Thirty-four years
ago Marjorie McNally left Ireland and emigrated to America. She came back on vacation several times in
the intervening years but last weekend she returned to Athy to celebrate in the
Clanard Hotel a special occasion with family and friends. Her sixtieth birthday was a family occasion
but also one which was to be shared with those with whom she had formed
friendships stretching back over forty years.
As a teenager
living in Coursetown, Marjorie and her brother Joe were members of Ogra Chara,
a youth club established in Athy in 1957 by local secondary school pupil
Michael O’Neill. Michael was the son of
a migrant worker from the Kerry Gaeltacht who came to work and live in
Athy. With the co-operation of Brother Dalton,
principal of the Christian Brothers School, Michael called a meeting in the
school which led to the setting up of Ogra Chara in Athy. Cara, as it was called by those of us who
were it’s first members, was intended to bring together like-minded young
people to promote the Irish language and Irish culture. Irish dancing, of the dancing at the
cross-roads type and involving a healthy combination of male and female participants,
was to the forefront of the club’s activities.
I remember well our practised efforts in that respect in the ballroom of
the Town Hall on Sunday afternoons, while on other occasions the social club
hall in St. John’s Lane was similarly used.
It was a wonderful time to be young and carefree and the social contact
with the girls of St. Mary’s Secondary School who were members of Cara afforded
many of us our first insight into the wonderful world of polite female
company.
Amongst those who
travelled to Athy for the birthday celebration was Noel Dunne, now retired and
living near Bristol. Originally from 19
Upper St. Joseph’s Terrace where his father Denis carried on the tailoring
business, Noel was one of several children.
I was interested to hear Noel talk of the local tailors who had worked
with his father way back in the 1940’s and ‘50’s. Darby Delaney of The Bleach, Johnny Connell
of Geraldine, Jack Doyle of Dooley’s Terrace and Peter Cashen who would later
set up his own business in Carlow. But
who was it lived in No. 2 Dooley’s Terrace and who also did tailoring work for
Denis Dunne? His name could not be
recalled and neither could Noel name the local woman who worked exclusively in
making waistcoats for his father. Noel’s
older brother Anthony, now deceased, was a barber in Athy and a leading member
of the Knights of Malta, in charge of the Cadet section. I remember Anthony’s involvement in the
Knights of Malta, coinciding as it did with my time as a volunteer cadet, and
recall with pride his tutoring and coaching which inspired the Athy Cadets to
win the Leinster First Aid Competition in Navan in 1959.
Noel Dunne was
involved in Cumann na Rinncoirí , an Irish dancing club which emerged in Athy
in the early 1950’s as part of the activities of the local Gaelic League. Because of his involvement with the Cumann,
Noel was approached by Michael O’Neill to become Ceannphoirt or Chairman of
Ogra Chara. He was working in Doyle
Brothers of William Street at that time and as Ceannphoirt of Ogra Chara Noel
oversaw its development through organising classes in Irish dancing and Irish
language courses. He emigrated to London
in the 1960’s to work with London Transport, retiring about eleven years ago,
and now lives in Nailsea near Bristol.
With his wife Margaret he made the journey to Athy to celebrate Marjorie
McNally’s birthday and to meet many of the once young teenagers who were
members of Aontas Ogra in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.
It was a wonderful
opportunity to bring together some of those who over forty years ago featured
so prominently in photographs taken on Ogra Chara outings and functions. Photographs brought along to the birthday
party and eagerly pored over included coverage of a trip to the Rock of
Dunamaise (which after 47 years or so I can still vividly recall) and a pageant
in St. John’s Hall (which I cannot remember at all). Once familiar faces captured on film all
those years ago in some instances did not immediately bring names to mind,
while others were instantly and unmistakably recognised.
Another to travel
from England for the occasion was Marjorie’s brother, Joe McNally, who like
almost all of my friends from Aontas Ogra days is now retired. Joe and his sister were born in Coursetown
and lived with their late uncle Jack Kelly and his wife. Their father, David, was from County Louth
and like his father and many generations back was a stone mason. David McNally came to Athy to take up an
apprenticeship as a stone mason with Shortts of Stradbally. He married Jack Kelly’s sister, Mary, who
worked in Crawley’s Bakery in William Street.
David McNally later worked for McKeown Stone Masons of Stradbally and it
is said that he constructed in 1954 the Marian Shrine in Rathstewart. It is quite likely that David McNally, who
was then working in Stradbally, was involved in building the Marian Shrine as
the granite slabs which form the arch in the shrine came from an old house in
that area. It is known however that John
Murphy of St. Michael’s Terrace, assisted by John McEvoy of Rathstewart, worked
on the shrine and perhaps David McNally did so also. Certainly the late Joe O’Neill of St.
Joseph’s Terrace who was involved in the Marian Shrine project always
acknowledged David McNally’s contribution.
Marjorie who
travelled from Texas with her husband and family was delighted to meet old
friends from her Aontas Ogra days. Olga
Rowan, Claire Bracken, Margaret Clandillon, Ann Dooley and Mary Conlan were
there, as were Ted Kelly, Ted Wynne, Liam Hughes, Eddie Hearns, Des Ryan, Ed
Loughman and Frank English. It was the
last named who kept us mesmerised with his total recall of events and
happenings which had slipped other minds.
Maybe a slight tinge of guilt had prompted the erasing of some memories,
but for Frank English no such barrier presented itself as he regaled us with
story after story of youthful indiscretions and the enjoyment of young innocent
days. Trips to the Rock of Dunamaise, to
the Scalp in the Dublin foothills and to the only other Aontas Ogra club which
met in a basement in Molesworth Street in Dublin were some of my memories of
the early days of the club. They were
wonderful days and it was a great pleasure to have had the opportunity of
meeting again some of those involved at that time. Congratulations to Marjorie Clymer, formerly
McNally, on her sixtieth birthday and a hearty thanks to her husband Charlie
and her family for the opportunity to revisit some memories from what now seems
such a long time ago.
But if forty-five
years or more seems a long time, how must it appear to a septuagenarian whom I
am told celebrated his birthday last week.
Best wishes to Cyril Osborne, whose son David, now the third generation
of the Osborne family to practice law in Athy, will be getting married next
Saturday.
Buried in St.
Michael’s Cemetery are two of the famous Beasley brothers, Willie and Jack, who
with their brothers Tommy and Harry, rode in the English Grand National of
1879. It was a unique occasion but the
famous amateur jockeys, all sons of John Lapham Beasley of Skerries House,
Athy, would go on to create a remarkable record of family success in the Grand
National. The Beasley brothers won four
Grand Nationals, came second on six occasions and third on two occasions. Willie died following a fall at Punchestown in
1892 and was buried in the family plot at St. Michael’s Cemetery, Athy and his
brother Johnny, known as Jack, was also buried there when he died six years
later. I am anxious to fill in some gaps
in the information I have on the Beasley’s, including their well known
descendants, Bobby and Rufus, and would welcome hearing from anyone who can
help me in that regard.
