Trevor Laffan

The Irish Examiner reported that nearly thirty road safety advocacy bodies have declared no confidence in the Road Safety Authority (RSA) after a spate of deaths in the first three months of 2024. Multiple organisations from across the country, have lost confidence in the RSA and say it is no longer fit for purpose.

There have been 61 deaths on Irish roads this year, 16 more than had been recorded at the same stage in 2023, itself the worst year for fatalities on Irish roads in a decade.

The advocates said the RSA bears responsibility for the implementation of the Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030, “the primary aim of which is to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on Irish roads by 50% by 2030”.

They said data available to road safety researchers is insufficient or outdated. Historic road collision data is not being made available to road safety auditors, and the RSA is not providing up-to-date data which can be used to make the roads safer. I suggest it’s not being shared with the general population either and it should be.

If you listen to the traffic reports on the radio every morning you will hear of disruptions due to accidents. There’s hardly a morning goes by without delays on the M50 alone because of tips and this is where the RSA could be making a difference. Every accident has a cause and if these were highlighted, then maybe drivers might learn something.

I investigated many traffic accidents in the course of my 35 plus years in An Garda Siochana, from the minor fender benders to the more serious collisions involving death and or injury. Nothing unusual about that – it comes with the territory. Most police officers employed on outdoor duty will have to deal with those at some point in their career.

If they’re lucky, they might never have to call to a house to deliver the news to a family that their loved one is not coming home. That is one of the most difficult things a police officer has to do but unfortunately as the number of deaths on our roads continues to rise, it’s a job that many more gardai will have to face.

Many of these accidents could have been avoided but as long as you have humans in charge of machines that can travel at speed, there will be accidents. Human error is an important piece of this puzzle and needs to be addressed.

In spite of all the road safety campaigns, garda traffic management plans, enforcement of the various pieces of new legislation, improved safety features in cars, better signage of black spots and the introduction of anti-skid surfaces, the carnage continues.

Demands for more laws and more garda enforcement have come hot and heavy. One campaigner recently even suggested that the gardai needed to put “the fear of God” into drivers.

Another one said, “It’s early days yet but if the Government and Garda Commissioner don’t act ASAP, we will see a repeat of last year’s figures and maybe even more. The issues that have to be addressed are not being addressed.”

Justice Minister Helen McEntee said 2023 had been a “difficult year” on Irish roads and she was working with Gardaí to improve road safety. 

Minister of State for Transport Jack Chambers has promised a new Road Safety Bill will be introduced into the Oireachtas early this year to amend the penalty points system, reduce certain speed limits, amend the rules on testing for intoxicants to provide for drug testing to align with current rules on alcohol testing.

Legislation is necessary of course and so is enforcement but unless you have a garda stationed at 100-meter intervals on every single road in the country, that alone won’t be enough.

Denis Cusack, director of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety and a Dublin-based coroner, said a huge factor in the recent increase in road deaths was a “deterioration” in driving behaviour. He’s right of course. It’s driver behaviour that needs to change because the choices we make when driving will impact other road users, often with fatal consequences.

Every driver assumes responsibility for their actions once they get behind the wheel. Minister McEntee, Minister Chambers, the RSA and the gardai all have a role to play but responsibility for dangerous and bad driving has to be placed squarely where it belongs, on the shoulders of drivers.

We can’t expect everyone else to fix it and until we deal with human behaviour, we’re going nowhere. Throwing more legislation at the problem and calling for more gardai isn’t working so let’s try something different. Education for example.

I never came across a car that ended up on its roof while it was being driven normally and within the speed limit. I have never seen a car leave the road of its own accord in normal conditions and end up in a field or a river either. Cars tend not to do that unless there are other factors at play.

Young people think they are invincible. Many of them believe that driving at speed is what marks them as experts. The faster the car goes, the better the driver they are. The reality is completely different of course and the only way to change that attitude is through education.

Today’s children are tomorrow’s drivers so let’s teach them how to do it properly, starting in primary school and continuing right up to leaving certificate. Teach them about driving safely, being courteous and the importance of concentration. Highlight the causes of accidents and show how they can be avoided.

That will pay dividends in the long term. The only problem is though, it will take time to achieve results and we know how officialdom doesn’t like long term strategies.

Once we pass the age of sixty, I reckon most of us can expect to become more involved in the world of medicine. That’s often the time when various bits and pieces of our body claim revenge for the hardship we put it through in our youth. In my case I was motoring along quite nicely until I hit that milestone, then the wheels fell off. It’s been the same for many of my friends. There are exceptions too of course.

My mother-in-law lived to be a hundred and for most of her life she was as fit as a flea. It was only in her last few years that she required medical attention. She was one of the lucky ones but for the rest of us, the ageing process will bring about some unwanted side effects.

We will experience new things about our bodies. Aches, pains and creaks appear in places that heretofore behaved themselves. Mostly we get by with a few pills and potions but occasionally we need the help of the professionals, and they can often introduce us to a world of pain.

