Hospice opened by President after much fundraising

During the nine-day national nurses' dispute, one institution that remained calm was the Galway Hospice. Although some of its staff are unionised, its status as a limited company exempted it from industrial action. Yesterday up to 1,000 people attended its official opening by the President, Mrs McAleese.

Guests were invited to the Corrib Great Southern Hotel to view the unveiling of a plaque at the hospice building up the road.

Among those present were many tireless volunteers and fund-raisers who have done so much for the hospice foundation over the past 10 years.

"It might seem like a strange time to have a function like this, when our origins date back to 1990," Ms Mary Derrig, chief executive of Galway Hospice, told The Irish Times.

"However, we started back then without a premises, but with the backbone of our efforts since - a home care team for the terminally ill. And I suppose we are only really settled in to that premises now."

The in-patient unit at Renmore was completed in 1993 after intensive fund-raising. Yet it took another four years of lobbying for State funding before it could open its doors. During much of that time, the main driving force was Galway general practitioner Dr Padhraic O Conghaile. The building finally took its first in-patients in late 1997, just a little too late for a promised opening by the then president, Mrs Mary Robinson.

Two years later, that commitment has been met by her successor in Aras an Uachtarain.

Mrs McAleese has already paid a private visit to the unit, which is a haven of light, warmth and comfort where both patients and their families can spend time together in privacy, but with medical support.

Soccer, fun runs, medieval banquets, oicheanta Chonamara in the Taibhdhearc theatre - every idea for raising money has been tried. A housewife with thalidomide, Mrs Maggie Woods, flew a two-seater Cessna plane from Galway to Shannon in 1994 in aid of the fund, and at 3 ft, 8' became the smallest pilot ever to land a plane there.

Earlier this year, six timber truckers from Clonbur in Co Galway reversed their 60 ft articulated vehicles for seven miles along winding roads.

By the time they crossed the Galway-Mayo border between Clonbur and Cong in Joyce country, they had raised £97,000 for hospice services on both counties.

The weekly draw keeps the banks happy, however, and this involves a team of 300 promoters. "It finances our home care service, and we just couldn't do without it," Ms Derrig says.

Over £7 million in voluntary donations has been raised from a population base of some 220,000 - representing about £30 per head from every person living in Co Galway over the past 10 years.

Some 80 per cent of the hospice's patients are cared for at home, in line with the philosophy of allowing people to spend their last days in their own environment where possible.

The original home care team of two nurses and a doctor has expanded to 43 staff, including five nurses and three doctors on the road and an in-patient unit staffed by 11 nurses, two sisters and seven nursing auxiliaries.

The Western Health Board annual grant of £1 million supports eight of the 12 beds, and the board recently decided to appoint a consultant in palliative care to work closely with the hospice.

Renmore is the headquarters for extensive support which extends from the Aran Islands in the west to the eastern boundaries.

Some 1,700 to 1,800 people have been reached by the hospice over the 10 years.

On its noticeboard are many cards from grateful relatives, from Ireland and beyond.

Soon, it will be selling its own fund-raising Christmas card in its annual temporary shop in Galway's Abbeygate Street.

The remarks of one relative several years ago are still quoted by the foundation.

Two days before passing away, her mother told her that she had just spent six of the most wonderful weeks of her life.

"Really, it turns the whole idea of dying on its head - that is what the hospice helped us to do," she said.