Headford News and Community Spotlight - Making A Difference

Hurry! It's not too late. You can still come to the cookery classes offered by Solas every Tuesday at 10:30 am.


COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

When you think of environmental groups, you might think of those dramatic photos of Greenpeace activists who put themselves on small inflatable rafts between giant harpooning ships and whales. Or maybe you remember that cute panda logo, representing the Chinese nature reserves for giant pandas created by the World Wildlife Fund. What you probably don’t think of is a group of mature ladies standing at the shore of Lough Corrib in the wind and rain, doling out homemade cakes, bread and jam, and cups of tea to avid bird watchers. But that’s exactly what the Headford Environment Group did last Sunday at their annual Dawn Chorus event.

Headford Environment Group Dawn Chorus Walk

There were a surprising number of people willing to brave pneumonia-inducing weather from 5:30am to 7:30am in order to walk from Greenfields to Inchiquin and appreciate local birds. In total, thirty-nine species (of birds, not humans) were identified at this year’s Dawn Chorus. Local bird enthusiast, Neil Sharkey, led the walk around Greenfields, and then ornithologist, Gordan D’Arcy arrived and led the group across the causeway, in the howling wind and rain, to Inchiquin.

Gordon D'Arcy identifies birds at Greenfields

After this event, the ladies of the Environment Group performed like attentive Irish mammys, producing ‘refreshments’ before posing for photographs with the Bird Identification sign which they had erected.

On one side, the sign has photos and descriptions of twenty-one species of birds in the area.  On the other side, there are personal reflections of life on Inchiquin before the causeway was built in the 1960s. By erecting this sign, the group hopes to raise awareness and provide information about the rich bird life and biodiversity in the area.

‘We started out as three or four ladies wanting to pick up litter in the Headford area,’ Mags Sheehan says.

Mags was originally recruited from the Headford Women’s Group to join the Solas Management Committee back in 2003. Because Solas target groups include the elderly, lone parents, migrants, those with a disability or who have a loved one with a disability, Travellers, and anyone else who is marginalized by society, its management committee is made up of volunteers who represent these groups. As a single parent at the time, Mags represented the interests of those parenting alone. The Women’s Group and Solas involvement led her to meet others interested in the local environment.

Since its inception five years ago, Headfo­­­­­rd Environment Group has erected the Heritage sign in the square, mapping the area's historical monuments, and giving a history of the town and its people. They’ve sponsored local lectures about Climate Change, Early Monastic Sites, Wolves in Ireland, Bats Stoats and Pine Martens, Hedgerows, Habitat Mapping, Water Quality, Environmental Practices in the Home and Bees. They also raised a small donation for the Community Garden and facilitated Golden Mile work in the area.

‘We don’t have a chairperson or a Board of Management,’ Mags says. ‘We aren’t an official group. We’re really just a group of friends who wanted to get things done.’

As a member of the Green Party, Mags says she ‘feels very passionate about environmental issues.’ She will be standing for election this term for the Claremorris Board, which includes Glencorrib and Shrule areas. ‘This way I can combine community and environmental efforts. I want to make a difference,’ she says.

Other members of the Headford Environment Group include Venetia McElin, Kate McAney, Claudia Luig, Frances O’Reilly, Sylvia Matthews, and Kay Guy.

If there’s one thing this group would like people to know, it’s that each person can make a difference to their environment. Certainly, these women are doing just that. 

Headford News and Community Spotlight - Getting Things Done

For anyone who's interested in birds and also for those intrepid souls who are early risers, the Headford Environment Group will be sponsoring a Dawn Chorus Walk at 5:30 AM next Sunday, May 11th. Following the walk, author, artist and environmentalist, Gordon D’Arcy, will officially launch a Bird Identification Sign. All this early morning merriment will take place at Greenfields, on Lough Corrib, and will be followed by refreshments. For more information, visit: http://headfordenvironmentgroup.org/



COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

Getting Things Done

Mother Teresa was once quoted as saying her work was 100% selfish. She did not do what she did out of altruism; she did it because it made her feel good.

