Hell to Paradise – story of triumph over tragedy

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Suzanne Strempek Shea started writing fiction while working as a journalist in Springfield, Massachusetts. Since her first novel, Selling the Lite of Heaven was published in 1995, she has gone on to write four more, with her fifth due out later this year.

The US born author is in Galway this week, reading from her latest book, a true story which proves that fact is stranger than fiction. And in this case, sadder, although This is Paradise is also an amazing account of how one woman overcame enormous tragedy and transformed it into a positive force for other people.

This is Paradise is about Cork-born Mags Riordan whose 26-year-old son Billy drowned in Malawi in 1999. The country in the south-east of Africa, is one of the most beautiful, but poorest in the world. After he drowned there – the third of her five children to die in tragic circumstances – Mags travelled to Africa to erect a stone in his memory in Cape Maclear, the village where he died.

It was beautiful, but when she saw the poverty in which people were living, Mags decided that a memorial stone was not enough. So, with great determination, and in the face of many obstacles, she set up the Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic in Cape Maclear.

Since then, it has served over 275,000 people and saved countless lives. With a staff of 34 it is also the second biggest employer in the village, a place where unemployment is at 90 per cent, .

Suzanne first got to know Mags in 2004 when the career guidance teacher, who lived in Kerry, took part in the Eastern State Exposition, a major fair held annually in Massachusetts, where Suzanne lives. Mags was selling crafts from Malawi to raise funds for the fledgling clinic, while Suzanne was working at another stand, helping a friend from Kerry who was selling knitwear.

The stands were beside each other and Suzanne, as a journalist, was keeping a good ear on nearby conversations. She noticed people going to Mags’ stand, asking about the crafts.  Mags would tell them about Billy’s death and the clinic she had established in his memory. Some people listened and bought, others found it harder to cope with the story.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.