Son of Olympic hero takes a trip down memory lane at the Tipperary Museum of Hidden History

Donating a quarter of a million euros to help young people pursue a career in medicine was an extraordinary gesture to make.
Doctor Terry O’Callaghan generously made donations to schools, universities, and charitable organisations along with his work colleagues throughout a distinguished medical career in America and he explains his decision to make such a donation to the secondary school he attended in Clonmel as a natural follow-on of that practice.
The love of the town and the strength of the connection that Terry and his family enjoys with Clonmel shone through as Terry examined the people and the places that feature in the Visual Emotion exhibition of the pictures of John D Kelly at the Tipperary Museum of Hidden History.

After visiting the High School, he availed of the opportunity to take a trip down memory lane. Accompanied by museum curator Marie McMahon, Terry O’Callaghan took a nostalgic journey back in time as he viewed the pictures that span a 40 year period in the life of the town.

Pictures of his father feature in the exhibition including one picture of Dr Pat standing in the hallway of the family home in Roseville where he grew up with his brothers and sisters, a beautiful study of his father that Terry had never seen before.
It brought a smile to his face as he started to talk about his father where the surgery and everything else was located in the house on the Western Road that has disappeared with the National Learning Network now in its place.
Terry spoke tenderly about the places that were familiar to him, the town landmarks, the street corners, the various shops that he remembered going into as a boy. Looking at a picture of the late Paul Hally on what was known as Sheila’s corner, Terry said his mother Kitty (O’Reilly) ran a men]s and women]s drapery shop at that junction which was established by her father at the junction of O’ Connell Street and Gladstone Street.

Terry had a deep knowledge of the shops and people who worked there that would have existed before the shop fronts that feature in John’s exhibition would have appeared in the town. It was an emotional experience for Terry as he spoke about his days walking up the Holy Year Cross, going off shooting with friends all over the place from Clogheen to Slievenamon, and because the family were so involved with greyhounds, looking at images from the National Coursing Meeting in Powerstown in the exhibition, Terry said his brothers and sisters just took three days off from school every year for the national meeting. Almost every picture evoked special memories for Terry. The sporting pictures led to a story about how proud he was to play for Commercials and to play minor football for Tipperary and he spoke about the great friends he had in the High School and all of the athletic events they took part in.

He was particularly interested in viewing the jersey Mick Hogan wore on Bloody Sunday which is on display. He was also very taken by the special presentation on the late Frank Patterson in the museum , who Terry said was a friend of his and who had stayed with him at his house in America.