The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
The birth of modern Tralee is laid bare in new history
VINCENT O’MAHONEY TELLS THE STORY OF TRALEE’S GREAT TRADING DYNASTIES AND THE WORKERS THEY RELIED ON IN MERCHANT PRINCES
ELEVEN years of painstaking research has reaped solid gold for one Tralee man in a publication that tells nothing less than the story of how the modern town was born.
Merchant Princes: The Remarkable Story of Tralee’s Milling Families sets it all out in breathtaking scope through the prism of the four great dynasties whose business empires did much to shape the town as we know it today - namely, the Donovans, McCowens, Kellihers and Latchfords.
Ever before he got cracking on the research, Vincent O’Mahoney – a ‘true blue’ narrie who later migrated to Oakpark – knew the story better than most having spent his working life with Kellihers, attaining the position of general manager of the Electrical Divison.
“I started with them as a clerk in 1959 at a time when three of the dynasties were still operating, having bought out the Donovan’s business in 1928.
“I suppose I always had it in my head to write this history. I always loved listening to the stories from the older fellows at work over the years,” Vincent told The Kerryman, just hours after finally getting his hands on a copy of the book - which features on its cover the talented work of Vincent’s art-student granddaughter Diana Griffin (19).
It was some moment after the years of toil. “When I got it yesterday I kept it in my hands for half the night, it was like cradling a newborn!” Vincent laughed.
What a newborn it is, bound in an edition of the highest quality and featuring more than 400 glossy photographs, gleaned from a dizzying variety of sources; from newspapers to individuals who worked or whose families worked for the great houses.
Vincent met and interviewed more than 150 people with stories to tell of life in the milling businesses in the little time he had away from burrowing through the Kerry County Archive.
“To focus on one year, 1960, as an example of how important the milling firms were to Tralee, McCowen’s was employing 160 people full-time; Latchfords had 94 full-time, Kelliher’s 60, the boot factory 200 full-time workers and the tannery 41 (Kelliher’s and Latchfords were major stakeholders in each), and that’s not counting the casual, part-time and ancillary services amounting to another 150 in work.”
Workers inherited positions from parents and entered a force akin to a massive family. “Once you got in you had a job for life, but throughout the 1800s it was hard, hard work involving long hours of back-breaking labour.
“You worked from 6am until 6.30pm, six days a week with no paid holidays.
The terms were good for the era, but the workers’ lives were a world away from the gilded existence of the Merchant Princes. They occupied an exalted position in Kerry public life, well illustrated by one episode in the book that also demonstrates Vincent’s detective-like acumen.
When St John Henry Donovan – grandson of John Donovan, father of John Donovan and Sons – was born in 1863 the Tralee Town Commissioners commemorated the august arrival by presenting a solid silver candelabra (pictured above) to his parents Henry and Kathleen.
“I had read about it in the papers but wondered if it was real or myth. It was only when I got to interview fifth-generation Patrick Donovan I found out it was real, he had seen it as a child but didn’t know what had become of it.”
Vincent didn’t give up on the item, eventually learning via Noel Donovan that older brother Henry Lancaster Donovan had taken it with him to South America. Chasing it via Noel, Vincent eventually made contact with Henry Lancaster’s son Henry Brendan - who confirmed the candelabra’s existence and got images of it back to Vincent.
“They’re in Texas now and still in the family business of milling would you believe. Henry Brendan was extremely helpful.”
At its heart, Merchant Princes is a compelling family saga of the captains of the industries featured, and of the ordinary working families who powered the industries.
Spread right across Tralee in diffuse mill-related activity from depots and hardware stores to groceries and bakeries the ghosts of their industry loom large to this day. You’ll look at long familiar buildings with fresh eyes as the hustle and bustle of Tralee in times past is brought to vivid life in Vincent’s pages.
We have the families to thank too for Fenit’s position as a significant port and to the Basin, where ships ferried raw materials in and goods out throughout the 1800s.
Where Shaws now stands, was once the Russell Arcade, formerly McCowen’s Grocery, Bakery and Confectionary - where Vincent’s own father Richard worked for much of his life.
“There’s even a shot in the book of my grandfather Jim O’Mahony, from Kilflynn, driving Tralee’s first-ever bread van for McCowen’s on wheels made of wood!” It’s this innate understanding of the relationship between the employer and the families employed that makes Merchant Princes such a priceless history of the modern town.
“It will be of particular interest to those who worked for the companies or whose parents, grandparents and forebears worked, to students or anyone interested in the business and commercial history of our town,” Vincent said.
It’s to be launched meanwhile by another man with a deep understanding of the working lives of the townspeople, former Labour Party leader and Tánaiste Dick Spring, in a special night at The Meadowlands Hotel this Friday, December 2.