Memories of life and community in Killeigh
PROFILE: DORIS MURRAY
I was born in September 1940, in midwife Barry's private home in Cormac Street, Tullamore. My mother was Catherine (Katie) Deering from Killurin and my Dad was Jack Greene from Gurteen. They were only five years married when Dad was killed in 1943 in a sandpit accident. He and my mother were both 48 years old at the time and I was nearly three.
I can still clearly remember that day. I was down in the lovely clean sand with him while he ate his sandwiches and tea that myself and Mam had just brought him. He called to her to 'bring in the child' and lifted me up out of the pit when he finished his tea. I remember taking my Mam's hand and walking back towards the house.
There was a young lad working with him that day, Paddy Tobin (16), who raised the alarm. I can remember the day of the funeral, my Uncle Phil Deering brought me up to a gate in the haggard and I could see a huge crowd of people had gathered in the yard. I can remember all of that, but could never remember his face, only from photos.
My Dad's mother asked my Uncle Frank, who had just gotten his passport and was heading for America, to stay home and run the farm, and he agreed. We lived in a thatched cottage with mud walls, three feet wide, and there was a big six-foot-wide open fireplace with a long grate and a big ash pit under it.
It had a crane you could hang a kettle on, and pots would hang from the hooks. My Mam made bread and put it in a round baker and put the hot coals on top of the lid and fire under it. Eventually we got a big range with two ovens at either side and the fire in the centre. It was black and had shiny doors and it made such a difference to the cooking and baking.
Every day, my Mam used to carry two buckets of water from a couple of fields away. Eventually Uncle Frank got a well made, with a pump on it, so we were delighted not to have to carry water anymore! My Aunt Dora lived with us also and made most of my clothes. She had wonderful hands and knitted jumpers and cardigans, and made beautiful tablecloths with intricate lace edges.
When I was six years of age, I went to Killurin school and I was surprised at all the noise and talk! I was an only child and it was so quiet in the long avenue where I lived. The teachers were Mrs Dowling and Mr Hutton.
My Aunt May and Mary Ann, who lived next door to the school, would give me my dinner at lunch time every day, then I would run back to play hurling with the lads and girls with the hurl my Uncle Phil had made for me. He made me lots of things including stilts and a catapult. One day I aimed it at my mother’s cockerel and killed him stone dead! I told no one in the house and no one ever found out what happened to the cockerel.
When I finished in Killurin school, I went to the Convent of Mercy in Moate as a border for a few years. I started to work on the farm, as my Uncle Frank had developed bad arthritis in his knees. I learned to drive and got my licence at 17. I went to night classes in the Technical School in Tullamore and went on ICA and Pioneer bus tours to different parts of the country.
It was on one of these bus tours that I met my husband, Christy, for the first time. We were married in 1965 and lived in the Murray home house, with Christy's mother, until she died in 1987. We had four children, Marie, Gerry, Rita and TJ, all born in Tullamore Hospital. They went to Killeigh school and are living within a stone's throw of me now, which I'm delighted about. We have 11 grandchildren.
Christmas was always a busy time, there could be 20 or 30 people up to the house after the pub closed on Christmas Eve. We chatted and sang songs and played music sometimes until 5am on Christmas morning. Paddy Dillon used to do taxi service for a lot of them at all hours of the night and made sure everyone got home safely.
In August 1990, an electrical fault in the attic caused our entire house to burn down. Three fire engines came from Tullamore and the district but it burned very fast and we had very little left but what we were wearing at the time.
The neighbours were fantastic; they brought us clothes and food. Paddy and Phyllis Dillon and John Walton gave us two caravans. Paddy and Phyllis Mitchell very generously gave us their house in Killeigh to live in for three months while our house was being rebuilt. Christy’s brother, Mick, and Paddy Dillon and his men built the house back up again. We were so very thankful to all the people who helped us out at that time, the sense of community was so strong.
Every time we hear Fiona Mitchell’s voice on the news, reporting from all over the world, it reminds us of that time and what great generosity of spirit there is in our community of Killeigh village.
Shortly after the house fire, I became aware of all the terrible suffering that was happening in Somalia and Bosnia. We organised a large clothes and food appeal for the refugees out of a large shed that Christy and Gerry built. We erected large wooden tables and about 50 neighbours helped to sort 2,500 bags of clothes which were then brought to Peggy Kirwan in Borris In Ossory and driven over to Bosnia by Hyland Lorry Transport, and Jackie Keyes Lorry Transport, so we knew it got to where we had intended it to. We later formed The Refugee Trust Fund and continued to fundraise. Over the years, I was involved in a lot of organisations and committees in Killeigh, from the Refugee Trust Fund to School Parents' Committees, Irish Countrywomen's Association, and the setting up of the Community Text Alert. I was on the Altar Society in Killeigh from 1974 to 2003 and, since 2003, I have been the sacristan in Killeigh Church. Some might say I'm part of the furniture down there, but I love it.
The Macra Hall was always the centre for social gatherings. I am so delighted to see all the work that the hard-working development committee are doing to bring this hall back to the community again with the proposed Killeigh Community Centre."