Obituary: Proud Rathdowney native was a true gentleman, scholar and teacher

THE death has taken place in London of Rathdowney native John 'John Joe' Phelan.

John’s earthly journey sadly ended on 17 February in Kingston Hospital following two long months of hospital treatment. It began more happily on Monday 29 March 1943 in Portlaoise hospital.

He was the eldest child of Dan and Maureen and was named after both his grandfathers – John Luby and Joseph Phelan. To his family he was affectionately known as John Joe, a big brother to Therese, Pat, Tom and Gerard.

He grew up in Rathdowney, initially living with his parents in a single rented room in Brewside situated next to the town brewery and opposite the convent school. His mother was a talented seamstress and his father a labourer, then a farmer of cattle and sugar beet. Later, the family moved to the newly-built Daly Terrace, overlooking fields and the hurling field. He learnt to swim in the local reservoir and when not in school his time was spent toiling hard on his knees thinning beet on his father’s rented fields and running messages – usually to get cigarettes or place a bet for his father.

He often spoke fondly of his gentle grandfather, who he called 'Dam'. He often stayed with his grandparents, who lived in a traditional thatched cottage at Glosha.

The crossroads were a point of locals gathering for dances, music and playing cards. He loved his childhood years, spending time there along with his sister Therese and playing hurling with cousins nearby.

There were no mod-cons, TV or radio, although he did live next door to the Coliseum cinema in Rathdowney, which is now a community centre. In order to watch the films – mainly American westerns – he used to help sweep up in the cinema in return for a free seat beside the projectionist. This was the start of his lifelong passion for film and even more so the film scores.

He always enjoyed the film Cinema Paradiso as it reminded him of his youth spent in the projection booth.

Throughout his life he had a thirst for knowledge and this started early when, at the age of about three, he wandered into the convent school opposite his home and joined in the convent school classes long before being of school age. The love of learning and especially reading stayed with him.

His faith was very important to him. As a 13-year-old, he left home and joined the De La Salle Brothers in Mallow, Co Cork and also spent time at Castletown, Berkshire and Manchester. He subsequently left in 1963 when he had just turned 20, prior to completing his teacher training, as he decided missionary work was not for him.

So, 60 years ago, he left Ireland and headed off to London to finish his teacher training. He rented a room near St Mary's, Twickenham and worked in a brewery bottling beer and in a factory cutting cloth to help pay his way. Although he may not have had much in terms of material things, he was armed with a very strong sense of character, love of his family and a strong faith. In the intervening years, each of those qualities grew and deepened.

He met Valerie, his wife of 57 years, at St Peter and Paul RC school, Mitcham in 1965. In 1968, they set up their home in Chessington and raised six children – Sarah Jane, who died in infancy, Helen, Brendan, Rachel, Angela and Jonathan. The school holidays were spent travelling back to Ireland to see family, and the family have happy memories of days at the coast and summers spent in Rathdowney.

Although he started as a primary school teacher, he made the transition to be a secondary teacher of maths, then computer studies. He embraced the IT world when it was in its infancy and bought his first computer in 1976, an Altair 8800, which had no screen or mouse, just LEDs on the front panel!

He self-taught himself coding and was the go-to for tech support for family and friends due to his vast knowledge.

He took voluntary early retirement in 1996 at the age of 53, after teaching for 26 years at Hollyfield School, Surbiton.

This is when he got to do things he really enjoyed. He travelled to libraries near and far and borrowed books that he not only scanned to an image but he used OCR (optical character recognition) to convert it to text that he could edit and read. He was an early Kindle!

He got to spend long periods back in Ireland, where he loved to visit all the extended family. Even in the last month's in hospital, he loved to hear all the news of the family.

But for all his seriousness, he had a sense of fun, especially when his much-loved grandchildren arrived – Romek, Morgan, Max, Keira and Felix.

He suffered a stroke in 2017, which caused poor dexterity to his left side. Although this prevented him from returning to his beloved Ireland again, he learnt to adapt by typing on the computer with one hand.

He even showed his grandchildren how to hurl, with a walking stick in one hand and a hurl in the other.

John Joe’s life could be described in many ways as a very simple one. He was not materialistic, or vain, but a true gentleman, scholar and teacher, who was dedicated to his family with a lifelong faith. He enjoyed the company of his family but also the peace and quiet of his own thoughts, music in the background and the intimacy of a good book while having a puff on his pipe.

He made his own way in life through hard work, resilience and determination. He will be remembered by his family as a great role model, a fantastic brother, husband, father and grandfather.

Appropriately, his funeral Mass took place in St Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Chessington on St Patrick's Day.

He is survived by his wife Valerie, sons Brendan and Jonathan, daughters Helen, Rachel and Angela, sister Therese (Limerick), Pat (Kilkenny) and Tom (Rathdowney), grandchildren and extended family and friends.