News
Vincent de Paul in turmoil over LGBT split
The Society of St Vincent De Paul (SVP) has insisted that its decision to disband a committee which awarded €45,000 to a resource centre for the gay community had nothing to do with the vehement opposition of the Bishop of Galway.
In a statement from its public relations firm, the society said that it would not comment on internal matters following reports that it had ‘stood down’ the SVP St Augustine’s Conference which administered the Maureen O’Connell Fund.
The Irish Times claimed the move followed “disagreement over governance arrangements between the SVP at national and local level”.
SVP spokesman Jim Walsh told the Connacht Tribune it had “absolutely and categorically nothing to do with comments the Bishop made 18 months ago”.
The charity would make good on its promise to allocate the funding to the support group Amach to open a new resource centre for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Galway, which had been approved by the organisation’s National Management Council (NMC).
“SVP believes that it is an excellent concept in supporting vulnerable people. It is committed to supporting the resource centre, but as trustees the NMC require reasonable governance arrangements to be in place for the operation and management of the centre in order to satisfy the society’s obligations in the stewardship of resources,” he stated.
“Discussions have taken place with members of the board of Amach to arrive at an appropriate solution to the governance requirement for the grant to the resource centre and this dialogue is not yet complete.”
He also insisted that the fund was “winding down” as over 90% of its funds had been spent or approved for 60 beneficial projects, including funding for several resource centres and day care centres in Galway city and county as well as social housing and for a range of education projects for children.
No grants from the fund came from any public donations to SVP, the spokesman stressed.
“A final audit has yet to be made. But from the residual benefit of the legacy received by SVP (€7.8m) and interest accruing since 2007, there is approximately €350,000 which has not been allocated or approved,” said Mr Walsh. That will now be managed by the NMC.
Nuala Ward, vice-president of Amach, said the Teach Solais LGBT Resource Centre would be open by Christmas with the final preparation work now underway.
Galway City Council recently granted planning permission to Amach to change ground floor retail space at Victoria Place off Eyre Square into a drop-in centre and resource space.
The project overcame another significant hurdle when the local authority also approved €25,000 towards the cost of renting the building after an initial disagreement that it should go to the cost of buying a property.
“Amach are also in the final stages of drawing down the first installment of the grant from the Maureen O’Connell fund towards Teach Solais. We have received confirmation that the St Augustine Conference group has been suspended. However, the funds will be released by the SVP National Management Council,” she explained.
Once the SVP funding is received, interviews for a part-time community development support worker will be held.
The Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan last year slammed the charity’s large allocation towards a gay resource centre, which he said promotes a culture that was “morally wrong”.
In an outburst which prompted widespread criticism, Dr Drennan said the “moral judgment” involved in making the decision had damaged the reputation of the charity, with their supporters questioning whether they should they support SVP any longer.
In letters sent to the SVP demanding an explanation, the Bishop hinted that allocation could jeopardise the relationship between the Church and the charity.
According to the planning file, the centre will be “a safe, accessible environment to combat the effects of isolation, homophobia and transphobia on the overall health and well-being for LGBT and their families”.
The centre will be used in the evenings from 6.30pm to 10pm for meetings, peer support, the operation of a LGBT helpline and education, training and counselling workshops.
An area to the front of the premises will provide space for the sale of merchandise such as t-shirts, cards, keyrings.
Publican Maureen O’Connell, who was unmarried and without children, left her landmark pub in Eyre Square to the charity when she died in 1998, specifying that it should only go towards projects in Galway.
Legal wrangling over the will meant that it did not go on sale until the height of the Celtic Tiger when it was sold in 2006 for €14m. The cost of a settlement with a tenant in the pub and legal bills as well as capital gains tax swallowed up over €6m of the sale price.
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.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
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.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
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
