News
Almost €9k raised to help get tragic Polish man home
BIKER: Grzegorz 'Pająk’ Pfister was a popular member of the Kerry motorcycling community. Photo: Marke Hajdasz
By Sean Moriarty
Communities have rallied and raised almost €9,000 in days after the sudden and shock death of a Polish man living in Killarney.
Father of two Grzegorz 'Pająk’ Pfister, who was living in Caherane Meadows, died suddenly after suffering a heart attack on April 16 - the day before his 49th birthday. He leaves behind his wife Maria, and two sons Mike (14) and Mateusz (13) from his first marriage, and their mother Ula.
The stonemason was a very popular member of the Kerry Motorbike Riders group and the Polish community in Killarney.
Almost immediately a group of Kerry motorcyclists came together to set up a GoFundMe page: 'Help us bring Grzegorz Pfister 'Paják' home' with a €10,000 target to repatriate him back to his hometown of Zory.
Well-known Killarney photographer Marek Hajdasz, who is also a member of Kerry Motorbike Riders, is one of the main organisers of the fundraiser.
“It is very complicated because of the times,” he told the Killarney Advertiser.
“We wanted to get him home in a coffin but that is not allowed, so Paják must go for cremation first. Once that is done it will take seven or 10 days to get him home by a specialist transport company. When we know the dates that he will arrive in Poland we need to book flights for the family here. And there is paperwork in Poland too.”
The fundraiser was launched over the weekend and already over €€8,891 has been raised by the Polish and motorcycle communities in Kerry including an anonymous donation of €1,000.
“Those who knew him know he was a hardcore biker,” Marek added. “People have been very generous, and we have decided, that once all funeral costs are paid, we will divide up the rest equally between his two boys and Maria.”
Two young local girls showed great business initiative on Saturday ahead of the Kerry v Donegal match at Fitzgerald Stadium.
Erin McSweeney and Jessie Doolin set up a sweet stall outside a house on Lewis Road, catching the thousands of football fans walking towards the grounds.
The enterprising pair did a busy trade selling soft drinks, sweets, and chocolates to the passing crowds before throw-in.
Their match-day venture also caught the attention of the national sports media, with a photograph of the girls at their stall captured by Sportsfile photographer Stephen McCarthy ahead of the game.
Noel O’Neill has claimed first place in the Unrestricted category of the latest Killarney Camera Club competition, which focused on the theme of the ‘Kerry Landscape’.
His winning photograph, titled ‘Conor Pass Lake and the Three Sisters’, features a detailed study of Mullaghveal located beneath the Conor Pass.
The image captures the wide sweep of the valley, utilizing an elevated viewpoint that allows the glacial landscape to unfold toward the Atlantic horizon. The composition highlights the quiet lakes in the foreground against the dark, rocky slopes of the valley, with the distant outline of the Three Sisters adding further depth and scale to the scene.
The judges praised the photograph as an outstanding example of landscape work, noting its effective balance of composition, light, and perspective to capture the vastness of the West Kerry terrain.
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