The public sector strike was felt across the region: in schools where children couldn’t attend, in public offices and council buildings that closed their doors.

In essential services residents rely on every day, including the fire service, hospitals and libraries.

The immediate cost falls on ordinary people.

Parents need to rearrange work and childcare.

Patients face longer waiting times or lose vital appointments, while anyone needing access to the District Courts faced another obstacle.

The justice system is already under strain from the solicitors’ strike, which has left criminal legal aid cases in limbo.

This is an added blow for people waiting for their case to be heard and resolved.

Disruptions like this are real and can’t be brushed aside.

But neither should the reason for the strike.

Public servants are taking a stand because they believe the government’s approach to a new pay agreement fails to protect their living standards.

As everyday costs continue to climb, the offer on the table would mean a pay increase of just 2.5% next year, says trade union SIPTU.

The previous pay agreement expired at the end of June, while the parties remain at loggerheads.

As a result, 60,000 SIPTU members took part in the public sector action and over 90,000 Fórsa members.

A strike can be a blunt but effective instrument.

The alternative may be a slower, less visible deterioration: experienced staff leaving, vacancies going unfilled and essential knowledge walking out the door.

When employers cannot attract and retain people to deliver public services, the public pays through longer waits and diminished services and supports.

In West Cork, where reaching services can already mean a long journey, that risk isn’t abstract.

The Irish Medical Organisation, which had picket lines at 30 locations nationwide, says this isn’t a crisis of its making.

The pressure on hospitals makes that clear. CUH is heading into winter amid staff shortages and severe overcrowding.

More than 1,000 patients were left waiting on trolleys there in September alone.

The strike disrupted care for one day.

A workforce stretched beyond its limits threatens care every day for the foreseeable future.

None of this makes the hardship caused by closures easier for people.

It means the government must treat the dispute as urgent, engage seriously on pay and work to prevent further action.

We’ve seen what happens when it refuses to engage or shift position: it’s happening in the courts.

France with its established strike culture offers a reminder that disruption can be the price society pays when workers feel ignored.

Ireland need not imitate that scale of disruption.

But here in West Cork, we should understand the warning: services depend on the people who provide them. And as in any workplace, those people deserve to be value.

Housing crisis curve ball

There are few families across the country who have not felt the fallout from the housing crisis, whether it be vain attempts at a foot on the property ladder or rent pressures and living in fear of eviction.

West Cork is no different and one unexpected example of this is a proposed mobile home holiday park in Eyeries which already has a waiting list for 35 bays before the scheme has even been granted planning permission.

Businessman Colman O’Sullivan was somewhat taken aback it seems at the level of interest in the development which he is undertaking with a personal investment of three quarters of a million euros.

The Eyeries holiday park will be open year-round unlike some others that close for five months through the winter season.

The sum of €50,000 will buy you a modern mobile home, large enough for a family, which is something to think about for those unable to raise substantial deposits and get mortgage approval.

Even more encouraging is the fact that the facility will not be reliant on Uisce Éireann for wastewater treatment because the developer has invested €70,000 in securing its own private water supply.

In one way this offers a lifeline to those struggling in the housing crisis.

Looked at from a different perspective it is yet another damning indictment of government failure to adhere to the social contract and deliver what is a basic human right; a roof over every citizen’s head.