Clara man retires after remarkable 70 years working in same business

As he approaches his 84th birthday in the New Year, Clara's James Walshe has finally decided it's time to retire after a working life which has spanned a remarkable 70 years!

The fourth eldest of a family of 12 from the townsland of Erry, he set out to work in Goodbody's of Clara in 1956 at the tender age of just 14 years, and has continued to work for the same company – through various management buy-outs, name changes and takeovers – ever since.

James recalls leaving Clara national school at 13, and since there was no secondary school in the town, he helped his late father, also called James, on the family farm for a year before being sent out to work.

“Every young lad went to work anywhere they could get a job in those days as times were hard and we had no choice,” he says. ”We thinned turnips, picked potatoes any job at all we were prepared to do it.”

Tragedy struck the Walshe family when James was just 17 years old as his mother, Mary, died in childbirth, leaving his father to rear all 12 children on his own, including a newborn baby.

“The eldest was 21 at the time, so we had hard times, but my father reared every one of us and did a great job,” says James.

When he started in Goodbody's, young James Walshe worked a 48-hour week for which he was paid £1, 4 shillings and 6 pence.

“That figure has stuck in my head for my whole life,” he says, “and I handed the envelope up at home at the end of the week and if I was lucky I might have got a couple of shillings back for myself to spend...money was very scarce.”

As the living proof of the old adage that 'hard work never killed anybody' the hardworking young Clara man “grew into the job” and remained in Goodbody's until 1984 when the company went into receivership and was taken over by Synthetic Industries, where he remained on the staff.

He also stayed on when a management buy-out followed three years later and also when a Greek multinational company, the Thrace Group, took over the company and established the current Thrace Synthetic Packaging Ltd.

Having started out working in the spinning department of the jute mills in Goodbody’s in Clara, James Walshe worked his way up the ranks of the company through its various changes, eventually joining the Board of Directors from which he resigned when he reached retirement age at 66.

While he says he “never intended” to stay working for 70 years, he also admits that he never entertained the idea of giving up work either! “When I got to 66 years, I was asked if I'd like to stay on and it just went from there and that was it, it just flew by,” he says.

The father of three grown-up children, who married his beloved wife, Mary Josephine (née Bradley from Moate) when he was 21 years old, James now has seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and says his family are one of the “greatest joys” of his life. While admitting that the passing of Mary Josephine 14 years ago was “a big blow” he found solace in his work and also found time to travel abroad to visit family members who have settled in different parts of the world. He is planning a trip to Qatar in the Middle East to visit family after his retirement, a country he has visited several times.

Reflecting on his 70 years in work, James Walshe says he has been “very fortunate” to have been blessed with great health, and he says work gave him “a reason to get up in the morning” and has also kept his mind “sharp and alert.”

He has “no major plans” for retirement.

“I'll take a little trip to Killarney for a few days after Christmas, and after that, who knows?” he philosophically say