TRADE NAMES:Three generations of Kennedys have worked in the Dún Laoghaire motor trade - and a fourth is showing signs of taking an early interest too.
A MAN, A BUILDING and a business came together with a certain synchronisty when, in 1929, motor engineer James J Kennedy opened a motor engineers/repairs business in what had been a 19th century forge on Library Road, Dún Laoghaire.
James J Kennedy had a passion for cars, grew up in Dún Laoghaire, had eight children with his wife Kathleen and, with long training, much talent and a lot of work, built himself an unassailable reputation as a motor engineer. Once opened on Library Road he introduced services like body work, panel beating and painting to the car-owning population of Dún Laoghaire.
He also started a dynasty. With a fourth generation in waiting today's company is run by second and third generation Kennedys. "We've oil in the blood," says Amanda Kennedy, not even half joking.
Distinguished by the original, 19th century arched horseshoe entrance, Paschal Kennedy Motors still gives the exacting, thoroughgoing service the man who set it up insisted on.
Paschal Kennedy, his son, has an encyclopaedic knowledge of cars and engines, the energy and enthusiasm of someone who loves what he does and where he lives and the wisdom to allow himself be happy. Anger and annoyance he describes as "a wasting fever of the heart", good manners as an imperative: "I always open doors for ladies" and hard work as the secret to a good life and business.
Paschal Augustan Patrick Kennedy, born 1932, knows whereof he speaks. His life and the business have thrown up hardship and joy in about equal measure.
His father, James J Kennedy, began his working life in a garage on Marine Road, Dún Laoghaire. By 1929 he was ready and sure enough to open his own place on Library Road. "He was a fabulous engineer," his son says, "he used work on the fire brigade engines, do body work and spraying. I remember being in here when I was nine years old."
He produces a 1932 picture of his dad with a glorious looking French De Lage car, explains how his father got it working again. "The petrol going into the carburettor was heated by water going through tubes. These tubes corroded so water was going through the petrol and the car wouldn't run. He made up new tubes and pressed them into the cylinder block and the car started."
Oil in the blood indeed.
The second World War and family tragedy conspired to bring misery to both the Kennedy clan and business in 1942. The war ended petrol supplies and the business, and Kathleen Kennedy, sadly and too young, died. James Kennedy, widowed and with eight children to care for, sought work desperately. References describe him as "a most conscientious and confident workman and trustworthy in every respect" and job application letters typewritten by himself are masterpieces of the genre.
None of it made any difference; there was no work to be had, for anyone. James Kennedy, like so many, many others, sought and found work in the UK while his eight children - again like many another family of the time - were of necessity divided between family and orphanage care.
"I went to St Xavier's Orphanage in Dominick Street, Dublin," Paschal says. "There were 70-80 lads there with me as well as my next brother, Billy. My sisters went to St Josephs here in Dún Laoghaire. My father got us all back together in time."
It was the end of 1943 and "in time" would be seven years.
Paschal Kennedy says that, as a child, "because you didn't know any better it all seemed normal and you just got on with life. We used play football in our bare feet in Dominick Street and walk from there to the Phoenix Park to play football too. I went to Capel Street Technical School in 1948 to study motor mechanics. It took seven years' training then, five as an apprentice and two as an improver, before you could be a fully qualified mechanic. It only takes four years now."
Paschal Kennedy was working in Walden Motors (not far from the orphanage) when his father returned, got a job in Grange Motors, Deansgrange, a council house in Dalkey and gathered six of his children together to live as a family. Two remained with an aunt and uncle. His siblings worked hard, Paschal says, "and all have big families and good lives".
Back in 1950 Paschal's sister, Ann, "took over the running of the Dalkey household and looked after us" while he himself went to work with his father in Grange Motors, closer to home at a time when "moving around wasn't easy. The Grange Motors' building was made out of two aircraft hangers, and the first Mercedes after the war was assembled there. The parts of cars coming in were known as CKD (completely knocked down)!"
Paschal, in time, left Grange Motors and went to work for Ballsbridge Motors and, later, for Motor Services on the Naas Road. In 1960 he married May Wynne from Sallynoggin - "I met her at a German course" - and they had two children, David first, then Amanda. In 1969 he bought back the building on Library Road, owned then by Murdochs and used as a closed workshop and stores.
"I asked my father if he wanted his name put back over the door and he said no, put your own name over it," Paschal and Amanda both relish the telling of this. "I handed him the keys anyway and he came back to work - surprise, surprise!"
"He used stand with his pipe sizing up jobs," Amanda says, "wouldn't let anything slip by him. He went on living in Dalkey."
"I had seven mechanics in the 1970s," Paschal continues. "We were busy, busy. I'd a series of five-year plans I kept working on. We just kept working, didn't stop. There were no credit cards then, we did jobs on tick but people were honest and would pay it off. May was always involved, working on the accounts.
"We sold a lot of Volkswagen Beetles and Toyota Corollas and of course the Mini was very popular. We've always been service orientated and seen expensive cars in here - like Ferraris and Aston Martins. My father, James, worked here until a few months before he died in 1976. He was 79 years old. I had a policy, always, of keeping small. The years just flew by, working and working and playing golf the odd time and going out in the little boat we own."
He and May reared David and Amanda in a new house in Dún Laoghaire but, some years ago, moved to an older house close to the business. Paschal Kennedy walks the short distance to start work at 7.30am every morning. "I like to be in and have things organised before the staff arrive - and could be here until 7pm in the evening."
Amanda and David are directors of the business, along with their mother and father. "We run things together, my sister Bernadette works here part-time too. Patience is the key - we have the odd barney but that's normal. Four heads are better than one."
Amanda studied marketing and has been part of the family firm for 20 years now. Her father showers praise on her "technical knowledge" as well as her ability to sell cars.
She loves them; drives a top-of-the-range Seat Leon DSG herself. Paschal and May have a "camping car I built myself" and like to travel.
And then there's Charlotte (11) and Nathan (8), David's children. "They come in every second week," their grandfather says, "and have to earn their keep! Nathan's really into it, sits on an engine looking inside, says he doesn't want any 'getting' or 'holding' jobs."
"Keeping small" might have got Paschal Kennedy Motors where it is today but that's about to change.
"Expansive plans" are being worked on, but so confidentially that Trade Names couldn't get a word on them. "We're staying around," Paschal grins, "not going off the map yet."
