Gaza strip is the most densely populated state in the world.It is held in a vice like grip on all sides by the States of Israel and Egypt,which totally controls the ingress and egress of all goods,services and people and has overwhelmimgly superior forces in military ,economic and naval resources.Nearly every nation in the world colluded in snatching the lands of the Palestinians from them after the self same nations mostly stood idly by and let Hitler and his Nazi machine terrorise the world's Jews and murder over six million of them and uproot many millions more from their homelands and let them resettle in the lands of the Palestinians.
Now the State of Israel is murdering daily the descendants of those Palestinians whose lands they stole.Tens of thousands of bombs are being dropped in the most densely populated area of the world.Men,women and children are legitimate fish for shooting in this packed barrel of humanity. The Jews are perpetrating on the Palestinians the same inhumanities that the Germans perpetrates on the Jews 75 years ago.
IN this they are totally unrestrained and have carte blanche from the most useless American President ever, Barrack Obama and his sidekick Hillary Clinton,the ultimate cowards,who operate drones from the full safety of distant enforced bunkers and who have the deaths of millions of innocent Afgans,Iraqies,Palestinians,Pakistanies and others too numerous to count on their stained souls.
The United Nations .more interested in persecuting octogenarian nuns at the behest of spoiled elitist girleens privately educated in luxury by nuns actually and trying to enforce the genocide of the most defenceless part of humanity,the unborrn,are like tits on a bull ,totally useless also and are the emptiest of empty barrels ,fit only for making hollow noises.
They should embark in block to Gaza and live there for the duration of the organised murders and show some modicum of bravery.Not bleeding Leakey.Their most active organ is their tongues.
Obam and Clinton ,having fucked up permanently those spots of the world where they did intervene clearly value certain races over others.
Lives lost over Ukraine are clearly more valuable than those lost o in Gaza.They are greatly exercised in goading European to get tough with Russia.That is they want Europe to go to war with Russia and fuck up Europe like thy fucked up the rest of the world.They can then twiddle with the controls of the distant drones they own ,safe in the knowledge that ,as in all things they interfere in ,they are far enough away to assure safety for their own citizens.
Of course the persecution and murder of the Christians in the quagmire they left in Iraq around Mosul is of no concern to them compared to the optics of squaring up to a bully of equal status in Russia and undoubtedly many Christians will be murdered and they6 will shrug indifference.
And the Times and Irish Independent and the electronic media will continue to spew it feminist anti Catholic bias at very opportunity in order to further undermine Catholicism thereby making more acceptable the murder of their Christian brethern in the mid and far East and worldwide.
The Devil is on the march and he has many disciples.Lest we forget.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Paddy Reilly from Kingscourt and Birmingham
Mrs Paddy Conway from this parish is a longtime friend of ours.She is also Phyllis Reilly from Kingscourt.We were talking yesterday evening at the Blessing of the graves in Churchtown when she mentioned that her brother Paddy who lives in Birmingham is a regular reader of this Blog.
Well Paddy I offer you a big Hello and am delighted to know that such a discerning person as yourself is a reader of my musings and am also delighted to know that you are familiar with the names of all the cemeteries in the parish.
Fair dues and long life mo Chara.
Well Paddy I offer you a big Hello and am delighted to know that such a discerning person as yourself is a reader of my musings and am also delighted to know that you are familiar with the names of all the cemeteries in the parish.
Fair dues and long life mo Chara.
Respectful Silence.Dunderry V Balllinlough .A League .15/07/2014.
In the run up to and the aftermath of Robert's death I've been hugely distracted and remiss in writing my blog and in other areas of activity.I have much to address in the foreseeable future if God spares me and a few articles are cooking and a few matches remain to be reported on including the football match against Kilmainham where Davy Mac had his jaw broken by a sleeven punch and is out of work since as a consequence.
But yesterday evening we played Ballonlough in the A League in Dunderry.They are at the top of the division and we linger near the bottom.We can do without being demoted as that most definitely would not be progress.
Over the years we have developed a fierce football rivalry with Bllinlough.We are both rural parishes fighting as best we can the twin plights of emigration and unemployment.We both have GAA Clubs to the fore in these fights and in developing facilities for the benefit of members.We both are punching above our weight in football terms are are minnows trying to earn the right to compete with the mostly townie sharks of senior football and hurling (Kilskyre in the case f Ballinlough Parish ).We both have fanatical supporters.And despite the fierce games rivalry we respect each other and value all that is best in the tradition of the Gaels.
It came as no a shock therefor that my Club Dunderry and Robert's Club Ballinlough ,should have held a minutes silence before the throw in to honour Robert's passing.This respectful gesture was planned without any input from me and is a mark of the type of great Gaels that still flourish in both Parishes.I am very grateful and somewhat gobsmacked by the gesture.Thanks all round.
We lined out as follows.
Jennings
A.Newman S.Harte Stefan Clarke
C.Dempsey E.Stephens M.Garry
Bomber Farrell O.Shea
A.Watters Luke Martyn M.Kane
Bob Doherty P.Kenneally D.Clarke(Swiss )
From the start the game was played at a fast pace with both teams employing a short running game involving a lot of short fisted passes with the very occasional long delivery into the full forwarsd line.Swiss operated as a third midfielder bringing the number 2 from Ballinlough with him out the field and leaving Bob and Paddy in the full forward line.We had the advantage of a strong wind behind us and knocked off seven points to their 1-4 in an entertaining first half .Their goal was a direct result of a bad pass from one of our players and we were lucky to get away with only the one goal against as a few intended passes went astray.Our scorer in chief ,as he has been these last few matches was Paddy Kenneally who is deadly both from play and frees at the moment.It is noticeable that some of our forwards lack the belief in themselves to have a go for points when well positioned to do so as they pass the responsibility on to someone else when more favourably positioned.We could possibly have gone in three up and this would have better reflected the half hours play.
Swiss and O'Shea were withdrawn through injury and concussion respectively during the interval and Teddie and Liam Dempsey introduced.
I was kind of expecting an onslaught from the now wind backed Ballinlough team in the second half but for the first 20 minutes we held our own and more ,taking the game to them and actually leading for the first fifteen.Paddy remained our main scoring threat and continued to deliver ,but Ballinlough kept in touch all the time and it became glaringly obvious that we have some weaknesses at present that are not sustainable if we are to make progress.Thea selectors are astute judges and I am full certain that they have well noted them and are hatching plans to rectify them.And will succeed.
Howecer goals win matches and they inevitably did goal and immediate tacked on a few points to effectively put the match out of reach with about five minutes left.
In fairness's to our guys they kept ploughing away and had a number of goal chances but we just could not pull the trigger to the desired effect.Both teams were awarded scored penalties which took the mean look out of our score,which was 1-11 tBallinlough's 3-9,a defeat by 5 points,a point short of the two goals from play scored by Balinlough.
We miss Coogan,we miss Davy Mac,e miss Simon.
Some lads are bursting themselves but others need to tighten up and play with more urgency.
I was in Churchtown for the Blessing of the graves beforehand and didn't have time to gather up the tools of this trade and record the scorers in more detail l.
Mea Culpa.
