Eddie Geoghegan

Eddie Geoghegan

I welcome you to this funeral liturgy for Eddie. Especially his loving family sons Peter and Bill, Daughters Philomena, Patricia and Dympna and the extended family.

We all come here to remember a remarkable man, to give thanks, even in our grief, for his life, to offer each other, and especially all those who will most miss him, the consolation of our love and our presence with you today; and to offer also the promise of eternal life.

Our consolation will be the happy memories we have of Eddie; our sadness is that he has gone from us.

Our sure Christian hope is that the Lord our God will welcome him home and that one day we will be united together in heaven. In the depth of our loss and hope we now pray and offer this Eucharist for Eddie.

We come to God, knowing we need his mercy and forgiveness, and so in preparing to celebrate the Mass we call to mind our sins.

Lord, you suffered and died in our name. Lord have mercy.

Lord, your heart was moved with compassion for the sick and the bereaved. Christ have mercy.

Lord you suffer with your people at the right hand of the Father. Lord have mercy.

And may almighty God, have mercy on us, forgive us our sins and bring us to life everlasting.

Let us pray:

Almighty God and Father of all, you strengthen us by the mystery of the cross and with the sacrament of your Son’s resurrection. We pray for Eddie, grant him peace. Welcome him to the eternal joy of the kingdom and give us all new hope in our sorrow that one day we shall all be with you and with each other in your home where every tear will be wiped away. Grant, this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

There is we know a time for mourning and a time for joy. These two emotions will surely find a place together in our hearts today. At the end of Eddie’s long life of 88 years it maybe that the need to praise God is uppermost in our minds because it is so clear how rich God’s blessings have been to him:

“My soul gives thanks to the Lord and never forget all his blessings”.

We are happy today because we know deep down that Eddie’s life was complete and he was ready for God. We have received much from him – always generous and thoughtful – a gentleman.

Thank you to all who cared for him in his old age.

When we retire in life we do not retire to a place but to people. The lesson of old age is that of endurance and faith. In all our lives there are the valleys and the hills, the good times and the bad times, the successes and the failures, the joys and the sorrows. We are all given a certain number of years and those who live the longest become deeply aware that this time is not given so much for our enjoyment, but rather to work out our salvation.

God knows the reality of deep pain – the pain Eddie endured in the past few years of illness. Thank you to all who cared for him and loved him in life. Now his suffering is over. We pray that he is with the Lord and we look forward to the day when we will be reunited with him.

Edward Daniel Geoghegan (Eddie) was born on the 27^th January 1926 to Brigit and William Geoghegan. The fourth born in a family of eight children (he also had 2 half brothers and a half sister) he grew up at the Rock, Banford.

Eddie attended Bann national school, Laurencetown until the age of 14 after which he left school to work with his father in Geoghegan’s Foundry, Lenederg to serve his time as a moulder and pattern maker. After working for his father in the family business and working for a number of engineering firms throughout the North, Eddie became a renowned and sought after engineer. Eddie eventually started up his own aluminium foundry business producing a range of metal products and both his sons Peter and Bill worked for him in the foundry before they headed to university to pursue different careers; something which Eddie encouraged them to do and made him very proud.

Eddie a devote husband and family man first met his wife to be, Philomena at a Ceili in Ballyvarley, and subsequently married in October 1956. Eddie and Philomena had 5 children, Peter, Bill, Philomena, Patricia and Dympna. Eddie and Philomena were intensely proud of their children and always encouraged them to do their best. It was really hard for Eddie when his wife Philomena died in June 2000 from cancer but his deep faith in God, gave him the strength to move on.

What kept Eddie going was his love for his 18 grandchildren who he adored.

Eddie had his own health problems and over the past 20 years he had 5 heart attacks – After one particularly bad heart attack 4 years ago, the doctors were astounded how Eddie was able to recover (and although weaker) to lead an active life and contributor to the parish.

Hard to pigeon hole Eddie regarding his pastimes and interests. He loved all kinds of sport including his great passion for both lawn and indoor bowls – he played bowls for Dunbarton bowling club, Gilford where he won numerous team and individual competitions. Eddie was also a very useful soccer and gaelic player in his younger days and was a founder member of Laurencetown GFC, and won several County titles with them during the early years.

Eddie also loved soccer and tells a story about the many troops who were stationed in Gilford during the war. There were many 1^st division soccer players amongst the troops and some of these teams had a mix of army and civilian personnel. While they were here they played with many local teams. Eddie played on one of the teams called the Scuttlers. Another team was called the Minesweepers. Eddie recalls on one occasion when his team the Scuttlers dropped the famous England goalkeeper Bert Trautman, and replaced him with a local lad.......by the name of Eddie Geoghegan

He was a very talented artist, musician, and amateur dramatist and was a member of St John’s chapel choir.

Eddie had a great sense of humour and an infectious laugh which just lit up everywhere he went.

It is only with death that life really makes sense, it’s our leap into eternity, it is God calling us home to be with him forever. At a time like this we come face to face with our own mortality.

Old age is about waiting in hope and as people of hope we believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Eddie’s period of waiting is now over. No one can say he got life easy in recent times - a journey from birth to death and the reason he could see purpose in the pain or sense in the suffering was because Jesus Christ came on this earth to conquer death and save us from our sins.

He brought, care and friendship to those who knew him. Always faithful to his Church, prayer and fidelity to the mass and the sacraments were second nature to him. He died in CAH on Monday afternoon when his strength could no longer meet the challenge of life.

Now we have to let Eddie go. His life gave glory to God. And now he has stretched out his tired old hands for the last time and God has taken him to himself. Let us pray with hope and gratitude for the eternal rest of this valiant man and join again in prayer: “My soul give thanks to the Lord and never forget all his blessings”.

Let us celebrate his homecoming, with thanks to God for his long life, for the example his faith gives us; for the lessons that we learned from him about living well and dying well.

On behalf of our parish community I offer our sympathy to his sons Peter and Bill, daughters Philomena, Patricia and Dympna, daughters in law Marian and Donna, sons in law Michael and John, grandchildren, great granddaughter and the entire family circle.