Senior Times Magazine May June 2015

SeniorTimes The magazine for people who don’t act their age

Issue 75 May/June 2015 E3.95 (£3.20)

Joe Duffy: The ‘ear’ of the nation

Agatha Christie: Queen of crime

In the steps of St Patrick

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

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Issue 75 May/June 2015

Contents

News: 2 Holding the line: 10 Shay Healy talks to the ‘ear’ of the nation, Joe Duffy Volunteering still a popular choice: 16 Interested in volunteering? Advice from experts In the steps of St Patrick: 19 John Low visits some of the celebrated sites associated with our patron saint Beef up your brain power: 22 Are you using your brain to its full potential?

The Queen of Crime: 28 In the latest in her series of travels around literary Ireland and Britain, Lorna Hogg visits Devon, closely associated with the great mystery writer Cosmetics and beauty: 37 The latest products for the older woman The generation game: 42 The growing trend of grandparents taking the grandkids on holiday and some suggestions to visit Exercising with osteoarthritis: 46 The benefits of exercise in living with this condition Preventing insomnia and stress: 48 How music can help Fashion: 54 Outfits for the summer and for weddings Creative writing: 58 Wine World: 68 Some suggested tipples for the summer months What’s on the arts: 71 Happenings in the arts over the next few months A great Player: 73 Dermot Gilleece profiles the master South African golfer Northern Notes: 76 Know your rights: 81 Meeting place: 83 Crossword: 86 Crafts: 88

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: Shay Healy, Lorna Hogg, Dermot Gilleece, Matthew Hughes, Maretta Dillon, Jim Collier, 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 Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

News Join Anne Doyle and Celebrate the 2nd Annual Marigold Festival Series Retired and older people are invited to attend the Marigold Festival series hosted throughout the country this spring. The event will share the latest insights on how to live a healthy and active life no matter what age you are.

This is the second annual Marigold Festival series hosted by Active Retirement Ireland in partnership with Home Instead Senior Care. Both organisations are committed to encouraging people of all ages to live a happy, healthy and independent life and have come together to bring a positive, fun-filled day of activities throughout the country.

Retired RTÉ broadcaster Anne Doyle will be the guest of honour and will be on hand to speak about what active retirement means to her. The renowned journalist, presenter and newsreader retired in 2011 and her support of the Marigold Festival is a reminder that even though our lifestyle may change in our older years, there is still plenty of opportunity to live a fun, full and active life.

The Marigold Festival presents an opportunity for the local community to come together and help each other to live life to the full whether we are 30, 60 or 80 years of age. A programme of events has been put in place that promotes healthy living with talks, workshops and stands on topics such as nutrition, exercise and memory maintenance.

A Home Instead Senior Care dementia care specialist will be on hand to discuss

dementia care at home and the recent publication of Confidence to Care, a resource for family caregivers providing Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia care at home. This is the first book published by the home care provider and it is available to purchase from Amazon. co.uk. All proceeds will be donated to dementia-related causes and charities.

“At Home Instead Senior Care we believe in living life to the full. The Marigold Festival is for people who are young at heart and believe life is for living. We are delighted to be working with Active Retirement Ireland to bring this fun-packed, yet informative day to retirees across the country. It’s an event not to be missed,” says Ed Murphy, CEO of Home Instead Senior Care.

Deirdre Patel of Active Retirement Ireland said: “Ireland has a vibrant community of retired and semi-retired people and we are delighted to host this very special festival with Home Instead Senior Care. I hope every person who attends, no matter what their age, enjoys the day but also learns something new that could help to transform their life in some small or major way.” The Marigold Festival is a celebration of life with attendees enjoying a fun day out, showcasing the fact that a full, active life is possible no matter what your age.

For further details please contact your Home Instead Senior Care on 1890 930 013 or Active Retirement Ireland on 01 873 3836.

2 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

Two courses on well-being of older people Two new programmes at MIC look to explore the well-being of the older person.

There is much talk in the media of late about 60 being the new 40, with life expectancy increasing and people living longer, healthier lives. In Ireland today average life expectancy is 82 years. This means from the ‘normal’ retirement age of 65 most of us can expect to live for another 20 years. As a consequence older people will now have greater opportunities to actively participate in and to contribute to their communities and society through learning and education, paid and voluntary work.

To address this challenge Mary Immaculate College, Limerick is launching two new programmes that deal with the education and wellbeing of the older person: The Certificate (Level 6) of Arts in Education and Wellbeing of the Older Person and the Masters (Level 9) of Arts in Education and Wellbeing of the Older Person address ageing society and sociology of ageing, psychology of ageing and active ageing, as well as leadership and advocacy.

Applications are sought from older persons themselves, those working with older people, informal and formal carers. health and social care practitioners and persons working in formal and adult education sector will also be interested in the programmes.

For further information on both programmes, including entry requirements and the application process visit www.mic.ul.ie/postgradstudies or contact Liz Early, Programme Co-ordinator directly at liz.early@mic.ul.ie.

Age Action has welcomed the Government’s decision to allocate an additional €74 million to address the issue of delayed discharges and overcrowding in hospital Emergency Departments. It will reduce the stress created for many older people who are currently trapped in delayed discharge beds.

However, the older people’s charity has expressed concern that, while the measures announced today focused on providing additional nursing home beds and transitional care beds, no additional funding was announced today for supports to enable older people to be discharged home.

“HSE figures compiled in February showed that 17% of people in delayed discharge beds at the time were due to be discharged home, but were awaiting approval of a range of supports such as home care packages and home adaptations,” Age Action spokesperson Eamon Timmins said. “We are concerned that

this important area is not addressed by today’s funding announcement.”

The extra €44 million for the Nursing Home Support Scheme will fund an additional 1,600 nursing home beds and reduce the waiting time to four weeks, compared to the current 11 weeks. A further €30 million will provide additional transitional care beds.

Age Action has also welcomed some of the recommendations of the Emergency Department Task Force Plan, recently published . “We need to move away from fire-fighting measures, and recognise that some of the problems we are experiencing in hospitals at the moment are the symptoms of a health service which is not adequately meeting the needs of its ageing population,” Mr Timmins said. “If we are to manage our Emergency Departments in the coming years, we have to ensure that we meet the needs of older people at an earlier stage, before they become so frail and ill that they are admitted to their accident and emergency unit.”

‘Fair deal: short term solution to longer problem’ Home and Community Care Ireland (HCCI), the representative body for private home care providers in Ireland, has welcomed the funding announcement to ease hospital overcrowding

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recently made by the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar. The Government is allocating €74 million to address hospital overcrowding, with €44 million of the total amount to be spent on providing 1,600 extra nursing home places under the Fair Deal Scheme. The remainder of funds is to provide temporary beds until June and extra community, convalescence and district hospital beds on a permanent basis.

The first €36,000 euro of assets (€72,000 for a couple) is not counted in the means test for the scheme. According to the review, the Government could decrease this figure to cut the amount of State support. The amount of assets such as savings and properties that currently have to be contributed under the scheme is capped at 7.5% according to the yet to be published review this could be increased to 10%.

Commenting on the announcement and the funding of the Fair Deal Scheme, Michael Harty, Chair, Home & Community Care Ireland (HCCI), said: “While the HCCI is in support of measures that ease hospital overcrowding and the bed-blocking crisis, we feel that this is a short-term answer to free up beds without any real long-term benefit. In actual fact, most nursing homes are suffering capacity issues and many beds available in nursing homes will have to be decommissioned in the coming months for not meeting HIQA standards.

For a meaningful solution to be reached, the Government must think beyond the summer months”.

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Age Action welcomes funding to help older patients ‘trapped in hospitals’

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History of Irish hillwalking and climbing

Pictured at the launch of the 10th annual Kerry Way Cancer Research walk are, from left walk founder Damian O’Brien, Ronan O’Gara and John Martin, walk leader.

Breakthrough Cancer Research nine-day Kerry walk To mark its 10th anniversary the walk has an added element of a 9 day team walk covering the 200km Kerry Way route along with the usual 3 day Individual walk covering over 70km of the Kerry Way. These guided walks will combine impressive mountain views, dramatic peaks and glens, wild moorlands, wooded paths and lakes along the Kerry Way trails. Challenging but fun, the great camaraderie on the route adds to the spectacular settings and ensures a truly memorable experience in the Kingdom.

The walks include some of Irelands most fabulous walk ways with the most remarkable scenery, and a fantastic way to see the Atlantic coastline and rugged mountains of the Ring of Kerry.

Views over the panoramic peninsulas are a haven for walkers which also offer open countryside, glens, mountains and beaches. Enjoy retracing the old ‘butter’ roads, bog roads, and moss paths which will reveal evidence of centuries of civilisation in the Kingdom.

Speaking at the launch of the walk Munster and Ireland rugby player Ronan O’Gara said: ‘I am delighted to lend my support to the 10th Kerry Way Cancer Research Walk. So many people are affected by cancer and tackling it can be a daunting challenge. As I have seen over my career, team work is vital and the team of dedicated scientists

at the Cancer Research Centre tackle Cancer ever day with focus and determination’.

Walk Details: 9 Day Team Walk Sat July 18th to Sun July 26th – 200km Kerry Way Route; Saturday 18th Killarney – Black Valley (22km); Sunday 19th Black Valley – Glencar (20km); Monday 20th Glencar – Glenbeigh (17 km); Tuesday 21st Glenbeigh – Cahersiveen (28km); Wednesday 22nd Cahersiveen – Waterville (30 km); Thursday 23rd Waterville – Caherdaniel (11/26km); Friday 24th Caherdaniel – Sneem (18 km); Saturday 25th Sneem – Kenmare (28 km); Sunday 26th Kenmare – Killarney (25 km).

3 Day Individual Walk Friday July 24th to Sunday July 26th 71km Kerry Way Route Friday 24th Caherdaniel – Sneem (18 km); Saturday 25th Sneem – Kenmare (28 km); Sunday 26th Kenmare – Killarney (25 km).

For more information visit www.kerrywaycancerwalk.ie The Bird Song Project is working with thirty four older traditional singers on songs that reference birds or birdsong.

4 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

Hill-walking and climbing enthusiasts will welcome the recent launch of the history of Irish hill-walking, climbing and mountaineering by Paddy O’Leary, The Way That We Climbed – A History of Irish Hillwalking.

During his mountaineering career, Paddy O’Leary has had to deal with many hazards: on an exposed Alpine ridge, he had a near-death experience when he was knocked unconscious by a lightning strike; in Tibet, he helped to install a solar-powered electrical plant in an extremely remote monastery which had been sacked during the Cultural Revolution. He also co-founded the Association for Adventure Sports, the FMCI (Federation of Mountaineering Clubs of Ireland) and was Director of the Tiglin National Centre.

The Way That We Climbed – A History of Irish Hillwalking, Climbing and Mountaineering by Paddy O’Leary is published

by The Collins Press, price €19.99. It is available in all good bookshops and online from www.collinspress.ie

Bealtaine celebrates 20th anniversary Bealtaine, the national festival celebrating creativity in older age, is itself celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The Abbey Theatre’s much lauded production of Maeve’s House, written by and starring Eamon Morrissey will be taking to the road to visit ten venues around the country. Traditional music is particularly strong with musicians Caitlín Nic Gabhann and Ciarán Ó Maonaigh performing . At the same time, The Bird Song Project is working with thirty four older traditional singers on songs that reference birds or birdsong. The project will culminate in a number of concerts while singing circles will host their own bird song-themed night during the month of May. Tweet to your heart’s content.

Literature features with the nominated Bealtaine Book being Timothy O’Grady’s moving story, I Could Read the Sky, about landscape and loss in the Irish emigrant experience. Timothy himself will be leading writer in residence workshops across Cavan, Leitrim, Sligo and Mayo.

There are loads more things to do, events to see and participate in but just to mention that poet Paul Durcan chats with Eamon O’Shea at the Source Arts Centre in Thurles and with filmmaker Alan Gilsenan at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. All the details about what’s on in your local area and how you can take part from www.bealtaine.com

Posing in front of the world’s largest waterwheel - you have to see it to believe it!

Having a relaxing stroll along the coast before breakfast.

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The Arigna Mining Experience: a day out with a difference

The Arigna Mining Experience will certainly appeal to those with an interest in history or anyone looking for a day out with a difference. The Arigna area was associated with coal mining for around 400 years and is located in a beautiful scenic area of north Roscommon overlooking Lough Allen.

Now a popular tourist spot, the centre allows visitors an insight into coal mining life in the Arigna Valley from the 1700s until its closure in 1990. A typical visit includes a 45-minute underground tour with an ex-miner as your tour guide, the tour brings visitors to the mine’s coalface where the methods used to extract the coal are demonstrated. The authentic lighting and sound effects throughout the mine add to the reality of the experience. There is also a DVD presentation,

an exhibition space, where local geology and the formation of coal deposits are explained, and an excellent photo archive on show.

This centre is highly rated on ‘TripAdvisor.’ It has a coffee shop and the underground tour is fully accessible. It is an all-weather facility and is open 7 days a week from 10.0017.00hrs daily.

Location: 19kms from Carrick-on-Shannon (R280), 40 km from Sligo (R284). SAT NAV: Latitude / Longitude 54.07709, 8.120220 The Arigna Mining Experience, Arigna, Co Roscommon Contact: 071-9646466 or www.arignaminingexperience.ie

How to cope with losing your teeth Professor David Harris’ new book The Dental Amputee examines the emotional and psychological effects of tooth loss and the physical and functional changes that result from tooth loss. In his 25 years experience with dental implants, Professor David Harris has come across many stories of people who can’t live their lives to the fullest because of problems arising from the loss of all their teeth.

“Tooth or teeth loss can affect an individual’s appearance, self-confidence, self-esteem and quality of life, as well as their ability to manage a varied and nutritious diet. Some people avoid social outings, have relationship problems and feel they have to suffer in silence. Also, losing your teeth is probably the least publicised problem associated with growing older,” said Professor Harris.

One of the oral health problems many older people will face is the reduction of saliva. Without saliva, elderly people risk sudden death from a condition known as ‘café coronary’ if they fail to chew food properly, especially meat.

In The Dental Amputee, Professor Harris gives us an insight into how dental amputees live with the misery of their condition in silence, in secrecy and with no sense that there is anything they can do about it. They feel very embarrassed about having no teeth of their own and will take great care to try to hide that fact from others. This book focuses on understanding the effects of losing most of your teeth. It provides an insight into edentulism (tooth loss) and modern treatments that are available for it.

Dental implants offer a solution to tooth loss that, in many instances, patients regard as transformational.

The Dental Amputee is published by Londubh Books at €14.99.

Brian Garrigan..from baking to bytes Brian Garrigan provides an extensive computer repair and service with his company Computer Doctor. While he works with a number of well-known companies and bodies, he also specialises in assisting home computer users. He adds that his rates are very reasonable and claims to be able to solve most computer hardware and software problems.

He is well known for his radio spots over the years, particularly on Newstalk and is regarded as one of the most knowledgeable experts in his field in the country. Not bad for a former trained baker!

For more details, contact: Computer Doctor, 1 Fairview Corner, Fairview, Dublin 3.

Tel: (01) 8531111/84782417. Opening Monday - Friday 9am - 8pm. Saturday 10am. www.computerdoctor.ie www.datarecoverydoctor.ie www.safebackup.ie Coming Soon 6 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

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Home care specialists Since 2005 Comfort Keepers Home Care have been enabling people to live at home independently. Our home help services enable our clients, be they older or disabled, to stay in the comfort of their own home by supporting the highest quality of life that is achievable.

We care for our clients as though caring for a member of our own family. We aim to provide the highest standards of home care and home help to our clients.

You also have peace of mind knowing that we have a dedicated management team that come from a nursing or social care background to ensure superior care is provided to your loved one.

We have been caring for members of your community for the past 10 years and we are currently recruiting carers in your area.

Our superior quality of home and elderly care has been recognised independently and Comfort Keepers are the number one provider of home care packages to the HSE while recently winning the Homecare Provider of the Year and the Deloitte best managed company awards.

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KARE celebrates its 50th anniversary

KARE Board of Directors front row from left Tom O’Brien, Colm Regan, Alice O’Rourke, Chairperson Martha Sullivan, Mary Callan and Florrie Kyne. Back row from left – Maria Jackson Manager of Services, Councillors Sean Haughey, Deirdre Heney, Naoise O’Muirí, Minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD and Moya Doherty.

KARE Social Services recently celebrated its 50th Anniversary this year and marked the occasion with an event on in Parnell’s GAA Club in Coolock Village.

There were 150 people in attendance and guests of honour were Dublin’s Lord Mayor Christy Burke, Minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD, local Deputies Finian McGrath T.D., Terence Flanagan T.D. and Councillors Sean Haughey, Naoise O’Muirí and Deirdre Heney. Special guest speaker was Moya Doherty, originator of Riverdance who congratulated KARE for its achievement.

KARE Social Services is a charitable community organisation which has been in existence for 50 years, providing community services to the areas of Killester, Artane, Raheny, Edenmore and now parts of Donaghmede and Coolock.

Over the years KARE has been renowned for its various services at the Old Coach House at 2 Sybil Hill Road where the offices are still based. There was originally

a clothes bank, followed closely by the Meals on Wheels service in 1966 and the set-up of a nursery which ran from 1971 to 1991, during the late 1970’s a day care facility was started which branched out into many women’s groups over the years. In 1972 the then Health Board approached the Social Service Council to start a Home Help Service. A very important function of the service from the beginning is to keep people in the community whenever possible and for as long as possible. This has not changed.

The organisation changed its name in late 2000 and became KARE Social Services and Dublin North Bay Citizens Information Service. Today KARE provides Home Help, Meals on Wheels, Citizens Information with Free Legal Aid and a Community Minibus Service. Our Meals on Wheels kitchen also provides a dinner to residents and locals in one of our sheltered Dublin City Council accommodation kitchens.

8 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

Specialists in adjustable beds and recliners Martin Deasy and Yvonne Cassidy have many years experience in the service industry. They bring a person touch to their business. ‘Our ethos is respect, reliability and service’.

They are a new company and their showroom is based in Sandyford in Dublin 18. They specialise in adjustable / high low beds and recliner chairs.

They promise to provide a bed within 48 hours of receiving an order.

They say that Care to Comfort is different because they offer a choice of beds, the standard type hospital bed and several other designs of beds, ie. wooden, leather, divan etc. They do not look like hospital beds therefore they fit in more comfortably in your home and are less clinical.

All their beds are adjustable at the head and the feet and have the option of a high low mechanism (vertical lift). Another option is a built -in massage. Most of their beds have a five-year guarantee on the mechanism.

Their range of chairs vary from manual recliners to lift and tilt.

Electric chairs are available in fabrics and colours of your choice. Both their beds and chairs can be made to suit all sizes, tall, small, large and petite.

They treat their clients as customers and not as a patients. ‘Our aim is to find them the most suitable bed or chair for their particular needs’.

Visit their showroom at: Unit 3, St Kierans Enterprise Centre, Furze Road, Sandyford, Dublin 18.

Call before you visit at 01 2959000 www.caretocomfort.ie

At a Place Called Riverbank: The Beacon of Hope That Shines for Ireland’s Homeless and Hungry A hot meal. A helping hand. A fresh start. Stand at the threshold of Merchants Quay Ireland’s Riverbank Centre, and it’s incredible to think that in the heart of Dublin nearly one hundred thousand meals will be served right here to people in dire need, this year alone – at absolutely no charge and as a direct result of kind donations from the Irish public.

OPEN ACCESS

Welcoming the homeless and hungry “Riverbank opens at half seven – earlier than any other service. Those extra minutes are often critical when you’ve slept on the pavement or in a doorway, especially in winter. But the warm welcome they receive is just as vital. Explains MQI Project Worker, Martina Mannix, “Somebody coming in from the streets that has been out all night, it’s noteasy. People passing by – people passing them by – they mightn’t have heard their name in a long time. To give them that cup of tea and meal, to say, ‘How are you, Pat? How did you sleep?’, it opens a whole new experience for them. Thanks to our supporters we’re open right through the day”

“Riverbank’s drop-in medical service is so impactful to them.

Often they’re denied access elsewhere. As their wounds heal, it gives them the strength to heal other areas of their life. It has a real knock-on effect.”

— Enda, MQI Medical Nurse MQI MEDICAL UNIT

Healing with humanity Homelessness and addiction take their toll in other ways.

“A lot of our men and women are faced with such complex problems,” says Enda Spain, Nurse at MQI’s Medical Unit. “Many of our men and women have chronic ulcers from walking miles and miles day and night to stay warm. Apart from the intense pain, they can and do smell. They feel embarrassed being around other people. You can imagine how demoralising that is, how difficult it must be to consider any other aspect of your life while that’s going on. But sometimes it’s lots of little answers, like healing a chest infection in the dead of winter, or getting a good meal, or the flu vaccine.

PLEASE JOIN US:

Come for a Cuppa?

“Our homeless men and women are so grateful to come in from the cold. We make sure they get the best of what MQI has to offer.”

— Martina, MQI Project Worker NIGHT CAFÉ

Near 24-hour access for those in need And now a new option exists. MQI’s Night Café: • Open 11pm -7:30am at Riverbank homeless centre, 7 days a week • Giving people entrenched in homelessness near 24-hour access to safe respite, meals, hot showers, crisis medical care, and addiction intervention.

Each month for a few hours when MQI’s Riverbank Centre is quiet and not in active use to clients, we open our door exclusively to you – Senior Times readers, new friends and supporters.

Join us for free refreshments and private staffed tours of the good work that happens here...

