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£150,000 art auction proceeds to provide vital hospital equipment

TYRONE County Hospital in Omagh will use the £150,000 raised at the Dublin auction on Wednesday last to purchase vital rehabilitation equipment, which will speed the recovery of patients suffering in the aftermath of the Omagh bomb of August 15.
Physiotherapy patients equipment for pain relief, healing wounds and muscle stimulation, as well as sophisticated machinery to help restore muscle function.
And the Newry businesswoman, who paid £53,000 for a lithograph by Prince Charles at the National Concert Hall, has promised to bring the picture to Omagh when she next visits the town.
Mrs Agnes McCourt, founder and managing director of the slimming company Unislim, bought the print of Windsor Castle, one of 15 reproductions of a 1995 water-colour, for close at 18 times the price it was expected to reach.
Prince Charles, who visited Omagh only three days after the atrocity of August 15, was approached through the British embassy in Dublin by auction organisers Fergus Ahern and John de Vere White.
Mrs McCourt, a widowed mother-of-three, described the purchase as her personal contribution to the victims of the Omagh bomb.
"Unislim often has workshops in the Royal Arms Hotel in Omagh. We meet there with our girls from mid-Ulster, and we could so easily have been involved. We could have been out on a break at the time that the bomb went off," said Mrs McCourt.
"I wanted to do something as a way of contributing to the people in need, and to help the hospital, as I am aware of its need for equipment. The bomb was a terrible tragedy, I am sure my members in Omagh are devastated.
Also at the charity auction were Mrs Joan Colhoun, superintendent physiotherapist at the Tyrone County Hospital, and Sister Sarah Fisher, from the intensive care unit.
They watched as a painting by Donegal-born artist, Peter Byrne, donated by Colm McCrory, proprietor of Squires Gallery, raised £700 for the hospital, and a landscape by Omagh man, Liam Brogan, went for £350. But the response to the lithograph by Prince Charles exceeded all expectations.
Highlight
"There was a lot of support from the people of Dublin, and the last figure was the highlight of the night. When the Prince Charles picture went up at the very end, the atmosphere was exciting, and then a hush fell about the room with only two bidders remaining," said Sister Fisher.
"When we heard the price go to £20,000 we thought it was absolutely wonderful, but then it went up and up very quickly. It was electrifying at the end. We couldn't believe what we were hearing."
Sister Fisher congratulated Mrs McCourt and thanked her for her contribution to the hospital.
"She came across as being a very sincere person, and when she got started she didn't stop. She said she wanted to do it for the people of Omagh."
The hospital will now be able to buy much-needed equipment, which will be housed in a new outpatients facility at Riversdale House, close to the hospital's existing physiotheraphy department.
"We know what we want and what we need, including monitoring equipment for intensive care and transport monitoring equipment for the safety of critically ill patients during transport to other hospitals. The least we can do with the money is to provide the people of Omagh and the district with this essential equipment," said Sister Fisher.
Mrs Colhoun, who accompanied Sister Fisher to the auction, described it as a wonderful event.
"Everybody was a bit dumb-founded as the money was absolutely flying, and the amount in the end was overwhelming. There was the sense that people really wanted to help us so much, and we couldn't express our gratitude enough. We are now able to get something of great benefit. This is a great help." said Mrs Colhoun.
The hospital was presented with a framed print of a painting by Louis de Brocquy, an untitled oil on canvas, with a special message from the artist: "To the people of Omagh, deep in all out minds, with profound admiration and sympathy."