Author: James Mernin

James Mernin is Director of Engineering for Cloud Services at Red Hat and the owner and administrator of the Martello blog.

Technology - Volunteering

Coolest Projects Ireland: Reflections of a Proud Mentor and Parent

March 15, 2025 by

My son and I recently attended the Coolest Projects technology showcase in Dublin, Ireland and had a simply wonderful day, so I thought I’d share some reflections of the event, both as a parent and as a mentor at my local Code Club in Tramore, Co. Waterford.

Tramore Code Club

Founded in 2014, Tramore Code Club (formerly known as CoderDojo, Tramore) is a volunteer-led group that provides opportunities for young children to explore the world of computer programming in a relaxed and friendly environment that is rooted in the spirit of exploration through collaboration.

The club is completely free and runs for two hours each Saturday, from 4pm – 6pm.

Code Club (via the Raspberry Pi Foundation)

Code Club is a voluntary initiative that aims to provide opportunities for children aged 9 to 13 to develop coding skills through free after-school clubs. Their aim is to help young people to develop the skills, knowledge, and mindsets to enable them to thrive in a world that is increasingly shaped by digital technologies. More than 2 million young people are involved in code clubs in 100+ countries worldwide [Source: CodeClub.org, Wikipedia]

The Code Club initiative is a part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, an educational charity with a global mission to help young people realise their full potential through the power of computing and digital technologies [Source: RaspberrryPi.org]

Coolest Projects

Coolest Projects is an annual, in-person technology showcase event (with an online option also available) that provides a forum for young people to showcase their digital creations and skills.

The event has been taking place in-person in Dublin, Ireland for more than 10 years and has gone from strength to strength during that time, with hundreds of families travelling from across the country to take part each year, showcasing their ideas in a friendly and supportive environment.

Bobby’s Ukulele Trainer

My son and I were delighted to attend the Coolest Projects in-person event in 2025 (which took place at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Dublin) as part of a large delegation from Tramore Code Club, where he showcased Bobby’s Ukulele Trainer project.

Written in Scratch and inspired by a project created by his sister 9 years earlier (as well as his schoolteacher who introduced him to the Ukulele), his project helps people learn to play the Ukulele by showing them where to place their fingers for a selection of popular chords. 

His project also plays samples of each chord (recorded by him) so you can hear how you’re doing, and it supports both right-handed and left-handed players so is more accessible to all.

We were blown away by how popular this project was on the day, with large groups of children and adults (including other mentors and volunteers) calling by his stand to try their hand at playing the Ukulele which we had brought along for the day.

We were even treated to a visit by Raspberry Pi Foundation CEO, Philip Colligan, who stopped by to try his hand at some impromptu Ukulele lessons, also leaving with a big smile on his face.

A Mentor’s Perspective

So, what was Coolest Projects, Ireland like as a mentor (from Tramore Code Club)?

The 2025 event featured projects in thematic areas including Scratch, Gaming, Web Development, Hardware and AI. There were plenty of volunteers on hand to ensure everyone was made to feel welcome and each child was provided with a packed lunch after the main showcase sessions.

There were lots of other mentors and parents on hand, too, who took time to visit many of the projects on display, offering support, guidance and encouragement to the children, which was very much appreciated.

The volunteers on the day were incredibly welcoming from the moment we walked through the doors, and went out of their way to ensure the children were given every opportunity to showcase their projects to as many people as possible. 

The variety of activities available to the attendees, the quality of the broadband, and the selection of projects coupled with the friendliness of the volunteers were particular highlights for our family.

A Parent’s Perspective

In terms of my impression of the event as a parent, I felt immensely proud of how my child interacted freely with other children, parents, mentors and volunteers alike. This enhanced their communication skills and gave them invaluable experience about how to explain technical and musical concepts to non-technical and non-musical people of all ages and abilities.

There was a noticeable mixture of interests and abilities among the wide variety of visitors to our child’s project stand, each of whom were clearly very at home at the event. It was clear to me that significant consideration had been given to make sure everyone felt included at the event. We certainly did!

Your child will have a brilliant day and will be respected, included and celebrated in a safe, active and fun environment from the moment they walk through the door. Parents who feel less technical themselves need not worry about this. There’s plenty to enjoy for everyone and anyone. 

All in all, my child thoroughly enjoyed the event and has been telling everyone about it since attending. They’ve already asked about returning again next year.

Fitness - Life

Soul on Sole: Another 366 Days of Walking

January 1, 2025 by

Summary

I completed another 365 days of walking in 2024, covering a total of 1,941km over the year – the equivalent of 46 marathons (one every 8 days or so) – averaging 5.3km per day.

In total, I spent 360 hours on 370 activities, walking an average of 37km per week (or 162km per month) and the annual total of 1,941km is the equivalent of walking to Warsaw in Poland, Rome in Italy, or Rabat or Morocco, and would get you to within 100km of the southern coast of Greenland.

This was a continuation of a journey that began in 2022 (see You’ll Never Walk Alone: Reflections of 365 Days of Walking and Walk On: Another 365 Days of Walking) where I’ve now walked a grand total 5,531km. That’s the equivalent of 131 marathons and, as the crow flies, this would get you to Northern Kazakhstan, Ridyad in Saudi Arabia, Central Cameroon, or Washington D.C.

NOTE: The data represented in the graphic above contains one very long cycle (during a visit to the USA) which has been factored out of all the other calculations referenced herein.

Goal Setting and Revision

Having exceeded my arbitrary goal of 1,500km in 2023, I set my sights on something slightly more ambitious in 2024 and decided to aim for an average of 5km per day. With 366 days in 2024 (a leap year), this worked out at an annualised goal of 1,830km which translated into a weekly goal of 35km and a monthly goal of 152.5km.

Fortunately, I managed to build up quite a buffer (100km) over the first 9 months of the year, aided by some decent weather and managing to stay largely illness and injury free, and actually hit the annual goal towards the end of October.

I therefore decided to adjust my goal upwards to keep the motivation going. I toyed with a couple of ambitious numbers (e.g. 2,000km, 50 marathons) but they were simply too unrealistic in the time available so I settled on 1,941km instead – the exact equivalent of 46 marathons (46 x 42.195).

