The long arm of the law delivers Daingean baby

Tullamore-based Garda Nichola Gleeson probably didn't think the long arm of the law meant her duties extended to delivering babies, but that's exactly what she found herself doing last Monday night in Daingean. Mother of three Niamh Longworth saw the August 15 due date for her third baby come and go. One week later - last Monday night - baby Longworth made her intentions felt however, and like her previous two births Niamh expected she was in for a long labour. With her lorry-driver husband Damien working, she called sister-in-law Imelda over to keep her company at about 10.30pm. Just a couple of hours later Niamh knew she wasn't going to be able to wait, and after remembering seeing two Gardaí on Daingean's Main Street earlier her brother Stephen asked them to come to the house to provide a Garda escort on the way to Portlaoise hospital. Niamh's labour was too far gone to go to hospital, however, and so with the help of her husband who had just arrived in the door, Garda Nicola Gleeson, her sister-in-law, mother and paramedics over the phone, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl called Mia at 1.40am on Tuesday morning. Describing the eventful birth, Niamh's husband Damien said he was expecting things to move so slowly he debated stopping for a snack in Portlaoise on his way home from Kilkenny. "She was so calm that when I was going through Portlaoise I was thinking to myself would I get something to eat now because I'm going to be in hospital all night," he laughed. Arriving home at 1.15am, Damien found himself taking over the position of head midwife at the birth of his child and even though he said he was at the births of both of his older children Aaron (6) and Finn (14 months), it didn't prepare him at all for the job in hand. With help from Garda Gleeson and Imelda, and taking instruction from paramedics Ollie and Gerry, Damien helped baby Mia make her way into the world in the front hall of her own new home. Though both Imelda and Damien say Niamh was extremely calm, neither Damien nor Niamh have any plans to have more children at home, or even in hospital. "We said we'd keep going until we had a girl," Damien explained. Niamh and baby Mia were bundled up and brought to Portlaoise hospital immediately after the birth, and came home again last Wednesday. Looking back on the whole thing Damien said he's just glad it all worked out. "A thousand things could have happened, but nothing went wrong, thank God."