Pat Quinn (1 July 1935 – 23 November 2009) was an
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
publican, hotelier, music promoter,
storyteller,
former millionaire and founder of the
Quinnsworth
Tesco Ireland is the Irish subsidiary of supermarket group Tesco. Tesco Ireland was formed by Tesco plc's 1997 purchase of the Irish retailing operations of Associated British Foods, namely Powers' Supermarkets Limited and its subsidiaries, tr ...
group, Ireland's first supermarket chain.
He invented the term "
yellow pack
Yellow Pack was a brand of generic groceries, first launched in March 1980 by Fine Fare, a British regional supermarket chain ultimately owned by the Weston family, whose extensive interests include the UK's Associated British Foods, Loblaw Comp ...
". According to ''
The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
'', he was "one of the country's best-known business figures in the 1960s and 1970s", "the whizz kid of the Irish grocery business" and "a well-known figure in the Irish-Canadian community" at his death.
He worked,
honeymoon
A honeymoon is a vacation taken by newlyweds immediately after their wedding, to celebrate their marriage. Today, honeymoons are often celebrated in destinations considered exotic or romantic. In a similar context, it may also refer to the phase ...
ed and eventually settled with his family in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. The ''
Toronto Sun
The ''Toronto Sun'' is an English-language tabloid format, tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several ''Sun'' tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices is located at Pos ...
'' described him as "
County Leitrim
County Leitrim ( ; gle, Contae Liatroma) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim. Leitrim County Council is the local authority for the ...
's favourite son".
Early life
Quinn was born on 1 July 1935 and grew up in
Cloone
Cloone () is a village in County Leitrim, Ireland. The village is located in the south of the county, just off the R201 regional road; its nearest town is Mohill. Its name is an anglicised version of the Irish-language word ''cluain'', meani ...
,
County Leitrim
County Leitrim ( ; gle, Contae Liatroma) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim. Leitrim County Council is the local authority for the ...
.
His mother ran McNamee's, a nearby public house and grocery store, and his father was a local member of the
Garda Síochána
(; meaning "the Guardian(s) of the Peace"), more commonly referred to as the Gardaí (; "Guardians") or "the Guards", is the national police service of Ireland. The service is headed by the Garda Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Gover ...
.
The family were also funeral undertakers.
His brothers Fersey, Fintan, and Kevin, and sister Annette Maher survived him, though another sister, Mary Lynch, died before him.
Quinn boarded at
St. Mel's College,
County Longford
County Longford ( gle, Contae an Longfoirt) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford. Longford County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county was 46,6 ...
.
Business life
Woolworths and family business
Quinn began work as a
stockboy at
Woolworths in
Limerick
Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...
, being promoted to the position of store manager at the age of 22.
In 1958, Quinn and his uncle, Peter Quinn, opened Quinn Co on Longford's Main Street.
Promoter of music events
Quinn was known as a promoter of music events during the 1960s in Ireland.
He hosted events at Quinn County, featuring pop stars such as
Joe Dolan
Joseph Francis Robert Dolan (16 October 1939 – 26 December 2007) was an Irish entertainer, recording artist, and pop singer. Chiefly known in Ireland for his association with showbands and for his innovative style and high pitched singing ...
,
The Drifters
The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/Soul music, soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, f ...
and the
Royal Showband.
He met his future wife, Anne, at one of these performances in 1960.
Quinn advanced his knowledge of the grocery and music business in Canada,
and promoted artists such as
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...
,
Johnny Cash
John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...
,
The Dave Clark Five
The Dave Clark Five, also known as the DC5, were an English rock and roll band formed in 1958 in Tottenham, London. Drummer Dave Clark served as the group's leader, producer and co-songwriter. In January 1964 they had their first UK top ten sin ...
,
The Dubliners
The Dubliners were an Folk music of Ireland, Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in personn ...
,
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as ...
and
The Supremes
The Supremes were an American girl group and a premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successful ...
.
He introduced the
Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
to
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
in 1965, with Canadian police being called to a riot at the band's debut concert in
London, Ontario
London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...
.
H. Williams and Quinnsworth
Quinn returned to his homeland in 1965 when he was hired as general manager of the
H Williams supermarket group.
He asked them to open a branch of their chain in
Stillorgan
Stillorgan (, also ''Stigh Lorcáin'' and previously ''Tigh Lorcáin'' or ''Teach Lorcáin''), formerly a village in its own right, is now a suburban area of Dublin in Ireland. Stillorgan is located in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, and contains ma ...
