Tim Meagher was born on July 31st 1958, the sixth child of Denis and Mary Meagher, Killough. He was an adorable baby and soon became a handsome and somewhat mischievous young boy, the pet of the family, in many respects. In fact when his blazer caught fire, one Sunday morning, lighting a candle before mass in the Sacred Heart Church Templemore, terrifying his Mother and members of the congregation that he was going to set the Church on fire – his Mother even forgave him that.

Tim went to Shanakill National school where the other seven members of his family all attended and from there to the CBS in Templemore. Academically bright, Tim’s interest was in business and he was also very good at Art in school, something that many people might not know or associate with him. When he left the CBS he made the decision to go and work in some line of business and started in Chadwicks of Navan. His Late Mother remembered the day she looked down the lane at Killough and exclaimed: ‘Tim is walking up the lane’. He had returned to Killough, to the farm, and that was certainly where his love and his passion were deeply rooted and flourished in the years that followed.

Tim had many friends far and wide and lived every minute of his 60 years on earth, with engagement, enthusiasm and warmth. He was particularly known and respected in Clonakenny, Killea and Knockinroe, the neighboring areas, and spent many nights in O’Sullivan’s Killea or the Norebrook in Clonakenny, happy to support local business and to have a chat and enjoy company socially. Tim would always call you by your first name and he was a very good judge of character.

In recent years he worked professionally as an agent for Dawn Meat’s Rathdowney and was excellent at his job. His boss Peter Quinn and colleagues used words such as ‘reliable’, ‘hardworking’, ‘competent’, and ‘well liked’ when they spoke about him. Tim would be out herding the cattle and one could hear him talking, not to the cattle, but to someone on the phone, as he closed a deal or did some other cattle related transaction. Tim regularly had the phone to his ear – but never when driving!!

His life changed for ever when he stopped one day to help an attractive woman changing a tyre at the side of the road, in Rathdowney outside Meadow Meats. That woman, Tina Khan, stole his heart and soon she and Darragh became a central part of Tim’s life. Tina was the love of Tim’s life and vice versa. Tim always loved children and he became a devoted Father to Darragh encouraging him in every way possible to reach his goals in life, right to his last days on earth. When Tina and Darragh came to Killough they brought colour, creativity, and an air of cosmopolitanism, that Tim, who loved to travel, appreciated – and so did family and neighbors. During the seventeen years they shared, they developed, among many other things, their home Sycamore House at Killough and Tim’s early interest in art reemerged as he and Tina started to enjoy looking at and collecting antiques, paintings and other interesting objects. They created a unique home together and with Darragh, where pets of many different species could roam freely and Tim continued to pursue his farming and business interests with dedication and commitment.

Just before our Mother died in September last year, Tim, Tina and Darragh visited her at Quinn’s in Thurles, on the day Darragh graduated from An Garda Siochana Templemore. Many tears were shed at Nana’s bedside that day – as everyone knew Mother’s days were numbered and Tim, her pet, was brokenhearted to see her go on September 29th. Her body reposed on the night before her burial, at Killough, her former home, surrounded by her children, grandchildren, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandchildren and great grandchildren, friends and neighbors, as they mourned the passing of a huge force in their lives.

No one could have contemplated that ten months later another hearse would drive up the lane to Killough, another huge force in our family taken from us, when Tim’s body returned from Spain. A most awful moment never to be forgotten.

On July 31st, Tim’s 60th birthday, he collapsed in Tenerife, Spain just outside the hotel, where he and Tina went to celebrate his birthday. When the phone calls came early that afternoon that Tim was critically ill, his family were in shock, disbelief and devastation. We all wanted to believe Tim would make it.  Mae his eldest sister, and Darragh went to join Tina and be at Tim’s beside. Tim had such energy and vitality and so much to live for – we all struggled to believe this was really happening to him. But as the days went by and the team of cardiologists, neurologists and other medical staff working to help him, realized his condition was fatal, the painful reality had to be accepted by all, that Tim was not going to make it, leaving so many of us utterly brokenhearted.  Much thanks are due to the medical staff who tried to save Tim’s life and in particular to Alexander the nurse who did so much to help Tina and Darragh at the hospital in Spain. Thanks also to Paddy McCabe and Noel Egan, Donie Gilmartin, Declan Bourke and Denis Bohan, who kept the farm operating in those distressing weeks Tim was ill in Spain. It was very hard on them all.

Tim died in the early hours of August 11th, with Tina and Darragh by his side.

Tim’s body reposed in Grey’s Funeral Home on Monday August 20th. A huge number of people came to pay their respects, a tribute to how well loved and respected Tim was. His body made the final journey from Killough the following morning, to St. James’ Church Killea where he and Tina married 7 years earlier. His motor cycle was driven, by his motor cycle instructor Tom Tynan, before the hearse -as Tim had recently taken up bike riding as a hobby and loved to go out for a spin particularly on Sunday afternoons. Fr. Hayes gave a beautiful sermon and for the final part of that sad journey, from the Church to St. James’ Graveyard Killea, Donie Gilmartin led a heifer before the hearse, something that would have made Tim smile, even if everyone else was crying.

He is buried close to the recently erected mass rock that is dedicated to all those buried in the graveyard – but in remembrance of all Mahers/Meaghers buried in that ancient place in Killea. Tim’s ancestors on both sides of the family are buried there around him.

Killough will never be the same without you Tim Meagher – for Tina, Darragh, sisters Mae, Anna, Kate, Carmel, Terri and Denise, brother Eamonn, sisters-in-law and brothers-in-Law, nieces, nephews, friends and neighbors. RIP

‘For what is it to die but to stand naked in the the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?’ – Khalil Gibran ‘The Prophet’

Family group mid 1970’s

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Family group at Mother’s 90th