The Late Mick Price
We were shocked and saddened on Thursday morning to learn of the sudden and untimely death of Mick Price, one of our longest serving members. Mick has been associated with Mullingar Shamrocks for as long as we can remember stretching back to the halcyon days of the Lake County of the late 1970s and 1980s when the mid-town hotel was the unofficial headquarters of the club. Mick was club Treasurer from 1982 to 1985, in 1983 and 1984 jointly with Gabriel Clancy. The late 1980s was the time of the confined members draw and Mick set the pace for ticket sellers.
Mick rolled up his sleeves and wheeled in numerous barrows of concrete when The Clubhouse was constructed with a huge input of voluntary labour. Many in Shamrocks members first became acquainted with Mick through his taxi and bus hire business. During Covid, Lisa Burke recalled that one of her earliest memories of Mullingar Shamrocks was being ‘introduced to Saturday morning football and most importantly the bus trip, where we were collected and dropped back by Mick Price’.
In the greatest decade of the club from 1986-1995, Mick was the one doing the driving as Shamrocks travelled to various Leinster Club championship ties across the province. The trip to Baltinglass was particularly memorable; trips to the Féile na Gael finals in Dublin in 2000 and Drumcollogher-Bradford in Limerick in 2005 are also fondly recalled. The patient and unflappable Mick was the ideal pilot for these occasions (On the Limerick trip, Mick had to flash a yellow card to one member of the management team before the bus reached Millie’s!). Mick never needed the Google Maps or the GPS. He always reached the final destination and a story usually emerged from the adventure. And, then there were the trips within the county to countless underage games with sweet stops and ice cream stops always part of the agenda as Mick always made sure all went home happy.
Two of his longest trips were of special significance for Mick as he chauffeured our senior football team in 2020 (the last pre-Covid outing of significance) and our LGF team to Ard a' Bhóthair, Ventry in 2022 to compete in the Páidi Ó Sé Comortas. The LGF trip was a trophy winning one. Back in 2004 when Páidi arrived in Westmeath, Mick was the man who chauffeured the legendary Páidi to and from Dublin airport. It was a match made in heaven bringing the two storytellers supreme together and Mick played a key role in smoothing Páidi’s transition to the Lake County, a transition that ended with a first Leinster title for Westmeath. Mick also brought hundreds of Westmeath footballers and hurlers to and from games by bus over the years and was a key figure in Club Iarmhí over the decades.
Mullingar Shamrocks extends its deepest sympathy to the Price family and in particular to Mick’s wife Mary, sons Paul and David, brothers and sisters Tom, Padraig, Kathy (Kathleen), Marie (Marian) and Patsy (Patricia), adored grandchildren Mia and Matty, daughter-in-law Ewa, David's fiancée Ariana, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nephews, nieces, relatives and wide circle of friends. Tragedy also visited the Price family, and we remember Mick’s ten-year-old daughter Shirley Anne who was killed in an accident on the Dublin Road, Mullingar, and Mick’s brother Charlie who was killed in a tragic work accident.
Mick reposes at Shaw's Funeral Home on Monday, January 15th, from 3.00 pm until 6.00 pm followed by removal to the Cathedral of Christ the King at 6.30 pm. Funeral Mass on Tuesday morning at 11.00 am followed by burial in Ballyglass Cemetery.
Ar Dheis Dé go Raibh a Anam.
