Bees Added To Endangered Species in Hawaii

Trouble in paradise for seven species of pollinators native to Hawaii.

The Hylaeus assimulans, one of seven bee species declared endangered in the US

Seven species of bees native to Hawaii were declared endangered on Friday in what The Associated Press said was the first time any bee in the U.S. has received the protection. 

Hawaii’s various species of yellow-faced bees will be protected by the Endangered Species Act effective Oct. 31. But one of the most effective safeguards ― controls on bee habitats ― won’t be part of the new declaration. 

The Xerces Society, which advocates for protecting pollinators, pushed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to intervene on behalf of bees in 2009.

Friday’s decision “is excellent news for these bees, but there is much work that needs to be done to ensure that Hawaii’s bees thrive,” Matthew Shepherd, spokesman for the Xerces Society, wrote on the group’s website. “Unfortunately, the USFWS has not designated any ‘critical habitat,’ areas of land of particular importance for the endangered bees.” 

Restrictions would be placed on areas labeled as critical habits, but the Fish and Wildlife Service said it needs more time to identify potential locations. “Accordingly, we find designation of critical habitat to be ‘not determinable’ at this time,” The Fish and Wildlife Service said in posting the new endangered species rule.

Yellow-faced bees live in a variety of ecosystems on the islands, from lush forests to alpine deserts 10,000 feet above sea level, according to a fact sheet published on a University of Hawaii website. They play an important role in pollinating plants native to the Hawaiian islands. 

An additional 42 species of plants and animals on the brink of extinction in Hawaii also received the endangered listing on Friday. The band-rumped storm-petrel, orange-black Hawaiian damselfly, an anchialine pool shrimp and 39 types of plants are endangered because of factors like habitat erosion, invasive species, human interaction and climate change, according to the Centre for Biological Diversity.

“I’m relieved these 49 unique Hawaiian plants and animals are finally getting the protection they desperately need to survive,” said Loyal Mehrhoff, recovery director at the center. “The Endangered Species Act has already saved hundreds of Hawaiian species from extinction, so this is great news for these irreplaceable plants and animals.”

Bees are imperiled elsewhere. The Fish and Wildlife Service this month recommended adding a species from the Midwest to the endangered list, beginning a process that can take up to a year. The ruby patched bumble bee, which once inhabited 26 states and parts of Canada, has lost 90 percent of its range in the last two decades. 

Fish and Wildlife Service officials did not respond to inquiries. 

Michael McLoughlin 

How London's honeybees are coming back

Unconstrained by borders, carried on Channel winds from the northern reaches of France, the arrival of the predatory Asian hornet in Britain - found lurking near a quaint market town in Gloucestershire last week - is bad news for our native honey makers. 

With a wingspan stretching more than 7.5cm, and bearing razor sharp pincers, the thumb-sized velvet black vespas are thought to have first arrived in Europe concealed within a Chinese pottery shipment in 2004. Since then, their numbers have ballooned, while populations of Western honeybees - on which they prey almost exclusively - have nosedived. 

Bee-killing Asian hornet spotted in Britain for first time

Play!

Sadly, here in Britain, this new menace is merely the latest of many threatening to send bees towards extinction. Across rural England,  where pesticides and the destruction of habitat are already decimating nesting sites, bee numbers are tumbling into terminal decline. With more than 97 percent of our wild flowering grasslands uprooted since the 1930s, once bountiful Cullem’s and Short-haired bumblebees have already been extirpated from the countryside. 

“The biggest pressures facing our bees right now are urbanisation and cultural practices.

”Dr Clint Perry

But there is hope on the horizon. Away from the perils of intensive agriculture and invasive species, our increasingly virescent cityscapes, coupled with hardening metropolitan attitudes towards climate change, could hold the key to their survival. 

