Work & Life issue 24

THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS

ISSUE 24 • WINTER-SPRING 2014

ALL AT SEA Underwater workers keep the fishing industry safe.

NEW SICK LEAVE RULES MAKING A LIVING WAGE NELSON MANDELA THAT FESTIVAL FEELING A NEW GENERATION OF IMPACT REPS

ALSO INSIDE TRUST AT WORK. WOMEN’S HEALTH. BOXING CHAMP. IMPACT BENEFITS. THE RISEN PEOPLE. WORLD CUP CASUALTIES. WINTER WOOLIES. TOOLING UP FOR SPRING. BEING PAID IN BEER. COLD WEATHER FOOD. REAL-LIFE MOVIES. MUSICAL FUEDS. IRISH SOCCER UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT. BOOKS. ALL THE NEWS. LOTS OF PRIZES.

www.impact.ie

In this issue

work& & life Winter-Spring 2014 WORK

LIFE

6.

2.

9.

10.

14.

16.

WORKING FOR A LIVING Campaigners are calling for a ‘living wage’.

NELSON MANDELA Lessons in solidarity.

FEELING FESTIVE The local authority workers behind your local festival.

IN TRAINING IMPACT’s training investment delivers results.

ALL AT SEA

4.

24.

26.

28.

30.

Meet the seafaring scientists who help maintain thousands of jobs. And prawns.

19.

21.

39.

RIGHTS AT WORK Understanding new public service sick leave rules.

YOUR CAREER Trust and be trusted at work.

INTERNATIONAL Thousands could die as Qatar prepares for the world cup.

Work & Life is produced by IMPACT trade union's Communications Unit and edited by Bernard Harbor.

Front cover: Photo by Kelvin Gillmor.

IMPACT rep and marine scientist Jennifer Doyle at the Marine Institute in beautiful Oranmore, county Galway. See page 16 for story.

Contact IMPACT at: Nerney's Court, Dublin 1.

Phone: 01-817-1500.

Email: info@impact.ie

32.

34.

36.

44.

NEWS WORKING FOR BEER In Amsterdam. Where else?

IMPACT PEOPLE Boxing champ Stephen ‘Block’ Reynolds.

FASHION Knitwear is back.

FOOD Casseroles for comfort.

40.

40.

40.

40.

41.

41.

42.

42.

42.

SLEEPOVERS SPECIAL NEEDS ASSISTANTS PUBLIC SERVICE PAY AGRICULTURE DISPUTE COILLTE FEARS RESURFACE IMPACT BACKS PHILIPPINES JOBS GROWTH TO SLOW KIDS LEARN UNION LESSON IRISH WATER

PRIZES AND OFFERS

GARDENS Tooling up for spring.

HEALTH Women watching their health.

13.

23.

Save money with IMPACT. Half price tickets to The Risen People.

MOVIES When real life is wrong.

MUSIC Strained siblings.

BOOKS IMPACT man retraces the gold rush.

36.

46.

47.

SPORTS Irish soccer under new management.

Books to win.

Win €50 in our prize quiz.

Rate Work & Life and win €100.

Work & Life magazine is a full participating member of the Press Council of Ireland and supports the Office of the Press Ombudsman. In addition to defending the freedom of the press, this scheme offers readers a quick, fair and free method of dealing with complaints that they may have in relation to articles that appear in our pages. To contact the Office of the Press Ombudsman go to www.pressombudsman.ie or www.presscouncil.ie

Designed by: N. O'Brien Design & Print Management Ltd. Phone: 01-864-1920 Email: nikiobrien@eircom.net Printed by Boylan Print Group.

Advertising sales: Niki O’Brien.

Phone: 01-864-1920.

Unless otherwise stated, the views contained in Work & LIfe do not necessarily reflect the policy of IMPACT trade union.

Work & Life is printed on environmentally friendly paper, certified by the European Eco Label. This magazine is 100% recyclable.

All suppliers to Work & Life recognise ICTU-affiliated trade unions.

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 1

THE BIG PICTURE

Child’s play?

IMPACT’S BOARDS and Voluntary Agencies branch is launching a campaign to highlight the invaluable work done by IMPACT members in the youth sector. As cutbacks deepen, our members continue to provide vital services to young people under growing pressure.

Pictured here (clockwise from left) are Maquta, Ben, Adrian and Mainie who took part in filming for the campaign at the Balgaddy afterschool club. The initiative provides a comfortable atmosphere for informal education and recreation and a place to mingle with peers in a safe and fun environment.

Local IMPACT rep John O’Hara works with the group. “Building relationships is a key element of the work and this can often take time and patience.

But it’s worth it when you see kids developing and growing in confidentce in their own right,” he says.

The campaign video is available at www. youtube.com/user/IMPACTUnion. O

STRANGE WORLD

Photo by dreamstime.com

Will work for beer THIS STRANGE story is not as crazy as it first seems. A state-funded agency in Amsterdam is paying street cleaners in beer and tobacco. The Rainbow Foundation’s innovative move followed complaints about some of the city alcoholics’ anti-social behaviour. The answer? Give them a few cans of beer and some smokes, feed them a hot meal, and put them to work cleaning the streets for a tenner a day.

The beer is spread out over the shift: Two cans to start the morning, two at lunchtime and one at the end of the afternoon. In a city renowned for its pragmatic approach to substance abuse, local residents and project workers are pleased with the results. Anti-social behaviour is down and the alcoholics are experiencing structure, satisfaction and the self-respect that comes with work.

Most of the workers seem happy too, despite getting weaker beer than they might usually drink. And they also bring their own bit of pragmatism to the party: “I think I can speak for the group and say that, if they didn’t give us beers, then we wouldn’t come,” says one fluorescent-clad participant, quoted in the Huffington Post.

Just one niggling doubt. That must be expensive lager, what with the Dutch national minimum wage currently at €8.48 an hour. Sláinte!

2

WINTER-SPRING 2014

That was then…

ACE PUBLIC SERVANTS

Clerk who led the rising BETTER KNOWN as one of the signatories of the 1916 proclamation, and a martyr of the Easter Rising, Eamonn Ceannt was a clerk in Dublin Corporation.

Born in east county Galway, where his father was stationed with the Royal Irish Constabulary, Ceannt was also to become a founding father of IMPACT, through his activism in the Dublin Municipal Officers Association (DMOA), a forerunner of the modern union.

A big supporter of Larkin’s efforts to unionise Dublin’s casual dock workers and labourers, he was something of a militant on the DMOA executive where he advocated extending membership to the civil service and other local authorities as he fought for better terms and conditions for clerical staff. He served as the union’s vice chairman in 1909 and chairman in 1910.

A member of the Gaelic League executive and master of the uilleann pipes, Ceannt joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood around 1913 and was among the founding members of the Irish Volunteers. As an executive member of the Volunteers, he helped plan the Rising.

He was stationed at the Marrowbone Lane distillery in south Dublin during the fighting, where the 100-plus men under his command included Cathal Brugha, and W T Cosgrave. His unit saw intense fighting, but surrendered when Pearse gave the order.

He was 34 when he was executed by firing squad on 8th May 1916. The union set up a fund to assist his widow and children. More recently, the IMPACT office in Dublin was named Eamonn Ceannt House. O

100 years ago Thousands follow Alice Brady’s funeral cortege from her home to Glasnevin cemetary on 4th January 1914, after she died from tetanus as a result of a gunshot wound to her hand. She was struck by a ricochet when a strike breaker fired his pistol into a crowd.

On 18th January locked-out workers gather at Croydon (now Fairview) Park, where Larkin advises them to go back to work on the best terms available. His one injunction to them is not to sign the form renouncing the ITGWU. The next day 1,000 dockers try to return to work, but only 500 are taken back. The SS Hare brings one of the final food consignments from British trade unions into Dublin.

William Martin Murphy receives a vote of thanks at the annual general meeting of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce on 27th January. Artist William Orpen is commissioned to paint his portrait (you can see the finished work in the Dublin Divided exhibition currently showing in Dublin’s Hugh Lane Gallery).

The Local Government Board of Inquiry into the Housing Conditions of Dublin’s Working Class is published on 18th February. It’s unsparing in its description of the social crisis in the capital, and it names the slum landlords who are members of Dublin Corporation.

In the first week of February, Charlie Chaplin makes his film début in the comedy short Making a Living. In the same week his famous tramp is introduced to audiences in the Keystone comedy The Kid Auto Race.

On 10th March suffragist Mary Richardson damages Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus with a meat chopper in London’s National Gallery.

Belgian surgeon Albert Hustin makes the first successful non-direct blood transfusion, using anticoagulants, on 27th March.

Across the pond, the Ludlow massacre takes place in Colorado on 20th April when the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel and Iron Company guards attack a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families. The massacre saw the violent deaths of 19-25 people – sources vary – including two women and 11 children asphyxiated and burned to death under a single tent.

The deaths occurred after a day-long fight between the company’s men and striking workers. Ludlow was the deadliest single incident in the southern Colorado coal strike, which lasted from September 1913 to December 1914 O

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS

3 xx

IMPACT people

Boxing clever Martina O’Leary went a few rounds with STEPHEN ‘BLOCK’ REYNOLDS of IMPACT’s Sligo branch, who recently triumphed in his third professional boxing match to win the Celtic Nations cruiser weight title in Belfast. All at the age of 40.

Tell me about yourself.

I’m from Ballinacarrow, County Sligo. We were a sporty family. Dad was a junior county footballer and Mam was a marathon runner. She always made sure we were involved in sport.

What’s the day job?

I’m a traffic and litter warden. I like being outdoors and meeting people. The job’s easier if you treat people as you like to be treated yourself. I always wait a few minutes if someone is parked where they shouldn’t be, unless they’re in a disabled space or on the footpath.

What’s your earliest memory?

I spent lots of summers in my mother’s home in Castlebar. We’d go fishing and climbing or walking up the bogs. As a kid, I always wanted a pen-knife for Christmas. I would carve my own toys.

How long have you been in the ring?

Over 20 years. I had a bit of a career in weight training and then coach Mercedes Taaffe asked me to do strength training with a local boxing club. I was 22, but she thought I had potential. People are normally leaving the sport at that age.

I won my first amateur fight and then lost the next three. But I didn’t give up and I won everything else. I’ve five senior titles – two in super-heavyweight and three at heavyweight – plus four national titles. I just missed out on qualification for the 2000 Olympics. That was really difficult, when you put everything into following your dream and it comes to an end.

When did you turn professional?

I retired from amateur boxing at 27. Then back in 2011, aged 38, I turned professional. I’ve won my three professional fights. My brother Alan – a great boxer – is my coach. It was a great fight when I beat Declan Trainer in the seventh round to win the Celtic Nations cruiser weight title. Boxing careers are short, but I’m hoping to have a shot at an Irish title in the New Year.

Training must be tough I trained 2-3 times a day as an amateur. Runs and sprint training in the morning, then working with a slip bag at lunchtime to get into the habit of moving your face, which means you don’t get hit as much. Then some sparring in the evening. I train even harder as a professional, with more focus on the recovery. I eat well and get plenty of rest.

What clubs are you are involved in?

After retiring from amateur boxing I coached the club in Ballnacarrow and we turned out 40 national champions at all ages. A senior title is the only thing X

4

WINTER-SPRING 2014

we’ve yet to pick up. I coach nearly every day and go to a tournament most weekends. I was also asked to set up a boxing club as part of the Cranmore regeneration project in Sligo town. We’re doing well with lots of good boxers and a waiting list of up to six months.

And you were an IMPACT rep.

Yes. I was on the Sligo branch committee for a few years. It is a great branch and it’s great having that security there. You need someone to keep management and the Government in check. To make sure they’re playing ball.

How do you relax?

I would have the odd bottle of Guinness at the weekend. I love to play my guitar and I write music. I bring the guitar along to the local and we have a sing-song. I make wood carvings. All sorts. My bed, the fireplace and mirror frames.

What makes you laugh out loud?

Seeing the kids messing in the boxing clubs. They keep me young. It’s brilliant.

What’s the worst feature of your character?

I’m a bear when I don’t get my eight hours sleep.

Do you travel at all?

I’m going to Australia next year, which will be good fun.

What music are you into?

Country music. Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson.

What do you read?

The only books I read are boxing or sport-related.

What about TV? I got rid of the telly about a year ago.

What is your favourite dish to cook?

Roast chicken with roast veg.

What really annoys you?

I don’t like people who are deceitful.

What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?

Go to college, study hard, get a good job for yourself and exercise. I’ve learned never to say never. In the past I said I’d never turn professional and I’m eating those words.

Interview by Martina O’Leary O

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS

5

Photo by James Connolly.

What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?

Don’t be afraid to listen to other opinions. You’ll always learn something.

Wage

The campaign for a ‘living wage’ tackles the relationship between work, wages and welfare says PADDY COLE. THIS NEW year marks the beginning of life in postbailout Ireland. After three long years, there’s some hope that we now have an opportunity to shape our future, rebuild our republic, and begin a national conversation about how we want to develop as a sovereign state.

A wage th on giving

This hope places a big responsibility on unions and other progressives. We have to work hard to ensure that any recovery dividend is both sensibly spent and fairly distributed among the people who’ve been squeezed since the crisis began.

Since 2008, the combined effect

WILL W ORK FOR LIVING WAGE

of the recession – high unemployment, stagnating wages and high living costs – have depressed living standards across most of the working economy. Meanwhile profits have soared for some, while any hit the very rich felt still left them comfortably immune from the hardship and insecurity of the ‘little people.’

What’s a living wage?

The campaign for a living wage, which is finally gaining ground in Ireland, is part of building a realistic alternative.

