HEARTBREAK AS MAURA LAID TO REST
A devoted husband paid a moving tribute to his sweetheart of more than forty years at the funeral Mass of a 58 year old local woman whose body was found beside her bicycle at Corracunna on the old Cork - Dublin road between Mitchelstown and Kilbehenny on Wednesday night of last week.
Tragedy struck the Mitchelstown family when the body of Maura McGrath was discovered on the roadside outside the town. Maura, a keen cyclist and a mother of eight from 40 Liam Lynch Park, was found by a passing motorist lying beside her bicycle.
CYCLING CLUB TRIP
The accident occurred while Mrs McGrath was returning to Mitchelstown after a trip with the Kilbehenny Cycling Club. Maura had recently joined the club and it was one of her first outings with the group.
Her heartbroken husband of almost forty years, Ted McGrath, spoke lovingly of his wife during the Mass at Our Lady Conceived Without Sin Church in Mitchelstown on Saturday last.
MET AT THE PATTERN
He remembered that they had met at the Pattern of Ballylanders 41 years ago, in 1969. Devastated family members this week told The Avondhu of how their parents were inseparable from that day to this.
Ted and Maura went on to have eight children: Caroline, Timmy, Ellen, Eugene, Shirley, Brian, Theresa and Samantha while one particular grandson, Shane, was also reared by the couple and still resides at the family home in Liam Lynch Park. The couple were due to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary on January 30 next.
LOVE FOR CYCLING
Maura’s daughter, Caroline also spoke this week of her mother’s love for walking and cycling.
“She would cycle out to my house in Curraghagalla, a round trip of over ten miles, at least four times a week. And, if that wasn’t enough, Mam often then took a detour on the way home. She thought nothing of cycling up to thirty miles in her younger days. She often walked between six and nine miles,” Caroline told The Avondhu.
“Mam stopped cycling for a while after an accident some years ago but returned to it over the recent past,” her other daughter, Shirley added.
“We don’t know exactly what happened but the gardai are of the opinion that her bike may have suffered a back tyre blow-out,” Caroline said.
TEARS FLOWED
It was heartbreaking as the tears flowed freely this week when the McGrath sisters visited The Avondhu offices in Mitchelstown. Caroline and Shirely did, however, take some consolation from the fact that their mother, Maura died whilst doing something that she liked best.
A statement from gardai said that they were satisfied that following a preliminary examination of the scene that Mrs McGrath had not been hit by any other vehicle and believe that she fell from her bicycle.
“Mrs McGrath was found collapsed beside her bicycle, witnesses and gardai performed CPR, however she was pronounced dead at the scene. Mrs McGrath was then removed to Cork University Hospital where a postmortem was carried out,” a gardai spokesperson told The Avondhu.
Maura McGrath was laid to rest following requiem Mass at the Church of Our Lady Conceived Without Sin in Mitchelstown on Saturday, September 4.
The Avondhu offers its sincere condolences to her husband, Ted, heartbroken family members, relations and friends.
Published:
Thursday 9th September 7:29pm
