Our whole community was shocked and saddened by the sudden and totally unexpected death of Sarah O’Reilly. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to her grieving family and her special close friends and associates. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Sarah was truly unique in our community. It is not an exaggeration to say that the contribution she made to our church and parish and to the many people whose lives she touched is immeasurable.

Her activities have left literally hundreds of people with happy memories of experiences which will remain with them all their lives. One can only try to list some of her attributes and accomplishments.

The driving force in her life and the source of all her strength and motivation was her extraordinary devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist. She placed absolute reliance on and trust in Jesus in daily Mass and communion. That was the secret of all her success.

Her love of God and her faith were certainly not insular or self-centred, it was expressed as it should be in all sincere Christians, in all kinds of charitable works. She was consumed with a passionate love of her parish and the life of the parish and in particular with the upkeep and welfare of the church.

Over very many years, with various kinds of fund raising efforts, she raised hundreds of thousands of euros for the church and the parish primary schools. Many times over she baled the schools out of financial difficulties.

She was a member of the Board of Governors of the Parish Schools for very many years and more recently was a member of the newly constituted Parish Pastoral Council. She was one of the first group of special ministers of the Eucharist commissioned for the parish when special ministers were introduced many years ago and remained a minister until her death.

Sarah took a tremendous pride in keeping the church looking well and was one of the dedicated group of women who work hard, week in and week out, to keep our church in pristine condition. For many years she played an active part in the annual novena of grace, sitting at her table at the back of the church giving out novena leaflets, taking petitions and donations for lamps.

She was instrumental in fulfilling the desire of many parishioners to introduce devotion to St Martha in the parish. A statue of the saint was procured and shrine set up and now the prayers to St Martha are recited after mass every Tuesday. I’m given to understand that many people from outside the parish come to pray at St. Martha’s shrine on a regular basis.

Another one of Sarah’s charitable works was her support for Father Eddie Elliot, a native born Ringsender working with very poor people in Mexico. She also raised funds to sponsor an athlete in the Special Olympics a couple of years ago.

Apart from the annual parish Christmas raffle which Sarah organised and managed with great ability and with great success, her principal means of raising funds for the parish was running bingo. First in the school hall and latterly in the CYMS (now the CMWS) and one other thing, without the mention of which this piece would be very incomplete.

I am referring of course to the ‘Ballroom of Romance’ which has taken on almost institutional status in the parish. The title has a funny side to it, because apart from the very early days when Joe Carroll and the late Mike Nolan were involved, there isn’t a man in sight, just a group of women enjoying themselves, but also raising funds for one charity or another.

Every so often there would be a ‘special’, a special meal and/or a special guest artist such as Sonny Knowles or some other. Out of the ‘Ballroom’, Sarah also organised various outings and excursions, booking for shows etc. With her genius for managing money, Sarah always derived some dividend for the parish or some deserving charity from these various events.

Another thing that Sarah and her friends did was that they organised the catering for ‘the cup of tea’ after some event in the church or some other parish occasion. When the CYMS committee, as it was then, finally handed over the running of the bingo to Sarah for her to run in aid of the parish schools (after labouring at it ourselves for forty years) she and her associates became members of our society.

They later played a part in the process by which we came to change our name to ‘The Catholic Men & Women’s Society of Ireland’. In fact Sarah, Betty Barry, Miriam Murphy, and Geraldine Thorp became members of our branch committee. Happily Betty, Miriam and Geraldine are still part of our committee. Betty is our very valued branch secretary.

Notwithstanding all that I have already said about Sarah, perhaps what many people, including many people from outside the parish, will best remember Sarah for are the many pilgrimages and holidays she organised over the years. Pride of place has to go to her organization of the parish pilgrimage to Lourdes for many, many years. Apart from that she brought people to Rome, Paris, which included visits to the Rue de Bac, Notre Dame, Sacré-Coeur, Lisieux and Nevers where we were able to see the remains of St Bernadette, San Giovanni, Medjugorje, Assisi, Padua and Lanciano (where the miracle of the liquefaction of the precious blood occurs annually).

But for me the best of all was the pilgrimage to the Holy Land Sarah organized in 1997. This was the experience of a life time. We were based first in Bethlehem and then in Nazareth. The best way to describe it is to say that we were in every single place where the events of the twenty mysteries of the rosary happened. The memory of all those places brings the rosary alive in your mind when you pray it.

We also sailed on the Sea of Galilee. We even had a storm crossing from one shore to the other, it brought the gospel alive in actual experience. There was one very funny aspect to it. In the middle of the storm Bill O’Brien began to sing a sea-shanty. I can only remember one line of the song, it was ‘And down to the bottom we did go’.

However, the Lord was with us, the storm abated as quickly as it started and we reached the opposite shore safely. The whole pilgrimage was a wonderful experience, one you would never forget and all due to Sarah and, in fairness one must say to Fr. Finbarr Mullane, our much loved former Curate, who worked with Sarah on the planning of it all.

Sarah was a very whole person. As well as being an exemplary practising Catholic she also enjoyed life. She liked a good holiday, she enjoyed good food, she liked a drink. She struck a good balance in her life.

She always had her priorities right. She kept God in the first place, she worked hard and did a great deal of good and now and again she relaxed and enjoyed herself. I’m sure she is gone to a good reward for a full life well lived.

At this point I think it is right and fair to pay tribute to and say ‘Thanks’ to her many friends and associates who stood faithfully with Sarah down the years and supported her in all her endeavours. Some of her friends have decided to keep the bingo and the ballroom going. They are doing that out of love for Sarah, because they know that is what she would want, fair play to them.

I can only think of one way to sum up the life and work of Sarah O’Reilly and her contribution to the parish of St Patrick, Ringsend and it is the simple truth, there is no one to take her place.

May she rest in peace.