Symbols of a Life

It is fairly common now at funeral Masses in Ireland for families to present symbols that represent the life of the departed loved one for display at the altar during the final farewell. Some families in Bodyke & Tuamgraney have chosen to present symbols such as a wedding photograph, a hurley, a deck of cards, a cake of brown bread, a music cd, a flowering plant, a pack of cigarettes, a book of poetry or something else which would have meant a lot to the person who has recently left us for a better place.

One of the more unusual symbols was presented at the Funeral Mass   for Eamonn McKenna in Bodyke on Sunday 7th February. A young relation brought an old wing-sleán to the altar to remind us of Eamonn’s skill as a turfcutter in his day. The use of a sleán in the bog is now almost a thing of the past but Eamonn’s neighbours still spoke of his great ability with the sleán and of how he would keep his barrowman busy with fine sods of turf cut either to his right or to his left.

In a rural community like our’s such skills were greatly admired and it is good that we still think of them and talk of them.We will now remember Eamonn in the same way as we remember departed parishioners like Jack Scott and his neat and deep turfbank in Coolreagh Bog or Attie Gleeson and the fine wooden turfbarrows that he made. Perfection at heading a haycock, thatching a reek, cutting sciolláns, coppicing a hedge, mowing with a scythe  or building a dry stone wall was always greatly admired but sadly  many of those old skills like the skill of the turfcutter are now practices of the past. It is good though to pause, to think of the proud talented people who went before us and to remember them in our prayers.