AT A GLANCE | Asian hornets

Asian hornets, which are originally from the Far East, carry a large amount of potent venom

The Asian hornet, or Vespa velutina, is an invasive species from Asia and was first spotted in Bordeaux, France, in 2005 and is now spreading rapidly

It is a highly effective predator of insects, including honey bees and can cause significant losses to bee colonies

It is active between April and November

Queens can be up to 3cm in length and workers around 2.5cm

Entirely dark brown or black velvety body, bordered with a fine yellow band. It has a black head with orange-yellow face

The Asian hornet is a day-flying species which, unlike the European hornet, ceases activity at dusk

It nests in tall trees in urban and rural areas, and nests can also be found in sheds, garages, under decking or in holes in the wall or ground

In London, of all places, bees are in fact thriving. Following a sustained conservation drive, new government figures have revealed that the capital’s airways are humming with the healthiest population of bees found anywhere in Europe. With more than 2,500 apiaries squeezed into crevices and rooftops across the capital, beekeeping has fast become the preserve of many urban dwellers. 

Just a short walk from St James’s Park, where groves of white cherry trees straddle the lake down to Storey’s Gate, a hive of activity is taking place atop of Fortnum & Mason, the luxury department store. World renowned for its home-made produce, Fortnum’s roof terrace is now home to four apiaries, carefully carved from English oak wood, each brimming with some 50,000 honeybees.

Beekeepers tend to the apiaries on top of Fortnum & Mason's, Piccadilly  CREDIT: FORTNUM & MASON 

“We first had the inspiration from a set of hives housed on top of the Paris Opera house,” Fortnum’s grocery buyer Sam Rosen-Nash tells me. “Fortnum’s make so many of our products in-house, so we thought creating our own honey was the logical way forward.” 

To keep up with soaring demand for their Piccadilly Honey, Fortnum’s has now installed apiaries in four other locations, including a new pied-à-terre alongside Hoxton canal. Dotted across the city, their bees now forage through the Royal Parks as far as Buckingham Palace, where they help maintain the pristine rose garden and herbaceous border. 

“City honey is really quite special,” Sam says, “because it has such a complex flavour character. In Hoxton, the bees are feeding off the buddleia along the banks of the canal, so you have a completely different flavour dynamic to Piccadilly, where we have hints of elderflower coming through.” 

CREDIT: JOE WOODGATE 

Innovative new beekeeping techniques are also helping city-dwellers tap into Mother Nature. Following a £13 million crowdfunding campaign, Stuart and Cedar Henderson, a father and son team from Byron Bay, Australia, have recently released a novice-friendly apiary called the Honey Flow Hive. Whereas traditional beekeeping is a complex and stressful procedure, often involving copious palls of smoke, confusion and the occasional bee sting, the Hive is a remarkably simple device. Fashioned from pine wood frames and clear plastic chambers, it funnels honey directly from individual chambers with minimal effort, allowing beekeepers to collect their crop without disturbing the insects. 

“Getting nectar,” Cedar says, “has always been a difficult task. I thought it was crazy to have to crack the hive open, pull it apart, stress out all the bees and spend all day just trying to get your honey. Now we’ve built something that allows people to sit back, turn the tap and get honey directly from the hive with no mess. It’s much more friendly for the bees.” 

Retailing at £50 online, the Hive is now being hailed as the most significant breakthrough in beekeeping since the creation of the Langstroth model hive in 1852 and its popularity in London is soaring.

Researchers at Queen Mary University London hope that this will help boost wild bee populations, in parallel. “Beekeeping practices are increasing across the city,” says Dr Clint Perry, a leading biologist heading up the London Pollinator Project, a capital -wide scheme encouraging gardeners to ditch shrubs for bee-friendly Saliva and Syringa in order to provide honeybees with more forage.

Inside the University’s laboratories, scientists have also tagged more than 500 bees with electronic transmitters in order to gauge how well their horticultural efforts are faring. 