At that age you can expect to get to know your GP pretty well and the chances are you will meet some new consultants too. You know hospital visits are becoming more regular when your car can find its own way there. I’ve had my share of that over the last few years but for the time being anyway, hopefully, that’s behind me. Thanks to the wonders of modern medicine and the professionals who practice it.

I’m a glass half full type of person generally and I’ve tried to handle my various ailments with positivity and good humour. That helps and they say it’s important too in terms of recovery.

The first question I asked after each surgery was how long it would be before I could expect to be up and about again? As soon as they gave me an approximate date, I booked a flight to my favourite holiday spot and that became my target. I stuck rigidly to whatever exercise programme was designed to get me back on my feet to give me the best shot at making the flight.

It’s important to have something to aim for. I remember reading a book thirty or forty years ago written by Viktor Frankl called ‘Man’s Search for Meaning.’ He was an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor who invented the theory of logotherapy which suggested that if you had a ‘why’ to live, you could survive any ‘how’.

That philosophy will get you through a lot but only if you have the mental capacity to work it out for yourself which is one of the reasons I hate the idea getting any form of dementia. It’s difficult to remain positive if your mind is broken. Hard to reason things out for yourself if your brain isn’t functioning properly and that’s becoming more of a threat these days.

Because we’re living longer, dementia is becoming more common and according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are currently more than 55 million people suffering from dementia worldwide, over 60% of whom live in low-and middle-income countries. They project that figure could be as high as 139 million by 2050. That’s a frightening statistic.

In 2019, dementia cost economies globally 1.3 trillion US dollars, approximately 50% of these costs are attributable to care provided by informal carers (e.g. family members and close friends). It’s particularly tough on women who are disproportionately affected by dementia, both directly and indirectly. Women experience higher disability-adjusted life years and mortality due to dementia, but also provide 70% of care hours for people living with dementia.

I checked the Mayo Clinic to see what exactly dementia is and what, if anything, we can do to help avoid it. The word “dementia” is an umbrella term used to describe a set of symptoms, including impairment in memory, reasoning, judgment, language and other thinking skills. It usually begins gradually, worsens over time and impairs a person’s abilities in work, social interactions and relationships.

Often, memory loss that disrupts your life is one of the first or more-recognizable signs of dementia. Other early signs might include asking the same questions repeatedly, forgetting common words when speaking, mixing words up — saying “bed” instead of “table,” for example. Taking longer to complete familiar tasks, such as following a recipe.

Misplacing items in inappropriate places, such as putting a wallet in a kitchen drawer. Getting lost while walking or driving in a familiar area, having changes in mood or behaviour for no apparent reason.

We all forget things at times. Can’t find the car keys or forget the name of a person you just met. Some degree of memory problems, as well as a modest decline in other thinking skills, is a fairly common part of aging. There’s a difference, however, between normal changes in memory and memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.

So, what can we do to keep our brains healthy? Peta Bee is a journalist who writes about health and wellbeing, and she wrote a piece in the Irish Examiner recently about priming your brain for longevity. She says a decline in brainpower is not an inevitable part of ageing and studies show it’s possible to future-proof your cognitive function through a combination of everyday healthy lifestyle habits.

With good habits over the years, you can mitigate the decline. Physical exercise and a healthy diet are important obviously and so is anything that gets you thinking. That includes brain apps, reading, solving puzzles such as crosswords and sudoku and the younger you start to bolster your brain, the better but it’s never too late to start.

That’s good news at least. Now, where was I?

I don’t like going to the dentist. I have this dread that during the drilling process he will hit a nerve and send me through the ceiling. I suspect many people of my vintage harbour the same fear based on difficult experiences we had in the 1960’s when dentistry was practised at a different level to what we know today.

It’s an irrational fear though because in all the years I’ve sat in a dentist’s chair since then, none has ever hit a nerve which is perfectly understandable given their skill and the availability of anaesthetic, but my brain is hotwired to expect a dose of agony as soon as I open my mouth.

The process involved in an extraction, or a filling is minor compared to invasive surgery on the body like, a heart bypass, a transplant or even removing an appendix. Yet, we are generally more relaxed entering an operating theatre than we are a dental surgery. Confident at least that we won’t feel any pain until the surgery is over.

The only thing that concerns me prior to surgery is that I get the right dose of anaesthetic. I don’t fancy the idea of waking up half-way through and it seems I’m not alone in that. Apparently topping the list of preoperative anxieties among patients is the fear that they won’t be anesthetized enough, waking up mid-surgery with their bodies open, unable to move and feeling everything.

But that fear may not be so irrational after all because medicaldaily.com reported back in 2014 that renditions of these incidents, called anaesthesia awareness, occur in about 300 people per year in the UK and Ireland.

