'The kindest soul with the most generous heart': Sadness as Buncrana man Martin McCallion laid to rest

The Buncrana man was laid to rest following Requiem Mass in St Mary’s Church, Cockhill, which was packed to overflowing with mourners.

The ‘well-known and so well-liked’ mechanic passed away following a reported workplace incident last week.

His daughter, Joanne, told mourners how her father was someone who didn’t care about material things and ‘literally would have given you the shirt off his back’.

“It would probably have been black rotten with oil but he would still have given it to you if you needed it.

She added: “Daddy didn’t care about material things - memories were the most important things to him - spending time together and living in the moment.

"He loved telling a story and a very good story teller he was too. Over the last few days, we have heard some wonderful stories and shared some lovely new memories of daddy.”

Her father, added Joanne, was a ‘simple man – no bells, no whistles, no bows, no frills’.

"What you saw is what you got. If daddy was here, he would tell you all that tomorrow isn’t promised, you can’t take it with you, so live life, make new memories, see new places and maybe buy a scratch card or two along the way.”

Joanne told how, while ‘ironically’ her father told others to ‘slow down and take it easy,’ he ‘was going through life at 100 miles per hour, just maybe not as long drives on the fairway.’

"But, you can slow down now, daddy and you can take it easy for once. Don’t be fixing everyone’s car up there.”

Speaking on behalf of her family, Joanne thanked everyone for their huge outpouring of prayers, kindness, love and support over this last week’.

"A special word of thanks to the paramedics, doctors and nurses of Letterkenny University Hospital, who worked so hard to try to save daddy."

"Daddy fought so hard to stay with you all and you all hold a special place in his heart.

Joanne concluded with a poem. The Offertory gifts included a Celtic FC top, a family picture, a rally car and a phone.

Celebrant Fr Paddy Baker expressed his sympathies to Martin’s wife, Martina, his children Joanne, Christopher, Jennifer and Mark, his parents Anna and Barney, siblings and extended family and told them how it was ‘hard to put into words the grief you are going through at this time’,

He added how Martin’s death evoked ‘widespread shock and a sense of almost disbelief, not just for Martin and his family, but for all of us in the parish and for the wider community’.

Martin, he added ‘was so well-known and so well liked and so well go by so, so many people’.

He had worked for many years as a mechanic, in places such as Desmonds in Derry, with Martin Molloy in Magherabeg and in Bradley’s in Buncrana.

Fr Baker described him as an ‘excellent mechanic’ who ‘worked around the clock’ and ‘never saw anyone stuck’.

“Martin was always prepared to go the extra mile to help someone in need’.

When he wasn’t working, said Fr Baker he loved to play golf in Buncrana on a Sunday morning and ‘his other passion’ was Celtic Football Club.

He also loved playing snooker and ‘the rallies were very much part of his life as well’.

However, mourners were told, Martin was ‘first and foremost a family man’.

His family, who he ‘always looked after so well,’ were the ‘most important people in his life’.

Fr Baker outlined how the huge numbers of people in attendance at Martin’s wake and funeral represented the esteem in which he was held and how popular he was.