Young Cork woman Ciara ‘was the life and soul of everything’

Colleagues and friends of a young Cork woman who died suddenly last week will honour her memory with a bar named after her, the owner of the pub where she worked has said.

Ciara O’Callaghan, who was 27 and from Ballincollig, passed away unexpectedly on Thursday. She was the mother of a baby girl, Milli, who is almost one.

Ms O’Callaghan was widely known and extremely popular as the general manager of Clancy’s on Princes Street, a position she had held for just under two years.

Paul Montgomery, the owner of Clancy’s, said all in the pub were devastated at Ms O’Callaghan’s loss.

“Ciara was brilliant, she was our general manager here and she was the life and soul of everything, she was so lovely. It’s just devastating, we can’t get our heads around it at all,” he said.

Mark of respect 

Mr Montgomery said the official re-opening of Clancy’s, which had been closed for extensive renovations during the week, has been postponed as a mark of respect, and he added that he and his staff would make sure Ms O’Callaghan was remembered in the pub.

“We’ll call our long bar after her, Ciara’s Bar, we’ll honour her properly,” he said.

“The staff have been very brave, keeping on the work, and what they’ve all said, nearly to a person, is that Ciara would have wanted to have got the place ready if one of her colleagues had passed away,” he said.

“She wasn’t a drinker, she wasn’t a partyer, she loved her job, she worked nights, she worked days, she did a lot of late hours and she worked above and beyond her job all the time.

“She always put her shoulder to the wheel, people loved her, customers loved her, the regulars will really miss her, and we’ll miss her terribly, she was a model employee, a great friend, and a model mother,” Mr Montgomery said.

“Our hearts are broken for Ciara’s mam and dad, Susan and John, and for little Milli, and for her sisters and all belonging to her.”

Ms O’Callaghan will lie in repose at Crowley’s funeral home in Ballincollig from 6pm on Monday. Her Requiem Mass will take place at 11am on Tuesday at the Church of St Mary and St John, Ballincollig.

Her family has asked that those attending the funeral wear bright coloured clothes.