Researchers from the UK’s Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Association of Anaesthetists looked into occurrences throughout the UK and Ireland. They found that one out of every 19,000 operations — other estimates put that number at one in 1,000 — resulted in an incidence of anaesthesia awareness of the Royal United Hospital, according to the BBC.

In those cases, patients were given general anaesthesia consisting of a concoction of various drugs and anaesthesia awareness occurred when one of the drugs wasn’t administered in as strong a dose as the others. Fortunately, the majority of patients only awoke for a brief period of time, either before surgery or once it was completed.

The Guardian published an article about the experiences of some of those who woke up during a procedure and Anne Lord still remembers vividly her experience under anaesthetic. She was rushed to Llandough hospital in Cardiff for an operation to remove a growth in her colon 20 years ago.

She woke up and heard shouting. “I told whoever was screaming to shut up and was told that I was the person screaming,” said Lord. “I had managed to get my foot out of the stirrups and kicked the surgeon in the chest and he went flying across the room on his wheeled stool.

I thought I was dreaming but apparently not. I had already had three times the normal amount of anaesthetic. I had counted to 10 on the first two injections and to nine on the last. It is a family thing as my late mother was resistant and one of my sons is also.”

Lord did not suffer any long-term psychological damage but rather revels in the anecdote which has become a dinner party staple over the years. She is not alone in being conscious while undergoing surgery.

James Wheatley, 34, did not feel pain when he was having his wisdom teeth removed under general anaesthetic, but was acutely aware of strong sensations. “At some point during the operation I became aware and could feel the movements of the surgeon in my mouth,” he said.

“There was no pain, but I could hear and feel the drilling, sawing and cracking reverberating through my skull as if a very powerful and noisy electric toothbrush was in direct contact with my bones.”

“I did manage to start groaning and I think I moved my head a little. I heard someone say ‘OK, we’ll give you some more medicine’ and then I was out again for the remainder of the operation.”

Another guy told of his experience in the mid-’90s. “I woke up during knee surgery. Like, just fully snapped awake and sat up. All of these wide-eyed masked faces just turned and stared at me. I looked down at my clamped open leg, looked at one of the masked faces that everyone seemed to be deferring to, and said, ‘I don’t think I want to be awake for this.’ They put me back under.”

Some redheaded patients have claimed to have woken up during medical procedures because they reckon redheads need more anaesthetic than other people. Howstuffworks reported that a 2002 study conducted by researchers at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, proved what anaesthesiologists have believed for some time, that redheads are more difficult to knock out.

Researchers chose 20 test subjects, all women aged 19 to 40. Ten were redheads and ten were brunettes. The researchers chose only women to cut out any possibility of gender playing a role in the study.

All 20 women were given desflurane, a common gas anaesthesia. After the anaesthesia took effect, the researchers gave each woman electric shocks, using a voltage which a conscious person would have found “intolerable.” If the subject could feel the pain, the researchers increased the dosage of desflurane and continued to administer shocks until they got no response.

The researchers’ findings showed that redheads do require more anaesthesia. In fact, they need an average of 20 percent more. So, there you have it. We always knew they had a reputation for being fiery, but we now know that gingers are more difficult to pacify as well.

There’s a programme on Channel 4 at the moment called ‘4 in a Bed’. It’s a competition that goes on for a week with a cash prize at the end for the winner. It’s a simple format. Four B&B owners visit each other’s premises, spend a night there and have breakfast the following morning. Before they leave, they rate the B&B under different headings and mark them accordingly. The owner with the highest mark wins at the end of the week gets £1000.

The participants are competitive. At the start of their visit, the guests inspect their rooms, picking up on anything dirty, untidy or out of place. These inspections are taken seriously, over the top in fact. A speck of dust found over the door frame is an offence against humanity. Similarly, a cobweb found on the ceiling lamp shade would lead to lots of tut-tutting.

A single hair found on any of the beds would be reason enough to send for the police so, as I say, it’s a bit over the top. If you search hard enough in the cleanest of properties, you’ll surely find something to complain about.

At the end of their stay, they provide feedback to the owner on the different aspects of their stay based on the performance of the host, the quality of their night’s sleep, the cleanliness of the property, the facilities and the quality of the breakfast. The final question on the feedback sheet is “Would you stay here again?”. The aim of course is to get a “Yes” answer.

I’m not a fusspot but I would definitely answer “No” if the place was dirty. Whenever I stay in a hotel or a B&B I don’t expect to find a dirty room, but I don’t go looking for trouble either. I don’t get down on my hands and knees searching for grime or run my finger over the curtain rail looking for dust.

You never know what a close inspection might reveal. There may even be a few things there to keep you awake. I was talking to a friend of mine recently who worked as a chambermaid in the hotel industry when she was a student.  As a result of her experience, she has a golden rule when she stays in any hotel.

As soon as she enters the room, she removes the cushions, and blankets or duvet from the bed and puts them in the wardrobe. She doesn’t want them anywhere near her body because she reckons, they’re rarely cleaned.

