Michael Day, boxer, footballer and emigrant

One of the pleasures of writing a weekly newspaper column, which is made available on the internet, is the many queries one receives from around the world and the subsequent store of knowledge which is unveiled in relation to Athy persons of the past. For some time Sophie Hepburn of Glasgow has been emailing me in relation to her father’s family, originally from Athy. Michael Day, son of Peter and Bridget Day, emigrated to Scotland in 1942. As a young man in Athy he was a boxer of note and was a member of the Irish Army boxing team while he served in the early years of World War II. It was a sport in which he had a lifelong interest. He founded a boxing club in Glasgow and amongst those he trained was the youthful ‘John Cowboy McCormack’ who went on to win a bronze medal in the Olympic Games. Michael in addition to boxing was also a senior playing member of Athy Geraldine hurling and football club which won the Kildare Senior Football Championship in 1937. That team was captained by George Comerford, the famous County Clare and Munster provincial footballer who was then stationed as a Garda in Athy. I interviewed another member of that team in January 1990, the legendary Barney Dunne, who was the only man to have won four senior championship medals with Athy. He spoke of the players who defeated Sarsfield in that 1937 County final and he mentioned Michael Day whom he said lived in Barrack Street. The photograph of the Athy winning team of 1937 shows Michael Day lying in front to the left, Tommy Buggy/English, the player on the right. The photograph, a copy of which Sophie had, was she believed a picture of a street league team called the Starlights. It was in fact the 1937 Athy Championship winning team. The full team with subs were Tommy Mulhall, Joe Gibbons, Jim Birney, ‘Chevit’ Doyle, Pat Mulhall, Matt Murray, Tom Kelly, Paul Mathews, Barney Dunne, John Rochford, Tom Wall, Tom Ryan, George Comerford, Richard Donovan, Joe Murphy, Tommy Buggy, Johnny McEvoy and N. Heffernan whose first name regrettably is not known to me. The team trainer was the legendary Jack ‘Skurt’ Doyle. Michael Day’s parents had four sons and two daughters and given the difficult times during the economic war of the 1930s and those posed by World War II it’s not surprising that all of them emigrated to either Scotland or England to find employment. Jack Day and his brother Pat went to London, as did their sister Julia, while Michael and Peter spent the rest of their lives in Scotland. When Peter died his ashes were returned to his home town of Athy for burial in St. Michael’s Cemetery next to his parents Peter and Bridget. His sister Lizzie Day worked in Dublin for a time, but I understand she subsequently emigrated to England. Sophie Hepburn whom I met during the week last visited Athy almost 72 years ago when as a young girl herself and her brother were sent on summer holidays to their Granny Bridget Day. Bridget was by then a widow living alone, her husband Peter having died in 1948 aged 68 years. Sophie recalls her grandmother’s house which she described as a one roomed cottage. She had a photograph showing the small whitewashed cottage in the background from which I was satisfied that Bridget lived in what locals called ‘Beggars End’. It was one of a row of houses owned by the Plewman family and were located directly opposite the present Plewman’s Terrace. Sophie had fond memories of the time herself and her brother spent with their grandmother all those years ago and of the return boat trip from Broomley, Scotland to Dublin. Sophie who with her partner spent a few days in and around Athy last week traced and paid a visit to her grandparents’ grave in St. Michael’s Cemetery. She was immensely proud of her father and what he achieved after leaving Athy so many years ago. Sophie’s visit to Athy 70 years after her only previous visit and 80 years after her father Michael left his home town in search of work, was a pilgrimage in search of a family past. She would be delighted to make contact with any of her father’s relations still living in and around Athy.