The town of welcomes gives to those who need it most

LIMERICK hurler Diarmaid Byrnes is, through his employer DHL Global Forwarding, an ambassador for Mid West Simon and is telling his experience of the organisation’s incredible work across Tipperary, Clare and Ennis in meeting the ever increasing need of homelessness in the region.

Here, following a visit to Ennis last week, he tells his story of his ‘trip to Tipp’ to experience the North Tipperary Community Foodbank in Nenagh, where he met with its founder Sandra Farrell and got an insight into how big the challenge is locally.

Clare last week, Tipperary this.

It’s like rinse and repeat in many senses, familiar on a number of fronts.

One is that you arrive with a feeling that it’s enemy territory; it’s anything but. There’s a welcome for everyone. Even a Limerick hurler. More importantly, there’s a welcome for people most in need of a helping hand in this Ireland of ours today. The homeless.

Nenagh, I am told as I arrive, is known as a ‘stranger’s paradise’. And after a morning there with the good people in the North Tipperary Community Foodbank, I get why.

It’s a crisp day, not a cloud in the sky as I drive down Ashe Road – were it not for the ‘e’ at the end, I’d be wondering is it a set up. I’m inevitably drawn to Nenagh Castle.

It towers over a car park and the back entrance to the well known GAA watering hole, Rocky’s bar. But the fact I park here suggests why well the ‘Castle Field’ was chosen as the location for the town’s ancient landmark.

It just pulls you in, particularly when you don’t know where you’re going. And I clearly don’t. I’m headed for Kenyon Street, at the other end of the town. Not the first time, I guess, a Limerick man gets his bearings wrong in Tipp.

This limestone lighthouse, with 101 steps to the top – not that I took even the first one - leaves me a good walking distance and a good bit of banter between here and my destination, Loreto Houe, where the Mid West Simon supported North Tipperary Community Food bank operates out of.

The walk takes me out onto Pearse Street and across the road is JKC's, the home of one of Tipp’s great forwards of the 1990s, Mike Cleary. ‘JK’ as they call him here.

I recognise it first as a newsagent but this time of year it’s like an outpost for Santa’s grotto with its toy shop display causing all the buzz. Christmas gifts at the top of the list now.

They’re at the top of the list also 200m away at Loreto House on Kenyon Street where they’re also very busy.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF BUSY

It’s a different kind of busy as they’re packing both goods for the weekly foodbank and, coming up to Christmas, they’re trying to put a bit more into it.

They’ll have a special goodie bag for children too; some gifts to put a smile on the faces of children and also their parents who haven’t a lot to smile about. It’s typical of what Mid West Simon is about. Not just giving food, but very much trying to give dignity too.

Sandra Farrell is the inspiration behind this Mid West Simon ‘outreach’, supported by local businesses and the public. Five years ago, she was on a holiday in India with a friend and distributed food under a Hindu tradition called Prashad, which is a simple act of giving food to others as a form of Thanksgiving.

Sandra thought immediately that, despite our comparative wealth as a nation, there was a need for our own ‘Prashad’ here. She contacted Mid West Simon on return to explore how to go about it in Nenagh. Put these two forces together and great good has happened; a foodbank supporting people from north Tipperary, as far away as Cashel and across the border into Offaly and Laois.

Initially, Sandra thought only 20 or 30 people would turn up to the first foodbank. But 100 came to the door. Clearly, for many in society, Ireland’s reputation as the fastest growing economy in Europe is a veneer over real hardship.

You just don’t know, she says, who is experiencing this vice-like grip, who is under that veneer. One of them crossed the street to the door of Loreto House that first day of the foodbank and Sandra thought she was coming to donate. But, instead, it was to receive.

Last week, just five years after it was set up, the numbers queuing for food had doubled. They’re struggling to keep up with demand, just about hanging in there, in large part thanks to the support of Mid West Simon and also local volunteers and donors.

LOAVES AND FISHES

It’s loaves and fishes. But the generosity is keeping them going.

As ever, there’s a bit of magic and warmth in the air, too. And what a day for it, Christmas Day.

I well know the magic in the hands and feet of Jake Morris but his uncle Maritn and his team at the Hibernian Inn help make something very special happen on the 25th when the restaurant is given over for cooking Christmas Dinner for recipients of support from the North Tipperary Community Foodbank. The one morning they should have off, they give up for others. The warmth of Christmas for sure.

The town of Nenagh is in an emotion tailspin this week as it mourns the great Shane McGowan. It was his town. The town of a genius; poet, songwriter, hell-raiser all rolled up in one. But a man with a deep soul, a man who also connected with people on hard times, like those queuing at this foodbank.

Fairytale of New York, which will not be sung with more gusto anywhere than in Nenagh this Christmas, resonates. But it wasn’t McGowan’s only festive offering. The Christmas Lullaby might be lesser known but strikes even deeper chords today:

Here’s to all the little kids

Who haven't got no clothes

Here’s to all the little kids

Who haven't got no homes

And:

“And Santa and his reindeer

Jumped over the moon

So hush little child

Santa's coming here soon”

He surely is. It’s a great message of Christmas and we all have to help make it happen! There’s gifts for everyone at Christmas, thanks to Mid West Simon, Sandra Farrell and many, many others. They need our help. Please support.

If you can, please scan the QR code below or go to https://www.midwestsimon.ie/donate/

You can watch a video about Diarmaid Byrnes' visit to Nenagh here.