Because she has no idea what the previous guests got up to on these things, she wants them out of harm’s way. To back up her theory she says you’ll always see clean sheets going into hotel rooms, but you rarely see fresh duvets or covers. When I thought about it, she had a point.

She had other issues with the cleanliness too. In her day, the drinking glasses, cups and glasses in the bathrooms were often rinsed in the bathroom sink and dried with the dirty towels. That made me think twice about using these things in future.

Low standards like this might be more common than you think. A team from Upgraded Points, a US travel website, analysed the bacteria present on communal features at a range of hotels, from two-star up to five-star properties and the results were staggering.

They compared some of the most touched objects in hotels to common household items. Here’s t what they found: Overall, the average hotel elevator button has 1,477 times more germs than the average household bathroom door handle and 737 times more germs than a household toilet seat.

The average hotel door handle has 918 times more germs than a household toilet seat. Besides elevator buttons and door handles, there are plenty of other dirty areas to avoid in hotels too like the remote control, which is a big germ catcher. The chairs in the room usually aren’t cleaned like sheets and towels, so they can harbour germs that are invisible to the naked eye.

Respiratory viruses can linger on a desk for up to four days, and don’t assume that the curtains in your room are clean. Consider the time it takes to take them down, clean them and put them back up.  An ice bucket can retain many germs since it is often used by guests for purposes other than those originally intended.

A good idea when checking into a room is to take a good breath of air and if you smell something off, then maybe you should trust your instinct, return your key to reception and ask a few questions. It might save you an unpleasant experience, especially if the room was previously used for nefarious activities.

1982, three car thieves met up in New Jersey to do a bit of business. They booked into a motel room and after a dispute, two of them decided to do away with the third guy so they fed him a burger laced with cyanide. They stuffed his body under the bed and left it there where it was found four days later.

During the intervening four days, the room had been rented out. Guests had complained about the smell, but none thought to look under the bed.

In 2010 in Memphis, Tennessee, a lady was reported missing after she failed to pick up her children from school. Forty-seven days later, homicide investigators were called to the room of a motel where she had been living just prior to her disappearance. Her body had been discovered inside the frame of the bed even though the room had reportedly been cleaned and rented several times since her disappearance almost seven weeks earlier.

Suddenly, dirty glasses don’t seem like such a  big issue.

An article in the Guardian newspaper reported that more than 1,800 police officers recruited under Boris Johnson’s manifesto pledge to increase numbers, resigned last year. Johnson had promised to add 20,000 police officers to forces in England and Wales by March 2023 in an attempt to address the austerity cuts.

More than 15,000 officers had been recruited, according to the government but, following a freedom of information request, the newspaper found that at least 1,837 of officers who joined under the scheme had already quit. The newspaper suggested the figure could be much higher, as 19 of the 43 forces in England and Wales did not provide data.

That sounds familiar. According to the Department of Justice, 164 garda members resigned from the force last year, compared with 109 the previous year, 94 in 2021 and 70 in 2020. A total of 72 resigned in 2019, 77 in 2018 and 41 in 2017.

It’s not that long ago that joining An Garda Siochana meant a job for life but it seems that many of the new recruits these days are finding it isn’t the job they thought it was and they’re throwing in the towel in increasing numbers.

Antoinette Cunningham, the soon to retire General Secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors says the job is no longer attractive, largely due to the core issues of health and safety, working conditions, excessive oversight, bureaucratic systems, pensions and the heightened levels of abuse. With 33 years’ experience behind her she’s certainly in a position to comment.

I retired in 2015 so I can’t speak about the current working conditions, but it’s obvious that garda management has a problem with resignations and attracting new members. Changes to pension, pay and conditions are being cited as the main cause but reputational damage from some controversaries hasn’t helped either.

Representative bodies have reported poor morale is also a factor. An abundance of oversight has been cited as another issue with the Garda Inspectorate, Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission, the Policing Authority and now the Garda Anti-Corruption Unit (GACU) watching every move.

When I joined in 1979, we had more freedom to use our initiative, but we were still a disciplined organisation. We operated to a set of rules laid down in the Garda Siochana Code and if we stepped out of line, we were called to account. There were rogue operators too but the vast majority of those I served with played by those rules.

Most were working and living in the community and doing their bit to enhance the quality of life for everyone in a safe environment. It’s what An Garda Siochana was instructed to do on its formation in 1922; go out and live and work among the community. For over a century they have become part of people’s everyday lives, but hat could get a garda into trouble these days.

There was a story earlier in the year in the Irish Independent concerning a garda who was suspended for three years after giving an elderly man in the midlands an unclaimed bicycle that had been lying around the garda station. It was during Covid, and the older man was living in an isolated area and needed a bicycle to get out to the shops.

His own bike was unusable and the garda became aware of this. He knew there was a bike in the station that nobody had claimed so he gave it to the older man to help him out. That good deed brought the wrath of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation down upon him.

