The ‘Real Admiral’ of The RCYC Has Died – The description in the announcement sent to Royal Cork Yacht Club members said it all. Enda O’Riordan was known to everyone who crossed the threshold of the RCYC in Crosshaven, from members to visitors from around Ireland and overseas. Her father, Ned, worked in the club bar in the 1960s and Enda continued the family tradition in the early 1970s, helping her mother who also worked in the club.
Described as ‘the ‘font of all knowledge’ about the club, curator and seller of club merchandise, provider of the legendary ‘Tripe-and-Drisheen’ for the Stag night supper of which her recipe was a secret known to few, she made her mark on every aspect of club life. When reporting on RCYC activities, I was sold a club jumper to suit the purpose. It was at least one size too large, but “wash it and it might shrink to fit.” I wasn’t sure what the manufacturers would think of that exhortation but, like all club members, I knew that Enda knew what was good for me!
Kindness to young sailors, looking after visiting sailors, “so many stories can be told and the void she has left can never be filled,” the RCYC says, “She will be remembered with the greatest affection by colleagues past and present - and Flag Officers that she controlled, whether they knew it or not.”
Rear Admiral and Chairman of Volvo Cork Week, Kieran O’Connell, described her death as “a day of sadness as we remember a true club friend and a member in more ways than we could imagine.”
Enda died in Marymount Hospice in Cork after a short illness.
Tom MacSweeney