Today, 18th January, marks the 9th anniversary of the passing of The Godfather – Patrick Culley.
We all hold many dear and fond memories of Pat, and he still has the ability to make us chuckle 9 years after going to that big old snuff mine in the sky. He left a legacy of fun and sillyness, but one of love, care and compassion also. I still miss him… we all do.
There was an other dimension to Patrick that not many of us were lucky enough to see while he was here. He wrote poetry. It was sometimes introspective and showed the concern he had for the human race and its mistakes. Under the smile and wonderful daftness that was our Pat lay a much deeper and more serious man who was affected by the trouble in Northern Ireland and other natural, and man made problems of his time. He knew we were neglecting our delicate environment long before it became a global issue. He never burdened anyone else with his feelings on these things. The concerned and passionate soul that lay within Patrick alongside the charm, whit and generosity of life made him an exceptional man. We are a lucky family to have lived some of our lifes with him.
Please add your tributes, memories and good time stories to this page. And remember…….No cups outside!!
Mum has asked me to publish the following poem here in memory of the old fella. This was written by Patrick during the time he lived in Spain in the late 1980’s & early 90’s
Pete
Alas my friends my story ends
The beauty and loveliness all gone bad
“What happened” said the voice, it came so quick
The drugs, the knife, the broken glass, the kick.
Have you seen a Humpback or a Great Blue?
Thanks to the harpoon and the evil of men, there are few.
Creatures in the lab, never to be freed
To beautify the female and satisfy her male’s greed
The beauty of the Rainforests which oxygenate the Earth
Churned into charcoal, man has never learnt.
Man’s inhumanity to man, designed to destroy God’s lovely plan
The Earth, the Solar Shield, the Sea
What’s next? What’s left? What destiny?
Patrick Culley
San Miguel, Spain.
Who could wish for a more absolutely brilliant, funny , wise , life loving dad! I miss him… I miss mum too…. what a fantastic base they gave us all to build our lives and my Lord they celebrate and adore their grandchildren and great grandchildren and all the family. I know they do… coz sometimes I hear them call quietly on the wind and I know they see what we all do and they have every single memory of every single piece of all our lives and they know that we all have our up and downs but they are so proud of us all!
Love to all my family all over the world
Patricks middle daughter Rachelxxx
great stuff Pete……I,m sure your grandad is watching us all right now taking a break from organising the snuff mines of sleeve lomon. He was a great dad and grandad.
the photos sure bring back a lot of fond memories and some make me feel like it was just yesterday. well as dad would say “its time to lash my gills” and i’ll be having one for him tonight in a tin glass of course.
love to all the clan, Nick from Canada.
Thank you Pete, what a lovely tribute. It doesn’t seem like 9 years since we said goodbye to Dad. He enjoyed life so much. I remember when I was young and he decided to take the plunge and become a Chiropodist and be self employed – quite a decision for a young man with a wife and child to provide for. He had not had the advantage of a University education and left school at 14 with no qualifications. He and his brother decided to come to England and earn money to help their Mum who was a widow with 8 children to feed. He used to tell me they only had one good shirt between them which was used for job interviews!! Anyway – he was very determined and eventually did qualify as a state registered Chiropodist with his surgery in the back room of our house in Lollard Croft. He used to borrow my bicycle to do his home visits and became a familiar site cycling around the city with his little black bag strapped to the back of the saddle.
Learning to drive was a far more difficult thing to achieve and I think it was about 5 test failures before his friend “Tiny” a 6′ 4″ police sergeant took him in hand and finally helped him to get his driving licence. At last he took the big step of leaving his job in the surgery at the Armstrong Siddely factory and became self employed.
He never looked back with any regret and was always proud of what he had achieved. After our lovely Mum died in 1981 he was left devastated but always put on a brave face, especially when his grandchildren were around, always a smile and a few shillings for their pocket money.
He picked himself up and started to live again, eventually meeting Ellen, getting married again and moving to Spain to live La Dolce Vita. Sadly this didn’t last too long and they eventually came back to Coventry.
He was closer than ever to his family in those last few years and we all enjoyed his company and humour even though he had been slowed down by a stroke which took its toll on him. He slipped away from us quietly and with dignity.
