Patrick Joseph Nolan
Lovingly known as “Paddy”
14 September 1938 — 11 June 2021 · aged 82
Guinness fermenting-room foreman, Shamrock Rovers man and Crumlin's unofficial bike mender
Dublin, Ireland Born in Thomas Street, The Liberties, Dublin Resting at Glasnevin Cemetery, DublinAbout Patrick
There is a particular sound a full cask makes when it is rolled across cobbles, and Paddy Nolan could tell you from three streets away whether the man rolling it knew his business. For forty-five years at the Guinness brewery in St James's Gate, he was nearly always the man who did.
Patrick Joseph Nolan was born in 1938 in a two-room flat off Thomas Street in the Liberties, the fourth of eight children of a docker and a washerwoman. He left school at fourteen, and two years later he walked through the gate at St James's with a letter from the parish priest and a borrowed tie. He started as a labourer in the brewhouse, moved to the fermenting room, and by the time he retired in 1999 he was the foreman who could smell, he claimed, a batch that was a day behind. Guinness gave its workers two pints a day; Paddy drank his slowly, in strict order, and only after the shift was done.
He met Maureen Gilligan at a céilí in Inchicore in 1961, danced one dance badly, and married her the following year in St Catherine's Church on Meath Street. They moved to a council house in Crumlin, where they raised Declan and Sinéad and where the kettle was never cold. Paddy was a Shamrock Rovers man to his bones; he stood on the terraces at Glenmalure Park through the trophy years and the lean ones, and said that the ground's closing in 1987 had taken ten years off his life. He sang 'The Auld Triangle' at every family wedding, flat and with feeling, and nobody ever stopped him.
He mended bikes for the neighbourhood children, kept a plot of beans and sweet peas out the back, and believed that the best pint in the world is the one poured by someone who knows exactly how long it takes. After retirement he walked every day to the canal at Portobello to feed the swans, who knew him by name. Paddy died peacefully on 11 June 2021 at Our Lady's Hospice in Harold's Cross, with Maureen holding his hand. He leaves Maureen, Declan, Sinéad and five grandchildren.
“A good pint takes time, and so does a good life.”
- Faith
- Catholic
- Place of birth
- Thomas Street, The Liberties, Dublin
- Resting place
- Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin
- Passed away
- 11 June 2021, Dublin
Requiem Mass
Monday, 14 June 2021 at 10:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
Primary and secondary schooling
Christian Brothers School, Brunswick Street1943 – 1952 · Dublin
Left at fourteen to bring a wage home.
Brewhouse labourer
Guinness, St James's Gate1954 – 1965 · Dublin
Started at sixteen with a letter from the parish priest.
Fermenting room foreman
Guinness, St James's Gate1965 – 1999 · Dublin
Forty-five years in all at the Gate.
Married Maureen Gilligan
St Catherine's Church, Meath Street1962 · Dublin
A marriage of fifty-nine years.
Lifelong supporter
Shamrock Rovers FC1947 – 2021 · Dublin
Never missed a home game at Glenmalure Park.
Tap an organisation to find others who studied or worked there.
Family & connections
Also remembered on Evermore
Patrick is survived by
- Maureen Nolan· Spouse
- Declan Nolan· Son
- Sinéad Nolan-Byrne· Daughter
- 5 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Patrick.
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Friend from the Liberties
We were children on Thomas Street when the Gate was the only place a lad could go for a start. He never forgot where he came from. He sent a Christmas hamper to old Mrs Dunne at number 12 every year until she died, and never signed the card.
- BN
Nephew in Boston
Uncle Paddy visited Boston once, in 1997, and complained about every pint. He said an American bartender pours a Guinness the way a man writes with his wrong hand. He went home with a suitcase of presents and a slightly improved opinion of Boston.
- KO
Fellow Shamrock Rovers supporter
The year they knocked down Glenmalure Park, Paddy stood on the terrace for a long time after the final whistle. Then he said, 'Well, lads, it was a good bit of ground.' It was the only time I ever saw him cry.
- FB
Parish priest, St Agnes' Church
Paddy came to eight o'clock Mass every morning and sat at the back, because, he told me, the front was for people who needed to be seen. He lit a candle for Maureen's mother, for his own, and for Shamrock Rovers. I believe the last got the most attention.
- SK
Neighbour in Crumlin for fifty years
He fixed my son's bike in 1982 and never took a penny. Over the years he fixed about two hundred bikes on this road and knew whose belonged to whom. When he retired, three generations of the street's children turned up with presents. He was a rich man.
- TF
Guinness colleague, fermenting room
Paddy trained me in 1978 and the first thing he said was, 'The beer doesn't care about your problems, so leave them at the gate.' It is the best advice I ever got, and I got it from a man who must have had plenty of his own.
