Ask anyone who’s been to Lisbon lately and they’re likely to recommend staying in – or near – the Bairro Alto district. Príncipe Real sits just north of Bairro Alto, providing ready access to its wide range of bars, clubs, restaurants and shops without the attendant bustle and noise. Bairro Alto’s narrow and winding streetscape was laid out in 1513. In daylight this bohemian district is quiet, apart from the shops on Rua do Norte. A new world emerges at sunset as restaurants open their doors, and bar-hopping crowds start to mingle and spill out onto the streets, creating a street party atmosphere.
Tascaordosa
Niall “LISBON OR Berlin?” That was the choice I offered to my better half in January’s birthday card. I included a couple of Berlitz guides and a notebook and pen to complete the research (her favourite part of any trip). With the ‘Lisbon’ box duly ticked, we set about our long weekend in the second oldest European capital (after Athens) at the start of April. For a weekend away, Lisbon holds a couple of advantages if you’re flying out of Dublin. First off, it’s really not that far away. With the assistance of a decent tailwind (which our Aer Lingus captain informed us was thanks to a ‘jet stream’) our flight only took two hours. Lisbon is also, helpfully, in the same time zone, so we didn’t lose the customary continental hour when we arrived on Thursday night. This meant there was still ample time to get out and about and have a bite to eat.
Príncipe Real and Bairro Alto We stayed in an apartment in Príncipe Real, an attractive and mostly residential neighbourhood once only known for its antique shops. A couple of the city's most tranquil squares played host to some very nice markets and a few colourful mansions. ‰
Having just flown in, food was a priority and the friendly staff at Shiadu pointed us in the direction of a small restaurant nearby. Tascaordosa, just off the main square, is homely and welcoming. We took our seats and were immediately served a few ‘covers’, a common practice, expect to pay for starters like bread, cheese, olives or shrimps (camarao) from €3 – €10, depending on the restaurant. Our covers included a delicious broad bean tempura (deep fried in a very light batter). Wine was served in earthenware jugs and dishes included beef, pork and lots of excellent fresh fish dishes. I had a deliciously grilled grouper fish. The bill for covers, mains, desert, coffee and wine came to an affordable €32 for two people. This is one of the great attractions of Lisbon as food and drink tend to be pretty good value for money. The Mosteiro (Monastery) dos Jerónimos is a monastery of the Order of Saint Jerome near the Tagus river in the parish of Belém. A prominent example of Portuguese late gothic architecture, it was classified a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the nearby Tower of Belém, in 1983. Belém is famed as the departure point for some of the great Portuguese explorers, including Vasco da Gama,
who departed for India from here in 1497. His tomb is one of the main attractions in the basilica, particularly for Portugese visitors, who were keen to get a photo of Vasco’s tomb while we were there. Entry to the Basilica is free, though you’ll need to pay to enter the adjoining monastery, but it’s well worth a visit. We took one of the city’s old trams to get to Belém. These beautiful and charming four-wheelers are small (carrying about 40 passengers) and the first operational route was inaugurated in 1873. Tourists and Lisbon residents will jostle to get on board (although the residents are more likely to opt for the larger and more modern buses on the same routes) but a trip to Lisbon isn’t complete without at least one tram ride, the most popular being tram 28, which winds up through the old Moorish district of Alfama.
Pastéis de Belém Following the liberal revolution of 1820, all convents and monasteries in Portugal were eventually shut down in 1834, and all clergy and labourers expelled. In a bid to survive, someone from the dos Jerónimos monastery offered sweet pastries for sale in the shop; pastries that rapidly became known as ‘Pastéis de Belém’. After walking around the cool cloisters of St Jerome’s, and in need of refreshment, our next stop was at the bakery/café of Pastéis de Belém. We took a seat (one of 400, and taking a table is the best way to avoid the queues) for one of Lisbon’s prized pastries. While ‘Pastel de nata’ or ‘natas’ are widely available in Lisbon (even the Starbucks in the airport had them), locals will tell you that the only authentic natas are to be tasted at Pastéis de Belém. In anticipation I thought “It’s just a custard tart” but nothing quite prepares you for the light crunch of airy pastry yielding to a warm creamy custard gooiness. It’s a feast for the senses, and reason enough to visit Belém.
