A talented sportsman who excelled in business

The death occurred on January 15th last of Aidan Richardson, late of Manchester and originally from Rhue, Tubbercurry.
Aged 61 years, Aidan was struck by a sudden illness over 11 years ago and lay peacefully in a coma since that time in hospitals in Dublin and Manchester.
Aidan was an extremely talented sportsman in his teenage years and was captain of the Sligo Minor team in 1968 when the Minors last won a Connacht Championsip and went on to contest the All-Ireland Final, which they had lost by just one point.
The eldest son of Kathleen and the late Shane Richardson from Rhue, Aidan was a past pupil of Banada Abbey secondary school. After finishing school the big 6ft 4 inch young man won a place in the Irish Army Cadets in 1969 where he did just one year of training.

Aidan knew there was a wider world to be experienced and having inherited his father's entrepreneurial and business skills, he set about learning how big business worked.
He got a job with P.J Matthews in Dublin, a hardware business which was part of the Gallagher Group and spent a number of years with the company in the early 1970's based in Dublin and Offaly. In 1975 he moved into the Plant Hire business, an area in which he was to spend the rest of his working life.

HireCo was his employer in Dublin in those early years and he also diversified, opening two grocery shops in Fairview and Clondalkin.
Aidan also made time to meet the love of his life Bernie Varden from Milltown, County Galway and they married in 1973.
Looking for pastures new and to further expand, Aidan and his young family moved to London in 1980 and he took up employment with the Greenham Group, builders merchants, based first in Guilford, Surrey, the company later moved headquarters to Haydock near Manchester and so the family ended up living in the greater Manchester area.

Aidan worked with the Ashtead Group until the autumn of 1999 at which time he took retirement from the group.
However, for Aidan the boom of the new millennium was to pass him by as he lay in his hospital bed in Dublin and Manchester from autumn of 1999 until his eventual death in January 2011.

Struck down with a brain haemorrhage, Aidan showed his true fighting spirit and lived in hope for over eleven years along with his extended family that he would one day wake up and continue where he left off. His remains reposed firstly in Manchester where all his friends and business colleagues paid their respects along with the large Irish community.

He also reposed in the Coen Funeral home Tubbercurry where several thousand people filed through for hours representing neighbours, friends and the entire Sligo GAA family. Removal of his remains to St. Attracta's Church in Tourlestrane was escorted by a guard of honour from Tourlestrane GAA Club and members of the 1968 Sligo Minor team. Burial took place in Rhue Cemetery. Aidan is survived by his wife Bernie, daughters Jacqueline and Ursula, sons Aidan, John and David, sisters Frances and Therese, brothers Tommy, Patrick, Oliver and Paul, and many in-laws, nephews, nieces and friends, all to whom sympathy is extended.
An inspirational figure on the football pitch and on the pitch of life, Aidan Richardson will always be remembered by those who had the pleasure of meeting him.

Courtesy of The Sligo Champion 9/2/11 Tweet

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