Miceál O'Callaghan (1923-1986)

Miceál was a representative of time and place. Occasionally a person comes to represent his own area or county and is known by many within that county and many more beyond it. For the most part people are happy that this is so and feel a confidence that when represented by this individual they are well represented. For many years this was the case with Miceál O'Callaghan. He epitomised Roscommon in varying ways and at different levels. I think that it can be confidently claimed that there was no one else who knew his own County, its townlands, geography, history, highways and byeways, sociology and people as well as he did. This, also, in a very real way, extended to the Roscommon Diaspora within Ireland and across the seas. Long before I came to Boyle in 1972 I was aware of Miceál. There were plenty of reasons for this, the main ones being his involvement with the G.A.A. and the Roscommon Herald.

C.B.S.
Miceál O'Callaghan was born in September 1923, the central son in a family of ten, to two national school teachers Miceál and Annie O'Callaghan of The Don School, Cloonbonniffe, Castlerea. He went to secondary school at Roscommon C.B.S. where he was a contemporary of many of the great footballers of Roscommon's Golden era such as Bill Carlos and Phelim Murray.

Roscommon Herald.
He joined the Roscommon Herald in '43 and represented the paper in Mullingar and Ballinasloe before returning to Boyle in '52 becoming Editor in '54, a position he held with distinction, until his death.
In 1965 The Herald Works was tragically burned and he supervised the production of the paper in Ballina and later in Longford. In later years, along with being Editor, he wrote a long column titled, 'A Look Around with the Editor', in which he touched on a multitude of everyday issues and demonstrated his knowledge and feeling for his native county and gave voice to it.
An aspect of great people, that for me mark them out, is their range of abilities. A person may be an expert on one element of life, which is fine, but this gives a one-dimensional figure. Micheal was involved in a myriad of organisations and events and unlike some who make a living just attending meetings and functions he was willing to take his jacket off, roll up his shirt-sleeves and lead from the front. Indeed it can be taken as a positive and a negative in him that he was most comfortable out front in any organisation. The adage 'if you want something done ask a busy man' certainly applied here.

Many Associations.
He was most associated with the G.A.A. and arguably this was his first recreational love. He was County Secretary in 48/49 and County Chairman from 1973 until his death in 1986. Indeed I firmly believe that he would have gone on to become another Roscommon President of the Association had he lived.
He wrote long and vigoursly about G.A.A. affairs and his views were highly regarded. In 1945 he published a fine record of Rocommon's great years on the Gaelic football fields, 'Six Glorious Years', an invaluable source for that time and happily reproduced by his brother Colm in '93.
He was interested in promoting all things Irish and was a fluent Irish speaker and a member of the various Irish Language promotional organisations. He was central to the scripting and producing of the much-loved Pantomines in Boyle for fifteen years. He was a dedicated member of The Pioneer Movement and was a critic of the 'drink culture'. He was a deeply Catholic man and a supporter of his parish in all things. Indeed he was the only lay - person I heard give a homily, on one occasion, at a Sunday Mass, an interesting concept.

The Great Fleadhs.
One of his great loves, and I feel his best times, was his involvement in the promotion of traditional Irish music as a founding member of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann in the County and especially in Boyle. He held many official positions here again and was national President for three years. He was deeply involved in the great All –Ireland Fleadhs in Boyle in '60 and'66. He was to write vividly about these 25 years later, in '85, under a great picture of a crowded town and a headline “Will Boyle ever see the likes of this again?” he wrote “….the memory of it is still fresh in the minds of thousands… and what memories they are…To try and sort them out is almost impossible for they come crowding into the mind in a confusion of sounds and faces and incidents that prevent the pictures from coming sharply into focus, the skirl of the pipes, the lilt and lift of the dance tunes, the ballad singing and dancing on the pavements, the laughter and noise of the happy laughing crowd seem to hang over the streets of Boyle”. I quote this as representative of his feeling in his writing.

