Mayo fireman Finian Joyce reached pinnacle of his profession
Finian Joyce, a long serving and accomplished west of Ireland fireman, has retired after 37 years of service.
His career in his native Mayo saw him rise to the position of Assistant Chief Fire Officer. In 2002 he was appointed Chief Fire Officer for County Leitrim. He retired from that position some months ago.
During his long career, Finian, a native of Castlebar, attended at some of the biggest emergencies which hit the headlines.
These included the train crash at Ballygowan, Claremorris, in April 1989 when a train carrying 495 pilgrims to Knock was derailed by a herd of cattle.
The Mayo Major Accident Emergency Plan was activated, thankfully one of the few times this has happened in the past 50 years.
Over 25 ambulances ferried the injured to regional hospitals, including Mayo University Hospital (MUH), Mayo General Hospital at the time.
“Miraculously, nobody was killed," he recalls, “but 80 people were injured.
“I remember we had to climb on top of the carriages and climb in through open windows to assess the situation and help the injured."
The Ballygowan mishap occurred on the Sunday before Mayo played Cork in the All-Ireland senior football final.
“If the accident had occurred on the day of the final we would have been seriously low as regards cover," Finian recalled.
Another emergency of major significance in which Finian and his colleagues were involved centred on the blaze at the Cow Comforts factory in Belmullet in April 1999.
Looking back, he recalls: “I recall a plume of dense smoke over Belmullet when we arrived.
“People with asthma or bronchial-type disorders were urged to leave the area. A local ballroom (The Palm Court) was requisitioned as an emergency centre.
“Luckily nobody was killed or seriously injured.”
Finian joined the fire service in 1986 after the career was suggested to him by a college friend, the late Norbert Ferguson.
“When I left college I certainly didn’t set out to work in the fire service," he admits.
“Norbert was leaving to take up another position and he said to me I should consider it.
“I joined, got the job and started off at assistant fire officer level. I never looked back since."
Casting his mind back through the arches of time Finian fondly remembers colleagues from his former days in the Mayo Fire Service.
Names like Seamus Murphy (former Mayo Chief Fire Officer), Austin Gannon, John Donegan and Michael Raftery easily spring to mind.
While based in Mayo, Finian was actively involved in fire prevention for a number of years. The job involved inspecting buildings and giving advice to groups.
“Building regulations were more proscriptive at the time. Now they are more advisory."
When the position of Chief Fire Officer in Leitrim arose in 2002, Finian applied and was successful.
Of the Leitrim post, he now says: “It was an opportunity I could not spurn."
During his years with the fire-service, he attended at some of the biggest fires in Mayo and Leitrim and surrounding areas and also witnessed tragic loss of lives in both house fires and car accidents.
Throughout his fire service career, he has been at the forefront of administrative and planning level.
In the 1990s, he spearheaded the new regional communications centre, CAMP West.
He was involved in that for about 11 years getting it up and running.
Mayo County Council hosts the CAMP West Regional Communications Centre which provides a vital 24 hour/365 day call answering service for the public to contact fire services when they have an emergency.
CAMP West brought together 53 fire stations in the six counties of Connaught and Donegal.
In 2013, Finian was instrumental in setting up the Cross Border Emergency Management Group.
"We decided to reach out across the border to our neighbours to say that if a serious incident occurred that we would be able to work together," he explained.
A great manifestation of the assistance that came but might not have been highlighted widely was the explosion in Creeslough, Donegal, when an explosion rocked a petrol filling station, killing ten people and leaving eight hospitalised.
Fire service and police from the north assisted their colleagues from the Republic in an historic convergence.
“It didn’t just happen,” Finian explains. “The relationships and the contacts had been built up over a number of years.
“Since then we have put together cross border notification protocol which means that if something serious happens on either side of the border, agencies on both sides can get involved.
“That was one of the great achievements of that group that we succeeded in doing. I am very proud of that.”
During his time in the Irish fire service, Finian represented Ireland with distinction at European level.
He was secretary of the European Chief Fire Officers Association for 12 years and represented Ireland as a delegate from the Irish Chief Fire Officers Association, from 2006 onwards.
He spoke in the European Parliament on a number of occasions.
On one occasion he spoke to the Commission about the Working Time Directive and how it impacted firefighters.
Earlier last year, just before he retired, Finian was in Parliament to talk about the announcement for a project to harmonise fire statistics at European level.
Now 19 countries collect fire statistics in the same way and it’s possible to compare data.
During his tenure Leitrim County Fire Service rounded off a very successful year by winning a further award for Best International Practice at the Excellence in Fire and Emergency Awards ceremony held recently in London.
This followed on from winning the prestigious European Community Fire Safety Project of the Year Award at the sixth International Safety Education seminar held in Croke Park, Dublin, last year which was jointly sponsored by the European Fire Safety Alliance and the Federation of European Fire Officers.
Firemen globally, part of the worldwide ‘firefighter family’, felt more deeply than most the 9/11 atrocity in early September 2001.
The number of firefighters and paramedics killed when passenger planes were deliberately flown into each of the Twin Towers was 343, out of a total number of 2,753 fatalities.
As a fire officer himself, Finian was deeply moved by TV footage of the 9/11 tragedy.
“I will never forget watching it on telly. On that morning I was going to play golf in Athlone. I had just arrived and nipped in for a cup of coffee. I couldn’t believe what we were witnessing.”
Finian had visited the Twin Towers a number of years before the tragedy while on a tour of New York with teammates from Castlebar Mitchels GAA Club.
And previous to 9/11 he had been to New York and had visited all the fire houses (local term for fire stations) in Lower Manhattan.
“I would have met many of the fire officers that had perished,” he recalls. “Those firemen who died gave their lives trying to save others.”
In 2011, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Finian was in Atlanta, Georgia, and participated in the now annual climb by firefighters of 104 steps of stairs in a high rise building to commemorate the FDNY (Fire Department of New York) brothers who perished.
A member of a well-known family, Finian grew up in Castlebar and all his life has been closely associated with Castlebar Mitchels GAA Club as well as athletics.
In recent times his role as president of Castlebar Rotary Club has kept him busy.
His plans for retirement include energy improvements to the family home. He is looking forward to a family wedding this year (2024) and as a passionate, lifelong GAA man is counting the days to a further trip to New York in April when Mayo take on the ‘Big Apple’ in the football championship.