TEMPLE STREET HOSPITAL will be the beneficiary from the Newmarket-on-Fergus Agricultural Show Society’s annual tractor run this coming weekend and one local family have hailed the lifesaving work of the staff at the Dublin facility.
Sunday (September 11th) sees the Agricultural Show Society’s tractor run return to the roads of Newmarket-on-Fergus, it has become a staple event over the past seven years with only one run cancelled in this time due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Jane O’Leary of the Agricultural Show Society explained, “The committee has always chosen a fund or charity that is close to the hearts of its members. Over the years we have raised money for the local Parkinson’s Association that meets in Carrigoran Day Care Centre, Pieta House, The Irish Heart Foundation, Ronald McDonald House at Crumlin Hospital as well as the hospital itself and Meals on Wheels”.
She said this year they are aiming to collect much needed funds for Temple Street Children’s Hospital which “has assisted many families in our local area and has provided life giving care to many young babies and children”.
The Hartigan and McGrath family are among those locally forever grateful for the care they received at Temple Street. Now eight years old, Ruby McGrath was transferred to Temple Street Hospital after she was born on March 5th 2014, during her eight weeks there she underwent several surgeries. Ruby was diagnosed with spina bifida and had hydrocephalus which is an abnormal buildup of fluid in the ventricles (cavities) deep within the brain.
Ruby’s mother, Mary recalled, “They looked after her and they looked after us, they were so good, we were away from our home and our family, they were outstanding. The advice they gave us to help us through it was to take it one day at a time and we did, they are out of this world. Temple Street have always been there for us, they are just a phone call away, they go above and beyond”.
Indeed the family share a special connection to the Agricultural Show. “It’s a highlight of the year for us, we love going up watching the dogs and seeing the horses jumping. When Ruby first came out of hospital, it was her first outing in 2014, she was like a celebrity up there,” Mary told The Clare Echo. The visits have continued every year and they have since been joined by Moya who turns two this September.
Mary’s husband Michael will be driving a tractor on Sunday, since Ruby’s surgeries required different blood donations, he himself has become a regular blood donor, “it’s the little things that you don’t think of until you’re in the situation,” she flagged.
Now in second class at Scoil na Maighdine Mhuire in Newmarket-on-Fergus, Ruby is “doing very well,” her mother noted. “She is a determined, kind hearted and very intelligent lady. She’s flying it, she is a full-time wheelchair user and gets on no bother, she has her friends since playschool that she has gone up along with at school. She loves doing jobs at home, she loves going for spins in the car, she loves painting, reading, animals hurling, she’d watch all Clare matches, her favourite hurlers are Shane O’Donnell and Jack Browne”.
Registration for the Tractor Run will begin from 12pm in the show field on the Old Dromoland Rd with the first vehicles hitting the road from 1pm. Donation buckets will be present in the village of Newmarket-on-Fergus with complimentary refreshments at the end of the route at The Crabtree Tavern.
