A treasure trove of great stories

Charlie Davy SJ has described a book on the Belvedere Newsboys Club as ‘a treasure trove of great stories’. He was the guest speaker at the launch of the The Belvedere Newsboys Club (published by Choice Publishing, Drogheda »), on Sunday 3 November 2024. The author is Martin Coffey, and co-author Gerry Walshe KSC. Gerry Walshe was a former student of Belvedere College SJ who volunteered in the Belvedere Newsboys Club in the 1950s. Martin Coffey had five older brothers in the club, and his father and cousins were all members, along with himself.

The founder of the Belvedere Newsboys Club was William Lombard Murphy – a Belvedere alumnus who became a medical doctor and joined the British army. His father owned Irish newspapers, the Dublin Tram Company, and other businesses. A very influential family. It was brought to the son’s attention that the vast majority of the young boys selling their newspapers on the streets could not read or write.

Dr Murphy got in touch with Miss Gargan, a well-known Probation Officer, who in May 1911 founded the Dublin Boys Club to look after the boys in her care. Dr Murphy was one of the eleven helpers working in her club. Miss Gargan and William Murphy teamed up with Belvedere College SJ, who said they would help with the education of the boys. Together they set up what would eventually be called the Belverdere Newsboys Club. The college encouraged its graduates to volunteer with it. It continued until the 70s when it became more of a youth club, and girls were allowed to join. It’s still running today as the Belvedere Youth Club.

Over the years, the Belvedere Boys Club contributed to the development of many young individuals, helping them build confidence and skills that would benefit them throughout their lives. In the beginning, the newsboy referred to Dr Murphy as ‘Doc’ – a term which they transferred to all the subsequent leaders working in the club.

Martin Coffey, one of the authors, tells of his father selling newspapers on the streets of Dublin in 1924. While standing out on the street selling his papers, one of the leaders of the Belvedere Newsboys’ Club approached him and invited him along to the Club. “He joined up there and then.”

Martin also says that when his father turned eighteen, Doc Michael McNulty encouraged him to join the British Army, which he did. “My father encouraged many of his cousins to also join the Newsboys’ Club. In later years my father made sure that me and my five older brothers all became members of the club. All of my brothers became involved in either football or boxing, some in both.”

Martin explains how he was the ‘music man’ in his family so he joined the Guitar Class set up in the club in mid 1960s. “Along with some other lads from the guitar class, I was a member of the first-ever ‘Boy Band’ to play on RTE in 1967!”

He says that his parents instilled into each one of their 15 children, 8 boys, and 7 girls, “a great respect for the men who ran the Belvedere Newsboys’ Club, all former students of Belvedere College, all great men. And he adds, ” My great-great-grandmother, Anne Somerville, was the matron of the Belvedere Protestant Girls Orphanage in Tyrellspass, County Westmeath. Now, isn’t that a nice connection from all those years ago…”

An Honest History

I would like to congratulate Martin and Gerry on the publication of this treasure trove of club events from the 1930s to the present day. A club stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before. It is great to be able to see the names and faces of members and docs. This book along with How’ya Doc will form part of the archival history of the club.

Finding a suitable premises must have been a key issue in the early years. The club moved four times before finally bedding down where we are today. None of this happened without many meetings, letters written, phone calls made, visits to possible sites, and fundraising.

I learned a lot as I read the book. I was glad to see a letter of my dad inviting members to the annual retreat in 1966. I also liked Joe Dowling’s account of the first pair of new shoes he ever wore. And I never knew that young boys who sold newspapers had to wear a badge as proof they had paid for a license. Nor did I know of a terrible penalty if found without one.

Terry Fay’s account of having to sell newspapers to support his mother when his father was dying was moving. His parents not having the money to pay the licence fee, he had the bad luck of being caught by the Badge man, the plainclothes policeman, and would have been sent to an Industrial school for three years only for Gerry Walsh speaking to the judge on his behalf.

I found Martin’s own account of his family’s connection with the club inspiring. His family along with many other inner city Dubliners moved in the early 1940s from a tenement to a new house in Cabra West. Fair dues to the government of the time for the houses they built. A friendship began all those years ago between his parents and Gerry which has continued and culminated in this cooperative work.

I liked the story about how Mrs Coffey would tell her sons not to eat the biscuits when Gerry came and only to say, “No thanks. I just had my dinner and I’m full”, and they starving for a biscuit!

It is interesting how on camp the docs encouraged the young members to write a postcard home to their mothers and how Gerry and another doc dressed up in bed sheets and appeared ghost-like out of the blue to guys while on a night hike!

I feel that his book is an honest history. Not everything was rosy in the garden! Sometimes not enough players turned up for matches and a no-show referee meant a doc had to try his hand at refereeing.

The story I most liked was how Mrs Coffey won the large statue of Blessed Martin de Porres at a stall in Donnycarney Church when her husband was in charge of the raffle. Knowing how much his wife wanted to win the statue, it just so happened that his wife’s name got pulled out of the hat. A miracle of a sorts!

There is one last thing I’d like to say that is not in the book. The book is a testimony of how the club benefitted the members, picking up skills as footballers, boxers, and guitar players, getting a better grasp of school subjects, and making good friends. But the lives of the docs were also changed for the better by working in the club, getting to know the members, and visiting homes in one-room tenements. I know my own dad’s life was broadened and changed for the better. As children, he would bring a couple of us to visit one or two past club members who were sick on Christmas Eve’. It opened my eyes to what I had that others did not.

It is great that the club is now also meeting new needs, coming to the help of refugees who have had to flee the violence in their country by teaching them English and making them welcome.

Thank you Martin and Gerry for all your painstaking work, finding names, gathering stories, and putting them all together. I now declare the book to be launched and available for purchase. The cost of €25 will go to the Club.