Thoughts on the closure of Loughglynn Post Office.

Today is the last day of 2018 and it marks the end of an era here in Loughglynn  as the Post Office closes for the last time, sadly never to reopen. Thank you to the Coleman Family for providing the service for so long. Last August we learned the fate of this and many other post offices and at the time I wrote a column about it in the Roscommon Herald. Here are my thoughts from that time. 

I was listening to a minister that I don't really like the other morning as he spoke about the wonderful idea he was after having, “the granny grant”.    Yes, the former stockbroker and now expert on all things sport was explained to us about the great idea he had to make the Grandparents of Ireland richer by rewarding them for minding the grandchildren.  I said to myself “fair play another service for the Post Office”.

However, I did warn you a few weeks ago about silly season and that all sorts of things would be floated, everything except the Titanic I suggested. Yes, silly season when there’s no big news so we live on little rumours and ideas.

That was Wednesday roll on Thursday and people had spent the previous 24 hours laughing at the concept of the granny grant while others are wondering if they could adopt children to avail of the payment.  Regardless, I don't see it happening. The fact that Joe Duffy in his boredom decided to attack it probably didn’t help either. It really is amazing how an afternoon moan line can set the agenda for a nation. The Liveline does it well!

Then Thursday in Loughglynn saw news breaking that the local postmistress had at last seen the light and was going to retire.  She like the rest of the Irish nation has to be entitled to draw her pension and shouldn’t have to worry about running a busy financial service in a small rural village.  

In fairness, she should be in the position to experience some of Shane Ross’s granny grant, and her pension which she should draw down in peace and get the chance to spend it.

I was quite appalled to see the reaction of politicians and commentators who were speaking about the awful situation that was beginning to present itself in rural Ireland.  100 Post Offices are to close we are told. I obviously would like to see the post office remain in Loughglynn, but if that means that an Irish grandmother must be held hostage to keep the service then there is a problem.

Most people employed in providing a service to people feel an obligation to go above and beyond the call of duty.  We see the wonderful service that is provided by various public servants in rural Ireland. I feel the postmistress in a small rural post office and the principal teacher of a very small country school have a lot in common.  Both are doing their best for the community, trying to ensure that the people get the best service from them, but sadly are afraid to put themselves first, in case it might happen that they would be blamed for causing the service to be lost to the community.

There are many teachers who have spent several years of frustrated service teaching in a small school with only five or six pupils but keeping their heads down and trying to ensure the school survives so that they will not be the ones blamed for closing the school. It’s an unenviable position for them, not healthy and sadly a lot of the time the communities they think they’re helping aren’t really that pushed.

We need to differentiate between the post office service and the local provider of the service. Yes, every community should be entitled to a service, in fact, I believe more than ever that services must be available at the lowest level possible.

In my case, that’s Loughglynn, not Castlerea, Ballaghaderreen or Ballyhaunis.  However, at the same time, the people who are providing the service must be able to step away from it and retire. It’s most unfair that if a person gives up the provision of the service then it could be lost to a community. There is something fundamentally wrong with a system that locks its agents in like that.

I for one will be sad to see the post office in Loughglynn close. The post office has been an important part of our village for the entire period I have lived here. I was one of a chosen few who worked the switchboard as a young child, (not often but I did it).  I put my money into my little brown post office book, it was a centre of life in our village especially on Tuesdays and Fridays when the social welfare payments were paid out and also as people queued to use the payphone in the 1980s before the arrival of phones to most houses.  

Back in June 1899 the post office service in Loughglynn was spoken of in the House of Commons James Tully MP for Leitrim South was concerned that letters for Lough Rynn were being delayed as they were being sent to Loughglynn.  

The post office burned down in the 1950’s, and because the switchboard went up in flames a messenger had to go to Castlerea by road to get the fire brigade. It was robbed during the “troubled times” was almost robbed in the 80s, had to close for a period in June 1981 because of a burst sewerage main. The postal service was affected as were social welfare payments and the 29 phone subscribers at that time were serviced by Castlerea. All the time the mail was delivered as normal.

Those are some of the things that shaped the post office history in Loughglynn, the service has always been the centre of much that has happened locally. In my lifetime I have only known two postmistresses I coincidently mentioned Mrs. Rogers last week and Ann Coleman is our present postmistress.

An Post has confirmed that 161 postmasters have applied for voluntary retirement. It follows the announcement earlier this year of the company's post office transformation programme and a €50m investment in the post office network. They have said we will know at the end of the month what offices are closing. We’ll all just have to wait. 