But yesterday evening we played Ballonlough in the A League in Dunderry.They are at the top of the division and we linger near the bottom.We can do without being demoted as that most definitely would not be progress.
Over the years we have developed a fierce football rivalry with Bllinlough.We are both rural parishes fighting as best we can the twin plights of emigration and unemployment.We both have GAA Clubs to the fore in these fights and in developing facilities for the benefit of members.We both are punching above our weight in football terms are are minnows trying to earn the right to compete with the mostly townie sharks of senior football and hurling (Kilskyre in the case f Ballinlough Parish ).We both have fanatical supporters.And despite the fierce games rivalry we respect each other and value all that is best in the tradition of the Gaels.
It came as no a shock therefor that my Club Dunderry and Robert's Club Ballinlough ,should have held a minutes silence before the throw in to honour Robert's passing.This respectful gesture was planned without any input from me and is a mark of the type of great Gaels that still flourish in both Parishes.I am very grateful and somewhat gobsmacked by the gesture.Thanks all round.
We lined out as follows.
Jennings
A.Newman S.Harte Stefan Clarke
C.Dempsey E.Stephens M.Garry
Bomber Farrell O.Shea
A.Watters Luke Martyn M.Kane
Bob Doherty P.Kenneally D.Clarke(Swiss )
From the start the game was played at a fast pace with both teams employing a short running game involving a lot of short fisted passes with the very occasional long delivery into the full forwarsd line.Swiss operated as a third midfielder bringing the number 2 from Ballinlough with him out the field and leaving Bob and Paddy in the full forward line.We had the advantage of a strong wind behind us and knocked off seven points to their 1-4 in an entertaining first half .Their goal was a direct result of a bad pass from one of our players and we were lucky to get away with only the one goal against as a few intended passes went astray.Our scorer in chief ,as he has been these last few matches was Paddy Kenneally who is deadly both from play and frees at the moment.It is noticeable that some of our forwards lack the belief in themselves to have a go for points when well positioned to do so as they pass the responsibility on to someone else when more favourably positioned.We could possibly have gone in three up and this would have better reflected the half hours play.
Swiss and O'Shea were withdrawn through injury and concussion respectively during the interval and Teddie and Liam Dempsey introduced.
I was kind of expecting an onslaught from the now wind backed Ballinlough team in the second half but for the first 20 minutes we held our own and more ,taking the game to them and actually leading for the first fifteen.Paddy remained our main scoring threat and continued to deliver ,but Ballinlough kept in touch all the time and it became glaringly obvious that we have some weaknesses at present that are not sustainable if we are to make progress.Thea selectors are astute judges and I am full certain that they have well noted them and are hatching plans to rectify them.And will succeed.
Howecer goals win matches and they inevitably did goal and immediate tacked on a few points to effectively put the match out of reach with about five minutes left.
In fairness's to our guys they kept ploughing away and had a number of goal chances but we just could not pull the trigger to the desired effect.Both teams were awarded scored penalties which took the mean look out of our score,which was 1-11 tBallinlough's 3-9,a defeat by 5 points,a point short of the two goals from play scored by Balinlough.
We miss Coogan,we miss Davy Mac,e miss Simon.
Some lads are bursting themselves but others need to tighten up and play with more urgency.
I was in Churchtown for the Blessing of the graves beforehand and didn't have time to gather up the tools of this trade and record the scorers in more detail l.
Mea Culpa.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Dunderry Grave Blessings 2014 Dunderrry
12/07/2014:After 7.30 a.m.Vigil Mass Dunderry.
13/07/2014:After 11.00 a.m.Mass Dunderry.
15/07/2014:7.30 p.m.Churchtown.
16/07/2014: 7.30. p.m.Retaine.
17/07/2014:7.30 p.m.Claddy.
17/07/2014:8.00 p.m. Kilcooley.
20/07/2014. Following 7.00 p.m.Mass Moymet.
22/07/2014:7.30 p.m.Tullaghanogue.
23/07/2014.:7.30 p.m. Blackchurch..
13/07/2014:After 11.00 a.m.Mass Dunderry.
15/07/2014:7.30 p.m.Churchtown.
16/07/2014: 7.30. p.m.Retaine.
17/07/2014:7.30 p.m.Claddy.
17/07/2014:8.00 p.m. Kilcooley.
20/07/2014. Following 7.00 p.m.Mass Moymet.
22/07/2014:7.30 p.m.Tullaghanogue.
23/07/2014.:7.30 p.m. Blackchurch..
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Tribute to Robert Stephens.ob.23/06/2014
There were nine of us.Now there are eight.There were seven boys and two girls.Now thee are six boys and two girls.I was the eldest.Robert was next.He was sixty in February gone by.I will be sixty three in August.I never thought he would pass over before me,but he did.Strange indeed are the ways of the Lord.I am devastated.I am not alone in this..Barring a period of six months in the latter end of his life we were lifelong friends and sounding boards and confidantes for each other.We always kept in touch.
And the lapse in friendship for that six months was caused by my concern for his well being,although he didn't see it that way.We reconciled a month before God took him and well and truly buried the hatchet.
In the end his death was a welcome relief as the physical and mental suffering he endured for far too long came to a conclusion,for which I for one fervently prayed.
Robert was the only true Meath man of our siblings.My mother Peggy Mac Cormack was living in the Curragh boreen with her people when she went into Labour and was rushed beside a Parish Priest's Hat by Mattie (The Buller) Rodgers to Holles Street hospital to give birth.(Every car Mattie owned had a Parish Priest's hat in the back seat to emphasise the care lavished on the car and enhance the resale value).
He was Christened in Saint Andrew's Church on the way home from Hospital to the Curragh Boreen.Soon afterwards we all moved to a house in 4 Tolka View,Blanchardstown where we were reared and from which we were all born,save myself who was born in Wales before my parents returned here with me as a baby and Robert.
Nine of us were reared in that house,which until I was sixteen years old had only two bed rooms,.one occupied by our parents and current infant and another by all the other kids,the girls having one bed and the lads having the others.I well remember sleeping four to the bed ,two at the head of the bed and two at the foot of the bed and reducing to a mere two ,myself and Robert,when Tommy Mac Cormack ,Pat Rattigan and Paddy O Gorman extended the house by two half bedrooms at the time when Mammy went to give birth to Barbara our youngest sister.( I had at sixteen years of age no idea that she was even pregnant at the time,a contrast with later times when sixteen year olds were miser by far.)
We got a fierce shock but were delighted when Mammy landed home with a new sister.
All the while at twelve years of age my sister Kathleen cooked and catered for the full family and the builders.Some lassie.
The Mac Cormacks of Dunderry were GAA fanatics ,My grandfather Paddy (auld Mac) and his brothers having played with the club and when we were holidaying here every summer as youngsters our uncle Tommy, who was Club Chairman for decades, immersed us fully in the ethos of the GAA.Joe an uncle was still playing at the time ,cap and all .and I remember many , many matches in Geraghty's field where we went to see Joe playing.Harry Lee,who worked with Horans,was a great man to hold his own in a row,I well remember.Paddy Mac Cormack another uncle who had retired from football at the time having given a lifetimes service as a player and mentor. .
