Senior Times Magazine Dec 2015 to Jan 2016

Issue 79 Jan./Feb. 2016 E3.95 (ÂŁ3.20)

The magazine for people who don’t act their age

Discovering Dickens

Frankly Speaking Frank Kelly talks to Senior Times

A literary tour of Dickens landmarks

An audience with Joan Collins

News Review l Creative Writing l Travel l Health Fashion & Beauty l Profiles l Competitions and much more!

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Issue 79 January/February 2016

Contents

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CREATIVE WRITING: Exploring memory loss through fiction.

PHARMANORD PROFILE: WINE WORLD: Pleasures of port WHAT’S ON IN THE ARTS: Maretta Dillon reports on happenings around the country over the next few months.

AN AUDIENCE WITH JOAN COLLINS: Lorna Hogg caught up with the Grande Dame when she opened a recent exhibition of her gowns at Newbridge Silverware’s Museum of Style GOLF: Dermot Gilleece reveals how some of the great players have sought divine intervention to keep them in the hunt.

NORTHERN NOTES: IT’S NEVER TOO LATE: Lorna Hogg offers a few challenges MEETING PLACE: CROSSWORD CRAFTS:

NEWS: FRANKLY SPEAKING: Nigel Baxter meets Frank Kelly FARAWAY PLACES: An extract from Alice Taylor’s latest book The Women DISCOVERING DICKENS: In her quest to trace the roots of celebrated Irish and British literary figures, Lorna Hogg goes on the trail of one of the true giants, Charles Dickens PROFILE OF ST VINCENTS PRIVATE HOSPITAL: NICE TO KNOW: Maurice Foster is a great admirer of the major city of the Cote d’Azur, not to mention many of its neighbours and spectacular coastal views.

COSMETICS: Beautiful skin is just a click away..

HELPING THE HELPERS: According to the Alzheimer’s Society there are 50,000 caregivers in Ireland.

OPINION: Mary Henry mounts the soapbox for this issue IN PRAISE OF OFFALY: Kerry writer Breda Joy reports from ‘The Interior’.

IRISH CHARMER FALLS FOR AN ENGLISH ROSE: They say opposites attract, and that was certainly the case for Mairead Robinson’s parents as she tells their story

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Publishing Directors: Brian McCabe, Des Duggan Editorial Director: John Low Editor At Large: Shay Healy Consultant Editor: Jim Collier Advertising: Willie Fallon Design & Production: www.cornerhouse.ie Contributors: Lorna Hogg, Dermot Gilleece, Maretta Dillon, Jim Collier, Peter Power, Matthew Hughes, Mairead Robinson, Eileen Casey, Debbie Orme, Connie McEvoy

Published by S& L Promotions Ltd., Unit 1, 15 Oxford Lane, Ranelagh, Dublin 6 Tel: +353 (01) 4969028.

Fax: +353 (01) 4068229 Editorial: John@slp.ie Advertising: brian@slp.ie

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Senior Times wishes all its readers and advertisers a Happy Christmas and a great New Year!

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News Now Let WatchOvers Watch Over Your Loved Ones New SOS GPS Watch Phone allows you to Locate, Monitor & Communicate with your loved ones via your mobile device Do you ever wish you could give your children the freedom you had as a youngster; walking home from school with pals, playing at the park until the rumbling tummy indicates its time to go home? Or are you looking for peace of mind when it comes to the safety of your elderly parents? Worry no more with the Liberty Watch from WatchOvers. It’s a watch, a phone and an SOS GPS location device, all in one.

The Liberty is a lightweight and comfortable wristwatch that allows you to instantly locate your loved ones via an App on your smart phone, letting you see where they are no matter how far away. It is suitable for the young and the not so young, giving them more freedom, and providing peace of mind for both the wearer and the carer.

Developed in Ireland, the Liberty allows you to feel more confident in giving your loved ones a

There is also a safety listening monitor and an SOS function whereby the wearer can automatically call the listed emergency numbers in the watch in a loop until the call is answered with an SOS message sent to all the emergency numbers instantly. Up to 10 other phone numbers can be added to the App, such as the childminder, or grandparents, so your loved one can contact them too.

little more freedom. You can make calls to the watch from permitted phone numbers of your choosing, and the wearer can make calls from the watch using the one button function. You can receive alert notifications from the watch, set safe zones, check location history and set the alarm to message the wearer, all through the App on your own device. Multiple watches can be added to the App so you can feel safe in the knowledge all of your children, parents, or vulnerable loved ones have a two-way communication line to you and your nominated guardians.

Available at www.watchovers.com the wrist watch costs €139.95 and the monthly mobile bundle is €9.95 per month which includes 30 minutes talk time, all monthly location data and no roaming charges within 31 European countries and the United States. There is no mobile contract, giving you as much freedom as you like in the future. The WatchOvers App is free to download for Android at Google Play and in the Apple iTunes App Store.

Delivery is by courier with next business day delivery when purchased on-line before 1pm.

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Former Kerry GAA legend ‘signs’ for Flogas LPG Former Kerry football star Darragh Ó Sé recently signed up to Flogas, converting his family’s home heating system from oil to Flogas LPG. Darragh’s 10-year-old oil boiler had become inefficient and expensive due to high running costs, so he started looking around for alternatives. “I heard about the benefits of LPG as an alternative fuel to oil and knew of several Kerry homes that had made the transition,” says Darragh.

After a free home visit and energy survey with Flogas, Darragh got a new 24kw LPG boiler installed – meaning a cleaner burning fuel, longer boiler lifespan, lower carbon tax and increased efficiency. Darragh now has a fuel supply that is secure and safe from theft and he received his first 1,200 litres free of charge.

Flogas has also partnered with National Energy Assessors (NEA), who assisted in Darragh’s application for the SEAI grant of up to €700 for the installation of his new boiler.

“I can’t believe how quickly the water heats up. We now have unlimited amounts of hot water for showers and switching from electric cooking to 2 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

gas cooking is great,” says Darragh.

As an energy solutions specialist, Flogas can design and implement a complete turnkey solution for your home so why not avail of a no-obligation free survey from ourselves or our network of Flogas-approved and RGII/Gas Safe registered installers nationwide? We’ll analyse your existing energy costs and outline the benefits and savings you’ll enjoy by converting to Flogas LPG. Contact Flogas at 1800 320 342, email to gas@flogas.ie, website www.flogas.ie

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Don’t miss the Celtic Arch Christmas Show at the Celbridge Manor Hotel The Celbridge Manor Hotel presents The Celtic Arch Christmas Show, a traditional Irish dance and music show, written and choreographed by award winning professionals, steeped in the knowledge of traditional Irish song and dance.

family, guests are invited to experience this spell bounding show which includes; a mulled wine reception on arrival, an up-tempo premier Irish dancing and musical experience while enjoying a traditional 4 course dinner.

Showcasing the very best of award winning musicians and dancers in the Arthur Guinness Hall at the Celbridge Manor Hotel, Celtic Arch offers a breath-taking show of Irish dancing styles and musicians playing Irish music ranging from folk to traditional to ballads. A fun-filled show for all the

The show runs on the 12th and 19th December and packages are available from €39.95pp with children from €12.95pp.

The Celtic Arch – Celbridge Manor Hotel experience can be packaged with an overnight

stay. Guests can choose from 66 luxurious bedrooms, all tastefully decorated with en-suite bathrooms, containing separate shower and stand-alone roll-top baths.

The hotel is conveniently located 30 minutes from Dublin city centre and 30 minutes from Dublin airport and there is easy access to the M4, M7 and M50 motorways.

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2016 Senior Citizen and Family Carer: The Essential Guidebook - A Survival Guide to Living a Happy, Healthy and Independent Life Growing older can be a difficult time in life – for both older people and their families. Accessing reliable and trustworthy senior care information is no easy feat. The ageing terrain in Ireland is highly complex, and let’s not forget what a personal and often emotional time, our golden years can present.

This book guides the reader through a comprehensive range of information from senior care options, allowances and entitlements available and health insights, in a chapter by chapter basis, so they can make better, informed decisions about what type of life they want to live as an older adult.

It also serves as a dual guide providing information for the older person and family carer. It includes checklists and tips helping families decide what senior care option suits their needs,

the costs of care as well as the inclusion of a directory to help families find helpful support networks.

This is the seventh year the guidebook has been published in Ireland and it is supported by other ageing organisations such as Active Retirement Ireland, Age Action, Age & Opportunity and Nursing Homes Ireland. Together, Home Instead Senior Care and these organisations, can help families take that first step to find the best information on their senior care issues.

Speaking about the latest edition of this important resource, Ed Murphy, CEO and Founder of Home Instead Senior Care Ireland said: “The Senior Citizen and Family Carer Guidebook can help you and your loved ones address some of the questions you may have about growing older in Ireland. You can also find answers

Commission proposes to make products and services more accessible to disabled persons Around 80 million people in the EU are affected by a disability to some degree. Due to the ageing of the population, the figure is expected to increase to 120 million by 2020. Accessibility is a precondition to their equal participation and active role in society. And it can contribute to ensure smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

As a result, the European Commission proposed a European Accessibility Act, which will set common accessibility requirements for certain key products and services that will help people with disabilities at EU level to participate fully in society. The products and services covered have been carefully selected in consultation with citizens and civil society organisations as well as businesses. They include ATMs and banking services, PCs, telephones and TV equipment, telephony and audiovisual services, transport, e-books and e-commerce.

The proposal for a Directive aims to improve the functioning of the internal market, making it easier for companies to provide accessible products and services across borders. Common accessibility requirements will also apply in the frame of EU procurement rules and for the use of EU funds. The initiative will stimulate innovation and increase the offer of accessible products and services for the around 80 million persons with disabilities in the EU. For more information contact: Tel 01 634 1180 Website www.europa.eu 4 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

to those questions”. You will also find helpful advice for planning for the future – no matter how old you are – the guidebook is designed to help you make informed, confident plans and decisions. For example, you may consider: What resources do I have to provide for professional care? Who would I like to appoint as power of attorney? Do I want to remain living in my own home?”

While ageing presents many issues, it also presents an opportunity to continue to live a happy, healthy and independent life. The Senior Citizen and Family Carer Guidebook encourages older people and family carers to stop, think and plan for this important stage in life. For in-depth answers on how you can have a positive ageing experience, order a copy of the Senior Citizen or Family Carer: The Essential Guidebook. The book is available from HomeInstead.ie or call 1890 989 755.

It’s Ireland’s Fourth Biggest Killer, But Do You Even Know What COPD Is? It’s the fourth most common cause of death in Ireland after lung cancer, heart disease and stroke. Yet, incredibly, many people with the disease have absolutely no idea that they have it and do not even know what it is. An estimated 380,000 people are thought to have the condition, with numbers alarmingly on the rise. Ireland has amongst the highest rates of death from COPD, or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, in Europe, with one person dying every five hours. Ireland also has the highest rate of avoidable hospitalisations for COPD in OECD countries.

World COPD Day took place on November 18, with COPD Support Ireland undertaking a “Save Your Breath” awareness campaign, sponsored by A. Menarini, Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK and Novartis, to encourage people to know more about the condition.

For details of the “Save Your Breath” campaign , visit www.saveyourbreath.ie. People can also follow the campaign on Twitter @COPDSupportIre and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/COPDSupportIreland; the campaign hashtag is #saveyourbreath

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Profile

Frankly speaking..

Nigel Baxter meets Frank Kelly This might come as a surprise to you, but Christmas isn’t very far away, and with it, all the sounds that make the festive season what it is. Sounds, like Gobnait O’Lunacy calling Nuala ‘Manure face’ and ‘a louser’.

Frank Kelly’s classic Christmas Countdown is one of the welcome sounds of Yuletide, and the man who wrote the magnificent, escalating rant says he still gets a laugh out of it.

“It’s like something written by someone else now to me,” he chuckles. “’What the hell was that guy who wrote that, that lunatic?’” The venerable actor and writer checks where his particular seasonal contribution sells around the world. “That sells in all the hot countries,” he says, still tickled by it, “all the most unlikely places”.

Kelly, looking forward to Christmas and to turning 77 this coming December, sounds like a man who takes on life with a smile. He’s had his ups and downs, but shows no sign of slowing down, even with the recent news that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Given that he has had a tremor in his hand for two decades, he doesn’t see why putting a name on it should matter a damn.

“One of my daughters was doing psychology at the time, she now has a family of her own, and she was behind me in the bathroom and

said ‘Oh... you’d want to get that checked out’.

That was the first indication that I’d had that I had a tremor in my hand, I’d never noticed it before because I never looked. So I said ‘Oh, I see.’ I never did anything about it, typical just like me, and it was only when I was in Donnybrook Hospital [for a different ailment] that they diagnosed it. so there you are. But it has never changed my life in any way so far.”

And the way he tells it, it is unlikely to change his life going forward either. True, he was off the road for a brief time, but on the day of our conversation he has received the good news that, having passed a driving test of sorts he is fully capable of driving again and by the time you read this, chances are he will be merrily motoring his way around the place. “I’m fine,” he laughs. “I can do anything I want to do.”

This ‘can do’ attitude is writ large across his sprawling career, one that has seen him taken to the hearts of the nation’s viewing public.

He belongs in the category ‘Much loved’, and when you scan back over his time on screen and stage, it’s not hard to see why. From the aforementioned Gobnait to Wanderly Wagon via Hall’s Pictorial weekly and on to Father Ted, Frank has been there.

All this and more is captured between the covers of his new book, The Next Gig, al

6 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

though as someone who has spent so long making us all laugh, it’s no surprise that he says he went out of his way to avoid his autobiography dwelling on any negatives.

He says he first began putting together the rudimentary parts of the book some time ago, and made a conscious decision that “to make it work it needed the lighter episodes in my ife”. And so it was not to be an expose of the agonies of his soul or “the state of my bowels”, and instead an enjoyable and engaging journey

through a terrific and varied life and career.

Bearing this in mind, it is peculiar that some early stories about the book focussed on Frank’s admission that while filming the massively successful Father Ted in London in the mid Nineties, he felt lonely. Ah, he says, it is the sine qua non of the actor to occasionally feel a pang of loneliness while on a job, “especially if you are a family man”. No, he says, it was rather the challenge of filling the time away

from the “riotous” set, in a big city that can sometimes feel a little impersonal. “I wanted to avoid any self-indulgence like that,” he says of these reflections, “I did not want to put my agonies in, so the one thing that I slipped up on was the loneliness!”

It was the contrast between the noise of the Father Ted set and the hectic working conditions with the longeurs of the actor in his hotel room. But as he admits, he could often cheer

himself up by recalling the hilarious moments shared with his fellow cast members. “We were falling on the floor at jokes you’d never put in the script,” he chuckles.

We’ll return to Father Ted and its impact later but it should be noted that its cast of characters was in some ways just reflecting the varied lives of the participants. One newspaper recently ran a feature on the ‘secret lives’ of the priests on Father Ted, and it was mind-bog-

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 7

gling how many incredible movies from over the years had featured some of the actors who later paraded through Craggy Island.

Frank was therefore in good company. After all, one of his earlier job was a brief appearance in cinema classic The Italian Job, sharing a scene in a prison cell with star man Michael Caine. The two got on very well, he says, as the scene took a long time to shoot given the constraints of the cell.

tening audience, was one such effort. “I did the whole damn thing for seven years,” he laughs.

Its success must have been an excellent primer for the stellar heights reached by Hall’s Pictorial Weekly some years later, a show which had the nation in stitches, while causing consternation among the political classes.

Frank’s schooling in the University College Dublin Drama Society in his student days gave him plenty of grounding for these moments.

Across the water Beyond The Fringe was heralding a new type of comedy, and in UCD the group tried its own version. Actors of the calibre of Frank, Des Keogh and Rosaleen Linehan were involved in what he fondly recalls as an “extraordinary” time. “We had a spread of people who came together and almost all of the same mind,” he says.

“All credit to Frank Hall for that one,” he says, recalling how his namesake “wrote every syllable” of the show for a decade, yet allowed much flexibility to the actors who formed the cast. “It was very pleasant to work with him,” he says, although Hall also had quite a temper.

“The thing about him is everybody was afraid of him,” Frank continues, outlining how in the “very conservative” RTE of the time, Frank Hall had a run-in with a member of top brass which caused Hall to have an eruption on a volcanic scale. By the time Hall had marched over the person’s office, the subject of his vituperation had, perhaps wisely, already scarpered.

Frank was also not one for simply treading the boards either - he has always written material of his own. The Glenabbey Show, his smash hit sketch outing which spawned a string of comedy albums and which attracted huge lis-

Then there was seminal children’s television show Wanderly Wagon, in which Frank played a string of characters, including the memorable voice of Sneaky Snake. “I got paid twice for that,” he laughs. His sense of playfulness and

8 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

his eye for an opportunity was evident when Frank played a minor character called Long John Gold, who was not due to reappear in the next season of the programme. Trussed up for the final shot as Long John is apparently abandoned in a desert, never to be seen again, Frank adlibbed the line: “Never mind kiddies, Long John Gold will be back again back for the next season”. And so it proved.

Of course, playing these myriad roles meant the possibility of, missing calls for other roles did he ever think he could have used himself more sparingly? If he had maybe been a little more ‘precious’? “I think I might have had a better career if I had have been,” he says, but then qualifies the remark. “It’s a big gamble,” he says of waiting around hoping for the role of a lifetime. “We don’t have a film industry in this country, even now.” With a family to provide for, it meant other jobs, for sometimes smaller fees. He covered huge distances around the country to bring the earnings up, yet he was never to move his family to America to try and crack Hollywood.

“We’re very Irish,” he says, “all my kids were in school, I didn’t want them to be Americans, and

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it would have been like France. I just wanted them to be educated here as Irish people.”

Which brings us back to the majesty of Father Ted, or in Frank’s case, Father Jack? Maybe it is his defining role, certainly for younger generations. His first clues as to the character of Jack were when the show’s creators, Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan, showed him a page with a range of expletives written on it. If this was an audition, Frank aced it, and any misgivings he may have had at the beginning that Jack was a one-note character were soon soothed. He says Arthur had admitted to having an uncle who was a priest and who once performed a Mass in a car. The irreverence of the show was rooted in a kind of reality, and despite its inherent rashness, the richness of the material meant it was destined for success.

Yet you get the impression that few people, if anyone, would experience disappointment of any description being around Frank Kelly. As the name of his book attests, he is still available for the next gig, and given the skills in his repertoire, it’s a safe bet that we will be hearing more of him in the coming years, and certainly this festive season. The jokes just won’t stop coming. When we open our conversation I mention that I’d already spoken with my accountant about the tax season. Quick as a flash, Frank was in with a gag: “What is the similarity between an accountant and a human sperm? They both have about a one-in-a-million chance of becoming a human being.” And I think anyone - even an accountant - would find that funny.

Frank Kelly’s latest book The Next Big Gig is published by Curragh Press

Frank added characterisation and his own pinpoint sense of comic timing to create a character every bit as memorable as anyone else on screen in the show. Everyone involved was on the same wavelength, he recalls, and the nuances that make great comedy were present and correct.

“I was very much thrilled,” he says of the show’s success in the UK and beyond. “I knew it was going to be something very special when I first heard the laughter generated in the studio.” And it is this appreciation of what made the show so memorable that keeps Frank away from all the various Tedfests that have taken place over the years. “I should never get involved in that,” he says. “I have had invitations to so many, so I didn’t go for that reason - it would also cow the enthusiasm for people who have gone to the festival cos dressed as me, and then they’d see the real thing.”

Three copies of Frank Kelly book to be won!

Senior Times, association with the publishers Currach Press, are offering three copies of Frank Kelly’s latest book The Next Gig in this competition.

To enter name the character Frank Kelly played in Father Ted. Send your entries to: Frank Kelly Competition, Senior Times, Unit 1, 15 Oxford Lane, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

Or email: john@slp.ie First three correct entries drawn are the winners.

Deadline for receipt of entries, 24th January 2016.

10 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

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Book extract

Faraway Places

By Alice Taylor

On Sunday mornings they walked with orderly precision down the long winding avenue from the local convent, turned left up the steep incline of Main Street and into our parish church. Just before Mass they filed in military formation up the main aisle and edged demurely into the front rows of seats. Dozens of young fresh-faced girls wearing long-sleeved black dresses, well down below their knees, over black stockings and well-polished black shoes. The dresses were edged with white collars and cuffs. Well trimmed hair was firmly held in place by hidden hair clips. They were the picture of dignity and decorum. Two brown garbed nuns, with crackling white front pieces and white edged brown capes above long rustling skirts and clinking rosary beads, brought up the rear and slipped into the seats behind them from where they could keep a supervisory eye on their charges. To me they were as intriguing as super beings from another planet. I loved to watch them arrive and never took my eyes off them for the entire Mass.

“They were the picture of dignity and decorum.”

Their convent was an impressive lordly grey limestone mansion at the end of a long winding avenue surrounded by rolling fields and magnificent trees at the edge of our town. Since 1620 this impressive building had been the home of the Aldworth family. An interesting story from the house involves Lady Elizabeth St Leger of nearby Doneraile Court, who later became the wife of Sir Richard Aldworth. She was the only woman Freemason in the world. The Masons, a male-only secret society, were holding one of their meetings in a room in Doneraile Court, when Lady Mary, who was reading a book in an adjacent room with a connecting door, fell asleep. When she woke up she listened in on their meeting and then, realising the gravity of her situation, she tried to make a quiet exit, but they were alerted to her presence. The Masons had two choices: execute her or accept her into the Freemasons – and luckily for her they chose the latter.

12 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

The Aldworths were one of the many Anglo-Irish families who had graced and grazed the lands of Ireland until their situation became untenable when we decided that this land was our land. After the departure of the Aldworths, the Sisters of St Joseph took up residence in 1927. They were an Australian order founded in 1866 by Mary Helen MacKillop, who became Sr Mary of the Cross and met much opposition from a male-dominated Church to her visionary venture of setting up an order of nuns to educate and care for poor children. But she persisted, and when she died in 1909 her order was well established throughout Australia. Her burning creed in life was: ‘Never see a need without doing something about it.’ The convent in Newmarket was a recruiting ground for Irish postulants for the houses in Australia and New Zealand, and the nuns there also taught music and ran a commercial school.

