Some forty guests attended the reception at Woodlock Convent, Portlaw, to toast the wedding of Francis Madders, Ballyduff Lower, and Mary Murphy, Kilmeaden in September 1947, at which this remarkable photograph was taken.

A well-known personality in GAA circles and a hurler with the Ballyduff Club, Frank was the only son of the late GAA administrator and educator, Ambrose Madders, N.T., and Kathleen Madders, N.T., who were for many years the principals of Ballyduff boys’ and girls’ schools.

Frank was proprietor of Portlaw Bakery, which he took over following the death of his uncle John Corcoran the previous year. The Bride, eldest daughter of Denis and Mary Murphy, was given away by her father, the manager of Kilmeaden Co-operative Creamery, where she worked as an accountant/office assistant — a role previously filled by her late uncle Jack — from the spring of ’43 until marrying Frank.

The Bridesmaid was Mary’s sister Nell, while Bob Stephenson, Fairbrook, Kilmeaden, was Frank’s Best Man. The earlier ceremony at Ballyduff Church was performed by Parish Priest M.J. Murray, assisted by Fr. M.F. Hearne, P.P., Tallow.

Of those flanking the happy couple at the reception table are then-Kilmeaden Co-op office clerk Josie Stephenson — a good friend and work colleague of Mary’s, who can be seen third behind the pillar on the left. The man third behind the pillar on the right is thought to be Billy Brophy, a brother of the famous Annie, who was the official wedding photographer.

In the early sixties, Frank became a director of Summerland Bakery in Waterford; the couple having made their home at Newtown Park in the city. Mary took over Portlaw Bakery after her husband’s sad death at age 47 in 1969.

The bakery — which was first opened in 1914 by the Corcoran brothers, John and William (who had lost their jobs at a German bakery in London after the war started) — was subsequently operated by Mary and Frank’s sons, Frank Jnr and Michael (their other children being Ambrose, Denis, Mary, Brendan, John, Declan, and Anthony), along with their uncle John Corcoran Jnr, who spent over six decades in the bread business.

It closed in 2007, twenty years after Mary passed away. Her marriage to Frank had given rise to a large family, and the continuation of a long and influential Murphy/Madders legacy.

Photo courtesy of Ambrose Madders