Month: November 2015

Wednesday 25 November 2015: Michael McCrossan: Progress report new Omagh Hospital

Mr McCrossan had been invited to provide members with a progress report on the “New Hospital” to be called the Omagh Hospital and Primary Care Complex. He explained that the name had been chosen to reflect the fact that new facility would bring together on one site the County Hospital, Omagh Health Centre, Children’s Services and other local primary care providers. Construction work was well advanced with completion expected by December 2016 and the first patients through the doors in March 2017. Using architects’ plans and artists’ impressions to illustrate his talk, Mr McCrossan showed that GP Practices would be on the ground floor near reception. The complex also includes 40 en suite in-patient single rooms, 30 of which would be for intermediate care and 10 for palliative care. In all the building will have some 990 rooms, a total which includes 100 consulting rooms, 26 renal stations, various offices, stores and kitchens, as well as a Pharmacy, a Prayer Room and Mortuary. Outside there will be parking for 863 cars, with charges for the car parks closest to the main entrance. In the discussion which followed Mr McCrossan was asked about Cardiac Services, Mental Health Services, Audiology services, Ambulance Services, and so on, leaving members feeling that the new complex will be a great asset in the community. The vote of thanks on behalf of the Club was given by Eric Bullick.

Wednesday 18 November 2015:  Miss Naomi Scott: “Portraits”

The President welcomed Miss Scott, daughter of club member, Harman Scott, and a former pupil of Omagh Academy. After graduating from the University of Lancaster Naomi worked with a Danish Development Agency in Africa before being recruited by the United Nations to work in their aid programmes in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. During this time she met many famous and fascinating people who left a lasting impression on her. In her talk entitled “Portraits” Naomi recounted meeting, among others, President Bill Clinton, Colonel Gaddafi, Robert Mugabe, billionaire Nikki Oppenheimer and Gracae Machel, widow of Nelson Mandela. Devoting a few minutes to each, she described how their private persona often differs from their public image and related how kindly Colonel Gaddafi was to the group of young people she was with when she met him and how much she had admired Robert Mugabe in the early days of his Presidency. She admitted having been bowled over by the infectious charm of Bill Clinton. Naomi talked with respect and affection for others whom she had met – philanthropists, games wardens, church workers and local politicians many of whom had been through tough times and dark days. She was thanked for her enthralling talk by Club Member, Oliver Loughran.

Wednesday 11 November 2015: Visit to Mellon Centre for Migration Studies
Speakers: Dr Brian Lampkin and Dr Paddy Fitzgerald

Dr Lampkin began by noting how recent events in Europe had pushed “migration” onto political agenda and used the crisis to invite a working definition of the term “migration”. While some in the audience felt it referred to the movement of people across international borders Dr Lampkin argued that the term also included internal migration, that is movement within a country, right down to something as commonplace as moving house. To illustrate the point Dr Fitzgerald asked how many of those present were natives of Omagh and how many were “blow-ins”. This led to an entertaining session in which a goodly number of those present recounted how they came to be in Omagh. Dr Lampkin then demonstrated an on-line resource called the “Citizens’ Atlas of Local Migration”. This programme allows modern satellite images to be overlaid with maps from different periods of history. When applied to Londonderry it was fascinating to see where features recorded on the 1611 map of the city now sit in relation to present day landmarks and how the picture changed as more recent maps were superimposed.

Towards the close of the meeting Dr Fitzgerald made reference to a book which had been presented to the Centre by Probian Jim Alderdice. This book, which is essentially a family history, includes a migration story – the one which brought Jim from his childhood home in Bessbrook, Co Armagh to his current home in Kylemore Gardens, Omagh. In similar vein Probian John McCandless presented the Library with a 150 page document about people with the name McCandless who had settled in North Carolina. John explained that the research had been carried out in the USA by members of the McCandless diaspora. Dr Fitzgerald was then questioned about some local place names and introduced members to the website www.placenamesni.org which sparked a further round of interesting exchanges.

After the meeting members were invited by Dr Haldane Mitchell to view an exhibition entitled “Omagh at War – Photographs of the town 1913 – 1919”, currently on public display in the gallery at the Folk Park. As members toured the gallery Dr Mitchell explained that most of photographs had been taken by one, Norman Holland, a qualified solicitor living and working in Omagh at the time. Considerable effort was needed to provide a meaningful commentary for each photograph, given that some were over 100 years old. The tour of exhibition proved as interesting and informative as the earlier session on Migration; it meant that those who were able to attend both, enjoyed two very different but equally engaging talks during the club visit to the Ulster American Folk Park.

Wednesday 4 November 2015: Probian John Robson: A Slice of Military History

John’s knowledge of Naval History is such that he has been called upon to speak at meetings of the club several times because of the interesting way in which he approaches each topic. His topic on this occasion was the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet at the end of the First World War. As part of the armistice of 1918 Germany was made to surrender her Navy to Admiral Beattie at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. In all 74 German warships were laid up with their guns spiked – navy speak for the removal of their firing mechanisms. However each ship was allowed to maintain a skeleton crew to keep the boilers stoked and the ships seaworthy. But the Germans became suspicious of British motives and scuttled their own fleet as it lay at anchor. Mr Robson described how in the years which followed many of the ships were salvaged for scrap. In fact salvage operations continue to this day because of the high value of the steel in some of the hulls. John was thanked for for his interesting talk by probian Alastair Orr.