Tributes are being paid to a Carlow midwife who’s said to have delivered 4,000 babies during her time in Borris.
Ellen Ryan will be laid to rest after a funeral mass in Borris tomorrow (Wednesday).
She qualified in Holles Street Hospital in Dublin in 1946 before coming down to Borris a year later.
It was from there she worked for the next 40 years and local Councillor Tommy Kinsella says one of the stories she always liked to tell was how she met her husband Jim:
“One of her first calls was out in the country, passed Ballymurphy. Of course in 1947 we had the big snow and she had to hire the local hackney man to bring her out. So when she went out and the baby was born and everything was well, there was no sign of the hackney coming back. I think he said it was too bad to come back.
“They then got word that Jim Ryan of Ballytiglea was the only man who had a tractor at that time. So Jim was detailed to go out and rescue Ellen. And believe it or not, he married her afterwards.
“Between Holles Street and Borris she delivered around 4,200 babies.”
