Late Marc Geagan (48) Bundoran - A deeply personal tribute

Fewer deaths have caused a greater outpouring of genuine and devastating community heartbreak than the news of the sudden and unexpected death of Marc Geagan (48) from Bundoran on Thursday afternoon. 

Marc was one of the most gifted people of his generation. He was a shooting star that radiated intensely in the short time he was given to us. 

Music, history, books, festivals, you name it, he immersed himself with a passion into a project that was equalled by few, such was his appetite and thirst for life, liberty, knowledge and nature.
A music lecturer at North West College in Derry there were degrees and masters which never were mentioned and another book on Leitrim that he had cooking on the stove over recent times in the pipeline, to join with his first two publications.
He had a few topics that he was exploring to study for PhD. 

The woolly hat, the beard in various manifestations and length, the red gruaig and complexion that singled him out as a true Irishman, but a 'modal citizen' of the world. 

His plums and luscious apples in the back garden, there were the herbs on the window sill, the kitchen turned recording studio, double bass or dobro with dinner, guitar gelled with guacamole, the elegantly aged kitchen table that launched a thousand tunes, the plinth of a hundred tales, some tall and some even taller or it could be the myriad tasty morsels that he loved to create. 

A wonderfully poignant black and white portrait from the camera lens of Brian O'Droma

Grab a pint of milk on the way up to the house, for the coffee, he said to me as we met up for a recent chat, as we always did, whenever we got a chance. 

He had discovered a new method of frothing the milk for the coffee recently, thanks to his son, David, he told me. 

Marc was a showman and a scholar, a crusader and a comedian, outwardly gregarious but also a deep thinker. 

He was a sponge for artistic creativity, a vacuum for spotting talent or potential in others and this was all backed up with a tenacity to achieve his goal or reach his destination, where others would have thrown in the towel.

The late Marc Geagan (left) performing with his good friend Farrah Bogle Mullaney at a memorial event in Ballyshannon last October to honour those that had died in the Creeslough explosion (Photo: Michael McHugh) 

'No' was not part of his lexicon. 

And when he came knocking on your door, a refusal would not even enter your head. 

And when he spoke, you were the centre of that world. 

He elevated people as he did with places through his books and tunes. 

As a painter of words he mixed pathos with panache. 

As a musician he was absorbing and analytical and so generous in his time to others. 

Culture, creativity, community, collaboration and connectivity were bywords for his desire to lift all the boats in Donegal Bay with the rising tide. 

He was always seeking to join the jots, thread the fabric of community ever closer in whatever way he could. 

Putting people up on their own pedestals so they in turn could radiate a beacon of life amongst their peers and the public, that he could see clearly, when they themselves might falter, hesitate or even doubt. 

Gathering up old musical instruments to bring the joys of music to younger generations or a walking history tour of Bundoran.

The late Marc Geagan introducing some local musical talent at an event in the Bundoran Community Centre last February (Photo: Siobhan McGowan)

A tune with some of the lads at Ozanam House, the Christmas Concert in the Community Centre, a fundraiser for a local Church, the launch of a friend’s music compilation.   

Modal Citizens Records, Stracomer Press, a film festival showcasing the depth of rich talent in the north West and his project for the New Year, the Donegal Bay Guitar Festival. A town twinning Douzelage Festival, a helping hand at the Ballyshannon Folk and Traditional Festival, another culture night, gigging with bands and buddies at the Bank House or Madden's, he was the ultra marathon man of music and musicianship. He always seemed to find that extra hour in the day for something new.

He moved easily between the megalithic tombs of Finner, the rich legacy of tradition and modernity and the complex relationship of borders and boundaries.

He loved the blues, the rhythm, the cadence, the connections between different musical cultures and traditions on pre Covid trips to the southern United States, France, Romania and more recently Albania. He was a tour de force. He was unique. 

Marc was the quilt that garnered the patchwork of intangible imagination into a cohesive construction akin to a finely woven tapestry. 

He was that power of nature, that harnessed the hydro electrics of the Erne, often providing the oxygen and framework which showcased so many of the most important things in life, of which modern society was grappling and losing sight of.  

Over the years, he became the very heartbeat of cultural creativity in south Donegal and this extended into Fermanagh and his beloved spiritual and family home of Leitrim. 

He never did things in half measures. 

This photo that paints a thousand words of Marc RIP (Photo: Michael McHugh) 

His enthusiasm was matched by a sense of humour that was infectious. 

He was blessed with an intellect that was expansive and evocative and his home was an open house to fellow musicians, writers, historians, journalists, creators and dreamers. 

Nothing was insurmountable and his words of encouragement were often the catalyst for the creative launch of a new community initiative or musical cd, book or one of hundreds of other collaborative efforts. 

Marc Geagan was my friend. And I am blessed among so many others to have had that exceptional privilege and honour. 

He loved his children David, Zoe and Aoife deeply, as he did his Shelly. To his yin, she was the yang. 

We will mourn his loss so very very deeply and to Michelle, David, Zoe, Aoife and the wider Geagan and Fergus families, our resolve will be to remember him when the dawn chorus awakens us each day from sleepy slumber to later when the setting sun of his beloved Bundoran Bay, which he captured so elegantly in his photos and the more recent love of his wee drones, when he wasn’t losing them. 

Ní Bheidh A Leithéid Ann Arís.

Funeral details

Marc will be sadly missed and forever loved by his heartbroken family, his wife Michelle, son David, daughters Zoe and Aoife, his father Colin and partner Elaine, sister Gina and husband Mark (Witherow), brother Paul, mother-in-law Aileen (Corcoran), brother-in-law Alan (Corcoran), his nieces & nephews Alannah, Anna, Cillian and Ethane, aunts, uncles, and all his many cousins, relatives, neighbours and friends especially in the Music Circle.

MARK (ABOVE) ON HIS WEDDING DAY

Predeceased by his mother Pat, brother David, niece Zara and father-in-law Michael.

Reposing Privately at home for family and close friends only please.

Removal from his late residence on Monday morning, September 25, at 10.30am to arrive at St. Aidan's Church, Kinlough, Co. Leitrim for Funeral Service at 11am. Removal afterwards to Lakelands Crematorium, Dublin Rd., Cavan for Cremation Service at 2.30pm.

Marc's Funeral Service can be viewed live on Kinlough - Glenade Parish Facebook Page.

Cremation Service can be viewed live on https://www.churchservices.tv/lakelands

Condolences to the Geagan Family can be left in private at http://www.breslinfunerals.ie 

Family flowers only please, donations in memory of Marc to Aoibheann's Pink Tie care of online donations at

https://www.idonate.ie/731_aoibheanns-pink-tie.html

or donation box at church or to Breslin's Funeral Directors.