BACK to the subject of so called joyriding, or deathriding/car thieving, as the Garda prefer to call it.
Some months ago, in quick succession, three young people on Cork's northside died as a result of this modern day phenomenon. At the same time, in Manchester, other youths were losing their lives for the same reason - driving stolen cars at speed.
The connection between Cork and Manchester is that Mr Mike Harris, a Mancunian and author of Joyride, a play aimed at 11 year olds to discourage them from becoming involved, is bringing over a Manchester based theatre company to Cork to perform the play in two city schools and a community centre. Mr Harris is the writer in residence at University College Cork.
There are good reasons for doing this. During five years in Manchester the play was seen by more than 10,000 children. Then, the Automobile Association in Britain, together with insurance companies, offered funding for a three year study to determine whether the play had had an effect. It had.
Three years after seeing Joyride the Manchester students remembered its message. Primarily, the aim was to reach young people who were thinking of accepting lifts in stolen cars and to put them off.
The results of the study, just published in Manchester, indicate that attitudes have changed. The children were moved by the stark imagery of the play and were deflected from what could have been a fatal pastime.
Joyriding, says Mr Harris, attracts people aged between 14 and 25, after which they have usually outgrown it. But there is another reality. The joyrider's career, if it can be so called, can lead to £250,000 losses in damaged and stolen cars, not to mention lost lives, before he gives up.
It is costing the insurance companies a fortune. Mr Harris argues that if they put a fraction of the payout costs into prevention schemes things could change.
Mr Harris has also written Love Debts, a funny but hard hitting play about money lending, love and salmon poaching in Cork. It will feature at the Firkin Crane centre in the city between June 24th and June 28th.