Rain, hail or snow – twice a day, five days a week – she's there.... We can set our watches by her.... and in her bright uniform, she's hard to miss.

For the past twelve years, Geraldine Murphy has been a 'lollipop' lady and never once missed a session. Twice a day she cycles from Ringsend to take up her position at Lakelands School on Gilford Road. The children love her – but why wouldn't they? Geraldine is always smiling and has a cheerful word for everyone... even for the car driver who decided to 'squeeze' under her outstretched arm!

But why become a lollipop lady? Geraldine explained, 'I love kids and the freedom of the job – it was especially handy when my son was in secondary school. I could always be there when he came home.'

However this is only part of the story – the free mornings allow her to continue with voluntary work. For the past twenty-five years, she has been deeply involved with many aspects of community work and in the setting up of several major projects.

Originally from the Ballybrack area, Geraldine moved to the area when she married, her husband, Vincent, being from Pearse Street. Her involvement started when the local community was facing a crisis of high unemployment, as well as a housing shortage and a general physical delapidation of the area. Geraldine not only helped set up the Westland Quay Social Service Council in 1973 but she is also a founder member of the Westland Row Housing Committee and Westland Row Community Council.

The Westland Row Housing Sheme has enabled many young couples to stay in the area and subsequently go on to buy their own homes. Primarily the committee lobbied the Corporation to convert a house into three flats so that it could be temporarily rented to couples when they were unable to find adequate accommodation.

Always conscious of environmental issues, Geraldine became involved with the anti-incinerator project – as she says, 'I have learned to keep in with the tides – whenever the need arose I felt I had to act.'

But Geraldine is extremely modest, never taking any credit for her own labours and efforts. From other sources I found out that in 1984 she was directly involved in the setting up of the Adult Education Programme at St. Andrews Resource Centre and has since campaigned so that students may participate in the Trinity College Access Programme. In fact the first students were accepted this autumn!

Among other things, Geraldine is a board member of the Grand Canal Docks Trust and in 1984 she was directly involved in setting up two other community co-operatives, a catering co-op and a secretatial training scheme, both based in the IDA Enterprise Centre in Pearse Street.

She is very conscious of the educational needs of young people because she herself was forced to leave school at 14 and go to work in order to support herself and her family. Today her main interests are Irish, history and walking. Perhaps this is one of the main reasons why Geraldine displays such an acute awareness of our community needs and the wish to have an environment of which we can all be proud....

'I've mixed with a lot of people,' says Geraldine, 'And enjoyed every minute of it.'