IT was a very special weekend for one west Sligo resident.

Bridget Dunphy turned a century old on Saturday and was surrounded by friends and family to celebrate the milestone.

Shortly before her party, Bridget, or Bea as she is more commonly known, spoke to the Sligo Weekender about her life in Easkey and her time spent as a midwife in the area.

She came to the village of Easkey in 1944 from Skreen, just up the road. She had spent some time in England but decided to come home.

“I had spent some time in England. I was sent home on holiday for six months and when I was home, this job [being a midwife] came up. It was originally for four months and it went on for four years as a temporary thing and they eventually made me permanent and from there I was here working for 40 years,” she said.

Working as a midwife back then was hard work. Bea would have to go on her bicycle to make house calls in treacherous conditions and bad roads.

“I would come down off the mountain at four o’clock in the morning. I had great courage back then, but I wouldn’t do it now!”

Shortly after being made permanent in her position, Bea got a car which was a great help as the area was becoming busier.

“I was getting busier and busier. I had about 60 deliveries for two years. Over time that number came down. More people were going to the hospital and having their babies delivered by other means,” she said.

Bea’s sister was also a midwife and during a period where Bea was off from work, her sister filled in for her.

“I got my sister to fill in for me out here and she said at the time ‘If I was getting £1,000 a day I wouldn’t do this job!’”, she said.

A lot of the time houses may not have had running water or electricity. Much of Bea’s work was done in poor lamp light or even in candle light.

“They had nothing. It was a tough time but I had some of the equipment I needed to do it,” she said.

By the seventies most babies were delivered in hospitals and the local midwifery profession was in decline.

Bea however was always kept going. The Dunphy family in Easkey would be a well known farming family.

In 1949 she married Joe Dunphy from Easkey with whom she had five children.
Joe, who passed away in 1996, was involved in the IFA as North West Chairman and during the famous 1966 protests outside the Dáíl, Joe and Bea both did their stint outside government buildings to help get a better financial situation for farmers across the country.

“Joe was very involved in the IFA and walked to Dublin in 1966. We [the wives] had to do our turn as well. Sitting in Merrian Square. Charlie Haughey wouldn’t meet them [the farmers]. There was 3,000 people that walked to Dublin that time. The men sat on the chairs outside the Dáíl for nine nights and nine days,” she said.

Of the nine men sitting outside the Dáíl in protest, Joe was one of them. The wives came up so that the men could go and attend IFA meetings and thus Bea and her comrades took over from their spouses.

In an interesting side note, it is perhaps timely that Bea’s birthday would also happen to fall in the vicinity of the 50th anniversary of the march by the farmers to the Dáíl in 1966.
Aside from the midwifery, farming and the raising of their children, Bea and her husband Joe were also involved in the local area through community initiatives through the Easkey Development Association which was set up in the late 1960s and of which Bea was a secretary.

After living such an active life for so long, the typical day now is somewhat slower than it once was for Bea, however she still remains active.

“I get up early in the morning about 5.45am. I make my breakfast. I was always used to being up in the morning. I was used to having to go out and tend to the cows first thing. We would be milking cows in the yard. Now I go for a walk up the road and if it is not too bad a morning I walk a bit and I do that everyday. Then I rest for a while before my lunch before I head out again for a while. I am going all the time thankfully because I have a great physiotherapist!”

She is proud of her ever growing family which consists of her five children, nine grandchildren and one great grandchild.

“All in all they are all coming on,” she said.

The reality of being 100 years old is still sinking in somewhat for Bea. As she said herself, “I never thought I would reach this age!”

Councillor Joe Queenan has been invited back to Fianna Fail this week.

The west Sligo business man and politician stepped down from the Fianna Fail party last year following a controversial programme on RTE’s Primetime in relation to investment opportunities for Sligo.

The former Council Caithaoirleach spoke to Ocean FM yesterday, Wednesday, about his former party offering him a place once more.

However, Cllr Queenan is eager to have the ethics and legal implications regarding the RTE Primetime programme put to bed before making his decision.

