'It’s important to have a laugh’... Proud Navan native and O'Mahony's supporter shares her philosophy on life

It’s important to have a laugh’

When asked the question as to what advice Ita McCormack would give to young people on how to help them through life’s journey she starts, in response, to quote a catchy, insightful, rhyme she learned over 80 years ago now.

It’s a rhyme she first heard in primary school and the words have clearly remained indelibly sealed in her memory ever since, because she delivers them without pause or hesitation.

“Do your best, that’s all you can do/Do your best, your very best, and do it every day/Little boys and girls that is the wisest way,” goes the opening line.

“Whatever works comes to your hand/At home or at school/Do your best, your very best/That is the golden rule.”

On the 17th January Ita will be 92 but she looks much younger than that and you wonder what is the philosophy or outlook in life that has helped her get to this stage in life.

“Is it diet?” you ask. “Never heard of it,” she says suddenly bursting into a laugh. “I eat everything I’m given.”

After a little pause she says that her grandchildren and greatgrandchildren (she has nine of the former and eight of the latter) certainly keep her on her toes. Remembering birthdays alone is a formidable feat in itself.

She points also to her love of puzzles and crosswords; to the unstinting support of her large family; to a gin and tonic she enjoys from time to time; to her sense of curiosity about so many aspects of life; to her love for sport, particularly the GAA and her beloved Navan O’Mahonys. “I’m now one of the oldest members of the club,” she adds with a sense of justifiable pride. All these are factors in keeping her young, she suggests.

During the course of a chat with the Meath Chronicle - that extends for 40 minutes or so - you realise there is something else that undoubtedly has helped her on her journey so far, including those dark days when she lost loved ones very close to her – her ability to laugh and enjoy life’s lighter moments.

“It’s important to have a laugh, we have great fun,” she adds, and it’s clear she lives by that mantra.

PARNELL PARK

Ita McCormack says she loves Navan even though the town is now a million miles away, in so many ways, from the place she grew up in.

When she was born in 1934 Navan was a small town where just about everybody knew each other. She was born Catherine Mary Bernadette Mockler but quickly became known to everybody who knew her as simply Ita.

“The feast of St Ita was on the 15th January and I was born on the 17th, there was a lady who lived beside us and she said to my parents call her Ita because she was born on nearly the same date and they did, that was it.

“Nobody calls me anything else here unless they call me names,” Ita quickly adds before breaking into one of her familiar laughs.

For the first couple of years of her life she lived in Cannon Row in the town before moving up to Parnell Park where she has resided since, apart from a brief spell in America.

From very early on Gaelic football played a major part in Ita Mockler’s life. She paid her first visit to Croke Park in 1947 for the All-Ireland SFC semi-final between Meath and Kerry.

She travelled up to the Big Smoke with her father Tommy, who spent well over 50 years working in Spicers Bakery, for many years one of the main sources of employment in Navan.

Tommy and Ita were among a large throng of Meath supporters who made the trip for the big game. Their team lost that day but the whole occasion- the journey, the noise - left a deep impression on young Ita’s mind.

Defeat turned to victory two years later when the Royal County won Sam Maguire for the first time. On this occasion Ita travelled with a group of friends, catching the then regular train from Navan to the capital.

They had a ringside seat, literally, for one of the greatest days in Meath’s footballing history. Seated pitch side in Croke Park, the group of young Navan woman watched the Brian Smyth-led Royals defeat Cavan, 1-10 to 1-6, Bill Halpenny getting the goal for the men in green and gold. “We had fun, fun, fun from the time we got on the train until we got off it again back home. We lived on laughter,” Ita recalls.

She was proudly supporting her county in 1954 when Meath defeated Kerry to win Sam for the second-time, with Peter McDermott this time the captain.

By then she had married another footballer of wide renown - Tony McCormack - a prominent member of the Navan O’Mahonys team in the 1950s.

In 1953 Tony carved himself a unique place in the annals of Meath football when he became the first captain of any team to claim the Keegan Cup. It was also O’Mahonys’ first senior championship success.

Named after Syddan footballer Tom Keegan the Cup has since been presented annually to the winners of the SFC. It’s a much sought after piece of silverware; the most famous in Meath football.

O’Mahonys went on to win five successive Meath SFC titles between 1957 and ’61 with Tony McCormack playing his part in sustaining that golden sequence of victories.

Ita and Tony went to have six children – Robbie, Barry, Martin, Elaine, Maria and Fiona. As a family the McCormacks embarked on many adventures and among them was a move to a temporary new life across the Atlantic.

