CATHAL DUFFY:CATHAL DUFFY, who has died aged 77, was a successful businessman in Co Mayo but it is for his work in the promotion and development of the fledgling Knock airport (now known as Ireland West Airport Knock) in the 1980s that he will be best remembered.
In 1981 the late Monsignor James Horan, the inspiration and driving force behind the airport, recognising Mr Duffy's business acumen, invited him on to the airport's board of directors.
Securing his involvement was also a political masterstroke for the monsignor, because the Castlebar-based garage owner was then a leading figure in Fianna Fáil and one of the then taoiseach Charles Haughey's best friends west of the Shannon.
With critics regularly fulminating that a "foggy, boggy airport" in Mayo was economic madness, Msgr Horan needed significant government cash if his ambitious project was not going to crash land before the first planes had taken off from the 8,000ft runway,
As the present chairman of the airport, Liam Scollan, recalls, there were many crises, mostly financial, in the early days which would often lead to the monsignor turning to Mr Duffy in the boardroom saying gravely: "You had better go and see your friend, Charlie".
Mr Duffy served on the board for 21 years. For 10 of them - between 1992 and 2002 - he was chairman, putting long hours and a lot of energy into the task. Last week, in the wake of his death at his home after a long illness, Liam Scollan said: "Cathal can be credited with keeping the finances of the airport under control and running it successfully and profitably at a time when there was very little aviation growth in the region".
As the economy, both local and national, improved during the 1990s, Mr Duffy pioneered the introduction of the first tourism routes from Germany and sun holiday flights to Spain. He managed to establish a good relationship with Ryanair which anchored the airport's success in these years.
He was a lifelong member of Fianna Fáil and sat on the party's national executive for many years. He ran a successful Mercedes and Volkswagen partnership and subsequently an Opel dealership at his garage in Castlebar.
He is survived by his wife, Philomena; sons, Cathal, Iarla and Ciarán; daughters, Fionnuala, Mary and Niamh as well as sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandchildren and other relatives.
Cathal Duffy: born February 10th, 1932; died October 11th, 2009