News review of 2022 - June

Mullingar comedian and impressionist Conor Moore recounted how he and his uncles Martin and John Moore, and cousins Gareth, Seanie and Gary Moore were caught up in a terrifying incident outside the Stade de France on Paris that had made international headlines. The group were queuing to get in to see Liverpool and Real Madrid meet in the UEFA Champions League final when security staff started pepper spraying fans. UEFA was slated for the poor organisation and for the way fans were treated.

Kilbeggan man Mark Rowan declared his intention to crawl up Carrauntoohil – Ireland’s highest mountain – on his hands and knees to raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House and for Accessible Counselling in Tullamore. He had, he explained, decided to crawl as it was symbolic of the fact that anyone could scale any mountain once they had help, and that they could do it by crawling if need be.

Residents of The Downs had the honour of welcoming Education Minister Norma Foley to the area. The minister was invited, along with Bishop Tom Deenihan, to perform the official opening of an extension built at the local national school.

St Finian’s College proved again it was a force to be reckoned with when it came to teaching German, as a team from the school won the All-Ireland Schools German debating competition. The school had also won the award in 2016 and 2018. The team members were Johanna Naughton, Maya Kamboj, Rachel Holmes and Enda Keating, and their teachers were Esther Beggan and Kathy Jameson.

As the start of Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann approached, there were plenty of articles telling how the preparations were going and what was planned – but dramatic news for motorists was contained in the lead story of our June 11 edition: it revealed that the town centre was to be closed to traffic for the 10 days of the fleadh.

In Ballinafid, excitement was building as work proceeded on the refurbishment of the landmark local pub, The Covert, which had been closed for eight years. New owner, Catherine Beirne, and manager, Derek Leonard, were looking forward to opening the doors to customers.

Gardaí revealed that there were between 200 and 300 drug detections made at the Life festival, held at Belvedere House and Gardens. While the total number of detections was down significantly from previous Life festivals, the capacity at the 2022 event was set at 5,000 – just a third of what it had been the last time the festival was run, in 2019.

A claim that the public were growing impatient with Westmeath County Council over its failure to enforce planning conditions was made by Cllr Vinny McCormack. Councillors learned that the issue is down to staff shortages.

Five men convicted in April of the “gang rape” of a teenage girl in Kilbeggan in December 2016 were jailed for a total of 66 years, with Judge Tara Burns at the Central Criminal Court condemned the “depravity” of the men’s actions.

In June, the Bishop of Meath, Most Rev Thomas Deenihan, revealed that the diocese was in the process of selling land surrounding the bishop’s office on the Dublin Road in Mullingar to fund its activities due to a decrease in contributions. The bishop explained that the reduction in income from contributions that the church suffered over the course of the pandemic was expected to continue.

Westmeath landscape gardener Tom Leavy from Killucan featured on the winning list at the annual Bord Bia Bloom festival. Tom won a silver medal for ‘Beauty and the Beast – The Musical Garden’, which he co-designed with Cornelia Raftery.

Mullingar actress Niamh Algar was selected for another leading role. Niamh was revealed by ITV to be the star in a new TV medical drama, ‘Malpractice’. She was cast as Lucinda Evans, a doctor who is the subject of an enquiry following the death of one of her patients.

Teacher Matt Melvin retired from the role of principal of St Etchen’s NS after 20 years at the helm. The Mayo native said that the biggest change he had perceived in education over the course of his 38-year teaching career was improvements in special education, and the improved resources for and inclusion of people with special needs.

Another teacher who bowed out in June was Ursula Smyth, who was for 11 years the principal of Saplings School, and who oversaw the growth of the school from its early days in a small building at Oaklawns, which had just 12 students, to its transition to its present custom-built location, where it has 36 pupils on the roll books.

Rathowen couple Kenneth and Kathleen Greene, proprietors of the Greene’s Family Kitchen free-range eggs brand, launched a new range of frittatas, while in Mullingar, Eibhlin Fitzpatrick was earning much interest with her The Refill Mill shop, the first minimal waste eco-store in Mullingar and the midlands.

The new mayor selected for Mullingar in June was Green Party councillor, Hazel Smyth, who also hit the headlines after revealing that taxpayers’ money was being used to continue to heat the main building at St Loman’s, despite the fact that it had been unoccupied for a decade.

Garda Rita Gilmartin, who had served in Mullingar Garda Station since 1989 retired, and there was a great turn-out at her retirement party.

The Late Late Show made an allocation of €73,000 to Westmeath charities out of the €6.6m raised in the Christmas 2021 Toy Show appeal.

The Midlands Simon Community and the charity Sophia raised concerns over the increased number of people sleeping rough in Westmeath and across the midlands. Mark Cooney, chairperson of Midlands Simon Community, speaking on RTÉ said: “The perception is that homelessness is something that is confined to the large urban areas: it’s not. It’s in the midlands, in rural areas, smaller towns.” June Carley, Midlands Simon outreach worker, said that she was coming across people sleeping rough in sheds, derelict buildings and under bridges: “It’s not just towns, it’s in villages too,” she said.