People Who Made a Difference

[Brendan]

Along the journey of life in the Curragh, I encountered some marvelous people who had a positive impact on our lives.

The older residents would remember great men like Mickey Gray and Christy Ennis for running the gymnastic club. National accolades go to Christy and John Burke. Thanks to Frank O’Shea teaching us hammer throwing and track sports. And Tommy Stokes and George Quinlan for helping us develop our skills playing hurling and Gaelic football. Mr. Sheedy (teacher) for the scouts, and Mrs. Butler (teacher) for the choir.

A special thanks to Tommy (Mousy) Connolly for starting the Boxing Club that produced national and international champions like Tommy Tobin, John (Jude) Maguire and others. Later, thanks to Jamsie Campbell for training us like professionals.

[Sean Tracey]

Hi Beandan and All. That was a good memory trigger. I was not involved with the afore mentioned because i had no interest in sports and still do not. These men at least took an interest in the Boys of the Curragh. You are right in what you say that they helped to keep some of us from growing as lost causes. If you look at the Curragh no one as far as i know does anything for the youth that is there. I can only suspect that all this health and safety coupled with the fact that society on the whole has turned so letigiouse coupled with other things just prevents this sad but true. Sean Tracey.

[tommyhetherington]

Hi Brendan , Sean and All
All the Scout Leaders put in a lot of work the guys from my time were Jimmy Gray and Murty Purcell and i am sure there was more but the names fail me at this time maybe Matt could remember as he was a scout at this time.
The Youth club at the time was very strong Thanks to Tommy Kelly, Lily Slattery Paddy Slattery, Mrs Fogarthy. All these people and more put in many hours and deserve a thank you.
The Curragh I find goes through stages " It happens or It does not happen" So the youth suffered when things went bad.
Cheers Guys See ye Later
John Otley (Drama Group)

[tommyhetherington]

Re My Last John Otley's Name Jumped to the End it should be with the youth club

[Kentgal]

A gender viewpoint.
In every society one can find people who make a difference be it by Words - kind or unkind; By Deeds - thoughtful or thoughtless; By Actions - helpful or harmful.
Positive or negative influences depend on the receipents interpretation of the above underpinned by asperations and experiencial lifestyle.

For me (and many others of my era and gender) where sociologists would have had a field day, it was the Curragh teaching establishment who made a real difference.
Thanks to their negative influences I set out to prove them wrong & hope I succeeded.
Striving to be the opposite of their 'Sam Brown' halo effect, which justified "Never amounting to anything" asigned to ALL the 'spit & brasso' kids in my schooldays, my non judgmental & respectful approach to my fellow man is not due to education alone.
However, it is with a hint of sadness that the letters after my name fall off the end of an A4, which I would gladely swop, for just one short memory of a happy schoolday event.

[Brendan]

Hi Kentgal,

It's not that I disagree with you. I can't deny the truth. The reality is the vast majority of working class - and soldier's sons and daughters were considered on the bottom rung of society - thanks to the class structure of society.

On a personal level, growing up for me, fear wore a habit, uniform, suit and hat, armed with authority who were quick to put you in a social strata that I neither cared for nor understood. However, my greatest fear was my own ignorance. Now thank God, leaving the institutionalized setting behind released me from the shackles of ignorance and fear.

Having said that, the Curragh was no different to any other city, town or village in Ireland. The nuns who taught my wife discouraged the girls from going out with the Curragh riff-raff. I'm glad she didn't listen.

EVERY Curragh boy and girl were, and are, just as good as any other citizen in the land.

Like I said before I'm grateful to those who touched my life in a positive way. Thanks to Matt, we have a forum to thank them publicly.

Brendan

[Kentgal]

And from me! Hats off to Mat too. Top of the 'Made a Difference pyramid.

Brendan..........Can't disagree with you either.
As I already said, experiencial knowledge underpins perceptions - how we view the world around us, in addition to gender differences goverened by neurological development.

Being the opposite gender these forces were in play for me from day one (age four) my first introduction to, as you rightly point out a class riddled community.
Insight was my purgratory. Hell was getting through each second, minute, hour, day, of each school term, feeling no better than untouchable.

