To the people of Dunderry and its surrounds George was known as Georgin Hetridge or affectionately as just Georgin.It was only those of more remote origin who called him George.
All the people of the Curragh Boreen and its surrounds ,where he lived his entire life ,called him Georgin,as did my mother's people the Mc Cormacks,who adored him .
He has looked after the mechanical needs of my Grandfather Paddy Mc Cormack,who never drove either a tractor nor a car but who was an expert on the horse,having drove horses and carts loaded with hay to Dublin's Smithfield for sale to Guinnesses or the British Army in the period 1914 to 1918.
As well as fixing horse drawn machinery for my grandfather ,including a binder ,Georgin welded a step onto the frame of a Raleigh bicycle to help my granda mount the bike when age caught up with him well into his eighties.
He fixed cars and tractors for all my uncles,Paddy,Jimmy,Tommy and Joe, for me and all my siblings and for all my kids and for my cousins.
Joe never drove a car but loved a Massey 35 ,which he was never out of and which Georgin kept going through thick and thin. Joe had absolute faith in him ,although it wavered once when after giving it to him to fix,he went over to check on his progress and found the engine to be totally dismanteled and all the parts stored in a wheelbarrow."Jasus Davey he said he'll never put it back together again".But he did and it went better than ever .
It was a rule of thumb for my Grandfather,Joe and Tommy,me and my siblings and all of my kids that we always paid him above and beyond what he asked for.
All his customers knew that he worked cheap and was not greedy.Some were so ungrateful that not only did they not pay him but came back afterwars and stole from him.
It is a fact that in his last illness some person or persons of ill breeding,probally customers ,took advantage of his hospital stay to rob his car transporter and a number of batteries,the Curse of God on them.He was mightily upset .
He was born in February of 1945 ,the last years of the Second World War.His father was German and his mother was Maureen Hebert of the Curragh Boreen .His father dropped dead when Georgin was 3 months old and his mother went to Social Welfare in Navan to got assistance as a young widow.
I am reliably informed that she was sneered at by the person she met there and told not to be trying it on.She got nathing and returned to work in the Carpet factory
The Herberts took in Georgin and raised him.His uncle George had bought the house that Georgin eventually owned from Tommy Farrelly in the 1960,s ,which was formerly a shop.It was devised to Georgin.
The Herberts were more progressive mechanically than the Mc Cormacks in that they owned tractors before them.Not great tractors mind you and it fell to Georgin to keep them going.He told me he was fixing tractors and machinery from the age of six.This is the source of his vast knowledge of all things mechanical..
Later in life he spent an apprenticeship with Peadar Toibin's father in Navan,another genius from whom he learned a lot.
There was no better man to reconstruct a faulty part from two or three disgarded parts saving you a fortune.For example he could rewire a solenoid or a coil no problem.,a skill learned from Toibin.
When he did go to school he went to Dunderry but told me he rarely attended,not the best of a pupil.
I would have seen him often 1953 to 1965 when I lived in Blanchardstown and practicall daily from 1986 until he died .
We got on a well together but were never in each others pockets.I f he was not there and I passing I would keep an eye on the place ,going as fas as to challenge visitors as to their business.H e had been robbed several times
Georgin once told me that decades ago a good friend had been put out of his house and had nowhere to stay and sought refuge in his house.Georgin gave it but yer man took to the bed ,bunkered in and refused to move on,despite multiple requests.
Until he came home one night full of wine and attacked yer man's bed with a chainsaw,yer man being in it.B y the time he started on the third leg yer man was half way to Dunderry.
Georgin never married but was never short of a woman.Women liked him instinctively.The love of his life was Joan Murray from Trim and they lived together for decades.She was some character and he chose to be buried beside her in St.Lomans,where they rest together.
Their relationship was loud but never violent.The only time I ever heard Georgin cursing was when Joan aggravated him.I f you live near St.Lomans and hear loud noised at night I have a fair idea of their source.
My uncles used tell the story of how Georgin and Joan met up and it went like this.
He was a very inventive sort of guy,for example he made a plane that flew out of scrap parts ,it could fly but he could never get the knack of landing and after a number of near death experirences he lost interest.