A living wage is more than the national minimum wage. It means hourly pay and adequate working hours that allow employees earn enough to enjoy the basic human needs of housing, healthcare, food, clothes and heating.

A living wage would set a blue ribbon standard for ethical employers while tackling the growing phenomenon of the working poor. It would address income inequality, wage stagnation and falling living standards.

And a living wage could help boost recovery by increasing both the purchasing power and spending confidence of low paid workers. More money in their pockets means more spending in the high street and a boost for the economy.

It’s a simple concept that values workers and work. And it’s getting wide recognition as an effective means of helping the X

6

WINTER-SPRING 2014

Photos by dreamstime.com

Especially those who’ve been squeezed most.

The people that are scraping by day-to-day, some working two jobs, many on zero-hour contracts, mostly unable to plan a future for themselves or their families.

The men and women who clean our offices in the morning, make our sandwiches at lunchtime, deal with our service queries throughout the day, or serve us a meal or a pint after a long week in the office.

WILL W ORK FOR LIVING WAGE

at can keep

“A living wage is more than the national minimum. It means hourly pay and adequate working hours that allow employees earn enough to enjoy the basic human needs of housing, healthcare, food, clothes and heating.” lowest paid employment.

escape

precarious

and

undervalued

It would also mean far less reliance on the taxpayerfunded benefits, which the working poor now need to survive. Almost 90,000 employees are currently receiving jobseekers benefits because their pay is too low or their working hours are too few. And, since the crisis, the number of workers claiming Family Income Supplement (FIS) has risen by 60%. Over 41,000 low-income families, including as many as 4,000 public servants, now depend on FIS to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.

WILL W ORK FOR LIVING WAGE

On FIS alone, taxpayers like you and me are subsidising profitable employers to the tune of €229 million this year, with over €280 million budgeted for next year. The figures are as alarming as they are unsustainable.

A social welfare system that was meant to establish a safety net for individuals and families who’ve fallen on hard times is morphing into a prop for businesses, including huge and profitable multinationals. A recent Dáil answer listed retail giants like Dunnes Stores, Tesco, Lidl and Pennys as having large numbers of staff who claim FIS or jobseekers benefits.X Continued on page 8

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS

7

Wage

WILL W ORK FOR LIVING WAGE

Already saddled with unsustainable debts by reckless banks and property speculators, the state cannot be expected to permanently bridge the gap between the inadequate wages companies like these pay and the cost of meeting workers’ basic living standards.

There’s no practical reason to prevent us adopting a similar system in Ireland – and rewarding businesses that pay the living wage by buying their products and using their services.

Living wage UK

The fight for decent wages, which long precedes this economic crisis, is often wrongly seen as a zero-sum game where workers’ advances are by definition an employer’s loss. UK blue-chip companies like KPMG, Aviva and Deloitte clearly don’t see it that way.

Labour party leader Ed Milliband has committed his party to implementing a living wage when in government. On the opposite side of the political fence, London’s Tory mayor Boris Johnson has been steadfast in his support for the idea.

WILL W ORK FOR LIVING WAGE 8

WINTER-SPRING 2014

Nobody was talking about pay increases when we were at the mercy of the troika. But many politicians are now coming round to the idea of a living wage as part of economic recovery. Social protection minister Joan Burton made a strong commitment to the idea at last November’s Labour party conference, where she explicitly linked pay bargaining to economic recovery.

“Recovery must come from the middle out, not the top down.

It is the earnings of the middle and working classes that have always fuelled economic expansion here, and growth in their wages will be central to real and lasting recovery,” she opined.

By showing solidarity with low paid people in precarious employment, trade unions have an opportunity to demonstrate a new relevance to workers who have tended not to see us as particularly relevant to their lives. We can do that by building a winnable campaign for a living wage, including a pledge to support businesses that pay it. O Paddy Cole is a member of the Young Workers Network and communications officer for Dailwatch.ie.

Photos by dreamstime.com

Right now, the London living wage has been set at £8.80 (€10.55) an hour for those aged 21 and over – more than 16% above the £6.31 (€7.56) national minimum wage. The British Living Wage Foundation has attracted some serious household names as corporate partners, including KPMG, Aviva and Deloitte who respect the voluntary living wage and reap the benefits of higher productivity, lower absenteeism and a workforce more receptive to changed working practices.

What now?

Nelson Mandela Photo: Getty Images

A lesson in solidarity TRADE UNIONS in Ireland and across the globe paid tribute to the late, great Nelson Mandela following his death on 6th December. ICTU general secretary David Begg expressed “deep sadness” at his passing and extended condolences to his family and friends, and to the South African trade union movement.

THE STORY of Nelson Mandela’s life and struggle to overcome the oppressive apartheid regime, culminating in his election as president in 1994, provides inspiration to struggles against repression and injustice across the globe.

His sad death also brought memories of the role of Irish trade unions in the antiapartheid struggle as the brave stance of the Dunnes Stores strikers was acknowledged and celebrated. Twelve Dunnes workers were on strike for two and a half years in the 1980s after being victimised for refusing to handle goods produced in the apartheid state. Mandela himself said their support helped him keep going.

central IMPACT’s executive committee also sent condolences to the South African labour movement from its December meeting. IMPACT was among the unions that contributed to travelling costs to enable former Dunnes Stores workers to attend Mandela’s funeral. They were on strike for almost three years in the 1980s after being victimised for refusing to handle goods produced in the apartheid state.

Last month the South African trade union federation Cosatu hailed the Dunnes Stores strikers as an exceptional example of international workers’ solidarity. Their action also brought the apartheid issue to national attention, helping to galvanise Irish opinion against the regime.

Mr Begg said Mandela was an icon for all who fight injustice. “I extend our heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the Congress of South African Trade Unions, who played a pivotal role in the long fight to end Apartheid.

“That long struggle highlighted the importance of solidarity, as exemplified by the Dunnes workers.

Their brave actions gave practical expression to the belief that an injury to one is the concern of all, even if the injured are thousands of miles away on a different continent,” he said.

John Douglas, general secretary of their union Mandate, said it was fitting that the Dunnes women were able to attend Mandela’s funeral. “Mr Mandela is an enormous loss to South Africa and the rest of the world. His knowledge and leadership will leave an enormous vacuum, which will be extraordinarily difficult to fill. His legacy of justice, equality and solidarity will continue, without borders, forever,” he said.

Rosa Pavanelli, general secretary of the international trade union federation Public Services International, said: “We are grateful to Madiba for the extraordinary lessons he taught the world. He suffered and fought to end apartheid. He struggled to establish democracy through dialogue. He succeeded in being a great president for South Africa; a respected and inspirational political leader for the whole world and a champion of antidiscrimination, social justice and solidarity.”

I was a young teenager at the time and the Dunnes strikers were the first people to make me aware of what was happening in South Africa. Their picket was a landmark presence in Dublin’s city centre throughout the strike, and I can only imagine how tough it was to maintain that for two and a half years.

One of my schoolmates – now an IMPACT member, as it happens – organised a similar boycott of South African goods in our school, and pestered the staff until they got behind it.

It forced a bunch of young school kids to have a discussion about what apartheid meant. It was a conversation we probably wouldn’t have had without the example of the Dunnes workers. The gradual realisation that our small action was part of something much bigger – something that really put pressure on the apartheid regime – was an important lesson in activism and solidarity.

Niall Shanahan

He was a leader who never let us down l WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 9

Culture and economy

Festival

Waterford’s harvest festival draws huge crowds.

Local festivals across Ireland were bigger and better than ever last year.

NIALL SHANAHAN spoke to some of the local authority staff who are boosting our culture and giving local economies a much-needed lift.

FROM MATCHMAKING in Lisdoonvarna to the Fleadh Ceol, Ireland has a deep and strong festival tradition. It’s an opportunity to break from the routine, doll the place up, and invite guests to enjoy themselves and look at the area in a brand new light.

Last year’s festival scene was busier and brighter than ever before, with a clutch of new festivals added to the hardy perennials.

The Gathering provided the impetus for more ambition with the number of additional visitors to the country suggesting it had worked a little extra magic.

But where do you start when it comes to organising a festival?

Who’s got the inspiration? Who turns the vision into reality? Who makes it all run smoothly? And who cleans up afterwards?

While the success of our festivals is rooted in relationships between communities, business and local councils, the role of local authorities is crucial. The most successful festivals draw

10

WINTER-SPRING 2014

on the creativity of local authority staff and the capacity of a council to deliver the logistics and infrastructure needed to run a successful event.

‘Festival of the year’ is one of the key categories in the Chambers Ireland annual ‘excellence in local government’ awards, illustrating how the business community regards the economic role of festivals and the local authorities’ part in delivering them.

Unique Waterford city council’s Finn Brophy is events controller and safety officer for the wide range of events now hosted in the city.

“We’ve developed a unique range of festivals in Waterford. It started for me in 2005 with the first visit of the tall ships, which we hosted again in 2011. They sail right into the heart of the city.

It’s been a tremendous success. We had a quarter of a million visits on just one day in 2011,” he says. X

fever flying high Finn has been involved in festivals full-time since 2009. “We’ve developed two festivals with a national profile, Winterval and the Waterford harvest festival in the second weekend in September. Over five years it’s evolved from a three-day food event into a week-long festival and our goal is to continue to develop its national profile.”

Photo by Peter Grogan.

Winterval features a winter market, 3D light show, toy museum, and Santa’s grotto, all planted right in the historic heart of the city. “The sense of anticipation following the success of the first year was quite strong and I think it really drove attendance,” Finn says. Its second year saw footfall increase by 8% over 2012.

ambitious plans remain. “The picture isn’t entirely clear, but the programme of work is there and it’s helping to develop a buzz about Waterford. 2014 is going to be a big year for the city,” says Finn.

Inspiration Meanwhile back in the smoke, Dublin’s deputy city librarian Brendan Teeling and senior librarian Tara Doyle provided the inspiration and driving force for a new and very successful Dublin Festival of History last September. “I’d seen a festival of history in the UK a few years ago and it stayed in my mind. I really wanted to do something like it in Dublin and the Gathering provided an opportunity to get some funding,” says Brendan.

A marriage of Brendan’s personal interest and the city’s important historical collection gave birth to an idea that gained immediate support in the council. “We were taking a leap of faith

“We are supporting businesses by bringing people into the city. We brought 4,000 people into Dublin city centre over four days. That has to have an effect. There really was a buzz about the place.”

The ultimate goal is to place the local event on the national calendar, encouraging more people to travel to Waterford. “We market the festivals nationally and we engage in intense market research. Tourism is central to Waterford’s future development.

The recession has hit us hard with unemployment now 26% in the city. So the festivals play a huge role in attracting visitors and creating a great atmosphere in the city.”

Ideas The council invests half a million euro a year, not to mention the time of three staff in its economic development office. And the new ideas keep coming. Next year the emphasis will be on Waterford’s Viking heritage, starting in January with a family event on the quays to symbolise the city’s birth 1,100 years ago.

“We’ll host a special Saint Patrick’s day event, a medieval pageant and a stage of the Circuit of Ireland rally in June. There’s also a three-day music festival, the marathon and the independentlyrun Spraoi arts festival, which takes place on the August holiday weekend. There’ll also be lots of smaller, one-off events.”

Despite some uncertainty about the future, with Waterford city and county councils due to merge under Government reforms,

as far as the audience was concerned, although I suppose we were quietly confident,” he recalls.

Planning only began in the spring, but the festival proved an instant hit. Tara was charged with getting it up and running, and is now poring over the feedback from thousands of people who went to events. “I’m delighted and overwhelmed by the response.

We have a survey running on our website and the audience response has been fantastic,” she says.

There was a strong attendance at all the festival events, with Simon Schama’s discussion of the story of the Jews, which coincided with his book and BBC TV series, pulling a particularly strong crowd. “All the feedback suggests that audiences loved the breadth and variety of what was on offer,” says Tara.

Business The history festival drew huge numbers into the city and won support from independent bookshops in the area. “I suppose we are supporting businesses by bringing people into the city. That’s part of the council’s remit,” says Brendan. “We brought 4,000 people into Dublin city centre over four days. That has to have X

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS

11

Culture and economy

The festival demonstrated the flexibility of library staff. “It’s not something that’s often recognized. The pop-up library was a new and interesting way of bringing the library into the community. Everyone involved was happy to go the extra mile,” she says.

Tara promises another great festival when it runs again from 26th September to 3rd October this year. “We have a big wish list for the next programme. I promise you we’ll come up with some really good stuff,” she enthuses.

Dublin’s three-day Bram Stoker festival celebrated the Dublin-born author of Dracula in October. Cue free pop-up events, a city-wide vampire hunt, and a range of speciallythemed literary and theatre events.

12

WINTER-SPRING 2014

In or out of recession, festivals continue to highlight the richness and diversity of our places and people. And they’re a celebration of the creativity and vitality of the local authority staff who make it happen O Tara Doyle and Brendan Teeling.

Photo by Shane O’Neill, Fennell Photography.

It also presented an opportunity to promote another valuable council service. “As well as a bookshop, we had a pop-up library at the events. We were able to showcase the range of interesting history titles that are available for free all the time. People could bring in their library cards and borrow from the collection,” says Tara.

Across the country, hundreds of big and small festivals increase footfall in our towns, cities and villages generating a positive vibe, boosting economic activity and increasing consumer confidence.

But it’s about more than economics. Festivals tap into our cultural self esteem and celebrate the best of our communities.

Photo by IMPACT Communications.

an effect. There really was a buzz about the place and it really added to the sense that Dublin is a place of history and heritage.”

