Moving tributes as footballer is laid to rest

THERE WERE moving scenes at the burial yesterday of young GAA player Philip (Philly) McGuinness (26). The Leitrim senior county footballer was injured in a freak accident during a match last Saturday and died in Beaumont Hospital on Monday.

Mr McGuinness’s mother wept quietly at his graveside yesterday when Eileen Abbott, secretary of Mohill GAA club, removed his county and club jerseys from the sun-dappled coffin and pressed them into her arms.

Local GAA member Matt Gaffey gave a graveside oration in which he said that “Philly was born to play football” and had given his life in the service of the GAA.

Earlier at the funeral Mass, Mohill parish priest Fr Bernard Hogan recalled that from childhood, Mr McGuinness had regularly interrupted the bird song in Shannagh at the top of the town, banging a ball against the gable wall of his home. The street between his home and the church was his football pitch and the ramps at the entrance to Mohill seemed designed, not so much to slow down the cars on their approach to the local school, but to warn the drivers that Philly was up ahead, honing his skills with the ball or the hurley.

Fr Hogan said that when Philly had left his home for that fateful game last Saturday evening, “he set out with high spirits and joy in his heart, little thinking as he packed his football boots and his football gear that it would be his last time to do so. Philly lived for football, he lived for hurling and he lived for all sports.”

The high point of his short life was when he and his brothers played on the Mohill team which won the county championships in 2006, bridging a gap of 35 years and following in the footsteps of their late father, Michael, who had been among the 1971 victors.

A smiling photograph of Mr McGuinness celebrating the championship win had pride of place on the coffin inside the church.

Fr Hogan said that just as he was generous in life, he was helping others in death, having donated his organs so that others might have a better quality of life.

In his graveside oration, Mr Gaffey said that Mr McGuinness had inherited not just his late father’s prowess on the field but also his love of a bit of “villainy and rascalment”.

When he was born, his father had carried him through the streets as proud as if he was holding the Sam Maguire and, like his other sons, the child had grown up to delight GAA lovers with his genius on the field.

A leader on the pitch, Mr McGuinness had forged strong bonds of friendship not just with his club mates but also with his opponents, “because that was the nature of the man”, added Mr Gaffey.

The chief mourners at the funeral Mass were Mr McGuinness’s mother Phil and his brothers, Michael and John.

The congregation also included the Taoiseach’s aide-de-camp, Comdt Michael Treacy, GAA president Christy Cooney and former president Seán Kelly, Dessie Farrell from the Gaelic Players Association, Roscommon-South Leitrim TD Frank Feighan, Tom Mulligan, councillor and cathaoirleach of Leitrim County Council, and his colleagues, as well as GAA representatives from around the country and from every club in Leitrim.