Michael O’Meara (1917-2020) Lorrha

Appreciation, Nenagh Guardian, February 27, 2021


The passing of Michael O’Meara (Mick of the Hill) before Christmas saw the death of probably the oldest man ever to live in the Parish of Lorrha & Dorrha. A very distinguished man, he died quietly in his sleep on Wednesday, December 9 and was buried, because of Covid 19 - which had no part in his passing, - without pomp or circumstance in Lorrha cemetery two days later. He deserved an extraordinary send off but the restrictions greatly curtailed what would have been appropriate.


One of six children born in Roughan to James O’Meara and Brigid Hough on August 5, 1917, his birth coincided with the start of the Battle of Passchendaele in World War 1. His grandfather, Michael Hough, who was born in Ballymacegan in 1835, went to a hedge school, which was in the open air in good weather and in a derelict school when it was bad.. He remembered the Big Wind, which ravaged the country on January 6, 1839.


Michael O’Meara went to primary school at Gurteen (today Rathcabbin) at the age of four and a half years in 1922, The school was a two-storey building with the girls on the top floor and the boys on the ground. The children were strictly segregated with the 11 am and lunch breaks taken at different times. The girls were taught by Nora Moran from Redwood and the boys by Richard J. Bracken, a native of Banagher..


Michael missed no day his first year in school and won the prize for the best attendance. The prize was the princely sum of 2/6 (approx. 16 cents) which was riches at the time. The first day he missed was in 1923, the day that Patrick Tyquin was shot. A native of Lusmagh and a grandson of a Fenian, Tyquin joined the Free State army and was shot when he came to Rathcabbin to visit his girlfriend. Michael received his First Communion in Rathcabbin Church and the only present he got on the occasion was a holy picture. Later he was confirmed by Dr. Michael Fogarty, who was bishop of Killaloe from 1904 to 1955. His memory of the sacrament was that he knew the whole catechism by heart but nothing of the meaning.


First Hurling

Michael played his first hurling in 1927 at the age of ten and a half years. This was an attempt to organise an interclub competition for under-16s. There was a trial game between Gurteen and Lorrha schools at Ballincor Cross and Fr. Moloughney, who was the first priest in the parish to own a car, carried eleven of them to the match. Michael scored a goal and was picked on the team to play Borrisokane but they were badly beaten and that was the end of underage club games until the late ‘thirties.


Michael stayed at primary school until he was fourteen and a half and the only further schooling he got was for about eighteen months at Birr Technical School, where he studied Irish and book-keeping for two evenings a week. He was needed on the family farm as his father had died in 1925 at the age of forty-six years. These were the years of the ‘Economic War’ when life was tough on the land after the bottom fell out of prices.


Hurling was the only recreation. Michael started playing junior with Lorrha in 1934 and continued in the grade until 1936, when he was promoted senior. The team had little success. There is a club photograph of a 1937 seven-a-side parish league team in which he is prominent in the front row. There is another picture on a team in the Woodford Gold Medal Tournament in 1939. He must have impressed because he was given a county trial and was picked to play against Limerick in the Sweet Afton Cup final in April 1940. He impressed again and was picked to play against Clare in the Thomond Feis competition, which Tipperary lost. A week later he was on the team that defeated Kilkenny in the Monaghan Cup, which was played at Carrick-on-Suir because of the war. Tipperary won and Michael was on the bench for the first round of the Munster championship against Cork at Thurles. Tipperary gave a poor performance and were beaten by 6-3 to 2-6.


He was a versatile played who played in the backline, centrefield and gradually established himself as a forward and was good at scoring goals. Probably one of his greatest displays was in the Limerick LDF Area final in 1944. Hubie Hogan, Tommy Ryan and Dan O’Meara were also on the team. The forward line included Martin Kennedy, Dinny Doorley and himself. They scored eleven goals between them, he getting five of them. He gave all the credit to Kennedy ‘who was absolutely brilliant. He laid on the ball and all I had to do was hit it into the net.’ Kennedy was forty-six years old at the time and this was his last game.


