‘Your ghost will be a legend like that of Sam Maguire’

“Your ghost will be a legend like the famous Sam Maguire,” John Egan Jr said in a poignant tribute to his father, John, before shouldering the tricolour-clad coffin out of the Church of the Real Presence in Curraheen, Bishopstown.

He told how three words summed his father up perfectly — calm, composed, class.

“After every chat we had, I would feel I could take on the world,” John Jr said. “As you always said, it’s a pity we didn’t play together, we would have done some damage.”