A GOLDEN haze following Katie Taylor’s Olympian win had settled on Bobby Byrnes’ pub garden for its reception to announce the 60th Press Ball. Mid-West media, the organising committee led by chairman Ron Kirwan and charities who will benefit from the September event had gathered to hear the news of 2012’s big night out. Representatives of Limerick Marine Search and Rescue (LMSR) and St Vincent de Paul (SVP) attended to hear Minister for Housing Jan O’Sullivan declare that “this really positive occasion, the 60th anniversary of the Press Ball, could not find two better charities to benefit…
Everyone should scrape the two bob together and come and support these charities”.
Friday September 28 is the date and Carlton Castletroy Park Hotel is the venue for the €80/ €100 ticket.
The quietly relentless work done by SVP and the search and rescue group was underlined to the press corps.
Mr Michael Murphy, 30 years a volunteer with St Vincent de Paul and current regional president, spoke to Limerick Post of “the 180 degree turn” in our society and “the extremely tough times. We now have people coming to our society with a high level of debt, especially utility bills. The cost of electricity has increased by 40 per cent over the last two years and we’ve seen a lot of cumulative bills of €800 to €1000 that people have built up over time in a proportion of the population who were previously able to manage”.
Known for its prison work, educational schemes and hostels for the homeless, Mr Murphy focused on the SVP’s many ways to help a household struggling with poverty.
There is assistance with back to school costs and clothing, working with schools to reach the individual.
“There are fine, decent hampers to the value of €50 to €70 at Christmas for which we have to acknowledge the great work done through the Redemptorists’ 
Fr Gerry Daly Food Appeal, now organised by Fr Adrian Egan”.
“We also help out with toys donated to us, helping some 500 children in Limerick get presents at Christmas 2011 that they would not get otherwise, and give out bags of coal. St Vincent de Paul assists with expenses for Confirmation and Communion and our shop in Thomas Street stocks good quality clothing for all ages. We encourage use by families.
“We have a small scholarship scheme run at second level to help children make the transition from Junior Certificate to the Leaving Certificate and should they go on to third level, we can give help beyond State support of between €200 and €2000. In 2011 we spend €150,000 on education alone. We were lucky to have had a bursary that covered 50 per cent of these costs to date but that has now expired and we do wish to continue, at least at the level were were on”.
The intervention with households in crisis at various ways over the years has paid the SVP and our society real dividends with successful education completed: “At this stage, I have seen the success of people who been through it,” Michael Murphy concludes. “Remember that one person in a job take a family out of poverty”.
The other 2012 Press Ball beneficiary deals with the rescue of people from the Shannon who have attempted to take their lives, and recover the bodies of those who have succeeded. Chairperson of Limerick Marine Search and Rescue Jimmy Connors was joined by coxswain officer Joe Morgan and dive superintendent Tony Cusack to explain the recent upswing in this volunteer organisation’s activity.
“Unfortunately, callouts have increased over my 25 years with LMSR from an average of 35 to 40 a year to some 52 callouts since November 2011. Not a week goes by but we are called out one if not twice to recover someone who has drowned or more often, to rescue someone who has attempted suicide,” says Mr Connors. “Between some very fine support for the individual from the ambulace service, gardai, ourselves and other supports and agencies we are looking at a 90 per cent recovery rate. There is another 10 per cent for whom it is too late”.
His previous 31 years in the Fire Service – “there is nothing that I have not seen” – have helped him continue in this work with a total of 24 volunteers and three trustees, one of whom, cllr. Ger Fahy, was a founding member of LMSR along with Tony Cusack and Jimmy Connors.
“It costs €4,500 to kit out a diver and we have 14 divers and 10 coxswain,” he says of this charity’s costs. “A drysuit costs up to €1400 and our biggest cost by far is fuel. For the past four weeks we have been patrolling the river with two jetskis and a boat, looking for a young Polish man who is reported missing. He was seen by CCTV camera crossing the Condell Bridge and he is not seen to have arrived at the other side”.
Supported by six new trainees, two of which are women, joining diver Valerie Stundon with them for six years, the induction programme takes five months “assuming that they pass all assessments. For this job, you have to be a good swimmer and then there is the boat training programme to complete”.
Consider also the human nature of the work itself and its toll on the human being.
Mr Connors makes the point that “we are very proud of work, very, very proud” and the excellent recovery rate in shoring up lives. Still, every call-out has to bee funded for equipment, training, fuel costs and the maintenance of the Dock Road premises and its valuable contents of boats and motorised equipment.
The Press Ball committee’s Joe Nash of Live 95fm closed the reception’s proceedings with the promise of a excellent night on September 28 for your €80 ticket (media) or €100 (external) with a ‘movie tone’ to videos screened and the presentation of media awards to honour retiring members of the press.
