Latest posts by Martin Moodie (see all)
- Finding a new way to shed Writers’ Tears in Galway - November 28, 2024
- A last red rose and a final farewell - November 22, 2024
- Writers’ Tears and Galway memories - November 21, 2024
Red is the rose that in yonder garden growsFair is the lily of the valleyClear is the water that flows from the BoyneBut my love is fairer than any
– Red is the Rose, Liam Clancy
And so on a cold but brilliantly clear day with the nearby Shannon Estuary gleaming under a bright but emaciated winter sun, we laid Colm McLoughlin in the Irish earth, his ultimate resting place the beautifully extended Illaunamanagh Cemetery in Shannon, County Clare.
The heavy overnight snow, the first of the winter, had given way as if the gods had decreed all should be perfect for this final farewell.
Shannon, where Colm began his travel retail career 55 years ago at the nearby airport. Shannon, where the whole duty-free business started way back in 1947 thanks to the pioneering vision of Dr Brendan O’Regan, the man whose mantle as industry statesman Colm would assume upon the former’s passing in February 2008.
Colm’s loving wife Breeda, brave and beautiful but seemingly shrunken in grief, threw a single red rose on top of the coffin; the priest said some consoling words; and then the family and the hundreds upon hundreds who had gathered to show their last respects shuffled silently away into the chill of an Irish afternoon.
Colm is buried in a place of peaceful wonder. The extension to the cemetery, opened in 2022, pays homage to the geography, heritage and people of Shannon.
This beautifully kept facility, laced with freshly laid flowers across a vast grass tapestry and studded with headstones poignantly expressing love and loss, is now also the final home to one of the great men of Ireland. Rest well, dear Colm. ✈
https://funeralslive.ie/colm-mcloughlin