Markets While the main square at Príncipe Real played host to a craft market on Friday, and an organic fruit and veg market on Saturday, we also spent some time amid the tumbling oasis of stalls in the flea market at Feira De Ladra in Alfama. We watched the sunset over the Castelo de São Jorge (also well worth a visit and within short walking distance from from Feira De Ladra) in the market at Jardim in Bairro Alto. Jardim’s stalls included all manner of leather goods, woollen, chocolate, fudge, sangria and (our favourite) a tapas mix of local bread, cheese, meat and wine to savour the sunset. continued on page 34 ‰
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Main photo: dreamstime.com
Bom dia Lisboa!
Well on its way to gentrification, it’s becoming a serious shopping area, and the familiar scent of rapid property development is seeing the charming old apartment buildings being revamped for a new generation of owners with deeper pockets. Our holiday apartment was booked through Shiadu.com, a company specialising in holiday lets in Lisbon and Porto, with prices starting from €75 per night.
Travel and trips
I travelled to Lisbon in April with my two friends for our annual European city break. One of them has since booked to return this August with her family, indicating how much she enjoyed the place. We spent some time in the craft market, at Príncipe Real, and we were very impressed by the genuine quality and value of the goods for sale, especially the handmade jewellery and leather goods. Comparing it to other European markets, the quality of goods on offer here was far superior. Shopping was not on our list of things to do but the lure of boutiques and vintage shops on Rua Dom Pedro was too strong to resist. There are lots of individual, inexpensive, designer shops oozing charm on the hilly streets of Lisbon’s oldest district, Alfama, that made the well known high street shops pale into insignificance. One of my favourites was In-mage, where we lost all track of time and, between the three of us, plenty of spending took place. You’ll find it at Dom Pedro V, 32-34 and Rua Nova de Piedade, 97. Comparing prices to home we got good value,
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l Hot Clube de Portugal Jazz Club – visit hcp.pt for details of shows and artists l Shiadu – a company specialising in holiday apartment rentals. Friendly service, delightful buildings in beautiful city locations in Lisbon and Porto - see shiadu.com
Clube de Jornalistas This restaurant was recommended to me by a well-travelled and trusted colleague and I can honestly say the only mistake we made was not returning during our short stay. Rated number 11 out of 3,155 restaurants in Lisbon, by Tripadvisor (and with 1,544 reviews), you should include Clube de Jornalistas in your itinerary. I believe it’s one of those special places that will stand out in your memory, long after the event. Why, you wonder? It was a combination of things; the personalised menu and food (oh the food!) planned and exquisitely prepared by a Brazilian chef with local and arabic influences, wonderful presentation, all set in an old house with original features and a variety of interesting dining areas with views overlooking an enclosed private garden. It scored very highly for overall value for money too, and we didn’t have to compromise on our wine selection, which was the best we sampled in Lisbon. On a practical note, we booked the Clube at the same time as booking our flights, as it’s a very popular spot. It’s a taxi ride away from the Bairro Alto area, and tricky enough to find, but well worth the effort. The standard of food in Lisbon is quite good anyway, especially fish, so we relied on walk-ins for the other days. ‰
l Clube de Jornalistas – A culinary highlight, check out restauranteclubedejornalistas.com l Pastéis de Belém – The authentic ‘natas’ are a delight, see pasteisdebelem.pt
Lisbon
Hot spots
Hot Clube de Portugal Jazz Club If jazz is your music of choice you’ll enjoy the HCP Jazz Club located in Praca da Alegria, just a couple of blocks from Bairro Alto. This club is one of the oldest jazz clubs in Europe, attracting top musicians from all over the world. A staff member told me they had a fire a few years ago and had to move premises. Prior to that it was the oldest club in Portugal. It’s small and intimate, with a rich history and great
l Tram 28 / Feira De Ladra in Alfama – Tram 28 runs across the city from east to west. Pick it up at Basilica da Estrela to beat the crowds and enjoy a picturesque tour of the city up to Alfama to visit the eclectic flea market l Calouste Gulbenkian Museum – A must see for art lovers, boasting 1,000 pieces from the collection of philanthropist and collector Calouste Gulbenkian, ranging from ancient Greco-Roman, Egyptian and Islamic art to the Renaisance and a collection of modern art. It includes art acquired from the sale of pieces from the Hermitage museum by the USSR, including Turner, Monet, Manet, Rembrandt and Gainsborough. See gulbenkian.pt/museu
atmosphere, a super sound system and just enough room for a grand piano. Even if you are not a serious jazz fan it’s worth putting on your list of night time venues. By the way, losing track of time and watching the world go by seems to be something the Portuguese have down to a fine art and we had no problem adjusting to this approach ourselves. Janela D’Atalaia was a very nice cocktail bar, in the typical Portuguese style, on Rua da Atalaia, ideal for a casual drink and a chance to chat with some of the laid back locals l
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Photos: dreamstime.com
Patricia
and more unique pieces not to be found on the high street. In fact, the city overall proved great value for money for visitors. For example a pre-booked taxi from the airport to our apartment (at 23.00hrs) cost €15, while good quality house wine cost around €12.
