The late Mary Connolly

1935 - 2012 MARY Connolly of Old Marian Park, Tralee passed away peacefully after a short illness in Kerry General hospital on January 3, 2012 surrounded by her loving family.

Mary (nee Lyons) was born in Derry, Listowel on August 6, 1935 to parents William and Annie (nee Lyons), she was the oldest daughter in a family of five. She had one older brother Mike who passed away in April, 2010 and was sister and confidante to Josie, Anne and Kit.

Mary attended Clounmacon National School and then attended Presentation Convent Secondary School, on completion of her leaving certificate she began working in Paddy O'donnell's of Rock Street.

She then moved to the other side of Tralee and began working in Vale's Bar in Boherbee in 1954 where she also lived with the Vale family for five happy years.

While in Boherbee she met the love of her life Noel Connolly. As was the practice at the time Mary gave up work after their wedding in April, 1959. Mary and Noel lived in Boherbee for a short time before moving to Marian Park to care for Noel's mother Cathy.

Here they lived a happy life and were blessed with a family of 12 children and later on 18 grandchildren. Mary's family were her number one priority in life.

Not only was she their mother but was also a great friend, a great listener and also a great giver of advice to all her children and to her grandchildren. At her recent funeral mass she was described as the captain of the Connolly ship.

Her door was always open and when the lads were young. Come morning time she would often have extra children for breakfast. She was proud to call these her adopted children. Also when her sisters called with their families a dinner was produced for them at a minute's notice.

Mary had many great sayings but the one she instilled in all her family was that "You'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" meaning that being nicer to people would yield far greater results.

Mary loved family events and nothing gave her more joy than to have all of the family gathered around her. Mary's final family gathering was on December 18 for their annual Kris Kringle family lunch and present giving which always took place on the Sunday before Christmas Day.

Through her husband Noel she found an interest in the greyhounds and in her younger years was a regular attendee of the Tralee track. When the Noel Connolly trained Black Rock won the Irish Cup in Clounanna in 1995, there wasn't a prouder woman in the country.

Another passion of Mary's was the John Mitchels Club. she loved to tell the younger people in the club that she attended her first Mitchels Social in the Meadowlands Hotel in 1954 and attended their recent social in 2011 in Ballygarry House hotel.

Since the 1980's when Noel was the club chairman and in later years when he served as an officer of the cub, Mary could be found catering for the campsite during the Festival of Kerry, helping out in the club bar, washing jerseys or just doing whatever was needed at a particular time.

She was a regular attendee of football matches and would not look out of place at the club juvenile blitz in July or at a senior teams match in December.

Mary also loved knitting whether it was school uniform jumpers when the children were young, the red or white collars for the coursing in September or matinee jackets for her grandchildren or for friends. As soon as Mary heard of a new or impending arrival the needles were out and a work of art was produced.

Mary's most recent interest was her laptop. With this she discovered the internet and became a member of Facebook where she kept in regular contact with relatives in Australia and with friends in other far off countries.

She was also a fan of Google and if any new tablets were prescribed by her doctor, they were Googled and then questioned the side effects, much to the dismay of her pharmacist.

Mary was a woman of great faith and had a special devotion to the Sacred Heart. Her family would call on her to say a special novena in times of need like leaving cert or driving tests.

She had her special times to say her prayers during the day and phone calls were always ignored during these times.

Most of all Mary was a patient, kind, understanding, humble woman who loved the simple things in life.

At Mary's removal from the Mcelligott Funeral Home and at the funeral mass, the affection in which she was held was evident from the large crowd in attendance. The guard of honour at both the removal and the burial was provided by the John Mitchels GAA Club.

Mary was predeceased by her husband Noel on November 1, 2000.

She will forever fondly remembered and will be sadly missed by her children, Micheál, Catherine (Keating, Limerick), Anne, Mary Jo, Claire, Liam, Brendan, Kieran, Declan, Martina (Flynn, Keel), Norma (Purtill) and Lorraine, grandchildren, great grandchildren, sisters Anne, Kit and Josie, her best friend Eilish, sons-inlaw, daughters-in-law, nieces, nephews, brother-inlaw, relatives, neighbours and many friends. May she rest in peace.

Mary's months mind Mass will take place on Saturday, February , in Kerry General Hospital at 8.15pm.