Winifred Maud Geraghty (nee Donnellan)
Brian Geraghty
My Mum, Winifred Maud Geraghty (nee Donnellan), was a native of the town of Oughterard and was born on 2nd July 1899 into a well-known local family in Camp Street. Her father, William had one sister, Bridget, and three brothers, namely, Patrick, John and James. Patrick married twice. His first wife, Honor (Naughton), had two daughters; the second was called Winnifred. Honor died in 1878, when Winnifred was born. William’s sister, Bridget, who was married to Michael McDonagh in a second marriage, later adopted her niece, Winnifred, giving her the title Winnifred Donnellan-Holmes. She grew up to marry John Joyce, who worked on the railway and thus began the Donnellan-Holmes-Joyce line. Padraic O’Domhnallain, a son of Patrick’s , was editor of An Claiomh Solas during the Fight for Freedom era.
James (born 1855) married Kate Cottingham, whose family farmed in Billamore. Her father was quite elderly, so James moved into the family home with her. Their union gave birth to the Billamore branch of the Donnellan’s. Much travelled in his youth, Jamsie, as he was affectionately known, was a wonderful angler whose knowledge of Lough Corrib was legendary. T.C. Kingsmill More in his magnificent book “A Man May Fish” admires him greatly and holds him in high regard as an angler, a guide and a companion. Mum’s Dad, William was a Primary School Teacher at the local Boy’s School where he later became Principal. Her mother, Bridget (Hynes), was from Headford and had come to Oughterard to teach at the Convent School before they married. They had four children. Mary Rose, the eldest, died in her mid-twenties, a victim of the then rampant T.B. Her brother John became the long-time Principal at Loughwell N.S near Moycullen. He was also a long-serving County Councillor. He lived at Dovepark with his wife May and their seven daughters, each of whom became either a primary or second level school teacher. Brid, one of these daughters, also spent some years with Odlum’s, as its Home Economics Advisor, during which time she presented its radio programme. She later returned to second level education administration. May, John’s wife, taught at Newtown N.S. close to their home. Mum’s other sister, Kathleen, also a teacher, married Tom Murphy from Glenamaddy, who she met while he was teaching in Oughterard. They went on to teach together at Corgarry N.S. near Mountbellew, he as Principal, up until they retired. They had eight children, a baby infant girl who died, as well as four girls and three boys, who chose careers in teaching, medicine, the commercial world and one became a nun.
Maud’s Childhood and Education
Maud (who never used the name Winifred except when required officially) lived for part of each school year with her mother’s unmarried sister and brother, Katie and George Hynes, in Headford. This resulted in her attending primary and post primary school there as well as in Oughterard. She got on well in each and also advanced her study of music and the piano which she dearly loved.
On completion of her schooling, she had to decide on choosing a lifetime career. Surprisingly, while coming from a family with a strong teaching background and having taught a little herself by this time, she chose to become a nurse. She trained at Essex County Hospital, England after which she returned to Ireland. She joined the midwifery staff of the famous Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, a noted maternity centre. She worked her way up to being appointed Charge Nurse of its Theatre. She loved her time at the Rotunda and particularly enjoyed the opportunities her outpatient work afforded, especially in allowing her to work with the tenement families just north of the Liffey. She often spoke of these wonderful people, especially of the mothers among them, and of their attitude to life regardless of the cards they had been dealt.
Maud relocates to the West
Ireland West was always calling, however and after a number of years at the Rotunda she successfully applied when the position of Theatre Charge Nurse at the Central Hospital Galway was advertised. The excellence of her work over her years there received huge praise and I was pleased to find one such accolade among her papers. It was one of which I knew she was very proud but at the same time humbled. It came from her overall boss at the hospital Dr. Morris, who was Obstetrician and Gynaecologist to the Maternity Department and it was made at a meeting of the County Hospitals’ and Dispensaries Committee. Its members were considering the suitability and merits of the applicants for Mum’s job following her resignation as the department’s Charge Nurse. They felt it necessary to send for Dr. Morris and seek his guidance on the matter. He spoke at length and summed up by saying he considered that Nurse Donnellan (Mum) had set a remarkable standard for the theatre and the department during her tenure and he believed that was the standard that her successor should seek to achieve. He concluded his contribution with this lovely compliment to Mum. “When I heard Nurse Donnellan was about to resign, I was heartbroken because she was a wonderful nurse and the hospital had improved greatly while she was there” (The Connacht Tribune, Sept 25 1937).
