GERRY Keenan Sr who passed away in June has been fondly remembered by his son for building up the successful Keenan Foods business selling frozen fish and also for his contributions towards creating employment in West Belfast throughout the toughest years of the Troubles.

Gerry Sr was born in Beechmount but moved up to the Glen Road where he lived for many years. His son, also Gerry, said: “He was a great man for sport and the hurling, and played for a team called Granuaile which no longer exist. He played for Antrim in the minors and played some rugby and joined Cooke rugby team as well. He went to St Mary’s Christian Brothers but he was never one for academic work and he followed my grandfather into the fish business. 

“He persuaded his father to leave Marley’s and to set up their own which they set up in Oxford Street Fish Market, now where the Waterfront Hall is. The company was T Keenan and Son’s Fish Merchants and they traded there for years."

Gerry said his father saw the trend developing for frozen fish and also sought to move the business to West Belfast which at the time was suffering from a chronic lack of employment.

“He was very much the one who pushed the business forward and saw ahead that the market was moving from fresh fish to frozen foods so he set up that business with frozen fish and chips. They were successful and the old fish market was closing down so he relocted to Kennedy Way, next door to where we are today."

Gerry continued: “He took a risk moving it up here at the beginning of the Troubles but he felt that if he was going to create employment, he wanted to create it in West Belfast. He knew there was a shortage of jobs and he thought the community here was the best place for it.

“He built a very substantial business over the years which delivered all over the whole of Ireland and sold the business in the mid 1980s. He had his difficulties with supplying fish in Belfast over the Troubles and it was many of the challenges a lot of businesses faced but he battled on because at the end of the day he believed in the people here and thought the community was worth staying in."

Following his retirement, Gerry Sr got involved in the board at the Dairy Farm and worked in helping to establish the Springbank Industrial Estate in Poleglass.

“After retirement he didn’t like not doing anything so he got involved in Dairy Farm with Father McWilliams and he joined the board and helped turn things around because they had some difficulties in the early days. Father McWilliams and my father then went to Invest Northern Ireland and got funding for Springbank Industrial Estate so he went from being in business for himself to helping out the community with Father McWilliams.

“He did retire in his latter years to care for my mother who was in Nazareth Nursing Home and he eventually moved into Nazareth himself but even when he was there he still helped them out with some business things whenever he could and he was well known throughout his working life and after as a bit of a character who was always up for having a good bit of craic.

“He was a brilliant father raising us five boys and he made sure we were all educated and went on to have careers and he was devoted to my mother and cared for her in her final years. He lived to 95 so he had a good innings and had a full active and a good life. He was a religious man who would go to Clonard with my mother and their lives were all spent in West Belfast. 

“He always felt that during the Troubles young people in West Belfast weren’t being given the opportunity but he said they deserved the opportunity and a lot of people who worked for him throughout the years still work here at Keenan Seafoods.”

Gerry Keenan Sr (1927-2023) beloved husband of the late Maura, much loved father of Gerard, Colm, Harry, Thomas and Cormac and loving grandfather and great grandfather.