Mullagh woman repays kindness shown to her in darkest hour

A Mullagh woman has expressed her gratitude for the help she received when her life was in “a dark hole”, by playing her part in the community’s fight against COVID-19. Michelle Smith has enlisted the help of her mother Marian to create an effective mask making cottage-industry.

“I came back from Liverpool 10 years ago,” begins Michelle. “I came back with nothing.”
The Mullagh native returned home to flee an abusive relationship. However, because Michelle had lived in England for over five years, she was wasn’t entitled to receive social welfare on her return home.
“A lot happened in Liverpool and the community in Mullagh, between St Vincent de Paul, Shane P O’Reilly, Cavan County Council - everybody helped. My family have been amazing as well.
“Even St Kilian’s National School - everybody helped. Like, I came back with two kids - with nothing. I was in a bad way. I said to myself, if I get myself out of this dark hole, I promised that I would return what was given to me.”
The help she received was the launch-pad to help her rebuild a new life at home.
“St Vincent de Paul put me through college. I got a catering degree in Cavan Inst. I got a job in the canteen in Wellman’s - I’m there eight years in Wellman’s. I have everything that I want - I can’t ask for any more. Everything is fantastic.”
She even delved into reiki and is now a healer.
“I love it, absolutely love it,” she enthuses.
The current COVID-19 crisis prompted Michelle’s drive to produce homemade masks.
“When this all came up I said - now is the time to step up and give back what was given to me, so I did,” said Michelle, whose kids are now aged 17 and 19 years.
She began slowly stitching the masks by hand and her mother Marian Smith initially helped out by buying her a sewing machine. As Marian is a qualified seamstress, when she offered to lend her amazing skillset, the mask production levels really took off.
“We have a little system, mammy starts them and I finish them,” says Michelle. “She’s loving getting something to do, she’s at the machine the whole time - she never puts it away!”
Having supplied approximately 400 so far, the mother and daughter team are kept busy by demand from nursing homes, and local shops - they produced them for all the staff in the town’s Centra. Michelle has even sent a load over to nursing homes in Liverpool, fondly saying, “They are still my second family.”
“We pack them off and put a little prayer inside them as well,” she says, noting it’s about weathering the storm.
Have Michelle and Marian met demand yet for the masks?
“No because we had a big order at the weekend - 170, and we’re only getting that out now.”
“What I find everyday is, you know when the death total comes up? That’s when people start getting more scared and that’s when we get orders in for masks. It is heart breaking, it really is heartbreaking.”
When she begins to tell the Celt that they have received donations, she can’t help but interrupt herself: “Mullagh Town is amazing - it’s the most beautiful, beautiful village.”
She insists on supplying the masks for free, so with any donations, she has bought various items - toiletries, travel cups, vitamins C, shower gel - for “care packs” for local nurses and the gardaí: “Something to make them feel good - something to give back to them.”
Some of the donations have also been used as small cash prizes for kids’ art competitions.
“It’s an art exhibition to express how they are feeling in isolation, because the kids in Mullagh are amazing,” says Michelle.