Author: HillenSean

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Festive Story – Charlie and The Kindness Factory

It was a wet and stormy night in Gortahork, Donegal when Charlie Cannon died.

For eight minutes.

Before he came to life again.

Shocked and amazed, people around him wondered –  had they just witnessed a miracle?

But before answering that question, let me take a step back in time.

The Loch Altan Hotel on the main street of Gortahork, a charming little town in northwestern, was lively with people on the fateful evening Charlie Cannon died.

It was a holiday weekend and the hotel was packed with revellers enjoying a few leisurely days of freedom. Well-deserved time away from noisy alarm clocks, traffic and work in offices, schools, building sites and other places.

These same revellers included Charlie who was enjoying a friend’s 60th wedding anniversary celebration in the hotel’s main restaurant.

Nearby, in the bar area, members of the Tulleybegley Walking Club including old friends Mickey McHugh and Eddie Curran were also enjoying themselves, having a few well-deserved drinks after finishing a 20 km cross-country trek known as ‘the pilgrimage walk,’ named after a century-old burial tradition whereby eight-men shifts carried coffins up and down hills from surrounding areas to the nearest graveyard that distance away.

Charlie himself wasn’t drinking that night. He had a job to do. He’d volunteered to drive a couple of friends home after the celebration dinner, one of whom had an injured leg and could only walk with the help of a cane.

Being wet and stormy outside, Charlie decided, in his selfless way, to walk to the car park across the road and drive his car to the front entrance of the hotel. Thus saving his friends from getting soaked in the rain.

Having done this, Charlie then went back inside the hotel and brought his two friends to the car. Then opened the passenger door to help his friend with the bad leg get inside.

That’s when it happened. 

“Sudden terrible pain, then I simply dropped to the ground,” he recalled vaguely, not actually remembering anything until two days later in hospital.

Meanwhile elsewhere in the hotel, Mickey and Eddie had moved into the lobby to chat. Hearing a commotion they looked up and saw Charlie‘s body flat on the ground. They rushed over and with the help of others lifted Charlie’s body and brought him further into the lobby, laying him down on the carpeted floor.

Their quick-thinking worked wonders.

Though trained in basic emergency medical skills as members of a local volunteer group known as ‘First Responders,’ they knew a much more experienced person was in the bar area.

Pushing their way through the doors, they found their fellow hiking colleague Hugo McFadden, 60, an Instructor Safety Diver at Effective Offshore, training officer with Sheephaven Diving Club and one of the founding members of the Falcarragh ‘First Responder’ group ten years ago, with two others, Shaun Boylan and Maureen Gallagher.

Together, Shaun, Mickey and Eddie rushed out of the bar to the hotel lobby where a large crowd had now gathered around Charlie’s inert ‘dead’ body.

I use the term ‘dead’ because when he knelt down beside him, Hugo couldn’t find a pulse. Charlie’s heart had stopped.

In ordinary circumstances, that should have been the end of this story. Charlie’s body would’ve been moved to a morgue somewhere, probably in a hospital. Then later, buried. 

But these weren’t ordinary circumstances.

Well-trained in emergency medicine, Hugo shouted for someone to find him a defibrillator, or Automated External Defibrillator (AED), as they are formally known. Blank stares indicated most people didn’t know if there was one. Or if so, where it might be. Fortunately, Orla the hotel receptionist then, did. Snatched from the wall where it hung, it was rushed to Hugo, still kneeling beside the motionless body of Charlie.

Recalling that frantic scene, some people told me the eight minutes that followed seemed like eight hours.

Hugo started chest compression. No pulse. Moving people around him further away, he placed the paddles on Charlie‘s chest, sending an electric shock through him to kick-start his heart. Still no pulse.

He tried again. Chest compression, electric shock. Still no sign of life. It was then he heard a voice in the crowd around him saying they’d heard a cracking sound, the sound of ribs breaking. 

Luckily, it wasn’t. But even if it were…

“Our motto at ‘First Responders‘ is ‘life over limb,’ said Hugo, telling me what happened. “A cracked rib is worth less than a saved life. I’d crack a few ribs if it saved someone from death. And I wouldn’t have stopped trying for Charlie. No way.”

Unwilling to give up, Hugo tried a third time. Chest compression, electric shock. He felt again for a pulse. This time he found one. Faint, yes, but it was definitely there.

