Tyrone priest hits out at ‘evil’ drug dealers during funeral

A PRIEST has launched a blistering attack on drug dealers and suppliers ‘peddling death and deceit’ in local communities.

Fr Paul Fraser made the comments with the permission of the family of 31-year-old Michael McHugh, saying he wanted to speak honestly about addiction after the young father’s recent death.

Mr McHugh, a talented agricultural mechanic, had loved his work from an early age.

His organs were donated by his family – a gesture the parish priest of Termonamongan said was in ‘stark contrast’ to the actions of those he described as ‘darker forces’.

“But on the other hand, there are darker forces… evil people in our community who make themselves rich by supplying drugs and destroying lives,” he told mourners in St Patrick’s Church, Aghyaran.

“Michael was collateral damage, like so many in our community – our family, our neighbours, our friends.

“Addiction is an illness that wraps itself around life and does not let go easily. It drowns out the joys, the love, and even the hope.”

He described addiction as a ‘pitiful and tragic illness’ that did not discriminate by age or potential.

“It can consume even the strongest, most intelligent, and most compassionate people. The substance we think liberates us is in fact the very thing that controls and imprisons us. Drugs and alcohol are false friends that take us down the path to addiction. There is no doubt they are a scourge on our community.”

Fr Fraser – parish priest for three parishes in the West Tyrone Pastoral Area – said Mr McHugh’s organ donations had given the ‘gift of sight’ to someone who was blind, freed another from the ‘tedium of dialysis’ and, in a ‘profound and quiet way’, given others a second chance at life.

Following Requiem Mass, Mr McHugh was laid to rest in the adjoining cemetery. He is survived by his beloved partner Jade, sons Mícheál and Braidán, his parents Kevin and Mairead, and sisters Emer, Niamh and Fionnuala.