In those pre electric and pre T.V. days in their house ( I think that it was only in the early sixties that electricity arrived here,my father wiring the house ),evenings were spent discussing the politics of the day,the prices of cattle and sheep and hurling and football by the light of the oil lamp.The discussions were animated and all joined in and indeed many's the person called to the door and hearing the loud voices took off again for fear that murder would result.Of course it didn't but discussion was fierce and no holds were barred.
All the time we had a football and were playing at every opportunity.And Joe and Tommy joined in.And in those pre tractor days the paddocks in front of the house were pristine and every evening we had matches ,joined by cousins Noel and Michael and Tommy Dowd and Pete Conaty and the Garrys and the Healys ,fierce and furious as we imagined playing in the showgrounds in Navan and Croke Park.And many did subsequently
Robert wsa big for his age and owned the ball.If he was bet too often he would appropriate it and make off with it , a habit he soon dropped under threat of a fierce beating.He was good even at that tender age.And our sporting education gathered pace,Robert developing into that scarce creature ,a player who could kick left and right and punch over the bar.And because of his size unbulliable by his peers.
Tommy fashioned our first hurleys with a spokes shave and broken bottles and introduced us to the game of hurling.He had a prodigious memory and he bought us our first bicycles.
In Blanchardstown too our sporting education developed under the tutelage of Paddy Murray in the National School who equally promoted Hurling and Football.Robert was outstanding in Schools football and hurling and as an aside developed a fierce interest in athletics .He used clean up in the annual sports held in the Priest's Field in Blanch winning medals for races of all distance,.He won them by the bucket full,a feat repeated in Croke Park in the Cumann na Bunschoil sports days.
I wasn't great to run myself having butty legs( my grandfather Christened me the "Butt of Oak") but ironically given his huge height advantage could best him at the hurdles and high jump where I had some limited success in the sports in Blanch and Croker ,but nothing compared to him.
WE joined St. Brigids GAA Club at the behest of Frank Russell when I was ten and all our siblings joined up in due course.
Robert was better than most at the athletics and even thiough he ran bare footed was rarely beaten.Larry Ginnell,God rest him ,kept at him to keep it up and he did with good success ,but as we had no car at home and were depending on other car owning parents for lifts didn't get to as many races as we wished.I well remember passing Fairyhiouse race course with him and another group of pals on a Sunday bicycle spin and gazing at a local competitor ,who Robert always had the measure of and who had said he was not driving to those races, passing the winning tape.That ended his athletics career and his sporting focus was totally on the hurling and football.
We both kicked senior football at sixteen years of age with Brigids.We instinctively knew where each other was lurking with intent..Robert was a good man to score even at that age and came in for special attention from certain opponents.while still a youngster.He had his jaw broken and eye socket fractured in a Senior League match against Saint Marys of Saggart .He spent a fair while in Hospital drinking through a straw but remounted the horse as it were as soon as possible and was back kicking football fairly soon as brave as ever.
Himself and myself were youngsters coming onto a mature team which included a number of inter county football players ,including Dublin players Paddy Downey,Mattie Keane,Westmeath players Davy Nolan,John Galvin and the emerging Pat and Joe O Neill ,who transferred at an early age to UCD and Civil Service, unfortunately for the Club..
I was told by Davy at Roberts funeral that the team never reached its potential because it didn't realise how good it was and didn't apply itself properly,
We stayed loyal and kept kicking football and all my siblings joined up as their time came.
I saw Robert kicking 1-8 in a final minor Dublin trial and failing to make the cut.Brigids had absolutely no pull whatsoever at County level in those days.You had to be twice as good as the big club men to get even a look in.
Robert and the rest of us soldiered along together until the late 1980s with Brigids at Senior and latterly Intermediate level until c.1988 when there was a falling out with my siblings and the Club which resulted in their acrimonious departure.
I had the honour of captaining an intermediate football team to a championships win in 1980 and Robert starred at full forward.Martin ,Cecil and Benji our brothers also figured. I was inclined to be more a committee man than Robert ,serving in every position except Treasurer and having emigrated to Dunderry in 1986 was not involved in the dispute.As a family we had over a combined century of service to the Club under our belts and it was a sad way to end the connection.Our mother and indeed myself ,who had encouraged partticipation in the Club were particularly heartbroken.
Robert too was disappointed ,particularly as he had declined to transfer to Plunketts in the early 1970.s when approached and told that his Dublin chances would be greatly enhanced were he to transfer there.I was approached myself by Scoil O Conaill to transfer and declined also.
Life goes on however and my brothers and Robert resurrected Erin go Brath ,an extinct club from Clonsilla /Westmanstown ,initially in the Drumheath area and via Porterstown to Littlepace where it now thrives at all levels ,providing sporting outlet for both males and females,adults and children.
Robert was instrumental in securing a grant for a concrete base for a forty foot adapted container for a pitch they used have adjacent to Mulhuddart graveyard in order for the kids to tog out.But there were some local elements who did not want them there at all,who I don't know.I saw with my own eyes youngsters deliberately ride their horses across the pitch when matches were in progress and some person or persons went to the trouble of using an angle grinder to hole the container and pour petrol into it and torch it.That was the final straw in the efforts to promote the game in that location and they moved to Porterstown and then Littlepace as outlined above.I am aware that he and the other volunteers bought basis gear for many children who could not afford it,more often than not from their own pockets.
Robert also plied his football trade with Dunderry transferring here in 1970 and winning an Intermediate Championship medal in 1970.In 1969 he starred at midfield alongside John Lynch in an under 16 football final against Kilcloon.I think that Tommy Garry,Michael Mc Cormack,Pat Cregan (RIP),Mc Ging from EAskaroon (RIP) were also on that team but stand to be corrected.
On the sad break up of his marriage a quarter century ago,which weighed very heavy on him Robert moved with his son Robert junior to Ballinlough .Kells,Co.Meath ,where he threw his lot in with the local GAA Club,graduating to the post of Chairman for a period of years.As I well know ,because he often discussed it with me ,he got involved in team management at juvenile and adult level and wrestled,as all good Chairmen do ,with fund raising and completing the deal on the shortage or excess of inter county tickets secured for Inter county matches.Many's the time we in Dunderry came to his aid in the latter comparttment.
IT was hard to rise Robert on the football field but even he at times reached his limit ..As he reached the end of his career at football he slowed down and put some weight on.Another younger brother was a coming star and played further out the field.He had the habit of beating several opponents before parting with the ball..by which stage the intended beneficiary of his passingly would be well marked and the pass,delivered under pressure ,far from accurate.
He was told to part with the ball immediately and deliver it accurately to Robert ,our scorer in chief,in a particular match,an instruction that went unheeded,as he persisted in beating the same men twice or three times before letting the ball go,usually out of reach of the overweight Robert.Unsavoury banter ensued with Robert being at the butt of it,being called a fat /slow/unfit ..... or words to that effect.
