Farewell to a versatile sportsman

By JIM CARNEY THE PRIDE felt by the parish of Williamstown in the achievements of 'one of their own,' who died in early October this year, was made manifest in a very moving and inspiring way last Saturday when the ashes of the late Máirtín Kelly from Polredmond, Williamstown, who had lived for most of his working and married life in Bushey, Hertfordshire, were laid to rest in Kildaree cemetery. Among the attendance at the funeral Mass in the magnificent St Teresa's Church, Williamstown was Máirtín's daughter Siobhán, his Rattigan cousins from Kilnalag and other relatives; old friends and neighbours from Polredmond including former Williamstown football stalwart Tom Roche; three of Martin Kelly's secondary school classmates from the early 1950s at Coláiste Einde, Galway, and two of his closest friends, Leo Finnegan of Williamstown and Prof. Frank Imbusch, NUIG, both of whom spoke from the altar. Their eloquent tributes captured the spirit, the persona and the distinctive public personality of the man himself who achieved much in sport, the academic life and in business, but who remained all his life, especially in his long years across-Channel, loyal to his native place, with such a strong sense of his roots that they became intertwined with his memories, in a most positive and life-enhancing way. What he felt about life was that his upbringing in the rural West of Ireland in the 1940s had made him the strong, determined, resourceful young man he proved himself to be on the sports fields, as a Gaelic football star with the Galway All-Ireland Minor winning team of 1952 and later as a very successful Track and Field athlete, and then all that lay before him beyond sport. Williamstown GAA Club, led by chairman Kieran Conneely, did the late Máirtín Kelly proud, with a large group of players wearing their club colours in the Church to honour his special place in the club's history and his personal links with the club in recent times, while five club officers said the Prayers of the Faithful. The choir, under the direction of Ann Greally, sang beautifully and the solo How Great Thou Art was superbly sung by Michael Rattigan. The homily, delivered by Fr Paddy Mooney, Glenamaddy, also captured the spirit of the man gone to his eternal reward and it added in a very profound way to the feeling that while it was a sad occasion it was also a celebration of a good person's life. Visitors to Williamstown for the funeral Mass and burial of ashes at Kildaree cemetery were treated to excellent hospitality at the splendid GAA Centre and the happy telling of stories of old times kept most of us there long into the afternoon. The local community can feel proud of this day, and also of their own place; it is one of the loveliest small towns in the West of Ireland; no wonder it does so well every year in the national Tidy Towns and Villages competition. It has very good football teams too, but sadly â€â€ because of the times we now live in â€â€ the scourge of emigration is doing major damage again, just as it did when Máirtín Kelly left Ireland while in his mid-20s. Ireland's loss was England's gain, but hopefully the young men and women now leaving the West of Ireland will retain the sense of native place that so passionately drove Máirtín all his long, well-lived life. In friendship and respect, I offer him here, as a final farewell, these lines from poet Robert William Service (1874 - 1958). So when his glorious task was done, It was not of his fame we thought; It was not of his battles won, But of the pride with which he fought; But of his zest, his ringing laugh, His trenchant scorn of praise or blame: And so we graved his epitaph, 'He played the game.'