Local Faces: Tommy O’Neill

IT’S BEEN one of those weeks dear reader, writes Ken Doyle.

Our subject, the estimable Mr Tommy O’Neill, member and unflinching promoter of Clondalkin Men’s Shed has quite the tale to tell. Strap in for an epic that I would have needed the entire paper to tell in it’s entirety.

Tommy, is a sprightly man of no fewer than 88 summers, with every marble he ever had, still safely aboard.

It was a pleasure to talk to him (after his regular swim, naturally), and to be regaled of tales of the city of yesteryear as well as his current life in Clondalkin.

I haven’t even taken a note before Tommy tells me that one of his earliest memories is of the North Strand bombings of 1941 during the Emergency under DeValera in World War 2.

He recalls his mother blacking out the windows for fear of the Luftwaffe’s return.

“I remember seeing the searchlights beaming into the sky,” he tells me. So yes, as you can see, we have some ground to cover.

Born in 1938, one of nine children, to Andy and Ellen (Nellie) O’Neill, Tommy and the family spent his earliest years in the City Centre before, five or so years later, upping sticks and moving to Drimnagh, which then, in the early forties, was a brand new development surrounding the extant Castle and School.

Tommy attended the then brand new Mourne Road school, after nearly been accidentally blinded, finished his education at St Michael’s in Inchicore.

Armed with his Primary Cert (quite a big deal in those days), Tommy left school at 14 and threw himself into a very different job market to the one we know today.

“A friend of my mother’s son was working as a Sewing Machine Mechanic and she thought it might be good for me.

‘So, along with my Mam, I asked for a job at Machines Ltd on Upper Abbey Street and was taken on.

‘I served my time under a man named John Hammond.”

That was Tommy’s introduction to the Rag Trade and he soon met a man who would become a great employer to him, a man named Morrie Gordon, who ran a garment factory on the other side of the river in Temple Bar.

“Temple Bar was very, very different to what it is now. It was full of small factories and businesses, making and selling things like clothes obviously, but also jewellery and there were many Furriers based down there.

‘They were mostly Jewish run and I always found those fellas to be great employers, Mr Gordon especially was straight as an arrow with me and he was a great man that I learned a lot from.”

Phew! So much to tell, so few column inches.

Anyway, a hobby our hero took up around then was cycling and he joined a cycling club called Benito (named after a different Benito, he assures me).

Nicknames are always good for a laugh on sports teams and with ‘Nailer’ already taken by his big brother Andy, he was christened

‘Little Tack’ for reasons I don’t think he knows himself.

He spent many happy times on two wheels, never more so than with his best mate, a Ballyfermot lad called Stephen Quinn.

They were inseparable by the man’s account, so much so, that they bought a Tandem and proceeded to cycle here and there, but mainly to dances.

One night, at a dance, the boys were introduced to a young lady who had a four year old child and struggled to find a dancing partner.

Tommy did the polite ‘how dya dos,’ whilst Stephen fell hook line and sinker for her, smitten instantly.

So the partnership was broken up and Stephen and the new love of his life settled down in England and married, with Tommy on best man duty.

Tommy continues, “Then the story goes that one night, Stephen had just finished working on the 1962 film ‘In Search of The Castaways’ for Disney as a set builder.

‘He’d been invited to the wrap party but he wasn’t a drinker so he went outside to wait for his lift.

‘While he was standing there an out of control vehicle came and slammed into him.

‘He was killed outright at the age of 25 and my heart was broken.

‘I’ve remembered his friendship all of these years and I’ll never forget him. He was a very special friend to me.”

I have to try to condense years upon years of Tommy’s life now because I need to get to the Men’s Shed so here goes.

He worked in London at Bush Radio (before they even made TVs), he managed a hotel owned by his now Abu Dhabi based brother Andy, named the ‘Sir Walter Raleigh’ in Youghal, Co. Cork for eleven years.

He worked for his pal Mr Gordon again at various times, worked part time in a record shop in Kilmainham, was Foreman at Glen Abbey in Tallaght for a decade or so and he even drove a taxi after he retired because he was such a workaholic.

“I worked non-stop for 56 years I’m delighted to say that through Facebook I’m still in contact with loads of people from everywhere I’ve been.”

In amongst all of that he fell for and married his darling Wife Rita and they raised their two children Susan and Thomas in Clondalkin.

In addition, he now has four grandchildren who are his pride and joy, Lucy, Jack, Tomás and Ciara.

Sadly, in 2014, his beloved Rita passed on leaving Tommy bereft, and, by his own admission a pretty broken man.

Fate never closes a door without opening a window however and some time later, Tommy started going to see his pals at their swims again.

It turned out that one of them had seen a programme the previous night about a Men’s Shed and pipes up ‘we should do that lads!’

So it was that, starting with a man named Tom Lennon getting it going, the Clondalkin Men’s Shed came into being.

They’re now based in a fabulous premises in Watery Lane and they concentrate on Woodworking projects mainly.

They also have a hand in regular swims and walks for the seniors in the community and all manner of excellent local causes.

“It’s been fantastic for me,” says Tommy. “When I lost Rita I kind of lost myself. Associating with the lads down here, socialising and chatting, as well as a little bit of work was exactly what I needed.”

“I’m officially the Secretary of the Shed but I could nearly become a counsellor at this stage. We’re all men and we’ve all found difficulties in our lives.

‘The greatest thing about this place is that it’s a safe place to be emotional and I’ve heard awful stories from fellas who joined us and said it was a life-saver for them.”

As Tommy tells me, they’re all great fellas who he’d like to thank. So, the list as far as he could remember at the time reads; Tom, Frank, Fintan, Vincent (Chairman), Pat (Treasurer), Mick, Gerry, Robert, Liam, Shane, John, Derek, another John, Pascal, Eugene, Gary, Martin, another Gerry and Mikey.

Apologies to anyone he didn’t remember on the spot.

The Shed has now expanded into horticulture and the like as they look after a piece of land on the Fonthill Road growing all kinds of things plants and vegetables.

The plot is equipped with a sizable Poly tunnel and the lads tend to it all year round.

So I leave Tommy for now and thank him for sharing his remarkable life story with me. I’m just sorry I couldn’t get more of it down here.

You’ll have to wait for when I write his memoirs.