Activity Tracking

I continued to use the (free version of the) Strava app to track my progress in 2024 as well, which allowed me to track the distance and duration of each walk, as well as the shoes used and a brief description of the walk.

Entering the brief descriptions took a bit of effort, I won’t lie, but it was fun to use that data to later produce a visual summary of the efforts in the form of Word Clouds (more later).

Equipment

There was no real change in the equipment used in 2024 either, with the following items remaining on my list of absolute essentials:

  • Shoes: Any decent walking shoes will suffice but I chose Nike Pegasus 40 because they give me the option to try jogging from time to time as well.
  • Earphones: I use Samsung Galaxy Buds and they’ve been brilliant – really comfortable with no protruding parts, terrific sound and really excellent battery life (one week, easily).
  • Spotify (or equivalent): Any source of music or podcasts will suffice, but I personally could not walk without listening to something as I’d get bored too quickly.
  • Weather Tracker: Doing anything outdoors in Ireland requires careful planning around the weather. I used the RTE Weather service to plan the optimum time (day or night) to avoid the wind and rain, and after two years of using it, I’m very, very confident in its accuracy.

Apart from this, like last year, a decent jacket and hat during winter and some breathable t-shirts and shorts during summer should set you up for ample success.

Diet

In a word: Porridge.

You definitely need to be mindful of your meals when walking such distances and durations, both in terms of timing and food choice. While there are clearly lots of options to choose from here, by far the most effective one for me was Porridge (in whatever shape and form you can get it).

That is not to say I ate a bowl of porridge before every walk or only walked in the mornings (far from it) – a flapjack bar just before a walk was just as effective (and far more portable).

Apart from that, water and chocolate (and bananas) are also your friend, making good top-up options before setting out. Glucose sweets were helpful partners along the way, too.

The Weather

The weather continues to be a hugely important factor for me when it comes to walking. First and foremost, it determines if and when I walk, or not (I generally choose to avoid walking when it’s rainy as it’s simply not as enjoyable).

Secondly, and more importantly than I ever realised, the variety in the weather has a huge impact on the enjoyment I get from walking – this is my personal version of wellbeing. The combination of sunshine, warmth, starry nights, full moons, crisp cold, high and low tides, still provides so many unique moments to remember fondly, for all sorts of different reasons.

I continue to use RTE Weather to track the weather and it continues to be highly accurate for me.

Entertainment

Audio entertainment continues to be an essential part of my walking routines, with the following podcasts (listed in order of frequency/popularity) featuring heavily during 2024:

Regulars

  • The Rest is Football (with Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards)
  • The 2 Johnnies – probably still my favourite
  • Sky Sports Football (including The Gary Neville Podcast)
  • Sky Sports F1
  • RTE Documentary on One

New in 2024

  • A Short History Of – great bite-sized stories about historical figures or events.
  • Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe – the joy and pain of parenting!
  • Anything Goes with James English – gripping (but long) interviews with interesting people.

I think I listened to less music in 2024 (presumably due to newly discovered podcasts) but did manage to circle back around some genres and artists, including Daft Punk, David Bowie, Elton John, The Pogues, Billy Joel, Def Leppard and the Wolfe Tones.

My First Half Marathon

Another personal milestone that occurred in 2024 was the completion of my very first (walking) half marathon, which I did as part of the Viking Marathon event in Waterford on 23 June 2024. I took some time to experiment with various food items (rediscovering the magical powers of porridge) and the distances each one could support beforehand, which really paid off.

While I did not have a particular time goal in mind, I managed to complete the half marathon in a somewhat surprising 3 hours, 12 minutes. With just over 21km walked, this equates to a pace of 6.8km per hour – far beyond anything I’d normally manage over much shorter distances!

By The Numbers

For some of the other data nerds among you, here are some other statistics from my year of walking. I gleaned some from Strava but also some from a homegrown spreadsheet of my own:

  • Totals
    • Total Distance Walked: 1,941km
    • Total Time Walking: 360 hours
    • Total Number of Walks: 370
    • Number of Days Walked / Missed: 305 (83%) / 51 (17%)
  • Longest
    • Longest Distance Walked in a Day: 25.7km (September)
    • Longest Distance Walked in a Week: 63.4km (September)
    • Longest Distance Walked in a Month: 177.5km (December)
    • Longest Distance Walked in 7 consecutive days: 69.2km (September)
    • Longest Walking Streak: 60 days (July – September)
  • Averages
    • Average Distance Per Day: 5.30km
    • Average Distance Per Week: 37.6km
    • Average Distance Per Month: 162.6km

Most of the longest items recorded were in September due to the entertainment of high volumes of work colleagues visiting Ireland, which made a large dent in my buffer which I decided to make up for in the final days and week of that month.

I was also very pleased to be joined by my son, Bobby, on the final few walks of the year (who was testing out his own new fitness tracker)!

Next Steps (pun intended)

A number of people have already asked if I plan to keep walking in 2025, and I definitely do.

Having successfully walked a half marathon in 2024 (in a time of 3.25 hours), I am now considering a walking/running version of a full marathon later in 2025 (circa June). I’d be happy to walk the full marathon but, due to road closure logistics that provide just 6 hours to complete it, my walking pace (as fast as it is) would not get me around in time, so a walk/run option is on the cards. 

I will need to conduct some proper trials in early 2025, however, to see if my knees will be up to it.

Final Reflections, in a Word (Cloud)

As I mentioned earlier, I chose to continue entering brief descriptions of each walk into Strava in 2024, partly so that I could produce visual summaries of my activities over time, such as this one.

The Word Cloud above was generated from the descriptions of 370 activities and summarises the most prominent elements of all 366 days of walking in 2024.

Until next time…

You’ll Never Walk Alone!

Family - Fitness - Life

Walking a Half Marathon For Charity

June 14, 2024 by

As some of you may know, I have been walking an average of 5km per day for almost 2.5 years (sharing my reflections from 2022 and 2023 as I go), where I revel at the splendour of the scenery that often greets me (while admitting it doesn’t look like this every day).