In 2020 they raided his home and also called to home of the older man and took possession of the bicycle. The Garda Commissioner suspended the long-serving garda for three years while the case was investigated by specialist investigators in the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

At the end of their investigation, it was decided the garda had no criminal case to answer and the officer concerned was reinstated.

That wasn’t the end of the matter though. Disciplinary proceedings were instigated against the garda because he neglected to fill out the necessary paperwork. While that process was underway, he was confined to “restricted duties”, which meant he could not deal with the public he’d sworn to serve.

That case came before a board comprised of a legal professional, a superintendent and a chief superintendent unconnected to the case. The garda faced five disciplinary charges including discreditable conduct, disobedience, misuse of property and neglect of duty. That garda has now been cleared of any wrongdoing by the disciplinary inquiry.

A four-day hearing was held last February and by early March the board rejected all five disciplinary charges. The board’s decision was sent to the Garda Commissioner who can decide to accept or reject it.

In light of that, you’d have to wonder what all the fuss was about in the first place? How was a seemingly innocent good deed identified as a case with such potential criminal implications that it required the services of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation to investigate it? And who made that initial determination?

An Garda Síochána has an obligation to protect people from the risks and effects of corrupt behaviour, and to prevent and prosecute any form of corruption that impacts upon the delivery of a quality policing service to the community. That’s as it should be, but in recent times, they seem to have gone over the top with their interpretation of corruption.

During my 35 years in An Garda Siochana, I was fortunate enough to serve under many fine officers who held senior positions in the organisation, most of whom were blessed with some degree of common sense. Unfortunately, that commodity appears to be sadly lacking in the Force today.

We’ve reached that time of the year when people start making preparations for summer holidays. For some, that will mean long haul flights. The kind that take forever, cost a fortune and give you a dose of jetlag when you eventually arrive at your destination. They’re not easy.

Thanks to my daughter’s decision to relocate to Australia for a few years, my wife and I will be dealing with that challenge at the end of the year. As much as we are looking forward to seeing them all again, the thought of the travel doesn’t excite me. I’ve made the journey down-under twice before and I swore I would never do it again.

It takes about 30 hours to get there, give or take, depending on lay overs etc. and most of that time is spent sitting in a confined space at high altitude. Apart from the discomfort, there are certain risks attached to long flights too like deep vein thrombosis (DVT) which happens when a blood clot forms in your body. That can prove to be fatal if not treated in time.

Flight socks are designed to prevent this condition and the last time I flew long-haul my wife pestered me to wear them. I eventually caved in, but I didn’t like them. I found they made my legs hot and itchy, nevertheless I persevered for a quiet life. I secretly questioned the value of them at the time, but I’ve since worn them in hospital after surgery, so they’re obviously regarded by the medical community.  

Whatever about wearing them on long flights, I never considered them for shorter trips. I fly to Cyprus regularly which takes about five hours, and I haven’t worn the socks on those flights. I’m about to reconsider that and I’ll tell you why.

Not long after arriving in Cyprus last September, I got a flare up of gout. That wasn’t out of the ordinary for me. I need to keep hydrated in the heat of the sun but sometimes I slip up. A blast of gout soon reminds me to start hosing down the water but it’s a bit late at that stage. It’s a painful condition which usually affects the big toe.

It occurs when uric acid in the blood stream crystalises in the joint of the toe and it feels as if there are splinters of glass in there. The area turns red and becomes inflamed making it difficult to walk. A course of anti-inflammatory tablets with lots of water usually fixes the problem.

Gout sufferers get absolutely no sympathy. When you explain to someone that you’re limping badly because you’re having a gout attack you can expect to be laughed at. Henry VIII suffered from it, and it was considered to be an illness that only afflicted the wealthy brought on by a diet of pheasant and red wine apparently. Not in my case though.

My gout attack cleared up and when I got a similar sensation in my left heel a week later, I wasn’t too alarmed. It was unusual though in so far as it was attacking a new area. It spread as the week wore on, extending further up my calf. It was extremely painful, so I made my way to a local pharmacist and showed her the affected area.

She gave me strong anti-inflammatories and advised me to see a doctor if it didn’t improve in three days. She was worried it might be thrombosis. I asked her what that meant and she tried her best to explain in English, which wasn’t her first language, and when she mentioned heart, I switched off. There is no history of heart trouble in the family, so I tuned out.

Three days later, the swelling had decreased but it hadn’t disappeared completely. In fact, it took a couple of weeks before the leg was back to normal, and in the meantime, like most men, I ignored it. When I got home at the end of November, I took myself off to my GP and I showed him some photographs of my swollen calf and I could tell he was concerned.

He handed me a referral letter and told me to take it to the emergency department at the Mater Private Hospital. Sooner rather than later he suggested. I headed there the following morning bright and early and after a battery of tests, they discovered two blood clots in the calf area of my left leg.

