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WITH deepest sadness and heavy hearts, the family of Peter McKernan, former owner of the mini mart Fassaroe Bray would like to announce he passed away on Monday, August 24, at his home in Birmingham, surrounded by his loving wife and six children.
Peter (76) had suffered a lengthy illness. His funeral took place last Wednesday, September 9, at Sacred Heart Church, Aston, Birmingham.
Peter was a plain speaking man who tried to help anyone where he could.
He was very family orientated, and loved joining in the banter.
He was funny, mischievous, had a twinkle in his eye, could strike up a conversation with anyone and was the life and soul of the family or any room he was in.
He was a very proud man and proud of his family, often saying how many sisters and brothers he had, how many grandchildren his parents had and how many children and grandchildren he had and told everyone what they did.
Peter was born in Fintona, County Tyrone, Omagh on 24 September 1943 and the family moved down to Bray when he was a young lad
They settled into a house near the people’s park just below the Snip which was a shop on the upper Dargle Road.
The family moved in to Richmond Hill House in Fassaroe, a large house that stood on its own bit of land.
It had a lane leading to it from the upper Dargle Road by the traffic lights. There was an orchard at the back of the house in the garden with a second house at the far end, which was demolished and the shops were developed on the back part of the garden. It had a car park and four shops to one side and a double shop adjacent to them which was the mini market.
Peter originally had one of the smaller shops, a newsagents, this was moved into the larger shop after a while and became the mini market for the community in Fassaroe. Over the years numerous family members worked there along with some of the locals. He loved the shop and made some really good friends within the community.
He moved to England in the 1960s for work. Peter was a plant fitter and for a time he had his own plant hire firm in Bray.
He worked in the building trade a lot too, building the shops in Fassaroe, flats up near the sea front and lots of other jobs in and around Bray and the Dublin area. Peter worked on the second stage of Sydney Opera House in the mid 60’s and got engaged to Sheila via post whilst working in Australia. In the 1970s he worked in Nigeria for a short time teaching people there how to use and maintain large plant machinery.
He and Sheila were married for 54 years and they had six children - Julie, Nicky, Susan, Lo
raine, Angela and Peter.
Peter was one of 12 children. His parents were James and Mary McKernan. He had nine sisters and two brothers. Two of Peter’s sisters passed away in recent years.
He had nine grandchildren and was also granddad to three foster children over the past two years.
Through the 1970s and early 1980s Peter took part in stock car racing. He was part of the Nuneaton Nutters team and drove in team and individual races at Nuneaton, Hednesford, Hinckley and Long Eaton raceway meetings.
He won several trophies. It was a dangerous sport and he had a few rolls in his time, but he was well known in destruction derbies, knocking out other drivers to make his way to the front to help his team win races. He loved golf, watching sport, liked a bet on the horses and having a go on the slots and the poker machines up at the Star on the seafront in Bray.
He followed Aston Villa football team which was just down the road from where he lived in Birmingham. More recently he loved listening to Jim Reeves and watched every episode of Only Fools and Horses, Last of the Summer Wine and his favourite was Agnes Brown – Mrs Brown’s Boys which had him roaring with laughter.
Peter was unable to drive in recent years, but he has visited Bray many times for holidays since moving away, driving himself or more recently with family to visit his sisters and some of his nieces and nephews. He always visited the seafront and popped into see people just to say hello. He would take the opportunity to visit family up the north also while being in Ireland. He has several times visited Brittas Bay, which was a place he took his children often when they were young. They have fond memories of family gatherings at Brittas Bay years ago, with 30 or 40 cousins playing rounders.