Mick and Peggy’s 50 years

September 1993

WHEN Mick and Peggy Dowd of Park View in Drogheda celebrated the 50th anniversary of their marriage recently, their family put on a lavish party in their honour.

Peggy and Mick were feted like VIPs, a stretch limousine sent to the door to collect them, a corsage of orchids delivered and a party put on in the Village Hotel for over 100 guests.

But, if the party itself was a surprise to this very popular couple, it was nothing to the surprise they felt at the celebratory Muss that was offered up in St. Peter’s Church - the church that they were wed in August 1943.

They were sitting quietly in their pew when out onto the altar, to read the first Lesson, came Raymond, the son they thought was in Australia.

Only that day, Raymond and his wife, Anne (the former Anne Boylan of Dunleer) had spoken to them on the telephone to wish then well on their Golden Jubilee.

‘I thought he was ringing from Australia, but ho was actually ringing from my daughter’s house here in Drogheda’, Peggy told us.

Peggy was a member of the Kilroy family from Hand Street. When she left school she worked as a machinist in Wilson and McBrinn. Mick, who was from Francis Street, was a boot and shoe operative in Woodingtons.

Recalling those days in Wilson and McBrinns, Peggy says that life was difficult enough. It was during the War years and they were making uniforms for the Army. Peggy was then earning about £3 a week (they were working one week on and one week off ), and wasn’t sad to leave it all behind when she got married.

A woman of many talents,, who particularly loves knitting and sewing, she was a born home-maker and enjoyed rearing her six children.

Mick s great hobbies are walking and gardening - he has the fitness and the stamina to show for his walking.