Senator Gerard P. Craughwell - speech from 23 Oct 2019

Senator Cheryl Crockwell Lasko Herlich, Firstly I want to extend my sympathies to the Quinn family. I moved to Dublin in 1995. I had never met Fergal Quinn but I had heard of him. And from 1995 to the present day Fergal Quinn is responsible for gatherings in my house on either a Saturday or a Sunday where we sit down and enjoy the Super Quinn sausages. Because he developed a sausage that can't be beaten anywhere. I don't know that my cardiologist would necessarily agree with him but he developed some fantastic stuff. The next time I thought of Fergal Quinn was during the debate to save the Seannath. I never dreamt once in my life that I would actually find the day that I would be sitting beside the icon himself. But he saved the Seannath and as such he created an opportunity for those of us who wanted to enter this house to enter it. I remember before I took my seat one of my sisters remarked to me, oh god you're going to meet Fergal Quinn and David Norris. Two icons. Fergal was a small man in statue but he was a giant in Irish society. A massive, massive man. But the one thing that stands out in my mind, I'd love to have the story some of my colleagues have about him. But I only knew him for a very short time. I had the privilege of speaking on two of his bills. One was the award system for Irish citizens and the other one was on drones. And I remember I thought in information technology for 25 odd years and drone technology to me was really exciting. And you know, why would you want to condemn it? He convinced me in 15 minutes of the dangers of these devices. Sneaking around people's back gardens, looking in house windows and various other things. And I spoke in favour of his bill. But what stands out for me was the humanity of the man. He could talk to a checkout operator or to a king. It really didn't matter. He treated them all the same, every single one of them. And the great shame I suppose is that his wonderful books are not part of the marketing textbooks in our universities. Because he could teach some of the marketing authors that I read when studying marketing. He could teach them a lot. But two things stand out in my mind. One was when my granddaughter, my first granddaughter was born. Fergal got word of it and banged in here to the Senate sitting just behind me here, stood up and congratulated me. I don't know why I had nothing to do with it, but welcomed my granddaughter to the world. And that's a little video clip that we will cherish forever. And my granddaughter in years to come, when she understands the man, the icon that welcomed her into the world, it'll mean an awful lot to her. And the last speech he ever made in this house, it took a few seconds to mention me in it. And for that, I will be extremely grateful. I'm terribly sorry I didn't get to know the man better. I never dreamt once in my life I would sit beside such an icon to have tea with him, to listen to what he had to say. We'll miss him. Ireland will miss him. And those stores that my colleague Senator Boyan spoke about around the country, where he went and helped people to reshape and relaunch their retail outlets, they'll miss him. I know that nothing we can say today will replace the vacant slot in your family. But do be aware of the fact there are still families gathering every Saturday morning or Sunday morning to have a super quinn sausage, but maybe it's not quite as good as the ones he originally developed. Thank you.