Radio star Duffy talks about Athlone family ties
He's been somewhat of a lifeline for the masses, providing a platform for the ordinary people of the country to voice their fears, frustrations and deepest worries on his RTÉ Radio One Liveline show, and this week broadcaster Joe Duffy will be in Athlone to meet people personally at a signing event for his autobiography 'Just Joe'.
And the popular radio show host is quick to point out that people don't have to bring along a book to the signing, but can just pop into Eason's at Athlone Towncentre to say hello.
Speaking to the Westmeath Independent this week, Joe said he was keen to visit Athlone as part of his book tour due to his family ties to the area, with his great-grandmother Lizzie Dowling coming from the centre of town and his great-grandfather Joseph Ganley being a native of nearby Knockcroghery.
"I specifically asked for Athlone because my granny's family came from Athlone," he said.
Lizzie Dowling and Joseph Ganley married in 1897, with Joseph, a member of the Connaught Rangers, being promptly dispatched to India, leaving Lizzie behind in Athlone where she gave birth to their first son.
In 1901 after Joseph was promoted to the rank of sergeant he was allowed to have his family with him and Lizzie and their son left Athlone for Ahmednagar in India, where Joe's grandmother Grace was born in 1904.
A number of other children were also born in India. One of Grace's siblings, Arnold, died while the family was in India and was buried there.
In 1909 the family returned to Ireland, to Boyle, where Joseph Ganley was stationed at the time.
However, tragedy struck again with Lizzie dying in Boyle at the age of 29. Joe has spent sometime trying to locate her grave in the cemetery in Boyle but so far has been unable to do so.
In 1910 Joseph Ganley remarried - to a woman named Gertrude Byrne from Sligo, who was about 18 or 19 at the time.
This much of his family history Joe found out when he participated in the TV programme 'Who do you think you are?', but since then he has learned more about his family's past thanks to the help of Athlone relative Seán Dowling.
He told the Westmeath Independent this week that Seán was able to tell him that following Lizzie's death the family disintegrated somewhat and his grandmother, Grace Ganley, and her brother were put into St Joseph's Orphanage in Athlone, a fact that his grandmother never revealed to her family.
He said his family had always known that his grandmother had a traumatic experience following her mother's death but they had not known that she had been in an orphanage.
"I don't think she got on with her new step-mother, who by the way would only have been 18 or 19 and Nana would have been eight or nine," he said.
Some years later Joseph Ganley took a job as gatekeeper at Kings Inns in Dublin and his daughter Grace, Joe's granny, moved to Dublin with him.
Joe told the Westmeath Independent this week that it was important for him to come to Athlone on his book tour because Athlone was very much a part of his family's history.
Speaking about the book itself, he said he always loved writing and had started to write the book before mentioning it on the show one day and then being approached by a publisher.
Transworld Ireland, which publishes the book, says Joe "paints a poignant, heart-breaking picture of family life with a hard-drinking father and hard-working mother.
Joe writes with candour about the death of his youngest brother Aidan and about his often difficult relationship with another brother, Brendan."
And while Liveline listeners talk to Joe about their own situations, Joe said this week that he rarely, if ever, talks about anything personal on the show, but said there were a couple of things he wanted to clear up in the book.
He said people who read the book will get a better understanding of him and understand what it is that propels him.
He pointed out that he came in for some criticism for pushing the 'headshop' issue so much on Liveline.
However, readers of the book will get a better understanding of what it was that pushed him on in this quest as Joe writes candidly about his relationship with his brother Brendan and Brendan's difficulties with drink and drugs.
Speaking about the 'headshop' issue he said that people had initially thought that there was one in their own town, but hadn't realised they were in every town in the country, but as more and more listeners came on to talk about it, it became clear that they were everywhere, with one listener coming on the show in January 2010 saying the headshop nearest her had been open 24/7 all over Christmas.
"For the next three months we heard the horror stories," he said, saying that the best thing Brian Cowen and his Government did was shut down headshops.
"On May 9, 2010, at 2pm they shut down every single headshop in the country and by 5pm that day they were all closed," he said. "Brian Cowen doesn't get enough credit for it."
Other issues of note on the show for Joe are Susie Long's letter and what he describes as her contribution to the health service and the numerous pyramid schemes where people were buying apartments that didn't exist and John Daly ringing from prison, exposing the fact that mobile phones were being smuggled into prisons.
Every afternoon Joe provides a listening ear for people across the country and now his autobiography 'Just Joe' allows listeners to get a glimpse of the 'real Joe'.
Joe Duffy will be in Eason's in Athlone Towncentre signing copies of his book, Just Joe, at 5pm on Friday, October 28.
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