Hayes, Tom
January 30, 2010Tom was the sixth of fourteen children born to Thomas and Alice Hayes in the townland of Ballyneal, two miles outside the village of Ballingarry. His father worked next door at Heatherman's to provide for his family. He attended the local national school in Ballingarry and later attended Rathkeale secondary school. In 1947, a local newspaper advertisement looking for Royal Air Force (RAF) recruits in England prompted him to leave Ballingarry in search of work. He travelled north to Belfast and signed up. Once enlisted, he shipped out the next day across the Irish Sea to England. He spent the next two years as a trainee Air Traffic Controller stationed at Finningly Air Force Base near Doncaster, in Yorkshire. In 1949, after a summer vacation to Limerick he quit his position with the RAF and accepted an offer from his uncle Denis (Hollister, California) to emigrate to the US west coast.
By late 1949, Tom was picking prunes and apricots for 75 cents an hour for farmers in the fields around central California. By the end of 1949 Tom moved 90 miles north to San Francisco, which became his home for the rest of his life. Paddy Kelly (formerly Kilmeedy, Co Limerick) was a plasterer in the city and he got him a job as an apprentice union plaster. Tom served his four year apprenticeship with the Ruane brothers (Patrick and Malachy) from Galway. In 1958 he branched out on his own as Tom Hayes Plastering, and never looked back.
He met his wife Patricia (nee Brosnan) the first night he attended the Knights of the Red Branch (KRB) hall at 7th Street and Mission. Patricia's mother was O'Keeffe came from Meelin, in north Cork and her dad from Gneevguilla in Kerry. With Patricia's help he built up a successful plastering enterprise over the years and they had four children together.
Tom retired from the plastering trade in 1988, but picked up his 'traps' again in October of 1989, such was the demand for plasterers after the earthquake.
During the past six decades Tom gave generously of his time, volunteering in many local organisations, including the San Francisco Gaelic Athletic Association, Catholic Youth Organisation and the All-Ireland Social Club. He served as vice-president of the San Francisco United Irish Cultural Center (UICC) board of directors in the early 1970s, was a past director of the San Francisco Apt Assn, a former BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) director 1972-74, a past president of Hibernian Newman Club, and he had 32 years of service with the Columban Fathers. Tom was inducted into the San Francisco GAA Hall of Fame in 2008, along with the rest of the San Francisco team that won the inaugural 1959 North American Senior hurling championship. He was also honoured by the UICC Leo Walsh scholarship fund in 2008.
Tom never forgot his roots or the people he left behind in Ireland and returned frequently to the 'home place' to visit family and friends in west Limerick. When on holidays Tom made it a point to call to see Patrick Kelly and Mossie Quaid in Ballingarry and Fr Neville in Abbeyfeale - all of whom were fellow team members on the 1943 Kilfinny minor team that won the Co Limerick hurling championship. Kilfinny defeated Bruff in that year in Croom. Tom's medal is proudly displayed on the mantelpiece of his San Francisco home 65 years later!
Tom is survived by his wife Patricia, and four children, Daniel (chair of the Athletic Dept at San Francisco City College), Geralyn (Santa Rose, CA), Patricia (US State Department) and Joanne Hayes-White (San Francisco Fire Chief). Dearly loved by his surviving siblings, Kathleen (Marin County) and Joe (Marin County), in Ireland, Sr Elizabeth, Joan, Denis and Ann. In Canada, Bernadette. He was preceded by his parents, Thomas and Alice Hayes, siblings Una, Michael, Alice, Teresa, Mary and Bridget (who passed away on December 15, 2009 in San Francisco)
Tom Hayes, born 1925, died January 24, 2010
- Limerick Leader, January 30th 2010 Tweet