This went on for about twenty minutes when miracously the younger brother won the ball well out the field and a corridor opened up between him and Robert at the edge of the square.The younger made a direct beeline towards the elder who ran out to meet him.As they came closer the younger passed the ball to Rob,who let it over his shoulder and kept on running until he drew level with the younger.Rob levelled him with a hay maker on the chin and said over a prostrate brother "Now who is a fat ..... ? The ref had some laugh and said words to the effect that although he had never seen the likes that it was fully merited.
On a more serious note we were only ever sent off once in either football or hurling in our sporting lives.It happened in a football match against Innisfails in Balgriffin.Eddie Melvin was midfield and I was centre back.Rob was in the forwards.Melvin got a sneaky punch on the head from behind and squared up.My immediate opponent took off and landed another from behind on an occupied Eddie.I was on his shoulder ,tapped it,planted him and the row and the ruction soon began.Myself and Robert ended up back to back at the foot of a goalpost surrounded by a horde of Innisfails players defending ourselves for dear life.When sanity returned we got line.Two weeks each I remember.Melvin walked free.
In all our years playing with the national school,with Brunner where we received our scholarshup funded secondary education and with Brigids and Ballinlough for him and Dunderry for me and in all the Civil Service competitions organised by Tom Woulfe were we were never ever sent off.And we played plenty and were well able to mix it if mixing was the order of the day.
HE didn't take to hurling as much as I did.I played with Eoghan Ruadh and New Irelands when Brigids had no team ,but when we resurrected Hurling in Brigids in the early seventies entering a junior hurling team he did line out in the first match against Lucan Sarsfields in Lucan.I was full forward and he forty yards.We were the babies of a seasoned team .
When I went into the square the full back,a seasoned and huge Garda Seargant grabbed me by the arm,escorted me to the twenty yard line,drew an imaginary line in it with the hurl and threatened to skin me if I crossed it at any stage during the match.Out I went to Rob,had a quiet word and asked him to let in any ball he could along the ground.In due course he did,I got out in front of the full back first to the ball and he came from behind threatening hell and damnation.I let the ball pass me and as it did turned and pulled ,making a perfect connection with it and an in rushing full bully.After that he played hurling.Well done Rob.
Rob did play junior footballs for the Dubs and both he and I were selected for a Divisional team picked from all the junior and intermediate clubs in Dublin to compete in the Senior Championship.I was fortunate enough to be captain and I remember that Paddy Cullen was in goal.We were beat in the first round.
His other sporting interests were greyhound raving and horse racing.One dog he owned called Rodeen Tiger was trained by his great friend Tom Lynch and won a straight eight consecutive races before being promoted to his level of incompetence ( as everyone is eventually ) and entering a losing run .I travelled with him all over Leinster those times and gin and tonics on the run and cigars were the order of the day for the good times.Of course as s conscientious citizens we often stayed away over night to avoid the temptation of drink driving.Model citizens.
He also enquired a share in a horse at one stage.It was useless.He did get a chance to savour the thrill of the owners enclosure when Dundoire won an exciting race in Cheltenham and he gained entrance to the owners bar,He often told me that he thoroughly enjoyed that experience,Tom Lynch and his wife,his sister Mary and Willie Hyland,all doggie people were at his funeral Mass.He thought a lot of them.In fact he often reminisced about the days of his early twenties ,when the height of sophistication was to go to Phibsboro for a basket of Kentucky Fried chicken with Tom Lynch ,drive out to meet Dick Barron with his mobile chipper outside the old Morgan Schools to stock up further on the essentials and eat up in the car to the sounds of the then pop hits,.
We played a bit of soccer too in the soccer pitch art the back of the Greyhound bar which the Cleary's had leased to Beggsboro.Nothing formal mind you but fierce competitive never the less.We used also have fierce competitive against Brigids and Patricks Park on the green in front of Duckie O Briens on Mill Lane.Our team would be Tolka View,Herbert Road and Main Street.No prisoners taken.
I worked in the Estate Duty Office for many years and used enter a team in the Civil Service Soccer Cup and Leagues.Mostly bangers from Brigids and Blanchardstrown and few fellow civil servants.We often beat teams heavy with League of Ireland soccer players.Robert ,Johnny Carr,Ray Carty,the Brennans ,Mattie Keane,Paul Bitzell sprin.g to a fading mind,These guys all showed up at the funeral.
And the families we were reared beside,the 10 Byrne kids and the 5 Mac Donnell kids and the 6 Carrs from Mulhuddart ,who spent most of their time in "Uncle Sean's and "Auntie Carmels "on the Main Street and their cousins the Fagans next door,Foxy ,Chew (Tony) and Pauler were there in numbers.
And uncle Sean Byrne at 93 years young was in attendance too.
And nearly all the members of the football team of 1980 showed their respects.I hadn't seen John Byrne since then but he showed and Aidan English and Dec Egan and Doyler from Doonbeg and all the Wades and Brennans and the three Hegarty brothers and Ben Dempsey and Liam Keating and Pat Roche .Mattie Keane and Ownie Carroll and Georgie Kelly and Frank and Tricia and Davy Nolan and namesake Gerry and George Maybury,and Willie and Patsi and Tommy Phelan And Jem Mansfield and Ellis and Red Ponyton and Norbert and Gerry Fitzpatrick and young Power and his spouse Devanney. Sheila Hughes,Gerry Franey,Gilbert Messerman,Ciaran Williamson and Mattie Keane and Walter Corcoran.And Kilmesssan People and Ballinlough people and KIlmainham people and Erin go Brath people and Eoghan Ruadh people and a huge crowd from Dunderry GAA and all the neigbours from Dunderry and all the Mac Cormacks and the Mallons and Hartes.The two Patricks CArroll and O Reilly.And I know I have left out a host of others .And Declan sang Tim Finnegans Wake in his honour in the Vineyard afterwards.His favourite Irish song.And with these guys the years just melted away in the Vineyard.Still formidable men with an appreciative eye,God bless them.
Robert went to school at three years of age.He wasn't over keen and had to be frogmarched there at the start but soon came to tolerate it as most of us did in those corporal punishment days.The bane of all our lives was a teacher called Gallagher who was a pure bollix and who hammered the hands from generations of pupils under his charge. He eventually got his just desserts Thank God and few would have anything good to say about him '
But we had one gem in our day in Paddy Murray who taught 5th and 6th class in our time in School and used to come in and teach us free gratis and on his own time each Saturday for 4 hours inter to help us pass the County Council Scholarship and enable us to get to Seconds School which were all fee paying then and way beyond the reach of nearly every pupil in Blanch.
When I hear various educationalists nowadays belittling the Primary Cert as a low status exam my blood boils.Millions of pupils in my day and before were proud as punch to have it and made better citizens than these condescending snobs can ever aspire to.
Robert got the Scholarship and joined me in Brunner.He was in a heap sitting his Inter Cert and went down narrowly in one subject and was deemed to have failed the lot,which meant he lost the Scholarship,a serious turn in events.He went to the docks to consider his options but thankfully came home to face the music.Mammy and Daddy made light of his results and paid for him to go on to the Leaving Cert which he flew through no problem.My mother was a feisty woman and was called by Buller Brennan to the school to discuss his post Inter Cert results.He cut to the chase and made the mistake of suggesting to her that he should apply to be a bus conductor.Not that there was anything wrong with being a bus conductor,but the ma had loftier ambitions and gave Buller a fierce dressing down.
