The last word

Bernie Healy speaks to Willie McGowan from Donegal to explore some ESB history.

Bemused at the idea of recessions, cutbacks and managing on a tight budget – Willie McGowan has lived through it all. The ESB pensioner, who resides in Donegal Town, is looking forward to celebrating his 100th birthday in November next with his wife Rita.

Willie and Rita are married 67 years – an unbelievable record in its own right and both are thankfully enjoying relatively good health and their life in a pretty bungalow beside the River Eske in Donegal. Rita still enjoys her garden and insists keeping the shrubs in order ‘is no bother’! Willie retired from ESB in 1974!

His family roots were firmly entrenched in trains and engines as his father served as a Station Master for 47 years for Donegal Railway, living in the station house. This love of engines transferred to Willie who, at the age of 14, bought his first motorbike. Three years later, Willie took part in his first race and over the years was to be the proud owner of some 28 machines in total. With this vast experience he went on to become a recognised expert in the field and wrote many articles for publication. In fact Willie was acknowledged in the book ‘100 years of Motor Sport in Ireland 1902 – 2002’.

Willie’s father wanted the best for his family and following a 4-year stint in Letterkenny College, Willie was sent to Dublin to the Royal College of Science, now part of Government Buildings. However, a lack of deep knowledge in mathematics proved to be a drawback and he returned home after two years. So how did this lead to Willie and his brother PJ becoming involved in the electricity industry? Willie’s father always had a dream of “bringing a light to Donegal town” and according to his son “had a few pounds and borrowed a few more from relatives” to build the station, which was located in the railway station grounds, with permission from Donegal Railway. “A local firm were engaged to erect the building while poles were sourced from Norway and shipped to Donegal from Liverpool. In three years we had it paid for and the whole town completed,” says Willie.

Following the connection of the first customer – the local parish priest – demand started to grow and the generators were flat out, running 24/7. The McGowan brothers, Willie and PJ, bore the brunt of most of the work until 1952 when it was taken over by ESB. By that time their customer base had grown to 261. Tariffs per unit at the time were 1 shilling for lighting, 6 pence for heating and cooking and 5 pence for power. For the year ended 31st March 1952, J. McGowan & Sons had sold 99,681 units.

Willie joined ESB as part of the take-over and was appointed Station Attendant initially. However, his position might have been short lived but for the quick thinking of an ex Garda, John Sinclair. One particular morning, Willie arrived at the station to find water on the floor. “I proceeded to get down on my knees to check if the heaters were working to dry the area quickly when a long screwdriver in my pocket got too near the plant and caused a flash over.” Willie was flung to the ground – taking the full force of a 38kV shock which broke the connection. “Garda Sinclair happened to be there and dragged me outside to an ESB van. I convinced him that I would drive myself to hospital. This I did and almost gave the doctor, who was performing an operation at the time, a heart attack when I arrived!” Willie was paralysed for 6 weeks but went on to make a full recovery. Having previously been knocked down by a train at the age of 3, Willie was beginning to feel like the cat with nine lives – and that was before he fell from a motorbike in 1975!

You could say that the first customer contact centre was in Willie’s own home! Rita McGinley was Willie’s original PA so to speak! An emergency button was located in the kitchen of the family home and it was here that Rita happily took the calls for network outages and it was to here that the Network crews returned for hot drinks, food and even warm showers after hard nights reconnecting customers in ferocious storms and snow.

Willie recalls one extremely bad snow storm when a crew from Sligo came to assist. Numerous poles and wires had come down due to the weight of the snow. The situation posed a threat to both members of the public and to cattle and such was the dedication of the team that one technician spent seven hours on a pole repairing the damage. Willie recalls it particularly because Rita offered some of his clothes to the same colleague who had returned to the McGowan household for some much needed nourishment that night!

It is heartening to know that good customer service was at the forefront, even in those days. One of Willie’s tasks was to disconnect customers who hadn’t paid their bills. Willie came across a particularly unfortunate man with a large family who had hit hard times. He allowed this particular customer two ‘lights’ – a 60watt upstairs and a 100watt downstairs and sure enough, the customer came good and paid up £25 when things improved.

Willie loved the change when ESB took over the company and has great memories of those days, though he has outlived almost all of his colleagues. Initially the wide area that he covered – roughly from Barnesmore to the outskirts of Killybegs town - was looked after by just one other colleague, Jimmy McGinley but later they were to be joined by Hugh McGettigan. Over the years they came across many famous characters. Wages initially were £6.10 per week, which were not by any means at the high end of salary scales. Overtime was extra and Willie recalls most Christmases getting callouts, particularly from Churches where lights had gone out due to pole damage in storms. Donegal, in those days, suffered extreme weather conditions even by today’s standards.

Despite all this, Willie found time to enjoy his love of engines and motor bikes. And that wasn’t his only talent. He is an accomplished journalist and artist. He wrote features for local newspapers and motor magazines for many years and his home is adorned with many of his paintings.

A long life with wonderful memories. In the words of his only brother PJ, who died in October 2008 last, “I have had the best life ever”. That can be said too of Willie and Rita after almost seven decades together.

EM