Mystery endures over Tipperary woman involved in tragic love affair

A renewed attempt is being made to solve the mystery of a tragic love story from 85 years ago that involved a young Tipperary woman.

She was Nora and her boyfriend was a Dubliner, Patsy Daly from Gordon Street in Ringsend.

The star-crossed couple died within a short time of each other in 1935 and Patsy Daly’s nephew is now trying to trace any relatives of Nora, whose surname he doesn’t know, or where she came from in the county.

“Patsy was in love with a Tipperary girl whose name was Nora,” his nephew Mick Brady told The Nationalist from his home in Clonskeagh, Dublin.

“My late mother Polly, who was Patsy’s youngest sister, told me the story of how he died of TB way back in 1935. 

“Nora died shortly before him but Patsy didn’t know this until a few days before he passed away. 

“She had stopped coming to see him and went home to Tipperary. 

“Patsy thought she had abandoned him until a letter arrived from her sister with the news of her death.”

A singer/songwriter, Mick Brady has written a song called Patsy and Nora that was inspired by his uncle’s relationship.

“The lyric of the song is a more-or-less verbatim account of the story as told by my mother,” he says. 

“I always thought that it was the saddest and most romantic story I ever heard.

“I always wondered if there was a family somewhere in Tipperary that had the story from Nora’s point of view.”

Patsy Daly was 35 years of age when he died. He had a short spell in the army but was discharged from service after just a year because of his poor health, from which he suffered for many years, and which caused his death at a relatively young age.

His family had sent him to a sanatorium on the Isle of Wight for treatment for TB and at one stage they set up a workshop at the rear of the house in Ringsend, where he repaired shoes.  

The song Patsy and Nora can be heard on the digital music service Spotify by searching for Mick Brady’s name.

It’s included on his album A Word For The Begrudgers.

Mick Brady took early retirement from his job as principal of Sion Hill in Blackrock 12 years ago to follow his dream of becoming a professional singer-songwriter. 

His first teaching job was in Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana where he worked for three years. 

He spent 17 years as a science and maths teacher at the Holy Faith in the Coombe in Dublin before moving to Sion Hill in Blackrock, where he worked for 13 years, 11 of them as principal.

He has recorded nine albums and has been in a series of what he describes as bar and dance bands. 

The best-known of these was Hurricane Johnny and the Jets, with whom he played bass  in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

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