A Sligo mother has this week recalled the “scariest time” of her life when she almost lost her son to meningitis.

Jacintha McGowan was urging all parents to be aware of the symptoms of meningitis or septicaemia and to “trust their instincts and act fast” if they suspect their child may be seriously ill.

Jacintha (51) remembered the night her son Koray became ill at the age of 18.

It was in February 2015. “He came home from school with what seemed like a cold and a headache. I gave him paracetamol and told him to sleep for a while.

“When I checked on him after an hour he had developed a temperature and didn’t want the curtains open as light hurt his eyes. At 8pm he started vomiting and his whole body was boiling except his hands and feet which were freezing.

“A friend and I rushed him to casualty and Koray could barely walk with the pains everywhere.

“The hospital staff said that we’d be waiting a while but we could see he was deteriorating in seconds, so I kept pleading with the nurse to get someone to look at him. Eventually they did the normal checks and said it could be a virus.

“But as we were waiting for the results his breathing became shallow and pinhead red spots started to appear on his arm and stomach, so I immediately thought, meningitis. I called a nurse to look and when she saw this she just ran and four doctors came back and it was mayhem from there.

“Luckily they started treatment with intravenous antibiotics on the assumption it was meningitis. That fast reaction saved Koray’s life”, she said.

Sligo Rovers have sometimes found themselves with players and managers who are years ahead of the curve.

One such man was at the helm for one of the club’s most memorable periods when Billy Sinclair guided the club to the League of Ireland title in 1977.

Sinclair, who prides himself on professionalism, had a lot of work to do in changing results as well as lifestyles.

One of his first missions was to source a new breed of player from outside of the League of Ireland, and thus, a new batch of soon-to-be legends arrived.

“I was constantly looking for new players. I was contacting the PFAs [Professional Footballers’ Association] in Scotland and England all the time to see who was out of contract. The lads I brought in were professional, you didn’t have to worry about them, they trained in the morning, sometimes trained in the evening.

“The character of a player is very important to me, I got on the phone to the likes of Chris Rutherford, Graham Fox, Gary Hulmes and Alan Paterson among others, I knew straight away that these were lads I wanted to bring to this club.”

Sinclair’s charges enjoyed a mid-table finish, away from the relegation that often threatened them in years prior. The club hailed his achievement, but he felt this was only the beginning of something great.

“I remember one night I was asked to attend a board meeting. My first thought was that my time was up here, but I went along and there was about 20 people there and as I walked towards my seat, they all stood up and applauded me. They said that this was the first time in years they didn’t have to go to Dublin toa apply for re-entry to the league. We did well but I told them that I knew this team was capable of more, we had to keep them and that was the start of it.”

For the full interview with Billy, see this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper – in shops now!

Alternatively, you can purchase an online edition here

One student came a lot further than most for Monday’s Induction Day at
IT Sligo and for an online course.

Japanese student Chiaki Otomo flew all the way from Japan to attend the
one day induction. Chiaki will be studying MSc in Environmental Health
Management online from her home in Sendai, in north Japan.

She found the course searching on the internet and after some research
decided IT Sligo offered her the best course in Enviromental Health
Management.

Sligo has one of the largest number of online students of any third
level institute in Ireland, offering 110 courses to 2,800 students and
has ambitions to increase online students from to 5,000 by 2022.

Chiaki was one of over 1,000 new students who attended IT Sligo
for the first time this week. For more from the induction day,
see this week’s Sligo Weekender. In shops now.

By Alan Finn

Six presidential hopefuls addressed Sligo County Council yesterday (Wednesday).

Peter Casey, Patrick Feeney, John Groarke, Kevin Sharkey, Gemma O’Doherty and Sarah Louise Mulligan all spoke to a packed Council chamber in their bids to secure a nomination.

Businessman Sean Gallagher, who already has enough nominations to run, was also in attendance.

Fianna Fail Councillor Keith Henry outlined prior to the meeting that he intended to nominate Gallagher, but the former Dragon’s Den star stressed that he was not seeking further nominations and suggested that they instead advance other candidates.

The sentiment was not warmly received by Kevin Sharkey however, who stated he was surprised to see Gallagher in attendance.

“That stinks a bit,” he said, before adding “that’s politics, I know how it works.”

However, Sean Gallagher is to be proposed for a nomination, along with Peter Casey at a special meeting on Monday, September 24.

The special meeting was almost adjourned midway through speeches when Cllr Hubert Keaney requested that an individual in the public gallery stop recording proceedings and insisted that any footage recorded must not appear on social media.

Cllr Keaney stated that he does not recall this ever occuring at the council chamber before and Cathaoirleach Cllr Martin Baker agreed and warned the individual that they must leave immediately if they did not cease recording.

Each candidate was allocated a ten minute window to address the chamber, with questions from Councillors being withheld until all speeches had concluded.

For more from the special meeting and details on what the candidates had to say, this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper. In shops now.

A number of people were rescued and assisted by the Sligo Leitrim Mountain Rescue Team over the past week, with a competitor in the annual Warriors Run having to be airlifted off Knocknarea mountain and a French tourist stretchered off Benbulben on Thursday.

