Paddy Condon, a long-time member of TIGS, passed away on 1st June at the age of 97 years. He was a great supporter of TIGS and for many years would organise the timesheet and look after the registration on the day at our outings.
PG, as he was known to many, began his airline career working for TWA in Ireland before joining Aer Lingus in Dublin in the 1950s. During his 20 years with Aer Lingus he had special responsibility for selling and promoting the transatlantic routes and was a great ambassador for the company wherever in the world he travelled. During this time he served as President of SKAL.
Paddy, who was originally from Tipperary, was a hurler, an athlete, and a rugby player, but his greatest success in sporting terms was at swimming, in which he won the Liffey Swim in 1944 and was runner-up in 1947. In those days the Liffey Swim was a major event in the Irish sporting calendar and would regularly draw crowds five to six deep all the way along the Liffey, from the Guinness Brewery to O’Connell Bridge, as portrayed in Jack B. Yeats famous painting, ‘The Liffey Swim’.
He was Manager of the Irish Swimming Team at the London Olympics of 1948 and in 2012 he was honoured by the Olympic Council of Ireland as one of only 11 surviving members of the 1948 team. Indeed, had the Olympic Games taken place in 1940 or 1944, PG would surely have been on the Irish team. He is a Past President of North Dublin Swimming Club.
Paddy was a very keen golfer and was Captain of Royal Dublin on two occasions in the 1960s, and is also a Past President of the club. He played off a single figure handicap for most of his life and had only “drifted out” to 11 by the time he reached his 80th birthday. During his 80s he could regularly be seen playing at Royal Dublin with Christy O’Connor Snr (RIP). I wonder who won the money?
I had the pleasure of working with Paddy in Aer Lingus, Dublin Sales, at 43 Upper O’Connell Street, for a brief period in the late 1970s and I was always struck by his professionalism and attention to detail in everything that he did.
A truly great sports personality and a great Ambassador for Aer Lingus.
Ar dheis De go raibh a h-anam dilis.
SM
