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This episode is brought to you by Thorne and I have some incredible news for any of you

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To learn more about Thorn, go to episode 323 of the Behind the Shield podcast with Joel

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Titoro and Wes Barnett.

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This episode is sponsored by a company I've used for well over a decade and that is 511.

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I wore their uniforms back in Anaheim, California and have used their products ever since.

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From their incredibly strong yet light footwear to their cut uniforms for both male and female

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worked for.

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Outside of the fire service, I use their luggage for everything and I travel a lot and they

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are also now sponsoring the 7X team as we embark around the world on the Human Performance

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project.

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We have Murph coming up in May and again I bought their plate carrier.

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I ended up buying real ballistic plates rather than the fake weight plates and that has been

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my ride or die through Murph the last few years as well.

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One area I want to talk about that I haven't in previous sponsorship spots is their brick

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My local store is here in Gainesville Florida and I've been multiple times and the discounts

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you see online are applied also in the stores.

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So as I mentioned 511 is offering you 15% off every purchase that you make but I do

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want to say more often than not they have an even deeper discount especially around

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holiday times.

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But if you use the code SHIELD15 you will get 15% off your order or in the stores every

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time you make a purchase.

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And if you want to hear more about 511, who they stand for and who works with them, listen

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to episode 580 of Behind the Shield podcast with 511 regional director Will Ayers.

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Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast as always my name is James Gearing and this week

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it is my absolute honour to welcome on the show Irish builder, firefighter and poet Jared

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Devine.

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Now with this being St. Patrick's Day I felt this was the perfect time to air such a powerful

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conversation.

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So we discuss a host of topics from his early life, building houses in both Ireland and

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the US, his journey into the fire service, paramedicine in Dublin, his pilgrimage in

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Spain, volunteering in Africa and to round off this incredible conversation he reads

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one of his poems The Firefighter's Call.

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Now before we get to this incredible conversation as I say every week please just take a moment,

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go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe to the show, leave feedback and

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leave a rating.

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Every single 5 star rating truly does elevate this podcast therefore making it easier for

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others to find and this is a free library of over 900 episodes now.

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So all I ask in return is that you help share these incredible men and women stories so

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I can get them to every single person on planet earth who needs to hear them.

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So with that being said I introduce to you Jared Devine.

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Enjoy.

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Well Jare I want to start by saying two things.

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Firstly thank you so much to Peter Conroy who we'll talk about in a minute for connecting

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us and secondly to welcome you onto the Behind the Shield podcast today.

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Thanks very much James, delighted to be here.

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It all came about through Peter Conroy, one of my colleagues in the Dublin Fire Brigade

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so I love your show and I love what you're doing so delighted to be here.

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So as an icebreaker I told you this was going to go out on St Patrick's Day, it's funny

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how the universe kind of makes these things happen and then we are both holding a pint

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of Guinness which is so cliche but this is actually quite a pertinent drink for you and

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your personal life and your family so talk to me about the connections with your father

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and your wife and the pint of Guinness.

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Okay that tastes good.

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So yeah well my father would be from the centre of town and when he was 14 years of age he

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started working in Guinness and he remained there for almost five decades and he remembers

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he was 14 because he got his first pair of long pants and he started in Guinness and

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he loved it, he worked hard but even growing up like if we were drinking any beer or anything

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like that we'd be kind of persuaded, no listen hang on Guinness pay my wages so you drink

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Guinness you know that's it.

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So we'd have no options and actually even when it wasn't that long ago with newborn

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babies the mother would be given like a glass of Guinness because of the iron in the Guinness

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it was considered good for them.

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So and then I'm just trying to think well yeah my wife Steph she was working in a bar

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in town when I met her and they were just closing the bar and any chance of a Guinness

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we were only arriving me and my pal so she let us in and she just poured me the most

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perfect pint of Guinness and I was just in love you know I was like man this girl's amazing

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you know so that was what qualities do you look for type thing but yeah and I was trying

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to chat her up and I was getting nowhere you know I don't think she was interested but

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even then you know what do I work as and set the fire brigade still nothing I was like

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oh man this is tough.

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What is wrong with this woman?

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Yeah man come on I've had more than once but then I literally had just got my dog which

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is like dog Saoirse she's a rescue dog and once she heard that the tune changed like

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because she's an animal lover and she loves dogs and then that was great like you know

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so but I was trying everything I told her I had a pickup truck I told her I worked

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in the fire brigade you know nothing but once I mentioned the dog that was good it was a

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good start you know so yeah ten years later yeah ten years later we're together we're

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married now so we still have the dog she's hanging in there.

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Beautiful beautiful.

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Thank goodness for a lot I guess.

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Yeah absolutely it's interesting kind of start to the conversation so obviously by your accent

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you're not in South Carolina so tell people where you're sitting right now.

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Yeah so at the moment I'm over in Ireland and I know this is going out on Paddy's day

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so it's probably a lot of Irish people listening hopefully on a day when everyone's Irish but

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I'm in a place called Wicklow I'm from Dublin and I work for the Dublin fire brigade but

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I'm in a place just outside Dublin we moved out here about five years ago so I don't think

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you see there a lovely house on the hill and a lot of trees a little bit of land deer come

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into the garden red squirrels pine marhorns it's great because where I was it was city

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I was always a city boy I mean I came up here I never owned a lawnmower before and then

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you know now I have like now I have about five axes you know that type of way so it's

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a big change but it's a nice change and it's fantastic for my headspace and you know just

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to be on my way from where I lived before I was kind of beside the hospital so you just

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hear the sirens you know from the ambulances you know up and down the street at night there

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was no escape from it like so up here you know you don't hear anything you hear buzzards

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flying overhead and or maybe the odd helicopter but other than that we're on the side of a

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mountain looking down on the lake house house needs a lot of work but we're getting there

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you know we're getting there luckily luckily there's no real pressure from the wife you

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know she loves it here too so probably more than me if anything because she loves nature

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and yeah we're happy ever it's interesting that you have those two perspectives because

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it really blows me away that there's almost this perception that you know fire slash EMS

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sit around doing nothing especially on the fire side you know waiting for a call and

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always point out like if you live in a city or a suburban area just go outside your front

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door what do you hear you hear sirens all the time and if you happen to be near a fire

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station or a hospital then you're going to hear even more but the skewed perspective

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is you know where you are now you could see how people are like oh they just sit around

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waiting for a call because you're not seeing you know the immense level of responses that

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actually happen especially in a city yeah i mean dublin it's a it's a busy city and

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it's a growing city it's growing outwards but it's also it's growing upwards you know

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we've a lot of high rise just in the last like five to ten years have gone in and they're

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every day i mean there's cranes everywhere you're nearly you're being sent to addresses

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now and they're not even updated on google maps the city's growing that fast so yeah

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and we're just kept going constantly we do the we do the ambulance and we do the the

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fire side of things so the ambulance is us 24 7 we cover each other for breaks but the

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the ambulance never sits in the station very very seldom and you just kept going from the

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moment you start so the night shifts are tough going and you're kind of you're kind of eating

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food on the on the wing and but uh look it's kind of what we signed up for but um sometimes

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it you know a couple of hours sleep on at night would be nice you know as regards when

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you're working the ambulance but we just we just just keep going i guess you know i distinctly

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remember being humbled by pete and it wasn't anything negative at all but you talked about

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the fact that you have a combination of fire and ems in dublin specifically even though

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other parts of ireland and the rest of the uk they're still two separate um you know

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departments and then i was like oh so you know how long ago did you go to the american

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model knowing that our history goes back some people think it's the 70s is actually the

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60s and the freedom house is the the origin story of of paramedics specifically here in

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the u.s but um it was way before that so talk to me about the history of ems and fire combination

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through a dublin lens yes so um basically what they found was the best the best way

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to survive if you're going to have a heart attack or whatever like i said if you're if

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you have the backup of a fire crew that's ems trained i mean the your rate of survival

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is just it's just like i don't know percentage wise i'm sorry i can't give you any figures

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but like the fact that every every fireman in dublin every firefighter in dublin i should

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say is a qualified paramedic you know so they can jump up they can jump in the back of the

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ambulance they can be doing cpr you know they can be administering drugs so it's just a

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great resource to have and also then if the ambulances are busy and someone's having a

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stroke or even a heart attack like all our we carry defibs and everything on the trucks

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i'm sure most most brigades do but we're very qualified and well used to using the gear

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and we pretty much have them almost wrapped up ready to go as soon as they get there the

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ambulance gets there so um yeah i'm not sure the exact date when they when they combined

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it to what's been going on a long long time i think pete was saying it was the turn of

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the century like late 1800s and obviously again you know paramedics and didn't look

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like it does now but we were certainly in america because i'm more familiar with their

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their history ironically um you know our pre-hospital medicine was basically a hearse you were either

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alive or you were dead and then they started trying to keep them alive in the back of the

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hearse and then obviously that evolved to ambulances and what we know now but he was

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saying that you know the first versions of medical care combined with fire went back

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to i think he said like 1892 or something it was it was way before we had you know i

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remember seeing records of like the 1916 rise in which we have famous events in irish history

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and and you can see the ambulance records you know and you know these old school records

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big books and beautiful handwriting and it's like um a volunteer was brought to st james's

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hospital uh suffering from um yeah wounds to the leg suffering from a gunshot in all

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these amazing records and so that's like back in the early 1900s like so yeah i'm sure it's

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um it's definitely there longer than i've been around just just about well speaking

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of that then so you mentioned that your dad you know spent his career working in guinness

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tell me where you were born and tell me a little bit about your family dynamic so what

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the rest of your family did and how many siblings yeah so um dad and mom both come from dublin

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city um dad's born in a place called brunswick street which is basically beside the luffey

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on the north side of the luffey and mom is from the same area kind of manor street and

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then they would have moved out to clunt arf which is not that far from the city centre

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um every side to see great place lovely lovely place to grow up um like there's a nature

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reserve bull island is a is a is a nature reserve a lovely beach on our doorstep and

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saint ans park great place to grow but it's a walking distance from town really like you

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i've often did it if you couldn't get a taxi or no money for a taxi you could walk home

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in you know maybe 45 minutes and um i have one older brother my older brother pat he's

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a songwriter and then there's myself my brother john is a teacher kevin is web design and

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then the youngest is my sister helen and she's a graphic designer so uh yeah five kids um

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i was at the end dad's uh he played hurling um he said he worked in guinnesses he played

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hurling passionate hurler who would have hurled with dublin and omro who were a club from

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town and um my mother's father was the manager of the team so she'd be brought to the games

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and end up falling in love with dad or vice versa whatever happened and that's how they

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met was through the game and the sport of hurling and um my family it's called the gaelic

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athletic games with gaelic football and hurling and handball as well actually so um they would

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um they would have met through the ga and we were always raised as we regarded as a

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ga family i suppose we all played irish games irish sports and uh it's it's stood to us

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you know i mean we've we have a gaelic football team in the double fire brigade and we actually

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have a hurling team this year in the double fire again and we've trips away and it's great

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actually we've played against the new york fire brigade there um last year and yeah that's

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that's pretty much it a big little family i suppose you call it when i was in school

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you know obviously football was really big but i found myself playing hockey field hockey

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and when i think about it it's not too dissimilar from hurling obviously you can't pick the

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ball up and and you know hit it in the air so much but i don't think people realize just

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how painful it is playing a sport with a stick and a ball that's not not soft you know so

