Let Wexford top that!
Fleadh volunteer coordinator Colin Waters looks back on a week that will live long in his memory
There were hundreds of things that made fleadh volunteer coordinator Colin Waters proud of all the people he worked with in that capacity during Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, and he picked out a couple to highlight when he spoke at the night out for them in the Greville Arms.
One was the story of the woman who dropped her phone in the canal. “We had it out of the canal in just under an hour, which I thought was a remarkable feat of volunteering.
“One of the lads who was a street ambassador team leader, PJ Fitzpatrick, is in the sub-aqua club and he rang one of his friends, and we had Mullingar Sub-Aqua Club Search and Recovery up on the two banks of the canal and he [the diver was David Kelly] was quickly in the scuba gear, took the phone out of the water and handed it to the lady.
“Let Wexford try to top that!” Colin told the gathering of the volunteers on Monday week last, who were on a night out and taking an opportunity to relax after more than a week of long hours.
His point was to illustrate how committed the Mullingar fleadh volunteers were, and what a fine job the town did in hosting the event.
He explained to the Westmeath Examiner that the woman who lost her phone had hired a couple of boats from Lakeland Kayaks and go exploring for the afternoon, and as soon as she sat down on the boat in the water, the phone slipped out of her pocket. She was delighted to get it back.
Colin related other amusing anecdotes to the volunteers on Monday evening: “On the Saturday night, I got a phone call from Karen Stenson, who was venue manager at the arts centre, and she was walking to the arts centre after having a break, and there were two elderly gentlemen from Tyrone who couldn’t find their car.
“They knew they had parked it near a vet’s, but when they walked up to Auburn vets (Auburn Veterinary Hospital) there on Sundays Well Road, they realised the car wasn’t there.
“One of them wasn’t looking too well, and Karen rang me, worried, so we got on to event control, to the gardaí, and because there were 200,000 people in the town, there was nothing we could do at that time.
“The two men walked back to the arts centre, where Karen looked after them, and I did a loop of the town to get them, and ended up driving them to Fagan vets on Patrick Street (Mullingar Pet Hospital), and we found the car.
“And I’ve never met two more appreciative gentlemen in my life.
“Considering they couldn’t find their car, I was worried they might not find Tyrone, but they insisted they were grand.”