Looking at these images reminds me of my own time in the steel/construction industry. In more than 30 years I worked variously as a welder, rigger, banksman, foreman, and sometimes all 4 at the same time. The pictures show a time when health and safety didn’t exist as a concept;there were no safety nets, hard hats, harnesses; you were your own safety officer, comon sense prevailed. And if you didn’t have any you didn’t last very long.

We had all the modern safety equipment bu t it still still didn’t prevent accidents or deaths. I remember working on the biggest construction site in Europe in the early 1980s, Aughinish Island Aluminium Extraction Plant in west Limerick, and on the first day we had to attend an induction course. We were lectured about safe working practices, and told that according to statistics x amount of workers would be injured and seven would be killed. I don’t remember how accurate the injury forecasts were, but over the course of the 4 years the complex took to build 7 workers were killed. Most were falls but a couple were hit by falling objects.

Remember, the construction site is a dangerous place. SO TAKE CARE

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