Thirty-five years ago a small group of motivated people came together to consider the feasibility of starting a Samaritan Branch in Galway – among them three people who had been volunteers in Dublin and Belfast, the rest without any previous Samaritan experience but some relevant talents – a general practitioner, a businessman, another professional medical person, a psychologist and couple of willing workers without any special gifts.
The small group started meeting regularly in order to get the project off the ground.
We needed to find a suitable building, centrally but discreetly located, within our modest financial means, we needed to organise publicity and prepare a public meeting in order to find out whether enough people would be interested and willing to make this plan a reality.
The interest shown by the citizens of Galway exceeded our wildest expectations. We called a public meeting in the hall of the Mercy Secondary School, Newtownsmith, where the then senior newsreader of RTE, Charles Mitchell, addressed the audience on our behalf. We had assumed that we were well prepared, however so many interested people turned up that they thronged the corridor and spilled over into the yard. We didn’t have half enough application forms and had to write out many more by hand.
We found our first Centre in 2, St Brendan’s Avenue. We held interviews and training classes with the help of Dublin, Limerick and Waterford Samaritans and after a year’s hard work we were able to open our door with the first 64 Galway volunteers on May 10th, 1976.
At the same time, a group of Friends of the Samaritans began working on our behalf by organising flag days and churchgate collections. This work continues to the present day and their faithful support and the generosity of the people of Galway makes it possible for us to serve the community.
We had decided to be available the full 24 hours every day of the year from day one, which meant that we had long duty times until the next contingent of volunteers was ready to join in. This pioneering spirit has kept the dedication of the Galway branch of Samaritans alive for the 35 years of its existence.
Within a short time the volume of demand for our services grew to the point where our modest house in St Brendan’s Avenue could accommodate us no longer. This time the business people of Galway came to the rescue by raising enough money for us to move to our present premises in Nun’s Island, in 1986.
Last year the Galway Branch of Samaritans received 35,500 contacts from people who just needed someone to listen to them – these contacts were by phone, in person, by email or by text.
The organisation continues to develop and respond to the needs of our callers and recently has teamed up with Facebook to create a pioneering new scheme allowing people on Facebook in the Republic of Ireland to get help for a friend they believe is struggling to cope or feeling suicidal.
People concerned about a friend will be able to tell Samaritans via Facebook’s Help Centre (www.face book.com/help ), where they can report specific content such as status updates or wall posts. Facebook will then put Samaritans in touch with the distressed friend to offer their expert support.
This initiative runs in tandem with an awareness campaign through Samaritans’ Facebook Page, giving advice on supporting vulnerable friends such as how to spot the signs of distress and how to start a difficult conversation.
If you need someone to talk to you can contact Samaritans on 1850 60 90 90, email [email protected] or call in to No 14 Nun’s Island.
If you are interested in becoming a Samaritan volunteer – call our recruitment line on 091 561224 or check out www.samaritans.org for more information.
