Ballymun Scouts

One of the seven towers

Recent trips to Ireland where I stayed in the Travelodge near my old neighbourhood in Ballymun resulted in two reflections. Firstly the needless waste on the Ballymun Public Housing development in North Dublin on the edge of the then city which is being demolished a mere 44 years after the 3,600 unit development was built. The other more positive reflection was on the great optimism and positive influence of the unique Scouting Outreach experiment in the same surroundings, the 64th Dublin Scout Group, conveniently know as Ballymun Scouts.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/01/tale-of-two-travelodges.htmll

As youngsters we used to play in the fields where Ballymun is now built and collect conkers from the fine chestnut trees in the grounds of Stormonstown House which covered most of the area. The area was bisected by a country laneway which led to St. Pappin’s Church dating from 1864 and at Santry Cross just beyond it was Ballymun House where we used to go for the annual Horse Show. It was an area with a decided rural character on the edge of the city.







Much to everybody’s amazement the Government from 1965 decided to build a high density housing development using pre-cast concrete construction techniques being abandoned in the rest of Europe. At its centre it had 7 tower blocks with spines of eight and 4 storey precast blocks radiating from the centre and between the arms a combination of traditional housing and open spaces. There were three types of flats: seven fifteen-storey towers; nineteen eight-storey blocks; ten four-storey blocks. The tender was awarded to a consortium called CHS (Cubitt, Haden, Sisk) of two UK contractors and John Sisk an Irish company and a factory was constructed to manufacture the concrete panels.


The early days; L-R; Back. Alan Delahunty, Ben Ivory, Dick Tennant - National Commissioner, John Delahunty - Group Leader, Declan Kelly,
Front; Maura Sloyan, David Sullivan, Hugh Hogan



The flats were built in the 1960s under the authority of Neil Blaney, the then Fianna Fáil Minister for Local Government. They incorporated the best social housing practice of the time. The first tenants moved in between August 1966 and December 1966. By February 1969, when the National Building Agency's contract for Ballymun ceased and control of Ballymun was handed to Dublin City Council, (Dublin County Council didn't want it) there was a total of 3,021 dwellings in the new Ballymun, all of which was social housing under the control of the Irish state through Dublin City Council. A National Building Agency was set up to build the project in 4 years but when it was handed over to Dublin Corporation in 1969 many of the community facilities (Shopping Centre, clinic, schools, swimming pool, library) were not completed.


Fund raising Bring & Buy Sale

This led to the “model development” being serviced by inadequate mobile shops and considerable strains as the residents had to travel outside Ballymun for most services until facilities were built. In addition a big selling point of the spacious and roomy flats was the central heating was included in the rent from the district heating plant. However, this led to other problems as residents couldn’t control their heating individually. So Dublin Corporation had their work cut out taking over a facility which wasn’t finished but they didn’t rise to the challenge either with passive, bureaucratic and distant management of the complex resulting in many downstream problems. However the pre-cast construction was at the root of the flats demise as they developed structural problems due to the phenomenon of “solar walking” where over time the upper panels expand, perish the mastic joints and move due to the heating effect of the sun and the contraction due to night time cooling.


Ballymun Shopping Centre

In time Ballymun and the Seven Towers became a symbol of poverty, drugs, alienation from the state and social problems in Ireland during the 1970s. Today it is undergoing a multi-billion euro renewal, with a renovated village centre, surrounded by estates of houses and apartments, with several sub-districts such as Sillogue and Poppintree. Ballymun had a population of 22,109 at the 2006 Census. The history of the area and of the Ballymun Housing Complex is very well and interestingly documented by Dr. Robert Somerville-Woodward in this work specially commissioned by the Ballymun regeneration project.

http://www.brl.ie/pdf/Ballymun_A_History_1600_1997_Synopsis.pdf

Among the opprobrium heaped on Ballymun, the deployment of the flats has been described by the environmental journalist Frank McDonald, in his book The Construction of Dublin, as the Irish state's 'worst planning disaster'. However, at the time of its construction, Ballymun was a sought after location and prospective tenants had to pass an interview to get housing there. The tenants primarily came from the most deprived areas of inner city Dublin, places where the depth of poverty could not be conceived of in modern Ireland. Many tenants were middle class residents whose property was 'compulsory purchased' by Dublin City Council. They arrived in Ballymun to some of the finest social housing in Europe, having central heating and other rarities of the day in their homes.