We will all remember his silly songs and saying which are now part of our family and will I hope be passed on for generations. “The Cheylesmore Thrush”, “He wore his hat on the Kildare side” “Tom the Rattler and the Grey Mare” and my favourite “If it took a hen a week to walk a fortnight, how many fizzbags in a barrel of grapes”? And so on…….
Love you always Dad
Christine xxx
Wow, great tribute and lovely comments. I loved the photo of Popop pulling the gravel out of his shorts on the beach in Spain. Never had so much fun as that. Wander out 15 feet from the shore and the bottom dropped away from you and then you took a short wild ride back into the beach on a wave that absolutely filled your pants with gravel… brilliant. Nothing but good memories.
He was always so kind. He allowed Nick and I to paint the whole house one summer and we got paid… it was more than enough to head to the Charile at lunch time for a quick beer and then back up the ladder. He was always very gracious and told us what a great job we had done but I am sure the afternoon shift was a little lower on the quality side… good job there was none of the safety audit rubbish you have to put up with now!
I did give Bella a couple of good Didllee’dee’s at Christmas in memory of a loving Popop (and Nan).
Mark
Hi Pete
A great piece on Patrick. We will always remember him on his visits to Eathorpe and of course the Wedding.
Our most memorable time was joining him on holiday in Tenerife where we had a great time in his company and he even gave an impromtu ‘comedian’ evening at the resort’s hostilery.
Richard & Ann
Patrick Culley, a fabulous father-in-law.
He was a great friend and I miss him very much. Never one to shy away from speaking in public he frequently slightly ‘missed the mark’ with some of his words, but they were near enough to make sense! And he could enter almost any debate, in depth, and put forward a lot of common sense arguments.
We spent many holidays UK and overseas with him and dear Joy. They were wonderful, wonderful times and it is great to recall them. The pictures are a great help too.
There are so many lovely stories that can be told about him. We all have our special memories of an individual and much missed man.
One silly anecdote was when he came with us on one of our many trips to France and we stayed in a very nice auberge in the Morey St Denis area. At dinner he or I ordered house wine, thinking we’ll be safe enough with that. I remember him saying “this is nice wine, lets have another bottle”. You can see this coming. The wine bill came to more than the accommodation!!
On another occasion in France we were staying in a rather splendid old hotel where the Nazi heirarchy used to stay. The fittings in the hotel were magnificent. The doors and surrounds were made of the finest and most handsome wood with metal door furniture to match. Pat had the room next to ours and we said lets go for dinner in say 20 minutes. Which was fine until we came to knock on his door which
he had locked with the most complicated system you have ever seen. Result – he couldn’t open the door. He sounded really panicky and I didn’t know how to help him. Despite having his lump hammer and a length of rope with which to escape in case of fire (these he always carried as he had an awful fear of fire, probaly due to his war time experiences), they were of no use this time. Eventually however, he managed to calm down and work out what he had done to lock the door!!! When he came out he was VERY relieved to be ‘free’.
Great times with the great man.
What a wonderfull memorial you have made to your Dad and my uncle Pat who was in fact my Godfather !! I could never get verbally near to what you have written this time its beautifull indeed and the photos are just fantastic!! The poem is very moving and brings Pat very much alive. Lets keep the great man alive in our hearts and minds as we always do and whenever a Pat Cully ‘ism come up then lets give it a run!!! Twas Xmas day in da workhouse and it was tough times fer der werkers !! Lots of love to Nelly Twig abd Nora Titsoff and may they lead out the two cows ’til oi count ’em!! Love to all….Christopher
Ha ha. Nelly Twig. I’d forgotten her.
‘Please keep off the grass
Let the ladies pass
Here’s big Nelly
Sliding on her Arse!’
Thanks to everyone for these lovely comments. Keep em coming.
Never mind the weather
Never mind the rain
Lets all look together
And up she goes again
La de da de de
La de da de do
Theres Big Nelly
With a bucket of Irish Stew
“Give the woman in the bed more Porter”
“Give the kid a foighten chance”
Your feet is in my hands.