One of QMUL's tagged honeybees feeds from a flower in Hyde Park, London  CREDIT: CLINT PERRY 

“London is unique,” Perry says, “because there are so many green spaces that can be tapped into to counterbalance the effects of urbanisation and agricultural practices elsewhere. The typical Victorian London home is small, but there are so many patches of green in the back yard or on roof terraces, so it has far more greenery than in other cities of a similar size.”

While the arrival of the Asian Hornet in Britain is a worry, Perry believes London bees have nothing to fear, so long as residents continue to appreciate their importance to the environment. “The biggest pressures facing our bees right now are urbanisation and cultural practices,” he says. “Whether it’s planting flowers or looking after your own bee colony—these are things that can really make a difference.”

Harry Yorke

Department of Foreign Affairs wasting €46,000 a month for one of their own

The Department of Foreign Affairs has said it is “actively seeking” to buy a home for its ambassador to Japan after the disclosure that the State is paying €46,000 a month to rent an apartment in Tokyo.

The ambassador’s residence in Tokyo was more than twice as expensive as any other property rented by the department last year, the Mail on Sunday reported. The outlay on the apartment included access to a spa, swimming pool and gym facilities, a roof garden and a wine and port cellar, it said.

Drawing on documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, the newspaper said the residence for Ireland’s consul general in New York cost €20,870 while the department paid €20,050 a month on the home of the ambassador to Singapore. Rent on an apartment in Geneva cost €15,925 a month.

In a statement, the department said it always sought to ensure value for money in all its operations, in particular when signing rental agreements. “Precisely because rents are so high in Tokyo the department has been actively engaged in seeking alternatives to renting,” it said.

“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been reviewing its options in relation to Tokyo with a view to converting rental payments into a long-term asset for Ireland.

Ruadhan Mac Cormac

  

Who Are You???

The maths: We live a brief life. By the time you are 20 years old you have already begun the 3rd decade of it and there is only 11 years between 29 and 40. That is if you ever get that far in the first place. The chance of you being born at all has not been computerised or the math on that one been verbalised yet or fully understood. For example: if your mother or father never met, you obviously would not have become you; comparatively so, if one Dad or Mam was not up to any particular romantic interlude at anytime, there was a likelihood that you were on your way on a napkin to somewhere else and not ever coming back. The variations of you not being here in the first place can be wildly varied, humourous and very true. What matters in the end is that you are here despite practically insurmountable odds. You are already a winner and as individual as your fingerprints.

The science: The dawn of man descended from the common ancestors of apes. We are in fact 98.4% ape and almost 99% chimpanzee. We are also 97.5% mouse and there is more to the adage that  “The best laid- plans of mice and men often go awry” (Robert Burns 1759-1796). The behaviours in man, either in consequence or prediction, is not too far removed from this lot. Don’t blame me about the science, blame all those pesky scientists and Charles Darwin. What happens and matters next in forming you, first and foremost, is what is commonly called the formative years. These are the years that social scientists, psychologists and other academics generally agree is the first seven years of anyone’s life. It is in the end what becomes, in the round, YOU!

You are essentially a social construct, shaped in those formative years by geography, others belief systems and all things local, and by the family, an extended one, or the lack of both, that your were reared from. Being told what to learn rather than how to learn only solidified any confusion that passed as an education for life's challenges.

You were born with a natural propensity and expectation of being loved, and from that, a natural gratitude for giving love in return. When these former expectations were not met in your social construct, or indeed, were not there at all in any form, defensive mechanisms kick in. These are embedded deep and can prove to be the chip on your shoulder that you do not know is there or the disease that you do not know you have and sometimes called ‘a dangerous mis-understanding’. Facing down these unrealised expectations, making meaning, to understand with acceptance, in order to remove the chip is the key to living a more contented if not fulfilling life. Your choices, askew or on the button, are guided by these understandings, or the lack of them being understood at all. It can mean the difference between a life sleepwalking where you never wake up or one where a new meaning can mean several dawns just in one day. De-construction here starts before the re-construction begins on a different foundation and one that is definitely yours in the making.

