June 10 is full of memories as it was Father’s birthday. He was born in 1919 in Kilrush, Co. Clare ~ a place that remained incredibly special to him right up to the day he died in 2010.
Today, I think of his mother, a woman he absolutely adored and who died when he was a young teenager. I can just imagine them looking adoringly into each other’s eyes for the first time on this day 95 years ago. He was her second child and her first son.
Father’s Beloved Mother
I’m so glad that he kept her memory alive through this photograph which had a prominent place in the sitting-room of the various houses in which we lived. It never failed to spark him into talking about his happy childhood and indeed about the importance of building happiness into every single moment, however mundane the moment might at first appear.
Yes, Dad, I’ll be having that ice-cream in your honour today ~ cut from a block with a warm knife and sandwiched between two wafers.
Good Friday is a day of huge significance in my life for both private and public reasons.
On the private front, it has always been a day of mourning in our family as it was the day on which my famous uncle, Captain Michael Tubridy, died. Uncle Michael was Dad’s kid brother. They grew up in Kilrush, Co. Clare ~ 5 brothers and 4 sisters~ their mother, my grandmother died when Dad was twelve. Their father, who was a busy veterinary surgeon, devoted his life to nurturing this large family.
There was immense sporting talent among the nine kids but it was Michael who rose to huge national and international fame, particularly in the UK and right across America and Canada. They always had horses in Kilrush but it was when he joined the Irish Army Equitation School that his horsemanship was really noticed and nurtured. He went on to become one of the world’s leading show jumpers and died as a result of a freak accident on Good Friday, 1954, at the tender age of 31.
While I never knew Uncle Michael, I am fiercely proud to be the the niece of this amazingly talented man. He won an All-Ireland football medal with Cork in 1945, playing along side Jack Lynch, who later became the Taoiseach of Ireland. According to Father, he could run like the wind, had brains to burn and was an absolute natural when it came to horses. To my eye, he was also extremely handsome and he comes across from his widow, Dot, as being an absolute romantic and the ultimate soul mate.
Captain Michael Tubridy on Ballynonty.
Good Friday also stands out for me because of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 which was so significant in terms of bringing peace in Northern Ireland. I grew up in Co.Monaghan and Co. Louth, close to the border with Northern Ireland, and found the Troubles and loss of life in the North absolutely terrifying and heartbreaking. The fact that there was a religious element to it made it all the more poignant to me as I am a child of a loving mixed marriage.
Reading through Dad’s scrapbooks today, I am so struck by the words of tribute from Colonel Harry Llewellyn of the English Team, who was Uncle Michael’s main rival on the international scene:
We have lost a very great friend and a most charming person against whom to compete in international riding contests…..He was a very great ambassador for Ireland.
There are no politics between horsemen, and the members of the English and Irish jumping teams who have met each other in so many international competitions since the war became very close friends. It is terribly sad to feel that Tubridy will no longer be with us. He was a beautiful rider and an exceedingly charming person…..’
My abiding hope today is that peace will reign in Northern Ireland and that the memory of Captain Michael Tubridy will long be remembered, especially in his beloved Co. Clare.
SOCIAL BRIDGE ~ Jean Tubridy connecting with you from Ireland 