THE BIG READ: Publican's fondest childhood memory is hurling on the green in Offaly village

I was born in Killeigh in 1951. My mother, Mary Kelly from Derrybeg while my father, Pat Purcell was from Ballinvalley. Unfortunately, my father died in 1965 when I was 13 going on 14. I have two brothers Paddy who lives in London and Ben, still in Killeigh.

As youngsters, we spent a lot of time in Derrybeg, which was my grandfather’s place. My grandfather died around 1955 but my uncle Mattie lived there and we use to go down and help him out as at that time, he worked in the Bacon Factory in Tullamore. He had a small bit of ground and a fairly good size bog, so Summer months was busy with the cutting of the turf and all that goes with it.

Going back to Killeigh Village, electricity didn’t come to the village until maybe sometime in the 50’s which meant not many radios or that, so the big thing growing up was the sports. We had the Carnival, in what we called Matt Brien’s field at the time; I see houses built there now. All the great bands that use to play there! The Carnival was started to collect a few bob to build a hall in Killeigh and then once the hall was built the carnival moved up there. The Annual Sports Day; oh what a great day that was, was held on the Green. It left the Green in 1969 and my brother Paddy, who was secretary back then, was very much into athletics and hurled as well.

Our main effort was hurling. At that time to win a championship with Killeigh, you really appreciated it because you only got one match, no leagues or anything. I remember going to see Killeigh play a senior hurling championship match back in late 1950’s. I recall Tom Kelly playing in goals for them, and they played Tullamore in O’Connor Park, my uncle Mattie and my brother Paddy use to bring me to the matches. I think that’s what gave me all the retention and to talk about GAA, a lot of fellas say a bit of “bull” but it starts a conversation. If a guy comes into the pub, he’s going to be disappointed if he can’t ask a question about something, you can’t be in bad humour and say “I don’t know that, come back tomorrow!” Some might though but I believe to tell the truth as it’s always documented somewhere so you’d be caught out anyway.

If I read a book about GAA, I have a great gift of retaining it or the history about a place; I would always remember some of it, I love the knowledge of it. Growing up I suppose, I go back to my brother Paddy again; he’d buy the papers and make scrap books cutting out different articles and put into copybooks. Even when money was tight back in the 1960’s, he’d still manage to buy the Sports Weekly edition. He would read it from front to back and it covered GAA games and match reports from the whole of Ireland and had profiles on the All-Stars and Player of the Week. Paddy had a great interest in that and I picked it up from him.

Ben didn’t have not much interest in hurling but picked up the art of thatching from the old people like Jimmy Carroll, Jack Dunne and Paddy Kelly. My grandfather’s place in Derrybeg was thatched and I suppose I would relate myself from Derrybeg as much as Killeigh and looking back, we were like the Pope having two homes! School days were good memories of course; the hurling played a big role as we always had decent school teams. Cumann mBunscol was big at that time and we competed with the bigger school of Tullamore and the likes. We may not have won anything but we defiantly competed! If one wanted to play football, we went over to the other side of the parish to Geashill. There was no split back then, only hurling with Killeigh and football with St Marys and if you were good enough, you got on the team and if you weren’t, well so be it but there was no leagues back then, only knockout.

My fondest memory was hurling on the Green, it was always like an All-Ireland Final and when you were nine or 10 years old, you pucked the ball into the big lads. Some might have come out of the mission and when Mass would be over, they’d all go to the Green; one hurling ball that couldn’t be lost. Our job was at the end of the ball alley side, pucking the ball back up. At times, there could be 25 of more men waiting for this ball to drop; 10 playing in, 10 playing out in their suits, and if it was a fine evening, the jacket were used for goalposts. Then as we got older, we got in to play. There was no better place to practise the bit of hurling than in the ball alley; the Sheerans as well as ourselves; the Coltons; the Wrights; and, the Foys.

Sunday morning and Sunday afternoons was always busy and I must mention Joe Plunkett. He was a great man for the hand ball and also for underage hurling. I recall Joe having a mini car and he’d load up about 10 players in it, head to a match and travel wherever the match was. You’d be stiff getting out of the car but sure once you got togged out, you wouldn’t be too bad but the match could be on about 10 or 15 minutes before you’d get going and then no one would hurl ya.

Every time I visited Killeigh, I went to the Post Office and Joe would have a new photo up and we would study the photo. Bridget, Lord rest her, she would walk back into the kitchen because she knew we would be chatting for some time! Also the shops back then; McEnroe’s and Mr McEnroe had the pub there. Mighty characters but I must tell this story; Dinny White from Killurin would cycle down on his bike and Mr McEnroe was originally from Cavan, anyway when Dinny would go into the pub, he’d say “Hey Mr McEnroe, give us a pint of stout and will you put it in the book? Mr McEnroe would reply “Jesus Dinny, I can’t put it in the book, there’s enough in the book and with that Dinny would say “ah it won’t go bad in the book but will go bad in the barrel”.

