The passing of Andy Nolan

It is with a great deal of personal sorrow that the Diary records the death of Andy Nolan.

Your editor writes this from abroad, having just heard the news of his passing. Not unexpected with recent reports of his medical condition, but none the less an occasion of deep emotion.

Those of us who grew up in what might be termed now the new old Kilcullen know that the Nolan family is one of a number which have been here as the foundation of the modern village of Kilcullen become town.

The Nolans as butchers and victuallers have served Kilcullen through generations since 1886, and Andy Nolan and latterly his son James have been the unstinting keepers of that business trust to the community.

But more than that, the ethos of service to the people of Kilcullen in the provision of the best of food possible to everyone regardless of their means or station is how many will remember Andy Nolan's legacy. It was more than mere business, as it remains to this day. Andy will have been very pleased with the awards which Nolans has achieved at home and abroad over recent years, but those will always have been secondary to his wish that every customer was properly and adequately served.

Andy also passed on a sense of commitment to the place where he lived and which he loved, to his own children, which has blossomed as so did they themselves in their own lives.

As a husband father and brother to his family he will be most held dear, and felt greviously lost, to those who are left behind with his passing. As a sportsman he will be recalled with affection not least by Kilcullen GAA and the Curragh Golf Club, where he has left his name in honours.

As a relative, and one who in his family home as a young person I played during my journey towards growing up, his passing tolls a personal loss, albeit a little less directly than for those who were privileged to know him better over the later decades of his life.

To his family and many friends, I offer my heartfelt condolences, in the certain knowledge that Andy now rests in a very deserved peace.