News review of 2022 - January

The first week of the new year opened with the bleak news that Covid cases were “skyrocketing”.

As a result, it had become difficult to secure appointments for PCR tests at the Mullingar testing centre at St Loman’s – and also at the test centre in Athlone.

The upsurge in cases was being blamed on the arrival of the new Omicron variant, and the report revealed that the most recent figures revealed that Westmeath was close to the top of the list for infection rates, coming in behind just Dublin, Louth and Kildare.

A stunning photograph of a resident of Rathcarn in County Meath by photographer and writer Matt Nolan was chosen for inclusion in the Irish Independent 2022 calendar; while there was international acclaim for award-winning sports photographer James Crombie when CNN listed the Rahugh man’s shot of a murmuration of starlings over Lough Ennell as one of the best shots of the previous year. A month later, Mr Crombie was, for the second year in a row, named as the Press Photographer of the Year.

In a generous gesture, the Rotary Club in Mullingar contributed to a large donation of aid from this country to Lebanon, while locally, Midland Simon was to benefit from the funds collected through an exhibition of Westmeath photos at Esquires Coffee Shop at Harbour Place.

The county was wracked with grief following the New Year’s Eve deaths three young people in a head-on car crash. Saoirse Corrigan from Whitehall, Castlepollard, and her partner Shane Gilchrist, from Cionn Torc, also in Castlepollard, were in one car, while the other victim, Ann Kehoe, from Wexford, was in the other.

Our second edition of the year had an amazing photograph taken 4,500 metres above ground level showing a group of skydivers in formation over the pyramids of Egypt. Among them was Rosemount parachutist Padraig Browne, who described the experience as “amazing”.

There was anger expressed by local ministers Peter Burke and Robert Troy and by TD Sorca Clarke over the omission of the upgrade of the N4 road from Mullingar to Rooskey from the list of projects to be funded by Transport Infrastructure Ireland in 2022.

Musicians Mick Foster, of Foster and Allen, and his wife, Moyra Fraser, released a song honouring the achievements of jockey Rachael Blackmore, and announced that all funds raised would go to the Irish Injured Jockeys Fund.

New garda statistics released showed that the number of burglaries in the Westmeath Garda Division had risen by almost 40 per cent in the previous year. In total, there were 106 burglaries in the Athlone area in the first nine months of the 2021, and 81 in the Mullingar area.

The cost of buying alcohol increased significantly after the introduction in mid-January of minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol. In fact, our report revealed, the cost of a “slab” of beer had more than doubled.

Ken Smollen, an activist distributing food to families in need around Westmeath and Offaly, warned that the introduction of MUP would not stop low-income problem drinkers from buying alcohol but would push their families further into poverty.

Making headlines in legal circles was Beechlawns native Niamh Leinwather, née Scally, who was appointed secretary-general of the Vienna International Arbitration Centre. Niamh, whose job required her to be fluent in German to native level, had already broken new ground by becoming the first ever Irish woman to qualify for the Austrian bar.

Also making headlines abroad was Conor Gilsenan from Dominick Street. While accustomed to appearing on the sports pages thanks to his career as a professional rugby player, in January, he was in the news thanks to his selection as one of the participants in the reality TV show ‘The Apprentice’.

The entire country was left reeling in shock in January after 23-year-old Tullamore teacher Ashling Murphy was murdered after setting out for a run along the Grand Canal towpath in her native town. Mullingar – where Ashling was well-known through her involvement with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann – was one of the towns across Ireland that held an open-air vigil to mark Ashling’s memory.

Mullingar Credit Union had much on the agenda for its January AGM. In light of its expansion to several other locations besides Mullingar, it announced it was changing its name to North Midlands Credit Union. It also announced that it was cutting the traditional death benefit paid out upon the death of a member.

The credit union executive also expressed concern over the fact that it had too many people saving, and too few taking out loans.

There were several Westmeath success stories from the annual BT Young Scientist Competition: 17 prizes in total were awarded to Westmeath entries in what was one of the county’s best ever years in the competition.

Meanwhile, other young people making their mark were the members of a music group called ‘HiT’, based at Wilson’s Hospital School in Multyfarnham, who won their way through to the final of the Cavan Institute ‘Win Big’ competition, while a group of youngsters from College Vale won awards for their performances on Tik Tok as ‘The College Valers’.

International singing star Meat Loaf died in January and we spoke to Tommy Swarbrigg, the Mullingar musician and music promoter who brought Meat Loaf to Ireland in 1990. Tommy and his wife Geraldine remembered clearly “Loaf’s” February 6 1990 concert at Moate Community Centre, and were deeply saddened at the death of the man they saw as a gentle giant.

Coláiste Mhuire student Chris Lynn said that political parties were “missing a trick” by underestimating the level of interest in politics among young people.

It would also have been a mistake to underestimate the level of interest in the great outdoors around Rochfortbridge – but that’s not a mistake friends Mary Fallon and Monica Dolan made! They, in fact went to the trouble of mapping out five looped walking routes on the nearby Rahanine Bog.

A page of happy pictures in our final January edition were of people out without masks enjoying themselves in pre-Covid fashion: all were delighted that the Covid restrictions had been lifted.