Tommy Weldon from Dunderry was as nice a man as I ever met.
A native of Churchtown ,he came from a family brimmming with decency and honesty.
From a very young age I came here on holidays to my mother's people the Mc Cormack's of the Curragh Boreen and because the Mc Cormacks were GAA fanatics I became aware of the Weldon clan ,who wre also immersed in the GAA,then and now.
Tommy was prematurely bald and still playing and I thought it peculiar thar such an old man was still playing.Tommy Mc Cormack soon put me right and I looked at him with different eyes afterwards.
Both he and his family have been avid supporters of Dunderry GAA Club always.
After he retired from football himself and his wife Jody took on the washing ,drying and mending of the jerseys of all the Dunderry Jerseys.They were always presented in pristine condition being washed and ironed at home.N o dry cleaners for them.
And God help you if you lost one or gave it back in flitters.Jodi would ate you without salt.
This showed just how good a kit woman she was.
They did this for decades and saved the Club thousands in the process,.
Some people may regard this as no big deal,but my wife Agnes did it for maybe two decades for the Camogie Club and I know that it is a big deal.
As far as I remember Tommy worked for decades for Spicers and no more assidious employee could you get, often dragging in his kids on a weekend to do something out of the ordinary but very necesssary but without pay.
I think that a cousin of mine Larry Mallon was C.E.O. of Spicers those years .
Tommy survived Spicers ,as indeed has Larry .
Never one to be idle Tommy took up employment after his stint in Spicers as caretaker in Dunderry National School and applied the same standard of care there as he had in Spicers.
I would say that the then head teacher Gerry Hatch thought the world of him..
I well remember an occassion when Gerry Hatch wanted to see me for something . He sent Tommy across to our house and he said to me "Master Hatch wants t you to call over to see him straight away."
My response was not very polite but when I saw the hurt on Tommy's face I relented.
Lots of people will remember him from his time in The School.
His wife Jody is a niece of Nan M c Cormack ,the deceased wife of my uncle Jimmy and by coincidence a sister of Mary Mallon ,widow of Sean ,a brother of Larry ,mentioned above.
I hurled with Martin and Declan ,his sons,both hardy boys.
I attended Mass with Tommy and Jodi for years in Dunderry and noted the steady progress of the cancer which took him after years.
His suffering must have been a huge strain on his loving family and extended family, and my heart goes out to them.
As honest a man as ever walked from a family of equal calibre is the best compliment I can pay to him.
I wish his wife Jody,sons Martin and Declan,siblings ,Mickey,Sean and Brendan and all his relatives and many friends my sincsrest sympathies.
Ar D heis De go raibh a HANAM Dilis.
Funeral Mass tomorrow Wednesday in Dunderry at 11.a.m.Burial afterwards in Boyerstown Cemetery.
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