Noel Shelly was 30 years old when he was appointed to the staff of the Cork Mental Hospital (Our Lady’s Hospital) as a Third Class Attendant in 1934. By 1939 he had passed the exams set by the Medico- Psychological Society and was rapidly promoted through the ranks. By the time he retired in 1964, he had become a Charge Nurse.
We can hear a little about him in the words of his daughter May O’Callaghan.
“Noel’s father was a sergeant in the RIC from Portlaoise. When stationed in Fermoy he married a local woman. They had different postings and my father was born in Inniscarra, Co.Cork while they were stationed there. They spent some years in Annascaul, Co.Kerry and he remembered walking the roads down there with his older brothers, wearing a long white dress, which all little boys wore until they started school ( in the country anyway).
They eventually settled back in Fermoy. He left school at 14 and served his time in his maternal grandmother’s tailoring business. He wasn’t keen on sewing so he left when he had qualified. He spent some time in Fermoy and then went off and joined the RAF. He was stationed in Iraq and Egypt and also played in the band, He was a drummer. He eventually came back to Fermoy, met and married my mother and they moved to Cork where he had already started in the Mental Hospital. It was only in latter years it was officially called Our Lady’s Hospital (late 1950s).
They lived out the Lee Road, just beyond the Hospital when I was born but when I was 6 months old, his mother got ill in Fermoy so they moved back to help look after her. When she died they stayed there to look after my grandfather. From then on he cycled up and down almost every weekend. At first, he only had every second Sunday and one afternoon off weekly but later he had Sunday and Saturday. That changed to Saturday and Monday before he finished. He had “digs” in Magnolia Rice. St Luke’s during the week. He also played drums with various bands as there was lots of dance-halls around the city and county in those days. He also played the piano. I remember one day when he arrived in Fermoy, he went to the piano and said “when I was cycling past the Arcadia, the people in the queue were all singing this” and he played Lily Marlene.
When I was seven, they decided to move to Cork as the cycle was probably getting too much for him. They bought a house in Pouladuff Road nd we all moved up – grandfather too.
I remember he had to do 3 months night duty every 13 months for some years, I’m not sure how many but after that he didn’t have any night duty! These 3 months were awful as the house had be kept quiet during the day and with 4 young girls that was hard on my mother.
Each attendant had a bunch of big keys on a chain as each door had to unlocked and relocked as they went through. These keys were collected on their way into work from the Lodge, where Flor Crowley lived [Grandfather of Brian Crowley MEP]. They hung on a big named board inside the front door and hung back in there each evening when they left. I don’t know if they signed in but I suppose Mrs Crowley might have done that. The big grey building was a very dark, dreary place with big heavy doors. There were concerts organized every so often for the patients. I don’t know who organized them but Daddy would play drums with a group of band friends and as we were learning step-dancing with Tommy Cullen, me and my sisters would dance. There would usually be a singer or two and maybe a piano-accordionist. The patients, I’m sure, enjoyed these occasions, and would talk to us. They were fine but institutionalized. We were never nervous but as I said the building itself was dreary.
My father often said there were saner people in there than many outside. People were put in there maybe with a nervous breakdown and never claimed out again! This was sad. My father cared very much for his patients and became great friends with many of the regular visitors. It used to make him so cross to hear the Hospital called “the mad house” but this was just ignorance.
After a time he was in the big red building which was like any other hospital. He eventually ended up in the Infirmary up at the back gate, accessed from Shanakiel. I think it was called St Johns Ward.
His close friends among his colleagues were Paddy Dennehy and Dan O’Leary from Blarney and Tom Moore who was from the county but lived near the Lough.
In the late 50s my father bought his first car, an Austin A5 and travelled in style to work after so many years cycling everywhere.
He had to take early retirement aged 60 as he had had a major heart attack 3 years earlier but he started to experience small attacks. Unfortunately, he died aged 62, leaving us all stunned and bereft. He was a wonderful, caring man, a great provider and irreplaceable.