I never forgot those postulants, some of whom were not much older than I was, and I wondered how they had fared. Then in recent years I heard that one of them had come back and was helping out in our old parish. It was time to find out what had happened to one of the girls in black! So I met up with Sr Maureen and she told me her story.

At the idealistic age of sixteen, Maureen, from Cloncagh, County Limerick, was studying for her Inter Cert when she decided that her future was in the missionary field. She was one of a farming family of four girls and one boy. Growing up in a faith-filled home where the foreign missions were depicted as bringing God, hope and help to starving people, she wanted to carry the seeds of her faith and idealism to faraway places.

She had just seen the film Quo Vadis and it had affected her deeply; Quo Vadis is a long saga depicting the persecution of the Christians in Roman times when they were thrown to the lions to be savaged for the entertainment of the Roman nobles. I can understand how this film at that time could have had such a dramatic effect. In that pre-TV era these films made a strong impact. They came across as reality.

The idea of going out on the foreign missions to right all these wrongs appealed hugely to Maureen’s sense of justice and equality. She dreamt of bringing peace and education to a troubled world.

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It could have remained a pipedream, but Maureen was a determined young lady and so she sat down and wrote to many convents in pursuit of her ideal. To her amazement, they all wanted their recruits to bring a dowry into the convent with them. This was out of the question for her as money was not free-flowing in the rural Ireland of the fifties. She also wondered why you would need all this money if you were going out to do good on the missions.

Then fate intervened and she saw a write-up in a local newspaper about the profession of a local girl in Australia, and the address of St Joseph’s Convent, Newmarket, was given. She promptly put a letter in the post to them. She had already discovered that they did not require a dowry. Accompanied by her parents, Maureen arrived for interview at St Joseph’s; her family, like most in rural Ireland at the time, had no means of transport, so a local hackney car had had to be hired. All went well with the meeting and Maureen was instructed to finish her school year and come back in three months’ time. After tea in the parlour they were given a tour of the convent, which was very impressive with its polished wooden floors and elegant curving staircase. She was furnished with a list of requirements and to this day she recalls vividly the huge efforts that her parents made to provide her with the very best. Having a nun in the family was regarded as a great blessing, and they got a loan from the local creamery to cover the expense. Her list included a dressing gown, and this was the first time Maureen had ever seen one. Another requirement was an umbrella, and they bought an elegant one that she could hang over her arm. But the most important purchase of all, as far as Maureen was concerned, was a beautiful pair of bedroom slippers, the first pair she had ever owned. She loved them.

Carrying a suitcase packed with a whole new wardrobe, each item tagged with her name, she arrived back at the convent. There she quickly fell into a routine of rising at half past five for morning prayer and Mass, to be followed by a day packed with study and regular prayer breaks.

Every day the postulants walked up and down the long avenue with a study companion, learning off poetry and history. At the weekends there was a long walk to the Island Wood, which she enjoyed as it was good to get out into the freedom of the country and escape the confines of the convent. Sometimes in the evenings they gathered in the convent hall for Irish dancing.

But after six months Maureen was flooded by a huge wave of homesickness. She was filled with longing for home and ached with loneliness.

She desperately wanted to see her mother and father, sisters and brother. She missed them dreadfully. Feeling trapped, she planned her escape. Getting away during the day would be impossible, so it would have to be at night under cover of darkness. Her plan was that she would slip out into the night and begin the long walk home. She could not carry too much with her, but her lovely bedroom slippers could not be left behind. But when the time came and she opened the door out into the black night, she lost her nerve. She was afraid to step out into the 14 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

darkness. Her plan had to be abandoned. There was no choice but to stay put and cope as best she could with her desperate loneliness.

“ She was filled with longing for home and ached with loneliness.”

But soon to confront the young Maureen was a far greater trauma. A telegram came from home with the terrible news that her sister Nora had been diagnosed with leukaemia. She was just twenty. Her father came to collect Maureen, and the road home, for which she had longed so much, was now a traumatic journey to the Regional Hospital in Limerick. This was a newly opened, large impersonal hospital, where Nora already seemed to have slipped into a frightening sterile medical world.

Her time was very short and during those weeks Maureen was allowed home each weekend to visit her. After the funeral she was allowed to remain at home for a few weeks to be with her parents. They were deeply appreciative of the nuns’ kindness in allowing Maureen home for those few weeks with them. Had she decided not to return to the convent, it would probably simply have added to her parents’ distress, as leaving the convent at the time was frowned on by society.

After returning to the convent, a numbed Maureen settled back into the routine, and six months later, with six other postulants, she was on her way to Australia. One can only imagine the suffering endured by the still-grieving teenager, not alone being separated from her bereaved family but also travelling to an unknown destination. At that time emigrants did not come home for many, many years and Maureen felt that she would never see her parents again.

The seven young girls boarded the train in Newmarket and travelled to Dublin where they were met by a priest who went with them by bus to Dun Laoghaire. From there they went by boat and train to Southampton.

There they were joined by two nuns of the St Joseph’s of the Apparition order and boarded a luxury liner. The Iberia was on its maiden voyage to Australia. This was a whole new bewildering experience for the young Irish girls who had previously never been out of rural Ireland. On board the liner they were delighted to meet up with a charming warm-hearted Capuchin priest, Fr Colga O’Riordan. He was young like themselves, and on his way to a challenging new world. During the voyage they became great friends with him and in later years he attended all the important occasions in their lives. It was the time of the Suez Canal crisis, so they travelled around the Cape of Good Hope. They disembarked in Cape Town and had a day touring the city, chaperoned by Fr O’Riordan. It was all new and exciting, and a long way from the convent in Newmarket. The adventure of it all helped to distract them temporarily from the heartbreak of leaving home.

The sea journey took six weeks. At night the young postulants went below deck and joined some of the stewards who were devout Catholics,

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to pray the rosary with them, and during the day they played games on deck. While most of the passengers suffered from seasickness, Maureen was blessed with steady sea legs.

Very early on the morning of 21 January 1958 they sailed into Sydney Harbour. Maureen, with her initial idea of going on the foreign missions still firmly planted in her mind, had expected to see black people on the shore! This was understandable because at that time everywhere in Ireland, on the counters of shops and pubs, were African Mission collection boxes topped with cherub-like black babies, and when you dropped in your money, the baby, by the power of some simple inward mechanism, nodded in thanks! It was a superb collection strategy, especially as children loved the nodding black babies, but it probably led to the belief that all foreign missions led to Africa. Maureen expected to see the black babies of the African mission boxes running around.

But this was Australia, not Africa.

They were met by white Australian sisters and taken to the mother house in North Sydney. On arrival, there was a ritual of welcome during which they received the official uniform of the postulant, which was a full-length black dress and a dainty black veil to the shoulder. They were given their official name by which they were to be known from then on.

It was the feast of St Agnes, so Maureen got the name Agnes, and also Ita, which was the name of a Limerick saint. So she became Sr Agnes Ita. After some weeks Maureen was sent with two other sisters to a small remote community in New South Wales where the sisters of St Joseph had set up a school. Each day she helped out in the classroom. But after about six months the loneliness and isolation of this remote place got to her and a terrible homesickness set in. Still grieving for her sister and missing her family, she went through a hard time. However, while there she made one great discovery: she loved teaching. Realising that without the sisters these children would have no education at all, she knew that she now had the motivation to keep going.

Then followed two years in the novitiate. Prior to entering there was an assessment of each candidate. This gave the girls the opportunity to opt out and the congregation the opportunity to decide whether or not a girl was suitable for this vocation in life. Then began a period of fairly intensive study of theology and liturgy and a learning of the deeper ethos of the congregation. To Maureen’s delight, the person in charge of the novices was Irish and this brought a sense of home a bit closer. She still missed home dreadfully. Life in the novitiate was very strict, with rigid rules, and all post was read. But because the forty-four girls there were young and light-hearted, they also made their own fun and entertainment.

At the end of two years there was another assessment and once again the girls were given an opportunity to opt out and the leadership of the order an opportunity to decide if the candidate was suitable or otherwise. At the time it seemed harsh if a girl was deemed unsuitable, but in the long run it was probably better than to find out later that it was the wrong choice. By then Maureen had no doubts about the step that she was about to take and knew instinctively that she had found her niche. She was accepted for profession and with forty others took vows for three years.

As she recalls the day of her first profession, a glow of happy recollection washes over her. ‘It was a glorious grace-filled day,’ she smiled. ‘I was filled with a flood of happiness and a sense of peace. I just knew that I was on the right road. But absence of family was a sadness on the day.’

16 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

She went to North Sydney Training College where she loved every minute of her training to be a teacher. Then she was missioned to the outback of New Zealand with two other Irish sisters. At the time, employ ment for many people in New Zealand was provided by a major undertaking of building huge dams to harness the rivers of this vast country for electricity. The people followed the work into remote places, resulting in many migrant parishes. The sisters travelled with the people out to these remote commu nities to bring education to the children. There was no other educational system.

But out in the bush the nuns had no source of income and depended totally on the gener osity of the people for survival. ‘We never went hungry,’ Maureen said, ‘and we learnt to cook everything that they brought us.

Sometimes we were a bit perplexed by what arrived and when I saw my first pumpkin I was not too sure what to do with it.’ She remembers the parishioners as being absolutely generous and wonderful. They were warm and welcoming and deeply appreciated the sacrifices that the nuns were making to bring education to their children. But Maureen did not regard it as a sacrifice. She loved teaching and was delighted to provide schooling to a whole generation who might otherwise have missed out. This was one of the reasons that she had become a nun.

The fact that the lifestyle was primitive and lacking in luxury did not bother her at all.

“Maureen was a natural teacher and loved her charges. Education was her field.”

Maureen was a natural teacher and loved her charges. Education was her field. Without the nuns many children would never have had the opportunity that education offered. As the schools of the order grew bigger and better, she moved up the ranks and became a headmistress.

She especially loved the Maori children who, she said, were as ‘bright as buttons’, though maybe not always academically. With their sense of story and music they brought the richness of their culture to the classroom and she, being Irish, felt a great affinity with their sense of family and tribe. They knew where they came from and who they were and had a huge loyalty to their own tribe. Their gathering place was called the ‘Marae’ and Maureen loved to see people dress up in colourful costumes for special occasions there.

As memories come flooding back Maureen remembered one lad in partic ular. He was a large young fellow who was a bit suspicious of the entire edu cational system and being taught by nuns did not impress him. He kept them at a distance, but Maureen did her best to engage with him. Then one day he arrived wielding a big strong stick and threatened Maureen that if she came too close to him she would get a good hard wallop of it! She was a bit scared of him, but tried from a distance to impart as much knowledge as she could. Years later she was very surprised to get a letter from him. He was in prison, which did not come as a huge surprise to her, but what did amaze her was that while in prison he had gone through a huge change and under the guidance of a prison chaplain, who was also a nun, he had become a born-again Christian. He wanted to thank Maureen for being instrumental in his conversion to a better way of life

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as it was she who had sown the seed of his conversion by her attitude: she had inspired him and helped him not to ‘feel stupid’.

of those wishing to go, she had no problem speaking for those who did wish to return.

She remembered others too. One little girl was a brilliant student who soaked up knowledge like a dry sponge. ‘She was a bundle of mischievous energy and was constantly in hot water.’ Maureen smiled remembering. ‘The teachers were forever trying to sort her out. In the play yard I used to say to her, “Next year you are coming into my class and then you will toe the line.” My warning would always be received with a cheeky grin. Then one day I told her again, but before I could finish my ultimatum she cut in with an engaging smile, “And you will toe the line!”

Maureen enjoyed her sense of independence and fun, especially at a time when you didn’t answer back to someone in authority. She loved learning and flourished under Maureen’s guidance, going on to third level where she graduated with the highest honours. She went on to play a significant role in the educational policy of the country. Without the nuns these educational doors would have remained closed to her.

But when she got up to speak, an amazing thing happened: a huge unexpected emotional tide swept over her and she burst into uncontrollable tears. A wave of repressed longing had exploded inside her. It came totally out of the blue and Maureen was flabbergasted. It caused her to revisit her past. Had she kept a lid for years on the heartbreak of losing her young sister? And a lid on the trauma of leaving the family support system while still grieving? A lid on the loss of leaving her roots behind? The upshot of this deluge of suppressed emotions and the ensuing questions it raised caused Maureen to do a rethink. After careful consideration she decided that she too would go back to Ireland. The time to come home had arrived.

Maureen became very close to some of her former students, in a way that was perhaps unusual for a nun of the time. She remembers one young woman in particular. ‘Julie was a lovely girl, happily married to a great husband, with three lovely kids. When she moved away to another part of Australia I really missed her.’ They kept in touch and one night Julie called to tell her that she was in great pain because she had fallen in love with the local priest. Every night for months they talked over the dilemma and gradually Julie’s passion abated and eventually evaporated, and nobody but Maureen knew about the storm that could have wrecked her family. Maureen’s common sense had won the day and Julie was forever afterwards grateful to her.

But whereas Maureen had found her true vocation, others were not so lucky, and she remembers one fully professed nun who wanted out simply because it was not the life for her. Getting out in those days was a long complicated procedure, not laced with the milk of human kindness, and after a long and protracted process of getting dispensation from vows, you walked out with very little and you just had to fend for yourself.

Also, coming out of a convent was regarded almost as a disgrace, so you were not exactly received with open arms in the society outside the walls. But Maureen kept in touch with her friend and gave her all the moral support that she could and later encouraged her to make contact with the leader of the order, who gave her some financial recompense.

Over the years Maureen returned occasionally to Ireland but found the first visit home after eleven years challenging as her family had moved on. Her sisters were now married with young children. It was difficult to fit into this changed scene but subsequent visits became easier. The scene in New Zealand had also changed and now many schools were up and running efficiently and Maureen’s management ability and teaching expertise led her into another field.

She applied for an advertised position in a diocesan education office and got it. A team of five religious was employed by the bishop to work in rural parishes who needed support. Maureen provided religious advice, administrative direction band guidance with liturgy. Once again, her people skills came to the fore and she moved from parish to parish, giving direction and help where it was needed. Her field of expertise widened and she got to know and became friends with a wide variety of people.

She loved the New Zealand people, their openness and generosity.

Over the years, as Maureen grew older, going back after a visit home to Ireland became more difficult, so much so that eventually she decided that the ordeal of parting from loved ones back in Ireland was so traumatic it was best to stay in New Zealand. The order of St Joseph, in the meantime, had decided that the Irish nuns, if they so desired, were free to return home permanently. But Maureen was very happy in her adopted country and felt no desire to leave it for good.

Then the unexpected happened. The order had a chapter meeting of their sisters and hundreds of nuns from all over the world gathered.

Maureen was nominated to thank the order publicly on behalf of the Irish sisters for the freedom to return home. Even though she was not one 18 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

Back in Ireland her first job was the supervision of a small respite care centre in her home county. But when she retired from that, she felt that it would be the completion of a circle if a sister of St Joseph’s were to come back to live and work in Newmarket where all the Irish-born sisters had begun their training. That parish now had just one priest instead of the three that had been there when she was a postulant. In Newmarket she became involved in the parish and particularly in its liturgical life – and wherever else there was a need. With her administrative skills and liturgical expertise, Maureen was a great blessing.

Her old convent has long since changed hands and is now the base for LEADER (Liaisons Entre Actions de Développement de l’Économie Rurale) projects under the guidance of Irish Rural Development. There are new houses on the long avenue leading up to what was once the convent, and Maureen has taken up residence in one of these. She is delighted to be involved with some of the activities of LEADER, whose enterprises greatly enrich the fabric of rural Ireland. The parish is enhanced and energised by Maureen’s positive attitude and knowledgeable enthusiasm.

Recently, on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee, she returned to Australia and New Zealand, where she had spent so much of her life.

She received the following acknowledgement: ‘No gift could properly pay tribute to fifty years given in the service of God’s people. Fifty years given so generously and with such joy and enthusiasm. Bless you, Maureen! You have touched the lives of so many and shown that this pilgrimage we are all on can be travelled with joyful anticipation.’ All her life Maureen has adhered to the philosophy of her order’s foundress Mary MacKillop: ‘Never see a need without doing something about it.’

Text copyright Alice Taylor 2015

Extract from The Women

by Alice Taylor, published by Brandon Books, an imprint of The O’Brien Press 2015

1916-2016

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Down Cathedral was built on the ancient Hill of Down in the 12th century. It has some marvellous stained glass windows and has recently been renovated and was officially reopened on last St Patrick’s Day by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Irelands Age Friendly Cities and Counties Programmeme The growth in the number of older people in Ireland, living longer lives, will have significant implications for policy development and service delivery in the future. In the past, policy relating to older people dealt almost exclusively with health and social care issues, focusing on burden and costs. Ireland’s Age Friendly Cities and Counties Programme is changing that view of ageing. Age Friendly Alliances in every city and county in Ireland are bringing together diverse organisations, groups, services and businesses to streamline their work, with the expressed interests and needs of older people at their heart. By creating the conditions which enable older people to flourish the Age Friendly Programme is making Ireland a great country in which to grow old. The Age Friendly approach recognises that social, economic and environmental factors are interconnected. Age friendliness is good for everybody, because what is essential for older people is generally of benefit to other people, too.

Ireland’s Age Friendly Cities and Counties Programme, now a national programme adopted by all 31 of Ireland’s Local Authorities, being coordinated by Age Friendly Ireland, is working to ensure that our counties, cities and towns become more age friendly and meet the needs of older people. It is informed by the World Health Organisation Global Age Friendly Cities: a Guide, which says that “In practical terms an age-friendly city adapts its structures and services to be accessible to and inclusive of older people with varying needs and capacities” The World Health Organisation ‘Global Age Friendly Cities: a Guide’ was published in 2007, when the World Health Organisation (WHO) responding to both an ageing and more urbanised population established its ‘Global Age-friendly Cities project’. This project brought together 33 cities from 22 countries around the world, including Ireland (where Dundalk was the participating Irish city) in order to highlight the need to maximise the health and wellbeing of the older population in urban environments.

This guide is designed to be used by service providers in partnership with older people’s groups. Age Friendly Cities and Counties aim to become more inclusive of older people by addressing their expressed concerns under the eight WHO themes as outlined in the ‘Global Age Friendly Cities: a Guide:

•

outdoor spaces and buildings

•

housing

•

social participation

•

transport

•

respect and social inclusion

•

civic participation and employment

•

communication and information

•

Community support and health services.

These eight themes are what the Age Friendly Programme is about.

They shape what goals local Age Friendly Alliances aim for and what actions they take to make every city and county in Ireland a great place to grow old.

Successful Age Friendly City and County Programmes aim to create the kinds of communities in which older people live autonomous and valued lives. They do this by undertaking focused activities which aim to fulfil ambitious goals related to each of the Age Friendly themes.

Each Age Friendly theme covers a distinct part of the make-up of an Age Friendly City or County. However, they are also all inter-related. The 20 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

ultimate aim of the Age Friendly Programme is to make Ireland a country in which: •

•

• •

• •

• •

•

older people exercise autonomy in relation to the systems, services and decisions which affect them there is real respect for older people, and their contribution to Ireland, and to the communities in which they live, is fully valued older people feel positive, and in control of their own lives older people participate fully in community life, and social isolation is rare prejudice and discrimination against older people do not exist older people are supported to live independently for as long as they wish to older people experience excellent quality of life better integration of services reduces dependency and avoidable duplication and costs People of all ages feel part of an inclusive, equitable society.

Every theme, goal and activity in an Age Friendly City or County Programme will usually link clearly to the achievement of one or more of the outcomes listed above.

In every age friendly programme, Older Peoples Councils have been established as committed under the ‘Programme for Government 2011 – 2016’. These Older Peoples Councils enable older people to raise issues of importance, identify priority areas of need and inform the decision making process of the city or county age friendly programme.

The Age friendly Programme in your county and city is starting to make changes in the lives of older people but in order for it to reach its full potential it requires all, including older people, to participate and in doing so we will all benefit today and into the future. If you want to know more about and get involved in your city or county age friendly programme, visit our website at www.agefriendlyireland.ie or your local authority website.

South Dublin Age Friendly County Programme

Launch of the Over 55s activity planner during social inclusion week

Clondalkin Active Retired Choir

Age Friendly Ambassador Frank Cousins receives his certificate from Cllr Mick Duff

Mary Lyons and Tony and May Shorten

In 2015 South Dublin County continued to work towards being more age friendly. The main focus for the year was the provision of better information about the opportunities for older people in the County to be more active and involved in their communities and to be better able to access the services that they need. Our first Age Friendly County Newsletter was produced and circulated in April, in time for the Bealtaine Festival and a second newsletter was issued in September, in time for the South Dublin Health and Wellbeing week. We produced an Over 55s activity planner with an extensive list of groups, clubs and activities across the county, and we developed a database of senior groups to allow us to communicate better about issues and opportunities.

There have also been a large number of new social opportunities developed in 2015 including packed schedules of activities developed for Bealtaine, Health and Wellbeing Week in September, and Social Inclusion Week in November. We also supported the establishment of a Whist Drive in Tallaght Stadium. The Whist Drive is organised by Older

Person’s Council member Mary Lyons together with her friends Tony and May Shorten, who recently hosted a wonderful Christmas Party for their group of players. Mary is also involved in delivering beginners and advanced computer classes in our libraries, offering opportunities for older people to learn new skills and make new friends.

Other opportunities for life long learning have included a course in Health Literacy developed by the National Adult Literacy Association and an 8 week training programme for our Age Friendly Ambassadors. Our Ambassadors are a group of volunteers who are members of the Older Person’s Council and who are committed to reaching out to older neighbours who may be at risk of isolation and exclusion. The Ambassadors offer information about opportunities and services that are available.

If you would like information about age friendly activities in South Dublin email sogorman@sdublincoco.ie Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 21

Travel

In her latest quest to trace the roots of celebrated Irish and British literary figures , Lorna Hogg goes on the trail of one of the true giants, Charles Dickens..

Discovering Dickens When you wish a friend ‘Merry Christmas’, cheerfully hand over that seasonal donation, or just look forward to all the traditional celebration, it’s not all due to clever modern advertising. Charles Dickens encompassed both the greeting and goodwill into his popular novella A Christmas Carol, which has become part of our modern Christmas celebration.