Here, deep in the heart of rural Donegal, northwest Ireland, a region known as the Gaeltacht as the first language spoken here is Irish, emergency ambulances can take around 30 to 45 minutes to get to Gortahork from the more urban areas of Letterkenny and Dungloe. Thus the crucial role played by ‘First Responders’ such as Hugo, Mickey and Eddie in saving lives.

When the ambulance carrying paramedics finally arrived at the Loch Altan Hotel, Hugo had already conducted the most crucial of life-saving interventions. 

Without Hugo‘s help and that of Margarite Meehan who kept feeling for a pulse as Hugo performed chest compressions and administered electric shocks, the 73-year-old former school bus driver and mechanic would be long buried, his loss mourned by family and friends. 

Instead, Charlie is alive and well, spending the festive holidays with his 92-year-old Aunt Una in Mayo, a place he drove to a few days ago. 

“If I was back in Donegal, sure I’d be climbing to the top of Errigal with my son, John Paul,” he hold me in a telephone conversation earlier this week.

A daily walker, usually in the company of his little terrier dog, aptly named Tiny, Charlie, now 73, is also an avid cyclist and an expert restorer of vintage 19th-century bikes nicknamed ‘High Nellies,’ the name referring to its tall riding position with a very large front wheel and a much smaller rear one. More commonly known as ’penny-farthings,’ Charlie sometimes jaunts around on one in the area where he lives in the townland of Stroughan. So fit is he, six weeks ago, with his nephew, Patrick Darcy, he climbed Muckish Mountain. No easy task for anyone, never mind a man who, Lazarus-like, rose from the dead. Sadly, Charlie lost his wife of 47 years, Kathleen, to cancer. But he tries to keep his head up.

“Hugo’s my hero,” he said, a catch in his voice. “And the others too, the ‘First Responders’ who saved my life. If it weren’t  for them, I wouldn’t be talking to you. I wouldn’t have seen another Christmas, another New Year. Instead here I am, enjoying life. There’s not enough words to thank them for what they did for me.”

As I sip my spiced brandy on this frosty winter evening, I ponder…why wait for the festive Christmas and New Year season to celebrate unsung heroes like Hugo, Margarite, Mickey, Shaun, Maureen and Eddie, and all those ‘First Responders.’ Such selfless people are all around us, every single day, especially in close-knit rural communities, quietly helping their fellow Man along the path of Life, without fear or favour. 

Fund-raising volunteers with Santa.
lCharlie with Patrick and Tiny reach the summit of Muckish.
Caitlin Lafferty, Hugo McFadden and Shaun Boylan on Errigal Mountain.

‘First Responders’ a purely voluntary group of local people who help fellow citizens in emergency health situations, are seeking new members. Do you want to help your community? Perhaps save someone’s life? If so, then contact falcarraghdefib@gmail.com or Mobile 0861013304. You could make a big difference. And feel tremendous satisfaction doing so.

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Community spirit helps save lives in Falcarragh

More than 100 people packed into Ionad Naomh Fionnan community centre, Falcarragh, Donegal recently to support selfless volunteers known as ‘First Responders,’ ordinary people who receive basic medical training and help in emergency situations.

Attended by infants and the elderly alike, the ‘Light Up A Star’ event, hosted by Buíon Cheoil Sinsear Chloich Cheann Fhaola, the Senior band, was an evening of high-quality music and singing acts, all from the Cloughaneely area. Emcee was the talented Aoife McNichle, senior band member. 

Ranging from traditional Irish songs and music to contemporary ballads, some composed by performers, the acts included the Cloughaneely Senior and Junior Bands, singers Cora Moore, Clíona Gallagher, Darren O’Halloran, Sarah McGeever, Conor O’Ghallchoir and Hannah McFadden, the local Comhaltas group and Don E Gals, a trio of female ukulele players. Patricia Harley and Annette McPaul read poignant prose passages as Gaeilge and as Bearla from the stage.

