Sadness at passing of pillars of pillars of the local community

THE parish has said goodbye to quite a few dear and beloved members of the community in the prevailing circumstances of the coronavirus with all the attendant restrictions making bereavement sadder and harder for families to deal with without the comforting rituals and neighbours and friends prevented from being close to lend support.

The festive season is when ordinarily people sharply miss departed loved ones, and several local families in the one just passed were parted from family members who were called to their eternal reward. The final parting like in all others since the virus has spread to this country was all the sadder for it.

Among the departed were two ladies Maeve O’Neill and Mary Melia who were long standing members of the community, highly respected and contributed a great deal to it, while Aisling Brennan was much younger but in her shorter life span had very much endeared herself to so many with her fun loving, engaging and warm personality.

Maeve and Mary had close links with sport. Maeve’s late brother Peter was one of the finest long distance runners that Ireland produced and a commemorative plaque honours his feats in the community centre on Sandy Lane where he did a lot of his early running on what was then the Greyhound track.

He won twelve national titles between 1951 and 1956 before emigrating to the United States in 1956. He won a gold medal for the United States at the 1963 Pan America Games in Sao Paulo in Brazil in the 10,000 metres, and was a member of the US team that competed in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, finishing 23rd in the marathon.

Maeve had her own sporting and leisure hobbies, one of which was playing golf in the Dundalk club and was a member of the local bridge club.

Mary had a long and distinguished association with the Dundalk golf club which is continued on presently by her daughters Maureen and Oonagh, who are both members.

Mary was the club’s lady captain in 1974, and served on the ladies committee in the years before and after.

Daughter Maureen followed in her footsteps, being the lady captain in 1997 and also was a member of the club administration for years.

Another well known and fondly regarded member of the community to pass away was Dermot McQuillan. He was a great character, who worked for decades as a driver with Halpenny buses that operates the daily service between the village and Dundalk.

In his younger years he played with the Geradlines and his coffin was draped with the club flag.