Where does anyone start looking for understanding is the easy part. Looking at how and why you think the way you do. The blame game is a good beginning; your perceptions grounded on what: the notion that you are, despite evidence to the contrary, a mind reader and a judge all rolled into one? The expectations that people do the right thing by you or should have done and the crushing feeling almost all of the time when they do not; a moral crusader with an immoral compass, that despite your best efforts, keeps pointing at yourself and deserve has nothing to do with it or ever will. We do not make random choices and this is the good news, only a computer does that, so choose well when all the evidence is in. Stripping away all of your tired and old mindsets and a lot more is most definitely a good place to start indeed and starting today is the best time to begin. It is not winning that counts as you have already won that by being born, but the living and taking part of life after that IS; and leaving the baggage way behind that you carried long enough without really reasoning too well as to why.  

Barry Clifford

Rasputin of the Bronx – The Irishman they couldn’t kill

New documentary on efforts to kill Michael Malloy for insurance fraud.

A documentary, “Name Your Poison,” was launched in Christmas, 2015, in Ireland, on the Irish language TV channel, TG4. The movie deals with "The man they could not kill," Michael Malloy (1873 – February 22, 1933), aka Mike the Durable and Iron Mike, aka Rasputin of The Bronx. Malloy was a homeless Irishman from County Donegal who lived in New York City during the 1920s and 30s.

A former firefighter, he is most famous for surviving a number of attempts – as many as 20 by some accounts – on his life by five acquaintances who were attempting to commit life insurance fraud.

The events that led to Malloy's death began in January 1933. He was, at the time, alcoholic and homeless after falling on hard times.

Five men who were acquainted with Malloy – Tony Marino, Joseph "Red" Murphy, Francis Pasqua, Hershey Green, and Daniel Kriesberg (later dubbed "the Murder Trust" by the headlines) – plotted to take out three life insurance policies on Malloy and then get him to drink himself to death.

Mike looked an easy mark. He was, wrote the Daily Mirror, after the case, just part of the “flotsam and jetsam in the swift current of underworld speakeasy life, those no-longer-responsible derelicts who stumble through the last days of their lives in a continual haze of "Bowery Smoke.’'

“Why don’t you take out insurance on Malloy?”, Pasqua asked Marino one day, according to another contemporary newspaper report. “I can take care of the rest.”

Marino paused. Pasqua knew he’d pulled off such a scheme once before

The prior year, Marino, 27, had befriended a homeless woman named Mabelle Carson and convinced her to take out a $2,000 life insurance policy, naming him as the beneficiary.

One frigid night he force-fed her alcohol, stripped off her clothing, doused the sheets and mattress with ice water, and pushed the bed beneath an open window. The medical examiner listed the cause of death as bronchial pneumonia, and Marino collected the money without incident.

Marino figured Mike Malloy, who looked about 60, though he was a decade younger and in terrible shape, would go easy. He nodded and motioned to Malloy. “He looks all in. He ain’t got much longer to go anyhow. The stuff is gettin’ him.”

They agreed to go ahead. They began backslapping Malloy and gave him free drinks. Malloy, accustomed to getting the bum's rush because of his lack of funds, was so thrilled that he eagerly signed a petition that would help elect Marino for local office.

What he actually signed was an insurance policy from Metropolitan Life, and two from Prudential. The gang even provided Malloy with a crash pad in the back of the bar to sleep off his hangovers.

Little did they know just how tough Mike was. When it came to survival he could match Rasputin, the Russian monk whose enemies needed many attempts before they finally succeeded in killing him. The first part of the Mike Malloy plot was successful (probably achieved with the aid of a corrupt insurance agent), and they stood to gain over $3,500 (more than $65,000 by 2015’s standards by the CPI) if Malloy died an accidental death.

