Purcell, Sean
September 30, 2005
Thousands mourn the passing of 'The Master'
It was by far the biggest funeral ever to take place in Tuam as Sean Purcell was finally laid to rest yesterday afternoon following the biggest outpouring of emotion ever experienced in the area.
His family and incredibly wide circle of friends openly shed a tear as he was laid to rest in Tuam Cemetery following a packed funeral Mass held in the Cathedral of the Assumption.
well known personalities from the GAA, the media, the world of politics along with many business leaders attended the removal and the funeral to bid farewell to a man who was regarded by many as the greatest footballer who ever lived.
Sean Purcell died on Saturday in Dublin having suffered bad health in the last month. The legendary footballer, who won an All-Ireland medal with Galway in 1956, 10 county titles with Tuam Stars and was a member of the St. Jarlath's College team which won the first Hogan Stand title in 1947, was highly regarded throughout the length and breadth of the country.
Such was his immense popularity that he was lying in state in the Oratory at St. Jarlath's College from Monday evening, when his body was brought back to Tuam, until Tuesday evening when his remains were removed to the nearby Cathedral.
Well known football and hurling personalities from all over the county came to Tuam to pay their respects to the man more often referred to as "The Master" than his actual name.
As mourners filed along the corridor leading to the Oratory to pay their respects to Sean's two sons, and three daughters, they could view at first hand the wall of photographs of the St. Jarlath's team which won All-Ireland colleges finals and, poignantally, the nearest one to the chapel was the picture containing "The Master".
The Cathedral in Tuam was full to capacity yesterday for the funeral Mass. The main celebrant was his brother in law Fr. Tommy Shannon who is the Parish Priest in Ballinroe.
Fr. Shannon said, in his homily to the large congregation, that it could be argued that Sean Purcell entered the 'Promised Land' at his birth - so many were the gifts of nature with which God blessed him.
"The first and most obvious was his skill with a football that he showed when he was little more than four years of age. Growing up in Dublin Road he was given every incentive to develop his budding talent."
"Right across the road was Parkmore where, in the early thirties, two All-Ireland semi-finals were played, Mayo versus Kerry in 1933 and Galway versus Cavan in 1934," he said.
Fr. Shannon said that there was a wonderful buzz about Parkmore in those years that must have made a young boy dream of wonderful years ahead.
He explained that Sean's early years in the presentation Convent under Sister Fursey and later in the C.B.S. prepared him well for the exposure to football skills and training that he found when he entered St. Jarlath's College in 1942.
"It was my privilege to be in the College in 1947 when Sean starred on the team that brought St. Jarlath's College its first Hogan Cup victory."
"I well remember the excitement of the homecoming from Croke Park, the bunting that bedecked the college, the march out the Dublin Road to welcome the heroes home and the exuberance of Archbishop Walsh as he addressed the huge crowd at the entrance to the college," said Fr. Shannon.
He then produced for the congregation the headlines from the newspaper cuttings that he has kept for the past 58 years which state: "Purcell's kicking was match winner" and "St. Jarlath's have star".
"The teenage star of 1947 was destined to become a star at ever level as he made his prodigious talent available to club, county, province, university and country over fifteen years."
"Modest, self-effacing, almost to a fault, you often had the impression that he was being apologeitc, even dismissive about all his successes, somehow embarrassed by the range of his skills and the extent of his fame."
"And linked with that modesty was another admirable quality - his respect for the talent and reputation of other players within the county, the province, the country. Especially those who did not meet with the success their footballing careers so richly deserved."
"Nobody understood better than Sean what it meant to suffer disapointment as a player or defeat as a team. Time and again his words in the losers' dressing room, picking out the consoling good points left the players feeling so good - almost as if they had won,"
"No wonder he was held in such high regard by his contemporaries within the county and province and by footballers all over the country. They knew his admiration for them was not tainted by condescension or the superior air, but born out of sincere, unfeigned praise.
"His kind, gentle and unassuming manner won him many, many friends among footballers - colleagues and opponents alike. But their number cannot compare with the legion of friends he made just by being himself. He had a capacity to make friends as great as his ability to score.
"And for every score he notched up throught out his illustrious career there is a friend of his somewhere to match it - hundreds of them here today.
These friendships mattered to him and he cherished them. His friendship was valued highly, of course. Friends loved his company, wit, his intelligence. Sean had a keen intellect.
"If he could have accepted the discipline of writing and given it the time he gave to football and training, I am certain he would have emerged as a writer of note.
"But of course, football was easier. And so too, was singing. Blessed with a great sense of rhythm and impeccable timing, Sean often made a party come alive with his party pieces - "Steamboat Bill" and "The Green, Green Grass of Home".
I remember well how when singing "The Green, Green Grass of Home," he would look towards me with impish delight as he sang 'There's a sad old padre'", Fr. Shannon concluded.
Courtesy of the Connacht Tribune
September 2005
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