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Sunday nights at St Vincent’s GAA club off in Dublin’s Marino.
She goes there with brothers Joe (95), Kevin (86) and sister Margie (82).
Last Sunday, Agnes closed the club night with a rendition of the Ireland’s national anthem Amhran na bhFiann.
She has always loved music — and was a drummer with the Emerald Girls Pipe Band, which took her across the world.
She spent years as Drum Sergeant with the pipe band, leading her troupe during St Patrick’s Day parades, from New York to Paris.
She still has the performer in her, and is keen on showing it off.
“I’m not shy — let me sing for you,” she says, before bursting into song in her cosy sitting room.
The Kentucky Waltz and One Day at a Time are two of her favourites, she reveals, adding: “I’ve dozens and dozens of songs — my daddy used to sing all the parodies.”
She was barely 14 when she started working at Cherry & Smallridge box-making factory on Seville Place.
“I came of age – 14 — on a Thursday and started working on the Monday,” says Agnes, one of ten children, who joined sisters Nancy, Maisie and her dad Joseph at the factory.
She remembers as a teenager seeing longtime Lord Mayor of Dublin Alfie Byrne on the East Wall with the pipe band, and it sparked her interest.
Band
“Me and my friend Maura followed them from East Wall to the big church on O’Connell Street where the band was packing up. I saw all the drummers through the bars downstairs and said ‘I’ll join the band’.”
She also met and married her sweetheart, Liam O’Connor — whose sister Jenny later married Agnes’ brother Kevin.
On their wedding day, Agnes’ pipe band escorted the couple to the church and saw them off on their honeymoon.
“I was never at home — I travelled all over with the band and brought my mammy. “There was no work then, every factory was closed — my two brothers Kevin and Christopher emigrated. And Liam went to Birmingham.
“My sister Eileen — who was over in England — rang and said: ‘Liam’s in an awful state without Agnes – send her over to poor Liam.’
“I was heartbroken leaving my band.”
Soon Agnes formed the Phil and Agnes duo with Liam’s brother Phil, a piano accordion player. “We were known all over and every week all the pubs had the notices with ‘Phil and Agnes By The Fireside’.” ●Agnes’ stories can be found in In Our Day: An Oral History of Dublin’s Bygone
Days, which is out now.