Friday – More Music

Irish weather, as usual. Periods of sun. Rain. Wind. We successfully moved from 18 Ard Na Mara to Water’s Edge House. We were all settled in by 9:30 AM.

It was a do nothing kind of day. Some shopping for essentials. A stop at the pub for me. Dinner was at home – chicken with potatoes and fresh carrots with honey.

The big happening of the day was the concert we attended in St Mary’s Church is support of the Billy Riordan Trust.

The story of the Riordan Trust is sad but uplifting. Mags Riordan is a local woman who lost her son when he drowned in Lake Malawi in Africa. Here is her story:

In February 1999 my only son Billy was drowned in Lake Malawi. He was just twenty five. He had visited the small African country on several occasions and had grown to love the country, its people and in particular the village of Cape Maclear. It was ironic that in his last letter to me he referred to Cape Maclear as “Paradise”. He lost his life in paradise less than 48 hours later.

One year later in February 2000 I travelled to Cape Maclear to place a memorial stone by the Lake in his memory. I spent three months there getting to know the villagers and their way of life.

I returned to the village five times over the next two and a half years spending some time teaching in the primary school. I wanted to identify a project to undertake in the village in Billy’s memory. An outbreak of cholera and continual deaths from malaria and simple childhood diseases very soon made me realise that a medical clinic in the village was not just necessary but essential. For these people medical treatment was almost non-existent. There was no clinic, doctor or nurse here and the nearest hospital is in Mangochi, a difficult four hour journey away. I decided to return to home which is Dingle, County Kerry in Ireland and try to raise the money to build a clinic in Cape Maclear.

The Billy Riordan Memorial Trust was formed and with the generosity of the community at home, and the local chief who donated the land for the Clinic, the original Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic was opened in 2004.

22 years later the clinic has expanded considerably and today it provides a wide range of medical services to the community. The staffing structure has altered. Working with our partners to provide a sustainable and secure future for the Billy Clinic is an ongoing challenge. My personal commitment to my work as CEO of the charity and to the maintenance of acceptable standards of best practice at the clinic continues as strongly as always.

Mags is now trying to add a maternity unit to the clinic and upgrade it to a community hospital. The concert is to raise funds. The musicians are all very well known locally and perform gratis. Eleanor Shanley and Éilís Kennedy are probably the best known. The concert was grand.

Before the Show

During the Show

Some nighttime photos looking out from Water’s Edge House across the waters of Dingle Bay. The Christmas tree is in the apartment above us.