You’re better off in IMPACT IMPACT members can save a lot of money from the wide range of financial benefits provided or negotiated by the union. Some of these are free to all IMPACT members.

Others are optional benefits, available only to IMPACT members, which can mean savings on insurance, salary protection, additional pension coverage and more. You must be an IMPACT member to avail of these benefits and services.

IMPACT members are entitled to l €4,000 specified critical illness or death benefit l Free legal help in bodily injury cases l Free 24/7 legal advice helpline l Free 24/7 confidential counselling helpline l Free 24/7 domestic assistance helpline.

Members can opt to avail of IMPACTfacilitated financial benefits l Car insurance l Home insurance l Travel insurance l Additional pension benefits l Salary protection and life cover.

FULL DETAIL S ON WWW. IMPAC T.IE

IMPACT members can also apply for l Gaeltacht scholarships for members’ children l Industrial relations scholarships l Benevolent grants for members in financial distress.

IMPACT Trade Union Phone: 01-817-1500 Email: info@impact.ie

www.impact.ie

Workplace representatives

Go to the top Over 200 workplace reps have completed a new IMPACT training programme aimed at improving the union’s effectiveness in the workplace.

THE ACHIEVEMENTS of over 75 IMPACT members were acknowledged at two training graduation ceremonies late last year. They were among over 200 ordinary workers who have put themselves forward as union reps to help protect our members in workplaces across the country.

The new initiative stems from a 2011 decision to prioritise training for local reps, and to develop a new form of training more relevant to today’s workplace challenges.

Derek Beatty of the union’s Boards and Voluntary Agencies branch said the training was about levelling the playing field.

“Before I was going into meetings with management feeling I wasn’t as prepared as them. I would always have been confident, but the training has definitely given me more confidence,” he said.

The courses – developed and mostly delivered by IMPACT staff – are done on a modular basis, with participants committing to four separate days training at each of two levels. They have been run in Dublin, Cork and Galway, with additional sessions in the midlands, the northeast and the south-east.

Participation

Deirdre Desmond of the Agri Labs branch being presented with her certificate by honorary training officer Margaret Coughlan.

Killian Brennan of the IMPACT Cabin Crew branch also said that solid skills and knowledge training had improved his confidence. “It also allows you to network with other people from other parts of the union. It makes you realise you’re part of something bigger than your own branch, and there are areas of commonality with other sections, whether people are working in the public sector or a private enterprise,” he said.

14

WINTER-SPRING 2014

Feedback from participants has welcomed the participative, discussion and exercise-based modules in areas like communications, dealing with employers, representing members, employment law, building more effective branches, and union structures. An encouraging number of participants have since been elected to branch executive committees, while others have taken on bigger roles in their branches and workplaces.

Speaking at the recent graduation ceremony in Dublin, IMPACT deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan said the aim was to develop our people, who he said were the best resource available to the union. “We need well-trained activists to help defend our members and be ready to achieve more when the

of the class Photos: Conor Healy

Declan Murphy (Agri Labs) and Olivia McLoughlin (HSE Dublin North) graduated in December 2013.

Level one graduates David Devine (Fingal), Maria McLoughlin and Sean Twamley (Dublin Hospitals), Margaret O’Dwyer, (Kildare) and Kevin Paul Corbett (Institutes of Technology).

upturn comes. Our training graduates have demonstrated that they have the desire and capacity to develop their skills and take those skills into the workplace,” he said.

“The training makes you realise you’re part of something bigger than your own branch.

There are areas of commonality with other sections, whether people are working in the public sector or a private enterprise.”

The awards were presented by the union’s honorary training officer Margaret Coughlan, who praised the level of participation and achievement and pledged the union’s continued support for activist training. Margaret chairs the IMPACT training committee, which oversees the initiative.

Martina O’Leary l

Over to you?

NOW IN its third year, the union’s ‘Making an IMPACT’ workplace representatives’ training is open to members who want to become workplace union reps or improve their existing skills. Places are limited and those interested must apply and set out their reasons for wanting to participate. Applicants must also agree to do each of four modules, which take place on separate days.

Applicants for level one don’t need previous experience, but they must have a willingness and potential to become an effective IMPACT workplace representative. Level two is designed for more experienced activists and those who have completed level one.

Once confirmed, training dates for 2014 will be distributed to branch secretaries and through the IMPACT e-bulletin and website. In the meantime, you can get more information from your local official or from Margaret Gorman at mgorman@impact.ie.

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 15

Public service

Prawn free MARTINA O’LEARY meets the seafaring staff and scientists who help maintain thousands of jobs that depend on the sea.

SPARE A thought for Jennifer Doyle next time you’re tucking into your Dublin Bay prawns as a lovely fish supper. For this IMPACT rep spends 45 days at sea each year to make sure there are enough quality crustaceans on your plate.

Along with about 50 other staff at the Marine Institute’s fisheries ecosystem group in beautiful Oranmore outside

16

WINTER-SPRING 2014

Galway city, Jennifer’s work is about surveying nephrops – or Dublin Bay prawns to you and me – giving advice on the stock and how many fish can be sustainably removed.

“Hundreds of fishermen’s livelihoods depend on healthy fish and nephrops stocks. The prawns are our second most valuable fish stocks, worth €80 million a year to the Irish economy. If you don’t have a good handle on the stock status that’s all at risk,” says the scientist.

Going to sea to do underwater surveys – usually for 10 or 15 days at a time – is just part of the job. There’s also a lot of preparation and, afterwards, a lot of data to be analysed. X

Photo: Kelvin Gillmor.

John Barry, Paddy O’Driscoll and Tom O’Leary from P&O Maritime.

The agency is responsible for promoting the sustainable development of marine resources and providing advice to the industry, government and European Union. Its wide remit includes safeguarding the marine environment and its natural resources, research, and facilitating access to critical marine infrastructure like the national research vessels, data buoy network and a wave energy test site.

Vessels The Marine Institute contracts P&O Maritime to operate its two vessels, Celtic Voyager and Celtic Explorer, which is a multipurpose vessel designed to undertake a wide array of offshore and deep-sea surveys. Both boats are fitted with state-of-the-art instrumentation, laboratories and IT equipment, which are used for fisheries research, environmental monitoring, climate studies, seabed mapping, oceanography, seismic surveys, student training and meteorological investigations.

The Celtic Explorer.

Jennifer and her colleagues provide the best possible advice on the numbers and health of the fish, and manage its recovery if the stock is not all it should be. And the data is also used as the basis of fishing limits when our ministers negotiate in the European Council of Ministers. “This information on the health of the stock is key to negotiating EU fishing limits. It’s essential the minister has this data at his fingertips for the December Fisheries Council meeting,” says Jennifer.

Ireland has a seabed territory of up to 220 million acres, an area nearly ten times greater than its land mass. The Marine Institute is tasked with minding this precious resource, which creates jobs and earns millions for the Irish economy every year.

P&O Maritime’s transport and logistics officer Tom O’Leary is the local IMPACT contact, representing everyone from labourers and cooks to seafarers, technicians and engineers.

“We represent the best people in this industry. Clocking out and going home at the end of the day just doesn’t work here as anything could go wrong with the ship at a moment’s notice. You can’t walk away at five o’clock. We all pull together,” he says.

Enormous Every piece of equipment is unloaded and cleaned and serviced once the ship docks. It sounds straightforward, but some of the equipment is enormous. Think of your average sitting room, and double the size. A winch for the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is as big as a wide-load artic truck.

So is the ROV operations cabin, which contains the technical equipment and screens for monitoring the seabed.

Gear superintendent John Barry has helped design moorings for Marine Institute weather and scientific buoys. “Next week X

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS

17

Photo: Kelvin Gillmor.

Public service

ROV technician/pilot Paddy O’Driscoll.

Paddy O’Driscoll, is one of six ROV technicians and pilots.

He was part of the team that helped a NUIG research team discover a new seabed and amazing marine-life off the west coast of Ireland recently. “We do scientific trips and occasional external work for other organisations,” explains Paddy.

“The prawns are our second most valuable fish stocks, worth €80 million a year to the Irish economy.

If you don’t have a good handle on the stock status that’s all at risk.”

Being at sea means working in an enclosed, confined environment that’s both a place of work and a residence.

“You have to respect the weather and your colleagues. You can’t just throw your gear on the cabin floor. If the alarm goes and you have to get out of the cabin fast, something left on the ground is a hazard. You have to be constantly on guard and aware that you’re in a working environment,” explains Jennifer.

Smooth operators There’s also pressure to get as much information as possible during each trip, because vessel time is expensive. “We often survey the nephrops in 24-hour operations. Not because of animal behaviour, but to maximise the production time. All the analysis is done on board so we come off with everything ready to go. It’s a very smooth-running process,” she adds.

The Marine Institute scientists and P&O crews work alongside one another. It takes a team of six technicians and pilots to operate the seabed survey on a 24-hour basis. “You rotate because you can’t fly for 12 hours at a time. The ROV just flys over the bottom of the seabed, operated by thrusters. We Scientist Jennifer Doyle.

18

WINTER-SPRING 2014

have two HD cameras. The equipment’s size and high-tech features make the job really intricate,” says Paddy.

The P&O team spends about 100 days at sea each year. “You do your 12-hour shift. Have your food, do your laundry and chores, into bed and away again in the morning. It keeps us busy,” says Paddy. Equipment is repaired between trips. “We need time to repair a lot of the equipment. Everything takes a lot of planning as you can’t get parts off the shelf. Many of the cables are fibreoptic.”

Achievement “It gives a great sense of achievement to go to sea, get the data, analyse it, and then feed into the assessment process producing the best advice we can on the prawn stocks. We are also pretty much to the forefront in technology. In Europe we’re seen as an established scientific institute that uses this technology to its best,” says Jennifer.

Jennifer and her colleagues also have many dry land chores, including sampling the fish stock in the ports and auction halls, processing and analysing data, attending meetings, presenting data, and agreeing the status of the stock at European level. “I love going to sea, it’s great. You never know what you’ll be like until you go. A lot of people think it’s very romantic and nice being outdoors. But big weather affects everybody and it can be very uncomfortable,” she says. O

Photo: Kelvin Gillmor.

I’m going to sea to recover moorings that were left there from wave energy experiments, clearing the site for another big job,” he says.

Your rights at work

Big changes to public service eligibility for paid certified sick leave kick in this year. Make sure you know the new rules.

THE FINAL shape of new certified sick leave arrangements, which are expected to come into force for most public servants in March, will be determined by binding arbitration in the Labour Court. Unions were awaiting its decision as this issue of Work & Life went to print.

Paid certified sick leave for non-critical illnesses has been halved to three months on full pay, followed by three months on half pay in any four-year period. But IMPACT has ensured that the previous arrangements – six months on full pay, followed by six months on half pay – will remain in cases of critical illness.

Existing arrangements for occupational illnesses and injuries – conditions caused by or at work, respectively – remain unchanged. But public servants need to be aware of how the new rules will be applied, and particularly how ‘critical’ illness will be defined from now on.

Looking back Like the old system, the new arrangements limit the amount of paid leave available in a ‘rolling’ four year period – or the four years prior to the date on which your sick leave begins.

For non-critical illnesses, this is now three months on full pay, followed by three months on half pay in any four-year period.

However, an existing second one-year ‘look back’ mechanism also remains in place. This takes account of sick leave over the 12-months prior to the date of illness in a way that’s advantageous to the worker concerned. It works like this: l

There will be a maximum of 183 days paid sick leave at either full or half pay in four years.

l

But if a worker has taken fewer than 183 days sick leave in that four-year period, a second look-back over the previous 12 months will determine the rate at which the worker should be paid.

So, a worker who had 123 days sick leave prior to 2013, but had taken no sick leave in 2013, would be able to take up to 60 days sick leave at full pay in 2014 if necessary. This is because the overall limit of 183 days in four years is qualified to provide for up to 92 days at full pay in the 12-month before the date of a current illness.

Critical condition So what’s a critical illness? First, there is no list of conditions that fit the bill. Instead, there’s a set of requirements that has to be met for an illness to be defined as ‘critical.’ They include: l

The worker must be under the care of a medical consultant (or, in some cases, another medical professional)

l

The worker must furnish evidence of the critical nature of the illness

l

The worker must be medically unfit to return to work continued on page 20 ‰ WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 19

Photo: dreamstime.com

New rules on public service sick leave

Your rights at work l

The worker must have at least one of the following: an acute life threatening illness; a chronic progressive illness with well-established potential to reduce life expectancy if there is no medical intervention; a major physical trauma requiring acute operative surgical treatment; or in-patient care of at least two weeks.

As Work & Life went to print, IMPACT was working to ensure that these criteria take account of the particular circumstances of pregnancy-related illness, disability and mental health. These issues had been referred to the Labour Court.

Discretion and appeals By and large, the new rules are likely to be applied quite rigidly. But, in exceptional circumstances, managers will have the discretion to extend paid sick leave beyond the new limits for non-critical illnesses – even where the medical criteria are not met. In doing so, a manager will have to consider the individual’s previous sick leave record and the potential impact on the workplace of an early return to work.

It will be possible for staff to appeal management decisions on medical grounds if extended leave is refused on medical grounds – and to appeal a management decision not to use their discretion to allow extended leave in a particular case.

