The Late Eddie Nolan

You can count the number of Kilkenny men, on the fingers of one hand, who played for a province not of their birth in a Railway Cup competition. A lesser number of 'pinkies' would be required to count the number of Callan men who played Railway Cup fro a province far removed from the land of their birth.

On Wednesday afternoon, one such Callan man was laid to rest in the quiet surrounds of Kilbride Cemetery after his Requiem Mass in Coolagh Church, a service which was attended by all of his former teaching colleagues from Callan CBS and a wide raft of neighbours and friends.

Eddie Nolan was a member of the highly respected, and well-known Callan family who were the sole providers of transport for millions of people over a very long number of years, serving so many on the peripheral of their routes to Kilkenny, Tramore in season and Clonmel.

It would have been an extremely difficult task to find anyone within the greater Callan area who didn't have their "Nowlan Bus" yarn.

The history of Nolan's Bus is well chronicled. Eddie's dad, Tom, a Freshford man by birth, came to the town circa 1918. Tom Nolan was in all probability the first driving instructor that ever appeared around the place. Ostensibly, he instructed farming people in the rudiments of mechanical machinery.

The stoic horse was on his way out.

Tom Nolan started driving for the Callan Transit Company, but being the adventurous type, working for others did not rest compfortably on his entrepreneurial shoulders. He decided that his own bus company would quench his thirst for a transport business of his very own.

And so Nolan's Bus was established.

It started with a charabanc- a double-decked machine with an open top and progressed to legendray lenghts - pardon the pun.

The Nolan lads, Tommy, Paddy, Jackie and Eddie made their own way through their chosen lifestyles. Jackie was his Dad's lieutenant in the bus company. Eddie qualified as a Munteóir, while Paddy became a pilot with Aer Lingus, working the largest jets of he day, Boeing 707, on the Athlantic run.

They all had a tremendous interest in hurling, and it was fitting that Jackie erected a commemorative limestone plaque marking the site of the first GAA game ever played under the official rulebook of the GAA on the Fair Green in Callan.

Eddie qualified as a Muinteóir in UCD, where one of his colleagues was the great Gaelgóir, and RTE Broadcaster, Brendan ó Duill, with whom he often shared a ball of malt in hostelries of Callan whenevre his broadcasting career took him into the Callan area.

In the late 1950s Eddie found his first teaching job in Ballybofey. He hurled with the Sean McCumhalls Club, who incidentally won their first Donegal Senior Hurling Championship on Sunday last. Eddie would have liked that.

While hurling with the Ballybofey club, Eddie was picked to play with Ulster against Leinster in the Railway Cup semi-final of 1962. He would have come face to face with "townies" of his own place. Ollie Walsh would have been in goal, while Billy O'Dwyer was at full-forward. Denis Heaslip was on the panel, as was Andy Comerford. Leinster beat Ulster by 11-4 to 6-3.

Ollie must have had some back line in front of him that day!

Eventually Eddie returned to his own town where he was appointed to the staff of Callan CBS secondary school teaching English, Maths and History. He was also involved with the school hurling teams over the years, but while many of his former pupils will have fond memories of him as an educator, Eddie will be dearly remembered as a member of the Nolan Family who transported countless thousands to places beyond the norm.

He collected thousands in the morning, educated them during the day, and brought them home.

Of course he will be sadly missed by a huge number of people like his wife Anna, his children Derbhla Downey (daughter), son-in-law John, grandchildren Roisin, Gerard and Thomas (Downey), his sons Enda, Declan, Conleth and Denis his brother Paddy Joe.

Guards of honour, drawn from the John Lockes club, Callan Golf Club of which he was a past captain and the St Vincent de Paul Society flanked his coffin as it made its way to Coolagh Church for his Requiem.

One of his requests of his son Denis concerned the game he loved.

Shortly before he closed his eyes forever he asked "What's the team for Sunday?"

I'm sure he had a good seat in the sky above Croke Park, and even though the result might not have been to his satifaction he would have appreciated he would have appreciated the quality of a game that thrilled with its fitnesse, skill, pride, self repect, determination and, of course, sportmanship
.
He was very strong on the latter.

Courtesy of The Kilkenny People
17th September 2010 Tweet

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