Seamus proved to be the last Freeman of Sligo

HE described being made a Freeman of Sligo as being both a proud and a humbling experience. Seamus Finn took centre stage for awhile in City Hall on that October evening in 2011 as the town bestowed its highest honour on him. And, he was the last person to receive such an honour, with the scrapping of the Borough Council a short time later bringing an end to such conferrals. The late Mr Finn said on the night: “To be acknowledged in this way by one’s fellow citizens through the members of the Borough Council is an amazing, overwhelming, totally unexpected and truly extraordinary tribute. To the mayor and members of the council, I offer my profound gratitude and appreciation for bestowing what I believe to be the greatest honour of all, to be made a Freeman of one’s home town, a Freeman of Sligo,” he said. Referring to the campaigning tradition of The Sligo Champion since its foundation in 1836, Mr Finn spoke of one campaign which, in his own time, he felt was “the single most important crusade”, the battle to have a dialysis unit provided at Sligo General Hospital. “In the early Eighties, with the One Mind Club and the Sligo Kidney Association branch, we set out to raise enough money to persuade the Health Board to agree to set up the facility. Now, a comprehensive renal service at Sligo General Hospital serves a catchment population of approximately 100,000 people,” he said. But Mr. Finn added that readers of The Sligo Champion could be proud of their contribution to that and the many other campaigns over the years.