Ex-policeman's lot is a happy one

Don Farmer | 22nd July 2010

If long-retired policeman Pat Shannahan thought he could sneak out of Masterton without a fanfare of trumpets he was very mistaken.
Yesterday the 93-year-old was feted at a farewell party called in haste when his friends of a lifetime realised he was about to set sail for Hamilton, leaving behind 60 years of involvement in the Wairarapa community.
Shirley Groombridge started the ball rolling by phoning Ed Perry who, in turn, alerted Wes ten Hove and with the help of the Wairarapa-Bush Rugby Union they cobbled together a morning tea and a fistful of speakers who were only too happy to share their memories of a cop who gained a reputation of being equally fair to both ''the goodies and the baddies''.
Regarded as being the last of a line of policemen who could get away with dishing out justice with the proverbial kick up the backside, Mr Shannahan is a product of the South Island, having been born in Winchester and educated in Christchurch but spent 10 years in Wellington before arriving in Masterton on July 31, 1951.
He had some reservations about reverting to life in a small town but soon discovered ''I suited the place and the place suited me''.
Constable Shannahan's patch was the rural district stretching from the bridge over the Ruamahanga River at Te Ore Ore to the coast.
To all intents and purposes he was the Masterton police to the residents of that large area and he freely admitted at his farewell yesterday that he had his own way of doing things.
This included extending a certain leniency to hotel publicans and their patrons in the days of six o'clock closing, especially in the shearing season when Mr Shannahan knew full well the shearers were going to imbibe a few sneaky beers after hours.
His time in Wairarapa, that covered almost 60 years, was not entirely taken up with policing, however, as he was heavily involved in sport, and remains so.
His late wife Ina used to rib him about ''never being home'' and Mr Shannahan said it wasn't until recently, and on looking back, that he realised she was quite right.
A great rugby supporter, Mr Shannahan is a life member of the Masterton Rugby Club and is patron of the Wairarapa-Bush Rugby Union, although he thinks once he shifts to Hamilton he will relinquish that office.