Polio SA

17/05/2023

04/05/2023

Many Congratulations David

Councillor David Leeks is more than ready to take over as Mayor for Basingstoke and Deane in a few weeks’ time, after serving as Deputy Mayor for the past 12 months. He is one of the longest standing Councillors and for his term as Mayor he will be prioritising volunteering. No stranger to public ...

04/05/2023

Preparations for the polio vaccine provision for Afghanistan are underway, according to senior diplomat Retno Marsudi.

26/04/2023

WHO and partners are aiming to interrupt all remaining transmission of poliovirus in 2023. Will the world eradicate this debilitating disease in 2023? How far have we come in our efforts and what will it take to bring the cases down to zero? WHO’s Aidan O’Leary explains in Science in 5

25/04/2023

14/04/2023

Can you work out what these diseases all have in common? 🤔

13/04/2023

"I lost everything: the ability to move, my legs wouldn't support me, and then I couldn't breathe," she recalls. Paul-Alexanderthe American that many call "Polio Paolo". The Texan is one of the last people in the world still addicted to an iron lung. your life is one history of struggles…

13/04/2023

Shark legend Valerie Taylor and her latest fight to save our most feared predator.

16/03/2023

❤

What a fabulous older woman, we love Delia Barry’s story! You’re never too old to be an internet star.
When not at bingo, Delia Barry, 83, is usually knitting at home in Ireland. Four of her sweaters appear in the Oscar-nominated film “The Banshees of Inisherin,” which is set on a fictional island in 1923, toward the end of the Irish civil war. These include a navy roll-neck and a red pullover with a distinctive long collar, both worn by Colin Farrell; a thick blue knit worn by Brendan Gleeson; and a purplish ribbed fisherman’s sweater worn by Barry Keoghan. Esquire U.K. called “Banshees” the “Next Great Knitwear Film.”

Ms. Barry received a shout-out in the film’s credits, for knitwear, and her story has since gone viral on Instagram and TikTok, where teenagers and 20-somethings have shown off their attempts to recreate her designs.

Knitting is therapeutic for Ms. Barry. “When you’re living on your own, it’s nice to have something to do,” she said. She knitted the sweaters for “The Banshees of Inisherin” during one of Ireland’s pandemic lockdowns, spending a week on each. “It kept me sane,” she said.

The film has been praised for the way it deals with masculinity, friendship and loneliness, but ageing is also a theme, especially the fear that one has not made enough of one’s life. In one scene, Mr. Gleeson stands before Mr. Farrell and says, “I just have this tremendous sense of time slipping away from me.” Ms. Barry identifies with that sentiment.

“This is all coming too late for me,” she said. “I do think if this had happened maybe 20 years ago it would have been nice.”

Still, she added, “I’m not past it yet.” Her recent success has made her feel valued, she said, and she is already at work with the movie’s costume designer Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh on pieces for a new film.

“Because you get older, it doesn’t mean that you’re not useful anymore,” Ms. Barry said. “There’s a lot we can do, if we want to.”

(Excerpts from an article by The New York Times published March 12, 2023.
Photo of Delia Barry by Ellius Grace)