Remembering John Alcock, John Murphy and George Taaffe

It was early last week that news reached us from the far side of the world of the death of John Alcock in New Zealand. It was soon followed by news of the passing of John Murphy in Australia. Both men were part of the great migration of men folk which was a sad part of life in Athy and its rural hinterland during the decades which followed the economic war of the 1930s. Despite the vast distances they travelled to make new lives they retained fond memories of Athy and its people. I first met John Alcock in March 2020 when approaching his 90th birthday he travelled with his daughter to visit his home town. It was a nostalgic visit for a man who had first emigrated to England in 1949 and who 6 years later moved to New Zealand. His sister Sheila and brother George also emigrated to New Zealand. John, who lived in the North Island of New Zealand, was a near neighbour and friend of Athy man Aidan Tierney, formerly of Belview. It was Aidan who passed on the news of the death of John who was the subject of Eye on the Past No. 1421. I had not met John Murphy in person but his frequent presence on the Athy and district Facebook page spoke of a man who had retained an interest and indeed an appreciation of his South Kildare background. He kept up to date with the news from Athy on Facebook, as well as his long-standing friendship with Aiden McHugh who on his visits to Australia always sought out John. John, who was originally from Prussellstown, emigrated to Australia in the early 1970s from Butlers Row with his wife May and four children after retiring from the Irish Army. Towards the end of last week my older brother George passed away at 88 years of age. George was one of those fortunate young Athy men who in the 1950s found employment in their own country. After attending the Christian Brothers School here in Athy he was called to St. Patrick’s training college in Drumcondra to train as a National school teacher. I didn’t know until recent years that in doing so he was following in his father’s footsteps. My father apparently did not continue his teacher training as his command of Irish was weak and so he left St. Patrick’s and joined the Gardai. A native of Moyne in County Longford his career in An Garda Siochana resulted in several transfers around Ireland and his last move to Athy from nearby Castlecomer allowed his five sons attend a secondary school where none was then available in the Kilkenny mining town. George, who taught for a few years in Moone National School under the principalship of W.G. Doyle and later Joe May, later moved to his father’s home place in County Longford to take up the principalship of Moyne National School. In the meantime George married local Moone girl Eileen Kelly, who with their five children survive him. George, who retired over twenty-five years ago as Principal of Dromard National School, was buried in his father’s home townland nearly 50 years after his father was laid to rest in Athy. The celebrant of the funeral mass for George spoke of the ‘Master’s’ contribution to the local communities of Moyne and Legga and I smiled as I heard of the teaching profession being described as a ‘secondary priesthood’. No wonder I smiled, being aware as I was of some of the escapades involving the young unmarried George and his best friend here in Athy, the late Reggie Rowan. George was a big fellow and a good footballer in his youth, but my abiding memory is of a family story which recounted the day George playing in midfield caught the ball at the start of the second half of a game in Geraldine Park and immediately put the opposing team on the attack by kicking the ball in the wrong direction. The two Johns and George were of a generation of Athy folk whose numbers are sadly being depleted week by week. All three have now found their last resting place far from the town in which they grew up, taking with them memories which we can never recover.