Sudden passing of Mary Keogh has created a deep void in north Longford community
Late Mary Keogh (née Smyth), Larkfield, Dring, Longford
A deep shadow was cast over the whole parish on Monday, December 4, 2023 as word spread of the sudden death of Mary Keogh, Larkfield, after a traffic accident.
Mary was a native of Abbeylara and the third child of Dan and Maureen Smyth. She came to Mullinalaghta in 1975 when she married Jack Keogh and quickly became a vital part of the community, assisting her husband and her sister-in-law Mary in the running of the family bar and grocery while raising her four children.
Keogh’s has been a hub of the parish for almost a century and the centre of activity after many community events, whether weddings, funerals, communions or christenings, as well as always being a great football house, and Mary’s welcoming and friendly presence behind the counter was a constant down through the years. After the passing of her husband she continued to run the pub along with her son Ciarán until her death.
Mary took great pride in her children and derived great pleasure from their progress in life as well as the arrival of the next generation of grandchildren and their achievements in turn.
Mary was a great manager of the household and was highly skilled at cooking and baking, as well as having a great sense of fashion and was always immaculately turned-out at all events great and small. She had an outgoing and humorous personality and had many friends both locally and across the country to whom she was a frequent visitor, as was evident by the range of tributes after her death.
While resident in Mullinalaghta and always enthusiastically joining in the celebration of the successes of the local club, Mary always retained a strong affinity with her native parish and made sure that both the red and white and maroon and white were visible when the two teams clashed in recent years, especially given that many of her nephews provided the backbone of the Abbeylara teams.
Mary also had a strong and vibrant faith and a deep sense of prayer, with her rosary beads being amongst her most precious items. She was a constant presence at Mass in Mullinalaghta and was a yearly attendee on the diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes.
Mary had celebrated her eightieth birthday earlier this year and was in excellent health and an active member of the community, and her sudden and unexpected passing has created a deep void in the parish of Mullinalaghta which will not be easily filled. She will be greatly missed by all.
Mary was predeceased by her parents, her husband Jack, her brother Peter, and her sisters-in-law Mary and Maureen.
She is survived by her children Seán (Antrim), Maria (Cloonagh), Ciarán (Larkfield), and Peter (Sydney), her son-in-law Ciarán, her daughters-in-law Carmel and Roseleen, her sister Monica, her brothers Dan, Bernard, Pat, and Vincent, her grandchildren, nieces and nephews, relatives, neighbours and a large circle of friends to whom we offer our deepest sympathies.
The high esteem in which Mary and her family were held was evident in the large attendance at her repose in Our Lady’s Manor, Edgeworthstown, on Thursday evening and in Mullinalaghta church on Friday morning, December 8.
Her Funeral Mass was celebrated by her great friend and neighbour Fr. Simon Cadam, assisted by Fr. Michael Bannon PP, Fr. Peter Beglan, Fr. Michael Campbell, and Fr. Michael McGrath, with interment afterwards beside her husband Jack in the local cemetery. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam caoin agus uasal.