Tributes as legendary Dublin fishmonger Vera (82) dies

Vera, whose maiden name was Shortall, passed away on Tuesday morning at the Blackrock Hospice.

Her daughter Frances Howard paid a warm tribute to her mother who sold fish for over 70 years to locals, in all types of weather.

"People would always say she was a legend. She sold fish since the age of seven on Convent Road," said Frances.

"She was one of a very large, hard-working family, the youngest of 20," she said.

Vera's mother Roseanna Shortall sold fish before her daughter and they then worked side by side as fish traders in the area.

"Vera started off years ago with a table and boxes, no hut or anything, in all weather.

"In later years, she got a hut, and her nephews Georgie, Jimmy and Matt used to bring her into the Dublin fish market in the city centre, near the back of the Four Courts.

"In the later years, she went to Finglas Industrial Estate where she got her fish. She had an early start then, 3am," said Frances.

She sold her fish three days a week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

She only stopped in April, working right up to the age of 82.

She would start selling fish at 8am up until 6pm, so it was a long day, her proud daughter said.

"She would have the fish on a table. She was always well wrapped up and she loved it. She was very sociable and loved meeting people," Frances said.

"If she wasn't there because the road was being done or something, people put up comments on Facebook asking where she was. She was an icon."

Vera had four children, Catherine (60), Thomas (58), and Frances and her twin Louise (48), was a grandmother to nine, and had two great-grandchildren.

"She would have been 83 in March," said Frances.

Her removal will be on Saturday, to St Michael's Church, Dun Laoghaire, arriving at 9.45am for 10am funeral mass. It will be followed by her burial in Deans Grange cemetery, where she will be buried with her husband Patrick.

A number of Vera's nephews are hugely involved in the fish trade.

hnews@herald.ie