Stories - Dunne Clan

Eleanor Dunne Carver

"...Dad had a bit of an imp in him. He rather enjoyed nudging the law just a bit. Perhaps this came from his mother, Bridget, always called Ma, who brought her children across the border from Canada when her husband, William, died and she declared them all citizens. She told them that America welcomed the Irish so much that they were automatically considered citizens."

Kathleen Dunne Ponziani

"...Ma sent Walter and Fred to Assumption boarding high school to keep them out of mischief and off the streets. My Dad continued his association with Assumption all his life and was president of the alumni association.

I'm not sure what Ma died from, since it wasn't polite to complain, even if something was killing you."

Margaret Mary Dunne

"...In the traditional Irish way, we weren't raised as much as allowed the freedom to grow up. I call it loving neglect. We were generally good kids not because we feared punishment as much as our parents disapproval."

Mike Dunne

"...While I didn't have a very close personal relationship with the police, I was escorted home by them a couple of times. Mom or Dad, in their night clothes, would come to the door to Sergeant so-and-so giving them back their son. After I explained my side of the story, either would say, "You know better, or I'm disappointed in you." That's all. I dreaded those words. The hurt couldn't have been any worse than hitting me with a shovel. They were truly a deterrent."

Mike Dunne, Back to My Roots

"...We drove to Nenagh and at the advice of my friend who said, “go to the oldest pub and look for the oldest person in the pub and ask the whereabouts of the Harrington’s”. Wow, it worked. The gentleman said: “yes, I know the Harrington’s, Tom works across the street at the dairy (a coop factory that processes milk for the nearby farms).” I walked across the street and, in my shy manner, inquired at the security gate and said: “I’m looking for Tom Harrington”. Out comes Tom; I put out my hand and said “I’m your relative from America”. His jaw dropped. Tom phoned Marion and the word spread."

Paul Dunne

"...I used to cuss a lot when I first learned how. Practice makes perfect. Mom washed my mouth out with soap. I didn't get the connection. What's cussing got to do with hygiene?"

Robert Ponziani

"...When I was about 10, I was in the basement at Daddy Dunne and Nola's house practicing pool when Marg led two guys down there to fix the furnace or something. The younger of the two guys, who was about Marg's age, started flirting with her. After a few minutes I interrupted him and told him in a snitty tone that she's engaged. I also remember the times when Marg took me for rides in her Mustang. We were just SO COOL in that car."

Tad Dunne

"...Her privacy was deep. We practically never saw her in slip; for her, being up meant being dressed, being presentable, and being there for us. She showed interest in everything we kids said. Did she resent being mobbed by the ten of us? You'd think so. Munner (what we called her mother) once said that when their family first moved to Detroit, Mum had said, "Oh good. I'd really like to meet the Ford girls." Instead, she married the equivalent of an Irish mafia don and lived like a princess in exile."

Tad Dunne, Recollections

"...Very late one night, there was a guy crouching by the accelerator on our ’48 Ford as if trying to get it started. Daddy heard the commotion, got out of bed, put on his fedora (but still in boxer shorts and a wife-beater T-shirt), picked up a pistol, and confronted the guy. He marched the guy into our dining room and gave him hell. Turns out he was a very drunk doctor who lived nearby. Daddy got him back home OK. (Ooops! I said “hell”—a word heard rarely and only by Daddy in our house! A house, as I recall it, where shouting was not permitted.)"

Virginia Dunne Stark

"...We'd often run down to meet Daddy Dunne at the streetcar stop when he came home at night because he often brought home suckers for all of us. My mother wouldn't let us have suckers with straight sticks because she thought we'd fall and jam them down our throat, so he always had to buy the kind with the loops."

Walt Dunne, 2006 Family Update

"...On Saturday September 2, 2006, Leo Dunne’s family (Dad’s brother) held a family reunion at a park in Plymouth. Everyone looked “grand” as Ma would say.

"I was asked by Patti DeHenau, one of Bill Dunne’s daughters, if I would jot down the latest news about our part of the family since so many of them live out of town. I have put together some of the events in the Walter J. Dunne family over the years."

Walter Dunne

"...By the late 40’s, dad must have started to think seriously about having his own place. There was a 200-foot vacant lot between Frank and Tom Kelleys’ that was owned by a man named Hopkins who also owned Hoppie’s Tavern – his nickname. Dad bought the lot in August 1949 and started building in February 1950."

Stories by ...