Tribute to the late Paddy Mulcahy.

cork | miscellaneous | news report Thursday September 17, 2009 13:30 by Jimmy Neilson

Tribute to Paddy Mulcahy.

Paddy Mulcahy died on Sunday last the 13th. September. Since then thousands have mourned his passing and demonstrated their great respect for him with the massive turn out at his waking and funeral. Many were the fitting and well deserved tributes paid to him over the immediate days of mourning and burial.

To us Paddy Mul deserved all of that.

Tribute to Paddy Mulcahy.

Paddy Mulcahy died on Sunday last the 13th. September. Since then thousands have mourned his passing and demonstrated their great respect for him with the massive turn out at his waking and funeral. Many were the fitting and well deserved tributes paid to him over the immediate days of mourning and burial.

To us Paddy Mul deserved all of that.

I first met Paddy as a member of the Cork Council of Trades Unions over 25 years ago and, along with some of the more progressive members, were very impressed with this teacher and his views. We immediately saw him as a very positive addition and his ability to bridge the different and often opposing factions in the pursuing years smoothed many the implementation of more radical decisions and stances. No task was too menial or laborious for him and his ability and his forte for getting the views of Council exactly correct and down on paper was a great asset in our many battles and protests.

The formation of the “Householders against Service Charges” in 1989 gave him the platform to demonstrate all his talents of organising, cajoling, teaching and influencing people and he did not let us down over the long years. This group, known as “HASC”, protested against the introduction of service charges on already overburdened householders. Wet, long cold nights and a 5-day jail sentence never daunted Paddy. The defection from our protest by some of our colleagues for the trappings of “Lord Mayor” and T. D’ships hurt us badly but Paddy was there to steady our ship and encourage us to continue.

Paddy stood as our candidate in the 1997 general election but to no avail other than to affect the make up of the successful candidates. To some of us, well seasoned in elections, Paddy was relatively new but he took to it with gusto and the sincerity of an old campaigner. It is perhaps ironic, but, if he were around early this week and saw the crowds queuing up beyond Shoemakers’ Hill to Shandon Street, his comment would have been, ” where were the so-and-sos in the 1997 General Election when I needed them?”

He is gone now as if he were lost in battle and we mourn for him. He is gone and all the great plans of the past and those he had for the future development and social considerations in his new job as principal of the North Mon. are left to others to follow. We hope they don’t disappoint.
We, his comrades, all we feel Paddy’s great loss and absence. How much more must Terry, Tomás, Séamus, Eoghan, Bríd, and Elizabeth, his brothers and sisters and extended family know and feel it? To them ár chomhbhróin dhílish.

“Brón ar an mbás ní feidir a shéadhna
Leagann sé úr is críon le cheile.”

Jimmy Neilson.