Matt Kavanagh was man of the people with a soft heart
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THOSE of us who are beyond a certain age of late are all too well aware that we are also very much part of an aging population in Ireland and hardly a week goes by now when we don’t hear some more bad news about the sad passing of someone from within our own community.
This was very true on hearing the news about the sad and unexpected passing of the late Matt Kavanagh of Stamullen and of Kavanagh`s Mini-Mart shop at Crushrod Avenue on the north side of Drogheda town, which occurred on Sunday evening August 20th last at his home at Stedalt in Stamullen.
Matt Kavanagh was born on January 25th 1944 in the old Healy homestead on the Kilbreckstown Road, above Stedalt Cross in Stamullen to parents Thomas and Nora (nee Healy). He was the eldest of four siblings to his sisters Noreen, Phyllis and Bridie and his younger brother Thomas. The Kavanagh family moved home from the Kilbreckstown Road to the south-west end of Stedalt, in around 1953 when Matt was nine years old and as a kid he attended the local primary school in Stamullen village receiving a great education that was to be the start of all that benefited him in his later life in both his working and business career.
Tragedy was to strike the Kavanagh household however towards the end of the 1950`s and beginning of the 1960`s, first when Matt was only fifteen years old with the death of his beloved mother Nora and this was followed two years later with the sad passing of his dad Thomas, leaving the eldest sibling of the Kavanagh family, Matt, now only 17 years old.
The young teenager from Stedalt suddenly found himself the `Head of the Household` with greater responsibilities and it is from this period in Matt`s life, without any doubt, that he duly did stand up to the plate, took on life and all that it threw at him and his younger siblings and from where he obtained his particularly strong work ethics from.
From this period on Matt worked all the hours God sent him; he loved it, it is what kept him going, always pushing himself forward with more jobs to do and indeed, while he would be engaged at one task, he was always thinking of the next one ahead, this was also something that was to stay with the Stedalt man for his entire life. It had been said that he would dream in his sleep of jobs that had to be done the following day; never idle and couldn’t understand why other people longed for time off and the weekends etc. He didn’t take too kindly to individuals who were of a lazy disposition and although it saddened him to see folk unemployed, Matt Kavanagh throughout his long business career did certainly offer much employment opportunities and guided direction to countless individuals particularly the youth in the Stamullen, east Meath area and also across the town of Drogheda and south Louth.
In his early years Matt worked a lot for Joey Whyte, the Stamullen shop owner and publican and learned a great deal about the public trade business and that as a bar tender in Whytes of Stamullen and indeed Matt became one great friend to Joey Whyte`s wife Marie and her own young family when Joey passed away in the mid 1960`s.
He also worked for some time as a bar tender in Tallan`s public house on Bellewstown Hill and also in the Rossnaree Hotel outside Drogheda amongst other places. Much, if not all of this bar work of course was carried out by Matt in the evening and night time. In his day job he was serving his time as an apprentice butcher with the great establishment of Michael Byrne`s of West Street in Drogheda; he also worked as a butcher for many other establishments including the old V.G. supermarket in Drogheda, along with using up any spare time he might find in the domestic animal slaughtering business for local farmers such was his excellent butchering skills.
Whenever Matt might find a weekend to himself for a bit of freedom, he might often borrow Joey Whytes old van and along with a few of his friends from the Stamullen, Gormanstown and Greenanstown areas, they would go to the dance halls that were dotted across the country back in the early `swinging sixties` .One of their favourite venues at this time was the old Kilmoon dance hall and it was while he was attending this particular dance hall that he met the love of his life, the young Lillie Farrell from Dunshaughlin.
Dancing to the songs of the period, Oh Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison), Glad all Over (Dave Clark Five), or perhaps; I got You Babe (Sony & Cher), etc. etc. the young couple fell in love and got married in 1965.
Matt and Lillie settled into their home at Stedalt and they went on to become the proud parents of their six children, Paul, Noel, Brian, Terry, Lorraine and Noreen. Matt opened a butcher`s premises at Crushrod Avenue Drogheda in around 1981 and which was subsequently converted to Kavanagh`s Mini-mart shop in the 1990`s serving the public of Pearse Park, Yellowbatter, Lourdes Square, Newfield, along with the wider surrounding area and indeed beyond. He became a firm favourite amongst his customers and was always there to meet their needs; he really did become `A man of the people`.
Matt Kavanagh was also extremely kind and understanding helping out those who may have been less fortunate than himself and tales of his `helping out others` are legendary.
Away from his work, Matt had an interest in Horse Racing and he, along with his great friend and neighbour the late Martin Byrne of Stedalt Cross, were founding members of St. Joseph`s Athletic/Running Club in Stamullen in the early19 80`s and from which sprung many great local athletes. Around this time he, along with Seamus Kennedy from Shallon, also ran a weekly bingo evening in the new Community Centre in Stamullen.
Matt was also a great friend to other local sporting groups such as St. Patrick`s GFC club and also St. Patrick`s cycling club. He had a very positive outlook on life, he was kind-hearted and had a great love of flowers and all that was the natural heritage that surrounded his life; the markets and fruit gardening, strawberries, floral displays and the eagerly awaited Christmas trees that adorned the exterior of his shop at Crushrod Avenue every festive season.
Often displaying a `hard` exterior, Matt was also pretty soft-centred, his close-knit family, friends and genuine people also saw this side to a busy man. In the mid 1990`s Matt`s health became an issue and as a result he had a triple by-pass of the heart.
This was followed in the early years of the new Millennium with being diagnosed with bowel cancer and once again Matt took this news headon and emerged the other side successfully In his later years Matt also developed diabetes and from which he was dependent on insulin injections.
His great friend and business neighbour at Crushrod Avenue for many years was of course Joe Borza, from Joe`s Chip Shop, across the street from Matt`s Mini mart and the two men , along with another of Matt`s great friends, Dick Hughes,spent countless hours having great craic, stories, laughter and slagging matches always of course with the best of intentions. The everyday banter in this area of Drogheda between Matt, the neighbouring traders, their friends, suppliers, customers and the general public at large certainly lost a lot of its character when the news filtered through that Matt had passed away and an eerie silence hung over the shop and the surrounding area that wasn’t felt here in many a long year.
Matt passed away peacefully while sitting in his chair at home on Sunday night, August 20th this year surrounded by members of his family and ironically an old saying of Matt`s to Lillie, his beloved wife, was “I`d like to die in that chair” and so when his time came on that faithful Sunday evening last August, Matt departed from this world just like the fading flowers of the summer which he loved, while sitting in his old favourite chair.
The Kavanagh family would like to extend their most grateful thanks and appreciation to Father Daly and Father Adrian, to Thomas Curtis of Oliver Curtis & Sons Undertakers of Balrath, to the Lone-piper Anthony Byrne and to the Fianna Fail T.D. Thomas Byrne for his very kind and comforting words on the day of Matt`s Funeral Mass in Stamullen village; Matt having being a member of Fianna Fail for over 50 years and for which he had recently being acknowledged by the Party.
Grateful thanks and appreciation is also extended to the suppliers and staff of Kavanagh`s Mini mart at Crushrod Avenue in Drogheda and a special word of thanks to all the customers of the shop and to the wider communities in both Drogheda and Stamullen and beyond for all the words and Mass cards, etc. of sympathy in their time of loss. The family would also like to express sincere thanks and special thoughts to Joe Whyte junior who was a fantastic next-door neighbour and friend to Matt and continues to be with the Kavanagh family.
A hard worker with a soft heart, Matt Kavanagh; Man of the people. 1944 – 2017.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.