When Ned McGrath strode onto the floor at any meeting he stood tall, although average in stature. He commanded attention and respect and was well-known in his largely Irish Catholic community of Mount Sherwood, and beyond. The McGraths were among the original families in the area in the late 19th Century. Their gregarious nature, willingness to help everyone, deep liberal sentiments and devotion to family and community were legendary. Not all of them were comfortable in public, but Ned had such drive and determination to make life better that he drew approval and later votes, so that the goals in his election platform could be actioned, or at least brought to council for consideration.
From humble beginnings as the son of Irish famine immigrants, baptised Edward Patrick, he was always known as Ned, or sometimes the more formal "E.P." McGrath. The sixth son of Micheal McGrath and Catherine Brennan, he was rarely still for a moment. His parents were hard-working and supportive and had just lost a newborn son the year prior to Ned’s birth. Their ability to cope and persevere became part of the fibre of each of their offspring. The family would eventually grow to include 11 children, 9 sons and 2 daughters; 8 of whom lived to adulthood. His beloved mother Catherine died at the age of 44 in 1881, followed within weeks, by the passing of her youngest son, 4 year old Francis. At this time Ned was 17. His father Michael was devastated but his deep faith and fighting spirit allowed him to keep his large family together. Largely uneducated, Michael was a labourer, sometimes referred to as a carpenter, and he used his skills to earn a living and build the 2-storey frame home that was never occupied by another family for the more than 70 years it stood. Ned followed closely in his father’s footsteps as a woodworker, along with his older brothers John and Michael. The difference from his father being that Ned managed to get an education and was literate.
Imagine if you will, a young lad who tried to emulate his father and who succeeded, even beyond his father’s greatest dreams. Seldom alone in his large family, surrounded also by the friends and neighbours who were as much part of his life as his siblings, Ned grew to enjoy the fact that he could command an audience. His powers of persuasion as a politician must have been honed as he strove to make his own mark in his crowded personal world. He knew what he liked and made sure to include fun in his family’s life.
Well known also in the sporting community of Ottawa, Ned’s particular passions were baseball and boating. He was involved with the Ottawa Pastimes baseball team in their early years, beginning in the 1880s. In 1904 he bought a large pleasure boat, which he owned jointly with three others. Subsequently he became a member of the boating social scene in Ottawa and on the Rideau Canal and could often be seen as captain of The Fay, as it sailed to his cottage near the Long Island Locks.
A devoted husband and father, and always a devoted son, Ned’s new family almost always shared a home with Michael. The loss of their first child, Mary Agnes Catherine at the age of three months, rocked their world. That baby was always included in an account of the children of Ned and Mary Ann (Morgan) McGrath. They named a later-born daughter Mary Agnes in her honour. Even when gone from the earth, nobody was forgotten in the McGrath clan.
Ned died, not suddenly but unexpectedly, on December 29, 1932 at the age of 67. He had fallen ill on December 5th, the very day he was once again elected as Alderman. Newspaper coverage of his passing was extensive. Several friends eulogized him. Two of his colleagues summed up the man very well. Both articles were printed in The Ottawa Journal on December 30th.
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