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13JULY16
hen Noah was building his ark, there’s a very strong chance that Beatrice Gunning was there, banging away with her 
hammer.
hen Noah was building his ark, there’s a very strong chance that Beatrice Gunning was there, banging away with her 
hammer.Man, think of a Greystones club, group, committee or army, and, chances are, young Gunning was one of the founders.
Beatrice was there at the very start of the Greystones Tidy Towns. She was one of the founders of The Greystones Active Retirement Association. The Credit Union. St David’s. Greystones Cancer Support. The Kilcoole Ku Klux Klan Kung Fu Kickers Corporation.
Frank Doyle and John Gunning
You name it, son, Beatrice Gunning has been there, adminned that, and has the certs and awards to prove it.
Blessed to live in one of the finest central Greystones houses that ever there was – that large chunk of beauty just hiding behind Paraphenalia, where La Touche Close meets La Touche Place – Beatrice was lucky enough to have been born and raised here. And it was in that great, big beautiful house that she and husband John reared their four kids, Avril, Alvin, Roberta and – ten years after all the others – Ian.
Greystones & District Active Retirement gang Emmet McGarry, Noreen Kenrick, John Moloney, Beatrice Gunning, Joe Devoy, Kathleen Smyth, Kay Dunne and Peter Deane.
When we swung by recently for a chat, it didn’t take long for the 91 years of Greystones memories to come flooding forth. Being involved with all those clubs and associations is clearly something Beatrice is very proud of, and rightly so. Doing that Home Economics course in Wesley College, and how that led to a lifetime of making Christmas and wedding cakes. The world tour with the likes of Tom Swann and Kathleen Martin, as part of The Thirties Club Committee. Being treasurer of the Greystones Development Association, a 1940s forerunner for today’s Municipal District Council. “And we were battling dog poo even then,” offers Beatrice.
Tess Byrne, May Verbuggen, Mary Byrne, Nora Ferns, Bertrice Gunning & Bridie Mooney have a Grand Day Out
One of those early memories that sparks the biggest laugh from Beatrice though is the Great Spongecake Train Robbery.
“We were on the usual 5-to-4 train from Harcourt Street, back home after college,” she smiles. “There was a competition, and I’d baked this wonderful spongecake. We rarely had cake tins back then, so, I had to wrap it in grease paper, trying my best not to let it get damaged.
“All the girls were sitting together, as always, and the boys there – including Neville Doyle, and Harry Stringer, and Charlie Harris – clearly had their eye on this cake. Well, when we hit the long tunnel, all the lights in the train went out. And when they came back on, my spongecake was gone.”
“All the girls were sitting together, as always, and the boys there – including Neville Doyle, and Harry Stringer, and Charlie Harris – clearly had their eye on this cake. Well, when we hit the long tunnel, all the lights in the train went out. And when they came back on, my spongecake was gone.”Beatrice lets out a mighty guffaw.
Naturally, being Greystones, Beatrice remembers my dad delivering vegetables, and heading up to GG’s old neighbours on Blackberry Lane, the Hills, as a little girl, to help with the rabbits. Everyone knows everyone around here.
Beatrice Gunning, Kathleen Martin, Mrs D. Mitchell, Mr & Mrs Sean Groome 1983
“It’s not the buildings, or the landmarks, or the tourist attractions, that make a town – it’s the people. And Greystones has always had more than its fair share of wonderful people…”