's new shopping centre.
When they refused, Quinn established his first Quinnsworth supermarket in Dublin's Stillorgan Shopping Centre in December of the following year, inspired by the Woolworths brand.
He worked alongside his wife to clean up in the evenings after the store closed.
Quinn opened six stores and made £6 million within five years.
Upon learning that the fee to hire football player
George Best
George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A highly skilful dribbler, Best is regarded as one of the greatest p ...
to open one of his stores was £1,000, Quinn donated the money to charity, believing Quinn had a high enough profile to perform the ceremony on his own.
Rival stores
Quinn's supermarket rivals were other Irish stores such as
Dunnes Stores
Dunnes Stores is an Irish multinational retail chain that primarily sells food, clothes and household wares.
In addition to its main customer base in Ireland, the chain also has operations in Spain, and formerly in England and Scotland. The fo ...
and
Superquinn,
the latter of which had to change its name to avoid confusion with Quinnsworth.
Sale
Quinn sold his Quinnsworth chain to
Galen Weston
Willard Gordon Galen Weston (October 29, 1940April 12, 2021) was a British-Canadian billionaire businessman and Chairman Emeritus of George Weston Limited, a Canadian food processing and distribution company. Weston and his family, with an esti ...
's
Associated British Foods
Associated British Foods plc (ABF) is a British multinational food processing and retailing company headquartered in London, England. Its ingredients division is the world's second-largest producer of both sugar and baker's yeast and a major pr ...
in the early 1970s,
becoming a millionaire at the age of 36.
By the time he sold Quinnsworth he had stores in
Crumlin,
Ballymun
Ballymun () is an outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland, at the northern edge of the Northside, the green-field development of which began in the 1960s to accommodate a housing crisis in inner city areas of Dublin. While the newly built housing was ...
,
Dundrum,
Rathfarnham
Rathfarnham () is a Southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is within the administrative areas of both Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council a ...
,
Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
*Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
*Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil W ...
,
Wilton,
Galway
Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...
and
Shannon.
Promotion and style
Quinn is noted for participating in his own advertising,
wearing a white
polo neck
A polo neck, roll-neck (United Kingdom, South Africa), turtleneck (United States, Canada), or skivvy (Australia, New Zealand, United States) is a garment—usually a sweater—with a close-fitting collar that folds over and covers the ...
jumper in "the fashion and retailing statement of the late 1960s", as
Sam Smyth
Sam Smyth is an investigative reporter, columnist and broadcaster. He works for the Irish Mail on Sunday and formerly worked for Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, Sunday Tribune newspapers.
He is the only Irish journalist to twice win journ ...
dubbed it in the ''
Irish Independent
The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis.
The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines.
Traditionally a broadsheet new ...
'' after his death.
Quinn's love for polo necks led him to arrive at one funeral dressed in a pink polo neck.
Hospitality businesses
Quinn purchased several Irish pubs, such as the Dead Man's Inn in
Palmerstown
Palmerstown (; officially Palmerston, see spelling) is a civil parish and suburb in western Dublin on the banks of the River Liffey. It forms part of the South Dublin local authority and the Dublin Mid-West parliamentary constituency. The area ...
(closed in 1975) and Mooneys (which went into
receivership
In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...
).
He went on to set up a hotel and sports complex in
Kilternan
Kilternan (), also known as Kiltiernan, is a village in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin, Ireland, near the border with County Wicklow.
Location
Separated from the continuous built-up Dubli ...
,
County Dublin
"Action to match our speech"
, image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg
, map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...
.
Quinn's intention had been to create a similar facility to that seen in ''
The Shining'', but the
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...
disrupted this plan.
The Pat Quinn Club later was called "one of the most spectacular
rish
Rish ( bg, Риш Riš) is a village in Smyadovo Municipality, Shumen Province, Bulgaria, with a population of 604 as of 2019.
Population
According to the 2011 Census, the population of Rish consists mainly of Bulgarian Turks (72.6%), followe ...
business failures on record".
Quinn opened three pool halls, initially above
Rathmines
Rathmines () is an affluent inner suburb on the Southside of Dublin in Ireland. It lies three kilometres south of the city centre. It begins at the southern side of the Grand Canal and stretches along the Rathmines Road as far as Rathgar to t ...
's Stella cinema and later in
Bray and
Drogheda
Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...
and also set up an "executive coach service" for businessmen travelling around Ireland.
