There are no wing-mirrors in the world of Mick Teevan. For many, the necessary evil of emigration in 1950s and '60s Ireland brought little but anguish and pain, as the old world dissolved between their fingertips and they awoke, with a start, in the concrete jungles of Birmingham or Boston or London.
For Mick Teevan, who left Redhills as an 18-year-old in 1960, there were no such tribulations. Running a successful business and raising a family in south-west London took all his attention. In any case, as modern transport technology developed, he began to make it home more and more. These days, he's back to the old sod every few months, for the Galway races or games in Croker or just for a break from the pace of life in London.
"I was always happy enough in London," he told Breffni Blue. "Leaving home was something that had to be done at the time, most people were small farmers and it was a struggle to survive. Ireland had a good few years with the Celtic Tiger, but from what I hear it's a struggle to survive again. Anyway, we settled in fairly quickly and made this our home."
The Sixties in London were an exciting time for everyone, as the world recovered from the hardships and rationing of the post-war years. Work was plentiful, and in a community as vibrant as the Irish one, times were good. "When I came first I worked in various little jobs but we started off our own business fairly quickly," he recalls. "And lads had plenty of work. If you were sacked at 9 in the morning, you'd be working again at 10. You'd get a job anywhere, you could walk into three jobs in the one day if you wanted."
At the end of the working day, the music venues were the place to be, and Irish showbands and musicians making countrywide tours at home put trips to England onto the itinerary: to all intents and purposes, it was a 33rd county. "There was an awful lot of Irish over here in the '60s, so we were never on our own," says Teevan. "Music venues like the Galtee Mor, the Garryowen in Hammersmith and the Hibernian in Fulham were always buzzing. You had Big Tom and the Mainliners, Brendan Bowyer. The places were packed out with Irish - you may as well be at home!"
Having built up the company in the 1960s by concentrating on all aspects of construction, groundwork and excavation, Mick took the decision in the 1970s to open a tool hire depot. Both branches still exist as separate entities at opposite ends of the lengthy Horn Lane thoroughfare in Acton, west London, with M. Teevan & Co Ltd, concentrating on construction, based at 219 Horn Lane, and the M. Teevan Hire Co Ltd tool hire depot and offices headquartered at Hawkco House a mile up the road. Currently employing a full-time staff of 30, Mick still takes an active interest but as he approaches the milestone of his 70th birthday, he has decided to leave the day-to-day running of the businesses to his son Damien, while a second son, Paul, is involved in the office administration and IT side of affairs.
Like every businessman, Mick has experienced peaks and troughs, and the implosion of the construction sector in the wake of the banking crisis over the past two years has been one of the most difficult periods. "Last year," he says, "from the end of '08 and all through '09, was the worst I've ever seen it here. The weather over the winter, with a few terrible weeks of snow, didn't help but it seems to be picking up a bit again now. Things are still fairly tight in construction these days but there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. We're still carrying on, and no-one's banging down the door chasing us anyway!"
Despite being away from his homeland for his entire adult life, Mick takes a close interest in affairs at home, whether it's politics, the GAA or his great love of horseracing. "We get all the papers here, the Irish Indo, the World, the Sunday papers, so we keep an eye on how things are going at home - how the Government is handling things," he laughs. "I make it back three or four times every year too, and try not to miss the Galway races. Ascot and Goodwood are close enough to where we are here and we get to Cheltenham too - half of Ireland seems to be there every year!"
His roots, too, remain close to his heart. The days when he turned out for Annagh, now Redhills GFC, may be more than 50 years ago, but he has fond memories of his time on the GAA fields of Cavan. "The lads who played were mostly small farmers, and you also had Sean Kelly, a solicitor from out the Ballinagh road. His brother Seamus, who was a grocer in Redhills, played for years and years. We didn't win much when I was playing, but we had good times."
These days, his links with his home county are borne out through an involvement with London's Cavan Association. He says: "Tommy Duffy, who's from Shercock, had a lot of pubs in London down through the years. He's retired now and he organises big charity golf days and the like. We have great craic - you'd be out with lads from Cork and Kerry and they'd be calling us Cavan men mean. But you never saw a Cork man throwing £50 at you, did you?"
As for Cavan under Tommy Carr in 2010, how does he see it going? "We wish Tommy the best of luck and hopefully he can help to bring Cavan back to the top. Ulster is always hard but you never know what might happen." Tweet

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