Young Thady Cahill was a quick learner of the drapery and clothing business. He saved assiduously and kept himself out of trouble.

He was an abstemious youth, in every sense, but then on a drapers' assistant weekly remuneration of six pence, he hadn't much choice. His only recreation was playing frequent games of hurling and Gaelic football at the grounds of the famous team of Cashel King Cormacs, followed by the occasional glass of Strangman's 'Black Jack' ale in the snug of Davern's Hotel in the Main Street. Thady was a stalwart, if unspectacular, member of the team, but his younger brother, Phil - a powerful, giant of a man - was the star.

In October 1903, at the age of 23, Thady Cahill took a major, courageous step in his life. He handed in his notice to his employer, Cornelius Graball, and set up in direct
competition with him in Friary Street in Cashel. He did so with the aid of a loan of £50 from the local branch of the Munster & Leinster Bank, secured on his father's small farm holding.

Through his brother Phil, Thady secured the business of making and supplying the distinctive blue-with-gold-sash jerseys of the Cashel King Cormacs. By his growing involvement in the fledgling GAA - as player, referee and administrator - he eventually built up a considerable business supplying jerseys, shorts, socks, flags, sliotars and footballs to GAA clubs throughout Tipperary, and even further afield.

Not surprisingly, there was intense rivalry between the two shops. In May 1907, Cornelius Graball died, childless, leaving only his wealthy widow, Eliza. She was a daughter of one of Tipperary's strongest farmers, Ned Stapleton, of Harristown Demesne, not far from the village of Horse and Jockey. Eliza and Young Thady had known each other
since childhood, but the disparity in their social backgrounds - and her arranged marriage at the age of eighteen, to Graball, a man thirty years her senior - had kept them apart.

After a decent interval of mourning, and a discreet but passionate courtship, Graball's widow Eliza and Thady were married in Cashel parish church on the 15th of July, 1908 by the Parish Priest of Gowlnacalley, the Very Reverend Canon Edward Guiry PP, VG.. They enjoyed a long, happy, fertile and prosperous marriage. Their combined businesses
prospered as never before. They had five children, three of whom lived long and productive lives, two others of whom died very young while participating in battles for
noble causes.