Poignant final tribute to young Kildress man

MORE than 1000 people have attended the funeral of young Kildress man, Matthew McGuigan, who died tragically in Australia earlier this month.

A Requiem Funeral Mass for the 24 year-old was held in St Mary’s Church Dunamore on Sunday.

Mr McGuigan, 24, had just arrived in Australia with his partner, Clodagh Corr, when he became ill and died.

She paid an emotional and poignant tribute to him at the Mass.

“I am very lucky to have had such a special person in my life for nine years. Mattie, I promised you in the hospital that we’d be together forever and we are. Please keep guiding me through life and I know I’ll never walk alone,” she said.

“I always knew you were the one. Your love, patience and consideration was second to none. The first time I met you all I could do was smile,” she said.

“We were always saving our money and planning ahead. As long as I was with you I was fulfilled. We made so many memories to cherish forever and had lots of adventures with the big one cut so short.

“Your excitement at starting our new life, telling me at the airport in Dublin that it was ‘just us two now.’ Our whole life was ahead of us and after two days in Sydney you told me you were never as happy.”

She went on to speak of how proud she was of Mr McGuigan, who was a former Tyrone player and captain of the Kildress senior team, and how he as an electrician he was ‘her handyman who would protect her from the dark.’

“Each year you blossomed into the most perfect person,” she added.

“You were quiet in nature, but you took out on twitter. Number 13 was your special number, but you always said I was your number one. Not just me, but your nanny Collette and your mummy.

In his homily, Fr Lawrence Boyle from the Parish of Cookstown said that the McGuigan and Treacy families and the whole area of Kildress had been cast into a ‘valley of darkness.’

“The valley of darkness is a frightening experience and over the last 15 days there have been little glimmers of light,” he said.

“Many people have passed through the doors telling wonderful stories of Matthew. All of the tributes that have been paid to him speak of a wonderful and talented person who has left us and those are wonderful stories.

“For Clodagh, there are many stories to share full of laughter and love, going out into a new world.”

Fr Boyle spoke of how the tribute to Mattie by Irish singer, Dermot Kennedy, had struck him very deeply.

“The only thing that we have today to pass on is faith and for all of you faith has been tested and tried. But it is the only thing that we have been left onto for the future.

“Matthew was a win, the man with all the medals and trophies adorned his room. But now it’s Kildress who lost and God is the winner and we question if there is any way that we can win again.

“Matthew never got to come back to Kildress. His remains came back but we sent his soul to God.”