NEW YORK

In explaining why she and her husband decided to leave Navan and bravely emigrate to America in 1961 Ita explains how the move was motivated simply by a sense of adventure.

It wasn’t as if Tony was out of work. He had a relatively secure job as a baker in Lawlors, Trimgate Street but America called nonetheless.

“Tony was never out of work in his life, we just got a figare to go. My brother Martin was living over there and we went over to them.”

The remarkable aspect of the journey is that the young married couple had by then three young children who, of course, they brought with them. Another remarkable fact is the they crossed the Atlantic by boat, not by plane.

“Robert was six, Barry four and Martin was a baby. We went by boat from Cobh, the Mauretania, the third biggest passenger ship in the world,” recalls Ita.

“Even to go to Cobh at the time as a big journey. Peter McDermott drove us down, we left at two or three in the morning. The ship was so big it couldn’t get into Cobh Harbour, we had to go out to it in a tender. There was no seating on the tender, just standing room.”

They stayed in the area of Ossining, just outside New York, a pleasant area but close to the infamous Sing Sing prison.

Tony found work as a baker in America, while Ita, was employed in the office of a company selling hearing aids. “When I walked into office on first day, I saw big picture on the wall and who was it but Sean T O’Kelly who had served a long time as the Irish president; he was after getting a hearing aid off the company so they had him up on the wall.”

Despite the chance to earn good money America wasn’t for Ita and Tony. The way of life so different, not what they imagined, with sweltering heat in the summer and bone-chilling cold in the winter among the challenges.

They returned to Ireland after a year – back to their beloved Navan. Back to familiarity of Parnell Park where they resumed rearing their ever-increasing family. Back to the O’Mahonys. Ita had missed it all so much. She felt she couldn’t endure another scorching hot, humid New York summer.

Some years later the McCormack’s embarked on another big adventure. With one of their children sickly, Tony and Ita and their by now family of five, travelled to Lourdes. They went by car - a Hillman Imp - a motor not noted for its roomy interior. They also towed a trailer containing a tent, the family’s accommodation along the way.

Tales from that adventure and many other journeys embarked on by the family still fuel much amusement among the family.

Lourdes and its curative qualities, was something Ita firmly believed in, still does. Her faith in Our Lady and the Man above absolute.

Among the fun, the laughs, the good times Ita McCormack knows too about real sadness such as how, in 2002 her husband died after a short illness.

Then there was the tragic passing of her eldest son Robbie in 2020 following an illness.

They were severe blows but she dealt with them as best she could and stayed strong, her faith – and that desire to do her best for the other members of her family – helping to sustain her.

Those lines she learned in her early school days about doing her best no matter what, and the essential philosophy they contain, have certainly served her well down the decades.

So too has her ability to laugh and enjoy the many happy moments life also brings.

ITA McCORMACK ON…

The importance of her faith

“It’s up to everybody to follow their own path, I can only speak for myself and I never, ever, fall away from my religion, absolutely, I love it. God is my man, I never seriously questioned Him, never.

He has been a huge help to me down the years. All the times my kids were sick who had I to turn to, not one but the man above and He looked after me. He kept me going. Every Sunday, somebody will bring me to Mass and if, for some reason, I don’t get there, I will watch it on the computer or TV but seldom I miss Mass.

Enjoying life

“I enjoy every minute of life, I’m not a person to worry. They day will come when I will have to go, that will be the day, but I don’t mind, I’m ready, waiting for the knock. I’m in the waiting room, I’m ready, but I don’t want to go tomorrow at the same time (laughs). When your number is up its up. Every night when I go to sleep I don’t know if I’ll wake up but I’m ready.”

Her beloved Navan

“I love Navan, I love all the things about Navan, although it’s different now. It’s not as happy a Navan as it was when I was young. Navan is a changed place in so many ways. When I was young we were thought religion in school and it stuck with you, nowadays kids not thought the way we were. Some things have changed for the better, some have not but I suppose that’s life wherever you are.”

On her life in Parnell Park

“My kids were reared out there (pointing to the green in Parnell Park from her front room chair), they loved it, that’s where they did all their playing; where I did all my playing myself and, of course, during the war years there were no toys.

Long ago our neighbours worked in the furniture factories and come Christmas time they made the toys; dolls houses, guns, dolls cots, they made guns we would be shooting one another all over the place. For boys cricket sticks, hurling sticks. People made do with what they had. Great days.”