Just in case...

We need more grannies in the Dail!

Times are changing and I am wondering who amongst our politicians has the skills to think ahead in a granny frame of mind. 

You all know what I mean. 

There’s always an older woman in the family with a shopping list, a Credit Union Savings Book and sense of impending doom. 

These women from our past knew how to manage money, food, supplies, gardens, people, land and above all emergencies.

As a country, there can be no doubt now that we are facing increasingly scarce resources; shortages of fuel, over-reliance on imported food, the need for water storage and the rising cost of living. 

My own granny would have no bother getting her ducks in a row for a power cut or a storm, a death in the family or a sudden influx of visitors. 

She always had a plan, instructions for how to deliver the plan and the highest standards of delivery.

If only our government had half the wits of our grannies we would all be far better prepared for the uncertain future we face!

It’s all very well for Zuck and the other American Billionaires in their castles who will simply continue to use up everything that money can buy, and build underground bunkers in case of the worst. 

For the rest of us we need to start thinking about creative solutions rather than continuing to mindlessly consume. And who knows more about living green than your mammy’s mammy!

I hear her voice when it comes to everyday life: “Fetch the water out of the rain barrel there.” 

Somehow it was always full to the brim with cool clear water gathered during the heavy weather. 

It’s the least we could do now, to save water at a grand scale to ward off droughts and empty fields. 

A huge rain barrel for the whole country. As usual I am wondering who’s job is that and what’s the plan for the droughts next year and the year after?

Living in fear of an empty or expensive shopping basket? 

Yes, it’s obvious that as we import 80% of our food, there will be shortages and price rises this winter. Most of our food comes from Spain and the UK where climate change has caused droughts and low yields. 

Supplies of everything will be more limited and of course more expensive. Already I see that the size of Irish carrots, one of the few vegetables that we still grow, are very much smaller than usual.

What would the Granny say? Well naturally she would have a larder of supplies laid down “just in case!” 

Just in case is something that comes naturally to the people who have to feed others. It’s not just about what’s for dinner? It’s about three meals a day over months and years that instills a kind of second sense of what is needed in an emergency.

So young lads in the Dail, where is the” just in case” food store for the country? 

As environmentalist John Gibbons says we need a store of at least 90 days of food supplies ready for our citizen’s food security.

Yes we probably could live on steak and cheese for a while, but the reality is that we could not afford to. 

Sadly we have stopped growing enough food for ourselves. Granny would always have had a few hens, geese, a pig in the shed, spuds and fruit at the very least.

When things go belly up, as Granny always expects, “sure we won’t starve, haven’t we a shed full of apples!” 

It’s time to start growing from seed again. We used to grow everything from seed. It’s cheap, it’s easy and now it’s vital!

I’m not sure why every house in the country hasn’t been supplied with solar panels for generating electricity. 

Apparently metros to the airport are more of a priority. I can hear Granny saying: “Going to the airport? Now who is going to be able to go anywhere when there’s no fuel and the world is in chaos?”

I’m sensing that staying warm will be more of a challenge this winter. “Granny, I'm cold!” we said. She replied: “Well alanna put on some cosy long johns and a wooly jumper for a start. You can’t be going around in a t-shirt in the middle of winter!!”

“An electric blanket, maybe Granny?”

“Not at all, a hot water bottle is all you need!” 

When she passed away, and we were clearing out the house, we found her stash of cash.

Long before the likes of Revolut, she used some old Flahavan's Oats bags to bundle some of the weekly pension and hide it around her bedroom. This was over and above the Credit Union Book which she had been a founder of in the olden days.

This “squirrelling away” was the kind of world that she had come from. 

Nothing was ever certain. The war deprived her generation of a normal life and they could never rely on stability again. 

Some of it has rubbed off on me; a kind of independent thinking, self-reliance, basic skills for living and above all else, taking care.

What would she say today? Probably, put down that phone, stop shopping online, save for a rainy day, drive carefully, take care of each other and take better care of our precious land and waterways.

It goes back a very long way, “taking care just in case.”