Right now, about 55,0000 people in this country are suffering with dementia

I worry about it a little at times. But comfortingly others worry about it too. It even happened to Enda Kenny last week. Forgetfulness and, in particular, forgetting names. It is the ultimate embarrassment to meet someone on the street and forget their name. I’ve become a master at scrambling about in my mind to fill the conversational void, silently racing through the alphabet for any clue as to who on earth I am chatting to.

Meantime, understandably, the ire of my forgotten subject rises in indignation at my apparent aloofness. I’d be annoyed if the shoe was on the other foot. Because, in Ireland, if you don’t greet an acquaintance by name, it is seen as, well, ignorant, as I’m not of the “hi, how are you” generation.

At least three times in as many weeks I have faced this pickle of taking longer than normal to bolt on a name to the generic greeting of: “How are you doing?” There are two types of forgetting names. Whatever about being approached by a relative stranger whom I wouldn’t necessarily be expected to know as they reintroduce themselves three or four years after our last meeting at a wedding or in a radio studio, getting a blank as a work acquaintance or a near neighbour cheerily approaches out of context worries me when it happens.

And so I ask myself: “Is this the early onset of some form of dementia?” Laugh we might, but when you reach middle age it is hard not to be mindful about what may lie ahead. We might be living longer, are more health conscious compared to the last generation, but still I hear of too many sad cases of young people getting sick with nasty conditions such as motor neuron disease, dementia, not to mention cancer.

Maybe I’m prone to exaggeration on this because I don’t think that I’m much different to my contemporaries in forgetting the odd name. Yet 11 people a day develop dementia in Ireland, including some in their 30s and 40s. It is estimated that half a million Irish people are living with or have lived with a family member with dementia – a horrible way for anybody to end their days.

Right now, about 55,0000 people in this country are suffering with dementia. In most cases it is older people who have Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.

I heard ex-Kildare footballer Dermot Early speak last week about how it took his dad, former Army Chief of Staff Dermot Early Snr. It is indiscriminate and it seems so unfair that after living well and working hard all one’s life that this is the payback. Forgetting names now and again might just be an Irish condition, but dementia is real and stark.

It was lovely to be asked to speak at the Fermanagh Grassland Club annual dinner in Enniskillen last Tuesday week. Apart from the knowledge transfer aspect of such gatherings, the social side is not to be underestimated in an occupation which can be so isolating. Anyway, the dinner was bereft of much romance. More like bromance considering all but three of the 80 odd in attendance were male. And this was Valentine’s night. Yes, Valentine’s night! Being of Cavan extraction, I have diplomatic privilege to be self-depreciating about their perceived frugality. And so I congratulated the Fermanagh boys on their ingenuity in ploughing on with the event regardless of the occasion, thus avoiding the cost of having to take “herself” out for the night. That is something their colleagues in the neighbouring county would have been proud of!