Marino owned a speakeasy and gave Malloy unlimited credit, thinking Malloy would abuse it and drink himself to death. Although Malloy drank for a majority of his waking day, it did not kill him. To remedy this, antifreeze was substituted for liquor, but still, Malloy would drink until he passed out, wake up, and come back for more. Antifreeze was substituted with turpentine, followed by horse liniment, and finally mixed in rat poison. Still, Malloy lived.

The group then tried raw oysters soaked in wood alcohol. This idea apparently came from Pasqua, who saw a man die after eating oysters with whiskey.] Then came a sandwich of spoiled sardines mixed with poison and carpet tacks.

When that failed, they decided that it was unlikely that anything Malloy ingested was going to kill him, so the Murder Trust decided to freeze him to death. On a night when the temperature reached −14 °F (−26 °C), Malloy drank until he passed out, was carried to a park, dumped in the snow, and had five gallons of water poured on his bare chest. Nevertheless, Malloy reappeared the following day for his drink. The next attempt on his life came when they hit him with a car, They bribed a taxi  driver Harry Green $150 to hit him. The murder syndicate got him drunk and propped him up as Harry Green revved his taxi up. At the last second they were to jump aside and the car was supposed to knock him over.

Molloy, though drunk, avoided the first two efforts to run him down. On the third attempt, according to Smithsonian Magazine, “Green raced toward Malloy at 50 miles per hour. With every second Malloy loomed larger through the windshield. Two thuds, one loud and one soft, the body against the hood and then dropping to the ground. For good measure, Green backed up over him. The gang was confident Malloy was dead, but a passing car scared them from the scene before they could confirm.”

Five days later, with no reports or death notices for Molloy the gang began to fear the worst. Sure enough the door to Marino’s speakeasy swung open and in limped a battered, bandaged Michael Malloy, looking only slightly worse for wear

The gang finally had enough. On February 22, after he passed out for the night, they took him to Murphy's room, put a hose in his mouth that was connected to the gas jet, and turned it on. This finally killed Malloy, death occurring within an hour.

He was pronounced dead of lobar pneumonia by a bribed doctor and quickly buried. Despite this, the Murder Trust failed to divide the collected loot evenly and fought over it .Eventually police heard rumors of Rasputin Mike in speakeasies all over town, and upon learning that a Michael Malloy had died that night, they had the body exhumed and forensically examined.

The five men were put on trial. Green went to prison, and the other four members were executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing. Unlike Mike none survived.

Malloy's death made history. It was featured in "The Poisoner's Handbook" as one of the first cases investigated by the then newly established New York City Medical Examiner's Office under the pioneering Dr. Charles Norris.

James O' Shea

For information please contact Paddy Hayes, director on +1353 87 2896718 or magamedia@gmail.com.

Jack O’Shea: How New Street turf lit my fire

Kerry's Jack O'Shea launches one upfield in the 1975 All-Ireland SFC final against Dublin at Croke Park. Picture: Connolly Collection/Sportfile

The All-Ireland football final salutes the past, celebrates the present and takes a peek at the future. Ahead of the senior game, old warriors parade on the turf where once they were kings. Prior to that, tomorrow’s men from Galway and Kerry grace the minor match, in the curtain-raiser for a day that cherishes continuity.

And it is that melding of continuity, tradition and community that makes the association unique. Few organisations anywhere in the world can lay claim to such an elevated perch in the national psyche.

The essence of those three ingredients of the association was doled out in nourishing helpings recently when former fooballing great, Jack O’Shea, gave a talk in the clubhouse of St Mary’s of Caherciveen, Co Kerry. There was both eating and drinking in what he had to say.

O’Shea was there as part of the Daniel O’Connell Summer School, a local hero ostensibly detailed to talk about a glittering career which had yielded seven senior All-Irelands and four Player of the Year awards.