I am now attempting to quadruple this distance in a single day by walking a Half Marathon on Sunday, 23 June 2024 (as part of the Waterford Viking Marathon event). I’ve actually had a long-running life goal (pardon the pun) to complete a marathon, so maybe this is the start of achieving that goal at some future point.

Linked to this, I am hoping to raise some money for the Children’s Health Foundation in Crumlin, Ireland (formerly known as the Children’s Medical Research Foundation, part of Crumlin Children’s Hospital). All funds raised here will go directly to this great cause and those who know me will understand why this charity is close to my heart, and that of my extended family.

If you’d like to donate, you can do so via my iDonate page, and I’ll be humbled and grateful in equal measures. You are welcome to share this link for others to consider also.

Many thanks in advance for your support!

General - Life

Walk On: Another 365 Days of Walking

January 1, 2024 by

Summary

I’m pleased to report that I’ve completed another 365 days of walking in 2023, covering a grand total of 1,766km, which is the equivalent of walking to the northern coast of Iceland or as far as Gibraltar near Spain, or to Bratislava in Slovakia or to Stockholm in Sweden.

In total, I spent 291 hours walking the equivalent of 42 marathons (one every 8.5 days or so), which equates to an average of 4.84km per day, or 34km per week, or 147km per month.

This was a continuation of a journey that began in 2022 (see You’ll Never Walk Alone: Reflections of 365 Days of Walking) but with a slightly different (but no less satisfying or motivating) format which I’ve detailed below. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed walking it!

New Year, New Goal

Having walked 5km every single day of 2022, I began 2023 with an open mind about doing the same again. However, due to a combination of bad weather, unfortunate timing and family logistics, I finally broke my streak on 14 January 2023 – a streak that had lasted a whopping 378 days!

While I secretly knew this would eventually happen (walking 5km every single day is ultimately not sustainable because it can mean walking in very wet weather just for the sake of saying you took a walk, which was sometimes demoralising rather than motivating), I was still pretty devastated when it did happen. I took a complete break for several days to mull things over.

With the help of a long-time work colleague (Craig Brookes), who is an avid cyclist and who I’d been sharing my walking escapades with, I managed to find a way to accept and recover from the disappointment of breaking my streak.

Craig astutely pointed out that what I actually achieved in 2022 was to meet a goal that I’d set for myself (where the goal was to “walk 5km every single day”). Craig’s advice was to pick a different goal – one that was equally challenging (and healthy) but which did not bind me to walking every single day – and set about meeting that one instead.

That’s exactly what I did and I duly set a new goal to walk 1,500km over the year which worked out at 125km per month, or around 29km per week.

Activity Tracking

Another recommendation from Craig Brookes was to use the Strava app to track progress toward my goal. While I could have chosen any number of other activity tracking solutions, I took Craig’s recommendation in good faith and it did not let me down.

It added minimal overhead to my walks (where I merely needed to start and stop the app at the beginning and end of each walk), tracked both the distances and durations, along with the shoes worn and allowed me to enter a brief description of each walk which I decided to do also.

All of this functionality was available on the free edition, too, which was a welcome bonus.

Equipment

In my view, walking requires little or no investment in specialist equipment. My essentials are:

  • Shoes: Any decent walking shoes will suffice but I chose Nike Pegasus 40 because they give me the option to try jogging from time to time as well (trust me: you do not want to try jogging in walking shoes, as you’ll learn shortly).
  • Earphones: I use Samsung Galaxy Buds and they’ve been brilliant – really comfortable with no protruding parts, terrific sound and really excellent battery life (one week, easily).
  • Spotify (or equivalent): Any source of music or podcasts will suffice, but I personally could not walk without listening to something as I’d get bored too quickly.
  • Weather Tracker: Doing anything outdoors in Ireland requires careful planning around the weather. I used the RTE Weather service to plan the optimum time (day or night) to avoid the wind and rain, and after two years of using it, I’m very, very confident in its accuracy.

Apart from this, a decent jacket and hat during winter and some breathable t-shirts and shorts during summer should set you up for success.

Diet

I didn’t really (have to) make any wholesale changes to my diet because of my walking routine, but I definitely noticed the impact (or not) of different kinds of food and the impact of my meal times. 

For example, if I went for a walk shortly before lunchtime (having not eaten a lunch), I’d definitely feel the effects of that half-way around, and would struggle a little on the way home. In terms of foods I felt gave more energy, pasta and porridge were top of the list, that I recall.

Taking a drink afterwards is super important too, I learned, as you can easily become dehydrated in the hours and days that follow, which can cause other side effects.

My first sports injury

Some time in late autumn, as the very hot weather had abated and I was really enjoying the levels of fitness I was feeling, I became curious about what it might take to try some jogging (as a natural evolution of walking).

I knew that doing so in tiny bursts (e.g. walk for 400m, jog for 100m) was the right way to start, but I overlooked two very important other factors:

  1. You cannot jog in walking shoes – they’re simply not designed to absorb the levels of shock involved in jogging.
  2. As a beginner, your jogging stride needs to land on the balls of your feet, not your heels.

I paid a very heavy price for overlooking these and was out of action for 9 days, needing a doctor’s visit followed by physiotherapy to recover fully. You live and you learn, right?

The Weather

Like in 2022, the weather was an important factor in my 2023 journey. As above, I relied heavily on the RTE Weather service to plan the best times for a dry walk, or to accept that I would not be able to walk at all. I also think that 2023 was a much wetter year than 2022, because I missed around 20 walks due to rain in 2023, whereas I seem to recall walking in heavy rain just 5 times in 2022.

That being said, the majority of other kinds of weather, which included sunshine, warmth, starry nights, full moons, crisp cold, high and low tides, provided no shortage of unique moments to remember fondly, for all sorts of different reasons.

Wellbeing

I’m very happy to say that I’ve continued to develop and discover my own flavour of wellbeing as a result of walking regularly. It remains rooted in knowing that doing so is ultimately good for me, but also extends to a sense of accomplishment (for having met the goals I set for myself) as well as numerous emotions that evoke senses of happiness, sadness, reflectiveness and gratitude about a wide range of topics.