THURSDAY COFFEE MORNINGS AT RIVERBANK: • 14th May, 11th June, or 9th July starting at 10:30am • To book a place for you (and your honoured guests), ring Aislinn or Martina now on 01

524 0139

Ear Of The Nation Shay Healy talks to the ‘Ear of the Nation’ Joe Duffy, starting with his typical day

10 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

“I’m up a six every morning But . I usually have a headphone at the side of the bed to Radio 4. When I’m lying in the bed..I ask myself why on earth are you getting up so early every morning and the answer is because I can. I get up out of bed, I go for a swim or to the gym. And I know a lot of people who would love to be up at six every day so I’ll keep that going and as a long as I can I will. Every day of the week bar Saturday and Sunday I do that and on Saturday and Sunday I don’t sleep past 8 o’clock..I must have got that from my father. He was a very early riser. And he was always punctual, so its in my DNA. I enjoy being up on these mornings that are very bright and I like the silence that goes with swimming. You can’t talk if you’re swimming or you can, but you’ll swallow a lot of water - I go down to the swimming pool for forty minutes.”

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As the unofficial ombudsman of the people via Liveline you might expect Joe to be possibly a bit gloomy. Not a bit of it.

Joe is no slave to the past.

“I primarly carry tomorrow’s programme in my head.. You know yourself, at three o’clock the programme finishes and the challenge is not to its not go back over today’s programme, but to plan for tomorrow. That’s why I’m listening to radios all the time.. I have radios all over the house, on my phone, on my iPad, on my computer and the only time I’m not listening to the radio is the forty minutes I’m in the swimming pool”.

“Now I don’t mean I‘m sitting somewhere like a French resistance fighter, in a flat in Normandy looking for the key words that will unlock an item up. “I’m monitoring all broadcasts, but for instance,yesterday I was listening to Radio Four and I hear them talking about reintroducing the lynx, the cat, to keep the number of wild deer down. On the short promo I do on the Ronan Collins Show around 12.40, I brought up the problems they were having in the U.K wild deer and whether we had any problem here. Immediately the phones went on fire. We had farmers on saying the country is over-run with wild deer”.

The story was a typical “Liveline” and Joe likes nothing more than to hear something that’s completely new to him. There were angry accusations of culling Bambi and it caught fire.

“We didn’t expect that, but I love it when something esoteric comes on, because it is a phone-in show and it gives a platform to people who don’t usually get one, so we try to make it as unpredictable and entertaining as possible.”

12 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

As if the mental strength he uses for a programme like Liveline wasn’t enough expenditure of his energy, Joe has a head full of other projects that are on the go, which are filling up all his spare time.

“Yeah, We’re doing a lot at the minute. I’m doing a tv documentary for “Liveline”, we’re doing a documentary for kids of the 1916 Rising,. I’ve a book to write about the 1916 kids who were killed and I’m doing a religious service for these kids as well and of course Liveline is my number one priority every day. I’m a bit overloaded but it’ll be fine. The way I try to deal with it, is to not sit down and think about everything together.If you do that you’ll get messed up. I take it one day at a time, chip, chip chip at a time.”

Joe has a very high moral ethic, which comes across in his column in the Irish Mail on Sunday.The column is his safety net for blowing off steam, which he can’t do with Liveline.

“On Liveline I want to encourage debate, not stifle it and anyway, me throwing out my opinions is not in the brief of the programme.”

There’s no doubt that compassion is definitely in the brief for Liveline and Joe has a sympathetic intonation in his voice which he uses to his advantage in delicate situations. He draws people out and he has a natural empathy with the downtrodden, the less well-off and the sick and he encourages compassion, because he sees us a compassionate race.

“Ah yes, ah Jesus. I think so. I think we are very compassionate people. People come on Liveline who’ve been scammed, or have had their car stolen, or houses broken into, old people

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robbed of the their savings or being conned by bogey roofers. In a matter of seconds , there would be a compassionate response.

I think compassion is one of the things that kept us going through what the ESRI call the great recession of the last ten years was the compassion people had for one another, fellow parishoners, a sense of community.

I’ve always said compassion will get you through times when there is no money and family and community is what helps you get through it. And money without compassion is worth nothing.”

Some people say that Liveline is on a delay and is not “live” at all. Well I’ve never heard that and its not true. One of the good things about radio is that it is such a transparent medium. People can judge in a very short time whether someone is over-egging it or exaggerating it, or worse again, not telling the true story. Somebody comes on and says ..”the steward at the football club let me take the blame in the wrong” and within ten minutes we can have that steward on the phone to tell us what really happened.

The whole compulsion of radio is that you have to be up front and transparent and not to overegg it because you’ll get caught out. With a keen mind and great ability as a communicator, it is no surprise that he has been courted by politicians at various times to join the ranks, but he’s been cured and knows its not the way for him to go.

I don’t think I have the skill for party politics. But we’re all part of the political discourse and we all can make a contribution to the national debate. What I am doing is enabling people to play an active part of changing access to radio and getting them to realize that politics is not confined to Leinster House.”

“The Water protests and other demonstrations are showing that there is another form of politics running parallel to Party politics that needs to covered.”

Not a dogmatist by nature, Joe still has deep suspicion of some of the systems in our government and thinks we bend the forelock to the judiciary in disproportionate amounts. One of the features from his past is that he came from Ballyfermot and went to Trinity College with a flat Dublin accident and in spite of that he had still managed to become head of the 14 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

students’ Union. Such patronizing snobbery was utter can’t and Joe is quite clear where his education came from.

“I say I wasn’t educated at Trinity. I was educated at St John’s College in Ballyfermot and the primary shool in Palmersotwn.

There’s a mystification of third level education. Like we revere judges, men learned and wise, but if Paddy Murphy from Ballydehob didn’t get the breaks, does it mean he can’t be learned and wise?”.

His radio career began courtesy of his mentor Gay Byrne, who spotted the latent talent, and for once, without rushing an exciting new personality, the radio bosses let him learn from the master. Hints of his ability to deal with people, brought Joe eventually to where he belongs and he is loving it all still.

“I love the radio. Its my favourite medium..I grew upon radio.

We were one of the last people to get a telly in Ballyfermot because we couldn’t afford it. I remember when we got a telly, it was one of those slot televisions where you to put a two-shillings coin if you wanted to watch the telly. If you didn’t put in enough two bobs, you got no telly. There were two companies, Tele Rents and RTV-Rentals and you rented your telly rather than bought it.”

Joe and his triplets, Sean, Eleanor and Ronan, who are teenagers now and Joe and his wife June have conscientiously shielded them from the media. “They are just normal siblings, two brothers and a sister and being triplets is not something we think about all the time. Joe laughs, they told me “I embarrass them.”

A lot of people are unaware that Joe is a really good painter.

His landscapes across Dublin Bay are delightful and he gets better and better with time.

“I used to paint one night a week and on week-ends, but my life is so full at the moment that art is taking a back seat. I do one night a week. I used to do it at week-ends but I’ve no time because of all the other projects I doing. . I find painting very relaxing and let me tell you, if I can paint anyone can paint.

When I rang Brian my teacher, I’d said Id like to start painting.

“So what’s stopping ye?’Go into Eason’s, buy yourself a starter pack for a tenner and away you go.”

Can we expect Joe in the near future to smear his lips and make a series of paintings with his gob, just as Michael Flatey has done with his dance pictures?.

“I don’t know whose buying Michael Flatley’s pictures” laughs Joe. They must be related.”

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Volunteering abroad still a popular option Thinking of volunteering abroad?

Rose Hennessy of charity Friends of Londiani offers some timely advice Friends of Londiani are an Irish registered charity working with people in rural communities in the Rift Valley, Kenya. We have a volunteer programme that looks for volunteers to travel to Kenya each year and work with the local people there. The volunteer experience is about working alongside the people to support them in various projects that are making real and lasting changes and improvements to their lives. From installing smokeless stoves that create safer, healthier homes to facilitating courses in Lifeskills to supporting small businesses with skills training and advise – there are many, many opportunities.

We have had several senior volunteers travel to Kenya with us and we welcome and value the contributions their life experience brings. John Spillane is one such volunteer and he has been back and forth to Kenya on many trips since he first got involved with the charity – his most recent trip was in February this year.

This is his story - “In late 2004, the year I got my free travel pass, I decided to deliver on one of my “retirement resolutions” and to “give something back” and applied to volunteer with Friends of Londiani. I was interviewed, was accepted and after a few training and induction sessions found myself in July 2005 with about 20 other volunteers in the green, remote, really beautiful village of Ndubusat.

The three main pillars of Friends of Londiani activities are health, education and water and we were involved in all three during the two weeks we spent there. We - women and men - worked

Eithne Phelan with fellow volunteer Mary Stafford talking to students about mosquitos and malaria

with the local men building a small hospital (I never knew brick laying was such fun but perhaps that was down to the interaction - the craic - with the local men.) We organised vaccinations for the local children and the distribution of mosquito nets. We upgraded the school buildings by putting in concrete floors, doors and windows.

We held a number of peer education seminars. We worked with the local men in piping water to the village from a source 5km in the hills and we all really worked well together.

That our presence was appreciated was evident from the friendly reception we received from the local families and the number of times we were invited into their homes for chai (a local brew of tea which I personally hate the taste of!).

And on the final day the women of the area put on a typical Kenyan feast for us all. It was mighty! Then, the entire community turned out to bid us good bye and to show their gratitude by bestowing every one of us with a present.

It was an amazing feeling to be receiving gifts from people who we knew had virtually nothing but they gave what they could - fruit, vegetables, eggs and one young Dub even had a live hen thrust into her arms as a gift!

16 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

Now, 2015, the European Year of Development I’ve just returned again from Kenya – I’ve taken more than 10 trips at this stage! I am always heartened by noting the progress achieved since my last visit.

So, in the year that’s in it, why not volunteer with us. You don’t have to make a long term commitment and I assure you, you will find it a hugely enriching experience.

And if any potential senior volunteers would like to have reassurance from an old hand, I would be more than happy to talk to you. I can be contacted through the Friends of Londiani website.”

Eithne Phelan volunteered with Friends of Londiani in 2010 – these are her thoughts on the experience.

“When I told my sister that I was thinking of going to Kenya doing volunteer work with ‘Friends of Londiani’, the reaction was as I expected---’Aren’t you a bit old for that?’. Despite the fact that this is exactly what I had been thinking myself, I felt as if the gauntlet was being flung down and it gave me the final impetus to accept the challenge. With the

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between 5 or 6 students.

I was also involved in helping with business training, interviews for education bursaries, health information field days, painting the children’s ward in the hospital and sports days.

Eithne Phelan sits with a family to undertake a household survey

encouragement of my husband and family I sent in my application. I realized I was fit and healthy, that 67 was only a number and that if I put this off I might never do it.

Fundraising was, of course, part of the commitment. This was not at all as onerous as I expected. I opted for sponsorship cards, which I gave mostly to my family. I also organised a coffee morning, book sale and raffle, with the help of many friends. It was a fun occasion and we raised a lot of money.

The generosity of people was amazing, especially when they realised that all monies raised were going directly to our projects.

Travelling up through the Rift Valley to our destination took 2 days and when we got there we were greeted at the roadside by a large group of people and school children, singing and dancing and waving flowers, who escorted us to our accommodation after several speeches and welcome dances. It was an amazing and very moving experience and one which was repeated many times in the 3 weeks we spent in Kenya.

Remote locations The work I did included doing household surveys. This involved visiting fairly remote houses and filling in a detailed questionnaire with the help of the occupants. The surveys ask questions relating to the number of people in a household, health, education, access to water and to a health clinic, distance from school etc. The information is gathered to find out the needs of a community and the

projects undertaken are based on these needs. As volunteers we were accompanied by a local volunteer or staff person who interpreted for us, although most people spoke English as well as Swahili.

I found this work extremely interesting and felt very privileged to be welcomed into people’s homes and to meet locals in an ordinary non-tourist way. They all welcomed us and were glad to see us.

The children were fascinated with the ’Mzungu’(white people), and seemed so happy and cheerful though obviously very poor. We trekked through countryside which was surprisingly green and very beautiful.

I thought I would find this trekking difficult but I managed fine and I had brought a fold-up walking stick which I found very helpful. Also, I think the sun had a very beneficial effect on ‘elder lemon’ pains and aches. They disappeared completely until I landed in Dublin at the end of the 3 weeks!

I also worked with the Healthy Schools HECA programme. This teaches children about basic hygiene and healthy habits such as hand washing, use of latrines, litter disposal and malaria prevention.

This programme also supports schools to provide proper vented pit latrines, clean water and hand-washing facilities.

For me, as a retired teacher, theses visits were extremely interesting and a complete eye-opener. Many of the school buildings were unfinished and had no windows or doors. The teachers’ equipment consisted of one blackboard painted onto the wall. That was it! The classes were huge - sometimes 40 or 50 children and there might be 1 textbook

18 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

Looking back on those 3 weeks, I feel it was one of the most worthwhile journeys I have ever made, not only for the work in which I was involved, but for what I myself learned and experienced.

No matter how much you read or see on television, you simply cannot realize the conditions under which people live until you see for yourself. It has a huge emotional impact which lasts long after your visit is over and you are left with many indelible memories.

Was it difficult for someone aged 67?

Well, I wasn’t the oldest on our project. The age range was from 30 to 72. I would have to honestly say that most of the fears I had were not realized. Yes, I was very tired when I returned, but how many times have you heard people returning from a touring holiday complaining of exhaustion? The trekking through the countryside was invigorating, teaching in the schools was stimulating, meeting the people in their homes was a privilege few tourists experience. Being with an amazing, committed group of volunteers made me feel young again - you can’t put a value on that!

You will never regret giving 2 or 3 weeks of your time to such a worthwhile organisation and will get a lot more out of it than you put in. Indeed, you will probably be trying to work out how soon you will be able to return.

So don’t let a little matter of age hold you back from volunteering with Friends of Londiani. As Mark Twain said ‘Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don‘t mind it doesn‘t matter!’ “ Friends of Londiani need volunteers for a project in Kenya in November.

To find out more see www.friendsoflondiani.com or phone 021 4621748 or email harambee@friendsoflondiani.com

Excursions

In the steps of St Patrick John Low visits some of the celebrated sites associated with our patron saint

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.

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 19

Start your quest in the splendid Saint Patrick Centre on Market Street, Downpatrick

Downpatrick is the spiritual and logical starting point for any excursion in search of the great man.

Start your quest in the splendid Saint Patrick Centre on Market Street. It contains the only permanent exhibition in the world dedicated to telling the story of St Patrick. You can go on a virtual tour over the landscape which uses Patrick’s own words to tell his story. In the first part of the exhibition you are introduced to the Roman-British world where Patrick lived. This is contrasted with the Celtic world which flourished in 5th century Ireland. You also journey through his life as shepherd, and slave before his escape. Almost dying from starvation he and his fellow travellers are rescued and return home to Ireland to embark on his mission. You can also listen to contemporary opinions, as experts and people from all backgrounds share their views on Patrick’s achievements and what it means to them. There is also a fine video presentation in the striking 180 degree theatre.

The interactive exhibition operates alongside an art gallery, craft shop, visitor information centre and restaurant. You can also book a personal tour of Saint Patrick’ Country at the centre www.saintpatrickcentre.com

St Patrick’s Church Although it has no historical role in relation to St Patrick, it’s worth visiting this church – just across from the Centre -- built to celebrate St Patrick. It is a typically striking building, with a fine steeple, in the Victorian High Gothic style, designed by Belfast architect Mortimer H Thompson. When the church was extended in 1993, it incorporated an important mosaic shrine in honour St Patrick – surprisingly the only shrine to St Patrick in Ireland.

Down Cathedral and St Patrick’s grave Just round the corner from Market Street you will meet the impressive edifice of Down Cathedral which is one of the most 20 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

important points on the trail. 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. It was built on the Hill of Down, one of the holiest Christian sites in Ireland and was originally a monastery which was founded after St Patrick’s death.

But its greatest claim to fame is that it is said to contain the final resting place of St Patrick, as marked by the huge stone in front of the building. This has always been open to question; however for centuries visitors have come to Downpatrick to celebrate the final resting place of St Patrick. One legend about the burial of St Patrick says that two wild oxen transported his body to Downpatrick and he was buried where the animals came to a standstill.

The celebrated St Patrick’s bell was placed in his grave. One legend says it was found by St Colmcille and given to the church of Armagh. It is now on view in the National Museum in Dublin.

Down County Museum Just a short walk from the Cathedral and well worth a visit. It is located in what was originally the gaol. It has an extensive collection of artefacts dating from early times right up today.

There’s a particularly interesting collection of household items from the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s, as well as some fascinating Viking items.

Inch Abbey Just outside Downpatrick is Inch abbey, beautifully set beside the river Quoile, this Cistercian Abbey was founded by John de Courcy in the 1180’s. it was here that St john commissioned the monk Jocelin to write the life of St Patrick. Jocelin’s writing is believed to be the first to mention the legend of St Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland.

Saul Two miles outside Downpatrick, Saul is the site of Ireland’s first Christian church. St Patrick founded it in a barn given by an early convert. It is thought that St Patrick died at Saul after writing his celebrated confession there as an old man.

The present church was built in 1933, possibly on the site of St Patrick’s first barn-church. There is also a graveyard on the steep hillside, and some evidence of the early church, including stonebuilt graves. A stone structure, called a mortuary house, lies in the graveyard and probably dates to the 11th or 12th century and may have once held relics of St Patrick.

St Patrick’s grave at Down Cathedral

A legend says that St Patrick picked a shamrock from the soil, perhaps at Saul, and used the three leaves to explain Christian belief in the Holy Trinity. The shamrock, it is thought, represented one God made up of three Divine beings – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The association of colour green with the saint may have come from the legend of the shamrock. Close by on the crest of Slieve Patrick you can see the tallest statue of St Patrick in the world.

Raholp The ruins of St Tassach’s church are two miles from Saul.

St Tassach and is strongly associated with St Patrick and County Down and there is a tradition that he gave St Patrick the last rites of his deathbed at Saul.

The present church is medieval but the site originated in the early Christian period. It fell into disrepair by the 17th century but was restored in 1915.

St Patrick would have had to travel by boat through the narrows of Strangford Lough, arriving at Irish shores at the mouth of the River Slaney, just outside Downpatrick.

Strangford After leaving Raholp, why not make the short journey to Strangford for refreshment. This is a prim little village where you can get the Strangford/Portaferry ferry across Strangford Lough.

St Patrick would have had to travel by boat through the narrows of Strangford Lough, arriving at Irish shores at the mouth of the River Slaney, just outside Downpatrick. If you feel like a nice meal, there are not too many choices here but I can recommend The Cuan Inn (www.thecuan).

These are a just few suggestions if you want to visit some other places in this area associated St Patrick. There are of course many more.

For more information and suggested routes, visit www.discovernorthernireland.com/stpatrick Or Callsave 18550 230 230

Two miles outside Downpatrick, Saul is the site of Ireland’s first Christian church.

From slave to saint.. * Born around AD 400, near the west coast of Roman Britain, son of a cleric who owned an estate. * Captured and brought to Ireland as a slave age 16. * Escapes to Britain at around 22 years old. * Studies to be a cleric, eventually becoming a Bishop. * Returns to Ireland as a missionary with his followers in AD432 as a missionary. First convert is local chieftain Dichu, who gives Patrick a bard for a church at Saul near Downpatrick. *Travels around Ireland, converting thousands of pagans and baptising royal chieftains. *Establishes Armagh as Christian seat of learning. *Dies at Saul in County Down on 17th March, possibly in AD 461 or 493

22 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

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Health

Beef up your brain power

One of our greatest fears in older age is that our brains will slow down – and that’s before we even start to think about brain function or disease. So, it’s good to know that your brain can be helped to stay healthy, and work to its maximum potential - and one of the best ways is to give yourself a `brain workout’ with lifestyle changes. Lorna Hogg reports Thanks to the EU initiative HelloBrain (check the website at HelloBrain.eu) we can discover that not only do older dogs learn new tricks, but that learning can act like a powerful drug. As you work on improving your physical and mental health and lifestyle, you can see just how your brain can be helped to work even better.

The idea is that over a period of 100 days, you pick one activity from each of the five categories included as brain ‘buffs’ – physical, social, mental, attitude and lifestyle, and challenge yourself to perform a daily task. Over the 100 days, you 24 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

alternate the categories to cover the range.

Could your physical fitness be improved? An idea to get moving include trying new challenges such as cycling, using the stairs rather than the lift, getting on your bike. How about joining an exercise class, or exercising by playing with the dog or your grandchildren, or replacing some TV viewing with a walk.

Could you improve your social buffs to support brain health?

Even if you have no family nearby, or have lost your network with recent retirement, you can create one. Ideas include push yourself out of your comfort zone – try volunteering, make a point of talking to someone older or younger that day.

Keeping socially active or putting yourself into new situations can have a protective plus. Why not contact some friends and encourage each other by taking the Hello Brain challenge as a group?

Mental activity, especially through complex activities, can be a powerful brain buff against deterioration. Keep your brain working – get creative with painting, or photography. Memorise some poetry. Learn computer skills, or move to tougher crossword puzzles. Try a complex game, such as chess. Take classes in a new language or skill.

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Take advantage of the wide choice of free talks, gatherings, workshops and events at your local library or museums. From local history talks, to improving your well being, computer skills and career prospects, to book clubs and even film shows, the choice is wide.

Can’t find a suitable course? Create your own one for your group, (minimum ten people) at An Grianan, which offers several slots throughout the year. They have a wide range of topics, from cookery and craft to photography and making the best of yourself. You can also join many of their regular courses.

Tel. 041 982 2119.

