Thomas (Tommy) Lavelle

Tommy Lavelle passed away suddenly on Saturday, ,January 2, 2016, in St Joseph’s District Hospital, Ballina.  His passing shocked his family, the parish of Burrishoole and the wider community.

Tommy was born to Patrick and Sabina Lavelle on September 9, 1948. He had two sisters Mary (Lynn, Keenagh) and Ann (Heneghan, Tourmakeady).  Tommy spent his whole life living in Furnace.  He worked in his early years as a postman and butcher before then working as transport manager in the fisheries right beside his home.  He worked as a farmer in his spare time, until it became a full time career when he was forced to retire early in 1994 due to a knee injury.  He later became involved in sheep dealings and through this, he made many friends far and wide.

He married Margaret Chambers on July 26, 1973 and they had five children Kathleen, Patricia, Susan, Patrick, and Sarah.  They settled in Tommy’s homeplace of Furnace and had a very happy marriage.  Tommy had ten grandchildren, Leah, Mollie, DJ, Sean, Ellie-Mai, Mia, Faye, Tom, Vicky and Kate.  

Tommy’s life was simple:- he farmed, socialised, and most important to him, he spent time with his family.  Tommy’s faith was very important to him and he very rarely missed mass at the weekends.  His daughters spoke in their eulogy at the funeral mass of annual trips to Knock as a family and this shows Tommy’s wish to pass on his great faith to his family.  

At Tommy’s funeral mass, his grandchildren and friends brought forward symbols of Tommy’s life and his daughter in law, Fiona, spoke about each symbol as it was presented.

His granddaughter  Leah, brought forward a family picture – this family picture was taken two years ago at Tommy and Margaret’s 40th wedding anniversary .  

His granddaughter  Mollie, brought forward his rosary beads – representing Tommy’s great faith.  His rosary beads were always with him.

His grandsons DJ and Sean, brought forward a jeep, trailer, cows and sheep – representing Tommy’s love for farming and his love for his new jeep.  His friend Sean Moran, brought forward a racing forum – representing Tommy’s love for horse racing.  Tommy and Sean would regularly travel to Ballinrobe together.

His best friend, Jackie Mulchrone, brought forward Tommy’s black book and mobile phone – this black book was described as Tommy’s bible, and only he could make sense of it.  His mobile phone never left him and was constantly ringing.  Fr Tod, later in his homily, described Tommy’s phone as a vintage!

The first and second readings were read by his daughters, Kathleen and Susan and the response was sung by his brother in law Jerome.

The Prayers of the Faithful were read by his daughters, Tricia and Sarah, his niece and goddaughter Bernie Lynn, his nephew James Lynn and his niece Teresa Heneghan.  The gifts of bread and wine were brought to the alter by his wife Margaret and son Patrick.

Tommy’s remains were carried shoulder high from the church by his son Patrick, his sons in law, Davy, Dominic and Adrian, his nephew James and his brother in law Brendan to the song “Dance with my Father again”.  Tommy was laid to rest in Burrishoole Cemetery.  May his gentle soul rest in peace.

The following is the Eulogy Tommy’s daughters Kathleen and Susan delivered at their Dad’s funeral mass.

Kathleen read: “To most he was known as Tom, Tommy, Finnegan, the sheep man from Newport but to us he was simply Dad and Grandad.  Dad was known far and wide for his sheep dealings. We’ve heard many stories over the last few days from all over Ireland and all of them have ended in laughter. He was well thought of by all who had dealings with him.

One common story amongst us girls in the house is the fear of being told to stand in a gap.  Dad would ask you if you had a pair of wellies, if you didn’t, you’d be given a pair that were two sizes too big for you.  You’d be told to stand over there  and that was it.  Now the majority of times, you’d be hoping you’d get the right gap but, if you did get it wrong, you wouldn’t know who to be more afraid of – the cows or flock of sheep coming for you, or the small red faced man roaring at you and waving his stick.

Pat and Dad, whilst they had a few disagreements over time, they were the best of friends really.

Jackie was Dad’s best friend since school and he was Dad’s best man, when he married Mam 42 years ago.  Jackie always said Dad was the teacher’s pet at school, and I’m afraid, I cannot repeat here and now what Dad’s reply to Jackie was, but I’m sure most of ye here can give a good guess as to what it was.  Jackie, thank you for the years of friendship to Dad, please keep calling for a cuppa.

