Sunday Miscellany, RTÉ Radio 1
The wonder of Christmas is all caught up in the cataclysmic changes that one small baby can bring.
It’s not only the baby Jesus in the manger.
In this Sunday Miscellany, John Egan spoke about the birth of his family’s Christmas baby, Meleesa, who arrived on that special day in 1961 and made them proud that Santa had brought them the best gift in Castlebar.
Meleesa was four when she was diagnosed with an intellectual disability. It was a time when families across Ireland tended to hide their children with learning difficulties at home, he said.
But not the Egan family. So it was that John’s father and two other men with children like Meleesa called a meeting at the Imperial Bar in Mayo.
They were astonished when about 100 parents turned up… worried too that the floorboards in the room might collapse.
This was a beautiful tribute to a woman whose life made a huge difference – not only to those who knew and loved her, but to so many others who were seen and helped, valued and treasured by the whole community, just because this child was born
And from that, the Western Care Association was born and by the time his sister was seven, a new national school was opened and then three special needs schools.
Meleesa died this year. She was the glue of the large Egan family – as teenagers they were like small beads of mercury bouncing off each other, he said, but with her, they melded together, bonded in their love.
This was a beautiful tribute to a woman whose life made a huge difference – not only to those who knew and loved her, but to so many others who were seen and helped, valued and treasured by the whole community, just because this child was born.
"Reading Mills & Boon romantic novels was Meleesa's enduring passion. “When you’ve no romance in your life – it’s good to read about it,” she would often say, with a wicked smile..." John Egan is up first this morning with a script about a beloved Christmas baby sister @RTERadio1 pic.twitter.com/nXCvTpibKL
— Sunday Miscellany (@RTESunMisc) December 10, 2023
Sunday Miscellany is a beautiful listen – and even more so at Christmas. The blend of essays and memories – times past and times present – is balm for the soul.
Also on Sunday Miscellany, Peter Cunningham remembered Waterford Books – the shop his aunts opened long ago and how he, at 10 years old, was put in charge of the annuals.
It was a gift of a job and he spent his time, when customers allowed, with his nose stuck in the wonders of the Beezer, Beano and Dandy.
Open the new annuals and you get that whiff of glue from the spine.
Now, at Christmas, he need only open a glossy magazine and sniff the spine to be transported back to those heady days in the company of Roy the Rovers at Waterford Books.