Mayo and Irish football legend Pat Quigley is laid to rest
Pat Quigley, the only Mayo and Connaught official to ever hold the position of president of the Football Association of Ireland, has been laid to rest in his native Ballyheane.
The Irish soccer world came to a standstill over the past two days to pay homage to a man who gave exceptional service to the game he loved over the course of half a century.
At 78, he was too young to leave the field.
But, as his good friend from Galway John Byrne observed in his eulogy at the end of Pat’s Requiem Mass in the Church of the Holy Rosary, Castlebar, today, he died of a broken heart following the passing last April of his wife, best friend and soulmate, Eleanor.
John said Pat had many happy years with Eleanor, but the happiest day of his football life came when Ballyheane Football Club named their new grounds, located within a short distance of where Pat grew up, in his honour.
There were others, of course, most notably his audience with Pope John Paul II during the 1990 World Cup in Italy with the Republic of Ireland squad and manager Jack Charlton.
This was referenced by Fr. John Regan, a close family friend, who celebrated the Funeral Mass, assisted by Fr. Gerry Burns, another great football man, and Fr. Conal Eustace, P.P, Castlebar.
In a touching tribute before the ceremony began, Pat’s son, Shane, told how his father was such a kind and generous man who won respect not only throughout the football world but also the medical professional where he had build up a wonderful relationship with general practitioners nationwide through his work as a representative for the pharmaceutical firm, Glaxo Limited.
It was a profession, as John Byrne later remarked in his tribute, which ensured Pat always had a good car in which to travel to meetings in Dublin - a factor which, along with his fine representative skills, initially resulted in Pat being chosen in the mid-1970s to be Connaught Football Association voice on the FAI Senior Council and led him on his path to the presidency of the FAI and later a place in the corridors of power of European football, UEFA.
It was some journey and one which saw him travel the globe and be part of the Republic of Ireland’s greatest soccer success stories at senior and underage levels, a unique and inspirational experience.
Fittingly, the Liverpool FC anthem, ’You’ll Never Walk Alone,’ proudly beamed out from the audio system as his coffin departed the church en route to his final resting place in Ballyheane Cemetery, accompanied by a guard of honour representative of his football friends at Castlebar Celtic, Ballyheane, Westport United, the Mayo Football League and others.
The previous evening, he made his final visit to Celtic Park, Castlebar, as his funeral cortége poignantly arrived at the ground before departing with claps of appreciation being sounded out by members of the guard of honour in recognition of Pat’s outstanding services to football.
Among the countless tributes paid to Pat since the sad news of his death on December 31 broke, legendary Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Packie Bonnar perhaps put it best of all when he stated: “He was a special man and a great football man. He always made you feel great in his company.”
Coming from such a national sporting icon, those words will surely be treasured by his family as well as being a source of immense comfort to them.
May his gentle soul rest in peace.