IN Tipperary People of Great Note Martin Quinn has chronicled 86 significant people from Tipperary engaged in all walks of life.
The world of the arts, business, medicine, military, politics, and judiciary, religious and social, Irish independence, and sport all feature in his impressive tome.
One common thread throughout it, is that the fate of the people Quinn has selected for his list is already defined by their religious faith.
Not so much an issue now, but in the Ireland prior to the turn of the millennium; what school you went to determined what university you went to, and your lifelong religious convictions and values. Regardless, all those profiled exhibited in life a generosity of spirit and a sense of place.
Author of Tipperary People of Great Note, Martin QuinnI have chosen five which stood out for me, to show this theme.
The legendary Father John Hayes (1887-1957) formed a parish cooperative of neighbourly self-help and self-sufficiency, Basha Local Industries and oversaw the rollout of rural electrification.
This evolved to become the national organisation, Muintir na Tíre (people of the country).
This charitable sense of community was earlier taken to by Thomas Timothy Fahey (1826 1917).
The Fahey Bank was founded by the Tipperary emigrant in 1865, the year the American Civil War ended.
Originally known as The Bank of Ireland, the bank was located in the rear of Timothy Fahey's general store at 127 North Main Street in Marion, Ohio.
The bank's main office continues to be at the same location.
In the early years of the bank, farmers generally paid for purchases by giving notes from the merchants.
When the farmers came in at harvest time to pay off their notes, they often left their extra funds on deposit, and the bank grew rapidly, with the Fahey family to this day being great benefactors in Ohio.
Helena Berth Rice, tennis champion at Wimbledon in 1889, caught my attention too, but the story of Mary Molly Fleming (1916-1985) resonated with me more as her humanitarian exploits came from a humble emigrant who hailed from Cappawhite but found herself in the middle of the Blitz in London during World War II.
Fleming was the youngest of three sisters who were all working as nurses in London.
Following a bomb blast, Fleming, 24, immediately crawled back into the hospital that she worked within to rescue trapped patients.
For this she was awarded the King George Medal.
Later in life Fleming returned to Ireland and the medal was found in a drawer of her house, following her death in 1985.
My final two selections are two men whose names are more recent and possibly better known.
Tony Ryan (1936 -2007), co- founder of Ryanair, and Frank Delaney (1942 -2017), novelist, journalist and broadcaster.
Tipperary People of Great Note is not only a good read from Martin Quinn, but a fine piece of research.
As referenced by Dr Martin Mansergh in the forward, “the most important heritage of any area is its people”.
I found myself resorting to google to find out more of these Tipperary natives, who have left a legacy on which we natives from the Premier County can be proud of.
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