We all know of Dickens’s unforgettable range of characters – Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bill Sykes, the Artful Dodger, Fagin, Oliver Twist and Mr Micawber – and many were inspired by his time in the City of London, where the imaginative reporter, author and social reformer lived and worked.

Dickens was born in Portsmouth, on 7th February 1812, the second of eight children. A keen reader and writer from childhood, his over generous and sociable father, who later inspired Mr. Micawber, was a paymaster in the Royal Navy. His work meant regular location changes.

Dickens describes being ‘packed like game’ into the London coach, when the family moved from Chatham. Sadly, bad luck struck and his impoverished father ended up in the debtors’ prison of Marshalsea, in Southwark. His family joined him there, with the exception of Charles and his elder sister Fanny. She attended The Royal Academy of Music, and he, now ‘he man of the family,’ was boarded out and sent to work in a blacking factory. near Charing Cross.

His sense of humiliation and anger never fully left Dickens. He was especially upset when his mother did not immeditaly support his leaving the factory, after a family legacy paid his father’s debt. These experiences influenced his future relationships, and Dickens remained sensitive to the inequalities in Victorian England, highlighting the plight of the poor, as well as the horrors of child crime, disease and neglect.

22 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

Dickens’ birthplace, 393 Commercial Road, Portsmouth

His father eventually sent him back to school, after which Dickens was started work as a legal clerk, including Doctors Commons, near to St.Paul’s Cathedral, in the city which he called his `Magic lantern’ .....``the toil and labour of writing, day after day, without that magic lantern, is IMMENSE...’’ That work provided research and ideas for later books, including Bleak House.

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Charles Dickens with his two daughters

He become a parliamentary reporter, and through friends, met and fell in love with Maria Beadnell, a part inspiration for Dora, `child-wife’ to `David Copperfield’. However, it was in 1836, when an illustrated collection of his early stories of Victorian London, `Sketches by Boz’ was published, that his writing career started.

By 1839, Dickens was successful enough as a writer – Pickwick Papers was serialised in a newspaper, to marry Catherine Hogarth, a daughter of one of his editors. The couple moved to 48 Doughty street, near Clerkenwell, occupying a ‘frightfully first class family mansion, involving awful responsibilities’ . Sought after as a rising star, and soon the father of two children, he was surrounded by inspiration. Grey’s Inn, home to many barristers was nearby – as were some of London’s worst slums and areas of crime. The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby’were completed in Doughty Street.

“A Christmas Carol’ appeared in 1843, at a time when Dickens needed to further his career. He was influenced by a visit to a nearby ragged school, near Saffron Hill and a recent trip to Manchester slums. It also appeared at a time when Christmas customs were changing. Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, had introduced Christmas trees and customs from Germany. Carols, celebration and `seasonal greetings’ 24 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

By 1839, Dickens was successful enough as a writer – Pickwick Papers was serialised in a newspaper, to marry Catherine Hogarth, a daughter of one of his editors.

became popular. Dickens’s ‘`carol philosphy’ – by which his character Scrooge is changed through his visions of Christmas past, present and Future, and develops human sympathy and generosity, struck a public chord.

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Cross London Bridge to Borough High Street in Southwark, where the old Marshalsea Prison (featuring in Little Dorrit) stood.One of its remaining walls forms part of St. George’s Churchyard, and the area is filled with Dickensian connections, e.g. Lant Street, where Dickens boarded as a child, remains.

Dickensian gems..

The Dickens Museum at Doughty Street, London

Look for the replica Dog & Pot sign, (the corner of Union St. and Blackfriars) daily passed by young Dickens, who vowed to make something of himself and his life.

Take an evening stroll, or join an organised walk around the gaslit streets and lanes around the Savoy Hotel and and Covent Garden.

Follow in Dickens’s footsteps, and climb to the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Dickens lived and worked in London for three decades, developing his career and interests, before moving to Kent. During his London years, he also edited a weekly journal, wrote short stories, and gave speeches and readings, making three highly popular visits to Dublin. Aside from his novels, he was also a pamphleteer, involved in amateur dramatics and a campaigner for social justice, e.g. for public executions to be taken back inside prison walls.

Visit the Inns of Court at Gray’s Inn and Inner and Middle Temple – the atmosphere, whether by day or gaslight, is evocative of Dickensian times..

Sample a Dickensian pub -

The Magic Lantern..

Whilst changed by war and development, the City has retained many of its great buildings, ancient customs and even some old taverns. It’s quite possible to create your own Dickens walk – one useful free leaflet is published (and can be downloaded) by the City of London Information Centre, sited alongside St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Starting at Russell Square tube station, walk past Great Ormond Street Hospital to 48 Doughty Street, now The Charles Dickens Museum.

Nearby is Grey’s Inn. Continue to Mount Pleasant and into Farrington Road and Lane, once close to some infamous slums. Pear Tree Court is possibly inpirational for one site of the Artful Dodger’s pickpocketing.

Clerkenwell Road leads to Hatton Garden, now associated worldwide for its jewellery connections, but in Dickensian times, squalor, child crime and poverty made it notorious. No. 54 was where he set the site of the local Magistrate’s Court in Oliver Twist.

Saffron Hill inspired The Artful’s Dodger’s `route’ to Fagin’s den, and The Three Cripples Pub in Oliver Twist is said to be based on the The One Tun pub, still sited there. Walk down to Smithfield market – Dickens contributed to the debate on the future of old open air market. Newgate Street and Old Bailey housed the site of the notorious Newgate Jail, (demolished in 1902) and some of its stone has been re-used in the present law courts. The Central Criminal Court was the site of the trials of Fagin and Charles Dornay, from A Tale of Two Cities. Nearby St. Sepulchre’s Church contains the bell which rang at 8 am. to announce public executions at Newgate.

Many of London’s iconic buildings - Guildhall, The Bank of England, The Royal Exchange and Mansion House are within a stone’s throw (check websites for public access). They lead to Cornhill, Cheapside and Fleet Street, many criss-crossed with alleys and Yards, and several with original inns and taverns. St. Paul’s Cathedral provides a majestic conclusion, but don’t miss the original Temple Bar, once mounted at the City of London boundary.

26 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Iconic old Fleet street pub, well known and used by Dickens.

The George Inn In Borough High St. Southwark, dating from 1677, and owned by the National Trust, it is one of London’s last galleried coaching inns The Olde Wine Shades 6. St Martin Lane, this atmospheric old pub, dating from 1663, even has its own smugglers’ tunnel down to the Thames.

George and Vulture St. Michael’s Alley, Cornhill. Dickens referred to it in Mr Pickwick.

Bleeding Heart Yard Off Greville Street, and named for a savage murder, it was mentioned in Little Dorrit as rackrent property.

The Grapes, Limehouse A famous working class dockers’ pub in Limehouse, popular with Dickens. www.visitthecity.co.uk www.dickensmuseum.com www.visitlondon.com https:www.stpauls.co.uk

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Health

Nutritional Information Busting The Myths

Una Gilligan, Dietitian Manager, St Vincent’s Private Hospital, dispells some of the myths

It is widely accepted that nutrition has always played an important role in health, disease prevention and management. Unsurprisingly, there has been an explosion in the nutrition industry and In 2013 it had an estimated global worth of $104 billion. Much of the nutrition information and advice we glean from the media and online sources has proven to be confusing and in some cases misleading. So what essentially can we believe, and what are the greatest myths surrounding nutrition?

Fruit & Vegetables: Whole vs juices?

This has been a popular topic in recent years. Whilst fruit and vegetable juices and smoothies can contribute towards a healthy balanced diet, 28 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

they should only contribute to 1 of your 5 servings/day since they may be low in fibre. Choose those without added sugar and fat.

Dairy products: Good or bad?

Dairy products which include milk, cheese, yogurts and ice cream are often vilified due to their saturated fat and lactose content. These foods are good sources of protein, calcium, and in some cases vitamin D, which play an essential role in the prevention of osteopenia and osteoporosis. They can also play an important role in the management of hypertension (DASH diet). Low fat dairy products will provide these essential nutrients without extra fat. Lactose intolerance is present in a small proportion of the population. If you suspect you may have an intolerance, speak to your GP or a dietitian.

Frozen Vegetables: Have they any nutritional value?

Frozen vegetables are a quick and convenient source of fibre, minerals and vitamins. They will often contain greater levels of vitamins than fresh varieties. Fresh fruit and vegetables lose water soluble vitamins over time, particularly if they are bruised or damaged. Vegetables that are frozen soon after picking will retain much of their nutritional value. Avoid overcooking to retain nutrients, steam or use a minimal volume of water when boiling.

Main Atrium at St. Vincent’s Private Hospital

Weight Loss Diets: Is there any merit to “fad” diets?

Fad or crash diets will certainly result in weight loss. Any diet resulting in a lower calorie intake will have the desired effect in the short term. The long term effects however, are less desirable. These diets are usually unbalanced, lacking essential nutrients and frequently result in weight gain leading to a yo-yo effect. Diet supplements purporting to promote weight loss are at best ineffective and at worst, harmful. Those containing ephedra, or ephedrine, can significantly increase health risks.

There is no substitute for a healthy diet, small portions, limited alcohol and regular exercise.

Food allergies/ intolerances: How to test?

Only 3% of adults suffer from food allergies. This occurs when the body’s immune system incorrectly reacts to food. A food intolerance does not involve the immune system, but results in unwanted symptoms such as bloating, altered bowel motions, and abdominal pain. Food allergy testing can be carried out using skin prick testing or IgE specific blood testing.

Food intolerance tests are not recommended since they have no scientific basis. IgG is frequently used for this purpose however this has been disregarded by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

Contact your GP, gastroenterologist or dietitian for further advice.

Gluten free diet: when should they be used?

Gluten free diets have become increasingly popular amongst the general population in recent years, but are they truly necessary? A gluten free diet is essential in the management of coeliac disease. This is diagnosed by a simple blood test, and may be confirmed with a small bowel biopsy.

A low gluten diet may be used as part of a low FODMAP diet for the management of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This should be introduced and monitored by a dietitian, qualified in FODMAP since

it may result in nutritional deficiencies if used unsupervised. The low FODMAP diet has been proven to be effective in 75% of individuals.

Nutrition information in the media needs to be carefully interpreted, so it is essential to seek the correct advice from a qualified health professional when looking for clarification.

For further information, please refer to the following websites: www.ifan.ie www.ndc.ie www.indi.ie Fact sheets www.healthpromotion.ie Food Pyramid

Una Gilligan is Dietitian Manager with St Vincent’s Private Hospital Merrion Road, Dublin 4 Website: www.svph.ie Tel: 01 2609304 Email: ugilligan@svph.ie Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 29

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Travel

Nice to know

Maurice Foster is a great admirer of the major city of the Cote d’Azur, not to mention many of its neighbours and spectacular coastal views Trains link the coastal towns thus affording you fantastic views of the Baie des Anges (Bay of Angles)

For me, Nice is the gateway to the stunning 50 km Cote d’Azur coastline and I recently had the opportunity once again to enjoy both as a senior citizen. Prior basic ground rules completed such as bringing an electricity adaptor, double-checking my medicines to make sure I have enough to last the trip, packing light - lugging extra weight can prove exhausting, it was with comfort and no hassle on my mind that I pre-booked extra leg room / priority seating with Ryanair and parking (Park4Less) at Shannon Airport.

And so my Cote d’Azur adventure began. Bus 98 (€6 p.p.) goes directly from Nice Terminal 1 to Nice central, in my case dropping me off at Place Garibaldi just a short distance from my hotel (Hotel le Geneve) in Vieux Nice (Old Town) and the Garibaldi Tram stop. Interestingly you may hear, besides French, Nissart the old local dialect being spoken here. This tram location is ideal for those who have mobility needs or just don’t like too much walking and like ease of access to shopping and exploring Nice. Though one may opt for the city hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus, the Nice tram system is just as good (and cheaper) in getting to really know and savour the city and its attractions.

So get yourself a tram route map and start travelling from your nearest tram station towards either Henri Sappia or the other terminal Hospital Pasteur. However, while Nice has a good public transport network, it might be an idea to travel during off-peak times in order to avoid the crowds. Individual journey tickets are €1.50 but I recommend that you buy a 7-day

The Garibaldi Tram stop is ideal for those who have mobility needs or just don’t like too much walking and like ease of access to shopping and exploring Nice.

Pass ticket (€15) at the Ligne d’Azur outlet just off Garibaldi allowing unlimited city and urban travel, bus numbers 98 and 99 excepted.

A great way of traversing the Promenade de Anglais or just roaming as you wish and getting some exercise, you might consider hiring one of the Blue Bikes available at some ninety locations throughout Nice. If shopping is your

32 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

thing, then get off the tram at either Massena or Jean Medecin. Here you will find Galeries Lafayette on Rue Massena and Centre Etoile on Avenue Jean-Medecin with plenty of places to enjoy a coffee, a drink or to eat while taking a rest. Grasse, 45 minutes by train from the main train station or by bus 500 (rear of Theatre Verdure) is world famous for its perfumes.

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Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild with its sumptuous gardens.

The Cote d’Azur affords one plenty of sophisticated nightlife, but it is its continental cafe society that really draws me. Sitting outside in the balmy evening air sipping a coffee and watching life go about its business is just such bliss. Whenever I travel to another country I like now and then to get off the tourist trail trap and ‘go native’ and endeavour to soak up the local everyday atmosphere. But what if you don’t have the local lingo? Why not write out and translate a few simple phrases such as ‘hello’, ‘thank you’, ‘where is..?’, ‘how much is..?’ and use them when conversing with the locals.

You would be surprised at the warm reaction you will get and new friends made through your efforts.

Outside of Nice one has the TER regional network from the Gare Thiers (SNCF) train station which links the coastal towns thus affording you fantastic views of the Baie des Anges (Bay of Angles). There are also the TAM inter-urban busses, but be prepared for the urban sprawl which takes from much of the beauty of the coast. One may also discover the French Riviera by sea (Cap de Nice, Villefranche Bay, Cap Ferrat) by taking the costal tour by boat from Quai Lunel at Nice port. A fantastic experience! Or why not check in with the tourist information office at this train station and enquire about day excursion trips by bus. A must however is a stroll, especially at evening time, along the Promenade des

34 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

Anglais. You even get to hear a guy who regularly plays romantic tunes on his piano right in the middle of the walk-way. More seating though would be a big help if only to just leisurely soak up the atmosphere of the place, which can also be enjoyed if you take the 52 bus. After Paris, it is said that Nice is the town with the most museums. Whether or not true, the cultural diversity to be found in Nice is remarkable, and for my sins I took bus 17 to the north-eastern suburb of Cimiez where I visited the Genoese villa that houses the Matisse museum as well as walking a short distance to the Franciscan monastery and its beautiful rose garden. Keep being active in mind, one of the many events taking place during my visit

Menton, just before the Italian border, is celebrated for its warm mild climate and is favoured by retired people.

to was the European Masters Games in Nice bringing together more than 10,000 veteran and senior athletes from all over the world with 27 sports included archery, sailing, touch rugby and even competitive dancing.

Two worthwhile but contrasting leisure ideas to keep in mind involve taking bus 14 from Le Port stop where one immediately is greeted with a beautiful panorama from the Place Ile de Beaute with the port of Nice opening up to you.

The super yacht Alfa Nero was at anchor but at â‚Ź840,000 charter price per week was a little beyond my budget! The bus then takes one on to the Cap de Nice, Villafranche-sur-Mer and Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat an idyllic peninsula and where walking a short distance from bus stop

La Rade, you will discover Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild with its sumptuous gardens.

My second suggestion is to take bus 14, again from Le Port arriving at the Chemin du Fort with stunning views over Nice city and the Bay of Angles. You might even be lucky to see the Southern Alps. Monaco is roughly thirty minutes by train from SNCF Nice Ville or you can take bus 100 from the port. Beware though that this bus route is in high demand and you may not get a seat as it used by commuters working in Monaco but living over the border in France. Menton, just before the Italian border, is also served by these trains and buses. This village with its warm mild climate is most favoured by retired people. I once met

a charming eighty-year-old English man who informed me that he had spent twenty winters in Menton. Some have all the luck!

I would like to mention that just beyond Menton some 7 km from the French border you will find Ventimiglia in Italy, where every Friday there is an outdoor market situated in the centre of town with around 500 stalls selling items from clothes to shoes and pans to linens as well an array of foods to munch on with the delicacies varying from sundried tomatoes to salamis and pasta to parmigiano. The market draws huge crowds, so be advised to arrive

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 35

Gardening

very early. Get the tram from Garibaldi to Gare Thiers and you are on your way. Conveniently the Italian train station is near the market place.

I found the buzz at the market fantastic and feel it is worth paying a visit.

But let us come back west a bit across the border. Monte Carlo is the major district of the Principality of Monaco. It is advisable to put aside a whole day to discover the delights of this tiny state. One of the best ways is to do Le Grand Tour on the 12 stop red bus with a running commentary (in English) revealing all that there is to know about the place including the Rock of Monaco where the Palais Princier is located, the Old Town and the Casino. An alternative method of seeing the place is to catch the Azur Express tourist train. While there are many delightful narrow streets and ally-ways dating from the Middle Ages to investigate on foot, do keep in mind that there

are also some steep inclines. Perched some 427 metres above sea level you will find the eagle-nest medieval village of Eze. Go there if only for the brilliant views of the Riviera. Further west, a rail trip west to Cannes from Nice takes about forty minutes, and it was here that the fallout from the flooding in south-east France first became evident as information staff gamely had to work from a narrow high single desk.

Artists such as Monet, Matisse, Renoir and

More information The French Tourist Office in London serves Ireland.

Email: info.uk@atout-france.fr www.nicetourisme.com Ryanair flies from Shannon and Dublin to Nice Aer Lingus flies from Dublin to Nice

36 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

Picasso came to the Cote d’Azur attracted no doubt by its unique brightness, landscape and colours. I too will always be drawn to the beauty and charm of the Cote d’Azur and its Mediterranean climate, so conducive to good health.

And, yes, I would like to be able to say that I had already spent my twentieth winter there, especially with experts predicting that Ireland is said to be facing one of its coldest winters for some time.

Treasures of ANDALUCÍA The Costa del Sol has long been a destination for sun, sea and sangria, but the South of Spain also has a rich cultural history to share with visitors to the region. Indeed the main Andalucian cities all boast an impressive selection of historical buildings, museums, parks and monuments, and most can be reached within a day trip of the Costa del Sol.

Sunset Beach Club hotel is one of the region’s most emblematic hotels, and is proud to offer an on-site Leisure Desk, which is open 6 days a week, to help guests get the most of their holiday. Here, you can book guided excursions with English speaking guides to most cities, or why not hire a car and meander around the many white villages dotted around the Andalucian countryside?

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Sunset Beach Club | Avda. del Sol 5, Benalmádena Costa, Málaga, Spain Email: booking@sunsetbeachclub.com • Tlf: +34 952 579 400 • www.sunsetbeachclub.com Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 37

Cosmetics

Beautiful skin is just a click away Mairead Robinson discovers some great new products available on-line.

These days the internet has become an integral part of everybody’s life, and older users, the ‘Silver Surfers’ are no exception.

In fact it is not just researching information and booking flights, but purchasing products through the internet is suiting more and more people these days. Finding parking places, struggling with public transport, crowded shops and inclement weather are all of no concern to the on-line shopper. Opening times and Bank Holidays are also not an issue, as on-line shopping is a 24/7 facility from the comfort of your own home. Products arrive by post and there is usually a return system if the product is not satisfactory – this is especially applicable when buying clothes, as you only get to try them on when the parcel arrives. How convenient and how 21st century – most people

wonder why they did not ‘click-on’ sooner and make life so much easier!

When it comes to buying beauty products, we generally have our favourite brands which we stick to, but as regular readers of this column will know, there are new products becoming available all the time as research into anti-aging and health and beauty is at an all-time high. I mentioned in the last issue Superdrug – www.superdrug.com which has opened its doors to Irish customers since this summer and I have been trying out some of their own brand products including their Vitamin E Body Cream with Argan Oil which is wonderfully silky on dry skin. Everybody should have a tub of this in their bathroom! Also their Naturally Radiant Glycolic Overnight Peel is another fruit based product that does what it says on the pack, and really brightens the skin and

38 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

improves tone and texture.

I had also heard some very positive news concerning IDC Ultim-age Age Corrective Serum which has been developed to reverse all visible signs of chronological and hormonal skin aging in women 50+ . IDC stands for Integral Dermo Correction. The range is created with patented Regan 16 formulation which targets the 16 recognised mechanics of the aging process. The products contain the highest amount of active molecules than any other brand, which makes it a highly effective and results-driven range.

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pharmacies, but the number of outlets selling IDC is set to grow. It is available through www.grahamanthony.ie Graham Anthony is one of the biggest beauty salon and pharmacy suppliers of skin care brands in Ireland. You can also call them to place an order on 01- 8222711 I have started using three of the products, IDC Integral Cleanser for both face and eyes; the Ultim-Age Serum and the Hydra-Seal moisturiser. The three stage routine can be used both day and night and the products are suitable for all skin types while specifically targeted to the needs of mature skin.

Compared to other larger brands IDC is still in its infancy – just 5 years old, however, it has already won several international awards. It is new to Ireland and was developed in Canada

by Dr Eric DuPont as a capsule of just 23 products, all designed to effectively correct and slow down the ageing process by targeting the 16 mechanisms of skin ageing. I met Dr DuPont in Dublin recently, and was very impressed with the presentation and most importantly with the science behind the products.

If you are looking for skin care products for sensitive skin, a great new very affordable range from Ziaja has just been lunch using goat’s milk as their base. You can also get these on line at www.originalbeauty.ie and from Shaws and some pharmacies also.

And as every woman knows, after the skin is taken care of, it is the eyes and the lips that we turn our cosmetic attention to. Max Factor have produced a great new range of lipsticks that are designed to last longer than a kiss or a cup of coffee! Lipfinity Long Lasting Lipstick come in a range of eight great shades in an oil based emollient rich formula which helps to combat dry lips and colour fading. The emollient firm formers absorb into the lip surface whilst a flexible film locks in the moisture – so you don’t get the ‘drying out’ feeling while holding the colour in place that works in the same way as the skin’s natural sebum.

