Youghal

THE STORY OF ANGELA (HANNON) AND MORGAN O'CONNOR. By Mike Hackett

John Hannon - of the Mill Road - was in the Irish army during the 'Emergency' of the 2nd World War. The army barracks at Cork Hill was operational at that time and so he was based in his hometown. John then married Annie - who was an exceptional cook and confectioner - resulting in that he was bringing the sweetest delicious buns to the barracks for his break. His comrades pleaded for him to share with them - and before long - Annie was baking a lot more and John was selling them to his pals. This inspired the idea of creating a retail outlet at home. People talk now about entrepreneurship - but go back to the 1940s to find John and Annie Hannon being pioneers of it by opening a confectionery outlet at 6 Tallow Street.

The confectionery shop was instantly successful and John had a special trike made at Jim Allen's garage in Friar Street. This had shelves sliding into the front box to transport the fancy iced buns to the shops around town. He later bought a van to service the neighbouring towns of Tallow, Lismore and Cappoquin with buns and cakes. At this stage - the children started to arrive: Angela, Kieran, Therese, David, Joseph and Tony. Annie was overworked and so staff were taken on to work in the bakery . Employees remembered are :Biddy and Elizabeth (Lee) Dower ; Esther Larkin; Mary Lynch; Mary Beausang; Bernie Cotter (nee McCarthy) and Ann Barron. Then John's sister Mamie was 'Front-of-House' on the counter. Mamie was great to cut the ice-cream slabs generously when we had a few pence in the Summer for such a treat. Not forgetting Tilly McCarthy (wife of Mick in Cork Hill pipe band) who was the housekeeper.

Mentioning Mamie reminds me of a story concerning her and my Dad. My grandmother died young of the dreaded T.B. and my Dad (the eldest of six) was reared at Mill Road by his grand-aunt. It was directly across the road from the Hannon house where Mamie lived. Seemingly - when they were teenagers - Mamie got a 'crush' on my Dad - but it never came to anything. My Dad married Mary O'Donnell who had come from Milford in North Cork to work in P & J Ryan's shop in Youghal. Many years later - when I was about ten years old - a woman called me one day as I came from school. It turned out to be Mamie Hannon. "Are you young Hackett" said she. I replied "Yes" before she went on to say " Do you know that I was nearly your mother". Being so young and not knowing much about procreation - I was left wondering if a boy could have two mothers.

To move on to the novel trike cycle box - local lads would be employed to deliver the cakes and buns on that machine around the town while John went to the country and the other towns with the van. There's a story about a local lad encountering a 'fadger' (dodging from school) and offered to bring him past the school and out to the Strand. So by removing some empty trays from the box - the 'fadger' hid in the box. But the cyclist didn't like this lad and dropped him into the Christian Brother's Yard before knocking at the school door and then opening the box to the dismay of the 'fadger'.

On another occasion - Kieran (on his Summer holidays) was delivering a wedding cake with the trike out to the Atlantic Hotel in the Strand. Needless to say this cake had been decorated greatly by Annie with almond and white icing plus fancy flowers of icing on top. Kieran rounded Moll Goggin's corner too fast - the trike jack-knifed - threw Kieran off onto the road along with the wedding cake. He picked up the mess of a cake and came back home to the shop. But luckily his mother was having a 'siesta' in bed - having been up since 4 am to ice the cake. Kieran was in big trouble but Biddy Dower (who became another accomplished confectioner) was in the bakery and saved the day by re-icing the cake. Kieran set off on the trike again and safely delivered the wedding cake this time to the Atlantic Hotel - having walked around Moll Goggin's corner .

We turn now to Angela and Morgan -

Firstly to Angela - the eldest and older girl of the family who grew up living over the bakery and became a marvellous confectioner like her mother. When the business expanded in the 1950s and outside employees like the Dower sisters were taken on - then Angela played her part in the busy bakery.
It was in the early sixties that she began to meet with Morgan O'Connor of Wesley Place and they began to'hit-it-off '- as a couple. Morgan was a quiet shy boy while Angela was very smiling and pleasant - but yet so busy that she had no time for boys until Morgan came into her life.

