Rocco Macari, the Italian-Irish businessman and community figure who was widely known for his traditional fish-and-chip shops, left an estate valued at €2.23 million, according to papers published by the Probate Office.
Macari died in Cassino, Italy, close to his native hometown of Casalattico, in June 2023, at the age of 82.
Casalattico, in the Frosinone province, is where the vast majority of Italian-Irish chip shop owners emigrated from – including members of well-known families such as Borza, Cafolla, Fusco and Mizzoni.
From the outset, when he came to Ireland aged just 17 and initially worked in Borza shops, Macari was an enthusiastic and prominent member of the Italian–Irish chipper community.
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He followed other branches of the Macari family in Ireland who had opened shops in Dublin as early as the 1950s. He opened his first shop in Tallaght Village in 1972, followed by Old Bawn and Castletymon, which he later passed on to his children.
Macari became famous in the Tallaght area and was known for his sponsorship of local sports clubs, including Thomas Davis GAA Club and Tallaght Town AFC. He was the father of five children.
In other grants of probate, Annette Hanley of Foxrock, Dublin, a former director of operations for the Golden Pages, left an estate valued at €5.8 million.
After her time with Golden Pages, Hanley used her operational expertise to help build and co-run her daughter Emma’s ecommerce business, Robes4you.
Hanley put her corporate experience to use by taking complete charge of the supply chain, warehouse stock management and internal operational workflows.
She also served as a corporate director for Leading Edge Marketing Ltd, a business set up to navigate the digital marketing and trading side of retail ventures.
Hanley was a long-time member and avid supporter of the Milltown Pensioners’ Golf Society, an active group heavily associated with the wider community at Milltown Golf Club.
Margaret “Sue” Uda of Haddington Road, Ballsbridge, left €3.11 million when she died in April 2025. A prominent figure in the Irish tourism industry, Uda was managing director of destination management company A Touch of Ireland, and was an acknowledged mentor to others starting out in the tourism business.