County Intermediate Title

One of the highlights of Michael’s hurling career with Lorrha was winning the 1946 county intermediate championship, the first county final to be won by the club. He played full-forward in the final against Moycarkey-Borris at Gaile, which was as close to the Moycarkey club as it was possible to be. Another highlight was a North senior hurling title in 1948 before going down to Holycross-Ballycahill in the county final. Again he was at full-forward and believed the team’s poor performance on the day was due to negative tactics, standing behind their men and re-acting to their opponents’ actions rather than going for the ball.


Michael continued to play until 1954 without further success. He became a selector in 1960 and was treasurer of the club from 1967 to 1978. During this time the club purchased nearly six acres from the Land Commission at Moatfield, which became the club grounds.


The Rathcabbin Players

Michael married Carmel O’Meara (no relation) in February 1952 and moved into Carmel’s place in Curraghgloss. They were to have four children, Gerard, Declan, Emer and Deirdre.


Michael’s talents weren’t confined to hurling and farming. He was a marvellous raconteur with a great memory and was capable of regaling his listeners with a wealth of stories from a life full of exciting memories. He was a good comic actor, who graced the boards in Rathcabbin Hall for many years. He was one of those who started the Rathcabbin Players in 1941 in order to raise funds for the Red Cross branch in the area. ‘Troubled Bachelors’ was the name of their first production and it was directed by R. J. ‘Dick’ Bracken, who had a tremendous interest in drama. There were many other plays as well and they were all produced in the primitive conditions of Rathcabbin Hall, working with candle or oil lamp. It didn’t cost Michael much thought to make the round trip of seven miles from Curraghgloss to the hall. Any money that was made went to the Red Cross, the F.C.A. or the G.A.A. club. The plays were produced annually until 1959.


The drama group was revived in 1985, following a few years when Michael and Sheila Dillon were involved in the production and staging of Novelty Acts in the Scór competitions. A number of one-act plays were produced before the ‘Troubled Bachelors’ was re-staged, Success came quickly with invitations from outside the parish to stage their productions. In 1997 they were invited to bring ‘The Field’ to London. Not only did Michael produce but he donned the robes of the ‘Bishop’ in the play and, in addition, doubled up as ‘Dandy McCabe’ in the absence of Joe Cleary, giving a tour de force performance in two startlingly contrasting roles. The play was produced for two nights to packed houses. Another great production of theirs was an act called ‘The Blunder Brothers.’ Michael’s acting career continued until 2008, when he appeared as ‘King George V’ in a pageant built around the people of Lorrha parish, who fought in World War 1.


A Life of Activity

Michael O’Meara’s life was full of activity. At the farming end of things he served his time in the NFA and later the IFA. Before that he was involved in the formation of the Young Farmers Club in 1947 and 1948. Elected chairman, the club had an educational purpose and eventually merged into Macra na Feirme in the mid-fifties. In the early part of that decade he was involved in the setting up of the North Tipperary Agricultural Wholesale Society, a properly constituted company with shareholders, which aimed to purchase manures and seeds for the members at wholesale prices. He was also involved in the ploughing championships and acted as a judge for a good number of years. He joined the LDF in 1940 and continued in the FCA after 1945 right up to 1978. In 1941 Johnny Corcoran and himself won the Irish Press District Shield for .22 rifle shooting, and repeated the victory in 1942. They represented the District in the area competition at Limerick and won and were picked on the Limerick Area team for the All-Ireland. When the FCA came into existence after the war, the areas were changed and Lorrha were in the Tipperary area. The .303 rifle competition came into being in 1947 and a team of six from the county was entered in the All-Ireland. Michael came fourth in the individual All-Ireland and continued competing at the highest level for many years afterwards.


Michael O’Meara’s life was a rich one, rich in individual talents and in its many contributions to the parish of Lorrha and the world beyond. Over a long span of years he entertained a lot of people, whether on the field of play or on the stage in Rathcabbin Hall and further afield. Off both platforms he engaged people he met through his lively personality and intelligent mind. He contributed significantly to the history of the parish of Lorrha and Dorrha and was, without any shadow of doubt, a huge adornment to the life of his native place.