To talk about Morgan - who was a great friend of mine from a young teenage time. We were members of the local Praesidium of the Legion of Mary together under the Chairmanship of a lovely man Noel McNamara, Solicitor, who guided us to do good works for those less off than we were. Noel was a widower then - his late wife was a sister to the murdered Lord Mayor of Cork Tomas McCurtin. A few years later - Morgan, plus Tom (Midgie) Pomphrett and I were part of the local Civil Defence unit in Youghal. A huge green fire brigade engine would arrive from Cork every Thursday evening at the Market Square and we would have to roll out fire hoses from the nearby water hydrants before the water would be turned on and two people would be needed to hold the powerful flow from a hose as it danced around. What attracted Morgan and Midgie was that they were allowed to sit high in the cab and drive the gigantic green goddess vehicle around town. During this time - in Morgan's young years - he was working for Paddy Morrissey at the garage in North Main Street. His Dad was a mechanic at the same garage.

Angela and Morgan got married in 1967 and went on to start a bakery in Doneraile in North Cork in 1968. They were blessed with four children - Ed, Angie, Ann and Siobhan. It was very successful but they were far from their roots and so in 1971 they returned to Youghal to operate Gerard Hannon's country van run. We now move to 1978 when Angela and Morgan took a long term lease on a premises at Youghal Strand to open a shop in their hometown. In that same year they took over the milk run of Minnie O'Regan - delivering the glass bottles of milk to every door in the early morning. The weather was so frosty and icy one Winter - that Morgan bought special chains to wrap around the tyres of his milk lorry to give it grip on the ice and snow. Having worked at Morrissey's garage in his early life - he was very savvy regarding vehicles. Their shop was almost directly across from the Strand Church and became a great attraction - particularly for Angela's confectionary which was the very best available. It must be mentioned that Angela sold my local history books for me every time that I had a publication and it was a great encouragement to me - who was not getting sponsorship from anybody.

Before finishing - permit me to tell of John Hannon's brother - Tommy - of Mill Road - who went to fight for Franco in Spain against Communism in the late 1930s under General O'Duffy. Tommy saw no action and returned with a Spanish uniform and a set of twin pearl handled revolvers. His nephew Anthony Hannon (Gas Works) used to play with him at cowboys and indians in the fields at Mill Road when Anthony was young. Tommy promised that the revolvers would be left to Anthony. But in the meantime Tommy decided to give the guns to a gunsmith in Cork to have them valued. The owner of the shop kept them saying that he had to show them to an expert to get a true valuation. A few months later - Tommy returned to Cork to find that the shop was closed - the gunsmith had flown-and the revolvers were gone.
And that's the interesting story of Angela and Morgan O'Connor - a part of Youghal's light social history.

Buiochas mor doibh mar gheall an sceal fada seo - (Thank you for staying with me for this long story). Agus buiochas do Tony agus clann O'h-anain go leir mar gheall cabhair liomsa. (And to all the Hannon family - especially Tony and Angie - for help given to me on this project ).

Some years ago George and Noreen Harrington of Cork took over the John Hannon bakery and confectionery shop at 6 Tallow Street and it is still operating very successfully.

Mike Hackett - March 2025.

Photos -
1 - The Home Guard march past Morrissey's Garage during the 'Emergency'.

2 - Tom (Midgie) Pomphrett was a great friend of Morgan and a fan of veteran cars.
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3 - Tommy Hannon in his Spanish (Franco) uniform.

4 - The famous trike.

5 - Morgan and Angela on their wedding Day.

6 - A young O'Connor family outside their shop at the Strand.

7 - Angela and Morgan in retirement.

8 - A charity race to Midleton was sponsored by Angela and Morgan.
L. to R. - Ella Gardiner, Michael Coyne, Georgie Bulman, Tony Hannon, Victor O'Shea, David Loughman, Noel Hogan, Liam Moynihan, Pat Clancy, Jim McCarthy, Morgan O'Connor, Seamus Gardiner, Sean Coyne and Janette Power.

9 - Morgan on the trike.

10 - John Hannon cycling on Friar Street.

11 -- The Legion of Mary - Junior Praesidium.
L to R - Oliver Casey, Patrick O'Keeffe, Oliver O'Connell, Richard O'Connor, Sean Noonan,
Eddie O'Connor, Seamus Walsh, Oliver Broderick, Kieran Hannon, Michael Hackett and Liam Long. ... See MoreSee Less