Thomas McGuire, despite his womanising ways, had some compensating traits which overcame his foibles. With all his charm it was impossible not to like him, even though he caused several bouts of grief for the whole family. He was always forgiven. He was the loveable Irish rogue, a part he played with relish. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt here but the day he brought the Mistress for tea reveals to me not that he was a crass manipulating arrogant male but basically, er, how can I put this??.. A bit thick? He wore his heart on his sleeve, what you saw is what you got, so I have a hunch that he genuinely thought it would be an okay thing to do. Rose would understand, wouldn't she?
Rose, to her credit, entertained with tact and dignity. Family legend states that the Mistress exited the flat with all her teeth and never returned or continued her relationship with Thomas... How I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting! It was around that time the sleeping arrangements became established and there were no more pregnancies..... But Thomas stuck around and did his bit for the family, with a little help from the whiskey and Guinness, his radio and his music.
Where radio arrives in my life is through Grandad Thomas. His job was as a telegraphist with the GPO (General Post Office) and he was one of the pioneers of early communication. He started his apprenticeship in the Post Office around the time of the first world war sending morse code messages around the world... Or mainly down the railway line from Dublin to Cork or Belfast... His passion was building radios. This was at the time when they were beginning to invade the world and open up a whole new realm of experience for the population. The only modern equivalent I can think of which might mirror the growth and impact of radio into households in the 1920/30's is the similar boom that Sky TV has been to us today. One minute nothing, the next the dishes are everywhere. It must have been the same for garden poles and long wire aerials...
In the few short years that radio established itself as a must have household item, Thomas led the way. He built crystal sets, one valvers, two valvers and even hand built speakers carefully winding their coils, sourcing magnets and cutting out paper formers to achieve the best possible sound. I have a memory of his treatise on the efficacy of large baffle boards in order to capture the richer bass tones. His major claim to fame was his aerial... Remember we are in Ireland during the turbulent 1920/30's and in the political backdrop of a new fledgling country just rid of British domination. To Thomas this meant that any decent radio programmes could only be heard on the BBC. Raidio Teilifis Eireann started its broadcasts on radio in 1926 and the telifis bit didn't start up till 1961. Thomas always sneered at their output and, secretly, mourned the day that Ireland broke away from its yoke and went it alone. With the Wicklow hills all around Bray plus the Welsh mountains on the other side of the Irish Sea, reception, especially at night,could be a problem. With the home made efforts of Thomas not exactly being of NASA quality, a good aerial was a must. This he achieved. It meant precarious visits to the roof followed by dangerous climbs up the trees down below but it seemed to work. The whole flat too was wired for sound. There was a speaker in every room run from the main reception set in the large living room. This arrangement enabled him to listen and lose himself, fiddle and glass in hand, and relish his other passion, music.
Many many years later when Rose left the flat for her small little town house, Margaret still in tow, I remember casting an eye over the remnants of Thomas's aerial still hanging across the roof tiles and descending down into the distant garden. Of course it wasn't the McGuire's garden but then I did say Thomas had some charm...
... Tomorrow, my first morse key! Hand built by Thomas's....
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