Longford family honouring the memory of their daughter

Meningitis is sometimes referred to as the silent killer. It attacks healthy young people while masquerading behind symptoms often mistaken for flu. When diagnosed late, it can result in death or life changing disabilities.

Gemma McGee was a fit, healthy and successful 24 year old. She completed her Leaving Certificate in Moyne Community School and studied Science in Trinity College where she specialised in Geology.

In Moyne, Gemma was the perfect student; academically gifted, hard working, respectful and generous. In Trinity College, she worked part time to lessen the financial burden on her parents, aware that she had younger siblings still in school. This difficult balancing act of studying and working was a challenge but one that she embraced without complaint.

After graduating from Trinity, she quickly found her dream job, working for a Canadian mining company, and was looking forward to excelling in a career that would allow her to travel the world.

Tragically, this fit and healthy young woman contracted the A strain of meningitis and passed away within days of becoming ill. The tragedy is compounded because the A strain of meningitis is preventable through vaccination. The NHS in the UK vaccinates children against this strain but a similar programme did not exist in Ireland.

Thankfully, due in part to a campaign spearheaded by the McGee family, a new vaccine for four different strains of the virus has been rolled out and is being given to all first year pupils in secondary schools since 2019.

A devastated family and community considered how to honour Gemma’s memory and her all too brief influence on her family, friends and community. They settled on two memories; her generous nature and her struggle to pay her way through college. These two memories were fused together and the idea of the Gemma McGee Memorial Bursary emerged.

Gemma’s heartbroken parents, Rosaleen and John, together with her three brothers, John, Darren and Niall and a supportive committee, raised €15,000 initially. The family and the organising committee decided that they would award three €1,000 bursaries each year to three Leaving Certificate students from Moyne Community School who were studying in college. €1,000 would have meant a lot to Gemma and made her first year in college so much easier. This bursary honours her generosity and acknowledges the financial burden that many young people face in college.

To date, €12,000 has been presented to 12 different students studying a wide range of courses in colleges throughout Ireland. The first recipients have now graduated from college and are shaping their own path in life. They all appreciate the bursary and they are humbled to remember the generous, talented and sincere young woman after whom it is named.

One of their comments sums up the difference it makes: “The Gemma McGee Memorial Bursary really helped me enjoy the first few months of my first year of college. I was able to focus more on college and making friends rather than looking for a job. It was a wonderful contribution that I am forever grateful to have received.”

This year, the final €3,000 will be presented, but Gemma’s family are keen to replenish the fund and continue to support other young people in college.
An ‘All Vehicle Run’ has been organised on Sunday, October 29 at 12 noon. It will, fittingly, depart Moyne Community School and travel just over fifty kilometres through the surrounding parishes that form the Moyne catchment area.

Vintage and modern tractors, vintage cars, lorries and motorbikes are all welcome. Registration can be completed on line or on the day, beginning at 10am. There will be pre and post run refreshments in the school Gym along with a raffle for some great spot prizes.
This is an opportunity for everyone to remember a bright young talent, taken all too soon, and to guarantee that other local young people will be assisted as they embark on their college journey. Anyone wishing to simply donate to this worthy cause can scan the QR code on the many posters throughout the region.

Moyne CS 50th Anniversary

Moyne Community School is celebrating fifty years since its foundation and it is fitting that this All Vehicle Run, will use the extensive school facilities to honour Gemma’s memory. The concept of the ‘community school’ was conceived in response to the educational needs of rapidly growing urban centres especially Dublin.

It is a tribute to the open mindedness of the people of the Moyne catchment area, that such a modern concept would be so warmly embraced and that the side of a desolate hill could be transformed into a thriving educational community.

Fifty years later, Moyne continues to offer the widest possible curriculum and extracurricular opportunities to over 600 pupils from surrounding parishes in Cavan, Leitrim and Longford. There are over twenty ethnic groups represented in the school, creating a vibrant, inclusive and thriving community. The Moyne campus, with a 1.7km Slí na Sláinte, pitches, astroturf and Eco Park provides both the pupils and the local community with an array of facilities absent in many rural areas.
In November, the school will stage its Fiftieth Celebration Show which is the largest and boldest show that the school has ever produced. It is an opportunity for past pupils and past parents, often now grandparents, to relive days gone by and to enjoy high quality and original entertainment at an affordable price.

The May Bank holiday in 2024 will see the school throw open its doors and invite upwards of 5,000 past pupils to return and revisit the memories, the successes, the near misses but especially the friendships, the support and the craic that they had in Moyne.

A celebration Mass of Appreciation and Remembrance will be held and the time capsule stuffed with letters written to their future selves, twenty-five years ago will be opened. The letters, penned by young adolescents, filled with hopes and dreams will be available for collection over the weekend.
There is a hope and an expectation that large numbers of past pupils will return to meander through their memories of Moyne, meet with friends and classmates, teachers and coaches and see how a once desolate hillside is thriving and heaving with energy, purpose and ambition.