Photo: dreamstime.com

The new arrangements are complex in many respects. You can get much more information from our website – www.impact.ie l

20

WINTER-SPRING 2014

MAIN POINTS l

Existing schemes for occupational illnesses or injuries unchanged.

l

Paid sick leave for critical illnesses remains at six months full pay, followed by six months half pay.

l

New criteria to determine whether an illness is ‘critical.’

l

Paid sick leave for non-critical illnesses halved to three months on full pay, followed by three months on half pay.

l

Management has limited discretion to extend paid leave in noncritical cases.

l

Workers can appeal on medical grounds, or when management discretion to extend paid leave in non-critical cases is refused.

l

The new rules are expected to apply from 1st March 2014 for most public servants, and from September 2014 in schools and colleges.

l

Pre-2014 rules continue to apply for staff on sick leave when the changes come in – but only for the current illness.

Your career

Taking on trust Develop your ability to trust and be trusted if you want to thrive in your career, says ISOBEL BUTLER.

Trust is best built from the top down, with senior leaders best placed to influence the overall culture of an organisation.

However departmental and team leaders also exert a major influence on trust levels in their departments and teams – and reap the benefits in terms of motivation and high performance.

Example I’VE YET to meet anyone who, given the choice, would opt to work in a low-trust rather than a high-trust environment. We instinctively know that trust is important in the workplace and our gut instincts are supported by plenty of research.

Studies link trust to innovation, high performance, productivity, customer satisfaction and a myriad of other positives. Low trust is linked to conflict, disempowerment, absenteeism, poor job satisfaction and other symptoms of dysfunctional organisations.

Start building trust by leading by example and demonstrating trust. Trust flourishes in the presence of trust and staff who feel trusted are more motivated to focus their time and efforts on the job and achieve team goals in a cooperative and timely manner. Clear, open and consistent communication is essential. Ensure team members are fully aware of and understand organisational and team goals, values and challenges.

Stephen Covey describes low-trust workplaces as toxic, leading to the contagions of “criticising, complaining, comparing, competing, contending, and cynicism,” which all impact negatively on an organisation’s ability to thrive. People spend a lot of energy watching their backs in low-trust work environments, trying to work out what the real agendas are and second guessing each other.

Trust is the glue that bonds people. So the ability to build and inspire trust is an essential competency in the modern workplace regardless of whether you want to work as a team member, lead a team, or climb the career ladder to senior management.

Photo: dreamstime.com

Failing to follow through on promises is the fastest way to lose trust. Just don’t make any commitments that you don’t intend to follow up.

Failing to follow through on promises is the fastest way to lose trust. Just don’t make any commitments that you don’t intend to follow up. Many of us manage to keep the big promises but fall down on the small ones. Being let down a number of times destroys trust, no matter how small the issue seems. continued on page 22 ‰ WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 21

Your career Focus on shared goals and avoid personal or hidden agendas, which breed mistrust. Trust your team members to do their job. Ensure your staff are trained, give instructions, and then let them get on with it. Hovering and micromanaging will be interpreted as lack of trust and is likely to provoke mistakes.

excuses or blame others. Try to understand why mistakes happened and learn from them. It’s far more productive that focusing on whose fault it was.

Blame Feedback Always focus on what’s going well rather than what’s going wrong. Recognise the positive actions and behaviour of the team and give recognition and feedback. Reinforcing the behaviour that you want encourages more people to act in that manner.

Provide opportunities to meet and talk with team members.

Ask for opinions and ideas. Listen and give feedback and credit for ideas and efforts. Treat everyone as an equal and valued team member, no matter what their status.

Show genuine respect and you’ll be respected for it.

A simple way to destroy trust is to avoid taking responsibility for your own actions. You compound this if you make

A blame culture motivates staff to act out of fear and invest time and energy in hiding mistakes rather than fixing them, learning and moving on. This is compounded if you also jump to conclusions without checking facts.

Treat all team members as equal and valued team members, no matter what their status. Show genuine respect and you’ll be respected for it.

Inconsistency and mixed messages leave your team unable to know where you stand or how you’re going to react.

Withholding information can start the rumour machine and misinformation is more likely to be believed in a low-trust environment. If you aren’t in a position to reveal confidential information, say so and promise to do so as soon as you can.

Then follow through on this promise.

It only takes one bad experience to destroy trust. Be honest with yourself and reflect on whether you are part of a problem, and take action if the answer is yes. Leaders need followers and people only follow those they trust l

Top trust tips 1. Be honest 2. Follow through on commitments Photo: dreamstime.com

3. Provide feedback 4. Admit to mistakes and fix them 5. Acknowledge the positives 6. Be consistent 7. Be open to, and give credit for, ideas 8. Show integrity 9. Don’t make assumptions 10. Maintain confidentiality.

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.

22

WINTER-SPRING 2014

Lockout theatre offer

The Risen People IMPACT members’ offer IMPACT MEMBERS can get half-price tickets for the Abbey theatre’s production of James Plunkett’s The Risen People.

Premium tickets for the play, which inspired Plunkett’s bestselling novel Strumpet City, retail for €40. In a unique offer, IMPACT members can buy them for €20.

The Abbey’s new version of the famous play marks the centenary of the 1913 Dublin Lockout. Set in the shadow of the dispute, its epic story of struggle and solidarity is told through the familiar characters of Annie, Fitz, Rashers and Hennessy.

A defining moment in Irish history is brought vividly to life through music, movement and song in this new adaptation by director Jimmy Fay, in collaboration with movement director Colin Dunne and composer and musical director Conor Linehan.

To avail of our unique discount offer, book in person, online or over the phone using the promotional code "IMPACT." The Risen People runs at the Abbey until 1st February 2014 l

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 23

Looking good Knitwear is back, big time.

But make it sexy not frumpy, says TRISH O’MAHONY. IT’S OFFICIAL. Knitwear is fashion’s IT piece right now. When you see oversized fisherman sweaters and big crazy multicoloured knits adorning the aisles in Top Shop and weaving their way down catwalks, you know wool is back at the top of its game.

Until recently woolly jumpers were consigned to the back of the wardrobe.

That’s changed and it’s time to move them into prime position. There’s as many different styles as there are different types of wool.

Girlfriends are wearing ‘boyfriend’ cardigans that look like they’re straight out of 1940s Connemara.

Unisex Aran sweaters, cable knits in lambswool and cashmere, gaudy patchwork ponchos, Aztec prints, Fair Isle sweaters, prissy windowpane check cardigans, houndstooth and tartan pullovers. They’re everywhere.

To say nothing of fluffy angora and mohair inviting you to reach out and touch. Anything goes, so long as it’s knitted. And if you buy wisely and exercise proper care and cleaning, quality knitwear will last for years. ‰

Knit one, twirl one 24

WINTER-SPRING 2014

The surge in sales is great news for indigenous Irish cottage industries, of which there are plenty. Monasterevin-based Aran Crafts are busier than they’ve been since they opened for business in the 1950s.

Their export market is flourishing and they’re expanding retail opening hours. For a great selection of knits at very competitive prices, order online at arancrafts.com.

For Vintage check out Dublin Top Shops, Urban Outfitters and individual outlets clustered in Temple Bar. Check the condition before you commit, unless you want the holey look.

Without getting too hung up on image, the trick is to make your knitwear look good while serving its main purpose – keeping you warm. It’s about finding that balance between modern, feminine and fun, rather than frumpy, unforgiving and clinging to all the wrong places. Think Mrs Browns Boys’ rose pink V-neck cardigan versus Nastassja Kinski’s crimson mohair sweater-dress in Paris Texas.

Carraig Donn, 100% Irish-owned with 33 stores nationwide, is Ireland’s largest knitwear manufacturer. They have an extensive range of contemporary and traditional Arans for ladies, gents and children. These come in machine and hand knit in 100% merino and 100% wool. Accessories range from socks, handbags blankets and throws. A unisex worsted wool oatmeal sweater will set you back €49.95.

London-based Tipperary designer Tim Ryan’s knitwear is bohemian, romantic glamour. Tim’s designs are expensive, but timeless. Even if you’re not investing, it’s worth looking at his collection for ideas.

Other Irish names worth looking out for are Sinead Clarke of EssenC, Aine Irish Knitwear, Heather Finn, Lisa Shawgi, Sphere One by Lucy Downes and Natasha Wilkie.

Ways to wear For a high trend, around town, daytime look, wear an oversized knit jumper dress with over-theknee socks and knee-high boots. Introduce a contrasting leather belt if you have to have structure and a waistline to cinch in. Or wear over a floral girly, skater dress for a feminine look. Be daring with colour.

Paul Dun Costell nes Stor o, es.

Heat factor There are some extremely good imitations on the high street – you’ll knock a season or two out of them for €20 or so. They lack the heat factor though, and any I’ve bought go bally even though I take great care. There are some extremely nasty imitations: AVOID, even if the shop is giving them away.

SHETLAND PONIES sporting Fair Isle cardigans and trendy striped sweaters for chickens and goats have taken the art of knitwear to another level. I’m not kidding! If you know the right knitter, you can even get a woolly suit for your pet tortoise. Dress him up as a cheese burger, a birthday cake or roast chicken. See thepurledewe.blogspot for more.

Chunky cardigans are an ‘in’ alternative to coats.

Show some of your dress by leaving the cardi open and then belting. Avoid the knitted belt that comes with the cardigan. It’s dated and the result shapeless.

Leggings and skinny jeans always work with oversized sweaters and chunky knits. Wear cropped skinnies with a sexy heel for a dressed up alternative.

Try a snug-fitted fine wool sweater with loose pants and brogues as smart-casual work attire. A shirt will reduce skin irritations that wool can cause. Or wear with a knee-length skirt (preferably shiny or leather) and ankle boots. See Jonathan Saunders and Richard Nicoll on how best to put the look together.

Don’t restrict your sequins to pre-Christmas. Wear shiny knits with sequins and embellishments for a special night look any time of year. Try Top Shop or River Island.

Use a vintage brooch to wraparound a cardigan for a more romantic look than a formal jacket. Ponchos create a layered, but finished look. See Phase Eight in Debenhams for a natural coral cable poncho with thick-ribbed roll neck for €113, or a Carraig Donn Poncho for €63.

Add a collection of your favourite brooches to your boyfriend cardigan to put your unique twist to the ensemble l

Nastassja Kinski

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 25

In the kitchen

MARGARET HANNIGAN is turning to casseroles for that cold weather comfort.

SPRING OFFICIALLY begins on 1st February according to the Irish calendar. This is a month earlier than Britain but, interestingly, it doesn’t make winter end any sooner here.

Despite the shelves of Easter eggs that appear in the shops come February, our stomachs never forget we’re still eating for cold weather.

The word from a renowned weather oracle – not the German octopus, but perhaps the New Zealand postman – has it that we’ll have snow in February. So we might leave the salad spinner tucked away for another month or so, and keep the casserole dishes stacked at the front of the press.

The word casserole comes from the French word for saucepan.

But it was a French Canadian called Elmire Jolicoeur who put it all together during a cold New Hampshire winter in 1866. He browned meat and vegetables on the top of the stove and, in a radical departure, he cooked them slowly in liquid in the oven. ‰

Wine adds flavour and the acidity helps tenderise the meat as it cooks. Beer, ale or stout similarly lose their bitterness in long slow cooking and add depth to the sauce.

26

WINTER-SPRING 2014

Photos: dreamstime.com

Some people are puzzled by the whole casserole thing and can’t see how it’s different, in any meaningful way, from a stew. Let me sort that one out for you. A stew is where meat and vegetables are cooked in liquid, and the heat is applied to the bottom of the pan, on the stovetop or hob. A casserole is where the vessel is in an oven, and the heat circulates all round it, cooking it slowly and gently.

Winter root veg soup

Casserole As well as the ubiquitous beef and chicken dishes, members of the casserole family include ragout, hotpot, tagine, moussaka, shepherds pie, and gratins. One for everyone in the audience, as it were.

Ingredients l

8oz (225g) peeled carrots, cut into 2 inch (5 cm) lengths.

l

8oz (225g) peeled celeriac or celery, cut into 2 inch (5 cm) pieces.

l

8oz (225g) trimmed and washed leeks, halved and cut into 2 inch (5 cm) lengths.

l

8oz (225g) peeled swede, cut into 2 inch (5 cm) pieces.

One of the best things about cooking a casserole, apart from the fabulous smells and tastes, is that everything cooks together in the one pot. Where things can go wrong, is if everything is just lobbed willy-nilly into the pot, and boiled rather than slowly simmered. In the interests of clarity, and because we all need a bigger bang for our buck, I’ve drawn up a few guidelines and found a recipe for soup that you cook in the oven like a casserole. It really couldn’t be easier than that.

l

One small onion, peeled and roughly chopped.

l

2.5 pints (1.5 litres) stock made with Marigold Swiss Bouillon vegetable powder or other good quality vegetable stock.

l

Three bay leaves.

Disintegrate

l

Salt and freshly milled black pepper.

Meat pieces should be around 1.5 inches by 1.25 inches. A bit bigger is fine, but anything smaller or thinner will disintegrate. Pre-packed supermarket packs can be hard to judge, so it’s better to buy a whole piece and cut it yourself. Allow 6-8oz per person, and an extra bit for second helpings and freezing.

l

Six teaspoons fat-free Greek yoghurt.

l

A few fresh chives, snipped.

l

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 1, 275F (140C).

The meat should be seared at a high temperature to seal in the juices and give a rich colour. Do it in small batches, and don’t overcrowd the pan as the steam rushing out of the meat will prevent it from browning because the pan will be too damp.

l

You will also need a lidded flameproof casserole with a capacity of six pints (3.5 litres).

As well as the ubiquitous beef and chicken dishes, members of the casserole family include ragout, hotpot, tagine, moussaka, shepherds pie, and gratins. One for everyone in the audience, as it were.

The liquid you add makes the sauce, so choose it accordingly.

