Welcome back home Yvonne

The community of Rochfortbridge came out in force for the launch of The Wake of Yer Man, a series of short stories by Yvonne Heavey, a native of Derrygreenagh Park, now living in Jersey.

Many of her former neighbours in Derrygreenagh Park were present at the launch in the Parish Centre. They sat chatting about the book that reflects what life was like for many of them growing up or raising a family in Rochfortbridge in the 1980s and ‘90s, and records customs and characters from those times.

“Every one of them was brainy and lovely and they all did well,” one local woman said of the Heaveys. Yvonne’s mother “was a very funny woman – she’d put you in good humour”, remarked Kathleen Gunning who was there with her husband Patsy. Another neighbour, Chris Bligh was there with her sister Dolores Keaveney who has published 20 books and has two due out soon.

Yvonne was one of nine children. The Heavey family were poor and often relied on the Society of St Vincent de Paul to which most of the proceeds from the sale of the book are being donated.

The proceeds from the sale of books at Friday’s launch, however, are going to the St Mary’s GAA club in Rochfortbridge. Yvonne was presented with a framed club jersey by the chairman, Eugene Coyle. Imelda Geraghty who grew up next door to Yvonne was in charge of book sales on the night and reported that they were “flying out”.

Yvonne said it was “a very special moment” for her to be back home to launch her book. “I had to go away to realise what an incredible community I had been brought up in. They were hard times, but at the core of the community was a deep kindness,” Yvonne recalled.

She spoke of the importance of the GAA explaining that, with nine in the family, there were not many outings, but through the GAA they got to travel the “length and breadth of the country”.

She remembered people like the late Anne Cooney who gave so much of their time to Gaelic games and its young players.

Yvonne said the Church was very important and very powerful in those days. “I found that a lot of writers were not speaking about the community nuns and priests and all they did, especially here in St Joseph’s (secondary school) where they were incredible,” she said.

One of the stories in the book, Mulvin’s Bog, was read by Mairead Mulvin whose mother features in the story. “Mrs Mulvin, the mother of 11, small as a robin, with black hair pinned neatly back, always seemed tireless. She could have moved mountains if she had a mind to,” Mairead read.

At the prompting of her husband James Gleeson, Yvonne read an extract from The Last Walk which is about “thumbing” with her father to Ballinabrackey to visit his mother.

In reply to questions from the floor, Yvonne said she has always written. “I was a cripplingly shy child and I made myself funny through words and wrote poems for people to please them,” she confessed.

Yvonne left Ireland for Jersey when she was 20, on her first ever flight, with her bag, 60 pounds in her pocket, and her hopes and dreams.

She now writes full-time and has several more stories written.

She revealed that this book is “me testing the water with words” and hinted that a sequel may be in the offing.