Tullogher-Rosbercon

TRÓCAIRE 2020.

Anyone still with Trócaire boxes which should have been returned on Holy Thursday can bring them with the offerings to the Parochial House. Alternately, if the boxes were mislaid or lost donations can be made direct to Trocaire, Maynooth, Co Kildare.

VICTOR O D POWER

As promised some weeks ago we now take a look at the life and times of a famous Rosbercon man, Victor O’Donovan Power. He was born in Chilcomb House to Michael and Margaret Power (née O’Donovan). His father was a wealthy businessman in the village and his mother originally came from West Cork, hence the name O’Donovan in Victor’s title.

The young Victor received his early education locally and then followed in the footsteps of his uncle, Bishop Thomas John, to St Patrick’s College Carlow where he excelled in journalism. He began writing for local newspapers, magazines and periodicals, the most famous of which was the still popular ‘Ireland’s Own’. He also wrote the plays, ‘The Peril of Sheila and the Banshees Cry. Victor wrote under two pen-names, ‘In Biddy Cooney’s Corner and the more famous of the two, ‘Kitty the Hare’.

In those far-off days of the humble candle and at best the paraffin lamp, young and old were enthralled by the ghost stories which Victor had put together in his own inimitable style. Often an older person read them out to the assembled children who were shivering in their shoes as they heard about Banshees, Headless Coaches, Ghosts of all descriptions walking the roads of Ireland. He turned his hand too to love stories and they all had the ending, ‘They all lived happily ever after and I’ll have another story for ye tomorrow night God willing’. Power too set a lot of his stories around Bantry and Gougaune Barra in West Cork, perhaps gathering them on his summer holiday’s in his mother’s native place.

Victor was labelled locally as ‘A child of Nature’, which was very apt as he spent most of his time not behind a typewriter but rambling in woods like Kyleacurragh and the hills of Ballycurran where he gathered a lot of his material listening to the sounds of nature. Often as the men from Glenmore and Tullogher were making their way home from the pubs in New Ross close to midnight, the haunting sounds of fiddle music wafted over them in the night sky. They imagined it was the fairies, but no, it was Victor O D, seated on some gate and belting out old Irish airs because time and place were all his own.

Why in Ireland do we knock down famous old buildings and destroy old manuscripts? This writer can recall as an apprentice grocer in PN O’Gorman’s Rosbercon seeing three large suitcases of Victor O’D’s writings being burned in the stable yard, dumped when clearing out a loft to store feedstuffs. This loft owned by his father, was where Power did a lot of his writings. Talk about being a witness for the prosecution, here was I in my innocence being a witness of Mass destruction to the irreplaceable literary works of the legendary Victor O’Donovan Power, who died on December 30, 1933, and lies at rest in Shanbogh Cemetery.

GAA MEMORIES

Having won back to back Kilkenny Senior Football Titles in 1930/31, Tullogher were hot favourites to complete the threein – a-row in 1932. They made a good start, beating the Black and Whites and Mooneenroe in the earlier rounds. At Nowlan Park Kilkenny the faced City side, O’Loughlin’s in the semi-final. Playing great football in the opening period, Tullogher went in at the break 1-5 to 0-2 ahead. However, in a complete turnaround in the second half they failed to score whereas O’Loughlin’s powered by Mayo inter county star, George Ormsby, added 2-2 to their total leaving them victors on a 2-4 to 1-5 score line.

But how Tullogher bemoaned the loss of their star midfielder, Luke A Roche, who was suspended. A 12 months suspension was imposed by the Kilkenny County Board for Roche playing foreign games. He was reported by a GAA Vigilante Committee, who saw him playing rugby with New Ross and duly suspended for a year. It was said that if Roche had been playing, his leadership and skill would have brought about a different result to the game.

GOOD LUCK

Good luck to Elaine Breen from Tinnakilly on her appointment as Head of Legal and Compliance at the Enniscorthy based Indos Financial. She was formerly General Counsel at Blackbee Investments in Cork and has also held senior roles at IFG Group and Willis.