Get the right kind of peer pressure by contacting a national association, such as Age and Opportunity Action or Active Retirement.. www.age&opportunity.ie www.activeirl.ie www.agefriendly.ie

Your lifestyle can have a strong impact on your brain as well as general health. Try cutting out processed foods for on day, and eating fresh. Swop sweets orchocolate snacks for fresh fruit..

Give up sugar or alcohol for a day. Clear your bedroom of technology for a good night’s sleep. Try to prepare one meal from freshingredients. If you’re a smoker, cut down you intake by 10% for one day.

Brain power Go boldly where you’ve never been before – online. Many people do not realise all the advantages. Aside from paying bills, shopping, banking, learning and booking tickets, it’s also easy and affordable to keep in touch with family and friends, thanks to Skype. There is plenty of help to do so. Look for Digitise The Nation at your local library for courses. Computers for the Terrified courses are also helpful.

Research leisure schemes for the over 50s. For Dubliners, the `Passport for Leisure’ part of the `Embracing Ageing’ initiative, is a scheme open to over 55s, under which people can buy a pass for €10 per year to enjoy discounts of a wide range of events, from entertainment to shopping, cultural events and sports. Look for schemes local to you, such as the Print Workshop, run by the Creative Community programme, at the National Print Museum at Beggars Bush Barracks.

Keep proof of age with you at all times. You’ll be surprised by how widely it is accepted, and by the entry discounts you might find..

26 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

Happiness can arrive on four paws. If you don’t want to take on a dog for life, then could you become a puppy walker? The Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind has plenty of puppy walking opportunities. Retirees are especially suited, and you’ll need to be able to commit for a year to 15 months. Puppy food and health costs are covered.

Volunteer your help. The need is much wider than you might think. You could find yourself visiting the elderly, helping in a shop, creating a nature trail, working in a local museum or gallery, accompanying the disabled to hospital appointments, fund rising, working with a confidential listening telephone line, or helping to improve language skills with new migrants.

Find your voice – and sing out. If you are unsure about singing alone, then learn to sing in harmony with a choir, ranging from pop and rock to country. Corus is a singing class and choir experience open to anyone who wants to learn to sing with added bonus of a new social network. It is currently available in the Dublin area, Naas, Cork and Galway.

Go back to your roots. Researching your family ancestry ticks all the boxes for brain health – using mental activity in the search, physical exercise in exploration and onsite research, as well as new social contacts. The surprises or details which you uncover may give you new insights into your family or challenge the attitudes which you inherited from your bears!

FACT BOX

Your attitude is vital to your brain health, as your outlook can inspire or restrict you. Learn to manage stress and to see things differently. Plan for something pleasant, e.g. meeting or calling a friend, rather than just waiting for something to happen. Your attitudes can hold you back. Many people feel that they are too old to experience, try or learn something new. Disprove this by picking one activity which you feel you are too old to try – and doing it. Why not question your attitudes to middle and older age. Would you eat out alone? Travel alone? Learn something new? Are you prepared to ask for help if you need it? If you’re worried, anxious or lonely, why not contact Senior Helpline? It’s a confidential listening service for older people, manned by older people – and receives 28,000 calls each year.

LoCall 1850 440 444

www.hellobrain.eu www.corus.ie www.passportforleisure.ie Senior HelpLine LoCall 1850 440 444 www.alone.ie www.guidedogs.ie www.nationalprintmuseum.ie www.an-grianan.ie www.carelocal.ie www.thirdageireland.ie www.volunteer.ie

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Literature

Queen of crime writing Lorna Hogg continues her literary-themed travels with a visit to Devon, ‘home’ to Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie, who achieved sales of an estimated two billion copies of her books, is often dubbed the Queen of Crime Writing. Her writing continues to intrigue and entertain readers, film goers and TV viewers. However, the author herself, shy, reticent and private, yet also sociable and charming, could be said to be as much a woman of mystery as a woman of mysteries.

She was born on 15th September 1890, the third child in a wealthy family in Torquay, on the English Riviera. Early childhood was secure and happy, but her first brush with grief was when her American father Frederick, died when Agatha was eleven, leaving the family facing financial worries. The young Agatha became even closer to her supportive and encouraging mother Clara.

She had a traditional upbringing at Ashleigh, the home she loved. Sometimes socially shy and awkward, at her mother’s suggestion, she started writing childhood stories whilst recuperating from flu. She grew into a young woman who was attractive to men and attracted by good looks, and received several marriage proposals. However, whilst engaged to an old friend Reggie Lucy, she was quickly swept off her feet by the charming Reggie Christie. They married on Christmas Eve, December 1914.

Agatha with her first husband Archie Christie

After a one day honeymoon in the Grand Hotel, Torquay, Archie left for war and Agatha started volunteer work in the Torquay Hospital. She later moved to its dispensary, where she learned about poisons. After a bet with her sister that she couldn’t write a mystery novel, Agatha started her first – which would become The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Influenced by contemporary writers Conan Doyle and Edgar Allen Poe, she created her iconic Belgian detective, Poirot. One mistake - she created him already middle aged. It has been calculated that the world famous detective would have retired aged around 120!

28 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

Her disappearance in 1926 was a front page story in all the newspapers

Encouraged by her husband, now back on leave, Agatha sent her book off to publishers, who accepted it. Writing would become part of her new life, and in the meantime, the young pair moved to London, where their daughter Rosalind was born in 1919. That, however, did not deter either her own or Christie’s sense of adventure. In 1921 they undertook a world tour, providing more ideas for Agatha’s plots. Once home again, she started to establish a reputation as an author of detective novels.

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Agatha Christie attracted huge popularity, but less critical acclaim. With over 80 crime novels, around 150 short stories, four non fiction books, six novels and 19 plays, there has been material for many films and TV series.

The idylically situated Greenway on the River Dart, the summer home of Agatha Christie and her second husband Max Mallowen

1926 was to prove a hard year. Agatha was grieved deeply when her mother Clara died in the spring. Within months, she also had to face the fact that her husband loved another woman, Nancy Neele. Finally, before the year was over, her own life provided one of the greatest mystery stories she ever produced – her own disappearance.

On the 3rd December, the couple quarrelled, and Agatha left home, driving her car. It was later found abandoned in Surrey, near to their home, Styles. A police search was started, and the press speculated about her possible death. Suicide, revenge, or even murder could not be ruled out. Five days later, Agatha turned up in a luxury hotel in Harrogate, using the name of Neele. Archie Christie identified her, and said that his wife had lost her memory.

Agatha was then accused by the press of acting out a publicity stunt, but the most likely reason for her disappearance may have been an emotional reaction to the combination of recent events.

However, it left her with a strong distrust of the press.

The 1928 divorce opened a new chapter in her life. Needing to support herself

Agatha in later years with her second husband Max Mallowen

It’s worth making a trip to Moorlands Hotel at Hay Tor, with its sweeping views over Dartmoor. Agatha stayed here while writing her first novel.

and Rosalind, Agatha started writing in earnest. She also travelled to the Middle East via the fabled Orient Express. In 1930, the year her creation Miss Marple first appeared, Agatha again took up the chance to visit an archaeological excavation site at Ur. She met and became friends with Max Mallowan, assistant to the team leader, and fourteen years her junior. Agatha, as well as family and some friends, were surprised at his proposal following their return home. However, with her daughter’s blessing, the couple married at the end of the year.

Writing projects led to further success, and in 1938, Agatha parted with her beloved Ashleigh, which was sold. With her husband, she bought the beautiful Greenway, on Devon’s River Dart, as their summer home. Content in her marriage and homes, Agatha would continue her prolific writings for almost forty years. As `Mary Westmacott’, she wrote novels, and also entertained and travelled with Max. She had long used her travel experiences in her works – the classics Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express ; both drew on her journeys. Both became very popular films, introducing her to a new gen-

30 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

eration of enthusiasts. Television has continued to do this, thanks to series involving Poirot and Miss Marples.

Another great success was the play, The Mousetrap, which has run for over 60 years in London’s West End – and continues to do so. In 1972, Agatha went to Buckingham Palace to receive a Dame Commander of the British Empire Award from the Queen. Three years later, she wrote the novel Curtain, ending Poirot’s career. Sleeping Murder proved Miss Marple’s last case, and Agatha died peacefully on 12th January 1976 at Greenway.

Agatha Christie attracted huge popularity, but less critical acclaim.

With over 80 crime novels, around 150 short stories, four non fiction books, six novels and 19 plays, there has been material for many films and TV series.

No mystery here - her books are not gruesome. They are easy to read, not over-complex, using beautiful settings and unexpected murderers - but no intrusive author, and surprises and double bluffs abound. For millions, the reign of one of the world’s finest crime writers continues...

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Agatha Christie’s Devon Don’t miss the Dartmouth Steam Railway, which runs along the coast. It was a route loved by Agatha – featuring in The ABC Murders and Dead Man’s Folly.

Torquay on the English Riviera where Agatha Christie grew up

The novels of Agatha Christie are strongly influenced by the Devon countryside. She gained inspiration from its landscapes, which range from the popular coastal resorts of the English Riviera, the beautiful homes around the River Dart, to the wild and bleak beauty of Dartmoor’s tors and moors. It’s easy to visit, whether on a short trip, or as part of the hugely popular annual Agatha Christie Festival Agatha grew up in Torquay, then a fashionable resort, complete with concerts, sailing, luxury hotels, yachts and beautiful mansions. She was strongly attached to her homes, from her childhood residence of Ashfield to Greenway, the mansion in which she lived with her second husband. Torquay has its own Agatha Christie Literary Trail plus an Exhibition, so makes an ideal place to start sleuthing.

The railway station, which would have been well known to her, lies by the Grand Hotel, where Agatha and her first husband Archie Christie had their honeymoon. Walk along the seafront to Princess Pier, well known to young Agatha, and where she used to roller skate. Nearby are the Princess Gardens, which featured in The ABC Murders, and also the Pavilion and Concert Hall, backdrops to her 1913 courtship.

The Strand was a fashionable shopping destination for the young Agatha, and Hoopers cafe retains beautiful views out over the coastline. Pop into the nearby Torquay Museum, to explore the Agatha Christie Collection. Nearby lies the Royal Torbay Yacht Club, where Agatha’s father was a member, and just steps from the Imperial Hotel. As the Majestic Hotel, it featured in Peril at End House and its terrace featured in Sleeping Murder. Glimpses of its fin de siècle elegance and style remain the Palm Court, where

32 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

tea is served, and which was a location for The Body in the Library.

The Town Hall was the site of the First World War Red Cross Hospital, where Agatha volunteered, and its dispensary was where she learned about poisons. She loved to swim - Beacon Cove was the Ladies Bathing Cove, with nearby Anstey Cove as the site of youthful moonlit picnics with friends.

The choice of a ferry or vintage bus tour will take you out to nearby Greenway, once called the ‘most beautiful house on the River Dart’.It featured in several novels, including its role as Nasse House in Dead Man’s Folly, and the boat house was the scene for murder. Greenway was the home of Agatha and her second husband, Max Mallowan from 1938 until 1959, and is now owned by the National Trust.

Don’t miss the Dartmouth Steam Railway, which runs along the coast. It was a route loved by Agatha – featuring in The ABC Murders and Dead Man’s Folly. She also regularly visited several beautiful local mansions, enjoying amateur theatricals on the lawn at Cockington Court, and social dances at Oldway Mansion, at nearby Paignton.

Both can be visited. Finally, for a different perspective, it’s worth making a trip to Moorlands Hotel at Hay Tor, with its sweeping views over Dartmoor. Agatha stayed here whilst writing her first novel. www.englishriviera.co.uk/agathachristie www.agathachristie.com www.grandtorquay.co.uk www.greenwayferry.co.uk www.barcelo-hotels.co.uk/imperial www.dartmouthrailriver.co.uk.co.uk

Healthwave brings Northern Irish medicine prices to your door Access savings from anywhere in Ireland

Medication prices in Ireland are high, in fact they are up to seven times higher than those in Northern Ireland.

Consumers have been voting with their feet in recent years with hoards of southerners making the trip to Newry to purchase their prescriptions. And who could argue with them? Until now.

Healthwave is a new subscription pharmacy operating from Dundrum in Dublin and offer medications at prices on par with those seen in Northern Ireland. Healthwave’s store in Dundrum Town Centre looks just like a regular pharmacy but that’s where the similarities end! Healthwave operate a membership system, the first of its kind in Ireland. Once you sign up as a Healthwave member, you have access to member prescription prices, 50%

cheaper on average. Healthwave will then deliver your medication by secure courier each month.

Can’t get to Healthwave? No problem!

They will come to you. Once you register online or by phone, you can book a house call with one of their mobile pharmacists. The pharmacist will come and collect your prescription and take it to the pharmacy headquarters in Dublin for dispensing. Your medication is then delivered each month. Anybody, anywhere in Ireland can sign up with Healthwave through their mobile pharmacist service, great for those housebound or caring for an elderly relative.

Membership Healthwave offers two annual

‘HealthPass’ membership plans: • Adult: • Family:

€25 per year €60 per year

The key benefits of joining are: • 50% savings on prescription prices on average • Free nationwide home delivery • Free home visits from the pharmacist if you can get to Dublin

Medicine range Healthwave carry all medications and use the same Irish suppliers as other pharmacies. To offer the best prices, generic medicines are dispensed where possible. Branded products can also be provided if required. When the

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 33

patent on a branded medication expires, other pharmaceutical companies can manufacture their own version of the product. These versions are often cheaper to purchase as the bulk of the research & development has been done by the original company. Generic versions have an identical amount of drug as the branded medication and have exactly the same effect in the body. The only differences that may be observed are in the colour and or shape of the tablet. Healthwave dispense generic medication where available in order to pass on any savings to their customers.

Medicine Prices Healthwave have a selection of prices on their website (www.healthwave.ie) for their most popular cholesterol, blood pressure, stomach and cancer drugs.

For any prices you can’t find on the website you can call the Healthwave Customer Care Team on 1890 989 250.

Some examples of member prices available at Healthwave: Breast cancer: Drug name Anastrozole (Arimidex) Letrozole (Femara) Exemestane (Aromasin)

Member price per month €9.95 €7.96 €35.95

Cholesterol: Drug name Atorvastatin 20mg (Lipitor) Rosuvastatin 10mg (Crestor)

Member price per month €4.95 €7.95

Healthwave was launched in 2014 by Cork pharmacist, Shane O’Sullivan and has grown to a team of 20 including 5 pharmacists at their pharmacy in Dundrum. With over 10,000 members signed up and over €1 million saved, this wave is spreading! Contact Healthwave now to price your prescription and see the savings you could make.

Customer care: 1890 989 250 www.healthwave.ie info@healthwave.ie 34 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

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Summertime and the livin’ is easy..

But not if you an older person living in Ireland with few friends or social contacts.

to more vulnerable older people, all geared to connectivity and social inclusion.

Even though daylight hours are increasing as we move towards summer, afternoons and the evenings are still a lonely time for older people. Senior Help Line, Ireland’s only national help line for older people, has been reviewing its recent calls Typical quotes from callers include:

Senior Help Line is open every day of the year from 10 am till 10 pm, and many people phone regularly for valuable social contact. Aine Brady is Third Age CEO: “All our trained volunteers are older people themselves which means that they understand very well the feelings and problems of our older callers. Indeed this peer aspect is one of the aspects that callers comment on very frequently. They tell us they feel understood, that we feel they are listening to them.”

‘I’m very depressed as I’m less mobile each year.

This year shows me that I can get out and about even less’ - 78 year old female caller ‘If I have seen nobody all day, the afternoon only emphasises how lonely I am’ – 80 year old male caller ‘I enjoy afternoon television, but they change the schedule in summer, and I miss my favourites’ – 71 year old female caller ‘I am terminally ill, and I feel so alone. I know I will never see another spring’ - 67 year old male caller ‘There seems to be a lot more people hanging around in summer, or knocking on your door wanting to sell you things. It makes me feel very vulnerable’ - 77 year old male caller Senior Help Line is a national confidential listening service for older people, provided by trained older volunteers. It is Ireland’s only peer telephone service for older people, and one of the few world-wide. Senior Help Line is a programme of Third Age, a voluntary organisation with 1,400 trained older volunteers countrywide contributing to their communities variously as tutors, advocates, listeners and befrienders. Third Age promotes the value of older people as volunteers, while offering services

Established 16 years ago, the help line received over 30,000 calls in 2013 from older people throughout Ireland. Callers can be lonely, anxious, in financial difficulties, worried about home security, health or family. Some callers are depressed or suicidal or may be suffering from elder abuse. Some older people, who have few people to talk to phone very regularly for company and social contact.

In today’s busy world where channels of communication have grown ever more technical and sophisticated, we can often forget the value of talking and listening to each other.

“It may be surprising that summertime can be a lonely time for older people,” says Aine Brady. “But remember this is a time when families and neighbours go away and an older person can be left with little variation in their day, and little to look forward to. We would encourage anyone who feels lonely, whatever the weather, to give us a ring. Our volunteers are always happy to hear from you. You don’t have to have a big problem to call us, but hopefully if there is something worrying you, we can help you look at that also,” she says.

Senior Help Line is available throughout Ireland for the cost of a local call. LoCall 1850 440 444. www.thirdageireland.ie

Senior Help Line Ad:Layout 1 26/08/2013 19:08 Page 1

SenIOr HeLP LIne LoCall 1850 440 444 When Listening is Helping Do you need to share a worry?

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Senior Help Line

Ireland’s only national confidential listening service for older people Provided by trained older volunteers Open every day and every evening 365 days of the year 36 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

Cosmetics and Beauty

Here comes summer!

How to look and feel your best during the summer months ahead.

Mairead Robinson offers some suggestions.

With the warmer weather and the appearance of the long awaited sunshine, we are all inclined to peel off the winter layers and get out into the fresh air. Nothing wrong with that you say, we do need that vitamin D after all and the feel-good factor that comes with a sunny Irish day is immeasurable. But we need to take extra care of our skin, use that sun protection and understand that exposure to the sun can cause health problems.

As melanoma cases in Ireland continue to rise, we are being urged to check our moles for any irregularities, and because the moles can often be in hard to see places, we should check our loved ones too. It is time to take a good look at each other again! The good news is that skin cancer is the only type of cancer visible to the naked eye and if diagnosed early enough, 90% of melanoma cases can be treated effectively. Leading dermocosmetic brand La Roche-Posay have teamed up with prominent Irish dermatologist Dr Patrick Ormonde to launch their recent SKINCHECKER campaign as part of an international awareness campaign supported by the Irish Cancer Society.

You can get more information on www.larocheposay/skinchecker.ie While we all love to enjoy the sun and the beach, travelling in ever increasing numbers to sun destinations world wide, we do need to protect ourselves everyday at home too. Sun exposure is the number one cause of damage to the skin, so as we wish to keep our skin as fresh and youthful as possible, a vital part of our anti-aging armoury has to be good UVA and UVB protection. For very sensitive skin, La Roche Posay’s ANTHELIOUS XL with 50 SPF range is tailored to skin types for year round protection with cream, oil and lotion together with their new Blur unifying product whish blurs skin defects, smoothes and unifies. This is a high sun protection and make-up product in one.

For a tanning oil with high protection NUXE have an excellent face and body anti-aging cellular protection product which suits normal to dry skin. Perfect if you want to tan and not burn with an SPF of 30 I would recommend using this on arms, legs and face on hot days spent in the garden.

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 37

Cosmetics and Beauty

Now you might have been confused by the range of alphabet creams on the market – BB and CC being very common for months now. But NUXE have brought out DD Cream –Daily Defence. This is a cream designed to protect against the everyday pollution in urban environments. It acts as an antioxidant, anti-pollution with a30 SPF and is also moisturizing and beautifying. It is the first product that I have come across that is specifically anti-pollution. For all you city ladies out there, this is a great product.

Popular anti-aging brand Vichy has just launched a new product for correction of wrinkles and firmness both to improve the youthful look of the skin during the day and over the long term. I am quite excited about this product, as a fan of Vichy their new LIFTACTIVE SUPREME is being heralded as a new generation of anti-aging skincare. The combined ingredients tackle dark circles, under-eye puffiness, loss of radiance and firmness and generally contribute to a long-term improvement in skin quality. It is available in both normal to combination skin, and also dry to very dry skin, which I love as it is silky and nourishing, enriched with Shea Butter, Apricot Kernel Oil and it melts into the skin providing a perfect base for makeup. At last a product aimed at the over 45s, and one that is designed to offer immediate results, that is at the end of a long day when you look and feel more tired and “older” and also in the long term so that you are protecting you skin on an on-going basis.

38 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

And so what is summer all about but getting out and enjoying yourself. It is the time for parties and barbeques and al-fresco get-togethers where you want to look your best. Max Factor have just produced an exciting range of moisturising lipsticks in lovely summer colours to suit your individual skin tone. In keeping with the trend for more natural make-up looks, lip balm is increasingly popular, yet we want colour as well as nourishing balm. This is a lipstick and lip balm all in one! It contains all those lovely ingredients we like to put on our skin – mango, shea and cocoa butters together with colour intensive pigments for the desired effect. Colours include Coral, Cherry, Caramel, Poppy, Rose and Chocolate as well as voluptuous Pink – so there is certain to be a shade that suits.

So lots of new products on the market for looking great this summer, and most importantly, don’t forget to keep the sun screen on every day. Even in your own back garden, and not just on the sun holiday, your skin needs to be protected. And the good news is, that even if you didn’t use sun block when you were younger, according to leading dermatologists, using it now can help to reverse existing damage. No reason not to enjoy summer 2015, whatever it has in store for the coming months.

Free Group Organisers Day Out in Co Tyrone Looking for new ideas for your group days out and tired of the same places…? Flavour of Tyrone would like to invite you to take time in Tyrone and discover new places for you and your group to visit.

