Obituaries 30-03-2013
Chris Burke, Navan
St Mary’s Church in Navan was overflowing last week for the funeral Mass of Mr Chris Burke, Trim Road, Navan, a former vice-principal of St Patrick’s Classical School in the town.
His past pupils, former teaching colleagues, those associated with him through the school, his community and voluntary work gathered with his family, neighbours and friends to say farewell to the Cork man who made his home in Navan over 40 years ago.
As a young teacher, he came to Navan in the late 1960s and took a teaching post in the old St Patrick’s Classical School in 1969, before moving to the new school building at Moatlands. He was the first teacher of business studies in St Pat’s, bringing a new dimension to the curriculum in the school. His former colleagues remember him as a gentle, friendly, dedicated and loyal colleague, precise and conscientious to a fault and attentive to every detail, one who was a store of wisdom and memory, and who could recall former students and where they were now and what they were doing.
The chief celebrant of Mr Burke’s funeral Mass, Fr Declan Hurley Adm, himself a past pupil of the school, said that all the students in St Pat’s held him in high respect. Mr Burke was vice-principal from 1989 to 1995. He was the first lay vice-principal at the school.
While the priest didn’t study business, he remembered Chris Burke knowing him and being interested in him and his progress through the school.
“And I know that I am far from being alone in being able to say that,” Fr Hurley added.
Outside the school, Mr Burke was a man of kindness and friendliness. He loved chatting to people and making connections. He liked to think that he lived his life between two valleys – the valley of the Bandon River that flows through Inishannon, and the Boyne Valley where he made his home.
Fr Hurley said that when he and his wife Louie ran a guesthouse, he would happily chat to the guests, showing intense interest in their lives, and sharing his own life with them. If he bumped into the parent of a former student on the street, he loved to hear about where they were and what they were doing, and how they were getting on, taking some pride in having played his part in preparing them for adult life.
“We remember Chris also as a man of the home, a man whose life was defined more than anything else by his marriage to Louie and by his love for his family,” Declan Hurley continued.
In his retirement, he became very much a man of the home, and while he will have missed the classroom and the staffroom, he found happiness being at the heart of the life of the home and of the family. He was intensely proud of his grandson Ciarán and was looking forward to the birth of another grandchild in a few months.
He often joined the community that gathers for 10am Mass, and was an active member of the Society of St Vincent de Paul for many years.
In recent years, he enjoyed using the leisure facilities at the health centre in Johnstown, where he got to know many more people.
The name 'Christopher’ means 'the one who carries Chris’,” the celebrant stated.
“Chris certainly carried Christ. He did it with his whole person. His gentleness, his kind concern, his giving of himself in so many ways – he reflected Christ to us all.”
Mr Burke, formerly of Coolculitha, Innishannon, Co Cork, was aged 71, and is survived by his wife Louie; family, John, James, and Hilary, grandson, Ciaran; daughter-in-law Siobhan; sisters, Kathleen, Breda and Mary; brothers, Joe, Richard and Bill; brother-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, grandnephews, grandnieces, relatives and friends. The funeral took place on Monday of last week from St Mary’s Church, Navan, to Kilcarne Cemetery.
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Jimmy Bennett, Kilbride
There was widespread shock and sadness, both locally and further afield, following the death on the 20th January last of Mr James (Jimmy) Bennett of Tullyard, Kilbride, Trim at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, aged 65 years.
Born on the 9th October 1947, deceased grew up and lived at Tullyard all his life. He attended Kilbride National School and Trim Technical School. Having left school at the age of 14, he was farming for a number of years. Known for his skill at driving a bulldozer, he then went on to work for MB O’Connor, Jodie Keegan and Dermot Reilly over the years.
In 1994, he was employed by Kilsaran, where he worked for almost 20 years, until his retirement last October. Throughout his life, he throughly enjoyed quarrying and land reclamation work, which took him all over the country, including the Curragh in County Kildare, a place he was particularly fond of. A hard worker known to all, he was a man of many talents and could turn his hand to almost anything.
Mr Bennett loved the outdoors where gardening and growing vegetables were one of his many pastimes. He enjoyed pruning his trees and shrubs and all year round his colourful flower beds of pansies and antirrhinums were familiar to everybody. He would spend hours in his garden tending to his crop of potatoes, onions, and cabbage and was particularly well known for his great yields of rhubarb and gooseberries. During the long evenings, deceased was a regular and familiar sighting to passing motorists mowing his grass and clipping his hedges on the side of the road which he was always well complimented on. He had a great love of the countryside and would regularly walk through the fields with his Jack Russell dog, JR who he adored.
Deceased had a great interest in machinery, especially bulldozers and vintage tractors. His expert handling and knowledge of bulldozers, including a Komatsu DB5PX, was widely known and was always a great topic of conversation for him. He always had a love of times past and would often recall with fond memories the summers of his youth bringing in hay on a horse and bogey before he bought his first tractor, a Super Dexta and the cutting of turf on the bog.
Jimmy Bennett will be fondly remembered as a hard working, very generous and obliging man who always gave his time willingly to help anybody and no task was ever too much trouble for him. He was an outgoing and sociable person whose great sense of humour, great sayings and love of telling jokes made him great company and endeared him to a great many people. He always had a good word and a smile for everyone. His passing has left a huge void in his family’s life and he is greatly missed by everyone who knew him.
He is survived by his wife, Esther; sons, James and Anthony; daughters, Phillippa and Hollie; daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, niece, nephew, relatives and a very large circle of friends.
The funeral took place from the Church of the Assumption, Kilbride, to Moymet Cemetery. Fr Noel Horneck, PP, Kilbride was the main celebrant. Offertory gifts included a replica bulldozer, Laurel and Hardy and John Wayne DVDS, a garden hand trowel and a sod of turf.
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Nancy McLoughlin, Navan
Widespread sadness was occasioned by the death of Mrs Nancy McLoughlin, Connolly Avenue, Navan, on 19th January last, at Hillview Nursing Home, Rathfeigh, aged 85.
A native of Navan, Mrs McLoughlin (nee Boyle) worked in Bon Bon, Ludlow Street from the age of 19 in 1946, later moving the business to Market Square. Deceased married Tom McLoughlin in 1958, and they ran the business together until his untimely death in 1979. When she retired she enjoyed pitch and putt, winning the Leinster Championship in 1997. She also loved bridge, playing three to four nights a week and her final win was on 25th November last.
In her final years, despite health problems, she always enjoyed the company and support from her many loyal friends and family, who in turn enjoyed her good humour, wit and quick turn of phrase.
She is survived by her nieces, Mena Ball, Marie Boyle and Ann Marie Garry; nephew Gerry Ball; brother-in-law, Paddy McLoughlin; sister-in-law; Mary McLoughlin; nieces-in-law, Marie, Carmel, Noeleen, Patricia and Jane; good friends, Rita Guerin, Bernie McCann, Dorothy Slattery, Patricia Byrne, and Kathleen O’Brien. She was also survived by her sister, Angela, who past away three weeks later, on 9th February. The funeral took place from St Mary’s Church to St Mary’s Cemetery, Navan.