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Emyvale District Credit Union was also one of his great interests, and he was an active member from the very first day of the introduction of that great organisation to Emyvale by the late Fr. PE Larkin CC, also in the late ’sixties. The Credit Union Office, in fact, was one of his daily ‘ports of call’, and he had acted on various sections of the Credit Union Movement, including Credit Committee and Supervisory Committee.
He was appointed a Peace Commissioner in 1989 and remained one until his death. In earlier years he was also a very active member of Donagh Sports Committee, Donagh Parish Committee, Glaslough Fete Committee and Donagh Dramatic Troupe (in which he played many leading roles during their great period of success in the early ’fifties). In later years he would play a prominent role on the Emyvale Leisure Centre Committee and with Donagh Community Games.
Keenly interested in Gaelic Games, he was appointed first treasurer of the Emyvale GFC when that club was re-formed by the late Fr. Ned Flanagan CC in 1944, and his son Jim keeps on the tradition, being one of the most active members of the current Emyvale GAA club’s Finance Committee.
If he had been given the choice of a day on which to die it would surely have been November 1st., and that is exactly how it turned out. The huge throngs of people who visited his home during his wake gave a clear indication of the high esteem in which he was held by all sections of the community – a community which he had served so unselfishly for well over half a century.
On Monday of last week his remains were removed to St. Mary’s Church, Glennan, where they were received by Very Rev. Hubert Martin PP, who also celebrated the Requiem Mass. They had also been met on arrival at St. Mary’s Glennan by a Guard of Honour, representative of Emyvale District Credit Union, Donagh Conference St. Vincent de Paul Society, Emyvale Leisure Centre, North Monaghan Social Services, Emybelles, Emyvale GAA club and PTAA.
In his homily at the Mass, Fr. Martin covered the principal milestones of Patsy’s life and paid glowing tributes to his work for the parish, for the poor, and for his service to the local community. The choir, led by Shiela Murphy, rendered all of Patsy’s favourite hymns, while Tony Cannon gave a soul-rending saxaphone solo that brought a tear to every eye in the overflow congregation. Following the Mass, the remains were conveyed to St. Patrick’s cemetery at Corracrin, where they were interred in the family burial ground, with Fr. Martin also officiating at the graveside.
Patsy is survived by his wife Nancy, son Jim (Emyvale), daughters Patricia (Australia), Edna (New Zealand), Anne (Louth), Brenda (Kent), Siobhan (Monaghan) and Mary (Dublin); his nine grandchildren, brother Seamus, sons-in-law, nephews, nieces, and a large circle of relatives and friends, to whom the sincere sympathy of the entire community is extended in their sad loss. A mere four days earlier that same week, Patsy had been pre-deceased by his last surviving Co. Down first cousin, the late Annie Morgan (Castlewellan), for whom he had such deep affection.
Ar dheis De go raibh a anam uasal.