Roots run deep
New VP of industrial firm says his N.L. heritage provided a firm footing
This is not the first time Darcy Curran has appeared in The Telegram. The first time, he was just a year old. In the province’s Come Home year of 1966, Curran was pictured with his family — chosen for the distinction of having the most relatives come back to the province.
“We still have it, it’s a little black-andwhite picture,” Curran said.
“I’m the 10th of 10 kids, and we drove from Virginia up there,” he said.
Curran’s family had recently moved to the United States, where he was born the year before the Come Home year. His parents and first seven siblings were all born in Newfoundland, while Curran had to content himself with summers on the Rock.
“My entire extended family are in Newfoundland, with a few exceptions. A few have gone to Canada, but not many,” said Curran, 47.
His mom, Noeleen McDonald, grew up on a farm on Mount Scio Road across from Mount Scio Farms.
“To this day, every one of us has Mount Scio savoury in our kitchens that we cook with. I literally cooked with it last night. He still ships them to us and we still cook with it.”
His father, Ed Curran, was born in Colliers and grew up in St. John’s.
Curran was recently named the senior vice-president of Wolsely Canada, a major Canadian industrial pipe manufacturer, which necessitated a move back to Canada, to Burlington, Ont. He said his Newfoundland heritage gave him a grounding and foundation that has shaped his entire upbringing.
Most summers the entire family would pack into the family station wagon for the drive back to Newfoundland.
“We grew up going up there. The boys would stay at Aunt Joan’s house, which was a little further up Mount Scio Road, and the girls would stay at Aunt Florence’s house, down the road a little bit.”
Not that all Newfoundland traditions resonate as pleasantly with him; he recalls a “traumatic” day when he was 13 years old.
“I had cod tongues for breakfast and flipper pie for dinner,” he said. “And it was one of those looks from your mom where, ‘You have to eat it or I will kill you.’”
Curran doesn’t get back to Newfoundland as much as he used to, but his mother still comes to the province for a few months every year, taking Curran’s 11-year-old son with her.
“She’ll go to the Basilica for church and run into friends she’s known her whole life,” he said. “We’ve been very attached to it. We’ve been Screeched-in many, many times.”
What I’ve found about Newfoundland is the people are remarkably familiar. They are remarkably without guile — just disarmingly friendly and welcoming.
Darcy Curran
Despite moving away, Curran says he and his family have always felt welcomed back.
“What I’ve found about Newfoundland is the people are remarkably familiar,” he said.
“They are remarkably without guile — just disarmingly friendly and welcoming. When you were there, you felt as if you had never left. I’ll never forget walking into a friend’s house, friends of my cousins. They introduced us as, ‘These are our cousins. They were away, and now they’re back.’ And that introduction right there meant we were just like family to them. The fact that I had been away my whole life didn’t matter. And where I had been didn’t matter; I was back. They were so glad we were back, and we were almost friends for life from that day forward. You always felt completely comfortable and welcomed.”
Curran said that on Sept. 11, 2001, when airplane hijackings and terrorist attacks in the United States grounded flights in this province, the whole world got to see the hospitality of Newfoundlanders, who housed stranded travellers.
“If you know people from Newfoundland, it doesn’t surprise you a bit,” said Curran.
He called his cousin here shortly after the attacks.
“They said, ‘Of course we went to the airport and picked people up and brought them home, because where else would they stay?’ It was just one of those things where the world got to see what you already knew.”
The family is currently renovating a townhouse on Barnes Road in St. John’s that has been in the family for a hundred years, providing a home base for his wife and younger children for future visits.
“I can’t wait for my wife and my smaller kids to get to experience what my son and I have seen, what my brothers and sisters have seen,” he said.
“It’s just unique. I’ve never been anywhere else in the world where the people are just so genuine and real and familiar and welcoming.”