In many ways, I feel that my walks have turned into a form of “me time”, which I happen to spend while taking some exercise in parallel. The time is mostly spent listening to podcasts or music, but is sometimes spent getting lost in your own thoughts (about life and/or people past and present), all of which ultimately feels good for the soul and leaves you feeling quite energised.

Entertainment

I definitely listened to more podcasts than music in 2023.

Musically, I circled around some of the back catalogues of Van Halen, Queen, Bruce Springsteen, U2, The Smiths, and even some ABBA (their songs actually have nice, regular beats well suited to walking) and Harry Styles, while rediscovering the genius that is John Willams (several times), plus numerous classical offerings which I find quite relaxing and uplifting.

In terms of podcasts in 2023, these ones are now my regulars (in order of frequency/popularity):

  • The 2 Johnnies – probably still my favourite
  • The Rest is Football (with Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards)
  • RTE Documentary on One
  • The Gary Neville Podcast
  • Sky Sports Football
  • Sky Sports F1
  • Crime World (by Sunday World journalist, Nicola Tallant)

While I don’t listen to as many episodes as I used to, the Documentary on One series from RTE remains a treasure trove of fascinating stories, as uplifting as they are sad and as educating as they are enlightening. Crime World is OK (but only OK) and I found the episodes a little repetitive after a while. I’m sure others may feel similar about sport, but that’s just my take on it.

By the numbers

I’ll finish with a few statistics for the other data nerds like myself, most of which I gleaned from Strava but some of which I took from a homegrown spreadsheet that I used to complement Strava:

  • Totals
    • Total Distance Walked: 1,765km
    • Total Time Walking: 291 hours
    • Total Number of Walks: 383
    • Number of Days Missed / Walked: 53 (15%) / 312 (85%)
  • Longest
    • Longest Distance Walked in a Day: 14.3km (September)
    • Longest Distance Walked in a Week: 53.9km (December)
    • Longest Distance Walked in a Month: 206.4km (December)
    • Longest Distance Walked in 7 consecutive days: 63.2km (December)
    • Longest Walking Streak: 48 days (July – September)
  • Averages
    • Average Distance Per Day: 4.84km
    • Average Distance Per Week: 34.4km
    • Average Distance Per Month: 139.2km

Revised Goals

My original goal of 1,500km only required me to walk an average of 4.1km per day. However, as my regular route (to and from Tramore Promenade) was closer to 5.2km, I actually met my original goal in mid-November and was on target to surpass the original by around 200km.

I therefore decided to set a revised target of 1,750km to see how I’d fare. This took a little more perseverance towards the end but was ultimately achievable in the time available.

Even in the final week of the year, I realised that I could reach 200km in a single month, so I tweaked the revised goal once more and ended up surpassing that by a small margin too, all without too much effort.

Final Reflections, in a Word (Cloud)

As I mentioned earlier, I took the liberty of entering short descriptions for each walk into Strava. I didn’t have any particular reason for doing this back in January but did feel that one might present itself as the days and weeks passed by, and so it did.

This Word Cloud was generated from the descriptions I entered in Strava and, on reflection, I think it’s a pretty accurate visualisation of what I remember as the prominent elements of my year of walking.

Until next time…

You’ll Never Walk Alone!

Life

Rest Easy, Chief

December 28, 2023 by

I count myself exceptionally fortunate to have worked with so many wonderful people during my professional life, which is now in its fourth decade. From time to time (mostly during one of my daily walks), I reflect on how some of those people have shaped my career, either through the things they taught me or in the way they treated me and others. Those moments usually leave me both humbled and grateful in equal measures, while inspiring me to do the same for others I work with.

One of those people was Peter Shortall, who took me under his wing during the early years of my career and who remained a close and loyal friend long after our working days had come to an end (in 2004 when our employer left the Irish business landscape).

There was something about how Peter went about things – seamlessly spotting those important moments to say or do the right thing when it was needed most, or not at all.

He was a constant source of guidance and reassurance – the ultimate mentor, role model, confidante and friend.

Tragically, Peter died in December 2022 and left a large hole in the hearts and minds of those who knew him and those who loved him. I feel grateful that I was able to spend a little time with him a couple of times before he left this world, as we recounted the good times and reflected on life and family – the things that mattered most to Peter (apart from Golf, Leinster Rugby and Chelsea FC).

Chief

Something that I noticed about Peter was that he often called those he worked closely with, “chief”, either in everyday interactions or simply as a welcome or farewell gesture on a phone call. I initially viewed this as a simple term of endearment for everyone but later came to realise that it was, in fact, an accolade bestowed upon a select few that he respected deeply, both professionally and personally. I feel honoured to have been among those he addressed in this way.

In more recent times as the occasion of his first anniversary approached, I began to contemplate on his use of the term “chief” as a sign of respect for others, and what this actually said about him. In my view, the very essence of this accolade rests within the qualities he showed in his own life.

C is for … caring, courageous and courteous

Peter cared deeply for those he worked with, in ways that extend far beyond getting the job done. He was the ultimate gentle giant (being as tall as he was), with the enviable courage to question things on behalf of others to ensure we got the right decision, all while being courteous to everyone and everything, in every way possible.

H is for … helpful, honest and humble

I genuinely think Peter spent the majority of his working life helping others, no matter what the cost to his own duties. He gave things the precise amount of time and energy they needed in order to get the best outcome, often sacrificing his own time and energy, and did so with a sense of honesty that any person will do well to emulate in their own lifetime. God help you if you tried to thank him or compliment him, too, because he was humble beyond words in that regard, and always reflected the thanks back onto the person expressing the gratitude – selfless in everything he did.

I is for … intelligent, inclusive and inspiring

Peter was an enormously intelligent person and a brilliant problem solver – qualities that he put to good use in every aspect of his life, inside and outside of work. He was also very inclusive of others in his work – long before the term Diversity, Equity & Inclusion was coined – and we all took great inspiration from how he approached his work, not just in terms of the outcomes he got but also for the manner in how he went about getting them.

