©Photograph: John Reidy 24/2/2003
The death has occurred of Anthony Cronin, (70) of Lower Main Street, Castleisland, Co. Kerry and formerly Kingdom Oil Company, Castleisland, August 3rd 2017 (peacefully).
Predeceased by his parents Michael and Kitty and brother Christy. Fondly cherished and sadly missed by his loving wife Teresa (Nee Davern, Cork), brother Con, sisters Mamie, Patricia and Mathilda, brothers-in-law, sister-in-law, nephews, nieces, godson Michael, all extended family, relatives, neighbours and a wide circle of friends.
May He Rest In Peace
Funeral Arrangements
Reposing at Tangney’s Funeral Home, Castleisland on Friday evening from 5pm to 7pm. Removal from his residence on Saturday morning arriving to Castleisland Parish Church for Requiem Mass at 11am. Burial afterwards in Scartaglin Cemetery.
Date Published: Thursday 3rd August 2017. Date of Death: Thursday 3rd August 2017.
The Last Time I Met Anthony on The Street
The last time I met Anthony Cronin on the street was on a fine evening in April.
He was standing at Dr. Daly’s door on Lower Main Street and just across the street from his Latin Quarter home. We chatted briefly about his state of health at the time and more so about the weather of the day.
We parted, and as I walked away he said ‘Goodbye John’ and it struck me speechless. I looked back at him and he nodded. A picture paints a thousand words.
And though I saw him after that at home and in hospital – it’s those knowing words that are now most likely to stay with me.
You Must Know Your People
As he would say himself ‘You must know your people’ and that kind of sign-off wasn’t Anthony’s style.
After a long and spirited battle Anthony Cronin died on Thursday. I should have written this yesterday but I wasn’t able.
Anthony was very good to me a long time ago. I fell off my bike on a freezingly cold winters morning over 50 years ago. I got a right bang off the icy Tralee Road and I felt dizzy and sick.
Love of his Life
I made it as far as Davy Griffin’s Corner and Anthony spotted my predicament. He took my bike and straightened whatever I had bent on it and took me into the house to his mother.
She gave me tea and made sure I was alright before I left.
Before Anthony met the love of his life, Teresa Davern in the late 1990s, there was Julie – and they were inseparable. She would accompany him wherever he went.
Tile the Floor
That came to an abrupt end one night when she soiled the carpet in Brennan’s Bar and forced the owners to tile the floor of the bar.
Julie was something else. Julie was a Beagle.
First Woman to Know
I’m fairly sure that Sheila Prendiville was one of the first women in Castleisland to know that Anthony and Teresa were getting married.
One winter’s afternoon I was on my way into Sheila’s and Anthony was on his way out. I went in and called for a pint and Sheila put her elbows on the counter and said, “Do you know what he’s after telling me ? – he’s getting married – could you believe him ? she asked.
Believe him we did as they got married in November 1999.
An Ríocht AC
A noted athlete in his youth, Anthony Cronin retained an interest in the sport throughout his life and with the Walsh brothers, Gerard and Joe and Denny McSweeney and Denis Twomey and Denis Brosnan and others, he was in the thick of the setting up of An Ríocht Athletic Club.
Funny, with a razor sharp wit, he was an absolute authority on townlands and boundary streams and ditches. And I can’t ever remember him being wrong in any such discussion.
Anthony went on a campaign of over a couple of years to get water back and flowing from The Fountain and the clock working on the nearby Market House.
Give me Time
He enlisted the help of Cllr. Danny Healy Rae and they managed to pipe and tap the water. It wasn’t from the original source but Anthony was more than happy to compromise.
On the day he drank his first glass of water from the newly flowing fountain I congratulated him on the achievement and asked him what’s next on his list. “Give me time,” he said – with a backward glance at the stalled clock on top of The Market House.
There will be a huge turnout at his removal this evening and burial tomorrow. I hope someone will bring a dog or two as they were so much part of his deeply colourful life.
May God be good to him. And I feel He will once He gets to know him.
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