John Francis O'Gorman (1875 - 1943)

Born 4 Feb 1875 in Glennagat, Knockgraffon, County Tipperary, Ireland

Husband of Margaret Mary (Smyth) O'Gorman — married 9 Feb 1909 in R.C. Church of Grange, Ardfinnan, Clogheen, County Tipperary, Ireland

Husband of Catherine (O'Brien) O'Gorman — married 16 Jan 1929 in University Church, St. Stephens Green, Dublin

Died 27 Dec 1943 at age 68 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Elsie Gorman [send private message]

Biography

John O'Gorman was born in Ireland.

This profile is part of the Gorman Name Study.

By 1901 John and his brother James were living in Clonmel with their Aunt Ann Sullivan. ^[1]

John and James founded a successful Coach building business, which at one stage was the largest such factory in Southern Ireland. O'Gorman Coach Building factory^[2]

By 1911 John had married Margaret and they had two children. ^[3]

Reminisces of working at O'Gorman's were published in 1988: O’Gorman Bros Prior Park Clonmel PART 1 ^[4] As I walked along the old Fethard line towards the Wilderness, I remembered the day, many years ago, when I was launched on the labour force of the nation without any particular flurry of excited anticipation from the local industrialists. Not that I can recall, at any rate. I commenced work as an apprentice coach painter with John O'Gorman & sons, Prior Park Clonmel, for a trial period of one month. Unpaid, of course. It was the largest such establishment in the South of Ireland at the time and one of the most modernly equipped factories in the country. There was a workforce of perhaps fifty or so craftsmen and trainees with over a dozen labourers engaged in preparatory work.

Although various makes of horse-drawn two and four wheel vehicles were manufactured including traps, gigs, jaunting carts, carriages, floats, even dray carts (Andy Fanning, Albert Street and Johnny Kennedy [Senr.], Bolton Street, both of whom were wheelwrights and carpenters, were in charge) the main business of the firm was the building of bus, coach, van and lorry bodies. The chassis for these were assembled in Cork and collected by the firm's mechanics. As there were no cabs on any of the chassis (they were built with the bodies in Clonmel), only a wooden bench lashed behind the steering wheel, the wretched drivers barely survived the journey from the South in the depths of winter. Good old days, how are you!

MOMENTARY DIGRESSION Allow me to digress for a few moments. The Irish Omnibus Company, predecessor of the CIE bus servis, was established just a few years previously and the firm of John O'Gorman & Sons was so well-known and respected at the time that it was asked to tender for the building of the new fleet. After long and serious negotiations the contract was eventually won by Inchicore Works in Dublin which was already engaged in the production of railway carriages. They added a new plant to the already extensive works to cater for the new omnibus services. That's how near Clonmel came to building the bus fleets of the country. There was one privately owned local service with a fleet of three 22-seaters fitted with big powerful Mercedes Benz engines. These plied between Clonmel and Thurles; Clonmel-Tipperary, and I'm not quite sure that Carrick was included in some of the weekday services. However, this company went burst (liquidation) after a few months and the vehicles were stored in the Prior Park Works when I was there. Harry Bushe of Wolfe Tone Street and a partner came along shortly afterwards and got the service going again. When the partner pulled out, Harry, renaming the fleet as Princess Bus Service, bravely kept the wheels turning until, through lack of capital just when things were picking up, he sold the company to Bob Campion, who had a pub in Irishtown.

BACK TO O'GORMANS Now let us get back to O'Gorman's and the men who worked there. Discipline was strict. I saw two young men suspended for a fortnight for kicking a match box along the ground as they walked to their work benches, after lunch. A couple of minutes late and you were docked a quarter of an hour's pay. Smoking was prohibited and visits to the toilet were monitored. We worked 50 hours a week. When my probationary month was up I was paid 7/6d per week. After ten hours overtime one week I received an extra one shilling and three pence! Craftsman, after an apprenticeship of seven years, were required to work another two years as improvers before being recognised as fully qualified journeymen. They were then paid £2 18S 6d, the full rate. When a work order was received from the office it went first to the machine shop where Paddy Phelan, Ard na Greine, was overseer. He was a natural mechanic and could anticipate machine trouble almost before it occurred. His assistant was Mick Cooney of the Old Bridge, who was equally expert.

