Residents shocked at deaths of popular local family

LIVING in the heart of horse breeding and training country in the green plains to the west of the Wicklow mountains, the Sleator family were themselves connected with horseracing for many years.

Pat Sleator lived at home with his parents on the family farm at Ballinure, Grangecon, close to the county boundaries that separate Wicklow and Kildare.

His father, John Joe, was a farmer and much respected in the community, while his mother, Mary, taught for many years at Scoil Nioclas Naofa in Dunlavin — a few miles away across the west Wicklow countryside — until her retirement.

The Sleators were deeply involved in the horse breeding and training industry for many years, and would have kept horses on their farm, about a mile from the small village of Grangecon.

The family were prominent members of the community, with both enjoying a game of golf at Baltinglass Golf Club. Long-time members, they each held the presidency of the club on different occasions, and sometimes sponsored competitions, as well as occupying other positions within the club at various stages.

Pat Sleator worked for some years as a farm worker, using his knowledge and ability in various farms around the area. He was a well-known face around west Wicklow, right from the days when he attended national school in Dunlavin and secondary school at Baltinglass.

However, a skill in welding and a long-standing interest in sculpting led him to take up the practice as a career and he became more successful as time went on, basing himself at a workshop beside the two-storey family home in Ballinure.

He has exhibited at the Dunlavin Arts Festival and, recently, Wicklow County Council bought a large sculpture of a deer, to be exhibited in the grounds of Avondale House, birthplace of Charles Stewart Parnell, in Rathdrum.

Baltinglass-based county councillor Tommy Cullen described news of the deaths as “absolutely shocking” and said that the family were always regarded as “decent, hard-working, honourable people” in the area. “This comes as a severe shock to the whole community,” he said. “It’s a terrible tragedy.”

Grangecon was also hit by tragedy in May when 21-year-old local sportsman Nigel Kehoe drowned while on holiday in Alicante, Spain.