According to a poll conducted by Fundraising 123, the main reasons people give to charity all revolve around the pronoun ‘I’. I want to feel I’m not powerless and can help. I want to be seen as a leader. I need a tax deduction. I want to memorialise someone (who is struggling with or died of a disease). Giving is basic human nature, and something most of us have been taught since childhood—in helping someone else, you help yourself.

In the Headford area, one man famous for philanthropic work is Michael Finnerty. Tall and tan, with a gentle smile and an easy manner, when Michael enters a room, he brings a positive feeling with him. And shares it. You can tell right away, this is a man who not only feels good in himself, but he likes to help others feel good too.

Charity work started for Michael over thirty-five years ago. He was down by the lake and had an ‘accident with a chainsaw.’ He credits a friend with helping him and getting him interested in helping others.

Michael Finnerty

‘Help those who can’t help themselves. That’s my motto,’ Michael says.

And so began his association with Ability West, a charity that provides services and supports to people with intellectual disabilities.

These days, thanks to the Central Remedial Clinic payoff scandal, and the €150,000 in cancer charity donations which made its way into the pockets of hospital chiefs of staff, people are understandably concerned about where their contributions end up. Maybe that’s why Michael is quick to assure me, ‘Every penny we collect goes to buy special computers for learning difficulties or fitness gear or to set up a room at Ability West. Not one penny goes into the day to day running of the association.’

For the past twenty-one years, Michael has helped aid the Galway Hospice by either participating as a cyclist or organising the Annaghdown cycling event. He’s also cycled for Ability West and helped accrue over a quarter of a million euro for that charity. So, of course he looks like a man who’s in pretty good shape. But Michael has dealt with some harrowing personal challenges. He’s a cancer survivor, having endured radiation every single day for two solid months ‘including Christmas Eve and St. Stephen’s’ he tells me. Then there were three heart attacks which happened one right after the other when he just happened to be in the hospital. Michael says this proved to him that ‘when you’re number is up, it’s up.’ Yet, he credits cycling and fitness for getting him through all these physical trials.

It was while taking the computer course at Solas that Michael was asked if he’d like to come to a committee meeting for the Centre. ‘I’ve always been interested in helping the community,’ he says. So he went. That one meeting progressed into Michael becoming Chairman of the eight member Solas Management Committee, a volunteer position that includes organising fundraising for the Meals on Wheels programme and the counselling programme. 

 

While volunteer work and fundraising do play a large part in Michael’s life, he also likes to play golf, and the card game ‘25.’ He mentions spending time with his four kids and eight grandkids. And ‘I love sheep!’ he says ‘I have a small farm, and I love it.’

When I ask Michael how he has time for all these things, and he says, ‘Oh, I’m not a fellow for waiting. I like to get things done.’ And he’d really like to see others ‘getting things done.’ ‘I’d love it if more young people would get involved in charities.’ Anyone eighteen and over can help organise events, including sponsorship for events. They might help with the barbeque at the end of a charity cycling event, or offer secretarial skills (for which they can be trained). And, of course, these are excellent things to add to a CV. The next event is a Vintage Rally on June 2^nd. Michael says anyone who’s interested in helping him ‘get things done’ is welcome to ring him: 087.2996956.

Headford News and Community Spotlight-The Birth of Love Headford

Have you been wanting to go to college (or back to college) but you feel you don’t have the conventional educational requirements? If you are 22 years of age or older, you might get a chance to go to college for free through the Access Course for mature students. It’s a one-year course offered at NUIG and St. Angela’s College, Sligo. The course runs September 2014 through May 2015 and is offered in several different locations. After this course, participants will be eligible for direct admission to an undergraduate programme.

If you’d like more information, attend one of the sessions on May 7, 8 or 13. For further information, or to download an application form, visit: http://www.nuigalway.ie/access/register.html  You can also ring 091.493553.

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT 

When Leonardo da Vinci was a boy, he made sketches of creatures in nature. As a youngster, Monet drew charcoal caricatures. Even before Picasso could form full sentences, he was painting pictures of pigeons that flocked in the square near his home.

