Successful Businessman Still Known As ‘Spud’ In His Hometown

A PROMINENT businessman operating in Dublin city centre has admitted that regardless of how many accolades he receives or how much success he enjoys in his professional life, the lads he went to primary school with will always refer to him as “Spud” when he visits his hometown in county Clare.

Martin Gillespie, 44, visited his hometown of Bunratty over the weekend where a visit to the local pub led to a meeting with several old school acquaintances who have never left the town.

Gillespie, who runs an incredibly successful logistics company in Dublin following a lifetime of academic achievement and hard work, was warmly greeted by an exclamation of “is that Spud Gillespie who just landed in”, as he walked through the door of the bar.

The married father-of-four has now accepted that the nickname, given to him almost forty years ago, will stick to him for the rest of his life, no matter where he goes or what he manages to achieve.

“I was in 2nd class and the teacher was asking us what our favourite food was,” sighed Gillespie, speaking in his plush office in south Dublin. “It came round to me, and I said ‘spuds’ and everyone laughed. That was all there was to it; they started calling me Spud Gillespie, and it’s stayed with me all through primary and secondary school, college, my first business in Clare, all the way through to the nationwide expansion of Gillespie Logistics.

“I haven’t been home in ten years, so I thought it might have died off, but no; I am Spud Gillespie. I always will be”.

In a tearful denouement to our interview, Mr. Gillespie admitted that he didn’t even like potatoes that much anymore.