“First Responders provide a vital service to the community and we were delighted to show our support,” said Aine Quigg, secretary of the band, who also praised all the volunteers involved in the evening’s fund-raising event, including Patricia Harley, principal of Scoil Náisiúnta Gort an Choirce (Gortahork National School). “Being in a rural area, ambulances from Letterkenny and Dungloe can take quite a while to get here so the work of ‘First Responders’ can be the difference between life and death, where seconds, not just minutes, count.” This was only the second such concert organised by Buíon Cheoil Sinsear Chloich Cheann Fhaola, the firt being last year, which helped raise funds for the band’s tour of New York.

As for Falcarragh ‘First Responders’ group, it was founded ten years ago by Shaun Boylan, who is the group’s co-ordinator, Hugo McFadden, both of whom are Instructor Safety Divers at Effective Offshore, and Maureen Gallagher. It is one of over 350 such groups nationwide, with the local one now having 15 active members, four men and 11 women, who respond to 100-120 call-outs a year in a radius of about seven kilometres around Falcarragh, including the Magheraroarty and Derryconor and all the way to Corcreggan Mill, near near Dunfanaghy.

The emergencies they deal with could range from heart attacks to choking and strokes. There has, unfortunately, been a fall in the number of volunteers as there were around 32 before Covid hit, which is why the group is now seeking new members. 

‘Receiving no government funding, we’re grateful for this generous response from the community we serve, the funds help with training and buying and maintaining life-saving defibrillators, which we’ve expanded from only one when we started to fifteen now, which are placed in various businesses and schools throughout the area,” said Shaun proudly.

“All volunteers are closely vetted and receive training in various aspects of emergency medicine, including the use of defibrillators, how to recognise people suffering strokes, and so on.”

The community event also honoured local people who have died recently. Candles on stage featured the faces of 13-year-old Enya McMurrough from Gortahork who passed suddenly in February and was a member of the junior band and beloved daughter of senior band member, Fionnuala.

And Jamie Diver and Shaun Martin McClafferty, sons of Roise Diver and Sharon McClafferty, who died in a tragic collision. Their deaths occurred within weeks of each other. 

“It was with heavy hearts we organised this fund-raising event,” said Aine Quigg. “In fact, we weren’t even sure if we should go ahead with it due to the tragic deaths. It was a bad year because of this. But after speaking with the bereaved families, we all decided it was best to remember those who had passed.”

The evening’s event also featured a special ‘Remembrance Tree,’ a Christmas tree hung with white stars with the names of deceased loved ones on them which local people purchased to support ‘First Responders.”

Printed on the event programme for the evening were the words, “As we light these stars, we remember those we miss dearly. May these small lights remind us that love shines on.”

‘First Responders’ welcomes new volunteers. If interested, contact falcarraghdefib@gmail.com or Mobile 0861013304.

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Music crosses all borders, links people as One

by Sean Hillen 

Probably never in the annals of musical history has a Ukrainian saxophonist-cum-accordionist, a classical violinist and an Irish bodhrán player come together as a highly-entertaining trio.

But they did this week at a celebratory Yuletide event at Garradh Colmcille in Falcarragh attended by women, men and children representing diverse nationalities including Canadian, South African, American, Irish, Ukrainian and English.

This unique occasion featured musicians, Reuben O’Conluain, Irish-language professor and cultural enthusiast, multi-instrumentalist Yuriii Hryhoriev and talented Olena Korotka, a classically-trained orchestral violinist from the now militarised region of Kherson in southern Ukraine. 

The proceedings ranged from delightful musical renderings including traditional Irish tunes as well as Ukrainian folk songs such as ‘Chervona Ruta’ and ‘Cheremshyna,’ to contemporary ballads such as Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah,’ and ‘Until I Found You’ by Stephen Sanchez, with a few festive seasonal songs including ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ and ‘It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas‘ tossed in for good measure.

Nimble dancers also took to the floor, shaking their booties in carefree abandon to the lively rhythms of the instruments played so wonderfully.

Many congratulations to Armen Galstyan, a refugee from Odessa, for organising the musicians, and local community activist at Pobal le Chéile, Rosemary Grain, and her enthusiastic support team for hosting the event so well.

For me, and I’m sure for many others attending, the event highlighted the interconnectedness of people across borders illustrating how humanity, regardless of language, skin colour, religion or nationality, is one and the same entity, each element dependent upon the other for peace, progress and prosperity.

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Falcarragh couple raise funds by donating hair

Luke Mangan dreamed of becoming a father and when his Falcarragh-born wife, Edel became pregnant, he was overjoyed.