Team Leader Iain Mounsey directed both operations.

“We received a request for help on Thursday morning at 12.30 from the Gardaí. I initiated a full call out of the team as reports indicated that the casualty, a French tourist, had suffered a serious ankle fracture and the weather conditions were cold and wet. One team member was in the general vicinity and hiked up to the casualty to stabilise her and protect from hypothermia. A first response team of four more rescuers was quickly on the scene and by the time our stretcher team arrived the lady had been splinted and stabilised. We carried out a long stretcher evacuation in heavy rain and were very ably assisted by two Czechoslovakian walkers. We transferred the lady to a waiting ambulance at Luke’s Bridge from where she was conveyed to Sligo University Hospital for surgery. We wish her a speedy recovery and wish to thank the two Czechoslovakian walkers without whom it would have been a longer operation,” he said.

The following Saturday of the Warriors Run, the team were on duty near the summit of Knocknarea where they assisted in a number of incidents with injured runners.

One casualty suffered head and lower leg injuries and, following assessment, an airlift was deemed appropriate.

The Coastguard Helicopter based in Strandhill was on scene within 15 minutes and following treatment, the casualty was airlifted to the emergency Department in Sligo.

How we give support to people dealing with life changing injuries is something which is still very much a work in progress.

Obviously, given the legislative and HSE head scratching which has gone on people such as Geraldine Lavelle are the ones who ultimately suffer the inaction.

Geraldine is a 31 years-old woman who was injured while cycling some five years ago. Since then Geraldine has worked in Abbott and IT Sligo but has been left frustrated by the fact that she lives in the Cheshire Home in Sligo and not in a more independent setting.

Initially, she was placed there on a temporary basis but roll the clocks forward to the present and she is still there with no alternative in sight.

“If there was some progress you would feel like you are further along. I feel like I’m at the real beginning with no clarity to anything really. If you go to the HSE you’re not getting any straight answers and then they send you back to the county council – it’s kind of like a chicken-and-egg situation. They’re telling me if they had the care package sorted – this is what the social housing (section) was telling me – then I would be more likely to get a home and, visa versa, the HSE was telling me, well if you had a house we would be able to give you a care package. It’s now four years and I’d need about between 45 or maybe 50 hours support living in my own home. But all the HSE and the physical and sensory department in Sligo could tell me is they have managed to obtain nine hours,” Geraldine explains.

At the Cheshire Home at Chapel Hill there are 10 rooms in a large building and while it is a form of independent living to a degree Geraldine would still like her own place.
“It is not an ideal situation – it’s an institutionalised situation for a person who’s 31, and you know, up until 27 I have been renting away from home for 10 years. So, it’s difficult when you can’t get back to some sort of level of normality that I would’ve had. People have said to me, ‘Oh why don’t you move back to Castlebar? Would that have been an option?’ and I know my home was adapted but it’s in the rural countryside.”

For the full interview with Geraldine, see this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper – in shops now!

Alternatively, you can purchase an online edition here

A skincare manufacturer based in Finisklin since 1975 has announced that the plant is to close.

An emergency meeting was held at GSK Stiefel this morning where workers were informed that the facility is to shut its doors on a phase basis over the next three years.

The plant was previously threatened with closure in 2009 but efforts were made to invest in it and save over 100 jobs.

Some positive news had also emerged in 2015 when it was announced that a recruitment drive would take place with a goal of employing 250 people by the end of the year. It is understood that 155 staff and 10 contract posts will be affected by the closure.

In a statement, Fine Gael TD for Sligo Tony McLoughlin has described this decision as “a very disappointing announcement for Sligo and the hard-working employees at the Glaxo Smith Kline operation here.

“I understand that the closure of the plant in Sligo will take place on a phased basis, over three years, and that because of this many of the employees will remain in their jobs during this period.

“Nonetheless, the Government will make every State support available to the workers at GSK in Sligo. The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection is aware of the situation and we will be doing our utmost to help these workers transition and find new employment opportunities when the time comes.

“While this news is deeply regrettable, the overall trend in terms of job creation in Sligo, is extremely positive. I wish to advise that the Government is committed, under the Regional Action Plan for Jobs, to continue providing quality jobs in Sligo to further support the most recent jobs announcements in Sligo in 2018 by Phibro (150), Abbvie (100), Abtran (350), E3 Retail (40) and Live Tiles (50).

“As difficult as it may be to appreciate right now, I have reason to be confident that we will find new investment for Sligo and new opportunities for the employees of GSK in Sligo.”

Fianna Fail TD Marc MacSharry has described this news as another blow for the North West.

“My thoughts go out to the workers and their families today. This is devastating news for them.

“The impact of these phased job losses over the coming years cannot be underestimated. This company has been a feature of the local community for over four decades and has been a major employer in the region. There is no doubt that these workers and their families are worried for their future given the uncertainty of this announcement.

“These latest losses must act as a wake-up call for this government that investment is urgently needed in this region.  PR launches and rehashed action plans are not enough.  There needs to be a realisation that there is life beyond the capital and targeted investment in jobs and services is essential to improve the lives of people living in the regions”.