Almost four decades behind the church organ

Hazel Dewar played the piano organ at St Mary"s Church of Ireland for almost four decades, and has many fond happy and some sad memories of life in her adopted town of Athlone. Coming from a large Presbyterian community in Clontarf, Hazel remembers her local church, through her childhood, as being always packed on Sundays. 'If you didn"t get in on time for service, you wouldn"t get a seat,' she said. In those days, she was known as Hazel Sibbald. She was born 80 years ago as the only daughter of John Sibbald and his wife Louisa. Her father worked in Islandbridge as a clerk for the western railway company, and later was secretary at J and R Thompson builders in Fairview. Hazel grew up in the 1930"s and lived in Fairview, and learned to swim in the sea in Dollymount Strand. Hazel cheerfully said that hers was a typical Protestant family of one girl and one boy - her brother, Leslie, who still lives in the family home. 'We had no car when I was a child growing up, but that was because my father wouldn"t do without his holiday,' she said laughing. 'For nine years in succession, we used to go to the same room in the same hotel on the Isle of Man.' The Sibbald family were very musical, and Hazel"s mother encouraged her to learn the piano, which began a lifelong passion of hers at home in Dublin, and later in her adopted town of Athlone. Hazel"s mother played the violin and Hazel"s uncle, Robert Irwin, who was a professor of music in Canada, was a singing protégé of Athlone world-renowned tenor, John "Count" McCormack. Hazel did all her exams through the Royal Irish Academy, and she studied and passed all eight grades of piano. She was also a gymnast in her school, and was a great athlete who took part in many different types of dancing like ballet, tap, and Russian dancing, which she particularly loved. When she left her local Presbyterian school, she went to St. Margaret"s Hall school on Mespill Road, and then she went worked at shorthand and typing in a paper manufacturing company, Armstrongs, in Amien Street, Dublin. She later met Victor Dewar, who was a very talented musician and organist, and who came from Sandymount, Dublin. Victor was an organist in the Presbyterian church in Clontarf, and after he and Hazel married he became an organist in the Church of Ireland in Ballinasloe and Athlone. 'Victor was a great musician and wherever there was a good organ, he would play, and later on he used to go up at weekends to play at St. George"s Church in Dublin,' said Hazel. Victor worked for Cadbury"s in Dublin, and following his marriage to Hazel, the couple moved to Athlone where he ran the Cadbury"s Depot on Clonown Road. The couple first lived in Baylough in 1953, and later in Arcadia, before they returned for a short period to live in Dublin. By the time they moved back to Athlone in 1969, Hazel and Victor had two teenagers, Heather (who is now known in Athlone as Heather Lowe, who worked for many years in McGorisks Pharmacy in Church Street) and Neil, who is now a plastics engineer with Mold-Masters, in Georgetown, Ontario, Canada. Heather went to study at Our Lady"s Bower and Neil was a Marist College pupil, and the family got involved in the local Athlone Church of Ireland community, at a time when Rev. Langton May was the rector in the area. When Victor retired, the Dewar family moved to a house at the intersection of the Coosan Point Road and Arcadia, and one interesting feature of their garden in the 1970"s was a distinct tree-house high in a tree facing the main road. 'That tree house was built by my son Neil, who had it carpeted and provided with electricity thanks to having a lead coming from the main house and into the tree-house,' said Hazel. She laughed while talking about the era of the tree-house at the end of the garden, recalling that Neil used to cook a fry-up in the tree, and the family always knew if he was there, if the dog was sitting at the bottom of the tree. Tragically Hazel became a widow when Victor died suddenly at the young age of 52 years, and she built another home for herself, close to where she lived in Arcadia. Hazel was invited by the now deceased Sr Paula to teach piano to secondary school pupils in Our Lady"s Bower Convent and she built up a great friendship with the popular choirmistress and remained at the school for almost ten years. 'Sr Paula became my friend, and I got a little mini car to go up and down to work at the Bower,' said Hazel. When she first came from Dublin to live in Baylough, Athlone, she was surprised to find that there was no bottled milk to be bought. She set about the task of finding a farmer to sell milk to the family, and she found Mrs Sherlock in Baylough. When the Dewars moved to Arcadia, it was at a time when most of the surrounding countryside was full of fields and hedges. 'Victor was a great swimmer, and he used to swim across Coosan Point, and we often went for picnics there, but I don"t remember many people out there then, and not many people swam much then,' she said. The Dewar house was full of music, and Victor and Hazel had four pianos in the house at one time. They had a piano in the kitchen, two in the dining room, and one in the sitting room. While Victor played the organ in St Mary"s Church of Ireland, Hazel was a soprano in the choir. When Victor realised his lifelong ambition to play the organ in St George"s Church in Dublin, Hazel took over playing the organ at St Mary"s Church of Ireland, Athlone. She had been a member of a choral group in Clontarf in her younger days and remained almost 37 years playing the church organ in Athlone. 'Athlone has come on a long way from the time we moved here, and I now have grandchildren and great-grandchildren living and making their home in the town,' said Hazel.