And to make the eyes more striking, a very thin discreet liner is recommended, but it is not always so easy to achieve the perfect line.

More often than not we end up with a smudgy

40 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

uneven line. The new Max Factor Masterpiece High Precision Liquid Eyeliner is specially shaped to make this job easier.

Altering the placement of eyeliner can completely transform the shape of your eyes.

This is a handy little pencil that makes the job so much easier. And of course, Max factor is available in pharmacies nationwide.

There are so many beauty gifts and gift-sets available at this time of year, that we are spoilt for choice. A beauty hamper of goodies is always a welcome gift, just check your local pharmacy for ideas.

For the glamour girls, a gift from Beauty Blender available at Make Up For Ever at Clarendon Street, Dublin would be very welcome indeed. Boots have a particularly expansive range this year with something to suit everybody – men, women and children.

Enjoy the season and if you have any beauty secrets to share or questions to ask, just contact me at mairead.seniorbeauty@ gmail.com

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Health

Helping the helpers According to The Alzeimers Society there are 50,000 dementia caregivers in Ireland Pat is about to finish his shift at work. He wants to get home in good time before the home help finishes. Pat will prepare dinner for himself and his wife Eileen, and help her to eat. They will try to watch television for a while, but she finds it difficult to concentrate on anything for long. Eileen has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia-she has worsening memory, making it difficult to do many of the things she previously took for granted. Even allowing for her memory problems, her social behaviour is also becoming very inappropriate at times. Pat hopes to retire in the next few years but worries about whether they’ll have enough money for the future.

Throughout Ireland, there are many people with stories like “Pat”, people caring for family or friends who are living with dementia. This can range from supervision with relatively complex tasks like managing finances to around-theclock assistance with basic activities like eating or dressing. People with dementia have changes in behaviour; they may wander and get lost, wake frequently during the night, or even become aggressive, adding to difficulties that carers can experience.

The Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland, who help dementia carers find what supports are available to them, report that there are 50,000

family dementia caregivers in Ireland. In the USA, the Alzheimer’s Association has indicated that in 2014, friends and family of people with dementia provided approximately 17.9 billion hours of unpaid care, with an estimated economic value of $217.7 billion (see http:// www.alz.org/facts/).

A recent paper from researchers at Trinity College Dublin has indicated that some people caring for family members with dementia may be at risk themselves of worsened cognition, particularly in male carers or carers with low income. Interestingly, caring for a spouse with dementia seemed to reduce the impact of depression upon people’s ability to carry out daily tasks efficiently. Nonetheless, it is important that carers seek help when they feel that they are themselves at risk of depression.

A number of studies have shown that the demands of caring for a loved one with dementia can affect people physically. For example, there is evidence that the more challenging the behaviour of the patient, the higher their carer’s blood pressure will be. The immune system is also sensitive to the effects of long-term stress. Studies have indicated that changes in immune cells in response to a challenge can be impaired. It has been shown that if a carer suffers a wound, this can take longer to heal.

42 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

However, the impact of stress on the body depends upon our response to what life throws at us. Carers with a sense of confidence about their ability to care for a loved one are less impacted by their caregiver role. Carers with positive coping strategies (such as focusing on specific solutions to problems) are less likely to suffer negative effects from caring. Caregiving can be a highly rewarding experience; many report that caring for someone with dementia has made them develop a greater sense of meaning in their life. Nonetheless, carers, doctors, friends and family need to be vigilant for signs of caregiving taking too heavy a toll on those who care.

We are currently conducting research on dementia caregiving in collaboration with the Centre for Gerontology and Department of Epidemiology & Public Health at UCC. We are looking at the effects of dementia caregiving on the well-being, biology and cognition of caregivers. We are also interested in the effects of classes for caregivers to help them deal better with caregiving. This research is funded by the Health Research Board, Ireland.

If interested in taking part you can contact Andrew P. Allen (Department of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioural Science and APC Microbiome Institute, UCC) at 0899526518, or at givingcare2020@gmail.com.

Opinion by Mary White Inheritance tax punishes sons and daughters, nieces and nephews Argues Senator Mary White Inheritance tax has become a punitive tax on sons and daughters - and indeed nephews and nieces - inheriting a family home. A few short years ago, children inheriting the home only paid this tax on the value of the house over €500,000 and then the tax was 20pc.

By stealth and unknown to most parents, the threshold when the tax become liable was cut to €225,000 and the tax itself was increased to 33pc. The combination of the low threshold and the high tax became oppressive for many children inheriting their family home.

It is a huge issue for residents in Dublin and to a lesser extent in other areas. House prices in South County Dublin now average €520,000 with the figure at €337,411 across the city, according to the latest daft.ie report.

The average house prices for other major cities are €225,000 in Cork, €223,000 in Galway and€144,000 in Limerick. Many houses in these cities cost a lot more.

For some time now, I have actively campaigned for a reform of this anti-family tax.

I wanted to see the threshold increase from €225,000 to €500,000 which was the 2008 level, and to cut the tax from 33pc to 20pc, again back to the 2008 rate.

I wanted to see families given a further twelve months to pay the tax instead of having to raise the money to pay it by October in the year of inheritance. Over one thousand people signed a petition to the Minister for Finance in favour of my proposals and I presented it at the Department of Finance on September 30th.

In his Budget statement in October, the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, did recognise that there was an issue with inheritance tax but his concession of an increase in the threshold from€225,000 to €280,000 can only be described as miserly and minimal.

Imagine that with this so called concession, the Department of Finance expect to collect even more in 2016 from inheritance tax - a massive €375m, up €5m on the expected receipts in 2015.

In the last four years the number of people liable for inheritance tax has rocketed by 34pc.

The dramatic reduction in the thresholds has particularly penalised families who are being hit with huge tax bills when they inherit even a modest family home.

44 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

For example, an only child who this year inherits their parents’ home worth €350,000 would be forced to pay a hefty €23,100 inheritance tax.

If they had inherited a home of the same value in 2011, they would have paid just€4,479 in tax. Their tax liability has jumped five-fold.

We are now in a situation where people who are far from wealthy are being forced to sell the home they inherit in order to meet their tax bill.

It is deeply unfair, on Dublin families in particular, at a time when a modest family home in most areas of the city now exceeds the low threshold of €280,000.

It is the wish of every parent to be able to provide security for their family.

In their later years, a parent will naturally want to be able to pass on the fruits of their lifetime’s work to their children and grandchildren.

Whether this is in the form of the family home or savings, it is very important to parents that they are able to help secure the future financial wellbeing of their family.

I am determined to continue to use every channel open to me to sustain the campaign for a more equitable and less punitive inheritance tax regime.

Mary White is an Irish businesswoman and Fianna Fáil politician. She is a member of Seanad Éireann on the Industrial and Commercial Panel since September 2002

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Select Hotels of Ireland is a collection of well renowned & well known hotels, many of which are family owned & operated and all well-established offering great value especially to the young at heart, we also have a central reservations & groups department to help clubs & associations to get the best value in the nicest hotels possible. If you have an active retired group looking to book a trip away we can offer great tours across Ireland. Our group tours include:

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Travel

In praise of Offaly Kerry Writer Breda Joy reports from ‘the interior’.

Sculpture in Lough Boora Boora Parklands

As a Kerrywoman rooted at the edge of lake and mountain, I never harboured ambitions to journey into the bogs of Offaly - with one exception.

Whenever I drove through Birr en route to a friend’s house in Mullingar, I stole fleeting glimpses of its Georgian terraces. That glancing acquaintance, married to mentions of the Birr Telescope, convinced me that Birr was a place to visit – eventually.

While it took me half a lifetime to venture into ‘the interior’, I returned to the Kingdom with the zeal of the converted for Ireland’s centre or Umbilicus Hibernia.

I went to Birr as one of four writers on the Birr Writers’ Residency, sponsored by Offaly County Council Arts Office. Put simply, a residency is a ‘writing holiday’ to escape the demands of everyday life and concentrate totally on a project, in my case a novel.

For one week of grey skies (Fifty Shades of Birr), I was based at the Tin Jug Studio at Brendan House, home of artist Rosalind Fanning, and her journalist husband, Derek.

To sense the ambience of Brendan House, imagine the contents of a stately home transferred into a centuries old town house. A wall tapestry in my bedroom was suspended from a spear. A leopard skin, complete with fanged mouth, draped a chair in the sitting-room.

‘Is there no-one going with you?’ friends asked before I ventured into ‘the interior’.

Derry-born Cherry Smyth, a poetry lecturer, poet and critic based in London, whose debut novel is Hold Still (Holland Park Press, 2013), shared the July residency with me. When Cherry stepped off Kearns’ bus in Emmet Square, the first thing she remarked on was the smell of peat in the air.

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Breda Joy visits the Birr Telescope

Lough Boora Parklands Our first find was Lough Boora Boora Parklands, developed by Bord na Móna 13 miles south-west of Birr. I had started out with a vague notion of ‘sculptures in a bog’. We arrived late evening with a pewter sky dissolving on us and on Boora, ‘the national centre of cutaway boglands rehabilitation’.

Bog spells bare in my lexicon but an abundance of wild flowers, including several varieties of wild orchid, greeted us. With less than an hour to closing time, the bike rental man told us to borrow two bikes free gratis – a case of entertaining, not angels, but writers unawares.

At the beginning of the Sculpture Park Route, a hare loped ahead of us.

(The parklands are also a sanctuary for the last remaining population of grey partridge in Ireland). Hulking modern sculptures loomed out of the bogscape.

Housefronts in Birr Sculpture in Lough Boora Boora Parklands

Wakened early by the light in Birr, I found myself exploring the roseframed terraces of the sleeping town most mornings, following the excellent ‘Birr Town Trail and River Walks’ brochure.

‘As for the work on the castle, it is all mine: stonework, carpentry, iron staircase, etc,’ she said. ‘Inch by inch, year by year, slow and steady. I’m a tortoise.’

‘The world’s first automobile fatality happened here on 31 August 1869,’ began the text of a history plaque beside Saint Brendan’s Church of Ireland.

Rebecca and her late husband, Campbell Armstrong Black, author of the novelisation of Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, took 10 years to restore Clonony, originally built in the early 1500s.

A few streets away, I viewed The Birr Stone, a formidable block of limestone estimated to be 250 million years old. The boulder was taken to County Clare in 1828 (it must have been some feat to transport it) to honour The Liberator Daniel O’Connell and was used as a Mass rock.

To get the inside track on any town, you have to visit a watering hole Craughwells was our local of choice. ‘Mundy’s around,’ the barman announced one night. And so, I learned that the singer, Edmond Enright, is from Birr, that ‘Mundy’ is derived from Edmond and that his label, Camcor Records, takes its name from the local river.

On the murky Saturday evening we took the 20-minute drive from Birr for dinner there; we also took in nearby Shannon Bridge of the river barges and the monastic site, Clonmacnoise. Rebecca’s ballet discipline stood her in good stead as she hared up and down the spiral stone staircase from the kitchen with the plates, stubbornly refusing help.

Small touches make me enthuse about Birr: the artistic arrangement on a chair outside Love Flowers florists on Connaught Street, the blackboard message to support local enterprise at ‘Inspired’ craft shop, Foclóir na Siopaí, a phrase book as Gaeilge to be used in shops.

I must warn you, though, that the 18th century Emmet Square is a throbbing traffic artery with trucks trundling through but, heck, don’t I hail from the land of tour coaches. For this Kerrywoman, Birr and its hinterland have come up smelling of roses and turf.

Rebecca’s castle is her home Some people build castles in the air but American ballerina and Writer Rebecca Black takes stones and mortar into her own hands to breathe life and light back into ruins. The night I left Clonony Tower House, Rebecca’s fourth castle restoration, the windows were white panels of light shining into the Offaly dark.

Fanciful though it may sound, I thought of her as a heroine rescuing priceless Irish heritage, so much of which is going the way of crumbling stonework.

Best of all her stories was that of sisters Mary and Elizabeth Boleyn, second cousins to Queen Elizabeth 1 and nieces of Anne Boleyn, who lived out their lives at Clonony, a sanctuary when Henry VIII was dispensing with heads. (Two portraits of the sisters hang in Birr Castle).

According to Rebecca, on the death of one of the sisters, the other, grief-stricken, threw herself from the castle.

In the early 1800s, their bodies were discovered in a quarry beside the castle. The inscribed tombstone to ‘Elizabeth and Mary Bullyn’, recovered from the quarry, lies beneath a hawthorn tree on the castle grounds. In the fading light, we stood around it.

Ours was a private visit but the castle is open noon to 5pm, Thursday to Sunday, May to October, weather-dependent. There is a pay-as-youplease plate instead of admission charges.

Walking through walls in a ‘Domaine of Discovery’ ‘A secret tunnel, yes, there’s all sorts of secrets here. It’s good to see things adults can’t even see.’ So a mother tells her children in the courtyard of Birr Castle as I wait to begin the castle tour, little knowing that I will soon be passing Harry Potter-like through a wall after our guide reveals a secret door, one of two disclosed to us. Secrets are just that and my lips are sealed as to the ingenuity of their concealment.

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 47

Gift shop promotion in Birr

The Birr Parsons, who hold the title, the Earl of Rosse, trace their lineage back to to five brothers who came to Ireland in the 1600s as surveyors for the Crown. Fourteen generations have lived at Birr Castle for over 400 years.

A portrait of Laurence Parsons dominates the front hall in which there are three objects he would have recognised from his era in the 1600s – a greyhound’s brass collar, canon balls from the siege of 1688 and his wife’s stone inkwell.

Set among the ornate clocks and antique furnishings in the hall is the homely touch of a deep tub brimming with turf. Another domestic touch in both the library and the music room is the presence of of dozens of framed photographs of the current Parsons family.

Eminent European scientists and astromoners sat down to dinner in the Victorian Dining Room in the 1800s. The Yellow Drawing Room, incorporates a 16th century tower.

I took the tour as an after-thought, having already relished the grounds and formal gardens of the domaine where the musk perfume of the flower, Rambling Rector, carried on the breeze.

‘It’s so beautiful, daddy, can I have your phone to take a few pictures,’ one little girl says. She had Ireland’s largest tree house – a wooden turreted fairytale affair - and adventure playground to look forward to near the exit. (Dogs are welcome and ‘pooper’ bags are available at reception).

To the stars and beyond Is this a medieval battering ram I see before me? Nay, it’s the famous Birr Telescope which was constructed in the 1840s and remained the largest telescope in the world for over 70 years.

My pre-conception of the telescope was of a large silver and brass instrument reached by ascending a set of stairs indoors. This accounts 48 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

for my surprise at coming across ‘The Leviathan’ – a gigantic, timber cylinder set between two stone block walls in the grounds. The telescope enabled the discovery in Birr of the spiral nature of the galaxies.

The Parsons were linked with astronomy, photography and high-end engineering across the globe. Mary, wife of the telescope’s inventor, the Third Earl of Rosse, coined the motto, Pro Deo et Patria ad Astra (For God and country to the stars).

We also enjoyed . . Kinnitty Castle Loop Walk; local lore from Kieran Clements of the Slieve Bloom Bar, Kinnity; riverside walks in Birr’s Camcor Park; swimming in the pristine Birr Leisure Centre; the architectural beauty of Birr Library and Civic Offices where a facsimile of the Macregol Gospels are on display; meeting Author Malcolm McDonald (see smashwords.com); seeing Saint Brendan’s Monastery, Birr, where Cáin Adomáin or the Law of the Innocents was passed in 697, establishing protection of women and children as a matter of law; eating at Spinners’ Restaurant, Sizzler Tandoori, Brambles and Loft cafes, Birr; visiting Banagher; a brief visit to Roscrea Castle and Round Tower on the road home. (Most impressed by Roscrea Men’s’ Shed on tidy town duty that morning); and, of course, having the head space to write.

Useful websites:

birrcastle.com birrtheatre.com tinjugstudio.com birrleisurecentre.ie loughbooraparklands.com slievebloom.ie discoverireland.ie/offaly offaly.ie/heritage rocreaonline.com.

websites

Note that no children under 12 are allowed on the tours, which are limited to 20 people and are mornings only because the castle owners, the Parsons family, may use the rooms in the afternoon. ‘This is a family home with small kids, not a museum,’ our guide says.

Breda Joy is the author of ‘Hidden Kerry, The Keys to the Kingdom’ (Mercier Press, 2014). Her new book, The Wit and Wisdom of Kerry was recently published by Mercier.l

Meetings

Irish Charmer They say opposites attract, and that was certainly the case for Mairead Robinson’s parents as she tells their story.

These days many couples meet each other on-line, while for the previous generation it was usually at a dance or disco.

But what about the generation before that, how did they find their partners? My parents met and married in the late 1940s, a period just after the war when times were really tough. And yet, against all odds, the English Rose and the Irish Charmer met and fell in love and got married and settled into their new home in Sandycove, Co. Dublin where they raised three children and lived happily together for more than fifty years.

falls for an English Rose

My mother was christened Margaret Joyce Lee, she was always called Jo since childhood, and she grew up with her older brother in a happy and comfortable home in Highgate, London. They enjoyed a very comfortable life, with a cook, a driver, housekeeper and gardener and she had her own horse and a privileged education. When the Second World War broke out she was a teenager whose life was about to change dramatically and she decided to join the Royal Air Force as a radio officer.

From her sheltered upbringing she entered a world where she was billeted with women from all walks of life. “We were all sisters under the skin” she used to say when recounting those days and told tales of heartbreak when friends

Wedding day for Jo and Gerry

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 49

Meetings and boyfriends never returned from bombing missions and the women were left at the silent end of the radio desperately trying to re-establish contact. She herself was once “almost” engaged to one such airman who never came home. She also told how she met a very attractive American pilot with whom she thought there might be a promising future until he received word from his mother telling him in no uncertain terms that he was not to think about marrying an English girl, and was to come home and marry an American!

The war ended and Jo returned to settling into civilian life when a friend of hers suggested they go on a holiday to Ireland. On the boat over, her friend got chatting to a friendly man who wanted to arrange a double date for the next night when the girls were staying in Howth.

Jo refused point-blank to go on a blind-date, but eventually was persuaded to at least have a look at ‘her’ man when he arrived at the hotel before she made up her mind. The two men arrived that evening, and when she saw the tall handsome smiling Irish man, she was immediately smitten. And indeed so was he.

For the remaining days of their holiday he took her out to see the sights of Dublin and before she returned to England he asked her to marry him. And she said yes.

My father was born Gerrard Patrick Cullen in Castlebellingham, Co. Louth. He had two older sisters and two older brothers. His father died tragically and suddenly of a heart attack when he was in his early forties, leaving his pregnant wife a widow. Without the cushion of a widow’s pension or any other form of social welfare, she took on the Post Office from her home together with a small grocery shop, and she lived there until she died, as did her eldest daughter Caroline. Gerrard (Gerry) was believed to be a special child as he was born after his father’s death, and some people believed he had healing powers and they brought their children to him to be cured of minor ailments such as warts and skin problems. He did not like to talk about this very much in later years as he was a devout Catholic and such things did not sit easily with his religion.

nal exams to become fully qualified and secure a permanent professional position. And then he met Jo.

The family suffered further hardship when his brother Paddy was killed in a road accident, and his sister Nancy died of ‘consumption’.

When his brother Matthew went to Dublin to make his fortune, Gerry soon followed suit and served his time as an accountant taking his fi

When she arrived back in London and announced to her parents that she was going to marry an Irishman and go and live in Ireland, Jo’s parents were pretty alarmed! However Gerry arrived over some weeks later with cases full of fresh meat, fruit and butter and

Jo signs up with the WRAF

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with food rationing still an issue in England, he melted hearts very quickly. Even the cook, a stern Welsh women called Annie, who subsequently became an annual visitor to our home when we were children, fell for Gerry’s charming ways.

Once it was all settled and agreed, Gerry returned to Dublin to buy a house and Jo began to arrange the wedding. They were

Meetings

Gerry as a young man. Jo, Gerry’s English Rose

married in London in 1949 and went down to Cornwall for the honeymoon.

They returned to Ireland and settled into a comfortable family life for the next fifty years and had three children. She always referred to England as ‘home’ while he remained the patriotic Irishman he always was, and yet their love for each other surpassed politics, religion, class and nationality. Their ashes are interred together in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Have you got a love story that you would like to share?

Contact us at Senior Times or email me directly at mairead.seniorbeauty@gmail.com

Many year’s on..

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 51

Creative Writing Eileen Casey

Exploring memory loss through fiction Two new books tackle the curse that is Alzheimers

When I was completing my studies in Trinity College (2011), I had the privilege of hearing Sir Terry Pratchett deliver some stirring lectures on writing. He was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, an illness which eventually robbed him of life. Even so, he spoke eloquently and at length though at times he appeared to have what I would term ‘memory pauses’. Although he was accompanied by a personal care assistant and tired easily, he was still Sir Terry Pratchett, one of the most brilliant fantasy novelists of the last century.

The breadth of his imagination was astonishing. The website for The Alzheimer Society of Ireland is very informative in a clear, concise manner, covering all aspects of the disease, from diagnoses to treatment. According to the Society’s website, Dementia is a term used to describe a number of conditions that cause damage to the brain. This damage generally happens over time and will have a gradual impact on a person’s ability to remember and to manage everyday life.

Clare Allan wrote the novel because dementia is an issue close to her heart. Her grandmother was diagnosed more than a decade ago. Through watching her progress through the illness and the way the family have coped on a day to day basis

The early signs and symptoms of dementia may vary from person to person and each type of dementia can have particular symptoms or characteristics linked to it. However,

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some general early signs and symptoms include: Memory loss, particularly for recent events, problems with language, difficulty finding the right word, changes in mood and

behavior, becoming confused in familiar surroundings or situations, difficulty managing money and everyday tasks, among others.

Most people will experience a number of these signs and will find that they are having increasing difficulty over time. In general, signs and symptoms emerge gradually. Just because I have dementia, I’m still me…is the caption on the website. Which makes the title of Claire Allan’s new book ‘Still You’ particularly resonant.

Allan wrote the novel because dementia is an issue close to her heart. Her grandmother was diagnosed more than a decade ago.

