Don’t get irritated when you get stuck with someone at the end of the phone who works in a call centre or a customer service desk. You just never know who you are talking to and what their life story is all about.
A broken handle on a GTec vacuum cleaner lead to a remarkable story and an event which was celebrated last Thursday with church bells ringing out, beacons and Lamp Lights of Peace lit and fantastic ceremonies to signify the light that emerged from the fearful darkness of world war. What’s the connection? Maureen Sweeney from the coast of Co. Mayo, a woman who is now a legend for saving thousands of lives 80 years ago.
I got to know all this when ordering the new handle from Mark Stapleton. We got to chatting and he told me about his family in the West of Ireland, “My dad, my grandad and his three brothers were all lighthouse keepers and I wish I had been able to join in the family tradition but it wasn’t to be. They were responsible for Black Rock and Blacksod Lights, a very turbulent posting right on the coast where the wild Atlantic wind and waves were an ever present danger to shipping.” His Dad was born in the light keepers cottage on the Mullet Peninsula in the townland of Aghleam where there was only a handful of cottages. But it was important for another reason, the weather station in Blacksod Bay. There Maureen Sweeney took hourly barometer readings throughout the day and night. Coming up to the Allied Invasion of Normandy these reports were vital and on 3rd June the readings showed a storm approaching from the Atlantic. As this 21 year old was making her record at 1 a.m on 3rd June she registered the severe storm making it’s way towards Europe from over the Atlantic Ocean. That same lunchtime in London, plans were going ahead for the D-Day operation on Wednesday 5th June however Maureen had other ideas. As Mark explained although Ireland was officially neutral, information from the Irish Meteorological Service was shared with the Allies.
Vital And Historic Report
From Blacksod she phoned her report to the British meteorological Office in London and received a call back asking for the reading to be checked again. Mark understands that Winston Churchill even phoned Maureen just to make totally sure but she was adamant, the Atlantic storm was on the way with hazardous winds and poor visibility. Eisenhower took the decision to postpone for 24 hours, plans went on hold and so Maureen changed the course of history when the war plans were put on hold for one day so saving thousands of lives, lives that would otherwise have been lost at sea. She became something of a celebrity and a hero to the villagers including Mark’s Dad and she was awarded a special US House of Representatives Honour. Maureen died last December at 100 years of age but her name will live on for ever.
A similar connection can happen when it comes call centres.
For instance the day my husband was on the phone for 20 minutes going over and over the query and apparently getting nowhere. Then success, problem solved However, the conversation didn’t end there. ‘”Yes she is, yes she’s the journalist. Yes we live in Belfast. Yes she’s sitting opposite me, hold on.”
The young man,, who was speaking from somewhere in the Manchester area, introduced himself, I recognised a local voice and he told me his story. He was working in the call centre to make enough money go put himself through a journalism course to fulfil his desire to work in newspapers. Then came a surprise.
Blast From The Past
“I know you Mrs. Hailes, I used to play in your back garden with Susie and Michael.” When he introduced himself the penny dropped, he’d lived close by when he was much younger. It was really lovely to chat and after we said goodbye I wondered what would happen to him . Now when I get cold calls I remember Paul and hope our chat went some way towards getting him on the path to his chosen career.
I have learned to be precise with cold callers, just say thank you for your call but I’m not interested. Used to be I would ask if they had an appointment to speak to Mrs. Hailes, as her secretary I knew she wasn’t free to speak and I’d have a bit of fun at their expense. Now I just say no thank you, although sometimes a little conversation will lead to a wonderful personal story.
ANOTHER PERSONAL STORY
Alf McCreary came into Ulster Television Studio One to report on a hockey match, that was over 50 years ago and I was impressed – he was a journalist and that was something very special to a young woman with writing ambitions. Since then we’ve been friends and his books have charted the course of his career, each one examining some aspect of our local lives and beyond, however it wasn’t until I read his latest publication Keeping the Faith that I really came to appreciate the man, his growing up in Bessbrook and the intimate struggles of being born out of wedlock, a very personal story of his formative years in a village of mixed religions and although belonging to the Presbyterian church, he accepted them all, once even joining the Methodist congregation one Christmas morning: “In those Christmas mornings of my boyhood, the Incarnation of the Christ Child seemed very real to me, but so too did Santa Claus.”
His latest book touches on his childhood and how it shaped his future. He was well churched but his faith journey began to gather momentum when he moved to Queens University Belfast. It was only when representing QUB at a hockey tournament in Essen that he saw a memorial with the names of many Germans who died in two World Wars: “The realisation that the Germans had also suffered horrendous casualties stopped me in my tracks.”
This realisation opened his eyes to agonies many of his subjects have experienced and gave him a notable empathy and desire for peace building, especially when writing about Northern Ireland. He speaks of his respect for his first boss, John E Sayers editor of the Belfast Telegraph Alf’s home newspaper to this day. He writes about the June 1968 civil rights march, the rise and rise of Ian Paisley : “In my journey of ‘keeping the faith’ I have encountered few such human beings who claimed devotion to Christianity but who also created so much misery and inspired so much sectarianism as the Iate Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, the evangelist and political activist.” To be fair, and Alf McCreary is a fair man he also talks of Paisley’s positive side. Alf’s nickname in newspaper offices was Father Teresa and in Armagh he was once taken for Paisley and for Cardinal Brady all within an hour! He blames the long coat and the big hat!
He records that from the start of The Troubles in 1969 until the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, a total of 3,289 people died including 2,332 civilians, 35,669 shootings 10,142 explosions, 5104 devices defused, 20,568 armed robberies and over £29 million stolen. He goes on to consider that in a population of 1.5 million these figures are shocking and when you realise that each of these events involve human beings, your shock and sense of tragedy begins to deepen.
This latest book, the last in the genre he says, goes behind the headlines, behind the stories we read and move on. He talks of the men and women who lost limbs in bombings, doctors and nurses who had to face dreadful trauma, the interview with Lord Louis Mountbatten’s daughter Countess Mountbatten who was badly injured in the 1979 Provisional IRA bomb in a Donegal bay when the family were enjoying lobster fishing off the coast. The Kingsmill Massacre where he was dealing with the aftermath of the murder of 10 protestant workmen, some of them his own primary school mates, a chapter which is, I think, at the heart of this book, not only reflecting on the tragedy and the families but also being told his father was at the funeral of one of his friends, a man he’d never met and didn’t meet on that terrible day,
“My father was a millionaire but that’s not why I went out of my way to meet him. It was for his recognition of me as my natural father, but he did not have the grace or courage to do even that!
“Some months later we did meet but he never admitted to being my father so there was no happy ending.”
Speaking at the launch Alf asked “Who is the real Alf McCreary?” In this book he will find himself and what he stands for. “It’s important to be positive. Nothing can be done without hope. This book is a tribute to the human spirit.”
With almost 40 books under his belt he moves on to the story of the Albert Foundry a subject far flung from The Troubles and the many theatres of war he has written about. He quotes fellow journalist Cal McCrystal: “You will never become rich from journalism, but it will make you a rich human being.”
Keeping the Faith is published by Messenger Publications price £12.95. Also available on Amazon.
Irish News Review 8th June 2024.
ROSE-MARIE
I’m sad to hear of the passing of the vibrant spirit that was singer Rose-Marie. I spent a wonderful day with her in London years ago, her sumptous flat in the heart of the city, the white grand piano, the tall windows overlooking the park and we had such fun going out on the town that night. Somewhere I have the story I wrote about Rose and I hope I can find it and so bring back those memories of a gracious and generous woman.
For every negative there is a positive
This according to a Facebook message.
