Dr Mick Loftus: a life well lived in the service of his community
Dr Mick Loftus pictured in Crossmolina in 2015. Picture: Henry Wills
It’s a crisp autumn day in 2015 and Dr Mick Loftus is reminiscing on the Crossmolina of his youth. The former GAA president has just celebrated his 86th birthday, a milestone most people mark from the comfort of a rocking chair. But Dr Mick possesses as much zest for life today as he did 80 years ago when he ran down Chapel Street for the first time.
“I was six when I came to Crossmolina,” he explains. “I was born in Elphin in Co Roscommon where my father was stationed as a garda. My mother died when I was six and it was decided to move the family to Crossmolina where my father was originally from. I had an aunt living here and she helped to raise us.”
The Loftus family moved into a terraced house on Chapel Street in 1937. It was right in the heart of the town centre, but this was more than a decade before Bord na Móna and the ESB, an era when the business community in Crossmolina had to look further afield for a livelihood.
“Crossmolina in the 1940s was known as ‘The Town On Wheels’,” remarks Dr Mick. “Now, what do I mean by that? Well, the businesses all owned travelling shops and they would go out to Erris and the surrounding districts every week.
“It was Edie [Dr Mick’s wife] who recently reminded me of that nickname – The Town On Wheels. Her parents– the Canavans – were among the business people in Crossmolina who owned a travelling shop. There probably would have been no more than a handful of shops in the town in those days. Business was going out of town instead of coming in.”
It was the war years. Dr Mick recalls the wagons of turf going through Crossmolina on their way to the railway station in Ballina. The turf had been cut in the bogs of Erris as part of the County Production Scheme, a nationwide crusade to keep Dublin supplied with turf in the absence of imported coal. Other imported goods were also in short supply.
“Browne’s was our local grocery shop and we’d go in there and only get so much tea because it was being rationed. Sugar was scarce too, but that was no harm!
"There was plenty of employment in England in those years so a lot of local lads went over to work on the farms. Naturally, Bord na Móna and the ESB stopped that pattern of migration when they came in.”
There may have been a shortage of sugar, but there were plenty of life's other pleasures for the youngsters of Crossmolina.
“In the summer we’d throw off our shoes and go barefoot. It wasn’t a hardship and we didn’t pay any heed to the stones. It was something we loved to do as children. It was a sign that summer had arrived, that the holidays from school were just around the corner.
“When we were off school in the summer we’d spend a fair bit of time swimming in Lough Conn. And then of course there was football! We’d play football out on the street because there were so few cars back then. Sometimes we’d play in a field but we’d have to run when the boss came. The only man that was easy on us was Pat Browne [a TD and owner of Browne’s grocery shop]. He had a field just above the chapel and he’d let us play away there.”
The young footballers of Crossmolina had their own heroes in local brothers Paddy (known as ‘Captain’) and Josie Munnelly, who were both members of the all-conquering Mayo side of the 1930s. When Mayo won the All-Ireland senior championship for the first time in 1936 the Munnelly brothers contributed 3-3 of the team’s total of 4-11.
“They were legendary figures in Crossmolina,” recalls Dr Mick. “We were all in awe of them and wanted to follow in their footsteps by wearing the green and red of Mayo.”
The war years marked a barren spell for Mayo GAA but that did not diminish the local interest in the All-Ireland championship.
“There were very few wirelesses in Crossmolina in the early 1940s so people gathered together for the big games,” recalls Dr Mick. “I remember Davis’s [at the corner, near the bridge] would put the radio out on the window and people would gather on the bridge to listen to the games. That’s where I listened to my first All-Ireland final. It’s hard to imagine it now!”
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The arrival of Fr Willie Davis to Crossmolina in the 1940s marked a turning point in the town’s fortunes. Fr Davis became involved in all aspects of life in the community – from social to economic, sporting to educational. For a young, up-and-coming GAA player such as Mick Loftus, it was a godsend to have a man like Fr Davis as a mentor.
“He got us involved in organising football. Up to then we just played in the fields but there was no pitch and no proper club structure. Fr Davis changed all that. Crossmolina won the Mayo Junior Championship in 1947 and that was the start of a very special period for the town.”
