Tributes have been paid to Vincent Finnegan snr, a widely known and highly regarded Dublin auctioneer and estate agent, who died earlier this month aged 90.
His son Vinnie Finnegan, managing director of Vincent Finnegan estate agents, describes his late father as “generous and patient, an exceptional negotiator on behalf of clients and a true gentleman whom people immediately warmed to”.
The privilege of working alongside their father in the family business was a source of “immense fortune” for Vinnie and his brother Robert, he says, and he acknowledges “the platform and enduring qualities” he left them. Even following his retirement, Vinnie says, his father maintained a connection with the agency, taking time to drop in to the office to engage with the team. “He generously lent his time to addressing various challenges, a testament to his abiding commitment,” says Vinnie.
Vincent snr, who retired in 2007, was involved in residential and commercial property deals in Dublin over the course of a career that spanned several decades. His professional domain was expansive and encompassed the capital’s most sought-after suburbs and took in both multimillion-euro sales and purchases of premium homes and commercial land transactions.
He began his career at Morrissey’s in the early 1950s and then moved to Finnegan Menton in the 1960s. After establishing McDermott Finnegan in 1972, he went on to open Vincent Finnegan Ltd in 1982. His sons, Robert and Vinnie, later joined the company in the 1990s.
Outside of his professional life, Vincent snr was a gifted and accomplished sportsman, winning the Leinster senior cricket cup with CUS and the Leinster Senior Cup with Lansdowne RFC in the 1952-1953 season.
