Life & Style

'I wanted to return home for a calmer lifestyle' - Kerryman and former banker Pat Hegarty reflects on life in the fast lane in 1970s London

A RETIRED Kerryman who first pioneered the launch of the Bank of Ireland in Britain in the 1970s has said that London’s hectic lifestyle eventually drove him to return home.

Pat Hegarty, 79, now resides in Dublin, but he remembers his years spent living in the English capital in great detail.

He featured in a Bank of Ireland (BOI) advert in The Irish Post’s first ever newspaper edition, published on February 13, 1970, entitled, “Your welcome home starts with a phone call to Pat Hegarty.”

Pat Hegarty pictured in London in 1970

His employers had sent him on an investigatory visit to London in January of that year, before a major six-month bank strike rocked Ireland.

Having previously worked at a BOI branch in Co. Galway, the 34-year-old began a mission to establish the bank’s presence across the Irish Sea, following in the footsteps of competitors Allied Irish Banks (AIB), which had already established business links in Britain.

Speaking to The Irish Post, he said: “I was told to go to London to try and stop the (BOI) losing its business to AIB, it was a secretive mission at the time.”

When he first arrived in January 1970, Mr Hegarty resided at the then named three-star Atlantic Hotel in Hyde Park, which he also used as his office.

“I spent two to three months here in London, staying at my makeshift office,” he said.

“I became great friends with the owner, it was a hotel where a lot of the Irish showbands used to stay.”

After a short stint in Britain Mr Hegarty travelled back home, where he stayed just a few weeks before returning to London again, at a time when the Irish banks went on general strike.

In April of that year he took up an office on the fifth floor of Ireland House on New Bond Street in London, where many other Irish businesses stationed themselves.

With the turbulent banking situation in Ireland, he became concerned about his future with the BOI.

But after speaking to the bank’s General Secretary, he was reassured that despite huge upheaval in Ireland, his position in Britain would not be at risk.

“I was one of the only Irish people from our bank over here at the time,” he said. “I was worried about what would happen to me when the banks were on strike in Ireland, but I was told that being in the UK at the time saved me.”

Pat featuring in the BOI advert in the first Irish Post in 1970

Regularly attending functions at the Irish Embassy and numerous networking events, Mr Hegarty was also at the forefront of the Irish social scene in London.

Later that year, he got married in Kilburn, north-west London, and moved to a maisonette in Shepherd’s Bush, where he resided with his wife and two young children for four years.

As Business Development Manager, he spent these years setting up branches of the BOI across Britain, including in cities such as Leeds.

“It was tough going for a while but I loved it,” he said. “For the first six months I spent in London I was working seven days a week.

"Drink was a huge factor here in London; there were functions almost every night. I wanted to return home for a calmer lifestyle.”

There was one incident in particular, which made him realise that his managers in Ireland didn't appreciate the demanding lifestyle bankers endured in Britain.

“I was driving on the M1 and M6 five days a week,” he added. “During winter it was horrendous, there would be huge amounts of fog. On one occasion as I was driving back near Luton 17 people were killed in an accident.

“It was incredibly scary. I told the Head of Human Resources in Ireland, but they didn’t seem to understand. I had a wife and two children to think about.”

When Mr Hegarty returned to Ireland he became manager of the BOI branch in Dublin.

He continued life in the banking industry as his father had done before him; albeit at a more enjoyable pace in Ireland, where he went on to have three more children.

Whilst he currently lives in Dublin, he explains that he has returned to England in recent years to reunite with old acquaintances and to satisfy his passion for tennis by attending the Wimbledon Championships.