Looking Under Stones
Page 28
‘No. I’ll pay my own way.’
‘You were always stubborn. Will you not do this for me?’
‘NO.’
‘Come on, so. We might as well go home.’
That was it, we went back to work and it wasn’t mentioned again. On reflection, I know I was wrong. I think it hurt him. It was something he wanted to do with the money and I should not have resisted someone of such extraordinarily good intentions.
I duly got ‘the call’. Teresa wasn’t impressed. She was strongly opposed to my becoming a national teacher. ‘You could do better for yourself.’
Myko, on the other hand, was all for it. Me, I didn’t know what to do. Pat Neligan was pushing strongly for me to go; Micheál Moran was really enjoying it. A lot of the class were going: Jim Lundon, John Martin, Tommy Dowd. Donal Lynch was going too. It was going to be like home, and it didn’t sound like hard work.
Why not? I decided to give it a shot.
Teresa was disgusted, but gave in and, in typical fashion, began to have big notions of the possibilities that would open up for me.
‘Sure, maybe you could do as well as that Brosnahan man from Tralee. He’s a big man in the INTO and a senator now as well.’
Some chance.
See you.
Hello, Dublin.
My grandparents, Sean the Grove and Bridgy Fitz, on their wedding day.
Aunty Phyl, Uncle Foxy John and Aunty Ita on the beach in Jersey, 1959.
Uncle Foxy John behind the hardware counter.
(Photo courtesy of Aodán Ó Conchúir, Baile an Fheirtéaraigh.)
The remains of the house built by my great-great-great grandfather, John O’Toole, on Eanach Mheáin, in South Connemara.
Grandfather Joe O’Toole.
The pub in Galway which was run by my O’Toole grandparents in 1907. It was the birthplace of Pádraig Ó Conaire.
Three of the Moriarty sisters – Teresa, Ita and Phyl; Molly is not pictured.
The wedding of my parents, Myko O’Toole and Teresa Moriarty, Dublin, 1946.
Early days.
My First Communion, 1954, with my sister, Mary Sabrina.
Sullen me at Doonshean with Teresa, Aunty Phyl and Aunty Ita.
With my sister, Mary Sabrina, outside the Mall house in Dingle c. 1954.
Granduncle Jim, myself and Uncle Benny, with ‘Little Nell’.
Margaret Sullivan and Phyl Moriarty dressed up as Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip for the ‘Wran’.
Teresa with her first cousin, Hilda O’Malley, and Hilda’s son, Daragh.
With my pal, Pat Neligan (right).
I was never musical, but I was in the school band.
My Confirmation. Clockwise from left: myself, Teresa, Myko, Mary Sabrina and Anita.
My sisters Grace and Phyllis in the Mall, Dingle.
Phyllis, centre with headdress, on the day of her First Communion. Anita is third from right, wearing the woollen bonnet and facing front.
The Mall, Dingle, with the gable-end of our shop, Moriarty’s, clearly visible on the left.
Playing handball against the wall of the courthouse, opposite our house.
A group of boyhood friends in Dingle. Back row, left to right: Mattie Maloney, James Shea, Bob Sullivan, Joe O’Toole, Thomas Lyne; front row, left to right: the name of the first boy is lost to my memory, James Walsh, Peter Leary, Pat Neligan.
Teresa, Brother Thomas and Fergus O’Flaherty at the Dingle races.
The family at home. Back row, left to right: Joe, Myko, Phyllis; front row, left to right: Mary Sabrina, Anita, Grace, Teresa.
Granny O’Toole with (left to right) my cousins, Geraldine, Clare and Oliver, and myself at Kylemore Abbey.
Private O’Toole, with .303 rifle, in ‘C’ Company, 15th Battalion, FCA, Dingle, 1963.
Dingle CBS Inter. Cert. class of 1962. Back row, left to right: Tom Shea, Micheál Ó Dúda, Pat Sullivan, Sean O’Connor, Paddy Leahy, Seán Prendiville; centre row, left to right: Michael McNamara, Seámus Griffin, Sean O’Leary, Joe O’Toole, Pat Neligan, Sean O’Shea, Seámus Moriarty; front row, left to right: Ronan Burke, Paddy O’Connor, Tadhg Barret.
Celebrations for the Golden Wedding Anniversary of Sean the Grove and Bridgy Fitz (together at head of table). Paguine is second on right.
Fifty years later and Sr Rose’s rocking horse in Dingle convent is still going strong.
(Photo: Tom Fox.)
Copyright
This eBook edition first published 2012 by The O’Brien Press Ltd,
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First published 2003
eBook ISBN: 978–1–84717–518–2
Text © copyright Joe O’Toole 2003
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
O’Toole, Joe
Looking under stones
1.O’Toole, Joe - Childhood and youth
2.Ireland - Social life and customs - 20th century
I.Title
941.7’082’092
Editing, typesetting, layout and design: The O’Brien Press Ltd
Front cover photographs: (top) courtesy of The Irish Image Collection;
(bottom and on page 2) from the Ó Muircheartaigh Collection,
Muckross Research Library, Muckross House, Killarney, Co Kerry