Nursing home residents among the first to vote ahead of the rest
Vote early and vote often is a tongue-in-cheek phrase used in relation to elections and the voting process. It has corruption connotations but this was far from the case when it came to the residents of an East Galway nursing home.
At 10am last Saturday morning a ballot box arrived at Ballinderry Nursing Home in Kilconnell as the residents became among the first in the country to cast their votes.
And the honour of casting the very first vote in the nursing home fell to 96 year old Bertie Walsh who is originally from Liscappul, Aughrim and is a well-known hurley-maker. He is resident in the home along with his wife Phoebie (89).
Bertie was a very successful farmer and one who many went to when they wanted to get their corn crushed. He had a sawmill from where he manufactured hurleys as well as being a very talented carpenter.
Locals say that he had a combine harvester long before anyone had a combine and had a bailer long before anyone had a bailer. He even made a chess board which is still used in the nursing home.
When Bertie was just 17 – 79 years ago – he made his first hurley and planed it with a piece of broken glass and was sold to a local hurler Tony Scott at the time. He even had his own stamp on the hurleys.
There are more than 40 residents in the nursing home in Kilconnell and they were delighted to have the advantage on the rest of the country when owner Mary Noone informed them that there was a ballot box arriving in their midst.
It was all very formal as the ballot box arrived dead on 10am along with two returning officers Patti Mulkerrin and Breda Byron (both of whom work in the Court Service) who were accompanied by Ballinasloe-based Garda Tom Ryan. All of the procedures that exist at a normal polling station were adhered to.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.