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THE FUNERAL OF 13-year-old Oisín McGrath has taken place in Fermanagh.
He died on Friday – just three days after he was hurt playing football during his lunch break on Monday.
The GAA player is understood to have suffered a traumatic head injury. A 17-year-old school student was questioned by the PSNI and later released on bail pending further inquiries.
Pupils from his school at St Michael’s College in Enniskillen lined the route of the funeral and his classmates wore GAA jerseys draped over their uniforms.
A jersey was also placed on top of his coffin.
His parents Sharon and Nigel led the mourners at the funeral mass at St Patrick’s Church in Holywell, Belcoo at 11 am.
The Principal Celebrant Father Séamus Quinn told the funeral mass that, “Oisín was also gifted with a lovely personality, a great sense of humour, was a natural communicator and always willing to help others.
He was quiet and easy to be with, with the kind of smile that drew the best out of you, whether you were young or old.
“While Oisín was a leader…he wasn’t in love with the position of leader and, in fact, Oisín would always take time and make place for people who might not have found it as easy to achieve as he did himself.
“He had the ability to found friendships with those who didn’t share his own passions and interests. He was a people person.
“The grief of his young classmates from St. Michael’s, and his fellow team mates from sport say more than any adult could ever get across.”
Father Quinn reached out to Oisin’s parents during the mass saying, “Sharon and Nigel, you must feel crushed by the enormity of the loss of your young son.
The flame of your spirit must waver at times in the face of it all…know that your young saint, Oisín, who never did anything bad or evil in his life, but consistently did everything he could to show gentle love to those around him, will be with you to accompany you in the time to come.
It was mentioned how Oisín recorded himself playing the violin on his iPod and kept it playing in his room during practice time and would be just actually lifting it as his father came up to see how he was getting on.
His football coach said, “He leaves behind a bunch of friends, I have no doubt they have made great memories with Oisín in their time together.”
When the Primary 7 pupils were leaving St. Columban’s they were asked to take a private empty page and write words to describe each other. The words used to describe Oisín by his classmates were: “Generous, helpful, giddy, funny, cool, good at football & music and a great friend”.
Oisin’s organs have been donated to save five lives.
Father Quinn said, “Because of their incredibly selfless and faith based decision, Oisín’s falling on the ground and dying like the grain of wheat has brought life to five other human beings.”
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I worked in childcare for ten years and myself and my co workers had every illness going and were almost permanently sick. Its a combination of the long hours, the physicaliity of the work which is exhausting and spending your days in fairly crowded conditions with lots of small children. The wages are so bad and we were sick so often we couldn’t afford to take many sick days and had to go in sick most of the time. Its known as the burn out profession and I gave up when I developed chronic fatigue, haven’t had a cold or a virus since.
I’ve worked in childcare for 20 years and sorry to say have heard this story only too often. Childcare providers, children and parents are being hardest hit with the short sighted policy in Ireland and the lack of funding/ supports in the early years.
If my childcare providers increase its fees by say 12%,it will be the same as my mortgage !! And my bundle of joy was born in August,which means he can’t start school till he is 5 !!!
I am a sessional childcare provider who cannot afford to pay sick pay if it is brought in. I have 3 fantastic staff who are qualified & experienced & their wages reflect this, leaving a very tight margin at the end of the year. I had a tax audit two years ago & revenue wondered why I am still in business. My reply is that I love what we do & we can & do make the difference to young children’s lives.
Well said Mag.
The government needs to start coping on to the fact that Childcare is more them just a babysitting service compared to other country the wage’s that Childcare Staff are payed here is a joke
Sorry Irene. You are out of line. Irish sick pay arrangements currently represent a massive subsidy to business, and that’s why you and IBEC are bleating about it.
We are also way out of line with other countries in the state provision of child care, by the way. As in every other area of Irish life, we are happy to give welfare to business, but not to the people who need it, such as those already being hammered with mortgages.
Childcare is direly underfunded in this country and what fees services get in only cover the basis. If services have to pay sick pay the cost will only have to be passed onto parents (who are already paying too much). If the government want to get serious about childcare they should have a look at the Scandinavian models where they are funded and supported properly by the government. Childcare professionals are treated very poorly in Ireland and as one of those professionals things will have to improve for the children, families and providers.
Childcare providers are teachers of the early years and should have the same sick leave as primary and secondary school teachers which, if my daughter’s teacher last year was anything to go by, is very adequate!
