Milestone for popular Tipperary couple is celebrated at Clonmel's Town Hall

Above: Present at the Mayoral Reception at the Town Hall in Clonmel for Richie and Esther Fennessy were family members, standing, Seamus Fennessy, Celia O’Callaghan, Jackie Prendergast and Áine Prendergast. Seated, Richie Fennessy, District Mayor Michael Murphy and Esther Fennessy

The 25th anniversary of the establishment of Fennessy’s Hotel in Gladstone Street, Clonmel was celebrated in the Town Hall last week when District Mayor Michael Murphy accorded a Mayoral Reception for the popular and very well-known proprietors, Richie and Esther Fennessy. 
“A boutique hotel in the heart of our historic town, this beautiful Georgian building was recently restored and refurbished with elegant decor throughout,” stated Cllr Murphy. 
“Richie and Esther are wonderful custodians of this 19th century building, which was once home to the Mayor of Clonmel in 1843, John Hackett.” 
The Mayor paid a special tribute to Esther on her 52 years spent working in retail in Gladstone Street. 
“No doubt that experience was invaluable in navigating the many challenges over those 25 years, particularly in recent times,” he stated. 
“Richie and Esther deserve great credit and are very deserving of this reception. In all their activities they continue to endear themselves to their many, many friends,” the Mayor added.
Richie Fennessy described the Mayoral Reception as the biggest single honour that he and Esther had ever received.
“It is bigger than getting a university Degree, bigger even than when Noel Dempsey, Minister for Local Government came and presented us with the award for the best Traditional Shopfront in Ireland in 2001,” he said. 
“It’s bigger because it’s local. If, for instance, we had built a similar hotel in Limerick or Clare, and Clare County Council gave us this award, it wouldn’t have meant a quarter as much as getting this award from the people of Clonmel, through their mayor and council here tonight.
“Local is good, local is everything. Local is pride of the parish, and no apologies for it,” he stated. 
Tracing his and Esther’s backgrounds, Richie said “when it comes to local, you can’t get anybody more local than Esther. She was born and raised in College Street, in the middle of everything.
“When she was still a teenager, she went to work in Margaret and John O’Connor’s delicatessen and poultry shop in Gladstone Street, and we thank Margaret O’Connor for being with us here tonight.
“The shop was situated between the Simpsons and Sparrows general store and Paddy Kennedy’s butchers. I can still see the sawdust on the floor in Kennedys and the big butcher’s block, a foot and a half thick.  “She worked there for almost 30 years and got to know all about the business in Clonmel, especially retail business. She got to know almost everybody in town and brought all that business acumen and expertise across to Fennessy’s Hotel to make it a success.
“She has worked roughly 55 years in retail in Gladstone Street, longer in fact than anybody else right now on that street.”
Richie said he was born in Sarsfield Street, right opposite the Clonmel Arms Hotel.
“In the 1960s, there were hundreds and hundreds of people living within a 200-yard radius of the Main Guard. They lived over shops mostly, also in private houses and flats, there were no apartments then.
“There wasn’t a shop in Mitchel Street that wasn’t lived over. This was a closely-knit, inter-connected community, a vibrant neighbourhood.  
“Sadly, we have lost all this. We have lost our town centre somewhere out around the outskirts of town, out around the big shopping centres.
“In my youth, I got to know all the young boys and girls living in the town centre, the Lonergans, the Willie Byrnes, the Gavins, the Grogans and Phelans. How sweet it was to play together in all the little lanes around the centre of town, a warren of lanes. 
“I worked in libraries for most of my years, starting down in Cork city and later in Waterford. I was the City Librarian for Waterford, responsible for the public libraries and the library of the college on Cork road, which later became the Waterford University Library. 
“Esther had the business acumen, I was the man with a mission, to preserve the beautiful old Georgian building Larkins Hotel, with all its magnificent architectural features. The building interested me more than the business. Together, we were a great team,” he said, as he went on to explain how they developed what was a very neglected building into a hotel, following a discussion in Wrixon’s bar in Gladstone Street towards the end of 1994 when they learned it was up for sale.
Welcoming all their families and friends to the reception, Esther Fennessy thanked Margaret and John O’Connor for giving her the opportunity to work in their new delicatessen and poultry shop way back in the early 60s, where she worked for almost 30 years. 
She said she had enjoyed the last 25 years at Fennessy’s and just loved meeting people, as well as good conversation.
Tributes to the couple were also paid by Cllrs Pat English, John Fitzgerald and Richie Molloy, as well as by Deputy Mattie McGrath and former TD Seamus Healy. 

Generous response to Clonmel Lions Club Ukrainian appeal