THE LATE PHIL PURCELL
With the death of Phil Purcell on April 14th 2018 at the age of 89, another link to the dynamic commercial and social history of Kilkenny in the second half of the twentieth century has been broken.
Phil Purcell was born on 1st December 1928 to Philip and Catherine Purcell (nee McGrath) of Ballykeeffe, Kilmanagh, a farming family prominent in that area for several generations. He was the youngest of four children, brother to Paddy and the late Nicky and May.
Educated initially at Kilmanagh National School, Phil received his secondary education at Callan CBS and subsequently entered the accountancy profession as a junior staff member in the practice of W. A. Deevy (later Coopers and Lybrand and then PriceWaterhouseCoopers). He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in July 1953, and was a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland for over 50 years.
In the early 1960s he joined Padmore and Barnes, the Irish operation of a long-established Northampton shoe manufacturing company then employing over 200 people at their Kilkenny plant in Wolfe Tone Street.
The company had come to Kilkenny in 1934 as part of a government-sponsored programme to encourage investment in industrial enterprise, and was unusual in that the then Town Clerk of Kilkenny City was nominated as a director to reflect the public interest. Several prominent Kilkenny businessmen (including the then proprietor of the Kilkenny People, Edward Keane) became shareholders, and the annual meetings of the company were reported at length in the newspaper’s pages, often occupying a full broadsheet page.
By the mid 1960s Phil Purcell was established as the company secretary and later became financial director, alongside Paddy Roberts as Managing Director. It was a landmark era in the history of Padmore and Barnes, with the takeover of the company in 1964 by the manufacturers of Clark’s shoes. Even though the Wolfe Street location continued to be known by many as ‘The Boot Factory’, the range of products manufactured there expanded to include a wide selection of formal and leisure footwear.
This era also proved to be a major milestone in the industrial and commercial history of Kilkenny, with the handing over of Kilkenny Castle to the state and its development as a tourist attraction, the establishment of Kilkenny Design Workshops and the emergence of Avonmore with its headquarters in Kilkenny City and its processing plant at Ballyragget.
Phil Purcell took the lead in ushering in this new era in Kilkenny’s commercial history as President of the Chamber of Commerce in 1966, and with his brother Nicky prominent in GAA affairs and in the developing Avonmore dairy processing operation, it was often remarked that the Purcells were running the most important institutions in the city and county.
Over the next twenty years, the fortunes of Padmore and Barnes’ Kilkenny operation were tied to the success of the international footwear trade, and Kilkenny became in effect a world-recognised manufacturing centre, with over 400 employees turning out everything from hard-wearing work shoes to fashionable ranges under the Mocassin and Wallabee brands and exporting to more than fifty countries.
In the late 1970s a second manufacturing unit was set up in Clonmel to meet increased demand, and although this was later forced to close, the production at the main plant was maintained through the difficult economic climate of the 1980s. In 1987 the company’s Irish operations were the subject of a management buyout headed by Paddy Roberts and Phil, and new manufacturing arrangements for some of its best-known products were concluded.
In the face of increasingly globalised competition, the next decade proved to be one of the most challenging in the company’s history, and even though the scale of its activities declined, its local management succeeded in keeping the company intact, so that today Padmore and Barnes is the only major Kilkenny commercial operation from the 1960s to have survived. Phil retired from the company in December 1999.
Phil’s contribution to business and industry was recognised on several occasions throughout his long career, notably in 1986 when Phil was appointed to the IDA Authority for a five-year term by then Minister for Industry and Commerce Michael Noonan. Following retirement, Phil was also presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Kilkenny Business Awards in 2002.
Throughout all of his career, Phil Purcell maintained his low-key and unassuming style, also becoming involved in a number of institutional and charitable organisations where he shared his financial and management expertise generously. He served on the Diocesan Finance Committee for over thirty years, including many years as Chairman. He was also an active member of the Knights of St Columbanus for over 50 years.
However, despite Phil’s many commitments, his main priority and joy in life was his family. In 1973, Phil married Philomena Boyle from Claremorris, Co. Mayo, a teacher in Loreto Secondary School, Kilkenny. Instantly known warmly to friends as ‘the two Phils’, the marriage was “a meeting of minds” and they settled in Troyswood. They had four children, Niall, Fidelma, Gerald and the late Justin, who sadly died from cancer in 1988, aged 9 years.
Despite this loss, ‘Phil & Phil’ made a happy life for the rest of the family. Phil loved to travel and cherished many happy memories of family trips both home and abroad. He warmly welcomed new members of the family in 2009, when Fidelma married John Leverrier in France, and again in 2010 when Gerald married Emmeline McDonald in Cambridge and Niall married Fiona Power in Kilkenny. His greatest joy right up until his death were his five grandchildren: Alex, James, Paddy, Robert and Emma.
Phil had a long and happy life and brought joy to those who knew him, both within the family or outside it. As his son Niall noted in a short remembrance at his funeral ‘He was a great husband and a loving Dad; the voice may be stilled but the memories live on.’
He had a pleasant singing voice and loved music; some of his favourite pieces of music were played at his requiem mass, which was con-celebrated by his good friends Fr Jim Murphy and Fr Pat Comerford.
He is survived by his wife Philomena (Phil), his sons Niall & Gerald, daughter Fidelma, their spouses and grandchildren. He is also survived by his brother Paddy, who still lives on the family farm in Ballykeeffe. In addition to his son Justin, he was predeceased by his brother Nicky in 2004 and his sister May in 2005.
Phil Purcell was interred on April 16 in Foulkstown Cemetery after Requiem Mass in St. Canice’s Church.