THE funeral has taken place of Eileen Melly née Lynch, College Farm Road, Letterkenny.
Requiem Mass was celebrated on Monday in St Eunan’s Catheral, Letterkenny, by Fr Kevin Gillespie.
Fr Gillespie drew a vivid comparison between Eileen’s story and Colm Tóibín’s celebrated novel — and later film — ‘Brooklyn’, in which a young Irish woman emigrates to New York in search of a new life.
“Eileen set sail from Cobh on a transatlantic liner, one of the last to make the journey in that manner, leaving her native Cavan and her large family at the tender age of 16 — a long journey in more ways than one, across the vast ocean full of dreams and hopes,” he said.
Fr Gillespie suggested that whatever private anxieties Eileen may have carried on that crossing, they would not have shown.
“Somehow, I feel that if Eileen had trepidations, they would not have been as evident as Saoirse Ronan’s character Eilish Lacey in the movie,” he added.
He described the young Eileen as full of life and confidence, working in bars and restaurants in New York where she was supported by family already settled there. It was in New York that she met her late husband, Eamonn Melly, and a happy union between Cavan and Donegal was born.
After some years in America, the couple returned to Letterkenny, where they ran Melly’s Bar on the Upper Main Street — a pub fondly remembered as the first in the town to serve ice cubes in drinks, a novelty Eileen and Eamon brought back from their years in the States.
Their three children — Mary, Eamonn and Sean — were born in New York but grew up in Letterkenny during the seventies and eighties. Though life eventually drew the children back across the Atlantic, Eileen took great joy from visiting them and her grandchildren John, Ronan, Rachel, Olivia and Sofia.
Fr Gillespie also paid heartfelt tribute to Eileen’s dear friend Mary Crossan, acknowledging how central her friendship had been in Eileen’s later years.
“We are well aware of how indebted the family feel — Eileen’s loss is the loss of a great friend as well.”
He said on behalf of the family that without Mary’s steadfast support, particularly as Eileen faced ill health and the challenges of older age, it was unlikely she would have been able to remain living at home.
Eileen is predeceased by her husband Eamonn (2001), brothers Tom and John and her sisters Bridie Marchetti and Kathleen McGlynn.
Deeply missed by her loving daughter Mary Flynn (Oliver), sons Eamonn and Sean (Marie), grandchildren John, Ronan, Rachel, Olivia and Sofia, brothers Benny Lynch (Josie) and Eamonn Lynch (Angela), nieces, nephews and a wide circle of family, friends and neighbours.