Mackey remembered as loyal and loving family man

Mackey’s daughter Laureen delivered the oration for her late father at his funeral mass in Newtown on Sunday.

“You may know Daddy from various aspects of his life.

“He was born into a large family of 15 in the Square in Borrisokane. He had many friends among his neighbours. His first job was with his brother Pakie in his forge and indeed he gained great skills there. Some of their work can be seen I n the Church in Borris at the back of the altar, the ironworks and also the church seats. But more importantly he was able to make me a proper swing years later.

“Next place of work was Roscrea in Antigen and he lived in digs with the Brussels family but he was homesick and his brother Mal bought him a car and then he was able to travel to work daily instead. He then went to the Bacon factory as a fitter and won an Inter-Firms All Ireland with them in 1969.

“After working in Roscrea, he became a Rate Collector with North Tipperary County Council and he worked there until his retirement. He was popular even with those who had to pay him the rates or rent.

“You are familiar with his achievements in hurling but there was much more to daddy. He instilled a great love of the arts, especially in plays, into all his children and whether he was at a Film Festival in Cork supporting Ruairí, or the Town Hall Theatre in Galway cheering on John, or Nenagh Arts Centre for Aoife and I, he was always there to encourage.

“His father, Malachy, was renowned for writing poems and some songs and Daddy was a good singer and sang here with the choir and also with the Ormond Octaves for several years. His party piece was a recitation named “Pass the Salt” and it never failed to make listeners smile.

“He especially loved films and the cinema was his preferred place. He wasn’t a fan of science fiction but loved Westerns and Shane with Alan Ladd was his all-time favourite. Before the arrival of Google, he could ring you to ask, “who was the fella in that film, you know with the white suit, was with yer wan who was in that other yoke” and unfortunately, we’d have to think until the answer was found!

“If you were sick, he would make you buttery toast and hot cocoa. He had great understanding and empathy as he suffered from mental health challenges most of his life. As a result, he was a contact for a lot of people who needed somebody to genuinely listen and he was appreciated for this. He gained solace from GROW which is a peer-support organisation for people with mental health concerns. He also assisted with the Nenagh Special Summer Camp for many years.

“He loved watching sport but many of you may not realise that he was a fan of tennis and wouldn’t ever miss Wimbledon on TV and followed Federer in his matches.

“He taught lots of people how to drive, me being one of them when I was 12. We went down to Carhue and he got out, smoked a cigarette and his advice to me was “keep between the ditches”.

“If you told him something he kept it to himself and he was loyal to the hilt. He might not have had much but would give you the shirt off his back.

“Mackey was always known as a character and this is borne out in the following passage from Len Gaynor’s book – ‘On training nights, Mackey McKenna would do the driving as he started out the furthest north, in Borrisokane. Then we would head up to Newtown for Donie Nealon and back into Nenagh to pick up Mick Burns and then on to Borrisoleigh for Liam Devaney. That was our load and we used to have right craic.

Mackey was a devil for the greyhounds. Himself and a man called Tom Brereton from Thurles had a greyhound between them and the deal was one of them had him for six months to keep, feed, and train, and then the other would have him for the next six.

Mackey had his term completed and it was his partner’s turn to take him, but he wouldn’t take him as the dog was no good. We brought the dog over in the car one evening with us to training and tied it to Tom’s door, and we went on to the field.

The next evening, we went into training and when we came out the greyhound was tied to the door of Mackey’s car, and we had to bring him home again. He must have been a real dud of a greyhound.’

“In spite of this story, Daddy did have success with greyhounds, in particular a dog called Gastrognome whom he named after a friend’s restaurant in Killaloe. A tribute to Mackey on Greyhound Racing Ireland in the last few days read – ‘Mackey grew up around greyhounds and his love for the breed never waned during his hugely successful hurling career. In fact, there are stories of him bringing a dog to training on more than one occasion.’

Again, to refer to Len Gaynor’s book – ‘one night they were coming home from Kilkenny after a league match which they had lost, Len was driving because he didn’t drink.

“They stopped first in a pub in Urlingford and after they left the boys were all asleep in the car but when they got to Young’s of Latteragh, all of a shot, Mackey woke up and said: “Pull in... pull in, we need petrol”. Len pulled in and the doors shot open and the boys headed for the pub.

“They weren’t long there, when in came the Gardaí and raided the place. They were all fined two pounds each in Nenagh Court a while later for being found on the premises after hours. It managed to make the Evening Press later in the week with the headline... “Tipperary stars drown their sorrows after hours.”

A few years ago, he received a letter in Newtown. It was addressed to Mackey, The Living Legend, Tipperary and it got to the house! We used to slag him about that, well Daddy you may be gone, but the Legend will live on!