Redhills man is honoured in NZ

John McGarvey remembers going to the Town Hall in Cavan on Sunday nights for the ceilidh dancing nearly 60 years ago... he would have loved to have been in Cavan for Fleadh 2010, but he couldn't make it home from New Zealand. The Redhills native spoke to The Anglo-Celt last week (following an introduction by his nephew Brendan McGarvey) to tell us about the long service award he received from the Piopio Volunteer Fire Brigade at a ceremony in his adopted home in June. Now 77, John went to New Zealand in 1954 to work on his uncle Bill Smith's farm at Aria. When Bill returned to Ireland a couple of years after that John joined the Post Office in Piopio, and settled in to life there. He joined the Fire Brigade on March 19, 1959 and married a local girl, Joyce Flaherty on April 18. They celebrated their golden jubilee last year, and on June 26 this year John received the double Gold Star (50 years) award from the Fire Brigade. He told the Waitomo News about the early days: "The brigade had only been going for about six months when I joined. It hadjust got a new Land Rover fire truck, with pumps front and rear and hoses running around the bonnet. "The station was an old car shed... with only room enough for the vehicle. On meeting nights we had to park it outside so that we could sit around the table." John said his motivation in joining was to put something back into the NZ community that had welcomed him. In 1970 he left the Post Office for Piopio Motors, running the service station, and worked there till he retired 12 years ago. Last week he said: "I worked in the Post Office for 14 years and operated the service station for 27 years. When the fire alarm or pagers went off, the bosses always allowed us to go regardless, and never docked us any pay whatsoever." John - and Joyce - are still involved with the Fire Brigade: "We moved from the village of Piopio (where the population is 600) to Tekuiti (population 6000) in central North Island, and now we're on the admin side of it," said John. "I'm the treasurer, Joyce my wife is as big a part of it as I am... we're doing the treasurer job for the last 12 years. "We go to everything that's on at the station, all meetings. We support them, it's part of my life for the last 50 years. I tried to resign about five years ago but I couldn't get away." John was guest of honour at the ceremony in June when he became the 71st member of the Fire Brigade to receive the Double Gold Star for his 50 years of service. It joins the many others proudly displayed on his uniform, the medals and bars he received as he clocked up the years of service over five decades. He maintains a close relationship with family at home, mostly by making good use of the telephone service, but he didn't get back for the first 18 years after he left Cavan, though he has returned every three years since 1972. Most of his brothers and sisters are younger than him, and he remembers the huge changes he saw in their lives on that first return visit; they had left school, grown up and had families. He has fond memories of the Breffni County of the 1950s as well as those Town Hall dances: "I enjoyed playing football on the village green most evenings [he mentioned the names Sean McEntee, Pete Reilly, Seamus Sheridan, Paddy McEntee and Sean Kelly as team-mates]," said John, adding that he would have liked to have been at the recent jubilee celebrations for St. Brigid's NS, as well as the fleadh. "I would love to have been there, but I'm getting a bit older now and travelling doesn't get easier when you get older. But I'm fit to get around, to do most things I want to do." The sport continued in NZ as well: "Out here I played Gaelic football for a number of years," said John. "There were a lot of Irish here in the 50s and I played for Hamilton and Auckland teams. I played a lot of golf for 40 years too. I've given up now - the hills were getting too much for me!" John and Joyce have three children (Pauline, Theresa and Kevin) and seven grandchildren, ranging in age from nine to almost 19, and it's clear family means as much to him as anything else in his life. "Going back is always going home," he concluded. "Even though I've lived here for 56 years now, when I say home I mean Ireland and I mean Redhills, I've kept close contact over the years."