Tom Niland's smile 'reached every corner of the world', mourners hear

Tom Niland’s first cousin Michael Walsh, close neighbours and lifelong friends were joined by hundreds of mourners from the community. Picture: Sorcha Crowley

For a man who was so shy and unassuming, the gentle smile of Sligo farmer Tom Niland had “reached every corner of the world and touched the hearts of so many people who never knew him.” 

Chief celebrant Fr Michael Gilroy led prayers at the 75-year-old’s funeral in St Adamnan’s Church, Skreen, rural west Sligo on Thursday afternoon amid an outpouring of love from a farming community as close to Tom Niland as the family he never had.