Leaders Sile McInerney and Alan Delahunty at Gilwell Park Scoutcentre, Chingford, UK


Venture Scouts dinner

The Ballymun Flats were built in the midst of a housing crisis to accommodate the rising population of Dublin City, Ireland, and particularly former residents of inner-city areas which were being cleared in the process of 1960s 'urban slum clearances'. Whilst suffering from a lack of sufficient public amenities, several schools served the area (Holy Spirit N.S. and Ballymun Comprehensive), as well as an Eastern Health Board medical centre and a purpose built shopping centre. The causes of the social problems in the area, and the subsequent discrimination faced by many people with Ballymun addresses when seeking employment outside the suburb, have been disputed, but Ballymun generally paralleled the experience of many working-class people in the 1960 and 1970s when placed in high-rise locations. Despite the negative perceptions of many non-residents of Ballymun, there existed, and exists today, a strong sense of pride and community in the area, as evidenced by the fact that many former residents of the flats have accepted new social housing in the district.






64th Dublin Cub Scout Pack

However, there was a profound lack of amenities throughout the area - initially the only shop was a van selling at premium prices, for example - and, combined with a lack of trees, and estates built in cul de sacs, ghettoisation developed. The earliest efforts to improve services began in the 1970s with the establishment of tenants' associations, particularly in Sillogue. By the recession of the 1980s, Ballymun was infested with social problems, most especially alcohol and other drug abuse. Although the public image of Ballymun has changed somewhat since the beginning of the Ballymun regeneration project in 1997, continuing social problems in Ballymun ensure it remains a remarkably different world to, for example, neighbouring Glasnevin. There was nothing wrong with the flats internally but the history of Ballymun is a sad indictment of the sclerosis afflicting public service management in Ireland. The complex was never actively managed with no controlled access to the flats, no overall management, no residential caretakers and the effective abandonment of the garage units under the flats which became drug dens and repositories for stolen goods.




Father & Son Camp, Powerscourt

However, contrasted with this institutional neglect and mismanagement of the Ballymun Housing complex by well paid and pensioned bureaucrats there was another more positive story of community groups who were determined to make a difference. In the late 70’s and early 80’s the 64th Dublin Scout Group based in the basement of Eamonn Ceannt Tower in the Ballymun Flats complex in North Dublin was a unique experiment in Scouting Outreach.


64th Dublin Scout Troop in the Den, Eamonn Ceannt Tower

Ballymun Scout was set up by a remarkable character, John Delahunty, an old time Scout Leader who believed with likeminded people that the voluntary and formative nature the Scout Movement could help in building a sense of community in Ballymun. He and the young leaders drew in people from established Scout Groups as well as those with no experience to create a dynamic experiment which served as a template to bring the socialising and educational benefits of this voluntary youth movement to a wider audience. In particular in this tough environment it refused to limit its ambition particularly when it entered the St Patrick’s Day Parade in 1977 and won first prize for voluntary organisations and when it ran the Pioneering Activity at the International Jamboree in 1978 at Woodstock Co. Kilkenny. The “can do” attitude of the many people involved contributed greatly to the Ballymun Community and engendered a strong sense of camaderie amongst all involved which has lasted to the present day.


Beaver Scouts 5/6 year olds

When the founder of the Scout Movement, Baden Powell, wrote his fortnightly boys' magazine, "Scouting for Boys", in 1907, he had it in mind that the activities he suggested would be used to augment the existing programme of the Boy's Brigade, Church Lads, or the small number of youth clubs which were in existence at that time. However, his idea snowballed, with the result that young boys of Scout age set themselves up as patrols of "Baden Powell Scouts".


Group Camp at Giltspur House, Co. Wicklow

Thus it was that Scouting was introduced into the parish of Aughrim Street, for it is well known that a Troop of Baden Powell Scouts existed in Marlborough Barracks (now McKee) before 1910. The Troop consisted of young boys whose fathers were in the Irish Regiments of the British Army in Ireland at that time. Following the Civil War and the Treaty, there was no opportunity for Irish boys to join the Scout movement, because the Scout Association at the time was seen as too closely connected with the old British order.


