Death of popular newspaper man
The late Edward Walsh
The death took place on Friday, June 21, of Edward Walsh in University Hospital Waterford, just short of his 78th birthday on July 4, after a short illness.
Edward was well-known and very popular in the city, where he worked in the family business, the Munster Express.
He and his siblings, Kieran and Priscilla, followed their father, JJ, and grandfather, Edward, into the Munster Express, a family connection that goes back over 100 years.
Edward worked in the photography, editorial, distribution and commercial departments. He was a popular figure and well-known character around the city and particularly in the area around the Munster Express offices on the Quay and Hanover Street.
He had a keen life-long interest in reading, music, photography and current affairs.
The eldest of five children to the late JJ and Josephine Walsh, he grew up in Priest Road and later in Church Road, Tramore.
He was nephew to the late Sister Claire, who was one of the founding sisters of the Cistercian Community in Glencairn and the late Fr Nicholas Walsh in Ardmore.
He went to primary school in Waterpark and later became a secondary school boarder in Clongowes Wood, Co KIldare.
In Clongowes, he was a popular student and took part in the Leinster Schools Swimming Championship with distinction, winning the Belvedere Perpetual Swimming Trophy three years in a row. He also played junior and senior rugby with the club, mainly in the scrum.
In Tramore during the summers, he engaged in various Irish water safety courses and became a lifesaver and also achieved the advanced swimmer certificate of the Irish Water Safety Association. As a result of a tragic drowning accident in Tramore Bay in 1962, the Tramore Sea Rescue Association was formed. This association bought a large inflatable rescue craft by public subscription, and Edward became part of the crew patrolling the beach on busy days.
He went on to UCD and studied arts. Among his contemporaries was former Taoiseach John Bruton.
After UCD, he returned to Waterford and went to work in the Munster Express where he learned to operate a Linotype type-setting machine.
He also wrote articles and took photos and delivered newspapers – the do-everything aspect of being a family member of a family-owned and operated local newspaper.
He inherited his father’s spirit of adventure, and went to work in San Francisco in the late 1960s and subsequently in Melbourne, Australia where he worked in various newspapers in both cities.
He enjoyed conversation and had a keen interest in current affairs. He loved classical music and possessed a significant vinyl collection. Military affairs were also an interest and he was a former member of the FCA in Waterford and also An Slua Muirí.
His passing was sudden in terms of health deterioration. He contracted pneumonia leading to organ failure and died in University Hospital Waterford on Friday, June 21.
We extend our sympathies to his sister Miriam (Dublin), brothers Nicholas (Dunmore East) and Kieran (Tramore), sisters-in-law Maria and Roswitha, brother-in-law Peter (London), nieces, nephews, extended family, relatives, his former colleagues at the Munster Express and his friends.
His funeral took place on Tuesday, June 25, in the Holy Cross Church, Tramore followed by burial in the family plot at St. Mary’s Cemetery, Ballygunner.