From the author
Review
Have ye no homes to go to? The pub has been at the centre of Irish life for centuries. Some research even suggests that going to the local gives us better life satisfaction than staying at home to watch TV or socialising online. The pub has played a variety of roles in the community, from funeral home to job centre and a meeting place for poets, revolutionaries and hard working trade union activists! NIALL SHANAHAN talks to retired lecturer KEVIN MARTIN about his celebration of the pub in Irish life, and it’s rich and complicated history.
Kevin Martin
YEARS AGO I lived in a part of the Dublin suburbs which was a nice enough place but I could never figure out why there wasn’t a decent pub to be found in it. These were the years when the Celtic Tiger was in its pomp, and suburban bars and lounges were being knocked through to create drinking warehouses for the nation’s young workforce. These were noisy places. The Jaegermeister flowed to an umf…umf…umf highenergy soundtrack, driving away those of us in search of the solace of a quiet pint.
In the crisis years that followed, I noticed that a good few of these places had closed down. Ireland’s earliest pubs hosted the feasts of the high kings, while the pubs of nineteenth century New York were dominated by the gangs of the five boroughs. Irish pubs have served as a meeting place for centuries, but they’ve also multi-tasked, and have played the role of funeral home, restaurant, grocery shop, music venue, and as nerve centres for cultural and political revolutions. It is this rich history that first inspired Kevin Martin to tackle the history of the pub for an masters thesis in the early 1990s. However, Kevin was unhappy with the finished work and, following his early retirement from lecturing at Blanchardstown Institute of Technology, he decided to return to his rich well of sources to complete his book, Have Ye No Homes To Go To? – The History of the Irish Pub. I spoke to Kevin over the phone from his home in Westport, about how it all came together and what inspired him to write it. 36
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“I was teaching in Edenderry in Offaly when I was studying for my masters in Dublin City University. Then I travelled all over the world and got into lecturing about 15 years ago. “I spent a bit of my time in Japan, and on my very first night I went out to this pub. They stopped you at the door and brought you to your seat, very formal, more like a restaurant really. The formality also means that you didn’t mix with other people, you were expected to socialise only with whoever you came in with. You wouldn’t walk up and start socialising with another group, it just wasn't done. It seemed very much at odds with my experience of an Irish bar. “Things have changed. That was the mid ‘90s, when the Irish bar concept had only just arrived in Japan, and while it was a huge leap for the people there, they did take to it with great gusto. There’s a huge number of them now in Japan,” he explains.