Through watching her progress through the illness and the way the family have coped on a day to day basis, Allan realized how heartbreaking the situation is. That nothing prepares you for someone once loved and looked up to, not recognizing the familiar. Allan is a reporter with the Derry Journal newspaper in Northern Ireland and one half of The Mammy Monologues. She lives in her home city with her husband, two children and two cats. ‘Still You’ is her eight novel, ‘The First Time I said Goodbye’ received praise from outlets such as Irish Independent and lauded as ‘a true story full of emotion and heartbreak.’ Her grandmother is now in the very advanced stages of the illness. She cannot interact with the family and requires twenty-hour care. Seeing how, in particular her father, uncle and aunts have had to deal with the ‘living loss’ of their mother has been devastating for the novelist.

She recounts a haunting memory of the first time her grandmother didn’t appear to recognize her. ‘It was the day of my sister’s wedding.

I was all glammed up as bridesmaid – riding on the crest of a wave.’ Allan’s novel ‘Rainy Days and Tuesdays’ had just been published and she knew her granny would have been so proud of her. However, when they met at the hotel, her beloved grandmother looked at her blankly and asked if she knew her. Allan dealt with the shock through humour initially, saying ‘Ach sure granny, who would know me with my face washed?’ but inside part of her broke. She has been angry at so many life experiences her grandmother has been there to see but unable to participate in or understand. Births, weddings, achievements. ‘Just being able to be my reassuring granny, with the razor sharp wit and the best stocked biscuit tin in Ireland.’

It occurred to Allan that so many people with dementia become just that, ‘ people with dementia.’ In looking after them it’s hard to always remember the person they once were, the

‘lives they led and the sacrifices they made.’

What she set out to do through writing the novel was to show that ‘someone with dementia is still someone.’ The story unfolds through the character of Aine, a strong woman who, has worries and fears about her illness, and who has lived a remarkable life. Allan wanted to ‘highlight the individuality of her personality – and the individual nature of each person living with dementia.’

There is some evidence that dementia is hereditary or genetic. Also however, everyone can be forgetful at times and struggle to put a name to a face or remember where the car is parked. These changes in memory naturally occur due to age. We often suffer from what is commonly termed ‘the tip of the tongue syndrome.’ That name or word is just there, on the tip of the tongue but it won’t come. These

occurrences can happen due to a number of factors including: anxiety and stress, depression, an infection such as chest or bladder infection, vitamin deficiency, side effects of some medications, long term overuse of alcohol, among others.

While Allen was writing ‘Still You’ she had been diagnosed with endometriosis and living, in her own words, ‘in constant, chronic pain.’ She therefore gained, at first hand, insight into how isolating an illness can be. Thankfully, she now needs only occasional pain relief and can live a full and hectic life.

The story opens in 1963 with the arrival of summer to Temple Muse, the big house Aine Quigley shares with her mother. Also arriving is sister Charlotte, home from Italy with her two children and adoring husband. Charlotte is a free spirit, some of which rubs off on Aine,

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 53

putting in train a chain of events which will frame the rest of their lives. From the fragrant flowerbeds of their luscious gardens to a sun-soaked terrace in Italy, Aine finds her life moving in a direction she had never thought possible. The book charts this life right up to the older years when dementia threatens to steal Aine’s memories from her. Georgina helps her to look back on all that has passed.

But will Aine regret her choices in life or will she realize that everything worked out just as it always should have? ‘Still You’ is a poignant character driven storyline, well written and compelling. Although at its core, there is the dementia theme, the book has other human interest elements. It’s a story of friendship and family ties – with romance and ‘gorgeous scenery’ thrown in. Allan herself says that writing the friendship between Aine and Georgina (Aine’s carer when she eventually is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s) was a joy as was the relationship between Aine and her adventurous sister, Charlotte. There’s no doubt that the act of exploring this universal theme, structured in a fictional (though fact based) novel, has helped Claire Allan come to terms with this family tragedy.

Another writer who has worked through her own personal response to Alzheimer is Dublin poet Christine Broe. Born in 1948, she also has a passion for visual arts. The bog sculpture on the cover of ‘Lifting Light,’ her second poetry collection is an example of her work in this unusual medium. Broe trained as an Art Teacher in NCAD. Married with seven children she holds an M.A. in Art Therapy from Crawford College, Cork. Her first collection ‘Solas Solás’ was also published by Swan Press and was favourably received. Indeed, she is an prize winning author, taking home the inaugural Brendan Kennelly/Sunday Tribune Award in 2001.Her mother suffered from Alzheimer’s and Broe found an outlet for her grief through the writing of poetry which is deeply moving and elegiac. Silent Music (from‘Lifting Light’) is one such poem, celebrating the way memories can be stored in the body. Christine’s mother was a talented piano player, ‘and she would do finger exercises on the edge of a table. I caught myself repeating this action one November morning in the winter sun. At the time of writing, my mother’s piano, which lives here now, was not used. This is no longer the case. Her grandson Luke is a musician and a member of a band called Half of Me.

Another writer who has worked through her own personal response to Alzheimer is Dublin poet Christine Broe. Born in 1948, she also has a passion for visual arts. The bog sculpture on the cover of ‘Lifting Light,’ her second poetry collection is an example of her work in this unusual medium.

Silent Music Spoon pillowed on wet T-bag, motes settle undisturbed.

Fingers touch the table edge – ring middle index thumb Soh fah me ray imagined in a weak November sun.

A silver sheen lights knuckle hairs, bone mountains ripple under skin.

The piano downstairs has been silent for years.

The Visit was almost a found poem, Christine explains. ‘I found the bones of it in an old diary. I had described her actions during a visit, when speech was gone, but she seemed contented.

All the other sounds seemed like cruel false hopes that she would say something.’

54 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

The Visit Her eyes are downcast lids blue veined like porcelain she plays with grapes when one is placed to her satisfaction she raises her eyebrows once in a blue moon she laughs seems like herself sneezes, coughs and sighs just remnants of her repertoire of sounds remain if she finds words we pass these utterances among ourselves like little treasures Still You (Poolbeg) is €16.99 and available from Caroline Maloney, Poolbeg Press on 01 832 1477 or email: info@poolbeg.com Lifting Light, Christine Broe and Solas Solás can be bought in The Rathgar Bookshop, Books Upstairs and The Winding Stairs or from www.christinebroe.com www.Alzheimer.ie is the Alzheimer’s Society website and helpline is 1800 341 341.

Lack of sunlight and its role in disease Researchers are concerned over the widespread vitamin D deficiency that has been affecting even seemingly healthy individuals. Lack of sunlight is the main reason for this deficit which has been linked with a number of different illnesses.

Your bones need vitamin D Most people have heard of rickets, the bone malformation that is caused by lack of vitamin D. We think of it as a thing of the past but there has been a sudden influx of cases in recent years.

Vitamin D deficiency was thought to have been eradicated in Ireland after the Second World War, due to better nutrition. However, over 20 cases of rickets in infants and toddlers have been reported at two Dublin hospitals in the last four to five years. Further evidence is emerging that there is widespread low levels of vitamin D in the general population in Ireland.

In adults, Vitamin D deficiency leads to soft bones and osteoporosis. Vitamin D promotes calcium absorption and helps maintain calcium concentrations in the blood as well as mineralisation of bone.

From seafood to sunscreen In 2010, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism showed that at least 59 per cent of the general population in the modern world is vitamin D deficient, with a large proportion having extremely low levels of this ‘sunshine vitamin’.

One problem is that we are not consuming enough of the foods which are good sources of vitamin D, mainly oily fish and organ meats. To make matters worse, our extensive use of SPF blocks the natural synthesis of vitamin D that takes place in the skin in response to sun exposure.

Deficiency and disease Vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of many different health problems, including auto-immune conditions, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and even cancer.

Northern Europe is low in vitamin D Ireland belongs to the part of the world that gets relatively little sunshine, compared with other countries that have sunnier climates. According to recent findings where American scientists used a computer-simulated model to calculate how much sun exposure it requires to produce sufficient levels of D-vitamin they found that in Boston during summer, it took three to eight minutes of UV exposure to about 25% of the body’s skin surface, whereas it was difficult to produce any D-vitamin during the winter in that area.

Although Boston and Ireland are far apart geographically, both places have maritime climates, as they are located by the Atlantic Ocean. It is therefore reasonable to assume that it is similarly difficult to produce sufficient amounts of D-vitamin in Ireland during winter.

Source: Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. June 2010, Volume 62, Issue 6, Pages 929.e1-929.e9

Supplements of vitamin D may help Crohn’s patients Sufferers of Crohn’s disease may be relieved to hear that Irish researchers have found positive results in treating the ailment with vitamin D supplements. The study which is published in the June issue of United European Gastroenterology Journal shows how daily supplements of vitamin D helped patients maintain their intestinal permeability, whereas this deteriorated in the group that got placebo (dummy pills). Also, the vitamin D-treated patients had less inflammation and reported better quality of l ife Source: United European Gastroenterology Journal June 2015 3: 294-302

Vitamin D health benefits: Mighty muscles

People with insufficient or deficient levels of vitamin D are likely to have fatty muscles. In a recently published cross-sectional study, 59% of girls aged 16-22 in California (one of the sunniest states in the U.S.) had insufficient (< 29 ng/ml) levels of Vitamin D and 24% were deficient (< 20 ng/ml).

The researchers concluded a strong inverse relationship between Vitamin D status and percentage of muscle fat. Fat infiltration in muscle tissue affects strength and power and can impair physical functioning.

Heart health Using a meta-analysis study, British researchers from the University of Warwick found that middle-aged and elderly people with high levels of vitamin D were at least 33 per cent less likely of developing heart disease.

In the heart, vitamin D binds to specific receptors and produces its “calming”, protective effects.

Their research is based on nearly 100,000 men and women of different ethnic backgrounds.

American scientists from the Washington University School of Medicine have discovered that it is particularly dangerous for diabetics to have too little vitamin D, as it impairs their ability to clear cholesterol from their blood vessels.

The ‘D’ is for D-fense Vitamin D is vital for the production of anti-microbial proteins that help fight infection. Japanese scientists successfully demonstrated that school children who received a daily vitamin D supplement were nearly 60% less likely to catch the flu, compared with those who did not get the extra vitamin D.

depression and a lack of Vitamin D. The lower the Vitamin D level, the greater the chance of depression. However it seems to be a bit of a chicken and egg type situation. It’s yet to be confirmed if people get depressed because of a deficiency of Vitamin D, or if depression lowers the vitamin level.

Down in the dumps?

Research results reported in the by the Vitamin D Council, highlight a link between vitamin D deficiency and depression. Canadian researchers reviewed 14 studies, consisting of 31,424 participants and found a strong correlation between

Researchers have also found that patients with schizophrenia and manic depression are often born during the time of year where a mother’s vitamin D levels are low, typically in the spring and winter.

Thyroid trouble

Vitamin D is a critical regulator of your immune system and research has already established that Vitamin D deficiency is highly associated with other autoimmune diseases like Multiple Sclerosis and Type I Diabetes.

Vitamin D deficiency is also associated with Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism–another autoimmune condition.

Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune attack on the inside of your thyroid gland.

Over time, your immune system destroys the inside of your thyroid gland—so much, that you can’t make enough thyroid hormones and you suffer low thyroid symptoms.

Some of the symptoms of an underactive thyroid include weight gain, constipation, hair loss, brain fog, an excessive need for sleep and joint pain.

In 2011 researchers took 161 confirmed Hashimoto’s patients and measured their Vitamin D levels.

The results showed that a shocking 92% of the Hashimoto’s patients had a vitamin D deficiency.

Without Vitamin D your immune system can easily become unbalanced.

Vitamin D deficiency can lead to an expression of an autoimmune attack on a tissue.

So if you carry the gene for Hashimoto’s and you become Vitamin D deficient your gene can turn on and you can start expressing it and start attacking your thyroid. Over time you become low thyroid and develop low thyroid symptoms.

How much do we need?

Using an advanced computer simulation technique, American and Norwegian scientists have found that people living in sunny climates (in this case Florida) are able to get enough sunshine all year round to cover their basic need for vitamin D. In contrast, those living in areas with limited amounts of sunshine (in this case Boston) are likely to be deficient, particularly during the winter period. Their research is published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

In another study that was published in the Journal of Nutrition, a group of American scientists recommend that lightskinned people living north of Equator take at least 30 micrograms of vitamin D during the winter period. Dark-skinned individuals living in similar regions should take 50-70 micrograms all year,

the scientists say. Dark skin does not synthesize vitamin D in response to UV-light as easily as light skin.

As vitamin D is a fat soluble nutrient (can be stored in the body), experts do not recommend supplementing with very high doses (5,000 IU’s or more) without a vitamin D test.

However a supplement containing 1500IU’s is considered very safe. This dose provides the amount of vitamin D that you get from subtracting the average daily intake from the safe upper intake level for vitamin D, which health authorities have set at 50 micrograms/day.

Did you know that…

• Health authorities used to recommend 5 micrograms (200 international units) of vitamin D per day.

Now, experts suggest at least 5 times that for a healthy person and even more for anyone with an illness.

• Vitamin D toxicity is rare but has occurred with doses of about 50,000 international units per day (1,250 micrograms)

• Blood levels of vitamin D above 220nmol/L increases risk of toxicity. The vitamin D council states 100-125nmol/L as being ideal for optimum health.

• Nearly every cell and tissue in the body has a vitamin D receptor indicating that they all need this nutrient to function properly.

• Vitamin D is absorbed more easily in the digestive system when dissolved in a lipid like olive oil.

• Vitamin D can only be produced when the skin is directly exposed to the sun. The UVB rays cannot penetrate glass or clothing.

• There are two types of vitamin D. D2 and D3. D3 is the active form (the same kind that is produced when our skin is exposed to sunlight). It is much more efficient at boosting body stores and should always be favoured when picking a suplement.

• Vitamin D production is inhibited by the use of SPF’s.

A factor of 8 or higher will block production by 95%!

• Our ability to absorb vitamin D decreases as we age.

• Overweight or obese indivisuals are less able to produce vitamin D from the sun.

• If you have dark skin, you’ll need about 25 times more sun exposure than a light skinned person. Dark pigmentation reduces the production of vitamin D. When we sun bathe, the darker the tan, the less vitamin D that is produced. This is the body’s way of maintaining balance.

• Your body cannot absorb calcium without enough vitamin D. Vitamin D opens up channels in bones so that calcium can enter. Despite Ireland’s high dietary intake of calcium, osteoporosis is extremely common.

Calcium supplements taken without adequate vitamin D levels will not lead to improved bone health and can even be dangerous.

• Reversing a vitamin D deficiency cannot be achieved over night. It can take months of supplementing and sun exposure before levels return to normal.

• Your kidneys and liver activate vitamin D. Having impaired kidney or liver function will hinder your ability to produce the nurient.

• Full-body exposure of pale skin to tropical sunshine for 30 minutes without clothing or SPF can result in the synthesis of between 10,000 and 20,000 IU of vitamin D.

• It is almost impossible to obtain adequate vitamin D through diet alone. The best food sources are oily fish, egg yolks and organ meats.

’When choosing a supplement

always pick capsules with active vitamin D3 dissolved in cold pressed olive oil.

This provides optimal absorption and added antioxidant potential’

Norwegian researchers conduct absorption study:

The best way to take vitamin D Capsules of vitamin D dissolved in olive oil provide excellent absorption of the “sunshine nutrient”, according to a new study.

Vitamin D supplements are becoming increasingly popular in Ireland due to the relative lack of sunshine. However, many vitamin D supplements come in tablet form which is not absorbed well in the body. This is because vitamin D is a lipid-soluble nutrient. Therefore the best way to take it is in an oil solution. A recent study showed that antioxidant rich olive oil further protects the integrity of the nutrient.

In the study carried out in the University of Oslo, the researchers gave small capsules with biologically active vitamin D in olive oil to male and female athletes. Two different doses were given, 76 micrograms or 152 micrograms. In both groups blood levels of vitamin D increased to the levels expected, indicating that the supplement was very well tolerated and absorbed in the body.

Source: ”Effekt av vitamin D-tilskudd på 25(OH)D-status” (André Colin Klæboe Baumann), University of Oslo, July 2013

Vitamin D may protect against pre-eclampsia A Norwegian study points to a 25% lower incidence of pre-eclampsia among women who take vitamin D supplements.

As many as 10 per cent of all pregnant women risk developing pre-eclampsia, a potentially dangerous combination of hypertension and protein excretion in the urine, but according to researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health who have conducted a study of over 20,000 pregnant women, supplements of vitamin D may cut the risk by around 25%.

The underlying mechanism of pre-eclampsia is not fully understood, but oxidative stress has been suggested as a determining factor in the pregnancy complication that is responsible for around 60,000 deaths annually on a global scale.

Source: Epidemiology, September 2009, vol. 20;5:720-726

125

25(OH)D blood levels (nmol/L) 91 nmol/L 2 × D-Pearls/day (76 mcg)

100

75

50

53 nmol/L Placebo group 1

2

3

4

Weeks

Vitamin D in an olive oil solution in small gelatin capsules is the ideal formula for ensuring good bio-availability (absorption).

What to look for in a supplement • Active vitamin D3 from organic lanolin (for optimal bioavailability).

• Dissolved in cold pressed olive oil for antioxidant protection and superior absorption.

• Blister packed capsules to prevent contamination from bacteria.

Also protects the chemical composition from oxygen, heat, air and moisture.

• Easy to swallow capsules that can be added to food or chewed.

Get your “Sunshine vitamin” (even in Ireland!)

Did you know that: • Sunlight is our primary source of vitamin D. It is very difficult to get adequate amounts from food alone.

• We fail to get sufficient vitamin D because the sun is too weak seven months a year • An SPF 8 or higher blocks the production of vitamin D • Vitamin D is important for healthy skin, bones and teeth • Vitamin D supports the immune system • Vitamin D helps maintain muscle function

80 DA SUPP Y LY!

D-Pearls: • Are dissolved in cold-pressed olive oil for optimal absorption • Come in small, easy-to-swallow “pearls” which are also chewable • Have a high dose – 38 µg (1,520 IU) of vitamin D3.

Made from lanolin – the best organic vitamin D source • Documented absorption in Norwegian study Please contact us if you would like more information on D-Pearls Pharma Nord®

+ Available in pharmacies and health food stores!

Tel: 01 630 5470 • Fax: 01 630 5475 Email: ireland@pharmanord.com Web: www.pharmanord.ie

COMPETITION

Three copies of Neven Maguire’s best-selling FAST to be won

Competition winners from last issue

Senior Times, in association with the publishers, Gill & MacMillan are offering three copies of Nevin Maguire’s book Fast in this competition.

Ireland’s most trusted chef has devised 100 new everyday family recipes you can rely on. Recipes include speedy suppers, clever lunchbox ideas, economical meals made from leftovers, and fast, healthy alternatives to takeaways.

These tried and tested recipes guarantee you’ll have fast, nutritious food that your family will love on the table in minutes leaving you free to get back to your life!

To be in with a chance of winning one of these books, simply answer the following question: How many recipes are there in Fast?

Send your answers to FAST Competition, Senior Times, Unit 1, 15 Oxford Lane, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

Or email to: john@slp.ie Deadine for receipt of entries is 24th January 2016. First three correct entries received are the winners.

Crossword: York Laboratories food test kit John Murray, Kildangan, Co Kildare Break For Two At Castle Dargan Resort Mary Kelleher D12 Sudoku: Subscription To Senior Times Padhraic Faherty, Barna, Co Galway Four Pairs Of Tickets For Putting On The Ritz Margaret Russell, Dublin 5 J Lennon, Limerick Rosa Doyle, Cork Brendan Conlon, Dublin 6 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 61

Movial Plus – joint support now and for the future

Running, walking and cycling are some of the best and most popular forms of cardio exercises to help us keep fit and healthy, but they can take their toll on our joints which can lead to problems later on life. In fact, you don’t have to be an athlete to wear your joints out – any repetitive movement can cause problems.

Even our lifestyle can lead to inflammation, oxidative stress and wear and tear inside our joints and being overweight can, not surprisingly, also lead to serious joint damage.

One of the most important factors in joint health is the fluid inside the joint. This synovial fluid not only lubricates or “oils” the joint, but actually nourishes the whole joint, including the synovial membrane and the cartilages – protecting them from damage and assists in

the healing process. Interestingly the quality of the synovial fluid is just as important in prevention of damage as in assistance in healing a damaged joint.

Two main components contribute to its quality: hyaluronic acid and collagen. These are found in large amounts in all our connective tissues, ensuring stability and proper function.

Hyaluronic acid is found in the highest concentration in our joints, cushioning and lubricating them and in addition it might alter the way the body responds to injury. Just like a spring, the longer this molecule is (the higher the molecular weight), the better its cushioning effect.

Collagen, especially type II collagen is the main protein – or building block in cartilage.

Studies suggest that taken orally in a hydrolysed form (pre-digested) it can improve the body’s own production of joint collagen. Vitamin C is probably the best known antioxidant and it is also important for the integrity of all connective tissues.

62 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

Additionally one of the richest sources of polyphenols and flavonoids is pomegranate.

Studies show it may help to reduce inflammation that contributes to the destruction of cartilage in your joints, a key reason for the pain and stiffness felt by many osteoarthritis sufferers. One study even found that pomegranate extract blocked the production of a cartilage- destroying enzyme, while maintaining joint integrity and function.

There is a new supplement complex in your pharmacies and health food stores with all the above ingredients. Movial Plus contains a patented formula; Fluidart @ with its combination of Type II collagen, hyaluronic acid, pomegranate extract and Vitamin C to support joint health.

Clinical studies have shown its efficacy in reducing inflammation and pain while improving mobility and quality of life. A perfect support whether you lead an active lifestyle or struggle with stiffness and pain due to osteoarthritis or other forms of joint disease.

Wine World

Pleasures of port Mairead Robinson recommends trying something new this festive season.

It is hard to believe that Christmas time is upon us already, and the New Year is just around the corner.

I always suggest sparkling wine to celebrate the season and I have recommended some good Prosecco and Cava if the budget does not stretch to Champagne as your preferred aperitif. But this year I am going to concentrate on what to drink at the other end of the meal and I have chosen the traditional favourite â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a good Port.

There really is no better way to finish off a dinner, whether fruit, Crème Brule, chocolate or cheeses, than a glass of Port.

