‘The brightest light never truly fades’: Ciara Mageean remembered at funeral

Ciara Mageean was an “inspirational human being” who represented the “very best of us”, mourners at her funeral Mass were told.

Members of Portaferry GAA Club formed a guard of honour outside St Patrick’s Church on Tuesday, just a few hundred metres from the house where the Irish Olympian and European champion runner grew up in Co Down.

Teenage GAA players wept as they stood in line and watched the 34-year-old’s coffin being carried by her husband, Thomas Moran, who she married three weeks ago.

“You were the love of her life,” celebrant Fr Martin Kelly told Moran, as he sat in the front row of the church flanked by Mageean’s family, including her parents Christopher and Catherine.

Symbols of the runner’s life, including the gold European medal she won for the 1,500m in Rome two years ago, were presented at the beginning of the service by her siblings, Brendan, Maire and Nuala. Her beloved dog’s leash was also brought forward.

Mageean passed away on Sunday having been diagnosed with cancer in May of last year. She and Moran held a second wedding celebration in Co Louth the weekend before her passing.

Hundreds of mourners packed into the small church with pews filled with the blue and gold of the GAA club, where Mageean had excelled in camogie from childhood.

The royal blue uniforms of Assumption Grammar, Ballynahinch, where Mageean was a past pupil, lined the narrow staircase as schoolgirls cried silently.

Outside, the church grounds were filled with hundreds more mourners.

There was total silence as the funeral cortege arrived.

President Catherine Connolly and Taoiseach Micheál Martin were represented by their aides-de-camp at the service.

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill and SDLP leader Claire Hanna also attended, as well as Irish Olympian Rhys McClenaghan and GAA President Jarlath Burns.

Mageean has had a “powerful influence” on people around the world since her diagnosis, mourners heard.

Fr Kelly recalled first meeting her as an altar server at St Patrick’s church when she was eight years old.

“Even at that stage she was committed to her task, commitment was to play a big part in her life, and hail rain or snow she always turned up in good time,” he said.

She had brought “sheer joy” to the people of Portaferry and he recalled the moment she stepped off the Strangford ferry to cheers after winning a silver medal at the world under-18 meeting in Canada.

His final meeting with Mageean was at the Marie Curie Hospice in Belfast last month.

“I asked her what special graces she needed at that time. We talked about acceptance and how hard it was for her,” Kelly said.

“We spoke of trust, trusting how well she was loved by Tommy, all her family and friends and people and colleagues all over Ireland and Europe.”

Despite being gravely ill, Mageean asked the 85-year-old former parish priest to go for a walk around the streets after he had anointed her.

“On the way down, she knew I was struggling and she said, ‘let me link you’,” he told mourners.

“One of my happiest moments and memories is that of Ciara Mageean linking my arm as we walked back to her room.”

Kelly singled out one of the many tributes since her death, which he said encapsulated her spirit.

“Sometimes, amid the darkness and gloom of our world, a bright light emerges – one that radiates warmth, kindness and positive energy, making our world a better, brighter and much nicer place to call home,” he said.

“Ciara Mageean was one such light.”

For Kelly, she was a “truly remarkable, immensely talented and inspirational human being whose courage, humility, infectious smile and indomitable spirit touched hearts far beyond the world of athletics”.

“She represented the very best of us, not simply through her extraordinary sporting achievements but through the warmth, dignity and humanity she brought to everything she did.”

Before the close of the service, he added: “The brightest lights never truly fade. Their warmth lives on in the hearts of those they touched.”