The sudden, unexpected death of well-known Milltown man Pat Feerick at his home in the early hours of Sunday, November 18th shocked and hugely saddened the local community, and many, many people around the county and farther afield. Pat who was in his mid sixties, and who enjoyed good health all his life, was a distinguished GAA figure, as a player, referee, a selector of the Galway U-21s in the early 1980s, and a highly successful coach and team manager at club level. He was also a noted and very popular figure on the cards circuit, one of the great social traditions of Irish life. In his younger days he was a member of Milltown Amateur Drama Society. A non-drinker, he was proud to wear his Pioneer pin. First and foremost though, Pat Feerick was a great family man and while the parish of Milltown mourns his loss and will miss him greatly, the thoughts of everybody in the community are with his wife Eileen, daughter Sharon, son Michael, and his brother Luke who died in England in December 2001. Growing up in the rural West of Ireland in the late 1940s and '50s, life was spartan and difficult, with farming the main income, although it was rare that it could sustain whole families. Therefore, emigration became a way of life for the young men and women of Ireland - the "Flight from the Snipe Grass', as the late, great Aran Islands man Breandán Ó hEithir called it, with bitterness - but not everybody went away. Many young men, including Pat Feerick, chose to stay home; to learn a trade, work hard and make their way in life without taking the boat to Holyhead or the emigrant ship to America. Pat trained as a motor mechanic in Tuam, and with his uncle Paddy Hehir from neighbouring Liskeavy, who specialised in machinery, as a result of which Pat became a highly accomplished diesel mechanic, taken on by the rapidly expanding local firm Farraghers, for whom he worked for many years in Garrafrauns, near Dunmore and later in Tuam. In the early 1970s, he decided to open his own business at his home in Carrarea, on the N17, less than a mile from milltown village, and there he established a business that became very successful; he enjoyed an excellent relationship with his many customers; he worked hard, and it was also well known that over the years he was a man capable of many private acts of kindness, and consideration of people's circumstances. By nature, he was quiet, modest and unassuming. He was the least boastful or egotistical of men, but inside he had a tough spirit, a steely determination to do his work properly in his workshop or on the football fields, and he frowned on lack of preparation, half-measures, half-hearted application to the task on hand, and anything less than 100 per cent. He was a shy man if paid a compliment; he prefer the team ethos to individual expression, although he delighted in uncovering special talent in individuals, and he had an unwavering belief in proper behaviour, on and off the field. In all aspects of his life, he had high standards, from a bedrock of sound values. He was a true gentleman and an inspiring friend and colleague. Pat Feerick was particularly well known for his lifelong love of Gaelic football. His career paralleled the path to renown of his brother Miko, one of Milltown's greatest ever footballers. In his own quiet, understated way Pat was his beloved brother's greatest supporter, while in turn as a team manager in later years he frequently turned to Miko for advise and support, as he did, too, in his enduring close friendship with is first cousin John Hehir. Of all the great football people of Milltown who'll miss Pat Feerick, his loss will be most keenly felt by Miko and john. Pat played County Minor with Galway in 1959 (winning a Connacht Championship), and he won a County Junior Championship in 1961, playing on a Milltown team that was captained by his future brother-in-law Billy Kelly. Along with his brother Miko he won a County S.F.C medal in 1971 and he was leader of the management team which guided the club to its second Frank Fox Cup victory in 1981, the Silver Jubilee of which was celebrated at a special function in claremorris on January 13th last. In his early days he was a forward but he won his County medal in '71 as a teak-tough corner-back along with two other formidable men of the rearguard, Noel Tierney and the team captain Seán Brennan, both of whom said more than once at the funeral last week that Pat was exceptionally talented at "reading" the game and also in supporting his fellow defenders if they were being put under pressure. Typical of the man, he was the living embodiment of the true team player. He will be much missed, too, by his cards partner of the last 40 years, Val Flatery, and by Val's wife Helen. Pat and Val were known everywhere in the West of Ireland that the game of "25" was played; they had its myriad tricks and secrets down to a fine art; they were feared by all opposition; they lost only when they took pity on others having a bad run on the night, and they enjoyed every minute of it. In 1979, Pat married Eileen Gill from Menlena, Dunmore; Sharon was born in a1981 and Michael in 1983. Family life in Carrarea was quiet joy to Pat, Eileen, their children, the extended family and their many friends, and good neighbours. There was a very large turn-out at the removal of the remains from Glynns' Funeral Home, Tuam, to St Joseph's Church, Milltown, on Wednesday evening last, and at the Requiem Mass on Thursday, followed by burial at Liskeavy Cemetery. On both days, the beautifully expressed tributes paid by Fr J.J Cribben, P.P Milltown, himself a gifted footballer in his younger days, were gently consoling to the Feerick family and inspirational to all others present. The graveside oration was given by Joe Waldron, a team-mate of Pat in the 1971 County Championship triumph and lifelong friend. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. Courtesy of The Tuam Herald. November 29, 2007. Tweet

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