THE COACH BUILDERS The timber was then passed to the coach builders. The man in charge here was Andy Ryan, late of 26 Slievenamon Road. His crew included Tommy Cramp, Davis Road; Charlie Johnson, Coronation Row; Johnny O'Donnell, Clerihan; Dan and 'Specs' McGrath, Bridge Street. The next team to take over were the coachsmiths, which included 'Chilly' Hyland, William Street; Jimmy Whelan, Bolton Street; and Mickey Foley, Queen Street. The panel beaters, led by big genial Bill O'Brien, who came from around Cloneen were next. They included Pat Fox, Kickham Street; Tom Morris, Fethard Road and Jim Williams, St. Mary's Place (formerly of Heywood Road) who was later our country senior football goalkeeper. The penultimate operation was the upholstery work carried out by Johnny Brainey (I forgot where he lived); Tommy Wallace, who resided in Davis Road and Johnny Powell of Fethard Road and Ard na Greine.

TO THE PAINTERS The job was finally put in the hands of the painters, neat, natty, little men led by Willie Green (Tommy and Bernie's father) who lived in Queen street at the time. Members of his team were Mossy Keating (his son is now a well known house painter in town); Mickey Lonergan (also expert in the art of french polishing), Rivers Street; Paddy Hickey, St. Mary's Place (who saw to it, that I didn't get into too much trouble), and Paddy Kearney, Irishtown.

Incidentally, the first mechanical paint sprayer outside Dublin and Cork was installed at O'Gorman's during my sojourn with the firm. The apparatus was run off the back wheel of a jacked up Model T Ford for many months before an electric motor was installed. I must return to this subject again in another article, as about this period in time, the horse and cart, as a means of transport, was steadily being replaced, by mechanically propelled vehicles, and the smaller family coach building firms dotted around the country, unable to accept the change, perished one by one.

O’Gorman Bros Prior Park Clonmel. PART 2 ^[5] Inevitably, when writing from memory about O'Gormans coachbuilding works at Prior Park, I omitted some names of people who had worked there in the thirties. Eddie O'Connor, Abbey Road was one and he reminded me of a rather amusing incident

A temporary accountant was employed there at the time who was fond of asserting an authority he never had even on the factory floor. Standing near a bus which was in for repairs, he was loudly berating a labouring man when a hand reached out from under the vehicle and painted the toecaps of his beautiful brown brogues a brilliant black. Eventually, he stalked away with his head in the air still unaware of what had occurred, We never saw him again. John Callaghan of the Shower Bath, Old Bridge, was another member of the staff. He is now caretaker of the Courthouse. Tom Norris, Shortcastle, Ardfinnan, was one of the team of coach bodybuilders.

Bill Cooney, who later resided near Redmondstown, was storekeeper and caretaker. The stores were situated in the unused servants' quarters of Prior Park House and included 2,000 wooden mallets which were bought cheaply in Germany by one of the firm's representatives on the continent. Cooney was so honest that he wouldn't give you a nail without an order from the office. I know he wouldn't give me one of the mallets, anyway, when I wanted it to knock down the pegs of a tent when I went camping.

EVEN THE AUCTIONEER JOINED IN Years later when, sadly the firm went into liquidation, I attended the sale. When the auctioneer tried to sell the eight crates of mallets, each containing 250, there was a roar of laughter from the crowd, in which even the auctioneer joined.

Apparently a mallet was one of the test pieces in carpentry examinations in our technical schools' equivalent in Germany, and so many thousands had accumulated over the years that no-one knew what to do with them. Like one of our recent Ministers of Argriculture, the late James Dillon, who proposed to drown Britain in eggs, John O'Gorman's continental representative may have felt he could smother Ireland with mallets. Or maybe it was only the politicians in Dail Eireann he intended to put down.

