Born August 2nd, 1936
Died February 5th, 2025
John Clarke, who died in February aged 88, was best known as the husband of the late broadcaster Marian Finucane, but he was also a businessman, farmer, philanthropist and author. He found himself in the public spotlight after her death, when he spoke eloquently about the love they shared and the grief he felt. He went on to participate in a documentary about her and wrote a book about his life with the award-winning journalist.
He was born in Dublin to Sheila Cosgrove, a teacher, and Desmond Clarke, an author and chief librarian in the RDS. In his memoir, Finucane and Me, written with Irish Times journalist Kathy Sheridan, he recounted how his father wanted him to become a scientist, his mother wanted him to become a lawyer and he wanted to “be a layabout”. He began a science degree in UCD but quickly realised it was not for him and decided to become a businessman. “I was full of ideas and found it easy to make money,” he recalled.
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With his mother, he dabbled in arts, antiques and property. His first proper job was selling plaster to builders’ merchants, but it wasn’t enough to fund his sociable lifestyle, and when he was 21 he took the ferry to England, where he stayed one year before returning to take a sales job in clothes manufacturing.
He began investing in land and property, and for many years his life centred on Jammet’s restaurant and the pubs around Grafton Street. He later moved to the Irish International advertising agency and quickly found his footing, working with clients such as Penneys, Findus and Jacob’s. Irish International was founded by Tim O’Neill, and Clarke would go on to marry Tim’s daughter Catherine in 1964. The couple had three sons. He was honest about his failings as a husband and father, recalling how he was an enthusiastic participant in the drink culture and left the child-rearing responsibilities to his wife.
It was through his friendship with Arthur Gibney and Sam Stephenson that he met Marian Finucane. She was studying architecture and was on placement with their firm Stephenson Gibney & Associates. The first time he saw her, she was leaving the office, “a tall blonde woman in red trousers. Gabby. Laughing. Surprising,” he wrote.
He was 14 years her senior but the attraction between them was instant. They tried to go their separate ways and she married architect Larry Granville, but the “torrent of chemistry” between her and Clarke drew the couple back together and they eventually left their marriages.
He wrote about the tremendous guilt the couple felt about the pain caused to their spouses and his children. He was admiring of his wife, who “coped well and with grace”, despite being left to rear their three sons alone while also working.
Clarke and Finucane moved to Reynella House near Mullingar in 1981, and their first child, Sinéad, was born a few months later. In the eyes of Catholic Ireland, they were “a walking scandal who had broken up two marriages and had an illegitimate child to prove it,” he wrote.
He ran a sheep and cattle farm, kept horses and worked in property development while she did the three-hour round trip to RTÉ. At the weekends, friends such as writers Nuala O’Faolain and Nell McCafferty arrived, along with politicians, clerics and artists. The home became a conversational salon. Their family was complete in 1986 when their son, Jack, arrived. When the upkeep of the house got too expensive and the commute to RTÉ got too much, they moved to a farm in Kilteel, on the Kildare border. Their lives were tragically upended in 1989 when their daughter was diagnosed with leukaemia. After the chemotherapy failed, Clarke donated bone marrow and her condition improved before the cancer returned. Sinéad died in 1990, aged just eight.
About six months after his daughter died, he was admitted to the Rutland Centre for alcohol addiction. He was aware that he had been drinking too much for many years and tried but failed to control it. This attempt also ended in failure and it took an intervention from Nell McCafferty to lead him to seek treatment in St John of God. This time it worked. He started attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and later began volunteering with the AA helpline and counselling alcoholics. Jack said his father was prouder of that work than of the success he had had in advertising or the clothing business.
His involvement with South Africa began when Finucane interviewed South Africa’s ambassador Melanie Verwoerd. They first travelled to the country in 2002, staying in a township and visiting a convent that nursed children with HIV/Aids. His suggestion that they build a children’s hospice led to the couple’s charity Friends in Ireland being founded. For 20 years they built houses, health centres and feeding centres. He was awarded International Philanthropist of the Year in 2009.
He was knocked sideways by the sudden death of Finucane in January 2020. She had just decided to retire and they were excitedly making plans for the future. He told mourners at her funeral that she was “a woman who for me always made the colours brighter, the world a bit easier to live in”.
He was diagnosed with cancer the following year and battled with COPD, yet his final years were fulfilling.
Jack said his father was a voracious reader who had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. “He could speak with royalty and hold their attention. He could mix it with the street urchin in Africa and make them feel seen and equal to him.”
Speaking at his funeral, his oldest son, Jocelyn, said his real gift was connecting with people intimately. He was a complicated man and his relationship with his children could be difficult and messy “but it was also full and unforgettable”. He was “larger than life and twice as natural”.
John Clarke was predeceased by his wife, Marian Finucane; daughter, Sinéad; and sister, Elizabeth. He is survived by his sons, Jocelyn, Neal, Timothy and Jack; eight grandchildren; extended family; and his first wife, Catherine Clarke.