Venture Scout Camp at Crone Wood, Co. Wicklow

This void was filled, however, when two Dublin curates, Fathers Tom and Ernest Farrell, started the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI) in 1927. (In May of 1997, the name of the Association was changed to "Scouting Ireland - CSI" (Catholic Scouts of Ireland), with the Irish version of the name remaining unchanged). It was when Fr. Ernest Farrell was transferred to Aughrim Street Parish in 1937 that the present Unit was founded. The first meeting of the 9th Dublin was in the Catholic Young Men’s Society Hall in Aughrim Street. Fr. Ernest was appointed Chaplain and, due to his close association, the 9th Troop was titled "The Founder's Own". Next to appear on the scene was John Delahunty, who had been with the 19th/36th Phibsboro Knight Errand Clan. Under his leadership the Unit continued to grow, and had to move to bigger premises at Infirmary Road. These premises consisted of a studio-type, glass-roofed building, complete with pigeon loft!


Gerard Cowan leading a sing-song in the Den


Conor Maguire and David Caldwell on the St. Patrick's Day Parade float

So John Delahunty was scouting royalty and highly respected having taken over and expanded the founding scout group of one of the two main Scout Associations in Ireland. However when it came to setting up a group for young people in the Ballymun Housing Complex he wanted it open to all and the group was set up under the aegis of the Scout Association of Ireland. Originally known as the “Baden Powell’s” for its association with the old regime it was a remarkable gesture for somebody of John Delahunty’s standing to effectively turn his back on the tradition he had worked in and decide that in the interests of inclusion scouting in Ballymun must be on a non-denominational basis. In this as in other ways John was something of a pioneer as the associations in Ireland have since merged and are open to all. Indeed when Ballymun Scouts entered the 1977 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin and took on the project they emphasised the role of Scouting in bringing young people of different backgrounds together and deepening mutual understanding. There ambitious entry was completed like much else, on a wing and a prayer and with much help from friends. It included somewhat alarmingly (with Health and Safety hindsight!) a fairground style wheel constructed with timber pioneering poles and ropes and an aerial runway on a moving float as well as a futuristic “Starpeace” float. The entry won the prize for the best voluntary float in the Parade, a notable achievement for any group let alone a fledgling Scout Group with hardly any resources from Ballymun.




Woodstock '78

Similarly for the International Jamboree at Woodstock in Co. Kilkenny the Group took on the Pioneering Field which gave participants the chance to practice teamwork and initiative and learn new techniques in constructing structures from timber poles and rope. It was one of the more successful activities at the Jamboree gaining a commendation. It was signposted by a dramatic gateway and the “Woodworkers” from Ballymun constructed futuristic raised sleeping platforms which they camped in. In this and many other ways such as entering competitive expeditions and the Levy Trophy the group didn’t behave as if it was “deprived” but insisted on holding its own with more established groups from better off areas.


Sleeping platform @ the Pioneering Field, Woodstock'78


Dolores and Veronica at Woodstock'78


Commendation for the Pioneering Activity at Woodstock 1978

This of course didn’t happen by accident but was due to the dedication of the enthusiastic young leaders it attracted which resulted in the group establishing not just a Scout Troop for 11 -16 year olds but Cub Scouts for 7 – 11 year olds, a highly successful mixed Venture Scout Unit and last but not least Beaver Scouts for the 5/6 year olds. As well as its own leaders others from surrounding Groups helped out through a combination of wanting to bring Scouting to Ballymun and personal friendships and material help was given by Groups such as 5th Port Dollymount and 1st Dublin.


Hiking in Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow; Francis Caulfield, David Caldwell, Gerard Cowan, Síle Mc Inerney, Ann Paisley, Gay Spencer

Dublin Corporation helped by giving the Group the basement of Eamonn Ceannt Tower, one of the Seven Towers and their maintenance crews generously renovated it and installed a new kitchen as they were glad to see the space used well for community purposes. A sub-committee of the Vocational Education Committee also supported with grants for activities and camping equipment. The Scout Association itself and its National Commissioner, Dick Tennant, was enthusiastic in supporting this Scouting Outreach and it was used as a model for other areas.


