Gary’s agony as father dies before rocker awarded OBE

GARY Lightbody has paid tribute to his late father as the Snow Patrol frontman received an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List.

After a bittersweet festive period, the Co Down rocker, 43, praised his dad’s humour, kindness and sociability.

He wrote: “Just before Christmas my dad, Jack Lightbody, passed away. We had his funeral on Christmas Eve with family and close friends.

“I’m not posting about it to make anyone sad and that’s why I waited until after Christmas to say anything at all. I just wanted to pay tribute to the man that taught me and gave me so much.

“He was the funniest man I’ve ever known. Even in the depths of his dementia he could still be as sharp and hilarious as ever at times. He was also the most social person I ever knew. He could talk to anyone.

LEGEND

“I’m [an] introvert so I’m shy around strangers but he would walk to a room full of strangers and within 10 minutes know all their names and their stories and be having the craic with them. It was a gift he never lost.

“We would walk into a restaurant and as we were being shown to our table he’d be talking to everyone at every other table we passed: ‘What are you having there, that looks good’ and he’d be standing there chatting while we’d already be at our table waiting on him probably rolling our eyes. Ha. What a legend.

“All my friends that knew him loved him. The messages I got when they found out were of heartbreak but also each of my friends have been telling me stories of how my dad made them laugh and I’m so glad that all of people’s memories of him seem to be of happy times.

“My mum Lynne looked after him in his illness for years and her strength in all this has been a mighty thing to behold. She is a titan.”

Lightbody was awarded an OBE for services to music and charity in Northern Ireland after he founded the Lightbody Foundation, a group which gives annual donations to charities across the country.

The star ended his post with: “I love you dad. There were none like you. Your son, Gary.”