Wine adds flavour and the acidity helps tenderise the meat as it cooks. Beer, ale or stout similarly lose their bitterness in long slow cooking and add depth to the sauce.

For thickening, add flour to the pot after the meat is browned but before the liquid is added. Or toss the meat in flour before browning, or strain off the liquid and reduce separately by boiling it down, or add a flour and butter paste whisked in tiny flecks. One ounce of butter combined with 1oz flour will thicken one pint of liquid.

Don’t cut the vegetables too small or they’ll collapse.

Bring to a simmer – not a rolling boil – on the hob and transfer to a low oven of gas1/175F/140C. Fan ovens may need to be lower and the temperature of each oven varies. You’re looking for only an occasional bubble breaking the surface l

Method There's not much to do here once everything is peeled and chopped. All you do is place everything in the casserole and bring it up to a gentle simmer, then put the lid on and place it in the lowest part of the oven. Leave it there for three hours, by which time the vegetables will be meltingly tender.

Next remove the bay leaves and process or liquidise the soup to a purée in several batches.

Then gently re-heat and serve the soup in bowls with a teaspoon of Greek yoghurt swirled into each and garnished with the fresh chives.

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 27

Green fingers

Tooling Only fools neglect their tools, says ITA PATTEN. THIS YEAR I’ve decided to sort out my collection of garden tools. I suggest you do the same as it’s a task we put on the long finger at our peril.

Look into your garden shed, garage or wherever it is that you store your tools and take a critical look at them. Are they neatly stacked, oiled and sharpened? All ready and eager for the work ahead? Or, like mine, are they tossed in the corner behind the bikes, with tines tangled into spokes, blunt and caked in dry mud.

My gardening resolution is to review my collection, clean and sharpen the ones worth keeping, and buy a few new ones. This list of eight items should be sufficient to keep the average garden in tip top shape.

SECATEURS Secateurs are used for pruning woody stems up to 2cm thick and thicker stems of soft shoots. They are also invaluable for taking cuttings. They should be kept sharp and cleaned regularly with an oily rag. They come with different types of blades; anvil, parrot beak, and my favourite the by-pass which has a scissor-like action. Felco is the preferred brand of professional gardeners. Not all garden centres sell this brand, but most stock cheaper and perfectly adequate brands such as Fiskars and Wolf Garten.

GARDEN KNIFE Knives, like the secateurs, must be kept sharp. This is such a versatile and handy tool which can be used for light pruning, taking and preparing cuttings and also cutting string.

HOE Hoes are the essential tool for weeding and aerating the soil. I prefer to use the type known as the Dutch hoe. I use it on annual and shallow rooted weeds, by cutting underneath them, severing the roots from leaves as I walk backwards. The uprooted weeds can be raked off or left lying on the soil to dry out and die. X

28

WINTER-SPRING 2014

up Your hoe should have a handle long enough to avoid bending over. Keep the edge of the hoe sharp by filing once or twice a year. A while ago I read an article lauding a different type of hoe – the swoe. A swoe has a sharp arrow shaped tip and is apparently ideal for tight spaces and for use between rows of plants. They retail at around €19 and I intend to investigate just how efficient they are.

DIGGING FORK This is a very useful tool for turning heavy soil, lifting rootcrops, shifting bulky material like garden compost and digging out perennial weeds such as creeping buttercup and bindweed.

They are generally available in two sizes, standard and border.

The latter is sometimes referred to as the “ladies” fork, but I prefer to use the standard size. The head and neck should be forged in a single piece, with no welds or rough edges.

SPADE Spades are an essential tool for general cultivation, lifting soil and digging holes for planting. (And French drains, of course!

See the last issue of Work & Life.) Stainless steel spades are more expensive, but they make for lighter work and will never rust.

RAKE The two main types of rake are garden and lawn rakes. The garden rake has 12-14 rounded teeth and they’re used for levelling and breaking up the soil surface. The lighter lawn or spring-tined rake is a must-have tool for lawn maintenance as it’s used for raking out thatch, moss and dead grass and clearing away fallen leaves.

SHEARS Shears are mostly used for cutting hedges. But they come in very handy for cutting hard-to-reach areas of grass and cutting down soft stemmed herbaceous plants too. Check the feel and weight of your new shears before purchasing. If they are too heavy, the work will be very tiring. Wilkinson and Spear & Jackson are two good brands to look out for.

WHEELBARROW If you have the storage space I’d recommend that you buy a wheelbarrow. Don’t be tempted to overload the barrow as it is better to make that extra journey than strain your back. If your garden is very small and you really don’t have the space, try the mini version, ie, a bucket. I always bring my bucket with me when deadheading or weeding small beds.

Finally, don’t be tempted by the cheap tools like wood chippers and electric hedge trimmers in discount supermarkets.

They’ll rarely (if ever) be used and will produce very poor results. Save your money for the better brands that make gardening such a joy! O

Photos by dreamstime.com

Ita Patton is a craft gardener in the National Botanic Gardens. O

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS

29

Be good to yourself

Work on being a Don’t assume the girls are better than the guys when it comes to minding themselves, says KAREN WARD.

IT’S A myth that women look after their health better than men. It comes from the fact that women often share more of life’s challenges with loved ones, thereby lessening worries and anxieties. But women, especially those who work and have children, also tend to juggle everything while neglecting themselves.

Most of us think of physical health in terms of ideal weight and a certain degree of fitness. But there’s so much more to our physical health and it’s well worth a regular check-up with your local doctor to make sure your gynaecological, breast, lung and blood health are what they should be.

Other parts of our body are also easily neglected. Dental care is a good example. We usually avoid the dentist until there’s a problem. But regular checkups can prevent a myriad of future problems. Log onto the Irish Dental Association website (www.ida.ie) to find your nearest dentist.

Foot care is another neglected area. When was the last time you visited a chiropodist or podiatrist? You can find out where to go and what to expect from the website www.chiropodypodiatryireland.ie.

For healthier skin, make sure you use sun creams in the summer and good quality moisturiser in the winter. Regular rehydration with water and herbal teas also goes a long way to maintaining a youthful glow.

Mind your mind Don’t neglect your mental health either.

Many of us dwell on the past, clogging up our brain with old hurts and mistakes.

Or instead we might live in the future, wishing our lives away or wanting the proverbial grass to be greener.

Instead, focus on the here and now in the practise of ‘mindfulness,’ which means being completely present when you do what you do.

Focus on what is possible rather than what you think you need or want to do. There are X

30

WINTER-SPRING 2014

well woman many excellent meditation and mindfulness classes to help avoid any anxious feelings or negative thinking (see www. mindfulnesireland.org).

extreme reaction to an innocuous event. If this sounds familiar, the best remedy is to find a simple way to release your emotions safely and appropriately.

Remember that a problem shared is a problem halved. Ease a challenging situation by phoning a friend to chat and share.

But if something too personal is really bothering you, don’t be afraid to contact Irish Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (www.irish-counselling.ie) for advice on getting professional help.

Throw yourself 100% into the tough day, but look forward to going home to your safe haven. Close your eyes and imagine that you’ll soon be on your comfy sofa with a warm rug to snuggle up in. On the way home get a video to help you cry or laugh away the frustrations of the day.

Ireland is a place where we tend to put on a brave face and keep a stiff upper lip.

Consequentially, we women may have grown up in the habit of not releasing some of our emotions, particularly anger and sadness.

Even if we ‘de-press’ these feelings they will eventually seep out, often in the form of a physical ailment or an

De-stress not distress!

STRESS AFFECTS us all in varying degrees and at different times in our lives. Depending on where we are mentally, physically and emotionally, it can often be the little things that get to us while we sail through the bigger problems life throws our way.

When our stress levels rise, it can translate physically to sweaty hands, shallow and fast breathing and racing thoughts. Have you noticed that your breath is always slow and calm when you’re relaxed?

So it follows that the simple act of breathing slowly helps us to relax. You can simply do it yourself and breathe slowly for 20 breaths. Or you could consider going to a yoga, t’ai chi or meditation class to learn some vital relaxation techniques.

Photos by dreamstime.com

Emotional whirl

If you feel angry, a physical release like the gym or a run or fast walk can help you visualise the feelings literally sinking into the ground. It’s simple and free to do. O

Taking time-out to do this may be considered indulgent.

But regular deep-breathing is a necessity not a luxury.

Your local health food centre is a great source of details for local classes. HYPERLINK “http://www. irishhealthstores.com”www.irishhealthstores.com

Karen Ward, holistic therapist from RTÉ’s Health Squad and energy therapist from BBC’s Last Resort, is author of the best selling Change a Little to Change a Lot and Heart Space: Restore and Renew Body, Mind and Soul relaxation CD. www.karenwardholistictherapist.com

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS

31

At the movies

Are you for reel?

How true does a true story have to be? MORGAN O’BRIEN looks over some recent movies that have provoked criticism.

RECENT RELEASES based on ‘true stories’ have reopened debates about movie representations – and misrepresentations – of real Twelve events, with critics exercised about the need for historical accuracy Years a in films. Among them are high-profile Oscar contenders Captain Slave Phillips, Philomena, Saving Mr. Banks, The Butler, and Twelve Years a Slave.

Philomena is derived from a book by journalist Martin Sixsmith about his attempts to find out what happened to an Irish woman’s son Captai who was forcibly given up for adoption in the 1960s. The film has n Phillip been criticised in some quarters for misrepresenting the nuns s involved as actively obstructing Sixsmith’s and Philomena Lee’s efforts.

While the apparently realistic denouement to Captain Phillips appears preposterously gung-ho, it is by all accounts accurate.

However, supposedly less so, according to some of his crewmen, is Tom Hanks’ representation of the eponymous sailor as a selfless hero.

In Saving Mr Banks, Walt Disney is an avuncular presence who coaxes the disagreeable PL Travers’ participation in the film of her book Mary Poppins. The film presents her as thrilled with Disney’s adaptation; in reality Travers’ reported response was: “Oh God, what have they done?” ena

Philom

Historical anomalies are evident in Lee Daniels’ The Butler, which presents a sketch of real events, taking the life of Eugene Allen as the basis for the character Cecil Gaines. However, much of Gaines’ story is fabrication, including his parents’ back story of racist abuse and the death of his son in Vietnam.

Similar questions have been raised about the provenance of the source story for Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, with suggestions that the original biography of Solomon Northtup was embellished to rally the anti-slavery movement. It’s been suggested that this accusation is derived from academics hired as ‘historical assassins’ by studios or marketers to scupper awards rivals.

But the role of screenwriters and filmmakers is to tell stories and construct engaging narratives. These may often be at odds with the complexities of history or the often formless nature of real life. For many filmmakers the retention of an artistic or central truth is justification for applying the gloss of fiction. ‰

32

WINTER-SPRING 2014

While Philomena may well overstate the level of religious complicity in this case, it remains a far less brutal indictment of institutionalised mistreatment than The Magdelene Sisters.

More broadly, the story provides an engaging and essentially honest account of Philomena’s struggle, laced with nicely judged central performances from Steve Coogan and Judi Dench.

Criticisms of Captain Phillips are more subjective. But, in a broader sense, the film is an even handed exploration of piracy as much as it is an action drama. Conversely, since Saving Mr Banks was produced by Disney, it comes as little surprise that it embroiders the truth and offers a somewhat rose-tinted image of the company’s founder.

The social history of America and its complicated, and often unpalatable, relationship with race provides the broader context of The Butler and 12 Years A Slave. The films bend the particulars of their stories to suit this broader purpose.

There may be a concern that filmgoers will assume what they are watching is a truthful representation. While few will watch X-Men: First Class and believe that a band of mutant heroes help resolve the Cuban missile crisis, a slew of recent high profile films, including Argo, The King’s Speech, and The Queen, all contain varying levels of fictive embellishment.

Nevertheless, audiences seem little concerned about the factual reliability and truthfulness in films. Movies based on true stories or historical events remain strong performers at the box office and at the awards l

Screen test 12 Years A Slave (10th January) Chiwetel Ejiofor features as Solomon Northup, a free man kidnapped and sold into slavery in 19th century United States.The strong support cast features Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Paul Giamatti and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Her (10th January) Director Spike Jonze applies his idiosyncratic style to a tale of a lonely writer (Joaquin Phoenix) who develops a relationship with a computer operating system voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

The Wolf of Wall Street (17th January) Leonardo DiCaprio is once again directed by Martin Scorsese in a biographical satire of fraud and excess in the titular home of stockbroking.

Inside Llewyn Davis (24th January) The Coen brothers’ return with a film about 1960s singer-songwriter (Oscar Isaac) who plots a Zelig-like trail through the New York folk scene. Carey Mulligan, John Goodman and Justin Timberlake also star.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (31st January) Tom Clancy’s enduring character, previously portrayed by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck, is given a reboot with Chris Prine in the title role. Director Kenneth Branagh features in support along with Kevin Costner and Keira Knightley.

RoboCop (7th February) Remake of 1987 cult classic features Joel Kinnaman, alumni of television series The Killing, as the cyborg police officer. Strong support is provided by Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton and Samuel L. Jackson.

The Dallas Buyer’s Club (7th February) Biographical drama set in the 1980s about Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) who begins importing illegal medicine after being diagnosed with AIDS. Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto are among the support cast.

Labour Day (7th February) Jason Reitman directs this adaptation of Joyce Maynard’s novel about a single mother (Kate Winslet) who gives help to an injured man (Josh Brolin) who she soon realises is an escaped convict.

Charlie Countryman (14th February) Shia LaBeouf is the eponymous Charlie, who falls in love with a Romanian woman (Evan Rachel Wood) but has to contend with her criminal boyfriend. Advance notices have primarily focused on cuts made by American censors.