I was delighted to hear An Post say that communities of over 500 people will have a post office and that over 95% of the population will be within 15km of at least one post office. We in Loughglynn have a community of many more than the 500 people they speak of, so we should see a new office being opened in the village or the general locality as the other offices in the parish have closed previously. 

I’m sure people will be saying that time moves on and that we should too. I agree we all need to move on.  However, it’s important that government doesn’t just forget about us. Now more than ever before you must bring Loughglynn and the rest of the country with you.  

Reflections on the Belfast Trial

Obviously, the big rape trial in Northern Ireland is something that everybody has thought about, spoken about, and perhaps has had a view on too. I really thought that the case would end in an acquittal purely from what I heard reported in the media. That said we only hear parts of the evidence and not a lot of the legal argument that takes place.

The trial itself appeared to have been run in a fair manner at first glance, however, if we start to look a little further into the process I believe that there are several question marks over certain things that happened.

I must preface my remarks by saying I believe in the presumption of innocence, and that it must be afforded to all people who are charged with a crime. On the island we presume all people to be innocent until the state can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person is guilty. That means if a person is not found guilty then they should not be punished or does it?

As important as the right to the presumption of innocence is my belief that victims of crime must also have rights. They must have the right to be heard, not to be punished because they were a victim of crime and to feel safe.

As the dust settles after the trial I wonder have those rights been afforded? I know that Paddy Jackson was one of the men charged with a crime and the court found him not guilty. That’s ok but lots of people are now of the opinion that Paddy Jackson did something illegal even though the court said: “No the state has failed to prove that to us beyond a reasonable doubt”.

We had protests around the country as people came out to say that they believed the victim, we see that Paddy Jackson’s legal team have issued legal proceedings against a member of the Irish senate who said that he believed the victim and that the “smug well-connected middle-class boys won out again”.  Ironically lots of people would say that was a worthy description of most male senators!

The first question I ask is it fair that the accused is named, and the world hears all about him even before there is any proof that either a crime took place, or that he was guilty of any wrongdoing.

Is it fair that complainants in rape trials in Ireland and the UK are entitled to anonymity and it is an offence to publish their identity? Yes, it is, however, it's not fair that people can attend court, discover who she is and judge her and tell everyone about her. I for one was shown pictures of a person who was supposedly the accuser in this case. This is wrong.

The entire court case revolved around respect, respect for self, respect for others and finally respect for the decision of the court. We have been presented with a narrative that because some people play a particular sport at a very high level that somehow, they are different to the ordinary Joe in the street. Maybe their value system is different but at the end of the day what’s right for me and you should be right for them and surely if it’s wrong for me it’s wrong for them too.

I agree with public protest as a right, however, I’m not sure about the protests that are going on now. We have seen rallies take place in Dublin and Belfast to express solidarity with all victims of sexual crime.

Several thousand people marched through Dublin city from Dame Street to the Department of Justice on St Stephen’s Green.

As was the case in a rally last Thursday in the city, many carried home-made placards with “I stand with her”, “I believe her” and “#MeToo” written on them.

While we might not agree with the findings of the court obviously in a civilised law abiding land we must accept that the decision of a sworn jury who have heard each and every word of the case. They really must be in a better position to decide on who is or is not guilty of a crime bearing in mind the evidence that is presented and the fact they have heard it all. Those of us who are following the case from afar are not as aware of what was presented in court.

Arising from the coverage and interest in the court case there are several issues up for discussion or clarification. One of them is the rights of people, both the victim and the accused.

How can they be protected, is it fair that a victim of a crime can be further victimised because they report a crime? Is it fair that they must give evidence in open court and have no protection such as their own representation by a solicitor etc?  If a person is accused of a crime and found not guilty is it fair that their name is tarnished forever?

Maybe the court case in the North will bring some good, some changes or even a review of how things are done. The fact that a victim has the right to make a victim impact statement in the Republic is a good thing however it’s actually a very new thing. The law like life is an evolving thing and needs to continually change and be upgraded.

Regardless of anything else at the end of the day like the referee, the decision of the jury must be accepted too.

Hospitals the responsibility of Government, not Charities.

The existing Holles Street hospital is to be closed and moved to the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital. An example of Co-Location where we put the two hospitals together, in this instance a maternity hospital with a major teaching hospital. So far so good.

The State is giving sole ownership of the New Maternity Hospital, a €300 million complex planned for Elm Park campus, next to St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin to the Sisters of Charity!  This has excited people and not necessarily for good reason.

