Yesteryears: Rockabye Sweet Baby James - Emergency delivery of baby in Tipperary Garda Station

For our Yesteryears feature this week we go back a decade to our edition dated November 22, 2012.

Our main front page story that week was a joyful one about the arrival of a new baby but in somewhat unusual circumstances. Reporter Sian Moloughney’s piece was headlined: “Baby James makes a surprise arrival at Cahir Garda Station”.

It reported that as a couple were on their way from Donohill in west Tipperary to South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel, after 10 o’clock at night, there was a realisation that the baby wasn’t going to wait until Clonmel. Cahir Garda Station became an emergency delivery room, en route, and the rest is history.

Breda Leahy (accompanied by her husband Aidan) were assisted in Cahir Garda Station by three gardaí Louise Hickey, Gerry Canty and Kieran Donovan who all played their part in the safe delivery of Baby James, much to the relief and delight of all. Twenty-five minutes after the safe delivery an ambulance arrived to bring Breda and her new son to South Tipperary General Hospital.

An accompanying photo showed the happy family all safely back at home in Donohill where older siblings Ciara and Brendan were thrilled with their new baby brother.

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Take a look back!

In another story on the front page that week, we featured more heroic gardaí and a local man who were all honoured for their bravery at an awards ceremony in Farmleigh House, Phoenix Park. Gardaí John Hennessy and Shaun Brosnan were presented with silver medals of bravery, while their Clonmel-based colleague Garda Mary Lonergan and Noel Wall from Clerihan received certificates of bravery.

The four were honoured by the Deeds of Bravery Council for saving a man, aged in his 40s, from a burning house at Fernville, Clerihan, on November 4, 2010, just minutes before the ceiling of the bedroom he was found in collapsed into the fire, reported Aileen Hahesy.

Also that week, plans to locate a new state-of-the-art Garda Station, LIT, VEC and County Council offices at the empty Kickham Barracks sites were revealed by Deputy Tom Hayes who said that Defence Minister Alan Shatter had given the all-clear for the plans and that capital funding would be in the 2014 budget.