Award-winning author and convicted conman Pat Sheedy dies

David Raleigh

Award-winning author and convicted serial fraudster Pat Sheedy has died in his native Limerick following a short illness.

Mr Sheedy, 56, from Cliona Park, Moyross, had claimed to have turned his life around after he swindled thousands of euros from innocent victims through a series of elaborate cons.

Regarded as a “master of deception,” Sheedy had over 100 convictions.

He previously duped a 79-year-old man out of €7,610 for 48 Six Nations rugby match tickets that never existed.

In that swindle, for which he was jailed for nine months in July 2021, Sheedy posed as an official with World Rugby and duped Peter Whiteside, a club official at London Irish Amateur rugby club, to pay him for the non-existent tickets.

Sheedy’s excuse for his criminal offending was that he was feeding a chronic gambling addiction; however, some believe the thrill of the con also fueled his crimes.

Gambling was a lifelong affliction, beginning when he was around 12 years, Sheedy had explained in several interviews down the years.

In a case before Limerick Circuit Court in April 2021, he received a six-month sentence for conning the prominent Limerick horse trainer, Michael Hourigan, into believing he was a representative of RTÉ and Horse Racing Ireland to obtain a horse box to use for filming in a so-called television project that did not exist.

Sheedy defrauded a friend of €4,170 in another scam and was jailed for six months in 2016. Ennis court heard Sheedy was a “compulsive fraudster” and liar, and the sentencing judge, Patrick Durkan, now retired, described Sheedy then as “a master of deception”.

Sheedy’s first registered brush with the law came in 1989, when, aged 19, he appeared before Limerick District Court, charged with forging a cheque.

Over the years, Sheedy set up bank accounts in different banks and used their overdraft facilities to gamble; he also pocketed funds from a housing charity.

Despite managing to go straight, stay gambling free and finding a career in sales and marketing and public relations, in Dublin, he relapsed several times and blew all his savings in bookie shops and online gambling sites.

Sheedy served his last sentence in August 2023, having accumulated 100 convictions and estimated himself to have gambled away over a million euro.

However, while in jail, and under the guidance and tutelage of teacher Shauna Gilligan, at Portlaoise Prison, Sheedy honed new skills as a wordsmith.

In 2021 and 2022, while still serving time behind bars, Sheedy won the Writing in Prison award at the Listowel Writers’ Festival for short story writing.

In February last year, Sheedy’s writing career reached new heights when he published his memoir, A Hundred to One: 100 Convictions, 1 Million Euro-The Devastating True Story of a Compulsive Gambler.

He had re-engaged with Gamblers Anonymous (GA) and was working with Spéire Nua, and the Bedford Row Family Project, two organisations helping prisoners find employment and helping prisoners ’ families cope.

Sheedy planned to teach creative writing in prisons, where he used the resources on offer to turn his life around.

Sheedy died surrounded by his family in the care of Milford Care Centre, Limerick, last Monday.

His remains will repose at Griffin’s Funeral Home, John’s Gate, Limerick, from 5-6.30pm, this Wednesday October 8th.

The funeral mass will take place at 12 noon, at Corpus Christi Church, Moyross, on Thursday, followed by a private cremation service at Shannon Crematorium, Shannon, Co Clare.

Mr Sheedy is predeceased by his father John and nephew David, and is survived by his mother Pearl, sisters Lisa and Niamh, and extended family.