‘A cake for every occasion’: Tommy and Mary celebrate 60 years of marriage
Tommy and Mary celebrating their 60th
SIXTY years after they said ‘I do,’ Tommy and Mary Lawlor of Bagenalstown marked their diamond wedding anniversary surrounded by family at the Sacred Heart nursing home on Sunday 31 May.
The couple, who married in 1966, were joined by their extended family for the celebration. “It was a family party â children, grandchildren and their partners and my mother’s brother, sister and one of her cousins,” said their daughter Martina Slye.
Mary was born in Leighlinbridge, where she also went to school. After her schooldays, she worked in the convent in Leighlinbridge before taking up work as a childminder near the garda barracks in Bagenalstown and, a few years later, on Browne’s farm. She was a homemaker for most of her life.
“She was always a very quiet, very determined, very fair woman,” said Martina, who described her mother – despite being quite ill earlier this year – as someone who never complains: “a lovely lady, a proper lady and still is to this day.”
“We’ve been lucky to have a fabulous time in the last few weeks where she’s been well enough to talk about all these things.”
Tommy went to school at de la Salle in Bagenalstown until, as he says himself, he ‘‘escaped at the age of thirteen-and-a-half”. The pair met at Ban Óg in Leighlinbridge at the Mogadors show and dated for a while before tying the knot.
Tommy worked at Eagle Light in Carlow town from 1962 to 1974 and recalls having to paint all the factory walls an ‘off-white’ colour after a change in industrial legislation required light-coloured walls for safety reasons – his arms were ‘killing him for weeks.’ In 1974, Tommy joined Bagenalstown Fire Brigade, where chief fire officer captain John Creed took a liking to him and helped him secure a full-time job as a machine operator with Tanco in Bagenalstown. He later worked with FEI, a US company based in the town.
After retiring from the fire brigade in 2000, Tommy donned a dapper uniform and black top hat as doorman at the Lyrath Hotel in Kilkenny for 15 years, where he became a great personality – photo albums are filled with pictures of him alongside international visitors from all over the world.
“When he was retiring from the Lyrath, he got messages from all over the world,” said Martina. “He loves meeting people and chatting to people. He was very good at that job and he really loved it.” Tommy and Mary are parents to three children â Martina, Deirdre and Thomas. Martina and Deirdre live close by, while Thomas resides in the UK, but comes back regularly to visit his parents. They are also proud grandparents to Jason, Yvonne and Daniel and the family includes son-in-law Luke and daughter-in-law Maria.
So, what is the secret to 60 happy years of marriage?
“They are very united,” said Martina. “And I think being able to enjoy your life and have fun and have fun days out, you know, with family, I think that’s very important. I think that’s really what keeps people going at the end of the day, isn’t it? Enjoy things. We always had a party for everything and a cake for every occasion.” After all these years together, the love between the two remains plain for all to see.