We have organised a free one day experience for group organisers and would love to welcome you to County Tyrone and discover great new places to visit.

Tyrone has a wealth of history from the historic seat of O’Neill’s at Tullyhogue, Cookstown and Hill of the O’Neill, Dungannon. The County is also the ancestral home to past American presidents including Ulysses S Grant and has many stunning historic houses, great craft experiences, gardens and shopping plus a Learn to experience and Good Food Circle of Restaurants and Coffee Shops.

Your day out in Tyrone will include:

States and the Commander of the victorious Union troops in the American Civil War.

Tour of Hill of the O’Neill & Ranfurly House, Dungannon, one of Irelands most important heritage sites, a site used by the O’Neill dynasty to rule Ulster and Gaelic Ireland for over 300 years.

Lunch in a Flavour of Tyrone Good Food Circle restaurant and some live music.

Finally a visit to Island Turf Craft, Coalisland, with its treasure trove of exhibits and a chance to create your own unique piece of turf craft.

Coach pickup and drop off is available in Monaghan, Dundalk or Cavan town.

Places are limited to a maximum of 2 people per group subject to availability.

Morning Coffee at Suitor Gallery, Ballygawley, Co Tyrone with great home baking and a treasure trove of crafts, souvenirs, jewellery and much more.

If you have any questions or would like to be included in this free one day trip, please contact Mary Mc Gee, Flavour of Tyrone Programme Manager to reserve your place.

Visit to the ancestral home of US Grant, 18th President of the United

E mail info@flavouroftyrone.com or call (048) 8776 7259.

You are invited to discover new locations in County Tyrone for your group day out.

Friday 22nd May 2015 To book please contact Flavour of Tyrone: Email: info@@avouroftyrone.com Telephone: +44(0)28 8776 7259

�is project is part funded by Mid Ulster District Council, Invest Northern Ireland and the European Regional Development Fund under the Sustainable Competitiveness Programme for Northern Ireland.

Social partnership

Boehringer Ingelheim/Ashoka: supporting older peoples initiatives Pictured at the launch of the Change Nation Health lunch on April 21st with a pioneering group of social entrepreneurs who are transforming healthcare across Ireland. The lunch was hosted by Ashoka Ireland & Boehringer Ingelheim.

Siel Bleu is a Ashoka project, whose mission is to help older people maintain the ability to function independently, retain social connections and promote the recognition of older people’s value to society. With an emphasis on prevention, Boehringer supported Siel Bleu with the development of its marketing plans and facilitated discussion with various patient organisations.

Support has also been provided to Project Echo — a proven methodology that can be used by care professionals to benefit their patients and themselves.

Under this project, a small team of specialists in one condition holds a weekly discussion with up to 25 more generalist practitioners. For example, it could be an asthma consultant and his/ her team at the hospital talking with 25 GPs and practice nurses. The discussion is best done by web-based video conference, so no one has to leave their place of work. The approach was pioneered in New Mexico (a large State with a widespread population).

Boehringer Ingelheim has worked for a number of years with MyMind. Where there are delays and people are finding it difficult to gain access to mental healthcare, MyMind aims to make such care readily available. Practical assistance provided by Boehringer Ingelheim has included leaflet advertising for a new MyMind service in Cork, which was done via the local GP community. The company’s sales force visits GPs regularly and the doctors have often expressed their frustration at not being able to refer patients to mental health facilities quickly.Mentors are a resource these so-called ‘health fellows’ can tap.

Short informal contacts are common.

Third Age Third Age is another voluntary organisation that aims to raise awareness of the huge contribution older people can make to society. An advocate for the rights of older people, the organisation, which started in an area of County Meath has grown considerably and now has more than 1,000 volunteers working throughout Ireland in local communities.

Third Age was founded by Mary Nally, and President Michael D Higgins is a patron. It works to develop skills among older people and also in the communities around them. In a bid to break down barriers, older people teach English and other skills regarding Irish society to the new Irish here, while younger people teach computer skills to older people.

Clearly, Boehringer Ingelheim is drawn by the opportunity to use the company’s talent base to ‘give something back’ to the wider community.

The organisation’s three national programmes share a core philosophy is to keep older people engaged in life and to connect the generations. The programmes include Senior Help Line — a national confidential listening service for older people, provided by trained older volunteers. Fáilte Isteach is a national project helping to build stronger communities in Ireland by supporting integration, while Sage is working to expand older peoples’ access to support and advocacy services in all care settings and wherever ageing poses a challenge for individuals. Sage is committed to addressing individual and systemic issues and to the development of quality standards for support and advocacy for older people through public consultation.

The work of Third Age relates to the social and civic engagement of older

40 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

people. As a former Minister of State for Older People, Áine Brady, the Third Age Chief Executive, has an insight into the needs of the sector. Third Age was founded 26 years ago by Mary Nally in Summerhill, Co Meath, as an active retirement group. The body now has its national headquarters in a primary care centre in Summerhill. Third Age (local) has a range of programmes and activities — art, drama, choir, computers, health initiatives, outings and holidays. There are services including a library and the group launched a health initiative last year.

Medical checks were carried out before older people began a 10-week physical activity programme. The overall policy focuses on maintaining the dignity of older people. A national voluntary organisation, it is funded by the HSE and Atlantic Philanthropies for its advocacy programme and for the Senior Help Line. Overall, it responds to the “opportunities and challenges” of ageing in Ireland and its underlying philosophy is one of connectivity. Volunteers help vulnerable older people, many of whom are in residential care. Currently, Third Age is involved with 198 nursing homes.

Its longest-running programme — the Senior Help Line — provides a national, confidential listening service for older people. It is manned by trained older volunteers and provides “a vital social contact”, according to Áine Established in 2006, the Fáilte Isteach programme, meanwhile, involves volunteers welcoming migrants into the community through free conversational English classes. It is funded through the Department of Justice and the Iris O’Brien Foundation, and there are now 68 branches across 22 counties.

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Travel

The generation game The three generational holiday - where the grandparents take the grandchildren-- has increased in popularity in recent years. Lorna Hogg suggests some options It’s no surprise, as it ticks all the boxes. Grandparents often remark that they don’t see enough of their grandchildren. Children benefit from the contact, and also from another doting family member to share the fun.

Parents can feel secure in leaving them with the safest babysitters of all. So, where better to enjoy that togetherness than on a theme park holiday, where it’s a case of granny, granddad, or both, joining in the fun.

Fun in the sun As one of the major European family holiday destinations, offering beaches, golf, cultural attractions, great food and a major theme park, PortAventura, on the sunny Spanish Costa Daurada delivers fun in the sun for all the family.

It now has four four-starred themed hotels, and a new five star hotel, Mansion de Lucy. There are six theme parks, offering fun, rides and experiences ranging from the Far West to China.

No fewer than forty rides, including 76 metres high Shambhala, or on the classic Dragon Khan roller coaster. You’re

guaranteed a soaking at PortAventura, with plenty of water fun, and the season extends through Halloween to Christmas celebrations, with suitable ghosts and monsters plus Christmas fun.

There is plenty for adults as well, with a good choice of shows. A three course Golf and Beach club is sited right next to the parks and hotels. The Beach Club has a choice of eight pools, from infinity to sand-bottomed. Away from the resort, The Costa Daurada is noted for its pretty villages, fishing and forests. Salou is very popular with Irish holidaymakers, and Cambrils is known as the gastronomic capital of the area. Finally, the resort just an hour to Barcelona, with its attractions ranging from Gaudi’s architecture to the nearby shopping village of La Roca.

Rathgar Travel has a range of deals on hotels and apartments, starting from under €600 off-peak (at time of going to press) up to €2000 at peak periods, for 7 night holidays, hotel full or half board, for 2 adults and I or 2 children. Flights are not included, but accommodation , board as chosen and 3 Day passes per person to PortAventura are. There are also optional local excursions available. www.rathgartravel.ie. www.portaventura.com Disney magic For many children, Disneyland remains the capital of dreams, and Disneyland Paris is a top destination, with all the

42 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

fairytale characters, from Sleeping Beauty and Donald Duck to Mickey Mouse. The Park is filled with classic attractions. As well as plenty of top quality shows, there are street parades, fireworks and the iconic Sleeping Beauty Castle. It’s easy to work out which attractions and activities are age- appropriate, and no one is short of entertainment here. You can relax in a horse drawn street car, take in Alice’s Labyrinth, a Frontier Depot, visit Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, or experience the Mad Hatter’s Teacups – for starters.

The Studios Park The Studios Park has plenty for those interested in behind the scenes activity. You can learn about the skills of animation, meet the characters and learn about stunts, or re-gain energy by watching one of the many shows. Once energised, the choice of rides include River Splash and Dragon ride. You’re never far from home base, as Disneyland has 7 Disney themed hotels. There are also 7 partner hotels, so whatever your budget, there’s one for you.

There is a wide range of deals available online. However, check Click&Go.com. who offer Disneyland Paris breaks. At time of going to press, in May there are deals available for a family or 2 adults, 2 children, 3 nights in a 3 star hotel, quadruple room, room only, return flights, but NO Disneyland Paris passes included. Prices start from around €800-

€900 upwards. There are also available deals for families of 2 adults, 1 child. www.Click&Go.com www.disneylandparis.ie The Lego brick road..

Young children between 2 and 12 aren’t the only ones who will enjoy the Legoland (UK), sited near Windsor. Model makers and the curious will also wonder at the astonishing range of superbly crafted models, using 40 million pieces of Lego.

Miniland includes many iconic buildings from capital cities, including the States, plus the traditional micro-world versions of familiar landmarks, complete with trains and even traffic noise. Award winning Legoland can be a stand-alone destination, as it is within easy reach of London Heathrow, or you can create an add-on to a London break.

Just 30 minutes from the capital by train, it has a wide range of attractions within its 150 acres.

There are 55 interactive rides, in which you can zip through the tree tops, ride the rapids, enjoy Star Wars, take a submarine voyage or sail with Pirates. You could take the Hill Train, or even get some instruction at the Pirates Training Camp. Here also, age suitable details are well displayed so it’s easy to plan your trip. There’s plenty for cynical big brothers and sisters as well, including building workshops and live shows.

Book online for the best ticket value.

You can get day tickets on the gate, but

Young children between 2 and 12 aren’t the only ones who will enjoy the Legoland (UK), sited near Windsor. Model makers and the curious will also wonder at the astonishing range of superbly crafted models, using 40 million pieces of Lego

Family tips Research the `queue-buster’ system of your park choice well in advance – they really can save time and queue rage!

Factor in the need for sun protection, loo breaks and water replenishment.

Many parks have drinking water taps, so bring along plastic bottles.

two day tickets provide much better value. Unsurprisingly, you can get some good deals booking in advance.

Stena Line is currently offering return deals ex-Ireland, on and off-peak, including the sea crossing, 2 nights accommodation for 2 adults and 2 children (under 12) plus 1 day Legoland pass.

Deals off-peak start from just over £400 (at time of going to press), but you may have to be flexible about dates, hotel grades and hotel distances from Legoland for such value. www.legoland.co.uk www.stenaline.co.uk

Bring along some food – fruit, biscuits, snacks. There will be wide range of eating possibilities, but you may be time-pressed to squeeze in just one more ride.

Soakings are inevitable, so be prepared with towels and change of socks.

Prices are based on deals available at the time of going to press. Check with suppliers, as prices, offers and availability may change.

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 43

Coping With The Effects Of Crime

Being a victim of any type of crime is upsetting. Most of us do not often directly experience the effects of crime in our lives. When we do, it can be a shocking experience. Many people feel a sense of disbelief that such an incident could happen to them. There is often a feeling of unreality, as if you might wake up and find it has all been a bad dream.

When other feelings arise they can be experienced as overwhelming – feelings of sadness, grief, anger, fear, anxiety, confusion, and many others. Whether you were directly involved in the event or not, your reaction will be personal and individual to you.

44 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

You may immediately feel strongly affected by what has happened. Or you may feel initially that you are coping fine, and it may be some time before you notice any of these effects.

Everyone is different and there are no rules about what you ‘should’ feel and how you ‘should’ cope. You may experience some, or all, of the following: Shock, Fear or Anxiety, Loss of Confidence and Anger.

What Can You Do? Remember you have experienced a stressful, or traumatic, event. It is important to recognise that painful feelings and emotions are a normal consequence of being a victim of crime. Be patient with yourself, and allow yourself to feel upset. Usually these feelings do not last. People are very resilient, and can cope with and recover from the effects of even the most serious crimes.

• Give yourself time to recover and be good to

yourself.

• Spend time with friends/family, and to do things

that you enjoy.

• Take time out to relax, to slow down, to bring a

sense of calm to your life.

• Talk about your feelings with someone you can

trust.

• Sometimes it may be helpful to talk to someone

who is completely outside the situation.

• Find out what supports and services are there for you.

• Avoid doing anything that places more stress on you

at this time.

• Avoid making any major life decisions immediately

after the crime.

• If you are feeling very upset and unable to

concentrate or sleep, it may be helpful to talk to

a GP. • Take some exercise. It can help to bring down

stress levels.

• Consider safety measures that you can take to

minimise the risk of something like this happening again.

Seeking help is a sign of strength. You are stronger than the crime. While it may not seem like it right now, the negative feelings associated with what has happened will pass. Allow yourself the freedom to move through these emotional stages and remember you will get through it.

The Crime Victims Helpline, is a confidential national helpline service providing information and support to victims of crime and people impacted by crime. Our volunteers are trained to understand the effects of crime and provide emotional support to people struggling to cope and recover after being victimized. We are here to listen.

We support everyone who is a victim of crime – regardless of when the crime took place, who committed the crime or whether or not you have reported it to the Gardaí. We understand the difficulties that victims of crime have to deal with and we will try to help you so that you do not feel alone at this time.

You can call Crime Victims Helpline, a free and confidential helpline, on FREEPHONE 116 006. Volunteers at the helpline provide emotional support and also give information about other services that can help. Our helpline hours are as follows: Monday 10.00am to 19.30 Tuesday to Friday, 10.00 to 17.00, Saturday 14.00 to 16.00.

Further information can be sought on our website www.crimevictimshelpline.ie or by texting 085 1337711 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 45

Health

How to exercise if you have osteoarthritis Populations of the world are increasing, partly but significantly due to falling mortality rates due to advances in treatments for cancer, cardiovascular disease and infectious diseases. Rheumatic disease has also felt the benefit of modern scientific developments, particularly in rheumatoid arthritis where the ‘biological’ medications offer many a chance of remission and even cure.

Unfortunately, and as I have previously written in these pages, there is no single or combination of medications that can treat osteoarthritis (OA), save commonly used pain-killers (‘analgesia’). While analgesia can improve an OA sufferer’s quality of life, used alone it is unable to decelerate or reverse degeneration of the joint. Many researchers and scientists working in the field of OA believe that treatments that can re-grow or repair damaged cartilage, a feature of OA, might have potential, yet such treatments remain, at best, 5 to 10 years away. What hope, then, is there for someone suffering from hip or knee OA? Thankfully, there is a treatment for OA, however, patients tend to be less adherent to this prescription, and doctors not so diligent or encouraging when

it comes to persisting with the prescribed treatment. The treatment I am referring to is exercise, but please don’t turn the page just yet at the thought of another health professional carping on about the benefits of exercise and dietary change!

Both doctors and patients want ‘quick fixes’ for illnesses, and patients are accustomed to prompt returns to health after an antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory drug, or surgery. That is one of the reasons a prescription for exercise in OA is often less than successful at achieving a reduction in pain and an increase in joint function; the fix (exercise) for OA is not quick.Exercise requires motivation, a shift in one’s routine or schedule and sometimes monetary cost.

For patients with OA, movement of the affected joint brings pain and discomfort, a significant deterrent in prescription adherence. But the evidence for exercise as a treatment for OA is overwhelming, directly by strengthening supporting muscles surrounding the OA joints and indirectly by assisting with weight loss. Even for those with severe OA, the medical evidence supports pursuit of exercise as it can delay the need for joint replacement and reduce pain.

46 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

Dr Barry J Sheane advises

What is exercise and how can it benefit my OA? When I tell patients that exercise is one of the primary treatments for OA, often eyes will start to glaze over. This is because many people equate Exercise with participation in elite sport seen on TV like the Tour de France or the Olympic Games. On the contrary, the World Health Organization informs us that, to maintain health, we should all partake in a minimum of 150 minutes per week of ‘moderate physical activity’ (www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/pa/en/).

Activities that qualify include: housework, brisk walking, gardening and walking domestic animals: not exactly the Olympic Games but undeniably attainable by the vast majority of OA patients. The activity should induce a ‘noticeable increase in heart rate’.

Most of us (this author included) do not achieve this recommended weekly minimum of 150 minutes, too often citing work or domestic commitments as barriers to achievement. Yet the scientific evidence has shown that Exercise in OA reduces pain and increases physical function, with weight loss an added benefit. In fact, exercise-induced pain relief is the

Health equivalent of that achieved with many over-the-counter pain killers.

Where and how do I start an exercise programme?

For patients who have never pursued any type of regular physical activity, there are a number of options. Walking, cycling (including use of an exercise bike) and/or pool-based exercise are good starting points. These activities will help strengthen the muscles of the lower limbs, further helping with OA. Even if you can’t swim, ‘pool walking’ (walking up and down the shallow end of a heated swimming pool) allows calories to be burned assisting weight loss, the water’s buoyancy takes some of the body’s weight off the joints and the warmth of the water assists flexibility.

Exercise regimens should ideally include aerobic-type activity (where your heart rate increases and calories are burned) as well as strengthening and flexibility exercises. A physiotherapist has expertise in providing advice on all of these facets of exercise and an assessment is a good investment.

When starting to exercise for the first time, it is important to set realistic goals, to be patient regarding your progress and to choose an activity that you will enjoy pursuing. Start off your programme by completing 5 minutes

of your chosen exercise. Aim for small increments in your duration of Exercise (e.g. increase the session duration by 3 to 5 minutes once every fortnight).

‘Start low, go slow’ is a useful motto.

Whether you choose to exercise on your own, with a partner or in a class is purely a personal preference and your choice should foster long-term adherence to regular physical activity.

Am I causing more joint damage by exercising?

The answer to that question is a resounding ‘No’. While pain in the OA joint can increase upon uptake of an Exercise programme, this should decline pretty quickly over a few weeks. If you are particularly concerned about the onset of pain during your exercise then, with the consent of your treating doctor, take a painkiller 30 minutes to an hour before your session to allow the joints maximal benefit from your activity.

Indications that your exercise programme may be too intensive include the presence of severe pain during the activity, failure of the pain to subside within a few hours of the activity and increased pain the following day. If this happens, reduce the intensity of your activity to a level that does not induce these adverse symptoms and slowly escalate the programme from there.

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Conclusion In conclusion, exercise is a proven treatment in OA but unlike modern medicine, it may not deliver a ‘quick fix’. Patients require motivation and determination to succeed. With the right attitude and support from family and healthcare professionals alike, both pain and physical function can improve when a prescription for OA is followed, as well as one’s mood and sense of wellbeing.

Remember: Start low and go slow. Good luck!

NB Please inform your GP before partaking in any new exercise regimen.

Dr Barry Sheane is Consultant Rheumatologist with Sports Surgery Clinic, Santry, Dublin 9. t:01 5262371 e:rheumatology@sportssurgeryclinic.com

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Health

John Levine’s Alphamusic CD’s are said to be a highly effective, drug-free alternative to counter insomnia.

Preventing insomnia, depression and stress John Levine, meditation advocate and composer of world acclaimed Alphamusic, reveals his secrets of staying healthy.

A healthy diet, good night’s sleep, stress avoidance and exercise. Simple tips but not always easy to do – we are often busy with a tendency to procrastinate, and surrounded by too many stresses that prevent us from staying healthy.

The most common problem among older people is insomnia. Due to changes in sleep patterns and health, insomnia increases with age. Older people typically use more prescription drugs which increases the chance of insomnia caused by a medication. Dr Christopher Winter, medical director of the Sleep Medicine Center in Charlottesville, claims that taking melatonin doesn’t help promote better sleep. Other doctors, such as Dr Roderick Fahey from Portumna Health Centre in Galway, claim that sleeping pills should be taken as the last resort to fight with insomnia.

‘As a doctor, I will always try to take an holistic and natural approach to reaching a solution due to side effects or short effectiveness of sleeping tablets which are only designed to help bridge the gap for a few weeks’, says Dr Fahey. ‘I look to the common factors that play a role in most sleep disturbances. Understanding these factors can help a person overcome a sleep problem. These include a Wellsense Insomnia Assessment which seeks to first understand what could be causing sleep difficulties.

Normally I recommend music as a first stage such as The Alphamusic of John

been scientifically measured with EEG equipment that your brain will be in alpha state in minutes.

Levine (www.silenceofmusic.com). I receive excellent feedback with positive results after treatment with this particular music. Whenever patients come in complaining of insomnia, anxiety attacks or depression, instead of immediately dishing out a prescription, I offer them three sessions a week in the wellbeing room. Those who opt for it have a 100 per cent success rate.

Some show huge improvement in just two weeks. It is the equivalent of taking 20mg of Prozac per day. In summary, I believe following a prescribed plan to bring back restorative sleep should work best for insomnia sufferers.’

Dr Roderick Fahey’s opinion does not stand alone. There are more and more doctors and other clinical practitioners who switch to natural methods when trying to cure patients’ symptoms such as depression, stress or insomnia.

High security dementia wards in Australia and nursing homes in the UK, USA and Ireland are now using alpha relaxation techniques, including alphamusic, to help dementia patients stay calm by reducing their agitated state.