And when Sadie Cramer was a toddler, she used to draw fairies and mermaids on the underside of the dining table. 

Local artist, Sadie Cramer

In case you don’t already know, Sadie Cramer is the local artist who designed our ‘Love Headford’ mural. Sadie says, when she was growing up, ‘We didn’t have a lot of paper,’ so she drew wherever she could. ‘I’d pull back the carpet and draw under it.’ Or she might draw on walls, newspapers, or in books. And because she was ‘crafty’ (pun intended) about where she drew her pictures, she didn’t usually get in trouble. Her artwork wasn’t found until years later, when the table was moved or the carpet changed.

Eventually, Sadie went to art school at the University of Ulster at Belfast, where she had access to a lot more art supplies. There, she fell in love with an artistic Irishman and they travelled around Europe and Africa together.

All that diversity informs Sadie’s artwork. From whimsical illustrations for kid’s books to her colourful contribution to the Galway Hooker Exhibition at the Galway Museum, Sadie’s work is vibrant, joyous . . . rather like Sadie herself.

In her giant studio at home, her own children come and go, using art supplies as they please. She encourages them to create whatever they like (and clean up afterwards!). In spite of the lack of artistic resources when she was a child, or maybe because of it, Sadie has become an accomplished professional artist, inspiring children by offering workshops in primary schools so they can draw, paint and create. ‘I help promote creativity in schools to compliment the curriculum,’ because she feels strongly that ‘art should be a part of learning.'

Last year, Sadie was contacted because the Men’s Shed wanted to make a mural. Another artist had declined the job but Sadie was delighted to participate. There were about a half dozen meetings with Men’s Shed members and Sadie brainstorming ideas for the mural.

‘Some of the men weren’t actually from Headford,’ Sadie says, ‘and the real challenge was overcoming that whole “Headford/Deadford” negative image.’ She asked the group, ‘If you've chosen to stay here—and you have if you haven’t moved away—what do you like about the area?’ Then, she says, she and the group began to choose images that were unique to the townland. Ultimately, the nine images they created are quite fitting:

The Mayfly represents the transitory nature of youth and the local schools.
The fisherman on the lake and the single leaping fish are for Lough Corrib. 

The Book and Candle are a reference to religious study and also to writers, as there are many in the area. An elderly woman told Sadie this was the one image she really liked and could remember from the mural because it reminded her of Christmas. ‘So, really,’ Sadie says, ‘the images mean different things to different people. And that’s perfect.’
The panel with the sporting shirt originally represented all sports, but during the restoration it was necessary to keep the image simple, focusing on the Headford Soccer Club.

The Theatre Masques are for the two dramatist societies and the musical society. Though not particularly active now, they used to play a large part in Headford lives.

The next panel depicts Ross Errilly, cows and a tractor to symbolise the history, as well as the rural aspects of the area.
The contained fire is for the celebratory fires at the side of the road, a practise unique to our area.
The musical notes on the centre panel are for the many musicians in the Headford area.

Bright colours were chosen because they were fun to work with and would enliven people’s spirits. And, the background for the mural--maroon--is the Galway colour.

Originally, Sadie painted a giant bird on the same wall, with the words Watch This Space because ‘we wanted it to be a surprise,’ she says. So she began painting that bird at two in the morning. While she was painting, a woman parked there and turned on her car’s headlamps to help. Later on, workers from the Rural Social Scheme painted the maroon background. The final mural began with computer graphic images created by Sadie. She then drew those images on boards which the Men's Shed members had primed, and the men painted in those images. Finally, the fininshed boards were hung at midnight before the opening of Headfest and unveiled the following day.

The whole project took three months from start to finish, and, as Sadie puts it, ‘I couldn’t have come up with any of this on my own. None of us could. It was a real community effort. We all came together.’

Thanks for showing the Love, Headford!

Headford News and Community Spotlight

Headford News and Community Spotlight is taking the week off for spring break to update our website. Come visit us next Tuesday for all the local news and stories. In the meantime, Happy Springtime!