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it it was pretty uh pretty interesting because it was you know kind of ridiculed as a quote

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unquote women's sport but actually i mean you know that kind of version of hockey and

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i'm sure you know stepping up even more hurling um that's a pretty courageous sport to play

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because it's not like you're wearing a bunch of pads and the ball certainly you know isn't

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isn't made so often neither is the stick that you're holding so i've always got a lot of

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admiration for for sports like that yeah it's it's a tough game for sure um hurling is the

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fastest field game in the world i think ice hockey is the fastest game in the world played

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on ice but as regards played on in the field on grass hurling is the fastest game and only

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until recently where helmets made compulsory and like i'd often i'm fairness i would have

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worn a helmet but i didn't always wear a face guard and a few marks and scars to prove it

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when my dad played there was no helmets and he's he's got a lot of scars and that was

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back in the days when you were you were stitched up you were seldom given an anesthetic and

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yeah i've had a lot of a lot of injuries um one of my hands i had a serious operation

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on that and yeah i've probably had about four operations let alone like kind of fractures

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and broken ribs that type of thing from playing hurling but um it's a great game it's just

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it's something you'd be very passionate about and um i miss it now that i'm not playing

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anymore but um i got i got a fair workout i played into my quite in my into into my

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40s from 48 now and probably played my last game about four or five years ago and uh i

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just just couldn't catch the guys anymore so i time to pack it in maybe you know that's

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the thing you can still be extremely athletic i mean i'm going to turn 50 in about two weeks

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time but you can also deny the fact that even when you're probably doing well compared a

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lot of people your age you're not 20 anymore and you start to see that gap kind of widening

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and widening and it sucks yeah yeah i remember when i when i started playing um you'd come

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up against the odd elf or the like and they'd be kind of turned a bit nasty you know they'd

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be they'd be slower and you'd get a leg tackle or you might get a you know a crack across

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the ankle or the hand or whatever and i remember saying to turn into one guy one of our younger

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fellas and i said to him i said listen pal you you need to pack it in you know and he

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kind of he was expecting a rail you know he'd hit he'd hit one of my guys i just wanted

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you need to pack it in man you're you're going too slow you know you're you're getting nasty

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and he looked at me and he kind of did realization like and i never saw him since so he kind

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of he probably burst into tears then i was playing a match one time and a guy went by

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me kind of not made a fool of me but i i just i just wanted to kill him you know kind of

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a bit of a nasty streak in me and i was just like right it's time to pack it in pal if

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you're if you start you know if that's going to be the way you're going to play you know

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lose your sportsmanship it's time to time to call it a day you know so that's what i

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did you know yeah that is it's humbling and it's your ego speaking you know i should still

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be beating that person i've been playing it longer than that person but that's just not

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the way life is the body does not hugely but you just just and you know slower and slower

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and not as strong and not as explosive as you were and and it shows and younger people

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that have not been doing something as long will start beating you and it's a it's a humbling

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moment in middle age yeah true and i'm the last to listen to that advice so you know

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people saying oh yeah you're not getting any younger because i think that can be used as

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a cop out for lads you know not going to the gym anymore it takes too long to recover or

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not going for runs and spotting the joints because you know some great athletes out there

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like i'm just trying to keep going as best i can and well i like trying i'd probably

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the same as yourself i kind of train for um for mental health like um as well it's just

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great i feel sluggish if i'm not training you know so um yeah that's pretty much it

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yeah i think that perspective understanding that you're slower though if you process it

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the right way keeps you training yeah people get discouraged and if their ego gets them

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i go fuck it i'm not going to play anymore this is stupid you know they keep you know

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beating me rather than all right well you know i'm not catching that 22 year old anymore

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but let me refocus and we'll get to to some of the things that you're training for now

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in a minute when you talk about mental health um as we sit here now uh in 2024 we are starting

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to really understand that it's not just what you and i saw in uniform but what happened

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before we ever put the uniform on there's a big part of our overall mental health story

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and journey when you look back at your early life were there any elements that contributed

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to any struggles later in life yeah no i was looking like childhood was a great childhood

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um i always played with as a team with a big brother looking out for me i had a few things

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i i would have got i would have got beaten up once or twice as like you know like the

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local bully type stuff you know that way like it was would have been bigger and older than

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than me or my older brother like and uh and it's amazing i i one guy in particular like

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um i was probably about 12 at the time and i remember i remember just tears in my eyes

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and my my pals were there and there's nothing they could do and i remember saying to them

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like you know someday i'm gonna be a big guy i'm gonna get him you know and and i kept

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an image of this guy like a little thing i kept an image of this guy when i'd be training

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when i wanted to quit you know even say you know whatever it was precipice just keep going

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to anything and training learned how to box thinking of his head on the bag you know and

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then it got to the stage where it was insane well you heard he 20s you know i i met him

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you know and i i just kind of didn't have to hit him you know i just scared had a few

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words of him you know scared a lot he was just all apologies you know he'd no idea but

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but it's kind of like i don't know was it uh maybe it was a blessing in disguise because

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it gave me focus it gave me something to maybe it's not a great thing to aspire to be able

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to kick the shit out of someone but you know it was a lot to be said for it was kind of

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many movies have they made a mess stuff like that you know you know seeking revenge and

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the montage of the guy training comes along but i spent like at least 10 years training

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training so never to feel like that again never have you know to feel vulnerable that

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someone could just overpower me you know so um but as regards um yeah no you know usual

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things you know grandparents dying pets dying that type of thing but nothing i didn't i

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didn't bounce back from to be quite honest i'm lucky in that regard i i'm my dad is a

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very very stoic man you know he he's been i'm my mother too and they've had a few tragedies

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in their life and they just they wouldn't even tell you about it you know it would be

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someone else or another relative would tell you about such and such what happened and

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you would have had no idea because dad and mom wouldn't not that they're hiding it away

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and like suppressing it as such but more that them you know life goes on you know that's just

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the way it was a kind of a tougher generation in a lot of ways and i guess a lot of that

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would have rubbed it off on me and my brothers and my sister i'd like to think it has anyway

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it sounds like they and i don't know if i'm right or wrong in this but it sounds like maybe they

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processed it properly because i think this is a kind of misunderstood element of trauma is if it's

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left unaddressed then it simmers there there's a there's a mexican proverb that i quoted in my book

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they think uh excuse me they tried to bury us they didn't know that we were seeds and i love that if

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you push it down it's going to grow however i also from a hope perspective i truly believe that if

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you process trauma that becomes strength that becomes resilience and so that is how you kind

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of stop the dominoes from falling on that kind of multi-generational trauma so it sounds like maybe

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you know because if it had been buried down and buried down that you'd probably be identifying

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things where it was affecting them but if they had kind of you know the buck stops here i'm not

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going to let that carry on into me raising my kids then i think that's a really powerful

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perspective because that's what we need we need to deal with our own shit so we don't pass it

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onto our children yeah 100 and i remember i actually remember my m with the time when

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people really didn't show their emotion you didn't see you didn't see i didn't see men crying when

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i grew up you know i don't remember seeing my dad crying maybe maybe at a funeral if even you know

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but i remember my my granddad died who was it was jared who i was named after and his son my uncle

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jair i'd say i was about 10 or 11 i was young enough but i distinctly remembered myself my

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granddad were very very close like we used to go to his house after school every day and you know

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play in the garden and he loved us and he i know he'd grow for me a love for me because i was you

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know i was named after so my uncle jerry was a big strong man very very strong man sadly he he passed

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but um i remember bringing me out to the garage and he's like jerry just come out here to me

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and this is the day of the funeral after a funeral and he said okay i noticed you you haven't cried

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you haven't cried yet you don't seem too upset you know it's and and i was i was probably in

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shock i was just a kid you know i didn't process the whole thing properly but i hadn't i hadn't

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cried and he said to me it's okay to cry and i said yeah no i know i know he goes it isn't men

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cry too you know i was like okay okay yeah yeah grant and he gave me a hug and he says sorry and

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and i realized and i was only a kid but i really remember this he wanted me to cry so he could have

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a cry and i remember forcing myself because i didn't particularly want and he had his few tears

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he wiped wiped him away and then he said now we won't say i won't we won't this is the RC could

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this we keep this for ourselves and then he draws a big chest a big strong guy goes back into the

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into the afters into the wake you know and no one knew when he could go in going there

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was looking after little jerry you know i let him have i never said it to him and you know you're

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great guy your character i miss him very very much actually but um yeah it was just a different

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generation and there's a lot to be said for it i mean um maybe some people get too upset too

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easy nowadays you know life life life is tough you know you're gonna have you know the young

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guy you're gonna have girls break your heart you know there's just different things you're

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gonna face and you need to have a little bit of i think a bit of resilience you know and you think

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yeah that's just my opinion on it really so i think the where i see a kind of disconnect

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is gratitude you know when because crying is a an incredible human emotion we literally do it the

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moment we're born you know what i mean so it's there's nothing bad about it at all however

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self-pity is a different conversation and i think the less you feel grateful for the more you feel

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like a victim and i just shared a few things on social media recently one of them was just now

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mark colman ufc legend um rescued his two parents from a fire in his home and then went back in to

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try and rescue his dog which is called hammer which is his fighting name and he wasn't able

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to get it ends up being intubated um because i'm sure he inhaled superheated gases um and they just

334
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just shared a video like two hours ago of him extubated and he's hugging his family and just

335
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is so grateful for his life for having saved his parents but then is also in tears about losing his

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dog like those are raw real emotions you know but i think what happens is if you if you also don't

337
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wake up and realize just how lucky you are to be born in ireland in england in in america you know

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and there's no war outside your front door you know and you've got food in the fridge and there's

339
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clothes to put on then that feeds into that victim mentality which is i think you know what is

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diluting the very healing positive mental health and cry a men crying conversation because we're

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surrounded by people that you know some people that burst into tears over everything these days

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because you know there is that entitlement and that lack of gratitude so i think you know the

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pendulum hopefully will swing back to the middle where we have some grit and some resilience but

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we're not afraid to cry when we need to cry yeah yeah um you're saying we cry when we're born i

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actually when i was born i seemed like i had a pint of guinness and i got i got a taxi home myself

346
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you know yeah no but um no you're right i think you like i'm lucky that i i've i've traveled

347
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a lot i do a bit of volunteer work actually in connection with the fire brigade over in africa

348
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and a bit of building work over there and it humbles you you know you're seeing kids with

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great kids and they're like someone will have sores on their face and you know that that poor kid

350
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:13,640
has hiv and when you come back next year that kid's not going to be there you know so i've never

351
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taken for granted how lucky we were i was growing up you know we weren't we weren't we weren't

352
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spoils by any means but we were we were spoils when it came to then you know when it came to

353
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love in the house you know we were we were we were um yeah it was a very very lucky like but i and i

354
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appreciate that you know and uh yeah don't get me wrong i've shed a few tears here and there like

355
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but um it's it's amazing the way different things it's nearly as i get older now i maybe

356
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beyond becoming a bit more sensitive in the old age but um different things hit me you know different

357
00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:58,120
things that are unfair kind of hit me more or you know and someone someone you lose and there's one

358
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of the guys in work there he had a bit of a turn he's okay now and i remember just thinking how

359
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fair it was there's a great guy fit guy looks after himself and he's almost afraid you're going

360
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to lose him you know and luckily he didn't but uh it's just heartbroken i was just like man am i

361
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having a breakdown here or something like i found myself on the couch with the dog um after a night

362
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shift just kind of tears in my eyes thinking about man i can't you know um there's a great poem and

363
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:31,720
no one's sure who wrote it they some blame say it was a scottish writer there's of course the irish

364
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we claim it's irish so um but it's called uh tell them now it's my dad's favorite poem and it has

365
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had such an impact on my life and i can't even remember it recited but there's a few lines it's

366
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basically it finishes a man can't read his grave stone when he's dead so the gist of it is if you

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think someone's great there's these things i want to do a great job or a great person tell them

368
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this is no point when they're you know standing over at the grave when they're gone saying that

369
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he was such a great fellow or you know they were you know so it's something i've tried to do more

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and more often if someone has been sound or you know just just let them know because unfortunately

371
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you leave it too late and they'll never know and then it's a nice thing to do you never know who

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who can use a leg up or a boost from time to time and sometimes i've done it once or twice and

373
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a couple of months later i've got a phone call saying you jerry you didn't realize what that

374
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meant to me at the time you know i was actually in a bad spot and out of the blue you just rang me

375
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saying listen man i think you're smashing fella and uh it's it's a great thing to it's not an

376
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easy thing to do i think it takes uh it takes guts to tell someone you know because they're like are

377
00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:49,320
you okay you know is everyone okay i'm saying no listen i'm 100 i just want to let you know

378
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you're a legend and they're like okay and eventually they get it you know and uh so i've

379
00:34:55,160 --> 00:35:03,320
tried that's something um i try and do from time to time you know so uh there's a quote from it's

380
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attributed to ann frank is sometimes you kind of think that someone said it for years and then all

381
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:12,040
of a sudden the internet says uh they never said that actually but regardless this is what it's

382
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supposed to have been said by her um the the dead get more flowers than the living because grief is

383
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more powerful than gratitude yeah i like that yeah yeah i think i've actually heard that before

384
00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:30,200
it's brilliant yeah it's a brilliant but that's exactly what i'm talking about you know it's um

385
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just let them know you know it's kind of it you put your heart in your sleeve type stuff but uh

386
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:47,640
you know even um i've rung up the odd uh manager that used to uh look after me as a kid you know

387
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because all these guys are giving up their their saturdays their sundays their midweek to train us

388
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for nothing you know there's no money in it for them it's an amateur sport and just to say listen

389
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just thanks thanks for that and then a guy gave me a gave me a crack at the dublin hurling team and

390
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then i rang him up years later and you know and just said listen like just thanks for the opportunity

391
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like you know the fair play to you like oh it's not a bother you know you deserved it whatever

392
00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:19,000
i said yeah but even so you're the only one that you know so um just little things like that and

393
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um i had a pal there who passed away a guy in my ga club an older man he's ex-army tough as nails

394
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lovely guy and he wasn't well and i rang him up and um i don't want to keep it to you but i just

395
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told him what i thought of him you know the regard i held him and i was just delighted i got to say

396
00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:49,560
those things to him you know before he passed on a few months later but yeah it's about been grateful

397
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isn't it really that's what it comes down to absolutely well speaking of poetry obviously

398
00:36:55,400 --> 00:37:00,920
we'll get into you know your writing currently but when you were in school were you already

399
00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:07,240
kind of diving into poetry or writing no coming here diving in i was trying to dive out of school

400
00:37:07,240 --> 00:37:15,000
to be quite honest with you you and me both yeah i wasn't an ace you i was smart you know the usual

401
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:20,600
brains to burn but doesn't apply himself type thing and my brother pat was very academic yeah

402
00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:29,560
and he went before me you know so that was kind of always in his shadow but um i love maths i loved

403
00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:35,000
art and that but i actually had dyslexia which wasn't discovered until i was probably about um

404
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:42,040
um i'm not sure maybe late primary school but even then there was no dispensation for it he

405
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:47,000
didn't get extra time in exams or anything like that but what i did get it got some lessons

406
00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:53,160
people who understood it like some english teachers and that really brought me on but i

407
00:37:53,160 --> 00:38:00,440
look back at some of my old things i used to write and like just putting letters backwards and stuff

408
00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:05,320
like that which isn't i don't suffer from that anymore thank god i don't think you can kind of

409
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:11,480
um kind of get over dyslexia such as something you're always going to have but you can you can

410
00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:19,080
learn to deal with it it doesn't really affect me now day to day and and then it's seen now as

411
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:24,040
actually because i'd written a poem about it and dyslexia ireland were like all over it but then

412
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:28,840
in my description of the poem i described it as a demon and they were like no no no you can't say

413
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:32,920
that demon doesn't seem to me that's a bad word now you know and i'm like well i'm not changing

414
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:38,680
it because to me it was a demon that held me back even everything from i don't know even

415
00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:43,720
even i don't sound silly but like even in relationships with girls and that like because

416
00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:49,080
sooner or later you're reading menus or she wants you to read her horoscope or that and you'd be

417
00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:57,800
fucking nervous as hell like so um but yeah like i mean i did uh you know i obviously got into the

418
00:38:57,800 --> 00:39:04,840
fire be able to go to college um but i just had to work work harder at it i still i never really

419
00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:11,720
enjoyed reading but there's so many gifted people like einstein even my favorite poet uh yates is

420
00:39:11,720 --> 00:39:19,800
dyslexic um so there's a there's a string in them you know richard branson mamadali there's

421
00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:25,400
seen it you just have a different way of looking at things and actually since doing the poetry

422
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:31,400
i'm only doing the poetry the last couple of years and the amount of people i've spoken that

423
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:36,280
are poets and said yeah yeah i'm dyslexic as well like you know a different way of looking

424
00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:40,920
at it and it's nothing to do with your writing your vocabulary it's it's your turn of phrase

425
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:46,840
is the way you look at things so in a way i've been a great advantage in that regard when it comes to

426
00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:54,040
poetry brilliant well i know that you went into the building industry before you entered the fire

427
00:39:54,040 --> 00:40:00,760
service so you're in school walk me through your journey into to that side yeah i would have always

428
00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:09,560
um i would have always been um doing kind of building work especially carpentry and

429
00:40:09,560 --> 00:40:14,680
tiling that type of thing and then worked in sports but there's no there's no money in sports

430
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:19,480
there's no you know yourself growing up there's very few gyms if they were gyms they were like

431
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:24,840
spit on the floor gyms that were just full of the bouncers you know it's just big steroid guys you

432
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:35,480
wouldn't have athletes per se in them enough that off sorry um but yeah i got into the building

433
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:41,400
trade and then i i am i was working away doing that and lifting blocks doing carpentry doing

434
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:45,720
everything really i worked for a small kind of builder and we basically did everything we took

435
00:40:45,720 --> 00:40:51,720
the foundations and we put the we put the chimney cows on from start to finish we did the decorating

436
00:40:51,720 --> 00:40:57,640
the tiling did the whole lot building houses and then i would have spent time in the states and i

437
00:40:57,640 --> 00:41:03,880
like that i was i was doing framing i was doing doing real thing and concreting and that was

438
00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:10,200
tough work and i've done a lot of tough jobs but and concreting in california in the east

439
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:16,760
you know just using the jackhammer and you're just you're there with like just watching like

440
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:22,280
your sweat drip off you're like just trying to get water into you and then i did roofing in boston

441
00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:30,840
and geez that was tough going i remember um i was only i was about 19 um aid have started on a

442
00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:37,000
thursday and i was the only one that went back on the friday you know it was that was that's how

443
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:42,120
tough it was it was actually what got you to america how did you get over there to work

444
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:47,880
i was i was brought over at playing gaelic football actually i'm playing hurling so you'd

445
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:52,680
be brought over for the summer and it was great because you'd get um your flights and accommodation

446
00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:57,800
paid for and all you got to do is you know play ball and then they get you work as well

447
00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:04,360
so it's been three summers in boston and then when i was in boston i'd be flown down to new york

448
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:10,040
and probably every second sunday to play a match down there in gaelic park or van corp and park

449
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:19,160
you just be flown down for the day play a game get a couple of quid come back and then i went to

450
00:42:19,160 --> 00:42:26,200
um san francisco uh to play over there play hurling over there and football and then i just fell in

451
00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:34,520
love with the place there and i ended up staying there for a while and uh then i ended up going

452
00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:40,760
coming home i came home because i got the fire brigade to be quite honest and i'd done the exam

453
00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:47,160
and then next thing i got called for an interview so there was no i'd no phone over there at the

454
00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:52,840
time so my mom knew i'd probably be in the the irish bar where i used to work used to do the

455
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:58,360
door in the irish bar so a place called steven's green and they then they rang the bar sunday

456
00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:02,280
morning i was there having my breakfast and i have to get home you're after getting an interview for

457
00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:06,920
the fire brigade and i was like oh god you know because i was because over there i was kind of

458
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:13,640
set up as best i could be you know and the car and the girlfriend and this and that and but i came

459
00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:19,480
home and i arrived back in america or back in ireland rather from california the day before my

460
00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:25,160
interview i kind of had my hair bleached long kind of bleached white kind of blonde

461
00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:31,880
shaved my hair off and number one all over borrowed a suit off my brother and just went in

462
00:43:31,880 --> 00:43:39,560
for the interview like totally kind of unprepared you must have the best tan of any uh candidate

463
00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:49,560
that walks through that door yeah i had a great tan and he's going okay i had a guy interview me kind of a

464
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:56,040
well-known character in the double firebate though i've never met him since a guy called wadji

465
00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:03,240
that was his nickname anyway but he had a big strong guy and he had an old kind of indian ink

466
00:44:03,240 --> 00:44:13,240
tattoo on his forearm and he's saying i see you played football in boston for colin kills and i was like yeah that's right yeah yeah did you um were you there yourself and he goes

467
00:44:13,240 --> 00:44:18,280
then i was there in 83 with the fire brigade and i was like oh jeez great isn't it where did you where

468
00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:23,240
did you go out and he's kind of looking at me going listen listen this is an interview

469
00:44:23,240 --> 00:44:32,520
you're a chat and then he then he said to me he said soldier um do you think that him

470
00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:37,720
being physically strong and physically fit has a major role to play in being a firefighter

471
00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:43,880
and i was totally unprepared you know so i was just kind of went there well yeah i said i hope it does

472
00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:50,760
i said it's my best asset he just he just started laughing they all started laughing just shook their

473
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:57,080
heads going all right okay but anyway whatever happened it worked you know so it was luckily i

474
00:44:57,080 --> 00:45:02,280
did a lot of experience you know playing as a team working as a team that type of thing so that stood to me

475
00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:07,960
you know so and the construction background too was that valued i mean you know when i went to

476
00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:13,320
california worked as a firefighter i mean the the depth that we had to understand building construction

477
00:45:13,320 --> 00:45:17,560
especially on the truck companies when we're standing on those roofs and cutting was was

478
00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:23,160
pretty intense and a lot of the people that were you know older than me had that construction

479
00:45:23,160 --> 00:45:27,720
background they were usually the ones teaching us so how was that viewed your actual hands-on

480
00:45:27,720 --> 00:45:33,640
experience when it came to you as an applicant yeah absolutely it was and then in particular when

481
00:45:33,640 --> 00:45:39,400
i started um like you'd be going into a remember like going into a building before and they um it

482
00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:45,480
was apartments i think it was a post fire or somewhere trying to the boss wanted the ceiling

483
00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:51,960
taken down and he was like a junior manager like oh yeah get the ceiling hook and i'm looking at

