Great sadness over death of Nenagh man from Covid-19

The death of a Nenagh man with coronavirus who worked at the frontline of our local health services has caused great sadness in the community.
At 64, Kieran Maguire was still in the relative prime of his life. A married father of three adult children, he had underlying health conditions and sadly died at Limerick University Hospital on Friday, April 17th.
Many of the thousands of people who underwent a procedure in the operation theatre of Nenagh Hospital over the span of the last five decades would have known Kieran, if only to recognise his face.
He was the man who arrived with the trolly at their bedside to wheel them to theatre. At one of the most vulnerable times in their lives, Kieran's was probably one of the last faces they saw before the anaesthetist stuck an injection in their vein to put them to sleep. It was Kieran who ensured the machine that supplied life-giving oxygen to their lungs didn't break down while the surgeon was busy at work. But if it did, Kieran was the man who could fix it.
And though these patients hardly knew it, or could utter a 'thank you', Kieran was the man in the blue gown and cap who wheeled them back to their bed in a comatose state and placed them in recovery.

SECOND YOUNGEST
Born in 1956, Kieran was the second youngest in a family of six - five boys and a girl. Children of Michael and Joyce Maguire who at the time lived in Mitchel Street in Nenagh.
Joyce, from Wolverhampton, met Michael Maguire during the height of World War 11. He had been sent from Nenagh to the UK city to train as a welder by his employers, the Irish Aluminium Company, who operated a factory making pots and pans at Tyone.
As part of the UK war effort, Kieran's father worked in a munitions factory before returning to Nenagh with his bride and new job credentials to resume work at the local factory.
Life in post-war Nenagh was Spartan when Kieran's parents were raising their young family through the economically grim 1950s. It was a time of mass emigration as there was little work to be found at home.
When Kieran was born the family lived in a house with no indoor toilet or bathroom. It was the norm for many people in Nenagh in those days.
In 1957 the Maguires got to move to number 10 Tobar Mhuire off the Well Road, part of a scheme of social housing, along with Knockanpierce, provided by the town council in that era.
Older brother Tommy remembers Kieran doing all the usual things as a child: swimming on warm summer days with his friends in the Nenagh River at the Mill Banks in Tyone or 'The Turnhole', situated just upstream of the modern day swimmng pool. On other days they would use worms to fish for trout. The river back then was the aqua-playground of local youth.

WORKED ALONGSIDE FATHER
Kieran went to Saint Mary's Boys National School and later to the old CBS in John's Lane. He left school at 14 to take up a job as a porter in O' Meara's Hotel in Pearse Street. He later worked alongside his father in the aluminium factory before heading off to London as a teenager where he got work in a hardware store. But he quickly became homesick and within six months he was back in Nenagh.　
Soon after Kieran got the break that would define the rest of his working life. The Matron of the Nenagh Hospital, Sister Bernard, offered him a job as an attendant. He started in Saint Vincent's Ward in February 1973 and soon after he was promoted to work in the operation theatre.
He upskilled to fit his new role, and those who spoke to this newspaper said he was a dab hand at solving any glitches that occurred in the vital ventilator machine that kept people alive during operations.
When not at work helping people to get better, Kieran spent voluntary time in another caring capacity. He joined the Order of Malta and was part of the local crew that provided services such as ambulance cover at sporting events, teaching first aid and other charitable services, such as ferrying older people in the Order's ambulance to Mass on Sundays.

MARRIED OLIVE
Kieran met his future wife, Olive, for the first time in the early 1970s. A Portumna teenager who has not long started working on the clerical staff of North Tiperary County Council, Olive's friends decided Kieran would be the ideal partner to accompany her to the council's annual dinner dance. The match was made, and their hunch proved correct. From that night Kieran and Olive just clicked and were married in the Catholic church in Portumna in 1976. It was a nuptial knot that was to last from their early 20s right through their 43 years together before Kieran's untimely death.
A number of years ago Kieran decided to opt for redundancy from his job at the hospital due to health issues. His new spare time opened up the opportunity for other things. He studied and sat for the Leaving Certificate he missed out on when he was a boy. Indeed, he was thrilled to discover he had a great aptitude for Irish. He also gained a distinction in Art, which he studied as a Fetac subject.
Sadly, as the years went on Kieran's health issues became more challenging. He spent the last few weeks of his life in hospital and his condition deteriorated dramatically after he contracted the coronavirus.
During the removal of Kieran's remains for his mandatory private funeral to Saint Mary of the Rosary Church on Sunday, April 19th, the local branch of the Labour Party, of which Kieran was a member, formed a Guard of Honour.
Because the virus restrictions prevented church gatherings of more than ten people, neighbours, friends and numerous health staff, with whom Kieran worked in the hospital over the decades, instead lined the route from his home in Drom Na Coille to salute their friend and colleague in what was a moving testimony of his populartiy.
Kieran is survived by his wife Olive; sons, Stephen and Brian; daughter, Michelle and her partner, Chris Darcy and by his grandson Mark. He is also survived, among others, by his brothers Michael, Tommy and George and sister Denise Ryan.