Last week Des Murphy formerly of St. Michael's
Terrace died in his county Meath home. His remains were brought back to his
home town for burial in St. Michael's cemetery to rest along side his parents
Joseph and May Murphy. A few weeks earlier the former Bernadette Cross who like
Des was born in Athy passed away in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Her ashes
remain in Scarborough.
The Murphys and the Cross's are two families
remembered by the older generation of the Athy people. Jack Murphy was a
skilled mason who left a reminder of his work in the beautiful stone entrance
gateway to St. Dominic's friary. The former Technical school on the Carlow road
is another local building on which he worked in his time. His son Des was a member
of the Garda Siochana as was his other son Sean who retired a few years ago. As
the funeral cortege arrived outside St Michael's cemetery on a beautiful sunny
day last week it was met by a generous gathering of Athy men and women whose
memories of times past go back quite a few decades. For Des Murphy left Athy in
the late 1950's but even after the elapse of 50 years or so memories of young
days were stirred by the announcement of his death. The Murphy family formerly
of St. Michael's Terrace were represented by Des's siblings Una and Sean and
decade old acquaintances and youthful friendships were renewed when school pals
were reunited at the graveside.
The news of Bernadette Cross's death reached me
some weeks after it had taken place. We had corresponded for a while eight or
nine years ago after she first wrote to me from her home which she called
“Athy” at Seaview Gardens in Scarborough. She was the youngest daughter of
“Watty”Cross of Duke Street, a Dublin born master plumber who came to Athy in 1925.
He had married an Athy girl Christina Littleton who had been working in Dublin.
After the birth of their first two daughters the Cross family came to Athy
where they lived in a house near the old
Comrades Hall in St. Johns Lane. Walter Scott Cross known to all as “Watty”
Cross had served in the Dublin Fusiliers in World War I. His daughter
Bernadette who first wrote to me in 1998 recalled her father singing the balled
“The Dublin Boys” the opening lines of which were:
“We are the Dublin Boys
We are the Dublin Boys
We knew our manners
We earn our tanners
We are respected wherever we go”
Hannons Mills at Ardreigh and Crom a Boo Bridge
closed down around the same time the Cross family came to Athy and in time
“Watty” Cross bought the small office building towards the front of the mill in
the town centre. He opened a sweet shop and an ice cream parlour making his own
ice cream with cream bought each day from Mahers of Sawyers Wood. His daughters
Maureen, Vera and Bernadette worked at different times in the ice cream
parlour. About 1938 “Watty” bought 23 Duke Street where the following year he
opened a hardware and plumbing business. His eldest daughter Maureen worked in
the hardware shop for a while but World War restrictions on hardware supplies
caused her to relocate to the ice cream parlour where she worked for the
duration of the war. Cross's Ice Cream was very popular. I am afraid my memory
does not go back far enough to recall what must have been a very welcome treat
in war time but I am assured by many who remember Cross's ice cream parlour
that the ice cream was superb.
Bernadette Cross went to England to train as a
midwife in Paddington General Hospital. She later emigrated to Australia where
she remained for seven years before returning to England. Her sisters Vera and
Maureen would also emigrate to England. Maureen emigrated in 1945 and in 1949
married Athy man Fintan Stafford who passed away in 1999. Vera married Eugene
Gormley who worked as a butcher in Athy. When Eugene went to England Vera continued
to work for a while in the Duke Street ice cream parlour before joining her
husband.
“Watty” Cross sold the former ice cream parlour
premises to Tom McStay in or about 1951 and Tom opened a butchers shop from
where his son David today operates a fast food outlet. “Watty Cross” died aged
seventy nine years of age in February 1968 and is buried in new St. Michaels
cemetery. Number 23 Duke Street was sold to John Dunne when “Watty's” widow
Christina went to Birmingham to live with her eldest daughter Maureen.
Christina died in 1971 aged eighty one years and her remains were returned to
Athy for burial with her late husband.
There are no members of the Cross or Murphy
family living today in Athy. The links fashioned in decades before and after
the Second World War have long been broken but nevertheless the town in which
Bernadette Cross and Des Murphy went to school and spent their youthful days
was never quite forgotten. In the North Yorkshire town of Scarborough
Bernadette called her home after her native town of Athy. Des who lived never
too far from the town in which he was born and reared made the final journey
back to his roots and joined his parents in the family plot in Old St.
Michaels. Athy is for many living in Ireland as well as abroad “the home where
the heart lies” For the new families arriving amongst us it may in time become
the same.
The local Chamber of Commerce held an
information meeting in the Clanard Court Hotel last week to announce details of
the various water/canal events planned for 2007 which has been designated “The
Year Of The Barrow”. Amongst those was the “Tri Athy” event a triathlon race
where the competitors compete in swimming, cycling and running over the Olympic
distance. This promises to be one of the most important sporting events ever to
be held in Athy and already has attracted over 400 competitors. Hundreds if not
thousands of spectators can be expected to come to Athy for the 2nd
of June when the river Barrow will be the starting point for the men and women
competing in this most difficult of sporting disciplines. I will return to this
again but the date should be noted as one of the great highlights in the
sporting and social calender of events planned for Athy this year.
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