John O'Gorman was managing director of the company; Willie Prendergast held the position of general manager of the factory and later established his own business along the same lines near the Gashouse Bridge. Mick Whelan, who lived in Queen Street, and who was a brother-in-law of John O'Gorman, was timekeeper.

O'Gorman was born and reared near Glennagat, close to New Inn. I was talking to his daughter, Mrs Harwood, during the week, when I was invited to visit Prior Park House to look at some old photographs. I hoped to get one of the staff. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful, but Mrs Harwood said she had more albums to go through and will be in touch again.

QUAKER CHAPEL Her courteous husband, Graham, was kind enough to walk with me through the grounds where I renewed acquaintance with the tall Californian Redwoods (Sequota Sempervirens) - so rare in this country - and again ran my fingers over the ancient, gnarled trunk of the wisteria at the entrance to the kitchen garden. I visited again the little chapel or meeting place of the Quakers, the Society of Friends, which is now almost covered in undergrowth.

Two subsidiaries of John O'Gorman's coachbuilding firm were the South of Ireland School of Motoring and O'Gorman's Garage in Parnell Street. The school was situated on the factory ground, with an entrance opposite the Spanish Arms, now owned by the Bates family on the Fethard Road. Andy Dillon was in charge for a time before being succeeded by James Gogarty of Cahir.I was recently talking to Jack Quinlan of St. Patrick's Terrace (his family had an extensive farm at Suirmount - and some fine Salmon fishing- beyond Kilmanahan). When he moved into Clonmel in the late 20s he took a ten week course at the school and emerged with a first-class pass. His certificate stated: 'This is to certify that as a result of an examination held at the South of Ireland School of Motoring on the 7th day of November 1929, in Mechanical Petrol Motor Driving, John Quinlan was awarded a first-class pass in (a) Mechanism and Ignition (87 marks out of 100); (b) Driving and Tyrefitting (85 marks), Signed John O'Gorman, Manager; James S. Gogarty, Examiner.'

The late Dinny Flynn was on the same course. The ten weeks tuition cost IR£15 with a shorter session of three weeks at IR£10. Anytime, I was sent down from the factory with some correspondence there were always eight or ten young men moving around with spanners in their hands. They were either undoing the 'bones' of an old Model T or trying to assemble it again.

There never seemed to be a whole car in one piece. An anatomy room for surgically minded trainee hackney drivers in fact!

OPENED OWN GARAGE When Andy Dillon, a first-class mechanic and fitter, left the school he was put in charge of O'Gorman's garage in Parnell Street (King & Keating bought the premises in later years). When he married one of the Clifford girls of O'Connell Street he opened his own garage near West Gate where Sean Hackett now trades in electrical goods. He later moved to the top of Irishtown where his son Andy and daughter Kathleen now carry on a highly successful garage business. The administrative offices of O'Gormans were situated over the garage in Parnell Street and some of the staff who worked there were Jimmy Cooney, car salesman, who was a Dungarvan man; Nora Walsh, Heywood Road and Alice O'Neill - I think she came from Chancellorstown, New Inn - were in charge of the day to day office business, and there was an accountant whose name I cannot recall. Miss Walsh later married Jack Quinlan and went to live in St Patrick's Terrace.

Some of the mechanics who worked in the garage were: Jody Brennan, brother of Mrs John Duggan, Fethard Road; Sonny Power, Old Bridge; Jimmy Flynn Ballyneety, Ardfinnan; William O'Keeffe, Greenmount, Newcastle; Mick Ryan, Cashel;Paddy Ryan, 28 Slievenamon Road; Jack Egan, a Dublinman; and later John and Jim Murphy, whose parents had a family grocery business near the West Gate in Lower Irishtown. Davy McEniry, Queen Street, helped to jog my memory in recalling these names.