Hugh Hogan showing the President of Ireland, Dr. Patrick Hillery, around Woodstock '78

Parents in the area were fiercely supportive and the hardy women who comprised the Parent’s Committee ran weekly Bingo sessions and other events to support the activities. In this Ballymun Scouts was different often changing how things were done. For instance they didn’t wear the expensive and largely ceremonial berets as part of the scout uniform but had warm woolly hats in the Group colours of Black and Red knitted and issued as more suitable for outdoor activities. The cost of events and camps were kept low to increase participation and nobody was deprived of joining in on grounds of cost. Indeed being part of Ballymun Scouts gave an insight into how hard people in Ballymun wanted to help themselves and how resilient they had to be in the face of often indifferent officialdom and ant-social behaviour. I was particularly struck by one mother telling me of when their daughter was bringing home a boyfriend to meet the family she had to go out every 30 minutes or so to mop out and disinfect the lift.


Hugh briefing Woodworkers at Woodstock'78

Ballymun and its Seven Towers as well as startling visitors to Ireland flying into nearby Dublin Airport expecting to see thatched cottages and not pre-cast concrete towers also entered popular iconography in Ireland. The line "I see seven towers, but I only see one way out" from U2's 1987 song "Running to Stand Still" (on The Joshua Tree album) refers to these towers. They were also featured in “The Commitments” where the question “Why are you bringing the horse in the lift” gained the reply “Jaysus, it does be knackered going up the stairs!” Ballymun flats feature in M.J. Hyland's Booker-short listed novel Carry Me Down (2006), symbolising John's family's descent into poverty.


Gerard Cowan (Bouncer) and Sile McInerney @ Woodstock'78 work party

The creation of Ballymun Regeneration Limited as a limited company controlled by Dublin City Council initiated the beginning of the demolition of the Ballymun flats and the emergence of a "new town" of Ballymun. The new housing is a mixture of public, private, voluntary and co-operative housing. The "new Ballymun" is due to be completed by 2013.The regeneration project, despite well-publicised questions about accountability and democratic participation, has also delivered many other amenities, including reworked park areas, a major City Council office facility, Health Service facilities, a public leisure centre, student accommodation, a new hotel and renewed shopping areas. However given Ireland’s current economic travails and the IMF Bailout it is likely that the area will be left in something of a never-neverland with the ambitious scheme for regeneration not completed as intended. Already the much needed redevelopment of Ballymun Shopping and the station on the Metro North line to Dublin Airport look like early casualties, in the latter case because the line won’t be built.




Starpeace @ St Patrick's Day Parade, 1977

As part of the New Ballymun, a major tree-planting project called Amaptocare has been run, with more than 600 people sponsoring around 700 trees, and providing inscription texts which are engraved on plaques near the trees. All of the trees will be identified on a glass panel at Ballymun's central plaza, which was scheduled to be complete by 2007 but is not due by 2013.

As for 64th Dublin Ballymun Scouts they gently faded out in the 90’s as demographics and Ballymun changed and as many of the original leaders moved on. But it left a considerable impact on the many people who were involved. Friendships from that time have endured and many are still involved in Scouting and other community organisations. Always demanding the best from each scout he instilled values of doing their best and achieving their potential. Like John Delahunty those who continued his work with Ballymun Scouts strongly believed that scouting had something for everyone and you were defined not by where you came from but where you wanted to be. It was a unique exercise in Scouting Outreach which with other community based initiatives showed the positive spirit of Ballymun and laid the foundation for its regeneration.

See also;

Conor Maguire;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/11/conor-maguire.html

Gerard Cowan;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/02/gerard-cowan.html


Farewell to the Ballymun flats

Conor Maguire

Conor in Finland for his 50th Birthday

Some journeys are the hardest to make and some words are the hardest to write. This time last year on the plane from London to Dublin my head was in a swirl as I tried to take in that Conor my friend of over 35 years was gone. His death, just after his 52nd birthday, was unexpected. Compared to the rest of us most of the time Conor was whippet like and was physically active enjoying the outdoors and bringing his big and boisterous Alaskan Malamutes for a walk or a run most nights. He had told me a couple of years earlier a health screen had picked up on his blood pressure but he was on tablets for it and watching his cholesterol so I thought no more of it. His work responsibilities in the computer industry were heavy and when our paths crossed I was sometimes astonished at the travelling he did but Conor had done much in his career and was riding the Celtic Tiger.

