Connacht Tribune
Mount Carmel in Loughrea set to get new lease of life
Mount Carmel in Loughrea is set to get a new lease of life after being purchased by a local businessman for his global headquarters.
Social entrepreneur Mike Feerick – who employs around 200 staff across 35 countries through his Alison.com free online learning platform – bought the former Carmelite monastery at the end of last year.
He said the monastery “will be reborn to a new life as an international education and training institute” for his business and will serve as headquarters for his companies.
While the businessman finalises the design for the new HQ, Mount Carmel will be accepting Ukrainian refugee families – around 80 people in total – in the short-term.
He told the Connacht Tribune: “It is a big project taking on the monastery property, but we’ll digest its potential step by step. All in all, the plan is to develop Mount Carmel is a very community friendly way.
“In the near term, we have agreed to accept Ukrainian Refugee families as part of Ireland’s response to the international emergency. It is an ideal place for women and children to be located, if even short term, and we are very conscious of that.
“Alison is a technically focused business. Behind the website that provides 5,000 free courses and psychometric assessments to 25 million people worldwide, there is a lot of number crunching through code and analytics – and that work is very much computer based done by individuals working on their own remotely across many different countries.
“Now and then however, it is important for our team to meet physically, and that is the vision behind the new Loughrea HQ which has over 20 bedrooms – that our staff can come, even with family, and stay at Mount Carmel, and meet other team members from across the world, in training workshops and various management meetings. Having a location that is quiet, with pleasant gardens to enjoy, yet near the centre of a town like Loughrea makes it’s a very compelling place to visit.
“While the business may be a virtual operation, there is still a need to meet up face to face, to work, learn, and socialise together from time to time, and it was that need that first led to the interest in acquiring the Mount Carmel property. There is a need for hosting our people coming to Ireland. It saves on having them in local hotels,” said Mr Feerick.
He said that at the moment, Alison is entirely virtual and remote-working based – even for its team who had been based in Parkmore in Galway for the past twelve years.
It is hoped that parts of Mount Carmel will remain “community-focused” and open to the public, such as the chapel and gardens.
“An education company taking over the property is a nice coincidence. In the mid nineteenth Century, Loughrea was in dire need for a girl’s primary school, and the Carmelite Sisters broke their custom of being a contemplative order to provide Loughrea with the needed school until the arrival of the Mercy Sisters. Many years later, empowering people through education will once again be the focus at Mount Carmel,” said Mr Feerick.
Mount Carmel was vacated by the Carmelite Sisters in December 2020 and was purchased at the end of last year for a figure believed to be in the region of €450,000.
Meanwhile, Mr Feerick, who is also the Founder and Chairman of Ireland Reaching Out – a national volunteer-based charity which helps the Irish Diaspora connect to their place of origin in Ireland for free – is keen to contact anyone with information on the history of the monastery and those who lived there.
“It is a history we should understand and celebrate. We have ideas of who funded the main convent building in 1828, on land leased from the local landlord Clanrickarde, but we would love to learn more. It is very important that the legacy of Carmelite Sisters and their contribution to Loughrea is remembered, and we will make sure that happens over time,” he said.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