Alphamusic and its scientific roots The aim of alphamusic is to slow down the stressed beta brain waves into calm alpha waves. The beta waves are responsible for stress, causing insomnia and many arising health conditions. The key to a healthy lifestyle without stress or insomnia is to eliminate these beta waves. By playing Alphamusic it has

48 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

Cynthia Hearne suffered from insomnia for 22 years, until she was given Orange Grove Siesta CD by John Levine and her life changed instantly. ‘That night I put it on to play and lay down on my bed. For the first time in 22 years, I fell asleep without pills’ says Cynthia.

Patrick Holford, author and nutrition expert recommends Alphamusic CDs in several of his books, including the latest book called ‘The Stress Cure’. ‘With so many of us turning to caffeine to keep us alert, and alcohol to relax, sleeping pills or endless struggles with our kids to get to sleep John Levine’s Alphamusic CD’s are a highly effective, drug-free alternative. Try them. They work.’ says Patrick.

Try these tips from John. Start the day with ten minutes relaxation with Alphamusic. Eat a healthy breakfast with wholegrain bread, natural yogurt and fresh fruits. Avoid fatty foods. Take a walk before lunch. Avoid naps during the day and caffeine products in the afternoons. Continue with another ten minute relaxation to Alphamusic just before bed.

For more information about Alphamusic CDs, please visit www.silenceofmusic.com or call 01-443-3861. CDs also available from selected Irish health food stores.

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experiencecounts share yours through volunteering experiencecounts Volunteer Fair for the Over 55’s Chat with organisations providing charitable services across Dublin to learn how you can help in your local community.

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Health

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Most of us have easy access to the internet every day and it has become instinctive, as a first step, to go online if we need helpful COUNSELLING information or advice.

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Tier 2 - Peer Support Facilitates member Peer Support through Moderated Open Live Chat. Live Chat is an inclusive, safe, respectful and non-judgemental space for all members.

Online services empower people to gain the knowledge and confidence they need to explore options, and ‘dip a toe’ in the world of mental health support. A considerable amount of help-seeking and help-giving is now conducted online before, or even instead, of accessing more traditional services.

Turn2me is an online mental health service, providing a 3 Tiered Support Programme for people looking for emotional support online. The organisation was founded by brothers Oisin and Diarmuid Scollard in 2009, following the tragic loss of their brother Cormac, to suicide.

Tier 1 – Self Help Comprises an Information Centre and Thought Catcher Mood Diary

Online Support Group topics include Depression, Anxiety, Suicidal Thoughts & Feelings, General Mental Health, Workplace Stress and Isolation & Loneliness.

The Mood Skills Programme, including a weekly Structured Online Support Group to help fight Depression, helps people to learn skills to foster good mental health. Mood Skills is a ten week online programme and participants are guided through the programme receiving individual attention from the Clinical Facilitator.

Online Counselling Sessions are text based and are conducted in a secure live chat window or by email. Video counselling will be introduced as an option shortly.

All of the online services provided by Turn2me are free and available to everyone over the age of 18. Visit our website www.turn2me.org to learn more or book one of our services.

Help us to continue providing online emotional support Turn2me is a registered charity and relies on fundraising, grant allocations and donations to deliver services. We are a small team of dedicated staff, professionals and volunteers.

Volunteer, donate or organise an event to help raise funds for Turn2me, or join Team Turn2me in the VHI Women’s Mini Marathon on 1st June - email info@turn2me.org all help and support gratefully received.

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50 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

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As a means of informally introducing potential students to the course options, those interested can attend one of two upcoming Information Evenings: in June and August (see website for details).

As each programme has its own entry requirements it is recommended that you contact the Lifelong Learning Centre directly on (059) 917 5280, email: LLL@itcarlow.ie or check www.itcarlow.ie/LLL for further information.

“The Lifelong Learning Centre of the Institute of Technology Carlow offers an extensive range of evening courses on three campuses in Carlow, Wicklow and Wexford” The Centre also offers a wide range of undergraduate degree programmes so whether your interest is Business, Accountancy or Law, Applied Social Studies or Early Childhood Education & Care, there is an Honours degree, Ordinary Degree or Higher Certificate programme available to study part–time for you. As a part–time student you can study at a pace and rate that suits your situation. This means, for example, that you can choose to study a stage of a degree programme over two years rather than one year.

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Mon 15th – Sat 20th June

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J U N E

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PAT EGAN Proudly Presents an evening with

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Where The Three Counties Meet Do You Want Your Oul Lobby Washed Down How Much Time Abbeyshrule Catch me if you can O’Brien Has No Place To Go

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Pat Egan & Kite Entertainment presents

DEIRDRE O’KANE

Are you there, Starring

We Know What G art

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Do Last Summer!

It’s Me, Margaret A new play by

FIONA LOONEY

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Fashion

With warmer weather and maybe a wedding on the way, Mairead Robinson gives some style tips for the months ahead.

This season’s fashion trends are very feminine and floral. You will have noticed also a look back to the 70s for style, so bring out that floppy hat and flowing maxi, if you still have them at the back of your wardrobe!

But one thing the summer months are known for in the fashion world is weddings. And we all love to get dressed up for a lovely day out. The old school protocol regarding what to wear, especially for the more mature guests, mother of the bride or groom particularly, has certainly changed greatly over the last decade or two.

Step into summer style For the past few years I have seen extremely glamorous 50 plus women at weddings wearing outfits that their mothers would not have dreamed of being seen in! Look at Miriam O’Callaghan and many other Irish women in the public eye for example. She certainly does not let being over 50 limit her sense of style in any way. There is a great range of fabulous dresses and outfits available from the high street to the speciality boutique, and for many people when they find a label that they like, they will stick to it.

54 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

“THE BEST DAY”

For fun, fishing, heritage, festivals, walks, fabulous hotels and award-winning restaurants, visit Cavan in 2015.

You’ll be surprised at what you’ll find here!

Some of the stunning outfits from Lynch’s of Banagher

It can be difficult to choose an outfit for a wedding if you have not been invited to a wedding for a few years. And there are such a variety of weddings happening these days also from the formal to the relaxed, large traditional weddings and small bespoke occasions. Each wedding now is different, and so what to wear to one wedding may not be suitable for another. But whether you are the mother of the bride or groom, a close family member, a friend or even a plus one – there are some basic rules that always apply.

Firstly always dress to suit your body shape. This is the first golden rule when choosing an outfit for any occasion. We have spoken before dressing according to how you are – tall, short, heavy, top heavy, pear shaped etc. Women come in all shapes and sizes, and finding what suits you and what you are comfortable wearing, is very important. It is also worth remembering that for a wedding, you may well find yourself wearing your outfit for many hours, well into the night on most occasions. So comfort is key for the day, and this is where you must think about shoes. High heels are fabulous, but after several hours wear, including a lot of standing around and perhaps even

some dancing in the evening, your feet will be seriously under pressure. You could bring a pair of flat shoes with you to change into, but it is always easier to wear something that is comfortable and stick with it for the day.

If you have a son or daughter who is getting married this year, then you need to choose something really special because this is a day that will be remembered for years to come – and you don’t want those photos to haunt you!

The first thing that you want to consider when you’re choosing a mother of the bride or of the groom gown is the colour palette that the bride has chosen for her wedding, for her bridesmaids. Navy, champagne and gray are always safe choices and complement most colour schemes. Check with the others on what they are wearing – officially the mother of the bride gets first choice on colour and style over the mother of the groom! But these kinds of formalities, along with other traditional rules and regulations, are not taken into account so much these days. It is generally best to just find something that you really like and go with that. If you want some expert advice on what would work best

56 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

for you and the particular wedding you are attending, it is a good idea to a specialist shop where dressing women for weddings is what they do.

One Irish wedding boutique that I came across recently has some stunningly beautiful designs for mother of the bride or groom. Lynch’s of Banagher, Co. Offaly is renowned for its Mother of the Bride, Mother of the Groom and Occasion-wear and it has become a one-stop-shop for the mother of the bride/groom. They stock an extensive selection of hats, fascinators, matching shoes and bags to complement all their outfits. It is a family business established in 1951, which specialises in wedding and occasion-wear in sizes 8 to 22, and women from all over Ireland flock to Offaly to find the outfit for that special day. They recently added eight further air conditioned dressing rooms to give maximum comfort and space when trying on clothes.

Stocking some of the top international labels, it is really encouraging to see the range of elegant and sophisticated outfits available today. Check out some of the stunning designs on these pages and you will really look forward to an occasion to wear one!

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Creative Writing

Creative Writing Eileen Casey

Artists are doing it for themselves Thanks to Fund It, an all island crowd funding website for Ireland’s creative projects, support is given to the creative sector. Run by Business to Arts, a not-for-profit organisation, its aims are to support resilience and transformation in the cultural sector through research, innovation and partnership. Artists who sign up for Fund It are generally seeking the cost of an exhibition, publication or some worthwhile project which is funded by the public. In return, the public receive signed copies, invitations to openings, artwork, whatever is appropriate to reward the investment.

Two of the projects I came across recently on Fund It are worthy of mention. The Cream of the Milk, a limited edition broadsheet (250 in total) features thirteen remarkable Irish Women.

The two artists involved are Alan Nolan and Pauline Hall. It’s visually stunning and lovely to have in the hand (or indeed framed on the wall). Nolan is a designer, illustrator, graphic novelist and children’s author. Hall lives in Dublin.

Her first novel Grounds was published

by Brandon. Hall’s contribution to the broadsheet is to supply a series of short, humorous poems (clerihews) to accompany the fabulous illustrations.

One of the verses concerns Marie-Louise 0’Murphi/posed for Boucher sans souci./ King Louis also loved her in dishabille,/ some years before the fall of the Bastille. By contrast, Peig Sayers,/wrapped in black woolen layers/spoke of oatmeal, praying, and the seal-rich sea,/ onto cylinder records for the BBC. The thirteen women featured on the broadsheet are represented as follows: Nora Barnacle (1884-1951): Wife and muse of James Joyce. Their second meeting was 16th June, 1904, the date later immortalized in ‘Ulysses’. They left Dublin for a precarious cosmopolitan existence in Europe.

Some of the striking illustrations from Of The Milk, a limited edition celebrating the lives of 13 remarkable women.

Dr James Barry c 1792-1865: Physician, army officer, male impersonator. Barry studied at Edinburgh. Possibly the first woman in Britain to graduate as a doctor. Taking a series of overseas postings, she pioneered an emphasis on hygiene and performed one of the first Caesarian Sections.

Grawnawale/Grace 0’Mally c.1530-c1603: Pirate, Chieftain of the 0’Malley clan, political pragmatist.

She succeeded in recapturing her deceased husband’s castle and holding on to his wealth, divorced her second.

Using small fast ships, she staged surprise attacks along the West coast.

Nurse Mamie Cadden 1891-1959: Midwife and abortionist. Her private practice in Dublin offered illegal abortions to patients from all over Ireland which enabled her to lead a fast lifestyle. She drove a red sports car. In 1956, a patient died and she was sentenced to death, later commuted.

Eileen Gray 1878-1976: Designer, architect. Worked in France.

Acknowledged as the greatest western exponent of lacquer, her work in this material now attracts record prices. She aimed at the creation of a total environment, influenced by the Dutch De Stijl movement.

Biddy Early c. 1789-1874: Clairvoyant, healer. When she foretold a murder, her reputation as a clairvoyant was established. Worked in County Clare using herbal remedies for animals and humans. Tried for witchcraft, but few witnesses came forward and she was not convicted.

Iseult the Fair: Legendary Princess of Ireland, part of an ill-fated love triangle with her husband, King Mark of Cornwell and her lover, his nephew and follower, Tristan. Retold throughout Europe from the twelfth century, Iseult’s is a story of undying love.

58 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

Two of the ‘mandala’ art forms by Patricia Fitzgerald Patricia Fitzgerald

Lady Hazel Lavery 1880-1935: Artist, model, socialite. With her husband Sir John Lavery, moved in fashionable London circles. Drawn into Irish political life. Wore widow’s weeds after Michael Collins died. Hers was the image on most Irish banknotes from 1928 till 1996.

up literary salon. Wrote the first poetic response to the Famine and incendiary articles for The Nation.

Influenced both by Evangelical and Catholic traditions.

Urged Oscar to face trial.

Constance Countess Markievicz 18681927: Republican and labour activist.

With her sister Eva, celebrated in Yeats’ poem. Advocated for striking workers in 1913 and fought in the Easter Rising.

The first woman elected to the House of Commons, later Minister for Labour in the first Dail.

The second Fund It project I’m very taken with is by Patricia Fitzgerald, a Mandala Artist based in Dublin. “The first time you see a mandala, you might be forgiven for thinking that it is just a whoo whoo hippy art form, but it is a whole lot more that!”

Fitzgerald further explains that the act of creating a mandala brings the practitioner into a place of calmness, where decisions can be made in a much more focused manner. Patricia began drawing them when she was going through a very stressful time in her own life. “Mandalas are drawn intuitively, with no expected outcome. And so they are a form of meditation, an active mindfulness technique.”

Marie-Louise 0’Murphi 1737-1814: Courtesan, artist’s model. Said to have been discovered in her teens by Casanova. Became a minor mistress of Louis XV, after he saw Boucher’s nude painting of her. Later married three times. Imprisoned during the Terror, but escaped the guillotine.

Peig Sayers 1873-1958: Writer and storyteller. On marriage, she moved the Great Blasket Island. Her book ‘Peig’ was dictated to her son, as she could neither read nor write Irish, although she spoke fluently to numerous visitors. She has many descendants in Springfield USA. Margaret Burke Sheridan 1889-1958: Soprano. Early promised confirmed by Marconi, encouraged by Toscanini and Puccini. Her beauty and talent ensured success at Milan. Sang with Gigli. Her recordings of Madama Butterfly were regarded as outstanding till 1950’s. A career shortened by ill health.

Lady Jane Francesca Wilde (Speranza) 1821-1896: Poet, nationalist, folklorist, linguist. Wife of Sir William Wilde. Set

It’s a fascinating concept and one which I was very keen to know more about. Fitzgerald is very enthusiastic about the art of mandala.“The act of merely sitting down at the table to create a piece immediately gives you time to yourself. Time without distraction. Time just for you. By taking this step, you have immediately opened yourself to a calmer place, where the noise of your incessant thoughts can begin to settle into a more productive mode.”

She also maintains that through creating the mandala, trust in the intuitive senses are strengthened. “You become aware of your breath, breathing

deeply and immediately you begin to relax. Beginning at the centre of a circle, you draw whatever shapes that come into your head. Using whatever colour feels right for YOU....not letting your ego mind tell you ‘well that blue doesn’t go with that orange’ or ‘that wouldn’t match the curtains in the sitting room’. No. Remember, this is not just a pretty piece of art, although it inevitably ends up being just that.”

Going through this process helps thoughts become clearer. “ Perhaps there has been a problem spinning around in your head, a decision that you can’t make. By balancing the mind in this creative way, often the solution becomes clear. A eureka moment! There’s a science to this. Psychologists, neurologists and researchers have found that by stimulating both sides of the brain (which mandala art is doing) our thought process becomes clearer, stress reduces, blood pressure lowers and the list goes on.” She makes a convincing case for the health benefits of the art.

“Normally when we make decisions we use the left hemisphere of the brain, considered as rational. We often leave out the possibility of taking advantage of the benefits brought by the right hemisphere of the brain, such as creative

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 59

imagination, serenity, global view and ease of memorization, among others. By drawing intuitively in the wholeness of the circle, we get a much fuller picture of what is going on in our lives, our minds. In fact, the word ‘Mandala’ is the ancient Sanskrit word meaning ‘Circle’ or ‘Container of Spirit’. It is an ancient technique that has been used across the world for hundreds if not thousands

of years. Indeed the Dali Lama and the Tibetan Monks create the most beautiful mandalas...and they are just about the calmest people on the planet!”

Patricia Fitzgerald studied Visual Education and Communication at Dun Laoghaire College of Art & Design (IADT) and also holds a first class honours degree in Philosophy and Sociology from

University College, Dublin. For her, drawing mandalas is a meditative and spiritual practice, bringing a sense of peace and connectedness. Her work has already been exhibited successfully at Smock Alley Theatre, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.

She hosts Mandala & Meditation workshops and retreats. www.healingcreations.ie

The Hennessy Book of Irish Fiction 2005-2015 Ciaran Carty and Dermot Bolger co-edit the publication. Carty, in the introduction, gives an overview of how the New Irish Writing Page came about in 1968. Back then, the portal to literary opportunity came courtesy of The Irish Press and David Marcus.

When The Irish Press, due to difficulties, was forced to go tabloid in 1988, the page was dropped. Meanwhile Carty had initiated a monthly slot in The Sunday Independent (where he was working as a film critic and features editor), similar to the New Irish Writing Page.

The page attracted writers such as Dermot Bolger, Philip Casey and a young barrister called Mary McAleese. The New Irish Writing Page found a new home when Vincent Browne invited Carty to edit a slot in The Sunday Tribune for new writing, with David Marcus initially involved as a consultant. The page has been running ever since despite the closure of The Sunday Tribune, a move to The Irish Independent and now this year, to The Irish Times.

Carty’s introduction also honours the fact that April, 2015 marks the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the day when Richard Hennessy, in common with other ‘Wild Geese,’ left Cork to join with the army of King Louis XV of France, before eventually settling in the town of Cognac on the river Charente. The rest is history... in terms of literature..and brandy.

quality. The 2,000 or so word limitation ensures they are all of equal length. However, stories of similar themes, structure, have to be weighed against each other. Carty sums up his selection process by saying that the stories ‘reflect a spirit of openness and the power of literature to speak to a culture without borders, a society without divisions.’

It’s worth noting that not all of the stories in the current anthology are winners of the award. Carty makes the point that the twenty-five story selection is a personal one, from the 120 published in the past decade.

These 120, in turn, were chosen from several thousand stories submitted. It’s a fair approach to selection and makes the resulting anthology more interesting. Looking at stories from a stand alone perspective, when they each appear in The New Irish Writing Page, is a different proposition from determining how a story might fit in a body of work. Making ‘the cut’ in any anthology brings in other considerations than just the quality of the work.

As a three time nominee for the Awards (Poetry 2004, First fiction 2005, eventually winning the Emerging Fiction category in 2010), I feel very honoured to be among peer practitioners of the art of the short story form. As such, it’s not my place to review but to revisit the pleasure of these stories ‘housed’ together for the first time.

I am pleased to see one or two inclusions from writers who didn’t win the award but whose stories are personal favourites.

It’s pretty much a given in any case that a story published in The New Irish Writing Page is of a high

The Hennessy book of Irish Fiction (2005-2015) is available in all good bookshops or at www.newisland.ie

60 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

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Hermitage Medical Clinic has firmly established itself as a centre of medical excellence and innovation and a valuable addition to Ireland’s healthcare infrastructure, with an ethos embedded in high-tech, community-focused care

The Neurosurgery Department at the HMC has grown extensively, yet in a highly organised way, since it opened six years ago.

Top flight neurosurgeons operating clinics in the Hermitage are now performing complex, lifesaving brain and spinal surgery to treat a broad array of conditions including brain and spine injuries, aneurysm, degenerative spinal conditions, spine and brain tumours, hydrocephalus along with performing pain management procedures.

The ability to expand into more areas of neurosurgery has been facilitated by the HMC’s significant level of investment in technology such as the Cyberknife. Treatment for brain tumours, using the CyberKnife leads the surgeons to the next step which is to provide minimally invasive operative intervention for brain tumours. CyberKnife is the world’s only radiosurgery system that used advanced robotics to treat tumours anywhere in the world and is the first centre of its kind in Ireland.

HMC has also invested in a new state-of-the-art theatre for neurosurgery and the navigation equipment for brain surgery and neurosurgery. Importantly, there has been parallel and 62 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

equal commitment to appoint and retain the best neurosurgeons at the HMC. They have been able to attract highly experienced neurosurgeons that can bring different aspects of expertise to the HMC. They have 8 Neurosurgeons now working in the Hermitage Medical Clinic. A shift towards less invasive surgical techniques such as Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgery (MISS) is a growing specialty in itself. Where appropriate, MISS provides many patient benefits including shorter hospital stay, less pain medication, faster recovery and lower risk of post operative infection. Neurosurgeons at the HMC also practice Less Invasive Spinal Surgery (LISS) assisted by technology, which provides similar benefits. Technology plays an increasingly important role and the HMC is in the process of developing this further with the use of Computer Assisted Techniques (CAT) and Computer Assisted Surgery (CAS) where navigation technology helps surgeons to put spinal instrumentation in place.

The HMC have developed an Intensive Care Unit with full anaesthetic back up. This provides the level of medical support necessary for the Neurosurgery department to evolve further.

Orthopaedics is a major area of expertise at HMC and the Clinic has a vibrant orthopaedic practice. Our consultants provide service in all aspects of orthopaedic surgery, from minimally invasive joint, hip and knee replacement to ankle, shoulder procedures and foot surgery. The orthopaedic services at HMC offers a multidisciplinary approach to care including consultant orthopaedic surgeons, clinical nurse specialists, a physiotherapy team and other allied health professionals.

For more information, visit hermitageclinic.ie

Travel

A perfect escape just a stone’s throw away

According to legend, the Isle of Man is just a stone’s throw from Ireland – if you happen to be a giant – and this little gem in the middle of the Irish Sea really is right on your doorstep if you’re looking for an escape this summer.

The story says that the Island was created when the giant Fionn Mac Cumhaill scooped up a part of Ireland to throw it at a rival, and missed. And if it’s history that you’re after, the Isle of Man has it in riches.

