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Another step towards back to normal as school traffic wardens return to work

After almost five months off the job, popular School Traffic Warden Anne Breen returned to duty last week.

She took up her post the New Road/Rock Road junction on Wednesday morning, her first day at work since the national shut down was announced on March 12.

Originally from Ballyhaunis in County Mayo, the Countess Grove woman arrived in Killarney on November 1, 1983 to take to work in the newly opened Tesco (or Quinnsworth as it was known back then).

“There might have been a man involved,” she joked, as she hid her smile behind her Mayo facemask. Anne is married to well-known council worker and former fireman Anthony Breen.

“The Mayo mask is temporary, we are due to get the face shields later today,” she said on Wednesday – officially her first day back at work but she and her colleagues did participate in a health and safety briefing on Tuesday.

“It was all about keeping myself safe and keeping the children safe, keep your distance, common sense stuff, really,” she said.

This is her second year working as a school traffic warden and although employed by Killarney Municipal Council, she works very closely with The Mon and Holy Cross National Schools on New Road.

“We will help the secondary school students too, but in reality, we are here to work for the National Schools and work to their timetables,” she added.

Clearly well-respected by her ‘customers’ as parents and grandchildren encouraged their children to welcome her back to work as she escorted them across the road. She knew most of them by name and Anne’s reappearance at the school crossing signalled the return of some degree of familiarity to early morning town life.

Of course, there was some degree of confusion too, it is all of 24 weeks since March 12, so many motorists had forgotten that it is not permitted to turn right on to New Road during school drop-off and pick-up times. Some angry drivers let their feelings known through their hooters.

“They will have to get used to it,” said Anne, without getting too stressed about it. “It is great to be back. I was a little nervous but so far so good. We are waiting on the council to put down ‘Two Metre’ signs on the footpaths to encourage people to keep their distance. “

While Wednesday morning was relatively quiet, only the two primary schools were open to take in a new wave of junior infants. Anne is expecting that to change on Monday as the secondary schools re-open. First-Year students will begin their secondary school lives from Monday but by Thursday next, all schools will be operating at capacity – meaning traffic will be back to capacity too.