Then tragedy struck.

After an emergency C-section thirty-four weeks into her pregnancy, their baby boy, Alexander (Xander), who had been placed on a life-support ventilator, breathed his last and slipped softly away after only 15 days of life. His death due to complications from fetal hydrops, excessive fluid build-up around his vital organs.  

Infant Alexander (Xander) valiantly fights for survival.

Joy for the couple turned into deep, unrelenting sadness sweeping them into a dark abyss of depression, leaving them unable to come to terms with what had happened.

“We were left in complete shock, our senses stunned” said Luke, a physical education and history teacher at Rosses Community School in Dungloe. Edel, with a background in psychology, added, “It was a horrendous experience. Sheer hell to live through.”

Memory box provided by Féileacáin included imprints of Alexander’s tiny hands and feet.

Now three years after that tragic day, Edel and Luke are determined to give back what they received in vital support from a national organisation, Féileacáin (meaning butterfly), a Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Support Group that helps parents nationwide in such grieving circumstances.  

In an event at 8.30 this Saturday evening, 29 November at The Shamrock Bar in Falcarragh, Edel will cut off Luke’s hair that he has been growing since around the time she became pregnant, as well as his handlebar moustache, in an event entitled ‘Luke’s Head and Moustache Shave.’ . Luke’s hair will then be donated to the Rapunzel Foundation, which provides free real hair wigs to children and adults who’ve suffered hair loss, often due to illness. His sister, Rebecca, will also donate her hair on the evening. There will also be a raffle, with organic oils, creams and tonics donated by medical herbalist Columbia Hillen and free acupuncture treatment from Root Point.

Luke and Edel lovingly remember their infant son through his photograph.

“Féileacáin helped us a lot, even providing us with a memory box with photos of our departed son, a lock of his hair and a porcelain mould of his tiny hands and feet,” said Edel. “It’s an amazing charity that helps grieving parents feel less alone and helps them keep their babies’ memories alive. Their meetings with other bereaved parents helped us to recover.” 

Added Luke, “We want to give something back, to hold this event in Falcarragh in memory of our little guy who was very much wanted and loved and whom we didn’t get the chance to keep. To raise public awareness.” 

Donations can be made via https://idonate.ie/alexandersparents

A spokesperson for Féileacáin praised Edel and Luke. 

“This wonderful initiative by them both deserves tremendous support,” said Nina Doyle, a co-ordinator for Féileacáin (meaning ‘butterfly’). “It’s not just the money they’ll raise to help us support other parents to keep the precious memory of children alive, one of the worst fears of parents. In the past, there was a lot of stigma attached to stillbirths and neonatal deaths of which there are around five hundred every year in Ireland but this event in Falcarragh will bring the community together in greater understanding.” 

As for Luke’s feelings about having his hair cut off. “As the evening approaches, I’m becoming more nervous. My hair will be the shortest it’s ever been since my childhood. But it’s all for a very good cause.” 

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Theatrical triumph for the talented Cloughaneely Players in Donegal

What a theatrical triumph this past weekend for local amateur drama company, The Cloughaneely Players, who meet close to my home here in the scenic northwest corner of Donegal.

Not only did they host a superb re-enactment, complete with costumes and wigs, of James Joyce’s classic short story ‘The Dead’ set in 1904 in a most enjoyable manner, but they transformed a rural Donegal house into a 19th century multi-stage setting using most of the rooms in the house, both upstairs and downstairs, for various scenes.

Many congratulations to director Carmel MacGill, consultant director Murray Learmont, choreographer Caroline McGee, and more than twenty talented local amateur actors and musicians for a superb show.

And keep in mind, we’re not talking about well-paid West End or Broadway professional performers (though you might be mistaken that they were). We’re talking about a local bartender, a teacher, a nurse, a doctor or two, a real estate broker, a hypno-therapist, even a retired revenue sheriff, and many others, all of whom bring sheer enthusiasm and passion into treading the boards.

Here’s a few photographs to illustrate the weekend’s entertainment. 

I’ve written a much more comprehensive article in tribute to these delightful women and men for this Thursday’s edition of the Donegal News on the Digest page so pick up a copy and have a read and rejoice we have such talented artists among us.

