While the penal system has altered radically since the era covered in Colman O'Mahony's In the Shadows, Mr Paddy O'Brien, a voluntary social worker, who has been synonymous with the care of the elderly in Cork for almost three decades, wonders if the lot of the vulnerable in society has improved in tandem with modern advances.
Two great issues continue to dominate the lives of the elderly, Mr O'Brien says: loneliness and fear. Loneliness, he adds, like any conventional disease, does kill people. "Twenty years ago, old people would not experience the awful loneliness that is experienced today by thousands of old people. Citizens were more concerned about the elderly than they are now. I regularly meet elderly people who tell me that they have not spoken to anyone for days.
"Fear of being attacked is another major problem. Regrettably, many old people never open their doors to strangers. The people at risk here are the housebound. i on the streets - there is no greater deterrent or greater assurance to the elderly than that. It is sad that the daily visit to Mass has gone for large numbers of the aged who are afraid of having their homes broken into while they are away," Mr O'Brien said.
"I have been calling on successive governments to appoint a minister for the aged. All sectors of our community are represented at Government level - farmers, teachers, nurses, the Garda, ordinary workers - all have a voice in Government. The elderly have no voice and most accept what is handed out to them."
Mr O'Brien said a 3 per cent increase was granted to old-age pensioners last January but they had to wait six months before it was implemented.
The recipient of an honorary degree from the National University in 1966 for his efforts on behalf of the elderly, Mr O'Brien was also the first person in Ireland to receive the People of the Year Award. In 1978 and 1979 he was voted Corkman of the Year.
According to Mr O'Brien some of the elderly in Cork are living in a condition of hopelessness. He adds that those who do not manage to get into local authority housing - often elderly people living alone - have to pay exorbitant rent "to greedy landlords for a roof over their heads. Who is speaking for them; what is the Government doing for them?"
In reporting attacks against the elderly in recent years throughout the south-west, I have come to appreciate how elderly people might adopt a siege mentality. In the quiet neighbourhood where I grew up in Cork lived a woman who was the scourge of our local football game. I thought then that she was old, but she wasn't. Some 40 years later I found myself returning to the cul-de-sac where I was born to report how this woman had been subjected to a savage attack.
Some of the old neighbours were still there. As the frail victim, with battered face and body, recovered from her ordeal in hospital, they spoke about their bewilderment. How could something so awful have visited their quiet little patch, they wanted to know. They no longer felt safe in their homes: they were living proof of Mr O'Brien's contention that elderly people are feeling vulnerable.
My battered former neighbour recovered in time. But will she ever feel safe again?