The ghosts of time past will have the place to themselves

FIRST it was the green men, and now it will be no men at all.

Thirty years ago the green men popped up all over rural Ireland when opening times in Garda stations were curtailed.

If you needed an officer in an emergency, you went to the station where the green man put you in touch with the nearest available station. The green man was thus described in Dáil Éireann by the then justice minister in March 1984 as the scheme was rolled out.