484
00:45:51,960 --> 00:45:55,720
him with a ceiling hook because all you do pretty much with ceiling hook in my opinion is punch holes

485
00:45:55,720 --> 00:46:01,560
in it you know it has its job but i said i might grab a shovel if that's okay and i don't know if

486
00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:05,320
you've tried taking down a ceiling with a shovel it's so much faster i was taking them down and

487
00:46:05,320 --> 00:46:10,360
slab i think i was in one room and i was i came out of it like you know two minutes i'm finished

488
00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:15,960
where and they were looking at me well they'd like had a little square hole like you know so but even

489
00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:22,200
stuff like when it came to um even heating systems like you'd have an idea of how things work you

490
00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:29,160
know and then and then i actually recently enough there i did in building services engineering

491
00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:35,000
in college and and that's helped me a lot you know because it's all all solar all that type of

492
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:39,880
stuff you know so having just having i'm not an expert by any means but just having an idea of

493
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:46,360
how things function how a house a new household you know ventilation systems all that type of

494
00:46:46,360 --> 00:46:50,040
thing and buildings and that but i mean it's a resource you know yourself i mean if you're

495
00:46:50,040 --> 00:46:55,640
if you're if you're on the truck and you're going to a something an electrical fair and you and you

496
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:59,960
you could very well have an electrician sitting in the in the back of the truck you're going to use

497
00:46:59,960 --> 00:47:08,280
that you know so um definitely yeah definitely useful and it's definitely um yeah definitely

498
00:47:08,280 --> 00:47:15,640
a value i guess absolutely i was blown away in in california they use what's called rubbish hooks

499
00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:22,680
so rather than a pipe pole it's this kind of fork that's probably six seven inches wide and it's

500
00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:27,720
got two two prongs and so when you punch through the ceiling and obviously it's drywall here

501
00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:33,000
those prongs grab the piece and almost the whole freaking slab comes down the first time

502
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:37,000
so again you know right tool for the job depending on obviously what the construction is of that

503
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:41,960
building but um yeah and i'm sure those came from people that understood construction and they're

504
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:45,720
like well if we were going to remove this piece this is the tool we'd use we wouldn't use that

505
00:47:45,720 --> 00:47:51,400
little tiny hook for you know plaster and lathe for example we'd use this massive massive hook

506
00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:56,520
so yeah so i wouldn't have been the person to go to but i think that's what you know when you're

507
00:47:56,520 --> 00:48:01,800
talking about diversity in the fire service i think that's that's the real valuable conversation of

508
00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:06,760
course we need to have all of the people that are in communities reflected in you know in uniform

509
00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:11,240
but diversity is also you know who's good with animals who can speak these languages who's got

510
00:48:11,240 --> 00:48:16,760
the construction experience so that within a station hopefully you've always got a go-to man

511
00:48:16,760 --> 00:48:21,880
or woman that's the expert in that field yeah absolutely i mean we've got an art crew and he

512
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:28,040
works and he worked with lifts and elevators you know and then he's just so he's just so

513
00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:31,480
knowledgeable you know he just knows you know because how many times are you going to go to

514
00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:37,880
someone stuck in the lift i mean it goes great to have you know and then i'm just trying to think

515
00:48:37,880 --> 00:48:42,280
of someone to perfect you really all sorts of one guy used to deliver coal you know another guy's

516
00:48:42,280 --> 00:48:48,040
ex-army you know he's very you know physically strong great guy you know so everyone brings

517
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:56,360
their own and i think actually some some people forget that you know the biggest resource we have

518
00:48:56,360 --> 00:49:01,640
is ourselves you know like and especially if you get a say an officer on transfer who's not familiar

519
00:49:01,640 --> 00:49:06,440
with the crew they don't know they don't ask sometimes who've we got anyone any experience

520
00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:11,960
on this you know you could be going to it i'm trying to think so but you know you could have

521
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:16,520
someone that's an expert in that field that you're going to you know so um yeah it's definitely worth

522
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:27,080
that yeah yeah you know i've seen um i've seen people discount experts on calls you know i'm

523
00:49:27,080 --> 00:49:31,400
talking about the you know you go to a facility well the people that work there are going to be

524
00:49:31,400 --> 00:49:36,440
the experts in that thing and they're kind of like you know shushed i would just we got it we'll

525
00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:41,320
handle it and i remember standing there like this is the person that you said that's an expert in

526
00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:45,480
the lift or this warehouse that we're going to or the paper mill or whatever it is

527
00:49:45,480 --> 00:49:50,920
and so you know having the humility to to ask the people at the place that you're going to

528
00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:55,960
the expert might not be on your crew there might be someone that called 911 that you can use as a resource

529
00:49:57,160 --> 00:50:05,000
yeah 100 you know and um yeah just just a little thing you know if you're if you're used to

530
00:50:06,440 --> 00:50:12,440
being around tools or you know you're going to be more like i consider myself very comfortable

531
00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:18,760
very comfortable too i use consoles every week you know because i'm working at my own house here

532
00:50:18,760 --> 00:50:27,320
and um i mean even today i was up scaffolding you know and uh so i think there's horses horses

533
00:50:27,320 --> 00:50:32,440
don't get me wrong anyone could be trained on something but like say if um if two guys are going

534
00:50:32,440 --> 00:50:40,040
for say um an mur course you know a marine emergency response unit and one guy one guy is

535
00:50:40,040 --> 00:50:43,640
an expert swimmer and the other guy can't swim you know you're gonna i'm gonna lean towards the

536
00:50:43,640 --> 00:50:48,760
guy that can swim or if i'm doing a high rise and but trying to put a high rise team together

537
00:50:48,760 --> 00:50:53,080
and one guy's an ex scaffolder i'm gonna you know i'm gonna lean towards that guy you know

538
00:50:53,080 --> 00:50:57,000
there's um there's guys and girls there we're coming in with great experience and

539
00:50:58,200 --> 00:51:04,440
maybe sometimes it's it can be overlooked but uh generally a good a good scout if you like

540
00:51:04,440 --> 00:51:12,040
we'll spot the talent and use it that's important thing absolutely well walk me through what it was

541
00:51:12,040 --> 00:51:17,160
like for you as a new recruit you talked about being all being paramedics and obviously having

542
00:51:17,160 --> 00:51:22,040
the fireside so what does that educational journey look like for a brand new recruit in

543
00:51:22,040 --> 00:51:30,040
dublin fire brigade yeah so we would have been in the training center um for six months and

544
00:51:30,040 --> 00:51:35,080
in that time we would have done our paramedic training as well which i found the toughest

545
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:40,120
because there's a lot of there's a lot of um a lot of reading involved in that it was quite tough

546
00:51:40,120 --> 00:51:45,880
and it's actually got tougher i mean the amount of drugs we would have to know has at least

547
00:51:46,600 --> 00:51:52,600
doubled if not quadruples nearly the new recruits coming out now but i would have been sent up to

548
00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:59,640
um a station called uh thingless uh things would have been a one pump station in other words we'd

549
00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:04,760
one ambulance and one truck uh would have been quite a busy station as well which is a great

550
00:52:04,760 --> 00:52:11,400
place to serve your apprenticeship so there was flats there these flats called the ballywool flats

551
00:52:11,400 --> 00:52:15,320
and they would have been you know concrete floors concrete walls concrete ceilings and we were

552
00:52:15,320 --> 00:52:19,560
getting a lot of fires and then some of them were derelict but i mean it's just literally like going

553
00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:25,240
into a pizza oven but my first time going into one um i was going in one of the senior guys

554
00:52:26,520 --> 00:52:33,000
and he said to me he said he said to me grab there grab there and he put me put my my hand onto his

555
00:52:33,000 --> 00:52:38,600
the back of his set and i'm kind of i wasn't shown this you know this i was supposed to you know

556
00:52:38,600 --> 00:52:44,920
and he said you grab there and don't let go do not let go and stay you know stay there and then

557
00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:52,280
um i'm like okay so we did and we we did we put out a fire and um couldn't see anything

558
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:57,560
blacks with smoke and then he said right he brought me in afterwards and he showed me

559
00:52:57,560 --> 00:53:02,360
we're probably about seven stories up the window which wasn't there anymore was only about a foot

560
00:53:02,360 --> 00:53:08,680
off the ground so i could have you know and it was a mickey mills fire as a dirty but you would have

561
00:53:09,560 --> 00:53:13,240
possibly i'd like to think i wouldn't if we use what i use my search procedures but

562
00:53:13,240 --> 00:53:16,360
there's a good chance it could have gone out that fecking window you know for pretty much

563
00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:23,160
and nothing for it and he knew that and that's why you know just the experienced guy knowing

564
00:53:23,160 --> 00:53:27,000
what to do and showing me why we do it and then of course when it came my turn to show

565
00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:31,800
to show him the new guy did the exact same thing but it was a great great place that i'm very busy

566
00:53:31,800 --> 00:53:38,840
and close to a lot of motorways so we got a lot of uh a lot of car crashes that type of thing

567
00:53:38,840 --> 00:53:44,440
and then of course we would have come across unfortunately a lot of suicides that type of thing

568
00:53:47,240 --> 00:53:53,080
and unfortunately all ages young girl at one time you know and then yeah different things

569
00:53:53,080 --> 00:53:58,360
different things like that very very busy and you were watched out for and i was only in the job a

570
00:53:58,360 --> 00:54:09,000
couple of weeks and so i like it when it came across a very bad incident involving a baby and

571
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:16,680
it was a bizarre scenario and something i had to deal with and i did i did my best but anyway baby

572
00:54:16,680 --> 00:54:25,000
baby was dead but there was no one on my crew who had dealt with this particular thing they'd

573
00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:28,200
been to cut deaths and whatever but they didn't have to do what i had to do at the time

574
00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:33,000
so there was no one really to advise me but they just um they just kept an eye on me like you know

575
00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:37,640
what i mean made sure i was okay so that was my first introduction like i was only in the job

576
00:54:38,200 --> 00:54:45,240
like two weeks operational two weeks and i'm there man this is this is tough going but i was happy in

577
00:54:45,240 --> 00:54:51,560
the fact that possibly because i was just fresh out of training that um all my cpr procedures at

578
00:54:51,560 --> 00:54:57,560
the time were like spot on i was on the money so there's i gave the kid whatever chance i could

579
00:54:57,560 --> 00:55:05,480
you know but um yeah so i was a really eye-opening um experience and then from there i was sent into

580
00:55:05,480 --> 00:55:11,800
the control room where i spent three years in there and then you see another side of the job

581
00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:20,120
i didn't particularly um didn't particularly like the control room but i got to see a different

582
00:55:20,120 --> 00:55:24,840
aspect of the job i would have preferred to be out on the you still are rotated out you know to

583
00:55:24,840 --> 00:55:28,600
keep your skills up and especially you have to keep your skills up on the ambulance and stuff like

584
00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:34,920
that so um whenever there's an opportunity to be rotated to the to the outside if you like

585
00:55:34,920 --> 00:55:41,560
i would always jump on that you know and then but that's pretty much it i was i think i'm 18 years in

586
00:55:42,120 --> 00:55:49,960
just about a week ago march 6th of march so um yeah i still have a grow for the job you know

587
00:55:49,960 --> 00:55:56,200
i still enjoy going to work which is the main thing so um the control room would that be what

588
00:55:56,200 --> 00:56:03,080
we call the dispatch center here people answering yeah yeah the exact same thing yeah yeah so i've

