Paul Ruane was the 2nd. Eldest of 5 born in Dublin on 15th July 1955 – St Swithins Day. But he was no saint!
He was born in Dublin the year that Rock Around The Clock was released as no.1 on 9th July & was in the charts for 8 weeks. A very fitting song for Paul as he continued to rock around the clock for the rest of his life!
‘Put your glad rags on & join me hon,we’ll have some fun when the clock strikes one’.

He also had a famous Godfather -Bob Lynch an Irish musician who was a friend of our parents. Bob joined The Dubliners in 1964 but left before they really made it into the limelight.

So Paul was destined to be an avid music lover. His tastes were eclectic and he always kept up with new music way into his 60s, and of course he would never stop going on about how none of it was as good as the KLF.

One memory I have is of mum coming home from work as a District Nurse to the house shaking to the sounds of Led Zeppelin at 100 decibels. She said she could hear it from the top of our road.

Paul was well travelled, starting with his time spent in Ethiopia, Libya and Sudan before the age of 15 due to his father’s work. As a young man he lived on the kibbutz in Israel and back packed through Turkey and Southern Europe.
Paul had more than 9 lives & one example of this is the near-death experience of ‘the air rifle incident‘ in Libya. Apparently Paul was tied to a chair on our balcony by his brothers in a game of cowboys & Indians probably, when he was shot at by an unknown stranger across from the house, narrowly avoiding Paul with two air pellets.

Another example was a trip to see the lake in Addis Abiba, Ethiopia in 1961 -so Paul would be 6. The family was looking at fish from the boat when Paul peered too close and fell into the water packed with hippos and was lucky to get away with his life. He’s as giddy as a goat as his father would say!

Paul went on to have two sons with his partner Anna, Jack in 1987 and Thomas in 1991, whom he loved very dearly, and who feel his absence daily.

Always in the mood for the ‘craic’, Paul spent many happy years in Camden, and later in Hastings, where he left no wine shop unexplored and loved swimming in the sea where the remainder of his ashes now rest.

Everyone that knew Paul said he was one of a kind. He remained steadfast in his belief that you should always stay positive and remember to enjoy yourself until the very end, which was epitomised in some of his last words to his son ‘Have fun kiddo’, which inspired this Haiku:

Just have fun Kiddo
‘Cos at the end of the day
That’s all that matters

He will always be in our hearts & will never be forgotten.