Power of good training opened up world to John

THE stark differences between the green landscape of the Loop Head Peninsula and the concrete jungle of urban India was graphically illustrated for John Bonfil during an overseas work assignment.

In July 1992, the Moneypoint Power Generating Station mechanical fitter was offered an “opportunity of a lifetime” to work for ESB International Engineering on an 11-week secondment for the construction of a coal plant similar to the Killimer plant in India.

The ESB’s equivalent in India, National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC) needed a mechanical engineer with experience of working in a coal burning station to oversee the commissioning of their new ash handling project.

Before his departure from Moneypoint, for what proved to be a “great experience” John received a company letter advising him to bring a number of items for his long trip.

These included three notebooks, one clutch pencil with leads, two pairs of gloves, markers, three car magazines, one Irish Times, five bars of chocolate, five ESBI brochures for relevant NTPC personnel and a present for his new temporary boss “Mr Big”.

The only downside was missing the chance to attend the All-Ireland senior football championship semi-final when Dublin narrowly defeated Clare, following the Banner’s never-to-be-forgotten victory over Kerry in the Munster final.

The power station in India was about an hour’s drive from New Delhi in Nehru Place.

Philip Clarke, the main engineer on this contract, told John he would experience deprivation and the Delhi Belly, which was exactly what transpired.

While conditions were reasonable in the station campsite, open sewers were common features in New and Old Delhi.

The main highlight of his trip was a tour of the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Red Fort.

“The Taj Mahal is an amazing building. It is totally symmetrical. What ever way you approached it, it just appeared in front of us, it is so vast. There were temples everywhere.

“The cow is sacred in India and can’t be touched. There was a lot of poverty, but you were told to ignore it. It was a lot different to West Clare.

“It was pretty warm in India,” he recalls. “They were celebrating Independence Day on my arrival in August 1992.

“It was definitely a great experience. You couldn’t drive out there. I was given a taxi man to transport me to different places.

“The drivers were a bit crazy. When they were overtaking, they just blew the horn and drove out to pass out another vehicle.

“They took their religion very seriously. I got friendly with one Sikh, who said his main duty in life was to look after his parents.

“Everyone stopped working during a day of worship. Work could be shut down for three days when they were adoring one of their different Gods.

“Communication with home was difficult. There were no mobile phones or internet. It was Monday before I found out who won between the match between Dublin and Clare. I had to go into the big man’s office (boss) to make a phone call once a week.”

John, a nephew of former Clare County Councillor and council chairman, Seán Keating of Fianna Fáil, has fond memories of his childhood and his time in Ardnacrusha Power Generating Station.

Now living in Cross village, he often wondered why Clare people were recruited as apprentices in Ardnacrusha until the late Dan Hickey informed him this was done to provide a local workforce for Moneypoint Power Generating Station.

“I was so fortunate the technical school was in Kilkee. We were lucky to have great teachers – in particular metalwork teacher, Donal O’Donoghue and woodwork teacher, Eamon Burke.

“Mr O’Donoghue, who was ahead of his time. He worked as a fitter with Irish Sugar and then took up teaching. He used to make all his own chisels and tools.

“Castrol engine oil used to be contained in pint cans. He used to turn the cans upside down in a tray in the store room so he could use the last drop of oil for a particular purpose. Nothing was wasted.

“Mr Burke worked in construction in England. He had great stories and great experience.

“A few of the students loved working with our hands so metalwork and woodwork were our favourite subjects. We were given a great foundation in school.

Born in Moneen, Kilbaha near the Little Ark in 1962, he was the second youngest of nine – six boys and three girls.

Raising nine children when money was scarce was a considerable feat for his parents, Thomas and Margaret. Thomas ran a grocery shop in addition to managing 24 cows on a small farm.

“My father loved figures. I can still see him to this day totting up figures in his head out loud one after another. There was no need for a calculator.

“He loved meeting people, particularly salesmen from Roches Feeds, Clunes Tobacco and Boyd’s from Limerick.”

“Only for Moneypoint I wouldn’t have been able to live in the parish. My two other brothers went to Dublin and another brother went to Limerick because there was no other employment in West Clare. My younger brother, Joe is farming on the Loop Head peninsula.”

After completing the Inter Cert in Kilkee Technical School, teachers encouraged their students to consider becoming ESB electrical or mechanical apprentices.

In April 1979, John, Peadar Garvey and Paddy Flanagan paid a local hackney driver, Peadar McNamara to transport them for an ESB apprenticeship interview in Rosbrien, Limerick.

An apprentice has to be at least 16 years of age but couldn’t be older than 18. Mr Garvey was young enough to complete his Leaving Certificate and still meet the apprenticeship criteria the following year.