But he saw a chance to make a few bob painting hay sheds away from electical sources at a time when generators were scarces than hen's teeth.He invented a sprayer from a combination of a car trailer,a Volkswagon engine ,a compressor and a beer barrell.
Business was brisk and he took on a lady helper and they seemingly fell in love.
He told the Macs he was going to Englant where some of her family lived. to get married.
They waited with baited breath for their return. Home he came allright but with Joan instead of his original intended.
It became clear that she liked a jar and a smoke and it was thought that she brought a few shillings from a divorce over there.She funded a new shed to give him more comfort in his trade but he took little heed.He used the garage to store parts and continuued to fix all in the open air,hail,rain or shine.His choice.
They settled in to life and on the whole got on well.most of the time.
The outside of the house and garage was fierce untidy and full of used parts,engines etc.Very few knew what the inside was like,but I did.
I found out when they asked me in for dinner.The house was impeccable inside,.-.there were 4 courese served that day,soup ,main course of meat and veg and spuds,desert and cheese ,crakers and tea.
She was some cook and this was not a once off,I got several more dinners.
Whenever the dinner was ready she used roar at a GEORGIN to come and ate it irrespective of who was in the yard.This was at times a cause of discord.
One such encounter led to a Court Appearance against him caused by her.When the judge heard the facts he dismissed the prosecution .Georgin had had enough of Joan and drove straight home from Navan,leaving her to paddle her own canoe.
That evening the Gardai landed out to him beseeching him to collect her in Navan,where she was on the tear and causing trouble .And so he did.
Mattie Lawless a former friend and neighbour of his ,along with other locals went to Bermuda in the early 80. s to make their fortune.He worked at tarmacadam and they had fierce trouble getting reliable mechanics there.H e begged Geoagin to go over,board and lodgings paid .He refused,preferring the Boreen.
He could and did fix anything from a washing machine to a digger,supertruck and would never see you stuck,ofetn traveek lling miles to get you out of a hole.
My wife Agnes has a brother in law living around London.By coincidence brother of Joan's landed at theirs to do landscaping one day.Dunderry abu.
Any how this guy ,although of Indian and Portugese origin is very English in some regards .particularly regarding cars.He loves them.
One year while staying with us something went in his practically new Austin.I brought him to Georgin.He made the mistake of judging his machanical genius against his grease monkey appearance and the untideness of his yard.
He left the car for a day and collected it then expecting the worse.It functioned perfectly.
Being of little faith as soon as he got back to England he went to the marque garage to get the job double checked.The answer he got was "Tell me ,did that guy patent that fitting he made yet,it improves the mechanics involved hugely on the original fitting."
This is true.
For a man of slight stature ,he was hugely strong,ofter balancing gear boxes on his knees. Other mechanics came to him when they were fLummoxed.
He loved his fags.Our Davy was passing bye one day and he was roaring in pain rolling around the yard clutching his knee.It transpired that he had been trying to remove thet tyre of the back wheel of a tractor with a bar and a sledge while standing on the rim ,had slipped while swinging the sledge and busted his knee.
Davy got him up ,sat him down and asked if he wanted water ,"Just light me a fecking fag "said he.
He was avery courageous guy ,despite his small stature and was afraid of no one.Before WE moved down here to live himself,myself Joe and Tommy went to Trim for a drink.Sitting together we were having the best of fun,when an off duty Guard came into the pub and was nasty to him.Loudly nasty and sneeringly nasty.
Pulling himself to his full height and putting his cheast out he said"Since you come all you have done is persecuted me for no reason ,now its time you fucked off."He was applauded and a chastened Guard did fuck off.
Georgin did not like Guards and certain Guards did not like him.
He was not sporty but in the 1980's himself and Oliver Travers gave vouchers for services and indeed money for helmets or hurleys to me for GAA purposes ,no big deal to them.Decent men that they were.
Possibly the worst golf team ever to play was for a Dunderry GAA Classic decades ago in Blighs course in Trim,Georgin,Leather Callaghan and myself.All three of us were brutal,together we were a disaster.Georgin used place himself above the ball and swing the club like a clock pendelum lowering it down progressively until it made contact with the ball ,driving iy at best 10 yards.
By the time we reached the 17th.hole everybody,including a ladied team of two over 80's had passed us by.Just after hitting off on the 18th.another ladies team roared at us rather aggressively to make way No said Leather."But ye let the last Ladies through." "But they were ladies SAID lEATHER."