At the centre of Irish life Kevin says that while the pub played a central role in Irish life for centuries, it has diminished in rural and urban areas in recent years. The rules on drinking and driving have certainly changed the culture, though Kevin says the smoking ban didn’t have as much of an impact. “The culture has changed because people are more inclined to drink at home, and in city centres people would be put off by the high prices. “The arrival of supermarket multinationals selling alcohol at vastly reduced prices has had an effect, but you also need to consider that Irish people have travelled abroad and noticed different drinking habits, and have adopted some of them, including drinking at home, which is a relatively recent development,” he says. Social media has also played a role. People are no longer totally dependent on communicating directly with one another in the pub, group conversations can begin much earlier in the evening, and people can pick up from where they left off when they meet later that night. “There’s a concept I read about recently called ‘ambient awareness’ which is about how social media can enable us to build up an image and awareness of ‰
another person’s life through social media, so when we meet them we don’t have a huge amount of catching up to do. “Arguably it’s an improved situation in terms of how people relate to one another, but it means younger people do not spend the same sort of long evening of chat that was a feature of the pub.”
Stories and traditions Kevin explores the diverse range rich traditions that gave rise to the Irish pub in his book. For example, the Brehon Laws required publicans to have “a never-dry cauldron, a dwelling on a public road and a welcome to every face,” and during Norman times, brewing was a job normally carried out at home by women known as ‘alewives’. Some pubs had cold rooms where they stored dead bodies until the corpse was ready for burial. This established a link between the job of publican and undertaker. In 1872, it became a legal requirement to display the proprietor’s name over the front door, the legacy of this stands as one of the unique features of the Irish pub around the world. Kevin came across a number of unusual stories in the course of his research, including the revelation that the clock in Mulligan’s of Poolbeg Street in Dublin contains some of the ashes of Billy Brooks Carr, a man from Houston, Texas with an abiding love for the pub. After his untimely death it was organised that some of his ashes be placed in the grandfather clock still standing in Mulligans today. Sir Charles Cameron, chief medical officer for Dublin Corporation in the late nineteenth century, once wrote that “The workman is blamed for visiting the public house, but it is to him what the club is to the rich man. His home is rarely a comfortable one and in the winter, the bright light, the warm fire, and the gaiety of the public house are attractions which he finds difficult to resist.” We couldn’t agree more l
Competition We have two copies of Kevin Martin’s excellent Have Ye No Homes To Go To? – The History of the Irish Pub, courtesy of The Collins Press, and it’ll make for a decent bit of holiday reading if you’re relaxing in your local pub. The first two readers that can tell us the name of the famous old pub on Dublin’s Poolbeg Street will each win a copy. Send your postal entries to Roisin Nolan, IMPACT, Nerney’s Court, Dublin D01 R265 or info@impact.ie (include the subject heading ‘Have ye no homes to go to?’), by Friday 5th August 2016.
A conflicted artist The Noise of Time Julian Barnes (Vintage Publishing, €18.99). THE ATMOSPHERE of Soviet Russia is established from the beginning as a young man sits on the landing outside his apartment, night after night, waiting. It is clear that his fear is great; he cannot stay still, he cannot concentrate. Here people disappear in the middle of the night. Behind the door, his wife and baby daughter lie sleeping. If he is to die, he will at least control the manner of his arrest and protect his family from witnessing it. The young man is revealed to be the famous composer, Shostakovich and this is the period after he has displeased Stalin. An article in Pravda has gravely criticised his opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtensk. Nobody who wishes to remain safe can now be seen to be associated with him.
Survival Shostakovich did not die at that time and afterwards he lived his life pragmatically. To prevent his own execution and to ensure the safety of his family he always did what was expected of him. His musical work satisfied the rules of optimism required by a People’s composer and when outside of Russia, he spoke the words prescribed for him. He complied when ordered, later in life, to join the Party. The novel depicts the paranoia which existed in Russia but what is clearly conveyed is the constant gnawing fear which resulted from it. Shostakovich did what was necessary to survive and he channelled irony into his music hoping that at some point this would be understood. If he had spoken the truth at any point, he would be dead and quickly forgotten.
Philosophical questions This book is not a biography of Shostakovich, although the facts of his life are there. Instead it portrays the internal life of a conflicted artist who compromised integrity for existence. The composer was tortured emotionally by his own cowardice, particularly for those times he denounced other artists, often those he admired greatly. For all his success, his inability to act according to his conscience led to a purgatory of shame and selfdisgust. The strength of this book is in the enormous philosophical questions it raises. By Kathryn Smith.