His active lifestyle probably masked that he was suffering from congestive heart disease as his heart rate and so on seemed strong and healthy. He died unexpectedly in his wife’s arms early on the morning of the 27th November in the Mater Private Hospital Dublin. It was a great shock as he was due to be discharged that day and had responded well to his treatment and the stents which had been inserted to clear blockages. But it seems he had had probably four heart attacks in the previous days and though everything had been done he was just very unlucky.


Raising the flag, Powerscourt, Co. Wicklow 1977.

The large crowd which attended his removal and funeral in Dublin spoke of the diversity of his interests and of those he had touched; there were of course family and friends, members of 5th Port Sea Scouts and others from the Scout Movement, from traditional music circles, from the Poolbeg Yacht Club where he had been Mooring Officer, from dog breeding circles, Neighbours, colleagues from the Irish and International Computer Industry and many more. And then, first and foremost, his wife Frances, his daughter Roisín and son Shane. What we all had in common is none of us wanted to be there for our friend Conor had been taken too early when he still had much to give and much he had planned to do.


Conor at the Woodstock Jamboree 1978

Conor grew up in Finglas West in a family where his father was a Fianna Fail activist who gave him a keen awareness of the Maguire family roots in Co. Fermanagh. He never forgot he was named after the Irish Patriot, Conor Maguire, 2nd Baron of Enniskillen. The Earl of Enniskillen took part in the rebellion against English rule and the attempt to take Dublin Castle in 1641, was arrested and sent to the Tower of London. He was tried, convicted and hanged, drawn and quartered. The seat of the Maguire’s was the still extant Enniskillen Castle and Conor always felt a visceral sense of grievance when he saw the flag of St. George flying over the castle.

Conor wouldn’t thank me for saying so but over the years Finglas West did much to earn its epithet in Dublin of “The Wild West.”


Conor & me, St. Patrick's Day Parade, Dublin, 1978

Conor impressed at school but did not excel being interested in nature and crafts but even then as the Celebrant at his funeral who had been his teacher observed he stood out from the crowd, avoiding fads and peer pressure and wearing a hat when that wasn’t fashionable. Indeed this became his trademark over the years gaining him the nickname of “Conor the Hat.” The more practical reason is the male genes in the Maguire family dictated that they were follically challenged! The big influence when he was younger was a remarkable character called Dick Vekins who was the Scout Leader or “Skipper” of 5th Port Sea Scouts in Dollymount. Always demanding the best from each scout he instilled values of doing their best and achieving their potential. He strongly believed that scouting had something for everyone and this is reflected in the events that he organised from the most physically gruelling boat or canoe race to a poetry competition. Dick was an accomplished metal worker and craftsman who ran his own business and was an accomplished mandolin player.


Conor presenting the shield to 5th Port Sea Scouts, Crow's Nest, Dollymount.


5th Port Shield carved by Conor

Shipwrecked as a Marine during WW11 and left virtually crippled he restored his mobility by exercise and willpower and took up wrestling representing Ireland in international competition and becoming president of the Irish Amateur Wrestling Federation. His association with 5th Port left Conor with a lifelong love of the sea and the outdoors, craft, music and poetry and enduring friendships. He also learned from Dick that setting high standards for yourself and influencing others by example is more effective than any other way.



Leaving school Conor started off as an unhappy apprentice plaster. Soon, not seeing a future in such hard, dusty and damp work he got a job as a warehouseman at a local pharmaceutical distributor and then as stores controller at a bustling clothing manufacturers, Jack Toohey in Marrowbone Lane in the Liberties of Dublin. After a number of years looking for a challenge he became logistics manager for Rexel Ireland, an office supplies firm. The computer manufacturer Hewlett Packard was setting up a major manufacturing plant in Ireland and Conor joined them in logistics. Soon he was flying in from Chicago with whole production lines and developed his reputation in the computer world whilst gaining membership of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and becoming expert on customs law. In 1999 he was headhunted by Novell systems as their International Trade Services Manager EMEA and in 2005 was headhunted again by Microsoft. In September 2008 he was once again headhunted by Symantec. By any standards this was a remarkable career trajectory largely built on his drive, personal reputation and being trusted in a hugely pressurised industry, but there was another element. Once, when we were talking, I worked out some probabilities he was discussing and gave him the answers. He turned around and said “God, I hate you!” I was a bit shocked but then he explained something I had never realised, that he was severely dyslexic and resented that I could always work out maths in my head but he couldn’t. When people threw numbers at him he had to write them down, go away somewhere quiet and work them out on paper. Knowing this you had to admire his career achievements all the more.


