Patsy was born on 27th March 1937, the second child and only boy in a family of 5 children to Michael and Elizabeth Trainor. Born in Scarva, Patsy attended Lisnagade Primary School. As was common in those days, Patsy left school at 14 and went to work first on a Crother’s farm and then at McEvoy’s farm at Glenmills, Gilford. After that he transported horses for Charlie McCartan.
At Mass in Lisnagade one weekend, he noticed a young Scottish girl who was on holidays visiting her aunts in Kernan. A date was arranged and he was so taken with her, he followed her back to Fortwilliam in Scotland and married her on 27th September 1967. Patsy and Liz set up their first home at the bottom of the Drumhorc hills. They went to live in Scotland with the three oldest boys for a few years. While living there, Patsy, who never exaggerated, built every bridge between Glasgow and Fortwilliam! They returned to Ireland to live, first in Portadown, then Laurencetown and 26 years ago, moved to their present home on Trough Lane. The family grew to five boys and Patsy was a great father who was immensely proud of each of his sons and passed on his work ethic to them. Patsy was always known as a hard worker and he worked for Conlon Brothers for most of his working life until retirement. Even then he couldn’t relax and loved working in Joe McAleenan’s hardware shop in Banbridge where he got plenty of craic. He had a passion for anything to do with hunting, clay pigeon shooting and he travelled the length and breadth of Ireland and the UK to game fairs. Patsy loved walking the fields with his beloved dog, Sam, or sitting at the edge of Kernan Lough talking to the fisherman. The home he and Liz built on Trough Lane was the perfect spot overlooking the Lough.
Patsy was a man of strong faith and good old-fashioned values. He was very faithful to Sunday Mass and attended St. Patrick’s in Banbridge all of his life until his health dictated otherwise. He never had a day of work due to illness but after his retirement, things changed drastically and he had open heart surgery followed by Type 1 diabetes and serious kidney problems. The last couple of years, in particular, were very hard on him as he was on dialysis and he found it difficult to give up his independence. Gradually all the different ailments took their toll and just over a week ago, Patsy took a tumble at home and was kept in hospital. On Friday afternoon during visiting hours, as Liz sat with him, he took her hand and closed his eyes. His suffering was over.
We express our sincere sympathy to his wife Liz, sons Iain, Paul, Martin, Kevin and Kieran, sisters Bridie, Mary, Kathleen and Bernadette, daughters-in-law, grandchildren ad great grandchildren.
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