November is, traditionally, the month when we pray for our relatives and friends who have passed away. The Past Pupils Union has, for many years, arranged for Mass to be celebrated for past pupils who died during the year. For many years, the Mass was said in the Monastery in Westland Row but, when the building was sold and the remaining Brothers moved out, the Administrator of St. Andrews agreed to include our deceased past pupils names in the St. Andrew’s Day Mass, which is usually celebrated by the Archbishop on the Sunday closest to St. Andrew’s feast day, which is the 30th of November annually. This year, 2021, the Mass will be celebrated by the newly appointed Archbishop of Dublin, Most Reverend Dermot Farrell, on Sunday November 28th at 11.30am. We are hoping that our chaplain, Fr. Eugene McCarthy will be able to be a co-celebrant.
There are 6 names, so far, on our list of deceased past pupils this year, Tom Butler, Ken Beaton, Shay Healy, Gerry Mackey, Jim Bradley and Tony Rowe. May they all rest in peace.
Four of the above were former Row Men of the Year, Ken Beaton in 1989, Shay Healy in 1983, Gerry Mackey in 1988 and Jim Bradley in 2005. This is an unprecedented number of “the old guard” to pass on in one year and, by way of tribute to them, it is worth looking at a brief biography of the six as follows –
Ken Beaton
Ken entered stockbroking with the firm of Butler Briscoe when he left school in the 1950s. Having risen to the top of his profession, Ken spent most of his career arranging the allocation of Government stocks from the Dept. of Finance through to their ultimate buyers – the financial institutions.
Ken was a key player in the market when gilts boomed in the in the 1980s. He was at the helm when Black Monday hit the markets in 1987 and stocks crashed. Ken and Butler Briscoe survived. Today his old firm still thrives under the name Dolmen Securities.
Ken (second from left) in 1997 when he received the the PV Doyle trophy
Shay Healy
Shay (or Ogie as he was known) graduated from The ROW in 1961 and embarked on an outstanding career in the World of music and entertainment. A special News Blog tribute to Shay was published on April 20th 2021.
Gerry Mackey
Gerry was an outstanding Soccer player. H commenced his career with Johnville and captained the Irish Schoolboys and Youth International teams before joining Shamrock Rovers in 1951. Gerry won every honour in the game as well as captaining the League of Ireland and Irish International teams. Gerry had a very successful career in business with Irish Shell and BP.
Gerry in action for Shamrock Rovers
Jim, who started his education with the Brothers in Wexford, before moving to the ROW, had an outstanding career in business with Rowntree Ltd, Cadbury Ireland and C&C. Jim became President of the Beverage Council of Ireland and was also elected to the Board of Governors of the Marino Institute. He also held a number of non-executive directorships.
He was very active in past pupil affairs. He was Chairman of the committee which organised the commemorative concert at Dublin’s Convention Centre to mark the 250th anniversary of the birthday of Blessed Edmond Ignatius Rice in 2012.
Jim chatting with President, Jerry Carroll at the 2019 Annual Dinner
Tony died recently at his home in England. He was born in 1944 and lived in Markievicz House. He left the ROW after Inter Cert and joined the British Army. He was posted to the Royal Army Signals Corp due to his “high level of education” and served in Aden and Germany where he became proficient in the language. Tony later suffered from Alcohol addiction but, following counselling he turned his life around and later became a counsellor himself. This brought him all over the UK where he spoke at seminars and was credited with helping a huge number of people to turn their lives around.
Tom Butler
Tom graduated from the ROW in the late fifties. He was a great supporter of the ROW Golf Society outings and won regularly over the years. Unfortunately, at the time of going to press, I have been unable to get details of Tom’s career. Jerry Carroll says that he has memories of Tom when they both served as altar boys in St. Andrews. The priests treated the boys to an annual outing to Red Island holiday camp in Skerries and Jerry recalls one year when Tom entertained all present with songs from the stage.
If anyone has memories of Tom or, indeed, any of deceased past pupils, why not leave a comment using the facility available on this blog.
St. Andrew’s Church Westland Row
Venue for Mass Sunday Nov. 28th 11.30am Also available on line at https//churchmedia.tv/camera/st-andrews-parish-church
This News Blog has been compiled and posted by Jim Conway who can be contacted on [email protected].