Most families talk of their holidays or weekends away during the summer.  Our family outing was a Sunday trip to Knock.  We would all pile into the car, no seatbelts back then and off we’d go.  After about three hours we would go homehome, the treat we were most looking forward to, we had dinner out in Davitt restaurant. Dad was a very religious man and most nights, when we were young, the telly was switched off and we’d kneel to say the rosary.  This was much to the amusement of some of our cousins form the ‘Big City’ who thought we were joking.

Dad loved going to the races with his friends, mainly Sean Moran.  They had some laughs  On New Years Day, while Jackie and Jimmy were visiting him in Ballina, Dad was ringing Seamus to put bets on.  The 2.30 race was won fittingly by ‘Single Payment’.  Now Dad told us they were great odds but Seamus doesn’t seem to think they were as good as Dad says, so we’ll have to see later when we collect them Seamus.

To one couple, Dad was known as ‘the matchmaker’.  He introduced Ray and Sharon at Pat and Fiona’s wedding in Donegal and very proud that he did.   He said that going to a wedding could be the making of another.  We hope you both will be as happy as Mam and Dad were.

Susan read:-  “ We asked the grandkids if they had any stories they would like to share about Grandad  - Mollie, DJ, Sean and Ellie Mai told a story of looking out the window at home and seeing Grandad driving right around a house, over a lovely lawn, rather than reverse the jeep.  They were in stitches laughing at him.

Leah recalls Grandad’s time keeping.  He’d ring nanny and say “put on the spuds, I’ll be home in 20mins”.  Two hours later, the spuds would be well done and Grandad would roll in.  Leah always commented on how they’d get offered sweets instead of a drink!

The kids would praise Grandad for helping Nanny all the time doing the shopping.  They used to think Grandad was in Sheridan’s when his jeep was parked on Main Street. I think we could all give a good guess as to where he was.

Grandad was great at stirring trouble with the kids.  He’d wink at the older ones, then tease the younger ones until they cracked and cried and then he’d a good laugh.

He loved to see the kids coming down home but we think he loved it more when he saw them leaving.

We would like to thank Mam for everything she has done for Dad, especially over the last few months.  As those of you who knew Dad can imagine, he wasn’t a great patient.  When I would pop up to him, I would nearly always get as we’d call it ‘the look’ when I’d tell him something he didn’t want to hear.  I’d then text the rest, and we’d all think – okay Sue’s getting the cross look again, things are getting better.

Back in October, Mam was sitting with Dad as she did everyday he was in hospital, but when we visited she was counting.  We looked at her wondering what she was doing - turns out Dad had her counting sheep!  She asked Dad how many was there supposed to be, he said 50, and of course Mam could only find 49 – and as she would always say to Dad ‘there’s always one missing Tommy’.  Another day, he had her counting chickens in the room, then there were the angels at the end of the bed but now during all this time, Dad used to tell Mam there was something wrong with her because he could see all these things, and she couldn’t.  But that was Dad.

Thank God, Dad started seeing less of these things and last Friday, when we left him in Ballina, we all thought Dad is doing great, he’ll be home soon.  But God had other plans.

Mam, you were such a tower of strength to Dad and we want to say a big Thank You for this. We love you.

We, Tommy Lavelle’s family, thank each and every single one of ye for coming here today, yesterday and Sunday, to celebrate Dad’s life.  People have travelled from all over to be with us and it really does mean so much to us, as a family, to have you here. For anyone, that helped out over the last few days with parking, making tea, sandwiches, dinners, anyways at all that ye helped out, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  To our wonderful friends and neighbours, you have done so much, thank you.  

Yesterday evening, the guard of honour on Main Street touched us so much.  We know deep in our hearts, Dad would have been so proud. Thank you.

Dad and Grandad, we thank you for all you have done for us.  Home will never be the same again, but your memory will live on forever.  Your name will carry on in young Tom Lavelle, Pat and Fiona’s son, but don’t worry Dad, we will try and knock the Donegal accent out of him.

Keep protecting us Dad, sleep well Dad, we love you.”