The Monument Men (21st February) George Clooney directs and stars in this comedy drama based on a real life World War II platoon charged with rescuing works of art seized by the Nazis. Matt Damon, Bill Murray and John Goodman are amongst the ensemble cast.

Non-Stop (28th February) Liam Neeson continues to plough the action-man furrow in this high concept thriller about a federal marshall who becomes embroiled in a midair hijacking.

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 33

Play it loud

Why can’t you just play together nicely?

RAYMOND CONNOLLY is saddened to find more rifts than riffs among musical siblings.

BISHOP DESMOND Tutu once proclaimed that “you don’t choose your family; they are god’s gift to you, as you are to them.” Coming from a slightly different angle, the writer Robert Brault observed: “If minutes were kept of a family gathering they would show that ‘members not present’ and ‘subjects discussed’ were one and the same.”

Given this spread of familial experience, it’s no surprise that musical siblings have had mixed results when it comes to maintaining that kindred connection. On balance, the number of familial fallings-out is above average in the rock ‘n’ roll fraternity.

The question of whether there are common root causes is an interesting one (for anoraks). Is the fall-out rate linked to talent and creativity? Or creative ego? Substance abuse (or lack of it), perhaps?

At my beloved Arsenal, we are fond of saying: “Arsenal is Family.” But there are always exceptions, none more notable than the rift between lifelong supporters Ray and Dave Davies of The Kinks. Dave puts it like this: “I think Ray has been happy for only three years in his life. And those were the three years before I was born.”

A row over whether You Really Got Me was the first ever punk song (Ray) as opposed to the first ever heavy metal anthem (Dave) is a strange basis for a family feud. Cue poor old Dave’s consignment to a career top-heavy with B-sides (if you discount the truly wonderful Death of a Clown). The real reason for the rift? These boys were way too talented for their own good.

Chemistry Look further and you’d be forgiven for thinking the only brothers who got on were The Righteous Brothers. And they weren’t brothers.

Photo: Getty Images

Imagine the weird chemistry between Don and Phil Everly. For almost a decade their only communication was through the harmonies. So the words Be-Bop-A-Lula might actually decode as “I’m going to punch your lights out you bell end.” Meanwhile, after working with brother Sly of the Family Stone, Freddie retired from the music industry and became a pastor in Vallejo. Who wouldn’t?

However tiresome, the more recent fraternal fissures of the Gallagher brothers can’t take away from the fact that Definitely Maybe and What’s The Story Morning Glory sold over 30 million copies between them. As Cilla would say, that’s a lorra, lorra G chords. I wouldn’t be surprised if these two actually can get along, but just ‘couldn’t be bothered’ in that Mancunian way.

Then there’s poor old David Knopfler, who broke from older sibling Mark’s Dire Straits in a ‘this will never work’ kind of way in the middle of recording the breakthrough album Making Movies. He received no credits on the album. Tragic: Eat your heart out Romeo and Juliet. ‰

34

WINTER-SPRING 2014

“The minutes of a family gathering would show that ‘members not present’ and ‘subjects discussed’ were one and the same.”

That said, twins seem to have fared much better in the getting-along department.

Plentiful examples include The Proclaimers, Bros and, so far at least, Jedward. Of course it’s difficult to have artistic differences without any art.

And take Tegan and Sara. While they might not be Canada’s most popular lesbian identical twin singer-songwriters, they are definitely in the top five. And let’s not forget The Thompson Twins although, sadly, they weren’t twins.

Safety in numbers?

Ogden Nash once said a family “is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal and the common cold.” So perhaps safety in numbers is the formula for maintaining wholesome family relations. The Osmonds are a prime example and the Jackson Five were motoring along nicely until Randy arrived and ruined the band’s name.

Despite comprising three brothers and a first cousin, those sons of a preacher man The Kings of Leon seem an altogether connected bunch. Hopefully this can one day lead to the creation of a second song.

Alas, the theory falls slightly flat in the strange case of the Nolan Sisters’ spat. Not that it would be like Irish women to fall out or anything. But, at the end of the day, we’re all somebody’s children. The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy l

Family Jewels 1

Death Of A ClownThe Kinks (1967) The lions they won’t fight and the tigers won’t roar.

Pure genius.

2

Wouldn’t It Be NiceThe Beach Boys (1966) New Persil Automatic washes whiter. A Pet Sound.

3

You Shook Me All Night Long AC/DC (1980) The young brothers do a Richards and Wood.

4

This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us Sparks (1974) “And it ain’t me who’s gonna leave?” Neither am I.

5

Spring 2014 solutions (From page 46.)

8 4 1 5 6 3 2 9 7

9 6 2 7 4 1 5 3 8

3 7 5 2 8 9 4 6 1

1 8 3 6 5 2 7 4 9

5 9 4 3 1 7 8 2 6

Family Fiascos

7 2 6 4 9 8 1 5 3

Sultans Of Swing Dire Straits (1978) Check out Guitar George. He knows all the chords.

Tell the Gallaghers.

2 1 8 9 3 5 6 7 4

4 3 7 1 2 6 9 8 5

Soduko easy solution

6 5 9 8 7 4 3 1 2

3 8 1 6 5 7 2 9 4

5 9 2 4 3 1 8 6 7

6 4 7 8 9 2 5 1 3

1 2 8 9 6 3 7 4 5

7 3 5 1 8 4 6 2 9

9 6 4 2 7 5 3 8 1

4 1 3 5 2 6 9 7 8

8 5 6 7 1 9 4 3 2

2 7 9 3 4 8 1 5 6

Soduko difficult solution

1 2 3 4 5

When Will I Be Famous? Bros (1987) Hopefully never again.

I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) The Proclaimers (1988) Cue silly men at weddings doing a conservative pogo.

MmmBop Hanson (1997) Doo-wop-diddy-doo-wop. Or as Jim Royle says... do one.

JumpVan Halen (1983) Please do.

Halfway Down The Stairs Robin the Frog (1977) Technically Kermit’s nephew. But hey, they’re frogs

Autumn 2013 Crossword Solutions See page 46 for the competition winners from Issue 23.

ACROSS: 5. Clogheen 6. Arc 9. Thrill 13. Master 16. Scatter 17. Hood 18.

Arid 20. Poe 21. US 22. Morocco 23. Lee 24. Anchor 25. Oboe. DOWN: 1. Almanac 2. Ogre 3. Weep 4. Anthem 6. Arras 7. Ri 8. Clare 10. Duty 12. Davis 14. Tadpole 15. Rake 17. Hoodoo 19. Ruin 22. Moor WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 35

Author interview

After the gold rush When he was studying The Big Wheel of Life in primary school, former IMPACT member MICHAEL McMONAGLE couldn’t have known he’d follow its real-life character’s quest across America over a century later.

INSPIRED BY the Irish immigrant Micί Mac Gabhann, whose adventures are recounted in Rotha Mόr an tSaoil or The Big Wheel of Life, Michael McMonagle has followed his journey from Derry to the Klondike gold rush via New York, the great plains, the Rocky mountains and the vast Alaskan wilderness.

gardens. There is a great disparity there, with people trying to eek-out an existence.”

Micί Mac Gabhann left Ireland looking for gold and returned home, a wealthy man. His Donegal house was a symbol of his success and Roger Casement was among the guests at his home.

Tracing his steps, Michael’s journey took him across America by bus, train and car; driving around Montana, hiking in the mountains.

His new book Footprint Across America compares the land that Micí encountered in the late 19th century with the very different America of today.

Ghost towns An IMPACT member for many years until his retire“I flew to Anchorage, Alaska ment, Michael worked in a and travelled to the Klondike number of social work, by train, small planes and community and child care minibus. I cycled the hills in roles in the HSE and North search of Micί’s gold claim Western Health Board. His “His dream was fuelled by the prospect of gold and kayaked on the Yukon first book detailed a walk and silver.

Mine, by curiosity and a desire to glimpse river. I followed my nose on between Gartan in Donegal the journey as interesting new the wonders he encountered, and to see how the and Clonmacnoise in County worlds and people opened up Offaly. “It was my story world he passed through had changed.” to me, be it in the mining about walking the back ghost towns or on native roads. I decided to keep a American reservations, ranch houses or isolated Alaskan sort of memoir for my children. I didn’t really think of it as villages. writing until someone suggested I send it to a publisher. They published it and then I came up with the idea of tracing Micί’s Michael, who lives in Donegal with his wife, has three adult story,” he says. children who are all travelling the world. He’s not sure what his next topic will be, but rest assured there are more books in the pipeline.

Boyhood dream Chasing Micί’s fading footprints across America and onto the Klondike was a boyhood dream. “His dream was fuelled by the prospect of gold and silver. Mine, by curiosity and a desire to glimpse the wonders he encountered, and to see how the world he passed through had changed,” says Michael.

Boom and bust were as common in Micί’s time as they are now. “When you travel through America, you are hit by the number of homeless people. The second thing that struck me was the amount of people who needed two or three jobs to survive.

I met a priest in Butte County, Montana who told me about the mining towns he grew up in. As a child he would hardly see his father, who worked a 12-hour day. I also met a guy who worked in insurance and had a second job tending to almost 40

Interview by Martina O’Leary. Footprints Across America is published by Orpen Press and costs €16 l

Win a copy You could win a copy of Footprints Across America. Simply send your answer to this question to Footprints Across America Competition, Roisin Nolan, IMPACT, Nerney’s Court, Dublin 1.

Get it to us by 7th March 2014 to be in with a chance to win.

Where does Michael McMonagle live?

36

WINTER-SPRING 2014

Book reviews

Not for landlubbers A Book of Voyages Edited by Patrick O’Brian (Harper Collins, £14.99 in the UK) THIS BOOK is guaranteed to shiver your timbers and rattle your jib. It will sort out the cabin boys from the commanders and the armchair travellers from the Admirals. That being said, it’s the work of a man whose journeys sailing across the globe were entirely fictional.

Patrick O’ Brian is best known for his series of 20 novels set during the Napoleonic wars, which feature English naval officer Captain Jack Aubrey and his close friend and fellow voyager Dr Stephen Maturin, physician and spy. The novels can be read as stand-alone adventures or as one long story, with each book simply a chapter in the tale.

If this isn’t ringing any bells, you may recall seeing Russell Crowe in a ponytail and satin breeches leaping from the rigging of a tall ship in a film called Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. He was playing the aforementioned Captain Jack in a story based on a mish-mash of the O’Brian novels. Paul Bettany played Dr Maturin and, as I recall, he had to perform some pretty tricky surgery on a wound to his own abdomen using a mirror and a very sharp knife.

Travel was indeed a hazardous business – with wealth no protection against injury, illness or death – according to the accounts in this book, which are seventeenth and eighteenth century extracts from travel diaries and correspondence. In Dr Maturin’s case, even the Royal Navy could not protect him, though he did survive to tell the tale.

The language and phrasing reflect the age in which the pieces were written. This can be cumbersome and elaborate but it reflects a period when much was still unknown about foreign lands. In the absence of Trip Advisor and Google Earth there were more surprises and dangers awaiting the intrepid traveller.

This curiosity of a book was first published in 1947, which makes it an antique twice over. It will make O’Brian fans and collectors of curiosities very happy. Everyone else, approach with caution.

Margaret Hannigan

Slaves to history The Last Runaway Tracy Chevalier (Harper Collins, £7.99 in the UK) ONE OF the great advantages of being a book lover is the ability to inhabit another place and time.

While history lessons tell of large-scale battles and upheavals, a well-written and researched novel takes the reader into the lives of ordinary people and shows that, in many ways, all lives are extraordinary.

In this book the human side of the runaway slave’s network and Quaker beliefs are illuminated in both the smallest details and the dramatic events of America in the 1850s.

Honor Bright, a young Quaker woman from England, finds herself alone in Ohio where nothing is familiar or easy. More out of pragmatism than love, Honor marries Jack Haymaker a young dairy farmer. She soon finds herself at odds with his family when she helps runaway slaves who stop near their property in need of help.

The Haymakers are not uncaring but Honor is breaking the law, which could mean the family paying a ruinous price.

Jack’s family also object to her friendship with Belle Mills, a non-Quaker milliner from a neighbouring town, who is known to help runaways. As matters escalate Honor turns to Belle for help.

At first, Honor is repelled by the Americans’ unsentimentality and their ability to move on. But, as she gradually grows stronger and more intuitive, she also becomes less judgemental. She learns how even the strongest-held principles must sometimes be tempered in the face of harsh reality.

The story is peopled with interesting, complex characters.

Even the relationship between Honor and the slave catcher Donovan is well-drawn and believable. This is a slow-moving book, beautifully evoking the hard-working and simple lives of the Quaker community. But it is ultimately a satisfying and worthwhile read.

Kathryn Smith

More reviews on page 38 ‰

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 37

More book reviews

The wearing of the green The City of Strangers Michael Russell (Avon, £7.99 in the UK) THIS IS an interesting crossbreed of a book. Like a cross between a loping, laconic Irish Wolfhound, and a Doberman Pincer, it can be laid back and gracious. But there’s a wide streak of nasty running through it.

A woman in Dublin has disappeared from her bloodstained bedroom on the eve of World War Two, and a murder hunt is underway.

Recalled from his local beat in the pastoral splendour of Baltinglass, Sergeant Stefan Gillespie is instructed to travel to New York and bring the prime suspect home.

Seventeen years earlier a young son witnesses his father being taken from his home in West Cork by his former Irish comrades-in-arms. His dad is never seen alive again. These events are only two strands of the tangled web woven by the author,

which also include the Gate actor and impresario, Michael MacLiammoir, a Jewish gangster, Nazis, the IRA, and a plot to assassinate King George V of England. And that’s not giving you any spoilers.

