'We'll never forget this'

Like a scene out of the festive classic 'It’s a Wonderful Life', the local community rallied around a young Cavan family of four who lost their only savings just days after Christmas.
Just as George Bailey frantically searched for lost money, Liam Scully (30) was sent into fits of panic after he dropped his wallet containing more than €2,000 last Friday afternoon, December 30.
But similar to Frank Capra’s classic, locals alerted to the family’s plight, via a Facebook appeal, have since donated far in excess of the lost sum.
“It’s just incredible. Unbelievable! My wife, she cried all day after the money was lost. She cried all next day as well but because she couldn’t believe how good and kind people are. We’ll never forget this,” Liam told The Anglo-Celt.
Having withdrawn the money directly from the bank in a lump sum to cover his family’s bills and costs, the former Aldi Cavan employee and scaffolder in Dublin was left devastated upon returning home to find his wallet was missing.
“I felt sick to be honest with you. Laura, my wife, could see something was wrong. She just said to me, 'Please tell me you didn’t lose the money!’ We usually have a little something in savings to back us up but after Christmas we just didn’t. I was on my knees looking under cars, retracing my steps to the bank. I must’ve done it a hundred times. I got home again and Laura was inconsolable, the wee one was crying as well. What do you do? What can you do? I’ve never felt more helpless.”
The family have four young children, aged seven, five, three and five months.
Having returned home from Cavan Town where he had also enlisted the help of friends in searching for the missing wallet, a distraught Laura took to social media to pour her heart out about the family’s misfortune.
“That money was our housekeeping money for January. My husband worked hard to earn it! It was to put food on the table for our four children. It was to buy a birthday present for our son who turns seven and maybe give him a party. It was petrol money to make sure my husband gets to work in January. It’s the hardest time of year in everyone’s household but now it’s especially hard in ours and someone else has benefited from our misfortune. May they have no luck for it!” Laura wrote.
Big difference
The message was taken up soon after by family friend, Fiona Corby, a special needs assistant (SNA) at St Clare’s National School and then, soon after, by local businesswoman Lorraine O’Neill, who owns Main Street Barbers in Cavan Town.

She decided to raffle off a set of GHD hair straighteners, worth €215.
“I just saw the message on Facebook and I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I went to bed thinking about it, a family at this time of year and what that kind of money can mean to them. It might not mean the same to everyone, but it can make a big difference,” Lorraine told the Celt, who admitted to being overwhelmed by the generosity of locals in reaction to the appeal. “It is heartening to see, very much so, especially at this time of year. Cavan is just a town of great people and there is such good will around, it’s fantastic how we all pulled together.”
Within six hours after her doors opened at 9am, customers and local people had managed to raise €2000 and, by the end of the day, a total of €3,370 had come flooding through the door.
To date the appeal has managed to raise over €4,000, with donations still coming in.
Liam’s missing wallet had items such as his driver’s licence and SAFE pass in it and, to date, it has not been found, nor has it been handed into gardaí.
He recalls: “I remember as a young lad of about 12, myself and a few friends found a purse with £250 IRL in it. It never crossed our minds to keep it. After I lost it, I was clinging on to the hope whoever found it might’ve done the right thing too.
“When Laura put that on Facebook we never thought this could happen. I worked hard for that money - cold mornings, long days away from my family. We scrimped and saved, we put everything we can get back into our family, for our kids,” says Liam.
He told the Celt that any money raised above the replacement sum will now be donated back to the community and he will be putting it to locals to decide where it will be spent.
“What’s happened has given us a lot more than money. You think we live in a cynical world where nobody cares but the people of Cavan really proved that totally wrong,” said an emotional Liam, who will keep the list of the people who helped his young family to show his own children when they grow up.
“We know Fiona, I don’t really know Lorraine, or the lads in the [Slieve] Rossa or anywhere else but we’ll never be able to thank them all enough for what they’ve done for us. The money that’s over what we need, we don’t feel that it’s ours, it’s the community’s money and should be used to help it in some way. There are a lot of great charities doing a lot a amazing work out there and they’ll all be needing out help in 2017,” adds Liam.