Red Cow owner Tom Moran was a true business legend
LEGENDARY hotelier Tom Moran, synonymous with the landmark Red Cow Moran Hotel, has passed away following an illness.
Originally from Limerick, Tom and Sheila Moran operated several successful public houses across Ireland and the UK before developing a large hotel portfolio.
Having initially worked as a licensee in England throughout the 1970s, the family moved back to Athea in Limerick in the 1980s, when they started acquiring public houses in the locality.
While developing Jack Bourkes in Limerick City, Tom and Sheila attended an auction for the Red Cow Inn in July of 1988 and the rest is history.
After acquiring the Red Cow Inn, the family moved to Dublin to take over as new owners and the portfolio of pubs expanded with the addition of The Central Bar in Clondalkin among several others.
Moran Hospitality sold most of their public houses and focused on the hotel trade after building the Red Cow Moran Hotel in 1996.
When Limerick were in the All-Ireland Finals in 1994 and ’96, supporters were accommodated at the Red Cow with large marquees and it has continued to be a meeting place for the Treaty County ever since.
Red Cow Moran’s Hotel Group famously back Limerick GAA as primary sponsors in the early 2000s, even signing up for an additional year in 2003 after Croke Park blocked Limerick’s sponsorship deal with Red Bull.
When Liam Kearns, who also died on Sunday, managed Limerick to their only ever Munster Under 21 Football title in 2000, Tom Moran was front and centre with captain Donnacha Sheehan to lift the cup.
Over the course of the next decade, they added three more Moran Hotels and in 2008 they purchased Bewley’s Hotels, bringing their combined portfolio up to 10 hotels and two public houses.
In 2014, news came that the largest hotel group in Ireland, Dalata would be acquiring most of Moran Bewley’s hotels for €455m.
In June 2016, a stroke caused Tom to fall while on holiday in Spain which caused a significant injury to his head.
He underwent a craniotomy and spent six weeks in an induced coma in Spain, before being airlifted to St James’s Hospital in Dublin under the care of neurologist, Dr Colin Doherty.
From the outset, the outlook was very bleak and Tom was not expected to survive.
His family were told that if he survived, there was every possibility that he would require care for the rest of his life.
The damage caused to his head was likely to result in him being brain-damaged, blind and paralysed.
In 2018, Tom Moran was recognised for his decades of services in the hospitality industry when he was named Business Person of the Year at the South Dublin Chamber Awards.
Three years on, on the anniversary of his near-fatal injury, Tom defied all odds by making an incredible recovery to abseil off the nine-storey extension of the Red Cow Moran Hotel.
The abseil helped raise funds to the sum of €200k to build a Brain Disease Resource and Research Centre at St James’s Hospital.
At the time, Tom said that he was “determined to give back to the hospital that helped me and to help others, I am overwhelmed by all the generosity and support from everyone to make this happen”.
Tom served as the principal of Moran Hospitality up until the time of his death, with his children Tommy, Karen, Tracey and Michael running the business today.
Mr Moran died peacefully at St James Hospital on Sunday, March 12 and is survived by his wife Sheila and six children.
Father of Tommy, Karen, Tracey, Michael, Stephen, Brendan and the late Sean, he is survived by his 20 grandchildren, four sisters and extended family.
Tom Moran’s funeral mass took place last Thursday, March 16, in the Church of the Annunciation, Rathfarnham, followed by cremation at Newlands Cross Crematorium.
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