Rotary Club honours local people for dedicated contribution to community life

THE Rotary Club of Omagh has made presentations of Paul Harris Fellowship awards to six well-known local people for their contributions to community life in Omagh and the wider district.

Paul Harris was the founder of Rotary and the Fellowships in his name mark significant achievements within Rotary, or contributions to community life for non-Rotarians.

The awards were presented at recent weekly Rotary Club lunches in the Silverbirch Hotel and those present heard from club president, Hugh Gibson, and immediate past president, John Campbell, that all recipients were highly deserving of the prestigious honour.

Among those to receive the accolade was Omagh woman, Janet Howard, who first came to the town after her late husband, Roy, arrived from England to supervise the installation of a new mill at Scott’s Mill. He was asked to stay on as engineer, so Janet and Roy remained in Omagh, instead of South Africa, as they had been planning.

Roy joined the Rotary Club and Janet became a founding member of Omagh Inner Wheel in 1970. In the ensuing 43 years, she had filled most roles, including president on three occasions and is currently in her eighth successive year as secretary.

She has also served as NI District Chairman of the organisation and on the Inner Wheel Council in London.

As well as raising her family and running a successful floral business, Janet had been a Sea Cadet and was involved with the Girl Guiding movement in Omagh.

Another recipient, Margaret Mitchell, is an Omagh woman by birth and has been much involved in the life of the community ever since. A child musical prodigy, she went on to star in singing roles in musicals and as soloist across Ireland.

Margaret studied to be a physiotherapist and the medical profession had been a big part of her life. After her late husband, Dr Haldane Mitchell, joined Rotary in 1980, Margaret became a member of Inner Wheel and has filled most of the offices, currently serving her fourth term as president of the organisation.

When Dr Mitchell began his successful series of “Images of Omagh” books, Margaret became collaborator and proofreader, which was an important role in the series of books, which raised tens of thousands of pounds for charities locally and disaster funds in various parts of the world.

Margaret was also one of the founder members of the NSPCC committee in Omagh and has inspired and led that committee to raising over £236,000 through the years. All this was done while raising her family and supporting her husband in the days when a GP’s home was also his surgery!

Well-known and dedicated retired veterinary surgeon, Robert (Bob) Smith, another award recipient, was born in Ayrshire in Scotland and graduated from Glasgow University Vet School in 1956. He came to NI in 1960 and worked for Roland Walls in Castlederg. In 1964 he set up a successful practice in Newtownstewart, ably assisted by his wife, Dorothy. Veterinary work was more difficult in those days as this was an era without mobile phones, scanners, four-wheel drive vehicles, the internet or computers.

He was joined in the 1970s by David Stewart, also a Glasgow graduate, and the practice became known as Smith and Stewart. In the 1980s they bought the Omagh practice from the Omagh Rotary Club member, Frank Mullan.

Bob has always had a keen interest in horses but also worked with all other animals throughout his distinguished career. He has always participated in community life and has served for 30 years as a governor of the former Strabane Grammar School (now Strabane Academy) and is a member of and contributes to many charitable organisations in this area.

Next award recipient was John Chambers for his lifetime of work in the equestrian world and with Tyrone Farming Society which runs the annual Omagh Agricultural Show.

Born in Belfast he later came to live on the outskirts of Fintona where he was a farmer and also worked in the local marts and turned his hand to auctioneering.

In the 1970s John was a founder member of the local Alliance Party and subsequently moved his family to Dergmoney House, Omagh.

John’s interest in horses stemmed from his father’s lifetime involvement.

John started participating in showjumping events and was soon successfully competing at both national and international level - jumping for Ireland and making appearances for a number of years at events such as Dublin Horse Show and the famous Hickstead Derby.

After finishing competing at this level he became a senior national course builder and a senior national judge for show jumping which led to Olympics invitations to act as a representative on the International Equestrian Federation overseeing the welfare of horses and conduct of riders for over 30 years.

He has also officiated at the World Championships in Aachen and the Millstreet International Show in County Cork. He has also been involved in organising and supporting the work of Riding for the Disabled.

John has a long history with the Tyrone Farming Society of which he was chairperson in 2012 when it was voted ‘Show of the Year.’ He has been a course builder at the show and a long-standing committee member with the major focus on all things equestrian.

Meanwhile Dr Nick O’Shiel was recognised for his work in promoting the economy of the area and his contribution to the Omagh community over many years.

After growing up in Dublin, about 30 years ago he moved to Omagh.

He quickly became involved in the business life of the town and has had many different roles over the years, including president of Omagh Chamber of Commerce; chairman of Omagh Local Strategy Partnership and chairman of Omagh Business Forum.

He is currently chairman of South West College, Omagh, governors and chief executive of Omagh Enterprise Company where he has been instrumental in the growth of enterprise across the area. This has been demonstrated by numerous extensions to the current Omagh Enterprise site at Gortrush Industrial Estate. Previously he has received the Queen’s Award for outstanding contribution to enterprise.

He is a member of the Institute of Directors and a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute. He holds a Doctorate in Management from the Ulster University and has a Masters in Management from Trinity College Dublin.

More recently Nick has been much involved in the securing of £4,125,000 from the Levelling Up Fund to complete the £5.5 million project to develop the former Omagh Health Centre as an Enterprise and Innovation Digi-hub housing 50 businesses and creating 250 town centre jobs in the process.

The final award recipient was Omagh man Raymond McKinley for his tireless fundraising efforts – along with his family - for the Air Ambulance.

Raymond works for Terex as well as farming with the help of his son.

As many will know the tragic circumstances of August 18, 2018, changed the McKinley family’s life for ever.

Daughter, Kyra, while on her way to donate her beautiful hair to the Little Princess Trust, which makes wigs for children with cancer, was involved in a car accident from which she sadly never recovered.

On the day, the Air Ambulance attended and airlifted Kyra to hospital in Belfast. She was kept on life support, giving her family precious moments with her until it was decided that nothing more could be done.

Kyra was a very independent young lady and even at her young age already carried a donor card and because of the Air Ambulance work in getting her to hospital, her donated organs have benefitted a number of people in the community, which is of some small comfort to her family.

Very quickly, it dawned on the family, just what blessing it was to have had the Air Ambulance facility available and Raymond and the family began what would become regular support for the organisation in memory of Kyra, as well as promoting awareness of how much the Air Ambulance was needed, particularly in this area following the closure of local acute hospital facilities.

The first proper fundraiser was a “Cuppa for Kyra” in Gillygooley Hall which raised over £12,000. Since then, the McKinley family have carried out a wide range of fundraising events.

The publicity that these events and Kyra’s story raised, highlighted both the work of the Air Ambulance and the need for public support to keep it running. It now costs £6,700 a day to run the service and since its inception in June 2017, it has been tasked over 4,000 times across Northern Ireland and also occasionally into Co Donegal.

To date at the fifth anniversary of Kyra’s death, Raymond and his family have raised just over £200,000. Raymond would be the first to say it wasn’t just him and his family that achieved this, with friends and the local community getting behind it, but without the driving force of the whole McKinley family this staggering sum would not have been achieved.

Despite their loss, they continue to work tirelessly for the work of the Air Ambulance and a Rotary Club spokesperson said it wished it could make the Paul Harris Fellowship a family award and so although it had Raymond’s name on it, it was also for his wife Valerie and family, Alex and Glenn.