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Union business
From the IMPACT conference liveblog…
Friday 20th May REFUGEE CRISIS IMPACT trade union members have unanimously backed a motion calling on the government to increase the number of refugees accepted into the country under refugee relocation and resettlement programmes.
PRESSURE ON FORENSIC SCIENCE SERVICES IMPACT trade union’s Forensic Science branch has told the union’s conference in Killarney that the capacity of Forensic Science Ireland to carry out its evidence gathering function is under threat due to inadequate facilities. Stephen Clifford told delegates that the recent escalation in gangland crime adds a further strain on already stretched resources.
Wednesday 18th May
POSTNATAL DEPRESSION
PUBLIC SERVICE PAY Jerry King, IMPACT President, told conference that talks for a successor to the Lansdowne Road public service pay agreement must begin within a year, before the current agreement expires. He stated that pay restoration must be central to any new agreement, given the context of continuing higher-thanexpected economic growth. If the Lansdowne Road Agreement was the first agreement since 2009 containing no backwards steps, then real pay restoration would represent a genuine step forward. “The workers’ bus may only be in first gear” he said, but is – finally – “no longer in reverse.” Jerry King
Jerry reiterated the fact that IMPACT stands, “without apology, on the side of efficient, organised and well-funded public services”.
Thursday 19th May PUBLIC SERVICE PAY IMPACT deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan said he supported the establishment of a Public Service Pay Commission, as envisaged in the Programme for Government, but said the union “won’t accept it as a substitute for pay rounds negotiated through collective bargaining, and never as a means for some to circumvent agreements and be treated more equally than others.” He said that the union is “not leaving anyone behind on the journey to pay recovery.” He insisted that trade unions must be consulted on, and involved in the terms of reference and membership of the proposed Public Service Pay Commission IMPACT general secretary, Shay Cody, called for “an overall approach that covers every public service grade and profession” to “bring stability to public service pay determination at the end of a turbulent period, which has seen wages set variously through social partnership agreements, benchmarking, the imposition of pay cuts and the pension levy, and now through public service agreements framed by amended FEMPI legislation.”
STATE PENSION There’s a need to develop a coherent policy approach around the conflict between contractual retirement ages and the increases in the age when the state pension applies. Conference has backed a motion that the age for payment of the state pension be restored to 65 and, as an immediate step. National secretary Angela Kirk warned that workers would find themselves caught in an “income gap” between their compulsory retirement age and the age at which they will receive the state pension.
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Una Maguire
IMPACT delegates this morning backed a motion that notes, with concern, that postnatal depression fails to be recognised as a pregnancy related illness under new public service sick leave regulations and as such is not afforded the same treatment as other pregnancy-related illnesses. Una Maguire of the South Dublin Local Authority branch said “We have a lot of people in our workplace affected by postnatal depression who are not covered under the current sick leave scheme. There is already a stigma attached to postnatal depression. If it is recognised as an illness under the scheme it will help alleviate some of the stigma attached to postnatal depression and mental health in general.”
CHARITY CYCLE
WORKING WEEK
OTHER NEWS
IMPACT delegates have backed a conference motion to campaign for a 30 hour work-week in the medium term on the grounds of political economy, social justice and sustainability.
Government reassures on pay deal The Government will continue to abide by the Lansdowne Road agreement despite the outcome of Britain’s Brexit referendum, according to public expenditure and reform minister Paschal Donohue. Asked on RTÉ radio whether he could now honour public pay promises, minister Donohoe said: “Yes I can.” Pressed on the Lansdowne Road deal, which has begun the process of public service pay recovery, the minister said: “It’s affordable because, over a three-year period, it put in place a paced plan of moderate wage restoration that is costed into our financial plans.” He said the ‘fiscal space’ – the amount of money available to spend after existing government commitments are met – “exists after we have honoured Lansdowne Road.” But Donohoe warned that the public finances would be more volatile as Brexit becomes a practical reality after 2018. “In the aftermath of that you can expect to see significant change. We do expect the very changed circumstances we’re in to have an effect on the resources we have,” he said. For more see page 8.
