*Seán Cleary. Photograph: Joe Buckley
DURING his lifetime, Seán Cleary shaped and influence the lives of generations of young people in Shannon and further afield.
Under his leadership, St Conaires National School in Shannon grew to become one of the biggest schools in the county while through his gentle and caring way he shaped lives for the better.
On Wednesday he was laid to rest in Bunratty Cemetery following a funeral mass at The Wells Church in Newmarket-on-Fergus where his long-time friend, Fr Harry Bohan was the chief celebrant.
A native of Whitegate, Seán began his teaching career in Ogonnelloe and Bridgetown before he was appointed principal of St Conaires NS in Shannon. He joined the staff of the Shannon school in 1968, the early days of the country’s newest town required leaders with vision and those with compassion, Mr Cleary ticked those boxes and much more besides.
Hurling was a big passion in Seán’s life, he was wing-back on the Whitegate team which won the club’s second-ever Clare SHC title in 1961. Ironically, they beat Newmarket-on-Fergus, a club with which his family would go on to represent and through his beloved grand-children continue to line out for. Although they trailed the Blues 2-7 2-3 following a nail-biting first half, Whitegate’s strength was visible and they outscored their opponents 3-4 2-2 in the second half to record a 5-7 3-9 victory in front of an estimated attendance of 5,000.
He made 38 appearances for Clare, the first at wing-forward on October 26th 1958 at wing-forward when it finished Limerick 4-9 Clare 2-7 in the National League. His last appearance in saffron and blue was the 1967 Munster final where he was wing-back when Clare lost 4-12 2-6 against Tipperary, his teammates included Jimmy Smyth, Jim ‘Puddin’ Cullinan, Pat Cronin, Milo Keane, Liam Danaher and his Whitegate clubmate Naoise Jordan. His son, Eoin also lined out in a Munster Final against Tipperary, the 1993 provincial decider.
Captain of Shannon Golf Club in 2002 and President in 2014, Seán was able to recall the layout of every golf course he played on due to his attention to detail.
Fr Bohan told Wednesday’s mass, “You all have your own memories of Seán. I was very privileged to have Seán as a friend”. He recalled, “I can nearly hear Seán saying to me take it easy Harry and keep it short. I go back a long way with him, I think we might have first met up around 1958 and I suppose it wouldn’t be a great surprise to some of ye, where did we meet up on the hurling field, Sean was playing centre field for Whitegate and I was centre field for Feakle, we didn’t agree for that hour anyway but I’m glad to tell ye that Feakle won, it was the only county final that we got into. We met off and on, I was privileged to be asked to say the mass and the few words, he asked me himself”.
Deep connections with his inner-self, family, community, nature and supernature were evident in Seán’s life, Fr Harry stated, “Of all the men I ever knew Seán knew who he was and what he stood for, he had his values and they were deep, nothing changed him, Seán wasn’t a man who ran with the hare and chased with the hounds, in sport you’d say Seán stood his ground for what he believed in, he was faithful, he was loyal like a lot of the Clearys, he was loyal to friends, to family, he had the basic values that shaped life, he was loyal to colleagues, a lot of the teaching world would say how loyal he was, he was loyal to truth, to justice. They are words but I can tell you everyone of those words apply to Seán because that is the man he was”.
1968 was the year when Seán was appointed to St Conaires but also when Fr Harry moved to Shannon. “We met up a fair bit. I just want to say this, he taught in Conaires for thirty years but imagine the influence he had on parents, the many parents who came to find work in Shannon, the new town, the Airport, the Industrial estate, the first of its kind in the Republic. Fr Tim Mullally was the first parish priest in Shannon, he was very careful in choosing and making sure he was getting the right teachers and principals, he was a very straight man and decent man, I think we’d all agree, parents and pupils that he chose well in Seán, he brought him from two of the smaller schools in East Clare to one of the biggest, it grew to become one of the biggest in Clare”.
He continued, “One of the fairly significant things about the school was it had fourteen different nationalities at one stage, if anyone disagrees with that I have a photograph to prove it. In other words, what a challenge for any principal in any school in Ireland, different cultures, not only Irish but he also had people from Galway, Chile, Malta, Germany, Canada, the United States, Zambia, Uganda, Scotland, England and South Africa. When I think of the challenge Seán had in taking on the new school from infants right up to 800 pupils to become one of the biggest in Clare. Seán was a man who took it all in his stride, nothing was a problem for Seán, he was calm and he was cool, he treated everyone as equal, during his time in Conaires the school having come to that size, you can imagine with teachers, parents it took some management to put all of it together, Seán was not just a manager but a leader, he led at a very special time in the young town of Shannon”.
