‘We will continue his legacy in his field of dreams’
THE family of North Kerry hotelier and impresario Micheál Carr, who died aged just 50 last week after a long battle with cancer, are to ensure his legacy lives on as a vibrant reminder of his vision for many years to come.
Thousands from across Ireland sympathised with Mr Carr’s wife Martina, son Jonathan (19), daughter Ava (16), mother Maureen, sister Kay, brothers Tadhg, Sean and Bryan at his Funeral Mass on Friday in Ballybunion with so many more messages of sympathy sent by friends of the Ballyconry native from all over the globe.
Founder of Ceol Chiarraí and musical productions To Dance on the Moon and The Spirit of Ireland, Mr Carr had toured the globe from Taiwan to Australia, the US and Europe in a highly-successful career in traditional music-based entertainment.
It was a career he combined with the running of Ballybunion’s Golf Hotel up until it closed earlier this year.
“But it was the Tínteán above all that he regarded as his real legacy and we will be concentrating now in the coming months on developing it further. It was, as he said to me recently, his ‘field of dreams’,” Mr Carr’s brother Bryan told The Kerryman.
Mr Carr prided himself on providing jobs for so many workers, with more than 200 employed across his combined operations at one point.
“He lived at a ferocious pace, packing more into his 50 years than most people would manage in 100. One of the words of advice our mother would have given us as children was ‘don’t be afraid to put your head above the parapet’.
“But Micheál was someone who could never take it down! He was never afraid to speak his mind or rub backs up the wrong way and ruffle feathers, but he was never malicious about it. Nor was it ever really about the money. He had no interest in it, only in the chase.
“It was always for the good of the bigger picture,” Bryan said.
At the very centre of that picture always was his family –wife Martina and children Jonathan and Ava: “He was completely devoted to them, supporting Martina and the children in every way right up until the end. And he was a great brother and mentor to me, one who was always there at the end of the phone whenever I needed him,” Bryan said.