HSE job evaluation scheme reopens The HSE job evaluation scheme is to reopen this month following negotiations with IMPACT. The scheme was suspended eight years ago on foot of the 2008 economic crash. But IMPACT insisted on talks to reopen the scheme during last year’s negotiations on the Lansdowne Road agreement.
THE LIVING WAGE IMPACT has endorsed the recommendations of the Living Wage Technical Group, calling for a salary of not less than €11.50 per hour for all people working in the public sector. Angela Kirk, national secretary, said that while improvements to the national minimum wage are welcome, the Government’s “meagre” minimum wage target of €10.50 per hour over the next five years falls well short of a Living Wage. She said the new Government has “set a course to fail spectacularly” on its own commitments on job security, the gender pay gap and in-work poverty.
The union has published a ‘frequently asked questions’ document on impact.ie, to give members a quick and easy guide to how the process will work.
SNA boost wins cautious welcome ICTU GENERAL SECRETARY PATRICIA KING Patricia told delegates that every worker deserves a living wage and that the trade union movement will not facilitate outsourcing of public service jobs on basis of race to the bottom, and was scathing about employers that oppose minimum wage increases. She said that workers have “become swamped with the statistics of recovery” but that “no consideration has been given to societal recovery.” Patricia King
IMPACT members and staff took part once again in the charity cycle from Limerick to Killarney. This year they were joined by runners over the last 10 kilometres, raising funds for Suicide or Survive and SpunOut.
For more from the IMPACT conference liveblog see impact.ie/blog/
IMPACT has welcomed the recent announcement of a 7% increase in the number of special needs assistants (SNAs), but warned that a continued expansion of the service is required over the coming years to meet growing demand and respond to demographic changes. IMPACT official Barry Cunningham said: “The increase of 860 in the number of SNAs in the 2016-2017 school year is very welcome, but the demands on the service are continuing to outpace the resources available. We are also pleased that the allocations have been published earlier this year, which will reduce the uncertainty that staff, schools and parents have experienced in recent years.” WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS
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Photo album IMPACT biennial delegate conference 2016 The theme of this year’s biennial delegate conference, which took place in the INEC Killarney from the 18th20th May, was IMPACT 2016: Rising to the Challenges. With pay restoration still very much the priority issue for the union, delegates debated a full agenda on the union’s policies and priorities over the next two years.
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Photo album
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Sport
Katie Taylor
Kavanagh won four amateur MMA fights by knock out before turning professional. She now perfects her mixed martial arts techniques at the Straight Blast Gym too. “They look after me really well,” she says. “When I fought as an amateur in Las Vegas I stayed in McGregor’s mansion. I won and turned pro afterwards.”
Irish Olympic boxing continues to punch above its weight, while Conor McGregor has exploded into the UFC arena, making the controversial sport more popular than ever. KEVIN NOLAN looks at the developments in both sports and some of the challenges faced by those coming in to combat sports. FORBES MAGAZINE recently included Conor McGregor on its list of richest sports people. The 27-year-old Dubliner is estimated to be worth almost €20 million. Not bad, some say, for a bloke who began his cage fighting career just eight years ago. McGregor, aka The Notorious, the only MMA fighter on the Top 100 list, is ranked behind two professional boxers, Floyd Mayweather (€39.2m) and Manny Pacquiao (€21.4m). With talent and charisma, the Drimnagh fighter captured the public imagination and boosted pay-per-view sales for his fights. He also attracted a series of lucrative commercial endorsements and promotional agreements.
If Kavanagh performs well in a fight at the 3Arena in Dublin in September, she expects to be signed by one of the professional promotional companies like UFC. Contracted to the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), McGregor has become the poster boy for mixed martial arts in Ireland and beyond. The company’s slick marketing machine and McGregor's media-savvy persona have proved a perfect combination.
Photo: gettyimages.ie
Challenges While lots of young women have been inspired by Taylor’s performances to join their local boxing club, the more experienced boxers like Kavanagh and Kellie Harrington know how difficult it is to fully realise their ambitions in the amateur ranks.
It was the first time he’d seen a sport that allowed all the martial arts techniques in one package. Kavanagh was soon testing himself in competition. Then, with a university degree in engineering, he put a career on hold to indulge his passion for sport by opening a gym and becoming involved in coaching and promoting.
