ON THE type of beautiful April evening made for training and football matches, Philly McGuinness’s team mates were instead waiting outside his Mohill home to shoulder his coffin to the nearby church.
“He is our fallen hero,” remarked the Mohill club chairman, District Court Judge Kevin Kilrane, who revealed the talented sportsman’s name would never be forgotten.
Judge Kilrane said that the club’s football grounds – currently closed for renovations works – would be renamed the Philly McGuinness Memorial Park as a tribute to the talented footballer who lost his life so tragically after an accident on the field.
At last night’s removal, the players who shared the field with him on his last outing for Mohill, played a key role.
The coffin, draped in the Leitrim and Mohill jerseys, was carried from the McGuinness home to St Patrick’s church by the club players. Members of the 24 GAA clubs in Leitrim turned out in their colours to form a guard of honour but it was the Melvin Gaels team, who were playing Mohill last Saturday, who stood wearing dark armbands at the church steps and who accompanied their friend on the last lap.
Mr McGuinness had, like his late father Michael and his brothers John and Michael, been regarded as one of the most talented players in the county. Fellow Leitrim players lined the route as he was taken to the church.
Parish priest Fr Bernard Hogan said that while the entire community was experiencing sadness and loss, they knew that the worst trauma was being endured by Mr McGuinness’s mother Phil and by his brothers.
Fr Hogan thanked the GAA fraternity from around the country who had gathered in solidarity with family and friends. He had a special word for the children of Mohill. “I want to say to all the young people of the parish who looked up to Philly as a hero that we are very much aware of your pain and your loss,” he said.
Thousands of well-wishers from around the world are continuing to leave tributes on the Facebook site opened in the player’s honour last weekend. “Sure as there is a God in heaven, there will be a football pitch there too,” it noted, adding there would now be two McGuinnesses on hallowed ground.
“Michael Snr will be loitering with intent somewhere out on the 40 or in around the square. In the meantime the other McGuinness will be dancing and weaving out on the wing, our own sweet gentle Philly, all chips and flicks,” the Facebook site added.
Mr McGuinness will be laid to rest following 11am Mass at St Patrick’s Church, Mohill, today.
