Johnny Mee and the letter that changed Mayo for the better

by Dr. Richard Martin

I MET Johnny Mee recently. I wanted to sit down with him and talk.

Through a friend I arranged to meet him at his home. On a sunny Friday afternoon, I walked to his house on the Pound Road and knocked on the door.

He brought me into his living room, and he introduced me to his wife Mary and his daughter Mary.

He told me his wife Mary was originally from Westport and that her surname was Cameron.

Johnny is the original autodidact. Completely self-taught. He left school at 14 and joined The Connaught Telegraph.

He gave 57 years of service to the CT and loved every minute of it. It was a second family and the Gillespies were 'very decent people'.

Johnny is a voracious reader, always has been. In his own words he'd read the back of a Cornflakes box. I was to discover that Johnny is an etymologist also.

For him, it's not enough to use words, write words and speak words. He wants to understand words and where they come from. He explained to me that the name Cameron is Scottish and in Gaelic, it means 'Forked Nose'.

After a few minutes of pleasantries, he brought me upstairs for a chat. The wall alongside the stairs is covered in photographs. Photos from his years in politics.

Photos of Castlebar, his family, Celtic, Western Care Association, St. Anthony's School, President Higgins and on and on.

His life is on that wall. There was one large striking photo of a beautiful woman sitting in a chair that took centerstage. I asked him who it was. ‘My daughter Ann. She lives in Spain.’ ‘She's a model Johnny.’ ‘She is.’

We sat down in a bedroom on two stools and chatted. Johnny is 90 years of age and possesses the memory of an elephant. He knows a part of me that I will never know. He told me that he knew my grandfather Dick Martin and my great-grandfather Willie Martin.

The Martins used to deliver milk on McHale Road. He can remember them vividly. Quite nice men. Willie Martin died in the ‘60s.

Talking with Johnny was like connecting with a past I never knew or a part of myself I didn't know existed. It was a humbling experience. I knew he was a founder member of the Western Care Association and I wanted to ask him about that. So I started there.

It started very simply. It started with a letter. Johnny Mee wrote a letter to The Connaught Telegraph in 1966. Johnny got up out of the room at this point and came back with the original letter framed.

It was short, concise, powerful, emotive and to the point. In it, he decried the lack of services for children and adults with special needs.

Little did he or we know how much a 'small' letter to the CT would change the fortunes of so many families and effectively change the course of history in this town and county.

In the letter, he pointed out that there were no services in Mayo.

"Take Mayo, for instance. To the best of my knowledge - and I'm open to correction here - there is not one body in Mayo, voluntary or otherwise, which interests themselves in this.”

Surely there are enough public-spirited people in the county to form an association of parents and friends of special needs children, he said.

“Such an association has done and is doing really tremendous work in Galway. There a school has been set up in which children are given specialised training.

“Surely what has been done in Galway can be emulated in Mayo.”

He added: "I have no doubt a meeting of interested people could be arranged, and an association formed.”

The CT used to be published on a Thursday. The response was instant and electric. It was probably the most important edition of the CT ever published.

That same day Tom Fallon, who was the then manager of the local Hibernia Insurance Company, rang Johnny Mee offering support. Later that day, Michael Joe Egan (solicitor) also contacted Johnny Mee. All three men had children with special needs.

The trio decided to have an open public meeting in the Imperial Hotel.

They hoped 20 or so would turn up. Roughly 130 people came to the meeting. The crowd was such that they were afraid the floor would collapse. Thankfully it didn't.

John Garavan presided over the meeting and the Western Care Association was formed that very night. It was a seminal and seismic night. Castlebar and Mayo were never the same again.

All changed, changed utterly: Something beautiful was born. All started by one 'small' letter.

MJ Egan and Tom Fallon had the legal and financial expertise. Through his position in the CT, Johnny Mee was in charge of public relations.

There was no TikTok, Facebook, X or WhatsApp in the late ‘60s. The three founders needed a strong media presence to get the project off the ground. The right men at the right place at the right time. Providence.

At the time, there were roughly 700 people in the county that had special needs. Something had to be done.

They didn't wait for it to happen. Mee, Egan and Fallon made things happen and something was done.

Today, the Western Care Association is an integral part of our community all across the county. It's a major employer. The WCA employs approximately 1,100 people (permanent and part-time) and has 1,000 service users. The effect that the WCA has had on our community over the past 60 years is incalculable.

Thousands of service users and their families have been affected positively and humanely.

It's important to understand that there was huge shame and stigma about special needs in this country. People like Johnny Mee helped to change all that. People with special needs were being spoken for, and their needs were being met.

After we talked about the WCA and his role as a founder member I wanted to ask Johnny about his life in politics.

I was fascinated by his political career. He was an urban councillor for a very, very long time. Long enough to serve as town mayor on six occasions.

Johnny was a county councillor from 1991 to 2009 and contested the GE on three occasions.

From my perspective, what's fascinating is that he represented the Labour Party in a town and county which was always dominated by civil war politics.

To be elected as a Labour candidate in Mayo in any era was a massive achievement.

He told me he wasn't the first Labour representative in Mayo. Thomas J. O'Connell was a Labour TD for south Mayo from 1927-1932, but after that the Labour Party was pretty much non-existent in Mayo.

I asked why did he join Labour originally. "I didn't join it! I started it," he laughed. Johnny Mee was the founder member of the Labour Party in Mayo. It had been effectively dormant for decades.

"But why were you attracted to the Labour movement," I asked.

"Noel Browne. He was my star, my shining light. He never compromised on his principles or values. I admired that. I aspired to be like that. He was prepared to take on the Church. Take on McQuaid and do the right thing for the people of Ireland."

Johnny Mee could've forged a very 'successful' career in one the civil war parties. He would've either been elected to the Dáil or found himself in the Senate if he was wearing the 'badge' of FF or FG. I asked him was he ever tempted to join FF or FG or if he was ever broached to join?

You don't sell your principles. He said it respectfully but forcefully. When he said that I finally understood why he was and is revered in the town. I looked across the room at this 90-year-old man and Michael Feeney's words rang in my ears.

I was at Johnny's book launch last year when his book 'Between Mee and You' was published. At the event he was asked who he most admired in public life. Noel Browne he replied.

There was a murmur of approval in the room. I was sitting beside Michael Feeney at the event. Later in the evening the microphone was put in Michael Feeney's hands and he stood up. He spoke with real passion and emotion on the night.

"You were our voice. You were our leader. You represented us. You were OUR Noel Browne," Michael said.

I was so privileged to be there that night.

Looking across at him in the bedroom as he answered that question with such finality. A politician with total integrity. A man with total integrity.

Johnny is Celtic. I'm Mitchels. He played for Celtic and was a long serving club official. He told me when he was 14, Tom Ketterick brought all 11 players to Ballinrobe for a game in his car. How times change.

He laughed as he told me. I told him how our Mitchels Under 14 team went to the Glen of Aherlow with Jimmy Feeney. Great memories. Great clubs.

Johnny still radiates positivity. We talked about the Ireland of today. There's no comparison. None. To the Ireland I grew up in.

We chatted awhile more and then I left. I said goodbye to his wife and daughter and walked home.

It was a privilege to sit down with him and hear his wisdom. We shall not look upon his like again. Castlebar is engraved on his heart.

(Dr. Richard Martin is a regular columnist with The Connaught Telegraph).