Daniel delights all during Glebe Lodge visit

RESIDENTS, management and staff at Glebe Lodge residential facility were delighted to welcome a special guest to Kilbanivane last week.

Daniel O’Donnell popped in to say hello and he stayed for a while and posed for photographs, signed autographs and did whatever was asked of him during the visit.

He had visited before and some of the residents had photographs of him with them enlarged and framed and they took him on a tour of their galleries.

“He was lovely and so natural to everyone who approached him with any request,” said facility manager Sarah Flynn.

“Nothing was a bother to him and he sang whatever songs the residents here asked him to sing – even if they weren’t his own. He stayed for ages and there was no rushing off with him.

“We’re all very grateful to him for the time he took during his visit here and we know he had a couple of more calls to make during the rest of the day,” said Ms. Flynn.

Based in Kilbanivane, Castleisland, Glebe Lodge is a purpose built residential facility for people with a high dependency and eldercare needs. It was opened in November 2002.

Operating under the auspices of the Kerry Parents and Friends, the centre is close to the hearts of fundraisers in the Castleisland area.

The town’s annual, autumn Indoor Market was founded back in 1973 as a fundraiser for the Kerry Parents and Friends.

The building and opening of the centre in the winter of 2002 proved a significant milestone for the fundraisers and a new focus for the still thriving Indoor Market.

The Castleisland Races and Humphrey Murphy Memorial Road Race Committee under Charlie Farrelly has maintained the supportive links the late Humphrey established with the facility from the time it opened to his untimely and accidental death on May 20, 2011.