Day: July 18, 2023

Dia is mhuire diobh go leir a cairde and welcome to my weekly Report.

Today we parted with another of our esteemed citizens. Liam Coffee was a household name, he was there always. He being a few years my senior, as far as I was concerned ‘my Millstreet’ was never without Liam Coffee. I heard his name before I ever knew him to see. He went to the boys school with my brothers and his name would come in their after school stories in the evening. I remember his Dad Garda Ed. Coffee. Back then members of the force were always walking in the town or standing the barrack gate as we went and came. Garda Ed. seemed to be very involved in the social affairs of the town /community. I wonder am I right in thinking that he was the instigator of the Pipe Band. Likewise Liam was a great community man and in my young days we had people who were always at the ready to take the stage to sing or perform . The same people were active in our church choir and so on. People like Tadg O Driscoll, John Joe Tangney, Liam Coffee, Maurice Murray/O’Callaghan , Larry Moynihan, Kit Radley, Teresa Corcoran, Rosie Todd, Abby Murphy and lots more. We didn’t have any fancy halls in town back then to hold local concerts but we did have a fine cinema which other towns didn’t have and some of our plays and concerts were staged there. We had  a hall in Minor Row also and we enjoyed functions there as if they were the Albert Hall. I can still recall the songs that some of our local artists sang. Larry Moynihan would thrill us all with his heartfelt rendering of Jerusalem. Morris M O’Callaghan’s party piece was his recitation of the ‘Green Eye of the little Yellow God’ and we sat stiffened at his well put words. Liam liked the lighter vein of ‘A woman, a woman, Oh what can she be, whatever she is ,she’s necessary. Coupled with a ‘Man oh a man any woman will say, whatever she is we like her that way. Rosie’s rendering of the ‘Teddy Bears Picnic’ will stay with us for ever. Most of these were in the Parish Choir and there was never any trouble in getting them to sing or recite when the occasion arose. Liam’s time with the Millstreet Pipers Band is History and how fitting it was to see them all at his Requiem Mass, all in Uniform as the played some fitting tunes to their departing member. May the lovely soft-spoken Liam Coffee, rest easy as we send our sincere sympathy to his lovely wife Noreen, his sons James and Edmund, and siblings Maureen, Teresa and Joe. RIP.

[read more …] “Eily’s Report – 18th July”