Even today there is little enough public regard for the safety of voyagers – much less for that of employed sailors – on the open seas, as evidenced by the recent "'Irish' Ferries" dispute in Dublin, and more so by the hundreds of instances of piracy and ships ‘disappearances’ globally every year.  As I write, a ferry deemed unseaworthy is being tugged to the Netherlands for repairs.   An inquiry into the mysterious  sinking of a trawler off Kerry  - with all four crew drowned - has been  compromised by the  theft from the  stranded vessel of its GPS equipment that held a record of its last movements.  Skullduggery everywhere!

The Pillars were a soccer team of Newry/Bessbrook some sixty years ago. Sadly the majority here have passed on. But still very much alive and the donor of the photograph, is Dickie Rodgers, third from the left at the back.