Racing at Bellewstown was abandonned on Tuesday evening. The decision being made after horses slipped up in the first two races of the intended eight race card. Thus it became the second fixture cut short in little over a week.
The other halt coming in Killarney after Paddy O’Brien and one other rider had to be taken to hospital after suffering heavy falls in jump races. Thus meaning that both ‘on course’ ambulances were in fact not at their post. And, as is only correct and right, in such circumstances that racing can’t continue.
That reality recently got me thinking. Look, no matter what way you think about the M9 accident on August 16th, it was and is an indescribable tragedy for the many people involved.
Indeed it can be considered as such for the entire nation. Because the overriding feeling is that the innocent family whose lives have upskuttled by the events near Moone in Co Kildare could’ve been any one of us.
That said, I don’t see what was to be gained from lacerating the five deceased young men or their families. There are truly no winners in the horrendous situation.
As has been said repeatedly in the ten days since the incident (it was no accident) occurred, what these late kids – and ultimately that’s what they were – was wrong. Heinously and ultimately fatally so. But there are so many angles that can be analysed from.
Since the awful event and in the voluminous coverage which has taken place thereon, there has been much conjecture and rightly so about the harrowing scene and circumstances encountered by emergency services personnel at that scene.
They will almost certainly require counselling thereafter and it would be no surprise if some of them ended up leaving their positions after having to deal with such trauma.
Still, there is yet another angle from which this terrible situation must be viewed. While, obviously, those involved in the dreadful event would’ve been desperately in need of the assistance of the emergency services – and the deceased had to be afforded as much dignity as was possible in the circumstances – there’s no getting away from the fact that the entire tragedy only occurred because the young lads made a stupid, senseless and ultimately fatal decision almost certainly just for kicks.
But here’s also another thing – what other emergencies were Gardai/ambulance/fire services delayed getting to or taken away from going to deal with something that should never have happened. How many peoples’ relatives had to wait longer for ambulances? How many burglars got away after terrifying home owners before John Law could get there?
While in no way are or could the actions of the deceased be defended, excoriating their now bereaved and grieving parents – which there was a bit of a pile on of (particularly online) in the immediate aftermath of the incident, does nothing but increase their upset and distress. Something alluded to in a weekend interview with the mother of one of the victims.
You can think what you like of said interaction with the press, there is no set menu for dealing with grief, as I’ve learned all too well over the last decade or so.
Surely, though, to prevent the likes of the M9 atrocity happening again – there have already been copycat attempts here and one with even more catastrophic consequences in the UK – the start point has to be deciphering how young people end up falling into that lifestyle.
Equally if not more important, mind you, is to find out WHO eh, dare one say, groomed youngsters into that kind of lifestyle.
I am not in the slightest purporting to have the necessary answers or an iota where to begin even looking for them. However, using broad brush strokes to ascribe everything to social media or life online is lazy and stereotypimg.
The two factors focussed on above enable an awful lot of good in the world, but, somewhat poignantly fittingly if a reference point was required for the importance of digging deeper to see where the root of young people’s perhaps dodgy decision making, one need only look at the recently screened Channel 4 documentary Rhiannan: The Schoolgirl Terrorist?
In 2020, the teenager became the youngest person in Britain charged with terror offences. Even though it would come out after Ms. Rudd had taken her own life that she had, in fact, been groomed into having her radicalist views by American Chris Cook.
All of this is not being written to be hysterical or – though it might appear otherwise – to have a pop at anybody. It comes from lived personal experience.
Almost a year ago, on what turned out to be my late mother’s last night at home, we knew she was seriously ill and therefore called an ambulance. As is standard procedure now, the cardiac first responders were in rapidly, but, despite emphasising the fact that the poor woman was gasping for breath, it took the ambulance 25 minutes to get here.
Now, not for a second am I saying that their arrival would’ve made any difference in the long run, but, you do wonder how a case in which the urgency of the situation was emphasised could have taken so long to be attended to.
Then again, when you see what transpired in the Moone case you understand the pressures emergency personnel come under. Something I admittedly have a whole different perspective on in recent months with a family member and several close friends now in that line of work.
A few races being cancelled is far from the worst thing that could happen.
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