Minister appeals to Mayo people to help elderly Irish abroad

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Minister appeals to Mayo people to help elderly Irish abroad

Report by Seán Rice

The Mayo News, April 2nd, 2003

STARTLING facts about the conditions of the ageing Irish Community in Coventry City were revealed by the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Eamon O Cuiv in Castlebar. A study, the minister said, indicated that fifteen percent of the Irish in the City were living with long term illness; thirty-three percent were pensioners; fifty percent of the Irish households had no car, and of all the elderly living alone in Coventry, 25 percent were Irish.

The fact that the average household ownership for one car in rural Ireland was 90 percent, and for two cars as high as 60 percent, was an indication of how things had changed, the minister stated. Mr O Cuiv was making an appeal to Mayo people to support the work being done for isolated, elderly Irish people living in Coventry, to give them the dignity, respect and comfort they deserved, and to give it as a token of our appreciation for what they had done for us during the period between the Fifties and the Eighties.

Speaking at a fundraising drive organised by Mayo Rehab for the Coventry Irish Elders Centre, Teach na hEireann, the minister said some £2 billion sterling had been sent back to the homeland by Irish emigrants between 1975 and 1995. "It was sent back in our time of need and we now must help those who for decades had to leave Ireland for work to support their families and those left behind in Ireland, particularly during the sustained emigration of the 30s, 40s and 50s, many of whom left a countryside to work in the unfamiliar and at times harsh world of urban England."

The minister said one of the great problems we now face in the West of Ireland is not that too many people were emigrating, but rather lack of population, creating unviability of services. Despite apparent activity demographic graphs showed the population to be static or falling, a pattern established in large measure in the Fifties, when so many single men in particular were left at home to look after the farm, remained single and died without having a family. How things had changed, he said. Despite the huge sacrifices many emigrants had made to give us the wealth and the standard of living we now enjoy, that the wheel had turned and those at home tended to have a better lifestyle and to be better off than many of those who had gone.

The time had come for us on this side of the water to recognise that we in lots of ways were the lucky ones. "We are living in a beautiful place; our economy has grown, our children expect to get jobs within the island of Ireland, and more and more we hope they will get jobs in the west of Ireland. The minister said Mayo Rehab was giving us the opportunity to give the Irish immigrants of Coventry a chance of a better quality of life, a life less lonely and isolated. In order to support the wonderful work of Teach na hEireann, Mayo Rehab was setting up the "Mayo Friends" of the Coventry elderly and were hoping to sell 400 tickets as part of a draw at Ä84 each, or twelve contributions of Ä7 per month. Mr. O Cuiv said it was a modest return for what the emigrants had done for us and he hoped the people here would recipricote the generosity given by the emigrants themselves over the years.

"One thing we have to think of is that as we get better-off that we do not"get more selfish, and it seems to me a peculiar trait in people that the poorer they are the more willing at times they are to share and to give, and as people get better-off they tend to become more careful about things and more likely to complain that they do not have it." One interesting phenomenon he had come up against - and it said something about society and values - was that in urban middle class areas it was more difficult to raise money for amenities such as sportsfields, community halls etc, than in very rural scattered parishes with much less income.

But the spirit of generosity and friendliness still existed in Mayo, he said, and the people would recognise that it was their turn to give and in giving they would find a great sense of fulfillment. Ellen Stag, who together with her husband Mike are founder members of the Coventry/ Mayo Association which was established in 1993, said one of its main aims was to provide social and physical welfare of the elderly Irish in Coventry. There were 13,500 Irish born people living in Coventry at the time, most of them having arrived after the second World War to rebuild the city and services devastated during the blitz.

Most of those people were now ageing, she said. "The youngsters are in their fifties. Many of the older people, in their seventies, are lonely and isolated particularly from the Irish community and its culture. Some of them need the help and support of the people of Ireland and of the younger people in Coventry," she said. Ms Stagg said the committee decided there was a need for a centre which would provide a focal point for the people and the idea of Teach na hEireann, a home from home, was born. In April 1997, a group of six members of the committee set about making the idea a reality. The initial approaches to Coventry City Council were disheartening. They visited many organisations and while no financial help was forthcoming, they did highlight the problems of the ageing Irish community.

In February 1998 the Association decided to hold a fund-raising launch for the project. Among those at the launch were Kevin Bourke of Rehab who put them in contact with Rehab Care in Dublin, who had been thinking along the same lines about the ageing Irish population in England. In April 1998, a meeting was held in the Welcome Inn Hotel, Castlebar and in July of the same year a Coventry/Rehab committee was set up with the support of ReHab Dublin and Coventry City Council. A researcher was also appointed, she said, and the project now had the backing of a registered charity and Coventry City Council.

Ms. Stagg said Teach na hEireann in Coventry opened its doors to the public for the first time in November 1999, initially for two days a week. It offered social activities, health care, advice and information, and soon was attracting between forty and fifty people a day. In October 2000 they moved into a new purpose-built premises. Teach na hEireann needed money now to keep going and Ms Stagg appealed to the people of Mayo to provide them with the necessary funding. Project manager, Monica Whitehurst, said a considerable amount of money was sent back home to Ireland by those who emigrarted to Coventry in the forties, fifties and sixties. Many Irish people living in Coventry had a higher mortaility rate than the general population, had the highest admission rates to psychiatric hospitals and above average rates of long-term illness.

She said the centre had over 200 regular clients using its services. Outreach visits and assessments also took place on a weekly basis. The centre had forged strong relationships with many key partners and was aided by a local management committee made up of representatives of the Irish community in Coventry, service users and volunteers. Ms Whitehurst said coventry Social Services had within the last couple of weeks visited the centre and assessed that 34 service users required day centre care. "We are at the moment looking after 34 Irish elderly people who have got physical and mental instability, and we are not getting funding for any one of those."

"We are currently spending a great deal of energy attempting to secure"funding from Coventry City Council. Presently our funding is from Rehab organisation, Dion Government and local sources. And we are not forgetting that transport is now provided to those who may not otherwise enjoy the benefits of the centre, by way of a minibus kindly donated through the fund-raising activities of the Mayo Immigrant Liaison Committee and the Durkin Group." She said that while the centre operated for two days a week the committee had been aiming to have it open five days a week. To maintain the much-needed services already delivered and to launch an essential day care service would require funding and she hoped the people of Mayo would be generous in their contributions. Mr. Kevin Bourke thanked the minister for launching the campaign and he also paid tribute to Joe Kennedy, chairman of Knock Airport, for the help he had given them. When they started the Emigrant Liaison Committee their aim was to bring Irish people who could not afford it back on holidays to Ireland, some of whom had not been back for up to sixty years.

Mr. Bourke said they would not have been able to bring anyone back were it not for the support and generosity they received from Joe Kennedy which enabled them provide a holiday for 200. "Joe Kennedy personifies all that is good in an Irish exile. His heart is in the right place, a man of deep faith, and commitment, but above all he is a tremendous humanitarian." Mr Bourke said Joe Kennedy had just presented him with a cheque for"£6,000 sterling to help with the work they were doing in Ireland for the cause of Irish emigrants and a further £2,500 towards the centre in Coventry. He also praised Mr Kennedy for having established an air link between Birminghaam and Knock which facilitated so many people.