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Joe Fallon was looking forward with great anticipation to the New Year celebrations at the Roscommon Men’s Group. At the tender age of 80, this sprightly pensioner from Kilrooskey was one of 20 men from the county town (and three or four neighbouring parishes) who last year, turned up religiously every Friday morning for the ‘Warm-up keep-fit sessions with Bonnie’. You could say he was making up for lost time since 2020.
Like so many others of his age, Joe hated the coronavirus with a passion. He lives with his wife in one of the most remote areas of the county and found the lack of social interaction and community engagement to be absolutely debilitating.
Like so many others of his age, Joe hated the coronavirus with a passion. He lives with his wife in one of the most remote areas of the county and found the lack of social interaction and community engagement to be absolutely debilitating.
Some of Joe’s neighbours found the going even tougher. Just a few miles away, a 75-year-old widow living alone began the practice of writing letters during the long lonely days of that year and when she got a lift into Roscommon to get her pension on the Friday, she posted it and waited for the response. Three days later, she always got what she wanted because bright and early every Monday morning, the postman appeared down the lane to her house, rang the door bell and handed her back the letter she had posted … to herself the previous Friday! After a few weeks, the man from An Post copped what was going on but he also realised how much she enjoyed those precious few minutes of chat they shared when he delivered the mail to the house at the end of the lane. It was obvious she was desperately lonely.
Social isolation and exclusion is a huge problem in rural Ireland – whether it’s in ordinary times or extraordinary ones. More than one in four people aged over 65 live alone in our country, increasing to 44% for those aged 85+, according to Social Justice Ireland. The problem is more acute out west where Mayo has the highest population of older people, with Roscommon third and Leitrim fourth, according to the last census of population.
Social isolation
We have learned from a number of deaths in rural areas in recent months that sometimes the elderly can quickly get into their own loner habits of isolation – often reluctant to engage with neighbours or simply falling out with loved ones –sometimes tragically passing away alone in their own home, unnoticed.
EU funding is also there to help. The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) provides the dough to tackle poverty and social exclusion at a local level through engagement and partnerships between disadvantaged individuals, community organisations and public sector agencies. Looking after older people in our society is one of its priorities.
In 2023, Joe travelled far on the SICAP budget. We worked it out when I went to see him this week. He started in May with a visit to the Aran Islands for an outing with the group. In September, he was in the wonderful trenches at Cavan County Museum and on Culture Night, he showed a few ladies from Ukraine some of the secrets behind making good wholesome Irish brown bread.
Occasions like these have been few and far between for many other people living in rural and secluded areas since March 2020 and the truth is that some active age groups have yet to meet again since the pandemic ended.
At a conference in Portlaoise recently, I met some old age pensioners who are still scared of catching infection in large crowds or public spaces and, the saddest part of all, many others have lost their best friends to the hands of the wretched virus.
Older folk
Despite this, the work of the SICAP teams and the age-friendly networks in each county must continue and the efforts must be doubled to get the older folk out again into society. Every county has the funds available to make this happen. If it hasn’t already taken place in your area, I suggest you contact the local SICAP company or the Irish Local Development Network (ildn.ie) and they will only be too happy to help. And if you’re in the Roscommon town area, you could of course join Joe and Bonnie every Friday morning at the SICAP offices on the Lanesborough Road for the keep-fit session.
But be warned, the fittest 80-year-old I know will not be slowing down for you to catch up. Joe is on a roll in 2024 and beyond, and why not?
Fortune favours the brave.
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