My Weekend: I could be relaxing at home and get tasked to an incident

TELL us a little bit about yourself:

My name is Edward Walsh. I live in North Cork, in Ballyhass. I am married to my beautiful wife Danielle and we have a precious bundle of joy — our beautiful daughter Ashley, who is seven-months-old.

I work for CRITICAL, the emergency medical response charity, which supplies critical care and enhanced care doctors who volunteer to attend 999 calls on behalf of the National Ambulance Service.

My role within this fantastic charity is Operations and Standards Manager. As operations manager, I am responsible for our volunteer doctors who respond in our critical care cars.

I ensure they have all the equipment they need to attend serious illnesses and emergencies. The kit includes handheld ultrasounds, portable ventilators and other equipment to take over a person’s breathing at the scene.

I have recently worked on a collaboration project between CRITICAL and the National Ambulance Service, to supply emergency backpacks to members of the National Ambulance Service so they can attend medical calls in their local communities while off duty.

Each backpack contains a defibrillator, a resuscitation kit, and a medical diagnostic kit, all funded by donations. This will hopefully give patients the best chance of survival in an emergency situation.

What is your ideal way to spend a Friday night?

My ideal Friday night is a cosy night in with my family, extended family, and a lovely takeaway.

Lie ins or up with the lark.. which is it for you?

If I had the choice I would definitely choose to lie in at the weekend, but the little one has other ideas and is an early riser. 

It is nice though to wake up early on a Saturday and have the whole weekend in front of you.

Does work creep into your weekend at all?

Yes, on occasion I attend fundraising events on behalf of the charity. A recent one was the Déjà vu Rally when 130 ex-super Rally cars travelled from Cork city to West Cork raising vital funds for CRITICAL. It was a wonderful event to be part of.

I volunteer as an emergency medical responder and attend life threatening calls in North Cork. 

I could be relaxing at home or having dinner and get a tasking to a cardiac arrest, a choking, or other serious incident nearby.

I also volunteer as an emergency medical technician with the Irish Red Cross in the Mallow-Charleville Branch.

If money was no object where would you head to on a weekend city break? And who would you bring with you?

I would bring my travel partner, my wife Danielle, baby Ashley, friends and family if money was no object. We would love to travel the world and keep seeing new places together.

We would love to go back to some of our favourite places such as Croatia, Greece, New York and Portugal.

Closer to home, is there some place you like to head to recharge the batteries?

The scenery and calmness of Killarney and West Cork are always places I love to visit to recharge the batteries.

We’re lucky to have so many amazing beaches, lakes, and mountains a short distance away.

Do you like to catch up with family/friends at the weekend?

Yes, we often have a nice meal out and arrange catch ups with our close friends and family most weekends.

Spending time with family and friends is really important to us.

Do you get to indulge any hobbies? Even as a spectator?

I enjoy going to watch my father-in-law race his National Hot Rod car in Waterford Raceway and Tipperary Motor Speedway.

Entertain or be entertained? If it’s the latter do you have a signature dish?

Oh, I love to be entertained. You will find me sitting back, relaxing and chilling.

We have so many places to eat out in Cork — where are your go to spots for coffee/ lunch/ special meal?

I love to have my breakfast out in the Wild Thyme in Buttevant, it sets me up right for the weekend.

The Arches Bar and Restaurant in Mallow always does a fantastic spread and entertainment.

Sunday night comes around too fast.. how do you normally spend it?

After a busy weekend with the family or working with CRITICAL or volunteering for the Irish Red Cross, I normally spend Sunday evenings watching a week’s worth of recordings and catching up on the TV.

What time does your alarm clock go off on Monday morning?

I don’t need an alarm anymore, I have little Ashley, she is the best alarm clock. Sometimes I do need to hit the road earlier than Ashley’s wake up call, to attend meetings and catch up with our doctors and volunteer medical responders in places like Donegal, Waterford and Dublin.