The passing of Joe O'Halloran

It is with personal sadness that the Diary records the death of Joe O'Halloran, of Castledermot.

When your editor was a youngster, Joe was one of those who worked alongside the late Billy Dowling and the late Tom Morris in my father's family business, The Hideout. Clare Boyce tells me that Joe visited the pub recently, shortly before it closed, and he was recognised by one customer who remembered him from all those years ago.

Joe was buried on Sunday in Colstown Cemetery after the celebration of his Funeral Mass in the Church of the Assumption, Castlerdermot.

Another brick in the foundations of my childhood has crumbled. May he rest in peace.