According to Fr Harry, “Knowing him was a profound insight into what it means to be yourself. Everything to him had to be truthful, honest, for the good of the students and the good of the parents”. In the 1970s, people began to move away from local wisdom and rely on experts particularly in education “but Seán didn’t go that way, he continued with the local wisdom and the common sense which went with that”.
With his dear wife Bridie, the importance and value to Seán was quite clear. “Their primary responsibility was to rear their children, the old saying the hand that rocks the cradle shapes the world, they stayed with that, those values and those principles. To Marion, Eoin, Fergal, Niamh and Gearoid, you know well he was very proud of ye, ye were the key, he didn’t leave anybody else to rear ye, he and Bridie did it, at a time when children were handed over to a lot of others but they reared themselves, his grand-children, he was proud of them and reared them in his own way, he played his part certainly he and Bridie with the parents, he was interested in their journey through life and their growing up, in their education, in sport especially hurling and camogie, I wouldn’t say there was too much soccer”.
That seven of his grand-children were out hurling on his lawn over the weekend would have brought a sense of pride to Seán. “He loved the game of hurling, he loved the speed of the game, he played it well for club and county, he was too fast for me, he loved the game and gave a lot to it. You were lucky to have had him as a parent and a grand-parent,” Fr Harry added.
Nature and a love of animals was also a big part of Seán’s life. Fr Harry recalled the comments of Marion that her father “has the best fed birds in the world”. Fr Harry said, “Hope is what a lot of us need now. I’ll just say this, Seán lived life well, he had a lot to live for, his was a life worth living but being a man full of common sense, he would have believed in the words of there is a time for everything, to be born, to die and it is not easy to die even for a good man and Seán was a good man, it is not easy for his family over this time or the last few months, not easy for Bridie but both of them have a very loyal family, they are blessed. Up to the very end, Seán was cool and calm last week and he wasn’t far from death, the bed of heaven to him. Slán leat my friend”.
Paying tribute to her father, Marion Crimmins said “familiar themes” emerged as the family shared stories and tears since Seán’s death on Saturday. She recalled that her parents started their married life in Bridgetown but it wasn’t long until they set up home in Woodpark, Newmarket-on-Fergus, “we might have crossed border to Shannon for school but Newmarket-on-Fergus was always home”.
She said, “Our childhood was full of love, when grandchildren arrived that same level of warmth and love followed, he was their greatest supporter, he followed their academic achievements, hurling, camogie and golf but as Harry said not soccer”. His time as a boarder in St Flannan’s College was a formative team and continued to support the school by attending Dr Harty Cup matches as the decades passed.
In his native Whitegate, Marion quipped that her father had “a near-on celebrity status” anytime he attended a match there. He had the tradition of giving the first hurley to his grand-children and always stuck to choosing Clare or Galway hurley makers, after one grand-children deviated away from this and acquired a Tipperary made hurley that only lasted a mere two matches, “Dad gave a smug smile because you can’t beat quality”.
“Education wasn’t just his profession but a vocation,” Marion said. “He left a lasting mark on St Conaires and his love of education went far beyond the classroom”. Returning to Mary Immaculate College following his retirement saw him pass on his knowledge, experience and passion to students from all four corners of the country.
A love of trivia and quizzes was also a constant of Seán’s life, Marion recalled. “He had a great sense of fairness and equality, he was an educator in true sense of the word”.
His garden was “his sanctuary, you might pop in to say hello and you came out with a plant and instructions on how not to kill it”. A grá for his native language and Irish culture has been passed on to his family. A glint in the eye and a turn of phrase was with him till the very end, she noted.
“He was an educator, sportsman, gardener, quiz master but the most important role he held was this, he was our Dad and the love of Mum’s life, he was a loving dependable wise man, we will miss him more than words can express, we’re so grateful for the life he lived and the legacy he has left behind”. She promised that his family would keep the lawn cut and continue to have the hurleys ready.
As the mass was drawing to a close, Fr Harry admitted, “I didn’t sleep a wink last night because I was anxious but I knew I had a good full-back and good midfielder to help me with the mass,” when paying tribute to his colleagues at the altar, Fr Tom Ryan and Fr Albert McDonnell.
Seán is deeply missed by his heartbroken family, wife Bridie, daughters Marion (Crimmins) and Niamh (Perill), sons Eoin, Feargal and Gearóid, sons-in-law Pádraig and Kevin, daughters-in-law Eleanor, Suzanne and Emma, grandchildren, brother Mike, sisters-in-law Margaret and May, nephews, nieces, neighbours and his many friends. He is predeceased by his parents, brothers Paddy, Éamonn and Frank and sister Mary.
