Flan Hegarty was born in the parish of Kilnamona 61 years ago. He was the youngest of the Hegarty family of six children, five boys and one girl. His sister pre-deceased him in 1954.
Michael farms on the home farm in Kilnamona, Patrick lives in Clonmel, Fred in America and John in Tulla.
After leaving the Christian Brothers School in 1968, Flan went to work with a company in Shannon to study accountancy. He only stayed a short while as office work was not for him. From Shannon he went to England to his cousin Biddy in Manchester and from there he went to work in Scotland with a contracting company. While there his mother died suddenly in 1969. A short time before this Flan had written a letter home so there was a contact address. He returned home but later returned to Scotland until Christmas of that year when he went to Canada and from there to New Jersey where he joined his brother John. In 1971 they returned, purchased a site in Shannon and built a number of houses but found them hard to sell so he returned to America. They continue to return and build houses as the properties were being sold.
In 1975 Kilnamona won the Clare junior A championship final and Flan was captain. That year he married Sheila Herlihy from Knocknagoshil and around this time Flan and John set up Hegarty Brothers Contractors and, as we now know, built a big percentage of the town of Ennis. Flan loved building and had, more or less, the same staff all of his life.
His love of farming was immense. He purchased land at Ballymacoda, Inch and Barefield. He farmed mostly sheep and for many years, red deer. He loved horses and ponies and he travelled the length and breadth of Ireland to fairs, sales and shows with his great friend Jack Griffin from Caherea.
When his three children Angela, Owen and Orla were growing up, Flan travelled with them to shows all over Ireland. His favourite shows were Dublin and Millstreet. At these shows he made many friends. He was a great conversationalist and he held strong views on subjects like farming, politics, GAA and the state of the nation.
He was very proud of the fact that he went to South Africa in 2008 to Sister Ethel Normoyle's mission. He had a great give of motivation and everyone associated with this venture were grateful to Flan for his imput into this project.
He was never a man for meetings or committees but he was a wonderful supporter of Ennis Showgrounds, the Pony Club, the Clare Hunt and the Turkey Trotters.
He is sadly missed by his wife Sheila and the children he would do anything for, Angela, Owen and Orla. His four grandchildren were a big part of his life and he had ponies for all of them. At this year's show in Newmarket-on-Fergus, he won first prize in the lead rein with his grand-daughter Emily. Caitriona won rosettes at this year's Ennis show. The boys, Christopher and Andrew have just started on the show-jumping circuit.
Ireland now needs people like Flan Hegarty. His funeral was a testimony to the man.

- Courtesy of Clare Champion, 2nd September 2011 Tweet

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