By Diarmaid Doherty

MICKEY Dorrian reckons he’d be quite happy to work on for another few years with Eir.

But yesterday he retired after almost 45 years in a job which he says brought him so many happy times.

“It’s a strange one, because every day has been different,” he said.

“And then I think about some of the people I’ve worked with over the years – people who were more friends than colleagues.

“Then there are those who you meet along the way. You go to people’s homes and you get to know them and have a chat. I love that side of it.”

Mickey turns 65 on today and under his employment agreement with Eir, must retire once he reaches that age.

He’s happy to point out that he’s still in good health and wants to put his early days of retirement to good use.

His friend and former colleague Hughie Sweeney has suggested that he might help out at the WeCare Foodbank in Letterkenny.

He would also like to do some voluntary work with older people

That idea stems from his late mother’s time in a nursing home where Mickey saw at first hand the care and attention that older people need in their final days.

“I found myself looking around me and seeing people, many of them had worked hard all their lives. Yet here they were in a nursing home where they couldn’t feed themselves.

“I just thought it so sad – and we could all end up like that at some stage.”

For anyone who knows Mickey, his ambition to help others less fortunate won’t come as any surprise.

The Letterkenny man oozes the kind of warmth and genuine kindness that we would all love to possess.

A son of the late Johnny and Mona Dorrian, Mickey remembers with great fondness his childhood years growing up in Ard Colmcille with his siblings John (Joe) and Helen.

His father worked in the Model Bakery and would head off on his Honda motorbike at six every morning to turn on the ovens, and wouldn’t be home again until after six each evening.

Johnny still had time to volunteer with the recently established Credit Union in the town. As one of the first Directors, Johnny would bring a young Mickey along to the town’s Literary Institute every Saturday afternoon where the Credit Union would be set up and people called in with their savings or to pay off their loans.

“I can still remember sitting beside my daddy and an old heater and while all this was going on, you’d hear the noise coming from upstairs where they’d be playing basketball or football at the Youth Club,” Mickey said.

His father passed away at just 56 and Mickey himself became a Director at the Credit Union which by then had moved to new premises at St. Columba’s Terrace, just a few doors down from its current offices.

His mum Mona worked for many years as a cleaner in the Credit Union and when she retired from that role, Mickey’s wife Kathleen took over.

That meant Mickey had to step down as a Director but he continued on working in a voluntary role up until very recently.

“It’s a brilliant organisation,” Mickey adds.

“And as you can imagine, the Credit Union has always been very close to our hearts.”

Mickey and Kathleen (née McCauley from Dooballagh) first began going out when they met at a roller disco in the Fiesta Ballroom in the summer of 1980.

A couple of months later, Mickey would leave his job in UNIFI and take up employment with the PNT.

He recalls the company headquarters being based on the High Road and along with some of the others starting that day – among them Noel McLaughlin, Ronnie Moore and Dessie O’Donnell – Mickey would work out of the depot on the Back Road behind the Tin Tai premises.

Letterkenny man Mickey Dorrian on his last week at work, pictured on duty at the High Road in Letterkenny. Photos: Brian McDaid.

Within three years, a large number of staff received a healthy ‘disturbance’ payment when they were moved to a new premises at Gortlee (the premises that is currently being tumbled).

But Mickey missed out as he was sent to the depot behind the Post Office.

“We had a small retirement do last week and it was great to see some of the people who worked back in those days calling in – people like Malachy Price and Tony Gorman,” Mickey said.

“There were so many good people that worked there over the years, and I often think many of us had a great working relationship.

“I remember I was designated as the tea man. I’d take money off the boys for the tea and the milk. At 12.15pm everyday I’d go make the tea and get the stuff prepared and shout to the rest of them when the tea was ready.

“If it was raining, you’d sit in the back of the van and play cards until it stopped.”

In 1984, when PNT became Telecom Eireann, working conditions changed with better vans and proper safety equipment introduced for the staff.

Telecom would eventually become Eircom and then Eir, but throughout the many changes, Mickey kept busy and enjoying the day-to-day challenges of his job.

He laughs that he was asked this week how many poles he had climbed over the years. He’s afraid to even contemplate an answer.

“There are some things that have never changed,” he points out.

“If a customer is without their phone or service, you want to do your best to get it back up and running as soon as you can.

“If you are in business and your line is down, it can be a disaster. And at the same time, for an old person who might be living alone, their phone line is their only way to keep in touch with the outside world.”

He says he’ll dearly miss the interaction with members of the public and with his work colleagues as he prepares for retirement.

But he’s happy to say that himself and Kathleen are both in good health to enjoy whatever life brings their way.

They have two adult sons, Mark and Sean, and two grandchildren, Katie and Naoise.

Mickey’s hobbies generally revolve around his beloved Liverpool and his wonderful collection of vinyl records.

A lover of all things punk, Mickey would happily sit and talk music and football, and his knowledge and passion for both stretch beyond his favourite team and punk rock.

He recalls his father giving him some money after he completed his Leaving Cert and he headed off to Dublin where Advance Records was the only shop in Ireland that sold punk records.

Landing home with a punk jacket decked with zips and pins, the young Mickey didn’t receive the kind of reaction he’d hoped for from his father.

He hopes to get over to see Liverpool when he can – although match tickets are getting harder to access even though he’s actively involved in the Donegal Liverpool Supporters Club.
He’s a big Finn Harps fan too and rarely misses a home game at Finn Park.

And while he admits that he’s not the biggest GAA supporter, he offers a special mention for his neighbour Michael Murphy.

The Donegal footballer was half reared in the Dorrian home at Bomany and Mickey’s two sons in the Murphy home next door.

“What can you say about Michael,” Mickey adds.

“He’s a gentleman and a great neighbour and friend. I remember having him on an Oldtown schoolboys team that I used to manage when he was just a wee boy. Even back then you knew he was something special.”

And as our conversation goes on, the chat returns to a young Mickey Dorrian playing football as a young boy himself – on the old all-weather pitch at Loreto Convent when a horde of boys from Iona would take on a gather up of boys from the Back Road, Ballymacool and Oldtown.

“They were brilliant days,” Mickey adds.

“When you think of the craic we had. Life seemed easy then. And all of a sudden, you just look and think ‘where has the time gone?’