589
00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:09,800
asked this funny enough quite a lot recently i've had dispatchers on on the show um what was the

590
00:56:09,800 --> 00:56:15,640
interesting contrast that you witnessed or experienced between the voice on the radio

591
00:56:15,640 --> 00:56:21,000
that some of us sometimes get impatient with when we're actually in the stations versus being that

592
00:56:21,000 --> 00:56:30,920
voice and taking the calls yeah i am it was it's tough going it's it's might sound strange but

593
00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:39,160
it's a very very stressful environment and i wasn't really prepared for that i mean you could have an

594
00:56:39,160 --> 00:56:44,600
elderly person ringing you and they're say an elderly lady ringing you and their husbands had

595
00:56:44,600 --> 00:56:51,080
a heart attack and a lot of the questions although it's a proven system but a lot of the questions

596
00:56:51,080 --> 00:56:57,480
are yes or no you know like is that person breathing and someone comes back to you i don't know

597
00:56:58,760 --> 00:57:02,440
you gotta get that answer you know people are in shock that are in panic you know and

598
00:57:03,960 --> 00:57:10,920
it's not a very um i don't know what the word is i'm not gonna say humane but it's not a very it's

599
00:57:10,920 --> 00:57:18,760
not a natural conversation if you like and sometimes you have to kind of deviate i think

600
00:57:18,760 --> 00:57:25,240
from the regimental yes or no black and white type questions and you can get in trouble for doing that

601
00:57:26,120 --> 00:57:30,440
because what you've something going to it you know but i mean when people aren't giving you

602
00:57:30,440 --> 00:57:34,120
they don't know people are in panic you just kind of the human side of things has to come in and

603
00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:42,200
you have to kind of really um i don't know how to explain it really but um yeah it's stress it

604
00:57:42,200 --> 00:57:47,400
really plays on your mind more you know when you hear bad calls coming in i mean it's just i mean

605
00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:53,000
you know one of the guys got a call and uh health help my voice got nice she's gonna stab me blah

606
00:57:53,000 --> 00:57:57,400
blah and then next thing you hear the knife going in you know this is like so he kind of listened

607
00:57:57,400 --> 00:58:04,360
to a murder you know so like that's bizarre like you would wish that on anyone and then but then

608
00:58:04,360 --> 00:58:08,760
there's the there's the good calls which would be considered where you've given cpr over the phone

609
00:58:09,480 --> 00:58:14,360
and uh they've you know the person has survived and then you can hear you can hear in the

610
00:58:14,360 --> 00:58:20,440
background the lads arriving on the ambulance or the fire truck taking over you know you're going

611
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:25,560
okay i hear the lads there now i'm going to leave you too okay thanks you know so um

612
00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:34,120
um yeah so um just a different side of things but i was i was surprised on there how uh

613
00:58:35,320 --> 00:58:41,240
stressful a situation it could be i think it's because you're kind of helpless in a way you know

614
00:58:41,240 --> 00:58:46,280
it's like it's like been at a football match and been on being a sub you want to get on there and

615
00:58:46,280 --> 00:58:50,440
do something but you can't really you know what i mean you can do what you can you know like you can

616
00:58:50,440 --> 00:58:55,560
shout and cheer the lads on but you can't really have an impact as such and that's how i felt when

617
00:58:55,560 --> 00:59:00,600
i was in the control room and in that regard i didn't think it was for me but having said that

618
00:59:00,600 --> 00:59:04,680
a great experience i learned how the other side works you know sometimes why have i been sent to

619
00:59:04,680 --> 00:59:09,240
this why have we been sent to this this isn't our area such and such a got to this you understand

620
00:59:09,240 --> 00:59:19,000
why you know um so it's yeah a tough enough job actually so um it's interesting listening to

621
00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:23,000
you know some of the dispatchers and some of the people that had to do dispatch during their career

622
00:59:23,000 --> 00:59:27,560
and it's the same as some of the california law enforcement agencies they have to go to

623
00:59:27,560 --> 00:59:33,000
corrections first so they work in the jails before they ever go into the streets but as you said i

624
00:59:33,000 --> 00:59:38,360
think one of the observations from hearing all these is you know firstly some of these longer

625
00:59:38,360 --> 00:59:43,880
shifts i mean these dispatchers arrive at you know when it's either early morning or late at night so

626
00:59:43,880 --> 00:59:48,120
they arrive in darkness they're in darkness all day looking at screens and they leave in darkness

627
00:59:48,120 --> 00:59:52,840
there's it seems to be a common denominator about the stress of not knowing the outcome of these

628
00:59:52,840 --> 00:59:56,520
calls because i mean it's hard enough for us responding to know you know the doctors and

629
00:59:56,520 --> 01:00:01,400
nurses and stuff do they tell us if they died they make it um but then the big one that really stands

630
01:00:01,400 --> 01:00:08,440
out is if you and i go on a call and we go to that cardiac arrest but we're bagging we're doing cpr

631
01:00:08,440 --> 01:00:13,640
we're picking the patient up we're loading them so there's a physical exertion but the dispatcher

632
01:00:13,640 --> 01:00:18,440
that heard the murder that's what they're still sitting in a chair there's no physical offload

633
01:00:18,440 --> 01:00:24,520
to kind of flush the body of the cortisol and the other hormones and stressors yeah absolutely

634
01:00:24,520 --> 01:00:29,880
and we say there but the physical end of it so the fitness part of it comes into into play as well

635
01:00:29,880 --> 01:00:35,480
i mean to say like sitting is the new cancer you're sitting you're sitting at a computer staring

636
01:00:35,480 --> 01:00:41,480
into a screen and when you're used to uh for me it's come on from an active background before i

637
01:00:41,480 --> 01:00:46,520
came into the fire brigade and you know and the fire brigade itself is you know physically demanding

638
01:00:46,520 --> 01:00:55,000
and next thing you're to me you're like what's a better word like a desk job and uh i didn't enjoy

639
01:00:55,000 --> 01:01:01,720
that end of it you know having said that it's a great way if you were to get injured you know if

640
01:01:01,720 --> 01:01:06,440
you were to to to maybe have a long-term back injury or something something like that or hurt

641
01:01:06,440 --> 01:01:12,120
yourself and you're not fit to be on the fire ground you can go into the control into the

642
01:01:12,120 --> 01:01:17,480
control room you know so we would have some some of the walking wounded would be in there

643
01:01:18,360 --> 01:01:26,440
or else some of the senior men that are that just don't want to be um you know during the

644
01:01:26,440 --> 01:01:33,000
long nights on the ambulance you can go into the control room you know because you know it takes

645
01:01:33,000 --> 01:01:39,960
your toll on your body so maybe it's the better option and then but you can fall into bad habits

646
01:01:41,160 --> 01:01:46,360
you know you have to keep an eye i think on your on your diet and your your your mental uh

647
01:01:47,080 --> 01:01:50,600
your mental health like make sure you're staying active and keeping the body moving keeping the

648
01:01:50,600 --> 01:01:57,480
mind moving so like you said it's um there's no escapism you know you're just uh in a room with

649
01:01:57,480 --> 01:02:02,920
other guys with your headset on taking calls and every call you get is a call from the doctor

650
01:02:02,920 --> 01:02:08,120
call is the distress call there's no one ringing up to you know to tell you good news wish you

651
01:02:08,120 --> 01:02:14,120
happy birthday yeah it's just all it's bad news you know so yeah yeah it's tough going on

652
01:02:15,960 --> 01:02:21,480
so i want to move forward to poetry but before we do you mentioned 18 years now in the dublin fire

653
01:02:21,480 --> 01:02:27,560
brigade when you look back what are some of the the career calls i mean they doesn't have to be

654
01:02:27,560 --> 01:02:35,720
a big fire or anything but what was some of the the memorable calls when you reflect um yeah there's

655
01:02:35,720 --> 01:02:43,560
some kind i guess uh kind of been to a lot of different things um i suppose there's one in

656
01:02:43,560 --> 01:02:48,520
particular right now is actually on the ambulance that we were sent to a domestic fire and we're

657
01:02:48,520 --> 01:02:56,760
pretty close to it and we got there ahead of the the fire truck so i'm with my pal and we're there

658
01:02:56,760 --> 01:03:02,200
in our like our navy combats navy shirts and there's people outside and on the screen like

659
01:03:02,200 --> 01:03:06,680
there's people in there there's people in there you know we're like you're kind of going i don't

660
01:03:06,680 --> 01:03:13,880
see you running in you know that type of way it's like it's expected of us and them but uh yeah we

661
01:03:13,880 --> 01:03:19,400
we kind of looked at the heaves and we figured it was already kicked we looked into the letterbox

662
01:03:19,400 --> 01:03:25,640
the door was locked kicked in the door and like what it would take well we obviously took a bit

663
01:03:25,640 --> 01:03:31,720
of risk but we kind of knew we were both capable and i remember there was um one woman on the stairs

664
01:03:32,920 --> 01:03:37,240
in front of us i figured she was okay and we went into a room then and there was two women in there

665
01:03:37,240 --> 01:03:43,960
so i went for the furthest woman i was pretty uh that's why i had to hold my breath i picked her up

666
01:03:43,960 --> 01:03:51,080
uh carried her out and that was as i as i'm carrying her out um the the fire truck arrived

667
01:03:51,080 --> 01:03:57,240
you know so basically it's natural rescue which can be frowned upon but like we did the business

668
01:03:57,240 --> 01:04:04,920
we're happy enough with it and so we saved the the ladies but we brought them actually we brought

669
01:04:04,920 --> 01:04:12,840
that woman to um to the hospital and we're hanging around she was getting treated for smoke inhalation

670
01:04:12,840 --> 01:04:19,560
and stuff and they seen this guy arrived and i kind of recognized him and it turns out he he

671
01:04:19,560 --> 01:04:25,720
came up to me he goes uh you uh you saved you saved my mother from uh from that fire i heard

672
01:04:25,720 --> 01:04:30,040
it was yourself and i was like yeah no bother and we were looking at each other it turns out we

673
01:04:30,040 --> 01:04:36,840
were in school together we weren't we weren't great mates or that you know but uh we were in

674
01:04:36,840 --> 01:04:43,080
art class together and he's like tear the vine and i said no lol yeah he was uh he'd gone into the

675
01:04:43,080 --> 01:04:49,560
army and he he still starts laughing he goes i don't know what to say pal he says uh last time we

676
01:04:49,560 --> 01:04:53,880
saw each other i think we were getting thrown out of art class and then now you're after saving me

677
01:04:53,880 --> 01:04:58,920
mother from a fire and we just had a home you know it's just well i suppose the world it's a small

678
01:04:58,920 --> 01:05:04,040
world but dublin is such a small place you know but i hadn't seen that guy in whatever you know

679
01:05:04,040 --> 01:05:13,320
15 years so that was kind of a nice story like but uh had a nice outcome but uh yeah i don't know

680
01:05:13,320 --> 01:05:19,960
it's loads of different things uh god this is usual the usual thing where you're asked to tell

681
01:05:19,960 --> 01:05:25,240
a joke and you can't think of a joke yeah i am terrible at jokes i butcher them anyway so

682
01:05:25,880 --> 01:05:31,240
yeah well with with that scenario for a second something that jumps to me in in the u.s here

683
01:05:31,240 --> 01:05:35,560
when we're on what we call the rescue so it's the ambulance but we also have scbas and our bunker

684
01:05:35,560 --> 01:05:40,840
gear and some tools in there as well so when you're assigned to the ambulance that's there's no fire