Afterwards Robert ,when in the throes of legal confusion with an apparently insoluble problem,often remarked to me half in jest that it was a pity he didn't take Bullers advice.
He sat his Leaving Cert in due course and passed but without enough honours to gain entrance to UCD to sit his BCL where he wanted to study law.mainly because I was dabbling in studying it and had the Books and he could save on the price of them.He didn't get enough honours and enrolled in Mount Street Tech to repeat certain subjects and get enough honours.Which he did.
But first he had to earn the fees and enough to keep himself for the following year.So off the England with himself and Pat Sheehan a good school friend to garner the mullah.They worked at the buildings and he got a job as a bank clerk. And something I have never disclosed before, they landed home to me for a weeks holiday without anyone else knowing.Frank O Driscoll ,a work mate and brother of the late poet Dennis O Driscoll put them up for a few days in his flat and they spent a week thimbling around Leinster having a good time.
I remember Robert telling me that the Bank sent him on courses to advance himself and he was tempted to stay there and rang the DA to see what he thought.The DA was straight to the point and said "There is not a sniff of a job here.Stay the f...where you are and have a decent life .
But home he came and studied hard and got his BCL.
Those times many Solicitors charged would be apprentices a substantial fee to become apprenticed.Neither Robert nor anyone in our family had the money for such a thing.Through a contact of Kathleen our sister a meeting was arranged with a Meath legal legend in Teach Scurlog in Trim to see what could be done.I drove Robert to that meeting on a Honda ninety motor bike and sat in on the meeting.It went well and the luminary put him in touch with Seamus Maguire in Blanchardstown who apprenticed him no bother.Seamus was good to Robert and Robert to Seamus.In due course he qualified and shortly after qualifying himself and Padaig Power set up in partnership in Dunboyne and afterwards in Blanchardstown where they soldered together for many years until about five years ago when Padraig retired and Robert continued in practise on his own.My wife#s sister Lucy was with him as Secretary to the very last.Padraig and Seamus remained firm and supportive friends to Robert the very end and he and Padraig were often the very best of social buddies as well.
A man's social life is a dangerous place to dwell on..He married Marion Levin's in 1982 I thinkThey were married within a few days of the unexpected death of our father Dewi at the early age of 52 years.Our dad's mother was alive at the time and was unable to attend the funeral of her son,so unselfishilyy totally they went to her for the honeymoon and to try and console her,I had the pleasure of going down to Rosslare with thm to get the boat to Fishguard ,minding the car during their holiday and driving to meet them from the boat in the same car.To say the least he was not pleased with the vehicle on his return.
They settled first in Huntstown,Mulhuddart and afterwards in Roselawn View ,Castleknock where he evevtually died'.Robert Junior was born to great jubilation in due course and was the joy of his parents .When Rob was about seven unhappy differences arose between husband and wife and they separated,Rob moving to Ballinlough where he spent the last quarter century of his life and where Junior was reared thereafter.
For the last sixteen years of his life Margaret Mac Donald,was his life partner and she nursed him through the most sickening effects of the various treatments he recieved to alleviate the twin cancers he suffered.
About seven years ago cancer of his tongue and neck was diagnosed.He received surgery of his neck and nodes followed by chemo and radiation treatment.He was in the clear thankfully for a few years until it re emerged in his lung.Despite more chemotherapy again and the bravest and most wilful of battles of battles he succumbed eventually last week in Roselawn View .
The cancers destroyed him physically and mentally in the end.They pitted him in the depths of despair,the elation of false hope the dungeons of lost hope and the treatments he endured along the way destroyed his health.
He was a brave and stubborn man who tried mightily till the very end to keep going job wise and socially .
He did inform me in one of the few moments we had alone a few weeks before his death that the doctors had told him that there was no hope for him.This totally floored him.and hope flew out the window.
He kept information very much to himself and certainly never told me the imminence of his demise.The rapid deteriotaion of his body the last few weeks of his life told its own story however and one didn't need a medical report to know his time was short.
He died of a Monday.I last saw him on the previous Sunday morning and he was struggling with a renewed infection of his lungs.My last words to him were was he comfortable and if not where hurt.He pointed to his chest and remedial action was immediately taken to relieve his discomfort.
Although separated from his wife fora quarter century he never divorced .He was a traditional Catholic in this regard and I had the sad chance to say an Act of Contrition in his ear when alone with him and at his request.He had Communion and the Last Rites before he died .I am glad.
I am satisfied he could not have been better minded in his run up to death .The twice daily visits of nursing staff and the continuous presence of pallative staff was of the highest order and nothing was left to chance.
Robert had many highs in his life with a variety of people and equally suffered a series of lows.He was lucky some of the time and unlucky other times.
At all times and through thick and thine loved his son Robert Junior totally and unconditionally.
He was actuially adored by a number of people and liked totally by a huge number of people a fact attested to by the huge turnout at his funeral.
Due to a mix up with dates the singers originally hired to perform at his funeral Mass could not attend.An organist and famous tenor called Damian Mac Gorian was hijacked by our Aoife on the way to perform in the Aras .
I can see Robert in my mind's eye saying of the falling through of the original singer "breurtal " and of the appearance of the replacement "only the best for the best "with a tweinkle in his eye.
Robert stole the hearts of many and is deeply mourned by them.I loved him and iI am not alone.There is a void in my soul I cannot fill and I am only his brother.There are others more deeply inflicted.
Father Cyril who officiated at his funeral hit the nail on the emotional rollercoaster he rode for the latter years of his life and is the sort of man that makes you proud to be a Catholic.
Those close to him did all thay could and all he allowed them to do for him in his suffering but you always feel you could have done more.
I certainly feel like that and totally regret that we never had the one chance to what that we long ago agreed to do and that was to ,just once,book into a rural hotel ,sample a smoke from each cigarette made and have a tipple feom each drink stocked.Just the once for the hell of it and for old time#s sake.
Slan go Foill mo Chara dilis.
And the lapse in friendship for that six months was caused by my concern for his well being,although he didn't see it that way.We reconciled a month before God took him and well and truly buried the hatchet.
In the end his death was a welcome relief as the physical and mental suffering he endured for far too long came to a conclusion,for which I for one fervently prayed.
Robert was the only true Meath man of our siblings.My mother Peggy Mac Cormack was living in the Curragh boreen with her people when she went into Labour and was rushed beside a Parish Priest's Hat by Mattie (The Buller) Rodgers to Holles Street hospital to give birth.(Every car Mattie owned had a Parish Priest's hat in the back seat to emphasise the care lavished on the car and enhance the resale value).
He was Christened in Saint Andrew's Church on the way home from Hospital to the Curragh Boreen.Soon afterwards we all moved to a house in 4 Tolka View,Blanchardstown where we were reared and from which we were all born,save myself who was born in Wales before my parents returned here with me as a baby and Robert.