Georgin was the kindest of men.Once while a passenger of him coming up the boreen ,he suddenly braked and got out of the car.He picked up a barely feathered chick that had fallen from the branches and put it back up on a branch.He was pro life entirely and would never kill any defenceless unborn human being.
He was not as classically educated as say Peter Boylan ,former Master of Holles Street.nor Varadkar,Martin,Ryan and all his Greena nor the mutton headed fella from Tipp who has turned Labour into a death squad for the unborn,nor that Mary Lou who has a cheek maintaining that she is the successor of the men and women who fought for Independence.
He had more nature in his pinkeen than they HAVE IN THEIR COMBINED BODIES.
He was not a great man to go to Mass but did entertain the Jehovas Witnesses.He never ran down Catholics nor other Christians.
As far as I am concerned he had an inate decency and always did the right thing without fear or favour
He once told me that the biggest let down he had was one Christmas DAY WHEN HE WAS LYING IN BED WITH DOUBLE PNEUMONIA ,a so caaled customer walked into the bedroom asking would he get up and fix his car.
Towards the end I used joke with him that the gravediggers would want to fill in the grave quickly because some person might knock on it asking could he fix their car.He used grin.
Johnny Griffin ,his great friend spent three days before his death running potential customers from his yard and advising they go elsewhere.
Two days before he died I got a premonition that he was on the way to God and went over to his half brother.s Brendan Mc ConnellS house ,who together with his wife Marie a nursing sister and their two daughters he lived with this last six tears and who nursed him to perfection the last 7 months of his life .
It was about mid day and he was asleep so I left,knowing full we would not meet again.
At Georges request I visited Joan in Hospital two days before she died.Both knew that I had the cure of bleeding and I prayed for her.I asked her how she was." Im dying ya fecking eejit " .I left a Rosary beads under her pillow.
I was fortunate enough to be asked to join his entourage from the house.A crowd of neighbours had gathered at the top of tyhe lane and clapped his hearse.All of Dunderry turned out to clap him through.
Just what you would expect for a kind,deceny .well grounded gentleman.
I saw him last about a week before he died.H e was taking a pull on a cigarettr.H e died as he lived.
On my behalf and that of my entire family I offer my sympathies to his half siblings,Michael,Brendan and Seamus,Mary,Margaret and Geraldine and all his inlaws and friends,and to the relatives of Alfie,who predeceased him.
As a matter of historical interest George and his current partner at the time attended the weddings of my six married children.I am proud of thiss
Ar Dheis De go Raibh a hanam dilis.
George loved his mother Maureen unconditionally all of her life.She was active until her mid nineties.She.
was a hardy old bird and it is certain that herself and Georgin are comparing notes in Heaven.
At one stage Joan took over Georges business and launched a solo career in the car business.She had a young guy in the yard doing what she directed.He knew less about cars than she did.The venture lasted about 2 weeks.In this time she ran from the yard those she deemed to be bad payers,using the most colorful language.
Georgin had a unique modus operandi ,which can best explained by the following experience I suffered .
One winter's night,with the rain pelting down there was a loud rap on the window of the bedroom we slept in in our Dunderry bungalow.(Our friends knew to knock on the window rather than the door).I answered to be greeted by the sight of Joan,soaked to the bone,wearing a fur coat,her makeup and miscara streaked down her face,and carrying a lady dog ,asking for shelter.Trying to contain my mirth I asked her in and she said to me ."that little bollix I am married to fixes everybodies car in the country except mine.I was driving home from my , mothers in Trim and the car went dead outside the B and I and I had to walk the three miles since and the fucking dog won't walk in the puddles,I have had to carry him here."
We fed her and dried her and left her h home.
When I was turning in the yarrd she instructed me to wait.She wanted to see Georgin.He might need a lift.She wnt in swinging and my friend scuttled into my car amidst a hail of crocery.I put the foot to the metal and headed for the B and I. and towed him home.
He had ,it emerged,swapped the good battery in Jaon's car for a bad one in the car of a customer because they needed the money and not told her..
Still he loved her and she him.Takes all types.
The ship that never sailed she never sank.
You'll never get out of this world alive.
