The Chief Executive of CityCo, the City Centre Management Company, has paid a personal tribute to Pat.
Vaughan Allen recalled stories of Pat – and said he ‘bled Manchester’.
Mr Allen said Pat was seriously ill for some time, but ‘the end still came as a shock’. He said he had sat on the board ‘since the very beginning’ and was vice-chair ‘for the last few decades’.
Mr Allen said: “Officially he was the ‘city centre spokesman’ for the ruling Labour party – an invented role from a period when the Lib Dems had the three ward seats in the city centre.
“Despite representing Harpurhey (where he’d be whenever there was a crisis, crime or issue), he lived in the city centre -one of the ‘original’ 500 or so residents from the late 90s.
“Which meant he was *always* about (often having tea in a city centre cafe) and knew pretty well everything that went on.
Mr Allen said Pat ‘was much much more than the fun character in the photoshoots’.
He said: “He’d been one of the ‘crucial three’, with Leese and Graham Stringer, who took over the Labour Party in the city in the 80s. Pat (perhaps demonstrating a lot of self-knowledge) wasn’t the public face, but had been the bruiser, keeping the Irish contingent in line behind Stringer and Leese as they re-built the city in partnership with the private sector.
“Pat’s legacy is the city centre as it is today. He was at the centre of the campaign against Section 28, and helped build the Village. He loved Christmas. And Halloween. And he built Manchester Day. But he was also unswerving in his demands for the city centre to be policed properly and for officers to do their jobs on ASB.
“Walking around the city centre with him was always eye-opening (and took ages because so many people stopped and talked). And we will all miss him terribly.”