E is for … empathetic, easygoing and endearing

Showing empathy was a big deal for Peter, although I don’t think he ever did so consciously as it was just a part of who he was. His listening ear was ever present and was accompanied by a level of understanding that was hard to equal. His easygoing nature was a natural complement to this, all of which made him one of the most endearing people you’d have the good  fortune to meet.

F is for … fair, funny and friend

If you asked Peter for an opinion on something, he gave it to you. It may not have been what you expected or wanted to hear, but it was always a fair and honest assessment of the situation based on the facts as he saw them. His fairness never once left you feeling offended or disappointed, though, just more informed and energised. 

He also had an incredible sense of humour to suit every occasion – deadpan and dry when needed as well as quick witted and well timed when delivering the killer punchlines.

Most of all, though, Peter was a friend to all who knew him. Apart from his duties as a family man, this was by far his finest quality in my view, and one we’ll all do well to emulate in our own lives.

Rest easy, Chief, and thank you!

Family - Life

Celebrating a Journey

October 16, 2023 by

Bittersweet

Today, Monday, 16 October 2023, marks 21 years to the day since I became a father, something I’m enormously proud of and very, very happy about. However, it is also a bittersweet day, because the (other) person who made that possible (in addition to my beautiful wife) is not here to celebrate this milestone with us. As some of you may know, our beautiful son, Jake, who was born on Wednesday, 16 October 2002 only lived for 9 days.

Life Milestones

Among the many thoughts that crossed my mind during those agonising early days without him, was the prospect of not being able to celebrate the many firsts in his life, which would also be firsts in ours. These include his first Christmas, his first birthday, taking his first steps, his first day at school, his first school concert, his First Holy Communion, learning to ride a bike, his tenth birthday, his Confirmation, becoming a teenager, learning to drive, school graduation, turning 18, 20 and many, many more.

We did take a moment to reflect on some of those milestones along the way, however, via Life Lessons from an Angel when he’d have turned 18 in 2020 and via Still Wiping Away Our Tears when he’d have turned 20 in 2022.

Turning 21

However, the one milestone that has always stuck out for me, as one I actually feared, was the occasion of his 21st birthday. I’m not entirely sure why, to be honest, but I’ve definitely always had it in my head as being that little bit different to the others, in a way that loomed large on the horizon.

Perhaps it’s because, in Irish culture, reaching this age often signals a formal passage from childhood to adulthood, where parents feel a sense of accomplishment (or success) for having gotten a child to that point in their life which, in our case, may not be the case.

We are, of course, blessed to have other children in our lives and have the good fortune and privilege of celebrating many of the above milestones with them. However, at the time of Jake’s passing those feelings were impossible to escape, and I guess they never fully went away.

Celebrate the Journey

You can’t go far in life without hearing at least one version of the saying about life being about “the journey, not the destination”. I’ve definitely seen my fair share of examples of this playing out in my personal and professional life, across a wide spectrum of areas.

However, the example that stands out the most is actually happening today. While it’s true that the firsts in Jake’s life were incredibly hard to endure without him, it’s equally true that each one has served as a welcome reminder of him. They gave us a reason to remember him, either alone or together with our extended family or lifelong friends. Without Jake in our life, those occasions would never have happened and the memories we created would not exist today.

Therefore, in his own special way, he shaped our journey anyway and it’s with the benefit of a lot of hindsight that we can be immensely grateful that today is not a destination – it’s just another part of the life journey that he continues to guide us along.

Happy Birthday, son, and thank you!

General - Life - Waterford

You’ll Never Walk Alone: Reflections of 365 Days of Walking

December 31, 2022 by 1 Comment

Inspiration

I began taking some extra exercise at the beginning of 2022, in the form of walking near my home town of Tramore, Co. Waterford in Ireland. After completing 7 days in a row, walking 4 km per day, I decided to keep going to see if I could make it to 28 days in a row, which I did.

I then added an extra kilometre to my route and set my sights on 50 days, which soon became 100, which became 200 followed by 300 and finally, today, Saturday, 31 December 2022, I am delighted to have completed 365 consecutive days of walking. With an average of 5 km per day, that’s a grand total of 1,825 kilometres for the year!

While chatting about this with various people during the final weeks of 2022, the questions about why and how kept coming up. As I recounted the same answers each time, I was encouraged to share some insights into what inspired me to undertake this personal accomplishment, how I did it and what I have learned from it. Here are some of those insights.

Why

There were two main reasons why I undertook the journey that has transpired – why I started it (primary) and why I finished it (secondary). On reflection, only the first of these was apparent to me at the beginning of 2022.

The primary goal was to improve the amount of regular exercise I was getting, or not getting as was actually the case. Having an office-based job for all my professional working life, with a busy family life, I had known for some time that I was simply not getting nearly enough exercise. For me, the Covid-19 pandemic made this worse but also, eventually, made it more apparent, so I decided to finally try doing something about it in 2022.

The secondary goal, which only emerged towards the end of January 2022, was driven more by an emergent desire for personal accomplishment – to see if I could actually make it all the way to the end of the year without missing a day and, if so, what might I learn (or benefit) from that.

Weather

Anyone who knows an Irish person will know that we just love to talk about the weather. And so it is only fitting that I begin my insights with some reflections on this aspect of my journey.

Barring a proper bout of snow, which rarely happens in Ireland anyway (even less so in the seaside town where I live), I think I walked in all of the typically Irish weather conditions during 2022, which included wind, rain, fog, hailstones, balmy sunshine and frosty cold.

I think the warmest I walked in was 30C (in August) and the coldest was -4C (in December) and I can say with absolute certainty that, while dry weather was definitely preferable, it was the wind that really, really tested my resolve above anything else. Not only was windy weather significantly more draining on energy levels (burning more calories to walk the same distance) but it ruined any audio tracks I was listening to along the way, while raising body temperatures higher than wanted.

Surprisingly, for a country that sees a lot of rain, I only had to wear full-blown waterproof clothing around 5 times during the entire year and, of those, I only actually got properly wet around twice. This was partly due to the accuracy of the weather forecasting provided by Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE, whose predictability allowed me to time many of my walks avoiding any rain.

Ironically, the very last day of the year was one of the wettest of the year too.

