This is a photograph
Obituary - Pat Dowling
This is a photograph
A window to the past
Of your father on the front lawn
With no shirt on
Ready to take the world on
Beneath the West Texas sun
His wife behind the camera
His daughter and his baby boy
Got a glimmer in his eye
Seems to say, this is what I'll miss after I die
And this is what I'll miss about being alive
Indie-musician Kevin Morby pondered the power of photographs as memories of people who have passed away in his 2022 album title-track This is a Photograph. Photographs, he argues, possess a power of allowing the viewer to remember a person at a specific point in time performing a specific function or role. They help preserve a multi-faceted memory of the many sides, chapters and traits of a person who has left us. Crucially, they help counteract our brain's recency-bias hard-wiring which tries to compel us to form a singular memory of people who pass away.
Pat Dowling was many different things to many people his lifetime – dad, husband, brother, historian, coach, referee, the Kerryman, man of faith, the Master, the doggyman, friend.
I am not sure there are enough data centres in the country to host a jpeg for each key role he played through his life. His character was captured best by his great friend Padraig Doherty (pictured above, right) when he said: “Paddy was as happy to speak to a pauper as a Prince”.
Pat's photobook of life could be divided into three albums - (I) his formative years in his beloved Lixnaw, Co. Kerry, (II) fleeing the nest to prepare for his teaching vocation and (III) finding his tribe in Mayo where he spent decades enriching lives.
I
Born in Lixnaw on May 15th 1955, Pat (Patsy) Dowling was a middle child growing up on dairy farm with two older siblings (Willie and Larry) and three younger siblings (Ger, Seán and Mary-Jo). Rared in a thatch farmhouse it was a tough but happy rural upbringing. Parents, Pat and Rita, instilled a hard-work ethos in their children but there was also room for the kids to express themselves in education, sport and 'devilment'.
Contributing to a book written for his brother Willie's 70th birthday Pat spoke about his younger days: ‘In those days you didn’t have machinery to milk the cows, you had to do it all by hand.’ There was no such thing as a day off or a lie-in: ‘You had to be up early to do your chores, no question. Our father had a passion for greyhounds and raced them competitively, so they were also a huge part of our lives. We had to look after them and walk them for miles every evening.’
Despite gruelling chores there was also opportunity for family fun: ‘We all used to go to Banna Strand, the whole lot of us, but then we’d have to come home to do the milking.’ Each St. Stephen's Day saw the young Dowling kids try to earn some pocket-money following the Wren Boy tradition. ‘We would go house to house singing for money. Sometimes if you were lucky, you might get two shillings from the good houses, but others were notoriously mean. None of us could sing. I think they paid us to go away!’
II
When Pat finished school in 1973 he followed big brother Willie down the well-worn Dowling path into education. Pat made the big move to Dublin and St. Pat's teacher training college to acquire skills he would utilise to immeasurable effect over the following 40+ years.
At St. Pat's Pat made many great friends; particularly through shared love of Gaelic football and Hurling. He enjoyed Drumcondra's proximity to Croke Park at a time when the Kerry football team of the 70's were again becoming regular visitors.
III
Upon completing his studies he set about finding his first role. He again latched onto Willie's coattails, who had recently moved West to teach at Moyne College in Ballina, Co. Mayo. It was an inspired move as he quickly landed his first (and last) posting in Carn National School in Moygownagh.
Pat, it has been said, attained his cool nature from his mother Rita and his first interaction with the Moygownagh community gave them an early feel for the character of the man who would go on to shape their community. He reported for his first day of duty with no more than a small briefcase in his possession and was welcomed by fellow teacher Mary Heffron at the school gates. After some chit-chat she enquired as to where he was staying and much to her surprise; he replied that he had no idea! Mary put him up for a few nights before finding more permanent digs.
He threw himself into the Moygownagh community as an active member of the GAA, drama, church and social scene. In fact, he was so immersed that he named his son after their patron Saint - St. Cormac.
He met his wife Mary, from nearby Killala, at a local dinner dance and settled down in Gurteens in Ballina. They had 3 children in the space of 2 years, daughter Aoife and twin boys Cormac and Gearóid. Pat was a loving father and husband and helped instil the importance of education and a love of sport in his children while also allowing a certain threshold for 'devilment' as his parents had before him.
Pat spent his full working life in Moygownagh before retiring in 2015. Despite some concern about how he might adjust to retirement after decades of working structure Pat found several ways to adapt and thrive. He became a history student, Citizen's Assembly member, student-teacher assessor and to the surprise of many - a golf-nut.
Pat passed away suddenly on March 2nd, 2022, while sub-teaching in New High Park, Co. Sligo. Despite the trauma of losing someone so full of life, there was some solace in the knowledge that he passed on from this world while performing his life-long vocation.
For anyone interested in listening to the Kevin Morby song referenced in this article: https://open.spotify.com/track/1hj8os1Xxiuo95atpJzfCp?si=f08112bd7b004ee0