FAMILY MEANT EVERYTHING TO EASY-GOING PAD DY
THERE was great sadness when Paddy Lawless, also known as Paddy Kelly, died last month following illness.
Paddy was from Kindlestown Park in Greystones, and formerly of Red Lane in Kilmacanogue.
He is survived by his wife Mary, daughters Geraldine and Deirdre, son Eamonn, his grandchildren, in-laws, relatives, and friends.
Paddy was a very easy going person. He didn’t demand very much from life really and was a very happy and contented person.
Sport and his family were her greatest joys. In his younger days he was a member of Kilmacanogue athletic club and he won lots of medals and titles there. His main event was the ten-mile cross-country. He could do ten miles in under an hour on grass, but that wasn’t an official time.
He was a member of the Kilmacanogue GAA and was a member of the cup-winning football team of 1959. He did play a bit of hurling also. He loved the GAA, and the club did a guard of honour at his funeral.
When he got married, he moved to Kindlestown Park in Greystones and got involved with the soccer club there. He played with Greystones AFC for a number of years and was chairman of the club for a while.
When he retired from that, he took up refereeing in Wicklow and looked after schoolboy soccer. Many of the young men whom he would have coached turned out for his funeral.
One recalled Paddy taking the under-11s to a match at a time when there wasn’t much transport and he put all 11 into his car. There were seven boys in the back seat, three in the front seat and one actually up in the window.
He would never give out to the players and always encouraged themselves on the sideline. He was great with the young people and they did think highly of him.
Paddy loved watching sports on TV and would watch anything. If a ball moved, he’d watch it! He didn’t follow any particular soccer team, but just enjoyed a good match.
Paddy did a lot of community work around the estate after he retired in 2002. He cleaned up around Kindlestown Park, or cut grass. He received a citizen of the year award from the council for his work.
He loved doing it. Paddy couldn’t sit at home doing nothing, he wasn’t that kind of man.
Paddy was raised in the Red Lane by the Kelly family. He was a foster child. In latter years a cousin did find him.
He worked for some years with Ben Doyle on the Sugarloaf, before going on to work for Wicklow County Council on the building sites.
He was always very hard-working and also enjoyed his time off. He and Mary would go away to Kilkenny or Killarney for country and western music concerts and dances.
He and Mary met at a marquee dance in Kilcoole. They were married for 53 years and raised three children. Paddy was a very devoted dad, and grandad to his four grandchildren, whom he idolised.
Family was his top priority. He always took a great interest in their sports and activities such as Irish dancing. He brought his children everywhere and the family spent nearly every Sunday on a pitch somewhere.
Paddy’s funeral took place last month at Holy Rosary Church, Greystones, followed by interment in Redford Cemetery.