THOUSANDS among the Irish community in Britain will mourn the loss of construction magnate Bernard McNicholas who passed away yesterday following a long battle with illness.
Family led the tributes to the Mayo-man today, who turned 74 just last week and was a well-known face in construction, charitable and golfing circles across London.
Born in Dollis Hill, in north west London, but educated in his father’s hometown of Bohola in Co. Mayo, Bernard enjoyed a “lifelong love affair with Ireland” his wife Pauline told The Irish Post this morning.
“He was a proud Irish man and there was no prouder Mayo man,” she added.
In his teenage years Bernard began working in his father’s London-based construction firm McNicholas Engineering – known locally as ‘Brown Macs’ - which later became McNicholas PLC.
His uncle led the separate but nearby ‘Green Macs’ McNicholas Construction firm, which is still in operation and is now overseen and led by his cousins and their families.
At the age of 21, when his father passed away, Bernard took on full responsibility for Brown Macs and drove its success before selling the business to Skanska in a multi-million pound deal finalised in December 2006.
“Bernard took on his father’s business and grew it to a £200million turnover company by the time he sold it,” Pauline, who hails from Co Limerick, explained.
“He employed thousands of Irish people over those years and was very proud of the fact that everyone that ever worked for him was well paid.”
She added: “In that way he touched many lives and the main thing was no matter how successful he was he never lost touch with the working man, the men at the coal face - that was all-important to him.”
Since selling the company, Bernard spent his retirement working tirelessly for charity while enjoying quality time travelling, playing golf with his wife and spending their summers at their holiday home in West Cork.
In 1984 the Mayo man - who has also received a papal knighthood and an Honorary Doctorate from NUI Galway for his philanthropic work - was among a group of Irish businesspeople who founded the Children’s Welfare and Research Foundation in London.
For 30 years he was Chairman of that organisation, which has raised millions of pounds for children in need across the world.
“Bernard’s presence was enormous and his loss is a dreadful void for our family,” Pauline, who he married in 2005, added.
“Nobody will ever fill that void, but Bernard leaves a huge legacy behind him in his construction and his charity work over many years.”
Bernard, who passed away at his home in the Arkley area of Barnet in north London on Sunday March 22, leaves behind his wife Pauline, son Séan, daughters Siobhan, Fiona and Lucy, sons-in-law Tim, Richard and Simon, grandchildren Johnny, Charlie, Olivia, Mathilde, Jack, Freddie, Harry and Alfie, sisters Maureen and Eileen and brother Michael.
A funeral mass will take place at Farm Street Church in Westminster this Friday, March 27, at 4pm, before his repatriation to Co. Cork for burial.
Bernard’s family have requested family flowers only at the church and any donations to be made to the Children’s Welfare and Research Foundation via funeral directors Barnes & Hickes, in Askew Road, Shepherds Bush.