Tourist Promotion.
Micheal O Callaghan was actively involved in the promotion of the area in Tourism and was Chairman of the regional Tourist Board, Lakeland Tourism and other related organisations. He was thus central to the great tourist boom of the sixties and seventies. As I have already stated he was not averse to rolling up the sleeves when as a member of Boyle Development Company, with his friends Jimmy Flaherty, Jimmy Sheeran and Anthony Martin, they cleared footpaths in Lough Key Forest Park which they negotiated for the people of the area and the country. Though the same park is well below par today we owe them a great debt for its acquisition and if Micheal was alive and well much of today's nonsense would feel the wrath of his pen and energies.

Political Interest.
Micheal could be regarded as a consensus Nationalist with Fianna Fail sympathies. This despite the fact that his father was a Cumann na nGaedhael Councillor in the '20s'. He was Chairman of Boyle Town Commission for a decade. He did seek a Dail nomination in the '70s' but he was not a grassroots politician or amenable to the compromises involved. He was unsuccessful in this and in a Senate bid, which forum would have suited his wide- ranging talents.

In Print
In 1964 he wrote an important account of the War of Independence in Roscommon which was also been republished by his brother Colm. This resulted from his interviews with old I.R.A. people, for The Roscommon Herald Centenary Supplement in 1959, itself an important County Historical Document.

Opponent.
Micheal was a formidable opponent, being in a strong position as a newspaper Editor. I remember once the Herald's court- reporter being asked to leave by the presiding Judge, for a particular case, which was, apparently, improper court procedure. Micheal buttoned the legal people at lunch-time and whoever or whatever was to benefit from non-reporting, suffered a stronger headline the following week.
There was an ongoing saga with the irascible Roscommon T.D. Jack McQuillan in which the paper's motto of 'audi alter am partem' (hear both sides) was questionable.

Travel.
He travelled widely abroad especially keeping contact with the Roscommon community in Britain and the U.S. who he never forgot in the paper, and for whom he provided a very tangible link with their homeland in times of more limited communication. He was a great supporter of Roscommon Associations at home and abroad and they returned that regard and respect. He was a man of great patience as exemplified when he was so often called from his office in The Herald to talk to people at reception regarding their roots or a myriad of topics. For a writer this must have been trying. He is remembered with fondness by The Herald staff and the many visitors to his Greatmeadow home where tea and good conversation was abundant.

In writing I cannot bring to mind weaknesses as I would not like to just give a view of him as without blemish, as some sort of local Renaissance man. I suppose his self-confidence, stubbornness, his angst when wronged as when the R.T.E. Authority, of which he was a member, was fired in the early seventies, in controversial circumstances, are these weaknesses or just jealousy?

Family and Friends.
Nearly always by his side was his wife Nellie a character in her own right with an acerbic tongue and impish curiosity. Nellie died in August '93. Miceál's daughter Christine continues the G.A.A. tradition while her son, Micheal's grandson, John Tierney is an accomplished footballer with Cavan. They would be a proud grandparents had they seen this. While there were many great players to whom he was close his favourite player and friend was Dermott Earley. He had many great friends none closer than Phil and Mae Gannon of Castlerea, Dr. Hugh Gibbons of Keadue, his Greatmeadow neighbour Barry Feely, Sean Young, Pat Lavin of Tibohine and New York and the Lawrie family in Birmingham.

Assessment.
Micheal was first of all 'a newspaper man' in the classic mould reminiscent of those of the late 1800s' who played such an important role in the political struggles of their time. He could have gone to work with great possibilities at national level. He chose, very deliberately, to stay in his own county and this was demonstrably evoked in the award-winning R.T.E. programme of '75 titled 'My Own Place'. Roscommon was much the better for that in its representation and recording.
On his headstone, over the quill and inkpot symbols of his profession, are lines of his own song in praise of his favourite place Lough Key:

“ Far away from the Country in a new land to toil
God be with you Lough Key near the old town of Boyle”.

In his graveside oration, his friend and former President of the G.A.A., Dr. Donal Keenan ended by saying; “ is feidir linn a ra, nach mbeidh a leitheid ann aris”.

Though it is now coming towards the twentieth anniversary
of his passing, the truth of that summary is all too evident,
regarding this great Roscommon man.