However I learned the value of external education before it even seeded any acknowledgement as 'added value' to the Ed.corriculem. Because come the end of every school term I got away.
Away to the counryside! The place where I was born. Albeit not a million miles away from Sam Brown but millions of miles in terms of respectful values and role models.
Real people - who's ordinary daily activities, respectful behaviour and communication were my building blocks and who made a real difference to me.

[Helena]

Hi Kentgal
I too went to school in the Curragh Camp but I remember those days as very happy ones. The teachers were lovely and taught us well. Maybe your school days were before mine or after mine but some of the teachers were there SO LONG we probably did have some of the same ones teaching us!!!!!

Helena

[Kentgal]

Helena
That's how it should be . Wish I'd been born later.
Sadly in my era, repeated beatings were the order of the day. Officer's kids excluded of course.

Reminissing with an old school friend recently (nonconformist in her day) about the times her mother came looking for her when she failed to arrive home for lunch & finds her locked in the classroom as punishment, while the teacher pocketed the key and went home to Newbridge for her own lunch.

Funny how we mostly remember our own misery albeit I often recall the February Friday appointment at the dentist. I was told to take a younger girl along who was being sent home. She was aged about 7/8 and I about 10 years old.
We were told 'her Mother was ill' and I was to take her to the Families Hosp. We duly did as told and found her Mother 'laid out' candles alight in the waiting room inside the main enterence The event cannot be imagined .

Her father may have had his say with the teachers later but they had nowhere to hide from the nurses fury .
She never returned to school and I often wonder how she fared.
And that was MILD. Unpublished of course for now.

[Tommy]

Hi,
The subject has brought up a very nasty side of the Curragh and it is a Subject i feel strongly about that dirty word class with reference to people.
There was and still is a class divide here and i have meet some who never let their rank or so called status get in the way of good friendship.
I still meet them today over 30 years later and they like me enjoy real friendship.
I rem. walking on the top road and been removed because of my status I was 15 at the time and was affected by this, I served under the same officer years later and had no respect for this person"He does not deserve to be called a man"I wonder how he would feel if one of his children were treated the same.
Anyway there is good and bad in all walks of life.
Forums like this bring the good together

Thanks Mac a great site you have made a difference and i look forward to many more Hours of reading and writing if anyone will listen

[tommyhetherington]

System must have logged out
TOMMY guest
should be tommyhetherington
Cheers all

[Kentgal]

Tommy H
You are so right. So many examples!

Remember the left hand pews in the old Church?
Reserved for Officers & Families.
Solders + Kids - KEEP OUT

Do onto others etc.
'Give equal respect on the bottom rung of the ladder. The reward is mutual on the way up and visa versa at the top who ever gets there first'.

[tommy]

Kentgal,
Ah yes the great church my mam was refused entry by an MP "not his fault" when she was 7 years old just imagine the confusion for a child when the school was teaching children how much christ loved them etc. Go back little girl improve your social class for entry through this door,
Buy as was pointed out in another section of this forum these things happened country wide.
It is important to rem these things in life, not to be bitter but to learn and ensure we do not tolerate the carry on of stupid people.

[Matt McNamara]

Hi Ladies and Gents good to see you all contributing to the forum and keeping it going. I normally don’t say a lot , but I do login every day to check the forum and the posts. As you know the site has been hit a couple of times and the past and even in the last few days by would be hackers or as I like to call them “morons”. They place links to unsavoury sites of an adult nature. People have even reported me to the military authorities complaining about the site and its links. But that is enough about that for now. Good to see the regular posters and their stories and tails about their experiences in their time in The Curragh, always a good read and look forward to more. Glad to have my old school buddy and friend Tom Hetherington on the forum and not to forget Skinny Furlong another School Buddy and Friend. And Tom I will search for the old Scout pictures of our camp in Sligo. And to all the other regular posters, Brendan, Sean, Kentgal, And Helena keep it up and pass the word to other ex-Curragh people about the site.

All the best Matt

[tommyhetherington]

Hi all,
Justa few lines re this section i have found a photo of myself and other guys and we were part of a hurling team representing the curragh in the community games in the late seventies yes i am getting old but not like all the oldies who keep this form alive.
So i hope o have it posted on the forum soon and would like others to add photos of the Curragh People at events etc. we can make the photo gallery bigger with the people at the heart of the curragh so get going please, that includes you Matt

Tomm H