Employment solicitor Richard Grogan, who was an unlikely Tiktok star, had such a passion for work that he called his office the day he was dying to say that he wouldn’t be in the following morning, his funeral mass in Dublin has heard.
Mr Grogan, who passed away at St Vincent’s Private Hospital in Dublin on Tuesday, “fought a tough fight both in the law and in his recent illness” mourners at the Church of St Thérèse in Mount Merrion in Dublin were told this morning.
His son James spoke warmly of his father saying Richard had three great loves — his family, the law, and golf.
James said that in spite of his illness his dedicated and conscientious father worked until Friday of last week.
“Even on Tuesday he phoned in to the office and said he wouldn’t be in on Wednesday. It was truly his passion. He always saw you both [his staff Caoimhe and Natasha] as colleagues rather than employees. I know how highly he thought of you all. Mainly because he never stopped talking about you.”
He stressed that Richard was “a brilliant father and a wonderful husband”.
But instead, I am going to focus on the three most important things to him. So first, his family.
“Dad loved his wife Mary so much and always made sure to acknowledge that so much of his success was made possible by her. Dad and I on the other hand had a relationship where I would normally ask him what controversy he had managed to stir up He would respond gleefully that he has broken his own record in the number of claims he submitted that day.
“In return his usual retort was telling me to shave off the beard if I ever wanted to be taken seriously. While my Mom did suggest that I take it off for today I feel he would have gotten more of a kick from this one last act too defiance.”
James also paid tribute to the many thousands of social media followers his father had acquired through his law videos and to the staff of radio stations in Ireland who knew Richard well from his appearances on various shows.
“He got such enjoyment out of every single media appearance. Every time he was on the radio, he used to phone me to tell me. You can imagine how many phone calls that was in a week.”
James added that his father would have been thrilled at the turnout at the church and by the number of kind comments that have appeared online all week.
Meanwhile, his wife Mary also spoke from the altar. She said Richard’s job was his hobby — “some might say his hobby horse.”
“His life was his family, the law and golf.”
Mary said that Ireland had lost one of its “top people” following the passing of her beloved husband.
“To adapt the words of from the film Bridget Jones’s Diary, it’s just that it’s the most terrible pity for Ireland to lose such a great brain, to lose one of our top people.
“Our top person really, Richard was our top person — father, grandfather and husband. He fought a tough fight both in the law and his recent illness.”
A private cremation followed the funeral mass. The Grogan family asked that donations, if desired, be made to the Irish Cancer Society in his name in lieu of flowers.
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