GODFREY'S GOSPEL: Hats off to our emergency service personnel

SOMETIMES we are so intent on criticising all the wrongs that we see, the wastefulness in the public service, the lack of accountability, the continuous failure of systems to deliver a good service, that we completely miss a lot of the good we see right in front of our eyes.

One day last week, I happened to be driving at the Shamrock Square when I noticed two ambulance units and a vehicle from the Fire Service and wondered what all the commotion was about.

Then I saw what was going on – a man lying on the ground with a team of first responders doing their best to revive him. I didn’t wait around to see the outcome – I do hope the man was okay – but the speed, care and mindfulness all those people demonstrated while working on him was something to behold.

The team members were calm and set about their business in a professional and caring manner. They were going to do their level best to achieve as positive an outcome as possible.

This was not a one-off scene I was witnessing. These men and women attend scenes like that every day of the week. That is their job and they are wonderful at it.

I couldn’t help but think back to 8 January 2019, when one minute I was driving along the N7 back to Carlow from Dublin and the next everything was going in slow motion as I found myself literally under a bailer trailer, which wasn’t having any of it and quickly threw me across the road onto the middle wall of the motorway.

Within seconds, the car I was driving was completely destroyed, left dangling on the middle wall facing traffic coming from behind. There was carnage on the road – metal and glass everywhere and me sitting in the driving seat still trying to figure out what had happened.

I don’t know if it was just pure luck, but within minutes there was a fire tender and ambulance on the scene. Thankfully, apart from what later transpired to be a couple of broken ribs – from the whack they received from the seatbelt – I had sustained no major injury.

But no-one there was taking any chances. I was put on the trolley and into the ambulance, where two people began doing a head-to-toe check on me while the fire crew gathered up what was left of the car, cleared the road and got traffic moving in double-quick time.

What I still remember was the level of communication between everyone on the scene, the quick check list of everything that needed to happen and the speed at which each and every one of those people did their jobs.

I saw the same being repeated on Tullow Street last week and couldn’t but wonder were some of those people the same ones who had rushed to my aid five years ago.

I never did say thank you to the crews who came to my assistance that day – in truth, I was so grateful to be alive and walking that all I really wanted to do was put the incident behind me and get on with living.

In my case, it was stupidity on my behalf which led to my accident. I got distracted for a second or two and suddenly the bailer trailer was in front of me and I had nowhere to go but underneath it.

I’m not sure, but I believe that poor man on Tullow Street last week was simply walking along when he collapsed. But irrespective of the circumstances, our emergency services are always on call and always willing to go that extra mile on our behalf.

That is why there are times when I get angry with people who needlessly put these first responders in danger, all for the sake of a good selfie or to experience the thrill of having a gigantic wave sweep over them, only to find that they have been swept out to sea.

We should also remember that this is a part-time job for most of our firefighters. For some it is a family tradition, either their father, uncle or brother have also served as firefighters. For others it is simply wanting to help who need it. Judging by what they get paid, I doubt it is for the money. Irrespective of the reason, we should all be grateful to everyone working to provide such a service, whether they are firefighters, emergency responders, those working in A&E all over the country, Civil Defence, you name it, whenever there is a crisis, these are the people who are first to step up, and we should never stop thanking them for doing that.