Photo Essay: Working at Christmas - 'It was a special day'
Community garda Laura O'Connor spent most of her Christmas Day shift working with volunteers at Cork Penny Dinners.
For most people, Christmas is a period of down-time, relaxation and rest.
And, after this year, it was a quiet time that most people were keenly looking forward to.
But, as with other years, while some of us can put our feet up, that isn't the case across the board.
On Christmas Day and the days before and after, a host of workers are facing busy spells, keeping essential services running smoothly, and ensuring we are safe and secure.
That ranges from a nurse keeping a watchful eye over some newborns, to the community garda checking in on vulnerable members of the community, to the bishop looking out over an unusually empty church.
We took some time to talk to just a few of those who don't get to turn off at this time of year.
Community garda Laura O'Connor has spent most of the last 11 years working for the Christmas period, including Christmas Day.
This year, she turned up for a 12-hour shift at the Bridewell Garda Station in Cork city, leaving behind her a two-year-old daughter and a 10-month-old son.
With her infectious wit and positive outlook, she is not just a boost for her colleagues but also those they interact with on the day.
Working with colleague Kay Griffin, much of this Christmas was spent looking out for the elderly and vulnerable.
They check up on people they know might be in a vulnerable position, or who simply might appreciate a call.
While she said that “thankfully” most of her Christmas Day shifts have passed without incident, her characteristic rapid-fire banter slows to a more reflective look back over the years; there are a few incidents that stick with her.
Luckily, this year was mainly spent working with volunteers at Penny Dinners in the city centre, dropping lunch to a local pensioner, and responding to a false alarm at a local school.
Normally, over Christmas and the New Year, Bishop Fintan Gavin of the Diocese of Cork and Ross would greet people at the door of Cork city's North Cathedral.
But 2020 was far from normal.
Instead, he had to enter and leave via a side door and couldn't reach out to greet his parishioners directly.
While the cathedral's capacity is typically 800, more than 1,100 crammed in for his ordination in June 2019.
For his second Christmas as a bishop in Cork, the Dubliner looked out at a cathedral where just 154 people were able to attend mass.
He stops short at calling the new church-going “normal” weird.
“It’s an adjustment,” he said.
“Is it an adjustment I like? No.
“Is it necessary? Yes, it is.”
He has held services on his own, broadcasting over a webcam, so to have people attend in person ceremonies, albeit just for a few weeks, was a welcome change, he said.
“It is about people, so having people gathering is great, even if it is in small numbers because they represent everybody else who can’t attend.”
On duty from the earliest hours of the morning on Christmas Day, third officer Ger Ryan said this Christmas proved to be a little quieter than normal.
"Maybe this might be the start of a good trend; maybe something good has come out of Covid," he said.
"We managed to get fire safety messages across on social media. And the weather was poor, and people were staying in."
A small number of incidents on Christmas Day took them to Lower Glanmire Road and Magazine Road, but, ultimately, previous years had been much busier, he said.
With eight babies born in Cork University Maternity Hospital on Christmas Day, nurses were in for a busy day.
Among them was Hayley March, who was on duty in the neonatal unit.
“It is lovely to work Christmas Day because you are part of a lovely atmosphere and I'm very proud to be with my colleagues who have been through an awful lot over the last few months,” she said.
She was one of 10 neonatal nurses on duty, looking after 20 babies. She put in a 12-hour day at the hospital, where she has worked since 2016.
“It was a special day,” she said.
“As well as doing usual duties checking babies and doing our jobs, we had a secret Santa.
“And we had lunch given to us by the hospital and parents brought in hampers and goodies.”
She added: “I have worked Christmas days before and this was one of the best ones that I have worked.
“There was just a great atmosphere.
“Everyone put a lot of effort in to make it really special this year.”
For those who have lived in Cork city for some time, floods are an unwelcome and somewhat regular occurrence.
Luckily, none have reached the levels of the infamous flood of November 19, 2009, which saw millions of euros of damage to homes, offices and other city buildings.
For waterworks officers Peter Heslin and Jer Newman, their focus is ensuring that nothing like that flood would happen again.
Bad weather in recent weeks have put the water services under stress, but people like Peter and Jer ensure it all keeps ticking over.
To look at some of the pumps and filters in the water treatment plant on the Lee Road, you’d be forgiven for thinking you had stepped into the engine room of a 19th-century steamship.
And that’s hardly surprising given that drinking water treatment began in 1879, and there have been no major upgrades since the 1950s.
Every part of the plant needs to be constantly supervised and maintained.
Jer, who has worked at the plant for 39 years, said: “We are the one essential service people take for granted.
“This is because, except for disasters like what happened in 2009, there is always water in the tap.”
Christmas, for many, was to be spent without visitors this year, but a welcome addition each year is that of a friendly voice.
For many of us, that voice is John Creedon, echoing through a radio speaker on Christmas Day for many years.
His first stint working on Christmas came as a child – he grew up above the Inchigeela Dairies shop run by his family on Coburg Street. While they closed Christmas Day, it was inevitable someone would come knocking at the door for the essentials.
“That ‘always-on’ economy has followed me throughout my life," he laughed.
He has never been tempted to pre-record the show, whose listeners this year included Emma, from Boston, Ellen in New York, and the McCarthy family in Shanghai.
“It is only four hours out of the house and most people do something on Christmas morning,” he said.
“Either they go for a swim or go hillwalking or they do something like that, so the show is my Christmas Day swim.
“Also, I just love the idea of the streets being empty."
Of course, it isn't just Irish households tuning in.
This year, requests and messages came in from as far away as the US, New Zealand and any number of countries in between.
“When you're on air you can speak to one listener but deep down it is not always like that,” he said.
“At times I am addressing an audience.”
One listener reached out from Stockholm, claiming Creedon's voice was booming out over the Swedish city.
Echoing Leonard Cohen’s 'First We Take Manhattan', he jokes: “First we take Stockholm, then Malmo, then Copenhagen, and then Berlin.”
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