Kevin Andrew 1920/80

 Kevin Andrew 1920/80

Kevin was but four when his father died

The youngest of five in Carlow town

Raised in a sweet shop known all around

The Murray shopfront in black and gold. 

He played rugby for his county

And his cap still retains

It’s faded tassels also black and gold

Faded photos of the twenty year old

The Second World War passed Ireland by

Both Kevin and Lily led protected lives

Living over shops with rations scarce

The ‘Emergency’ sailed slowly by. 

Buried in the files of Bord na Mona

One of the very first of its early crew

In the early forties of rural Ireland

Visiting desolate bogs on cold hillsides. 

The law insisted that every bog

Should be inspected however hopeless

However distant from production

He met each turf farmer on his holding. 

Cycling the mountains above Sligo town

Bicycles, motor bikes and cars

Captured in grainy old photos 

A black and white dog atop the handles. 

His not so humble digs the Imperial Hotel

Round the corner from old Castle Street

Where lived the daughter of a grocer   

Who kept the books at Foleys brewery. 

Those carefree postwar years

They played and laughed and gamboled

Lily was captured by his Clark Gable looks

Swept off her feet when love came round. 

Off they went around the country

The married couple managed postings

In Westport, Birr and Portumna

Until Head Office called in Dublin. 

A rented a garret off Eccles Street

Yielded to a bright new house in the suburbs

A fresh new build in Landscape Park

A house and home for almost sixty years.  

Newly married couples were their neighbors

For all were equal in the fifties 

A simple life was shared by all

No trace of wealthy trappings. 

Gone in the morning to play in fields

Returning only when called by hunger

Holidays with Lily’s family in the West

One son and two young daughters. 

His passion was religion

He should have been a priest 

His scholarship stupendous 

His library the best in Churchtown. 

By night he lectured in Adult Education

In the College of Industrial Relations 

Making use of his social studies 

From UCD after his graduation. 

He couldn’t play the office games

He never climbed the office ladder

Quite content to labour in the hold

Of the Bord’s marketing department. 

Aged but fifty he was struck down 

By stroke and heart attack 

Our family doctor called him a miracle

That he returned to walk and talk. 

Lily coped with the new surroundings

Fielding the breach right overnight 

After weeks and months came home

The same but different to his family. 

People never know the quiet courage

Of the carers behind lace curtains

Of the long three years of silence

Before he got to address her again. 

There followed heart attacks, emergencies

The ambulance became a well known sight

In Landscape Park where neighbors 

Rallied round as best they might. 

On and on he soldiered until

One evening after work

He gently left the world 

On the floor of the local sweetshop. 

A shock but not a surprise 

In January of nineteen eighty

His fifty ninth birthday a month before

Forty five years ago next January. 

The Murrays of Dublin Street in Carlow

Now all gone even the sweetshop

Fondly remembered by many 

Time can only march on.  

Aidan, Maureen, Frankie, Biddy Murray. 

And Kevin married to Lily 1950-1980