Walking Routes

Well over 90% of my walks took the same basic route, which was a loop from my house to the Tramore beach area, along the promenade and then back home again via a slightly different road, which was almost exactly 5 km in total length.

There were some days when, either because of weather or other circumstances, I was only able to manage 3 or 4 km, with 2 km being the absolute minimum I settled for. I made up for any difference by walking a little extra on other days but this was significantly less than 10% of the time overall.

It was only during holidays or day/weekend trips that alternative routes were used and these were usually devised with the goal of keeping my monthly averages ticking over.

Entertainment

Curiously, a key factor in surviving my year-long escapade was avoiding boredom – something that quickly seemed to stymie previous attempts to take regular exercise. In this regard, it was my Smartphone (and Spotify) that made the real difference, in the form of podcasts and music.

I think that, for every 4 weeks I spent listening to podcasts, I spent one week listening to music. The musical themes varied highly, often being influenced by podcast topics, which included:

  • Playlists with songs whose basic rhythm were precisely 120 beats per minute, which seemed to suit my natural stride.
  • Numerous guilty pleasures from the 1970s and 1980s, including Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Metallica, Billy Joel, Queen, Prince, ABBA and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
  • The Soundtracks to several movies (incl. Platoon, O’ Brother Where Art Thou, Forrest Gump, The Commitments, Baby Driver, Pulp Fiction)
  • Relistening to compilations that I used to own on cassette tape (incl. Now That’s What I Call Music Volume 4 and The Hits Tape Volume 2)
  • Rediscovering a wide range of Classical Music (incl. Strauss, Bach and Mozart).
  • Ireland’s own Jack Lukeman, who released a new album on vinyl during 2022 too.

The main podcasts I listened to (which could easily justify an entire separate article) included:

  • The 2 Johnnies
  • The Witness: In His Own Words
  • The Missing Cryptoqueen
  • The Making of a Detective
  • Murder in Mauritius 
  • Why Would You Tell Me That?
  • The Unusual Suspects
  • Red Notice
  • RTE Documentary on One

The Documentary on One series from RTE is an absolute treasure trove of fascinating stories dating back several decades and, with each one being around 45 minutes in length, they are also ideally suited to the duration of most of my walks. I definitely had a lot of favourites here (and skipped a few too) but far too many to list them individually here. This series is absolutely worth exploring in more detail, though, and I highly recommend it.

Reflections

So, looking back at my year of walking, what do I think I achieved from it?

Fitness

I set out expecting that improvements in my general fitness would be the main takeaway from this exercise (pardon the pun) and indeed it was. Back in January, it was taking me 40 minutes to walk 4 km and I was in really poor shape after doing so (aching, sweating).

However, I am now able to comfortably walk 5 km in the same amount of time (40 minutes), which equates to a brisk pace of 7.5km per hour. In addition, there are no particular dramatics in terms of body temperature or major fatigue afterwards (unless it’s very windy or rainy, of course).

For added fun, I also did all of my walking without a fitness tracker and instead gauged my fitness progress based on where, within a specific playlist of a very specific length (e.g. 45 minutes) I managed to complete my walk. When I first set out, I was just happy to get home before the playlist ended but I then set my sights on finishing before the guitar solo in the last song and then getting there with an entire song to spare. Maybe my daughter is right – I’m such a tech nerd after all!

Wellbeing

I’ve heard lots of people talking about wellbeing and using “good for the soul” narratives in the past, but was never quite sure if/how this applied to walking. I’m happy to report that I think I now understand what they were referring to.

Apart from the innate sense that my new exercise regime is good for me (and seeing small wins via improvements in my general fitness), I have found immense personal satisfaction in having completed an entire year of walking. Admittedly, there are a great many people who take just as many steps in an average day during normal life, so it’s less about the distance and more about the commitment I gave it.

The other benefit I felt, which sits within the wellness genre also, was the simple joy to be had in hearing certain songs from a playlist begin just as the ocean came into view, or as the moon appeared from behind some clouds, or as some other aspect of nature took my breath away, all to the sound of a strong musical beat, guitar solo or a poignant lyric.

I found these enormously uplifting, even emotional at times, and drew wonderful energy from them, which is a benefit that I definitely was not expecting when I set out back in January.

Mother Nature

Perhaps less unique to walking and more to do with simply being outdoors, I also found the various sights and sounds of mother nature to be enormously refreshing. From picturesque dawns and dusks, to stunning sunsets, starry nights and full moons, combined with the smell of fresh cut grass, low tide, cotton candy or fish & chips, there was plenty to savour here too.

Education and Musical Rediscovery

At 45-50 minutes per walk, I reckon I spent close to 300 hours listening to music or podcasts. Not only were many of the podcasts hugely educational (far more than I expected) but I also found myself discovering so much music that I’d forgotten I liked too. I had a few guilty pleasures thrown in here for good measure as well, all of which added to the enjoyment of the time I spent walking.

Next Steps

A few people have asked me if I’m going to keep the momentum going by continuing to walk every day in 2023. While I’ll absolutely keep walking regularly, I’ve not yet decided if I can truly justify or sustain the commitment needed for another year.

Upgrading to jogging is an option to consider too, as is walking a slightly longer distance every other day. I’m just mindful of the pressure to walk every single day, which could easily become an obsession that counteracts the other benefits, and there were definitely times this year when it felt a little this way so I’m very keen to avoid this spoiling the underlying purpose of the exercise.

All in all, it was a journey I’m very glad I started and I’m definitely not done, so you’ll definitely see me out and about near my home town regularly in 2023. I’m also immensely grateful to my wife for creating the extra time and space in our busy family life to allow me to venture out at random times during the day, every single day, in all kinds of weather.

You’ll Never Walk Alone!

Family - History

Neddie Mernin: An Irish Revolutionary

December 6, 2022 by

The Formation of a Republic

Tuesday, 6 December 2022 was a significant day in Irish history as it marked 100 years since the Constitution of the Irish Free State came into effect (on Tuesday, 6 December 1921). The free state was not the same thing as the Republic of Ireland that we know today, though, and was merely designated as a dominion of the British Empire (following the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922). 