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 63

Wine produced in the Douro valley has been transported down the river to Porto since the thirteenth century.

And it is interesting to see how this traditional favourite is now coming back into fashion and is being embraced by younger generations who are devising delicious cocktails and different ways of enjoying this traditional tipple.

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting the lovely city of Porto, home to Portugalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most famous wine. tourists flock to Porto throughout the year to visit port cellars like Ferreira, Offley and Sandeman, to sample non-fortified wines and to take river cruises up the Douro River which is almost two hundred kilometres long, to visit the vineyards where the port and table wine grapes are grown. The region is home to 255,000 hectares of which 45,000are planted with vines. There is also a smaller production of olives and almonds. Located along the Douro estuary in northern Portugal, Porto is actually one of the oldest European centres

64 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

The Offley port ageing cellar

and its historical core was proclaimed a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1996. It is a wonderful place to visit, not least for the unique architecture, great restaurants, cultural heritage and of course, to learn about Port.

Wine produced in the Douro valley has been transported down the river to Porto since the thirteenth century. The DOC Porto (port is the Anglicism) vineyards are nowhere near the city of Porto. They start eighty km inland from Porto near the town of Regua and run upstream to the Spanish border. The rugged mountainous country between the vineyards of the Upper Douro and the coast cuts out much of the maritime influence. It has an extreme climate with cool winters and hot summers and light rainfall.

The vineyards of the Upper Douro are some of the most stunningly beautiful in the world. The River Douro has cut a deep gorge through the hard rocks of the region which has forced generations of workers to build dramatic terraces on the steep slopes. The wine producing farms of the Upper Douro, Quintas, produce a bewildering number of grape varieties, in fact I learnt that there are approximately one hundred varieties, however the principal ones include Tinta Barroca, Touriga Franca, Tinta Amarela, Tinta Roriz, Touriga Nacional and Tinto Cao. I visited the region last October just as the hand picked grapes were being harvested. When transported to the wineries, the grapes are crushed in ‘lagares’ where mechanical crushing replicates the traditional action of the feet. The grapes begin their fermentation process in stainless steel tanks and are then brought to Porto where they are transferred to oak barrels. It is important to note that the fortified wine is not produced by late-harvest or by the addition of sugar, but rather by the interruption of the fermentation process where seventy-seven percent proof alcohol is added which is made from distilled white grapes and is sometimes called ‘brandy’. This process is strictly controlled each year by the Beneficio. The giant oak barrels used to age the port are impressive to see, as they hold about 68,000 litres of wine. Some of the smaller barrels are several decades old. During its maturation in wood, Port behaves like any other red wine. If it spends a short time in barrel the wine will retain its vibrant colour and dark fruit aromas. This is the origin of the Ruby

family of Ports. With extended wood maturation the colour will fade to an orangey-brown and the bouquet will develop mellow, woody notes.

This gives rise to Tawny Ports. Vintage Port is a wine of one year which was exceptional and happens only about three times a decade 2011 was one of the best years ever. LBV (late Bottled Vintage) are matured in wood for twice as long (four to six years) as Vintage Ports.

Rose Port is light and best enjoyed chilled on its own or as a cocktail with ice, lemon and tonic water. White Port, which is becoming very popular also is produced from white grapes and can be dry, medium-dry or sweet.

So there is a whole world of Port to be discovered and enjoyed, and a visit to Porto should certainly be considered when planning your next holiday to Portugal. I took a train up from Lisbon which took a couple of hours and was both pleasant and affordable – trains being a great way to see the countryside - but Ryan Air have made the area very accessible also with direct flights into Porto. For those who are enjoying these wines, both port and table wine at home, there is a good range available in Ireland also. Look out for Offley and Sandeman ports as well as wines from Portugal including Papa Figos, and the great wines from Douro Casa Ferreirinha including Esteva (€15.00) and Vinha Grande Red (€21.99) Next time you go looking for something different, especially during the busy festive season, think Portugal!

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 65

Size matters Sometimes big is great. Think snowcapped mountains, generous bonuses and Christmas trees. But at other times, it’s the little things that pack a punch and really make a difference.

And that’s where Comvita come in.

scientifically selected, uniquely extracted olive leaves. Your immune system is also naturally invigorated, meaning that it’s easier to stay healthy, no matter what your busy life throws at you*.

What’s more, it’s astoundingly simple. The capsules may be small in stature. But they’re also intensely powerful, meaning you get the ultimate one-a-day convenience.

Providing definitive proof that the best things really do come in the smallest packages, Comvita has the pleasure of bringing you Olive Leaf Extract High Strength Capsules.

For just 30p a day, the newest addition to Comvita’s olive leaf range offers the most authentic, natural and convenient way to help stay healthy, through winter and beyond*. And all in a capsule that you only need to remember to take once a day.

Plus you’ll benefit from the genuine freshness of Comvita’s olive leaf extract

Sound like something that could be perfect for you? Read on to discover more.

Natural immune support that’s simple and convenient Comvita’s been shouting enthusiastically about

the amazing benefits of their incredible olive leaf extract for some time now. But now, for the first time, they’ve added zinc and copper to their boisterous blend of natural goodness.

As a result, not only do you benefit from their

And it isn’t just your immune system that will thank you*. Olive leaves have been used in traditional medicine since Ancient Egyptian times for a reason. Now Comvita’s harnessed their power in a convenient capsule.

Sound like the product for you? Go to www. comvita.co.uk/products and learn about the benefits of Comvita’s super strength Olive Leaf Extract capsules. *Olive Leaf Extract High Strength Capsules with Zinc and Copper contribute to the normal function of the immune system.

Listening Out For A Problem The Human ear is one of the most complex organs we have. It connects us to our environment and makes us a part of where we are. Our hearing alerts us to warnings, even at night as it is the watchdog of the senses and never sleeps.

If you find you are having difficulty hearing certain sounds that others can identify, having problems regarding clarity of speech, noting ringing in the ear or indeed having any feeling of loss of balance then it is important you have your hearing fully assessed. When a person is having difficulty making out speech very often they tend to withdraw from social events, family activities and it can also negatively affect confidence and personal relationships.

Diagnostic Audiology Services wants to stress that not all hearing loss requires a hearing aid.

There are many types of hearing loss that can be corrected, some by appropriate surgery, while some need an alternative approach. It is for this reason that it is very important that qualified personnel carry out the assessment so that a treatable medical condition which requires intervention is not missed.

The hearing test environment must be quiet and free of distractions, no outside sound should penetrate, if this rule is not observed an accurate assessment will not be achieved and

66 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

could result in an incorrect diagnosis.

For more information contact Diagnostic Audiology Services on 01-9015080 or email info@diagnosticaudiology.ie

Maretta Dillon reports on happenings around the country over the next few months

Culture

Jennifer Lawrence heads up the cast of Joy, a comedy drama about a single mother of three children, through four generations as she builds her business empire after creating the ‘Miracle Mop’.

Shaw thing for the Abbey Artist Marie Brett and musician Kevin O’Shanahan have teamed up to produce E·gress, an evocative film essay that explores the complex subject of dementia. Mapping a twilight world of change and loss, the piece was informed by an intensive collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Association of Ireland. Now at IMMA before beginning a nationwide tour.

The Christmas production at the Abbey Theatre is always enjoyable with this year a new version of George Bernard Shaw’s, You Never Can Tell, which is described as a joyful and unpredictable battle of the sexes.

Opening on December 2 this one looks set to dazzle.

The family Gleeson are all over the screen this holiday season with father Brendan in director Ron Howard’s new action adventure film In the Heart of the Sea. Set on board a whaling ship, the Essex in 1820: it was the inspiration for Herman Melville’s story, Moby Dick. Howard’s

film explores the post mammal encounter when the surviving crew are pushed to their limits and forced to do the unthinkable. Chris Hemsworth is the main guy with Gleeson as a now older sailor musing on his younger self.

Opens on St Stephen’s Day everywhere.

driving beats of Brazil in a concert showcasing compositions by the incredible Hermeto Pascoal. Other concerts follow before the residency culminates in a special show with Georgie Fame and Hugh Buckley. More from musicnetwork.ie

Meanwhile, Jennifer Lawrence heads up the cast of Joy, a comedy drama about a single mother of three children, through four generations as she builds her business empire after creating the ‘Miracle Mop’. Joy opens on January 1, 2016 – a most auspicious date!

To get back to the Gleesons for a moment – son Domhnall heads west for The Revenant, the new film from the Oscar winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu. A 19th Century period piece, described as a “gritty thriller”, it’s about a fur trapper who seeks revenge against a group of men who robbed and abandoned him after he was mauled by a grizzly bear. We love a Western – in cinemas from January 15.

Music Network has joined up with Triskel Arts Centre and Cork City Council to establish a new Artist in Residency with pianist Phil Ware. UK-born pianist Phil Ware made the transition from blues to jazz in his early twenties before making his home in Ireland. In January 2016, an eight-strong group of musicians from Ireland, Venezuela, Germany and the UK display their love of the lilting melodies and

Finally, Music for Galway present their Midwinter Festival (Jan 22 to 27) at the Town Hall Theatre. The 2016 theme is Music from the Abyss and will feature the large ensemble group, DECODA, including up and coming clarinettist Carol McGonnell.

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 67

Domhnall Gleesons heads west for The Revenant, the new film from the Oscar winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu. A 19th Century period piece, described as a “gritty thriller”, it’s about a fur trapper who seeks revenge against a group of men who robbed and abandoned him after he was mauled by a grizzly bear.

Events around the Country / December 2015 – January 2016 PAT HARRIS Visual Arts Artist Pat Harris in his new body of work, Thin Places, concerns himself with the landscape of North Mayo.

Until December 14 at the Taylor Galleries, Dublin Information: taylorgalleries.ie FINDERS AND KEEPERS Visual Arts Works from the State Art Collection selected by a group of older people from Dun Laoghaire with artist Clare Halpin.

Until January 16 Information: Municipal Gallery, Dun Laoghaire. / dlrcoco.ie/arts/finders_keepers.htm E·gress Art work A film essay examining the loss and pain of dementia.

Dec 1 at IMMA and then nationwide Information: mariebrett.ie THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST Gate Theatre Oscar Wilde’s perennial favourite about bachelor friends, courtship and a certain Lady Bracknell.

From December 1 Booking: (01) 874 4045 / 874 6042/ boxoffice@gate-theatre.ie YOU NEVER CAN TELL The Abbey Theatre George Bernard Shaw’s comedy of the sexes sizzles at The Abbey for the Christmas season.

From December 2 Information: theabbeytheatre.ie / 353 1 8787222

PHIL WARE Music Pianist Phil Ware is the Artist in Residence in Triskel Arts Centre in a partnership with Music Network.

From Dec 11 - various Information: musicnetwork.ie IN THE HEART OF THE SEA Film Director Ron Howard goes to sea in this adventure thriller set on board a whaling ship chasing a mythic beast.

December 26 nationwide

Music Network has joined up with Triskel Arts Centre and Cork City Council to establish a new Artist in Residency with pianist Phil Ware. UK-born pianist Phil Ware made the transition from blues to jazz in his early twenties before making his home in Ireland.

JOY Film Jennifer Lawrence in the rags to riches story of the inventor of the Miracle Mop. January 1 nationwide

LESSLESS Theatre Actor Olwen Fouéré explores this profoundly evocative Beckett text.

January 27 - 30 / Project Arts Centre, Dublin Information: projectartscentre.ie

JERSEY BOYS Musical Theatre Back by popular demand, the Olivier, Tony and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical Jersey Boys returns. January 13- 20 / Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin Information: bordgaisenergytheatre.ie/ ticketmaster.com

AN EVENING WITH CARA O’SULLIVAN Music O’Sullivan, one of Ireland’s best loved voices will sing new arrangements of her favourite songs.

Jan 28 - 30 / Everyman Theatre, Cork Information: everymancork.com

THE REVENANT Film Tom Hardy takes the lead in this Western revenge tale with Domhnall Gleeson adding support.

TRADFEST TEMPLE BAR Music Annual music festival celebrating all that is good and exciting in trad and folk music.

January 27 -31 Information: templebartrad.com

MUSIC FOR GALWAY – MIDWINTER FESTIVAL Music CAPTIVE - Music from the Abyss January 22 - 24 Information: www.musicforgalway.ie

68 Senior Timesl January l July-August 20152016 l www.seniortimes.ie Senior Times - February l www.seniortimes.ie

Finally, if you’d like your event to feature in our list of What’s On please email: events.country@gmail.com

Beat the winter blues in the stylish and sunny Martinhal Quinta Family Resort, in the prestigious Quinta do Lago area!

Although the Algarve might seem like a summer destination, the temperatures rarely dip below 15ºC in the winter months with many sunny days allowing you to enjoy winter sun at unbeatable prices for both accommodation and flights.

5 Golf Rounds: 2 rounds at Quinta do Lago South, 2 rounds at Quinta do Lago Laranjal & 1 round at Quinta do Lago North Two Bedroom Townhouse max. 4 adults; 1 child up to 12 years – extra bed free of charge, and 1 child up to 2 years – cot free of charge.

Martinhal Quinta Family Resort, in Quinta do Lago is just 20 minutes away from Faro airport – within a 2 and a half-hour plane journey from most European airports.

PRICE FROM: total €1.624 or €406 per adult per week. Extra night (self-catering): €120 per house per night. Other Golf course supplements (Extra charge applies to play the following selection of Golf courses): a) 2 rounds at Pinheiros Altos; 3 rounds at Vale do Lobo - €185 (total supplement per house / 4 adults) b) 2 rounds at Pinheiros Altos; 1 round at Milllennium; 2 rounds Vale do Lobo - €264 (total supplement per house / 4 adults)

Quinta do Lago is the most prestigious golf area in Europe located right in the middle of the Ria Formosa National Park and it’s amazing beaches. With award-winning golf courses, newly built mini golf for kids and its sophisticated restaurants and shopping centres, Quinta do Lago is a much sought-after destination for family holidays, golf trips and long-stay winter sun breaks.

Martinhal Quinta Family Resort offers an exclusive 4-star private collection of independently owned luxury villas, offering a range of 2 bedroom townhouses to 5 bedroom villas – each with a private garden and pool area.

1st December 2015 to 18th March 2016 - A 2-bedroom villa situated in the private gated community of Martinhal Quinta with own private pool from €129* per night for 7 nights, with breakfast included.

Golf Package at Martinhal Quinta - 7 night stay, on self-catering basis •

Please contact our reservations team to find out more: res@martinhal.com or +351 282 240 200 or www.martinhal.com *Prices valid for a minimum of 7 nights. Maximum capacity in a 2-bedroom house is 4 adults and 1 child (up to 12 years) or 2 adults and 3 children (up to 12 years). All packages are subject to availability.

Aer Lingus flies directly to Faro, Algarve on a weekly basis from Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Belfast airports.

www.visitportugal.com

Profile

An audience with Joan Collins Lorna Hogg caught up with the Grande Dame when she opened a recent exhibition of her gowns at the Newbridge Silverware’s Museum of Style Joan recently visited Newbridge Silverware’s Museum of Style for the opening of a collection of of her gowns, which were on display until November 8th when they went to sale in Beverley Hills. Neither they, nor she, disappointed. The gowns – the epitome of glamour, including a couture halter neck, a white fox and mink cape, a beautiful Nolan Miller, (the `Dynasty’ costume designer) creation and costume jewellery epitomised Joan.. So, we start by asking - just how does a style icon survive?

Joan can be feisty at interviews, and doesn’t suffer fools gladly. She is also warm, funny and a great raconteur – with a stock of pithy one liners.

Elegant in a white suit of her own design, which she wore to receive her recent Damehood from Prince Charles, she is a believer in full on glamour. ‘I really believe that you’re as young as you look, feel and act’. This however, doesn’t happen without some effort. ‘A style icon’ needs discipline. ‘I walk, eat no junk food and exercise.’ A believer in ‘use it or lose it,’ she also has a regular trainer, swims and religiously protects her face from the sun. However, there’s no sense of deprivation or faddiness here. Everything, from exercise to chocolate, is enjoyed in moderation.

Joan is a firm believer in make up - she has been known to lean forward and ask if lightly made-up female writers are wearing any. ‘I love style and fashion. I was born into the wrong era. I would have loved to be in the Twenties and Thirties or the eighteenth century – I love the way women looked then. I always say – accentuate the positive, eliminate 70 Senior Times l January - February 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

Joan Collins poses with one of her gowns at the Newbridge Silverware Museum of Style

the negative. Dress to accentuate your good points, but don’t follow fashion slavishly.’

Designers she loves include Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors, all of whom produce ageless style. Not a fan of skinny, she points out that there is a pressure on young women to look as thin as possible.

‘I know from some of my actress friends who weigh maybe 8 stone who have been told to lose weight.’ She also feels that too many women look ‘as if they haven’t bothered’. That’s not Joan’s style. ‘Make up protects your skin’. She has revealed that a full face takes her about half an hour to apply – and it’s no secret that she loves wigs. She knows what she is talking about, and has even written the book. Several, in fact, and she clearly researches and practices what she preaches.

Joan was born on May 23rd 1933 into a comfortable North London lifestyle, elder sister to author Jackie, who recently died from breast cancer, and brother Bill. Her father was a successful theatrical agent, and her mother a glamorous supportive homemaker. ‘I grew up surrounded by elegant, glamorous women. I had eleven or twelve aunts who were always beautifully groomed and made-up.’ She admits however, that it was a slower, era, and that such a world has gone ‘it’s faster, more complicated now – life is more difficult.’

So, which actresses does she particularly admire? ‘Meryl Streep, Cate

Joan Collins married singer and composer Anthony Newley in 1963. They had two children Tara and Alexander.

Joan Collins in Land of the Pharaohs directed by Howard Hawks in 1955

Blanchett, Sian Philips.’ Judi Dench and Helen Mirren are also on her list. Any younger actresses? She pauses - ‘Throw out a few names – you’re asking the questions – I can’t do all the work,’and grins. Does she admire any of to-day’s public figures? ‘Haa..‘ - a derisory snort answers that one.

Her own youth was a world in which female beauty faded quickly. Her father advised her to make a much money as she could before 23, when she would be ‘all washed up.’ However, Joan’s natural glamour, helped by training at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, brought a contract

with the Rank Company. She appeared in Land of the Pharaohs’ in 1955, and Island in the Sun in 1957. She also appeared in the last of the famous `Road’ films with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope – The Road to Hong Kong.

Hollywood brought work with actors such as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Paul Newman and Kirk Douglas, and TV appearances ranged from Starsky and Hutch’ to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Her personal life, various colourful love affairs, including one with a young Warren Beatty and especially her four previous marriages, were ever bit as dramatic and challenging. However, her second, with Anthony Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 71

Joan Collins with her husband Percy

Newley produced Sacha and Tara and her marriage with Ron Kass brought Katy. Joan is now a proud granny of three grandchildren, whom she obviously and proudly adores. Love has finally triumphed all round.

As she has said, ‘I’ve kissed a few frogs, but now I’ve found my Prince’.

In 2000, she met theatrical company manager Percy Gibson on an American tour. Friends at first, she now calls him ‘my soulmate, best friend and lover..’ They have been married thirteen years. He has acted as her theatrical director, looks after their four homes (in London, New York, St. Tropez and Los Angeles) travels with her, and is an all round Prince Charming. Oh yes, and he is 32 years her junior. Joan’s best riposte to comments remains – ‘So if he dies, he dies.’

Absurd though it sounds to modern ears, in the 1970s, an agent advised Joan, whose career was stalling in her thirties, to ‘give up, go back home and look after her children’. Her response? Starring in a 1978 film The Stud, based on one of sister Jackie’s books. The film The Bitch followed, and views of Joan sexily perched on a swing started to change producers’ views of the `older woman’ She was offered the role of Alexis Carrington to add some sparkle, to TV show Dynasty, network rival to Dallas. Joan played the character, not in the visualised demure tweeds and pearls, but as a sophisticated, well travelled and forthright woman of the world. Worldwide fans loved it.

‘Alexis was tough, and behaved exactly in business as men do. In fact I kind of based her – a lot of her on Donald Trump’. That toughness, clad in sumptuous designer wear from Nolan Miller, brought Joan a Golden Globe in 1983 and later, an Emmy nomination. Interest in her personal style inspired a series of lifestyle books, and Joan honed her own skills as an astute negotiator of contracts and a business woman.

Never one to stay still for long, since Dynasty ended she has kept busy.

From that stylish Cinzano advertisment, in which Leonard Rossiter invariably splashes her drink over her, to appearances in popular series 72 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

such as Benidorm, Footballers’ Wives and The Royals, she has kept working. She has played in Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde theatre productions, in Dick Whittington panto, in her own one woman show, and has a cameo role in the new Absolutely Fabulous film. Then there are her books - Prime Time was her first novel. She has now written six of those, plus many lifestyle books, and memoirs, achieving 50 million in worldwide readers. A regular correspondent for the upmarket London magazine, The Spectator, and occasional guest columnist on some Fleet Street dailies, she also has her own make up line.

Her theatrical work brought her an Order of the British Empire decoration in 1997. However, it was her considerable charity work, ranging from the International Foundation for Children with Learning Disabilities to Fight for Sight and The Shooting Star/Chase Charity, that brought recognition with the Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire award earlier this year.

Joan has worked hard for her success, and now enjoys it with her children and grandchildren It could not, however, protect her from the pain of losing her sister Jackie, whom she has described as her best friend. Until recently, Jackie kept her diagnosis of cancer a secret to protect her family. Joan steadfastly refused to discuss this in press interviews. However, the loss is still visible when the topic is mentioned, and Percy swiftly and protectively changes the subject.

Focusing on the future helps, and she brightens at the plan for a new film project in Ireland. It’s called The Time of their Their Lives. It’s a buddy movie, based on older women and Pauline Collins and Franco Nero are involved’’ She has described it as a combination of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Thelma and Louise and looks forward to another visit to Ireland. She has come here since days of friendship with film director John Huston. It turns out that Irish actor Liam Neeson is ‘a good friend and very nice man too.’ So, not even Alexis Colby could fail to be enthused at the prospects ahead..

