Tributes are paid to community figure who died in a fatal crash

Tributes have been paid to a muchloved community figure who lost his life in a weekend road tragedy.

Ballymote is mourning the loss of John Hannon (78), who lived at The Courtyard in the town. He died in a single vehicle road crash near Swinford in county Mayo at about 7 pm on Saturday evening.

He was travelling along the N5 when he lost control of his car and the vehicle overturned.

Gardaí, firefighters and an ambu- lance crew attended the scene but Mr Hannon was pronounced dead at the scene.

A former Christian Brother he taught with the order in many countries overseas.

Mr Hannon is a native of Ballymote and returned to live there some years ago following his retirement from teaching.

Local Fianna Fail TD Eamon Scanlon said: “He was a leading figure in the Ballymote Active Retirement Group and his father set up the Ballymote Handball club. He and his brothers helped to the build the club and the tradition is quite strong as a result.

“He was a gentleman and very good to people locally. I know he visited people in hospital and would help you in whatever way he could. He was a good man and in a very quiet way he was very helpful to people.”

Friends in Ballymote have described him as “highly intelligent and a great lover of the arts”.

“He was a prolific writer and especially liked writing poetry”, one friend said. “He also collected paintings from all over the world.”

Mr Hannon spent the best part of half a century on the missions. He also taught in a number of schools in Ireland.

He is a former head of the School for the Deaf, Cabra, Dublin. He worked in Roscommon CBS, O’Connell Schools, Dublin, and Coláiste Mhuire, Dublin.

He has travelled extensively, including visits to Australia, Lanzarote, Zambia, India, Africa, Australia and Spain, where he spent four months learning the language. Mr Hannon once expressed a wish to open a gallery in his native town, furnishing it some of the vast collection he accrued during his years abroad.

He is survived by sister Peggy, brothers Michael, Tony and the late Jim, sisters-in-law, brother-in-law, nieces, nephews and extended family. He will be widely missed by his wide circle of friends.

The funeral mass will take place at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Ballymote on Wednesday at 12pm. Burial will take place afterwards to St. Columba’s Cemetary.