Furey, PJ
July 12, 2013P.J.'s first appointment as a Garda was to the Bridewell Station in Dublin. He subsequently served as a Garda in Leighlinbridge, (Carlow); Poulaphouca, (Wicklow) and Campile (Wexford).
At the age of 38 he was appointed Sergeant at Glengevlin, (Cavan) and continued his career at Lough Gowna, (Cavan); Ballitore (Kildare), Carlow town and his
final destination was Durrow (Laois). He retired on July 7, 1972.
PJ married Margaret (Peg) Richardson from Castlebar on September 26, 1944 having met her in Dublin where they loved the dances in the Teachers' Club and taking the tram to Howth Head. They wed in Margaret's home town and were to have seven surviving children. PJ never forgot his Galway roots celebrating his native county in verse and following their victories and lamenting their losses on the playing field.
As a poet PJ. celebrated local and national Gaelic Football and Hurling teams, his last poem being "Galway all the Way", printed in this newspaper before the final this year.
PJ was a champion draughts player and tutored children in the Community Game; his pride and joy was local Carlow girl, Patricia Breen who went on at 14 years of age to take the World Ladies Title. He won the Masters Open in 1999 and competed every year in the Irish Open in which he won many awards. He was on the Irish team in 1988 which defeated teams from Scotland, Wales and Guernsey and came second, after England, in the Tournament. His latest competition was in February of this year in the Kildare Open in which he played ten games, winning eight and drawing two!
He was also a keen hurler. While stationed in Campile,. Co Wexford PJ. was named 'Hurler of the Year' while playing for the Horeswood GAA club. While being ever faithful to his beloved Galway teams, he admired talent when he saw it and immortalized Henry Sheflin and the Cats in his 2010 poem "Kilkenny Five in a Row" (featured on YouTube).
PJ had remarkable learning and retaining powers and he loved to recite poems he learned at school in Oranmore and other recitations learned since then. Popular at parties were the long ballads The Cremation of Sam Magee and Dangerous Dan McGrew. No family celebration was complete without a poem specially written by PJ. He loved to do the crosswords and in the last few weeks he had taken up Sudoku with relish.
Possessing a special love of Our Lady, PJ. worked tirelessly to promote the Rosary. He helped organise two rosary groups in Carlow Town, which have continued over the past 22 years and on his death was the Vice-President of the Legion of Mary.
He was a very up-to-date nanogenarian, using his mobile phone and creating CD'S of his poems and songs, which he distributed freely around the country. His songs and poems reflected his ideas on religion, nature, morals, sport, towns and counties of Ireland, characters he met and international events such as the visit of Barak Obama.
P.J. is survived by his wife Margaret (Peg), children Sean, Anna Mulvihill, Mary Maher, Regina Furey, Patricia Furey, and Bemadette Wynne.
P.J.'s younger son, Sylvester (Syl), retired Garda, predeceased him in October 2001, aged 51,
He is also survived by sons-in-law, Sean Mulvihill, Tommy Maher, Oliver Wynne; daughters-in-law, Peggie Furey, Alice Furey; his 22 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.
Perhaps a fitting conclusion to this obituary is the last two verses of P.J.'s poem "Farewell to Galway"-
"But there's one thing I know for certain,
That someday I'll return,
To my friends and my companions,
In the place where I was born.
I'll come back to Galway City,
Moycullen and Oranmore,
Home to Bama, Rossmuck and Coma,
There to dwell for ever more."
Courtesy of The Connacht Tribune Tweet