Dr Mick says the impact of Bord na Móna could be felt in Crossmolina as early as the 1940s.
“Things began to stir a bit around then. Bord na Móna and ESB had not officially started but there were men coming into the area doing surveying. There were more people being employed around the place.”
Dr Mick was in his final year at St Muredach’s College in Ballina in 1947. He and his brother Benny cycled the ten miles to and from Ballina each morning and evening.
“We did it for five years and thought nothing of it. We’d cycle in rain, hail or snow. I don’t think we ever missed a day. We even went in during the Big Snow of ’47. I remember cycling on the tracks of the cars – and there were not many cars on the road either. I think we missed one day during that bad spell.”
Dr Mick’s burgeoning talents as a footballer saw him win a place on the Mayo minor team in 1947. The captain was the great Peter Solan and Mayo were raging hot favourites to beat Tyrone in the All-Ireland Final, having deposed the reigning champions Kerry in the semi-final.
“We got off to an incredible start and scored four goals in the first-half to lead by 12 points at half-time,” recalls Dr Mick. “It seemed we couldn’t lose in the second-half, but lose it we did. We were leading by two points in the dying seconds when Tyrone – led by the great Eddie Devlin – got a goal with the very last kick of the game. It was heartbreaking really.”
The minor final of 1947 holds a unique place in history because it was the only one since World War II to have not been staged as a curtain-raiser to the senior game.
“That was the year of the Polo Grounds Final in New York between Kerry and Cavan,” explains Dr Mick. “We went back to Barry’s Hotel after our game for a bite to eat, but we wanted to listen to the All-Ireland Final so we went down O’Connell Street and found an ice cream parlour that had a wireless. We ate a fair bit of ice cream that evening listening to Micheál O’Hehir live from New York!”
Two years later, Dr Mick was a member of a Crossmolina team that claimed its own special place in history when it won the club’s first county senior football championship.
“The breakthrough at senior level was all part of the progress that happened in the town as a result of Bord na Móna and the ESB. If you look at that team there were a lot of fellas who stayed at home because things were starting to happen in Crossmolina and there was one or two outsiders who came in and helped us.”
The victory in ’49 was a remarkable progression for a team with no pitch that had been playing junior football two years earlier. Castlebar Mitchels and Ballina Stephenites were the dominant sides of the era and shared 16 county titles between 1940 and 1956, the Mitchels winning the vast majority (12) with great teams that included the likes of Padraig Carney, Josie Munnelly and Mick Flanagan. Crossmolina’s victory in ’49 was an unlikely success story that augured well for the future of the town.
“I was in university in Galway by the early 1950s but I could see that things were improving at home,” recalls Dr Mick. “You could see the business flowing in instead of going out. The wheels were going the other way now.”
The confidence of Mayo people in general was given a further boost by the unforgettable exploits of the senior football team in 1950 and 1951. Dr Mick was a member of the senior panel in 1951, having won an All-Ireland junior title a year earlier.
“The GAA gave everyone a lift,” he recalls. “There was a little bit of confidence about the place, even though emigration was very high at the time. Bord na Móna started taking on its first staff in North Mayo in late 1951 so it was a good time all around.”
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Dr Mick returned to Crossmolina to establish his medical practice in 1957. In the same year, he captained Mayo to win the All-Ireland Junior Championship Final, lining out alongside his childhood idol and townsman Josie Munnelly, who rolled back the years to deliver a Man of the Match display in the final against Warwickshire in Birmingham. The game became known as ‘Munnelly’s Final’.
“We had a good side,” recalls Dr Mick, “but the performance of Josie made that final very special. He was a truly remarkable man and it was a dream to play in the forwards beside him, especially as he had been one of my childhood heroes.”
Ironically, Dr Mick established his medical practice in Crossmolina at a time when the future of the Bellacorick project was under grave threat.
“Work stopped for a while in 1957 and there were fears it would be abandoned,” he explains. “There was a lot of talk that it was going to be too costly to produce the milled peat. It became a big election issue that year and Fr Davis led a deputation to Dublin to campaign for its retention. Fair dues to Bord na Móna and the ESB, they stuck with it but I think it would have been gone only for the political pressure came on.”
