Master builder Mick says secret to long life is ‘getting involved’

Mick Kirby from Castletown Geoghegan turned 90 on Friday last, and while there could be no big party celebrations because of Covid-19 restrictions, friends and family turned out in their multitudes to drive past his home and wish him well from a safe distance.

The Westmeath Examiner caught up with Mick over the phone, to chat about some of his memories from throughout the years.

Working in construction all of his life, like his father before him who was a carpenter, Mick’s passion was the restoration of old buildings to their former glory, such as the Franciscan Friary in Multyfarnham.

A long time reader of the Westmeath Examiner, Mick started by telling of his memories of building an extension at its offices on Dominick Street many moons ago.

“I always had a great relationship with your paper. I remember building an extension for the Examiner when it was on the main street in Mullingar. Joe Dolan was working there at the time. He’d be loading the papers on a trolley out the back and he was singing as he went, singing along to the movement of the trolley,” said Mick.

“I built a lot in Mullingar, and my joy in life was restoration. My pride and joy was the restoration of Franciscan Abbey in Multyfarnham,” he said.

Forty years ago I handed it over to them [the Franciscans]; it took me three years to complete, but it was the pride and joy of my life.

“I also restored Lilliput House too, and handed that over to Westmeath County Council. I was talking to a lad yesterday from Shannonbridge, and over 50 years ago, I built a housing scheme for the engineers of the power station in Shannonbridge.

“I made a lot of friends in various walks of life through my work.”

It wasn’t all work, as Mick had a love of hurling and in his day, won four senior championships with Castletown Geoghegan.

“I played three in a row in 1956, 1957 and 1958, and again in 1960 and 1964. I got great enjoyment from that, and I did 12 years as chairman after that, and I was secretary for a lot of the time I was playing.

“The hurling pitch we have now I negotiated from the Land Commission, and it’s still in great knick now.”

Very involved in community life, Mick and his wife Margaret shared a love of set dancing, and they won the Westmeath Scór final 10 years in a row.

“We did all sorts of dancing, ballroom dancing and everything, up to two years ago.

“We also did a lot of plays. We had a dramatics class in the village, and my father was involved in it, and from a very young age I was taking part in it. It was a great education, with the history and the dramas, we did three-act plays. We’d do a one-act comedy as well sometimes, and singing and dancing in between.”

Mick was also part of a group that would put on annual shows for residents of nursing homes, always on the Sunday before Christmas.

“We did that for 36 years continuously – singing, music and dancing for the people on the wards. Then in latter years we’d put it on in a hall and they’d come to us. This was the first year I missed it.”

These times

“It’s hard to come to terms with what’s happening now, I never saw anything like this in my lifetime,” Mick says of the global pandemic.

“And it’s so hard to see an end to it, but I’m a firm believer in prayer and I think prayer is the only cure for it.”

The eldest of 12 children, and the father of 12 children, Mick says family has played an important role in keeping him sane during trying times.

“When Margaret and I got married, we planned that all the family would live close by so that we could be there for one another if anyone needed a helping hand.

“Apart from one of our daughters, who lives in New York and usually gets home to visit us twice a year, all of the family still live around and they come here every day, one of them cooks and brings the dinner to us. And thank God for them.

“I’ve been very lucky in life and blessed not only with good friends but good family also. I was blessed when I met my wife Margaret. The first time I saw her, she was only 16 and going up to Mass in a pony and trap with her father, and we married when she was 21. And she’s still hale and hearty, thank God.”

Advice

When asked what life advice he’d give to people today, Mick says: “Try to keep it simple.”

“Prayer is also very important. We still say the Rosary here every day, as well as the Angelus a couple of times a day. It’s desperate not to be able to go to Mass, but we still get it through the TV or online.

“But I do miss going to Mass, I love the hymns. I was part of a choir all my young days here in Castletown,” said Mick, who sings a few verses of The Isle of Innisfree.

And still in fine voice for a man of 90, Mick says that the right attitude to life is very important.

“You make great friends through going to set dancing and all of them things, those friendships last a lifetime.

“It’s important to get involved in what interests you. It helps keep you young at heart.”