Civil Defence volunteer: ‘It’s all about the teamwork’

From Off road driving in Storm Emma to a nine-week duty during the floods that engulfed Athlone, Commander Imelda Bardon has experienced a lot during her 12 years in the Civil Defence.

“It’s as far removed as you can get from what I do for a living,” says Imelda, who is a hairdresser by day. “Nobody believes it when I tell them what I do for a living. And that’s what I love about the Civil Defence – you never know who’s sitting around the table and what their lives are like outside. We have CEOs and engineers, people who work in shops – but when it comes down to it we’re all trained in the same manner and we can all rely on each other to go out as a team. That’s what’s so good about it.

“I didn’t think I’d take to it like I have, but I absolutely love it,” says The Downs native, who joined shortly after her children were old enough. “You meet some great people, a huge mixture of people. Everyone brings something to the table, everyone has their own skill-set, and the skills you learn in Civil Defence are second to none,” she says.

With the planning for Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in August 2020 now well advanced, Imelda talks about the perks of being part of the volunteer based organisation that supports frontline emergency services.

“We’re trained to the same standard as any outside agency, any qualification that we get – medical qualifications or water qualifications – we’re held to high standard, PHECC (Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council), and the same with water – we’re Rescue 3 Europe. We’ve also devised our own courses and streamlined those with An Garda Síochána.”

The Civil Defence is the second response to the primary response agency, called on by the National Ambulance Service, the gardaí or the army. It also has an auxiliary fire service.

Under the Department of Defence and the local authorities, the Civil Defence is funded by the government.

A ‘Missing Persons Search Instructor’, Imelda also teaches Emergency First Response, Cardiac First Response, First Aid, and Map and Compass reading, to name but a few of her many skills.

She also loves the feeling of volunteering her time.

“I was in the Cold Weather Shelter in Dublin – it’s a shelter that Dublin Civil Defence run in conjunction with Dublin City Council every year. It starts around the beginning of November runs until the middle of March, depending on the weather.

“It’s a shelter for 20 men, and we provide first aid cover for them, we feed them and settle them in for the night, then give them their breakfast and see them off in the morning.

“We’ve been doing that for the last five years. We take a two or three-week blocks and we send two people up. I left in the evening about quarter past six, and I got home at about ten o’clock the next morning. It’s a really rewarding duty, the men we meet are so grateful. It can be hard, you look at them and think, ‘that could be my brother, an uncle – anyone, but at least for tonight they are safe’.

Imelda was heavily involved in devising a national Civil Defence Missing Persons Search Responder Course. “In the case of a missing person, the gardaí will call us in and we’ll put feet on the ground. We have the drone in the air for hard to reach areas. We have been providing training for new instructors in Belvedere for the last 18 months.

“We are called out in the cold weather or for any of the snow or flooding events. The the last flooding event in Athlone and we were there every day for nine weeks. We moved people in and out of their houses, helped save their furniture, did medical checks on those who were unable to get out of their houses, did grocery shopping for them, took them to the doctor, collect their prescriptions – you name it, we do it, just to keep people safe.”

For the snow event last year, Storm Emma, Westmeath Civil Defence was on the road from six in the morning until ten at night, ferrying nurses to and from work, taking patients to Tullamore for dialysis, and public health nurses to calls out the country.

“That’s where the driving comes in handy,” said Imelda, who was the winner of the national 4x4 Off Road Driver of the Year award, with Terrafirma Training.

“We did a basic vehicle handling course in Belvedere first, and up at their premises at Millbrook in Kildare, we did a more advanced driving course that teaches you how to really handle the vehicle. I loved it. That culminated in them arriving down to a meeting in early December last year (2018), with a lovely glass plaque and my name on it as well as well as a certificate.”

Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2020 will present a major undertaking for the Civil Defence, which is tasked with attending to the medical side of the event. “Civil Defence will collectively come together for that, we’ll have the assistance of seven other counties that will come in and help us with that. That’s all in motion at the moment.

Currently awaiting the fit out of a new Civil Defence building in Forest Park, a hold on recruitment is in place for the time being, but there are plans in place to recommence recruitment as soon as possible.

“We’re looking forward to the new building, to getting the new recruitment drive up and going, we’re looking forward to getting busy again,” says Imelda, who adds that volunteers give as much of their time as they wish.

“For the training and the skills that you gain, it is nice to see people giving something back. Some people give the minimum, at least four or five duties a year, which in the grand scheme of things is not a huge amount. You have to regularly turn up to training, which is just once a week. For people joining, apart from the volunteering and skills you learn, it’s about the social aspect as well.”

Anyone interested in joining can visit the Westmeath County Council website and look up Civil Defence. There you will find a contact number and email address.

“If they let us know of their interest in joining, we will contact them once recruiting begins again,” says Imelda. “We have a 12-week induction programme that gives a little taste of everything the Civil Defence is about.

Most people know by the end of the 12-week course whether it’s for them, or not,” she said.