Conor & Frances working on the St. Patrick's Day float 1978

We have a saying in the Gaelic which is not really translatable into English “Tá mo chleamhnas déanta” but “my match is made” or more idiosyncratically “This is THE one” might do. When Conor and Frances O’Callaghan met this was the tune which he was humming and they formed a strong partnership with Frances’s practicality balancing Conor’s idealism. We all knew each other well from nearby neighbourhoods, scouting and mutual friends, I used to see Frances’s best friend. Their relationship endured such trials as going on a canoe trip from Dublin to the river Boyne when Frances was six month’s pregnant. In October 1979 I got the call that Frances needed an urgent lift into the Rotunda and around 1.30 in the morning after spending an incredibly boring 7 hours in the waiting room Conor emerged and uttered the immortal words “Dave – it’s a girl and I’m still happy!” Well they were both really happy and when 8 years later after the sadness of a miscarriage their daughter Roisín was joined by their son Shane their happiness was complete.


Shane, Roisín and Frances at Roisín's 30th Birthday Party, October 2009



Conor wrote a poem for Roisín, the first time the garden pond froze and they were able to put her standing on the ice and she was mesmerised to walk on the water and look down - it is called "The Cotoneaster Berries" after the bush which formed the back drop to the scene.




For Roisín, now almost grown.

The cotoneaster berries are scarlet now
Set against the waxen green gloss leaves
Stark contrast to the naked apple bough
And deserted swallow’s nest beneath the eaves.
The ice set thick upon the goldfish pond
Last night with winter’s first full frost
And trapped inside a fern-like frond
A tender keepsake of a summer lost.
The Rowan stands guard above the scene
Aloof and proud though stripped of autumn’s glory
A sad reminder of the things that may have been
As we turn another page on this year’s story.
The sweet innocence of children’s play
Like the scattered leaves lies strewn upon the ground
And in hidden places where I hope that it will stay
And in some other’s springtime be refound.
She is growing up so fast I know
That someday soon we’ll have to let her go.

©Frances Maguire MMIX


"Conor the Hat", My Stag Party, Brazen Head, Dublin, 1991

To know the context Conor & Frances bought a modest house in Clonmel Road which had a huge splayed back garden. Over the years Conor created a wonderland there with a pond, a dovecote, a tree house, a hot tub and sauna, dog kennels and even an Irish telephone box. He remodelled the house completely adding a full length conservatory with sail like blinds of his own devising which doubled as his studio for painting and woodcarving, a fireplace in the living room he built from cobblestones he “rescued” when Marrowbone Lane was resurfaced and a porch with the “Maguire” name carved in the corner post. All this was a huge success if you ignored the bitumen smoke emanating from the cobblestone fireplace for the first couple of years!


Conor with one of his paintings


Daithai Santa, Xmas 2007

Their neighbourhood has a really wonderful community spirit with every Xmas an illuminated tree on the green and a children’s party attended by the Man with the White Beard himself! So it was on my pre-Xmas trip to Dublin in December 2007 I found myself conscripted as Santa to give out presents to kids, young and old, at the neighbourhood Xmas Party. I did a ceremonial procession around the Green with my bell and staff led by a sleigh hauled by two lovely Alaskan Malamutes and escorted by two of Santa's helpers on motor bikes!! I took my place on Santa's rocking chair and after asking the standard questions, (have you been a good boy / girl, have you pulled cat's tails, etc :) I distributed presents. I wasn't sure if it was a new career, the work seems a bit seasonal! There were many happy memories in that house not least the “spontaneous” New Year’s Eve parties which Conor kept threatening to stop but where he always ended up being the MC for the sing song. I was not to realise that this was Conor’s last Xmas and that is the way with memories, sometimes we don’t realise we are making them or that they will be so important.


Kodi & Buck with their sled on Dollymount Strand



Conor’s brother Páraic wrote on his Blog http://quiz.eblana.eu

“He was passionate about many things - his family, singing, painting, writing - but he was especially fond of his dogs. He surprised many people around the Northside of Dublin as he sped past aboard his three-wheeled sled, pulled by his harnessed Alaskan malamutes.”

