Weekly Column: Mayor Billy Sheerin

Date published: 22 November 2019

This weekly column from the Mayor of Rochdale, Councillor Billy Sheerin, is about the places he has been and the people he has met during the week commencing Monday 11 November to Sunday 17 November 2019.

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Monday (11 November), a School Remembrance Service was held at Rochdale Town Hall, organised by Margaret Smith, town centre chaplain, to commemorate Armistice Day and show our younger generation what remembrance is all about.

I entered the service with a flag bearer from the Royal British Legion and Wing Commander David Forbes (president of the Rochdale branch of the royal British legion), parading into the great hall. The Exhortation was recited:

‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them.’

The Last Post was sounded, and a two-minute silence was held before the Kohima Epitaph - 'When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today’ - and a prayer was said. Father Michael Johonnett, one of my chaplains for the year, also read a passage from the Bible.

This was a moving memorial service for the children from several schools, which is held every year in Rochdale. Hopefully, they will carry on the tradition themselves in the future.

I must congratulate Margaret for putting the event together, making it an easy to understand service, and all the pupils for behaving so sensibly and respectfully.

After the service, we went outside to the cenotaph to lay wreaths.

 

 

 

Wednesday (13 November) I was invited The Strand Hub, Kirkholt, for a ‘Feeding the Forces’ luncheon. This was in a new facility inside the hub, where veterans can prepare hot meals.

The veterans had got themselves together and trained one another up to cook, under the direction of the head chef, Noel Goulding, who was a chef in the armed forces, to prepare a meal for the poppy day sellers, which I was also invited to.

What an extremely tasty meal it was, and beautifully served up – no army beans or crackers for us! It was succulent chicken in a wonderful sauce and fresh vegetables of the day, which was finished off with a very exotic looking sweet, that I don’t know the name of.

Thank you to chef Noel and to Rachel Saunders, RBH Activity Co-ordinator, who also organised this event.

 

 

Later on Wednesday, I welcomed the Mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyy, to Rochdale. This was a civic reception we put on for the Mayor, from Ukraine, whilst he was in the UK. He had some companions with him – one being an interpreter and the other members of Lviv City Council.

We picked Andriy up from the airport in the mayor’s car and brought him to Rochdale Town Hall for the start of the civic tour. We started at Rochdale Pioneers Museum, which he requested to go to specifically for a tour and enjoyed. We were welcomed by Liz McIvor, Heritage Trust Manager, who was very knowledgeable, really helpful, and explained the co-operative movement very clearly. We all really enjoyed it.

A big thank you to Liz and the other members of staff at the museum for showing us around.

We then travelled to Hanson Springs for a business tour. I wanted to show the Mayor of Lviv a worldwide successful business that was based in Rochdale. We were made very welcome by Malcolm Hanson, as always, who guided us around and is always very accommodating. He explained how around 90% of his products are exported, it is a terrific place.

 

 

We then came back to the town centre, where a remembrance service was held in Rochdale Memorial Gardens at the Holodomor Memorial Stone.

The Holodomor was an artificial famine in Ukraine between 1932 and 1933, which saw approximately seven to ten million innocent men, women and children brutally starved to death by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, in an attempt to force the Ukrainians to adopt their ways. Whole villages were wiped out from starvation.

We commemorated all who died with the Mayor of Lviv and members of the local Ukrainian community.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/131519/rochdale's-ukrainian-community-remembers-86th-anniversary-of-tragic-holodomor-genocide

 

 

The Mayor and his companions then engaged in a full tour of the town hall and commented on what an amazing building it is, before a civic dinner was held for them in the evening with the leader of the council Allen Brett, Councillor Janet Emsley, Malcolm Hanson and his wife Maureen, and other distinguished guests.

I would say it was a very successful day.

 

 

Thursday evening (14 November) The Bachelors Show was held at Empire on Packer Street in aid of the Mayor’s Charity, which raised an amazing £1,738!

With original member of The Bachelors group, John Stokes, plus two others, the show entertained guests with 60s music and John recalled stories and memories behind their hits. Carnaby Street were also the warmup group who opened brilliantly, performing 70s hits, and a very funny comedian, Mike Lancaster, came on after. We also had a big raffle to raise further funds.

 

 

Thank you to The Bachelors for performing and to Dave Richardson from Hydro 16 for organising the event along with Moreen Friar, Dulce Bolton and Doreen Stott from Parkinson’s UK.

Dulce and Doreen raised a further £1,100 for the Mayor’s Charity Appeal on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 November by completing a bag pack at Morrisons in Heywood.

Finally, thank you to the owners of Empire, Paul Whitham and Anne Marie, who gave the event their full support. What a super venue the Empire is; the last time I went in there was to watch films when it was a cinema!

 

 

Friday 15 November was the Neeli Mosque Awards Evening, which I presented to youngsters alongside former member of Rochdale Youth Parliament, Sarah Mahmood.

The certificates were given to those who had been studying the Quran during the summer holidays. It was an enjoyable experience for me in a mosque, which I have never been in before, to see the smiles on the faces of the young recipients who behaved impeccably.

 

 

Saturday (16 November) I was invited to the 410th LAA (Lancashire authors’ association) meeting, which was a really enjoyable experience. As you can tell, the association has been going for many years!

There are many events that you go along to as the mayor that you are not quite sure what they’re about, and this was one of them. When I got there, I learnt about the association and how they were celebrating Lancashire Day - a celebration that happens normally on the 27 November.

This is a group of like-minded people who are passionate about maintaining Lancashire dialect, with members of the LAA present, as well as President Sid Calderbank and Chair Judith Addison. They work to maintain Lancashire history, traditions, literature and dialect, and are very passionate about Lancashire.

The evening opened with me reading the Lancashire Day Proclamation, then we all enjoyed some Lancashire hotpot and apple pie. I then presented special awards and readings and dialect items were presented as well as a table quiz about Lancashire.

We had a book presentation by Carol Talbot on Annie Kenny who was a working-class suffragette associated with Emeline Pankhurst. Then we heard from husband and wife team, Ron and Sally Williams, who recited some Lancashire dialect poetry which was very funny.

A lady called Alison Brailsford later sang some Edwin Waugh songs, who was famous in Rochdale and still is with the Edwin Waugh Society.

What was amazing to me is that I recognised the dialect as my mother used to come out with the same words, so I had no problem understanding. It was a really pleasant walk for me down memory lane.

I must give thanks to the president, chair and members for making us more than welcome. Your enthusiasm for the Lancashire dialect was abounding.

Saturday night, I finished my mayoral week at Middleton Christmas Lights Switch On. Hundreds and hundreds of people attended to get into the Christmas spirit and there was a carnival like atmosphere.

This was an enjoyable experience for me as it is the first Christmas lights switch on I have attended as the Mayor.

Mayoral Invitations

​​​​The Mayor welcomes invitations to events held by local organisations and individuals. Due to demand, it may not be possible for the Mayor to attend every event he is invited to.

To invite the Mayor to your event please complete the Mayor attendance form and return it to the Mayor's Officer.

Visit: www.rochdale.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/mayors/Pages/mayoral-invitations.aspx

Email: mayoral@rochdale.gov.uk

Tel: 01706 924773