Miriam O'Callaghan to launch childrens book
Presenter and broadcaster Miriam O’Callaghan will be in All Saints Church, Mullingar, on Wednesday November 18 to launch a children’s book by the founder of the Irish Hospice Foundation, the late Dr Mary Redmond.
'Marlena The Fairy Princess’ was penned by Mary Redmond, a corporate lawyer, academic, and founder of a number of charities, including the Irish Hospice Foundation.
Mary wrote the novel before her untimely death in April of this year. Beautifully illustrated by Mullingar’s Dolores Keaveney, the book aimed at children aged 7 - 10, has been donated by Mary Redmond’s family to the North Westmeath Hospice, with all proceeds going to the service.
The event will not only commemorate the author and the fact that she founded the Hospice Foundation, it will also highlight the immense work of the North Westmeath Hospice.
Fairy tale illustrations
“I met Mary Redmond this time two years ago,” says Dolores Keaveney, “I was at the RDS. I had a stand there selling my books.She proceeded to tell me she had written a children’s novel. She said she liked my art and asked me to illustrate her book for her. So I said yes.
“We met plenty of times to discuss the illustrations and we seemed to just click. We got it printed and I’ll never forget the day we delivered them to her. She had great plans for the book. But after Christmas I met her and I thought she didn’t look very well. And then I learned she died on April 4.”
Honouring Mary's work
Mary’s family, the Ussher clan, wished to see the book in the public domain and asked Dolores for her help. It was decided that a fitting tribute would be to launch it in aid of the North Westmeath Hospice.
“It was an absolute boon to the North Westmeath Hospice,” says Veronica Larkin, chairperson. "We spoke to the Rev Alastair Graham who also knew Mary Redmond personally and he was more than happy to have the launch in All Saints Church. I was inspired one evening to email Miriam O’Callaghan and she said she’d be delighted to launch the book for us. So all the pieces have come together.”
North Westmeath Hospice
“The hospice committee here was founded in 1994. We now have a wonderful service in this area, 9-5pm Monday to Friday, 52 weeks of the year.The plan is to improve that service locally and take it to a 24-hour, seven day a week service. We as fundraisers feel inspired by Mary Redmond to keep the good work going. While it should be the responsibility of the HSE to do that, the Hospice is a known, active charity in the country and well respected by all communities.
“And while we don’t have an actual hospice building in this area, we do have four hospice beds, two in the Camillians (Killucan) and two in the Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar. It is our aim to get this wonderful 24/7 service and augment the great homecare team we have. In the medium to longterm we could look with a vision towards a midlands hospice unit for level 3 patients.”
The North Westmeath Hospice has a 22-person committee in Mullingar who all volunteer and dedicate their time to the service.“We’d really like to thank the local community,” continues Veronica. “Our faces are out everywhere looking to raise the money,” she says.
“All the money goes directly to patient care and I keep saying that in 2014, 280 people were cared for in their home by the hospice homecare team. That’s going up every single year and as the number of patients go up, we need the number of staff to go up and the size of the delivery service to go up.”