FUNERAL arrangements have been announced for award-winning Irish press photographer Kieran Clancy, who sadly passed away following an illness this past Friday (October 10).
Originally from Mayorstone, on the outskirts of the Treaty City, Mr Clancy worked for various news and public relations agencies. He was regarded by many as one of Ireland’s premier press and commercial photographers.
He had battled with Parkinson’s disease for a number of years and passed away on Friday last surrounded by family at Riverdale Nursing Home in Ardnacrusha.
Mr Clancy’s remains will arrive at St John’s Cathedral in Limerick City on Monday (October 13) for 11am requiem Mass, followed by burial at the Mount Saint Oliver Cemetery.
Mr Clancy’s family requested: “House Private Please. Family flowers only please, donations if desired to Parkinsons Ireland.”
Kieran enjoyed a distinguished career as a freelance photojournalist after he worked for 20 years as a staff photographer with the Cork Examiner, later the Irish Examiner, based in Limerick and covering news, sport, and entertainment stories across the Mid West.
He was previously president of the Press Photographers Association of Ireland (IPPA). In 2021, he was awarded with an honorary membership of the association, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the association and press photography in Ireland.
Tributes poured in for Mr Clancy over the weekend from colleagues and friends, including from RTÉ sports correspondent Martin Kiely, who said that “Kieran was an absolute professional in his work but most of all he was one of nature’s gentlemen”.
Munster rugby legend Brendan Foley, who was part of the famous Munster team that beat the mighty All Blacks in Limerick in 1978, also passed on his “deepest sympathy” to the Clancy family, saying: “I have great memories of Kieran covering Munster games home and away…a thorough gentleman. May he rest in peace.”
Mr Clancy’s former colleague and friend, Noel Gavin, formerly Irish Daily Star, and the Press 22 photographic agency, said Kieran “had a great eye for a photograph and the story being told in the image”.
“He was very competitive, we all were, but Kieran was stealthy, he would always get the best photo, the best angle, and he did it quietly.
“He was a great credit to his dad, Seán, who was so long in the photograph business before him.”
Legendary Limerick photographer Owen ‘Southie’ South also paid tribute, saying that “Kieran was a lovely man, he was great photographer with the Examiner working in Limerick, his death is very sad”.
“He was a great colleague, a great guy, and he was meticulous with every job that he did — he always did it right.”
Photographer Liam Burke, who worked alongside Clancy for decades in Limerick, said that “Kieran was a wonderful award-winning photographer, he was a friend to everybody”.
Kieran’s late father, Seán Clancy, worked in Limerick as Mid West regional photojournalist for the Irish Independent, and his late brother, Kevin Clancy, was regarded as a pioneering press photographer and was one of the first photographers nationally who transitioned from photographic film rolls to the digital format.
“He was an inspirational photographer for a lot of us on the job. He was a pure gentleman, he had a great eye and he was so enthusiastic about the job, it’s very sad,” said freelance Limerick photographer Brendan Gleeson.
Kieran Clancy photographed presidents to paupers and all in between over his stellar career. After his retirement from the press corps in 2016, he continued in the field of wedding photography and commercial markings.
Recalling one of many fond memories of working alongside Clancy, Noel Gavin said: “I remember a really funny incident involving Kieran during an occasion when the former US President Gerald Ford stopped over at Shannon Airport at some unearthly hour, and we were there taking photographs in the airport’s VIP room where they used to bring dignitaries.”
“Kieran was trying to get a better angle on a shot, and there was a glass coffee table in the middle of the room and Kieran decided to sit on it to get a low shot, and the glass cracked to the exact sound of a gunshot.
“President Ford visibly jumped in his chair and all his security guys thought someone was after shooting him, and that could have been the end of Kieran then.”
Mr Clancy is deeply missed by his wife Marianne (Rafferty), her children Rory, Tim, Elizabeth, and Maebh, his own children David, Stephen, and Lydia, grandchildren Brianna, Luca, and Matthew, siblings Catherine, Michael, and John, and a wide family of in-laws, nieces and nephews, along with an admiring circle of friends and colleagues both locally and nationally.