Greg Daly
Feargal Quinn Feargal Quinn was a “pragmatic” businessman and politician who was confident in his Catholic identity, according to Sen. Rónán Mullen.
Describing Mr Quinn, who died last week aged 82 at his home in Howth, as someone who “grew up in an era when to be Catholic was normal”, Sen. Mullen said the onetime supermarket entrepreneur and senator had been a member of the Knights of St Columbanus and a Papal Knight of St Gregory.
“He was a pragmatic businessman who had been formed in the Faith and had grown up to be a member of the Church.
He understood the huge contribution that Faith made to society and that the Church has made to society,” Sen. Mullen told The Irish Catholic.
Culture
“Where he differed from some of his peers was that whereas they had also been formed in Catholic culture, they either didn’t know it or didn’t appreciate it, and they let it go when the cultural drift came,” he continued.
“Fergal had the independence to say this is something I agree with, this is something I believe in, this is my faith and it’s part of me.”
Maintaining that Mr Quinn had been comfortable with dealing with different points of view, Sen. Quinn said: “He wasn’t a cultural warrior, but he knew where he stood and he wasn’t going to change where he stood on things simply because fashions had changed in Ireland.”