Its Celtic and Viking heritage can be discovered at award-winning sites and museums, and it is also home to two superb castles - Castle Rushen, one of the best preserved medieval fortresses in Europe, and the sprawling ruins of Peel Castle on St Patrick’s Isle off the west coast.

At just 33 miles by 13 miles, the Island is a microcosm of the British Isles. It’s just a short ferry journey from Dublin or Belfast and, with no luggage fees, you can pack everything you’ll need to explore.For cyclists, the Isle of Man is nothing short of a dream, whether it’s the open road that beckons, or the thrill of going off the beaten track. The Island has produced world-class cyclists down the years, including Tour de France legend Mark Cavendish. But you don’t have to be a superstar to enjoy the beautiful Manx countryside.

On the road, the terrain ranges from the flat north to the spectacular TT Mountain Circuit (which tests motorcyclists to the limit each year), providing a mix of country lanes, steep climbs and breathtaking descents for cyclists. Head off road, and you will discover mile upon mile of coastal paths, forest trails, and old railway tracks.

Travel with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company and you’ll discover the comfort and convenience of taking the ferry, which means you can bring your car and, with no luggage fees, pack everything you need.

If you prefer two legs to two wheels, you’ll still be spoilt for choice. There are 272 kilometres of public rights of way, taking you rambling over hills and down valleys, and through the Island’s 17 National Glens. And then there is the stunning Raad ny Foillan – the Way of the Gull – a footpath that stretches around the entire coastline.

There’s the option of mixing up your walks with a touch of vintage transport.

The Isle of Man Steam Railway dates to 1874 and is the longest narrow gauge steam line in Britain, and an ideal walk/ railway outing could see you hike up Snaefell, the Island’s highest point at 2,036ft, and catch the Mountain Railway down again. Or, you might find it easier to catch the tram up and walk back down!

If you’re interested in immersing yourself in Manx culture, the Island hosts several great festivals each summer, including the Mananan International Festival (June 21st-July 2nd) and Yn Chruinnaght Inter-Celtic Festival (July 15th-19th), which feature acclaimed singers, musicians and artists.

A Summer 5-Day Short Break for a car + 2 adults costs from €117 each way.

Visit www.steam-packet.com For more information: Manx National Heritage www.manxnationalheritage.im Isle of Man Tourism www.visitisleofman.com Mananan International Festival www.erinartscentre.com/events/ mananan_festival.html Yn Chruinnaght Inter-Celtic Festival www.ynchruinnaght.com Terms and conditions apply. Subject to availability. A combination of Dublin and Belfast ports should be considered. * Valid for travel between 16.06.15 – 07.09.15. Journeys must be completed within 5 days - Day of outward sailing counts as day 1. Return sailing must commence on or before day 5.

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 63

Active Retirement Ireland

Finding my feet in Mexico

Eileen with one of the volunteers who helps with the meals

I arrived in Mexico City on June 29th accompanied by three other young Travel Award winners; we were met by EIL Intercultural Learning representative, Zuri. We stayed for two days seeing the sights of this beautiful city which also included afternoon tea at the Irish Embassy. Then it was on to Oaxaca, a city steeped in history for two weeks to attend the Institute for Spanish language tuition, cooking, salsa dancing or pottery.

This was very relaxing and a great opportunity to adjust to Mexican culture, food and climate.

I then travelled to the city of Queretaro, where the amazing series of enormous arches from the 18th century Aqueduct are an impressive landmark, the architecture of the many temples, palaces and grand villas built by the Spanish make this city one of the most beautiful locations in Mexico.

UNESCO declared the Historic Centre of Queretaro a World Heritage site in 1996.One can admire the splendid colonial buildings and stroll along numerous pedestrian walkways lined with art galleries, street markets, museums, sidewalk cafes and roving balladeers. The Historic Centre has shaded parks where one can relax and enjoy the gardens, listen to concerts and watch day-to-day life, which in many respects has remained unchanged over the centuries. In this beautiful city I will spend six weeks volunteering with two different projects.

Living with my host family My Mexican host family met me at the bus terminal. They were very welcoming and their hospitality second to none, their home was my home for the duration of my stay. As they had a family reunion already organised, I was invited to spend my first weekend with their extended family (one hundred people) in Guanajuato, the town that is referred to as the “real Mexico” - the heartland of its indigenous people, culture and history. This town is also renowned for silver mining dating back hundreds of years .The people, scenery, food, and music were magic, what a memorable and unforgettable experience for me.

64 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

Each year Active Retirement Ireland and EIL Intercultural Learning offer one member of Active Retirement Ireland the opportunity to volunteer abroad on one of EIL’s intercultural programmes. 2014 winner Eileen Williamson shares her story.

Mexican dancer at festival in the town of Guanjuato

During my six week stay my host family brought me to various nearby towns including La Pena de Bernal, famous for the third largest monolith in the world. The Vernal Equinox is celebrated on 21st March, the first day of spring when thousands of Mexicans are attracted by the mysticism and positive energy emitted by this colossal rock. According to history this rock has healing powers for all types of ailments. Bernal has recently been crowned “Magic Town.”

The hot springs spa resort town of Tequisquiapan is an exquisite example of provincial Mexico with narrow Spanish style cobblestone streets various arts and crafts stalls and grand villas, now home to charming spa hotels. We also visited the beautiful town of San Miguel de Allende, famous for its handicrafts made by indigenous people, including fine works of wool, lace and brightly dyed yarns woven into tapestry.

The street markets displayed fine hand-painted ceramics and pottery of varying designs and techniques.

Fundacion Soffy My first day as a volunteer I met with Sara the founder of the charity Fundacion Soffy, a lovely lady who unfortunately lost her only daughter to cancer just over one year ago. She set up this charity in memory of Sophie her daughter, to help poor families who have a child with a serious illness. She has a committee of eleven friends who work tirelessly raising much-needed funds. Even though the Fundacion is only in its infancy a lot of work has already been done.

I spent time with Maria, a fifteen-year-old girl with renal failure. Fundacion Soffy has built a small room with sink, microwave and all medications and fluids needed to facilitate her home dialysis. As there are no Community Nurses available her mother is taught to do the dialysis twice daily. Maria is a beautiful, vibrant and very intelligent girl who dreams of getting a kidney transplant so she can return to education and study nursing. I felt very privileged to be invited to spend time with Maria in her home where we had great fun teaching each other

Sharing a Farewell Cake on my last day volunteering with Fundacion Soffy

our native languages. We also spent time making invitation cards for Marias fifteenth birthday, a big event in a girl’s life in Mexico. A church blessing complete with a party with all the trimmings is held in her honour. Maria was very excited about this event. The time we spent together in her home was very pleasant and memorable for me and we were both sad saying adios amigo.

Diannhia is a fourteen-year-old girl who lives with her mother and nine siblings. She has Downs Syndrome and is in remission from leukaemia, she is very happy because her hair has grown again. She loves music and jigsaws. I don’t know what the future holds for Diannhia but the Fundacion visits her home on a regular basis and helps as much as they can. I found the home conditions to be very basic with no electricity or proper sanitation. The women appear to be the main providers as they sell small items on the streets of the city; the very few who are fortunate to have work are employed as domestic help in the more affluent homes. I was amazed at their contentment and happy disposition and their great generosity in sharing their few provisions with me when I visited their homes.

I volunteered alongside a group of young people (age from 19 – 24) who devote their time to play therapy at the local Children’s Hospital. We met every Saturday morning and prepared bags of clean clothes that are donated to Fundacion Soffy for both the children and their mums. There is great excitement among the women as they chat and giggle while trying on the different clothes, many of them live a long way from the hospital and have no transport to travel home. The afternoon is spent playing games, doing art and putting on small plays for the children this also gives the Mums a break.

Later on Saturday evenings I worked with adult volunteers who provided food parcels for the mothers or other relatives at the hospital. These usually contained tortillas, fruit, biscuits and water. On my last Saturday prior to returning home over sixty people availed of this food. Again the volunteers in Fundacion

Visiting Maria in her home

Soffy make this possible. I was amazed at the commitment and tireless hard work carried out by all the volunteers in Foundacion Soffy. I was very lucky to spend time with them and congratulate them on their great and very worthwhile efforts; they are certainly making a big difference in poor families lives.

Equine Therapy Centre Two days each week I volunteered at this centre helping the therapist working with children from disadvantaged backgrounds who have various types of physical or learning disabilities. Four or sometimes five children attended daily and each child had an hour of intensive relaxation and physiotherapy.

They loved the horses and it was amazing how happy and relaxed they became during their session. Afterwards all the children played games together, helped to clean out the stables, brush down the horses and store saddles and bridles away in their rightful places. All the children appeared to gain greatly from these relaxing and fun sessions and it also gave their parents a much-needed rest.

I enjoyed these sessions a lot as it rekindled many happy childhood memories for me growing up on a farm in Donegal where a pony or two was always available for fun after school. It was also very helpful knowing how to put on a bridle and a saddle!

Thank you Volunteering in Mexico was a memorable and great intercultural experience for me. It helped me to realise my potential as a retired person by sharing my experience and life skills with people less fortunate than myself. I have also gained a new and extended family in Queretaro.

I am indebted to Active Retirement Ireland and EIL for choosing me as their 2014 Award winner which has enabled me to have this trip of a lifetime.

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 65

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Wine World The iconic Sangre de Toro with it’s little black plastic bull attached to the neck of the bottle is celebrating sixty years with a modern new look and design. It was created in 1954

by Miguel Torres Carbo, part of the third generation to head Bodegas Torres, who explored the vineyards in the early 1950s in his Renault 44 in search of the Mediterranean’s most prized red grapes - Garnacha and Cariñena - with the aim to make a wine that would fully express the authentic character of the land of his upbringing.

Mairead Robinson offers some tips for tasting some tipples at home

How to organise your own wine tastings Kills I have both attended and conducted many wine tastings over the years and it has invariably been both enjoyable and educational. But you do not have to be a master of wine to host an evening of wine tasting with your friends, and I have often been asked to give a few pointers to people who would like to organize one. So here are some basic guidelines for getting started.

First of all choose a theme. You may like to try wines from several different producers in a particular region, or a specific grape variety made in different regions around the world – which is what I generally choose.

You could then ask your friends, half a dozen or perhaps eight people would be a good number, to bring a bottle that fits in with your chosen theme. This will keep your costs down.

Alternatively you can rotate the wine tastings on a monthly 68 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

basis, thus forming a friendly wine club where each gets a turn to host the evening.

Then you decide if you want to serve the wines “blind” this is where the bottles are wrapped in paper and so the focus is on the wine itself, not on the brand/price/reputation. Provide everybody with a pen and paper and let them guess where the wine comes from and give it points out of five. You can then reveal the wines, discuss each persons remarks and chat in more detail about what everybody thought of each wine. You can then taste again, and see if people’s opinions change. I can guarantee a very sociable evening will be enjoyed by all, but don’t forget to provide some food. Crackers and cheese or some cold meats such as Serrano ham and Chorizo are good especially when served with some crusty bread, and don’t forget to offer a little more towards the end of the evening to soak up the wine.

This month I will be hosting a wine tasting as part of the Active Over 50s Show in Killarney where we will be tasting and comparing wines from one of Ireland’s favourite Spanish wine brands, the great Torres winery in Catalonia, sponsored by Findlater Wines & Spirit Group: – www.findlaters.ie The iconic Sangre de Toro with it’s little black plastic bull attached to the neck of the bottle is celebrating sixty years with a modern new look and design. It was created in 1954

by Miguel Torres Carbo, part of the third generation to head Bodegas Torres, who explored the vineyards in the early 1950s in his Renault 44 in search of the Mediterranean’s most prized red grapes - Garnacha and Cariñena - with the aim to make a wine that would fully express the authentic character of the land of his upbringing. The result was a wine he called “Sangre de Toro,” taking its name from Greek and Roman poets describing the god of wine – known as Dionysus or Bacchus, respectively – as being as “powerful as a bull” whose blood consisted of wine.

Explaining the rationale behind the revamp, Bodegas Torres General Manager Miguel Torres Maczassek said “ Sangre de Toro is experiencing its second youth and we decided to revamp the design as a tribute to my grandfather for realizing his dream. It stand for authenticity, for reviving certain values of the past that springs from an unpretentious way of thinking and doing things, driven by experience and love for one’s craft”. Sangre de Toro was Bodegas Torres’s first bottled wine, at a time when most wine was still sold in bulk. It is a major brand in Spain and by the 1970s was already sold in over 50 countries on five continents. It is now sold in over 150 markets, making it the most international of all Torres wines.

To add to their numerous accolades over the years, Torres has been named the World’s most admired wine brand by Drinks International for the second consecutive year and Torres is the only Spanish and European winery that has managed to lead the ranking, compiled by a panel of wine professionals from all over the world.

The jury - made up of more than 200 of the world’s top masters of wine, sommeliers, educators and journalists - awarded Torres the highest distinction, thus leading the ranking of more than 50 brands from all over the world which the magazine defines as “…a pool of established names that have proven themselves to be consistent, respected global leaders.”

According to jury member Will Parker, “Torres is a quality brand with a diversity of offerings in terms of style, price and origin and a strong family origin”.

And finally there is an opportunity to win some great wine from another top family owned Spanish winery, Marques de Caceres in Rioja. Five generations of the Forner family have been devoted to producing excellent Bordeaux style wines.

This distinguished family have become a top ambassador for the wines from Rioja and have helped to make this region become Spain’s number one DOC. Brought to Ireland by Cassidy Wine Merchants – www.cassidywines.ie the Excellens Sauvignon Blanc and Excellens Crianza are available in good restaurants and you can enter a competition to win a bottle of each on www.hotelreviewsireland.com during the month of May. Each month there is a different wine competition, so check out the great Spanish wine this month.

Remember, you have to be in it to win it!

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 69

Culture Nationwide tour for Rigoletto Maretta Dillon looks at what’s on in the arts over the next few months Rigoletto, Verdi’s potent tale of lust, revenge and betrayal starts us off this time. Bruno Caproni from Northern Ireland does the honours as the widower, Rigoletto, who tries valiantly to protect his trusting daughter Gilda from the unwanted attentions of his lecherous employer, the Duke.

Sung in English with hummable favourite, La donna è mobile (All women are fickle), this new production by Selina Cartmell, the current darling of Irish theatre and acclaimed playwright Marina Carr, promises a real bout of escapism on its nationwide tour. More info from www.opera.ie.

Al Pacino takes to our screens on May 29 as ageing rock star Danny Collins who on his climb to fame forgot family and friends. When he receives a life-changing letter he decides to find out what his life could have been like.

Dublin Dance Festival is now a fixture in May and this year a new show by Emma

Bruno Caproni as Rigoletto in a nationwide tour

O’Kane entitled Jockey explores the physical relationship between the dancer, the jockey and the Irish thoroughbred horse. Dancer Emma had never ridden a horse before but while preparing for the show found out that her grandfather had been a bloodstock agent and racing journalist. That muscle memory must have helped when investigating the many similarities between jockeys and dancers. This intriguing show starts its run – pun intended! – from May 15. See www.willfredd.com for more information.

Ireland’s longest running chamber music festival, KBC Great Music in Irish Houses, is back again in June (9 to 14) with a delightful offering of everything from Beethoven to Brahms, from Ravel to Reich. This year’s special guests are the Colin Currie Group from the UK; the Armida Quartett from Germany as well as Latvian siblings Baiba and Lauma Skride. The houses themselves are just

70 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

as much the stars including the Royal College of Physicians, Castletown House and the National Botanic Gardens where the Escher Quartet from the US will entertain. All the details from www.greatmusicinirishhouses.com The book and all things literature is celebrated at Hay Festival Kells - back with a second edition this year. A jam packed programme includes: musician Brian Eno; writers Anne Enright, Martina Devlin and Ben Okri ; poets Paul Durcan and Peter Fallon; journalists Fintan O’Toole and Rosie Boycott not to mention historians Roy Foster, Anne Chambers and local boy Myles Dungan.

The first day of the festival will be given over to events related to the American Civil War, in which many Irish participated on both sides. Check out this extensive and seductive programme on www.hayfestival.com/kells.

That’s enough to be going on with…

Dublin Dance Festival is now a fixture in May and this year a new show by Emma O’Kane entitled Jockey explores the physical relationship between the dancer, the jockey and the Irish thoroughbred horse.

EVENTS AROUND THE COUNTRY MAY / JUNE 2015 HEAD TO HEAD Visual Arts Artist Vivienne Roche’s exhibition curates a series of head sculptures from Arts Council commissioned artists.

May to September Information: www.crawfordgallery.ie IRISH YEAR OF DESIGN 2015 Design Appetite for Design at the National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, speculates about the design of food and us.

May 8 to June 30.

Information and venues: www.nationalcraftgallery.ie SCULLY AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY Visual Arts A celebration of the seventieth birthday of the Dublin born internationally recognised artist Sean Scully.

12 May – 20 September Information: www.nationalgallery.ie JOCKEY Dance Emma O’Kane’s show explores the similarities between dancers and jockeys.

From May 15 Information and venues: www.willfredd.com

RIGOLETTO Opera Verdi’s masterpiece is on tour nationwide courtesy of Opera Theatre Company.

May 15 to 30 Information and venues: www.opera.ie NATIONAL DRAWING DAY Visual Arts Drawing Day is an ideal opportunity to try your hand at sketching in this nation wide event.

May 16 Information and venues: www.nationalgallery.ie DANNY COLLINS Film Al Pacino as the now older rocker rediscovering a love of music and the family he left behind.

Opens May 29 nationwide KBC GREAT MUSIC IN IRISH HOUSES Music Hear classical music in some wonderful, exciting and unusual settings in Dublin, Kildare and Meath.

June 9 to14 Information: www.greatmusicinirishhouses.com IMMRAMA – THE LISMORE FESTIVAL OF TRAVEL WRITING Literature Dedicated to the art of travel writing, good music, and fine entertainment.

June 11 to 14 Information: www.lismoreimmrama.com

BLOOMSDAY FESTIVAL Literature Stephen Fry is the guest of honour at this year’s now six day event celebrating all things Joycean.

June 11 – June 16 Information: www.bloomsdayfestival.ie QUEEN & COUNTRY Film Director John Boorman picks up from his earlier film Hope & Glory ten years on.

Opens June 12 nationwide THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN Theatre The Abbey Theatre and the Lyric Theatre, Belfast join forces in this new production of the Sean O’Casey classic.

June 12 to August 1 Booking: (01) 87 87 222 / www.abbeytheatre.ie/booking HAY FESTIVAL KELLS Literature A diverse programme of writers, readings, interviews, panel discussions and conversation.

June 25 - 28 Information and booking: www.hayfestival.com/Kells Finally, if you’d like your event to feature in our list of What’s On please email: events.country@gmail.com

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 71

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Health

Getting to the root of the trouble

Kills

The objective of this Senior Times visit to Bucharest was to experience firsthand what a Romanian dental practice could offer an Irish patient while combining a city tour with a combination of top level dentistry at affordable prices with the added bonus of seeing the wonderful historical sights of a city time has passed.

Firstly, The office manager and treatment co-ordinator of the Bucharest British Dental Place is Samantha Teasdale and on hearing her UK English accent we were set at ease from the very start of this adventure. It is a family run dental practice with Samantha’s husband Cosmin Teasdale the founder and dentist overseeing the treatment I was to undergo. Dr Teasdale is a highly qualified dentist who trained

Des Duggan is impressed with his dental treatment in Romania

and worked in the UK for many years before embarking on this new business venture. He also comes from a generation of dentists as both his father and mother spent their professional lives in dentistry.

Dr Teasdale informed me that a healthy mouth means a healthy you. Our teeth play a vital role not only in how we bite and chew but in how our whole body functions. Incorrectly functioning jaws due to missing teeth, loose fitting dentures or problems with your bite can create problems such as grinding teeth, sunken chin and nose and can affect our whole posture causing our shoulders to slump, our spine to curve and our back to ache. Dr Teasdale pointed out early on that due to the shortfalls in the dental NHS system in the UK and the

raising costs in private practices, patients were either ignoring their problems or taking the cheaper option of extraction due to lack of information or simply because they could not afford to have the most appropriate kind of dental treatment for their situation.

Unfortunately quick fixes may keep the purse strings tight but ultimately they will lead to further problems for the patients overall health further down the road. Because Dr Teasdale wanted high quality dental care to be affordable to all he seized the opportunity to move overseas with his wife and two children and build a practice where he is able to service his patients with the same high quality standards as you would receive in the UK but without the massive UK overheads which the patient has to pay

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 73

for at the end of their procedure.He is not only aiming to be ethical in terms of the treatment he advises for the patient but also on how much he charges for performing the treatment. This has allowed him to offer any major dentistry work that would cost in the thousands of euros or pounds in the UK or Ireland at a fraction of the cost. Even when you factor in flights, accommodation and the number of visits required to complete the treatment in Romania the cost is still considerably lower, in most cases 50-70% of the price back home .

Three hour flight After a quite pleasant flight from Dublin ( approx 3 hours) to Bucharest flying with RyanAir and I was greeted in arrivals at Bucharest International Airport by Samantha who took me by car, in what seemed like minutes, to my hotel in the centre of the city. The following morning I was collected her at -my hotel andthe taken directly towork the plush The'Millie' by collection named after women used to in the surroundings of Bucharest British private local mill - features a beautiful Tote Dental bag withPlace’s its iconic satchel buckle, detailing and similar structured shape, practice in an area to London’s Harley St. On arriving in their state or the art facility I was met Dr Teasdale and the team and introduced to a number of students in their final years of studying dentistry learning their skills all under the watchful eyes of Cosmin. All the doctors and staff spoke fluent English and I was made to feel completely at home.