“The local organisation [of Fianna Fail] want me back but it is up to me to re-apply. I will not go there until all the other issues with regard to ethics have been sorted out and then I will make a decision,” he said.

For more on this story, see this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper – in shops now!

A new landmark project for the centre of Sligo town has the potential to bring 200 jobs to Sligo town.

The new four-storey business centre, powered by the fastest broadband in Ireland is being developed in the centre of Sligo town – to service and attract businesses to the North West region.

One of the key partners in this unique new venture is IDA Ireland who has helped to shape the project and who will take space in the new building, to offer to its clients.

‘The Building Block’, as it will be known, will give businesses a dynamic state of the art office space, architecturally designed, and something that compares with new office buildings in Grand Canal Dock, Dublin, or central London.

It is understood that talks with other key regional stakeholders are nearing completion and further major announcements are due in the coming weeks.

For more on this story, see this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper – in shops now.

By Alan Finn

A football match with a difference took place in Sligo last week when the Irish amputee football team visited Sligo.

The national side visited the Mercy College in recognition of the award-winning “Comfy Crutch”, a modified cover which relieves pressure on the hands of the user, designed by students Leah Kelly and Melissa Cox.

The duo were later joined by a varied gathering of sports stars from Sligo, including representatives from Sligo Rovers, Sligo GAA, IT Sligo and students and faculty of the Mercy College in a match against the amputee team.

In interest of a fair game, the two-legged team put their first touch, passing and shooting to the ultimate test as they were limited to the use of just one foot.

The game proved to be both entertaining and educational as the amputee team displayed a high level of ability and the speed of the game differs very little from any other.

Chris McEligott, coach for the national amputee team, wants more and more people to change their perception of disabled athletes and is confident that those who watched the game will have only seen his team as athletes at the top of their game.

“We want to get away from that disability tag, we don’t want to be labelled as that, we want to be seen as athletes and I think from a disability point of of view, for us it actually about ability and being able to play football at a high level and we want people to take that concept away when they see us play.”

Chris was delighted to pit his men against some of Sligo’s brightest sports stars in a game which provided a new challenge for both sets of players.

“For us it is a great concept to get the guys from Sligo Rovers and GAA involved because they would have very high fitness levels and have a good level of ability so we wanted to take them down to a level where it is maybe uncomfortable for them and a level playing field for us.”

Their visit to the Mercy also fell into their preparation for the upcoming European Championships in which the Irish team will be competing.

The Chartered Accountants North West Society’s Christmas lunch will take place on December 9 at the Glasshouse Hotel and the keynote speaker this year has been announced as Brent Pope.

The former Rugby player and coach, and current entrepreneur and media personality is coming to Sligo for the dinner, which has been generously sponsored by AIB Bank.

Kathya Rouse, Chair of the Society, says: “we are excited to have secured Brent Pope as our keynote speaker and he promises to be an entertaining and uplifting choice of after dinner speaker.”

Speaking about the event, Barbara Taylor, Head of AIB – Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon said “we are delighted to support the Chartered Accountants Christmas Event again this year. We know that SMEs are the backbone of the Irish economy and we recognise the importance of being involved with local business groups and farmers so we can back them, support jobs and continue to provide credit to these businesses that make up this backbone of the Irish economy”.

Tickets for the dinner in The Glasshouse Hotel are on sale now from charteredaccountants.ie or contact the Regional Events Executive at arlene.gibbs@charteredaccountants.ie for more information.

Sligo Science Festival, taking place as part of Science Foundation Ireland’s 21st Annual Science Week, promises to bring science to life for young and old.

The event begins on Monday, November 13 and will run until November 20. For the Sligo side of the week, events will be taking place across the county.

The Sligo Science Festival will provide people with the opportunity to explore and discover how science is a part of their everyday lives – from the science of the food we eat, concussion in sports, and the challenges of climbing Mount Everest.

Science Foundation Ireland is encouraging people to get involved with the nationwide celebrations of Irish science and technology during Science Week 2016 by logging on to www.scienceweek.ie for details of the events taking place near you.

