Mrs Sheila Magee

A LOVING mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Mrs Sheila Magee, who lived in Ardglass, passed away on December 12 after a short illness. She was 89, and had lived a fulfilled and happy life which followed the twists and turns of almost an entire century.

Sheila has now gone to her eternal reward to join her beloved husband Harry Magee who pre- deceased her by 12 years.

A native of Tullow in County Carlow, she was born Sheila O’Neill on Easter Sunday, 1926, into a family of six children, her siblings being Patrick, Kathleen, Theresa, Chrissie and Johnny.   

She was the last surviving member of her own family who she fondly kept in touch with throughout her long life.  Indeed, frequent trips to her mother and father’s home place at Newstown, near Ardattin in County Carlow, became the stuff of family legend and indelible childhood memories. 

After World War Two she came north of the border to work in Belfast. It was there in the early 1950s that she met Harry Magee, a carpenter from Holywood, County Down.  They married in 1955, settled in Carolhill Drive in east Belfast and began raising a family of five children — Colm, Séamus, Brendan, Anne-Marie and Kevin.

From then on, Sheila dedicated her life to the happiness and well-being of all her children.  There was nothing she would not do for them. Determined to make a better life for her family,  she and Harry moved  to Ardglass at the height of the Troubles in the early 1970s to settle in Meadow Court.

Mrs Magee embraced her new home and village with the same enthusiasm she showed for everything else.   

If her life could be summarized  in two words, they would be faith and family.  She had been a member of the Derryvolgie branch of the Legion of Mary in Belfast and rejoined the Legion in Ardglass, where she selflessly worked and prayed for others, rising to become president of the local branch.

In the Eighties, she and Harry built their own home on the outskirts of the village at 226 Ardglass Road. Sheila lived there happily up until her final few weeks surrounded by her memories.  There she had spent long days attending her garden and greenhouse.  

There was little she liked more than to regale people with stories of growing up in rural Ireland in the Thirties and Forties — from becoming the county’s top flogging champion to remembering family and friends setting off on bicycles to watch Carlow’s historic Leinster final victory against Dublin in 1944 — sadly a feat never repeated. 

As the children grew up, Sheila helped steer them through their education which she valued greatly, and took great joy in their achievements in whatever diverse paths they chose to follow.   She watched with pride as her children flourished. She never judged and was always there to offer a helping or guiding hand if needed.

With her own children came the joy of her grandchildren and great grandchildren who she treated and cherished as her own.  All have fond memories of Granny Sheila and were there at the end to stand by her and to hold her hand.

Sheila passed away in Ardview nursing home in Ardglass which she entered just days before. Her family are indebted to the staff there and at the Downe Hospital for the care they showed her in her final hours.  Her family are comforted in the knowledge that she passed away as she had lived — with courage and strength surrounded by kindness.

Her Requiem Mass in St Nicholas’ Church, Ardglass, was celebrated by Father Gerard McCloskey . At the same time, two of her grandchildren, Michael Magee and Neal Monaghan, attended Mass and prayed for her at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue, New York.

Mrs Magee is survived by her sons, Colm, Séamus, Brendan and Kevin, daughter Anne-Marie, daughters-in-law Carol, Mandy and Stephanie, son-in-law Kieran, grandchildren Catherine, Karen, Connell, Owen, Michael, Brian, Ciara, Neal, Caolán, Conor and Odhrán, and great grandchildren Holly, Thomas, Grace, Ben and Jack.   

Go ndéana Dia Trocaire ar a h-anam dílis.