Dan Treahy

[crampscastle]

Happy new year to fellow site menmbers,
I've just been talking to my Father about a gentleman by the Name of Dan Treahy who was well known in the Fethard area,his experiences during times with the British army were such that it affected his personality-drastically.
Dad has faint memories of the man physically,Is there a photo of Dan that can jog Dads memory a bit?
Many thanks,    Crampscastle  

[Joe Kenny]

The photograph of Dan Trehy came to Fethard, believe it or not, from Perth, Australia.  The daughter of one of the boys in the photograph, Michael Fogarty, gave it to her cousin, Vincent Murphy, when he paid a visit to Perth.

Dan Trehy, a native of the Green, served in the British Army and saw more than enough of active service during the 1914-19`8 war.  His experiences left him, like many of his comrades, badly shell-shocked.  This explains his reason for adopting what the hippies and rainbow people now call “an alternative life style.”

Dan just did not conform.  He drew his pension each week and drank it.  He slept rough, that was his way.  With his full-length beard and St. Patrick-like staff he was quite an imposing, if somewhat, unusual figure.  Also, he always wore a grain sack across his shoulders fastened in front with a six inch nail.  He possessed a fine singing voice and when in singing form he sat on one of the large square stones at “Bob Byrne’s corner” on the Green, and gave full voice to the Rose of Tralee which was one of his favourites.

Dan Trehy, for all his eccentricities, was a decent man.  He had many houses in the parish where he was always welcome to a cup of tea and a seat by the fire.  He took ill one night on the Green around fifty years ago.  The local people made him as comfortable as possible in a ruined house where the telephone kiosk on the Green now stands.  The following morning he was dead.

By an extraordinary coincidence, shortly after the photograph reached Fethard. Tom Trehy, a grandson of Dan Trehy’s brother Tom, who had emigrated to Australia around 1900, arrived in Fethard to trace the Trehy family tree.  He was amazed to find a photograph of Dan in circulation.

Before he left Fethard he said, “From what I have heard from so many, I reckon Dan Trehy was Fethard’s best remembered man of the 20th Century.”  For this to be said about a man who had lived rough and died penniless, must have a message somewhere because he was probably right.

[crampscastle]

Joe,
Well what can I say?My Fathers reaction to the Picture of Dan(a man who he has not seen since his school days,some 65-70 years)was one of "OH GOOD GOD, POOR OLD DAN", I'm sure I seen the glint of a tear in his eyes.
Dan frequented my Grandfather's house on several occasions,both Granfather and Dan had served in the Royal artillery so they had many a story to tell and battle to win over a cup of tea and a warm by the fire.
Dad recount's Dan's striking appearance,("like John the baptist")and tells of his school days when the younger Children,if naughty would be threatened with a visit from Dan!yet by all acounts he was a sweet man.
Many,many thanks for this picture Joe,Dad was delighted to see it.
Regards  CRAMPSCASTLE.