Familiar Limerick faces share their most treasured festive moments

ONE CHRISTMAS morning, two pairs of feet thundered down the stairs in Barry Murphy’s house. The Hermitage Green frontman and his oldest brother Brian tumbled out of bed to see what Santa brought them from the North Pole - but their timing wasn’t the best.

“We’re going back a long time. My earliest Christmas memory is of me and my older brother, waking up too early and my parents sending us back to bed. It was like 4 o’clock in the morning and we were trying to go down and see what Santa had brought,” laughs Barry.

“The usual, my father freaking out, making us go back to bed and then having to lie there awake until we could get up. That was always the best part of Christmas, the excitement around Santa coming then heading out the next morning on the road with my mates, showing off our new toys and bicycles. There’s nothing like that buzz.”

Now, the father of four-and-a-half-year-old twins Mick and Annabelle, Barry hopes they won’t be taking a page out of his book.

“They’re well warned that Santa won't be too happy with them if they get up before 4am. But anything after 5am, I think is fair game,” he adds.

“I think the beauty of Christmas is really for children, I think back to when I was most overwhelmed with joy and excitement, it was getting my favourite football jersey off Santa Claus.”

Roxboro boxer Lee Reeves also used to wake up in the early hours of the morning to open his presents. Even though he woke her up at 5am, his late mom, Cathy, always found a compromise.

“In my mom's house, we'd get up crazy early, before everybody was awake because we were too excited. It was still dark at like 5 and 6am, we’d go downstairs and end up waking up my mom,” Lee fondly recalls. “She'd have to come out and yell at us to get back upstairs and then eventually we'd bargain with her because now Santa had arrived and the presents were there.

Eventually, she’d let us open one present when it was still dark and then send us back to bed for two hours and then we'd get up and we'd open all the presents as a family.”

After making his reality TV debut for Survivor UK, Lee has been introduced to a new staple in his diet - one that he might include in this year’s Christmas dinner.

“Rice and beans are now a staple of my diet. After surviving on them for so long on the island, I kind of started to enjoy them. I’ll definitely have some throughout Christmas, with my own little twist and some real seasoning,” he laughs.

Journalist and author of the novel ‘Service’, Sarah Gilmartin, always looks fondly on childhood christmases.

“One thing that I really remember from childhood is the excitement of being in the car on Christmas Eve and hearing about Santa's progress on the radio. Those journalists really had the inside track,” she says.

If there is one tradition she’d never get tired of, it would be Christmas Eve dinner in the Jasmine Palace with her family. “And if I don't include Milford Mass with Father Conrad, I'll be in trouble,” she adds.

But according to the author, the Christmases away from home might be the ones that stand out the most. She takes us back to 2006, in Queenstown, New Zealand.

“I was travelling with three other Limerick girls and we'd picked up a lot of strays by then - Americans, Israelis, even a lad from Wexford - so it was one big party. There was definitely turkey, at some point in the night, and wine in a box,” Sarah recalls.

Seán O’Meara remembers meeting Santa’s reindeers like it was yesterday - even though it happened 20 years ago.

“I went to Lapland with my family, in Finland. The North Pole, where Santa comes from. I met the reindeers and everything, it was the real deal. Proper snow too, they literally had slides made out of snow, it was incredible,” the singer-songwriter recalls.

But his most memorable Christmas Day was not spent in The North Pole, but at home in Limerick city.

“I got a Gibson Les Paul from my parents. It’s still my favourite guitar. It holds a very special sentimental place in my heart, and it’s an incredible guitar. It’s just really beautiful, I couldn’t believe it when they gave it to me, I was speechless,” Seán says.

As a child, musician Laura Duff would always spend Christmas at her grandfather’s house.

“When we were small, me and my cousins used to spend Christmas in my granddad’s house, we used to all spend Christmas together. We’ve lots of fond memories of all being in my granddad's house for dinner and unwrapping presents and just spending the holiday together. We've all grown up now, obviously, so we don't see as much of each other,” she says.

When asked about her absolute favourite Christmas Day, she also looks back at her childhood years.

“My home was in a housing estate, it's not really like this anymore, but it used to be during my younger years, we had neighbours and lots of friends in the estate. We were all of similar ages, and at the time, people would be getting bikes as presents, or motorcycles and things like that. Everyone would be outside having fun together, that’s a really fond memory I have. I think it definitely changed now, you don't really see that there much anymore.”

In the 80s, Dee Ryan was obsessed with Sindy Dolls and horses. When the Limerick Chamber chief executive got what she had wished for on Christmas Day, she was over the moon.

“I was fascinated with animals so I'd asked for a Sindy doll horse for Christmas. I got it when I was about five, it made a really big impression on me,” she smiles.

The Castleconnell native feels fortunate as she had a lovely childhood.

“We are very lucky. I had a lovely childhood and a great relationship with my siblings,” she says softly. “There was one year when we were very small, I was maybe 6 and Santa was coming and we were all excited and we crept downstairs on Christmas morning. We opened the door into the sitting room and the whole floor was covered in balloons, there were multi coloured balloons everywhere. I just felt there was such excitement, it was such a surprise and such a lovely Christmas, I think that's probably one of the ones that sticks out the most.”

It seems Christmas is all about childhood too for Caherdavin’s own Strange Boy.

“I think I was five or six. My mother got me my first bike and that morning, my father taught me how to cycle. He was a bit drunk as well, so he was not really giving the best instructions,” he recalls.

But the best Christmas he has ever spent doesn’t go too far back. “In 2021, my sister has a baby, it was the first time that I spent Christmas with my nephew. It was a mad little change in the family dynamic. But just seeing that nephew getting to spend his first Christmas was special, it was a good one.”

“We usually all get together. I have a big enough family, so the house is always packed. There’d be a few kids running around, so it’s always very hectic,” he laughs.

Author and UL lecturer, Donal Ryan always had very traditional Christmases. He thinks of himself as one of those writers who had an “idyllic childhood”.

“Our Christmases were very traditional, filled with all of the expected things: cribs, Santa Claus, huge festive meals; and it all felt like magic. I loved every single aspect of Christmas as a child. I’m one of those weird writers who had an idyllic childhood.

All the bad stuff bided its time until I was old enough to deal with it so the world, especially at Christmas, looked perfect to me,” he notes.

This Christmas will be different for Donal as his mother passed away earlier this year. But he’ll always find a way to honour her.

“She was the heart of all of our Christmases so it will feel strange without her. Her spirit will never leave us, though. We’ll still feel the warmth of her love and will celebrate the season with her in our hearts,” he says.

For Limerick influencer, Niamh de Brún-Reid, Christmas was always about the excitement of going down the stairs to find Santa - and her mum recording everything on a tape recorder.

This year, Niamh will get to record her own magic moments as she prepares to host the big day with TJ Reid, and their one-year-old daughter, Harper, in their new home.

"This year, we are hosting in our new home in Ballyhale which will be fun," she said. 

What she is looking forward to the most is spending time with family.

"Everyone is so busy it’s nice to spend quality time with my siblings and parents."