Waterford consultant launches safety book for businesses 

There was a full house in the Book Centre on Friday, May 3, when Mary Darlington, of Darlington Consulting, launched her first book, 'Safety Sorted', which is the go-to guide on health and safety for small Irish businesses.

Mary invited her long time friend, Margaret Bond, Managing Director of Codico Distributors, to say a few words first. Margaret recalled them meeting for the first time in 1988 and how Mary was her go-to person for professional advice while working with Bausch and Lomb. Later they worked together within Network, Mary as National President and Margaret at Waterford President, to bring the National Conference to Waterford, very successfully, in 1995.

Margaret informed the audience that her company has used Mary as its safety advisor since 2007 and her work in terms of audits, preparation of safety statements and continuous training resulted in the company winning major tenders and attracting new employees. Margaret complimented Mary on her professionalism, attention to detail and her passion for health and safety over the years.

Mary’s daughter, Heather Darlington, then shared with the assembled crowd some anecdotes about growing up with a safety professional as a mother. These included mandatory fire drills at home, rules about not running with scissors and mandatory wearing of hearing protection while operating the ride on lawnmower. She expressed her absolute pride in her mother’s achievements.

Mary then provided some background, not just to the book, 'Safety Sorted', but to her long health and safety career. She explained that she never intended to work in health and safety at all but it was “given” to her by her boss in Bausch and Lomb in 1989, when the new safety act of that year came into being. She further went on to outline how the company won many safety awards in Ireland with National Irish Safety Organisation (NISO) and with Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) in UK, while she was Safety and Environment Manager.

Mary joked that "health and safety is not a profession to go into if you want to be popular." 

"Ethical safety leadership demands truth-telling, however painful," she continued. "In this profession we have to be guided by integrity and what is fundamentally right."

While detailing why she wrote the book, Mary explained that in Ireland "we have a wealth of health and safety laws and regulations, everything from Asbestos to Woodworking". They apply to all businesses big and small, regardless of size as the level of risk determines what needs to be done.

"Large companies employee their own in-house health and safety professionals as safety officers and managers to implement all of this and they have a hard time keeping up with it all," she said.

"The key issue here is that we also expect small companies, employing less than 20 people, to comply fully with all of this. In my opinion this is a tall order. How are they expected to do that when they do not have the time, resources or expertise to know what applies to them or indeed how to implement it?"

"Realistically many do not know where to start, others have begun, but there is a huge gap between what they should be doing and what they are actually doing and this book aims to fill that gap," said Mary. 

"It is designed to be a practical, no nonsense guide and road map through health and safety for small businesses. It simplifies everything down using 'layman’s English', written assuming that the small business owner has no formal training or expertise," she added. 

Nearing the end of the launch, Mary thanked her wife, Marian, for giving her the time to write the book, while also feeding and looking after her. She also extended her gratitude to her two "wonderful" daughters, Heather and Caroline "for their ongoing encouragement and feedback". 

Mary continued to thank Herbert Mulligan, editor of Health and Safety Review, Derbhile Graham, of Write Words, "and finally, but by no means least", Cecelia Carelse, a published author herself, who brought Mary through the publishing process to produce a physical book.

Mary confirmed that without Cecelia, the book would still just be a word document on her computer, as the original publisher let her down.

Concluding her speech, Mary said that "every small business needs this book and when SMEs genuinely implement what it recommends, then they will truly have 'Safety Sorted'."