Courtney McGrailThe Story of Ireland’s Only Steeplejill
by Angela Collins O’Mahony
(Mercier Press, €19.99)
J. Anthony Gaughan
The early chapters clearly show that there is to be at least one heroine in this book. Mary Kate McNamara, the author’s mother, married Martin Collins in 1933. While popular and known as a matchmaker, Martin was not enamoured of work and had “more than a penchant for the drink”, so thereafter Mary Kate practically single-handedly ran their small farm at Enagh, Kilkishen, Co Clare.
She cared for the fowl, the animals, milked 12 cows twice a day and worked in the fields. On her bicycle she carried produce from her farm and sold it to the local farmers’ markets. She even took piece work with neighbouring farmers, weeding different crops to subsidise the family income.
As her mother’s daughter Angela Collins could not have been anything other than a workaholic. She attended the local national school and the Convent Secondary School in Tulla, to which she cycled in all weathers. Following a secretarial course in Limerick city Angela, aged 16, was hired by Daniel Lynch, the proprietor of a steeplejack business, to manage his office. With considerable forbearance on the part of her employer she proceeded to learn her office skills on the job.
Revolution
Angela also learned about the steeplejack trade. It was as old as the industrial revolution.
When industrial chimneys appeared on the landscape of the heavily industrialised parts of the UK sailors saw a way to remain on land at home with their families. They had a head for heights from climbing sailing-ships masts and knew they could apply that skill on land as well as they had at sea. They designed short vertical ladders that fitted into each other, allowing them to access the sides and tops of any type of building.
In due course steeplejacks were employed in all kinds of work. They could demolish a chimney stack, gold-leaf a church cross, erect a steel chimney, or knock down a brick one, do plasterwork on tall buildings or change an aircraft warning light – all in a matter of hours, saving money on the hire, transportation, erection and dismantling of scaffolding. They could carry out any task at any height at little cost and could reach places that cranes could not access.
On one occasion Angela was sent to a work site to deliver materials and when she could not attract the mens’ attention she climbed up to the top of the chimney stack to tell the steeplejacks that their materials had arrived. Thereby she became aware of her natural bent for climbing and her life-long passion for scaling heights was born.
Following her employer’s death she established her own steeplejack company, which eventually had a staff of 62 people. Even though she was the managing director she scaled 300-feet-high church spires to replace blown-off crosses and repaired 600-feet-high industrial chimney stacks.
As Ireland’s sole ‘steeplejill’ (female steeplejack) Angela was adroit in accessing publicity which she found most helpful in developing her other various business projects. She worked with a major US company to establish a factory on the site of her old home in East Clare, built a private golf course and developed the Clonlara Golf and Leisure Company.
Her business prowess did not go unnoticed: she was awarded the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year Award, the Bowmaker Award for Irish Industry and an honorary doctorate by the Higher Education Training & Awards Council.
Angela tells all about her marriage, family, car-crashes and health scares but the importance of this inspirational Memoir lies in its insight into how to be successful in business. It demonstrates that people are not born entrepreneurs, but become so by hard work, using their imagination and intelligence, and grasping opportunities.
The Department of Education would do well to place this book on one of the courses in our second-level schools.