Therefore, while it was an independent entity from the United Kingdom (a significant development in its own right), the fact it was still a part of the British Empire made it an unpopular outcome for many of those involved in the centuries-long struggle for Irish freedom and independence.

The Irish War of Independence

Predating the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922 was the Irish War of Independence, which took place from 1919 to 1921. Also known as the Anglo-Irish War, this came about as a result of the fallout from the Easter Rising of 1916 and was fought between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and British forces still occupying the island of Ireland at that time.

This is not to be confused with the Irish Civil War, which took place later (June 1922 to May 1923), following the establishment of the Irish Free State, which was still a part of the British Empire.

It would be another 15 years before a new constitution was adopted in 1937, when the state was renamed as Ireland, effectively becoming a republic in its own right. However, it was not until 1949 that the official republic declaration would be made, following the Republic of Ireland Act of 1948.

Therefore, as we commemorate the significance of this day in our chequered history, we should also remember all those whose visionary and brave efforts made such a thing even possible. My Grandfather, Edmund (Neddie) Mernin, was one of those people and this is his revolutionary story.

Neddie Mernin: The Irish Revolutionary

Edmund (Neddie) Mernin, was born in October 1892 near Villierstown, Co. Waterford in Ireland. He was the eldest of 14 siblings (8 boys and 6 girls), the youngest of which was born in 1915, and 7 of whom emigrated to America during the 1920s.

Neddie spent most of his career in the Irish Forestry Department as a Timekeeper at Dromana Wood (near Villierstown) and lived his entire life in Villierstown, marrying Mary (Mai) Foley from Affanne, Cappoquin in 1933. They had 10 children of their own (7 boys and 3 girls), one of whom died in infancy.

Neddie was a member of Battalion 3 in the West Waterford Brigade of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), serving his home village, his county and his country proudly and fearlessly from 1917 to 1921.

He was also not the only member of the extended Mernin family to play an active role in events during that time with Lily Mernin also operating as a spy for Michael Collins in Dublin Castle, supplying critical intelligence that helped shape numerous offensives.

Revolutionary Diaries

While attending a commemorative parade in Dublin with my own daughter in 2016, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising of 1916, we happened upon a conversation about my Grandfather and his involvement in the events around that time. As I was not entirely sure of the specifics myself, I asked an uncle about it, who duly produced some active service papers that revealed some fascinating insights into a world that few of us knew existed until then.

The papers, which numbered 5 in total, were crafted as part of an application for an Irish army pension in the 1950s and contained detailed accounts of my Grandfather’s revolutionary activities before and during the War of Independence, the period from April 1917 to July 1921.

In each case, the carefully preserved (and now laminated) documents show the start and end date of each period of service, the unit, district and operational commander served, as well as details of the duties carried out. Here is a catalogue of what these service papers contained:

1 April 1917 – 31 March 1918

Spanning a total of 365 days, this period was served mostly in the Villierstown Company of Waterford Battalion of the Irish Volunteers (a.k.a. IRA). The districts covered included Villierstown, Kereen, Aglish and Ballinameela and the Commanding Officer was Ed Walsh from Curraghroche, near Cappoquin, Co. Waterford.

The period was spent mostly carrying out military duties and orders, which included:

Drilling, route marches, military manoeuvres and parades in connection with army conscription activities.

Other references cited on the service papers for this period were Ed Walsh (Company OC, Curraghroche, Cappoquin), Jas Mansfield (Dungarvan) and Pat Whelan (Brigade OC, Dungarvan). Our assumption is that the term OC meant Commanding Officer.

1 April 1918 – 31 March 1919

This was largely a continuation of the previous period, spanning a similar duration and serving in the same unit, covering the same districts under the same Commanding Officer, Ed Walsh.

The period was also mostly spent carrying out military orders, including:

Drilling, military manoeuvres and military duties in connection with an Election in 1918.

The same people were noted as additional references on the service paper for this period.

1 April 1919 – 31 March 1920

While still a continuation of the previous service period, spanning a similar duration and serving in the same unit, the only district noted on the service paper was Villierstown. The Commanding Officer remained the same, however, and was recorded as Ed Walsh from Curraghroche.

However, by this time the War of Independence had formally begun and the duties recorded on the service papers took a more serious tone. They noted military orders and discipline, including:

Outpost duty during an Income Tax office raid in June 1919 and (also on outpost duty) in connection with the burning of Villierstown RIC station in November 1919.

In this context, RIC refers to the Royal Irish Constabulary, which was the British administered police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922. The RIC would be better known in Irish historical folklore as the Black and Tans, in deference to the main colours in their uniform. Specifically, though, the term Black and Tans actually refers to constables that were recruited into the RIC as reinforcements during the War of Independence, not the entire police force itself.

For this period, only Ed Walsh (Curraghroche, Cappoquin) was noted as an additional reference.

1 April 1920 – 31 March 1921

While still a continuation of the previous service period, spanning a similar duration, the unit recorded on the service papers was Third Battalion and the districts covered included Villierstown and Cappagh. Ed Walsh (Curraghroche, Cappoquin) was once again recorded as the Commanding Officer for this period.

Once again, against the backdrop of the War of Independence, the duties recorded continued along a serious (and dangerous) vein, noting military orders and discipline which included:

Taking part in the destruction of Villierstown Courthouse (including books and documents) in September 1920, raiding for shotguns, ferrying comrades (November 1920) and the destruction of Coolrue and Geosh bridges.

Additional references cited on the service papers for this period included Ed Walsh (Company OC, Curraghroche, Cappoquin), Matt Lynch (Ballingown, Cappoquin) and someone whose surname was Shanahan (Aglish, Cappoquin).

1 April 1921 – 11 July 1921

The final service paper spanned a shorter period of just 100 days, recording the unit as Company III Battalion, Waterford Brigade, I.R.A. (presumably the same one as before) and covering the districts of Dromore and Curraghroche. The Commanding Officer was once again Ed Walsh.

With the War of Independence still ongoing the activities recorded included being subject to military duties and discipline, involving:

Total destruction of Coolrue and Geosh bridges, building a dump at Dromore for the concealment of arms, cutting a trench with felled trees at Curraghroche (June 1921) and preparation for an expected arms landing at Helvick, near Dungarvan, Co. Waterford.