If this is brought in I am afraid it will put many SME’s like myself to the wall.
Don’t think anyone’s going to be too bothered about the childcare industry taking a hit in their profits.
I’d love too see some books to see where all the money is going. Its a crippling coat on any household. and if the staff are being paid as badly as saffron says where is all the money going? insurance can’t be that expensive, there is no decent child to carer ratio. to me it seems people are seriously lining their pockets. but can every creche in a free market seriously be that full of greed I wonder?
Bilbo, I suspect they can. The tendency in this country seems to be towards price matching (look at the supermarkets). What happened to competitive pricing?
I’m sorry lads but as a manager in a “non profit” community childcare centre once wages (not fantastic), insurance, heating, telephone, rates, rent, heating, programme expenses, buying new toys/ equipment, heating, esb, prsi/ paye/ usc, staff training, waste disposal, our annual maintenance contracts for your fire, security, boilers, esb supply etc………. are paid there is very little left over- trust me as the one who is trying to help ends meet. It’s very easy to pass comment on how expensive childcare is but no one is “lining their pockets”. Childcare workers are usually on minimum wage or there about, and use their own personal “unpaid time” for staff meetings, training etc. Childcare staff usually catch sickness from working with kids (who are sent in sick) so the least they should get is sick pay. The childcare sector in Ireland is so expensive because their is so little support support/ funding from the government. As a parent too I’m all to aware of the cost of childcare and am sickened as a parent and a childhood professional the lack of thought childcare/ families are getting from short sighted government policy. Early years services don’t even get SNA for kids with additional needs but once they hit junior infants they are entitled to one. Lads next time you decide to bash someone or something please make sure your informed about the topic first.
Bilbo, do the sums…take six babies under one year old and two childcare staff to comply (rightly with regulations), now deduct salaries, employers PRSI contribution, rent, rates, electricity, refuse charges, food etc…where is the profit????
Poor salaries is only one of many issues in Ireland. We constantly point to Scandinavian countries when talking about childcare but we fail to say that 60% of staff in those countries hold a degree in early childhood and that the rest are either undertaking training or hold other qualifications. This is in stark contrast to Ireland, where the statutory requirement is that ‘a suitabl and competent adult’ must work with the children…it is time for an open and honest debate about childcare in Ireland
This ridiculous plan will kill off many small business leaving it all open to bigger & bigger corporations to take up the slack…!!!
This shower of Clowns are not serving Irish people they serve the Bondholders, Big Business, Themselves, Advisors and their Cronies…!!!
The Labour party have completely sold out the Irish people, how can their backbenchers put up with this crippling of Irish Small Business knowing they will not be re-elected…!!!
The pay is bad but I think that a lot of childcare providers are struggling to make ends meet too. Why not put some of the stimulus jobs package money into this area, it could improve standards and wages and create some jobs for women as well as helping out struggling families.
I have worked in the early years sector for the past 20years and have seen it move from being pretty much a voluntary workforce to a highly regulated and increasingly qualified and experienced workforce. The vast majority of professionals working in the early years are on minimum wage or there abouts and if you include all the required paperwork and preparation most would come in under minimum wage as they are only paid for contact hours. Higher qualifications are being required and this is a good thing as our little citizens of today and the adults of tomorrow deserve a professional team working with them. All these costs are being absorbed by the individual with little or no additional renumeration on the horizon. There are NO MASSIVE PROFITS in this sector and enforcing employers to pay sick leave will result in closure, job loss, reduced quality and lack of quality childcare provision. The government needs to realise this is a sector in severe crisis
It is my belief that childcare professionals should receive the same entitlements as primary school educators – decent salaries, increments, sick pay, time in lieu for training. A person working in the childcare sector will receive an hourly rate of minimum wage – 15 euro (I would say this is top’s) at the discretion of the childcare service. They are also required to work outside of paid hours to undergo training on a regular basis. Having also worked in the primary sector for a few years, I am aware that teachers receive time in lieu and travel expenses to attend training. Maybe some of the different government agencies who work alongside the childcare sectors and provide training and advice could tackle some of these issues.
Having worked in community based childcare for 7 years, I could count on one hand the number of sick days I have had. The same can be said for the majority of my colleagues. I wouldn’t necessarily agree that childcare staff get sicker more often because they catch everything that the children carry in them. In our facility, staff are paid for sick leave and do not abuse this. Employment rights are in place to protect all workers.
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