Tributes to popular and ‘amazingly kind’ Beragh woman

A YOUNG mother-of-two from Beragh whose death has shocked the local community was described at her funeral as being ‘so devoted’ to her family.

Hundreds of people attended the funeral of Sarah Meenagh in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the village on Friday.

Warm tributes have been paid to Mrs Meenagh, who was from Drumlester Road and a native of Springwell Drive in the village. She had worked at Recyco in Omagh and passed away following an illness.

She had a keen interest in art and photography, and was deeply proud of her husband, Niall and the couple’s two young children.

Students from Dean Maguirc College in Carrickmore and St Oliver Plunkett’s Primary school in Beragh, as well as members of Beragh Red Knights GAA, her work colleagues and staff from Beragh Credit Union formed a guard of honour at her Requiem Funeral Mass.

Parish Priest, Fr Sean McCartan, praised the way in which Sarah had put her trust in God and was always looking to the future.

“Sarah was planning days away in the spa, and was making sure that everything was in place for Matthew and Orla going back to school in September. She had all their uniforms and schoolbags all organised and prepared,” he said.

“This was not because she knew she would not be here, but instead that she was aware of how time passes very quickly and you have to organised. She had no intention of leaving the world.

“It is difficult on a day like this not to realise that even the most hardened of hearts are broken by Sarah’s passing. She was a young devoted mother of two beautiful children, of whom she was so devotedly proud.

“Sarah was deeply fulfilled and content in a marriage that was just as full of devilment as it was of tenderness. Niall and Sarah are proof to us that opposites really do attract. She was very proud of her family, of her parents, brothers and sister and of her rootedness in Springwell and the great sense of belonging and community that she experienced there.

“We might be tempted to say that God had forsaken Sarah in the light of her tragic passing. But she never wavered, and she never feared death nor entertained it.”

Fr McCartan said that Mrs Meenagh was always a woman of ‘great positivity’ in all that she went through in life, adding that she had never once entertained the possibility of the likelihood of death.

“She still had so much living to do. Life was such an attraction to her. Nothing dark or dreary ever got in the way. The idea of being pitied, or felt sorry for, would in her mind have been misplaced,” he added.

“Orla described her mother as being ‘amazingly kind.’ She said that her mother had a great capacity to make everyone laugh.”

Hundreds of people also paid personal tributes at her wake and on social media. She is survived by her husband, Niall, children Matthew and Orla, parents, Pat and Kathleen, and brothers and sisters Shane (Suzanne) Shirleen McCann (Jim), Shannon, Sean (Karen) Shiel (Bebhinn) and Stiophan (Sarah).