Statement: Ballinrobe GAA Club – the late Mr Michael (Mick) Mulvey
Date: Saturday, November 9th, 2013
Ballinrobe GAA club regrets to announce the death earlier today of a former chairman of our club, Michael (Mick) Mulvey.
A native of Cloone, Co. Leitrim, Mick emigrated to Australia in his youth, and, with his wife Diana and their older sons and daughters, re-located to Ballinrobe in the 1970s. A number of members of his family were born here in Ballinrobe.
The popular couple ran a public house on Bridge Street – operated in more recent times by the Mooney family – and Mick was heavily involved in the promotion of Gaelic games in Ballinrobe. He was also deeply immersed in the business life of the town.
Mick assumed a number of roles within Ballinrobe GAA club, including that of chairman. Apart from running the public house, Mick was also a professional painter and was a familiar face around Ballinrobe for almost 40 years.
He will be fondly remembered in Melbourne, Australia, because, in 1956, he was a founder member of the St Kevin’s GAA club in the city. St Kevin’s is one of Melbourne’s oldest clubs, and continues to thrive, as their website illustrates. The year of 1956 was a good year for an Irish man to be in Melbourne as it coincided with Ronnie Delaney’s historic 1500m gold medal triumph in the Olympics, staged in the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Members of the Mulvey family played Gaelic football, hurling and ladies football with Ballinrobe, and, indeed, daughter Jenny was instrumental in establishing a ladies football team in Trinity College, Dublin, when she studied there in the early 2000s.
Funeral ceremonies will take place on Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Details are available HERE. Ballinrobe GAA club will form a guard of honour to escort Mick from St Joseph’s Funeral Home to St Mary’s Church, on Monday evening. Members are asked to assemble, wearing club gear if possible, at 7.45pm at the funeral home.
Sympathy is extended to his wife Diana, daughters Margaret, Anne and Jenny, sons Tom, Paul, Luke and Shane, and extended family.
May he rest in peace.
– Alan Flannery, Chairman, Ballinrobe GAA Club
Thanks Allan for that information on Mick.
Joe Moran and myself will never forget the help and time given by Mick to two green Wexford men to get established in Melbourne in 1970. We were both Hurlers and footballers and helped St Kevin’s to better times.
My wife Estelle helped behind the bar in Bridge St for 2 weeks when it was first opened (~’85).
We now live in Bellbowrie (Brisbane suburb) coincidentally with Tom Mulvey and more coincidentally, my next door neighbour is Jerry O’Toole from Ballinrobe (Tom’s friend).
Our sympathies to the family and your club.
Mick was a great friend and may he rest in peace.