Mike Smith discusses his meeting with the president, the opening of a new hospice and a year full of highlights
Not many Roscommon men can say they’ve met the President of the United States of America but for Boyle auctioneer, Mike Smith, that was just one of the highlights of 2023 – alongside the official opening of the new hospice in Roscommon; Boyle getting to the senior county final for the second year running under the leadership of his son, Cian; and a Gala event held in the Mansion House to celebrate 30 years of the Mayo Roscommon Hospice. That event raised approximately €40,000 for the Foundation in a single night.
Mike has been chairman of the Mayo Roscommon Hospice for four years and was a director on the board for twelve years prior to that. But 2023, he said, has certainly been emotional.
“It has been one of the most exciting times to be chairman because we’ve opened a new hospice in both counties – one in Castlebar and one in Roscommon,” he explained.
“Castlebar is up and running four or five years now and Roscommon opened in February of this year. So it has been very, very exciting and it’s been a fantastic time to be involved. And then there was the arrival of President Joe Biden who cut the sod in 2017 in Castlebar and he dedicated that hospice to his son, Beau. And he said that he would come back at some stage to visit the hospice again. And little did we know that, in 2023, he’d be President of America and he fulfilled his promise and he came back.”
President Biden is a cousin of Laurita Blewitt, from Knockmore, Mike explained. And it was Laurita who introduced the president to the hospice.
“It was quite an exciting time. And what a stamp of approval he’s put on the hospice. I suppose the most important thing to him is that his son, Beau, died in a hospice and he understood what hospice is all about and he got it straight away. And I know that word dignity was used big time that week he was home, but he was full of it, full of dignity. He is a nice man and he was fantastic to meet and he appreciated all the work we did,” Mike recalled.
“He wrote to us personally afterwards, to both Martina, our CEO, and myself and thanked all the board. He went into the Castlebar hospice, and outside we had the massive world media taking photographs, including that iconic photograph of his son, Hunter, his sister, Martina, Laurita and myself, which went around the world.
“But that was photographed and then he came inside the hospice and there was no press allowed in. It was a private visit. He was supposed to be here for 10, maybe 15 minutes. He stayed over an hour and he met everybody. He met some of his family there. He met a lot of the staff in the hospice. He met all our directors and he was asked at the end of the visit, ‘would you like to meet one of the patients?’ And we were all taken aback. He said no, but he said, ‘I’d like to see them all’,” Mike explained.
“And that’s the type of man he is. And he did see them all and he met them all. His Secret Service went crazy when he decided to meet everyone, because protocol had to be taken care of. Our background and everything had to be checked out to make sure that we were of good character. But you’re talking about people in hospice, unfortunately some people were at end of life and so there were families in there that didn’t think about what they wore – they had wellingtons on them or were farmers. It didn’t make a difference.
“He went around and met them all and that in itself was, I know, a huge plus to some of the patients and their families. They really, really appreciated it. And he embraced them all and that’s the type of man he is. He was an absolute gentleman and oozed dignity. That was a nice thing.”
A source of great pride for Mike – and, indeed, the other board members of the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation – is the fact that the two new hospices were built at a cost of between sixteen and seventeen million euros. But there’s “not a penny owed and not a penny borrowed”.
“And that is solely down to our volunteers, our people that are working in the shops, our support groups. And that’s going back over 30 years,” said Mike,
“There’s money being collected every week and it’s now important to let everybody know that every penny that we collect goes straight to fundraising projects. Our administration is paid by the work in our shops. We have full-time, employed managers in all our shops and we have volunteers that come in and help. And we have 12 shops in both counties – that is a huge amount of time and effort for people to give.”
When it comes to effort, he added, the board of directors are the ones making the hard decisions – but doing it well.
“They’re all private individuals, have all their own businesses or have their own jobs to go to. And as one of them myself, we do it voluntarily. We don’t get a penny, we don’t take a penny for anything we do. We do it with the right attitude towards a charity,” he said.
“And we’re very, very lucky with our staff. We have wonderful administration staff in Knock and they have been just fantastic support. And then we have our CEO, Martina Jennings. Martina joined five years ago, and her knowledge of everything hospice is phenomenal.”
Cancer touches so many households in Ireland and beyond and it is good nursing staff who really make end-of-life situations more calming and comfortable for those who avail of the Hospice services.
“They’re absolutely phenomenal. And in general, palliative care nurses that we have in both counties are absolutely incredible. They face end-of-life every day and they do it with a smile on their faces,” said Mike.
“And they’re so good to both the patients and the families. What they’re doing at the moment is just incredible. There’s nothing like them. Really and truly, they are the hub of it. That atmosphere in Roscommon hospice in particular is absolutely incredible. The sense of calmness and peace in that building is incredible and it does affect you.”
The board of the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation have no plans to sit back and relax now they’ve successfully opened the Roscommon Hospice. In fact, they’re already making further plans for the future.
“We are hoping to build a children and young adults hospice in the region in the next year or two,” Mike explained.
“We are actively looking at sites at the moment and we hope to be able to make an announcement early in the new year about the acquisition of a site. And so that itself is exciting times ahead. And we know that we will have the funds and we’ll have collected to do that. So we hope to get that up and running in the next few years.”
Mike’s own family was touched by cancer when his eldest son, Cian was a teenager. A trail-blazer with the Roscommon minor team, Cian was an All-Ireland champion against Kerry in 2006, just a year before a hoarse, sore throat in the autumn of 2007 turned out to be something more.
“We were told he was diagnosed with throat cancer, and you walk out into a corridor and you don’t know what to expect. There was nobody to talk to when we went out initially, but we were very lucky, I suppose, that we got Cian involved with a group called CanTeen, which was cancer and teenagers in Dublin,” said Mike.
“And they were good to talk to. There was a girl who came in and visited and spoke to us. But going back 30 years ago, that wasn’t there. It was people suffering from cancer or life-ending illnesses, lying in wards of six and ten or twelve people. And you can say roaring in pain, excruciating pain and with their families looking at them. And there were no private rooms, there was no palliative care. And don’t forget 30 years, that’s not too long ago. It’s a short time ago.”
Fortunately, Cian recovered and is once again a trail-blazer as manager of the Boyle senior team, who made it to the county final two years in a row under his leadership, just missing out on a win both times.
“Unfortunately we were beaten by a point in both of them, but it’s something that we haven’t been to before, since 1927 I think, or ’28. Ninety-five years,” said Mike, whose family is very well-known in GAA circles.
“Hopefully we can break the voodoo next year as well. And then we have Donal and Enda, who are very much involved in both the club and Roscommon. Both of them have been playing for in excess of 10 years for Roscommon. And myself and my wife Mary, we’ve loved travelling to matches. The National League in particular is fantastic because you’re going up and down the country and you’re meeting people.
“And then Ronan is our second lad, he’s our social media manager and he’s very much involved with the lads and football and he goes to all the games and he supports them well.
“And, this time of the year, there’s always hope for the year that’s coming. So we’re hopeful again that we’ll get a good run in the league and get a good run in the championship. But it’s always been good times. When you lose a sport, it’s hard to take. But the good times that we’ve had through the lads playing for Roscommon in particular far outweigh the losses.
“And we’ve met some fantastic people along the way that have become lifelong friends and that’s very, very important.”