685
01:05:40,840 --> 01:05:49,320
gear on that vehicle okay um yeah we wouldn't uh no we'd carry fire extinguishers and um

686
01:05:51,320 --> 01:05:56,520
not really no you wouldn't know you wouldn't be expected it's to be honest we were pretty frowned

687
01:05:56,520 --> 01:06:02,680
upon um at the time when i did that it was it was okay you're told you know you weigh up the odds

688
01:06:02,680 --> 01:06:07,640
you know but um really you shouldn't be committing yourself but to be honest which if we could hear

689
01:06:07,640 --> 01:06:14,040
the sirens you know we knew the lads weren't too far away so it was uh it was well worth the risk

690
01:06:14,040 --> 01:06:19,560
but um no generate the ambulance the ambulance we would always send an ambulance to a domestic

691
01:06:19,560 --> 01:06:24,920
fire you know even if there's no one injured they'd still be on the on the pda to be sent so

692
01:06:24,920 --> 01:06:30,200
um yeah but generally no you would you wouldn't be uh you wouldn't be expected to do that

693
01:06:31,800 --> 01:06:38,040
under any circumstances nowadays right i want to hit one more area before you go to poetry

694
01:06:38,040 --> 01:06:45,400
talk to me about Camino de Santiago oh yeah yeah yeah the Camino de Santiago so uh yeah that's

695
01:06:47,080 --> 01:06:51,960
it's a walk it's a it's a pilgrimage an old pilgrimage and like a like any good catholic

696
01:06:51,960 --> 01:06:58,920
pilgrimage it has to be a fair bit of pain and so the thing is that you you walk to this uh you

697
01:06:58,920 --> 01:07:05,560
walk there's different routes but the route i did is you start in france and you walk across it's

698
01:07:05,560 --> 01:07:13,080
just over 800 kilometers i think it's 820 kilometers to the town of santiago uh not sure

699
01:07:13,080 --> 01:07:19,240
the tradition it dates back where i think prisoners used to have to go they were released but for a

700
01:07:19,240 --> 01:07:26,200
penst they used to have to go to the coast and get an oyster shell and bring it back the oyster

701
01:07:26,200 --> 01:07:31,000
shell to prove they've been to the coast it was kind of like a punishment i think and i could be

702
01:07:31,000 --> 01:07:37,960
getting that completely wrong but anyway i had decided i wanted to do this with like i time off

703
01:07:37,960 --> 01:07:45,720
work i built up a few weeks and um so i was in town with the guy who does my tattoos right my

704
01:07:45,720 --> 01:07:51,960
friend tommy in classic ink and i said listen i'm gonna do this walk across spain he goes what are

705
01:07:51,960 --> 01:07:55,720
you talking about i said yeah i'm gonna go next week i'm gonna go to spain i'm gonna walk across

706
01:07:55,720 --> 01:07:59,880
spain and he goes as far as that i said well in total because i'm gonna walk out to the coast

707
01:07:59,880 --> 01:08:04,840
it's gonna be like a thousand kilometers and he's like geez man that's insane i'm sure

708
01:08:04,840 --> 01:08:12,440
that's grass was walking you know and a guy walked by in a suit lovely suit with an umbrella and a

709
01:08:12,440 --> 01:08:19,240
briefcase and he goes i dare you to do a dress like that i was like wow and he goes go on i dare

710
01:08:19,240 --> 01:08:26,040
you and all right so yeah so so anyway long story short i did and as it turned out then it got a

711
01:08:26,040 --> 01:08:31,960
bit of traction i ended up getting this one of our top designers like um louis goblins like he kind

712
01:08:31,960 --> 01:08:40,840
of designs our tailor suits for the stars he gave me a suit like this lovely yeah well it was lovely

713
01:08:40,840 --> 01:08:46,840
it's not anymore a black pinstriped suit and i had an umbrella you know the twirly handle and

714
01:08:46,840 --> 01:08:52,920
i had a briefcase but um but the problem with the briefcase is i couldn't bring any luggage i

715
01:08:52,920 --> 01:09:00,840
couldn't bring a sleeping bag i um you know i i think i'd like two pairs of boxes two pairs of

716
01:09:00,840 --> 01:09:12,600
socks and then two t-shirts you know so after the first night we walked i walked about um i met

717
01:09:12,600 --> 01:09:16,760
actually a fireman a pal of mine bob legged we wouldn't have known each other that well i would

718
01:09:16,760 --> 01:09:24,280
have passed him in the corner you know different shifts in tarot street and uh we spent the he's

719
01:09:24,280 --> 01:09:27,560
there where are you staying tonight i was there i don't know i have nothing organized nothing booked

720
01:09:27,560 --> 01:09:33,080
these are these are man you have to have something booked the places so anyway he i end up staying in

721
01:09:33,080 --> 01:09:38,920
a hotel that he he had gotten and when i when we arrived there there was a woman there she's like

722
01:09:38,920 --> 01:09:43,880
where's your luggage and i'm like not this is it like a briefcase and she was like she was really

723
01:09:43,880 --> 01:09:48,520
kind of insulted you know i was like jesus this isn't going well like you know so um she was kind

724
01:09:48,520 --> 01:09:52,840
of giving out to me so this is a serious thing this is a serious pilgrimage and you know you need to

725
01:09:52,840 --> 01:09:58,680
this isn't the game blah blah blah so i'm there in a pair of shorts and flip-flops and i was like

726
01:09:59,240 --> 01:10:03,720
turned to bob i said that that didn't go well and he goes she's can't wait can't wait for the morning

727
01:10:03,720 --> 01:10:12,040
when she sees you in a suit so but she ended up she was lovely like and then but we started

728
01:10:12,040 --> 01:10:19,400
walking and i think we did about 30k but i had to go on and do about another 10k because i was tight

729
01:10:19,400 --> 01:10:26,840
on time so like my average distance was 42 kilometers a day but after the first night

730
01:10:26,840 --> 01:10:33,160
i remember saying now i was flying fit at the time i said this isn't physically possible you know i'm

731
01:10:33,160 --> 01:10:37,640
not going to be able to do this to carry the suitcase and that it's just like you think carrying

732
01:10:37,640 --> 01:10:46,040
a suitcase not a bother and that isn't a briefcase either but after a mile or two and after 10 miles

733
01:10:46,040 --> 01:10:54,440
after 20 miles you know it's it's just it's just ridiculous so i did everything i threw out like

734
01:10:54,440 --> 01:11:02,920
my handbook and i just pulled the maps out of it i had a swiss swiss army knife i

735
01:11:03,880 --> 01:11:12,200
used my finger i cut my hair cut my toenails cut my nails cut the ends off my laces any access weight

736
01:11:12,200 --> 01:11:20,280
i had i just got rid of and throughout my t-shirt my spare t-shirt you name it i cut the end off

737
01:11:20,280 --> 01:11:25,560
i was wearing a shirt and tie i cut the ends off my tie to make that lighter anything i could do i

738
01:11:25,560 --> 01:11:32,200
squeezed out my toothpaste half it and then i realized the tube is kind of the heaviest part

739
01:11:32,200 --> 01:11:36,840
of it so i had a bit of cling film like a little bag i squeezed the rest of it into a cling film

740
01:11:36,840 --> 01:11:41,880
bag and rolled up so i had a little bag of toothpaste i cut my toothbrush in half everything i

741
01:11:41,880 --> 01:11:48,520
i could think of you know trying to be and then but i did it but the only problem was i looked

742
01:11:48,520 --> 01:11:53,640
like a bit of a lunatic especially after i you know this tube got a bit tattered and i go to

743
01:11:53,640 --> 01:11:59,480
some places and i try and get accommodation and there was a few kind of head cases i guess you'd

744
01:11:59,480 --> 01:12:04,840
call them that just drifted along the Camino spent their lives drifting along the Camino and i ended

745
01:12:04,840 --> 01:12:09,880
up actually befriended a few of them but i looked like them and i couldn't get accommodation so

746
01:12:09,880 --> 01:12:15,240
sometimes i'd have to end up walking through forests that's true yeah night time and just

747
01:12:15,240 --> 01:12:23,240
had to sleep rough once or twice and yeah so some nasty stuff like but a great experience

748
01:12:23,240 --> 01:12:27,880
but i don't know if i would do it again it was about 10 years ago now but yeah it was a good

749
01:12:27,880 --> 01:12:33,960
crack good experience so yeah it's longer yeah because i was i was seeing her at the time i

750
01:12:33,960 --> 01:12:40,120
hadn't met Steph but i kind of kept that quiet when i met her as i tell you i'm hearing you

751
01:12:41,000 --> 01:12:48,440
that's one your uh your match.com profile pics then yeah yeah but i remember actually walking

752
01:12:48,440 --> 01:12:54,680
through um this i was like that i got turned away from a hostel and i was told to go you know to go

753
01:12:54,680 --> 01:12:59,000
to the next town and it was pretty dark so 10 o'clock at night so you're just walking through

754
01:12:59,000 --> 01:13:06,040
by moonlight with no torch or anything and i had to go through this um a trail through a forest

755
01:13:06,040 --> 01:13:10,360
and in this forest there's supposed to be wolves okay and i'm like now obviously you're walking

756
01:13:10,360 --> 01:13:16,760
during the day there's no problem but at night time i'm by myself so i'm there thinking right

757
01:13:16,760 --> 01:13:23,880
okay don't get freaked out you know um man up here so i kind of devised this now right if i do get

758
01:13:23,880 --> 01:13:31,160
faced with a wolf i'm gonna have to have a plan so like you're wrong you're you're tired you're

759
01:13:31,160 --> 01:13:36,280
hungry you're sore you've blisters everything's stuck the mind plays a few tricks on you and i

760
01:13:36,280 --> 01:13:42,760
was there thinking okay if i'm faced with a wolf i'm gonna look it in the eye and i'm gonna give

761
01:13:42,760 --> 01:13:49,160
it a chance to be friendly and i said and if it does well and good i'm gonna walk into the next

762
01:13:49,160 --> 01:13:55,800
town i'll have my loyal wolf by my side and i'm really like believing this okay and said but but

763
01:13:55,800 --> 01:14:02,360
on the other hand if it jumps for me i'm gonna drive my my the point of my umbrella through its

764
01:14:02,360 --> 01:14:09,000
throat and kill it you know and i'm there okay granted and so now i have my plan i'm happy out

765
01:14:09,000 --> 01:14:13,160
and i'm kind of using my umbrella as like a like a blind man stick to make sure i don't walk into

766
01:14:13,160 --> 01:14:18,120
trees that's how kind of how dark it is and so kind of looking in front of me and next thing

767
01:14:18,120 --> 01:14:23,240
i kind of barely make it out in the moonlight between the branches like a little fluffy bunny

768
01:14:23,240 --> 01:14:29,640
rabbit ran across me and like nearly ran off my foot i almost i almost shit myself and i'm

769
01:14:33,000 --> 01:14:38,600
leaning on my breath i didn't kind of recovering from the fright and just kind of laughing and

770
01:14:38,600 --> 01:14:43,400
shaking my head going like i'm gonna need a plan b if i meet a wolf you know what i mean

771
01:14:43,400 --> 01:14:48,440
because or a plan a for a rabbit maybe that was the problem yeah maybe i wasn't prepared

772
01:14:50,200 --> 01:14:56,920
but no great experience i met some met some great people and then yeah great stories i actually kept