Dermot Gilleece reveals how some of the great players have sought divine intervention to keep them in the hunt

Golf

Praying for a putt

For the first few times of happening, it came as a little jolt to hear a tournament winner earnestly thanking ‘the Lord’ for this latest victory with club and ball. Now, with so many born-again Christians finding success in the sporting arena, it has become fairly commonplace. And why not?

Religion and golf in particular, have been shown to work pretty well together, though as a native of Bangor, Co Down, David Feherty has quite trenchant views on the subject, not least from his experience as an assistant professional to Fred Daly at Balmoral GC. ‘We didn’t have too many problems,’ he observed

acidly, ‘other than the clubhouse being blown up twice.’

Feherty then revealed: ‘I was born a protestant: now I’m a lapsed Buddhist. Growing up in Northern Ireland gives you a healthy disregard for all religion. Which side is right? I prefer to think they are both wrong. I just don’t care who your God is. When everyone thinks he occupies the high ground, no one looks up. I think we should all look up.’

It seems to me that prayer is more appropriate in golf than in most other sports, simply because of the deliberate, pedestrian nature of

the game. While this affords ample time to take the upmost care over a stroke, it also facilitates painful observation of an errant ball finding its way into the most horrendous locations.

And surely there is no more demanding exercise than the simple putt? One can but speculate as to the amount of prayer it might take to bring about acceptance of a missed three-foot putt for victory. Sam Snead knew about such matters, especially during the latter part of a sparkling career. Which probably explains his enthusiasm for a visit to the Vatican suggested by his manager, Fred Corcoran, on a post-war trip to Europe.

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 73

But as the players disembarked and several of them had gone down on their knees to kiss the ground, skipper Dai Rees insisted they would resume the journey by Greyhound Bus

David Feherty : ‘I was born a protestant: now I’m a lapsed Buddhist’.

‘Coming home, we made the Grand Tour, stopping off in Rome for what Sam called an audition with the late Pope John (XXIII),’ Corcoran recalled. ‘I suggested facetiously that Sam might bring his putter along and have it blessed.

I argued that a papal blessing might help steer in some of those six-foot, side-hill putts.

‘Sam was impressed. I remember we were met in the vestry of St Peter’s by a monsignor whose eyebrows flitted up into his tonsure when Snead checked in with his clubs. But he turned out to be a 100-shooter himself and he immediately went to confession to Sam about his own putting problems. Sam sighed, picked up his clubs and headed back to the car. ‘If you’re this close to the Pope and you can’t putt,’ he drawled over his shoulder, ‘he ain’t gonna be able to do anything’.

Which reminds me of a recent little tale about a proposed golf match between the Pope and the Israeli prime minister to promote friendship between their respective faiths. As a non-golfer, his Holiness asked his cardinals if they had a suitable candidate in their ranks to represent him. ‘No,’ came the reply. ‘But there’s an American golfer named Jack Nicklaus, whom we can make an honorary cardinal and then have him represent you.’

The Pope thought this to be a splendid idea and was even more pleased when Nicklaus agreed to play, though he happened to be of another faith. So the match duly took place on the following day and when the final putt was sunk, the Bear was asked to report to the Vatican. ‘Your Holiness,’ said the winner of 18 Major championships, ‘I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I played like I was back in my prime, hitting long, straight drives, masterful irons and precise putts.’ ‘And what’s the bad news?’ enquired the Pope. ‘The bad news is that I lost by a stroke to Rabbi Woods.’

One imagines that managing Snead would have given Corcoran quite an insight into human behaviour, especially among his charges leading contemporaries. In fact he revealed in his delightful book, Unplayable Lies, that he was utterly fascinated by Ben Hogan, on and off the golf course. Corcoran wrote: ‘Hogan is a strange one. If he were a judge, I believe he would give you the benefit of the doubt on your first offence, but he’d never let you off the hook twice. He would condemn you to death without batting an eyelash.’

He went on: ‘But we had a few laughs together.

I remember flying with Ben and Jimmy

74 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

Demaret from Houston to Dallas in a terrible storm. The plane was tossed about like a basketball. Ben never changed expression and stepped off the plane as if he’d just come down in an elevator from the fifth floor in Macy’s.

Demaret, on the other hand, staggered off the plane and croaked: ‘Lindberg got a ticker-tape parade for less than this.’

‘This brought a bleak smile from Hogan.

‘Excuse me a minute,’ I interjected, ‘I’m just going to dig my rosary beads out from under my fingernails .....’ The wintry smile broke into a full-throated laugh. Hogan’s usually icy shell shattered. Later, he said the mental image of me actually digging my rosary beads out from under my fingernails was too much.” Corcoran concluded: “I can’t remember him ever finding humour in anything that happened on the golf course. Golf was his business _ a tough business, full of disappointments.’

Accepting the torment of missed opportunities on a golf course, it’s probably a safe bet that nothing was more likely to prompt a prayer than air travel, especially in its more rudimentary form back in the decades immediately following World War II. And there can hardly have been an occasion when heaven was stormed more ardently than in October 1959, when members of the British and Irish Ryder

Padraig Harrington probably best captured the essence of sporting prayer when he said: ‘I wouldn’t pray to say please can I win this week, but I might pray to ask for my work to pay off.’

Stopping off in Rome Sam Snead called for an ‘audition’ with Pope John (XXIII) on the basis that a papal blessing might help steer in some of those six-foot, side-hill putts.

Cup team were en route from Los Angeles to Palm Springs for the biennial match against the US. Interestingly, it happened to be the 13th Ryder Cup. In his report in the Daily Express, Ronald Heager described how the plane’s passengers “were tossed around like a cocktail in a shaker ..... It was like falling in a giant lift when the cable had snapped. Only ... your stomach stayed on the 10th storey. It was the Big Dipper - without the laughs.’

Heager went on: ‘The reality proved to be the nightmare none of the 29 passengers would forget. ‘Keep your seat-belts fastened; there may be a little rough weather ahead,’ our captain warned us. Rough? A little? A few minutes away, as we approached the jagged

peaks of the San Jacinto Mountains, the plane began to toss like a cork as we met the storm that lit the vivid, purple skies. The bumps were mild at first, but sufficient to turn bronzed golfers ashen. Heads ducked down between knees. Collars were loosened. In the eye of the storm, the jolts increased in frequency and violence. We were trapped in a big lift racing up and down: berserk. And the climax was still to come.’

When the pilot eventually righted the plane, he turned back for Los Angeles with a view to another attempt at completing the trip. But as the players disembarked and several of them had gone down on their knees to kiss the ground, skipper Dai Rees insisted they would resume the journey by Greyhound Bus. Christy O’Connor Snr later recalled how the

sight of the air hostess reaching for a sick bag, had the effect of starting a trend. ‘This was it, I thought to myself. I said a prayer.’

Turning to team-mate Eric Brown at that point, O’Connor asked him if he prayed. To which the Scot replied: ‘No. Will you say one for me.’

In those moments of crisis, the believers on that plane imagined prayer moving mountains.

Yet they would have scoffed at the idea of praying for a Ryder Cup victory over the Americans.

Padraig Harrington probably best captured the essence of sporting prayer when he said: ‘I wouldn’t pray to say please can I win this week, but I might pray to ask for my work to pay off.’

Just so.

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 75

Northern

By Debbie Orme

Notes

Once described as ‘one of the prettiest houses in Ulster’, Springhill House , Co Derry is a 17th century plantation home.

Springhill, a treasure trove of period costumes Nestled in the heart of Mid-Ulster sits Springhill, the 17th-century home of the Lenox-Conynghams in Moneymore. The National Trust property is not only renowned for its charm and aesthetic appeal, but for its superb costume collection, which is housed in one of the outbuildings.

The costume curator, Helen McAneney, has been working with the Springhill collection for more than fifteen years now and loves the wide-ranging scope of her work.

‘The great thing about my job,’ the former fine and decorative arts graduate tells me, ‘is that no two days are ever the same. I can be dealing with research requests one day, giving a lecture or talk on another, or taking a group of professors on a ‘behind the scenes’ talk on another.’

The Springhill collection is so vast that Helen is the first to admit that she had to learn her craft as she went along in the job, teaching herself about the 3500 pieces, which the house holds.

‘The pieces date mainly from 1690 until the 1970s,’ she continues. ‘The 18th century collection is particularly strong, especially in light of the exceptional materials that were used at the time. Everyone thinks the costume collection simply comprises clothes, but it actually comprises everything from clothes, to accessories, to sample books, to dolls that are dressed in the fashion of the particular era. All of the items were donated by the public from across the island of Ireland.’

To illustrate her point, Helen shows me a sample book which was made in the Model School, Dublin in 1846 and which features a range of work made by the pupils at the time, including a miniature shirt. There’s also a doll which dates from 1850-60 and a baby’s bonnet from the early 28th century.

Museum Curator Helen McAneney

‘We’re lucky to have such a massive collection

76 Senior Times l January - February 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

A doll dressed in the fashion of the day

here,’ Helen continues, ‘particularly in light of the fact that it’s so expensive to maintain.

The whole building has, for example, to be dehumidified 24/7 to maintain the clothes in their current condition, so that costs about £3000 per annum. There’s also the £1500 for heating and light and about £2000 a year for acid-free tissue paper in which many of the items are wrapped. The tissue paper has to be conservation grade since, if it’s not, the clothes can rot if they’re not properly stored. The tissue paper absorbs the toxins that come from the materials and once it goes yellow it has to be changed – this happens every couple of years.

‘A few years ago, when we took some of the collection on tour, we reckon it cost about

£10,000 to just conserve the clothes on the tour, particularly items like the batwing skirt. On top of stabilising the items to make sure they were strong and sturdy enough to be put on and taken off the mannequins on route, they had to be repaired and replaced on the road.

A dress from the collection dating from around the time of the Titanic

‘When people come to see the collection at Springhill they don’t realise that it can take a day just to mount one of the outfits. We have to use the smallest mannequins possible and the item then has to be filled out and pegged accordingly. It’s time consuming, but ultimately worthwhile and rewarding when you see the enjoyment that people derive from the outfits. That’s one of the reasons why I love to speak to groups and tours, since you can just feed off their enthusiasm for the collection.

‘Equally I can derive a similar amount of pleasure from a day of pure hard research. You have to know every nuance of every outfit in the exhibition and, since there’s no definitive manual, you have to go and retrieve a lot of the information yourself.’

Amazingly, only 60 of the 3500 pieces located on the site were actually owned by the Lenox-Conyngham family.

‘I don’t think you could actually say that the Lenox-Conynghams donated the clothes to the National Trust,’ Helen laughs. ‘The estate itself was actually bequeathed about three days before the last Lenox-Conyngham died, so many items of clothing were left behind in the attic.

‘We’re very lucky in that the collection is a good, broad range of items: the ones from 1750-1800 are particularly lively, but we have masses of Victorian black mourning capes and wedding dresses that have been donated. We’ve also got quite a lot of Dior-look, ornate evening gowns from the 1950s.’

The current costume collection at Springhill features the clothes that would have been worn by the Lenox-Conynghams between the mid17th and early 19th centuries, while the last one featured clothing from the Titanic era. Helen’s attention is, however, already focused on her next collection, which will be on display from early next year.

‘The great thing about this job is that the only thing that holds you back is your imagination!’ she laughs. Each collection really is a ‘flight of fancy’.

I’m toying at the moment with the idea of fashion and nature for the next collection, displaying decorative techniques that are reflective of nature – using wool, silk, linen, fur, that type of thing. I can’t wait….’

Of course, Springhill being Springhill, I can’t end any interview with Helen without asking her about the ‘ghost’, Olivia. Has Helen, I wondered, seen the widow of George Conyngham roaming the house, her hands flailing above her head? She laughs.

‘No, I haven’t seen Olivia,’ she says, ‘but everybody at Springhill has experienced something bizarre at some point in their work here. I have to admit that there are times when I feel that someone is playing with the back of my hair, but the most alarming thing that happened to me was about five years ago, when I was working in my office and I heard the door open and shut. When I looked up, there was a black blob floating in front of my desk. I jumped back and then ran out of the room. It really alarmed me and I’m not the only one who has witnessed it. We have to set telephone directories in front of that door now because it opens and closes even when the house is closed and it sets the alarm off…’

And with that, the interview was over and yours truly was halfway down the drive at a great rate of knots!

A miniature shirt from the Dublin sample book.

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 77

International volunteers include Belfast in UK-wide tour

Susan J Ellis and Rob Jackson, co-authors of ‘From the Top Down - UK Edition’ are joined by Wendy Osborne, CEO Volunteer Now on their trip to Northern Ireland, part of a UK-wide tour to promote the book.

Volunteer Now: the organisation, which works to promote, develop and support volunteering across Northern Ireland, recently welcomed two experts in the field of Volunteer Management to Northern Ireland. Susan J Ellis and Rob Jackson, co-authors of ‘From the Top Down – UK Edition’, launched their book at an event attended by Volunteer Managers from a variety of organisations.

‘From the Top Down’ was the first book to identify the critical link between the actions of an organisation’s senior management and the overall success of volunteer engagement, and has become the ‘go-to’ book for enlightened CEOs, senior managers and board members around the world, who want to improve the strategic integration of volunteering.

Newry-based volunteer, Jennifer Kelly, says she feels busier now than when she was working full time!

‘I have personally found that by joining and volunteering my time to our many wonderful organisations, I haven’t a spare moment to feel either isolated or lonely. As a bonus, I’ve gained some new skills, many new friends and contacts and, as a result, I feel more enriched, valued and confident with having more structure to my life.

Newry-based volunteer, Jennifer Kelly, says she feels busier now than when she was working full time!

‘It’s all too easy to sit back and allow our world to become very small, but it’s just not that easy for most of us to find the courage or the will to take that vital first step or find the right niche to slot into: one that will help us to gain or maybe regain the confidence to become more involved with life around us.

‘My re-involvement with life began just over ten years ago when the Tsunami destroyed much of Asia. I was doing very little with my life. I had come to a crossroad and didn’t know which direction to take. Then there was an announcement on TV stressing that Oxfam desperately needed 10,000 volunteers to help with the crisis. I thought I’d help for a few weeks, but such is the enjoyment and fulfilment, I’m still there. I’m hooked!

‘About six years ago, I also became a member of U3A. I joined to learn how to use my computer but never thought for a moment that I would end up teaching computers and in the very same classroom in which I had learned! This, and my time on the shop floor in Oxfam have been an enormous help in regaining the confidence I lost when my career came to its conclusion.’

If you’re interested in finding out more information about volunteering, email opportunities@volunteer.co.uk

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas Yes, it’s that time of year again when Santa and his little elves take up residence in the grounds of Belfast City Hall for the now annual Christmas Market. Voted as the Best Large Specialist Market 2015

by NABMA, the market has a fantastic range of authentic continental food, clothing, arts crafts and decorations from across Europe and beyond. You won’t be disappointed! The market, which is open Monday-Wednesday 10am-8pm; Thursday-Saturday 10am-10pm and Sunday 1pm-6pm, will run until 20 December, so come along and browse the great selection of handbags, satchels, socks, hats and gloves, wooden toys, essential oils, crystals, hand-painted pottery and Christmas decorations and much more.

78 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

Protecting Your Home During the Dark Days of Winter A new year brings with it lengthening days but we still have a few months to go until the long days of summer sunlight. The cover of darkness provides an opportunity for burglars to break into homes, garages and sheds.

Burglars may also view older people living alone as easy targets. Luckily there are many easy, inexpensive things that you can do to help keep your home safer.

• Windows can also be fitted with a window limiter, this allows you to keep windows open whilst still limiting access from the outside.

• Lock all front and rear doors day and night.

• Do not store your keys near your front door or letterbox. It is not uncommon for burglars to fish car and house keys through the letterbox.

• Install a door viewer on your front and rear doors. This allows you to see who is outside prior to opening the door.

• Install a door chain on front and rear doors. This allows you to partially open the door whilst still limiting access to your home.

• Consider adding a deadlock bolt to your front and rear doors for added security.

• Install a house alarm for added security. Pick an alarm system with several settings, allowing you to put it on while in the house.

• Be wary of strangers who call to your home. Use your door viewer and chain as a safeguard and ask for identification.

• Do not leave strangers unattended at your door.

• Jewellery and cash are the most common articles stolen during a theft or home invasion. Try to avoid storing large amounts of money or valuables in your home.

Anyone who is concerned the safety and security of their home can contact the local Garda Crime Prevention Officer for advice on reasonable precautions to take for their own peace of mind. The local Gardaí can also be a source of information about crime trends in your area.

If you have been the victim of a burglary, or any other crime, you can ring the Crime Victims Helpline for support and information. The Crime Victims Helpline 116 006 is a free and confidential service that provides emotional support and information to victims of crime.

• Ensure that you have appropriate external lighting on your property.

Pay particular attention to entry doors and sheds. Good lighting makes your home more visible to passers-by, which can act as a deterrent.

Our hours are: Monday 10.00 am to 19.30 Tuesday through Friday 10.00 to 17.00 Saturday 14.00 to 16.00 Sunday Closed

• Leave lights on in your home after dark. If you’re going to be away, consider putting lights on a timer.

Further information can be found on our website at www.crimevictimshelpline.ie Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 79

Lifestyle

It’s never too late..

Good news – ‘grey power’ is ending those lurking suspicions, the feeling that it’s ‘too late,’ that you’re `past it’ or ‘too old’ to try out a new experience, travel off the beaten track, learn new skills, or take on challenges. So, it’s not only never too late, but an ideal time to fulfil that long held ambition, or develop a new on. Lorna Hogg offers a few challenges.

Learn to read Many older people have developed complex avoidance techniques to hide the fact that they can’t read or write very well. This is becoming increasingly difficult, as so much of our life is now lived online. If this is your problem, you’re not alone. A recent report found that 1 in 6 Irish adults had difficulties understanding basic written text, and 1 in 4 had difficulties with basic mathematical calculations. There’s no need for it – the National Adult Literacy Agency organises classes with friendly tutors, working at your pace, and Distance Learning is possible... Contact www.nala.ie

Go to university With courses for Mature Students, and a variety of modules, diplomas and short and evening courses, there is plenty of choice.

Start with the website of the university in which you’re interested, for admissions details, or to www.citizensadvice.ie. You may be eligible under Accreditation of Prior Learning, and could even be eligible for a grant. There could also be ideal courses for you at other third levels colleges.

Learn or re-start driving Some people never learned, others have

80 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

become frightened, but now need to drive a family member. Motorways scare off plenty of would be drivers, but several driving schools offer special courses. The Leinster Driving Campus, near Newbridge, is no stranger to older learners, and they also do skid control and advance driving courses. www.leinsterdrivingcampus.ie Make a difference..

Older people are formidable protesters and local leaders these days, forming pressure groups or lobbying authorities to better their communities. From creating local film shows

and clubs in isolated villages, to arranging town twinning or campaigning for more local pedestrian crossings, Grey Power has never been more necessary or and welcome.

Contact Age Action, for details of local partnerships, networks and associations. www.ageaction.ie Get a life online As more of our lives are lived online, those without computer skills are at risk of losing out on opportunities, convenience of payment and even saving money with good online deals.

From banking, buying travel tickets, paying bills and shopping, to special interest groups and sky-ping far flung family and friends, computer literary is a vital part of life to-day. Get details of the excellent countrywide beginners’ courses at your library.

Run a marathon With mini and city marathons regularly attracting 70, 80 and 90 year olds, you’ll never be short of inspiration – so what’s your excuse?

Safe preparation and training are vital, and there are some excellent training schedules online. Look at www.run.ie for a clearly laid out schedule.

Go on a walking holiday If you’ve long dreamed of walking an old pilgrim trail, one of the great national routes in Ireland or abroad, or even hill climbing, there is plenty of support available to get you started. Help yourself by gradually increasing your general fitness and ability to walk increasing distances and varying speeds and on inclines. `Follow the Camino’ offers regular Introductory Evenings and Preparation Walks, for those who want more information or to prepare for their tours.

Both are held regularly, and the Preparation Walk, usually fewer than 10 kms in length, is often in the Dublin Mountains. Details from caminoways.com Find your voice If you’ve always yearned to sing, but are convinced that you don’t have the voice for it, Corus may convince you otherwise. Based mainly around Dublin city and county, where classes are held, and also in Sallins and Skerries, they believe that we all can learn how to sing in harmony.

We just need the confidence to find our voices and learn how sing in unison, or maybe even solo. Give it a chance, and you might find yourself singing with a choir on stage anywhere from the RDS or Croke Park in Dublin to a local shopping centre or club. www.corus.ie

82 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

Get a pet Queen Elizabeth has apparently decided against any new dogs – like millions of us, she does not want to leave a beloved pet to the future care of other. For many people, that is a very hard decision, as they may rely on that pet for companionship and love. Yet there is no need to lose it completely. Short term care and fostering is vitally needed to give pups and kittens care or training. Fostering a pet often lasts from one to three months, until an animal is old enough for vital injections and a new home – leaving you the satisfying realisation that you might well have saved its life. Puppy walking provides vital care and training for a dog to do a vital job helping humans. If you can handle non housetrained animals, and have plenty of time, love and patience, you might be able to help, food, bedding, and any necessary veterinary cover etc. will be provided, www.autismassistancedogsireland.ie www.pets.ie www.dspca.ie www.adogslife.ie Live in another country From a few weeks in a warmer country during winter, to home swaps, house rentals, house sitting for a few months - it is increasingly popular for travel loving older people with free time to explore and really experience different countries. Research is key here – exploration of residence and tax residency requirements,

finances, the possible rental or swap of your own home, the possibilities of down-sizing, travel insurance and health insurance cover needs to be done. However, living abroad, even for part of the year, can lead to unexpected and fascinating new experiences, new friends and ideas and horizons of all types.

Live out a dream If you’ve always had a secret holiday trip or ambition – to drive or bike on Route 66, or do a fundraising challenge, age need not be a barrier. Celtic Horizons specialise in `road’ trips, offers a choice of classic American bike and car trips. An accompanying car travels with each tour, so you’re not totally alone! They get regular enquiries from 50 pluses of both sexes, and don’t even raise an eyebrow at seventy year olds. It’s now a great bonding experience, and different generations sometimes travel together.

