In northeast Galway, where locals went eight days without power, a butcher has spent his week in a makeshift kiosk serving food to over 1,000 people.
Mark Jennings opened Jennings Family Butchers on Dunmore High Street in 2003. Alongside a handful of other central figures in the community he has been pivotal to the town surviving during the cold and isolation of the last week.
“A lot of the older people that are on their own, we’ve found them coming in to have a chat,” Mr Jennings says. “They warm up [their hands] when the charcoal is hot here. We’re not rushing them or hasting them out of the place. This is the community. It’s nice to be able to do something.
“Some of the older clients that we have here were around for Hurricane Debbie [in 1961]. They’re telling us that Debbie didn’t compare to this. The infrastructure then wasn’t what it is now so the damage is a lot worse now.”
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Close to the butchers is Mayfield, a voluntary association that caters to vulnerable people. It offers independent living and food services – a version of meals on wheels assisted by other locals who collect the food and drive it out to those in need.
“Our elderly people that live in the community would avail of the services that Mayfield provide which is fantastic,” Mr Jennings says. “They can come in and they can get their dinner, or they can bring it home and the girls look after them. We were aware that wasn’t open. A lot of them people are our customers in the butcher’s shop as well. We felt we couldn’t forget them so we went with that.”
Joe Sheridan, a former councillor and local publican, led the drive for the emergency generators that, as of Friday afternoon, have restored power to parts of the town. Dunmore is at the tail end of three substations, he says, making it more vulnerable to power outages. Last year alone they lost power nine times.
“The parish is around 3,500 residents,” Mr Sheridan says. “The town is around 800. A lot of the demographic would be of a very isolated, older stock in the countryside. As it stands at this minute we have partial grid return. The ESB lads are out on the Glenamaddy side and there are some issues with transformers on the ground. We won’t have power for isolated areas until next Wednesday or Thursday.”
Mr Sheridan believes the biggest issue over the eight days was communication. Without connectivity volunteers on the ground had to pass messages verbally, delaying their efforts. He believes a permanent generator is needed to combat future difficulties.
“In this town in the 1950s there was a diesel generator in the middle of the square here that serviced everyone,” Mr Sheridan says. “A man by the name of Ger Greene used to cycle into town, turn on the generator and service all the essential services.
“We were better off 75 years ago before rural electrification than we are today. We’re making a plea to the Minister [for Social Protection in Ireland, Dara Calleary] for a 200kVA unit that will run as a standby. It’s not ESB – it’s just the way the grid is. This town is very vulnerable to outage.”
Galway county councillor Ollie Turner is a native of Milltown, about a 15-minute drive away from Dunmore. He has spent much of the last week on the phone with people around north Galway, listening to the problems faced by those in particularly vulnerable positions.
“It’s been a stressful few days being a county councillor – that’s for sure. Dealing with hundreds of inquiries. Most of them from people who are very genuine looking for assistance and looking for help. A lot of people with special needs children, with elderly parents, with people who are relying on electricity for medical devices. It’s heartbreaking to think that you can’t physically help them.”
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