Margaret Teresa Keane’s (Mum) Eulogy
1929 is a long time ago
Not long after the first transatlantic phone call, from London to New York, is completed.
Republic of Ireland was still know as The Irish Free State
It was still the Roaring Twenties and prohibition was in full swing in USA
Just a couple of years earlier Huddersfield Town become Football League First Division champions for the third season in a row. Who would have ever thought could have happened, Andy??
In the middle of all this Margaret Teresa Carty is born in a small farming community of Barnalyra, Co.Mayo, in the middle of the triangle of towns, Swinford, Charlestown and Kilkelly.
Her six children, John, Tommy, Martin , Brendan, Margaret and Helen would discover these places for themselves in years to come. Much of the land now quarried or part of Knock airport.
Margaret Teresa Keane born 10th April 1926- and died 8th November 2023.
Said quickly her life was over with in a few seconds, but say it slowly and consider, 94 years.
That’s a lot of time, time filled with love, laughter, tears of joy, its also a lifetime filled with pain and sorrow and tears of hurt, and to say anything else would be a lie and make mum small.
Let’s go back to Barnalyra and start from there.
With the O’Neil family farmhouse on the south-side and the Ruane’s on the north-side, and the freshwater well almost a mile away (and if it wasn’t a mile, it would feel it as Mum often carried fresh drinking water back to her home).
She loved her Father, John Carty, a farmer, and her Mother, a formidable woman Kate, they both worked hard on the land to feed and cloth their 8 Children. Mary, Patrick (Pat) Ann, Nora, Kate Margaret, John and Thomas
Her father, who used to tell the kids stories and entertain them, she loved him and the laughter he created. And Mum could laugh, she could laugh until she cried.
In 1934, Kathleen her older sister died aged 9, Mum was only 5, but even recently she would tell the story of Kathleens death and her eyes would fill with tears again.
Mum’s sister, Mary, six years older than Mum left to go to New York in 1935, Mum now aged 10, her dad watched Mary leave the house while Mum looked at her seriously ill Dad, she could see the pain in his eyes, he knew he would probably never see his older daughter ever again, and he was right.
The following year Mum lost her father to a heart attack.
It can’t have been easy for her Mother Kate to survive those days and years, still six children to feed and only the land to provide that living. Working through the week and then a couple of miles walk to Bushfield Church on Sunday.
Over the next few years Mum grew into a beautiful young woman, she would get to the dances at the weekend in Charlestown or Swinford. If you look at some of the photos of her during her late teens and early twenties there is a wild Irishness, a freedom about her character. Maybe the haymaking and cycling around the area and visits to Urlah Abbey and the lake there.
Mum outlived all her family and shed tears as each one passed.
But back to those dances, at one of those dance’s she met the love of her life Martin Keane, he was travelling and working in England and then coming back to Ireland to help with the harvest.
It wasn’t long before Mum or should I say Maggie, was staying with her sister Ann in Stoke-on-Trent where she lived and worked at Lewis’s department store for a couple of years.
Most of Dad’s work was in West Yorkshire, so there was a lot of travelling both ways and eventually in 1956 they were married, they honeymooned in Dublin and then started a family at 146 Slaithwaite Road, Thornhill Lees. Attending St Annes Church every Sunday. And within fourteen years they had six children, beans and toast through the week and roast beef on Sunday.
It wasn’t easy for Mum, Dad left early for work and came back late, but she loved us and cared for us, and we loved her back. Her faith saw her through those years.
Her sons were alter boys at St Ann’s and at the time there was a daily Mass at 7:30 and we were on the rota, and as we lived close to the church Mum used to have another two alter boys call in after church to feed and wait for the school bus. The house was chaotic but full of love.