Instead, he spoke not of what he had achieved, but what he owed. If, as the old African saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child, then Jacko outlined how it took a town to mould a footballer for the ages.

“When I look out here,” he said standing at the top of the packed function room, “and I think of the medals I won, I see so many faces who were part of those medals, people who I played with, who administered me. People whose homes I entered”. He was, he claimed “an ordinary Joe Soap” who was born “without a silver spoon”.

“It was a tough upbringing but everybody in Caherciveen stood by us, we were accepted and that played a big part in my career. We didn’t have a TV in our home. I used to go to several homes in New Street to watch TV.”

Jack O’Shea playing against Clare in 1992

He threw out the names. Br Keating, who, on a visit home from Africa, brought him and his friends to Killarney to watch Kerry for the first time. Paddy Murphy, who trained him at various underage levels. What he remembered about Paddy was how he had managed to pour eight or nine of them into a Renault 4 to strike out across South Kerry to matches.

There was Junior Murphy. When Jacko was starting out as a plumber soon after leaving school, Junior would leave his car open outside the girls’ school where he taught, for Jacko to use as transport for his tools. And Frank O’Leary, who, long after Jacko had left the town, wrote him a good luck card before every big Kerry game.

He mentioned his mother, his five sisters, his whole family and the family beyond in the community.

“I would never have achieved anything but for the people who grew up with me,” he said.

And what a childhood it was. He may have missed out on the silver spoon, but what he had was pure gold.

“All through my youth there was a competitiveness there,” he said. “I was competing all the time, out of school, racing, everybody competing. I grew up with that aspiration. I was trying to do my best. I was never lazy.

“When turf was delivered to somebody on New Street, I ‘d be the first out to put it in.”

Then there was the drag hunting he used to go on with his father, up and down the mountains, through the fields, endless hours on his feet. His career on the pitch was never blighted by injury, and he ascribed that not to luck but a childhood of constant motion, challenging all that nature and the elements had to throw at him.

“I feel a part of everybody, and everything I achieved I achieved for you, every family. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise, I’m very fortunate.”

The floor was opened to the memories of others, and from the back of the hall, another candidate for the pantheon, Maurice Fitzgerald, gave his tuppence worth.

Just as Jacko had spoken of fetching balls for his childhood heroes, Mick, O’Dywer and Mick O’Connell, so Maurice worshipped at the feet of his close neighbour, Jacko.

“As I child growing up, nine, 10, 11 years of age, it was the way he wore his socks, the way he curled his togs down, every single thing about him. I wanted to be like Jacko,” Fitzgerald said.

The memories spilling out across the room threw the present into sharp relief. Without minimising the major negatives which blighted this country in past decades, there is also room to reflect on what has been lost. How many children today get the opportunities that Jacko thrived on? As the country grows increasingly urbanised, childhood freedoms are curtained, parental anxiety replaces trust, the open prairies have been fenced off in the name of security.

Other changes have been wrought which throw down challenges to the sense of community in rural Ireland in particular. New Street, where O’Shea and Fitzgerald grew up, flickers where once it burned brightly. I remember the street as a bustling hub. Many of my school friends lived there and, as might be expected, they always fielded the best players in street leagues.

Today, much of New Street stands empty. During the summer one woman who lives there related to me that somebody had come home from abroad and moved in a few doors down.

“It’s great,” she said. “When I’m going to bed now I can see there’s another light on in the street.” So it goes with thousands of voids around the country. These are the unoccupied homes in towns and villages, once built in all the right places, until time’s brutal expediency has rendered them no further use.

But wait, who’s that out there shooing away the ghosts. As the talk ended, and everybody poured out of the clubhouse into late August’s slanting sun, a figure could be seen out on the pitch, kicking balls in languid arcs over the bar.

There he stood, Bryan Sheehan, another Mary’s man who was wearing Kerry colours, practicing — 48 hours before he would take to the field in Croke Park against Dublin.