I underwent an initial examination and was told I required an extraction, implant and crown on the tooth that had been bothering me for some time now and which I had constantly been patching up with filling after filling. I was told I had the rest of the day free to discover the city and to return in the morning for my treatment . Usually the practice offers a complimentary day trip to all overseas patients to visit two castles outside of Bucharest but as my trip was too short this time round. Samantha gave me a city map, local mobile phone and recommendations of what to see and where to visit in Bucharest in order to get the most out of my trip and to go home smiling.

However , they sayCompany a ‘stitchisin time’ nine and The Vintage Satchel based in saves Cambrai Street increasingly more and more studies are showing that many common severe medical problems can be preventedAvenue, or Fortunately, the Workshops for the Blind in Lawnbrook cured diagnosed enough so whatpremises did I have to lose! off theifShankill Roadearly in Belfast had– surplus which they Iwere won’t goto into the details but suffice it to say, although able rent to full USEL, beginning a relationship which Iflourished am a little bitthe afraid oftogoing to the dentist normally, I over years the advantage of both blind and did go back the following non-blind disabled persons.day and I will no longer need to fill a tooth I have filled many times in the past as I am now going to replace was the finally extracted tooth with an implant which This relationship formalised in 1980, with financial will require make a secondofvisit in orderServices to finish the support fromme theto new Department Manpower when treatment.

I amthe happy do thisfor as the I will be factory able to and giveother the USEL purchased Workshops Blind readers progress report in the next ofblind Senior Times. buildingsaand assumed responsibility forissue all the workers, During treatment itself Iforce. was made to feel very at ease as well the as the existing labour and although there was a little discomfort afterwards the procedure was and theand aftercare service Since then, itself through itspainless manufacturing service operation, received so far has than been80wonderful, they are constantly USEL employs more severely disabled people, who make monitoring me withincluding regular check-up calls and emails. a range of products divan beds, specialised equipment hold-alls (such as for Fire and Rescue Services), sports bags and

A trip to the dentist is not usually an appealing prospect wheelchair cushions. for anyone; after all, no one likes going under the dentist’s drill, and the the impact on your wallet afterwards can often It is however, abilities of the workers and not their disabilibe painful. news that withrange Bucharest tiesjust thatashave led toThe the good creation of is a fantastic of quality British Dental you might still need to undergo goods and, fromPlace, these while operations, has grown the popularity of root canal work, implants or replace old Satchel fillings or the fantastic rangehave of satchels from the Vintage loose fitting dentures you can now do so at considerably Company. less expense, whilst taking in the sights and sounds of one of Europe’s most focused historic simply cities! on It is true whatofthey saygoods, on Having previously production quality their ‘plan a trip and get your smileshop, back’.

Thatsit VSC iswebsite, now raising its profile through its online which, exactly what I did and it worked for me! hopes, will show that bags of a similar quality to those of

well-established companies, such as Cambridge Satchel For further information contact Company, are readily available from Northern Ireland!

Bucharest Dental We wish them luck!Practice at: Tel: 00 44 7885 918 386.

Email: office@getyoursmileback.co.uk www.getyoursmileback.co.uk Page 60 Senior Times March 2015 74 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

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Golf The Man in Black

Dermot Gilleece traces the remarkable career and regime of Gary Player who celebrates his 80th birthday this year The career Grand Slam in golf seemed to receive a new lease on life recently with the possibility of Rory McIlroy joining an elite group by capturing the Masters at Augusta National. Further south in the US, however, the distinction was already being celebrated at the World Golf Hall of Fame to mark the 50th anniversary of Gary Player’s Grand Slam success.

This is the indestructible South African who, on a visit to the special exhibition in his honour, declared: ‘I am in better shape than most people who are 30 years younger than me.’ Player, you will note, is looking to his 80th birthday on November 1st. And while maintaining almost zero body-fat, courtesy of a highly disciplined diet, he does 1,000 crunches four times per week.

For the benefit of those senior citizens leading fairly sedentary lives, the ‘crunch’ is one of the most common abdominal exercises, aimed primarily at working the rectus abdominis muscle while it also works the obliques. As a consequence of this activity, Player claims ‘Being tired is all in the mind.’

Then for good measure, he throws in the familiar cry that ‘age is just a number.’

As it happened, he was only the third person to claim the career Grand Slam after Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan. In fact by capturing the 1965 US Open in St Louis, he gained the distinction a year ahead of the great Jack

Gary Player would wear black clothing so as to absorb the strength of the sun.

Nicklaus, who did it by winning the Open Championship at Muirfield in 1966. Since then, the elite group has increased to five, through the inclusion of Tiger Woods.

Player, of course, joined Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer in the so-called ‘Big Three of Golf’, who were managed by Mark McCormack, the great deal-maker and head of the International Management Group. And he became acutely aware of Player’s determination to overcome the physical limitations of weighing only 10st 3lbs in a 5ft-7in frame. In the process, the South African became a devotee of Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking and frowned on cigarettes and alcohol, as well as tea and coffee.

He liked to eat bananas and wheat-germ; was an advocate of self-hypnosis, would wear black clothing so as to absorb the strength of the sun, and believed implicitly in the discipline of practice. He made his mark on golf in this country through a sparkling appearance in the Canada Cup at Portmarnock in 1960, when he shot a course-record 65 in the first round before going on to share fifth place with compatriot Bobby Locke behind the winning American duo of Sam Snead and Palmer. And when he returned to Portmarnock for the Irish Open of 1976, he was tied eighth behind Ben Crenshaw. That was when he remarked acidly to the gathered media: ‘You must have great golfers here in Ireland, because I don’t see any of them on

the practice ground.’

Marketing Player was clearly a challenge, especially at a time when cigarette-smoking was de rigueur, but for McCormack there were always options. So it was that the head of IMG negotiated a particularly interesting deal in 1962. It involved the California Raisin Advisory Board which saw considerable benefits in the fact that Player had won the US Masters title the previous year. Indeed later in 1962, he would capture the US PGA title for the first time, so completing the third leg of the career Grand Slam and he was set to defend the Lucky Strike International Open and Sunshine Open titles on the PGA Tour.

Initial negotiations resulted in the following letter being sent to Player on April 13th of that year. It read: ‘Dear Mr Player: ‘This will confirm, in brief, your agreement with us, the California Raisin Advisory Board, whereby you will engage in certain publicity activities, promoting the consumption of raisins. We understand that you are a golf professional, that you have in the past publicly eaten raisins on regular occasions, and that you will so continue.’

The letter went on: ‘You will use your best efforts to publicize and promote the

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 75

As the 2015 golf season starts to heat up, one of golf’s most decorated players, Gary Player, prepares for a momentous milestone.

This year, the South African icon will celebrate the 50th anniversary of completing the career Grand Slam: The USPGA, the US Open, the British Open, and The Masters.

consumption of raisins, and will co-operate with us in any requests we, or our agent, may make in this connection. You have agreed to endorse the consumption of raisins in press, radio and television interviews, stating that you eat raisins for quick energy, general well-being, and because you like them.

‘You will eat raisins publicly during the play of each golf tournament, in exhibition television golf matches and at other public events at which you appear. You will distribute limited quantities of raisins to the gallery prior to and after play and during practice, and will make raisins available to other golf professionals for their own use.

‘We will supply you small packs of raisins without a brand name, in such pre-determined quantities as may be needed by you for the aforementioned purposes. It is understood that you will not publicize any particular brand of raisins.”

Then came the nuts and bolts of the deal, which were outlined thus: “The initial terms of this agreement shall commence on the date hereof and continue through December 31, 1962. You will perform the foregoing activities commencing April 1, 1962, through August 31, 1962. (We understand that you are leaving the United States during the fall of 1962.)

‘We will pay you three hundred and fifty dollars ($350.00) per month for each month in which you play golf for compensation for the five-month period April through August, 1962.

Any charges for brokerage or commissions arising hereunder will be borne by you, and the required United States Federal Income Tax on non-resident aliens will be withheld from each payment hereunder. (This withholding is currently at the rate of thirty per cent of compensation.)

‘During the time this agreement is in effect, you agree that you will not use or authorize the use of your name or likeness in the adver

The ‘big three’ Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player

tising of any similar food product, nor will you perform publicity services similar to those set forth in this agreement for any other similar product. During the time this agreement is in effect, we may use your name, likeness, or endorsement in the advertising or publicizing of raisins and the California Raisin Advisory Board and use the same for purposes of trade in connection therewith. You understand that in performing under our agreement, you will at all times be an independent contractor and not an agent or employee of the State of California or of the California Raisin Advisory Board.”

The agreement was signed by Donald C White, manager of the California Raisin Advisory Board and approved by the state’s director of agriculture. So, Player’s promotion of raisins was under way, and McCormack later recounted that everything went well for a while. Packets of raisins were brought by Player into tournament locker-rooms throughout the US and were distributed to his fellow professionals, presumably whether they liked raisins or not.

We are also told that Player entered into the entire operation with predictable enthusiasm, even though his monthly reward of $350.00 was decidedly modest compared, for

76 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

instance, with the $20,000 he received for winning the 1961 Masters. Still, it must be remembered that contracts of this nature were in their infancy at the time and however modest, the monthly payment was still welcome pin money.

The deal, however, was short-lived.

McCormack seemed somewhat vague on detail but it appears that everything unravelled when Player headed south of the US border to compete in a tournament in Mexico. Customs officials were understandably curious as to what a professional golfer was doing with large quantities of raisins in his possession. Especially when they were subject to import duty.

So the raisins were abandoned at the border post, and McCormack looked elsewhere for another product which might benefit from the rather special talents of the feisty South African.

Meanwhile, what was the long-term impact of Player’s raisins? Could they have made a significant contribution to his current well-being at 79? Who knows? All I can claim is that it made a wonderful story when McCormack recounted it to a group of us during the Dunhill Cup at St Andrews about 25 years ago.

Northern

By Debbie Orme

Notes

A magical little piece of Belfast..

The Archbishop of Canterbury takes his turn at volunteering

The Prayer Garden

Nestled in the shadow of the now world-famous Titanic Centre in Belfast is a small outlet which is now No. 3 on Trip Advisor website for shopping experiences: the unique and artisan Dock Café.

in the Titanic Quarter started to form.

Neighbours met. Churches of all traditions and backgrounds worked together – so that the ‘Chaplains to the Titanic Quarter’ became a team rather than one individual.

Dock Café began donating sofas, dining tables, mugs, art, sculpture, games, armchairs, and a thousand other quirky little touches to make a big empty concrete space a home-away-fromhome.

The Dock Café was the brainchild of former non-commissioned Church of Ireland minister, Chris Bennett. Chris’ original concept was to build ‘life’ in the Titanic Quarter – to create heart and soul amidst the concrete and steel of the fantastic new development in Belfast’s historic shipyard.

The developers - Titanic Quarter Ltd also got involved. From the moment the first foundation was laid, their tagline was: ‘Where once we built ships… today we build community’. That vision was fast becoming a reality and so the developers made the unprecedented move of offering The Dock a ‘Meanwhile Lease’ on an empty shop unit in the heart of the Titanic Quarter.

One of the quirkiest aspects of the café is the fact that it’s an ‘honesty café’, ie, you pay what you can afford to. On Saturdays you can even order and pay for brunch in the Green Deli next door, bring it into the café and just order a mug of tea or coffee: again, simply popping a donation into the honesty box!

The mix of people - as with the décor is eclectic. On the day that I visited, for example, there was a mix of business people from the surrounding companies, students from the nearby Belfast Metropolitan College and tourists.

There’s also an ever-expanding display of quirky pieces of history from the Belfast docks – from Titanic memorabilia, to models and unique pictures of shipyard life, to artefacts from the lovely old H&W Drawing Offices. You can even see Edward Harland’s signature and Thomas Andrews’ door! But this isn’t a hushed museum with exhibits in glass cases – you might actually find yourself eating your lunch off one of the old tables from the Drawing Offices!

The project began at the end of 2009, when Chris was appointed to the new post of Chaplain to the Titanic Quarter.

At that point, the area was still mostly scaffolding, but the hope started to grow amongst the developers and early residents that this new part of Belfast the city had been given a blank page; a fresh start.

Belfast is famous for separating into its different communities - especially when it comes to churches, so Chris and his team sought to provide something different – a shared gathering point – and more importantly, a neutral venue - in which all traditions could share the excitement of building community together.

In the open air, at Saturday morning coffee mornings and Sunday afternoon walks, the first building blocks of life

They also gave Chris and his team a deadline.

‘Eamonn Holmes and the Songs Of Praise film crew were arriving in six days’ time and wanted to film in the pop-up cafe,’ he says. ‘Was there any chance, they asked, we could turn an empty concrete shell, with no water, no electricity and no furniture, into a cosy little café in time to serve Eamonn a cuppa?’, he laughs.

Needless to say, Eamonn got his cuppa!

The Dock Café opened its doors in March 2012 with little more than deckchairs and a kettle but, as the months went by, more and more donations started to fill the place, as the people who ate, relaxed, met up and chilled out in The

Joachim Speier is Development Coordinator for the Dock. His brief is to develop a ‘community’ within the cafe and to make volunteering fun. From what I witnessed on the Monday afternoon that

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 77

Fine fayre at the fine fair!

I visited the Dock Café, he’s certainly doing a good job!

‘The Dock is a totally unique idea,’ Joachim tells me. ‘All of the ideas that are in operation in both the Dock Café and Market are quirky and creative.

Everything is designed to make people to feel part of a community: a community which, let’s face it, didn’t even exist three years ago!

‘As the original team met and chatted over countless cups of coffee (getting on for a quarter of a million now, we reckon), the Dock started to identify five distinct but connected communities: residents living in Titanic Quarter in the hundreds of apartments just above our heads; students studying in Titanic Quarter (the massive BMC Titanic Quarter Campus is just across the road); professionals working in Titanic Quarter - from Citibank to the Game Of Thrones’ crew; tourists visiting Titanic Quarter from all across the world, and visitors to the Titanic Quarter from greater Belfast.

Our aim is simply to find space to build a shared community.’

In November 2013, the crew of the newly-opened SS Nomadic, the little tender ship to Titanic, which sits next door to the café, asked if the Dock team would like to come on board and run church services from time to time. Within a few months, however, the church had grown too big, so the ‘services’ are now held in the Café on the first Sunday of each month at 6pm.

Needless to say, the church is unique in its format. Instead of a formal, traditional church service, the Dock Church features three people speaking on different aspects of a chosen subject.

In April, for example, to celebrate the Titanic anniversary, Chris spoke on how the orchestra who played on the ship was composed of a mix of five different denominations, while another speaker, Richard, talked about a major ‘construction’ in the Bible. Naturally everyone thought he was talking about the Ark, but it turned out to be about God’s creation of the Earth and how it was

‘perfect’ when God had created it: a throwback to the infamous quote much loved by the Northern Irish about the ‘Titanic being fine when it left Belfast!

The Dock Church is a mix of dedicated volunteers and chaplains from across all church backgrounds, who are committed to sharing every step of the journey of building community in this new part of Belfast, and the congregation is now a mix of residents, café volunteers and professionals, who live and work in and around the area. A beautiful Prayer Garden, which nestles in the corner of the café, also provides solace for those who simply want to think or pray.

‘A comfy haven’ reads one of the messages on the wall of the garden. ‘A sanctuary’ reads another. ‘The heart of the Titanic Quarter’ says a third.

Needless to say, Chris, Joachim and the rest of the team still have plenty of plans for their enterprise. At the Dock Market, which was recently launched a few doors down from the café, the only rule for traders is that ‘If you make it – you can sell it’, and more than 20 traders now arrive every other Saturday to display and sell their hand-made creations.

The next big project in the pipeline is the idea of a ‘Meanwhile Garden’ – planters filled with greenery, dotted throughout the undeveloped concrete parts of Titanic Quarter, which will undoubtedly make something beautiful out of spaces that are empty until the next building development comes along.

It’s hard to describe how a visit to the Dock Café feels. It has an ambience all of its own: one which makes you feel part of ‘something’. It’s like being in an episode of Friends - sitting on settees, resting your coffee on a real coffee table, and sharing quality time with friends - those you know and those you don’t know yet. It’s innovative, it’s quirky and, above all else, it has spirit.

Community.....Holy....whatever you want to call it, the Dock Café has it. And then some....

78 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

If you’re looking for the perfect family day out, why not come along to Shane’s Castle Estate in Antrim on 27 and 28 June to enjoy the Irish Game Fair & Fine Food Festival?

The Shanes Castle event is recognised as the major event for those who live, work or play in the Irish Countryside, so there’s a wide range of quality allIreland and international attractions and competitions, such as clay pigeon shoot; archery; carriage driving; fly casting; dog shows; and gundog competitions.

In the last few years, the family appeal of the event has been broadened by the addition and promotion of country living attractions, such as the new NI Angling Show; the Fine Food Festival with cookery demos by celebrity chefs; Living History Village including jousting displays); huge tented village of trade stands offering great country lifestyle shopping; and lots of ‘have a go’ opportunities. These events have widened the appeal of the event to ensure that every member of the family has something to enjoy!

For more information visit www.discovernorthernireland.com/ Irish-Game-Fair-and-Fine-FoodFestival-Antrim-P22976

Deputy Lord Mayor Councillor Maíre Hendron and Minister for Social Development, Mervyn Storey join Gretta Neill to launch the Age-friendly Charter at Belfast City Hall.

Age-friendly focus at convention Belfast is launching an Age-friendly Charter for local organisations asking them to sign up to a series of principles aimed at making it easier for older people to use services across the city.

The Charter, drawn up by Belfast Strategic Partnership (BSP), was one of a number of initiatives highlighted at the recent Age-friendly Convention in Belfast City Hall.

Gillian McKee, Deputy Managing Director of Business in the Community officially launched the Age-friendly Charter in front of the 200 people attending the Convention at Belfast City Hall.

‘The workplace of the future will be much more age-diverse than it is now and Business in the Community is encouraging employers to embrace the benefits that can bring. Older workers bring invaluable experience that can be used to develop younger employees and help improve company performance,’ she said.’We would urge employers to sign up

to the Age-friendly Belfast Charter and demonstrate their commitment to working together toward a more age-friendly society that values the contribution older workers can bring.’

A pilot project, to be carried out in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society to encourage local communities to become more involved in helping dementia sufferers and their families, was also highlighted.

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 79

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Know Your Rights Advice from Citizens Information Centre

I don’t have health insurance and I’ve been told it will be more expensive for me after 1 May because of my age.

Can you explain what is changing?

If you are taking out health insurance after this date and you are 35 years of age or older, your annual premium will increase depending on the age you are when you start – by 2% for each year over 34. This increase is called a loading. So, for example, if you are aged 35 there will be a 2% loading, but if you start health insurance at 39 there will be a 10% loading. The maximum loading will be 70%.

If you previously had health insurance but let it lapse, the period for which you had health insurance will be taken into account to reduce the loading that applies.

An allowance (of up to three years) can also be made if you gave up health insurance since the start of 2008 because of unemployment.

People who move to Ireland from another country after 1 May 2015 can avoid having a loading applied if they take out health insurance within 9 months and continue to be insured.

Up to now, the cost of an inpatient health insurance policy has been the same for everyone regardless of age.

This is known as community rating. From 1 May 2015 a system of lifetime community rating will apply, which means that people may be charged more if they are older when they first take out health insurance. This change will not affect you if you already have health insurance before 1 May 2015 and continue to be insured.

If you have health insurance, you can change your health insurance policy or change your insurer without affecting your loading. A gap in insurance of up to 13 weeks is allowed.

I want to vote in the referendums in May but I may be abroad at that time.

Will I be able to vote?

In order to vote in the referendums on 22 May 2015 you must be an Irish citizen and registered to vote. Every local authority is responsible for compiling

and publishing a list of voters in its area.

This is called the Register of Electors or the electoral register.

If you are an Irish citizen living abroad you cannot be entered on the Register of Electors. This means that you cannot vote in the referendums. The only exception to this is in the case of Irish officials on duty abroad (and their spouses) who may register on the postal voters list.

The Register of Electors is published

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 81

every year on 1 February. You can check if you are on the register at www. checktheregister.ie or at your local authority, Garda station, post office or public library.

If you are not listed on the register, you can apply to be added to the supplement to the Register up to the closing date of 5 May 2015. You apply to be added to the supplement using a form called RFA2 which is available online at checktheregister.ie or from your local authority, post office or public library.

You are normally required to vote in person at an official voting centre but you may be eligible for a postal vote.

Local authorities prepare a postal voters list as part of the Register of Electors.

You can only apply for registration as a postal voter if you are not able to vote at a polling station because of your occupation, illness or disability, being in prison, or if you are studying full-time in Ireland but away from the address where you are registered to vote.

You can apply to be added to the supplement to the postal voters list up to 25 April 2015. The application form for inclusion in the supplement to the postal voters list is available from your local authority.

I’ve been getting a One-Parent Family Payment but I will no longer qualify when my youngest child turns seven.

What is the Jobseeker’s Allowance transitional arrangement and how do I qualify?

If you no longer qualify for a One-Parent Family Payment because your youngest child is over the age limit, you may be eligible for the Jobseeker’s Allowance transitional arrangement (often called JST). This is a social welfare payment that aims to support you into the workforce while also acknowledging that you are parenting alone and caring for young children aged between 7 and 13.

JST allows you to work part-time and still receive a partial payment (depending on your earnings).

The rules that apply to Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) and JST are very similar. The means test is similar and the maximum weekly rate of payment is the same. The main differences between JA and JST are that on JST: You do not have to be available for and genuinely seeking full-time work. This is to allow you to meet your caring responsibilities. There are childcare supports available if you do find work.

