This article is from page 23 of the 2012-02-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 23 JPG
KILRUSH’S oldest citizen passed away last week in his 102nd year. Jack Dunleavy, who was very well known in business and sporting circles in the town throughout his life was laid to rest at the Sunday.
Mr Dunleavy would have been 102 this June was in great health all his life – never being in hospital until a couple of days before he died on Friday of last week.
“He lived a great life and was out walking every day until he was 98 years of age,” said his son, former Mayor of Kilrush, Sean Dunleavey this week.
Mr Dunleavy was born in 1910 and as a result was witness and part of many historic events in the west Clare capital and had great recall of events from the War of Independence, the Civil War and the labour difficulties in Kilrush in the early 1930s when a strike at Ryan’s sparked the creation of a short-lived ‘Kilrush Soviet’.
Mr Dunleavy’s mother, Susan Kennedy, hailed from Tulla, but moved to Kilrush in the early part of the century to open up a shop on Moore Street.
There she met her husband, Jack’s father, who made a living bail- ing hay and selling it to the British Army.
An only child, Mr Dunleavy married Kathleen Brooks from Ballyjamesduff, and they had nine children.
As a lover of the Irish language and a wearer of a fáinne óir, it was a great source of pride to Mr Dunleavy that the Irish version of his surname, Dúinsléibhe appeared over the door of this business premises on Moore Street for many years.
In sporting circles, he was a winner of a Clare senior football championship medal with his beloved Kilrush Shamrocks in 1930, making him the oldest holder of such a medal in the county.
He also served as secretary of Kilrush Shamrocks for many years, carrying all club business and correspondence through Irish, while in addition to this his sporting interests extended to athletics and greyhound racing.
Mr Dunleavy’s funeral Mass took place at St Senan’s Church in Kilrush on Sunday and he was buried afterwards in All Saints Cemetery, Shanakyle.