Clots can develop if you don’t move for a long time when traveling a long distance or when you’re confined to bed after surgery or because of illness. They’re painful things and can cause swelling but sometimes there may be no noticeable symptoms.

It’s a serious condition because clots in the veins can break loose and travel through the bloodstream into the lungs, blocking blood flow. I always associated DVT with long haul flights but that’s not the case apparently. My consultant recommended wearing flight socks or compression socks for flights over three and a half hours which pretty much covers many of the regular hot spots.

He says that our legs swell on flights at the best of times and that puts pressure on the veins which over time could interfere with the circulation. He stressed the importance of keeping hydrated during flights too.

If not wearing flight socks, the advice when traveling is to take frequent breaks to stretch the legs. Stand up and walk around occasionally and if traveling by car, stop every hour or so and move about. If that’s not possible, do lower leg exercises. Raise and lower your heels while keeping your toes on the floor. Then raise your toes while keeping your heels on the floor.

Better still, just wear flight socks.

Vera Hartland was a well-known local councillor in Cobh back in the days when we had an Urban District Council. She lived in St. Patricks Square at the top of East Hill with her brother Ernie. She operated a small sweetshop from her back garden, but as children, we were half afraid to go in there because she could eat you alive.

Miss Hartland as she was known (only the very brave dared to address her as Vera) was famous for her sharp tongue and could be very direct at council meetings. On one occasion in 1960, she was unhappy with a decision the county council had taken.

She took it up at a meeting of the Southern Committee of Cork County Council, and asked the Chairman, Mr. M J Corry, T.D. for an explanation. She said the chairman did not have the power to do this on his own. “I challenge him to give the facts so that you may judge him here with me.” she said.

Fighting talk and she was well able to fight for the town. She didn’t always get her way, but she wasn’t beyond banging a few heads together. It’s a pity we don’t have Vera around today because it seems to me that Cobh has become a forgotten land. And has been for some time.

Back in 2008 I wrote a letter to the Irish Examiner complaining about the rising cost of motor tax and the poor condition of our roads. Something I had been banging on about for a while. I had just bought a new car in 1997 when I hit a pothole in east Cork. The car developed a permanent limp as a result.

The road into Cobh back then was in bad shape too, littered with bumps, humps, depressions, potholes and general uneven surfaces. In fact, it was difficult to find a stretch of roadway that was free of blemishes all of which were contributing to a reduction in the shelf life of my car. I finished my letter by looking for accountability given that the grit and liquid tar system for filling potholes wasn’t fit for purpose.

Fast forward to today, 28 years later, and sadly that same letter could still apply to the condition of the road network in Cobh. I was driving home from my early morning swim recently when my car went into a pothole with a thump. A little later after dropping my wife to work, I forgot about it and went into the damn thing again.

Putting four new tyres on any car isn’t cheap, so I was rightly peeved at the prospect of having them damaged. The roads around Cobh do nothing to extend their life expectancy and if you drive up the hills coming into Cobh, you will notice an amount of hardened concrete on the road surface that has come from overloaded cement trucks.

They spill part of their load on steep inclines, then leave it to solidify and to wear out our tyres. This has been going on for years and I have never seen or heard of any company being compelled to clean up their mess.

A spin around the town will reveal a further network of poor, damaged and uneven road surfaces and it got so bad recently that many took to social media to voice their concerns. One contributor on Facebook complained that the roads were crying out for resurfacing but that filling the holes with a bucket of tarmac doesn’t work.

Another complained about the state of the roads and footpaths in Cobh and said it was a waste of saying anything about it. Another contributor raised an important point. She wondered about the accountability and questioned how the contracts for road repair were awarded. She also asked who was responsible for signing off on the work done by the contractors and who was accountable when the work wasn’t up to scratch? Very valid questions.  

In fairness to two local councillors, they took to social media to reply as they regularly do. They are both easily contactable and they make themselves available to the public and always respond to issues raised. I have no doubt they voice our concerns at their monthly meetings too, but I can’t help wondering if anyone is listening to them.

But what really bothered me was that they both fully agreed with the complaints. They also agreed that the situation was unsatisfactory but surprisingly, both admitted they were helpless to do anything about it.

One said,” We need the velocity patcher to come into the area and do a proper job but unfortunately this is the procedure all over the county and I can totally understand people’s frustration and will speak to them again today.”

The other commented “Agree fully and all local councillors keep raising this. Unfortunately, this is the procedure for fixing potholes and it’s a country wide issue. It doesn’t work but will keep raising the issue to seek improvement in the methods of repair.”

And this is where I get confused. If it’s known that the process for fixing potholes is flawed and it’s also known that it doesn’t work, then why the hell are we not changing the process? It seems to me that raising the issue month after month with no prospect of change falls in line with Einstein’s description of insanity.

When Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan announced an investment programme for regional and local roads in 2023, he said “It makes more sense to protect and repair our roads quickly rather than letting them fall into more expensive disrepair.” True, but if the process for repairing roads is broken, then we’re just wasting money. May as well fill the potholes with cash.

If only we still had Vera.

I go swimming early in the morning several times a week in our local Coral Leisure Centre. It was recommended to me by my surgeon following back surgery. Getting up at 6.15am on a dirty, wet, cold winter’s morning is no fun but the benefits of the swim make it worthwhile. The back stretches out and sets me up for the day. It’s not all plain sailing though.

I find it difficult to get changed in the cubicles because I’m not as flexible as I was previously and putting on a pair of pants while trying to keep the legs of the trousers off the wet floor is a tricky manoeuvre. Socks present another complication but for every problem there is a solution.

I wear shorts and flip flops, or sliders as they’re sometimes called, going to the pool and it makes getting dressed a lot easier. On my way home I often call into a shop, and I sometimes get some strange looks. I also get a bit of slagging, especially if it’s a cold day but it’s always good natured.

I wear shorts for most of the year and as soon as the weather improves, I’ll be into them until the winter comes calling again. I spend a good bit of time away too and one of the things I love most about life in Cyprus is being able to live in t-shirts, shorts and sliders. Dressing up for a formal occasion out there just means wearing a decent pair of shorts.

I have never been interested in fashion or brand labels, so the uncomplicated dress code suits me fine, but it seems my dress sense is being challenged. There are some who say that men of a certain age should keep their legs covered except in the privacy of their own home. If that were true it would have dire consequences for me, so it called for some urgent research.

Liz Hodgkinson, a British journalist and blogger, wrote a piece called ‘Old men shouldn’t wear shorts.’  She complained that at the slightest hint of sun, you see something that, quite honestly, should never be glimpsed in polite society or even impolite society – old men in ancient shorts.

She said the oldies openly parade their spindly, white, veiny legs on the streets, on trains, in pubs and restaurants, and even in the theatre without any shame. One 70-something friend, justifying his urge to put on shorts, said, ’We get over-excited when the sun comes out.’

Hodgkinson said, “Well, you might get excited but we, the poor onlookers, don’t. Quite honestly, we don’t know where to put our eyes, even if we’re the same age. You never see old women in shorts – we have far too much self-respect.”

Her final piece of advice was, “So, seniors, do us a favour – no shorts, please, ever – except perhaps on the beach. Admit it, you just haven’t got the legs, or even the face, for them anymore. And if you really, really can’t resist the urge, at least buy some new, knee-length shorts and put in some time at the tanning salon first.”

Well, I qualify for free travel next month so she might be talking about me, so I sought professional advice. I turned to Mr. Porter, an online only luxury clothing business. They say the answer to whether grown men should wear shorts depends on who you ask.

In years gone by, men’s shorts were frowned upon in all but the most casual of settings. In his 1964 treatise on style, ABC Of Men’s Fashion, Sir Hardy Amies wrote that a man should “never wear shorts except actually on the beach or on a walking tour.” Others said shorts should only be worn on the tennis court.

Times have changed and shorts are now more socially acceptable, but they advise that care should still be taken when selecting the right pair to suit your body shape. Shorts might look out of place at some venues too so it’s important to be aware of your surroundings unlike the poor guy in the States.

Bill was presented with a basket filled with assorted gifts by his sister-in-law on his birthday on behalf of his godchild. A book, a CD, a bag of blue tortilla chips, a large jar of salsa, a baseball cap and pair of black shorts. The shorts were a strange choice as he wasn’t known as a shorts man. A few weeks later though he was glad of them when he got an invitation to a Hawaiian themed pool party.

He rooted out the black shorts and a t-shirt and headed to the party. He was greeted by a friend who pointed to the Ralph Lauren logo on the shorts, something he never noticed himself. She saw that the logo was fuzzy, so she whispered to him that the shorts were inside out and back to front. He rushed to the bathroom, sorted himself out and returned to the party.

He soon got into the swing of things and pranced about for the rest of the evening in his new shorts. He attracted lots of attention and was delighted with his new image. He had a great time and couldn’t wait to tell his sister-in-law that his shorts were a big hit.

She hadn’t a clue what he was talking about until he reminded her about the basket of goodies. Then it dawned on her. She started laughing and when he told her about having them on backwards, she was in hysterics. There were tears in her eyes from laughing at which point he said he didn’t realise it was that funny.

When she was able to catch her breath again, she told him the truth. The shorts were actually a pair of underpants.

I learned something new that may be of benefit to our retired members particularly those who are partial to a bit of foreign travel and need to take a flight to get to their destination. I got the following advice from a consultant in the Mater Private Hospital today, so the source is genuine.

I always associated Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) or blood clots with long haul flights but that’s not the case apparently. My consultant recommended wearing flight socks or compression socks for flights over three and a half hours in length. That’s pretty much covers many of our regular hot spots and certainly applies to the “Irish Cypriots” of which there are many.

