Ballyhahill NS is celebrating again! It has two teams through to the Community Games Quiz County finals in two weeks time. We wish them the best of luck.
My neighbour, Eileen O’Grady Kilmartin has retired after 44 years nursing in London. Eileen, after doing her Junior Cert in Dore’s School in Glin, started her career doing Nursery Nursing in Temple Hill, Blackrock, Co. Dublin. This was run by the Sisters of Charity but they did not always live up to their name, Eileen laughs. My own memory of this time is that Eileen and her mother Peg wrote to each other by return of post all the time she was there. I used to post the letters when I was going to school. She then went to Hackney Hospital in London – where she had been born! She was the youngest nurse there who ever received Sister status. In Whip’s Cross Hospital she did her midwifery and received her S.C.M. degree in 1976. She then nursed in Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield til last Thursday 14th February. Though she did midwifery for many of her years she also did District Nursing during her career. But though now retired Eileen is not intending to be idle. She is presently at home in Glenbawn to see her parents and intends doing voluntary work when she returns to London. The following is a tribute to her written by her daughter Orla on the day she retired. “So my Mama retired today; and although I’m so happy for her, I’m also feeling acutely ashamed….. I remember moaning about the indignity of being the last girl collected from school and miserably wandering through Hadley Wood, never understanding when she’d reply “but I don’t have the kind of job I can just leave at a certain time”. I never considered how tired she must have been while working dreaded ‘nights’ and long days on labour ward, just to give me the kind of education I took for granted, for an expensive education means so little when one is an acne-ridden-hormonal-teenage monster. Today, FINALLY, I understand. I know from the student who cried telling me how great my Mum was as a mentor; the Muslim lady, with little knowledge of English, who took FOUR buses just to see my Mum and give her a card and present; the young couple I’d probably have dismissed as being ‘chavs’, who told me that Mum never made them feel like they were ‘wasters’ but would encourage them, telling them they were capable of anything; and the young girl who told me that my Mum sat with her on her bed for hours on her day off, just holding her hand when she was diagnosed with Post Natal Depression. So, yes, I finally ‘get it’, I truly do; I understand that my Mum was a credit to her profession, and that I am so undeserving to have her as my Mother. One of her former patients, now a current midwifery student, said that she’d like to be half the midwife my Mum is. Well I’d like to be a quarter of the lady she is. Genuinely, I’m the most blessed girl in the world.” What a lovely tribute by Orla. We wish Eileen many years of happy retirement and many more visits to Glenbawn.
Eileen Kilmartin and with
grandnephew Jack
The Ballyhahill/Loughill ICA guild members were pleased to welcome a new member last week. This year is Drama year again and the ladies are practicing their lines for the competition later on. More on this later.
Glin Library will be closed next week while I visit Krakow, Poland.