If you’re fed up with sponsoring your children – or grandchildren, on their fundraising challenges, and want to try one of your own, get in touch with Age Action, for details of their Walking Challenge, taking place from 15th May until 22nd May, in Sardinia and Corsica. www.celtichorizontours.com www.ageaction.ie Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 83

Meeting Place SPECIAL NOTICES

MONICA, thank you replying to my Meeting Place advert BOX NUMBER X7. Unfortunately the phone number included is, I’m told, not in service.

Can you reply again, providing another number and/or email address? By now I thought I would be showing you how to swing a golf club! Hope I haven’t missed the boat! Mick.

ANNE MC, MIDLANDS, interests include theatre, history, travel, walking. In your reply to my BOX NUMBER T3 you forgot to include your phone number. I am very interested. Please reply again with phone number.

PETITE DUBLIN LADY, 60s, returned emigrant WLTM kind, cultured gentleman with a GSOH for friendship/companionship. Hobbies include reading, walking, theatre, classical music, art appreciation, travel, intelligent conversation and world politics. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B1 ATTRACTIVE SOUTH DUBLIN BUSINESSMAN, 60s, NS, semi-retired, medium build, tall, kind, considerate, WLTM an attractive, mature, affectionate, caring woman for friendship, companionship and to share special moments.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B2 SINGLE MAYO LADY, MID-50s, with many and varied interests, seeks genuine man for friendship/relationship, to spend and enjoy time together travelling, eating out, chatting, having fun and companionship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B3 GALWAY GENT, 60s, UNATTACHED, with many interests, GSOH. WLTM unattached, kind, sincere lady for friendship and whatever the future holds. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B4 MID-SOUTH COAST WIDOW, NS, ND, sincere, refined. Interests include baroque music, rugby, books, gardening, animals and world affairs.

WLTM sincere free male/widower 68-73 to share above for friendship and companionship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B5 KIND, SINCERE SOUTH COUNTY DUBLIN man, 63, 5ft 10in, good appearance medium/slim build divorced, no children, NS, ND, enjoys reading, walking, conversation, radio, own home, and car.

WLTM NS lady at least 5ft 3in tall for friendship/ relationship. Phone number please.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B6 LOVELY LEINSTER LADY, 58, 5ft 4in, slim, blonde WLTM tall, well-built gentleman with Old School values, and above all honesty, and sense of humour. Very feminine, dislike outdoors, love books, theatre, fine dining and good conversation, especially about politics. Strongly business and work orientated. Don’t suffer fools or overly PC people. More Jane Austin than Sex in the City!

Interested? REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B7 ATTRACTIVE, ARTICULATE NEW YORK WOMAN educationalist, 60s, now living in Ireland and within the Dublin catchment area WLTM a cultured, refined man with no ties. Interests wide and varied and include love of life, good conversation, comedy, theatre, travel, reading and the arts. My life is a tapestry of colours and sharing experiences which makes it more enriching.

Are you my long awaited other half? Do answer ASAP REPLY TO BOX NUMBER F1 OFFALY-BASED RETIRED BUSINESSMAN, 66, fit, good looking, SD, NS, GSOH. Varied interests. WLTM a nice lady who is caring with GSOH,

SD, NS for friendship and possible relationship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER F2 ATTRACTIVE DUBLIN LADY, 60s, widowed with no ties, very active and fit, with outgoing personality. NS, SD with many interests. Enjoy walking, dancing, dining out, lively conversation and current affairs. WLTM educated, sincere gent with GSOH, 60s, 70s for friendship/relationship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER F3 SEPARATED, RETIRED GENT 67, medium height and build, ND, light smoker, enjoys reading, walks, films, music, WLTM female over 50 with view to a relationship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER F4 CORK LADY 64 SINGLE, likes dancing, gardening, history, animals and walking. Good listener, GSOH, NS, SD, WLTM respectable gent, single or widower, from anywhere in Ireland for friendship/ companionship. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER F5

ROMANTIC DUBLIN GENTLEMAN, 60s, civilised, open, tall, no children, GSOH, positive, loyal, dependable. WLTM cheerful widow to share this wonderful world, in friendship, perhaps romance, perhaps committed relationship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER P3 DUBLIN BASED LADY, 50s, originally from country, interested in weekends away, cinema, reading, dining out, gardening, outdoor life, music.

WLTM man for friendship and possible relationship. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER P4 REFINED, EDUCATED DUBLIN MAN, EARLY 60s, WLTM sincere female from anywhere in Ireland for friendship and maybe more.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER P5 GALWAY LAD, EARLY 50s, NS, SD, enjoys nights out, keep fit, healthy eating and much more.

WLTM male 50-60 for a relationship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER P6

ATTRACTIVE, PETITE, DUBLIN LADY, single, retired professional, late 60s WLTM kind, sincere, respectable. Interests include dancing, cinema/ theatre and walking and eating out.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER F6

CORK LADY 50ish looking for a male pen friend. Love baking, cycling, swimming, beaches, fresh air, comedy, nature and day trips, travelling.

WLTM man of around 50, single, NS. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER P7

NORTH WEST DONEGAL LADY, very young 64, nature lover, enjoys going for country walks, WLTM meet either male or female for friendship, weekends away, or perhaps form a friendship group. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER F7

LIMERICK LADY MID 60s, unattached, runs own business, young in outlook, caring, sincere, and personable. Interests include film, theatre, dancing and travel. WLTM gent of similar vintage and with same interests. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER P8

DUBLIN LADY 60s, retired. Interests include history, dancing, reading, cinema and travelling with gentleman with similar interests.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER F8

DONEGAL LADY, VERY YOUNG 64, nature lover, enjoys going for country walks, WLTM either male or female for friendship away etc. or perhaps form a friendship group.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER P9

RETIRED FEMALE PRIMARY TEACHER living in the midlands, early 50s, wishes to meet interesting man for friendship or maybe more. Enjoys reading, walking, history, sport.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER F9 SINGLE TIPPERARY LADY, never married, no ties, well-travelled, own home, GSOH, loves theatre, music, sports, walking, WLTM refined, caring gent 65-75, single or widower.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER F10 CORK LADY MID-60s, sincere and good sense of humour. Enjoys dancing, animals and good conversation and people with a good sense of humour. WLTM sincere single or widower teetotaller gent with a good sense of humour.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER M1 KERRY LADY EARLY 60s, NS, occasional drinker, would like to correspond with honest, caring and respectable person for friendship and companionship. Many interests, including reading, walking, gardening, wildlife, cinema, current affairs etc. Told I am a good humoured and caring person. All genuine replies welcome. Discretion assured and expected.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER M2 DONEGAL WIDOWER, LATE 50s, WLTM woman, 50-65, from North West for friendship and perhaps more. Wide range of interests. SD. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER P1 KERRY LADY EARLY 60s, fit, sincere, outgoing, loves nature, travelling, dancing and fishing.

WLTM sincere man for friendship and companionship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER P2

84 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

DUBLIN LADY 70s WLTM sincere gentleman for friendship, companionship with GSOH similar interests which include travel, walking, reading, bowls and music.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER P10 MATURE, RETIRED BUSINESS LADY, MUNSTER REGION, NS, ND. Still young at heart and searching for that special man to share retirement years. Many interests and include dancing, bridge, walking and travel.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER P11 SINGLE SOUTH DUB GENT, MID 60s, interested in travel, reading, eating out, outdoor life. NS, SD, WLTM friendly lady, mid-50s to mid-60s for companionship and perhaps more.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER T1 DUBLIN LADY, MID-60s, WLTM Dublin-based professional gentleman, 60s to 70s. Love Island hopping in the summer and have lots of interests such as travel, reading and dining out. ALA. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER T2 RESPECTFUL DUBLIN MAN, 60s, never married. Interests include walking, travel, art, etc.

Good humoured. WLTM single lady who has never been married for friendship and possible relationship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER T3 ATTRACTIVE LIMERICK LADY, unattached, semi-retired business woman, interests include cooking, travel, dining out, walking and dancing.

Seeks gentleman with similar interests and outlook.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER T4

MIDLANDS MAN, LATE 50s, retired civil servant, well-travelled. Interests include gardening, fishing, walking, cycling, amateur drama and independent travelling. WLTM a genuine, interesting lady, who enjoys life, for friendship and travelling REPLY TO BOX NUMBER T5

siastic, university degree, interested in walking, ballet, ballroom dancing, theatre, yoga, healthy lifestyle, WLTM A single professional, caring man with similar interests, 55-63, NS, SD, for friendship, companionship, leading to possible relationship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A11

honest and caring male companion (single or widower) fifties or early sixties for friendship. Interests include reading, walking, some gardening, cinema, travel etc. NS, SD, GSOH. WLTM man in Galway area of similar age and interests.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X1

SOUTH CO DUBLIN LADY, MID 60s, seeks friends who enjoy travel, opera, classical and popular music, literature and theatre.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER T6

MIDLANDS MAN, RETIRED PUBLIC SERVANT, EARLY 60s, WLTM an interesting lady for friendship and travelling. Widely travelled, no ties, enjoys walking, fishing, cycling and outdoor activities and travelling.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A12

60 YEARS YOUNG DUBLIN WOMAN seeks male ballroom dance partner to attend social dances in Dublin area. Having attained bronze level in both international standard and Latin dances. I seek a partner who leads well; a plus if you also dance the Hustle REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X2

LOVE OF LIFE SOUTH DUBLIN GENT, seeks lady mid-50s who loves life but missing a friend or companion/soulmate to share those special moments. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER T7 DUBLIN GENT, 67, NEVER MARRIED, cheerful, cultured, unpretentious, presentable, respectful.

Too many interests to mention. Seeks positive lady to share the joy of life, the joy of living and the joy of laughter. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER T8 NORTH CORK MAN, LATE 50s, single, shy lonely. Interests in many things. WLTM down to earth non-professional lady with no family or ties for shared mutual pleasure. Age or size unimportant. Ideally living in North Cork area. Discretion assured. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER T9 DUBLIN WIDOW NS, 70s, kind, educated (‘I’m told I’m attractive), seeks honest, caring widower for friendship, companionship for the Golden Days! Varied interests: outdoors, current affairs, reading, cinema/theatre, quizzes, travel, and game for a laugh. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A1 DIVORCED CORK LADY WLTM gent 65-75 for companionship. Interests include archaeology, walking, dancing and adventures.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A2 DUBLIN NORTHSIDE WIDOWER, early 70s, full of life with many and varied interests. NS, SD. Spring approaching and need a lovely lady to hold my hand! Discretion assured. Seeking friendship and possible relationship. ALA REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A3 SOUTH COUNTY DUBLIN PROFESSIONAL LADY (64) WLTM genuine, unattached gent for friendship, possible relationship. I am petite, considered to be a good conversationist and very feminine. I have travelled extensively and am interested in the arts, history, science, theology and current affairs. Also enjoy walking and reading.

GSOH, NS, SD. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A6 TIPP LADY WLTM LADIES aged 60-75 from Limerick, Clare Tipperary area for outings and days out and for a having a chat. Interested in crafts, reading, and arts. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A7 EDUCATED, ATTRACTIVE SOUTH EAST MAN, 66, divorced, no family and no ties WLTM sincere lady 50-75 for mature relationship. Very honest, genuine, respectable, kind and caring.

Enjoy walking, reading, current affairs, travel, good conversation, theatre, sport, keeping fit and active. 6ft in height, NS, SD with GSOH. All genuine replies welcome. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A8 SOUTH EAST FEMALE (60) with an outgoing, positive personality, WLTM genuine gent for friendship and possible relationship. NS, SD with many interests, including walking, travel, dining out and bridge. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A9 KERRY/LIMERICK BASED LADY, 60s, returned emigrant would like to hear from similar males and females for friendship, travel, socialising. NS. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A10 SINGLE PROFESSIONAL, SOUTH DUBLIN LADY, mid 50s, good looking, slim, 160cm, enthu-

WIDOWED MIDLANDS LADY, 60s. NS, SD, GSOH, enjoys good company, music, dancing, walking, reading, foreign travel and weekends away in Ireland. WLTM gentleman with similar interests. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A13 SINGLE SOUTH DUBLIN LADY,mid 50s, good looking professional, interested in ballroom dancing, hillwalking, ballet, theatre, yoga, healthy lifestyle, WLTM a single professional man with similar interests, aged 57-60, fit, NS, ND and DGOH, for friendship and companionship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A14

ATTRACTIVE, EDUCATED WIDOW, 65, interested in gardening, music, reading, arts, animals, nature etc., would like to find a pen friend or/and a friend to enjoy good things in life.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X3 LONELY REFINED EDUCATED 65 year old man seeks female soul mate anywhere in Ireland.

Love theatre, literature, cinema, walking. Tall, grey, handsome with GSOH. NS. Like a glass of wine.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X4

WIDOWED DUBLIN LADY, 60s, NS, SD, attractive, active, fit, with outgoing personality. Enjoys walking, music, theatre and dining out. WLTM educated, sincere gent with GSOH for friendship and companionship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A15

ROMANTIC LADY. Kind and caring, divorced, no ties. Enjoys walking and socialising, travel, cinema, theatre and bridge. I am NS, SD and WLTM a gentleman Late 60’s with similar interests for friendship and companionship in the Dublin area.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X5

DUBLIN MAN, LATE 50s, returned emigrant, WLTM men and women with similar experience who may be interested in meeting and possibly to form a group. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A16

SOUTH SIDE DUBLIN MALE, 61, NS, SD, slim; dress well; have GSOH; very active. Like classic/ traditional music, hiking to country side; travelling; dining out in decent restaurants. Would like to meet lady with good dress sense who can hold a decent conversation and has GSOH. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X6

DUBLIN WIDOW, EARLY SIXTIES, but don’t look it, WLTM caring widower for friendship and socialising. Interests include reading, gardening and eating out. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A17 NORTHSIDE DUBLIN LADY, 39, Libra, well-educated and travelled, smart, kind and caring, enjoys good conversation, dining out in decent restaurants, cinema and theatre. WLTM a man with GSOH and similar interests for romance and maybe more. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A18 FEMININE DUBLIN LADY, EARLY 60s, well-travelled, semi-retired, fit, fun and engaging.

WLTM a kind, laid back, easy going gentleman who has sound values and principles. And a wee twinkle in his eye! Would like to hear from you!

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER A19 DUBLIN GENTLEMAN, 60s, WLTM lady for friendship/companionship. Interests include golf, bridge, dancing and reading. ALA REPLY TO BOX NUMBER Y1 WICKLOW-BASED LADY, 60s, returned emigrant, would like to hear from emigrants of similar age, with a view to friendship or perhaps forming a Returned Emigrants Association?

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER Y2 SOUTH DUBLIN LADY, attractive, with outgoing personality, likes outdoors, walking, theatre, travel, dining out, WLTM sincere, active, unattached man in his 60s for companionship and perhaps deep friendship. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER Y3 WIDOWED DUBLIN LADY, 60s, NS, no ties, would enjoy company of man of similar age or older. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER Y5 ATTRACTIVE CORK LADY, 64, semi-retired WLTM kind sincere gentleman with common interests for friendship, travel and the simple things in life. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER Y6 PROFESSIONAL GALWAY LADY seeks

TO PLACE AN ADVERTISEMENT If you are interested in meeting someone of the opposite or same sex, send your advertisement, with four stamps (which is the average reply rate) enclosed in the envelope, to: Meeting Place, Senior Times, Unit 1, 15 Oxford Lane, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

Or email: john@slp.ie IMPORTANT Ensure you give your approximate age and the area you live, noting your interests. The advertisement should not be more than 60 words.

If you are replying to the advertisement via Senior Time’s email, ensure you include your postal address for those not on the Net. (Only Senior Times will have these details). Deadline for receipt of advertisements for the next issue is 23rd January 2016 TO REPLY TO AN ADVERTISEMENT Each reply to an advertisement should be enclosed in a plain, stamped envelope, with the box number marked in pencil so that it can be erased before being forwarded to the advertiser. Send these envelopes in a covering envelope to the address above so that we can forward them to the advertiser. There is no limit to the amount of advertisements to which you can reply, provided each one is contained in a plain, stamped envelope.

Ensure you give your approximate age and the area you live. For those submitting their advertisements by email ensure that you also supply Senior Times with your postal address so that we can post replies from those who have replied by post. (Only Senior Times will have your postal address).

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 85

Crossword Crossword Number 74 by Zoë Devlin

ACROSS 1 8 11 15 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 27 29 30 31 35 37 39 43 44 45 48 50 51 52 55 56 58 59 63 64 65 69 70 71 75 77 78 80 85 86 87 88 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99

Did Mary Shelley’s monster have a tanner’s knife? (12) & 98. Has this Irish-born BBC presenter grown teary? (5,5) Either 35 or 69 Across: Singer or Liberator (6) Small hole in a needle (3) Salvador ___, Chilean President from 1970-73 (7) Custodian of a collection (7) Long thin fluffy feathery scarf (3) Bram Stoker’s fictional vampire (7) And 85 Across. RTE’s drama from Carrigstown (4,4) Communal dining-hall (9) Impose an injury or something unpleasant (7) Breeding stallion (4) Hasten to Greece’s capital (6) In a direct, brusque manner (7) Difficult or dangerous feat (5) Jacques ___, President of France 1995-2007 (6) Donegal singer - see 11 Across (8) Inflammation of the liver (9) Oliver ___ (1599-1658) nicknamed ‘Ironsides’ (8) German breed of dog with black & tan coat (10) Ulster county of drumlins (5) Get a better bang from this type of cake! (10) Comedian Bob ___ or feeling of optimism (4) Feel remorse for or regret (6) Avoid or dodge (5) Book of the New Testament in form of letter (7) Swaggering show of courage (7) Requires or wants (5) Joseph ___, leader of Soviet Union 1922-52 (6) Elaborate song for a solo voice (4) Cinderella was one to her siblings (10) Tall pillar or column (5) Decorative, esthetic rather than useful (10) The Liberator - see 11 Across. (8) Long narrow tapes for fastening boots (9) Five-sided polygon (8) Dealer in fabrics and sewing materials (6) Ardent lover or Juliet’s sweetheart? (5) See 46 Down And 60 Down. RTE chef, known for her Famous Food (6,5) See 21 Across Representative of sovereign in colony (7) An ale ration or explanation of reasons? (9) Legal document issued by court (4) Perform surgery (7) Wreath or garland (3) Moist or wettish (7) Tallest living quadruped - from Africa (7) Also known as ..... (3) Mailed - through depots? (6) See 8 Across ‘___ ___ ___, Pussy’s in the well!’ (4,4,4)

86 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

DOWN 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 16 25 26 28 32 33 34 35 36 38 40 41 42 46 47 49 53 54 55 57 58 60 61 62 66 67 68 72 73 74 76 79 81 82 83 84 89 90 91

Sir Walter or brand of bicycle (7) In the ‘12 days of Christmas’, ___ ladies dancing (4) And there were ___ Pipers piping (6) Inwardly, clandestinely (8) Connects Britain and France under the sea (10) Not artificial, occuring in a normal way (7) Surface layer of ground, often burned (4) Arthur ___, pianist, interpreter of Chopin’s music (10) Racehorse between 1 & 2 years old (8) Subtract or take off (6) Hebrew patriarch who built the ark (4) Imaginary line around the earth (7) Palm fibre used in hat and basket-making (6) Perfume originating from Germany (3-2-7) Unfamiliar, not famous, obscure (7) Small sketch at your fingertip or thin album? (9) Slight amount (3) ‘What’s it all about ___?’ a 1966 film or a life? (5) Blackbeard or Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow? (6) Benjamin ___, 20th century composer (7) Not Harpo but ___ Winfrey! (5) Annual grass - makes lovely porridge (3) Not together - separated (5) Citizen who votes (7) Sea between Greece and Turkey (6,3) An eerie fact - this coffee pot! (9) And 78 Across.Celebrity TV chef from 44 Across (5,7) Small canoe used by Eskimos (5) Inert medication given as a pacifier (7) Traveller on a bus, plane or train (9) Old fogeys or remains of plant or animals (7) He used to say ‘Fares please’ (3,9) ‘Beam me up ___‘, from Star Trek (6) Handel wrote of the arrival of this Biblical queen (5) See 80 Across.

Manservant or personal attendant (5) Principal groomsman at a wedding (4,3) Sudden abrupt pull (3) Presentiment or premonition (10) Cosmetician or one working in beauty parlour (10) Be obliged to repay (3) Salad of shredded cabbage (4-4) Soaked, soused (8) Would a Red Coat like this 1920-30’s style of design (3,4) Afraid - experiencing sense of danger (7) Injurious, harmful (7) Did Martin ___, hurtle through the Reformation? (6) Irish singer, songwriter, ___ O’Connor (6) Motto or catchword (6) American poet, Whitman or cartoonist, Disney? (4) Paradise - Shangri-la (4) Baby bed or cheat in an exam? (4)

Four Copies Of Alice Taylorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Women To Be Won Senior Times, in association with the publishers, Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien Press, are offering four copies of The Women as prizes in our crossword. The first four correct entries drawn are the winners.

Name: ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Address: ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Phone: ................................................................................................................................................................................................

Email:......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Send your entries to: Crossword Competition, Senior Times, Unit 1, 15 Oxford Lane, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

The first four correct entries drawn are the winners. Deadline for receipt of entries is 25th January 2016.

Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie 87

Crafts

Beachcombing treasure Connie Mc Evoy shows you how to turn a mundane stone into a work of art

Having noticed some interesting stones while walking on the strand recently I collected them with the intention of putting them to use as paperweights or garden ornaments. First step was to wash sand, seaweed and saltwater off them, then an allowance of 24 hours drying time.

Requirements: Ornaments- Humbrol enamel was used in all three colour schemes as follows, Ladybird-black no 21, white no 22, and 88 Senior Times l January - February 2016 l www.seniortimes.ie

red no 19. Bee- black, white, red and yellow no 69. Forget-me-not paperweight- red, white, yellow, green no 2 and blue matt no 25 mixed with white.

Brushes: Windsor & Newton 202 sable and Daler/Rowney S51.

Paint both the Ladybird and Bee black back and front first, allow 36 hours to dry before adding detail freehand to front of both stones. The Forget-me-not was painted red first back and front and allowed similar drying time before detail was added.

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20/10/2015 4:11 p.m.