He says that our legs swell on flights at the best of times and that puts pressure on the veins which over time could interfere with the circulation. He stressed the importance of keeping hydrated during flights too.

People who have had surgery for prostate cancer or suffer from gout have thicker or stickier blood, which is more prone to clotting and, in some cases, it may be appropriate to get an injection before taking a long-haul flight.

Clotting can also be inherited or could come from chemicals which some of us have within the blood stream that we’re not even aware of, because they can only be discovered with a specific blood test.

It cost me €250 for this advice and I’m going to take it. I hope I have recalled it accurately and I pass it onto you for what it’s worth. Basically, it might be no harm to have a chat with your GP before your next trip. Cheers.

I wrote a piece not so long ago about an experience my wife had in the emergency department of the Mercy University Hospital in Cork. She ended up there last August after she fell and broke her collarbone while playing tennis. The treatment she received was far from what we expected.

We arrived at the hospital at about 8.45pm and Gaye was seen by a triage nurse who suspected the collar bone was broken. She was asked to take a seat in the waiting area and despite being visibly in distress and shivering with the cold, that’s where she remained until about 4.15am. Almost nine hours since she had fallen and over seven hours since she had arrived in the hospital.

Nobody came to check on her. The waiting area wasn’t crowded but things were moving slowly. At around 4.15am we were called to another area where a doctor checked Gaye’s injury and sent her for an x-ray. She was discharged soon after that.

It’s hard to blame the staff. They’re under a lot of pressure and working under trying conditions. I was very critical of the treatment she received at the time, and I stand over everything I said in my criticism of the Health Service Executive (HSE). The problems within the HSE are well documented.

The Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation (OECD) in an assessment of the health system last year concluded that healthcare in Ireland suffers from widespread inefficiencies, elevated costs and fragmented governance.

That’s plain to see but it’s only fair to highlight improvements in the system too when you see them, like those in the emergency department in the Cork University Hospital (CUH). That was our experience when Gaye presented there recently.

She was having some issues related to her original injury, so her GP referred her to the CUMH for tests. As soon as we arrived, we noticed the pod system. When we entered the hospital, we were given a ticket and shown to a seat in a pod in front of the triage area.

A few minutes later, she was called to give her details and shortly after that she met the triage nurse. Things progressed quickly then, and we were soon on the move into the Emergency Department proper where she was placed in another pod. There are about 55 of these things as far as I could tell.

For those who haven’t seen them, they are basically small cubicles with glass on three sides, and a seat to accommodate one person. The patient’s name is written on a whiteboard in the nurses, station alongside their pod number so gone are the days when nurses wandered around crowded waiting areas trying to locate patients. Now they know exactly where their patients are at all times.

The place was a hive of activity. It looked as if every pod was in use and when one was vacated, it didn’t stay empty for long. Nurses, doctors, porters, cleaners and other support staff were constantly on the move. It was hectic and while it looked chaotic there was a calm efficiency to the place.

Gaye had a number of tests including an MRI, so she disappeared for a couple of hours. When she returned, she took her place back in her pod and the doctor who had been dealing with her came to visit.

The MRI had taken longer than normal, and he apologised for the delay. He told her she was just unfortunate because they had a run of medical emergencies at the same time who required immediate attention, so she fell to the back of the queue. That’s as it should be. The most seriously ill should receive priority treatment and she understood that. No problem.

She wasn’t in her pod long when a trolly arrived with a lunch box for each patient and a bottle of water. Later on in the afternoon, the trolly appeared again with tea, coffee and a bun for everyone. It wasn’t expected but it was very welcome. 

I have no idea when the staff get a break because they don’t seem to have time to scratch. With such a constant flow of patients through that department, there is little respite for the staff and that got me wondering why anyone would want to work in that kind of environment? The short answer to that of course, is that many of them don’t.

More than 21,500 Irish young people were granted Australian working holiday visas over a 12-month period since July 2022. The highest recorded number of visas in at least 16 years according to the Australian Department of Home Affairs.

That number includes some of our nurses and also includes a 44% increase in the number of Irish doctors granted visas since 2018. The reasons for emigrating to Australia include the opportunity for a better work-life balance, and the ability to progress into senior roles more quickly.

Journal.ie interviewed nurses about their experience of working in different healthcare systems. One emigrated to Perth and she said there was no such thing as a patient ratio in Ireland. She used to have eight patients on a day shift in a private cardiac unit at home and could have had 12 patients to herself on a night shift. In Australia it was strictly four patients to one nurse in the public hospitals.

Another nurse worked in two different hospitals before she went to Australia and echoed the sentiments about the lower patient load. She trained in a public hospital with staff shortages and long hours. To work in Ireland again she said she would need to see an improvement in pay and conditions, higher staff levels and a lower patient to nurse ratio.

We really need to start looking after these people.