When the wild geese return to Creganna with next October’s moon they will do so unmindful of the fact that their arrival will go unrecorded by Laddie McDonagh who departed this life of late, leaving behind a poorer and infinitely less colourful world for his passing. For while the coming of the geese meant the onset of Winter, dark evenings, harsh weather and more difficult farming conditions, the homely cackling which announced their arrival was always a welcome sound as it represented nature asserting itself, as Laddie put it so eloquently. His death leaves the fabric of life poorer around Oranmore and Maree as his sparkling personality and his use of language enlivened many an evening for those fortunate enough to be in his company.A lover of the natural world, he had a particular love of horses. A lover of literature, and poetry in particular he had a special fondness for Kavanagh and Yeats whom he would quote at will, and would take a great delight in offering a question to which you did not have a ready answer. He was also a lover of History and in another age would have been a Parnellite. A lover of conversation, he enjoyed poking fun at many of our institutions but never with malice. Above he was a lover of his family, his wife Kitty and his native Creganna. And while his many friends “can drown an eye unused to flow for precious friend in death’s dateless night” they will do so firm in the knowledge of a life well and fully lived.To Kitty, Eamonn, Paul Gerald, Kathleen, Catherine and Louis sincere sympathy is offered. We shall not see his like again. May his lively soul rest in peace.Last word to Yeats –
“and dedicate – eyes bent upon the ground
Back turned upon the brightness of the sun
And all the sensuality of the shade
A moment’s memory to that laurelled head.”
Paddy O’Reilly
