Remembering the legend that was Johnny Hughes
December 2008
I’m forever blowing bubbles, Pretty bubbles in the air, They fly so high, nearly reach the sky, Then like my dreams they fade and die.
Fortune’s always hiding, I’ve looked everywhere, I’m forever blowing bubbles, Pretty bubbles in the air’.
IT WAS as fitting as it was poignant, the sight of the little Honda 50, on this occasion ridden by Paul Kenny from Congress Avenue, heading up the Dublin Road to Calvary last Sunday lunchtime.
This time, Johnny Hughes wasn’t aboard his trusty old pal. No more will we hear the friendly, distinctive call as you walk along West Street or down Shop Street. No more the slagging about the ‘Drogheda United umbrella you promised me 15 years ago!’, no more the good humour, the wise crack, no more Johnny Hughes. God got a good one last Thursday night. No doubt, He was greeted at the gates to a greater Kingdom with a grin and a comment from the ‘new boy’. Even now I’m sure Johnny is chatting football with the old greats of his beloved Drogheda United and West Ham, Bobby Moore’s head must be wrecked by this stage...
Johnny s funeral Mass at noon last Sunday, concelebrated by Fr Denis Nulty and Fr Declan Kelly, Stamullen, was late starting due to crowd congestion. It.was a full-house, standing room only, thousands packing the place, Johnny would have loved it.
All about the place claret and blue, tears and memories, abounded.
Johnny was an institution around Drogheda. He loved the Drogs, West Ham and the Wolfe Tones. The other side of him, away from the familiar good humour and quick wit, was a man who cared deeply for the people of his beloved Dooley Gate and Priest’s Lane. He helped whenever he could, lighting fires in chilly homes, to popping down to the shops. He was loved, just loved.
He made the odd journey away from home in recent years to follow the Drogs, Europe got to know him too, but the Honda 50 must have missed him on those occasions.
Chatting about Johnny came easy to Fr Denis Nulty last Sunday. He knew him, he was one of those that got the odd slagging, Meath football usually the topic.
‘Johnny, for me, epitimised happiness. While he may have had darker days, he carried them bravely with a smile. John the Baptist didn’t have a Honda 50 to get him about, but Johnny did and he always kept it at a steady speed.
‘Johnny never bothered about who was in front of him, he was too busy looking about, who he could slag, share some banter with. I last spoke to him about five days before he died. He was up at the new Colpe shopping centre, selling calendars for the hospice. I saved 10 euro on my shopping bill and Johnny got the tenner out of me as I left!
‘A man who had devotion to and admiration of St Anthony and Pope John Paul II, Johnny often quizzed Fr Nulty on his Meath connections, while also playing up his own loves. ‘Johnny would tell me the Tones are going places and West Ham are in for some honours this season. Johnny had great faith, but after looking at where the Hammers are in the table, 1 think he needed deep faith!.
As the hundreds departed St Mary’s to the echoes of ‘Wind beneath my Wings’, the little Honda 50 was parked up outside the Church, ready for the final journey.....together.
‘ When shadows creep, when I’m asleep, To lands of hope I stray!
Then at daybreak, when I awake, My bluebird flutters away. ‘Happiness, you seem so near me, Happiness, come forth and cheer me!’