You must be capable of work but you do not have to be fully unemployed for 4 out of 7 days. This means that you could work part-time for 5 days and still receive a payment (subject to the means

test). For example, you could work mornings only while your children are in school. Income from work is assessed with a €20 earnings disregard per day of employment (up to a maximum of €60 per week). Any earnings above that are assessed at 60%.

You cannot cohabit with another person while you are getting JST. You must continue to parent alone.

When you start getting JST you will be scheduled to attend an activation meeting with a case officer. The purpose of this meeting is to identify and access supports (such as education, training and employment schemes) that will prepare you for full-time employment. If you do not participate in this process, you may be paid a reduced rate of JST (a penalty rate) or you may be disqualified from your JST payment.

If you were getting a Fuel Allowance with your OFP you can keep this when you go onto JST. I am signing for unemployment credits but I don’t qualify for Jobseeker’s Allowance because my partner’s income is over the limits. What supports are there to help me back into the workforce?

The Department of Social Protection (DSP) provides employment support and advice to jobseekers nationwide.

Jobseekers include people who are getting a jobseeker’s payment, people who are signing for credits and people who are unemployed but not eligible for a payment. In general, DSP employment services focus on people getting social welfare payments. However, there are a range of supports for people who are not getting a social welfare payment.

You can avail of upskilling opportunities, for example, through Further Education and Training (FET) courses provided by the Education and Training Boards (ETBs). Day courses and evening courses are available. Although people signing

82 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

for credits do not get an allowance during the course, you may receive some support for expenses on travel, meals and accommodation.

If you have been signing for credits (for three or nine months depending on the course) you can take part in the Back to Education Allowance scheme. You do not get the allowance but you can apply for a student grant (both the fee and maintenance component of the grant).

If you have been signing for credits for six months, or more you can take part in the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS) run by the ETBs (subject to availability). You do not get a training allowance but you may get travel and lunch allowances. If you have been signing for credits for 12 months or longer in the previous 18 months you can take part in Momentum courses. However, you will not receive any payment.

Springboard and Skillnets courses are also open to many people who may not be eligible for a social welfare payment – such as people signing for credits and unemployed graduates. If you have been signing for credits for three months (78 days) in the last six months, you are eligible for the JobBridge programme (and a payment of €50 a week).

Other employment services, such as advice on jobseeking and online job search tools, are available to people who register with DSP employment services regardless of their social welfare status. In general you apply for courses and JobBridge through your local Intreo centre or social welfare local office.

Know Your Rights has been compiled

by Citizens Information Service which provides a free and confidential service to the public. Information is also available online at citizensinformation. ie and from the Citizens Information Phone Service, 0761 07 4000 or telephone Freephone 1800 989898

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

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER T6 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, enthusiastic, 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 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 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 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 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 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, welltravelled, 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 SINCERE CAVAN WIDOWER, young 67, NS, ND, presentable, kind and caring. Seeks gentle, caring lady soul mate with no ties. Interests include country life, walking, nature, reading, dining out, weekends away etc. Photo appreciated and exchanged.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER Y4 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 NORTH WICKOW WIDOW, 64, interested in travel, walking, eating out, cinema, gardening etc. WLTM gentleman of similar age with similar interests.REPLY TO BOX NUMBER Y7 PROFESSIONAL GALWAY LADY seeks 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 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 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

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 83

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 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 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 MIDLANDS WIDOWER, 60’s, non-smoker, social drinker, sincere with GSOH, interests include music, cinema, par-3 golf and gardening, would like to meet attractive petite lady for friendship. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X7 FEMININE, ATTRACTIVE SOUTH DUBLIN, 47 year old female looking to meet a kind caring man in late 40’s to 60’s. I am well educated and a good conversationalist. I enjoy travel, art, swimming, having fun, eating out and lots of laughter. Looking to meet someone well educated and cultured who values someone special in their life.REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X8 PERFECT GENTLEMAN 67, Dublin, digital, active, cheerful, sharing, caring, positive, respectful, vibrant, house, car, fully single, full of life, love and laughter. Seeking similar lady, to share the joyful wonder of life.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X9 ATTRACTIVE 51 YEAR OLD professional woman in County Louth, NS, GSOH, interested in life and all it has to offer! Enjoys music, literature, cooking, theatre, driving to name but a few. WLTM a gentleman in the same age group with similar interests, a GSOH and a positive outlook on life.REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X10

NORTHSIDE DUBLIN MALE VEGETARIAN, 63, interested in meditation, walking, nature etc.

NS, ND, WLTM similar males and females for friendship. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X 18 DUBLIN WOMAN, 50, INTERESTED IN WALKING, travelling, cinema, cooking and meeting new friends.REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X19 ATTRACTIVE NORTH CO DUBLIN LADY, (60) with outgoing personality, NS, SD with many and varied interests WLTM respectable gent who would appreciate and treat her nicely. Age range 50s to early 70s REPLY TO BOX NUMBER W1 MATURE LADY (60) WITH OUTGOING PERSONALITY would like to match up with lady or gent with a view to spending the coming winter (long term) in the Canary Islands to escape the unpleasant Irish winter. Would suit someone interested in peace, relaxation and friendship.

Age 55 or over. NS, SD preferred.

REPLY YO BOX NUMBER W2 WEST OF IRELAND MAN EARLY 60s WLTM sincere lady for friendship/relationship. I am genuine, honest, caring. I like music, walking, DIY, sport, animals and country life. ALA. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER W3 GAY FEMALE NS, LATE 50s, Munster area WLTM same for friendship/companionship. NS only REPLY TO BOX NUMBER W4 DUBLIN NORTHSIDE WIDOWER, 65, many and varied interests, seeks lively Dublin-based lady for dining out, travel, cinema, walking etc., and of course for friendship and possible relationship. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER W5 ATTRACTIVE, ARTICULATE NEW YORK WOMAN EDUCATIONIST, early 60s, within Dublin catchment area WLTM a cultured, refined man with no ties. My interests are wide and varied and include a love of life, good conversation, comedy, theatre, travel, reading and the arts. My life is a tapestry of colours and sharing experiences makes it more enriched.

Are you the complimentary other half?

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER W6

need not apply. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER W12 SEMI RETIRED TIPP LADY, well-travelled, no ties, very sincere, kind and caring. WLTM a gent of around 60 who is active, fit and has sound family values to share interest in the arts, keeping fit, good conversation.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B1 MIDLANDS GENT, GSOH, SD, NS, no ties, 65.

Interests include walking, reading, DIY, gardening and travel. WLTM a lady, 55-65, with similar interests, for relationship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B2 RETIRED DUBLIN LEGAL SECRETARY, 72, 3rd level education, art qualification, many interests, WLTM educated gentleman for outings, companionship and friendship REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B3 SLIGO SINGLE WOMAN dancing enthusiast, mid 60s, WLTM male dancing partner to attend sequence, ceili, old-time, social dancing classes and events in the North West and surrounding areas. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B4 DUBLIN GENT, NS, ND, 60s, educated and refined, seeks sincere lady for friendship.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B5 PETITE, SINGLE DUBLIN LADY, retired professional, late 60s, WLTM kind, sincere, respectable gent, NS, ND, for friendship, companionship. Interests include dancing, walking and cinema.REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B6 SPANISH LADY, DUBLIN BASED, warm, kind and caring WLTM a respectable, educated gentleman, late 50s, early 60s for friendship and companionship. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B7 DUBLIN/LEINSTER MAN, 58, good communicator, caring, reasonably good appearance, likes music, reading, good conversation, travel, eating out, WLTM lady with similar interests for friendship/romance.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B9

LATE 60s CO GALWAY WIDOW. Interests include walking, cycling, country driving, gardening and travel. WLTM a late 60s widow.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER W7

CORK WOMAN, 52, DIVORCED, would like to correspond with fun loving people who have a varied interest in life. Interested in travelling, holidays, walking, nature, dancing, music, cinema. Great listener. Would like to hear from people from all over the country.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B10

WEST OF IRELAND PROFESSIONAL LADY, semi-retired, single, NS, SD. Enjoys walking, travel, cinema, theatre, golf, weekends away, dining out, WLTM refined gentleman for friendship and companionship from any part of the country. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER W8

CLASSY LADY, DUBLIN-BASED, EARLY 60s recently returned to Ireland after living abroad for many years. Engaging, fit, attractive with outgoing personality seeks shy, sophisticated gentleman who is active, fit and has sound family values. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER B11

SINGLE LADY 58 from East Europe, attractive, warm personality, many interests. WLTM honest caring gentleman 58-68 for genuine lasting relationship.REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X13

RESPECTABLE SOUTH DUBLIN GENTLEMAN, 70, generous and interesting, WLTM lady for shared mutual enjoyment. Discretion assured and expected. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER W9

69 YEAR OLD IRISHMAN just back from working abroad, seeks female partner 63 to 73 for company, perhaps romance. Loves theatre, cinema, walking and talking. Friendly and easy-going.REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X14

SOUTH CITY DUBLIN MAN, LATE 50s, MANY INTERESTS, including travel, cinema, reading, cycling, dining out WLTM lady with similar interests for friendship and perhaps more.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER W10

INTERESTED? If you are interested in meeting someone of the opposite or same sex, send your advertisement (with three stamps) to: Meeting Place, Senior Times, Unit 1, 15 Oxford Lane, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

Or email: john@slp.ie

HI I’M A 52 year old woman who would like to meet men in the Dublin area aged 50-55 for friendship, my interests are reading, music and dining out.REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X15 GALWAY MAN LATE FIFTIES Interests include walking, reading, farming, travelling and gardening. WLTM woman of similar age and interests.REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X16

NORTHSIDE DUBLIN LADY, EARLY 60s, NO TIES, has GSOH, WLTM single, refined, caring gentleman. NS, SD, loves country life, nature, and the simple pleasures of life. Interests include hill-walking, classical music, art and reading. I have some hearing difficulties.

Perhaps if you are reading this and you are also in a similar situation you might like to get in touch. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER W11

DUBLIN SOUTHSIDE FEMALE aged 52 WLTM males or females for friendship, companionship or socialising. My hobbies are walking, gardening, swimming, travelling and dancing.

REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X17

SOUTH DUBLIN WOMAN WLTM professional gentleman, 70 plus, widower, separated, divorced, single. Like all the finer things in life as well as antiques, fishing, beach combing, weekends away etc. TV addicts and smokers

DUBLIN WIDOW, recently retired, professional, varied interests, films, music, outdoor life and travel. WLTM sincere gent and hopefully end up as Soul mates! REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X11 WILD ATLANTIC WAY MAN seeks lady for weekends away, theatre, cinema, country walks, eating out and frequent travel to the West from anywhere in Ireland. Refined, educated and house trained 64 year old. Tall, grey and handsome with GSOH. ALA. REPLY TO BOX NUMBER X12

84 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

IMPORTANT Ensure you give your approximate age and the area you live. Also ensure you include your postal address for those not on the Net. Deadline for receipt of advertisements for the next issue is 20th June 2015 PLEASE NOTE Each reply to an advertisement must also be accompanied by a plain, stamped envelope so that we can insert your reply and forward to the advertiser. Ensure that the individual box numbers are discreetly marked in pencil on the envelope. Correspondents submitting advertisements, or replying to advertisements by email MUST also include their postal address for those not on the Net.

COMPETITION WINNERS FROM LAST ISSUE SUDOKU Margaret Nolan, Newbridge Luzma Braun, Sixmilebridge, Co Clare Lillian Webb, Naas, Co Kildare TICKETS FOR MADAM BUTTERFLEY AND LA TRAVIATA Norma Kingston, Dublin 24 Marian Bennett, Athlone STAY AT THE CLARION HOTEL, CORK Mary Marshall, Waterford CROSSWORD Timothy O’Leary, Cork

WIN AN AUTUMN MIDWEEK STAY AT ONE OF IRELAND’S FAVOURITE HOTELS Hotel Reviews Ireland in association with Senior Times is delighted to offer two lucky readers the opportunity to win a two night midweek break at the popular Kelly’s Resort Hotel & Spa in County Wexford.

16:55 Page 26

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BOWWOUT End of life service at home for pets Bowwout – gently guiding your pet through the final curtain after a long and faithful life We offer a kind, competent pet euthanasia service at your home. An experienced veterinary surgeon will show your pet compassion and dignity as you say goodbye in your own familiar surroundings.

Whatever the reason for this difficult decision, you are assured of the sympathetic and caring treatment of your pet until he or she is at peace.

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Kelly’s Resort Hotel & Spa has been a constant favourite with guests of all ages throughout Ireland and abroad since 1895. Family run with a reputation for excellent food and wine, unrivalled entertainment and activities and now a world-class spa, this is the hotel that guests return to time after time. The location on the shores of the Atlantic offers a wonderful backdrop to the tennis, snooker, bowls, croquet and a choice of local championship golf courses.

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Find out more about Kelly’s on www.hotelreviewsireland.com Deadline for receipt of entries is June 23rd 2015

Tel: 087 6784401 Email: vetliz29@gmail.com

Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie 85

Crossword Crossword Number 70 by Zoë Devlin

ACROSS 1

3 7 11 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 29 30 31 33 34 36 38 40 45 46

48 50 51 53 54 55 56 58 60 62 63 66 68 69 70 71 73 75 77 79 82

83 85 87 88 89 91 92 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104

Once known as Queenstown, 32 Down called here in 1912 (4) Abrasion or wound (6) Booming noise which goes with lightning (7) Sweet talk from 8km NW of Cork? (7) Spoon-shaped vessel with long handle (5) Former capital of Brazil (3) Laud - praise - glorify (5) And 41 Down. Irish athlete born in 1 Across. (5,1’8) Muscular organ - symbol of love (5) Mystery or difficult problem to solve (6) Large artillery gun on wheels (6) One of 2 offspring born at same time (4) Remember or recollect (6) Overwhelming feeling of wonder (3) Town in Co Cork, at estuary of 43 Down (7) What one does in 81 Down (3) Poetic pasture (3) Wipe out or delete (5) Unmarried woman who rips nets? (8) Competition such as the Fastnet (5,4) Is Leo a young member of big cat family? (4,3) HQ of An Post (1.1.1) & 49 Down. Mitchelstown-born writer of ‘Love and Summer’ (7,6) Is Pat stern about these shapes? (8) In ancient Rome this was eleven (2) Is a spur worn in this former European kingdom? (7) Stick of black carbon used for drawing (8) Relish, gusto, enjoyment (4) Coldness .. iciness .. tingle (5) Winston Graham’s Cornish hero, Ross ___ (7) A celestial body obscuring another (7) Shrine and airport in Co Mayo (5) Highest peak or point (4) Do the ovens ail in this EU republic? (8) Madcap, daredevil or reckless person (7) City of the Angels (1.1.)

Make known - proclaim - declare (8) Go back on a promise (7) Uniform resource locator - web page address (3) There are 3 crowns on this province’s flag (7) Object that can be used to hold things (9) Can an irate Mum be this childish? (8) Is Da apt to adjust or conform? (5) Clairvoyance - second sight - phychic phenomena (1.1.1.)

Greek goddess of dawn (3) Lurch or walk with an uneven gait (7) Sound made by a pigeon (3) English landscape painter J.M.W.___ (6) Young male horse or revolver? (4) Detailed inspection - it’s very us! (6) Programme with episodes shown regularly (6) Text appearing in a book or newspaper (5) Excuse or defence of being elsewhere (5) Recently married woman (5) Pig-pen (3) Precise (5) Come before or predate (7) Book of the New Testament in form of letter (7) Passageway under or through something (6) Ford Madox ___, John ___ or Henry ___? (4)

86 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

DOWN 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 25 26 27 28 32 35 37 39 41 42 43 44 47 49 52 56 57 59 61 62 64 65 67 72 74 76 78 79 80 81 84 86 87 90 93 94 95 96

Passage with access at only one end (3-2-3) Time to hit the hay! (7) Type of stopper or 73 Across city? (4) Use of scented plant extracts in therapeutic massage (12) Forever - everlastingly (9) Queen of fairies in medieval folklore (7) Not burning or illuminated (5) Unalike or different (10) Harangue .. mouth off .. give out (4) Cry of an ass (4) Person trained to compete in sports (7) Great waterfalls on border of Canada & USA (7) Up to the present time (3) In East Cork, it’s on the 43 Down river (6) River which rises above Gougane Barra (3) It’s a mad costume - not off the peg! (6-4) Indecipherable (9) Ride at a good speed (6) Passenger liner which hit iceberg in 1912 (7) Move fast on the feet (3) Bohemian dance in fast time (5) Top line of a wave or hill (5) See 19 Across ___ del Sol, ___ Rica or ___ Blanca (5) Would a crew balk at this Munster river? (10) Rugby stadium in Richmond upon Thames (10) Only partly in existence, imperfectly formed (9) See 46 Across ___ Dunne, ___ Battersby or O’Casey’s wife (6) Can a Magpie girl make this journey? (10) Brimless caps which fit the crown of the head (5-4) Language of ancient Rome (5) Gourmet town in Co Cork (7) Fruit of the oak tree (5) Who can reign over this African republic? (5) Shop selling ready-to-eat food products (12) Island connected by cable-car (6) In the Christian era .. after Christ’s birth (4,6) Take in liquid food (3) Cause to become alive again (9) Contaminated or impure (8) Pertinent or apposite (3) Commercial enterprise with flights for passengers (7) Building where plays are performed (7) Large chapel in the Vatican (7) Spliff, joint or short coat (6) The Windy City in Illinois (7) Can a Blue Tit be happy here in the Himalayas? (5) Undulation or ridge moving across water (4) Being prompted by wisdom (4) Rubber hoop that covers a wheel (4) Young canine (3)

Four copies of John Levine’s best-selling, stress-relieving and sleep-inducing CD to be won In association with Australian composer John Levine, Senior Times is offering four copies of his music CD Silence of Peace as the prizes in this issue’s crossword competition. Listener benefits include feelings of calm, clearer thinking, relief from anxiety and stress, and relief from insomnia.

Send your completed crossword to: Crossword Competition, Senior Times, Unit 1, 15 Oxford Lane, Ranelagh, Dublin 6. Deadline for receipt of entries is 22nd June 2015.

Name:

................................................................................................................................................

Address:

............................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................................

Phone:

.................................................

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

Crafts Red sails in the sunset Connie Mc Evoy shows you how to make a ‘tweed picture’

Requirements Cardboard (cereal pack weight) 20x14cms Poster paints- in the following colours white, blue, black, red and green plus a medium sized paintbrush and a saucer and tracing paper.

Remnants of tweed medium to light weight if possible for smaller pictures as the heavier weights make it more difficult to get perspective right Greaseproof paper, black pencil, pins, scissors, cocktail sticks, masking tape and a nail file Copydex, kitchen paper plus mount board and frame, this picture was mounted and framed professionally.

Apart from an oval shape lightly pencilled on the cardboard background before paint was applied no other patterns or outlines were used as the design is so simple and tends to build up naturally.

Step1: pin the greaseproof paper on the design and draw carefully including the oval shape using the black pencil. Remove pins and fix the tracing paper and greaseproof paper onto the cardboard using the masking tape in order to transfer the design.

Trace the design and remove masking tape and tracing paper.

Step 2: put about a teaspoon of white and a third of blue poster paint on the saucer and mix with a little water, add a little black and mix again in order to achieve a bluish grey look which is ideal as a base for both sky and water.

Paint the entire oval area and a little beyond in this mixture omitting the outlines, allow to dry.

Mix white and a little red for some areas of the evening sky and add a tiny bit of black in order to get the grey areas, some blue was added to the remaining mix for the darker areas of the water which was finished off with a green and white mix.

Always remember to cut all tweed on the straight and to position the finest possible in distant areas, as the heavier weights would be more suitable for middle distance and foreground areas.

Step 3: cut a piece of tweed measuring 17x2cms for the mountain, using sharp scissors cut into this piece along the length in rounded, pointed and slanted movements in order to form peaks. If preferred use the pattern on the greaseproof paper.

Apply a light line of copydex along the picture horizon with the nail file and fix the mountain in place. Cut the boat shape from black/grey and the sail from some red tweed, the mast is a single thread pulled from black tweed.

Step 4: the remainder of the picture is built up by pulled threads from various weights and colours of tweed. Brown threads mostly knotted on the length were used to form the bulrushes, light green threads were teased at one end in an effort to make grass seed heads and the grassy clumps in the foreground were cut in jagged fashion and frayed to the last 3 threads before being fixed to the cardboard.

Of course the threads that were removed in the fraying process were combined with

88 Senior Times l May-June 2015 l www.seniortimes.ie

other colours and lengths and fixed elsewhere around the lake. To make the flowers- cut 7 small pieces of yellow thread, fix 4 on top of some grasses in spoke like formation and the other3 on top ditto then push the tip of the nail file with a small amount of copydex into the centre until the pressure causes the thread ends to close in somewhat.

Apart from the bulrushes it will not be necessary to stick entire lengths of thread to the cardboard, the grasses etc need only be stuck at the base plus a little way further up and will look more natural when lying in relief.

Fabric collage is a craft that has always attracted my full attention and admiration, especially projects that were worked entirely in various weights of tweed. It is one of the most versatile materials to work with as it can be cut in solid pieces/shapes suitable for grassy areas, paths and mountains etc, or threads can be pulled easily from a piece in order to form curved outlines or laid side by side for thatched areas.

A single thread can be knotted on the length and formed into clumps or other shapes suitable for leaves, flowers or turf that in fact will give a natural 3 dimensional effect as work is in progress if lighter weights are used in the distance and heavier weights in the fore-ground. Single lengths twisted together would form tree trunks for larger projects.

As long as there isn’t too much detail involved the perspective should be right so be creative and enjoy working a masterpiece of your own.

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