‘We will remember Kate with pride and affection’

THOUGH Kate was on the periphery of my life, I’ve known and been moved by her for most of 20 years.

She had an emotional and inspirational impact on her community beyond anything she, or her parents, Kathleen Anne and John, her brother, Jack, and her aunt, Sheila, could ever have imagined.

Kate’s family run the Wayside Inn in Cloghroe, a place most of you have driven through at some stage, a place being all too quickly subsumed by urbanisation. It is where the local clubs meet - GAA, rugby, coursing, shooting, school fundraisers, even the crowd twinned with a village out in Brittany, the local Fine Gaelers and golfers - plan their lives, celebrate their victories and mark their sadnesses.

Just last Sunday the rugby players of Waterpark had a few pints there after playing Muskerry. They were joined by a visiting harrier club, guests of the parish.

In many ways it is the real community centre in Inniscarra.

So, all those years ago, when Kate first became ill, the concern was communal, the response determined. It was one of the best things the community ever did and Kate’s, and her family’s response was, and is, profoundly moving. She showed us how to live a life unfettered by the slings and arrows, undaunted by seemingly impossible challenges. This was a young woman who faced great challenges to her well-being, her very existence, but lived as if nothing was impossible.

Never once did I see a dispirited or forlorn Kate. She did school - despite all the interruptions - finished college and was finishing her studies to become a solicitor. She was a life enhancer. No matter where or when you met her there was the smile and wave, often the laugh.

Kate endured enough for about four lifetimes but, I hope, enjoyed the short one she lived.

There are other Kates but she was the one I, and the community I live in, knew, was inspired by and will remember with pride and affection.

May she find peace.