By the late 1950s, Crossmolina was a hive of activity as lorry-loads of heavy machinery from the Midlands crawled through the town, cautiously snaking their way across the bridge and out the Bellacorick Road.
“I can still see the machinery going through the town,” says Dr Mick. “It was a very exciting time. People had never seen such large machinery before and it was some sight to witness the machines at work out on the bogs.”
Every morning and evening the Bord na Móna lorries trundled through Crossmolina, bringing dozens of men to and from work in Oweninny.
“There were hundreds of men working on the project in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Originally there were no houses for them so people took them into their homes. Then the ESB and Bord na Móna started to build various housing schemes, which again gave a great boost to the town.
“All of these men were getting pay cheques every Friday and were spending the money in Crossmolina. Many of them were meeting local girls and settling down. Then you had the local lads who would have left had it not been for Bord na Móna and the ESB. They were able to find secure jobs at home so there was no need to go to England anymore. The benefits that accrued from it were just enormous.
“Crossmolina became the opposite of The Town on Wheels. Business developed in the town and it became more active and alive that way.”
It wasn’t just Crossmolina that was seeing the benefits of Bord na Móna and the ESB. Outlying villages and townlands were also reaping a rich dividend.
“There’d be a lorry coming through from Moygownagh with lots of local lads on board,” recalls Dr Mick. “Then there was the Keenagh area, which really developed as a result of the Bellacorick project. Eskeragh was another area that progressed rapidly in the late 1950s. Fr Mark Diamond built a new chapel there. They had been talking about it for years beforehand but I believe it was built on account of the employment generated in Eskeragh by Bord na Móna and the ESB.”
Dr Mick was the assigned medical officer for the Bord na Móna/ESB works in Bellacorick from the 1950s up to its closure in 2005. He could be called out at a moment’s notice to treat an injured worker on the bog or in the power plant.
“When I look back on it I wonder how we managed at all,” he reflects. “The communications at the time were nothing to what we have today. If they wanted to get me they had to first ring Dooleeg Post Office. Dooleeg had to ring Crossmolina who had to transfer the call to the main exchange in Ballina. Nowadays I can press a button on my mobile phone here and get straight through to New York!”
Dr Mick has very fond memories of undertaking first aid courses with the Bord na Móna staff ahead of national competitions involving teams from all over Ireland.
“Bord na Móna ran an All-Ireland final in Athlone and we won it for three successive years. We trained the lads hard over four days and they were very committed. There were great men on the team – John James McLoughlin, Larry Concannon, Mick Leonard, Pat Flynn and Pat O’Malley.
“All of the staff in Bord na Móna and the ESB were very committed to the first aid training. There was one fatality when the tower was being constructed but thankfully there was never any serious injury in the day-to-day running of the power plant or among the workers out on the bog.
“Naturally enough I was called out a few times to deal with various injuries the men might have picked up on the bog. I remember going down the bog on the train once or twice and I was like a child! It was a great adventure for me!”
Dr Mick says the scale of the project in Bellacorick was only evident to those who actually witnessed it at close quarters.
“There were some very modern and complex machinery out there. The workshops were a hive of activity and there were many skilled employees. A lot of the machines came in parts and they had to be assembled in ’Corick so that created a lot of employment. All in all, it was a very impressive operation and I always got a sense that there was a great camaraderie among the workforce. The Bord na Móna dinners were great social occasions and even to this day I can see a bond between the workers. They were a family as well as a workforce and that helped to create a great sense of community in Crossmolina.”
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The 1960s and 1970s were a boom period in North Mayo. In Killala, the Asahi chemicals plant was creating hundreds of jobs, while Hollister in Ballina was also beginning to take on staff. Meanwhile, in Crossmolina, the positive impact of Bord na Móna and the ESB was being felt in all facets of community life.
A new vocational school, St Tiernan’s College, had opened in 1957 – again thanks to the campaigning of Fr Davis – and it went from strength to strength in subsequent decades.
