Life

Anne Hailes: It's never too late to start writing, as Rosie O'Neill (83) proves

Anne Hailes

Anne Hailes

Anne is Northern Ireland's first lady of journalism, having worked in the media since she joined Ulster Television when she was 17. Her columns have been entertaining and informing Irish News readers for 25 years.

Rosie O'Neill is an 83-year-old first-time writer from Clady, Co Tyrone Picture: Margaret McLaughlin
Rosie O'Neill is an 83-year-old first-time writer from Clady, Co Tyrone Picture: Margaret McLaughlin Rosie O'Neill is an 83-year-old first-time writer from Clady, Co Tyrone Picture: Margaret McLaughlin

I’M ALWAYS binding on about writing down your memories – at whatever age, you have a story to tell your children and grandchildren. So often the reply is, 'I can’t write'.

Well, if you can talk you can write. Just put it down on paper as in a conversation. Most grannies tell their grandchildren stories – write them down. Most people talk about their childhood experiences – write them down. Lots of people have funnies happenings and interesting characters at work – write them down.

It has taken Rosie O’Neill 83 years to get round to writing it down and her book, Rosie’s Writing, is a jewel; as she says on the cover, "An amazing collection of poems and prose that will make you laugh, cry and wonder".

The low whitewashed thatched house with just two big square rooms. A hearth fire with a crane, crook and links where her mother cooked and baked wheaten bread on a griddle. There was also a big oven pot with three legs and a flat lid – she’d put coals under it and on the lid to heat it up for baking apple tarts and currant loaves. A slow cooker – the forerunner of a popular way of cooking today.

She herself was one of nine children living on a small farm so the memories of her life and especially her mother come thick and fast. Even the old button box is a talking point. There she found a pearl button which was used on the first matinee coat knitted by her mother for her first child, marbles, a thimble, a horse shoe and a little blue box with clipping of hair from all the babies.

The locket found down the back of an old chair filled another chapter with colour as did the family christening robe that had been worn 101 times. Her mother’s cures worked well, she says. Butter rolled in coarse sugar for a sore throat – indeed, I remember my grandmother using the same butter ball. The butter soothed your throat and the sugar scratched it.

Toothache received a mustard plaster and paraffin was applied to lice. Vicks rub for a heavy cold, for an itch a fasting spittle (this works even today) and a stye rubbed with a wedding ring. A raw potato for a wart, eel skin for arthritis and castor oil for cramps. Having 11 children, Rosie had plenty of opportunities to use most of these.

“And if all else fails,” she says, “holy water will mend the fault.”

:: Six hundred books sold so far and £3,060 given the Autism NI. For more information contact Portglenone Writers’ Group on Facebook.

WANTED: WOMEN ARTISTS

THE Hallows Gallery have announced its new spring show – ‘An Untold Story: A Select Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by Women Artists of Northern Ireland’. The Exhibition will run from Thursday April 12b to Saturday May 12.

The show promises to be a celebration of women artists from Northern Ireland as well as those who are now living or working here. The gallery will be displaying work from both established women artists as well as showcasing the work of emerging talent.

So, if you are a female northern artist and would like your work to be considered for this show, this link will give you all the details you need:

http://www.thehallowsgallery.com/submissions

A percentage of the profits from the exhibition will be donated to Belfast & Lisburn Women's Aid.

:: To register your interest email info@thehallowsgallery.com no later than 5pm on Friday March 2. Exhibiting artists will be announced on International Women’s Day, Thursday March 8.

CORRIE RAISES AWARENESS

CRAIG Tinker has become a favourite character in Coronation Street but he’s begun to show concerning habits. He checks and rechecks, feeling the iron to see if it’s cold, turning the cooker knobs on and off, watching the clock over and over again. It’s become clear in the last couple of week that he is suffering a mental disorder known as obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD.

I had a friend who confided that he would be on the bus on the way to work and have to get off, come home and check whether or not he’d locked the front door.

OK, once or twice he hadn't but as this behaviour happened most days it was affecting his life and threatening his job. That’s typical of the condition OCD where people feel the need to check things repeatedly, perform certain routines (called 'rituals') constantly, or it can be as the result of a thought process – fear of being burgled results in continual checking if the door is locked, as in my friend's case.

An ‘obsession' is an unwanted and unpleasant thought causing feelings of anxiety, disgust or unease. A ‘compulsion’ is repetitive behaviour or a mental act that you carry out in order to temporally relieve the unpleasant feelings brought on by the obsession thought.

Common activities include hand washing and counting and checking to see if a door is locked or a window closed. It can happen to men, women and children and at any age. It's a health condition like any other and if you are experiencing these symptoms, don’t be ashamed or afraid – go to the doctor and get professional advice.

:: For more information, Belfast OCD Aware support group (www.ocd-aware-therapy.com) meet in Mencap Centre, School Road, Knockbreada. For details phone Christina 0752 2545 258.

WHERE WAS CLAIRE BALDING?

I’M MISSING the winter olympics already and Clare Balding trying her best to justify every Team GB failure. As one commentator said, "it’s sport, people do fall over, these things happen". Get over it.

And was Claire actually in Pyeongchang? Did Torville and Deane commute between South Korea and Dancing on Ice in order to give their opinions? I have my doubts. Is the BBC cutting costs at last?