The Sisters of Charity is a religious order that has paid just €2 million of the €5 million that it promised to pay in compensation after the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, published its report, in 2009. 40% of what it promised to pay and the State are gifting them a €300 million complex because they own the land that the state is going to build the hospital on!

It appears to some that governance issues are resolved, and all involved (bar a lot of the taxpayers) appear happy. I was listening to the Master of the hospital Rhona Mahony and heard her say it will “be clinically and operationally entirely independent, in line with national maternity policy”. Simon Harris has said similar. He also claims that the Government will have a golden share!  that said the St Vincent’s Group will still have 4 of their own nominees as directors of the hospital.

What is the benefit to the Sisters of Charity of owning the new National Maternity Hospital? Why do they want to own it and I suppose more to the point why is it being given to them?

Well a former Master of the National Maternity Hospital Dr. Peter Boylan said that if IVF, sterilisation, abortion and gender reassignment were to be carried out at the National Maternity Hospital, it would be the only hospital in the world owned and run by a Catholic order to allow them. It appears that these are some of the proposed functions of the maternity hospital and these may well be contrary to teaching of the Catholic Church and so contrary to the ethos of the hospital. Maybe he’s just trying to panic people?

Our own Bishop Kevin Doran in an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper confirmed that Catholic Hospitals must follow Catholic rules. He referred to three tenets of canon law which decree that land held by religious institutions is “ecclesiastical property” over which the Pope has “primacy of governance”. He said he was speaking “in general terms” as the National Maternity Hospital is not in his diocese and he was unfamiliar with the legal relationship between the Sisters of Charity and St Vincent’s Healthcare Group. In fairness to Bishop Kevin he may well have put clarity into the discussion and has shown that the Master of the National Maternity Hospital may not have been 100% correct on her take of the situation.

This highlights the crux of the issue for lots of people, we’re in the 21^st century and feel that secularism is a way forward especially in multicultural Ireland. We have as a society in recent years started to totally abhor church involvement in Education, Health and Social Services in general. Sometimes for valid reasons other times purely on reasons of principle. A wise friend once told me that principles are a fine thing if you can afford to keep to them!

Speaking to the Irish Medical Organisation, Harris said the new hospital was desperately needed: “It is not good enough for women to have to put up with delivering their babies in Holles Street, which the master very clearly says is not fit for purpose.”

Now back to the debate. Why did it take so long for this to come out? How well was the preparation done? Were all bases covered? Was an effort made to take the corners off the peg to fit them into the round hole??

I’m delighted that debate has started at last, I agree we need a new hospital however is a short-term gain going to get in the way of long term problems? We may find ourselves on a very sticky wicket in a few years’ time.

For me this highlights a lot of things. Firstly, Church and State are two conflicting entities, we claim to be a modern Republic and the State can look after its people, but can it? Government has tried to put “smacht” on the church remember Enda closed our embassy to The Holy See and yet in times of need we go back to the church. Secondly, we fail to think things through, major decisions are not “tested”. In other words, we don’t look at the possible outcomes down the road. What may happen?? Thirdly cabinet are signing off on major plans without proper discussion. Fourthly it appears we don’t learn from our mistakes in fact the arrogance displayed in not anticipating the backlash is the genesis of that backlash. And most importantly I believe that there was an attempt to hoodwink us regarding the running of the hospital. Simon Harris and the Master of the Hospital want this hospital at any cost. The fact that the Bishop of Elphin was the one to clear things up highlights why we need to be so careful when we’re dealing with taxpayers money and that our Ministers are not always stating the facts! 

I still think that the land ownership must be resolved. It would be best for all (especially the nuns) if the land was sold to the state, the debt that the sisters have with the state be written off and the new hospital be built. I believe that everyone would win as there is absolutely no need for this row to continue.

We should be respectful of the great Samaritan work of Irish nuns. But hospitals are now the responsibility of Government, not charities.

Helicopters and Ireland

Like most people, I was shocked when I woke up last Tuesday to news that Rescue 116 had disappeared off the Mayo coast and four crewmembers were missing. Then a casualty was found and she was critical. Now as I write there are 3 crew members still missing. This incident has shocked the country and we’re all talking about it. Rightly so too as it highlights quite a few things but one is that we as a nation are reliant on helicopters quite a bit.

This is of course not the first loss of life we’ve had with our air-sea rescue services either. No back in 1999 Captain Dave O’Flaherty, Captain Michael Baker, Sergeant Paddy Mooney, and Corporal Niall Byrne were all killed in Waterford when their Air Corps Dauphin helicopter crashed. They were returning from a successful rescue mission but crashed having aborted three attempted landings at Waterford Airport due to the foggy conditions.

