McCarron, Uinseon
May 17, 2013The remains of a 24-year-old County Galway sports fanatic, who died in a single vehicle crash in Australia over the weekend, will be flown home for burial the middle of next week.
Uinseon McCanron from Bungowla, Inis Mor, had phoned home and spoken to his mother, just hours before he was involved in the fatal accident.
The accident occurred around 36 kilometres south of Condobolin, which is four hours west of Sydney on Saturday night/Sunday morning, according to local reports.
A post-mortem was due to be carried out on Tuesday and his remains are expected to be flown home on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. The Department of Foreign Affairs is providing consular assistance. He has two cousins living in Sydney who are helping with the arrangements. He will be laid to rest at Na Seacht Teampaill, next to a GAA field, one of his great loves.
He is survived by his parents Vincent and Barbara, brothers Oism, who lives in Canada, and Fiachra, who is in San Francisco, and sister Roisin, who is working in Dublin. Uinseon was the youngest child.
"If there was a Minister for Happiness then Uinseon was your man," said a friend, former selector and coach of Uinseon in CLG Oileain Arainn, Arthur Flaherty.
Mr Flaherty said the whole of Aran is in mourning and in shock at Uinseon's passing.
"It is so sad for a small island community like ours; it is a big shock. Everybody knew Uinseon, and I know everyone speaks well of the dead, but everything that is being said about him this week is true. He was a real character and he will be sadly missed... it's very hard on his family," he said.
Uinseon was a member of the successful Arainn junior team that won Comortas Peile na Gaeltachta in 2009, and played with the local football team from underage including U14, minor, U21 and at adult level, junior and intermediate.
He was a tall man and was a decent outfield player, at midfield, but was home for about eight weeks last October and November and was called up to play in goals in three league matches against Oughterard, Menlough and St Michael's.
He was a fan of Manchester United, loved Gaelic Football and hurling, especially when Galway was playing and he also supported Connacht Rugby. One of his last Facebook posts was "In Moyes we trust", according to Mr Flaherty.
Uinseon dabbled in a bit of Aussie Rules Football during his two years down under and earlier on in the day he passed away he was playing rugby with the local club. He had lived in Australia for about two years having first arrived in Sydney in mid-2011. He was working on a local farm for the past six months or so.
Mr Flaherty explained that Uinseon was also very involved in developing young players - for three years he trained young lads on the GAA Cul Camps summer courses.
He was also DJ at the local youth club and for four or five years was a popular MC at the islands' social highlight of the year, the trip to the mainland for the GAA club's annual social.
"He was MC at the dinner dance for four or five years when it was held in the Salthill Hotel - he was a great character and was really good at it."
Chairman of the Galway Football Committee, Tadhg 6 Conghaile, on behalf of Galway GAA, this week extended sympathy to the McCarron family.
Mr O Conghaile said that Uinseon, who would have been 25 next month, was an integral part of the Aran team that won the national Comortas competition.
Uinseon's teammates played and defeated Renvyle in a league final just hours after learning of his death. His family asked that the game go-ahead, according to Mr Flaherty, and the team - four or five of whom would have been in his class at school - dedicated the win to his honour.
Courtesy of The Connacht Tribune Tweet
