Volunteer, teacher and historian Larry Mullin
He was a teacher in Ballinode for 40 years. Then Larry Mullin became a committed volunteer. He talked to Gerry McLaughlin
ASK NOT WHAT Sligo can do for you, but what you can do for Sligo. That is the eternal mantra of Larry Mullin, who is probably one of the county’s greatest volunteers.
His altruism knows no bounds. Many professional people, when they retire, find a different career that pays and keeps them functioning.
But once Larry retired from over 40 years as a highly respected teacher of Irish, English and history at Ballinode College in 2004 he decided to put something back into society – and he has truly given and never counted the cost. A genuinely religious man, Larry has tried to live the rule of doing good for others who are less fortunate through various circumstances.
The Galway native is a member of the Legion of Mary. He is still involved with Sligo Social Services, did Meals on Wheels, was on the committee of the Volunteer Centre near Sligo Gaol, and is a member of Probus, a group that helps men with various issues, as well as a number of other charitable organisations.
And while he was on many committees, often as treasurer, he was never there for attention or glory.
He was there because he believed deeply that he was doing the right thing. And he was and is a hard worker for anything he sets his mind to. Larry is also a noted historian and scholar. He played a key role in the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine as well as in the Millenium Project that put up a remarkable monument to Countess Markievicz in Rathcormac. He is perhaps best known as a long serving member and treasurer of Sligo Field Club, an illustrious organisation dedicated to preserving Sligo’s rich heritage, especially its impressive archaeological heritage.
He is a highly intelligent, thoughtful man with a great interest in and grasp of his history. He told me that the Civil War in 1922 is an open scar on this land that he has a great grá for.
He spoke in his deep, quiet and balanced way to the Sligo Weekender at his home in Ballinode.
Larry was born just outside Tuam in Co. Galway in 1941.
He attended St Jarlath’s College in Tuam as a boarder on a scholarship with his twin brother Michael. Larry’s father was Denis Mullin, and his mother was Celia Mullin. Larry said: “My father got a farm of land from the Land Commission in the early years of the 20th century. He had 30 acres.
“We used to say that you can’t get a more conservative person than a man with 30 acres as you were able to make a living from it.’
Larry remembers the ration books which lasted from World War 2 into the early 1950s.
He said: “I remember my mother – the first thing she made sure to buy was my father’s plug tobacco. He could not last without it.”
Where did he get his great interest in history?
Larry said: “I was lucky that I had a great primary teacher who came to our area in 1950. She taught us everything. Everything I learned I owe to her and my parents.
“She was Miss Heneghan, and she only died this year at 93. She was from Milltown in Co. Galway.
“I can still remember the day that Joseph Stalin died in Russia. She told us all about this monster in 1953.
“She was a great admirer of Padraig Pearse. And she put us in for scholarships.”
After Jarlath’s, Larry went to University College, Galway, and graduated in Irish and English. He read history as a subsidiary subject and also studied archaeology. He was there from 1960 to 1963.
Larry did the Teastas Timire Gaeilge, which qualified him to teach in VEC schools.
He graduated in 1963 and got a job in Ballinode in Sligo the following year.
HE SAID: “Jobs were easy to get in those days. I applied for three jobs, and I got the three of them. One was in Belmullet, another was in Tipperary. I took the one in Ballinode in Sligo.
“I arrived in Sligo in September 1964. It was a very different place. I stayed in a flat on the Mall for five years before I got married.
“We only did the Group Cert for many years.
And we did an Irish play called The Rising Of The Moon. There was a barrel in it and one of the adjudicators did not like it – he said that as far as he could see the most important character in the play was the barrel.
“They had a great tradition of drama in Sligo, as many of the pupils came from St John’s on Temple Street, a school that was big into drama.” Larry taught for 40 years in Ballinode and retired in 2004.
He said: “One young teacher who was given a challenging class said she would never stick this for 40 years. “But I said to her, you might think now looking that 40 years is a long time, but looking back it is gone in a flash and you wonder where all the years went.”
Larry also did a school magazine for many years.
He said: “I have mostly happy memories of Ballinode College.”
And he began his long involvement
in voluntary organisations when he joined the Legion Of Mary in 1964.
“I am a traditional Catholic. It was a lay Catholic organisation, and I was in charge of the Junior Legion. Three of them are still priests in the diocese. “Now it was not anything that I instilled in them. Br Bonaventura from St John’s was the spiritual director.
“There was a thing called peregrinatio, where you would go into a parish in the UK and help out there.
“The first one I did was in Glasgow around 1965 or 1966.
“They ran a hostel for homeless people and our job was to go out at night and bring people who were sleeping on benches in Central Station in to give them something to eat. That was a tough enough job, and it would be very dangerous going out on the streets. “There were a lot of social problems and Glasgow was a dark and gloomy city.
“I went back there in 2005 and it had changed utterly. “Glasgow is much better and very prosperous, and everything cleaned up. “Another summer I was in Berwick on Tweed.
“Another year a plane load of us went to Kenya under the auspices of the Legion Of Mary as well.
“We were in Nairobi and it was just after the got independence under Jomo Kenyatta and his son is president now and there were no tribal wars back then around 1967.
“We were visiting schools and it was a time of hope.” He added: “I then joined the Sligo Field Club, and I am still involved. It has been around since 1945. We had a 75-year anniversary in 2020.
“The late Dr Paddy Heraughty from Innismurray island was involved at the start. He was a great character and a president of the Field Club.
“I joined in 1964 and I remember two things.
The first thing was a visit to Armagh and it was brilliant. I also remember a lecture on the Moylough belt shrine from Sligo.
“It was discovered in 1945 by a young man called Towey, who was cutting turf in the bog in Moylough.
“He sent it to the archaeologist Dr Michael Duignan down in Galway and it was found to be a valuable treasure.” Larry is currently treasurer of Sligo Field Club. “I want to give that up soon,” he said.
LARRY SAID: “I remember my first trip to Innismurray. Dr Patrick Heraughty was leading it. “He was elderly at the time but when he stepped off the boat on his own island, he got his youth back. “They used to do a pilgrimage around the island carrying the statue of St Molaise.
“Every stone there has a name and knew them all. That was a great day. “There is a spirituality there. The tragedy is that it is being neglected and there are no boats going out there. There is nothing on the island only ruined houses.
“The first trip to Carrowmore was quite memorable as well. Carrowkeel came later.
“Some of these great monuments are as old as the Egyptian pyramids. “They are passage graves, the same type found in Newgrange.
“The English theory is that these people came from England from Clyde-Carlingford and spread down “But an archaeologist called Ruairi De Valera said the first landfall was in Sligo because it was a natural area to come in.
“Others say those people may have come from France or northern Spain. I don’t think it has been fully resolved.
“Carrowmore and Carrowkeel are two great facilities in Sligo and there is currently a big attempt to declare Carrowmore a Unesco World Heritage Site. Sligo Field Club is involved in this campaign.
“Boyne Valley and Skellig Michael are the only World Heritage Sites in the Republic. Northern Ireland has the Giant’s Causeway.
“Stefan Berg is leading the campaign, but it could take some time.” Larry is quietly proud of the work of Sligo Field Club over many years. He said: “It is for the preservation of the archaeology, history and flora and fauna of the area.
“They do great work. It is one of the best committees that I am on. Nobody ever misses a meeting
“Martin Timoney edits our journal. He does great work and is very knowledgeable.
“I was also involved in a campaign to get a museum in Sligo. It started years ago. It was making headway some years ago and there was money
“You might think 40 years as a teacher is a long time. But it is gone in a flash. You wonder where the years have gone”