Throughout the sixties and seventies some great trips ‘Home’ to Ireland. The live music in the pubs and eventually we even got to go to those dances. Although by that time it had changed from showbands to disco. Our trips on the Irish ferry are so memorable and the the train journey from Dublin to Ballyhaunis
In the early seventies we moved from Slaithwaite road to Boothroyd lane, we expanded from a two bedroom house to a five bedroom house, close to school. friends who came to our home got to know that our staple diet was beans on toast. It became a running joke with my friend Danny, “what will we be having today then Tom, Toast with beans on top, or may beans with toast underneath”, you get the picture. But Mum made the best apple pies you could taste.
While we are talking food, all my kids Craig, Mike, Naomi and Tom remember the sugar sandwiches she would make, a delight to them but a shock for their Mum.
Any way, back in time again, as we got to teenage years we got to know a much stricter Mum, the same faith that saw her through difficult times also created a fear of right and wrong. I often wondered what happened to the loving Mum I had known through childhood. During these years we all felt her wrath at times, but in years to come she mellowed, she became free of those religious fears and was able to love as she wanted to, and that wild Irish girl would emerge again, and she could still laugh.
She loved her garden and being in the sun, she seemed to be able to grow anything from a cutting. Seeing her children and grandchildren brought her joy. She loved all her many grandchildren and was surrounded by photos of them in her home.
I chose the earlier reading 1 Corinthians 13, because Mum’s love was, patient, kind. She didn’t envy, and she did not boast, she wasn’t proud, she wasn’t self- seeking, she (eventually) wasn’t easily angered, and she kept no record of wrongs. …her love always protected, hoped and certainly persevered.
Many of the comments made on her obituary page referred to her as ‘Lovely Woman” because she was in the true sense of the word ‘lovely’.
On several occasions Mum and Dad came to visit us in Scotland, they spent many days on top of St Cyrus cliffs, time there made them both seem young again.
And even after Dad passed away Me, Mum and Nicci went to the cliffs to remember the days she sat with Dad at the top of the cliffs, and her smile grew wider.
When Covid struck, three very vulnerable people formed a bubble, Mum, her daughter Maggie and her granddaughter Abbie, if I was in TV I think it would have been a good pitch for a sit-com, Abbie teaching Mum to Twerk and Mum teaching Abbie to do the the Oaki-Koki.
It was the time when zoom became a thing, when we called via zoom, we could see the fun Mum was having, the laughter was there again.
Mum fell 18 moths ago, and in most other circumstances she would have been in hospital or a Care Home, but the Watson family cared for Mum 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, Emma was there night or day to nurse mum.
Chris cooked dinners and whatever he made, Mum would try…. and loved it. Curry, chilli you name it, she tried.
One Christmas at Martin and Diane’s home playing a game, Matin and Chris kept telling mum to steal all Andy presents (in the game) and she did, so back and forth mum stole then Andy stole back, she thought it was hilarious. That laughter again!
Mum said she loved Abbie’s singing, but if anyone heard Abbie sing at her 18th you could only put it down to Mum being deaf 😂😂.
During lockdown Mum and Maggie spent many hours in the garden, watching old films till late, musicals galore. She helped Maggie to do the family tree and share some juicy gossip they discovered about our ancestors . Last Christmas Eve, Mum was in a very happy place and was telling Maggie and the family stories from school, work, a good laugh, tears of Joy now rolling down her face, not tears of sadness.
If it was not for Maggie and all the Watson family Mum would have been in a Care Home, so I extend a big thank you to you all for those years, so Mum could spend her last days at home, especially Emma for the bond you and Mum shared.
I would also like to thank the Carers from Above and Beyond for the kindness they showed to Mum, thanks you.
I remember going to 60 Sugar Lane back in June
I came into the room and Mum was sobbing, she had just found out Dad had died.
Five years after he had died, Mum went through his death again, it was heartbreaking to watch.
She missed him so much.
Whether its faith, hope or my imagination but when Mum died, I pictured, Martin Vincent and Martin Francis meeting Mum and welcoming her home, to a mansion Jesus had prepared.
I pray that Jesus will bring Peace to our family.
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