Moate native pens book about late Clara man

A new book by a Moate man featuring a collection of memories and stories of a Clara man who passed away in 2020 at the age of 98 has recently been launched.

'Down the Decades' by Moate native Tom Minnock tells the story of George Griffith, born in 1922, and whose life tracked that of the new Irish State.

He never left his native Clonshanny giving him a local perspective on community life in the area during a fascinating period in the history of Ireland and the world.

Tom's book is a collection of George's reflections on that century up to 2022, captured for the most part, during conversation between the two of them, up until George's passing in March 2020.

The author is from the Clara Road in Moate.

He attended the Carmelite College in the early 1960s and played as a goalkeeper for the U16 Carmelite team and other local underage teams in his youth.

Speaking about the concept for the book, Tom said that George was born on the day of the first election in Ireland in 1922 which he thought was an “interesting context.”

“Over the next nine odd decades, George lived through everything that actually happened. Trying to put all the random things in context and to make a sense of it, I broke it up into decades.”

Tom explained: “Every decade will have something about how George lived his life in a rural community and then as an intro, I had events in the world, and then events in Ireland, and then George remembering what it was like here.” George kept a diary which helped Tom in writing the book.

Tom moved to England in the sixties but returned to Ireland to live in Clonshanny, Clara in 2008 after he retired and was a neighbour of George.

Before Tom decided to write the book based on George's life he initially wanted to find out more about his own grandfather who George knew very well. He said that his wife pointed out that George knew Tom's family better than he did. “That story led to other stories and George was a lovely storyteller. He enjoyed people. I would like George to think well of me simply because my dad thought so well of him.”

Tom believes that older people will feel very nostalgic after reading the book.

“I think if anybody reads it in depth, they will in fact get a little bit of hope for the future and they will understand how rural people actually got through so many challenges over the last hundred years. This documents one man's life in a rural community and the ups and downs that followed him along the way.”

The book clearly depicts George's voice and experience from each stage of his life from his childhood to being a married man and then a farmer. Tom said that George's tone changed when talking about his school days in contrast to discussing his bachelor days before marrying his wife, Daphne. George's marriage also posed some issues as Daphne's family found it difficult to accept that a 19-year-old woman was marrying a 40-year-old man.

The book highlights various social issues and how George, a member of the Church of Ireland managed to get on with his Catholic neighbours. An example of this was evident when Tom's grandmother passed away and George couldn't go inside the church for the funeral mass.

Tom said that as he went through the book he began to form a correlation between George's life and what was happening in the world at the time. The first five chapters of the book were written before George passed away. Tom said that George died the way he always told me he wanted to: “feeding his cattle.”

“Our relationship was fantastic. We just got on like a house on fire,” said Tom of his fond memories of George. They also spoke about sports, politics and the past.

‘Down the Decades’ is available from Offaly Historical Society in Tullamore and people can also contact Tom directly on 087 2525265 to buy a copy.