John and Mr Flanagan secured apprenticeship places, while Mr Garvey enrolled in Tarbert Power Generating Station the following year after completing his Leaving Certificate.
While John applied to become an electrical apprentice, he changed his mind during the interview and was accepted as a mechanical apprentice, starting in Ardnacrusha on August 27, 1979 within a few days of Mr Flanagan.

Back in 1979, the Solemn Novena attracted huge crowds in the Little Ark for the visiting Redemptorists from Limerick who will celebrate Mass five or six times during the day during this annual religious festival.

“I was so naive at the time as a 17-year-old. My brother Tom took me into Ardnacrusha the first morning. As we were driving in, I saw a building with tables and chairs and said ‘oh no, this is a classroom’. The panic was over when I discovered it was the canteen.”

“Ardnacrusha was celebrating its 50th anniversary in 1979. We only spent a few week in Ardnacrusha. There were 24 mechanical apprentices in the class.

“My good friend, the late Gerry Cowhey joined as a blacksmith and became a welder. Gerry really took us under his wing. We were staying near Ivan’s in Limerick and would walk up to Gerry’s house and he would give us a lift to Ardnacrusha.

“Seán Treacy was also in the station at the time. They were pure tradesmen who came to work in a collar and tie. Even when they put on their work overalls, the tie would still be left on.”

John recalled Mick Burns was a turner working on the lathe completing highly precision work.

“All the work was completed in-house at the time. It was a one-stop shop. Sub-contractors were not employed at the time.

“When you went in as an apprentice, you couldn’t work on the lathe until you were in third year for safety reasons.

“The lathe was used to reduce the size and diameter of steel and machine white metal bearings. There were small and big lathes.”

Describing Ardnacrusha power station as a “super structure”, he recalled it is all riveted together.

“The German engineering was amazing. All the workers took pride in their work. When I joined, the main supervisor was Jim Greene who was addressed as Mr Jim Greene. There were great characters in the station at the time.

“As a mechanical fitter, you learned all the important skills from the ground up – fabrication, machining, working on pumps and various parts of the plant. We used to do a lot of projects for different stations in the ESB’s training centre in Dublin.

“The training I got was top class. I was so fortunate to meet great craftsmen like Bill Casey, Gerry Cowhey and Seán Treacy. The overall standard has dropped now because the training is not being done like it was in the old days.

“Once you have the basics, that was the key to move on with other professional training and courses.

“When you are asked to manage projects, you have a great understanding of what is involved.”

Nowadays, he said there is a shortage of mechanical fitters because this skill was forgotten about.

John spent almost two years in Ardnacrusha, apart from his 11-week block release in Bolton Street and training periods in Ringsend, Dublin.

In 1982, small five megawatt power stations were operating in Miltown Malbay, Cahersiveen, Screebe in Connemara and Gweedore.

ESB management asked John to work during an overhaul in the Miltown Malbay station for two weeks, which was managed by Corofin’s John Kearney, but he ended up staying for two years, much to his delight.

Mr Cowhey was instrumental in helping John to get this work in Miltown Malbay as he knew Mr Kearney.

This ensured John had a wealth of different experience working in a hydro-electric and a thermal power plant.

Due to a ban on recruitment of permanent workers in the ESB, he secured temporary work from April to October in Ardnacrusha station, completing maintenance work on the weirs and nearby gates.

In December 1986, he got a permanent job in Moneypoint, which was exciting working in a new power plant.

The ESB built the second giant chimney, Unit Two, first, then Unit One and then Unit Three. When John arrived as a mechanical maintenance fitter the company was commissioning Unit Three.

“Getting into Moneypoint was the icing on the cake. I had tried to get work on the site several times, but it didn’t work out.”

“I started during temporary supervision in 2006. This involved issuing work to a group of fitters as a mechanical supervisor.

When he was 28 years old, he went on an aeroplane for the first time to watch Jack Charlton’s soccer team take on Italy in Rome during the 1990 World Cup.

Two years later, he went on his never-to-be forgotten trip to India.

A year later, he got married to Joan Donnellan from Broadford and they had three sons.

“The ESB are a great company to work for as I was given great work opportunities. I really enjoyed my career with the ESB.”

About two years ago, the ESB reduced the workforce in Moneypoint by about 100 employees down to a core of 86.

However, Moneypoint got busier during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has the option of burning heavy fuel oil in their boilers. Currently, coal is burned in Unit One and Three, with oil fired in Unit Two.

While coal burning was due to cease in Moneypoint in 2025, this practice could continue for another year or two in view of recent comments by the Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar.