The McMenamins
By Kathy McGee Burns
“Take, if you must, this little bag of dreams.
Unloose the cord, and they will wrap you round.”
These are words written by William Butler Yeats, a poet, dramatist, Nobel Prize winner and a Sligo man, buried beneath Benbulben. His words have great meaning for Sean and Johanna McMenamin, 2009 Hall of Fame inductee.
Johanna Kilroy McMenamin, is from Sligo, youngest of eight children born to Nora and Luke. Her town, Bellaghy, was a small market town with a main street and a railroad line which separated it from Charlestown, County Mayo.
And Sean is the oldest of 6, a Mayo man from Killadangan, 3 miles from Westport. This is an old Druid town and the burial site of the mythical King of Killa Dangan, his servant, Thulera, the twin sons of O’Malley and a one-legged Englishman named Cox. The area is demarcated by a circle with five randomly standing, pointed stones. Sean said that from his front door you could see Clew Bay and from the back, Croagh Patrick. The McMenamin parents were P.J.( a farmer) and Maggie (a nurse).
Johanna attended Lowpark National School and the Maris Convent for Girls and she shared this experience with her best friend of 60 years, Attracta O’Malley, who now lives in Philadelphia. Attracta remembers Johanna as very shy and well loved by her teachers.
Sean was educated by the Christian Brothers and eventually attended Westport Technical School where he specialized in construction trades. After graduation, Sean had the wanderlust and moved to England to serve his apprenticeship. In the winter of ’66, when the immigration laws were tightening, Sean decided to come to America. Would it be Pittsburgh or New York? That’s what Sean had to decide. While coming to grips with this dilemma, he traveled to Philadelphia to visit his cousin, Austen McGreal and his wife, Margie. This is where that bag of dreams starts to fill up. Austen said, “Give Philadelphia a try!”
Sean has always believed that his life was full of many twists of fate.
In the meantime, Johanna had come here in 1962 to join some of her family and was working with Attracta at General Accident Insurance Company. She was busy having fun with all of her new friends, attending dances at Connelly’s, 69th Street and The Irish Center.
Two weeks after Sean settled into his new home, his friend Hughie O’Malley took him to the Irish Center. On the very day that the Mayo Men’s Club began to accept women members and became the Mayo Association, Sean joined. He had also been drafted into the Army, an event he welcomed. As fate would have it again, he was assigned to Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey, as a MP, Stockade Guard Commander. In August of 1966, on a Sunday night, he and his friend, Tommy Moffit, went to the Irish Center to join Tommy’s sisters, Attracta and Kathleen and their friend Johanna Kilroy. Yes, it was love at first sight! The cord to the bag of dreams was starting to unloosen.
They spent a lot of time double dating with Attracta Moffit and Tom O’Malley. As a matter of fact the two couples married two weeks apart in 1968.
Sean and Johanna have been married for 41 years. They are such a lovely couple, sweet, caring and giving. They are totally devoted to each other and through their love and respect for traditions, they have devoted themselves to the needs of the Irish Center.
Sean was President of the Mayo Association in 1972; treasurer of the Mayo Association; secretary of the Gaelic Athletic Association; and president of the Irish Center. One of his greatest achievements and loves is the library. He and local historian Billy Brennan found an empty room on the second floor of the Center, plastered the walls, laid the floors, electrified the circuits, painted, carpeted, and stacked it with books. Their joint love of Irish history and literature has left us all with one of the greatest attributes of the Irish Center. They have collected many treasured books and publications. Students from various universities have often used that 50-year-old library for research.
Johanna, like Sean, has been a 40-year member of Mayo, quietly working behind the scenes, supporting the activities of the members and her more visible husband. She and Attracta worked diligently to get an airport at Knock. She was involved with the Philadelphia Ceili Group in the early 60’s. Many a fundraiser was successful because of the generous touch of Johanna.
The McMenamins live in Cheltenham and have raised 4 children: daughters, Margaret, married to Jimmy Kilkenny (Kaylee, Kiera, and Maura); Noreen, married to Steve Diehl (Johanna and Patrick); Eileen, married to John DiTore; and son, Sean.
They are two special people, who fate brought together, and wrapped its bagful of dreams round them. We are so very lucky to know them and be honoring them on the 15th of November.