Teddy’s funeral filled with music and song

The death took place on Saturday, December 16, of Teddy Morgan, a former captain of the Nenagh Ormond Rugby Club squad and a true character who was well-known in music circles in the town. Teddy was a member of the highly successful Ormond side that won both the Clare and Mansergh cups in the season of 1959-1960.

He was an employee of the former Nenagh Castle Brand Company in Tyone where he was highly respected as a skilled polisher.

A socialist at heart, Teddy loyal activist for the Labour Party. He was very involved in the trade union movement and acted as shop steward during his time working with Castle Brand, a company that made pots and pans and other similar items for the home and international market.

When the company closed in the 1980s Teddy had more time to pursue many of his other interests. He was a keen angler and enjoyed many hours fishing for trout and pike on Lough Derg. He kept a boat in Dromineer and some time as a gilly, bringing visiting anglers to the best fishing spots on the waterway.

Around the same time he threw his energies into building talent from the ground up in the local rugby club.

As a man who captained the club’s first squad in the 1960s, Teddy had much to offer youngsters keen to learn the skills of the game. Indeed, both he and his late wife Peg, a local schoolbus driver, were instrumental in many juvenile successes enjoyed by the club in the 1980s.

LIKE PARENTS

One member of the highly successful Under 18 squad from 1983, paying tribute to Teddy on his passing, recalled how he and Peg arranged trips and games in the UK for the team to expose them to top class competition.

“We never wanted for nothing with Peg and Teddy. They were like our second parents,” the former player stated. Teddy was a gifted singer even as a young boy and used to be chosen by his teachers in Saint Mary’s Boys National School to perform at various local church ceremonies and other events. Blessed with a sweet tenor voice, he maintained a passion for singing right throughout his life.

He was a member of the now defunct Annfield Singers choir in Nenagh in the 1980s and 1990s and he was involved for decades with Nenagh Choral Society, appearing in many of their top shows in the Scouts Hall.

In extending sympathy to his family on his passing, the Choral Society described him as one of their “stalwart” members. “He was instrumental in reforming the society in 1970 and was also an honourary member,” the society said on its Facebook page.

NEW CHOIR

Teddy joined the Ormond Octaves choir when it was founded by Toomevara’s Niamh Ryan in 2008. He was a revered member of the tenors’ section, and a highlight of all the choir’s post-concert parties was Teddy’s unique and dramatic rendition of the Sinatra hit, My Way.

One of its most enthusiastic members, he was always the first man to turn up at the choir’s weekly practice sessions in Nenagh College. Indeed, he had spent many weeks preparing for this year’s Christmas Concert, but sadly was forced to bow out due to illness.

It was deeply poignant for all his fellow choir members after they learned that Teddy passed away in Milford Care Centre just hours after the concert in Saint Mary of the Rosary Church ended on Friday week last.  On hearing the sad news one Octave member summed up the general feeling about how all in the choir viewed him: “Teddy, you're now in the Choir of Angels. Heaven's gain is the Ormond Octaves sad loss.”

TD’s TRIBUTE

The local Labour Party TD Alan Kelly described Teddy as “a gent and a legend.”

The Nenagh Éire Óg club, whose teams were enforced by many Morgan family members over the decades, including Teddy’s late brother, Christy, also expressed its sympathy on his passing.

Teddy was also a member of Saint Mary of the Rosary Church Choir for many years, and in a fitting tribute at his Funeral Mass on Wednesday last, member of that choir were joined by singers from the Choral Society and the Ormond Octaves to give him the send-off he truly deserved.

To mark his interment beside his wife Peg in Lisboney Cemetery, the well-known local tenor Willie O’ Brien sang his favourite song, My Way.

It was just the perfect final bow by a man who was loved by so many.