Nine decades of memories!

WHEN Paddy O’Roarke was just 13, his mother passed away. Before her death, she received one promise from her son: he was never going to drink alcohol.

It’s a pledge that he took on that day and now, 77 years later, it remains intact. He honoured his mother’s dying wish.

“I promised my mother when she was dying that I wouldn’t drink and I never did,” he says with nostalgia.

He has always been a man of his word and this, coupled with his positive attitude, has stood to him over the decades.

Paddy grew up at Clonaboy and later moved to Dungay, Ballymore. After he completed his primary education locally, he attended secondary school in Multyfarnham for three years. Then, he vividly recalls, “I came home. I was more interested in the horses!”

He and his younger brother Thomas helped out his father Thomas on the family farm where dry stock, cows and calves were the focus, but it was Paddy’s love of horses that was his real inspiration.

His love of horses blossomed after he left school and he has many pleasant memories of his time as a jockey. The first horse he is keen to mention is Mr Nelson, a famous horse that had just one eye. Paddy bought him off a bookmaker in Ballinasloe.

“I had him for around 10 years and I did all the work with him at home. He definitely won three, if he didn’t win four, races. After that I sold him to a Captain Flynn, he was in the British Army,” he says.

Attending race meetings was a regular occurrence over several decades, as a jockey, spectator and later as a steward, the latter a role he assumed in several courses including Bellewstown, Navan, Kilbeggan, Punchestown and Galway. He became a member of the Turf Club which he enjoyed for many years.

He recalls the early days of attending race meetings: “I’d often be the first to be collected at 7.30 or 8 o’clock in the morning. We went everywhere, Leopardstown, Baldoyle, Phoenix Park, FairyHouse, Punchestown and we might have gone an odd time to Clonmel and Thurles,” he said.

“I was in every course in the country, except Laytown. Ballinrobe would be the favourite,” he says.

He has great memories of attending Aintree for the Grand National with a group of locals in his area.

One memory from 1949 stands out. He had just collected his winnings of £67 when he got a nudge on the shoulder. “I was walking away from the Tote and this big man tapped me on the shoulder. He said, ‘You are being watched’. I went in to the toilet and put the money into the soles of my shoes. I left nothing in my wallet. Later I noticed that my coat had been slit at the back and they had taken my wallet. I never felt a thing,” he recalls. “But the wallet was empty, they never got a thing!”

Paddy enjoyed many successes over the years and recalls winning seven races “on the regular racecourses, two or three in Ballinrobe and also in Leopardstown and Naas”.

There were plenty of highs over the years and also some lows, including a few falls, one in particular that stands out. He rode his first winner in 1943 and the following year he fell at the first fence in a race at Kilkenny West and broke his collar bone. “There was no such thing as an ambulance,” he says. He attended hospital in Athlone and after 48 hours there he decided to go home!

“St Patrick’s Day was the next day and they were all celebrating. I got up and I left! I had a sling for three weeks.” In another race, he fell off a horse in Fairyhouse and was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin for a night. But he bounced back each time; he just loved being a jockey.

Paddy’s last win was in 1960 in Naas, on Prudent Barney – his favourite horse – and it’s a feat of which he is immensely proud.

“I sold him after that, for €3,000,” he says, adding, “he went on to win 13 races in England after that”. €3,000 was a huge price, considering, he says, “You’d buy a car for €600 or €700 back then.”

The sale was before his wedding to Patricia Bernadette (Bernie) Maxwell and the money came in handy!

“We got married in January 1961 and it was a great help,” he says.

He and Bernie had six children; Tom, Michael, Denis, James, Barney and Kitty. Michael was also interested in horses and won the local Point to Point in Kilkenny West at one stage, while Denis took over the family auctioneering business, O’Roarke Brothers.

The business was set up in 1956 by Paddy and his brother Thomas and it is currently based in Moate. He enjoyed 50 years in business before retiring and he is delighted to see that Denis has taken it over.

“I enjoyed it. You see changes every year. I remember selling land for less than £100 an acre,” he says.

Paddy was also well known as the auctioneer at the weekly sheep sales in Ballymahon over many years, a role Denis has since taken on.

Although Paddy had some health difficulties over the years, he recovered well and now, at the age of 90 he quips, “The only thing is I’m getting old!”

He walks more than a mile every day and has a great appetite. According to his family, Paddy has a great outlook on life, is very positive and just gets on with things.

And while he has several wonderful memories from over the years, one in particular stands out more than the others.

“The day I got married!” he says, with immense pride.

He met his wife Bernie, a nurse, at a dance at the county hall in Mullingar.
“There was a rugby hop in Mullingar and it was a half crown to get into it,” he recalls.

Bernie, he says, “did an awful lot of work and she had to mind my father as well for the last six to eight months of his life as he was confined to the bed”.