Posted on March 8th, 2023
In Honour of International Women Day , today we recognise and celebrate all of the women working within our organisation and all of the women with whom we partner with every day globally . Nolan Transport wishes to celebrate and acknowledge all of you and thank you for your continued dedication , work and support.
This year we especially acknowledge Joan (Johanna) Nolan, very much a strong woman of Ireland and a founding member of Nolan Transport who sadly passed away on the 16th December 2022. We remember and celebrate her on International Women’s Day by selecting an extract from her daughter Joan’s speech at our recent launch of the “Johanna 1 Warehouse” named in her honour at our warehouse opening in Wexford in January 2023.
Who is my Mam, Joan?
Below are very few words to capture the essence of Joan Nolan, my Mam, a strong woman of Ireland.
- Born 16 of September 1936 into the Codd family of Ballinlee, christened Johanna known
- as Joan. The fifth of what would be seven children of Anastasia and Raymond Codd.
- She attended the school of home economics in Ramsgrange where she met many
- important people in her life. Little did she know, as we turn back the clock forwards ,
- she would spend almost 60 years across the road.
- She was a woman ahead of her time and married a strong willed and driven man and
- the two of them started on an amazing journey together.
- After their marriage, they moved across to Birmingham and started their family. When
- my Dad’s family took ill, they came home with two kids, two suitcases, a large radio and
- not much else in the early 1960s.
- On this journey they achieved the Nolan Tribe consisting of 13 children, 44
- grandchildren and 1 great grandchild so far and a huge business empire built from
- scratch.
How did my Mam Joan leave her mark on the Nolan culture today?
Constant characteristics of the Nolan culture driven is from my Mam’s DNA.
- They have Joan’s ethos of hard work,
- They have Joan’s strength and like her, do things their way with a unique stamp.
- They have Joan’s resilience, when it is put up to them, they always deliver.
- They are efficient like Joan and always strive to get the job done.
- Joan was fair and equal to all just like Nolans.
- The culture is humble like Joan never forgetting her humble beginnings.
- Joan was not afraid to deal with good news and bad news and managing always to do
- the right thing, the same is similar in Nolans.
- She was innovating and led by example laying the foundations to our innovative
- culture today.
“On International Women’s Day , I am proud of the women who have come before me especially my Mam Joan, I pay tribute to her and strive to have her resilience, leadership and strength”
Joan Nolan, Director of Nolan Transport
