Obituary: Jo English, sailing school manager, sea swimmer and woman of unbridled energy

Jo English could 'rock up a Michelin-star meal' in the confined space of a galley

Lorna Siggins

Jo English, who has died after a short illness at the age of 59, was a highly successful sailing school and catering manager, and a much loved mother both to her family and to staff, clients and colleagues across many latitudes.

A woman of unbridled energy who would “lighten up the darkest room”, she navigated the transition from a land-bound life in catering to becoming a linchpin of SailCork, the training school in Cork Harbour she ran with her husband Eddie English.

Thousands of tributes paid to her have included those from Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) admiral Annamarie ­Fegan, former marine minister Simon ­Coveney and former Water Safety ­Ireland CEO John Leech, while her company described her as “a strength and inspiration to a generation of sailors and powerboaters… and to the large team of instructors”.

The eldest of Noreen and Connie O’Connor’s farm family in Fairyhill, Kanturk, Co Cork, she studied hotel and catering management at ­Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in the early 1980s.

At her funeral, Eddie said she ­“excelled academically and socially”, being “top of the class for making friends”. One fellow student recalled on rip.ie how “many a chicken was spirited north to feed us after a weekend visit to Kanturk”.​

Jo worked in catering in the Mercy Hospital and in the Blarney Park ­Hotel and her adventurous spirit drew her to San Francisco, where her brother Donal was based. On her return home, she opened her own restaurant in Mallow. She travelled and worked across Europe before taking up a management position at Brennan’s catering emporium in Cork city.

RCYC admiral Fegan, herself from a catering background, remembers her great sense of fun and dynamism when they worked together at Blarney Park Hotel, and recalls how her early passion was golf.

Like her friend, Fegan came late to sailing, and couldn’t believe the coincidence when she met her again after many years in the company of Eddie. He recalls seeing Fegan’s “jaw nearly dropping”, when he walked into a sailing club dinner with Jo one night. He had known Fegan and her husband Denis Murphy a long time.

Jo took to sailing and threw her energies into administration and business management in SailCork.

The company benefited enormously from her skills. Her clients became her friends, and she could “rock up a Michelin-star meal” in the confined space of a galley — no easy task.

She excelled at this on cruising holidays run by herself and Eddie to the Canaries, Croatia, Galicia, Mallorca and her favourite destination — Antigua, the British Virgin Islands, St Vincent and Grenada in the Caribbean.

At home in Cobh she was “best friend” to her two children, Aisling and Eamonn, and the door at Fort Lisle on East Hill was always open to friends and sail instructors, who rarely left without tasting her pancakes and benefiting from her warmth and empathy.

She was a keen sea swimmer in Cork Harbour and was also involved in many local tourism initiatives.

Fegan said the two families enjoyed sail adventures along the Cork and Kerry coasts, with landfalls invariably requiring a public house for the two men — though the best restaurant was always the one provided by the two skilled chefs on board.

At the funeral, Eddie said: “Some people tell me I’m unlucky — but I consider myself very lucky. I’ve had the most wonderful 22 years with my best, best friend Jo. It was love at first sight, we were married within a year.”

She spent her last days at Marymount Hospice and asked that bright colours be worn at her funeral, reflecting her own joy of life.

Jo English is survived by her husband Eddie, children Aisling and Eamon, mother Noreen and extended family.