Ciara Mageean was ‘determined to give everybody a day to remember’, funeral hears
Stephen Lavery (2nd right) holds an Irish tricolour flag alongside a woman holding an Olympic flag as the coffin of athlete Ciara Mageean is carried to St Patrick’s Church on Ballyphilip Road in Portaferry, Co Down, ahead of her funeral service. Picture: Liam McBurney/Press Association
Mourners at the funeral of Olympian Ciara Mageean have heard of her determination to give wedding guests a day to remember as she married the love of her life shortly before her death.
The former European 1,500-metre champion died on Sunday, aged 34, after being diagnosed with bowel cancer.
Mageean, from Portaferry, Co Down, represented Ireland at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
She made history in 2024 by winning European gold in Rome, becoming just the second Irish athlete, after Sonia O’Sullivan, to secure an individual European title.
In 2025, she revealed she had been diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer, with a likely terminal prognosis.
Mageean married her long-time partner, Tommy Moran, last month. They held a ceremony at Belfast City Hall before hosting a larger celebration at Darver Castle in Co Louth.
On Tuesday, hundreds of mourners followed the funeral cortege as Mageean’s coffin was carried into the grounds of St Patrick’s Church in her home town of Portaferry.
Young players from Portaferry Gaelic Athletic Club, where Mageean played camogie growing up, lined the route alongside her husband and family members as her remains were brought into the churchyard.
The players formed a guard of honour as the coffin was carried into the church for the requiem Mass.
The homily was delivered by Fr Martin Kelly, who was parish priest at St Patrick’s from 2000 to 2009 and had known Mageean since she was eight.
He spoke of the Olympian’s recent marriage and how she was determined to give her guests a “lavish, memorable occasion”.
Addressing Mr Moran, he told him: “You were the love of her life.”
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Describing the couple’s celebrations, the priest added: “There were two events for her wedding and she looked radiant at both of them, at the centre of each event, and I saw her dancing and singing, so full of joy and so happy to be able to celebrate her big day with Tommy.
“She was determined to give everybody a day to remember. After the second celebration she retired to her hospice bed and that was it, she sank lower and lower, but she held out until last Sunday just passed, the Feast of All Saints. What an appropriate day. She was surrounded by her family as she passed on peacefully.”
Fr Kelly said two moments in Mageean’s athletics career stood out in his memory.
“The first was when she returned home to Portaferry after winning a world silver medal at the world under-18s meeting in Canada,” he said.
“When she arrived on the ferry from Strangford there was a wide circle of Portaferry people to welcome her. She stepped off the ferry on to the slipway like a young sea goddess from the lough, wrapped in the tricolour, with a smile to warm all hearts. She gave me the warmest hug you could imagine. I have always treasured that moment. And we were all so proud of her.
“My second standout moment was when in Rome at the final of the European Championships in 2024. On the home straight she was third behind two runners who had boxed her in. She said to herself ‘you’re not going to box in a Portaferry camogie player that easily’. So she waited and she waited until an opening came and she cut through like a knife through butter, hitting the line with her arms in the air, getting gold and becoming European champion.”
He added: “She stood on the podium wrapped in a tricolour, listening to the Irish national anthem. We all had tears in our eyes, our hearts bursting with joy and pride.”
Fr Kelly recalled visiting Mageean in her hospice room in the weeks before her death.
He said they spoke about the “final big challenge” of death as he administered the sacrament of the sick.
The priest said Mageean then suggested they go for a walk.
“I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t expecting that,” said Fr Kelly.
“I said ‘sure’, thinking that it would be easy, because of her condition, I would be able, even at my age of 85, to match her stride for stride, but for Ciara a walk was much more than a dander.
“We did a round of a few streets up round the hospice and when we got to the top she said ‘let’s do another round’. I nearly collapsed. Then she said ‘let’s go back to the room’.
“On the way down she knew I was struggling and she said ‘let me link you’.
“Now there is still a bit of the macho man in me, so I hesitated. Linking arms wasn’t me. Then I gave in.
“One of my happiest moments and memories is that of Ciara Mageean linking my arm as we walked back to her room, just a few weeks before she went to heaven. Thank you Ciara from the bottom of my heart. May you pray for us all and continue to link all of us now on our journeys through life on our way to heaven, where we will all meet again.”
At the end of the homily, Fr Kelly quoted a tribute posted on Facebook by someone who did not know Mageean personally but described her as “a truly remarkable, immensely talented and inspirational human being whose courage, humility, infectious smile and indomitable spirit touched hearts far beyond the world of athletics”.
The priest also quoted the closing words of the tribute: “The brightest lights never truly fade. Their warmth lives on in the hearts of those they touched.”
Stormont First Minister Michelle O’Neill, SDLP leader Claire Hanna, Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) president Jarlath Burns and Irish Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Rhys McClenaghan were among the mourners.
Representatives of President Catherine Connolly and Taoiseach Micheál Martin also attended the funeral.
Mageean is survived by her parents, Christopher and Catherine, sisters Máire and Nuala, and brother Brendan.
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