Mayo memories: Nan Monaghan's lifetime on stage

PART ONE

By Tom Gillespie

THE uncrowned queen of entertainment in Castlebar was, without doubt, the late Nan Monaghan of St. Bridget’s Crescent in the county town.

Following a lifetime on the stage, Nan (née Denning) passed away in February 2011.

Twenty-five years earlier, Nan contributed to the 1989 Castlebar Parish Magazine where she looked back on a colourful career and the characters she met along the way. In later years Nan became the Queen on Panto.

In her article she wrote:

Those were the days, my friend, when you could travel the length and breath of Ireland to play in the ballrooms and dancehalls into the early hours of the morning, winter and summer, for the princely sum of £1-10s., £2, or, if you were lucky, £3.

It all started for me when I was 14 years old. Now, some would say it was an early age but you must remember that all our generation, or nearly all of them started work when we left national school.

But for me it was a job different to others, and at that time it was not an occupation that was as readily recognised as it is today.

I know my mother and father had a fit when I told them i wanted to sign in a band. Today it is a glamorous occupation and a very well paid one. Some of the greatest singers in Ireland are women, but in my day that was not the case.

It all started for me with a man called Tony O’Grady who lived in Manulla. He heard me singing one evening coming down McHale Road and he hopped off his bike and asked me would I sing with his band.

They practised every Sunday in the house of the late Mrs. Mae Lally in Moneen.

In Tony’s band at the time were John Lally on saxophone, Toddy Buckley from Knockthomas on drums, Gerald Ralph from Moneen on sax, and Tony himself on accordion.

I remember on some occasions a very small lad in short trousers called Tommy Ralph who played the trumpet.

Rehearsals over, Tony came and asked my mother to let me sing with the band, promising to take good care of me. He was true to his word, as were all the band members I sang with over the years.

My first gig with him was in the Eclipse Ballroom in Ballyhaunis (later the famous Midas Night Club) in 1948.

The first song I ever sang ion stage was called ‘Buttons and Bows’. The dance finished at 3 a.m. I was paid my first wage - seven shillings and six pence.

I sang with Tony for some time and got a taste for a career I could not turn away from.

Tony was a wonderful man and I have many happy memories of him and the lads he had in the band.

The suits the men wore were black dress suits and dickie bows. Another essential item a musician had to have was his own instrument as there were not many spare instruments hanging around.

And some instruments they were - tarnished and battered, and usually wrapped in a piece of old clothing in a handmade wooden case.

But when taken out and polished, they were played with great pride and skill.

Occasionally a reed in the mouthpiece would start to squeak and a quick repair job would be carried out with the aid of a razor blade.

All the musicians sat down during the dance with a music stand in front of them which carried the name of the band.

There were very few musicians who could reads music, except for some of the greats like Kevin Bourke, Jimmy Feeney, Padraic McDonald, Willie Keane, Tommy Devaney and Tom Walsh from Westport. The rest were known as buskers - and were absolutely brilliant.

All bandleaders were called the ‘Head’. The big band at the time was Stephen Garvey. Many of us will have vivid memories of Stephen, Tom Walsh and Charlie Reynolds dressed in black overcoats, dickie bows and while silk scarves, coming home to Castlebar early in the morning after a long journey from a gig.

Others who played with Stephen were Danny McCormack and Seamie Gavin and Star Thornton, himself a fine musician, was the band’s driver.

Other bands I sang with were the Flatley Brothers, Andy and Larry from Claremorris.

I also spent some time as a singer with Tommy Gavin from Clogher, Claremorris. Playing with Tommy were Dominick Kerins from Turlough, and Paul Flannery from Rush Street. Enda Flaherty, Lucan Street, also sang with Tommy Gavin. She had a beautiful voice. And there was a drummer called - Mick Monaghan!

I remember a Shrove Tuesday when Enda was sick and could not travel with the band. If you were in the band business, some bandleader would knock on your door and ask if you were working that night. If not, you got the job.

So Tommy Gavin asked me to join the band and I was given 10 minutes to get ready.

The band gear was packed into the boot of the car and on the back seat with the band members jammed in between them.

Tommy introduced me to the lads who were new to me. “This fine hunk, Mick Monaghan, is from St. Mary’s Hospital,” he said.

“Glory be to God,” I said to myself, “he has one of the patients from St. Mary’s working with him.”

However, my fears were soon allayed when Paul Flannery told me Mick was a psychiatric nurse at the hospital.

I was just seventeen-and-a-half years old when I met Mick. We got married on my 19th birthday.

NEXT WEEK: A 12-hour gig at the Blackwell party in Mulranny