"You never hear of a lock-keeper having a heart attack," Jimmy Conroy comments as he gazes up his stretch of the Grand Canal towards Robertstown in Co Kildare.
Standing beside lock No 19 at Lowtown yesterday morning, with the wood pigeons cooing, water trickling through the lock and turf smoke wafting from a nearby chimney, it is easy to see why Mr Conroy rarely experiences stress at work.
For many sections of the community, Ireland's lock-keepers were invisible until news last week of unofficial industrial action by canal workers made national headlines.
The action arose over the suspension of a carpenter and his mate as part of a dispute over a decision to move their work base from Fenniscourt, Co Carlow, to Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny. Mr Conroy did not support the unofficial action, but a number of craftsmen and lock-keepers did, with consequent disruption on the canals. The pickets were lifted over the weekend and normal working practices were restored.
One of the most difficult elements of a lock-keeper's job is the hours. They work the equivalent of a 39-hour week squeezed into seven months of the year. In the peak season, from May 31st to September 26th, lock-keepers are required to work from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday to Monday, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The seven-day working week continues from March until September. From the start of October until the end of February they work 10 hours a week, at their discretion.
"The hours are difficult because when the kids are off school I am working seven days a week. You do not have a life during the summer," Mr Conroy said. "Then you are off for the whole winter and you get bored."
"The new lads that come into the job from the outside find this very difficult."
Mr Conroy is not one of the "new lads". Lock-keeping runs in his family. His mother, uncle, grandfather and great-grandfather were lock-keepers at Lowtown before him. His family have been operating and maintaining lock 19 on the Grand Canal for the last 127 years.
The job entails cutting grass, keeping flower beds, painting, maintaining the lock house where he lives, and ensuring the safe passage of boats through his lock.
"Locks can be dangerous if you do not know what you are doing," Mr Conroy said.
"People do not realise these dangers, especially for kids. With the water flowing at more than 100 miles per hour it will literally pick you up and bounce you off the wall if you fall in."
In fact, the most stressful part of the job at Lowtown is preventing local children from swimming in the lock.
Lowtown is not the busiest Irish lock. Just 650 boats passed through last year. Mr Conroy's job entails the collection of fees and checking of permits for each of these, as well as issuing permits.
The lock plays a pivotal role in controlling the flow of water into the Grand Canal system.
Lowtown was an ironic name for the lock which, at 286 feet above sea level, is the highest point on the canal.
Mr Conroy liaises with his colleagues to control the flow of water from the nearby Pollardstown Fen into the canal to meet local water-requirement levels and prevent flooding.
The importance of lock 19 to the canal system means that, as part of his job, Mr Conroy lives in a Duchas house on the canal bank. However, public service recruitment campaigns mean all lockkeepers no longer live beside their locks.
"Other people look after 10 locks over a 16-mile distance in cases where three lock-keepers have been replaced by one," he said.
Mr Conroy appreciates the quality of life he shares with his wife, Angela, and their two daughters as a result of his job, with the absence of commuting and workplace pressure. He knows exactly what he is missing: "I used to work for a plumber in Dublin and I would have to leave here at 7 a.m. to be there on time for a 9 a.m. start."