By 
PRAYERS have been offered at all services in local churches for Fr Eugene Hasson, the Parish Priest of Drumragh, who has died following an illness.
A native of Co Derry, the 70-year-old has been one of the longest serving and most popular priests in the West Tyrone area for almost five decades.
He has been the Parish Priest of Drumragh, which covers the town of Omagh, for the past nine years. He had previously served in Greencastle from 2007 and 2015, and in Cappagh for a decade from 1991. He had first been a curate in Drumragh following his ordination in 1980.
Fr Hasson guided parishioners in Drumragh through the challenges of the Covid-pandemic in 2020. During celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of his ordination, local people lined the route from the Parochial House to the Sacred Heart Church to applaud him on the important milestone.
In 1998, he was ministering in Cappagh when the Omagh bomb on Market Street claimed the lives of 31 people, including many from or with connections to the parish.
He was also in Omagh in 2018 when the 30th anniversary of the atrocity was remembered.
Fr Hasson also served as chaplain to the Tyrone County Hospital in Omagh at the time of the bomb, and was deeply involved in the Omagh Churches Forum.
In 2024, he spearheaded events to mark the 125th anniversary of the Sacred Heart Church and one of his final engagements prior to his illness was a special Mass at the site where the Dioceses of Derry, Armagh and Clogher meet near Seskinore and Tattyreagh.
Funeral arrangements for Fr Hasson have yet to be confirmed. But, as is traditional on the death of a priest, it is anticipated that his remains will repose for a time in the Sacred Heart Church.
