*Frank Custy.
DYSART CHURCH was packed to capacity on Monday morning as hundreds of mourners gathered to pay their respects to the traditional music maestro Frank Custy.
Queues began to gather outside Dysart Church shortly before 11am and even though these mourners were punctual there was still no room inside the church such was the demand for persons to come out and remember Frank Custy, the same church that he was baptised in back in 1939. Ruan GAA club provided a guard of honour as did Toonagh NS and Ruan NS.
Fittingly his funeral mass was also a celebration of music with beautiful sounds heard before, during and after. Frank died on Thursday last (February 29th) surrounded by his loving family in Galway Clinic. He is sadly missed by his beloved wife Teresa, sister Carmel Linnane and brother Sean Custy, children, grandchildren, in laws, nephews, nieces, relatives, neighbours and friends.
Regarded as one of the greatest music teachers in the county, well-known musicians such as Sharon Shannon, Garry Shannon, Siobhan Peoples, Sean Conway and Yvonne Casey plus two of his children, Tola and Mary Custy are among those to have learned their craft under Frank’s watch. He inspired hundreds of more to begin to play music. His Friday night music lessons in Toonagh are still fondly remembered.
In 2009, Frank was honoured with the Clare Association Dublin Hall of Fame award and in 2016 for his outstanding contribution to Irish traditional music, he was presented with the MÓRglór award. He was one of the key personnel involved in the development of Cois na hAbhna. During the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in 2016, the Frank Custy sessions were a lunchtime favourite.
In June 1999, Frank retired as principal of Toonagh NS, for nearly forty years he was the driving force of the small school. It was originally built as a two teacher school but was extended following the closure of Dysart NS in the early 1970s. Frank presided over the merger and the school’s development following his appointment as principal in 1961, teaching numbers were enhanced when Mary Marrinan joined the staff in 1965 while the closure of Dysart NS resulted in the addition of Eileen Barry to Toonagh’s ranks.
Among those gathered in Dysart on Monday morning were Cyril Lyons, a past pupil of Frank’s who won a Munster and All-Ireland title in 1995 with Clare’s senior hurlers. Frank’s ex colleague Mary Marrinan, former Ennis NS principal Gary Stack and ex Clonmoney NS principal Michael Kilmartin remembered their former colleague while well-known musical figures including Siobhán Peoples, Eoin O’Neill and Blackie O’Connell were also present.
Hurling was a big passion of Frank’s, he won three Clare SHC titles with Ruan as their goalkeeper in 1959, 1960 and 1962. Prior to this we won a minor championship with Ruan in 1953 when lining out in goals at the age of fourteen. He also won a Dr Harty Cup with St Flannan’s College.
Modify, fix and put in your lap were the three items referred to by Tola Custy when he began speaking about his father. “He put people into circles and elevated them to superstardom”, he said.
Tola admitted if he ever had a time machine he would use it go back to when Frank was a young child with his siblings Sean and Carmel, “they were active and their Dad was a fixer, they turned out the same, they fixed things and they even fixed people’s hair,” Tola quipped. Hearing tunes “across the land” at Joe Nestor’s. “When he went to do the entrance exam for teaching, he failed singing and he was very proud of the fact that he did but that he could still play music, that was Frank fail regularly but do it again”.
On more than one occasion, Tola managed to drive over his fiddle with his car. He recalled of his father’s response, “he went about fixing it the Frank way, it wasn’t the finish but the function that was important”. He added, “it doesn’t matter if you talk about Frank the teacher or Frank the musician because the same rules apply”.
After retiring from Toonagh NS, the first thing Frank did was to purchase a set of uilleann pipes, “god help us all and the people of Toonagh, he didn’t buy just one but he had to buy me a set,” Tola recalled.
Meeting Teresa was “a magic time” for his father, Tola stated. “A country boy met a Townie and not just a Townie but a Townie from the Market, she wasn’t only from the Market but from Lower Drumbiggle where they would eat you”. He said, “you never saw them without each other except when Frank was in the classroom”.
Miltown Malbay native, Fr Joe McMahon was the chief celebrant for Monday’s mass. “His name was known to me before I met him,” he recalled and referenced his picture adorning the wall of St Flannan’s College as a member of the Harty Cup winning side. Frank was “a rock” in the lives of those that knew him, Fr McMahon said.
Items brought before the altar to symbolise Frank’s life included flowers, he was not a tidy gardener “but loved to see things grow”, his diary which he used to take notes of teams and scores when watching hurling matches, the hurley which he used in the three county finals and his fiddle described as “the greatest momento”.
Frank was the first born son of Jim and Kathleen, “if they could see ahead they would be thankful and proud that their son lived up to his Christian calling,” Fr McMahon reflected. “He brought, hope, confidence and joy to the people that surrounded him young and old”. He attended Dysart NS before cycling the eight miles every day to St Flannan’s College for his second-level education. “He was a good athlete, the high jump was his speciality but he was an even better hurler and featured for St Flannan’s in the Harty Cup and won three senior hurling championships for Ruan wearing the number one jersey guarded by his brother Sean. The experience as the netminder helped to give him confidence that he could succeed.
Fr McMahon continued, “He decided reaching would be his life, the first time round he didn’t succeed at the Leaving Cert but he didn’t give up and we know Frank didn’t give up, the following year he was a student at St Patrick’s College”.
After graduation, he was appointed to the staff of Toonagh NS. “The other teacher was Ms Clarke, they a had conversation about the need for music in the school, she said one of us needs to learn how to play music and it won’t be me”. Frank then learned how to play the fiddle from Jack Mulkere and would go onto become one of the county’s most prolific music teachers with classes inside and outside of school hours. He was also conscious according to Fr McMahon that his students in Toonagh were the sons and daughters of his neighbours and friends, “teaching was never just a job, more than anything else he was a teacher”.
Paddy Cons was the setting in 1963 when Frank Custy met his future wife Teresa Ryan. “They fell in love and they had no doubt that they were means for each other, the following year they were married”.
