By Paddy Walsh
GERRY McElroy’s first memory of St. Eunan’s College wasn’t quite associated with the building itself but with the obligatory entrance examination at the Brothers School.
The results of that exam were posted up – for some reason – on the notice board in the Literary Institute, he recalls.
“One of the first people I met outside of the townies was Tom Boylan.” And enjoying a cup of tea along with a handful of Bourbon cream biscuits with his fellow exam student.
The crunch came when he prepared to step inside the hallowed halls and courtyard of the college. Not quite everybody’s cup of tea.
“Day one was daunting. The stories of the dunking were part of urban legend.
“I was shaking in my pants and I remember my dad saying to me before it that if anything happened to me, he’d sort them out!.
“The dunking terrified me. We knew we would get a bit of our hair cut and have to sing a song or tell a joke. I told some sort of old corny one.”
And was immersed in the container of water to the chant of his new nickname: ‘Spike’ – one that has stuck with him to this day.
“I suppose it was the rite of passage and was relatively harmless. But the dunking eventually died out and I don’t think we did it when we reached fifth year.”
Gerry remembers meeting Joe Cullen on that first day and him wearing a Lee Cooper jacket. “Some people thought it was his name!.”
Though somewhat adverse to the idea of dividing classes into a, b, and c, Gerry did end up in the former. “I always thought it was a bit unfair that there were such divisions. It was a bit Dickensian”. Class distinction if you like.
“The only thing was I wasn’t a sportsman at all. I tried to avoid all that, including the football, primarily because I had such poor eyesight.”
Invariably, Gerry was ‘last pick” when it came to selecting teams though perhaps would have preferred not to have been picked at all!
He did, as he relates, become a late arrival into sport and during his time in Dublin where he has lived and worked for a long number of years – he is employed as Clinical Engineer with the Healthcare Management Team at the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board – he has participated in the city marathon and two half marathons in addition to regular 5k and 10k events. St. Eunan’s obviously overlooked a promising athlete back in the seventies!
On the academic side of things, Gerry savoured his time in the school. “I was relatively quiet and would attend the classes and do the studying.
“I never really stepped out of line though there were one or two incidents including when Jimmy Gleeson and myself missed the second bell and were sent home. My mum was mortified but dad just laughed at it!.”
The teacher who had the most influence on him at the time? ‘It had to be Derrick Maynard who taught English. He ignited my interest in reading and introduced us to books, one of which was ‘Jude the Obscure” by Thomas Hardy which I loved. Another great teacher to my mind was Patsy Duffy.”
Gerry also recalls the clerical personalities at the time including Fr Austin Lafferty, Fr Dinny McGettigan, Fr Leo Mohan and Fr. Dan Carr.
Inside the gates of St. Eunan’s College, Gerry was on a journey through his secondary education.
Outside them he was in Transit of a different type! “From second year on, I had another life outside Eunan’s playing with the McDaid brothers in the Transit Showband. Balancing that whole thing was great fun.”
It all came about when Martin McDaid popped over from his home in Oldtown to call to Gerry’s house on Lower Main Street asking if he had a guitar and an amp. When told he had, Martin asked him to come with him.
Cue, Gerry’s first stage performance with the band after another member of the group had pulled out of the scheduled gig.
“We played all over, gigging in venues like the Fleets Inn in Downings, the Moss Inn, Fintra House, and as far away as Sligo.”
And, of course, there was the Fiesta Ballroom! “We played relief to The Memories, The Indians, and Philomena Begley. I kept a scrapbook at the time and my favourite part of it is a poster that indicates that the Memories were supposedly supporting us!”
There was also the time they were due to play support to the Bray City Rollers – yes, you’ve read it right! – in the Golden Grill only for the manager of the BAY City Rollers to take out an injunction resulting in the Bray band being forced to pull out of the gig leaving Transit as the headline act on the night!
Transit never got around to performing at the St. Eunan’s College hops but there were plenty College bands who did. “There was The Jets who were excellent and also Hemlock who were brilliant”.
The latter group featured Brian O’Shea, the Macklin brothers, Colm and Padraig, and George Cullen on drums. And The Jets lined up as Jerome Keeney, Dermot Donohue, Malachy Keeney, Hugh Blake, and Peter Wilkie. As Gerry remembers, they metamorphosed into Rule the Roost and subsequently RAW who are still performing to this day.
Farmyard Stench, featuring Derek Murray who went on to perform with The Stunning, was another local outfit, who won the admiration of Gerry McElroy.
His own stint with Transit was, he maintains, a memorable one and a profitable one. “They started off as The Sundowners but then the McDaids, who were next door neighbours to other musical legends, the Ponsonbys, introduced Transit to an eager public.”
Other musical memories follow. Gerry and Martin McDaid were in Joe Deehan’s house just a month before the Miami Showband massacre when in walked Fran O’Toole. ‘We had a brief chat with him – it was hard to believe that a few weeks later, he and some of his fellow band members were wiped out.”
Happier memories were frequent visits to Fitzgerald’s Music Centre in the Market Square where the likes of Hugo Blake and Gerry’s brother, Marty – of Ego Minefield and Verbal Shark Stampede fame (two other outstanding acts from the era) – would be helping out. “It was a great place to buy records but also for the craic.” Added to significantly when the likes of Ted Ponsonby, a true musical legend, arrived on the scene!
Meanwhile, musicians such as Shaun Deehan – “a brilliant drummer” – and Fergus Cleary – “another great musician” also played with Transit during their time on the road. “Playing with the band gave me the confidence I still have today because we travelled a lot and got to know people.” A step forward for the relatively quiet young student who attended the school on the hill.
On the weekend of September 12-14, Gerry will be in transit to Letterkenny to take part in the class of 1970-75 Reunion – an event where the stories and recollections will abound.
For some it may be a trawl through the occasional memory they might rather forget but for Gerry McElroy and many others it will be a visit to happy times.
“I have nothing but fond memories of my time in St. Eunan’s,” reflects the Lower Main Street native.
“I made great friendships there which have lasted to the present day.”
He’s enjoying reading the scripts and texts from his former class colleagues on the Reunion WhatsApp group.
“They may be grey-haired and wrinkled but they’re still those wild 17 year old boys,” laughs Gerry.
It will be an occasion, too, to remember, he says, those they have lost over the years. ”We’ll certainly be thinking and reflecting on those fellows that have gone at an all too young age.”