773
01:14:56,920 --> 01:15:06,760
a diary and i should write about it really because i i kept a journal and uh did a few sketches and i

774
01:15:06,760 --> 01:15:14,520
i had a i was given a like a dictaphone from a rt radio who are like our national radio to um

775
01:15:15,880 --> 01:15:21,960
they wanted to kind of do a documentary on it and i still had so i interviewed a lot of people on the

776
01:15:21,960 --> 01:15:28,680
way but when i came home i did an interview for a different radio station and um so they couldn't

777
01:15:28,680 --> 01:15:33,800
use it then i didn't wasn't aware of this but uh they in fairness they gave me the they gave me

778
01:15:33,800 --> 01:15:39,320
a copy of the thing i still haven't listened to it actually but i should maybe write about it

779
01:15:39,320 --> 01:15:45,560
years to come you know it's on the list well i'm glad i asked that question there's some pretty

780
01:15:45,560 --> 01:15:52,200
entertaining stories there well speaking of uh poetry so you mentioned about you know struggling

781
01:15:52,200 --> 01:15:57,880
with dyslexia when you were younger now you've got a you know i'm assuming if i got my timeline

782
01:15:57,880 --> 01:16:02,600
right like 15 years or so in the fire service under your belt what brought you to the world

783
01:16:02,600 --> 01:16:07,960
of poetry i mean were you reading it first and then what made you empowered enough to

784
01:16:07,960 --> 01:16:14,120
start writing yourself yeah so i actually i actually got injured um outside of work i'd

785
01:16:14,120 --> 01:16:19,800
hurt my hand very badly up a dog bite actually and i ended up going there doing some ligament

786
01:16:19,800 --> 01:16:24,360
and tendon damage and i went badly septic and of course when it happened i did nothing about it

787
01:16:24,360 --> 01:16:30,520
i said i'd just go home and then i was picking up scaffolding at the time actually and uh had to

788
01:16:30,520 --> 01:16:35,960
get that home and got that home unloaded it stopped for an indian on the way you know the usual stuff

789
01:16:36,920 --> 01:16:43,080
um did everything a paramedic should not do if you like picking up rusty scaffolding and stuff

790
01:16:43,080 --> 01:16:48,360
and then but the next day my my i didn't sleep that night my hand was in bits of badly swollen

791
01:16:48,360 --> 01:16:52,760
and we were in work the next morning so i drove into work i wanted to one of the advanced paramedics

792
01:16:52,760 --> 01:16:56,520
to see it because i was trying to avoid this sitting in hospital all day to be quite honest

793
01:16:56,520 --> 01:17:02,520
and then he was just like man this that's bananas you need to go straight away to the hospital and

794
01:17:02,520 --> 01:17:07,480
then long story short i sent from one hospital i sent to a different hospital and then

795
01:17:08,440 --> 01:17:15,080
i ended up in another hospital then for a week and two operations on it and i was fairly concerned

796
01:17:15,080 --> 01:17:21,160
about my about my job and about being able to work in my house and someone had sent me

797
01:17:21,160 --> 01:17:27,480
one of the one of the girls in the job actually she'd sent me um one of these um you know you can

798
01:17:27,480 --> 01:17:33,720
listen to a poetry you can listen to a poet a guy uh steven james smith a Dublin poet very good he

799
01:17:33,720 --> 01:17:39,080
does uh spoken word stuff and i was listening to it i was like this is very good and i used to write

800
01:17:39,080 --> 01:17:46,440
a write a little bit of poetry maybe just messing around and and i was like man i'm gonna start

801
01:17:46,440 --> 01:17:51,240
i'm gonna start doing this so i basically wrote my first poem lying in a hospital bed

802
01:17:52,680 --> 01:17:59,080
um because i was kind of you know in there as well you don't sleep i mean the guy beside me

803
01:17:59,080 --> 01:18:03,720
he was like groaning all night and to be honest with you i wanted to kill him but then

804
01:18:04,280 --> 01:18:08,040
you got talking to him the next day the poor guy suffering from krone's disease you know you're

805
01:18:08,040 --> 01:18:12,760
like jesus christ you know so you're like you're not you're not the worst you're never the worst

806
01:18:12,760 --> 01:18:18,520
going to hospital as they say but um yeah i started writing then and then i couldn't work

807
01:18:18,520 --> 01:18:24,520
um so i was just looking in the house here just literally sitting on a rocking chair just

808
01:18:24,520 --> 01:18:28,440
practicing doing my physio trying to move my hand and then just just writing and it's like i'd had

809
01:18:28,440 --> 01:18:36,440
all these years of bothered poetry i'd sent one or two of them to uh to my brother and he's like

810
01:18:36,440 --> 01:18:41,800
you know this this is really good you know you should send it to um a guy a guy called Michael

811
01:18:41,800 --> 01:18:46,600
McGlynn who i used to uh used to give me grinds when i was a kid for dyslexia we actually met up

812
01:18:46,600 --> 01:18:52,600
by chance over in africa um small world stuff again and he was like look jerry this is just

813
01:18:52,600 --> 01:18:56,280
this is really really good i'm probably a bit biased but let me send this to a couple of english

814
01:18:56,280 --> 01:19:01,960
professors and it just went from there and then you know i just do i just do this for sport but

815
01:19:01,960 --> 01:19:08,120
uh i started um yeah i kind of won a couple of competitions started getting a little bit of

816
01:19:08,120 --> 01:19:12,360
recognition and it's not it's not it's not that but it's just that

817
01:19:14,680 --> 01:19:21,000
my poetry i say for everyday people like a lot of that can relate to it you know um so

818
01:19:21,880 --> 01:19:25,880
show to a few of the guys and work and they like it and i might give them say give them a copy of

819
01:19:25,880 --> 01:19:32,440
a poem and then one guy in particular uh came back in the next day he says uh see this poem you gave

820
01:19:32,440 --> 01:19:37,400
me and i need you to sign it for me your wife wants to put it on the wall you know so just

821
01:19:37,400 --> 01:19:42,840
a little things like that so but it's been tipping away now and then um the job actually asked me to

822
01:19:42,840 --> 01:19:50,920
write a poem for them for the the recruits passing out last year and i when i was asked

823
01:19:50,920 --> 01:19:56,440
to write it it coincided with one of our senior who had passed away a guy called paul hand and paul was

824
01:19:56,440 --> 01:20:02,920
a real stock guy a bit of a bit of a legend to say the least and i couldn't make the funeral we

825
01:20:02,920 --> 01:20:08,520
were on days and i couldn't make the funeral and i was a little bit upset about that but

826
01:20:09,320 --> 01:20:15,800
i said a little prayer for him and when i wrote this poem i thought about paul and kind of

827
01:20:15,800 --> 01:20:20,760
firefighters of his ilk if you like who i believe never really leave the fire ground and i wrote the

828
01:20:20,760 --> 01:20:28,520
firefighters call and then i showed it to uh to the guy troy who asked me to write and he loved

829
01:20:28,520 --> 01:20:32,120
it it went through the ranks through the through the training center all the way up to the chief

830
01:20:32,120 --> 01:20:37,800
and next thing they asked me what i recited at the pass out and then from there it kind of got a

831
01:20:37,800 --> 01:20:46,760
little bit of traction and now currently we're selling uh the poem and we're selling for say for

832
01:20:46,760 --> 01:20:54,360
20 euros i'm not sure what that is in dollars but uh 100 of the money is going to the charity it's

833
01:20:54,360 --> 01:21:00,360
a charity called oscar's kids which deals with um kids with terminal cancer it's it's a it's a

834
01:21:00,360 --> 01:21:05,640
wonderful charity really and it's uh it's one that's close to our hearts and in the double

835
01:21:05,640 --> 01:21:12,040
fire brigade um so a lot of these they get um these kids get inaugurated into the

836
01:21:13,560 --> 01:21:17,000
into the fire brigade they're giving their little shirts they're giving their little uniforms

837
01:21:17,720 --> 01:21:25,080
and it's a great idea one of the guys steven cleary was his like his idea um and it's it's

838
01:21:25,080 --> 01:21:32,040
going from strength to strength so yeah we've raised a few quid so far um and i'm hoping to

839
01:21:32,040 --> 01:21:37,560
raise a lot more there's a lot of um like to be honest uh which james like the likes of me

840
01:21:37,560 --> 01:21:41,800
been on this show now if people maybe hear the poem and want to get it i'm hoping i'm in the

841
01:21:41,800 --> 01:21:48,520
process of trying to set up my website that i can sell something for from it you know it's uh i'm

842
01:21:48,520 --> 01:21:52,360
not great at that stuff so i'm getting a little bit of help with that but it's awkward enough you

843
01:21:52,360 --> 01:21:58,040
can set up a website which i've done but to sell something from it you need a kind of a business

844
01:21:58,040 --> 01:22:01,400
website and there's a few ins and outs and then all the money's going to charities that's a

845
01:22:01,400 --> 01:22:06,520
difference a different kettle of fish so at the moment we're just selling it through the double

846
01:22:06,520 --> 01:22:14,760
fire brigade like we've raised like um over 1300 euros so far and say for patty's day now we're

847
01:22:14,760 --> 01:22:22,920
um going to be um the parade leads from fields for fire station and in conjunction with the double

848
01:22:22,920 --> 01:22:30,760
fire brigade whiskey club i'd be reciting the poem for the visiting brigades so that's that's a nice

849
01:22:30,760 --> 01:22:42,520
honor as well and then also then on the 20th of march next week um it's the 140th anniversary of

850
01:22:42,520 --> 01:22:48,520
the first double firefighter that died a guy called john kite and there was a plaque going up on the

851
01:22:48,520 --> 01:22:54,040
street where where he lost his life and like the chief would be there the lord mayor and one of

852
01:22:54,040 --> 01:23:01,560
the pipers from the band and a guy called uh last fallen he's a he's a retired firefighter um

853
01:23:02,280 --> 01:23:08,920
and he's also a fire brigade historian great guy great conversations with laz we uh we talk for

854
01:23:08,920 --> 01:23:12,920
hours when we when we call each other i send them over poems he sends me bits of literature to

855
01:23:13,880 --> 01:23:19,000
give my opinion on so um and i actually that's one of my favorite things about the poetry i'm

856
01:23:19,000 --> 01:23:24,120
getting i'm kind of surrounding myself with these very creative people and it's amazing

857
01:23:24,120 --> 01:23:30,360
this is this guy is like in my job like one guy got brian use he's like a champion illampiper who

858
01:23:30,360 --> 01:23:36,920
i i always knew he was a musician but not to this extent you know there's a lot of talent that just

859
01:23:36,920 --> 01:23:40,200
these guys are so modest they just keep it to themselves do their own thing and

860
01:23:41,400 --> 01:23:46,120
you know and it's it's great to be surrounded by just these creative people because they they

861
01:23:46,120 --> 01:23:52,200
pull you along you know it's um like same way like if you're a bad company can drag you down i mean

862
01:23:52,200 --> 01:23:57,400
good people pull you up and that's what i that's why i'm liking the little journey so far getting

863
01:23:57,400 --> 01:24:03,640
to do a few uh interviews this is the highlight so far i have to say so uh thanks for that um but

864
01:24:03,640 --> 01:24:12,200
um yeah i'm loving it you know and i i write mainly about uh a few poems with the fire brigade

865
01:24:12,200 --> 01:24:20,280
related stuff and but a lot about my my culture you know and my my backgrounds so um i love that

