Mother who lost three children in separate tragedies carries out life-saving work

KERRY woman Mags Riordan couldn’t have been dealt a worse hand in life.

Her four-month-old baby daughter Niamh died in a tragic accident in 1974, when the family car rolled off the pier in their home town of Dingle.

Two years later, her young son Luke died of a cot death. And if that wasn’t enough, there was more to come in 1999. Her son Billy, a keen traveller and thrill seeker, was on holiday in Cape Maclear at Lake Malawi, when he died in a swimming accident.

But in a remarkable display of resilience, having lost three children in separate tragic circumstances, Mags was inspired to set up a clinic in Malawi, saving thousands of lives. Her story is told in documentary In The Name Of The Son on RTÉ1 on Wednesday at 10.15pm. (March 22)

The strength, vision and love of the amazing woman are laid bare – culminating in her ongoing inspirational work in the east African country, where she has set up a clinic to treat thousands of patients a month for AIDS and other prevalent diseases, named in memory of her son, Billy.

After his death, Mags was very nearly broken and close to giving up. Instead, in 2000, she made the journey to Cape Maclear, Malawi, to lay a memorial stone in his name close to where he drowned. She stayed in the area for a few months, volunteering as a teacher, and began to understand what her son had told her about finding paradise in one of the most beautiful parts of the planet.

However, she also saw how that paradise was tainted by poverty, disease, a lack of available healthcare and education.

She felt inextricably drawn to the place and returned every year, until, in 2003, she set up a The Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic.

It was founded on the goodwill of people – many of them at home in Kerry – and is still thriving. Mags now splits her time between her home in Kerry and Malawi.

The clinic is unique in its individuality and has never been granted annual funding from Irish Aid, even after President Michael D. Higgins highly praised its success on his visit to Malawi in 2017.

Each year, Mags struggles to raise the €150,000 needed to keep the place running. The ever-expanding clinic has saved thousands of lives and now she is looking at setting up a maternity unit and dental clinic and has no intention of stopping until it becomes a fully-fledged hospital.

They treat 1,800 people a month for AIDS, 3,000 children a year for Bilharzia, hundreds for Malaria and other prevalent diseases.

This amazing story has remained untold - until now.