Nine of us were reared in that house,which until I was sixteen years old had only two bed rooms,.one occupied by our parents and current infant and another by all the other kids,the girls having one bed and the lads having the others.I well remember sleeping four to the bed ,two at the head of the bed and two at the foot of the bed and reducing to a mere two ,myself and Robert,when Tommy Mac Cormack ,Pat Rattigan and Paddy O Gorman extended the house by two half bedrooms at the time when Mammy went to give birth to Barbara our youngest sister.( I had at sixteen years of age no idea that she was even pregnant at the time,a contrast with later times when sixteen year olds were miser by far.)
We got a fierce shock but were delighted when Mammy landed home with a new sister.
All the while at twelve years of age my sister Kathleen cooked and catered for the full family and the builders.Some lassie.
The Mac Cormacks of Dunderry were GAA fanatics ,My grandfather Paddy (auld Mac) and his brothers having played with the club and when we were holidaying here every summer as youngsters our uncle Tommy, who was Club Chairman for decades, immersed us fully in the ethos of the GAA.Joe an uncle was still playing at the time ,cap and all .and I remember many , many matches in Geraghty's field where we went to see Joe playing.Harry Lee,who worked with Horans,was a great man to hold his own in a row,I well remember.Paddy Mac Cormack another uncle who had retired from football at the time having given a lifetimes service as a player and mentor. .
In those pre electric and pre T.V. days in their house ( I think that it was only in the early sixties that electricity arrived here,my father wiring the house ),evenings were spent discussing the politics of the day,the prices of cattle and sheep and hurling and football by the light of the oil lamp.The discussions were animated and all joined in and indeed many's the person called to the door and hearing the loud voices took off again for fear that murder would result.Of course it didn't but discussion was fierce and no holds were barred.
All the time we had a football and were playing at every opportunity.And Joe and Tommy joined in.And in those pre tractor days the paddocks in front of the house were pristine and every evening we had matches ,joined by cousins Noel and Michael and Tommy Dowd and Pete Conaty and the Garrys and the Healys ,fierce and furious as we imagined playing in the showgrounds in Navan and Croke Park.And many did subsequently
Robert wsa big for his age and owned the ball.If he was bet too often he would appropriate it and make off with it , a habit he soon dropped under threat of a fierce beating.He was good even at that tender age.And our sporting education gathered pace,Robert developing into that scarce creature ,a player who could kick left and right and punch over the bar.And because of his size unbulliable by his peers.
Tommy fashioned our first hurleys with a spokes shave and broken bottles and introduced us to the game of hurling.He had a prodigious memory and he bought us our first bicycles.
In Blanchardstown too our sporting education developed under the tutelage of Paddy Murray in the National School who equally promoted Hurling and Football.Robert was outstanding in Schools football and hurling and as an aside developed a fierce interest in athletics .He used clean up in the annual sports held in the Priest's Field in Blanch winning medals for races of all distance,.He won them by the bucket full,a feat repeated in Croke Park in the Cumann na Bunschoil sports days.
I wasn't great to run myself having butty legs( my grandfather Christened me the "Butt of Oak") but ironically given his huge height advantage could best him at the hurdles and high jump where I had some limited success in the sports in Blanch and Croker ,but nothing compared to him.
WE joined St. Brigids GAA Club at the behest of Frank Russell when I was ten and all our siblings joined up in due course.
Robert was better than most at the athletics and even thiough he ran bare footed was rarely beaten.Larry Ginnell,God rest him ,kept at him to keep it up and he did with good success ,but as we had no car at home and were depending on other car owning parents for lifts didn't get to as many races as we wished.I well remember passing Fairyhiouse race course with him and another group of pals on a Sunday bicycle spin and gazing at a local competitor ,who Robert always had the measure of and who had said he was not driving to those races, passing the winning tape.That ended his athletics career and his sporting focus was totally on the hurling and football.
We both kicked senior football at sixteen years of age with Brigids.We instinctively knew where each other was lurking with intent..Robert was a good man to score even at that age and came in for special attention from certain opponents.while still a youngster.He had his jaw broken and eye socket fractured in a Senior League match against Saint Marys of Saggart .He spent a fair while in Hospital drinking through a straw but remounted the horse as it were as soon as possible and was back kicking football fairly soon as brave as ever.
Himself and myself were youngsters coming onto a mature team which included a number of inter county football players ,including Dublin players Paddy Downey,Mattie Keane,Westmeath players Davy Nolan,John Galvin and the emerging Pat and Joe O Neill ,who transferred at an early age to UCD and Civil Service, unfortunately for the Club..
I was told by Davy at Roberts funeral that the team never reached its potential because it didn't realise how good it was and didn't apply itself properly,
We stayed loyal and kept kicking football and all my siblings joined up as their time came.
I saw Robert kicking 1-8 in a final minor Dublin trial and failing to make the cut.Brigids had absolutely no pull whatsoever at County level in those days.You had to be twice as good as the big club men to get even a look in.
Robert and the rest of us soldiered along together until the late 1980s with Brigids at Senior and latterly Intermediate level until c.1988 when there was a falling out with my siblings and the Club which resulted in their acrimonious departure.
I had the honour of captaining an intermediate football team to a championships win in 1980 and Robert starred at full forward.Martin ,Cecil and Benji our brothers also figured. I was inclined to be more a committee man than Robert ,serving in every position except Treasurer and having emigrated to Dunderry in 1986 was not involved in the dispute.As a family we had over a combined century of service to the Club under our belts and it was a sad way to end the connection.Our mother and indeed myself ,who had encouraged partticipation in the Club were particularly heartbroken.
Robert too was disappointed ,particularly as he had declined to transfer to Plunketts in the early 1970.s when approached and told that his Dublin chances would be greatly enhanced were he to transfer there.I was approached myself by Scoil O Conaill to transfer and declined also.
Life goes on however and my brothers and Robert resurrected Erin go Brath ,an extinct club from Clonsilla /Westmanstown ,initially in the Drumheath area and via Porterstown to Littlepace where it now thrives at all levels ,providing sporting outlet for both males and females,adults and children.
Robert was instrumental in securing a grant for a concrete base for a forty foot adapted container for a pitch they used have adjacent to Mulhuddart graveyard in order for the kids to tog out.But there were some local elements who did not want them there at all,who I don't know.I saw with my own eyes youngsters deliberately ride their horses across the pitch when matches were in progress and some person or persons went to the trouble of using an angle grinder to hole the container and pour petrol into it and torch it.That was the final straw in the efforts to promote the game in that location and they moved to Porterstown and then Littlepace as outlined above.I am aware that he and the other volunteers bought basis gear for many children who could not afford it,more often than not from their own pockets.
Robert also plied his football trade with Dunderry transferring here in 1970 and winning an Intermediate Championship medal in 1970.In 1969 he starred at midfield alongside John Lynch in an under 16 football final against Kilcloon.I think that Tommy Garry,Michael Mc Cormack,Pat Cregan (RIP),Mc Ging from EAskaroon (RIP) were also on that team but stand to be corrected.
On the sad break up of his marriage a quarter century ago,which weighed very heavy on him Robert moved with his son Robert junior to Ballinlough .Kells,Co.Meath ,where he threw his lot in with the local GAA Club,graduating to the post of Chairman for a period of years.As I well know ,because he often discussed it with me ,he got involved in team management at juvenile and adult level and wrestled,as all good Chairmen do ,with fund raising and completing the deal on the shortage or excess of inter county tickets secured for Inter county matches.Many's the time we in Dunderry came to his aid in the latter comparttment.
