Mauny Kearney: Matriarch of musical family dies at 103

ONE of Omagh’s longest living residents slipped away at the end of last week after charming the world with her presence for over 103 years.

Mauny Kearney, who lived at the top of Gortmore Park for decades-upon-decades, was the matriarch of a family renowned for their music.

Sought after for her talent as a seamstresses and dressmaker, Mauny was the wife of prodigious fiddle-player, Felix Kearney – the son of the famous Drumquin poet from who he inherited his name.

Together they had five children: Phyllis, Brendan, Desmond, Conal and Marie. But, such was Mauney’s profound longevity, she outlasted three of them, with only Brendan and Marie living to see their mother’s final day.

We spoke with a heartbroken Marie earlier this week to find out about her mother’s life.

“The story goes that Mummy and Daddy met at a dance in Clanabogan – one that he was playing at,” began Marie

“Some time passed, and they got married in July of 1939. Dad was 24, and Mummy was 20.”

The two young lovers were of the same townland, both coming from families in Clanabogan. The day of their marriage, they made the trip into Omagh to the Sacred Heart Church, but it would be many years before they would come to live in the town.

“After their vows were taken, they got a house out in a place called ‘The Loop’ – it was out by Cavanacaw/Clanabogan,” said Marie.

The years in ‘The Loop’ brought Phyllis, Brendan, Desmond and Conal.

“Daddy worked as a blacksmith to earn a living,” said Marie. “First for Dan McGinn in a forge in Blacksessiagh, then under John McKinley in a forge in Botera, then, eventually, he got his own forge in Cavanacaw.

“He witnessed that world transform as horses were replaced by tractors.”

And just as Felix had his trade, so, too, Maudy had hers.

“She was a dressmaker, and a talented one at that,” said Marie, “And she wouldn’t have minded telling you!”

Laughing, Marie did an impression of her mother, saying, “’I don’t care how much I was paid, I wouldn’t lower myself to making a pair of curtains’.”

Her first dresses were made at home, but later Mauny would practice her skills in esteemed establishments, working for up-market makers such Digby and WJ Johnstons.

But, while she certainly had a flair for dressmaking, the centre of her life was her home. Marie said that her mother ‘sacrificed everything for her family’.

“She epitomised what a good mother and wife should be, but she sacrificed a lot for it,” said Marie.

“I would tell her about the holiday I had planned to Spain or somewhere, and she would say, ‘I’ve never been further than Fred Todd’s Crossroads’ – an unremarkable local landmark only a mile from her house.”

But, while Marie appreciates the point Mauny meant to make, she fondly recalls weeks away to Bundoran, Galway, Clare and Kerry – the last of which she enjoyed with her late daughter, Phyllis and her husband, Porie.

“Dad would head to a fleadh away down in Listowel, and me and Mummy would go to Bundoran for the week. Nothing exciting; daily mass, walks round Rougey, an hour in the slot machines… But we loved it.”

Thinking about the long life of her mother, Marie said the following: “Our Brendan remembers walking back from the bog with Mummy as a small boy, hand-in-hand, her carrying a bag of turf. It’s a long time ago, yes.

“But, it’s funny, the longer you have them, the more you think they’ll be here forever.”