An 85-year-old Derry man with a passion for love, life, learning, literature and sport summed up his life in just three words, ‘Happiness and gratitude’.

Don O’Doherty is an octogenarian with a spring in his step, a twinkle in his eye and a rapier wit that would keep you laughing and chatting all day.

Devoted to Gertie, his wife, he has two children Kieran and Sinead and is also a very proud grandfather.

The Derry News was lucky enough to get a while with Don, a former columnist for our paper, to reminisce and philosophise for an afternoon.

Don, an author, former teacher and former leading official of both City of Derry and Ballyliffin Golf Clubs, began by telling us where he had grown up, in a street filled with street games and community spirit, and his first foray into a world of education at the ‘Wee Nuns’ School’.

“I was born in 33 Ewing Street on the 30 August 1932, at the top of Moat Street,” he said.

“If you went to the Star Factory and looked up that street, our house was the only house on that that had a view right across to the skyline on the other side.

“Ernie Faulkner asked me to write a story for Waterside Voices and I said, ‘But I’m not even from the Waterside…and then I had an idea – the view from the west bank.

“My mother always put the dinner on when the 1 o’clock train went out, the Great Northern Railway, and at the far side, there was the wee Donegal railway, I called it Thomas the Tank Engine.

“So, I went to The Wee Nuns’ School at four-years-of-age and my only claim to fame I had was that I came home myself; my mother wasn’t what you would call the most protective of me!

“We were there during the war in 1936 and the nuns were more afraid than us when the sirens would go off. There was a street called Corporation Street and there was a bakery called The ABC Bakery and one of the sirens was up on the top of it.

“One of them was an alert and the second one was the all-clear. I thought that the panels on the wall that spelled out A-B-C were there because they had to build the wall to make room for the three letters!”

Don said his teachers expected him to be in fine voice when it came to music, given his family history.

“I had a teacher called Mrs McGettigan and she said to me, ‘You should have a good voice because your uncle, Willie John, was a good singer.

“He was Willie John McDaid and there’s a cup named after him in the Derry Feis. He was one of the first men in Northern Ireland to be broadcast.”

Perhaps the talents of the locals blossomed from childhood and it was down to the strange concoction of cod liver oil and malt that children back then were given as their break time drink.

“In your day I’m sure you got a bottle of milk but we got Angiers Emulsion and drank it in the cellar of what is a beautiful place now, Aras Cholmcille.

“We got our Emulsion but you had to bring your own spoon – it was awful stuff.

“But anyway, my sister was four years older than me and my mother’s sister was younger and she had just gotten married and, like all Derry women, she ran to her sisters and my Da was left to read a book but my father was easygoing, they were all avid readers.

“However, my mother prided herself on being able to come home every night from her sister’s about six different ways; Wellington Street one night, Nelson Street he next night, up the wee brae and so on.

“Well, my sister had a pair of wellies on her and kept pulling up these wee socks and at St Eugene’s Cathedral my mother said to her, ‘Come you over to me and I’ll pull them socks up, for once and for all’.

“Well, in those days, you got a canteen of cutlery for your wedding and she got about 97 canteens of cutlery but the spoon had gone missing in one – a mystery.

“But when my mother called my sister over that night and pulled up her sock, the spoon was in the sock because the girls at school wanted to have the shiniest spoons to take their Emulsion. Nobody had a shinier spoon than her because it was bloody brand new!”

Don said that he and a good friend, Jim McDermott, aged nine, went down Hogg’s Folly,then went on to join the Christian Brothers’ School.

Don ended up in the ‘handpicked’ first class with ‘the late, great, Paddy Carlin, who he later taught alongside.

Brother McFarland prepared Don for the St Columb’s College exam, in which he got seventh place and went on to be a College boy, after which time he then went on to St Mary’s Teacher Training College.

He then embarked upon his teaching career, first teaching in the Christian Brothers’ School then Bridge Street until 1955 until 1961.

Don specialised in woodwork but said he could ‘teach anything’ and also taught ‘Irish, French and Latin with a few words of Spanish and a wee bit of Italian’.

Don then went on to St Joseph’s Boys’ School and said he worked alongside teachers who hadn’t been educated in grammar schools but didn’t need to have been because they ‘knew their stuff’.

He said: “There is no teaching without learning – if you’re not learning, I’m not teaching.”

Don worked there until 1985 and took voluntary redundancy and has enjoyed retirement for 31 years.

"However, during those three decades, he has subbed at many different schools throughout the city, even making the transition from secondary school education to primary, teaching at Faughanvale Primary School.

“I have enjoyed every second of my retirement; I love the freedom,” he said.

“Some days 11am is early in the morning but if I have to get up at 5am, I’ll do it!

“I packed up the teaching in 1995 and now I’m running playing golf, snooker, billiards, the lot. I love every minute of it.”

His love of sport has taken Don to all the hallowed games grounds you can imagine; The Crucible for snooker, Lords for cricket, Augusta for golf, Aintree for racing and he even managed to witness England’s moment in the sun in 1966 when they won the World Cup in Wembley.

Don also loves travelling and has enjoyed many jaunts around the world; from the humble family holidays of his boyhood to Donegal to Florida for his son’s wedding.

However, you wouldn’t have to go too far to find the big heart that Don possesses.

Not a man to rest on his laurels, he also decided to pen a book of memoirs when he turned 80, titled, ‘Eighty Years A-Growing’: The Honest Thoughts of an Honest Fellow’. The impetus for writing the book was to support the charity, Foyle Search and Rescue. Don donated all the proceeds from the sale of his book to the charity.

In the introduction to the book, he says: ‘There is a well-worn cliché that there is a book in everybody. While I would not put it as strongly as that, I have had the odd suggestion put to me that I should write a book; I think it’s more in deference to my age and cumulative life experience, as opposed to my intellect or literary ability!’

Don also currently volunteers at RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) where he reads poems, tell jokes and even reads Shakespeare to those there who enjoy his company, wit and wisdom.

Despite his well-filled life in every other capacity, without doubt, Don says his family are the most important thing in his life.

He bursts with pride about his children and grandchildren and his love for his dear wife, Gertie, is at the centre of his world.

As the saying goes, ‘age is just a number’ and this is demonstrated in Don’s hopeless romanticism. He calls Gertie his ‘best friend’ and, aptly for a man who specialised in woodwork, uses carpentry terms to describe their marriage of almost 50 years.

“The best example is a dovetail joint, they’re not the same but they fit together perfectly, they compliment each other,” he smiled.

He added: “I’ve had a brilliant life; unbelievable. I am so happy I feel guilty.”

When asked to sum up his life in a few words, Don said: “Happiness and gratitude.”

Photo shows Dan with his wife Gertie.

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