October 11: Readers respond to anniversary magazine

IT was great to see all the old photographs of the Leader in your anniversary supplement, which made for great reading. For me, the man who really made the Leader a must-read when I was growing up in the county was Earl Connolly. His entertainment pages were the bible for all of us young Limerick people wanting to plan their weekend.

I would say without fear of contradiction that the Leader’s entertainment pages were responsible for many a marriage, possibly thousands, with all the information on what bands and what singers were playing what dancehalls there for us each and every Thursdays. And when we had met the apple of our eyes, what better idea for those important first dates than a scan of the Leader to see what films were on at the Lyric, Carlton, Central and other cinemas I remember with such fondness.

Congratuations on all your good work on behalf of Limerick.

JOE COUGHLAN

CLARE STREET, LIMERICK

CONGRATULATIONS on the fantastic 125th anniversary magazine distributed with the Leader last week. Having read it from cover to cover, I felt compelled to say what a superb publication it was.

Although I never had a family member working at the paper, in my own way I have always considered your paper to be part of my family, if that makes sense. What I mean to say is, it’s always around our house, is respected and highly regarded by all of us and is missed if for any reason one of us doesn’t get hold of it on a Thursday. I have been reading the paper for more than 40 years and wish the Leader another 125 years of service to Limerick. Well done to all.

BETTY CARNEY

FR RUSSELL ROAD, LIMERICK

There I was thinking I was a legend in my own lunchtime when I picked up the special supplement on your 125th anniversary. I turned to page 12, looked at the young chap (number 20) pictured with the group of Limerick Leader employees and saw it was none other than yours truly.

To my horror I discovered you had renamed me as “unidentified”. I was never called that name, although admittedly I don’t have as much hair on my head today as I had on that date in late 1956 when the Mayor of Limerick pressed the button to start a new printing machine.

When the picture was taken, I was working then as a copy holder. The proof reader was Mick Hartney, a former Mayor of Limerick. I was then paid the princely sum of £2 10s 6d per week – slightly more than what I am getting now. Before I joined the Leader on August 15, 1956 I was earning £7 a week spray-painting haybarns in County Limerick. My father insisted that I take up the job in the Leader as he thought there was no future in spray painting. How wrong he was.

The editor of the day, Con Cregan, came from Newcastle West. As editor of the Leader he chaired the first meeting of the Irish Volunteers in, I think, 1913. Because he came from Newcastle West, that little town was the most important place in the world. And that was why he was able to persuade the Buckley family to appoint a full-time correspondent in Newcastle.

Dear God above (who, by the way, knows me well), how could you be so ignorant of the identity of number 20, who went on work as a news reporter with the Irish Indo for some 30 years?

I am now retired and living in Lahinch. I have been told that I have a very strong case for libel against the Limerick Leader. You shall be hearing from my legal representatives, Messers Crony & Sleaze, shortly.

Máirtín Mac Cormaic

LAHINCH, CO CLARE

As a correspondent and scribe for the county notes in the Limerick Leader I am delighted to be part of its 125th year celebration.

As a scribe for the Croom column over four decades I realised the importance of the community news and information. The Leader and its community news was in advance of the arrival of the wireless. The notes were a ritual to read every Saturday by every community parish, our emigrants abroad and the Leader was posted religiously to our emigrants who had to board the boat from Rosslare or the Aer Lingus flight from Shannon Airport to commence a new life.

The Limerick emigrant identified the newspaper shop in London, Birmingham, New York, Boston and Chicago who stocked the Leader. The role of the local correspondent was – and remains to this day – to inform the local reader and the reader abroad as to what was happening in their local place.

The correspondent writes in a positive way about the success of the local team, the new community enterprise in their town or village, the local horse winning in Limerick or the Curragh, the joyous occasion of the local wedding in the parish church.

It was not always good news. There was the sad occasion of the death and the tragedy of a parishioner at home. There was the special visit of the local correspondent to the emigrants reunion in the Spotted Dog in London, to the Irish Centre in Birmingham, to Gaelic Park, New York or Chicago. Their eyes would light up to see that the correspondent from home had come to celebrate with them and bring home the news and photos. It seems only like yesterday that the Croom correspondent put pen to paper for the first time, as a young student starting out secondary schooling in the Sixties.

PATRICK C FITZGERALD

CROOM, CO LIMERICK