Christmas carols attracted John O'Donnell to brass bands
CASTLEBAR pharmacist John O’Donnell developed a love for brass bands when, as a young lad, he listened to the Westport Town Band playing Christmas carols outside his family home, writes Tom Gillespie.
Years later he learned to play the trumpet and is now an active member of Castlebar Town Band and a former member of the Mayo Concert Orchestra.
John, who runs John O’Donnell’s totalhealth pharmacy on Ellison Street, Castlebar, for the past 35 years, is married to Westport native Mary and they have four children.
John admitted: “Mary is my first love and the town band is my second.”
He added: “When I was a young fellow the town band played carols around the town at Christmas. One of their stops was under an ESB pole outside our home on the Mall. That’s where I first got my love for brass bands. The carols were special.
“I didn’t really play any instrument, maybe tinkered a bit with the piano, but I always loved music. When my children were small, there was an ad in The Connaught Telegraph advertising brass band classes in the old vocational school. Tommy Devaney was the tutor.
“The trumpet is a loud instrument, and when you’re learning it doesn’t sound too good. It was more noise than music in those days!
“The highlight with the town band was our trip to New York for the St. Patrick’s Day parade a few years ago. Fifty travelled in the group, including 25 players.
“We played in St. Patrick’s Cathedral at the official Mass before the parade. It was a ticket-only affair, with Cardinal Timothy Dalton officiating.
“We played ‘Moonlight In Mayo’, ‘Isle of Inishfree’ and many other tunes. It was a really special morning.
“After the Mass, this guy came up to us in military uniform and told us his relations were from Burren, Castlebar. He said his name was Martin Dempsey.
“A couple of months later when the Americans were capturing Bin Laden, there was a famous picture of a group in the Situation Room in the White House watching the event unfolding live. You had Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and who was in the middle of the picture but General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Army – the most important military officer in America.
“When he was a young fellow he spent summers in Burren. Seamie Gavin used to taxi the family in and out of town.”
John continued: “After Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral we marched down Fifth Avenue in the parade, leading the Mayo Society. It was a beautiful day, 16 degrees. Often it snows on Patrick’s Day in NY.
“We finished at 1.15 p.m. and at 5 p.m. the Castlerea Town Band were just starting to march - the parade was still going on. Some 200,000 take part and over two million spectators watch it. All creeds and colours dress up in green for March 17. Everybody wants to be Irish on Paddy’s Day.
“Later we were invited to a New York Police Department party with their pipe bands on Pier 42 in Manhattan. We had a great time there. Some of the younger members of the band met Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his wife Fionnuala walking Brooklyn Bridge and he invited us all back to Fitzpatrick’s Hotel for drinks. That New York trip was certainly the highlight of my time with the band.
“Three of us organised the trip. We called ourselves the Troika - Declan Hynes, Sean Gavin and myself. We lost a wonderful member last January, Michael Basquille, RIP.”
More recently, on May 29, Castlebar Town Band played at the Mayo-London match in Ruislip after being invited by the Connaught GAA Council.
John’s pharmacy is now branded totalhealth. He is one of the founder members of the group. “We now have over 60 members countrywide,” he said.
Years ago John was on the board of United Drug PLC. “I was voted on by the west of Ireland chemists. It was a non-executive role – just advisory. That was a wonderful experience. I saw how a national and international company worked.”
John, who grew up in Westport, added: “I come from a business family – shoe shop and harness makers before that. My brother Michael is still there. We are over 110 years on the Mall. We have been in business a long time. Business is in my DNA. Both my mother’s and father’s people were in business.” John recalled a funny story by Castlebar shoemaker Tom McHugh, who had a workshop on Castle Street. It was about John’s uncles, the Devers, in Castlebar.
“Tom used to joke that when the Devers first came from Westport to Castlebar, they drove as far as the old post office, turned off the car engine, then let off the handbrake and wherever the car stopped that’s where they started business.
“Peter Dever and Martin Dever had a grocery shop on Ellison Street where Eddie Egan now is. Peter later moved down to the Lone Star Filling Station on New Antrim Street.
“My brother Michael also had a shoe shop on Ellison Street. Another uncle, Michael Dever, had a butcher’s shop on Ellison Street beside Heatons - Vincent Irwin subsequently took it over. And I ended up on Ellison Street, so Tom McHugh wasn’t too far wrong!”