The Late John Jameson Thee was a huge turnout of the Gaels of Wicklow for the funeral of John Jameson. John played football for both Wicklow county and for his native Rathnew back in the 1940s and 1950s and he was admired as a a fearless defender for both club and county teams. In his day he would have played against most of the top footballers in the country, including Olly Freeney and Kevin Heffernan of Dublin and Sean Purcell of Galway, who died two weeks ago, and he was respected by all as a tenacious and uncompromising corner back. Born at Cuckoos Corner near Rathnew, his parents were small farmers. John himself was well known in both South Wicklow and North Wexford as an astute businessman and a farmer. After leaving school, John or Jack as he was affectionately known to many of his friends and acquaintances, went to work in the pub trade in Dublin and from then on pubs were to play an important part in his life. In his early 20s, he spent ten years working in England and on his return he bought the Holiday Inn in Courtown, beside the then Tara Ballroom, in 1966. In 1974 he moved to the Old Ship Lounge in Arklow and in that same year he also bought a farm at Coolastingan, two miles outside Arklow, where he carried on a mixed farming operations. John purchased the Nineteen Arches pub in Arklow in 1987 and bought the Clogga Bay Hotel in 1992 which is now run by one of his daughters Fionnuala. He had lived at the hotel for the last ten years. In 1962 John Jameson married Gorey girl Ann Egan and together they reared a family of four - two sons, Fred and Paul and two daughters Fionnuala and Gail. Though he lived most of his adult life in the Arklow and Gorey area, John never lost touch with his roots and his native Rathnew. Outside his family and business interests, his great passion in life was football and after his own playing career ended he enjoyed going to watch county and Rathnew teams. John Jameson played football for Wicklow for at least a decade and in 1954 played in the historic 'long count match' against Meath. The referee played ten minutes extra time blowing the final whistle only after Meath scored the winning point. Meath went on to win the All-Ireland title that year. He played alongside the Timmins brothers from Annacurra, Joe and John, who later went on to win All-Ireland medals with Dublin. One of the biggest ever crowds turned up at Bellefield in Enniscorthy in 1956 for the meeting of Dublin, then the All-Ireland champions, and Wicklow in the Leinster semi-final. The duel between Jack Jameson and Olly Freeney is still talked about today. Dublin won by three points after a titanic struggle. One of John Jameson's admirers on the playing field said he was a tenacious defender; he took no prisoners, and he gave it everything'. Ironically when he played for his beloved Rathnew Club it was during one of their leanest periods in the Wicklow senior championship and in fact he never had the honour of winning a county senior medal with Rathnew. It was people like John who laid the foundations for Rathnew tremendous run of successes in later years an admirer said. After hanging up his football boots he served the GAA in Wicklow in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a prominent referee. His remains were removed to Ashford Church and his funeral took place after Requiem Mass celebrated by Fr Dermot Kavanagh, a retired priest, who was born and reared beside John Jameson and they played football together in their younger days. There was a huge turn out of mourners to say their last sad farewell to John Jameson and his coffin was escorted to his place of rest by a lone piper. Members of the Rathnew Club provided a guard of honour and the turn-out of mourners bore testimony to the high esteem in which John and his family are held in the wider community. As well as his immediate family, his wife Ann and sons and daughters, John Jameson will also be sadly missed by his brother Tony, five grandsons Cian, Oran, Jack, Tom and Conor ( all Jamesons); one granddaughter Grace Jameson; nephews and nieces, relatives and friends. Courtesy of the Wicklow People 8th September 2005 Tweet

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