A SURPRISE payment to cover a 71-year-old legal debt arrived by post last week.
Reddy O’Regan, a retired solicitor living in Tragumna, was never in the habit of chasing up invoices in his own practice in Mullingar. Neither did he expect that a conscientious client of his father, Redmond O’Regan, would chase him down to pay the 10 shilling balance of a £1 bill from 1950.
Reddy contacted The Southern Star to acknowledge ‘with thanks’ the anonymous payment on behalf of his late father. Redmond was in practice with his uncle, Charlie Kennedy, in North Street in Skibbereen from the early 1920s until his death in 1975.
‘This person was represented by my dad 71 years ago,’ Reddy explained. ‘At the time, the client tells me they paid ten shillings, half the fee, which was all they could afford at the time. The balance – with a generous addition for inflation – was enclosed, so this honest person has paid their debt of honour,’ he added.
Reddy, and sisters, Maeve and Geri, have now made a modest donation to the St Vincent de Paul Society. But that’s not the end of the story. The wry letter writer noted: ‘I lost the case.’
