OBITUARY: 'No job was too big or too small for Jim McGrath'

Maurice Woodcock puts down his glass, feeling that bit philosophical.

“I’ve got one of Jim McGrath’s jobs,” he says. “But I don’t know who’s going to take the other 19 of them…”

We are in Delaney’s of Patrick Street on a Wednesday night, with Maurice in Kilkenny so as to leave in lotto tickets. This task Jim performed with particular zest since Séamus Delaney, the proprietor, was one of his closest friends.