Funeral in Glenties of former Garda Sgt Sean McKenna and Naomh Conaill stalwart 

The funeral has taken place of retired Garda Sergeant John (Sean) McKenna following Requiem Mass in St. Connell's Church, Glenties this afternoon.

A pillar of the local community, Sean was a native of Milltown, Belturbet in Co Cavan and was a stalwart of the GAA and its ideals from his youth and throughout his adult life. 

His memory was honoured at Sunday’s GAA senior championship county final at MacCumhaill Park, where the winning Naomh Conaill players donned black armbands as a mark of respect.

A number of guards of honour were formed by former Garda colleagues and GAA members from different clubs, which Sean had been involved or associated with down the decades. Former golfing colleagues from Narin and Portnoo Golf Club also paid their respects.   

Chief Celebrant Very Rev Gerard Cunningham, PP, VF was joined at the altar by concelebrants Fr Adrian Gavigan, Fr Nigel Gallagher and Fr Philip Daly. 

Reflecting on the symbols, presented at the altar to reflect on the deceased's life, Fr Cunningham, said it had begun 69 years ago, “relatively short years”, yet in which the deceased had achieved and did so much.

Sean became “part and parcel of so many communities, laterally of course, here in Glenties, in his self-giving, his knowledge, his skill, his love, his service and I welcome you all here this afternoon, as the winter sunshine rays make its way into our church”.

“We give God thanks for the blessings that the life of Sean has elicited and bestowed upon ours.”

The parish priest thanked those who had come to support the family “to offer a prayer for the soul of Sean and to show solidarity and goodness to Rosaleen, wife and mother and granny, carer and soulmate; we thank God for the blessings that came to Sean, through you, Rosaleen. They’ve been abundant, too deep to even give a speech to and for yourselves Tracy, John and Louise.”           

“Sean was a man who gave himself wholeheartedly into every endeavour in which he was part and parcel of and sport was a big part of that life, of giving and learning and socialising and competitiveness, no doubt, too!

The jerseys of the young man in Drumlane (Belturbet GAA) growing up, there was the Cavan county jersey representing the county he had played with as a minor, Naomh Bríd in Ballintra which he had helped set up and more recently the Naomh Conaill club which he both played for, and served as its Secretary, and over the years in many different capacities within the Glenties club. A Narin and Portnoo golf club top represented his love and involvement with Golf, as well. 

The funeral cortege arriving at Clar cemetery in Donegal Town

Symbols of his interests in dancing, swimming, cycling and the game of bridge were also recalled, also referenced was his “quiet” decade plus involvement in helping out the marriage agency, Accord and the family photos, which reflected “the most important thing of all, the centre of everything”. 

“He would have been a proud man last Sunday gone by, with the county championship again,” Fr Gerard added. 

Later in his homily, Fr Gerard recalled that Sean himself always knew that time on this earth was only transitory and limited, “a best before or expiry date”.

“Sean, together with Rosaleen McMullin, the girl whom he set eyes on in Leghowney Hall, all those years ago would construct (their family home) in Kiraine. And not unlike St Paul he helped construct his dwelling inside and out, partially from the labour and ingenuity of his own hands,” he said.    

“The beautiful house in Kilrane became a home, a place of safety, growth for yourselves Tracy, John and Louise. It was and continues to be a place of family and welcome, in short a sanctuary for living. That was made possible through the skillful hands and determination and the labouring love of Sean and of Rosaleen,” Fr Cunningham explained.    

He spoke of how young Sean’s life had been shaped by the death of his father in a farming accident, when just a toddler, 

“The same strength and ingenuity and hard graft that saw him becoming a county minor player for Cavan in the early seventies and was mirrored in his passing out as a member of An Garda Siocana with stationing in the the southern extremities of County Donegal before the nurturing of his career as a Sergeant in Ardara and later passing the gaping chasm of that awful parish boundary and serving laterally in the promised land of Glenties and its environs,” he explained.

He also reflected poignantly on Sean’s last 14 years, his ill health “and the vagaries of life and its limits”.  

“But two things aided him from the outset, a humble yet gritty determination, allied with huge physical strength on the one hand and a quiet unshakeable faith in God on the other. 

Mourners gather at Clar awaiting the arrival of the funeral cortege 

“They were the twin insights that propelled him forward through sickness and treatments, hospitalisation and the retinue of fatigue and constraints that comes in its wake,” Fr Cunningham told the packed congregation.

Sean will be dearly missed by his wife Rosaleen, née Mc Mullin, children Tracy, John and Louise, brother Declan and sister-in-law Elaine, his cherished grandchildren Conleith, Oran, Caolan and Riaghan, daughter-in-law Karen, sons-in-law Jonathan and Daithi, and extended family and friends to whom deepest sympathy is extended.

After Requiem Mass in St. Connell's Church, burial followed in Clar Cemetery, Donegal Town.