And don’t miss out on their next production. The tickets will be red hot, so buy early. No doubt they’ll be sold for high prices on the international black market.

Thank you to Catriona Kelly, Jake Campbell McLaughlin and Maggie McKinney for photographs.

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Expenses For Irish Presidency Cost 13,000 Euro Every Single Day

Thankfully, mercy of mercies, the Irish Presidential election is almost over. 

In a few hours, people throughout the Emerald Isle can breathe a sigh of relief. And get on with everyday things, knowing full well that the winning candidate will have barely a whisper of an effect on their day-to-day lives.

They may, however, be a wee bit miffed that election of a person in office for the next seven years with no power to affect their lives will cost them over 35 million euro, over five million a year in salaries and expenses. 

That’s over 13,000 euro for every single day. 

Put another way, it’s over 1,600 euro per hour based on an 8-hour working day.

That could pay salaries for a helluva lot of nurses and doctors to help strengthen Ireland’s woeful health system. Not to mention what it could do for struggling schools and community centres.

It begs the question – Is it worth it?

Sadly, this presidential contest, if one can dignify it with this word, is also probably the most boring in living memory, aside from a single mini-drama when one of only three candidates dropped out, no doubt realising being so far behind in the opinion polls, he’d probably come in fourth. 

It’s also sad that as the two candidates in the race have been well-established party supported national political figures for many years, real refreshing innovative change is obviously not on the Irish agenda for the foreseeable future. Something that’s probably welcome to some of Ireland’s politicians as their salaries and expenses are quite lucrative. Certainly compared to other countries.

This Presidential election has turned out to be the predictable cliche, Left Versus Right scenario, a pretty straightforward political party battle, with Catherine Connolly, who simply left the Labour Party because she wasn’t picked as an election candidate, head and shoulders intellectually above her rival, Heather Humphreys, former Minister for the Fine Gael coalition government partner. A lady who started her campaign with a fixed butter-wouldn’t melt-in-my-mouth regal smile until, seeing herself well behind her rival, suddenly grew fangs. Much too late.

What’s most depressing about this whole Presidential affair is that the leading parties in Ireland turned this election into ‘them-versus-us’ party political battle, thus making sure the next President of Ireland, the only position based on a national vote, would not be handed to a truly Independent candidate with experience on both the left and right of centre, someone from a working-class background but successful in business, someone with fresh new ideas, vision and comprehensive international experience, something sadly neither candidate possesses.

Welcome to Ireland. Land of the Status Quo!

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Sinn Fein’s Presidential decision – a case of the tail wagging the dog

Is Sinn Fein’s decision this weekend to support Independent candidate, Catherine Connolly, in November’s Irish Presidential elections a case of the tail wagging the dog?

It certainly seems so.

After much dithering and delay, Ireland’s third ranked political party – which not so long ago could have topped the polls nationwide and emerged as the nation’s leading party if they’d only put forward more candidates – could not even decide on its own Presidential candidate, party member or not.

Instead, it meekly followed in the wake of other smaller Left-leaning parties who have been supporting Connolly for many months.

Catherine Connolly – established Irish politician.

If that’s not the tail wagging the dog, what is? 

No matter how well the story is spun – and sadly Sinn Fein party leader Mary Lou MacDonald offered an ‘over-the-top’ act to do so a few days ago, uttering the superlative cliché ‘game-changer’ – this non-decision decision may come back to bite her and her colleagues. 

While they won’t say it publicly, the other Left wing parties in Ireland are now frothing at the mouth at the possibility of stealing parliament seats from Sinn Fein at the next election.

Unfortunately, Mary Lou made the situation even worse this weekend when she tried vainly to justify choosing Connolly by saying recent Irish presidents had been elected “from outside the political establishment” and that Connolly was following in that tradition.

What a load of nonsense.

Catherine Connolly has been an ‘established’ politician for the last quarter of a century, beginning as local councillor in Galway, then rising to Mayor five years later, then becoming a TD ten years ago. For goodness sake, she was even chairperson of Ireland’s national parliament for a full four years.

If that’s not ‘established’, what is?

Even the present President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, elected not once but twice over the last 14 years, was a ‘classic established politician.’ For almost half a century including stints as Labour Party president, Senator, TD (Member of Parliament) and even as a Minister. 