Sheehan had been too absorbed in the present to know that the past was being chewed over in the clubhouse. As he addressed another ball, and raised his eyes to take in its projected flight, young children stood behind the goal, waiting in attendance on the latest local to occupy a gilded lineage, wanting to be Bryan Sheehan.

The big wheel keeps on turning.

Gratitude to Stephen O’Shea, Caherdaniel for recording Jack O’Shea’s talk and alleviating my regret for not doing so.

Michael Clifford

Do you complain effectively or indignantly?

Most businesses prefer to know if their customers are dissatisfied. It's said you'll tell one person about good service, but five people about bad. 

We're told we're a nation of begrudgers and it's true, we love nothing more than a bit of a gossip, especially if it's bad news. But when it comes to complaining properly about something we're unhappy about, do we really know how to do it effectively or do we just want to have a rant?

Most businesses prefer to know if their customers are dissatisfied. It's said you'll tell one person about good service, but five people about bad. So, rather than stonewall complainants, many organisations prefer to handle them - it's better for business. But if you find you haven't received proper service or bought something which doesn't work, it's important to know your rights before you kick off.

Purchases fall under the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980 and EC Directive 99/44 and revisions. This determines that goods must be of merchantable quality, do what they say and are as described. If not, you are entitled to repair, replacement or a refund. These rights hold firm even on discounted goods, unless they are clearly marked as damaged. However, you have no rights at all if you simply change your mind. You will be reliant on the store's goodwill.

If your complaint is over a breach of legislation, such as discrimination under the Equality Act, or a Government body which didn't provide a service (eg. a medical card, or housing), then you may have even stronger laws on your side, but complaining effectively may take time.

For the most common type of complaint - a faulty good - if you believe you have a valid reason to return it, the first place to complain is with the retailer or service provider. Some will attempt to send you off to the manufacturer, but you should stand your ground. The store/provider you gave your money to is the one with whom you have a contract. It is incumbent on them to fix the problem, not their supplier. Remind them of this obligation by quoting the Act.

Secondly, speak to someone empowered to help - there is no point yelling at the receptionist. Find out who is in charge. If that doesn't work, write to the company's head office, calling first to identify the customer services manager or general manager to ensure your letter goes to the correct department. Some companies are reluctant to receive official complaints by email, but you can certainly try.

Enclose/attach details and proof of your case, eg. receipt, outline of complaint and, crucially, what you want to happen and by when. Many people give out to a company without saying what exactly they expected and now want.

If that is unsuccessful, the next step is to find out if there is a regulatory body, arbitration service or guild to which the company belongs. In Ireland, we have a range of regulators for financial institutions, communications (eg. phone, broadband, TV providers), energy and others. There are statutory bodies dealing with discrimination issues such as the Equality Authority or a breach of government or state services - the Ombudsman's office. Some trades have their own mediation system, for example, SIMI, the Society of the Irish Motor Industry operates a successful service for complaints.

Failing all that, it may be necessary to revert to Court. The Small Claims Court (www.courts.ie) handles claims up to €2,000 for a fee of €25. It is also quite speedy, and, in many cases, once the offending company hears of the action, it can act as an effective mind concentrator to settle. If they ignore the court's complaint, you automatically win.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, set up 14 months ago, is the body charged with investigating and enforcing complaints against Irish companies (www.consumerhelp.ie).

The top 10 companies with the most complaints are Eir, Vodafone and Three taking the dubious honour at the top of the table, which also features Virgin, Meteor, Harvey Norman and Currys.

If you're buying online, your rights are even stronger, as the law gives credence to the fact you don't have the opportunity to see or touch the goods first. Therefore, your right to return an item and get a refund extend to 'change of mind' for 14 days. There are some exceptions such as perishable items (food) and customised goods, and some less obvious ones like ticket sales and hotel bookings.

Never take bad service, or faulty goods lying down. Fighting works!
Sinead Ryan