Eamon Faulkner was born on the Narroway Road in Bettystown in 1928 in a house that went back many generations in his family. As a young boy he attended Donecarney school and had many part-time jobs in the area with local farmers as well as McLoughlin’s public house which is now The Last Straw. Eamon went on to attend the Drogheda Technical School but like many young men of that time, in order to support his widowed mother he was forced to leave school at the age of 14 and start work in Woodington’s boot factory in Drogheda. During his working life, Eamon also worked as a Postman in the Laytown-Bettystown area before joining Allied Irish Bank in 1969.
At a dance in McCann’s Hall in Bettystown in the 1950s, Eamon met Peggy Reynolds from Mornington who later became his wife and the couple setup home next door to Eamon’s home on the Narroway and there they reared their five children. As a young man, Eamon was very involved in the local community, he was a member and selector with St. Mary’s GFC (later to become St. Colmcilles), he was a founder member of the Star of the Sea Athletic Club, served on the Meath Athletics County Board and was a key figure in bringing community games to the area.
Eamon was a keen gardener and won many awards for his garden over the years. He was instrumental in encouraging neighbours to clean up the area and tend to their own gardens long before there ever was a tidy towns committee. In the early 1960s, he was also responsible for lobbying the council to bring a water system to the Narroway so residents had a clean water supply directly to their houses rather than having to walk to the local pump.
In their retirement Eamon and Peggy moved from the Narroways Road to Fairway Lawns and there he became actively involved in the estate’s residents association. Eamon was a community activist and was passionate about improving the appearance and amenities of his locality. For many years he lobbied to have area cleaned up and was delighted to see the development of the wildflower garden in Bettystown square and the many improvements that the Bettystown Tidy Towns committee had made.
Sadly Eamon passed away in August 2020 but hopefully will be remembered fondly by those who knew him. A bench will be installed in his memory…(location?)
Eamon Faulkner 1928-2020 RIP.