“A LEGEND OF THE TOWN” will be laid to rest tomorrow (Thursday) as Co Clare bids farewell to one of its most popular adopted sons, Jack Heaslip.
Jack Heaslip died peacefully at his home in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Hours previously he had celebrated his 96th birthday at The Diamond Bar and sang ‘The Rose of Mooncoin’ and ‘Galtee Mountain Boy’.
For most of his life, Jack traded in the heart of Ennis town. He retired from the iconic red and black shop front in March 2020. He came to Clare in 1953, first operating on the Kilrush Rd and then venturing into the fruit trade where he became familiar with places such as Kilrush, Kilkee, Miltown Malbay and Lahinch.
Under his watch the shop was noted for opening every day and in his own way Jack would have smiled that Heaslip’s was still serving the people of Clare as word of his death filtered across the town on Tuesday morning.
Very proud of his Kilkenny roots, Jack held a deep love for hurling and was delighted to see his grandson Aaron Fitzgerald help Éire Óg reach a first Clare SHC final since 2000 on Sunday. Jack’s own father won a 1905 Junior Football Championship in Dublin while Aaron collected a Clare SFC medal last year with the Ennis club.
Since coming to Ennis, Jack along with his family have been active members of Éire Óg holding positions in training, club management and as officers and President of the club. He won a senior hurling medal with the club in 1956 and a Clare Cup medal in 1959. He was also previously a selector of the Clare hurling team.
A deeply religious man Jack was a regular attendee at mass every morning at 7:40am and never failed to make the trip to the altar for communion even up to last week.
His final ever interview was with The Clare Echo at the time of his retirement when he described Ennis as “a great town” and voiced his confidence it would bounce back from the pandemic. “It is great for sport and tourists, has loads of schools and is a great place to settle down. The people are very friendly, everyone in the county is like that. The west is far different than the east. We have a homely crowd here”
Gerry Kelly was a lifelong friend of Jack’s. Speaking to The Clare Echo on Wednesday, he paid tribute to his dear friend, “He was a legend of the town, he was a great man for sport, he loved all sports. Nobody had a bad word to say about him, he was a total gentleman, he never gave out only if the referee gave a wrong decision against Kilkenny. We’ll really miss him on O’Connell Street”.
That he went surrounded by his family was “a beautiful way to go, it was a fitting send-off, he went the way he lived alongside the people that loved him,” the owner of The Diamond Bar reflected. The duo regularly golfed together, with Jack informing people in the shop that he’d be ‘back in half an hour’ when he escaped off for a round. The pair also travelled to Cheltenham together in what was Jack’s first trip to the horse-racing festival. Each year for Jack’s birthday, Gerry would visit him with an Irish coffee.
Jack was predeceased by his wife Eilis and granddaughter Gilly. He will be sadly missed by his beloved family and friends, including his loving children Therese, Seán, Francis and Rosalie, in-laws Kevin, Margaret, Pat and Marie, adored grandchildren Miriam, Niamh, Colin, Caitriona, Cian, Caoimhín, Aaron, Eadaoin, Alan and Jack, great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, relatives, neighbours and great friends.
