Nine Lives - David Courtney

lehanemore

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/birdseye-view-of-a-rescuer-who-flew-in-the-face-of-fear-1482558.html


Bird's-eye view of a rescuer who flew in the face of fear


By Kevin Myers


Friday September 26 2008

I believe 'Nine Lives' will one day be on the Leaving Cert syllabus, so good and true and evocative is it. It contains awesome, thrilling accounts of what it is to pilot an S-61 helicopter

And so to Ennis, in which a one-way system -- designed by an autistic Chinese gentleman, who was then beheaded by the town council so that he would take his mystery with him -- is as complex as a polymer molecule. Ennis could arguably be the loveliest town in Ireland, and in the Old Ground, it surely has one of the most enchanting hotels. But its one-way system could only be understood, unassisted, by the team behind Operation Manhattan. Three times I tried to get to the Ennis bookshop -- and thrice I found myself back where I started, biting lumps out of the steering wheel, finally breaking a child in two after the heartless little brat asked me if I was all right.

Then a passing nuclear scientist took pity on me, and led me into the town centre, to the Ennis Bookshop where David Courtney was launching his memoir, 'Nine Lives'. If you are ever in Ennis, please, please do not fail to visit this shop. Independent bookshops, and those which do their best to promote local interests, are becoming as rare as nymphomaniacs in a Tibetan monastery -- and the Ennis Bookshop is a real jewel. Moreover, what made it better still this particular evening was that it was packed to the rafters with some of my favourite people: members of the Defence Forces, or former members, plus the Coast Guard and helicopter rescue crew -- all there for David's book launch.

Dave is a former Air Corps pilot, who, after leaving the Defence Forces, began his career as an air-sea rescue pilot, flying out of Shannon. In addition to being one of the most dangerous and challenging jobs in Ireland, it is also rather limiting on what you can allow your imagination to do. Because when you're heading off on a midwinter night, into the teeth of a 100-miles-an-hour gale, with a two-hour flight ahead of you, and rain hitting your windscreen like you were flying into a couple of fire-hoses trying to extinguish a blaze in a fire-hose orphanage, a lively imagination is no help whatever. For at the end of the flight, you might have a half-hour hover above a bucketing deck, with men's lives dependent on your skill, your calmness, your resolution -- the last thing anyone needs is to have a Hamlet at the controls.

Which is no doubt why we do not read accounts by helicopter pilots of the things they do. They've spent their professional lives repressing their creative imagination, and what might happen to them if things go wrong. They don't need to go think about it, they already know the answer full well -- with every electrified atom of their being, and every tingling synapse in their brain.

Which is why David Courtney's book, 'Nine Lives', is not merely in a separate class from other books -- it is the only book in its class. I believe it to be a ready-made classic, which will be read for years to come -- not just in Ireland, but wherever there are people who wonder about those men. And it is largely men -- though not always so, as the gallant Dara Fitzpatrick can testify -- whose career is based around the concept of saving life and, in doing so, matching the perils from which the people they are rescuing are already in. True rescue only results from increasing the number of people in danger -- that is the axiom of the rescue service, from the fireman with his axe to the rescue-mountaineer inching upwards on an ice-lined rockface.

Indeed, I believe that 'Nine Lives' will one day be on the Leaving Cert syllabus, so good and true and evocative is it. Not only does it contain awesome, thrilling and stomach-churning accounts of what it is to pilot an S-61 helicopter -- upwards from Shannon, and into a howling sou'wester, as the S-61's nose lowers like a bull's, before the beast is steered into the storm's eye -- it conveys a sense of the fear that must fill any human breast at such a time. And it also tells the reader what it is to live with that fear -- and not just a temporary phenomenon from which one can escape, but one that defines your entire life, ashore or flying, waking or sleeping. And when you kiss your children goodnight, it could also be goodbye.

What made David leave the world of maritime rescue is what has enabled him to write a truly unforgettable book -- his ability to interrogate his soul and his psyche, to examine fear and courage, and whatever it is that enables others like him to face danger tonight, and tomorrow, and repeatedly thereafter. 'Nine Lives' is published by Mercier. It is David's first book, but emphatically not his last.

I later drank a few pints with some of the men from the world of rescue -- good men of few words, and strong slow smiles. Men who listen to a story through, without interrupting. Men who are willing to risk their lives because that is what their acute sense of duty bids them do. Ireland should be deeply proud of them. I'm not sure it is.

kmyers@independent.ie

civdef

Have to agree, read it last week, excellent.

eroo

civdef wrote: »

Have to agree, read it last week, excellent.

Saw it in Eason's. Worth buying?

civdef

As opposed to stealing?

I don't rate too many books as excellent, so yes.

eroo

civdef wrote: »

As opposed to stealing?

I don't rate too many books as excellent, so yes.

Could've just said 'Yes, buy it'. :D

APM

just would like to add that I've finished this book recently and it is an awesome read.

Great insight into the whole ops of the air corps and civilian SAR......and the life of an SAR pilot.

Well written, gripping

AlekSmart

You mean It`s worth aligning onesself with Kevin Myers for

delly

Haven't read this one yet, but for anybody who liked it, I would recommend another read titled "Mayday! Mayday!" written by Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent with The Irish Times. It chronicles the history of air sea rescue in Irish waters from 1956 to our purchase of our own first SAR helicopters, then upto the standdown of the Air Corps for SAR. Its a few years old now, but you might be able to find a copy somewhere, as its a cracking read.

metman

Maybe this could be made into a 'recommended read' thread and made a sticky? :pac:

conork93

it's a really great book ....really enjoyed reading it

Cliff Hanger

I don't read many books at all but I read the two mentioned above. I thought they were great reads! Recommend them to everyone.