Well Conor’s parents must have had a gift of prophecy as his name is derived from the Irish name “Conchobar.” The meaning of the name "Conor" is that of "lover of wolves", or "Hound-lover" and he always had a love of and kept dogs particularly the Alaskan Malamute, a lovely big husky type dog as he said himself “Since first reading Jack London's "The Call of the Wild" when I was 10 or 11 years old, I've been fascinated by everything outdoor and dog related.”

http://ironmountainmalamutes.blogspot.com

One of Conor & Frances’s happiest memories was the trip they made to Finish Lapland for his 50th Birthday where they stayed in an Ice Hotel and went on sleigh drives with dog teams through the snow.


Tiborne Snow Dogs, Scotland

He also wrote about nature and wildlife and this is a piece called "The Young Hawk" which he often recited at the traditional music sessions in North County Dublin (Fingal) in Oldtown and Ballyboughal. Some of the traditional musicians would support him softly during the recitation and when he finished they would raise the volume and continue with the tune.

The Young Hawk.

(Words to be spoken to the air of ‘Inisheer’) Conor Maguire

Once, on Mullaghmore headland
Where the sea-pinks grew
White horses dashed on golden sand
And my thoughts turned, again, to you.
The wind whispered gently through the trees,
A promise of the rain to come.
A young hawk hovered on the breeze,
Heart a-beating like a drum.....
And when he struck to take his kill,
He fell from Heaven like a stone,
Then disappeared across the hill
And I was left there all alone.
You left me too that day
And I still recall the tears.
When there was nothing left to say
You fled back home to Inis Oir.
My days pass quietly now.
Yon boat drifts slowly into night
And like the sailor on her bow
Returning would be my delight.

©Frances Maguire MMIX

Conor was a great lover of Irish music and he and I were regulars at the sessions and in the campaign to keep the oldest Guildhall in Dublin, Tailor’s Hall, open as a traditional music venue. This was a special place with a turf fire in the basement, a skillet on the fire and traditional musicians from all over America, Brittany and famous Irish musicians such as The Furey Brothers and Pete St. John gathering informally for wonderful and genuine music sessions. Our great buddy Liam Weldon who hosted the sessions had a saying that “there is a great difference people who sing traditional songs and traditional musicians.”

See also;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/liam-weldon.html

Conor was a traditional musician who felt what he sang and his love of life was reflected in his love of poetry, nature, carving, and painting and above all his love of song. As somebody who couldn’t hold a tune to save my life I was always in awe of his ability to lead a room in song. This is one of the songs he wrote, the inspiration was the camping spot in Knocksink Woods where he and Frances would go to chill out, enjoy nature and the scent of wood smoke. He always bought Frances yellow roses because they have a better scent and last much longer than the mass produced red roses which are grown in sanitised greenhouses with no perfume and flood the market for Valentines Day each year.

Forever Mine

If I gave you yellow roses
And we shared a glass of wine
If I told you that I loved you
Would you say that you would stay
Forever mine?
There’s a wood out in the mountains
It’s a place where we could go
We could live our lives together
Just you and me, so peacefully,
No one would know.
Scented pine logs on the fire
Heather dancing on the breeze,
Songbirds sing in upland meadows
And as we kissed, the swirling mist,
Bejewelled the trees.
So I gave you yellow roses
And we shared a glass of wine
When I told you that I loved you
I heard you say, that you would stay
Forever mine.

©Frances Maguire MMIX


At sea on "Roshane"

As I mentioned his association with 5th Port Sea Scouts and the nautical skills he picked up left Conor with a lifelong love of the sea. A few years ago he bought a boat, a small “Fifey”, a wooden clinker built boat which was a smaller version of the herring boats originally constructed by William Fife & Co. in Scotland. It has good sea keeping qualities from its trawler like hull with a central console cabin over the diesel engine and small fore and aft cabin and a pump out “head” down below. In this most modest of nautical contraptions he made a number of costal trips and gaining confidence went to the Isle of Man and to Holyhead in Wales. The ship was proudly christened “Roshane” after their children and was initially and conveniently moored at Grand Canal Dock and then at the Poolbeg Yacht Club in Dublin Harbour where Conor & Frances were active members. Then in flotilla they went on some major expeditions such as to the Brest Maritime Festival in France.


