Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not repeat too much of what many other Members have said about Feargal's political career. I will talk about some of the personal encounters I had with him. Before I do so, I welcome Denise and her family and all the Members in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery. I also welcome the visitors and former Senators in the other Visitors Gallery.

I met Feargal more than 42 years ago. At the age of 11 I worked in a little bakery called Molloys on Mount Merrion Avenue. Superquinn was getting going. It had a fantastic big new store opening in Blackrock. Inevitably, Molloys off-licence started to close and, as another year went on, Molloys bakery closed. I cleaned and scrubbed the floor in Molloys bakery after school. Someone suggested that the bakery was to close and that I would need to get myself an after-school job quickly. I arrived at the new Superquinn store - as I said, more than 40 years ago - and met a lady manager there who told me I would need to speak to somebody else, namely, a manager, and I did. I told her my story and I started a week later. This was just an after-school job in Blackrock.

Feargal used to do his tours of his shops then. He would put on his hat if he was behind the bakery counter, the meat counter or wherever else. He took the time to visit his stores. We never quite knew when he would come but he came to a number of stores all over Dublin and got his hands dirty in the real business of retailing. He loved customers and loved people. I remember him stopping me one day, apologising and telling me he had meant to introduce himself to me the previous week when he had seen me. I told him the story of how I got the job. I told him Molloys was to close in two weeks' time. He asked whether many other people would lose their jobs there. I said "Yes". He said that that was what competition did, that in the case of a big store there were other stores around it. We know the stores in that area as Blackrock Shopping Centre today. It is currently being renovated. I said I would bring someone from Molloys to Superquinn. Feargal said "No", that I should bring them all down and that they were entitled at least to an interview. There was a feeling that these jobs hinged on the interview, but they did not. I was reminded of this encounter with Feargal in looking back over his life in recent months. How would one describe him? He was a facilitator, a motivator and an organiser. He cared fundamentally about people. That was his innate skill.

Many people will not be aware of the following, so I will share it with the House. Feargal employed many people who came from the Magdalen laundries in south County Dublin. He took a particular interest in the people who grew up in Madonna House in Stillorgan. I think of one particular woman, whom I will call Lily. He gave her a job in Blackrock and trained her. She said she would not really be fit for anything more than work in the back of the store. Feargal asked why not and told her she could come right through the ranks of Superquinn. She was not good at reading or writing, she said, and had literally no numeracy. Feargal encouraged her and arranged for her to go to the vocational school in Stillorgan. She did what we would call writing and sums. Feargal motivated and tutored her. When he took people on, he did not let them down. He saw them through. I spoke to Lily recently. She said that for years after that, Feargal Quinn always sent her a birthday card. She did not have parents. She did not know where she came from. She grew up in care, she said. She got a job, however, and spent years working for Feargal.

One of the hardest decisions she had to deal with was when Feargal one day said he would like to see her up in his office, where he said he wanted her to move out of Blackrock. She said she could not. This was her life. Her friends were there. She lived in a little bedsitter down the road. She was happy. She asked Feargal not to move her. He said he wanted to move her over to the shop on Sundrive Road. This was a promotion. He realised, however, that she had to be stretched and pushed on if she was to grow and gain in confidence. That was Feargal. He believed in people. He saw the potential and capacity in them and he saw these qualities in her. She moved over to the Sundrive Road shop and got a little flat in Kimmage, thanks to Feargal. She said to me one day that she still had the little television table she had got in Dockrells, thanks to Feargal Quinn. He did not go around telling people all about this. I suggest to the House that much of the reason for his not doing so was that he had fundamental Christian principles, which we in politics do not seem to talk about very much today, although someone referred to them earlier. Feargal was ultimately Christian and a humanitarian. He believed in responding to people's needs in everything he did.

I will touch on his very famous programme, "Retail Therapy", with which I was particularly impressed. He loved that programme. He went around the country, visiting in particular the little family stores and provincial towns. He helped the shop owners rejig their stores, make them more relevant and boost their business. He was passionate about provincial towns. He loved them. He saw the potential in the small family business that offered quality and service. It was not always about price. It was about quality and service. He loved doing that programme.

I wish to acknowledge his work on saving the Seanad because perhaps we have not acknowledged it enough in the past. I will not look back on those who advocated abolition. The Seanad is here today thanks to Feargal and a few other people. It is important we acknowledge that.

Many years after I first met Feargal, I met him in the corridors of these Houses, down in the coffee shop. He asked me what I was doing here, and I said I was thinking about running for the Seanad. I was a former Progressive Democrat county councillor. We talked about the past because he remembered me. He said he wanted to nominate me. He nominated Michael McDowell. He had dual nomination rights as a university Senator. I received a call asking me to come out to Santry. Denise may remember this because she was there at the time. He wanted to speak to me. I went out to Santry hospital before the election. I went downstairs to the reception. The woman at reception asked me who I was looking for. I did not want to shout too loudly that I was looking for Feargal Quinn. She rang Feargal, who said he wanted me to come up to him, and I did so. He had his nomination there in the hospital. He joked that he wanted to sign it before having his epidural because he might not have another opportunity. I told him I was really honoured that, having worked for him as a boy, I was there at his request and his invitation to get his nomination.

Feargal asked me to do something else. He asked me to get four independent nominees to support me in seeking election to Seanad Éireann. He was proud of independence and of the fact that one could be effective in the Houses of the Oireachtas without having to take a party whip. He really believed in that. He did not have to offend anyone but he was proud of his independence and the fact that he was not subject to a party whip. I asked him if he could give me one piece of advice. He told me to remember one thing. One comes into politics with one's integrity and, by golly, one should go out with it. He told me that anyone who does that will be very successful. He told me to be independent-minded, not afraid to challenge, to speak up and to advocate, to be important and to be oneself. We see the world from where we stand and our experiences in it. I think I have used that expression often here. I have no doubt that Feargal's personal experiences as a child, growing up in business and within his family, had an impact on him. He brought this to bear because he was human, humane and a humanitarian in all he did.

I was greatly honoured that he should nominate me and greatly honoured and privileged by his advice, which was to be true to oneself, work hard, advocate for people at a disadvantage and go on and do my best in Seanad Éireann. More importantly than anything, I thank him and his extended family for giving me and hundreds of other people a chance and an opportunity. We all need a leg up and a tap on the shoulder. We all need to be encouraged. We all need affirmation and a belief in ourselves and our capacity to bring good and to do good. I learned most of that from Feargal Quinn. I thank Denise and Feargal's family for giving us so much of Feargal's time, their family's time, their family's lifetime. More importantly, I thank them for his service to the institutions of this State, to Seanad Éireann, to business and to people such as Lily and hundreds of others who got the start, the gentle word, the guidance and the advice and who were never forgotten by Feargal.