“When I was young there was nowhere for local boys to go to secondary school apart from St Muredach’s in Ballina,” explains Dr Mick. “Gortnor Abbey was an all-girls school back then so the opening of St Tiernan’s was a hugely positive step for the town. It was also a vocational school which meant it was able to work hand-in-hand with Bord na Móna and the ESB to teach skills that would allow students to take up jobs in Bellacorick.”
Fr Davis was also instrumental in the establishment of a billiards club, and the sport became hugely popular in Crossmolina in the 1960s.
“We were all experts in billiards!” recalls Dr Mick. “We had two tables above in the town hall and lads would be queuing up to get on the tables. That’s where I saw my first television too. It was fairly hazy and I could never have imagined watching a football match on it!”
Dr Mick later became chairman of a very active community council, which purchased a building in the town centre that is now home to the town’s library. In addition, the GAA club was going from strength to strength, and a new pitch was purchased in the 1970s.
“The late Tiernan Reilly was the key man in developing the pitch,” says Dr Mick. “But it wouldn’t have happened without the employment that was created around ESB and Bord na Móna.
“They gave a great boost to the GAA and supported the club with sponsorship, as well as giving local jobs to young footballers who would have had to emigrate in a previous era.”
Dr Mick believes it would be impossible to put a price on the social dividend delivered to Crossmolina and the wider North Mayo area during the lifetime of the Bellacorick power plant.
“There were tough years for Bord na Móna in Oweninny, especially when the summers were bad, and I’d say they were often only breaking even on the price of the milled peat sold to the ESB. But the social benefits were enormous. Extra teachers and guards came into the area. I remember at one stage we had four guards and a sergeant in Crossmolina. There were lots of spin-off businesses too and they all employed extra people.
“I grew up in a town with no cars, but by the 1980s there was one or two cars outside every house.”
Dr Mick says the best way to measure the positive impact of Bord na Móna and the ESB on North Mayo is to look at the area today and compare it to a couple of decades ago.
“Whenever I drive past Bellacorick these days I am sad to see it so quiet. We got a great innings out of it and I know there were reasons for its closure, but I think it is missed so much because there is now no industry of that size in the area. It would be great if we had some kind of factory here because it is badly needed.”
Although he is now 86, Dr Mick is still caring for the medical needs of the people of Crossmolina, including many of the retired and former staff of Bord na Móna and ESB. He is one of the great community doctors of his generation, a man who has always had a vocational commitment to his profession. He marvels at the changes he has seen in medicine in his 58 years in practice.
“When I started out you’d be lucky if you got an x-ray. There was no such thing as MRI scans or keyhole surgery or even heart bypasses. If a footballer got a cruciate ligament injury their career was over.”
One of Dr Mick’s first calls as a young doctor was to an elderly woman who lived in an isolated townland on the far side of Bellacorick.
“It was three o’clock in the morning and it was a terrible night. There was a river near this woman’s home and I had to cross it on horseback! When I got to the house I discovered the poor woman had nothing more than a nosebleed! It was around Christmas time and as I was going out the door the woman called me back and gave me two bottles. She said: ‘That’s a great rub’. In fact, it was two bottles of the hard stuff [poteen]! I was lucky the guards didn’t catch me on the way back!”
The role of a rural GP in the 1960s or 1970s was very different from the structured, heavily regulated profession of today.
“I’d say 80 per cent of maternity was at home in those times so you’d be very busy with that too. There were no ambulances flying out to you at two or three in the morning. Doctors would be putting patients into their cars and bringing them up to the hospital. I’d say some of the docs today would think we were mad – and maybe we were!
“But there was a great old commitment there, a great bond between the patient and the doctor. I remember at Christmas I’d be going around doing my calls and people would be giving me biscuits and cakes. Doctors were so close to families in those days. I think it is very different today.”
Dr Mick is in the surgery at 10am every weekday morning, continuing to tend to the medical needs of his old friends from the Bord na Móna/ESB days.
“It is lovely to reflect on those happy years in Crossmolina. I had John James [McLoughlin] into me this morning and we were talking about the Bord na Móna first aid team. He could remember every member of the team! I think it is great that so many people have such wonderful memories of their time in Bellacorick. It was certainly a very special time in our town’s history and I look back on it with great fondness.”
