People in Sligo have been urged to take extra caution on the roads this winter.

Highlighting Sligo County Council plans for dealing with severe weather conditions, Council Cathaoirleach Councillor Hubert Keaney said: “Difficult road conditions are a regular hazard at this time of year, whether through frost and snow, heavy rain or strong winds.

“While the Council roads crews will be deployed to treat our county’s main routes, we are asking motorists to think about every trip and take extra care every time they take a journey this winter.”

Cllr Keaney pointed out that last year there were 166 fatalities on Irish roads, and this tragic figure includes drivers, passengers, pedestrians, motor cyclists and pedal cyclists.

“The highest number of fatalities on our roads are young people (between the ages of 16 and 25). The figures produced by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) also show a high incident of ‘no seatbelt’ as a factor in fatal collisions, amounting to 29% of the total figure.

“As well as urging drivers to take extra caution, I would also encourage vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists to always wear a high vis jacket when going on the road”, he said.

He said that information on road safety can be obtained on the Road Safety Authority website, www.rsa.ie and information and advice on being “Winter Ready” in the home, on the farm, in schools and on the road can be found on our website www.sligococo.ie or by contacting our Customer Service staff at 071 9111111.

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.