Christmas delight as friends reunite after 50 years
TWO old friends who had not crossed paths for 50 years enjoyed a special reunion in Charlestown this week.
It was on St. Stephen’s Day in 1965 that Charlestown man Phelim Brady bumped into Dublin-born Tony Kelly on a Manchester street and changed the course of his life. Having grown up in an institution and foster homes, Tony, then 16, left his Swinford foster home in 1962 to work in Manchester and three years on found himself homeless, 'with all sorts of things going through my head', when he met Phelim.
They lost touch around '67 but had a joyful reunion last Monday after Phelim approached Charlestown librarian Noreen Gannon with a newspaper cutting about Tony, seeking help to make contact with him. The last time Pheilim saw him was on television refereeing a wrestling match.
Tony, now based in Dublin, runs United Survivors, for survivors of mother and baby homes and state institutions.
Then living in Manchester, Christmas 1965 saw Tony homeless. “On Christmas Day I went back to a house I used to lodge in and the landlady gave me my dinner and told me to come back the next day for my dinner. I didn’t go back and for some unknown reason I decided to walk down towards Victoria Railway Station, where I slept on Christmas Eve. But instead of walking down to the station I turned left into All Saints, onto Oxford Road, and who should I meet only Phelim Brady from Charlestown.
“I told him my story and he gave me a 10 shilling note and told me to go to the cafe and get myself something to eat and to meet him back in All Saints later that evening, that he would take me back to Hanley in Stoke-on-Trent where he was working and lodging.”
Phelim took Tony to work with him the following morning and they worked together for a couple of years before Phelim left.
Said Tony about Phelim: “I can say without any shadow of doubt that his kindness towards me in Manchester on that lonely St. Stephen's Day definitely saved my life.”
He added: “It was just great to see him and talk about old times. Phelim is one of life's good people.”
* More on this story in our Christmas print edition, in shops on Thursday, December 28