Author: OPC

Meeting of Thursday 5th March 2020Speaker, Ms Amy Burns, RSPB

Amy is the RSPB’s Estate Manager for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. She heads up a team of seven who collectively manage the bird life on 43 of Lough Erne’s 154 islands along with 210 hectares of wetland and 400 hectares of forest.   Essentially the work is about habitat management and maintaining a variety of environments for the particular needs of particular birds.   Lapwings, also known as Plovers and Pee-wits, thrive in hay meadows. Curlews need longer grass in which to nest and hide their chicks. Sadly, their numbers are in steep decline due to habitat loss.   The RSPB owns a herd of Highland Cattle which it moves from island to island to graze and keep the vegetation short. Amy showed slides and played recordings of the calls of several species monitored by the RSPB including snipe, redshank, terns and gulls. RSPB in Fermanagh also manages 600 hectares on Cuilcagh Mountain, home to red grouse, skylarks and hen harriers.   Amy’s work brings her into daily contact with all sorts of wildlife including huge array of butterflies and moths. Her talk prompted many questions and much interest, for which she was warmly thanked by Eleanor Lyden

Meeting of Wednesday 19 February 2020
Speakers: Shauna Patterson and Tom Flanaghan from Social Services
Topic: Social Services and Assistance for the Elderly – both practical and financial.

Shauna spoke on the practical elements of elderly care stating that after a person is referred to Social Services, usually by a GP, an assessment is made to determine what is required, e.g. occupational therapy or some other form of support.   The individual has an element of choice in this and the options include respite care.   Mr Flanaghan explained the financial aspects of residential care on a long-term basis. Income in excess of £14,250 and /or assets over £23,500 mean that the costs may have to be met either wholly or in part by the patient.   A patient in permanent residential care may well lose out on some pre-existing benefits such as attendance allowance.   Where the patient is the owner of property the Health Care Trust may apply to have a charge registered over the property.   Mr Flanaghan strongly recommended that all those with assets and next of kin should take out an “Enduring Power of Attorney” to help avoid some of the problems which can arise in such circumstances. The team dealt with several questions from members and received praise from those who had first-hand experience of the services that were available to elderly people in the community.

Meeting of Wednesday 12 February 2020
In-House Quiz

Members participating in the In-House Quiz

At the Annual General Meeting in January the challenge of getting a different speaker each Wednesday was acknowledged and ready agreement reached that the Club should make more use of its own reserves of talent. In this field the President had led by example and prepared a quiz for the members. Five teams were quickly formed, with Hugh and Jim acting as scorers. President Michael then directed each team to give itself a name and the following titles emerged from the creative imaginations of the participants. The teams were Rainey’s Rascals, Bob’s Thickies, The Corner Boys, The Four J’s and The Town and Country team. After 6 rounds during which Probians looked alternately smug and mystified Rainey’s Rascals emerged as winners, just ahead of The Four J’s who were closely followed by Bob’s Thickies. President Michael’s teasers included – the opening lines of classical novels, Irish Folk songs, Food and Drink, Famous Faces, Geography and the Birth Names of stars of screen and stage. Whether or not members want more of the same remains a moot question but while it lasted it was good fun.

Meeting of Wednesday 5 February 2020
Speaker: Ms Edel Fox Topic Women’s Aid

The president welcomed Ms Fox, in attendance to receive a cheque from Oliver Loughran who had identified “Women’s Aid” as his nominated Charity for the proceeds of the raffle held at the Christmas Dinner. Edel thanked the club for its generosity and gave a most informative talk about the work of the charity in Omagh.   Based in Holmview Terrace Women’s Aid provides a range of confidential services for women and children experiencing domestic violence.   Domestic Violence is defined as “the intentional and persistent physical, emotional sexual or mental abuse of one person by another where they are, or have been, intimate partners or family members”.   The services provided by Omagh Women’s Aid include places of refuge, court appearances, accommodation, community-based support and children’s and young people’s services. The statistics which Edel quoted both surprised and appalled club members. There are presently over 2000 children in the Child Protection Register in Northern Ireland. The PSNI receives reports of Domestic Violence incidents on average 70 times a day while the Women’s Aid Helpline took over 25,000 calls in 2017 -18.  These, and other worrying statistics about the number of women and children living in refuge centres generated many questions about the underlying causes of Domestic Violence and ways to address an oft-hidden blight sadly pervasive in all walks of modern life.

