Sylvester O Mahony (1913 - 1985)

He left school early, not by choice, but attended the Sharman Crawford Vocational School and then worked at E. Ryan and Company as a despatch clerk from late 1929 or early 1930s until the company went into voluntary liquidation. The company made Celtic carbolic soap, Buttermilk toilet soap, candles and altar and Christmas candles.

Sylvester later worked in the Motor Taxation Office of Cork Corporation and then with Deasy Kiloh Co. Cork until retirement age.

He was a life-long trade unionist and was shop steward and branch representative at many national conferences, delegate to the Cork Council of Irish Unions and later to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions annual delegate conference . He became a member of the Irish Federation of Musicians and served on the Branch Committee and National Executive. His Trade Union activity encouraged him to attend University College Cork where he was awarded the Diploma in Social Studies. He also attended the International Labour Organization in Geneva (ILO).

Sylvester started a family band, originally called The O Mahony Ceili Band, which blossomed into the Blackthorn Ceili Band.

He was passionate about the subject of educational opportunity for the children of working men and women. He was responsible, in no small way, for raising the issue at ICTU conferences. It later became national policy as the free education scheme thanks to Donnacha O Malley, TD as Minister for Education.

He attended Arthur Bernabo in Cork as a student of the violin and it was one of his misfortunes to suffer a number of strokes which robbed him of his capacity to play a few tunes for his own amusement.

He was a hard working man but found it hard to express his emotions. This was a legacy, no doubt, of the loss of his own father at such an early age.