Mum’s resignation
Mum had resigned on foot of being appointed to the position of Oughterard and District State Nurse, her final career move (1937). While naturally overjoyed to be back among her own people and in her own place she had to have been saddened by the general state of life there. War had been kindling and erupting on and off in Europe from the early 1930’s with catastrophic effects. It became a reality in 1939 and in no time, it would become World War Two. The effect this had on life in general was two-fold to say the least. Firstly, every necessary commodity became either extremely scarce or entirely unavailable. Secondly this left its mark on peoples’ general mood and behaviour. Medicines, general medical supplies and petrol were in short supply or not at all. Each was an essential for a district nurse and at best each was seriously rationed. Not very inspiring for any nurse facing this new role. Right through life however Mum was a battler who courageously faced every problem head-on with the help of God and a plan.
First of all, however, she needed to deal with a number of personal matters. The first of these was her upcoming marriage to her boyfriend, Peter Geraghty, whom she met during her time at the Central Hospital.
Maud & Peter’s Wedding
In April 1938 Maud and Peter were married in the parish church of Oughterard. Their immediate requirement now was to find a suitable house either to rent or purchase. This proved a most difficult task and resulted in intermittent stints living in the Courthouse with mum’s mother, Bridget. ‘’Muddie’’, as she was known affectionately had been appointed its caretaker and lived there following the death of her husband. She became a true and cherished friend of mine and a great influence during my formative years.
I was born on 16 March 1939 in Seamount Nursing Home, Salthill, which overlooked ‘’the prom’’ and Galway Bay. I was baptised in the Parish Church of Oughterard, by the then parish priest, Rev Dermot Forde, and given the names Bernard (after Dad’s father), William (after Mum’s Dad) and Patrick (after our national saint whose feast day is March 17th). As there was always a ‘Brian’ in my dad’s family the ‘Bernard’ soon lost out. The only one who never called me other than Bernard was Sean Reynolds, the popular rate collector in Oughterard during my youth.
Finding a New Home
My arrival further increased the need for my parents to find a home of their own as well as a work address for Mum. Finally, they succeeded. They got to rent a cottage in Lemonfield. As it was one of a number of look-alike cottages, Mum worried that this could pose problems for anyone seeking ‘’the nurse’’, especially at night. She was worried also that our close neighbours would be disturbed. They went ahead with the cottage however and what a lucky decision that proved to be. No problems arose, primarily because our neighbours were fabulous. Mrs Feeney and husband Dan from next door even kept a watchful eye on me if Dad had to escort mum in answer to a call. Mrs McEvilly our neighbour on the other side and husband Jim were equally as nice as were all in Lemonfield. I must mention Maureen Darcy, a few years my senior, who took me to school on my first days and her sister Kitty who grew up and married Hubert Delap, long-time manager of Connemara Golf Club and Renvyle footballer.
Growing up in Lemonfield
I don’t think I was ever happier growing up than when living in Lemonfield. Nearly every other family living there had children about my age and there were plenty of lovely grassy play areas all around. Every cottage had what I thought was a decent sized field of its own attached. Dad grew vegetables, spuds and some flowers in the lower area of ours and hay in the remainder. We did have an annual threshing that did not take very long. It was a big occasion however, especially for us children. We were hugely impressed by the threshing machine and also took note of the ‘serious need’ for clear bottles of water but more especially for dark bottles of porter. Large lemonade sized bottles of cold black tea were also in demand.