One has to ask oneself ‘Who the hell is writing Mary Lou’s scripts. And who’s conducting her research?”

I’ve always been Left of center in my political outlook, and would like Sinn Fein to be in Government and shake up the meagre mediocrity of Irish politics. But with poor decisions like this one over the Presidency, I fear that’s not going to happen any time soon.  

Sinn Fein has shown itself in many instances to be a no-risk party, including its electoral management strategy in Donegal where I now live. In order for it to justify its claim as a leading party, it needs to take risks. But time and time again, it has shown itself to be very much risk averse.  

My humble view is that Irish people are desperate for a fresh face in Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence of the President of Ireland, someone truly not involved in Irish politics. Someone with the international experience necessary to conduct the role of Presidency in a strong diplomatic manner. They simply don’t want the Presidential race to be based along worn, age-old political party lines.

That’s why someone like Gareth Sheridan – a man whose US-based company has accumulated losses of 40 million dollars and who has himself already been fined for misleading people about his business and whose main business partner is said to have links with Russian oligarchs – has managed to get two county councils in Ireland to nominate him as a Presidential candidate. 

That’s how desperate Irish people are to find someone new. 

Mary Lou went half way by talking about the need for someone new. 

But then she went right ahead and selected someone straight from the old political establishment. And to make matters worse, someone other parties had already selected a long time ago.

It seems Sinn Fein may have just bought the ruling coalition of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael an early Christmas present.  

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GAME-CHANGER OR GAME-OVER IN IRELAND?

Sinn Fein’s President Mary Lou McDonald today described on national airwaves that her political party’s long-awaited, soon-to-be-named Irish Presidential candidate would be a ‘game changer.’

@rtenews

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said that the party’s participation in the Presidential Election campaign will be a “game-changer”. Sinn Féin has been mulling over its approach to the race for Áras an Úachtaráin, with two options at its disposal – either run its own candidate or back Independent Catherine Connolly’s campaign. Speaking at the National Ploughing Championships in Screggan, Co Offaly, Ms McDonald said she already knew the proposal she would be bringing to the party, but that it would not be made public until Saturday. Go to link in bio for more #rtenews #ireland #presidentialelection #sinnfein

♬ original sound – RTÉ News

Having used this grandiose, hifalutin phrase, that’s exactly what supporters and would-be supporters of Sinn Fein will be expecting that person to be – a unique choice who will shock and surprise everyone. 

The kind of individual a disillusioned electorate are hungry for. Someone whose name and background will light a fire under what has already become – albeit in its early stages – a timid, banal, utterly predictable and lukewarm election campaign.

To use such a superlative phrase as ’game-changer’  and not deliver an individual with the immense passion, innovative vision and creativity the term demands will be considered by most people to be a dismal failure.  And show Sinn Fein to be a ‘has-been, once-was’ party, one whose rise in recent years has incontrovertibly stalled.

To come up with something less – such as merely supporting Independent Catherine Connolly – will help damn the party into endless Opposition. It will signal to a triumphant Fianna Fail-Fine Gael coalition Government that it has nothing to worry about from Ireland’s third-ranked party. That Sinn Fein is all bark and bluster. But no real bite. 

Regardless of the spin about Left wing unity, Sinn Fein supporting Connolly will be seen as nothing less than inherent party weakness. That of a political party seeking to lead the country that cannot even find a suitable candidate for the most universally elected political position in the nation. 

That’s not leadership. That’s impotence. 

Supporting Connolly, Sinn Fein at this stage will also be seen as being led by the other Left wing parties who decided on her months ago. And they risk losing key votes at the next election as a result, probably leading to an inevitable decline in its parliamentary seats. A major, perhaps irrecoverable, blow to the party’s hardworking grassroots members.

Thus it’s all-important, not just for future success but for sheer survival, that Mary Lou and her colleagues in the upper ranks of Sinn Fein deliver what they’ve promise so confidently. Nothing less will do.

In doing so, hopefully, they’ll also make this rather boring Irish Presidential battle a bit more interesting than it is right now, raising it from its low-level drab ordinariness.

If they don’t, Sinn Fein may pay a heavy price at the next election. And possibly never recover from the fall.