The late Capt. Dara Fitzpatrick has a Roscommon GAA connection, her sister Niamh worked with the Roscommon minor team of 2006 as their sports psychologist and was also involved in 2010 when Roscommon won the Connacht Championship. This is all to highlight the closeness of events that happen.

Now back to the helicopters the Gardaí routinely use a helicopter as part of their policing and on the night of the Rescue 116 crash in Mayo a Garda helicopter was in action in the skies of Roscommon. In fact, if you heard a loud noise in the sky on Tuesday night it could well have been them, in addition, there is an Air Corps helicopter based in Custume Barracks Athlone to provide an air ambulance service.

We see politicians being photographed with the helicopter and you’d almost swear they either flew it or bought it the way they talk however the sad thing is that like a lot of things in the country we’re freewheeling when it comes to services. The car is out of gear and we’re coasting down the hill that’s grand but if there’s a hill to climb we can’t get up it! And folks we’re in very hilly ground when it comes to helicopters!

You may have heard talk of top cover and the fact that the Air Corps, when asked, were unable to provide it for R116. During Search and Rescue Topcover Missions the Air Corps will arrive on scene ahead of the Rescue helicopter. They can make contact with the Vessel to ascertain the condition of the patient, check the weather on scene and pass these details back to the helicopter. They also pass on relevant instructions from the helicopter crews to the vessel so they can prepare for winching.

The Radar Operators monitor the helicopter and target vessel. They pass on constant updates of bearing and range so the helicopter crews can work out performance calculations and fuel planning. The flight crew keep communications with the Coast Guard and Air Traffic control and advise them on the status of the mission. When the patient has been transferred and assessed the flight crew will then coordinate with Air Traffic control once a destination has been decided upon.

So, the Air Corps were unable to help, why? Well, it seems that over the years the numbers coming into the Air Corps has been fallen and those leaving have been going up. You see we decided to stop recruiting people to various organisations during the “recession” and these decisions are returning to bite. The fact that the Air Corps could not fly when requested last week did not cause the deaths of the crew on R116 but it highlights the problems we have.

We did not recruit Gardaí but we still have people retiring, what happens? We lose loads of experience together and a police force lacking in experience. We have inexperienced supervisors and managers and all sorts of problems arise. Government addresses this by closing stations to reduce the need to supervise or manage (they have not admitted this but they have not properly explained the rational so I may be correct). The same in local authorities, health care and basically all public services.

The two Garda helicopters and the Garda plane are flown by the Air Corps, the Emergency Aeromedical Service (Air Ambulance) operated for the National Ambulance service which Marian Harkin and Gerry Cowley advocated when they were TDs in Dáil Éireann is flown by the Air Corps, the maritime patrols are flown by the Air Corps, the Government Ministers are flown by the Air Corps and their primary military role is to provide air support to the Army and Navy.

We did not recruit sufficient people for years and now we are hoping that training a few pilots will solve the problem. I'm sorry but that will not cut the mustard. We need major investment to be carried out very quickly and a decision needs to be taken to increase the size and capability of the Air Corps. 

General Election 2016. The Lead In.

So we’re all getting ready for the general election in Roscommon and around the country too. There is a small bit of fun watching Fianna Fáil run around Roscommon Galway chasing their tail.

Eugene Murphy the party stalwart of many years has to the best of my knowledge 30 years experience as an elected representative in Roscommon. That’s some feat, to represent the people of East Roscommon for over 28 years and the last two he represents the North and East of the County. Eugene is on Shannonside FM, has a high profile as well as representing the people from Arigna to Tarmonbarry all the way across to Ballaghaderreen. “Eug” is not wanted it seems!

What about Ivan the favoured son last time? He’s well regarded by Roscommon movers in the party we hear. He’s also connected to the constituency boss Mary Devine O Callaghan. Her brother is married to his sister. Something is happening and it appears that Ivan is not wanted this time. Of course he was highly critical of Micheal Martin last year. Remember Christmas and what he said?  A lot in Fianna Fáil have fallen out with Ivan, even Rachel Doherty has turned against Ivan and is full square behind Eugene Murphy.

John Keogh is another Fianna Fáil councillor who wants to run. I don’t know John but I do know he’s involved in a bit of a disagreement with Paddy Kilduff another FF councillor and traditional party loyalist whom I know for many a year and reckon he was the power behind Fianna Fáil in Roscommon in previous years.

