Wednesday 29 October 2025: Speaker Mr Norman Quinn
The speaker on Wednesday 29th October 2025 was Mr Norman Quinn who shared his life story from school days in Omagh Academy to retirement in Newtownstewart. He began by exhibiting a painting done by a German prisoner of war who had been assigned work in the army post office during the first World War under the command of Norman’s grandfather. On leaving school Norman joined the merchant navy as a radio operator and travelled the world on a succession of cargo ships. His ports of call included Cape Town, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong Kong and the islands of Southeast Asa. While docked in Peru he experienced an earthquake in which 20,000 persons perished.
One particular voyage ended in India where he spent 6 months before travelling back to the UK overland via Pakistan, Afghanistan, Persia and the countries in between, On leaving the merchant he worked in the Reform Stores in Newtownstewart for a time before his skills as a radio operator found a new lease of life with the coastguard service. Norman concluded his talk with several anecdotes drawn from 14 years monitoring shipping off the northwest coast of Ireland and the role he played in relaying message to helicopters tasked with rescuing those in peril on the sea. He was thanked for an interesting talk by club member Oliver Loughran who shared that brother has also been a radio operator in the merchant navy.