For a party that is admirably ethical and honest in its dealings, with a central mission of equality and justice for all, they need to find the courage to take risk, something the party is not particularly known for, as not running a second candidate in the Gweedore-Cloughaneely area in the last election showed, with Pearse Doherty’s massive surplus votes going nowhere instead of towards electing a record third TD in Donegal.  

This Presidential campaign is Sinn Fein’s Rubicon moment. It’ll be intriguing to see if they manage to cross over. Or drown in the effort.

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Gardeners And Herbalists Gather In Killybegs

Avid gardeners, herbalists and Nature lovers from countries as diverse as South Africa, England and Ukraine as well as many parts of Donegal gathered this week in Killybegs to share their knowledge about health-giving herbs and plants.

The well-attended event at the Niall Mór Community and Enterprise Centre was part of the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme supported by the Donegal Local Development Company, with more than 30 participants learning to integrate everyday garden flora into tasty dishes supporting digestion, blood circulation, cardiac issues and to help balance blood-sugar levels. 

“It’s very important we bring back the knowledge about harnessing the goodness of Nature as food and medicine,” said west-Donegal based Joanne Butler, Climate Action Officer with DLDC, and founder of OURganic Gardens who organised the event. “The benefits include nutrition, mental and physical health and community resilience and care for the environment. The DLDC programme started two years ago and my role is to coordinate community garden network events and help such initiatives with good governance, funding, awareness-raising and other supports they need.” 

Guest presenter at the Killybegs event was Columbia Hillen, a member of the Irish Register of Herbalists and the Association of Master Herbalists, who will also host various workshops at Anamcara Healing Herbs Garden in Gweedore. 

Columbia Hillen, medical herbalist who held the workshop.

Susanna Friel, from London, who bought an 8-acre smallholding in Donegal, said “The workshop helped transform the way we look at ‘weeds’ as ‘enemies’ and turn them into friends. Columbia showed how easily-recognisable plants such as dandelions and cleavers can be turned into – not just medicines – but delicious ingredients in our everyday diets to maintain robust, glowing health.“

Tish Yelland, a retired kinesiologist who arrived in Donegal from South Africa over two years ago and ‘bushwhacked’ farmland that was fallow for a decade, said, “Plants such as lawn daisies and bramble have healing superpowers used for centuries by our elders. How absolutely refreshing to know there is a herbalist right here in Donegal who educates and empowers people to re-discover a love of weeds. Columbia communicated her knowledge in a relaxed and fun manner but also invited us to share our experiences about foraging and best use of plants for nutrition. Mixing gorse in butter makes it taste even better. As for pesto made from nettles, it’s simply scrumptious. Who’d have thought such an irritating plant could be so good.”

Ronan McNern from Shy By Nature Farm, a community-based project in Inver that sells homegrown vegetable boxes in south Donegal, said, “Since attending the workshop, my volunteers have been busy making healing recipes from dandelions, gorse flowers and nettles. No better way to stay healthy.”

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Want to make medications from plants to improve your physical and mental health?

A unique hands-on workshop will be hosted by qualified medical herbalist, Columbia Hillen, at her own charming Anamcara Healing Herbs Garden in Donegal in May, teaching participants to create special health drinks and integrate herbs into everyday foods to help support digestion, blood circulation, cardiac health, balance blood-sugar levels and achieve a more relaxed state of mind and body, among many other benefits. 

A former school teacher and leading media professional, Columbia is an experienced herbalist and registered member of the Irish Register of Herbalists – and also the organisation’s social media coordinator – and the Association of Master Herbalists. She is also a national award-winning photographer. Her love and understanding of Nature and the many health benefits plants provide means her own garden in west Donegal features almost 100 different varieties which attracted Ireland’s leading national newspaper, The Irish Times, to publish a special feature article on her life and work in a recent edition. 

This innovative three-hour workshop package-event takes place on Saturday May 3rd and includes complimentary lunch accompanied by a variety of herbal teas, special easy-to-make food recipes to help strengthen and maintain physical and mental well-being, medications made during the workshop and free dried herbs for participants to take home with them. 

Workshop fee is 65 euro. See details HERE for a discount offer. 

Due to the practical, hands-on nature of this workshop, participation is limited to ten (10) participants only so it is recommended to contact Columbia if interested before Monday April 28 to be assured of a place.