It was with saddness as its companion that the news of the passing of Dan Riordan spread throughout the community here in Castleisland and beyond on Saturday morning. Dan passed away after a long battle with illness.
An excellent mechanic, Dan was well known through his association with motorbike rallies through Munster and the rest of the country. In recent years he rarely missed taking part in the many charity ‘Poker-Runs’ around the county and province.
If there was a single story to sum up his life and times with, it would be the one I heard Joe Hartnett telling Jimmy Horan at the Tralee Road garage – once owned by the Renault associated Hartnett family.
“I’ll always remember the day that Dan Riordan walked in that door to start his apprenticeship,” said Joe.
“My brother Moss, who knew Dan better that I did, had a big smile on his face. He looked at me and nodded towards Dan and said: ‘There will never again be a dull day inside here’ and he was right,” said Joe.
Dan loved telling the story about the bank holiday Friday afternoon in the pre-bypass traffic chaos that was Castleisland at that time. About 2008 or so our local, gifted musician and farmer, Jackie Dan Jerry O’Connor’s car and cattle trailer broke down right at Hartnett’s Corner – the worst possible site to stall in Ireland at that time. Dan got an SOS saying that Jackie was stranded and in a distressed state with a few cars at the lights behind him; the SOS didn’t come from the stranded Jackie however.
“The traffic was the worst you’ve ever seen that day and it took me ages to get through to Jackie with all the gear to get him going. I found my distressed Jackie above at Hartnett’s Corner and he sound asleep inside in the car and traffic back as far as Abbeyfeale behind him,” said Dan.
Dan’s heart was well and truly broken in August 2010 when he lost his beloved daughter Áine in that horrific traffic accident on the road between Killarney and Mallow. He often tried to describe, in mechanical terms – I suppose, ‘The pain you couldn’t get at’ – in the wake of Áine’s passing.
As I write this piece I can hear the hum of motorbikes on the Limerick Road. He’ll be going on his final journey this weekend in the kind of company he’d appreciate. May God be Good to Him.
The RIP.IE Funeral arrangements read as follows:
Dan Riordan, Meenscovane, Knocknagoshel and 3 St. Stephen’s Park Castleisland, Co Kerry. Beloved father of the late Aine . Sadly missed by his loving partner Breda, his parents Ned and Phyllis, his ex wife Mary, daughters Samantha, Cait and Tara, grandson Tommy, sisters Mag, Joan and Carmel, aunts, uncles, neighbours, work colleagues and a large circle of friends. R.I.P.
Reposing at Tangney’s Funeral Home, Castleisland on Sunday evening from 4.30pm to 7pm. Funeral arriving to Castleisland Parish Church on Monday morning for Requiem Mass at 11am. Burial afterwards in St. John’s Cemetery, Castleisand. Family flowers only. Donations if desired to the Palliative Care Unit, Kerry General Hospital. House private please.
