Late Mr Tom Grealy – an appreciation

Aside from being the proprietor of a nationally known hotel in the county town, and his national profile on the golfing scene for decades, Tom Grealy, whose passing took place on July 26th, was also a trustworthy friend to many of those who were privileged to make his acquaintance.

John Cawley of Gurteen in South Sligo, who was a regional development officer with Macra Na Feirme in the mid-seventies, first introduced me to Tom Grealy on a Monday evening in October 1975 while I was having an evening meal with him in the Abbey Hotel. I was involved in Macra in those years, and John informed Tom that I had just commenced working as a junior reporter with the Herald. In turn, Tom informed me about the activities of Roscommon Junior Chamber and a local wedding in the hotel the previous week. Both news items featured in my Roscommon news column in that week's Herald.

Over the past 50 years Tom and Anya Grealy and their family have been a constant presence in my life. I lunched in the Abbey Hotel weekly during my 34 year working life with the Herald and on and off since. Tom's easy familiarity, ready wit, interest in sport generally, music, and the political scene both locally and nationally meant that he was always interesting and pleasant company.

Back in the late seventies, when the Herald published feature articles on all the golf clubs within County Roscommon, Tom was my chief source of information on his beloved Roscommon Golf Club. He also suggested to me a number of people that I should also talk to in association with the Roscommon club feature.

He was a lifelong friend of my fellow Kiltoom resident, Martin Quinn, the professional at the Athlone Golf Club, and he kept his golf up to scratch by playing weekly with him at the Hodson Bay course. A number of years later, to coincide with his presidency of the then Golfing Union of Ireland, he was the recipient of a County Roscommon sportstar award for his contribution to promoting the game. He agreed for me to pen a feature on him in the Herald on the basis that it would promote the the Roscommon club and the clubs around the midlands.

Over lunches in the hotel he informed me that his late mother, Mai, went around to all the tables after dinners and functions to make sure that all cigarettes in ash trays were totally put out. Hotels, licensed premises and restaurants have no such difficulties since the no smoking ban. Tom completed his hotel management training at the Talbot Hotel in Wexford.

He liked conversing with people of all ages and he frequently sat with our table grouping in the hotel during lunch time. Others who lunched at that table in decades past included Roscommon GAA legend, the late Paddy Francis Dwyer, and nationally known Roscommon auctioneer, John Earley, then of Castleplunkett, and latterly of Roscommon Town. Tom had a rapier wit and he could slag and tease with his natural verbal felicity.

Each week, over the decades, he could readily comment on some point made in one or other editorial in the Herald.

Saturday was his favourite day for the Irish Times with its varied weekend supplements.

In his managerial role, he also availed of the circular table at which we sat to keep an eye on the various comings and goings in the dining area.

He always greeted people as they entered or exited. On occasion, he interacted with dining room staff, but never in an unpleasant manner. During the many functions I have reported upon in the Abbey Hotel ballroom over the decades, I have observed him walk around and view the proceedings. He never did so in an intrusive manner.

During my last conversation with him in the hotel, with his son Adrian and daughter-in-law, Geraldine Grealy also on the premises, he expressed satisfaction to me about the manner in which Geraldine engages in her promotional role for the hotel and also commented on the fact that Adrian always engages customers and visitors in conversation.

To his wife, Anya, sons, Tom Junior, Adrian and Robert, daughter Mary Claire Rogers, and extended family, I extend my deepest sympathy on their loss. May his soul rest in peace.