I just got a letter this week from an old colleague from Carlow who has moved to Peru to work in a home for sick children. John Whelan has spent many years there and has made his life in Peru with his Peruvian partner Karina.
They work together in a home with children who are ill - some terminally and some chronically. This week he sent a letter to his friends outlining how things were going. It will be printed in next week’s issue of the paper so take the time to read a sad but heartening story and see some of John’s photographs of his young ‘family’ in Peru. There are also bank details for anyone who wishes to help out this very worthy cause.
We have been concentrating on childrens’ health a lot lately and there is no excuse for negligence. The Third World countries like Peru are dependent on charity and the good will of those who ‘have’. However, you would think that in this country we might be a little more advanced in our health system and that children could get the medical treatment they require. This is clearly not the case and Jamie Murphy of Graiguenamanagh has once again left the country for London to have a life-saving operation for scoliosis at Great Ormonde Street Hospital this weekend because our health service couldn’t facilitate her - a shocking indictment of our health department. And not only that but her treatment is being paid for by a benefactor. Spot the similarities between here and Peru? The difference is - we are not a Third World country and this simply should not be happening here.
You would think that young, old, sick, and disabled people would be the last people to be affected by cutbacks. Seemingly not in Ireland! They are first to feel the pinch and unfortunately for many of them this is not easy to deal with when you are not starting off fit and healthy and able.
Kilkenny is going to feel the effects of national cutbacks this year, with the budget having been cut by more than 30 per cent this week. All aspects of life in Kilkenny will be affected including library services, roads, water, lighting, housing, and more. And this year’s cutbacks are only the beginning of things to come we are told. Some €2 million has been taken out of the Kilkenny economy so it is fair to expect that if the pothole outside your door has not been filled before now - it’s not going to happen in the foreseeable future. The new members who have been fighting like pre-schoolers over seating arrangements will have a lot more serious business on their hands once they settle into their chairs and tend to the important issues that are going to affect everyone of us in the county over the coming years. It’s important that they take their roles seriously now more than ever with an economic crisis on their hands. Seating arrangements will be the least of their worries when they are deciding whether or not they can afford seats for local amenities in the future.
On a different angle regarding the care of children it was heartening - if not a little late - to hear an apology from Sister Stanislaus Kennedy for her order’s part in the systematic abuse of children in orphanages in Kilkenny during the 1970s. In the past she had neglected to remember reports of abuse that were made to her and had said that children often ‘made things up to gain attention’. She now seems to have come to terms with the fact that the abuse was very real for the children involved since those remarks and has apologised. About time too. Pity she didn’t take it seriously when initially reported - it could have saved a lot of heartache and pain.
