Letter from Ontario I am sitting here reading your great News Four paper and getting very homesick, but I get homesick if somebody just mentions Ringsend.

This may seem unusual for a man who has lived in Canada for 42 years, but it is true. I lived in Ringsend for 23 years and although sometimes we had it tough, they were still the best years of my life. My memories of Ringsend will never leave me and I still refer to Ringsend as my home.

The reason I am writing this letter is because I am reading about a team from The ‘Star of The Sea’ winning the Millar Shield and it brought me back to the time in 1943 when we won the Millar’s shield at Harold’s Cross Park.

It was our first year in Gaelic Football and we beat Milltown 6 – 0. My Brother Bert was also on that team. I will never forget Milltown coming out in a beautiful yellow strip and every one of them wearing football boots.

Our strip was a few jerseys which Arthur Fitzsimmons (our great Irish international) managed to get for us, and to this day I still do not know where he got them from.

Arthur was also on our team that day. Three of our players had knicks and four had football boots. I remember Inky Govinns played in his bare feet. Yes, it was lean times in Ringsend during the War, but we showed Milltown how to play football.

I am sorry to say I lost my medal three years ago when I moved house, along with my Leinster Cup Medal and my father’s F.A.I. Cup Medal.

Other great memories for me was when I was playing for the bottle house team that won the Leinster Junior Cup. ln 1953 we beat Fry Cadbury 4 – 0 at Glenmalure Park in the final.

Another memory was at sixteen years of age playing in a, public house match for Smith’s against McCloskey’s. I was asked to play because Smith’s was short of players. I did not even drink at the time.

McCloskeys had a great team, players like Joe Nolan and his brother Paul, Victor and Peter Ferrari, all great players at the time. I am sorry to say we lost Joe and Paul out here in Canada a few years back. Both of them are now playing in Heaven – I hope!

We beat them that Sunday morning at the Maris Ground 2 – 1. Billy (Gidda) Murphy scored the winner. Gidda was married to my first cousin Sheila Dunn and I am sorry to say he passed away recently.

Many a time myself, Paul and Joe replayed that game over a few drinks out here in Canada.
I could go on writing about Ringer for years. I have wonderful memories of my home town and its great people. The great times I had as a kid in Murphy’s Yard, sailing to Wicklow for the Regattas and all the other things we got up to. I also worked in Harry Smith’s Yard. Harry was a great boat builder and built all the racing skiffs in Ringsend at the time.

Talking about Regattas, how can anybody from Ringsend forget the great crews we had in those days. I think back to the five Murphys, the crew of the St. Patrick. Thomas and his brother Seamus, Christy and his brother Paddy and Tommy (Two Thumbs) Murphy Tommy (Two Thumbs) Murphy was the Cox. They won everything on the East Coast that year.

Then you had the great Stella Maris crews, great oarsmen like Johnnie Gaffney, my first cousin. John and Morgan Tyrrell whom we lost too early in life. We cannot forget Tommy Weafer, they did not come any better than Tommy, my next-door neighbour in Canon Mooney Gardens.

I rowed quite a bit myself in those years, of course being brought up in Murphy’s yard, rowing was the first thing you learned how to do. I rowed for the Bottle House Senior Crew (St. Luke) when I was 18 years old. The crew was: Patsy Bissett, Nedser Clarke, Joey Darley and myself. Fesser Gannon was the cox.

I used to sing a lot in those days and sang at weddings, not only in Ringsend, but all over Dublin, but my memory goes back to two masses I sang at. I always remember singing at Fr. Whelan’s ordination mass, in St. Patrick’s Church in Ringsend. His father wanted an all-Ringsend affair and I was asked to sing. I see a letter from Fr. Whelan’s sister in this paper too, looking for her uncle. I am sorry I cannot help her in this respect.

Another time, I was asked to sing was at Arthur Fitzsimons’s wedding, which took place in Middlesborough. These were great times for me.

By the way, the first barber shop in Ringsend was right on Ringsend Bridge. It was called ‘Mangles’, and I remember Cecil Driver and Jackie O’Neill working in Mangles as barbers. I had my first hair cut in Mangles at the age of 3 years, and I remember my father holding me down in the chair, so that I could not move.

Harry O’Neill’s grandfather used to sell papers next door to Mangles, by the way Harry O’Neill was our goalkeeper when we won the Millar Shield

I cannot talk about Ringsend without thinking of great people like Peter Murphy, Baller Lawless, The Ratleys, (Steve Boy and Joe Boy) and the resident Comedian Joe (Beda) Behan. These were great people who gave our town a lot of character. I have to tell you when Joe Nolan was alive we had a lot of parties out here in Canada and Joe always insisted on everybody singing the Ringsend National Anthem at the end of the all the parties – ( RAY, RAY, RAY.) I also have to tell you the licence plate on my car is RAYTWN – we are only allowed six letters so I had to leave out the “O”, but it is still RINGSEND.

I could go on writing for years, especially about the great times I had with Joe Murphy and my times working in the Bottle House. People like Matt Clayton always come to mind, what a great gentleman Matt was, and a great friend to me.

I have to stop somewhere, so GOOD LUCK TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF RINGSEND, especially my relatives. – the Caulfieldls, the Dunns, the Floods, the Egans, of which I am one, and the Gaffneys. I could go on and on but there are too many of us to mention. That is why we were called the ‘ROYAL FAMILY’.

So Good Luck to all, and remember, no matter what part of the world we are in, as Ringsenders we can always hold our head up high.
Ringsend forever,
Tom Egan.