West Kerry’s secret Easter bunny
BAILE an Fheirtéaraigh’s community spirit has made headline news again, this time after one generous local – who wishes to remain anonymous – decided to buy Easter eggs for those in the parish who most needed a lift.
And Siopa an Bhualitín’s Nikki O’Connor – one of the few who knows the person’s identity – said the person in question has no idea what joy they brought to their community.
Eight volunteers – dressed as pandas – journeyed around the parish on Easter Saturday to deliver some 250 Easter eggs to the young and not-so-young. It followed orders handed down by the anonymous donor, who called into Siopa an Bhuailtín in recent weeks and asked if it would be possible to put their master-plan into action.
“They said they wanted every child in the parish of Ballyferriter to get an Easter egg,” Nikki explained. “Then they text me a few days later, wanting to include older people and people cocooning.
“I was surprised at what they were asking me to do, but I wasn’t surprised at the person asking me to do it – because that person has a lovely heart.
“There are only four people on earth who know who the person is: me; my husband, Colm; my sister; and the person themselves.”
The process leading up to the deliveries wasn’t straightforward. Nikki said they divided the parish into five different sections for their planning, and they set about putting together an extensive list of people who qualified for an Easter egg.
“We do deliveries, so we’d bring the list with us, and over the course of the week we were adding names,” she said.
“We explained on a local WhatsApp group, many of whom would help us with our deliveries, that we were going to have a particularly big delivery on the Easter weekend. In the end, eight of us volunteered to drop off the eggs on Easter Saturday.
“There were no Easter-themed-costumes available, so we used Panda costumes that we’d used on the Wren’s day.”
And there was no little joy on the big day. People’s faces – young and old alike – lit up; some had not seen anyone in days or even longer, and suddenly they were accepting Easter eggs from a panda bear.
Baile an Fheirtéaraigh recently made headlines when locals marked the Funeral of local woman Betty Ryan in unique fashion; the Mass had to be held privately owing to COVID-19 restrictions, but locals stood along the route taken by her cortège, saluting as the hearse passed by. Less than a month later, the parish has proven its community spirit once again.
“We’re very lucky where we live,” Nikki said. “It goes to show that people are very thoughtful here. I don’t think they [the donor] realise the impact it had, because they didn’t see the reactions we got on the doorsteps.
I just don’t think they know how much happiness they’ve brought to people.”