When Dubliner Harrington won silver at the Women’s World Boxing Championships last month, she expressed disappointment at not winning gold for Ireland explaining, “I’m a nonfunded athlete. I have to take time off work (to train). Money is a constant worry.”
With television exposure, MMA began to catch on. More specialist gyms opened around the country to cater for the demand of athletes attracted to a sport they saw as fast, exciting and dangerous. While only a few have the talent to take things to the highest level, that number is growing. Of those, McGregor is the great exception. He’s proved he’s world-class.
Opportunities
Despite having competed in the 2012 World Boxing Championships, Kavanagh had become frustrated. “Things have been slow to change in Irish boxing,” she says. “There’s no funding for women. We struggle to combine training with our day jobs. I’m seeing more opportunities in MMA.”‰
THE WORLD mourned the passing of Muhammad Ali in June, one of the finest athletes and most loved sports personalities of the modern age. Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr, in Louisville, Kentucky in January 1942, he’s the only person to have won three heavyweight titles. Just four years after winning the Olympic light-heavyweight gold medal in Rome, in 1960, he took the professional world heavyweight championship, and his career in the professional ring spanned an astonishing 21 years. Of 61 contests, 37 victories were knockouts and he only lost five, which occurred toward the end of his career.
He returned to Ireland twice in later years, taking part in the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics in Dublin in 2003 and, in 2009, visited the birthplace of his great grandfather, Abe Grady, in Ennis, where he was made an Honorary Freeman of the town.
Harrington’s dream is to be allowed train full-time in the IABA High Performance gym with the lads. “I won’t get a grant until 2017, if I even get it at all,” she says.
Mixing skills The Irish male boxers fare better. Apart from Taylor, Ireland will have at least six men competing in Rio this summer. Brendan Irvine, David Oliver Joyce, Stephen Donnelly and Joe Ward will join our Olympic medal winners from 2012, Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan, in the quest for gold. In London 2012, Ireland had a six-strong team and won four medals. In Beijing in 2008, a team of five brought home three medals. Irish boxing punches above its weight. Boxing coach Paschal Collins, who runs the Celtic Warrior Gym and coaches a number of high profile title-winning professional boxers, doesn't see MMA as a threat to boxing. “Many talented MMA fighters, like Conor McGregor, began their careers in boxing clubs,” he says. “I see all combat sports as mutually beneficial. Boxing is one skill that a good MMA fighter must have. Not all boxers want to be MMA fighters.” “We’re the only pro-gym in Ireland,” he says. “We get the cream of the crop of Irish boxers who wish to have a career in professional boxing. And there’s a very healthy professional scene here supervised by the Boxing Union of Ireland.” And you wonder where the term The Fighting Irish comes from l
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Photo: Sporsfile.com
Ali made his first visit to Ireland to fight against Detroit native Alvin Lewis in Croke Park on 19 July 1972, winning by a technical knockout in the 11th round. Asked about some of the local sporting events he quipped “Those football and hurling players look awful rough. I think I'll stick to boxing!"
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Since Katie Taylor won Olympic gold in London in 2012, she’s astutely managed a range of lucrative sponsorship deals. With her sports grants, SKY scholarship and a series of endorsement deals, recently announced profits at Taylor’s company KT Sports Ltd exceed €1.2m.
McGregor trains with coach John Kavanagh at Dublin's Straight Blast Gym. There was no sign of McGregor when Kavanagh, a kick-boxer and Kempo karate expert, first discovered cage fighting 20 years ago.
Last year five-time national Irish amateur boxing champion Sinead Kavanagh decided to switch to MMA.
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Photo: Sporsfile.com
Knock out
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Crossword: Marjorie Conway, Fáilte Ireland. Survey: Harry Byrne, Municipal Employees’. Quiz: Siobhan O’Donoghue, IT Tralee. Lots more competitions to enter in this issue!
