Kanturk author asks loyal readers for ‘A Minute of Your Time’ with her new book of personal memories
A THOUGHT provoking book recalling the very personal memories of life growing up in Kanturk will be officially launched in the Edel Quinn Hall on Friday evening at 7.30pm.
Although she has lived in Listowel for many years, Mary Cogan (nee Ahern) has always maintained strong links with the birthplace, supporting community events such as the Kanturk Arts Festival and donning the green and white to support Kanturk in their All-Ireland hurling triumph last year.
A well-known chronicler of life in Listowel through her popular blog, Mary has decided to put pen to paper for her memoir ‘A Minute of Your Time’, which she said is a book of reflections and photographs on life “and the importance of appreciating the little things.”
Growing up on a small farm on the Mallow Road, Mary’s young life was marked by tragedy after her father Bill passed away when she was just seven, leaving her mother Kathleen to raise three children.
“My mother was an extraordinary woman, providing for the family by hand-milking cows, keeping a sow and bonhams, selling eggs and raising turkey’s for the Christmas market. In the evening she knit socks which were sold at Crotty’s shop on Strand Street, where she had worked before her marriage,” recalled Mary.
When Mary was 14 tragedy struck the family again when in January her beloved grandmother, who lived with the family and played a major role in helping to rear the children passed away.
The following April Mary’s only sister died of kidney failure.
She credits these early trials with forming the resilience that has characterised her life.
“I saw at first hand the miracles that can be worked by a supportive family and community. We must have been poor, but I never felt that we were poor.”
After graduating from UCC, Mary returned to teach in her old school, Scoil Mhuire Kanturk, sharing the staffroom with her former teachers who she remembered were “extraordinarily kind and helpful.”
Peg Breen and Peggy Keane in particular helped mentor Mary during her early teaching career but it was a young substitute teacher by the name of Jim Cogan who caught her eye and love blossomed.
However, fate had another cruel twist in store for Mary after Jim was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1973. Despite his, the couple were married two years later, settled in Listowel where Jim was teaching and raised three children.
Her love for, and pride in, her family and friends is evident on almost every page of her book, with Jim, who sadly passed away shortly before their 40th wedding anniversary, her children, five grandchildren and neighbours, Freemount native Eddie Moylan and his wife Helen, featuring prominently in the book.
“My greatest blessing have always been my family, friends and neighbours. ‘A Minute of Your Time’ is a book of reflections and photographs on life and the importance of appreciating the little things,” said Mary.
“It is full of little gems of advice to brighten your day and lots of lovely photographs guaranteed to make people smile. I hope that people will join me on Friday for its launch in my home town,” she said.