Life As A Breadman, Dublin City, Ireland 1981
40,235
Published 2024-02-21
When Leo Mahon started work on 24 June 1924 at the age of 14 bread was delivered by a horse drawn van.
Work was tough on the horses during the winter months especially along the Merrion Road to Booterstown with the east wind in their faces. However, the summer months made up for it.
Leo Mahon started out as an assistant to the van driver by the name of Mr Pat Owens, who had previously been a horse tram driver. At that time the pay was 14 shillings a week working from 6.00 am until 3.00 pm. As time went on, Leo got a promotion with a job in the bakery in various positions. He then became a spareman, now called a salesman. Everyone who worked in Johnston Mooney & O’Brien had a number by which they were known to their co-workers.
Back on deliveries Leo Mahon starts in Ballsbridge at 4.45 am every morning. He gets ready for the day ahead loading up the van before starting deliveries.
He shares stories about the encounters and antics he got up to on his rounds over the years. He feels very lucky to have found a job with prospects at Johnston Mooney & O’Brien as there were very few opportunities in those days. There are no plans to retire until he is thrown out of his job.
I’m stopping there until they say now man, you’re time is up. Out you go.
Leo Mahon is satisfied with how he has lived his life and does not know what he would do if he were a younger man today.
I worked hard all my life and now I’m taking it easy.
This episode of ‘Ireland’s Eye’ was broadcast on 13 February 1981. The presenter is Frank Hall.
All Comments (21)
-
Started working at 14 for 70p a week. Spent a lifetime in a low skilled job. Married had a family and a stay at home wife. Yet owned his own home. God help a 14 year old today starting out in Dublin with no education or family connections. We seem to have lost so much.
-
God these videos make 1981 look ancient. When did I get so old
-
This is a very important video for our times. Listen to his answer to the question about having a 'better' life. He had it all!
-
My beautiful uncle, Paddy Gorman, delivered Johnson Mooney bread along the Sth Circular Road, what a lovely man, always had a smile for you ❤ eileen x
-
My da was raised by a lovely fella named Douglas McKenna. Owned Mckenna's bakery. Taught him to drive and bake. He was a good man
-
So long Dublin. Thanks for the memories!
-
In the dublin mountains in the 70s and early eightis, i remember johnson mooney and o brien coming to our house. Mothers pride also came by if my mind serves me right. The rich farmers next door always got their bread plus cakes and jam tarts. We couldnt afford the cakes but we always pulled a piece out of the loaf and ate it walking back to the house. Just loved it cause it was so fresh
-
The year I was born! So sad to think whats its now become in Dublin.
-
we had electric bread vans in my town in the late sixties on into the early 70s
-
I had heard about this in an interview with Colm Meaney. From the Johnston Mooney O'Brien website: Paddy Meaney, father of Irish actor Colm Meaney, delivered the bread of Johnston Mooney and O’Brien for over 30 years. Colm himself was a part of the Johnston Mooney and O’Brien history as he would often be seen out in the van with his father before he found fame in the world of acting.
-
Honest hard working man, no pretentious. 3 r 4 deliveries in the Liberties through 1970’s. Community at its best, sorely lacking today.
-
Beautiful smell of bread & cakes of those Van's 😋
-
I remember the bread truck in Bettystown at Pat’s shop. I miss these auld ones! 😢
-
I remember the old electric bread floats bringing bread to the shops as a kid in the early 80s in Cabra west in Dublin and also the milk man bringing milk to the house ,,He to had an electric float ,He delivered the milk Monday to Friday and collected the money on a Friday,,,We had the glass bottles at the time,,The cream would be thick at the top of the bottle and the cap was just aluminium foil,,The crows would peck the foil off and drink the milk,,,It was real milk ,Not the watered down crap today,,,,we would scut on the back of the floats when the driver wasn't looking,,,,,,great memories,,,
-
There is so much more to the History of Johnston Mooney & O' Brien. To think it is all gone now. Mrs Armstrong in the bakery shop at JMOB was so kind and she would wrap fresh bread and cakes in an peach colour tissue paper. The smell of the cakes and bread in the shop was heavenly. Ballsbridge is an awful kip now full of awful fake people. Show off yuppies worthless in character or respect and violently selfish. Nothing like it once was. All the real people that were there are gone. 😢. This is valuable local history for those who remember.
-
this is exactly the type of content for which i LOVE this channel!!!!
-
The late Frank Hall asking the questions. Great piece.
-
We used to help our JM O’B deliver the bread to the houses and flats in the estate it was easy to keep up with the battery powered van and the smell of the bread and cakes ….
-
I worked for Johnson Mooney and O' Brien in the 70s. Did a country run , as they called it then, Nass, Newbridge, Athy, Stradbally. In Stradbally I got to try on a pair of boxing gloves that belonged to Muhammed Ali . J.M and O'B. Let me go when I turned 18 , so they wouldn't have to pay me a man's wage.
-
great video, What a great man and great worker .
