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Preface

 

Why write a book about one good woman, Margaret Jean Dineen? I have met so many outstanding women in my life and there are many more whom I will never meet but whose lives deserve the greatest praise. Nevertheless, I feel urged to undertake this book. I wish to share with you my boundless admiration and everlasting love for this woman, who also happens to be my mother, praise the Lord.

I have been a little saddened by the knowledge that some people do not favour this publication. I have had to weigh this against the good of putting this story in the public arena. It seems to me that the life story of this person has a value that merits my doing this. So in this spirit and for the glory of God, whose work of art she is, in a special way, I offer it to all, in the hope that it will do good and that you too may be enriched and inspired by the life she lived; a life which touched the lives of many but whose inner truth was truly a life hidden with Christ in God.

Maura Dineen, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saint Marys

 

We remember old Saint Marys

Many stories they are told

Of years of education

Of brave lads & of bold

And the winding hill we climbed each day

Beginning on life’s path

With thoughts of Bean Uí Dhuinnín

God bless her golden heart.

 

And we started out on dreams then

That seemed so far away

And crossed the many bridges

That leads us to today

As we sing of alma mater

Whether near or far from home

And live again the memories of St. Marys.

 

Young men came from many miles

To learn her precious code

The Gaeilge, French & Latin

And histories of old

And when lads didn’t meet up

To standards set on high

A little kind persuasion

Forced them into line.

 

We recall the handball alley

And the games we used to play

Where many scores were settled

At the end of every day

As we climbed the hill up in the field

That overlooks the town

We talked about horizons

And what would the future hold

 

Now men have strayed to foreign shores

And men have stayed at home

Some in search of fortune

And some out seeking souls

But a bond stands there uniting them

Across the land and sea

From roots grown in the memories of St. Marys

 

The days of black & amber

Still linger in our minds

And tours we made to other schools

When we sung our party rhymes

But the games that stand out best of all

And hold a place in time

Were those played round the walls of old St. Marys.

 

The early morning cigarette

The odd curse & the swear

The bubble gum & the races run

For leader down the stairs

And thoughts of fair young maidens

On a hill too far away

The Angelus as Ghaeilge

A part of daily prayer.

 

Words, Music & Lyrics by ROB/ Ruaskin (1987)

O’Donovan Brothers, Ballyduvane

One Woman

 

In Memory of

the Late Margaret Dineen

 

Authorised, Edited and Managed

By Maura Dineen

&

Coiste Chuimhneacháin Choláiste Muire

Pádraig Ó Callanáin, Traolach Ó Donnabháin

& Mícheál Ó Ríogáin

 

Price:…… € 16.00

 

Margaret Jean

Connaughton

“She founded the school when secondary education was a restricted right, when men like Donagh O’Malley had not even appeared on the educational horizon.”

 

The Late John Hayes N.T.