866
01:24:20,280 --> 01:24:28,440
that type of thing i'm working on a poem at the moment there's a guy a guy called david keown

867
01:24:28,440 --> 01:24:39,560
david keown and he's uh the ancient art of a stone lifting of all things which is just it's just

868
01:24:39,560 --> 01:24:45,800
i'm just fascinated by this it's it was like a test of strength and it was it's it's big in

869
01:24:45,800 --> 01:24:51,720
scotland and iceland and actually kind of japan america all over the world really but it died out

870
01:24:51,720 --> 01:24:56,600
in ireland because when the famine hit us it seemed to coincide with that so while all the records of

871
01:24:56,600 --> 01:25:06,440
it were lost but um it used to be a test of strength for example now i'm just kind of rehashing

872
01:25:06,440 --> 01:25:11,880
what what what david has been preaching about but say if uh if you wanted to become a stonemason

873
01:25:14,040 --> 01:25:20,680
there would be a rock say probably maybe 70 or 80 kg and you had to be able to physically lift

874
01:25:20,680 --> 01:25:26,200
that rock up onto a wall and if you couldn't physically do that you didn't get your apprenticeship

875
01:25:26,600 --> 01:25:32,120
so it was a kind of a rite of passage to get your apprenticeship it was also um there's like we've

876
01:25:32,120 --> 01:25:37,640
rocks that are like 200 kg and only the strongest men from around could lift that you know and uh

877
01:25:38,920 --> 01:25:45,000
yes it's a it's a great story so uh meeting guys like that and you know getting in touch with

878
01:25:45,000 --> 01:25:51,160
fellows like that i think is it's just wonderful you know so uh it's enjoyable

879
01:25:52,600 --> 01:26:00,680
i was just looking um there's a female athlete that i saw lift and this was two stones with kind

880
01:26:00,680 --> 01:26:07,320
of like metal handles like driven into them chloe chloe brendman i think it is i don't know where

881
01:26:07,320 --> 01:26:12,680
she's from she's from the uk and or ireland somewhere but um yeah i mean it's it's an amazing

882
01:26:12,680 --> 01:26:17,800
and obviously the icelandics have their you know version of the stones as well odin odin stones

883
01:26:17,800 --> 01:26:26,200
are something like that i think so yeah i think they're like 200 180 and 220 it's phenomenal

884
01:26:26,200 --> 01:26:30,200
like i've been thinking about the grips right i think she's the only woman to have done it if

885
01:26:30,200 --> 01:26:35,960
i'm not mistaken i watched the documentary on it but yeah david kogan actually if anyone's

886
01:26:35,960 --> 01:26:43,400
this check this guy indiana stones is is uh is what he goes by on instagram like it's just a

887
01:26:43,400 --> 01:26:48,600
fascinating story and uh people were asking me when am i going to write a poetry book

888
01:26:49,800 --> 01:26:55,960
i'm like because i would have enough poems by now and i was saying to david i was like listen i

889
01:26:55,960 --> 01:27:01,640
might regret saying this but there's an old irish writer called uh lima flaherty and he wrote

890
01:27:01,640 --> 01:27:08,680
written a short story um called the stone and it's about this stone that's out in one of the

891
01:27:08,680 --> 01:27:12,840
aran islands which is a little island off ireland after west coast of ireland

892
01:27:14,440 --> 01:27:23,800
and this elderly man revisits this stone and he tries to lift it and he he actually he not only

893
01:27:23,800 --> 01:27:31,400
does he fail he actually dies you know trying you know he literally tries his hard to but he's a

894
01:27:31,400 --> 01:27:38,520
frail old man and he's just there lying there dead and the islanders come to collect his body and they

895
01:27:38,520 --> 01:27:44,360
they all talk about how when he was a young man he lifted that stone up to his chest and he kissed

896
01:27:44,360 --> 01:27:48,200
it three times and he was the only fellow on the island that could do it and he was a legend

897
01:27:48,200 --> 01:27:55,080
and they lifted him up on his shoulders and he they carried him away and long story short

898
01:27:55,080 --> 01:28:02,280
through research and local knowledge david discovered that this stone does exist and the

899
01:28:02,280 --> 01:28:10,600
woman just went you know i know this stone because it was like a like a pink pink granite stone which

900
01:28:10,600 --> 01:28:14,760
is unheard of for the area but due to you know glacial erosion and everything like that this

901
01:28:14,760 --> 01:28:21,880
this would have shifted down onto the island and he found the stone and so the next thing he's

902
01:28:21,880 --> 01:28:26,760
there like this stone hasn't been lifted in 100 years and he gets it he gets the wind underneath

903
01:28:26,760 --> 01:28:35,720
it as as an anghéitha fí as it's said in irish and the rock is it's about him i think it's 171

904
01:28:35,720 --> 01:28:41,640
kg maybe 177 i'm not sure so if you were saying when am i going to write my poetry book i said

905
01:28:41,640 --> 01:28:48,200
well i want my poetry book to be blessed by the the old irish writing gods i said so yeah i'm not

906
01:28:48,200 --> 01:28:54,520
writing my poetry book until i can lift that rock that's so so i've set myself and i sent this to

907
01:28:54,520 --> 01:28:59,080
david and of course dave has the madness like me which i love he's just like i love it i love

908
01:28:59,080 --> 01:29:03,480
this i love this you know so uh he says i'll go with you we lifted together no bother to you and

909
01:29:03,480 --> 01:29:09,800
all this shit on it and uh so that's uh that's one of my little goals now like so if i don't lift it

910
01:29:09,800 --> 01:29:16,200
if i don't lift the rock i'm not writing a book i guess uh but uh so no pressure but it's good

911
01:29:16,200 --> 01:29:20,440
it's great that's what we're trying for to be honest with you you know absolutely especially

912
01:29:20,440 --> 01:29:24,280
again you know like if you're not competing in sport anymore but you are still a firefighter

913
01:29:24,280 --> 01:29:27,800
that's what i always found is you know pick us pick something pick something of a train for

914
01:29:28,760 --> 01:29:34,920
i want to finish this interview if you are up for it with you reading the firefighter's call

915
01:29:34,920 --> 01:29:41,720
so before we do that for people listening where are the best places to find you your poetry whether

916
01:29:41,720 --> 01:29:49,720
it's on websites or whether it's social media yeah um so i just go by yeah gerard at divine poetry

917
01:29:50,520 --> 01:29:57,720
and then you'll find me on instagram um gerard underscore divine underscore poetry

918
01:29:58,280 --> 01:30:06,200
or my website is gerard divine poetry and dot com and that's it i'm on facebook as well so

919
01:30:06,200 --> 01:30:11,720
um my website uh it's a work in progress you know but at the moment it kind of links you

920
01:30:11,720 --> 01:30:15,880
towards my instagram but i'm hoping to have the firefighters call up on that very shortly

921
01:30:15,880 --> 01:30:22,600
if anyone is looking to get it because it's it's starting to travel um actually the first copies

922
01:30:22,600 --> 01:30:28,360
in the double fire brigade history or the double fire double fire brigade museum excuse me and then

923
01:30:28,360 --> 01:30:34,440
the second copy is over number 10 station which overlooks ground zero there's a copy actually

924
01:30:34,440 --> 01:30:41,480
the the lads from a tallifier station in dublin are going over to boston for saint patrick's day

925
01:30:42,760 --> 01:30:48,920
and they've brought over a copy of it a nice presentation of it and then yeah it's kind of

926
01:30:48,920 --> 01:30:57,160
starting starting to travel and i hope it continues to and so it basically the that's that's where

927
01:30:57,160 --> 01:31:02,680
that's where you'll find me during divine poetry you stick that in and my my ugly head should pop

928
01:31:02,680 --> 01:31:09,320
up or something something about me maybe and then you can hear me from there brilliant well i will

929
01:31:09,320 --> 01:31:14,520
give you the microphone then so you can kind of close this conversation out with your poetry

930
01:31:15,640 --> 01:31:23,960
yeah thanks it's called the firefighters call and it's about basically what calls us to the job

931
01:31:24,520 --> 01:31:28,120
what's expected of us when we're in and what happens when we're gone

932
01:31:28,120 --> 01:31:37,400
it's not for fame or fortune that most deem necessary no i invest to dawn a crest for work

933
01:31:37,400 --> 01:31:45,560
less ordinary nor be it want of medals cap or polished shoes but a calling to help others

934
01:31:46,120 --> 01:31:52,280
who have everything to lose to face hell's dancing angels and suppress them with each stride

935
01:31:52,280 --> 01:32:00,120
to search resolve from deep within as loved ones weep outside to stand with pride and dignity

936
01:32:00,760 --> 01:32:08,680
when comrades we remember be it pipes lament that fill sad air or silence in september

937
01:32:10,200 --> 01:32:17,480
and may those names that have been etched in brass or granite stone haunt me in the darkness so i

938
01:32:17,480 --> 01:32:25,400
never fight alone and if a colleague's head hangs low from tasting tragedy let me offer up my shoulder

939
01:32:26,280 --> 01:32:37,320
for them to lean on me but when amazing grace is played alas for none but me lower the flag but raise

940
01:32:37,320 --> 01:32:43,880
a glass for i'm not far from thee i'm gathered with the old flames looking down from god's

941
01:32:43,880 --> 01:32:50,680
great height on call if aid be needed to join you in the fight

942
01:32:54,600 --> 01:32:57,640
absolutely beautiful mate absolutely beautiful

943
01:32:57,640 --> 01:33:02,840
thanks james yeah i mean when i listen to what i think of them i think of paul i've seen what i

944
01:33:02,840 --> 01:33:09,720
think of our past that i've lost on the scoss you could be in the same station it depends what crew

945
01:33:09,720 --> 01:33:13,960
you talk to they're going to think of someone else you know it's um it's an unfortunate that

946
01:33:14,840 --> 01:33:20,920
our colleagues become friends and often our best pals and we think of these men and women you know

947
01:33:20,920 --> 01:33:25,960
it's the unfortunate unfortunate thing about having friends is that you you lose them along

948
01:33:25,960 --> 01:33:32,440
the way sometimes and especially those that have gone before their time so um just sort of pay a

949
01:33:32,440 --> 01:33:39,800
bit of respect to them that's all well i think it's a beautiful way to pay to respect and this is the

950
01:33:39,800 --> 01:33:44,680
origin story of this podcast too is you know we all going to go one day but it's when they go before

951
01:33:44,680 --> 01:33:50,040
they should have that it really really stings yeah well i just want to thank you so much it's been

952
01:33:50,040 --> 01:33:56,200
such a an interesting conversation everything from walking through spain in a business suit to

953
01:33:56,200 --> 01:33:59,560
you know some of the fire stories that you brought and then obviously your poetry

954
01:33:59,560 --> 01:34:04,120
so i just want to thank you so much for being so generous with your time and coming on the behind

955
01:34:04,120 --> 01:34:09,640
the shield podcast today thanks very much james and as i said i love the i love the podcast and

956
01:34:09,640 --> 01:34:14,760
i wish you all the success which i know i know you will have because you're very dedicated to it and

957
01:34:14,760 --> 01:34:22,280
it's uh i'm really honored to be uh to be asked to talk here on behalf of myself and maybe represent

958
01:34:22,280 --> 01:34:27,800
my uh the double fire we get over here in this little corner of the world so i'm really happy

959
01:34:27,800 --> 01:34:31,960
saint patrick's day