A Cavan man and his business partner daughter have been bestowed with the Freedom of the City of London. Sean Fitzpatrick is the founder, and his daughter, Ciara, the Chief Operating Officer, of the VGC Group.
Sean left Cavan for London in 1964 and worked for a time a as a teacher before following a hunch there were opportunities to be explored in the construction industry. For decades now, VGC has delivered civil engineering contracts across the UK including on the new Elizabeth rail line and HS2 project, and has provided recruitment services to the construction industry.
The proud father and daughter said they were honoured to receive this accolade. Sean intended staying in London for a short time but, his life took a different, highly successful turn: "I had intended staying here a little while and probably go back to Ireland," Sean told the Wider View programme, "but, later on applied and got accepted to St. Mary's Teacher Training College. I trained as a teacher and spent 10 years teaching in a secondary school teaching physics and maths before I decided to change careers and myself and a friend set up a business within the construction industry and the that was the beginning of the VGC Group."
