Search Results for 'food supplies'

It has always been one of my great regrets that I never went to work as a teacher in South America or Africa or as we used to say when I was young “go on the missions”. So when the opportunity presented itself earlier this year I decided now is the time.

There is an inherent wonder and sometimes infectious joy in picking up a children’s book if only for a minute. The magical wonders promised by the busy colourful images on the cover may only last a few moments, but the memories they bring back are often real, long lasting and always joyful. The suspension of disbelief is total and time stands completely still.

"People in the country in a position to know have stated that a national emergency may arise any moment, and an attack on the country may be imminent", so warned MJ Egan, County Commissioner for Mayo at a public meeting in Ballyhaunis in August 1940. An official state of emergency had already been in place since being proclaimed in the Dáil on September 2 1939, the day after Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Egan was principally Mayo County Secretary, but as County Commissioner his role was to create a network of parish councils that would maintain services in the event of an invasion and the possible incapacitation of central government. The Ballyhaunis meeting created its own council, bringing the figure to over 100 councils formed in 76 Mayo parishes. Since the fall of France to the Nazis in mid-1940, Britain was forced to tighten its own rationing programme. This had knock-on effects for Ireland. A key function of the parish councils would be the securing and distribution of food in a post-invasion scenario. Egan reported to, and received instruction from the new Department of Supplies under Minister Seán Lemass. It was through Egan as County Commissioner that a series of emergency precautions and directions were issued to the Mayo public.

Early this morning, letting the dog out to, ahem, powder her nose in the garden, a gentle humming reminded me that the day’s work was already under way for bees on the early shift. Closer inspection of a nearby catmint revealed several little furry bodies buzzing harmoniously as they moved methodically from one bloom to the next. This plant – Nepeta “Six Hills Giant” – is a magnet for them and you will often find several bees busy at work on the same plant.