A Co Sligo town is mourning the loss of a much-loved literary and community figure in a weekend road tragedy.
John Hannon (78), who lived at The Courtyard, Ballymote died in a single vehicle road accident near Swinford, Co, Mayo, at about 7 pm on Saturday evening.
He was travelling eastwards along the N5 when he lost control of his car and the vehicle overturned, pinning him inside.
Local fire brigade personnel helped free him from his upturned vehicle.
Gardaí, firefighters and an ambulance crew attended the scene.
However, Mr Hannon, a former Christian Brother, who taught with the order in many countries overseas, was pronounced dead at the scene.
His remains were brought to Mayo University Hospital in Castlebar for a postmortem examination.
Mr Hannon is a native of the Ballymote area and returned to live there some years ago following his retirement from teaching.
He was a leading figure in the Ballymote Active Retirement Group.
Friends in Ballymote have described him as “highly intelligent and a great lover of the arts”.
“He was a prolific writer and especially liked writing poetry”, one friend said. “He also collected paintings from all over the world.”
Mr Hannon spent the best part of half a century on the missions. He also taught in a number of schools in Ireland.
He is a former head of the School for the Deaf, Cabra, Dublin. He worked in Roscommon CBS, O’Connell Schools, Dublin, and Coláiste Mhuire, Dublin.
He has travelled extensively, including visits to Australia, Lanzarote, Zambia, India, Africa, Australia and Spain, where he spent four months learning the language.
Mr Hannon once expressed a wish to open a gallery in his native town, furnishing it some of the vast collection he accrued during his years abroad.
No funeral arrangements have been announced.