Conor on the mast of "Roshane"


The crew in Oban

However his favourite was the trip they made to the Western Isles of Scotland to Oban and Islay. Once, Argyll and the Isles were along with Ulster part of the Gaelic Kingdom of Dalriada. After the English conquest of Ireland the Scottish part of Dalriada was separate from Scotland as the Gaelic speaking “Lordship of the Isles” (Triath nan Eilean) of mixed Gaelic / Norse rule only being incorporated into the Kingdom of Scotland in 1493. Conor was something of a connoisseur of Scotch whisky and I can still remember his sheer joy at telling me of being able to smell the peat from the distillery kilns 20 miles offshore from Islay and his subsequent tasting tour of the single malt distilleries in the island.


Scotch with ice?

My last face to face conversation with Conor (neither of us were to know) was a few weeks before he died in our “local” in Dublin was about the tumble down cabin they had bought as a weekend retreat for his retirement on 8 acres half way up the “Iron Mountain” in Co. Leitrim. Guarding the Southeastern shores of Lough Allen, 585m-high Slieve Anierin is one of the best known summits in Leitrim. The peak is commonly known by its Irish name, Sliabh An Iarainn, which translates as 'the iron mountain' and provides a clue to the role the hill has played in recent history. An ancient Irish legend relates that the Tuatha De Dannan (The pre-Celtic druidic people in Ireland, literally “The People of Magic”) landed in Ireland in this very place. According to the legend they descended in a thick mist and on discovering iron, forged metal weapons. With their superior armour, they then set to battle and defeated the Formorian tribe at the battle of Magh Tuireadh. It is a beautiful area where walkers stand in awe at the breathtaking panoramic views over the West and Midlands of Ireland, or wonder at the amount and variety of flora and fauna encountered; foxes, hares, rabbits, badgers, raven and Peregrine Falcons. Also tellingly for Conor, on the other side it looks over the Lakeland’s of Fermanagh and the ancestral lands of the Maguire’s. Conor had intended to reforest all eight acres of the land in native timber.


Iron Mountain, Co. Leitrim

Some journeys are the hardest to make and some words are the hardest to write. We laid our friend to rest in Dardistown cemetery about 400 yards beyond the take off threshold on the runway at Dublin Airport. Conor and I shared a disrespectful sense of humour and I can almost hear him say “If there is a plane crash there will be bodies everywhere!” Indeed over many years and ups and downs we were almost the proof that people are friends despite knowing each other. He has a fitting plain headstone of Wicklow granite from the beautiful county south of Dublin which he and Frances loved but I cannot bring myself to say it is what Conor would have wanted for he loved life, Frances, Roisín, Shane, people, music and the land of Ireland too much to want to leave. At his funeral we said goodbye but none of us were there, after such a life, to mourn Conor Maguire. Rather than mourn a life which had ended instead we gathered to celebrate a life which had been completed, albeit far too soon.


Conor & Frances (and a Troll) in my flat, Dublin, 1985

At Conor's funeral for the first time in many years I met his boyhood friend Gerard Cowan who was living in America and who had been battling a brain tumour for nearly 10 years. While he was very obviously not himself he was still delighted to catch up with the old gang. I told him that Conor would have really appreciated he was there and he just said "Conor would have done the same for me." There was a lot of decency about Gerard and we felt for him in his fight against his illness. It is odd and unsettling that the two West Finglas friends who grew up two doors apart on Kildonan Avenue have gone from us in such a short time as Gerard died two months afterwards in February 2009. I penned a short appreciation

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/02/gerard-cowan.html

and was hugely humbled and touched to receive this note from his 11 year old son, Ben;

“Thanks for writing this about my dad. It's nice to hear about when he was young and see the weird pictures. I love the outdoors and nature as much as he did. Mom, my sisters, and I miss him a lot, but Mom says he's with Conor having a great time now.”

I sure Ben’s mum is right and wherever Conor is he is taking off his hat and leading the sing song. Ben’s sentiments brought to mind the poem “The Prophet” by the Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran;

“Then Almitra spoke, saying, "We would ask now of Death."

And he said: You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life? The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one. In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond; And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring. Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour. Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king? Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered? Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.”




Conor Maguire

15th November 1956 – 27th November 2008

“Gone Home”




See also,

Gerard Cowan;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/02/gerard-cowan.html


Ballymun Scouts

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/ballymun-scouts.html