Celebrated by Very Reverend Gerry Powell P.P.

Personal notes by the family

"Hugh was born in Katesbridge on 16th July 1943, the second son of John Pat and Mary Fegan. He is survived by his wife, Philomena (Hawkins) whom he married 45 years ago in Castlewellan and his son Martin, daughter Geraldine, granddaughter Anna, brothers John and Martin, the late Joe and his sister Patsy and all extended family and firends.

Hughie was a great man if you needed a hand. He was a bricklayer by trade but spent a lot of his life driving diggers, combine harvesters and various other heavy machinery. This meant he was very useful to a lot of people around the country and he made many firiends from far and wide (as can be seen here today).
Now Hughie was a head-strong sort of man - if you asked him for a hand to do a few jobs, he was likely to tell you there wasnt much money in the work you wanted done and that he was busy. He always said "you don't just hire the digger, you have to hire the digger dirver too"! But Hughie was always there in a flash, he would have already started the work before you had time to turn around. Back in the days when he started to drive the diggers, there was only himself driving a digger for Jim Watters and Con Murphy driving for Charlie Monaghan.

Bill Fegan used to compare the two -which one was the more skilled at at the job and which one could have dug at a barrow of soil all day - won't say which one was which!
Hughie loved to be in the middle of the craic and was a fantastic visitor. He loved children. When he would come round to visit, he would have been a clean torture - he gave you a rub of his stubbly beard and threw you over his shoulder like 'a bag of spuds'. We would have run away and then run back for more  - and for a big hug and a kiss and maybe whatever change he had in his pocket! We once had a family barbeque and he got his friend to take the children up in a light aircarft for a spin to see our houses from the air. He got a load of crisps and sweets and tipped them out of the plane so we had to go looking for them in the garden and fields.

When his granddaughter Anna was born, he just adored her. When she was old enough to stay with him and Philomena, he very proudly took her to visit his friends and family to show her off.

He was always a very charitable man. He raised a lot of money for Newry Hospice from the sale of a vintage tractor and on the event of his recent 70th birthday, he raised £3,500 for the Cancer Unit in Craigavon Hospital. He was a great man for his community and in his formative years, he was one of the founding members of Laurencetown Youth Club. In his later years he was involved in the Tractor Club and had a love of Vintage Farm Fayres and Ploughing Matches. He also loved golf and ofen played with his good friend Paddy Rogan R.I.P. who passed away just a week before him.

Huigie and Phil's daughter Geraldine took ill over 20 years ago and they have spent the time since taking care of her. When he took ill himself, one of his main concerns was, not for himself, but how it would affect Geraldine and Philomena and Martin and granddaughter Anna.

Hughies was diagnosed with Cancer in May of this year. It was a terrible blow to him, but as a proud man, he didn't want too many to know about his sufferingt. Looking back on it now, I guess he wasn't well for a long time. Even though we knew he wasnt well, we didn't think he would get so bad so quickly and it's a big shock for all of us.