Brand New Day

Finding the company of hope and love we need in the face of death. What's the Story? in Waterford #4 The opening of the South East Palliative Care Centre in 2021 to receive patients was a cause for celebration.  It followed the raising of €6 million by Waterford Hospice Movement after over thirty years of fundraising.  This was a real team effort.  Chairperson of WHM, Danette Conolly, highlighted the enduring hard work of volunteers, board members and the community, to see this significant day.  This grit and generosity shows the best of our humanity in providing dignified care for our most difficult of days.   Waterford Hospice Movement have been providing a hospice homecare palliative care service to the people of Waterford and South Kilkenny since 1988. This care aims to improve quality of life for those who are living in the shadow of death.  It is life affirming, whilst acknowledging death as a normal process and part of our humanity.  There ...

Will our passion for sport in Waterford deliver on our hopes and dreams?  What's the Story? in Waterford #3  So, he’s back, Davy Fitz is back in charge of the Waterford Hurling team.  Only time will tell what this sequel will be titled, but it won’t lack passion and drama, of that we can be sure.  Since his last stint as Bainisteor the expectations, performance and success of the team has steadily risen.  Now the hope will surely be that he brings the same speedy improvement he did in Clare and Wexford, as well as in the Deise the last time.  Is it time to set aside the quiet, slow simmering hopes of improvement for the high hopes of bringing home Liam for the first time since 1948?  Say what you like about Davy Fitzgerald, but he’s not lacking in passion or effort.  This is surely something that makes him a good fit with the Deise.  This is a county passionate about sport.  We’re only too delighted to celebrate a new hero, like Seamus P...

Is religion helpful or harmful in dealing with our guilt and shame?  What's the Story? in Waterford #2  The skyline of Waterford city is marked by spires and steeples stretching upwards.  It is a place full of churches and full of religious history, once known as, ‘Parva Roma’ or ‘Little Rome’ in the 1650s.  Today, whilst the buildings remain, the church for many has been humbled and emptied of significance.   In recent years wave after wave of reports and enquiries have uncovered the guilt and shame of the church.  It has lost its lofty esteem in the eyes of many, who in turn have ended up losing their religion.  No wonder, then, that the practice of confession has been lost.   What was once a regular practice is now limited to very few occasions, including making your first holy communion.    How could a church covered with such guilt and shame be trusted with your deepest and darkest secrets and regrets?   There is...

Journeying through the beauty to what lies beyond. What's the Story? in Waterford #1 Photo by Anthony Curran  The Waterford Greenway cuts a fresh path, bringing a width of wonders into the open.  A new way of enjoying the beauty around us, built on an old railway line.  The journey begins in the city beside the River Suir and then winds slowly past the fragrance of flowers in Mount Congreve.  The quietness of green fields are watched over by the unfolding Comeragh Mountains, before the salty seaside air and the beauty of Dungarvan Bay greet us at the close.  It’s a feast for the senses.  Little wonder that it has been recognised as Ireland’s best visitor attraction .  A journey, made on foot or by bike, that is slow enough to open our senses and soak in the wonder of the world around us.  It soothes our soul.   If we venture off track a little and explore the mountains we can enjoy the sounds of water flowing over rocks at Mahon Falls....

If you didn’t laugh you’d cry.   It was January 2021 and it was meant to be an overnight stay in hospital, followed by a straightforward test that would be the gateway to getting on with my life.   It turned out somewhat differently.   I’d been prolonged over the weekend, as my test was delayed and then an abnormality was discovered- which had been hidden before now.  The cause of my bleed had been detected and a few days later I was preparing for surgery.   All of this was in the midst of Ireland’s third wave of Covid when we were topping the world’s charts for all the wrong reasons.  The meaningful Christmas we had been promised- and some had enjoyed- and the UK variant had got together to ruin our party.  Covid cases were on our ward and on the minds of the staff- many of whom had suffered and were returning to work themselves.   It was no laughing matter, yet comedy prevailed .  The good humour of staff and patients together in the ...

Winter came unannounced, in a summer ambulance interupting life’s free flowing dance The joy of our time of holidays in Summer 2020- reconnecting with friends and family- after a difficult time apart was cruelly and unexpectedly interupted by the bleed on my brain.  It felt like winter had arrived- harsh, cold and unwelcome.  I was sat down from life’s free flowing dance and questioning-  “What’s going on here?” The winter of the first Covid lockdown in Ireland arrived in Spring 2020.  It was, in one sense, actually an unseasonably sustained period of dry days and warm sunshine- which softened the restrictions as the garden of nature could be enjoyed.  On the other hand, however, winter had arrived.  The streets in town were quiet and stripped bare, like trees in the thick of winter.  The cool and harsh wind of Covid left us inside huddling for warmth and any comfort we could find.  The hustle and bustle of our lives was unexpectedly interupted....