The death has occurred of:
Colm Francis McGurk (Magherafelt & Lavey)
Acknowledgement from the family of the late Colm McGurk.
MCGURK, COLM. Magherafelt & Lavey. We, the family of the late Colm McGurk, wish to express our deep gratitude and sincere appreciation to everyone who sympathised with us, during our recent sad loss of Colm, and to acknowledge the countless gestures of kindness, love and support shown to us. Thank you to our wide family circle, our friends and good neighbours, whose help was invaluable, before, during, and after the wake and funeral. We would not have been able to get through the initial trauma of Colm’s passing without you all.
We are extremely grateful to Colm’s good friend, Dr. John Diamond of Garden Street Surgery, for his constant dedication and attendance to Colm. We also would like to thank the doctors and nurses at Altnagelvin Urology and Oncology, and also Antrim A&E, Ward 2, and ICU, for all their efforts to save Colm, and for the kindness shown to us, his family, throughout.
We are deeply thankful to Fr. Gates for his spiritual support to Colm at home and in Antrim hospital, and also to Fr. Graham and Fr. James for attending Colm during his short illness in hospital. To Fr. Gates a special word of thanks for guiding us during the most difficult of times, and for officiating at the very beautiful Requiem Mass, concelebrated by Fr. Graham and Fr. L. Donnelly. You put so much thought into the homily. Your words were well chosen and meaningful to us. We are indebted to you.
Our thanks go to all those who called to the house to sympathise, attended the wake and funeral, telephoned, sent Mass cards, sympathy cards and letters, brought dinners and refreshments, sent flowers, and gifted donations to Kilronan School in lieu of flowers.
We appreciated the dignified guards of honour that lined the whole route from our home to the chapel on the morning of the funeral. These included Colm’s teammates from QUB 1990 Sigerson, Lavey 1991 and Derry 1993. Thanks also to O’Donovan Rossa Magherafelt, and our fellow local business owners for their marks of respect.
Thank you to Una McGill and Grainne McGurk for the wonderful music at the funeral; to all those who read; and to Gerard for his beautiful flower arrangements in the chapel. To Colm’s beloved Erin’s Own Lavey: our special thanks to the club men who stewarded traffic at the wake; to the club members for their organisation & parking of the vast number of attendees; and for the dignified manner in which the cortège made its way from the Erin’s Own club grounds to Colm’s final resting place, flanked by his U17 Hurling squad. Thank you to Mary Convery and her team, for providing the refreshments in the club rooms following the burial.
Our sincere thanks to Mickey and Nicholas Gormley (J.A. Gormley Funeral Directors, Maghera and Coleraine) for their caring, professional and dignified manner in which they carried out all the funeral arrangements. You were meticulous with every detail.
We will forever be indebted to so many, and as it would be impossible to thank everyone individually, we hope that this acknowledgement will be accepted as a token of our sincere appreciation.
Colm’s Month’s Mind mass will be celebrated on Friday 19th of August at 7.30pm at St. Mary’s Chapel, Lavey. The Mass will be streamed live on the Church webcam: https://churchmedia.tv/church-of-our-lady-of-mercy