Local Notes: Ballyhaunis nursing home residents enjoy mock wedding
Director of nursing Anne Quinn (second from left) with staff members Zvijezdana Kosi Simuncic and Leon Walsh (the happy couple) and Emmanual Kofi Mensah (pastor) who put on a mock wedding for the entertainment of residents at Brookvale Manor nursing home.
Residents of local nursing home Brookvale Manor were excited to be guests at a wedding staged recently with all the ceremony and excitement of matrimonial celebrations.
The Brookvale’s 50 staff got dressed up too for the ‘Wedding of Leon and Stella’, two workers at the nursing home, Zvijezdana Kosi Simuncic (also known as Stella) and Leon Walsh. The service officiated by Emmanual Kofi Mensah, a member of the housekeeping staff who dressed as a priest for the day.
“It all started when one resident, a married couple, were unable to attend a wedding in America,” explained Anne Quinn, director of nursing at Brookvale. “As a joke we said we’d organise a wedding party here instead, and it snowballed from there."
Many of the nursing home’s nearly 50 residents thought the wedding was real, explained Anne.
“They have been so excited. One of the residents said he wouldn’t be able to come because he hadn’t been able to get out to buy a present. We said ‘there’s no need’. We had presents for everyone, but they’re empty boxes!”
The priest who officiated at the wedding was housekeeping worker Emmanuel, from Ghana, whose family also attended.
“We have staff from Ghana, Nigeria, Romania, South Africa and England,” explained Anne. “A lot of our staff are here a good while, they get to know the residents really well.”
Anne explained how the event generated local appeal.
“We had a lot of support from the community, the local Hospice charity shop donated the hats and Joe Freeley of Joe Doves fame gave his services freely.”
Musicians from the locality visit Brookvale every Thursday. To keep residents engaged, Brookvale has also been organising a round the world trip with flags and food from a different destination each week.
“Last week we were in London and we hope to eventually finish up our trip around the world with a barbeque party in the Brookvale garden in July," said Anne.
Congratulations to Mrs Mary McCormack (nee Carney), formerly of Ballindrehid, Ballyhaunis, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday.
Mary now resides in Loughrea, Co Galway, close to her son Peter and daughter Annette. She is an avid Mayo supporter and was a regular visitor back to Ballyhaunis over the years, meeting up with cousins from Drimaderra, Gurrane, Kiltimagh and Dunmore.
She is wished all the best from her relations and many friends.
A survey of parents has revealed high levels of satisfaction with teaching standards, facilities and extra-curricular activities at Ballyhaunis Community School.
The results of a recent online survey shows strong support for a mobile-free school (121 strongly agreed, with 72 clicking ‘agree’ in the survey). When asked if the facilities at the school are good, only three people disagreed, while 137 respondents strongly agreed and 96 said they agreed.
There was also positive feedback on the relationship between parents and the school with 82 saying it was very good, 107 saying it was good and 54 believing it to be 'okay'. Only eight of those surveyed believed the relationship to be 'bad'. A large majority surveyed also agreed that discipline standards at the school are good.
While a large majority agreed there is a good variety of extracurricular activities at the school (125 agreed with 35 disagreeing), there was some uncertainty when parents were asked if their child was involved in extra curricular activity: 61 strongly agreed and 114 agreed while 55 disagreed. The full survey can be viewed on the school’s website.
Few people in Lutherville-Timonium have heard of Ballyhaunis but then few people in Ballyhaunis have heard of the Maryland town. Yet Ballyhaunis Court, a strip of period-style brownstone homes, is one of the most upmarket addresses in this town near Baltimore. One of the properties is currently on sale at $408,000.
Urlaur-based retired soldier Jim Casey is launching a book about his experiences as a peacekeeper in war torn Cyprus in the 1970s.
Casey’s frightening experiences in a Nicosia airport besieged by Turkish guns are recounted in , a 200-page tome published by Cork-based self-publishing agent Orla Kelly.
Casey, now 77, was in Nicosia, the country’s capital, when Turkish forces sought to seize the city’s airport in July 1974. He was one of three Irish troops among the UN forces in situ during the battle which saw the Turks eventually repelled by local Greek forces. The Mediterranean island remains divided ever since.
The book is set in the period from July 20th when the Turks invaded to August 19th in 1974 when Casey left the island.
“It was a very rough time. To write the book I went back over the log sheets of the incidents, which as peacekeepers we logged,” explained Jim. “I have also written an introduction to Cyprus and the conflict. And I have listed all of the Irish soldiers killed in Cyprus and those killed on service around the world.
“We will launch the book this summer and I will be doing some launch events,” Jim explained from his home near the picturesque lake in Urlaur. It was here that he penned the book this spring.
“I spent several months writing it,” he said. “My publisher Orla is organising the launches. We are hoping to do the main launch in Castlebar but we are also talking with Eason’s about a launch in one of their stores.”
The manuscript of his book has received praise from Castlebar-based military historian and key instigator of the Peace Park in the town, Michael Feeney.
“He thinks the book will sell very well,” said Jim
A native of Enniscorthy, Jim moved to the village of Urlaur 20 years ago, becoming a key organiser of the famous Urlaur Pattern.
Having joined the Army when he was 17, Jim served his first peacekeeping tour in Cyprus in 1966 and went back to the divided island several times up to 1984. He also saw service in Lebanon in the period 1980 to 1982, during the invasion of the Lebanese territory by Israeli forces targeting Palestinian rebels.
After retiring from the army in 1985, Jim went to work for South African diamond company Debeers as a security consultant before eventually retiring in Urlaur.