Dr Ruth Freeman, Director of Strategy and Communications at Science Foundation Ireland, said: “Science Week is a wonderful opportunity to explore the world of science and technology around us. Taking science out of the classroom and highlighting how it impacts and transforms the world allows people to become fascinated with the wonders of science in the everyday.

“This year we have lots of events that will allow you to explore the science behind your coffee in the morning; how athletes reach their ‘Peak Performance’; how we can all sleep better and; whether there’s a science to how Shakespeare can ‘Make you fall in Love’!

“I would encourage everyone to take part in any of the hundreds of events happening nationwide and to prepare to be dazzled by the advancements and discoveries that have been made by the Irish scientific community.”

During Science Week, regional science festivals are being held across the country; Sligo, Cavan-Monaghan, Cork, Kerry, Galway, Waterford, Mayo, the Midlands, Limerick and with a series of events also held in Dublin City.

Aiming to highlight the exciting world of science and how it shapes the world around us, these festivals feature a wide range of events including family open days, evening events for adults, and schools outreach events – all exploring the science behind our everyday lives.

For a full list of the thrilling science shows, hands-on workshops and talks across the country, visit the Science Week website www.scienceweek.ie.

A Sligo-based photographer climbed some of Ireland’s highest peaks to get a unique perspective on the island’s mountains for his new book.

“The Mountains of Ireland” – a landmark collection of imagery showcases the Irish mountains at their very best – has been nearly two decades in the making.

It was delayed when photographer Gareth McCormack developed psoriatic arthritis in his knees, which seriously curtailed his ability to get into the mountains for a number of years.

Undeterred, he went to extraordinary lengths to capture Ireland’s summits in the wildest, most dramatic light, hauling heavy camera equipment up and down Ireland’s most rugged terrain.

“I clocked up more than 50,000 metres of vertical ascent and descent and several thousand kilometres of walking,” the Co. Tyrone native explains.
“For some shoots I bivouacked on summits to capture the first light of dawn. At other times I targeted the sunset, to descend precarious ground alone in the dark.”

Often he returned empty-handed, the possibilities ruined by the fickle mountain weather (the lowest temperature he experienced was -15 °C).

The images bear witness to a labour of love that transcends physical and creative challenges. Gareth has created a body of work encompassing all the major ranges of Ireland. Some are shot from well-known vantage points; many others from remote locations rarely visited.

For more on this story, see this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper. In shops now!

It’s the fourth biggest cause of death in this country but there is still a huge lack of awareness about it and many people with the disease remain undiagnosed.

We are talking about COPD, or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, probably more commonly known as bronchitis and emphysema, from which one person in Ireland dies on average every six hours.

In fact, COPD affects approximately 380,000 people in Ireland and is the most common cause of emergency admission to hospital. Indeed, Ireland has the highest COPD hospitalisation rates of all OECD countries and the North West has particularly high numbers.

One man who knows all about COPD is Michael McGloin from Cartron Point in Sligo town.

Michael, who is now 66, was diagnosed with COPD in 1999 following a respiratory arrest but he had started to have difficulty much earlier than this.

“In 1979 I got out of bed one morning and collapsed. I came to and went to work but I wasn’t well and went to the doctor, who sent me straight up to the hospital. They discovered I had a collapsed lung.”

Over the next while he suffered four lung collapses before he had to go to Dublin to have it repaired.

But his problems continued with numerous infections before he was discovered to have a growth at the back of his throat and it was while in hospital having tests on this that he had a  respiratory arrest and was diagnosed with COPD.

“I had never heard of it and they had no great information on it in the hospital at the time”, Michael recalls.

“I then started looking up information on it but I found there was very little information in Ireland, with no website and no support groups. So I made a decision that I would set up my own website and support group”, he said.

And so the Benbulben COPD support group was born. It now has around 36 members from Sligo, Leitrim, south Donegal and north Roscommon.

For more on this story, see this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper – in shops now.