Kathleen Fitzmaurice (By Bríd Martin

THE CORRAN HERALD • 2021/2022 Kathleen Fitzmaurice

by Bríd Martin

Kathleen Fitzmaurice, a popular contributor to the Corran Herald and a teacher who contributed so much to education in the primary school of St James’ Well, Mountown, Cloonagh and Kilmactranny, died on the 24th of March 2021 at the age of 96.

Kathleen’s contribution to the Corran Herald provided a local history of the area surrounding her home in Kilmactranny. This history included music and musicians who were of great worth and whose stories may never have been told only for Kathleen’s pen and the Corran Herald who printed it. Kathleen told the stories of the “life and times” of country people from her own area and she fully recognised that those people were good, kind and honest-the salt of the earth.

Kathleen Fitzmaurice neé Kavanagh was born in July 1924 in Annagh, a townland near the shores of Lough Meelagh and the village of Keadue in north Co. Roscommon. Her father, William, was a small farmer and her mother, Katie was a national school teacher. From a very young age, for reasons lost in the mists of time, Kathleen became known as ‘Saxie’ to her family and to all who knew her well. She had just one sibling who died of pneumonia in infancy, so Saxie was raised as an only child.

Her mother, Katie Kavanagh, though having been born in Sooey, had been raised by an aunt in Kilmactranny and that is where she spent her entire teaching career. Consequently, Saxie’s early school days were not spent in her local school in Keadue but in her mother’s school in the neighbouring parish. It was a tedious journey each day by bicycle, but in the early 1940’s the Kavanaghs moved from Annagh to Kilmactranny, beside the creamery which was just steps away from the “new” school (opened in 1932).

By then Saxie was in secondary school in Sligo and following her Leaving Certificate, she went onto Carysfort College, for training to become a primary school teacher and follow in her mother’s footsteps. She returned to Kilmactranny to start her career-full of idealism and enthusiasm of a newly qualified teacher. She soon became an active member of the INTO and it was at the INTO congress she met the man who was to become her husband- Pat Fitzmaurice, a Kerryman teaching in Newtownforbes, Co. Longford. They married in 1952 and because of the “marriage bar”, Saxie had to resign from teaching. Pat took up the position of Principal, teaching in Kilmactranny and stayed there until he retired in 1981.

However, Saxie did not sit at home twiddling her thumbs. Instead, she subbed in schools that were within travelling distance and when the bar was lifted in 1958, she was ready to return to the classroom on a permanent basis, at first in Mountown on the shores of Lough Bó and a couple of years later in Cloonagh on the shores of Lough Arrow, before finally coming full circle back to Kilmactranny, the school at the crossroads, but without a lake view! It was from that school that she retired in 1985.

Life was always very busy for Saxie. As well as working full time, she raised four children and also cared for her parents until they died. She remained an active member of the INTO and frequently represented the branch at the Annual Congress. She was even a member of the INTO delegation that attended an education meeting of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in 1966, her first trip beyond the shores of Ireland. On her retirement from teaching, Pat and herself travelled widely; the United States, Canada, Europe and the Holy Land to mention a few. Then she took on works that were important to her local community with a particular reference to the church, the school, Mission groups and especially her beloved Kiltegan Mission. Saxie took a leading role in Senior Citizen groups in Geevagh and Keadue, with the same interest and dedication that was characteristic to her approach to teaching. Tirerrill Historical Society would be a poorer meeting without her.

Saxie was happiest when she was doing something which contributed to the people she knew and her home place. She was never idle whether it was baking, fruit picking and preservation, knitting or walking. For relaxation Saxie enjoyed a game of bridge; the challenge of bridge appealed to her powers of concentration and intellect that age never dimmed. She never ceased to be a formidable opponent at the card table.

Her deep Catholic faith was central to almost everything that Saxie undertook. Once she and Pat were retired, daily Mass was the usual start to their day. While she was able, a trip to Lough Derg was on the calendar most summers and in later years they took part in the annual Diocesan trip to Lourdes. Saxie also volunteered as a handmaid at Knock Shrine for many years and made lots of friends while working there. She went to Knock twice a year until Covid-19 stopped her.

The Corran Herald and all its readers send their sympathy to her bereaved family, her three surviving children; Fergal, Nessan, Blaithín, daughtersin-law, grand-children, greatgrandchildren and cousins. She is predeceased by her husband Pat, her infant sister, her daughter Aingeal and her own parents.

Bean a d’fhág riar a láimhe pé áit a raibh sí. Ar Dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam uasal.

Michael Flatley (whose father was a native of Culfadda) pictured in Higgins’ Lounge in June 2010 with locals Padraig Doddy-Ballymote,Tom Pilkington (RIP) -Bunninadden, Alfie Kerins -Bunninadden. Michael Flatley had been invited to officially open the Garden of Memory and Music in Culfadda.