Paddy Ryan (b. 1916)

Track 1: Paddy Ryan explains that he was Farm/Garden Superintendent for the Great Southern Hotel Group and that his headquarters was in Killarney. He describes his background in Carnew, Co. Wicklow, where his father and his grandfather had been employed on the Fitzwilliam Estate at Coolattin. Track 2: Paddy explains that at the age of fourteen he got his first taste of gardening while working at a local garden centre in Co. Wicklow. Later he trained at the Botanical Gardens in Dublin and became manager of Powers Nursery in Waterford where he remained for eighteen years. He recalls a fortuitous meeting in 1963 with Liam Ryan, General Manager of the Great Southern Hotel Group, who requested that Paddy join the hotel group. Track 3: He describes his responsibilities in his position with the Great Southern Hotels Group in Kerry, and his memory of the opening of the Torc Hotel in Killarney and the challenge of getting the landscaping properly completed for the big occasion. Track 4: The piggery, the dairy, the poultry and the pony and draycar at the Great Southern Hotel, Killarney, are described, and the farming staff who worked with him are recalled and named. The garden staff are also recalled, as are the gardens themselves and the occasion on which he produced the first crop rhubarb to be served on New Year’s Day. Track 5: The gardens at the Great Southern Hotel in Kenmare are described, as is the development of the rockery and the pathways through the natural vegetation and woodland at Parknasilla. Track 6: His eighteen years of employment with the Great Southern Hotel Group are described, and he explains that his love and enthusiasm for farming and gardening was instilled in him from his childhood. He retired thirty-one years ago, and worked as a consultant thereafter providing advice to the Urban District Council in Killarney and Killarney golf course.