Garrycastle's own retailer

With over 50 years involvement in a family shop and as a driving force in the local GAA scene, Seamus (affectionately known by everyone as Seamie) Nugent is one of Athlone's most recognisable figures. Seamie was a child in the late 1940s, when his parents, Mick and Annie opened a shop in the then very rural estate of Garrycastle. Seamie's father's family originated from Mount Temple, and Mick and his brothers Frank, Larry, Paddy and Jimmy were all on the Caulry gaelic team in the 20s and 30s. Mick originally worked as a driver with Broderick's Bakery in Connaught Street Seamie's mother, Annie was a member of the Melinn family from St Columbas Terrace, and her brothers Jimmy and Johnny Melinn were soccer players with Athlone town in the 1920s and 1930s. Seamie appears to be the first child born in the Garrycastle houses. He was born on May 29th, 1935, which was the month the fourteen houses in the estate were opened. Seamie was one of seven children, and he has three brothers, Danny, Sean, and Paddy Joe (who lives in London), and three sisters, Maureen (who lives in Australia), Nancy, who runs the Ballinahowen Post Office, and Pauline (who lives in London). "I didn't move too far, and I stayed in Garrycastle all of my life," laughed Seamie. "I was going to national school when my mother started the shop in the front room of our house, in around 1947." Nugent's first shop in Garrycastle sold the bare essentials of sugar, tea and bread, and didn't need to sell milk, because Seamie remembers it being delivered in the 50s and 60s by Molly Conway who lived in Blackberry Lane. "Molly was a lovely person, and she used to come around on a bicycle, with a churn of milk, and people used to leave their jugs on the window sill, and Molly would fill them with milk," he said. "All the gardens in Garrycastle were tilled, so there was no need for the shop to sell vegetables. But we did sell paraffin oil, because everyone had a lamp, because there was no rural electrification until the late 50'." Seamie went to the two-teacher Cornamaddy National School in the 1940s, and was taught by Mrs. Gaffey, and Mr. Cooper. Garrycastle homes also had no running water for many years after they were built, and people had to collect water from nearby pumps. "There was nearly always two empty buckets waiting for you, when you came home from school," laughed Seamie. "There was a pump at Cartrontroy, one on the Dublin Road, one at Moydrum gate, and one at Cornamaddy school." Most houses at that time had a pipe flowing down into a barrel to collect water, but in summer, Seamie said many people went with an ass and cart to the Al River to collect water. Seamie's father, Mick had two fields near the Garrycastle bridge, on both sides of the road, and it was land that he bought from Jimmy Hoey of the Royal Hoey Hotel in Athlone. "My father used to sow potatoes there, and he was a great gardener, and even sowed corn and he was also great working in the bog," said Seamie. "Most houses kept a pig in the gardens of Garrycastle. The Farrell family owned the big field where the FAS building is now." The Nugent family ran their shop in their home in Garrycastle up to the 1960s, and Seamie got married in 1966, and built a house at the spot where the current shop is now. "We first worked out of a room in our new house, and then in the late 60s we built on a flat roof extension, then slowly built up the shop," said Seamie. Seamie had taken time away from the shop for almost seven years, when he worked as a driver, with the Athlone Mineral Waters Company on Abbey Road. However his work there suffered a setback in 1959, when he was in a serious lorry crash, which shattered his kneecap, which put him on crutches. He then fully took over the family business. By this time, Seamie had a serious football career going on, but he returned to the game after 18-months recuperation. Seamie was on the minor hurling and football teams with Westmeath in 1953, and in 1955, he was on the Westmeath football junior team. He went onto the Westmeath senior football team, and remained there until his accident in 1959. In 1958, he was selected to be on the North Leinster GAA senior football team, where he played right-half forward. Seamie was with Athlone GAA when they won the minor hurling final in 1953, and in 1954, he was on the winning junior football team. He played in the first four winning Athlone GAA senior football county final teams from 1955 to 1958, and captained in 1958 and up to the final of 1959, he also captained. He was replaced by team-mate Michael Scanlon in the captaincy of Athlone that year. Following the accident, he was on the winning Athlone GAA junior hurling team of 1963, and was on the winning 1965 senior championship football team. In 1970, Seamie was a sub on the winning Athlone senior football team. He always played in goal in hurling, and in football, he played centre-field mostly. Seamie also played soccer in his early years, and he played on the Athlone minor soccer team in 1953. Seamie married Bridie Dolan from Curraghaleen, Bealnamulla, in 1966, and the couple have seven children, Audrey, Enda, Fergal, Denise, Brenda, and twins Michael and Dermot. "There was no big population in Garrycastle when we started the shop at the bridge, and there was only Garrycastle and Altown and there was no FAS, and the factories weren't built, and there weren't many houses on the other side of the bridge," he said. "But in the mid-70s it all began to happen, and the Anco building (later known as FAS) was built, and then came the factories, and then Hillcourt, Cypress Garden, and much later Woodville, and the population exploded." The third generation of the Nugent family is now running the popular convenience store in Garrycastle, with Seamie's daughter, Denise, and her husband Joe Donegan, having bought the shop from Seamie and Bridie in 2001. Both of Seamie's parents, Mick and Annie died in 1981, which was the year of the foundation of Garrycastle GAA. Seamie is a founder member, and trustee of Garrycastle GAA. All of Seamie's children, and his wife, Bridie were involved in sport, and most played with their local club. "It was felt that Athlone GAA was expanding a lot, and a lot of young lads were losing out on games, and there was definitely room for two clubs, and now we have two senior clubs in St. Mary's Parish," said Seamie. "I was treasurer for the first three years, which was easy, because there was very little funds then. We started from scratch, and have every facility there now, including our great club house which was opened in 1995." Seamie cities the late Dan Hogan from Altown as paramount to the foundation of Garrycastle GAA, and said that Dan was a man of great wisdom, and very knowledgeable about rules and regulations. "We've a great history of having good players out in Altown and Garrycastle, and into Moydrum," he said. "In the beginning our first dressing room was a bus, and the second was a prefab from the P and T. We had our first meetings in our own houses, and the shop was a focal point, because I had a lot of contacts with people who helped sponsor us. The factories were also good to us, and eventually we used the canteen in Anco for meetings. We also used Cornamaddy National School, and if that wasn't available, we met in The Dog and Duck pub." Seamie remembers when the club bought land off the county council at the top of Garrycastle, but he remembers the land having to be raised, because there were many water springs on the ground. "It was originally too bad to play a match on, though we did a bit of training on it, and we used other places, but we developed it, and raised it, and that's why the Garrycastle pitch is so high today, because the only way to counteract the springs was to build over them," said Seamie. Obviously Seamie is proud of Garrycastle's achievement in winning four senior championships over the past 10 years, including 2009, and of having won the junior championship, against Castletown-Finea in 1982, which was just one year after the club's formation. "It's getting harder now to get volunteers for clubs, which is a terrible pity, but I suppose people don't have much time now, and it's all a different way of life these days," he said.