Taggart, Margaret
October 14, 2010One of the few times Kerry has been beaten by an Ulster side and the only time an All Ireland was played outside Ireland, formed part of the life memories of Margaret Taggart.
A well known personality in Omagh, she lived the majority of her 97 years in the old convent house beside the Courthouse in George's Street. She came there in June 1953 as the new bride of John Taggart, cattle dealer and widower. Shortly after she reopened a second hand shop that was part of the premises as it was always her ambition to have her own business. The shop thrived since those were the days of rationing and frugality. Commercial gain did not rank highly in her business and as time went on most of her customers became friends and would spend more time in the kitchen than in the shop. She often recounted stories of the 'bales' of clothes for the shop that landed from Scotland, not knowing exactly what would be found inside, as John would make the purchases when in Glasgow. Sometimes there would be a line of people waiting for the bales to be opened to get something that they needed or didn't need for that matter. Most, if not all, of those people have also passed on as well, but their children still remember coming into Taggart's shop. For the uninitiated there was always confusion about access, as you would see the goods displayed in the shop window, but no entrance door. However, the fact that the door of the house also served as the shop entrance at the top of a double set of steps added to welcome greeting received by all who steeped inside.
A native of Donegal, Margaret always said that her happiest days were spent in her own humble home in the mountains between Pettigo and Ballintra. From there her siblings and herself would walk three miles to a school on the Fermanagh border in their bare feet and think nothing of it. It was on these journeys that she and her brothers learned and sang the songs of the day and which she would sing at the drop of a hat, right up to her last months. The 'Strands of Coolmore' was one of her favourites and brought back sweet memories of her first job working in a boarding house in Rossnowlagh. On the recommendation from a holidaymaker, she was offered and accepted a job as housekeeper for a doctor on the Malone Road in Belfast.
The world was a much bigger place then and she could only occasionally make the journey home using the railway network to Castlecaulwell, near Belleek. Some of her brothers or a neighbour would be waiting with the horse and cart to carry the good lady home to the little cottage beside the lake.
On such occasions, there would be a little celebration which would include a house party and lots of dancing which figured largely in the McGee household. As she always said, they had little, but they were happy. In fact she felt sorry for the youth of today as they had no experience of this unselfish and unfettered friendliness of the people in her day.
She worked for Dr Hall and his wife right up to the night the Germans dropped bombs on Belfast. She spent the night with the family under the staircase praying hard that they would be safe. The holy water that was liberally sprinkled worked, but along with exodus the next day she headed for the safety of the Donegal hills. Shortly after she obtained work in a hotel in Newry where she remained until the early fifties.
The owners, the Tullys, also owned a hotel in Cavan. In 1947 Cavan beat Kerry in the only All Ireland football final to be held outside Ireland.
There was a large feast to be arranged for the returning heroes in Tullys hotel in Cavan and Margaret was drafted across to help as she was their top cook. It was a big celebration and the amount of food was staggering by the standards of those days. The teams last meal would have been in New York, so the meal had to be fit for kings and they were not let down. On the way home the team had come across an errant Kerry supporter who they took pity on and brought him with them to Cavan.
However, by the time he had got there, it would appear that the could listen to the jibes no more and refused point blank to sit with the team at the meal. Margaret understood his predicament and made him up a table in the kitchen where he regained his dignity and ate a hearty meal before his journey home.
Lough Derg is a place of prayer and penitence. It is also a place where people congregate and during one summer in the early '50s Margaret and John met there and later married. A very pious women, the close proximity of the Sacred Heart Church meant that she never missed Mass or devotions during all her years in George's Street. Even during the last 12 years of her life, when owing to various operations that she underwent, she still managed to make it on a daily basis with the help of the good people of Omagh. She was so thankful to those people who gave her an arm to lean on and no one ever refused, that she always placed a small thank you notice in the paper around Christmas time each year. She will always be missed by her whole family circle and especially her sons Euan and Brendan, her grandson Philip, grand-daughter Jane, her step family Sheila, Julia, Seamus and their families and step-daughter-in-law Betsy and family. May she rest in peace.
Courtesy of the Ulster Herald 14/10/10 Tweet
