This week saw the passing of Michael O’Keeffe and Des Noonan, two
local men whose funerals were attended by friends and neighbours on their final
journey to St. Michael’s cemetery.
Funerals, like weddings, bring old friends and family relations together
from far and near. Those two occasions
act as great gathering events, especially funerals when one’s attendance is
decided by friendship, respect or family connection rather than by formal
invitation. I was reminded of this early
this week when attending the funeral of Des Noonan who for many years was
proprietor of a public house in Leinster Street.
Des, who retired several years ago, was a former pupil of the
Christian Brothers School in Athy and amongst the many individuals who attended
the funeral were some of his former school mates. All of those former Christian Brothers boys
are now in their 80s but the friendly solidarity engendered by years of shared school
experiences was clear to be seen.
I got talking to those scholars of the past who included my own
brothers Jack and Tony, both of whom had travelled some distance to pay respect
to Des. Another who had made a journey
of some distance was Mick McAuley who told me his family sold their pub in
Leinster Street to Bobby Flood in 1947 before the McAuley family moved to
Kilkenny city. Mick was a classmate of
Des Noonan, but left Athy before what remained of his class went into Leaving
Cert. There was only one student left by
the time Des Noonan entered the Leaving Cert class in 1948. He was the only Leaving Cert pupil that
year. His teachers were Brother Nelson,
known as ‘Breezy’, Brother Brennan
who went by the name of ‘Luther’, but
never addressed as such within his hearing range and the two lay teachers Liam
Ryan and Pat Spillane.
Joe May, Denis Smyth, Jimmy Kelly and Rickie Kelly were students in
the Christian Brothers School around the same time and they also attended the
funeral of their former school mate.
Both Joe and Jimmy, together with Mick McAuley, featured on the 1946
Christian Brothers school team which played Mullingar in the final of the
Leinster Schools competition of that year.
Even with the passing of 69 years memories were still fresh of the final
played in Geraldine Park and refereed by local man, ‘Chevit’ Doyle. The Athy
Christian Brothers team lost that day and seven decades later the referee is
still being blamed for not allowing a score by the local team which might have
swung the match in favour of the youngsters from Athy.
The photograph which accompanies this Eye is that of the team of
1946 and shows the late Des Noonan as a young fellow of 16 years of age with
his school mates. Those photographed
have been identified as follows:
Back Row:
Br. V.S. Nelson (‘Breezy’),
Charlie Kelly, Tommy Egan, Jimmy Kelly, Noel Bergin, Eddie Conway, Finbar
Hayden.
Middle Row:
Tommy Keyes, Joe May, Paddy Whelan, Mick McAuley, Paddy Harrington,
Peadar Dooley, Jackie Doyle.
Front Row:
George (Mossy) Reilly, Des Noonan, Fintan Gibbons, Pascal Myles,
Liam O’Keeffe.
With the passing of Michael O’Keeffe and Des Noonan another chapter
closes in the life of Athy but the memories live on. Sympathy is extended to the families of Michael
and Des on the deaths of two fine men.
No comments:
Post a Comment