Army of ladies work hard to keep searchers’ spirits up and bellies full

CHICKEN curry, vegetarian chickpea soup, chilli con carne and stew.

And that’s just for lunch.

While the conventional heroes of the mammoth Union Hall search and support efforts are the naval and Garda divers and all those searching for the missing men, behind the scenes there is another raft of people arguably working just as hard.

They are the women of Union Hall, a tiny coastal village in this region of West Cork. Many of them are wives or sisters of fishermen, all of them friends and part of this tight-knit community.

Since Sunday, they have been feeding the masses, not just with food, but with a kind word and a smile after a hard day’s work.

Make no mistake — this is no soup kitchen, but a co-ordinated gourmet spread run with military precision by a dedicated team of hard-working ladies who have turned up day after day to dish out the generously donated food.

The backbone of the search operation, the women, start at 7am — well one does anyway. Before she goes to her real job for the day, Pamela Deasy, daughter of Bill Deasy, a local fisherman, comes over to get boilers going and make sure food packs are ready for the 15 trawlers setting out for the day.

“We have sandwiches, biscuits, tea and coffee ready for all the boats in the morning and we look after the Civil Defence before they go walking the morning and they head off then. In the evening, we are trying to do beef stews or curries so at least they have something hot to eat. We are operating out of tent but we are getting on fine.”

The set-up has come a long way since Sunday.

“We had 12 loafs of sandwiches made by 8.30am on Sunday morning after we heard the news, and we were operating out of the back of a van, so we have come a long way since then. From there it has really taken off and people are dropping food from all over. All the local women are pitching in. Most of them would be at home anyway but some are working. I left work early today to come back down. In the morning, I set up and the rest come at about nine and do two or three hours shifts throughout the day. Everyone wants to help, so it’s great. It’s all about minding the families and keeping them feed and all the searchers too.”

Though the kitchen is makeshift it is well fitted out, complete with mini stoves and boilers.

Manned by three or four women at a time, others ferry pots and utensils over and back to a nearby house for washing, and more head out into the crowd to feed those waiting on the dock.

Out front of the tent, two long tables sport a spread you wouldn’t see at a country fair. Scones, sandwiches, fruit, cakes, drinks, soup, stew, wraps.

The women walk while offering tea, buns and soup. The service is arguably better than you’d get in any paying establishment.

Every taste is catered for, though trying to get a burly fisherman to sample vegetarian chickpea soup proved difficult. “It’s full of protein,” was the selling point and once the taste was verified as “very good” it all got eaten.

One of the main difficulties facing the team is the volume of food coming to them and finding the best way to utilise it. Crucial then is running a strict inventory list.

Natalie Deasy (another of Bill’s daughters) was checking the list yesterday and writing down names of everyone donating, how much they have, what they need, what they have enough of and so on.

“This is day four, so we are getting a bit more organised. We have been getting so many offers that we are trying to put people off at the moment. This search might go into the weekend, so we want to make sure we have fresh stuff coming in then.”

Some of the businesses donating are Fields of Skibbereen, Centra in Union Hall, Scally’s of Clonakilty, Musgraves, Clona Milk, and Noel O’Mahony. They are many others, and some are being told to make donations to the AIB fund instead.

Pamela’s sister in law Monica Buckley — married to fisherman Niall Deasy — is another one of the 30-strong force of local women giving up their time to run the centre on the Union Hall quay.

“There are 20 women here at least every day. We all have other work to do so there is rotation and everyone really just wants to help out in some way.

“Everyone you see here are just local women from the community. I suppose most of us have brothers or husbands who work as fishermen so something like this really brings home the dangers of the life. Of course you try not to think about it, but this makes you think about it.”

Though they are working to keep spirits up, the tragedy has highlighted the dangers of fishing.

“The impact on the community is hard to describe, there has been nothing like this here before, but it’s something we all live with in the back of our minds.”