Family recall ‘freak’ farm accident

A fundraiser for a Carrigallen farmer who was left paralysed after a quad incident has raised over €20,000.

The Grimes family held a coffee morning with a twist last November, where several friends and neighbours gathered, in the same way they did when their neighbour James Grimes was in hospital after a farm accident.

On a cold but dry winter’s day, tea, coffee, home baked goods and hot whiskeys were passed around the Grimes’ shed, where they held the event.

People stayed for hours, and when darkness fell, they moved inside. That’s how it is at James Grimes’ home. Located along a popular Carrigallen walkway, his door is always open for a céilí. The day also featured a visit by the Leitrim Harriers, and the local trad group too.

“There turned up a lot of people,” James said, agreeing that he was shocked so many came out in support of the fundraiser.

“We’re very humbled by the whole lot,” his daughter Helena McGovern adds.

“The effort of neighbours, friends, relations, everything. Daddy was eleven months and one week in hospital and I think there was only three or four days that he didn’t have a visitor,” Helena told the Celt.

“It was unbelievable, anybody from around here and anybody that was of Carrigallen descent that was living in Dublin called in.”

The day raised a total of €21,104 which was donated to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire for the James Grimes Social Comfort Fund. The fund aims to give a “lift” to people in their care by going to a concert, a football game or some sort of activity that would put a smile on the patient’s face.

Helena organised the fundrasier after her father James was left paralysed on June 5, 2024 when the quad he was travelling on in his field overturned.

Earlier that morning, the now 84-year-old got up, pulled cabbage and rhubarb for dinner later on and went off fencing on the quad for the day.

What was supposed to be a sunny day working the fields became a nightmare when the “freak accident” occurred, leaving James unable to move. Due to the location of the accident and heavy rain previously, James had to be airlifted to The Mater Hospital in Dublin. The Carrigallen farmer was conscious throughout the ordeal, where he suffered multiple fractures and a displaced breastbone.

While the incident was not “life threatening”, it was life altering. He obtained a spinal injury which left him paralysed from the lower diaphragm down. During his near one year stint in hospital, he was transferred from the Mater to Sligo and to Dún Laoghaire where his rehabilitation progressed.

“I was up and down with this yoke, the power chair, there was lots of space for me,” James said, adding that he has “got used to” using the electric wheelchair.

“The visits kept him going and kept his morale up,” Helena praised.

While the family praised all the staff, “one particular girl went above on beyond”. This Speech and Language Therapist “scoured” Dublin looking for boxty for James.

“She had never heard of boxty before that,” Helena said.

While James says there was “hard days” as he was dealing with a “big change” in his life, he is happy to be back in his Carrigallen home.

He returned home on May 11 last year and now oversees what happens on his suckler farm. James has also learned how to use an iPad, where he keeps an eye on what’s going on in the mart.

Alexa is also a “God send” as he can listen to the local news on the radio.

James has been farming since he left school at the age of 13, while he also drove a school bus to Moyne school for 33 years. Despite the accident, Helena believes the quad was “one of the best things” to have come around the house, as it allowed her father to continue to see to his fields.

“We often watched Daddy going over and back [on the quad], it was a great liberty to him. He could reach parts of the farm that he probably wasn’t going to be walking to.

“He never went fast, it was a freak accident and that’s exactly what accidents are,” she says, however adds that you “have to be mindful” with farm machinery.

Having grown up on a farm, she said that farmers are under “huge pressure”; watching the calendar, the weather and even the neighbours to determine when they can do their work. She said this pressure “can lead to rushing” and reminded farmers that “accidents can happen in seconds.”

“Daddy has two very young grandchildren, I have four grandchildren and they are machinery mad. Absolutely machinery mad and you can’t take that from them.”

However she added: “A working farm is dangerous.”

James was “delighted” with the amount raised by the fundraiser, and the entire family thanked everybody who supported the fund and those who have cared and continue to care for James.