The episodic construction of the book gets in the way of the story at times. The plot seems to snake away in an unexpected direction every ten pages or so. This can make it difficult to engage fully with the characters, as their relative importance to the story appears to shift and slide.

The one constant is Stefan Gillespie, the calm centre of the storm whose thoughtful, intelligent presence illuminates the book. Stefan is a character with a lot of life in him and looks likely to have further adventures ahead. In the company of his sidekick Dessie MacMahon, primed to provide light relief, and his immediate superior Superintendent Gregory whose aggression, crudeness and cunning make him an appropriate foil for Gillespie’s innately civilised approach, I forsee a franchise ahead.

The writing is relaxed and confident with a natural flow. The characters are well-drawn and vivid, but they are a bit crowded by the demands of the plot. Worth a look.

Margaret Hannigan

Poisoned plot lacks authenticity The Prodigal Son Coleen McCullough (Harper Collins, £7.99 in the UK) IT’S 1969 and biochemists Millie and Jim Hunter are professors at Chubb University in Holloman, Connecticut. Life has not been easy for them. A brilliant scholar and now renowned scientist, Jim is black. And it wasn’t acceptable for a girl like Millie to be involved with a black boy when they first met back in 1955.

Despite racial prejudice, Millie has devoted 18 years of her life to Jim. In awe of his brilliance, she has always put her own considerable career in second place. They live in near-poverty as all spare income has been sunk into Jim’s research. Life is about to change though, as Jim has written a book which looks set to become a best seller.

While working in her lab one night, Millie discovers that a lethal toxin has disappeared from her fridge. At a social occasion the next night, an old friend of the Hunter’s dies and 38

WINTER-SPRING 2014

his death is attributed to poisoning. This is followed by more deaths and at least two of the victims are directly connected to the Hunters.

The police suspect Jim as he is the obvious link between the poison and the victims. But nothing can be proved. Could Jim be a killer? If so, why now when everything is going so well for him? If Jim is not the killer why would anyone want to frame him? Many small town secrets are exposed as the police search for the possibly unpalatable truth.

Colleen McCullough is famous for The Thorn Birds, one of the most talked about and widely-read books of its day. This offering is unlikely to launch her back into stratospheric sales.

Both the plot and characters are somewhat improbable and the book lacks authenticity. However, it is pacy, dramatic and easy to read.

Kathryn Smith

International

Tournament of death Photo: ILO/Apex Image

Unions have warned that thousands could die as Qatar prepares to host the 2022 world cup. SIOBHÁN CURRAN reports.

WHEN A top premiership manager speaks out about workers’ rights you know somebody’s got a problem. So when Arsenal boss Arsène Wenger called on soccer’s world governing body FIFA to act on human rights abuses in Qatar – venue for the 2022 world cup tournament – many people sat up and listened.

Photo: Getty Images

Wenger highlighted the plight of French-Algerian footballer Zahir Belounis, who was effectively trapped in the country for two years under its restrictive ‘kafala’ sponsorship law. This gives employers the power to withhold exit visas from the 1.3 million migrant workers drafted in to build the monumental stadiums and infrastructure needed to host this huge and prestigious event.

The resulting list of human rights violations includes excessive working hours in extreme heat with no access to drinking water, hazardous working conditions, workers going unpaid for months, the confiscation of passports, overcrowded labour camps and, needless to say, a prohibition on forming trade unions.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has estimated Wenger speaks out. that up to 4,000 workers – a dozen a week – could be expected to die by the time a ball is kicked. This in a state declared the world’s richest country in 2012 with a staggering per capita GDP of $100,889, compared to $51,704 in the USA. Last September, the Guardian newspaper reported that 44 Nepalese workers died of heart failure and workplace accidents in just one three-month period, after being forced to work in daytime heat of 50 degrees. European construction firms can easily replace them as thousands more desperate migrant workers are expected to flock to this construction frenzy before 2022.

Migrants work in the country’s booming construction industry for low, sometimes no, wages.

A union delegation, recently returned from the oil-wealthy state, found absolutely no improvements. Workers said they were being forced to live in squalid labour camps with up to 14 men typically sleeping in each room and 600 sharing two kitchens.

Forced to work in daytime heat of 50 degrees, it’s estimated that up to 4,000 workers – a dozen a week – could die before a ball is kicked in 2022.

European construction firms can easily replace them as thousands more desperate migrant workers are expected to flock to this construction frenzy.

But the world may be waking up to the fact that there’s nothing sportsmanlike about the goings on in Qatar. Following the international pressure from unions and organisations like the UN, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, FIFA finally held meetings with both the ITUC and the Emir of Qatar towards the end of last year.

Under-fire FIFA president Sepp Blatter subsequently promised to find a solution. “Football will be the winner because we can show the world it is possible to create good working conditions,” he claimed. Let’s hope he’s right. If not, the tournament must be moved to a country with more respect for human rights.

Register your protest via www.rerunthevote.org l WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 39

Union business IN BRIEF Public pay declines AVERAGE PUBLIC service pay has fallen by nearly €50 a week since 2009 according to official data. The figures, from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), do not include the so-called pension levy, which has further reduced public service pay by 7% on average.

The CSO calculates that average weekly wages in the public sector are down by €47.88 (5%) since 2009. This compares to a much smaller average decline of €2.41 (0.4%) in the private sector. The figures also reveal an 8.3% decline in public service employment between 2009 and 2013.

Council mergers proceed LEGISLATION AIMED at reducing the number of local authorities from 114 to 31 has been published. The Local Government Bill 2013 is set to be enacted before next summer’s local elections.

IMPACT moved to ensure that the changes will be managed through the Croke Park process when the legislation was first mooted last year. That commitment remains as part of the Haddington Road deal, which means there will be no compulsory redundancies and staff will get protection in redeployment or relocation situations.

Agricultural action TECHNICAL STAFF in the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action.

The dispute follows the department’s decision to refuse IMPACT members the chance to compete for assistant principal posts, in defiance of a new policy that says all staff can apply for civil service vacancies.

Cabin crew settle AER LINGUS cabin crew in Shannon airport voted strongly in favour of Labour Relations Commission proposals to resolve a dispute over staffing of new planes being introduced for transatlantic routes.

Among other things, the proposals scotch management plans to outsource the work and close its Shannon base.

40

WINTER-SPRING 2014

Sleepover row referred to court HSE MANAGEMENT’S failure to deal with excessive sleepover demands on staff in residential child care and disability facilities has been referred to the Labour Court. IMPACT and Siptu say the HSE and various employers are in breach of Irish and EU working time legislation, with many staff expected to work 55-70 hours a week.

HSE management has admitted that residential child care and disability agencies are routinely breaching working time legislation by requiring staff to work an excessive number of sleepovers on top of their standard 39-hour working week. Staff are systematically required to work seven-hour sleepover shifts for just €6.40 an hour, well below the statutory minimum wage of €8.65.

The HSE and agency management have failed to reach a resolution on the issue during six months of talks, despite being required to do so under the Haddington Road agreement.

IMPACT national secretary Louise O’Donnell said the HSE and its agencies were claiming that the sleepover issue could not be resolved because of cost and resource constraints.

“There appears to be no effective limit on pay costs for chief executives.

Meanwhile managers order staff to work as many as seven sleepovers a fortnight, in flagrant breach of Irish and EU working time laws. All for the princely sum of €3 an hour after tax,” she said.

SNA job fears cited IMPACT HAS made proposals for tighter monitoring of JobBridge placements in classrooms after the union identified a “worrying and growing trend” of supplementing or replacing SNA posts with work experience placements.

In a submission to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection, the union said it was aware of at least 100 cases of potential displacement of SNA posts through JobBridge, which exists to give work experience to unemployed young people.

The union says only experienced SNAs can deliver maximum educational and social benefits to children with special needs.

“IMPACT supports quality work experience programmes as a means of enhancing skills and providing a valuable first step into the world of work. However, some employers in the education sector are misusing JobBridge. Much greater care is needed in vetting the places on offer and ensuring that JobBridge is not used as a substitute for employment,” it said.

Meanwhile, the union welcomed the news that 400 additional full-time special needs assistant posts are to be created by the end of this year. The number of SNA posts has been capped at 10,575 for the last four years, while demand for SNA services continues to grow.

IMPACT official Dessie Robinson said the full-time nature of the posts was particularly welcome. “The recent practice of allocating portions of SNA posts to schools, rather than full-time SNAs, has placed further pressure on schools working to educate children with special needs. These full-time posts are very welcome and will go some way to meeting the increased demand in our schools,” he said.

Coillte at merger risk A MERGER of Bord na Mona and Coillte would leave the state forestry company as a small and relatively weak voice within a much larger company focused heavily on energy production, IMPACT has said.

The union fears that a rebalancing of company priorities following a merger would likely divert wood to energy production rather than maintaining its most economically-advantageous use. This would seriously weaken Coillte’s economic base, with consequences for its ability to sustain its social and environmental functions, including access to state forests for recreation and tourism.

In a paper called Coillte: The way forward IMPACT’s Coillte Branch has outlined fears that a merged company would divert substantial amounts of high-grade timber to energy generation, with significant adverse effects on Coillte’s forestry, environmental and social operations.

IMPACT national secretary Matt Staunton said: “If Coillte activity is rebalanced in this way, the economic return from the public forest will be weakened. The social and environmental benefits will then diminish because they are sustained by the economic return from forestry operations. Irish forest output should generate the highest possible value economically, environmentally and socially.”

IMPACT’s Coillte Branch has successfully campaigned against the sale of Coillte forest harvesting rights. It’s publication Save Our Forests set out the economic, environmental and social benefits provided by the company. It also commissioned an economic assessment of the proposal by economist Peter Bacon, which concluded that a sale of Coillte harvesting rights was not justifiable on economic grounds and would cost the State €1.3 billion.

IMPACT backs Philippines appeal IMPACT’S CENTRAL executive committee has approved a €150,000 donation to an international trade union appeal for assistance in the Philippines, which is reeling from the impact of typhoon Haiyan. The typhoon hit the country last November, killing over 6,000 people and leaving thousands homeless and destitute.

The IMPACT donation, which comes from the union’s developing world fund – made up of 3% of each member’s union subs – went to an emergency appeal established by international trade union federation Public Services International (PSI).

The initiative will contribute to immediate humanitarian aid efforts and will also help establish purpose-built permanent community solidarity centres to deal with future emergencies.

PSI general secretary Rosa Pavanelli called the union’s donation an “extraordinary” contribution. “IMPACT’s support is truly amazing. We are well aware that the circumstances for your members are not easy and that you have struggled for a number of years under difficult conditions. So this contribution is doubly generous,” she said.

IMPACT’s developing world fund was established when the union was formed in the early 1990s and has since contributed over €7 million to trade union and community development projects in countries around the world.

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS

41

Photo by Photocall Ireland.

Union business SHORT CUTS Employers benefit ALMOST 90,000 employees are currently receiving jobseekers benefits because their pay is too low or their working hours are too few.

And over 40,000 working families are receiving family income supplement (FIS), according to recent figures.

The figures emerged as unions voiced increasing concerns about casual work and ‘zero hours’ contracts, where staff must be available for work but employers don’t provide set hours. A recent Dáil answer listed retail giants like Dunnes Stores, Tesco, Lidl and Pennys as having large numbers of staff who also claim FIS or jobseekers benefits.

Driven mad IMPACT HAS rejected Road Safety Authority (RSA) claims that the local authority driver licence service was characterised by long delays. IMPACT national secretary Peter Nolan said local authorities had provided an excellent service prior to the transfer of services to the RSA. He said the RSA had greatly exaggerated the length of any delays which, in any case, were mainly caused by additional work associated with the transfer.

Water works?

MANAGEMENT MUST produce stronger service level agreements (SLAs) to ensure that water services are maintained and improved when they transfer from local authorities to Irish Water this year, IMPACT has said. The union has also continued to press for an absolute assurance that its members will not be ‘conscripted’ into the new water company against their will. IMPACT national secretary Eamonn Donnelly has told management that the union’s continued cooperation is founded on the commitment that staff will not be moved compulsorily.

Lump sums safe THE DEPARTMENT of Finance has confirmed that changes to a tax measure called ‘top slicing relief’ will have no impact on retirement lump sums paid under Revenue-approved pension arrangements and statutory schemes.

In 2012, the Government abolished top slicing relief on ex-gratia lump sum payments of over €200,000 made in respect of retirements or terminations of employment. The relief was scrapped altogether in the 2014 budget.

42

WINTER-SPRING 2014

Kids learn union lesson IMPACT IS among the sponsors of a new schools’ pack that explains the significance of the 1913-1914 Dublin Lockout on our lives today. The pack, launched in December, will supplement the existing ICTU Youth Connect programme, which has delivered lessons about working life, trade unions and international solidarity to thousands of school children over the past three years. The programme was initially established with a substantial grant from IMPACT’s former Tax Officials’ branch.

Young actors in period costume sold special Lockout centenary newspapers, as guests queued for bread and soup at the launch – to mark how thousands of Dubliners were fed at union food kitchens during the Lockout. Pupils from schools in Mayo, Cork and Dublin’s inner city explained how the pack had helped them make sense of the dispute and its lessons for modern Ireland.

The pack includes materials for teachers, case studies, handouts, photos and video. ICTU deputy general secretary Sally Ann Kinahan said the module emphasised group work and classroom discussion. “It brings the history of the struggle for decent work to life and explains the reasons behind the 1913 Lockout and the impact of those events on our lives today,” she said.

