obituaries CORRECT designed_Layout 1 26/11/2013 17:00 Page 22
St Paul's GFC, were founders and players of the now defunct Flathouse club. St Paul's rose from the ashes of the Flathouse club. Dinny was an uncle of current team manager, and former Meath selector, Tom Keague and current St Paul's secretary, Willie Keague. (St Pauls GAA)
Declan Rooney (Kingscourt) There was much sadness over a wide area following the sudden passing of Declan from Kingscourt in September. The 32 year old was a keen sportsman and played underage football with Kingscourt Stars GFC before transferring to Meath Hill GFC where he played under 21 and junior football. Rose Maguire (Longwood) Nee Geraghty, Rose was a sister of Tom Joe Geraghty who is a vicepresident of Longwood GAA club. Both her brothers, Patrick and Tom Joe, played hurling and football with the local club while 'Posie', as she was known, was an avid bingo player.
Aidan Foran (Longwood) There was widespread sadness in June following the passing of Aidan Foran, one of the great Meath GAA players of the late 1940s and 1950s era. An outstanding footballer and hurler, Aidan enjoyed success at club level with Longwood, Trim and Ballivor. In 1945, aged 15, he won a MHC medal with Trim and added a second minor medal two years later in 1947. His trophy collection also included two Feis Cup medals, won with Ballivor in 1950 and Longwood in 1952. Aidan's performances in the Feis Cup with Ballivor brought him to the attention of the Meath senior football selectors and he was called up to the county panel. In 1951, he was a part of the Meath team that defeated Louth by 18 points in the Leinster senior football championship final before losing narrowly to Mayo in the All-Ireland final. On the intercounty hurling front, he won Leinster and All-Ireland junior hurling medals in 1948 before winning a Division 2 National Hurling League medal the following year. Aidan was later a member of the Trim team that captured SHC and O'Growney Cup honours in 1956. An accomplished boxer, Aidan won a Meath light welterweight boxing title in 1946. He was also a prominent member of the Longwood Dramatic Society. The talented dual star spent his working life as a postman, covering the Moyvalley, Broadford, Cadamstown and Clogherinkoe areas. Aidan worked out of Moyvalley Post Office and served the area for 47 years before his
retirement. His interest and love for the GAA never waned throughout his life and he kept a close eye on the fortunes of local and county teams right up until his passing. He also served as secretary of Longwood GAA Club for 22 years. In GAA Centenary Year of 1984, he was honoured with his team mates for his 1948 hurling success and in 2003 was presented with a Seán Gael trophy. There were also Hall of Fame awards in 1998 and 2008 to mark the anniversaries of the 1948 win. At the removal to Longwood Church a guard of honour, drawn from present and past members of Longwood GAA Club and former colleagues from the Post Office, escorted his remains from the village green, where Aidan spent his youth perfecting his shooting skills, by his home place to the Church of the Assumption, Longwood. Following burial in the adjoining cemetery, a graveside oration was delivered by former club chairman, Michael Leonard. Mary Doyle (Kilcloon) Nee O Brien, Mary was the daughter of Cyril O'Brien who was a co founder of Kelly, Fitzgerald and O Brien Park in Kilcloon which is one of the home pitches of Blackhall Gaels GAA Club. Her brothers, Noel, Johnny, Dessie and Gerard, all represented the Kilcloon club with distinction and the latter, popularly known an 'Jetser', played for Meath. Married to Tipperary native Richie Doyle, their sons played football and hurling with Blackhall Gaels.
Barry Fitzgerald A son of the legendary Meath GAA administrator, the late Jack Fitzgerald, Barry sadly passed away in November. A selector with the breakthrough AllIreland winning team of 1949, Jack holds the distinction of being the only Meath man to have occupied the role of Leinster Council chairman (1951 to '53). Barry inherited his father's passion for the GAA and was a member of the Kilcloon team that captured JFC honours in 1973 and also served on the club committee during the early days of the Blackhall Gaels club. His sons, John and Bernard, wore the club colours. Mary Joe Carty Mary Joe Carty (née O’Toole) was 21 years old when she moved to Meath with her parents and siblings, under the Land Commission migration scheme, in 1951. She was born in 1930 and grew up in Conagher, a small townland in County Galway on the border with Mayo. Mary Joe always claimed both heritages: “The house was in Galway
713
but we went to mass, to school, to the shops and to the pub in Mayo”. Her attachment to those counties was very obvious when either one of them was playing against Meath in GAA matches; we never needed to ask which side she was on. When, on the rare occasion, the match was between Mayo and Galway she found herself in a win-win situation. In 1951, upon arrival in Waynestown in the parish of Kilcloon, Co. Meath, Mary Joe was spotted by her next door neighbour, Harry Carty, whose family had also just recently migrated from Shraigh, near Belmullet on Mayo’s Atlantic coast. Within a few years they were married and started what was to become a very large family of ten children, of which I am one. We grew up on a small farm in the sixties and seventies where the Beatles were rarely heard and long hair deeply frowned upon, “You can’t tell the men from the women nowadays”. Most of our neighbours were farmers too and most hailed from the Wesht. We were a generation that lived with parents and grandparents who spoke with strong Mayo and Galway accents though living only a short few miles from Dublin city. Place names like Ballindine, Claremorris, Ballyhaunis, Belmullet, Ballina, Castlebar, Erris were far more familiar to our childish ears than Navan, Trim, Kells, Athboy. Mary Joe left the Wesht but the Wesht never fully left her. From her stuffing, soup and brown bread recipes, to her fascinating way of celebrating Halloween, to having Santy arrive on Christmas Eve, all her traditions (and now ours) were brought directly from the Wesht. She had peculiar vocabulary too: some were Gaelicisms, some from her native Wesht and some just plain selfinvented (the spellings are mine): a buddah (pompous); putog (spoiled child); bowdies (head lice); Amàdan (idiot); Lord Oran More (a reference to some high born person from her part of the world and used to reprimand signs of pretentiousness or fussiness). There were some cryptic, incomprehensible ones too - though we always understood them perfectly-: By troth; It’s woe betide ye; Don’t start your Andra Martins; The Dickens Hize ye; He’s as wise as Paddy the thimbles, She’ll make kittle binders of it… Mary Joe was of the generation that unquestioningly went to mass every Sunday and observed all the Catholic rituals; she saw to it that her large brood did likewise for as long as she was able to exercise that kind of authority. Yet towards the end of her life she yielded gracefully to the new norms of the younger generations.