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Crossword composed by Maureen Harkin
In the new world of work the Sharing Economy… 1. Encourages employers to give employees life-long contracts. 2. Has developed app-based platforms that offer, for a fee, some of the income-related benefits of unionisation without the right to organise or ability to engage in collective bargaining. 3. Makes it compulsory for workers to join a trade union. A major cause of Ireland’s massive maternal pay gap is? 1. The European Union. 2. Brexit. 3. The extremely high cost of childcare. It is still legal in Britain and Ireland for employers to require female staff… 1. To bow when the boss enters the room. 2. To wear high heels in work. 3. To make tea/coffee for everyone. Screenwriter and director Shane Black is well known for? 1. Directing Jurassic Park. 2. Writing the movie Lethal Weapon 3. Directing the Wizard of Oz You will find the restaurant Clube de Jornalistas in… 1. Lisbon, Portugal. 2. Inis Mor, Arran Islands, Galway. 3. Reykjavik, Iceland. UFC featherweight ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor’s? 1. Is retiring from UFC to take up professional ballet. 2. Estimated to be worth almost €20 million. 3. Is from Donegal.
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2. What did you think of the layout, style and pictures in the summer-autumn 2016 issue of Work & Life? Excellent
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7. Any other comments? ______________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________
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3. What were your favourite three articles?
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The small print* You must be a paid-up IMPACT member to win. Only one entry per person (multiple entries will not be considered). Entries must reach us by Friday 5th August 2016. The editor’s decision is final. That’s it!
WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS
47
Commercial membership services MPACT has facilitated the provision of a number of national membership services and discount schemes on behalf of its members. These include Additional Voluntary Contribution Schemes (Pensions), Life Assurance, Salary Protection in the case of illness and Car, House and Travel Insurance Schemes. A number of local discount schemes are also negotiated by local branches.
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The Union uses the size and composition of its membership base and, where possible, competition between the various service providers, to seek the best possible deals for the widest possible sections of our membership. It is probable that the majority of members will get better value from these schemes than if they sought the same service individually. However, this will not be true in all cases and there will be occasions where individual members may, because of their specific circumstances, be able to get better value elsewhere. It is not possible always to ensure that all schemes will be accessible equally to all members and the scheme underwriters will not depart totally from their normal actuarial or risk assessment procedures and rules. IMPACT does not make any claims as to the quality or reliability of any of these products/services and while advising members of the availability of the National Membership Services and Discount Schemes does not endorse or recommend any particular product or service. IMPACT's role is that of facilitator to ensure that such schemes are available to its members. All contracts are directly between the product/service provider and the individual member. IMPACT is not in any way a party to these contracts and will not accept any responsibility or liability arising from any act or omission on the part of the product or service provider. Neither IMPACT nor any member of its staff receives any fees or commissions or other rewards from these product or service providers arising from such schemes. While IMPACT does occasionally provide such product/service providers with limited information regarding IMPACT branch and/or workplace representatives for the purpose of advertising such schemes, the Union does not make any personal data relating to individual Union members available to them for any purpose. The Union requires that product/service providers agree to ensure that all such schemes comply with all lawful requirements including the Equal Status Act 2000. Advertisements for agreed membership services will have an
FACILITATED
logo on them.
Some of the companies providing agreed membership services may offer other products or services (that are not as a result of any agreement or arrangement with IMPACT) directly to IMPACT members. The Union has no role whatsoever in relation to such products or services. Likewise, other product or service providers may make offers directly to IMPACT members through advertisements in the Union newspaper or otherwise. These do not arise as a result of agreements or arrangements with IMPACT and the Union does not ask members to consider availing of such products/services and accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any such offers. The product/service providers with which IMPACT has agreed the provision of membership services and/or discount schemes are as follows: KennCo Insurance.
Cornmarket Group Financial Services Ltd.
Travel Insurance – all Divisions.
Car Insurance – all Divisions. AVC Schemes – all Divisions, excluding Municipal Employees. Salary Protection and Life Assurance – Local Government, Health, Civil Service, Education and Services & Enterprises Divisions.
Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) Ltd. Car Insurance – all Divisions. House Insurance – all Divisions. December 2004
DISCLAIMER (Approved by CEC 10th December 2004) 48
SUMMER-AUTUMN 2016