So what’s the point of this first blog of the General Election 2016 campaign? Well it’s this. I’m watching Fianna Fáil travel over to Belmullet to get a Mayo GP to run in the Senate by election in a no hope election. He’s up against Labour’s Maria Cahill who is running for the seat won by Jimmy Harte (son of the former  Fine Gael TD for Donegal and peace activist Paddy Harte) in the last senate election.

 Jimmy had a bad fall a couple of years ago and has never properly recovered so he’s decided to retire. This seat should be won by Maria as the tradition is that Fine Gael and Labour will vote for the Government candidate! Yes that’s Maria.

This Mayo GP has been promised that he will be candidate in the General election in Roscommon,  and he might get elected.  “Didn’t Fitzmaurice get elected in Roscommon Leitrim the last time and he was from Galway” the Mount St crew will claim. They’ll also say he was only elected a councillor a few months previously so experience is not important.

“It’s all profile and we’ll build the Dr’s profile”.  It’s all about the hospital we’ll make sure we picture him with a stethoscope round his neck! Health and Reilly are what we’ll remind the people of Roscommon about.  This doctor I predict will be seen as the saviour of health services in Roscommon. He’s going to be Tom Foxe and Denis Naughten rolled into one he’s going to be what Dr. Greg Kelly was not allowed to be, he’s going to have the Dublin crowd behind him and  the senior local figures. 

Do you know what though?

He’ll not have the Rossies nor the Galway crowd either cause he’s a Mayo man parachuted into the constituency. He’s not Eugene, he’s not Ivan, he’s not Doherty! In Castlerea he’s not Pascal  he might have come from Castlerea once but  he’s definitely not Greg. The doctor North Roscommon wanted but establishment Fianna Fáil did not.

Anyway from what I’m hearing, grassroots Fianna Fáil are not happy but then are they ever? 

I reckon they still, just might pick him!

Twitter Followers at a Price!

It’s great what can be done with technology especially when it comes to communications. Twitter is tonight’s topic.

 “Hugh you have a nice few followers but I reckon if you bought a few thousand you’d get rakes more followers!”  This was the advice I was getting for about 6 months!  One fellow told me about his friend from Frenchpark who bought 10,000 and gets 10 followers a day! “When you have lots of followers people just follow!” Money makes money!  

Anyway I spoke to another friend in late June and said what I was being told. We agreed I should do an experiment and like all things to do with Lynn I forgot about it! More important things on my mind in July 14! 

Anyway in August I was chatting to that friend again and we said that we should give it a shot. So here’s what we did. I bought 3,000 followers for $5.00 or just over €3. Where could you go wrong at €3.00? Nothing could go wrong! 

Let me explain there are actually people who make a living from creating multiple twitter accounts and then selling them as followers. Twitter farmers we could call them. They breed these accounts and then harvest the crop i.e follow other accounts. They charge a dollar a thousand or even a euro. Handy money if you can get it.  

So I sent the money  to one of these farmers and waited and waited and then it started the followers arrived and I suddenly got 2,200 extra followers! So I was now down 800 that I had bought before I even started!  

So what!  I was up 2,200! Then it started!  I began to lose followers. I was at 3,400 and then it was 3,000 and next it was down to 1800 and they kept dropping away! 

Panic stations. Was I losing my genuine followers?? Need to be careful. So I started to watch my account. I signed up to unfollowers.com and discovered that these purchased followers were actually being suspended! (Twitter must not agree with “twitter farming”!)

So 100 days later I've less than 240 of these purchased followers left. I have increased my following but I think it’s due to what I’m saying and sharing! Lots of my new followers also retweet things that I’ve posted! 

Moral of the story, like Fine Gael and the” Facebook likes” they purchased.  I reckon it’s a) a waste of money b) a cause of distrust for genuine followers c) proof positive that Content is still the King.

 Anyway I’ll not be buying anymore! 

My Parish and how we voted!

I live in Loughglynn and we are a parish of three village units namely Loughglynn, Lisacul and Gorthaganny. We have 3 polling booths in the parish and this is the way we voted this year!

	Loughglynn	Gortaganny	Lisacul	Parish
Ivan Connaughton  FF	52	19	56	127
Emmet Corcoran - Ind	3	0	3	6
Tom Crosby - Ind	0	0	1	1
Mich Fitzmaurice - Ind	96	28	83	207
Des Guckian - Ind	0	0	1	1
Maura Hopkins - F G	80	11	80	171
John Kelly - Lab	97	17	115	229
Martin Kenny - S Féin	30	7	26	63
John McDermott - Ind	14	1	11	26
Gerry O'Boyle - Ind	2	0	0	2