JOBS GROWTH TO SLOW DOWN A BIT THE TRADE union-backed Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI) is predicting slower employment growth over the next two years. Its researchers predict employment will increase by 1.1% in 2014 and 1.2% in 2015, compared to 2.3% last year.

The report says unemployment will fall to 10.4% – more than double the pre-crisis level – by 2016, while long term unemployment will remain a “core problem” for the economy. It also foresees slow economic growth this year, followed by higher rates in 2015 and 2016. It predicts 1.1% growth in gross domestic product (GDP) this year, after even lower growth of 0.5% in 2013.

Its 2014 growth forecast is lower than those of the Department of Finance (2%) and the Economic and Social Research Institute (2.6%). But it foresees a return to higher growth levels in 2015 (1.8%) and 2016 (3%).

NERI says trends in employment indicate a permanent reshaping of the labour market. It says employment growth is most likely in higher-paid sectors, while the number of middle-paying occupations is likely to decline or stagnate. It says over a fifth of Irish jobs are now low-paid.

NERI describes its predictions as “positive but cautious.” It says potential threats to economic recovery include a weakening export outlook, high longterm unemployment, and an overhang of personal debt.

Obituary

Carmel Kirwan 1941-2013 CARMEL KIRWAN, who died 13th November 2013, made an immense contribution to organising and supporting school secretaries over four decades. She was employed in Saint Mary’s secondary school, New Ross, county Wexford from 1978 until her retirement in 2006, and she established a network of school secretaries in the south-east.

information available from their union. She was a strong advocate for training to be provided and funded centrally for all school secretaries.

Carmel led a sustained and hard-working effort, which saw membership of the vocational group treble in 2000. In 2003 she helped steer a way through what was euphemistically known as “the contingency plan,” with the Department of Education, in an effort to achieve better terms and conditions for school secretaries.

In the early 1980s, Carmel became involved in the Local Government and Public Services Union’s school secretaries’ vocational group and actively promoted the union to this isolated group of workers. She was chair of the vocational group from 1989 until its dissolution in 2007, when the IMPACT School Secretaries’ branch was formed. She used her extensive experience and amazing leadership skills as chair of the branch for its first 18 months, having previously been a member of the union’s Wexford branch.

Carmel prepared a handbook, setting out the various roles and responsibilities of committee members, as well as standing orders guidelines and protocols for the first annual general meeting of the branch.

Her input and efforts in the first 15 months proved fruitful as well-organised and well attended AGMs followed year on year.

With the support of (now retired) officials Al Butler and Alice Moore, Carmel achieved a very successful outcome in the Labour Court and then shared this experience with other secretaries who found themselves in difficulty with their employers. She always encouraged secretaries to be proactive on their own behalf and to actively use the help and

After her retirement Carmel remained a member and attended the AGM each year. She also attended regional meetings between 2010 and 2012 and her sound advice and years of experience were warmly received by many members. Suaimhneas sioraí dá hanam dílis.

Patricia Whelan, former secretary of the School Secretaries’ branch and vocational group.

IMPACT members get information first IMPACT members are entitled to receive a fortnightly e-bulletin, which contains news on the developments that affect your income and working conditions, plus details of union campaigns. The bulletin goes to all IMPACT members for whom we have a current email address. If you are not receiving it, please send your current email address, postal address and mobile phone number to info@impact.ie. You can also get the most up-to-date news and information from our website – www.impact.ie.

IMPACT-Trade-Union

impacttu WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS 43

Sport Mrs Doyle must keep the ‘sangidges’ coming while we wait to see if O’Neill and Keane will gel, says KEVIN NOLAN.

Tea

A CUP of tea, a round of ‘sangidges’ and a nice chat. The ingredients are evocative of an evening with Mrs Doyle. But tea, sandwiches and a chat is just one of the little sideshows that come with the new Ireland management team of Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane.

The casual aspects of international duty were done away with in the Trapattoni era. The Italian, who famously banned mushrooms from the players’ diets, kept things rather controlled when it came to players’ downtime. They spent a lot of time in their hotel rooms as Trap stuck to a rigid understanding of how to be an international footballer.

It was as far as could be from Charlton-era pints in Hill 16 on Gardiner Street, or Harry Ramsden’s challenge.

We know from his barbs at his ketchup-banning Sunderland successor Paolo di Canio, that O’Neill doesn’t believe every idea from an Italian football manager is a good one. So it’s no surprise that some things have changed.

Spirit And that’s where the cup of tea comes in. Keane remembered from his Ireland playing days that the simple act of sitting around the hotel lobby with his team-mates for a cupán tae, and maybe a sneaky custard cream, whiled away the evenings, alleviated the boredom, and helped build team spirit. The evening chat is back on the agenda.

Under the O’Neill-Keane axis, players have also been given time off to leave the camp and visit their families. It’s not a matter of letting the players out on the lash or replacing the Italian ideal of alcohol for sportsmen (a small glass of wine at dinner) with the old-school British and Irish habit (a feed of pints).

Many members of the current Ireland squad drink very little, some (James McClean for one) abstain from booze altogether.

But it does seem to be a case of handing the players a bit more freedom, with the manager safe in the knowledge that few in the current set-up will risk the wrath of Keane by arriving back after curfew in a wobbly state.

Realist Of course the real relationship that matters is that between O’Neill and Keane. Ever the realist, Keane admits that results alone will define success and the FAI will not stick with the dynamic duo if Ireland fail to qualify for France 2016. No talk of four-year plans from this man. Irish football fans are likely to share this pragmatism, regardless of how they feel about Keane or the Saipan incident. X

44

WINTER-SPRING 2014

for two Already the signs are good. O’Neill has even been able to poke fun at Keane a number of times since they signed on the dotted line. He told his assistant that his stance in Saipan was wrong, and joked that Keane’s response was to tell him he’d picked the wrong team for Celtic’s UEFA cup final.

The media pack is slowly learning about O’Neill’s dry sense of humour. On numerous occasions, the Derry man has been forced to follow a quip with the line “that’s a joke, by the way.”

The journalists are also getting to grips with Keane’s dry wit and icy stare again. The combined wit is more Vladimir and Estragon than Morecambe and Wise.

On being asked about Fergie, Keane raised his eyebrows as if to say he didn’t understand, and came back with the response: “Do you mean Alex Ferguson?” Small things add up to a lot with O’Neill and Keane, who famously contested the wording of Manchester United’s press release when he left the club over the detail of his length of service. The press pack will have learned to keep their phones on silent at press conferences.

“The media pack is slowly learning about O’Neill’s dry sense of humour and Keane’s icy stare. The combined wit is more Vladimir and Estragon than Morecambe and Wise.”

Photos: Sportsfile

The first few days of the O’Neill-Keane reign were a whirlwind with hours easily eaten up by meetings, contract talks, travel and training. The pair will spend more time working out how to work together now the dust has settled after the Latvia and Poland games.

Again, early signs are positive, with both men keen to attend matches involving Irish players. Keane attended three games in the space of 24 hours at one stage, even taking in a reserve game between Coventry City and his old club Forest. Giovanni Trapattoni barely attended three games in a year, let alone one weekend.

It’s in that downtime, between now and the March 2014 game at home to Serbia, when O’Neill and Keane will find out for certain if they can work together. Mrs Doyle might need to keep the tea and sandwiches coming until then. O

WORK & LIFE: THE MAGAZINE FOR IMPACT MEMBERS

45

Win Win Win

n i w 50

S UD OKU

HOW TO PLAY: Fill in the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains the digits 1–9.

There is no maths involved. You solve it with reasoning and logic.

1 7

€

Just answer five easy questions and you could win €50.

YOU COULD add €50 to your wallet or purse by answering five easy questions and sending your entry, name and address to Roisin Nolan, Work & Life prize quiz, IMPACT, Nerney’s Court, Dublin 1. Get your entry in by Friday 7th March 2014. We’ll send €50 to the first completed entry pulled from the hat.* You’ll find the answers in this issue of Work & Life.

New public service sick leave rules are expected to take effect: A On production of a doctor’s certificate B When you’re feeling under the weather C 1st March 2014.

A recent film based on Martin Sixsmith’s book is about: A Philomena Lee B Bruce Lee C Philomena Begley.

Which premiership manager recently spoke out on workers’ rights in Qatar?

A Mauricio Pochettino B David Moyes C Arsène Wenger.

Which pop act had brothers in its lineup?

A The Walker Brothers B The Kinks C Brotherhood of Man. 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 7th March 2014. The editor’s decision is final.

That’s it!

46 46

WINTER-SPRING 2014

2

1

5

6

1

9

2

6

1

4 4

5 9

1

8

7

8

8 5

7

9

2

2 5

9

6

7

2

3

3

8

5

6

4 7

4

5

1 6

4

1

9

7 3

Easy

9 7

1

4

8

5

1

3 8

2

Difficult

win €

50

ACROSS PRIZE CROSSWORD 1. Along with Ivy she is associated with Christmas (5) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 5. Reapp the wood pulp (5) 8 8. The land of hope and glory (7) 9. DH Lawrence...Lady 9 10 Chatterley’s ..... (5) 11 12 13 10. The right Pine will mature (5) 11. Ballroom, hip hop, or Irish (7) 14 15 16 17 18 19 14. U toss and drives out (5) 17. Strange, scary (5) 20 20. Short resounds (7) 21. I rob a brass neck (4) 21 22 22. Deposit (4) 23 23. Item for the bathroom, perhaps (9) 24. Goodbye my friend (5) 24 25 26 27 28 29 27. Total, sheer (5) 30 31 30. The prevaricators can be seen clearly in a shed gersoma (7) 32 33 32. A must for the nursery! (5) 34 33. To tear down, dismantle (5) 34. Pelt the real skin (7) 35 36 35. Bacon can sometimes have this problem (5) 36. Craft (5) 16. Largest city in Canada (7) DOWN 18. Audible range (7) 1. Ever popular greeting (5) 19. Segregate with me very tardy (7) 2. Dwells (5) 24. Female relations (5) 3. Enclosure is 0.9144 metres (5) 25. Force the e limp (5) 4. He shows up for finer iced tea (4) 26. Bashfully (5) 5. To break down a sentence into parts 27. The practice of making unethical or of speech can lead you spare! (5) immoral monetary loans (5) 6. He who calls this guy calls the tune 28. Play this card game developed in Italy in (5) the 14th century, in some star occasion 7. Sluice the reins (5) (5) 12. Peter Pan is happy there (9) 29. Correct and proper (5) 13. Intricate, express at great length (9) 31. One of Dublin’s fine theatres (4) 15. New, untested (7) Win €50 by completing the crossword and sending your entry, name and address to Roisin Nolan, Work & Life crossword, IMPACT, Nerney’s Court, Dublin 1, by Friday 7th March 2014.

We’ll send €50 to the first correct entry pulled from a hat.

Winners!

The winners from competitions in the autumn issue were:

Crossword: Brian McKeever, Cavan. Bebove: Marian Fogarty, Limerick.

Quiz: Elizabeth Stewart, Fáilte Ireland. The Spinning Heart: John Fields, State Laboratory.

Survey: Concepta Guthrie, Clare.

Lots more competitions to enter in this issue!

Crossword composed by Maureen Harkin

How much is the London ‘living wage’ worth?

A The same as the legal minimum wage B 16% above the legal minimum wage C Its weight in gold.

2

3 2

9

Prize quiz

7

Your view

n i w0 €

10

How do you like Work & Life?

WE HOPE you enjoyed this issue of Work & Life, the magazine for IMPACT members. We want to hear your views, and we’re offering a €100 prize to one lucky winner who completes this questionnaire.

Simply complete this short survey and send it to Roisin Nolan, Work & Life survey, IMPACT, Nerney’s Court, Dublin 1. You can also send your views by email to rnolan@impact.ie.

We’ll send €100 to the first completed entry pulled from a hat.*

The survey

4. What were your least favourite articles?

1 __________________________________________________ 2 __________________________________________________

1. What did you think of the articles in the spring 2014 issue of Work & Life?

3 __________________________________________________ 5. What subjects would you like to see in future issues of Work & Life?

Excellent

o

Good

o

1 __________________________________________________

Okay

o

2 __________________________________________________

Bad

o

3 __________________________________________________

Awful

o

Comments ________________________________________

6. What did you think of the balance between union news and other articles?

__________________________________________________

The balance is about right

o

__________________________________________________

I want more union news

o

I want less union news

o

2. What did you think of the layout, style and pictures in the spring 2014 issue of Work & Life?

Excellent

o

Good

o

Okay

o

Bad

o

Awful

o

7. Any other comments? ______________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________

Comments ________________________________________

Name ________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

Address ______________________________________________

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

3. What were your favourite three articles?

__________________________________________________

1 __________________________________________________

Email ________________________________________________

2 __________________________________________________

Phone ________________________________________________

3 __________________________________________________

IMPACT branch ______________________________________

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 7th March 2014. 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.

I

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: Brassington & Co. Ltd.

Cornmarket Group Financial Services Ltd.

Travel Insurance – all Divisions.

Car Insurance – all Divisions.

Salary Protection and Life Assurance –

Local Government and Health Divisions only.

Group Insurance Services (GIS)

Marsh Financial Services Ltd.

Car Insurance – all Divisions.

AVC Schemes – all Divisions excluding Municipal Employees.

House Insurance – all Divisions.

Salary Protection and Life Assurance – Civil Service and Services & Enterprises Divisions only.

December 2004

DISCLAIMER (Approved by CEC 10th December 2004) 48

WINTER-SPRING 2014