There were also discount stores in
Ballymun
Ballymun () is an outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland, at the northern edge of the Northside, the green-field development of which began in the 1960s to accommodate a housing crisis in inner city areas of Dublin. While the newly built housing was ...
and
Finglas
Finglas (; ) is a northwestern outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It lies close to Junction 5 of the M50 motorway, and the N2 road. Nearby suburbs include Glasnevin and Ballymun; Dublin Airport is to the north. Finglas lies mainly in the posta ...
,
Ringsend
Ringsend () is a Southside (Dublin), southside inner suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located on the south bank of the River Liffey and east of the River Dodder, about two kilometres east of the city centre. It is the sou ...
's Pierrot snooker and gaming club and the Shoparound Centre on Dublin's
South Great George's Street
South Great George's Street is a street in south-central Dublin, Ireland.
History
Early history and naming
The area is associated with Early Scandinavian Dublin. Four burials excavated near South Great George's Street were also associated ...
.
The last venture shut in early 1986 following below average
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
trading in 1985.
Quinn moved to Toronto in 1986, emigrating to escape the recession which gripped Ireland at this time.
Later years
Quinn initially sold books and crisps in Canada.
He set up his first bar there in 2001.
His family are known in Canada for their Toronto restaurants and pubs, which include the "Irish Embassy" and "PJ O'Brien's", as well as one
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
bar.
He appeared in the ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
''s business section to demonstrate his prowess in the Canadian business industry.
Quinn also continued his music promotion after his return to Canada.
Personal life
Quinn purchased a house in
Killiney
Killiney () is an affluent seaside resort and suburb in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland. It lies south of neighbouring Dalkey, east of Ballybrack and Sallynoggin and north of Shankill. The place grew around the 11th century Killiney Churc ...
and two Rolls-Royce cars, one silver and one Maroon with a telephone, and a third car, a
Mercedes for the family.
He owned three racehorses, one which was called "Lucky Leitrim".
Quinn and his wife, Anne, had their
honeymoon
A honeymoon is a vacation taken by newlyweds immediately after their wedding, to celebrate their marriage. Today, honeymoons are often celebrated in destinations considered exotic or romantic. In a similar context, it may also refer to the phase ...
in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, a place where they were to spend much of their life from then onwards.
They had seven children Bernard, Patrick, Lisa, Gavin, Paul, Tanya and Barry-John.
Two became
orthodontist
Orthodontics is a dentistry specialty that addresses the diagnosis, prevention, management, and correction of mal-positioned teeth and jaws, and misaligned bite patterns. It may also address the modification of facial growth, known as dentofacial ...
s, one works in the medical profession and the other four succeeded Quinn in his Canadian pub business.
Death
He died in Canada on 23 November 2009, aged 74, when he succumbed to
kidney failure
Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...
.
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
Feargal Quinn
Feargal Quinn (27 November 1936 – 24 April 2019) was an Irish businessman, politician and television personality. He founded the Superquinn supermarket chain and served as a Senator for the National University constituency from 1993 to 2016.
...
, the founder of rival Superquinn, remarked upon the death of his namesake: "He certainly changed retailing in Ireland
..He was always on the microphone in the shop giving away cars and houses".
Louis Copeland, the tailor responsible for the suits he wore in his advertisements, commented: "I remember going to his house in Killiney and the phone never stopped, calls from people down the country looking for jobs. And Pat tried to fix something for all of them."
Quinn's funeral at
St. Michael's Cathedral on 28 November 2009 was attended by more than 800 people, including the mayor of Toronto.
Tenor
Colm Wilkinson
Colm Wilkinson (born 5 June 1944), also known as C. T. Wilkinson, is an Irish tenor and actor who is best known for originating the lead role of Jean Valjean in ''Les Misérables'' (in the West End and Broadway) and for taking the title role in ...
sang the hymn "
Amazing Grace
"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779 with words written in 1772 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is an immensely popular hymn, particularly in the United States, where it is used for both ...
".
Irish ambassador to Canada,
Declan Kelly, described Quinn and his wife as "the embodiment of Ireland".
References
External links
Obituaryin ''
The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quinn, Pat
1935 births
People from County Leitrim
20th-century Irish people
Irish chief executives
Irish hoteliers
Irish booksellers
21st-century Irish people
2009 deaths
Deaths from kidney failure
Irish emigrants to Canada
Irish expatriates in Canada