Art show to help build clinic in Malawi

A NOVEL art exhibition that opens in Limerick this weekend will help the disease-ravaged African state of Malawi get a clinic for villagers who have no doctors.

The Blath Bua na Bealtaine exhibition, which celebrates the flowers of May, hopes to raise €10,000 for Mags Riordan's hospital project in Malawi.

Around 30% of the proceeds of paintings, which normally go to the gallery, will be given to the hospital fund instead. "It's a way of bringing three different interests together the Irish language, local artists and a charity," said Máire Ní Ghráda of Conradh na Gaeilge.

The Blath Bua na Bealtaine exhibition will feature well-known Irish artists such as John Shinnors, Brian McMahon and Vivienne Bogan, along with at least 20 others. Máire Ní Ghráda, who also lectures in folklore at the University of Limerick, said a furze bush would be the centrepiece of the exhibition.

"It was an old Irish tradition to welcome summer by tying a piece of furze to the gable end of the house, and it's still done in parts of Limerick and Roscommon. People build Mayflower altars, and some scatter them to bring good luck for the season ahead," she said.

Visitors to the exhibition at Halla Íde on Thomas Street can make donations of €25, €50 or €100 to the Billy Riordan project.

Billy, the only son of Mags Riordan, drowned in a lake in Malawi four years ago. Mags has returned to the impoverished country five times since then.

She was horrified at the level of poverty and complete lack of medical resources in the small village of Cape McClear that Billy loved.

The 15,000 villagers had no clinic, doctor or nurse, and the nearest hospital was a difficult four-hour journey away. Even there, just one doctor had to serve 800,0000 people.

Wanting to build something in her son's memory, Mags set up the Billy Riordan Trust to fund a clinic for the area. "A cholera outbreak and continual deaths from malaria and simple childhood diseases made me realise that a medical clinic was not just necessary, but essential," she said.

She needs €100,000 to build the clinic, and the Billy Riordan Trust fund has raised €50,000 so far.