The Late Paddy McNamara It would be a very simple exercise to describe Paddy McNamara or Paddy Mac as he was known to most people, as a dedicated Christian, a farmer, a sportsman, a raconteur, a sociologist, an actor, an analyst and an interesting and colourful personality. However, Paddy's most striking characteristics were those of a caring and loving family man and a wonderful neighbour. Paddy was always close to and worked well with his parents John and Hannah McNamara, as well as his brother Tom, sisters Patricia, Sarah and Maddie. In later years, his sole mission in this world appeared to be the welfare of his wife Margaret, his daughter Cora and his son John. Paddy was not slow to appreciate the support of this close family circle in what the poet Patrick Kavanagh once described as his "fight with the tyrants, love and life and time". Paddy's lifetime spanned eight of the most written about decades in Irish history. Indeed he often liked to draw a comparison between Post-modern Ireland and previous decades, in particular the era of the Economic War of the 1930's which could have been his most impressionable and formative years. His comment was that you had to live through a recession to appreciate the arrival of the boom years. He was born and lived in Rutagh and his heart was firmly embedded in his beloved townsland and its environs. At the old school in Herbertstown he was educated to seventh standard and he recounted many nostalgic tales of school life and its characters. Fortunately, many of these yarns are preserved on tape on a programme in local radio broadcast in 1990 with neighbouring historian Sean Murphy. He always acknowledged a debt of gratitude to his teachers Miss Reynolds and Master Ryan. Up to the time of his death he could quote freely the poems he learned at school, Child Harold's Goodnight and Lord Ullens Daughter being his favourites. In the course of his analysis, he often drew on lines from The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith to emphasise some point he was about to make. Paddy Mac held an opinion on most subjects ranging from Macroeconomics to Rocket Science. He possessed a unique skill to analyse a situation and then deliver a conclusion for his audience with liberal licence of English prose and pronunciation. He traded wit on the Rutage Road with Jack Murphy, Tommy Lavery, Billy Corbett and many others and one could imagine that even somebody of the calibre of Oscar Wilde would find difficulty in competing within this forum. In those far back days of the 1930s, second level education was a rare luxury while third level was the preserve of the special few. Paddy was destined to become a primary producer and he adapted to the role of farmer with flair and dedication while he gleaned his education from the pragmatic university of life and by reading the daily newspaper from cover to cover. It is doubtful, however it any institution could influence Paddy's free-thinking intellect, he preferred to take readings and interpretation from his own experience curve. He made the transition from donkey and cart of his early years to mechanised prosperous bottom-line farming of the '70's and 80's. He selected and applied what he considered the best concepts of modern agricultural science; other theories of which he was sceptical he discarded. Paddy also found time to cultivate his garden and, to borrow one of his own phrases, when he put his legs under the table, he would do justice to the garden's produce. Like most of his contemporaries, Paddy was attracted to the game of hurling and when his playing days ended he maintained a continuous interest and was a regular attendee at games. In this respect his VW Beetle IIU3 was a useful asset for transport in the locality. He served his hurling apprenticeship in Horan's field in Kilcullane's renowned hurling arena in Clougherviller. Herbertstown fielded a useful junior hurling team in the 1940s and the highlight of Paddy's career was playing in the South Limerick Hurling Final of 1948 against Bruree at Elton. In his post-match analysis, which lasted some 50 years, he tried to figure out how they lost the match by a margin of seven goals to two points!. Paddy usually played in the fullback position, wearing the number three shirt. That was the era of third-man tackles; give'em timber, and "never mind the ball, play on"approach when the area around the square was popularly known as "Hell's Kitchen". In his own mind, encounters with Bruff's hurling icon, The Square Farrell were part of local folklore. Paddy gave a poignant description of playing his last hurling game which was against a Knocklong selection in 1955. Describing how he had practically burst his limbs in an effort to win, he looked towards his own goalmouth and to his disgust he beheld the Herbertstown goalkeeper lighting a cigarette while the game was still in the melting pot. He claimed that incident accelerated his decision to hang up his boots and retire from playing at the age of 35. To Paddy Mac, hurling was more than just a game. He was a Gael in its purest sense of the word, a subscriber to the ideology of Michael Cusack, Maurice Davin and the other founding fathers of Haye's Hotel renown, who created such a vital component of Irish social and cultural life. In this regard he served as Treasurer of Herbertstown Hurling Club as well as South and County Board delegate. His prudence in the financial management of the club was legendary, so much so that one of his fellow officers commented that "Pat Mac would mind mice at a crossroads". At Board level, in the council chamber, he locked horns with such notables as Galbally's Paddy Ryan and Kildimo's Bugsy Neenan, in later life to become his very good friends. One of his classic expressions, originated in these meetings, where even then, while discussing the role of the amateur in the GAA, some delegates remarked "We do it for nothing or we don't do it at all". He participated in the Herbertstown Coursing Club, which ended in 1961, where from the front seat of Tom Joe Moroney's Oxford Cambridge car he organised and broadcast the order of coursing and scheduling of dogs. At community level he served on the Herbertstown Parish Council and was actively involved in the construction of the wall around the church, the building of the Grotto in the 1950's, and the implementation of the Herbertstown Water Scheme in the 1970's. Paddy Mac made his final journey westward on Saint Patrick's Day to a countryside familiar to him during his agricultural teamwork days with his late brother Tom, back to his beloved "Teampall Nua" to sleep in his final resting place beneath "the high and hoary gable", beside Lough Gur's gentle and historic waters. One could summarise his philosophy with the concluding stanza of John Masefield's well known poem entitles "Sea Fever". "I must down to the sea again, for the call of the running tide, Is a wild call and a clear call that must not be denied, And a quiet sleep and a sweet dream, when the long trip's over". Courtesy of the Limerick Leader March 2003 Tweet

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