Moate's very own memory man

What strikes you first chatting to Kieran Gavin is his amazing memory for dates, figures, families and the little minutiae of life that most of us forget easily, especially on the subject of the Moate of his youth and the traditions of a by-gone era. A skill, I'd wager, he has put to good use when he decided to write a book last year entitled Childhood Memories of Moate in the mid-1940s, a loving recollection of the town of the time, the characters, the wit and how people made their living in those difficult times. The retired woodwork teacher said post-war Moate of 1946 or 1947 was very different to the one of modern times, a small market town where everyone knew everyone else and there was a real sense of neighbourliness, even if there was little money around. "It was nice to do it because I wanted the people of Moate to be remembered. You just can't forget, otherwise the people and stories would be gone," he enthused, before pointing out that the book, the proceeds of which, almost €4,000, went to Moate Social Services, was to honour the people of the town before it became what it is today. "What I did for the book was I started at the Gap at the school and went down through every house and named the people that lived there, what they did for a living and a few jokes or stories in between," he outlined. "I did the book all from memory of my young days. I started in January and it was launched in October. I didn't use any photos, I sketched the town as it looked at the time," Kieran, who was born and reared in Church Street, close to the present-day Credit Union explained. "There were a lot of small businesses in the town when I was growing up," he recalled, listing off the cobblers, a wheelwright, saw mills, Cunningham's saddlers shop to illustrate the point, all cottage industries. Amiably chatting away with an easy manner and a quick wit, Kieran highlighted a sketch of Grogan's Garage of the time in the book (the site of the present day Supermacs) to show the two tripods which were in place on the street for the fair day on the first Thursday of every month. It's another occasion in small town life of the time that is now social history. "Every market day they weighed the bag of potatoes or corn and all that kind of thing there (at the tripod). The weights were then brought over to Flynn's on the far side of the road, and a chain put on them until the next month," he recalled. "The fair would stretch right from the Gap down to the courthouse, that would be the whole town. The sheep would be at the Gap, and down a little bit you'd have the cattle, around the church you'd have the cows and calves and then smaller cattle from there down." Kieran remembered the town as a hive of activity on that day, from early morning with the pubs open and plenty of trickery and deals being made between the farmers and shops. "Jobbers would be there buying and selling. And then there would be a blocker, he'd come early in the morning and he would have bid the farmer so much coming in the road. He'd be watching if anyone was going to bid, to say sure I was giving you that earlier. You'd have to see the angle and the tangle of them," he smiled during his detailed recollection. "There was always a trick in it somewhere. But that was the way of life at that time." He continued: "I mean the horses and carts used to bring in the sheep from Athlone and they'd take the wheels out from under the carts to make sure the sheep would look bigger, the lambs especially, they'd look bigger in the crate than having them out on the ground. You'd have that three or four inches," the Moate native laughed, painting a vivid picture of the time. Although Kieran lived in the town with his parents and two brothers, their life revolved around the countryside as his father had a small farm in Mount Temple, while his mother taught in nearby Mount Temple NS, a decision that he admits may have led to him following in her footsteps in 1964 after serving his time locally as a carpenter. After enjoying his first publishing experience, the Moate man is already thinking about his next book and rural Ireland of the past looks set to be the inspiration. He's planning an examination of a whole year of living in the country from season to season, although he's unsure of whether to print it or just do it for himself at this stage. "I'd like to do it from memory go through the sowing of the crops, the days on the bog. Everyone got a brown egg on the bog because the egg was boiled in the kettle," he laughed at the memory. "When the water was boiling on the fire, naturally enough, there could be plenty of turf moll gone in to it, the eggs were put in and they were boiled and then they made the tea after so everyone got a brown egg." "Then I'd to go in to the haymaking. You see there is a whole thing that hasn't been captured so that the young people would know what our forefathers did years ago. There was a lot of hard work thinning turnips, making the hay, saving the hay, bringing it in, bringing home the turf, the digging of the potatoes, the cutting of the corn and the threshing mill. And then it would end with Santy coming at the end of the year. We always looked forward to that because we got a bar of Fry's Chocolate cream in our stocking. It was a big treat getting that because no one had anything at that time." Although he recalled the back-breaking work on the farm in years gone by, Kieran also remembered the beginning of mechanisation and the arrival of the tractor locally, a real curiosity among the children in the area. "You might see one or two tractors at that time. A man up the road, John Dolan had a petrol tractor, John Duff of Kilnahinch had another tractor but there were very few. We, as children, would be standing out on the edge of the road seeing the tractor go by. You'd hear it coming and you'd be calling all the lads the tractor is coming" "It was a great advancement because when they would be cutting the meadow in the summer time of the year, the horses could be out for 6am mowing but you would have to take them in at 11 or 12 in the day. As well as being tired, the flies would be at them and they would have to put them in and feed them. But the advent of the little International meant they could mow all day," he recollected fondly. And, tractors and vintage machinery continue to fascinate Kieran to this day. On my visit to Moate he showed me a picture of his pride and joy, a fully restored Ferguson 130, one of a number of vintage tractors he has lovingly fixed up over the years. He also has his father's first tractor, a little grey bought in 1965, something he said he wouldn't part with for anything. A member of Moate Vintage Society, Kieran, since retiring from teaching seven years ago after 36 years, 34 of which were in Kilbeggan, spends much of his free time going to shows, and tractor runs. He is married to Peggy and has four grown up children John, Kieran, Dolores and Antoinette. "I like vintage, and with the help of another man I do them up. I do the bodywork and clean them down and paint them. I get a great kick of them," he enthused of the hobby. "They are only six or seven of us in the group. We go around to different tractor runs and shows. It's a nice day out. You meet a lot of people, there's great camaraderie. Younger people are also beginning to get an interest in it and it will be carried on, the tradition of old things being preserved," something he's clearly delighted about. Aside from the vintage, he spends a bit of time saving the turf and farming although he joked that a man knows it's time to give up farming when the cattle are able to run faster than he can!