A Bundoran 'gentleman', who never wavered from his ‘Olympic’ standards

At his Funeral Mass on Thursday, there was a genuine feeling of deep sadness and loving affection for Hughie Feehily (84), late of Tranquilla Lodge, West End, Bundoran, who passed to his eternal reward on Christmas Day, in the loving surrounds of his family, at Sligo University Hospital.

Hughie had been a wonderful and gentlemanly presence in the seaside town after arriving there in the mid seventies, it was recalled. 

Indeed, the ‘gentleman’ reference has been articulated and referred to multiple times by those who knew him, in the days since his passing. 

In his capacity of working for so many years at the Olympic Amusements on Main Street, his steady presence was like casting a solid foundation stone, deeply embedding itself into the very heart of the resort, for the thousands of visitors who were welcomed there, especially during those early years of the Troubles.

Hughie was universally liked and respected for the quiet and efficient way he went about things and his often untold acts of generosity for local organisations and groups.

It was an ‘Olympic standard’ he set and never waned from, throughout his working life and family commitments.  

His remains reposed at the family home on Wednesday December 28 with Funeral Mass the following morning at the Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea, Bundoran for Mass of the Resurrection, which was celebrated by Canon Ramon Munster P.P.

Hughie was born in the townland of Bohey in Leitrim in February of 1938 to parents Hughie and Annie Feehily. 

And like so many of that generation he was introduced to work in his early teenage years where he took up employment at the nearby creamery in Manorhamilton.

Again, following the well-dusted emigration trail, in the early decades after World War Two, he emigrated to England, when he was just 18 years of age, initially taking up employment in Birmingham before settling in London. 

In that time, he excelled at many different trades, from factories, working on the buses in London, working as a painter and decorator, before later becoming a publican in the early 1970s, which involved managing pubs in London and around the capital. 

Having met his wife Mai, a fellow Leitrim native from Killargue, at the famous Astoria ballroom in Bundoran, they had always hoped to return to the area, with the extra motivation of his parents having by then, moved to the Gables on Bundoran’s Sea Road.             

Continued family visits to Bundoran with their two older children, Gerard and Stella cemented that yearning and they settled there in 1975, leaving London for the last time.

The family then took up residence at what had been a country farmhouse in the West End called Tranquilla Lodge and which still remains the family abode.

Deceased soon took up employment in the Olympic Amusements, joining his good friend and brother in law, Sean Fitzgerald who formed a strong bond with new and returning visitors alike.     

In his homily, Canon Munster described Hughie as a popular figure, whose work ethic was enhanced with the mixture of a good sense of humour, generosity and courtesy.  

After the Funeral Mass, burial took place in St. Ninnidh's Cemetery, Newtown. 

Predeceased by parents Hughie and Annie Feehily, sisters Mary and Annie and his brothers Sean and Desmond, he is survived by his loving wife Mai, son Gerard, daughters Stella, Caroline and Geraldine, his beloved grandchildren Bryon and Ruby, his sons-in-law Maxwell, Daragh and Paul, daughter-in-law Aloysia, his brother Michael, sisters Josie, Della, Nuala, Philomena, Rose-Anne, Loretta, Toni and Margaret, his brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, and all his many nieces (especially Marion Fitzgerald), nephews, relatives, neighbours and friends, to whom deepest sympathy is extended. 

The family expressed special thanks to all the Doctors, Nurses and Staff of the Renal Unit, Medical 5 and the Acute Assessment of Sligo University Hospital for the care and professionalism shown to both Hughie and his family over the years.

Bundoran will be much poorer for his loss. May he rest in eternal peace.