Family's delight as Clonmel's golden tenor Frank Patterson voted Tipperary's All Time Great

Family members of the late Frank Patterson are celebrating this week after the Clonmel tenor won the Tipperary All Time Great on-line poll in www.tipperarylive.ie

Pictured above at his statue in Clonmel are Riain Patterson, Deirdre Patterson, Ian Patterson, Cara Patterson, Niamh Hassett, Abbie Hassett, Mary Patterson, Imelda Patterson, Norma Slater, Michael Murphy, Mary McGrath, Peggy Burke, and sitting Kitty Murphy.

In a closely fought final he beat off the challenge of legendary Tipperary hurler Jimmy Doyle.

https://www.tipperarylive.ie/news/all-time-greats/365813/we-have-a-winner-clonmel-s-frank-patterson-crowned-tipperary-s-all-time-great.html

The two had won through to the decider after an intriguing vote that captured the imagination of Tipperary people at home and abroad.

Frank Patterson fans logged on in large numbers to vote and none are more delighted than his surviving family in Tipperary and the United States.

“We are absolutely thrilled”, says Frank's sister Imelda Malone who lives in Ard na Greine, Clonmel.

“All the family is delighted, those in Clonmel and also in the United States.

“Everyone got involved in the vote and the stories on-line and on Facebook were shared widely. It generated great interest. There was great expectation every week to see the the outcome of the latest vote”.

Imelda says that Frank himself would have been delighted with the result.

While he was honoured across the world for his beautiful voice, it would have meant so much to him to be recognised by his own in Tipperary.

“He was always so proud of Clonmel and Tipperary and this would have meant to much to him”, points out Imelda.

And she adds that it's wonderful for his suriviving relatives to know that he is still so well remembered two decades after his death.

Adding to the prestige of the achievement was the overall quality of the sixteen Tipperary people who were nominated to run in the poll, any of whom would have been a worthy winner.

On his way to winning, Frank had got past the challenge of fellow Clonmel woman and Chernobyl children's advocate Adi Roche; poet and patriot Charles J Kickham and of course Jimmy Doyle in the final.

Imelda recalls  a concert for the Chernobyl fund with Adi Roche in St Patrick's cathedral in Dublin where Frank performed.

 He was also a great admirer of the writings and works of Kickham, while as a long-standing supporter of Tipperary hurling, he was in awe at the brilliance of Jimmy Doyle.

“So there was a nice link between Frank and those he came up against on his way to this win”, remarks Imelda.

Or course Clonmel and its people  has long recognised the brilliance of  Frank Patterson, and his funeral nearly twenty years ago, following  his untimely death at the age of sixty one, was one of  the largest seen in the town.

 And a wonderful statue of Frank was later erected in Mick Delahunty Square - named after another iconic Clonmel musician - and the family gathered there last weekend for a photograph to mark the occasion.

Imelda says that Frank would have been delighted to reach the final in the company of Jimmy Doyle, who will always be a Tipperary great.

The Tipperary Sarsfields man won  won six All-Ireland senior medals, nine Munster medals and seven National Hurling League medals.

He was also named on the Team of the Century and the Team of the Millennium and is regarded as one of the greatest hurlers that the game has known, in the company of such as Christy Ring, Mick Mackey and his Tipperary team mate John Doyle.