Deep sadness at passing of popular local auctioneer

The news of the untimely passing of one of the most successful and innovative auctioneers in the Midlands, Kate O'Shea, has been greeted with deep shock and sadness.

The hugely-successful businesswoman passed away peacefully at the Beacon Hospital, Dublin, surrounded by her loving family, yesterday (Tuesday, July 9), and will be laid to rest in her native Walsh Island, outside Portarlington on Friday morning.

The daughter of Danny and Rose O'Shea from Enaghan, Walsh Island, the late Kate O'Shea took the Midlands auctioneering world by storm when she returned to her native Offaly from London in 2000. Following a brief stint working with Remax in Athlone set decided to set up her own business, Kate O'Shea Auctioneers and Valuers on High Street in Tullamore in 2003 from where she ran a hugely-successful business. In recent years she operated her business from Iveagh House on French Church Street in Portarlington.

Many warm tributes have been paid to the memory of Kate O'Shea, who was highly respected throughout the auctioneering world. She has been described as being being “such a lady and a beautiful person” and as someone who “stood out with her compassion and kindness, her sense of honour and her positivity, it was a beacon to all who knew her.”

The late Kate O'Shea was also very heavily involved with Rotary International and was a member of Tullamore Rotary Club.

She is sadly missed by her loving and darling daughter Zara and her Dad, father Danny and mother Rose, sisters Orla, Aoife, Ashling and Grainne, aunts, uncles, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, extended family and a large circle of friends.

Kate O'Shea's funeral arrangements are as follows:

Reposing at Maher's Chapel of Rest, Portarlington (eircode R32 X5XV) on Thursday evening from 5pm with Rosary at 8pm. Removal on Friday morning at 11:10am (travelling via her residence) arriving Church Of The Immaculate Conception Walsh Island for Requiem Mass at 12 noon. Interment afterwards in the adjoining Cemetery.

Chapel Of Rest Private On Friday Morning, Please.

Kate's Requiem Mass will be livestreamed here