IT was hard to rise Robert on the football field but even he at times reached his limit ..As he reached the end of his career at football he slowed down and put some weight on.Another younger brother was a coming star and played further out the field.He had the habit of beating several opponents before parting with the ball..by which stage the intended beneficiary of his passingly would be well marked and the pass,delivered under pressure ,far from accurate.
He was told to part with the ball immediately and deliver it accurately to Robert ,our scorer in chief,in a particular match,an instruction that went unheeded,as he persisted in beating the same men twice or three times before letting the ball go,usually out of reach of the overweight Robert.Unsavoury banter ensued with Robert being at the butt of it,being called a fat /slow/unfit ..... or words to that effect.
This went on for about twenty minutes when miracously the younger brother won the ball well out the field and a corridor opened up between him and Robert at the edge of the square.The younger made a direct beeline towards the elder who ran out to meet him.As they came closer the younger passed the ball to Rob,who let it over his shoulder and kept on running until he drew level with the younger.Rob levelled him with a hay maker on the chin and said over a prostrate brother "Now who is a fat ..... ? The ref had some laugh and said words to the effect that although he had never seen the likes that it was fully merited.
On a more serious note we were only ever sent off once in either football or hurling in our sporting lives.It happened in a football match against Innisfails in Balgriffin.Eddie Melvin was midfield and I was centre back.Rob was in the forwards.Melvin got a sneaky punch on the head from behind and squared up.My immediate opponent took off and landed another from behind on an occupied Eddie.I was on his shoulder ,tapped it,planted him and the row and the ruction soon began.Myself and Robert ended up back to back at the foot of a goalpost surrounded by a horde of Innisfails players defending ourselves for dear life.When sanity returned we got line.Two weeks each I remember.Melvin walked free.
In all our years playing with the national school,with Brunner where we received our scholarshup funded secondary education and with Brigids and Ballinlough for him and Dunderry for me and in all the Civil Service competitions organised by Tom Woulfe were we were never ever sent off.And we played plenty and were well able to mix it if mixing was the order of the day.
HE didn't take to hurling as much as I did.I played with Eoghan Ruadh and New Irelands when Brigids had no team ,but when we resurrected Hurling in Brigids in the early seventies entering a junior hurling team he did line out in the first match against Lucan Sarsfields in Lucan.I was full forward and he forty yards.We were the babies of a seasoned team .
When I went into the square the full back,a seasoned and huge Garda Seargant grabbed me by the arm,escorted me to the twenty yard line,drew an imaginary line in it with the hurl and threatened to skin me if I crossed it at any stage during the match.Out I went to Rob,had a quiet word and asked him to let in any ball he could along the ground.In due course he did,I got out in front of the full back first to the ball and he came from behind threatening hell and damnation.I let the ball pass me and as it did turned and pulled ,making a perfect connection with it and an in rushing full bully.After that he played hurling.Well done Rob.
Rob did play junior footballs for the Dubs and both he and I were selected for a Divisional team picked from all the junior and intermediate clubs in Dublin to compete in the Senior Championship.I was fortunate enough to be captain and I remember that Paddy Cullen was in goal.We were beat in the first round.
His other sporting interests were greyhound raving and horse racing.One dog he owned called Rodeen Tiger was trained by his great friend Tom Lynch and won a straight eight consecutive races before being promoted to his level of incompetence ( as everyone is eventually ) and entering a losing run .I travelled with him all over Leinster those times and gin and tonics on the run and cigars were the order of the day for the good times.Of course as s conscientious citizens we often stayed away over night to avoid the temptation of drink driving.Model citizens.
He also enquired a share in a horse at one stage.It was useless.He did get a chance to savour the thrill of the owners enclosure when Dundoire won an exciting race in Cheltenham and he gained entrance to the owners bar,He often told me that he thoroughly enjoyed that experience,Tom Lynch and his wife,his sister Mary and Willie Hyland,all doggie people were at his funeral Mass.He thought a lot of them.In fact he often reminisced about the days of his early twenties ,when the height of sophistication was to go to Phibsboro for a basket of Kentucky Fried chicken with Tom Lynch ,drive out to meet Dick Barron with his mobile chipper outside the old Morgan Schools to stock up further on the essentials and eat up in the car to the sounds of the then pop hits,.
We played a bit of soccer too in the soccer pitch art the back of the Greyhound bar which the Cleary's had leased to Beggsboro.Nothing formal mind you but fierce competitive never the less.We used also have fierce competitive against Brigids and Patricks Park on the green in front of Duckie O Briens on Mill Lane.Our team would be Tolka View,Herbert Road and Main Street.No prisoners taken.
I worked in the Estate Duty Office for many years and used enter a team in the Civil Service Soccer Cup and Leagues.Mostly bangers from Brigids and Blanchardstrown and few fellow civil servants.We often beat teams heavy with League of Ireland soccer players.Robert ,Johnny Carr,Ray Carty,the Brennans ,Mattie Keane,Paul Bitzell sprin.g to a fading mind,These guys all showed up at the funeral.
And the families we were reared beside,the 10 Byrne kids and the 5 Mac Donnell kids and the 6 Carrs from Mulhuddart ,who spent most of their time in "Uncle Sean's and "Auntie Carmels "on the Main Street and their cousins the Fagans next door,Foxy ,Chew (Tony) and Pauler were there in numbers.
And uncle Sean Byrne at 93 years young was in attendance too.
And nearly all the members of the football team of 1980 showed their respects.I hadn't seen John Byrne since then but he showed and Aidan English and Dec Egan and Doyler from Doonbeg and all the Wades and Brennans and the three Hegarty brothers and Ben Dempsey and Liam Keating and Pat Roche .Mattie Keane and Ownie Carroll and Georgie Kelly and Frank and Tricia and Davy Nolan and namesake Gerry and George Maybury,and Willie and Patsi and Tommy Phelan And Jem Mansfield and Ellis and Red Ponyton and Norbert and Gerry Fitzpatrick and young Power and his spouse Devanney. Sheila Hughes,Gerry Franey,Gilbert Messerman,Ciaran Williamson and Mattie Keane and Walter Corcoran.And Kilmesssan People and Ballinlough people and KIlmainham people and Erin go Brath people and Eoghan Ruadh people and a huge crowd from Dunderry GAA and all the neigbours from Dunderry and all the Mac Cormacks and the Mallons and Hartes.The two Patricks CArroll and O Reilly.And I know I have left out a host of others .And Declan sang Tim Finnegans Wake in his honour in the Vineyard afterwards.His favourite Irish song.And with these guys the years just melted away in the Vineyard.Still formidable men with an appreciative eye,God bless them.