Leading on to how I got involved in the pub trade, I went to school in Killeigh and then headed to the Tech in Tullamore; spent three years there. We had a great hurling team and I was lucky to get on it. We reached the All Ireland school finals in 1967 in Croke Park and we were beaten by a Tipperay team by a few points. Killeigh at that time was strong at underage, great players around you; they were steady and you could depend on them. I went on to work putting up aerials with Dinny Mooney, now that was an education in itself! From there I got a job in the Golf Club in Tullamore. The Golf Club at that time was run by Peter Graham and his wife Chis and they had one daughter June. They were very good at what they did; running the business and Peter in particular running the bar as he was trained in the army. It was a great grounding for me and I spent 2 years there and then I went on to work in various pubs in Galway and Dublin for DE Williams.

In 1970, I went to Dalkey for nearly four years with the Kirwan Group; they had five pubs at the time. As people know me, I got fond of the drink at that time, and I don’t mind saying it, I can’t butter over it. I worked in a lot of pubs in my day; I spent 13 years in Dublin and I wasn’t sorry that I did move around. When I look back, I’m 37 years in Mountrath now and in the pub trade much longer and have met many people over the years and they’re still my friends today. I didn’t have a boring life, in the pub trade you could see anything and met many characters. I worked in pubs where they played tig with hatches; rows in pubs these days are nothing compared to what I seen back then. They didn’t use glasses or bottles, they would choke one another. Fair to say, it gave me a great grounding!

I had a pub just up from where I am now in Mountrath. People often asks me how I ended up here and I always say, I was walking home from Killeigh one night and I looked up towards the mountain and saw a light and I said to myself, I’m going to go and see what’s over there. Now whether the Mountrath people were lucky that I did or I didn’t, that’s another thing but here we are, 37 years later and I’m still here. Between 1983 and 1986, I worked in various pubs around Stradbally and Mountrath and I must mention my great friends, John Maloney and Paddy Kennedy. I worked from them back then, covering various bars around festivals and the likes; they payed me well but the only condition was they wouldn’t pay me until the end of the job.

We bought this pub where we are now in 1987 and I’m here ever since, through thick and thin. At that time, the post office was next door to us, no longer there now. The town was busy because it was market town and had a lot of shops and as the years went on, it didn’t affect us too much as we streamlined the business. We stopped opening though the day and only in the evenings and all the GAA clubs around supported us. I played hurling for some time with Mountrath and I won an Intermediate title as sub goalie. I even won a Junior B final at the age of 45; sure if nothing else, it kept me off the drink. As someone once said when I could hurl, I was drinking and when I wanted to hurl, I was too old.

In 1985, I went back to play a Junior B final with Killeigh against Daingean in Ballinamere and the great Mick O’Rourke was over the team and they were stuck for a goalie so I stepped in. We lost by a few points but great craic but sure little did I know that I’d continue to play for another 10 years with Mountrath. The older I got the more enjoyment I got out of it watching the younger lads develop. I would always maintain that you encourage your players around you, no point giving out to them. Mick O’Rourke was a great clubman, a great representative to have on the Offaly team. He never lay down and if a fella passed him, he certainly didn’t pass him the second time. He gave great service to Killeigh. To get on an Offaly team at that time was a massive achievement. In my opinion, I think Mick was a better hurler than football and I must mention his brother Billy who won a county medal in Carlow. The O’Mearas, Deerings, Mahons, Berrys, to name just a few, were also great men. It was a parish team, end of story and I would love to see it go back that away again. I always say back then you had to light the fire and wait for the kettle to boil, now you can just plug it in, everything now is instant which is a shame; “put the ball over the bar and put your parish on the map”.

The bar trade was good to me, I married Chris back in 1986 and have three children; Michelle the eldest lives locally with her husband Ray. Bill and Rebecca are twins; Bill lives in Canada and Rebecca is married to Francy down in Carlow and we have one grandchild called Owen. Chris went back to college and studied to be psychiatric nurse and herself and Bill graduated the same day, mother and son graduating together a very proud day.

Finally, with regards development of the hall, I certainly would love to see a community centre back in Killeigh. Over my travels, I have seen a lot of small places, especially funerals and when you’re involved in the bar trade, you get to know many people. Just the other day, I was down in Kilkenny, a small little place and went to their community centre after and the ladies down there were serving the food and before I left, I went up to thank the ladies for their kindness. I would hope that in the not too distant future, we could have that in Killeigh.

To be honest, growing up I lived life and “I never took off the handbrake” but no matter where I went, I was and still am, a very proud Killeigh man.

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