The additional references cited on the service papers for this period included Ed Walsh (Company OC, Curraghroche, Cappoquin), Tom Cotter (Aglish, Cappoquin) and Matt Lynch (Ballingown, Cappoquin).

Commemorating Neddie

Neddie Mernin died peacefully at his home in Villierstown in February 1983, aged 90, where he had lived his entire life without ever being admitted to a hospital.

At his funeral, which was attended by a number of Irish Government officials, his coffin was draped with the Irish Tricolour and was adorned with his military service medals. A Firing Party drawn from the First Motor Squadron, Fermoy, Co. Cork also fired three volleys over his grave as The Last Post was sounded by a Bugler from Dungarvan FCA (part of the Irish Army Reserves at that time).

I can still recall the solemn, crisp air being pierced by the deafening shrill of the shots being fired over his coffin. Mixed among the tears of sadness shared by the thousands of people present were tears of pride and gratitude for one of so many brave souls of their time.

It is only with the passage of time, on seeing the Republic of Ireland flourish as a continued and modern democracy, that we can truly learn to appreciate the bravery and fortitude of men like Neddie, as well as the many women that supported and aided them all along the way.

– Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

Credits

I wish to thank Michael “Feeney” Mernin for giving his permission to share details from Neddie’s active service papers in this way, as well as thanking John Mernin for providing numerous historical actuaries that complemented Neddie’s story.

Life

Still Wiping Away Our Tears

October 16, 2022 by 1 Comment

For parents everywhere that are living with the loss of a child, my wife and I still take comfort in these words which we composed on the passing of our first-born son, Jake, who was born twenty years ago today on Wednesday, 16 October 2002.

The moment that we saw you our hearts were filled with joy
We wept in adoration for our little baby boy
You were our little angel, the product of our love
You were all we ever dreamed of, a gift from God above
Alas, it was not meant to be and you were needed by another
We hope that they will cherish you as much as me and your mother
How it hurts to let you go; the pain may never leave
But time will help us all to cope; in that we must believe
You are our son, of that we’re sure, and it may take us many years
To rebuild our lives without you here to wipe away our tears

We shared some additional thoughts on what his short life taught us in Life Lessons from an Angel which was published in 2020, on what would have been his 18th birthday.

Happy Birthday, son!

FeedHenry - Humour - Technology

How Santa Sleighed our Backend

December 23, 2021 by

Like anyone that has worked in the IT industry for as long as I have, I’ve encountered my fair share of horror stories (or learning opportunities, as we later learned to call them), where technology lets you down or behaves in completely unforeseen ways, with highly stressful consequences.

One of my all-time favourite examples of this (although it didn’t feel like it at the time) involved Santa Claus, of all people, and having told the story in person so many times, I finally found the time to write it down (just in time for Christmas) in all its glorious detail.

Full credit goes to Evan Shortiss and Philip Hayes (who lived through this with us) for helping to tell the story in this format, with Evan devising the article title and Philip providing the technical accuracy to back it up. So here goes…

A Christmas Tale

It was 23 December 2011 and the hardworking staff at our startup company, which was punching above its weight in the mobile applications and cloud space at the time, were on the wind down to a well deserved Christmas break after a very busy and successful year.

‘Twas two nights before Christmas, when all through the house, not an engineer was stirring, not even their mouse…

As their Cloud Operations team had done their due diligence and introduced a platform change freeze the week before (notifying customers accordingly and finalising a support crew that could assist if any issues arose during the holidays, which rarely happened anyway), most of the staff has already started their holidays in the days before, so the office was pretty calm and quiet.

One of our larger profile customers at the time ran the local national airport and were using a custom solution powered by our platform to provide flight information and other services to airport customers. Their solution comprised a publicly available, cross-platform mobile app with a cloud-based, Node.js backend that integrated with some of their own backend systems, parsing data that was delivered via a message queue and storing it in a local cache.

Then, suddenly, the phone rang…

Panic Stations

The customer’s mobile app had just stopped working on the busiest day of the year, leaving thousands of passengers virtually stranded, with no up-to-date flight information. Nothing had changed, though; we were in a change freeze and this same application had been operating flawlessly for months, processing hundreds of thousands of messages without issue. This was quickly verified by the dutiful support crew who confirmed that no changes had been made to the front-end or back-end of the application, and yet the mobile app continued to fail.

In the hours that followed, long into the evening that was, almost every engineer in the company was summoned back from holidays to help get to the root cause of this issue, with stress levels on the increase and patience declining fast. There was also no sign of anyone that looked even remotely like Hans Gruber to blame for the drama that ensued 🙂

Some time later, one of the engineers discovered (via some system logs) that some of the code responsible for parsing messages from the customer’s backend systems was throwing errors. Specifically, the code that mapped airline (ICAO) codes to human readable airline names had a hardcoded table with predefined entries, supporting only the entries in that table and generating errors for anything else it encountered.

Having verified that there was, in fact, decent error handling in place for the code segment in question, this still did not explain why the backend application was still crashing continuously. A few more hours passed and attention turned to the actual data being sent by the customer’s messaging system. It was not the only remaining variable in the entire equation at hand.

Learning Opportunities

And then, suddenly, there it was, staring us in our (now very red) faces. Santa was on his way!

It turns out that, through their inner child and the goodness of their hearts, and in keeping with what had become an annual tradition, the airport IT staff had injected a fake flight (by Santa Airlines) into the arrivals messaging queue. However, the associated airline code (SAN) was not in the table of predefined entries in the backend application, so was generating an error.

However, cruelly, it then transpired that while the error was being caught and handled, there was a small bug in the error handling routine which was preventing the application from processing subsequent messages, ultimately causing it to crash, over and over again. 

So, in the end, the addition of a fake flight to bring some festive cheer to airport customers and their families exposed a hidden bug in our application, which “sleighed” our backend!

Lessons Learned

No matter how reliable you believe your data is, or how long your application has been running without issue, edge cases will still happen. A simple unit test would have caught the bug described above and prevented this high profile system from failing at one of the busiest times of the year, causing enormous amounts of stress to everyone involved.