*President Michael D. Higgins unveils a new plaque for Ennis Tidy Towns. Photograph: John O’Neill
VOLUNTEERISM is the model to follow for a more fulfilled and enriched life, President Michael D. Higgins has said.
President Higgins and his wife Sabina were in Co Clare on Saturday visiting the Samaritans branch on the Kilrush Rd as they celebrated their fortieth anniversary and also unveiling a plaque to honour Ennis Tidy Towns on its recognition as Ireland’s tidiest town.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, the past pupil of Ballycar NS and St Flannan’s College was in jovial form recalling his youth spent in the Banner County. He admitted that his love of animals and dogs’ dates back to his time living in Newmarket-on-Fergus.
Importance of volunteerism was stressed by the President. “The Tidy Towns is inter-generational, there may have been dedicated people more interested in the environment who got it going but they have been replaced over the years and the great thing is the younger people know about science and they know how this impacts our lives, it is great to see the inter-generational quality to it and also the heritage. People working together of all ages across this, that is a great base for the thinking and the kind of shift we all want, it isn’t all heavy there is a joy in it all, God we’re only around once we should be able to enjoy it. There is something sensory which is very important”.
Of his time at St Flannan’s College, President Higgins remarked, “The big aim they had was winning the Harty Cup in hurling, every Wednesday afternoon whatever your state of health you had to go out, it was compulsory hurling as well as Irish, I did all the subjects through Irish, Greek was perhaps my favourite, winning the Harty Cup and the gold medal in Greek was the big aim in life. When the inter-colleges games were coming up, they had a great belief in glucose, they would lash the glucose into the porridge, this was supposed to create strength, I’m not sure it worked always but it was very well meant. I was a dayboy for the final three years, they felt their reliance on the gold medal was suddenly at risk because they would pick four or five people at the inter-cert that were likely contenders, the fact they had someone cycling in and out from Newmarket-on-Fergus who was playing handball was taking a great risk with the medal”.
His affection for Newmarket is still evident while memories of cycling up Dromoland Hill by the Turret rival the arduous training undertaken by Michael Arthur, a member of the Blues side Michael D. had great affection for and it’s why during his address on Saturday he namechecked Jim ‘Puddin’ Cullinan, Liam Danagher and Paddy McNamara.
For his own sporting career, Michael D. was more often found in the handball alley with a humbling encounter with Tuamgraney born world champion, Pat Kirby still fresh in the memory. “I was drawn against Pat Kirby in the Gael Linn Championship in the first round in Newmarket-on-Fergus in my home alley, it was half an hour of torture and humiliation but I did to my recollection break his service once. He went onto the United States where he became a world champion. Sean Fawl and I represented Newmarket, we went to Tuamgraney in the county championships but I don’t claim to have any real skills at all. When you go into America and you have the roof, the side-walls, if the fitness was going you could last a bit longer”.
Handball was more than just a sport for him, the former Minister for Arts revealed. “One of the things that was hard between the period from 1955 to 1960, I think I was nine years old, I needed the company, I played the handball for the company and for friends, I needed to be going in to meet people. Why is it that I’m here at 81 years of age and I mention names like Puddin Cullinan, Liam Danagher or Paddy McNamara, it was very important to me and it’s why I’m in favour of the Samaritans, there’s a great loneliness, in fact there’s an epidemic of loneliness I often feel and it particularly strikes many young people. Having been able to be in company with people who respect each other, we’re not all required to be the same but not everyone is going to win a county medal, these things are very important. I remember the very first time I went to Croke Park when I was in Newmarket-on-Fergus, we got permission and hired a car, the Collins’ and Donie McMahon, Donie was probably my closest friend in Newmarket during that period. That’s why the friendship and the company is very important”.
