Mick Conroy, the longest serving tenant at the Faggs Road Allotments, passed away on Monday the 14th of June aged 83.

An Irishman, Mick grew up in Mountmellick. His love of gardening and nature was probably passed onto him by his mother and father. They tended about an acre of land growing, amongst other things, vast quantity of potatoes. A tradition Mick has kept alive and well on his allotment plot.

Mick left school aged 14 and worked seven days a week as a farm hand and grocery delivery boy in Mountmellick. Three years later, at the age of 17, he signed up to join the war effort. To guarantee his eligibility he altered his age on his birth certificate - claiming that to alter a 7 (1927) to a 6 (1926) is not so difficult.

He joined the parachute regiment and trained in Liverpool and Salisbury. By the time he had successfully completed his tenth training jump the war had just about come to an end. However, he did serve for a short time in Palestine after the war and was demobbed in Aldershot in 1947.

For three years, after leaving the army, Mick had a variety of jobs (painter and decorator, council worker, mechanic). In 1951 he settled down working for BA as a member of the ground support staff where he spent the remainder of his career (40 years). He loved his job – especially being outdoors – and could recall the time when it was possible to walk up to the runway and watch the planes land.

Above all else, especially in retirement, Mick loved his allotment. He was the last remaining tenant having watched most of the plots being slowly vacated over the last 20 years. In spite of this Mick stuck at it through thick and thin – he experienced his plot being vandalised, travellers descending upon and littering the site, arson attacks, rabbits eating his produce, a friendly fox (who Mick used to share his lunch with) and more recently his wheel barrow being buried by a bulldozer.

Mick also had a great knack for fixing things – spades, hosepipes, rabbit proof fencing, bikes – a mend and make do mentality that future generations are likely to need in abundance.

Whilst Mick richly endowed the site with plant life – gooseberry bushes, daffodils, primroses, rhubarb, strawberries – his real legacy is his personality. If ever a man gave meaning to the expression “a twinkle in his eye” it was Mick. Until he passed away he remained robust (cycling to the allotment and the local shops), held onto his almost childlike Irish charm and sported a great sense of humour.

Above all else Mick had a wonderful composure and sense of balance about his personality. His eyes reflected a wisdom that great philosophers have spent a lifetime trying to capture in words.