Michael Moynihan: Challenges of modern society keenly felt by the elderly

“Global life expectancy has risen from 51 to 72 since 1960,” the magazine reports.

“Second, families are shrinking. Over the same period, the number of babies a woman can expect to have in her lifetime has fallen by half, from 5 to 2.4. That means the ratio of living grandparents to children is steadily rising ...”

The report went on to point out there are approximately three times as many grandparents now compared to the same date, and the ratio of grandparents to children under 15 has almost doubled in the same period — it was 0.46 in 1960, compared to 0.8 today.

However, if you’re expecting a data-driven breakdown of Leeside grandparents, or even a flowery paean to the doting Nana and Grandad, apologies.

I introduce the column in this way to ask whether we can distinguish the realities of ageing from our preconceptions and cliches — something that’s of particular interest given recent reporting of how those realities play out in and around Cork.

Because if you start paying attention you can see how the experience of the older cohort of the population intersects fairly fast with the issues of the day, though that’s not always the way that intersection is framed in the popular mind.

Take the cold snap which gripped the country in recent days. When temperatures dropped below zero a few weeks back  Paddy O’Brien, the well-known Cork advocate for the aged, pointed out the particular challenges facing older people as a result of the freeze — challenges made even more difficult by the cost of living crisis.

“It’s a very dangerous time for elderly people. Heat at this time is even more important than food,” O’Brien told Liz Dunphy and Jack White of this parish last month.

“But people are afraid to turn on their heat, they’ve been hearing about astronomical energy bills and they’re trying to save money.

“People are going to bed early to try to stay warm and some won’t even watch their TVs. You feel the cold in the house when you go to visit people. And people are going without food. Some elderly people are too scared to leave the house with the ice and the cold so they’re going hungry.

“Neighbours have an important role to play now. That one call to someone could save their life.”

O’Brien went on to point out that a couple of years ago in Cork a man died “and he was not found for five months. Another man died in the same area and he was not found for three months. We don’t want any more tragedies like that this year.” (Unfortunately, it’s already too late, with the case in Mallow last week where a body found in a boarded-up house may have been there for 20 years.)

It’s fair to say, though, that difficulties faced by the elderly in extreme weather are highlighted with a fair amount of frequency — more often than other issues, certainly.

Combining the cost of living crisis is different, however, because it sometimes seems that the challenges of modern life are sharply demarcated by age.

Elderly and homelessness

Take the housing and accommodation crisis, one of the great challenges we face, but not one which is always associated with older people. The lazy views one sometimes hears about the elderly and housing range from a simmering envy of people who bought houses 30 or 40 years ago and saw them soar in value, all the way to calls for the elderly to downsize — to free up housing stock for younger people who need it. Housing and accommodation are often seen as pressing problems for younger people, which they are - but not exclusively so. A couple of summers ago Alone pointed out some uncomfortable truths in this regard. The organisation was founded with a focus on accommodation and the elderly by the late Willie Bermingham after he encountered the terrible living conditions of older people in his work with Dublin Fire Brigade, and thus speaks with considerable authority.

Back in 2021, Alone representatives said the growing number of middle-aged people renting was a cause for concern, as these people are the “older people of tomorrow” and the current system does not, and will not, “shield” people over 65 from homelessness.

“People in these age groups will struggle to buy and in 20 years’ time we could see a much higher proportion of over 55s living in the private rented sector,” said Alone, which added that the number of older people renting increased by 50% over 25 years according to the most recent census; there were 1,771 people in that age group renting in 1991, a number which grew to 2,642 in 2016. It’s a reasonable assumption that the situation has not improved since.

A flick through the headlines often cracks open that kind of perspective. The news about overcrowding in our hospitals in the last few weeks, for instance, had a knock-on effect on the elderly.

As Dr John Sheehan of Blackpool Bridge Surgery explained to the Echo, there were difficulties in convincing older people to go to the hospital, and emergency departments in particular, when unwell: “It is very hard sometimes to persuade people who are unwell to go into hospital. You can totally understand why. That is our biggest challenge. They think they could be on a trolley for a couple of days. There is a fear factor. They are afraid their family mightn’t be able to come visit.”

A less obvious example of an issue affecting the elderly?

Try the antisocial behaviour on public transport in Dublin recently which led to unions instructing members not to operate certain routes in the Dublin area.

Again, this doesn’t just affect the younger cohort. Only last week, Conor Capplis reported here about similar behaviour on the Cork city-Crosshaven route, when a driver referred to an incident last July when a “... rowdy crowd of kids, teenagers and 20-something-year-olds ... pushed around tourists and elderly locals to get a spot on the bus.”

It’s interesting stories like hospital admissions and extreme weather focus almost automatically on the elderly, while other issues — housing or antisocial behaviour on public transport — swing away from that cohort to zero in on the younger crowd. (Of course, the zeal with which some show their allyship with causes which are au courant isn’t always extended to other causes which ... don’t seem to be quite as au courant. One for another day, perhaps.) It’s reassuring to see the two generations cross over in Cork with an organisation like Share, for instance, which has done great work with the elderly for over half a century. 

If nothing else the work of that organisation shows there are people who can see the reality of many of the challenges of modern society — that they can cut across categories and affect people of all ages. Worth remembering instead of associating particular categories with particular issues — and adjusting our thinking accordingly.