The Boy who Kicked the Nun – Introducing Michael O’Callaghan’s First Book

Many of the Love Gorey followers will be familiar with the contributions of Michael O’Callaghan to Love Gorey over the years. He has provided our page with valuable insights into life here in North Wexford, highlighting numerous attractions, walks, and businesses. Michael has embarked on a new endeavour—a personal narrative chronicling his journey from his childhood in Tralee to his tenure as a teacher, all the way to retirement and his enjoyment of life here in North Wexford!

Many of the Love Gorey followers will be familiar with the contributions of Michael O’Callaghan to Love Gorey over the years. He has provided our page with valuable insights into life here in North Wexford, highlighting numerous attractions, walks, and businesses. Michael has embarked on a new endeavour—a personal narrative chronicling his journey from his childhood in Tralee to his tenure as a teacher, all the way to retirement and his enjoyment of life here in North Wexford! The book is dedicated to his wife Margaret, and their family Ciara, Orla, Paul, Kealan and Hugh and his sister Eileen.

His lively humour and zest for life shine through in every one of his articles. Even in conversation, Michael’s attention to the smallest details is palpable, revealing how integral they are to his life. Interestingly, the title of his book shifted from the conventional “Life & Times of…” to the attention-grabbing “The Boy who Kicked the Nun” after a casual chat with his grandchild in his kitchen one day. And just like that, the title was settled!

The book provides a fascinating glimpse into Michael’s life, weaving in his family’s heritage and history from the civil war, his education, to marriage and raising a family to retirement. It also offers an entertaining narrative, delving into the intricacies of day-to-day life and providing amusing observations on modern culture, from the quirks of doggie jackets, to walks in Courtown and Ballymoney, climbing Croghan and visiting many of the tourism attractions here in North Wexford from Ferns Village to Altamont Gardens and with insights into people and places!

The pre-release reviews for Michael’s book are a testament to his words

“This is an important and significant memoir story and it will stand the test of time” Anne Ireton – Poet & Author
“Reading the boy who kicked the nun” is an exercise in mindfulness” Carmel McGee, Secretary of Retired Teachers Association.

On behalf of the readers and supporters of Love Gorey, we extend our heartfelt appreciation to Michael for his contributions to our “Live Life Local” campaign, particularly for his dedicated focus on North Wexford over the years. We wish him the utmost success with the publication of what we anticipate will be the first of numerous books to come!

Preface

When I retired from my involvement in education, I promised myself I would keep a diary, as I did during my working life in Arklow, and then write a retrospective account of my life. I retired in 2009 and ever even bought a diary but I still clung to the idea of writing down some important events in my life and putting them together in some format for my own and family records.

It took the confinement of COVID-19 and the encouragement of my wife Margaret to get me kick-started with writing a few lines about my life and times and this is the result. My friend Catherine O’Shaughnessy presented me with a large blank writing pad which was the prompt that eventually started me filling pages. I remembered my early life in Tralee and the richness of the experiences I had at home and in my grandparent’s house during my informative years. I recall my education in Tralee and Dublin and all the peripheral events around them.

My life in Arklow was full of activity and fun with involvement in Junior Chamber Arklow, Parish Choir, Arkloe Twinning Association, Cycling Training, The Kerry Association, The St Vincent de Paul Society, Arklow Parish Drama Group, Arklow Music Festival, GAA and Arklow Boxing Club. In addition to a busy teaching life in Arklow town for 19 years, followed by being the principal of a rapidly expanding St Joseph’s N.S. Templerainey in Arklow. I give you a flavour of the work involved with a handful of those organisations in the pages that follow.

In retirement, I got involved with the active schools movement, which entailed travelling to, planning, and interacting with many 10 primary schools. There was great satisfaction in being a member of a working group that achieved so much during my seven year term with this great group of people starting from scratch to seeing the programme in action nationwide. The active schools movement is now a firmly established part of school life, and it is satisfying to see so many schools proudly displaying their active school flags on flagpoles outside their schools. When I retired from the active schools on my seventieth birthday, the I became more involved with the county Wicklow retired teachers association first as a member, then chairperson and finally secretary. This involved lots of correspondence, meetings, active walking groups, talks and some fantastic social interactions.

We were also introduced to Zoom meetings and doing much of our communications online. This was a very sharp challenging learning curve for all of us during the Covid-19 restrictions, but we survived and emerged from it a much better, stronger, and more cohesive organisation. Later, I joined the North Wexford Historical Society. They host monthly lectures, walks, and tours and I am learning a lot about the area I live in. I am a member of both Hollyfort and Wordsmiths writers groups. I have written occasional pieces for Love Gorey dealing with walks and places of interest around the greater Gorey and Courtown areas. The pandemic changed all our lives, and it prompted me to write several essays for retired teachers and others, and a selection of those essays is included in this book. I love gardening and spending any spare time I have during fine weather tending my flowers, shrubs, and pot plants.

I have always found this activity to be rewarding, relaxing, and beneficial to mental and physical well-being. I know that physical exercise is necessary, but it is equally important to keep mentally fit and I do plenty of reading, crosswords, writing, and general study on an ongoing basis. I am always researching some subject or planning my next writing piece or poem. I minimise TV viewing and listening to too much news, preferring to listen to lyric FM for relaxation. I try as far as possible to avoid the sedentary lifestyle.

Michael launches his book “ The Boy who kicked the Nun” in the Ashdown Park Hotel on Thursday 16th May at 7.30pm. Signed copies of the book will be available to be purchased at the launch and in Red Books Gorey and Wexford priced 20euros from May 16th