Robert went to school at three years of age.He wasn't over keen and had to be frogmarched there at the start but soon came to tolerate it as most of us did in those corporal punishment days.The bane of all our lives was a teacher called Gallagher who was a pure bollix and who hammered the hands from generations of pupils under his charge. He eventually got his just desserts Thank God and few would have anything good to say about him '
But we had one gem in our day in Paddy Murray who taught 5th and 6th class in our time in School and used to come in and teach us free gratis and on his own time each Saturday for 4 hours inter to help us pass the County Council Scholarship and enable us to get to Seconds School which were all fee paying then and way beyond the reach of nearly every pupil in Blanch.
When I hear various educationalists nowadays belittling the Primary Cert as a low status exam my blood boils.Millions of pupils in my day and before were proud as punch to have it and made better citizens than these condescending snobs can ever aspire to.
Robert got the Scholarship and joined me in Brunner.He was in a heap sitting his Inter Cert and went down narrowly in one subject and was deemed to have failed the lot,which meant he lost the Scholarship,a serious turn in events.He went to the docks to consider his options but thankfully came home to face the music.Mammy and Daddy made light of his results and paid for him to go on to the Leaving Cert which he flew through no problem.My mother was a feisty woman and was called by Buller Brennan to the school to discuss his post Inter Cert results.He cut to the chase and made the mistake of suggesting to her that he should apply to be a bus conductor.Not that there was anything wrong with being a bus conductor,but the ma had loftier ambitions and gave Buller a fierce dressing down.
Afterwards Robert ,when in the throes of legal confusion with an apparently insoluble problem,often remarked to me half in jest that it was a pity he didn't take Bullers advice.
He sat his Leaving Cert in due course and passed but without enough honours to gain entrance to UCD to sit his BCL where he wanted to study law.mainly because I was dabbling in studying it and had the Books and he could save on the price of them.He didn't get enough honours and enrolled in Mount Street Tech to repeat certain subjects and get enough honours.Which he did.
But first he had to earn the fees and enough to keep himself for the following year.So off the England with himself and Pat Sheehan a good school friend to garner the mullah.They worked at the buildings and he got a job as a bank clerk. And something I have never disclosed before, they landed home to me for a weeks holiday without anyone else knowing.Frank O Driscoll ,a work mate and brother of the late poet Dennis O Driscoll put them up for a few days in his flat and they spent a week thimbling around Leinster having a good time.
I remember Robert telling me that the Bank sent him on courses to advance himself and he was tempted to stay there and rang the DA to see what he thought.The DA was straight to the point and said "There is not a sniff of a job here.Stay the f...where you are and have a decent life .
But home he came and studied hard and got his BCL.
Those times many Solicitors charged would be apprentices a substantial fee to become apprenticed.Neither Robert nor anyone in our family had the money for such a thing.Through a contact of Kathleen our sister a meeting was arranged with a Meath legal legend in Teach Scurlog in Trim to see what could be done.I drove Robert to that meeting on a Honda ninety motor bike and sat in on the meeting.It went well and the luminary put him in touch with Seamus Maguire in Blanchardstown who apprenticed him no bother.Seamus was good to Robert and Robert to Seamus.In due course he qualified and shortly after qualifying himself and Padaig Power set up in partnership in Dunboyne and afterwards in Blanchardstown where they soldered together for many years until about five years ago when Padraig retired and Robert continued in practise on his own.My wife#s sister Lucy was with him as Secretary to the very last.Padraig and Seamus remained firm and supportive friends to Robert the very end and he and Padraig were often the very best of social buddies as well.
A man's social life is a dangerous place to dwell on..He married Marion Levin's in 1982 I thinkThey were married within a few days of the unexpected death of our father Dewi at the early age of 52 years.Our dad's mother was alive at the time and was unable to attend the funeral of her son,so unselfishilyy totally they went to her for the honeymoon and to try and console her,I had the pleasure of going down to Rosslare with thm to get the boat to Fishguard ,minding the car during their holiday and driving to meet them from the boat in the same car.To say the least he was not pleased with the vehicle on his return.
They settled first in Huntstown,Mulhuddart and afterwards in Roselawn View ,Castleknock where he evevtually died'.Robert Junior was born to great jubilation in due course and was the joy of his parents .When Rob was about seven unhappy differences arose between husband and wife and they separated,Rob moving to Ballinlough where he spent the last quarter century of his life and where Junior was reared thereafter.
For the last sixteen years of his life Margaret Mac Donald,was his life partner and she nursed him through the most sickening effects of the various treatments he recieved to alleviate the twin cancers he suffered.
About seven years ago cancer of his tongue and neck was diagnosed.He received surgery of his neck and nodes followed by chemo and radiation treatment.He was in the clear thankfully for a few years until it re emerged in his lung.Despite more chemotherapy again and the bravest and most wilful of battles of battles he succumbed eventually last week in Roselawn View .
The cancers destroyed him physically and mentally in the end.They pitted him in the depths of despair,the elation of false hope the dungeons of lost hope and the treatments he endured along the way destroyed his health.
He was a brave and stubborn man who tried mightily till the very end to keep going job wise and socially .
He did inform me in one of the few moments we had alone a few weeks before his death that the doctors had told him that there was no hope for him.This totally floored him.and hope flew out the window.
He kept information very much to himself and certainly never told me the imminence of his demise.The rapid deteriotaion of his body the last few weeks of his life told its own story however and one didn't need a medical report to know his time was short.
He died of a Monday.I last saw him on the previous Sunday morning and he was struggling with a renewed infection of his lungs.My last words to him were was he comfortable and if not where hurt.He pointed to his chest and remedial action was immediately taken to relieve his discomfort.
Although separated from his wife fora quarter century he never divorced .He was a traditional Catholic in this regard and I had the sad chance to say an Act of Contrition in his ear when alone with him and at his request.He had Communion and the Last Rites before he died .I am glad.
I am satisfied he could not have been better minded in his run up to death .The twice daily visits of nursing staff and the continuous presence of pallative staff was of the highest order and nothing was left to chance.
Robert had many highs in his life with a variety of people and equally suffered a series of lows.He was lucky some of the time and unlucky other times.
At all times and through thick and thine loved his son Robert Junior totally and unconditionally.
He was actuially adored by a number of people and liked totally by a huge number of people a fact attested to by the huge turnout at his funeral.
Due to a mix up with dates the singers originally hired to perform at his funeral Mass could not attend.An organist and famous tenor called Damian Mac Gorian was hijacked by our Aoife on the way to perform in the Aras .
I can see Robert in my mind's eye saying of the falling through of the original singer "breurtal " and of the appearance of the replacement "only the best for the best "with a tweinkle in his eye.
Robert stole the hearts of many and is deeply mourned by them.I loved him and iI am not alone.There is a void in my soul I cannot fill and I am only his brother.There are others more deeply inflicted.
Father Cyril who officiated at his funeral hit the nail on the emotional rollercoaster he rode for the latter years of his life and is the sort of man that makes you proud to be a Catholic.
Those close to him did all thay could and all he allowed them to do for him in his suffering but you always feel you could have done more.
I certainly feel like that and totally regret that we never had the one chance to what that we long ago agreed to do and that was to ,just once,book into a rural hotel ,sample a smoke from each cigarette made and have a tipple feom each drink stocked.Just the once for the hell of it and for old time#s sake.
Slan go Foill mo Chara dilis.
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