Carlow town's Dr Pat Jones was a high-achieving academic

DOCTOR Pat Jones, ‘Santa Lucia,’ Staplestown Road, Carlow, whose death occurred peacefully on Saturday 11 July at Hillview nursing home, Tullow Road was a high-achieving academic who, as a botanist, had taught the subject in an American university.

Pat, who celebrated his 83rd birthday on 12 June, was a resident of Hillview for the final three years of his life.

He was the eldest in a family of nine children of the late John and Anne (née Dowling) Jones and was the first of the family to pass away.

Always top of the class in his days as a pupil at Carlow CBS primary and secondary schools, Pat Jones went on to study botany at University College Dublin (UCD), from where he qualified with a PhD in the discipline.

Botany is the scientific study of plants, algae and fungi.

On graduation, in 1970 Dr Pat went to live in Seattle, Washington on America’s west coast, teaching at the University of Washington.

In 1976, he took up a teaching position in New Zealand (1977-’78) before returning to Ireland, where he taught botany at UCD’s Belfield campus.

Dr Pat’s next stopping-off point was The Burren in Co Clare to study the flora of the area where the majority of Ireland’s plant life thrives.

Having retired from working life, Pat returned to his native Carlow, residing first on Burrin Street before going on to reside at the family home ‘Santa Lucia’ on the town’s Staplestown Road.

Lilian McDonald Moran, Brownshll, Carlow, a friend of Pat’s for some 35 years, scripted a personal online tribute to her friend on the day of Pat’s burial in the Jones family plot in St Mary’s cemetery.

Lilian wrote: ‘Today is a sad day. The sun is shining but it’s hard to smile ‒ we bury one of Carlow’s most colourful people.

‘Dr Pat Jones was one of my oldest and dearest friends – one of the most entertaining, generous, intelligent, insightful people I, and many others, ever had the pleasure of knowing.

‘He welcomed everyone to his home and, once you were in there, the world was a different place. You never knew who you’d meet and there was many a surprise guest, too many to mention, but I do recall one night we had Nell McCafferty.

‘Pat loved the fact that Nell gave everyone a run for their money while he smiled from the shadows, washing glasses or making food – a big pot of something and a huge bowl of salad straight from his garden, with usually a few living creatures thrown in for good measure.

‘Great nights often carried on into mornings. We regularly left as the day broke over Burrin Bridge (Pat lived in Burrin Street at the time).

‘It’s over now, it’s been over for a while as Pat’s health deteriorated but we all somehow thought, or maybe hoped, we’d get another go of him.’ Lilian had hoped that she and Pat would do their party piece just one more time. But it was not to be.

That party piece was the singing of the 1960 hit Goodness Gracious Me, Lillian taking the singing role of Brigitte Bardot while Pat sang the Peter Sellers part of the duet.

Lilian concluded her tribute to her departed friend: ‘We will miss you Pat. Carlow will not be the same without you. Until we meet again, adieu my friend.’ One standout memory Lilian has of Pat was a play that was also a poem which he had written with a cast of two, including himself, and titled Smitten. The play was performed in the former Bewley’s Oriental Café on Kennedy Avenue, where Carlow Shopping Centre is located today.

Lilian also recalled that, in those long-gone days of song, playing music, storytelling and generally having a fun time, the group of Pat’s friends included Debbie Robinson, Angela and Bernard Jennings, Betty O’Gorman, Margeret Fitzgibbon and the late Catherine Smith.

Pat reposed at Carpenter’s funeral home, Shamrock Square on Tuesday 14 July before removal on Wednesday to St Mary’s cemetery for burial.

Pat is survived by his siblings Oliver (Ollie) (Doonane, Crettyard, Co Laois), Maura Brann (Dundrum, Dublin), Una Farrell (Blanchardstown, Dublin), Róisín Fitzgerald (Killiney, Co Dublin) Seán (Burrin Road, Carlow), Liam (Riverview Close, Carlow) Francis (Cobh, Co Cork) and Peadair (London).

He is also mourned by his brother-in-law Joe Fitzgerald, sisters-in-law Ita, Colista, Breda and Rosaleen, his aunt Pat Dowling, nephews, nieces, godson Rory, relatives and friends.

Pat’s family have extended thanks to all the staff at Hillview nursing home for their loving care of their brother over the past three years.