Meeting of Wednesday 29 January 2020
Speaker: Probian Vice-President, Hugh Ward Topic: Genealogy

Over the years Hugh has become quite knowledgeable about researching the information needed to construct a family tree.  While most people can name the parents and grandparents typically things become murky when researching great grandparents and their parents.  For those whose forebears were born and raised in Ireland the website www.irishgenealogy.ie is an excellent starting point.  Its records include all registered births from 1864 – 1919, all marriages from 1864 – 1919 and all deaths from 1864 to 1969. To illustrate he logged on to Irish Genealogy via the Golf Club’s wi-fi network and opened up files containing civil records.   However in the midst of his demonstration the system crashed and Hugh was forced to continue with verbal descriptions of how to proceed.   Church records, he said, are worth investigating but are often incomplete because of poor book-keeping in the 19th Century.   He warned that it was quite usual for the spelling of surnames to vary over time – as with McCullough, McCullagh and McCulla.   The Griffith Valuation undertaken after the famine 1864 – 65 records the names of all persons resident in Ireland parish by parish, and district by district and is often a fruitful line of inquiry. Many questions brought this interesting session to a close.

Meeting of Wednesday 22 January 2020

Probians present on Wednesday 22 January at the Leisure Centre
At the previous meeting on Wednesday 15th in the Golf Club it was announced that the next meeting on Wednesday 22nd would be in the Leisure Centre to participate in an event organised by Fermanagh and Omagh District Council.   The speaker, Mrs Eva Clarke, born in Mauthausen concentration camp, Austria, on 29th April 1945, was to share her own personal story of the Holocaust and explore issues linked to prejudice, discrimination and the effects on society if hatred is not challenged.   Unfortunately, Mrs Clarke was taken ill and the event cancelled at the last minute with not enough time to get the word out.   And so it was that when members turned up at the Leisure Centre it was to be told that the session would go ahead but take the form of a business meeting.   Up-dated membership lists were distributed, and a useful discussion ensued about the club “Telephone Tree” and a revised approach to receiving welfare reports.   In preparation for the next meeting  Vice-President, Hugh Ward, handed out templates for the building of Family Trees, explaining that on Wednesday 29th he would demonstrate the use the internet for researching family history. He also announced the start of a project to publish a book about members childhood memories of growing up in Tyrone.

Meeting of Wednesday 15 January 2020
Annual General Meeting

Omagh Men’s Probus Club held its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 15 January in Omagh Golf Club with 23 Probians present.   Members were welcomed by Oliver Loughran who conducted the business of his last meeting as President with his usual efficiency and good-humour. After the minutes of the 2019 AGM had been read, club Treasurer, Albert Allen, presented his accounts for the calendar year 2019: these showed a healthy balance, obviating the need for any increase in the annual subscription.   The secretary’s report, delivered by Alastair Orr, took the form of a review of the year, highlighting significant events such as the Inter-Club Quiz in April and the Christmas Luncheon.
Out-going President, Oliver Loughran, offered sincere thanks to all who had supported him during his year in office before placing the Presidential Chain on the shoulders of Michael Cooney and inviting him to take the chair and conduct the election of officers for 2020. Hugh Ward was confirmed as 1st Vice-President and Felim O’Neill elected as 2nd Vice-President, which means the club can look forward with confidence to the next three years; Hugh will follow Michael into the Chair in 2021 and Felim in 2022.

 

As is traditional in the meeting calendar for the Probus Club, a member of the local clergy is asked to bring to club members a reflection for the new year. On Thursday past, the speaker at the Ladies’ Probus meeting was Rev Jonathan Cowan, minister of Mountjoy & Drumlegagh Presbyterian Churches. He began by reminding members that, twenty years ago, we were anticipating the millennium bug and we were asked to reflect on just how accurate our projections for the new millennium had been.

Members were encouraged to LOOK BACK over, not just the past year, but over the previous decade or two and to think about the mixture of good and bad days which had been experienced. Everyone should have at least one good thing to remember and for which to be thankful. Above all, God’s goodness and faithfulness should not be forgotten. Next facet of reflection is to LOOK AROUND and be mindful that we are interdependent and to be thankful for all who help in any way; and then to ask ourselves “who could we help or befriend by showing love, support and compassion?” LOOK IN to our own lives and critically examine ourselves and those resolutions which are not often kept was the third aspect of reflection. The concept of “one-degree shifts” encouraged members to think about small changes which can make a big difference if continued. Psalm 121 encourages people to LOOK UP to the hills and also to God. So often people walk about with heads down and, in so doing, can miss what is all around and find complaints come more readily than thankfulness. Finally, members were encouraged to LOOK FORWARD to what the new year has to offer. CS Lewis, in Chronicles of Narnia number 7, reminds his readers that “… every chapter is better than the one before”. Life is to be viewed as an adventure and we should trust the unknown future to the all-knowing God. So encouraged, members should look forward to all that 2020 has to offer individuals and club members. The thanks of members were expressed by Mary Keane. The next meeting on 6^th February will focus on security issues and scams.