Paul Murphy
Phil Conyngham, Drogheda’s tireless community worker and activist, whose funeral took place yesterday, Friday 10th April, had become “a kind of fixture in many people’s lives, both here and abroad” and someone who made a difference wherever life took her, the congregation at her funeral Mass was told.
Large crowds of people joined family members in the Augustinian Church in the town where they were welcomed by Fr Iggy O’Donovan and Fr David Crean. In his eulogy Fr O’Donovan welcomed those in the church and those joining the ceremony online from Ireland, Laos, South Africa and Germany. Phil’s son Colm brought forward parchment that marked the occasion some years ago years ago when she was formally made a member of the Augustinian family. “She was very proud of this but, even so, not half as proud as we were that she became one of us”, he said. “We thought that we were going to have her forever. We thought that this day would never come. She weathered every storm, every crisis, but this time it was different”.
Phil was made a member of the Augustinian family.
Fr O’Donovan said “We will miss her for over the years, without noticing it, she had become a kind of fixture in our lives and in the lives of so many in this town and far afield. We had presumed that there would always be Phil – she was one of a kind. She made a difference wherever life brought her. You could say no gathering could be complete without her, that happy chuckle, the warm, open and inviting smile that was sometimes mischievous”.
“She had colour. Everything about her was colourful, outside as well as inside. She even had colour for her hair!”. It was fun to be in her company with never a dull moment. It was a joy to experience her “inexhaustible capacity for chat and talk”. She had a great eye for parties and for “the special occasion” and wherever she happened to be, she was always the last to leave – “I have Brian’s (her late husband) solid word for that”.
The priest said “ I once him heard him say about her if there was nobody else to chat to and everyone had gone home, Phil would stay and talk to the lamppost. Her phone calls were legendary. A word or two was never enough, Eircom will now feel the pinch!”
Gerard and Colm (Phil’s sons) have now lost their mother and their loss goes out to a ripple in a pond to the extended family, right out to Cooper, her great grandson now just a few months with us.
She adored her family but the adoration was not one way, it was mutual and two way for they worshipped her in equal measure. She was a part of their lives, never a bystander, never just a looker on. She rejoiced in their achievements and adventures. But her life didn’t stop there at the boundaries of her family. There was room for total immersion in life around her”.
There were no half measure for Phil – she was the one who kept alive, well and healthy, the local initiatives involving Drogheda Cares at Christmas and the tourist office – and the list could go on for. Here in the Augustinian she was a giver, first and last.
Fr O’Donovan said “Colour and laughter were, if you like, her signature trademarks. She was young at heart always and remained so to the very end. And it will be same in Paradise. There will be colour and talking. Phil and talking went together.
Musicians play and sing ”The Banks of My Own Lovely Lee” in acknowledgement of her native Cork roots of Phil Conyngham, the much loved and respected woman, that made Drogheda her home.
And also there will be late nights up there too from now on to go with the endless talking and if up to now they have kept regular hours in Heaven they won’t any more. She will introduce them to late nights. From now on Heaven will be a changed place and let’s hope for everyone’s sake that up there too there will be opportunity for shopping!”
He quoted from a poem by Augustinian priest Fr Padraig Daly – “There will be a day in the end when there will be no need to explain anything. While we will row across the short channel to the island and find you our God standing where the white shingle drops deeply into the sea waiting to gather us under your russet coat”.
“That’s the language of faith. Those are the word we need today. Words to help us to distil hope from the low horizon of this grey day. We are the ones crossing the channel to the opposite side.”
Musicians, singers and percussionists at the funeral Mass included Michael Holohan, Helen Leahy, Amy Judge, Kieran Gallagher, Barry Leahy, Breffni Holohan, Terry McHugh and John McCrae.