A CURIOUS FACT A curious fact is that nearly all the mechanics of the town had an arm in a sling at one time or another. the self- starter had yet to be invented, so car engines were set in motion by the vigorous twisting clockwise of a starting handle inserted in the front of the car. If the engine back-fired, a somewhat frequent occurrence, the handle was violently jerked in the opposite direction, inevitably striking the mechanic on the back of the wrist. Broken bones were the result.

My retirement from the firm was both premature and unsatisfactory. I was sitting on top of a bus in the centre of the factory one morning after painting myself into a corner opposite where I had placed the ladder. I was wondering how the blazes I was going to get out of the predicament. To make matters worse the timekeeper-cum-office clerk that day - he must have been weaned on a pickle - came and growled up at me to hurry along to the garage in Parnell Street and collect the post.

Big Bill O'Brien, the panel beater, God bless him (I heard during the week he has a thriving repair business in Fethard in partnership with his son), noticed something was wrong. He mounted the ladder, reached across the roof, picked me up like a periwinkle on the end of a pin and set me down on the ground.

I collected the post and was just about coming out of Mrs Dempsey's shop, where Frank O'Keeffe now carries on business - with a pennysworth (8) of BB toffees when I was accosted by one of the Fethard Road mob. Generally there were three or four of them and they demanded tribute - a sweet each - for a safe conduct passage through their terrirtory, which was a reasonable enough demand. The Irishtown chaps would have acted in like manner. This fellow, however, wanted half my sweets. Outrageous, of course. I feel sure unjust would be the definition in some quarters .But not having the time to sit down and debate the proposition and remembering that even a worm will, on occasion, turn, I carefully placed the three letters against the wall and quickly became engaged in a bout of bloody fisticuffs.

Big Johnny Condon, the undertaker, appeared on the scene and ordered my adversary to disappear and gave me a pat on the back to speed me on my way.

When I went to pick up the letters they were gone! Mr Condon and his son unsuccessfully searched the streets with me but as there is always a half-gale blowing around that area, especially in the Spring of the year, heaven only knows where the letters ended up.

I realised now that my days as a painter's apprentice in Prior Park were numbered and this was quickly confirmed when I confessed - without telling about the fight - that I had lost the post. The management unanimously decided it would be in the best interest of the firm if I slung my hook - took my undoubted talents elsewhere, and the sooner the better Which I did!

Many thanks to Brian Phelan for this information.

Sources

1. ↑ 1901 Census Tipperary/Clonmel_East John Gorman Gender: Male Marital status: Single Age: 26 Birth Date: abt 1875 Birth Place: Co Tipperary Residence Date: 31 Mar 1901 House Number: 17 Residence Place: Dillon Street, Clonmel East Urban, Tipperary, Ireland Relation to Head: Nephew Occupation: Coach Builder Religion: Roman Catholic Literacy: Read and write Household Members: Name Age Anne Sullivan 61 John Gorman 26 James Gorman 24
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Gorman_Coach_Builders
3. ↑ Residents of a house 6 in Prince Edward's Place (Clonmel East Urban, Tipperary) 1911 OGorman John 35 Male Head of Family Roman Catholic Co Tipperary Coach Builder Read and write - Married - 2 - - OGorman Margaret 33 Female Wife Roman Catholic Co Tipperary - Read and write - - - 2 - - OGorman James 33 Male Brother Roman Catholic Co Tipperary Coach Builder
4. ↑ Written by MICHAEL DROHAN in 'THE NATIONALIST' titled 'MEMORIES OF AN APPRENTICE COACH BUILDER' written on 3rd September 1988.
5. ↑ The following article appeared in 'THE NATIONALIST', on Saturday 24/9/1988, titled 'MORE ABOUT O'GORMANS, THE COACHBUILDERS' - by MICHAEL DROHAN.

• Death age 68, Registration District: Clonmel, Volume: 4, Page: 288

FHL Film Number: 101742 Ireland, Civil Registration Deaths Index, 1864-1958