Our ‘field’ also provided me with some of the greatest moments of my early life. My parents bought me a lovely pony from my uncle John Donnellan, a filly called ‘’Cailin’,’ which some of his family, especially Maura had previously enjoyed. ‘Cailin’ and I together pulled off some of the greatest race victories of all time over that field’s tricky course. We won the Galway Plate there, umpteen times, each one in a photo finish, with Cailin giving her best and I, superb in the saddle, while at the same time giving a thrilling commentary. You can tell me these wins were all figments of my young imagination but ‘Cailin’ and I would tell you differently!!
Mum’s works as a Nurse
By now, mum had been District Nurse in Oughterard for ten years. Whenever I am asked to describe the type of person she was, the two words that come to mind immediately are ‘love’ and ‘care’. These were the virtues that governed her way of living and working. She achieved a high level of success everywhere she worked. Her genuine, lovely and caring way of dealing with her patients, together with her excellent nursing record won her widespread respect and admiration. It was lovely to see the men of the parish raise their headgear in respect when meeting her. Mum never rushed a treatment even if she were exhausted, which was so often the case. Bear in mind that she cycled her large district day and night for almost her entire working life. Her bike was her constant companion and ‘best mate’. Dad was always trying to get her to drive. In fact, he bought her a new car at one stage but then made the big mistake of personally trying to teach her to drive it. Constant failure led to some very funny verbal exchanges. One stands out in my mind. On arrival home after a session of tuition, she led him to our piano, sat him down and ordered him to play the Blue Danube. He immediately replied ‘I don’t know the first thing about playing the Blue Danube’. Mum’s reply was sharp and final, ‘Neither do I know the first thing about driving your car’.
Mum believed in being thorough in her work, with a capital T. She never left a patient until she was fully happy that she had done as much as she could do. This quite often led her to overnighting at the home of her patient. Or occasionally, even for a longer time. I can remember her missing two Christmas Day dinners in these circumstances. She also attached great importance to cleanliness and continually investigated how to improve the shortage of hot water, which was the situation everywhere. After her schoolhouse visits, we students all knew that ‘cleanliness is next to Godliness’, but no-one had the wherewithal to bring about the necessary improvement.
Mum’s empathy for the poor
She held a special place in her heart for the poor and for the travelling people or ‘tinkers’ as they were then known because of their work with tin. I would spend some time at their camps when driving mum and I got to know some of them quite well.
While mum kept up to date with the introduction of new medicines, she also paid a lot of attention to old Irish cures, studying them from the point of view of cause and effect. She cured many patients (even including animals) when all else had failed.
A Woman of many talents
Mum loved to get a full evening or part of one free and to herself. Her favourite pastimes were playing her piano and angling. She would always play ‘when two eyes of blue came smiling true at me’ after which we would tease her that Dad’s eyes were green or grey or any colour but blue. She loved to play the Strauss Waltzes, Gilbert and Sullivan pieces, traditional Irish airs and, of course, the popular music of the day.
If she was sure that no calls were pending, she would ask me or Dad to take her to some of the small lakes or rivers in the hinterland and she would fish until dark, despite the fact that on most such evenings, the midges would eat one alive. She had spent quite a lot of her childhood on Lough Corrib with her dad, her brother John and the extended family. To boat on the Corrib was not an option at this time of her life due to the possibility of a call from a patient. Her favourite spot, in my opinion, was the small river at the head of the Corrib system in the Maam Valley. It was not a favourite of mine because the midges there took the honours course.
She loved chatting with her neighbours also. Especially her next-door neighbour, Ellen Ferris and the Shaughnessy sisters in Camp Street, who had spent their days nursing in the Central Hospital and in being of great assistance to the people of Oughterard when seeking attention there. Of course, her chats with Ellen were made really enjoyable when they would be joined by Johnny Keogh or Jo-Jo Carney. She would phone me next day to fill me in on the events of the night before. She loved it all.
While she was very much a fun person, she was deeply religious. She attended mass daily when possible and had a great love for her rosary. She would give me a second look if she copped that sometimes I would be saying ‘mary haily full of grace’ (Mary lived at the bridge), instead of ‘Hail Mary’. Like mum, Mary Healy is no longer with us. God rest them all.
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