Spirit Of The Old Irish : Mrs. Hugh Heeney

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22971, 14 June 1949, Page 6

Spirit Of The Old Irish : Mrs. Hugh Heeney

If Mrs. Eliza Heeney preferred in later years to sit at home and take her share of excitement from the doings of her fairly numerous family it was not for want of an adventurous spirit.

Mrs. Heeney, who passed away at the Cook Hospital yesterday after an illness of only a few days, had enough adventure in her earlier life to satisfy the most enterprising of her sex. To many people who knew her well she represented the spirit of old Ireland as exemplified by bold and impulsive men and women in every part of the world. Emigrated Young to Queensland

Born in County Cork 89 years ago, she ran away from home to emigrate as a girl in her teens, after a family disagreement..

She made her wav to England on the proceeds of the sale of a turkey, and quickly earned enough money to secure a passage in a ship which took her to Queensland, where she joined a brother already settled there.

The voyage took three months and conditions in the ship were primitive. There was a death for every week of the journey, and almost the whole of the ship's complement was in poor health when the voyage ended. But Mrs. Heeney, then Miss Eliza Coghlan, was extraordinarily vital and survived the long passage without trouble. She landed in Australia without hat or boots, and very hungry. In no tijne she was a cook on an up-country station although, in her own words, she did not know one end of a kettle from the other. Quarrel With a Black Tracker A shrewd intelligence enabled her to survive the tests of appetites sharpened by the open-air life, however, and she would have stayed longer but for a quarrel with a black-tracker employed on the station. Hardly aware of her danger from a vengeful and resourceful enemy. Miss Coghlan was carried shoulderhigh for miles by European friends, in the belief that if she put foot to ground the tracker would find her after her departure from the locality. The death of her brother in Australia decided her to come to New Zealand, where she had another relative living at Tolaga Bay. After reaching Gisborne and establishing ccntact with this woman Miss Coghlan took service with prominent families here and for several years survived the consequences of a number of scrapes into which her Irish devilment led her. These incidents became family lore in later years, after she married Mr. Hugh Heeney and settled down to married life. Early Family Bereavements

Her husband hailed from County Donegal, and was as Irish as Mrs. Heeney herself. Their household was not one in which to brood, and as the family increased there were plenty of home interests to which Mrs. Heeney devoted herself to the point where she. seldom spent more than a few hours out of her own house.

There were deep sadnesses in the earlier years, for of the 10 children born to Mr. and Mrs. Heeney two boys died while still young, and another was drowned in his early teens. Five boys and two girls grew to adult years, and all but one, Frank, survived both their parents.

Frank Heeney was a brilliant amateur boxer who was killed in action on the Western Front in the First "World War. f Two of his brothers came home to win fame in the ring. Jack as middleweight champion of New Zealand and Tom as New Zealand and British Empire champion and contender for the world heavyweight title. Darcy Heeney, a son of Jack Heeney, won the New Zealand amateur welterweight title three years in succession prior to serving in the last war, in which he lost his life while serving with the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean.

The other surviving sons are Messrs. Arthur and Pat Heeney, while Mrs. M. ■ Griffen. Clifford street, and Mrs. N. Fitzgerald, Berry street, are the sur viving daughters. First Real Illness Proves Fatal

Mrs. Heeney was widowed about 12 years ago and grieved long for a husband who had earned widespread respect, and with whom she had shared an early struggle on lgvel terms. She v/as not one to let grief break down her way of living, however, and she remained a woman of absolute independence up to the time of her death. She lived alone and would not permit her sons and daughters to spend their time on her affairs.

She milked her cow night and

morning until well into last week, when she suffered an ailment which quickly proved fatal. It was her first real illness.

The only previous occasion on which she had "had to surrender her housework was when she broke a wrist in falling at her back door. Her characteristic comment was that if she had used the front door she would have broken her neck! Mrs. Heenev died full of years and Irish wit, highly respected by all who knew her and proud—in her scornful Irish way—of what her sons had done to make the family name a by-word for courage and tenacity—qualities which her own life had exemplified so markedly.