'Emotional' skydive event raises over €43k for Hospice
The untimely deaths of two much-respected members of the GAA community in Clareen last year was the catalyst for a spectacular fundraising event which raised a staggering €43,244 for a hospice in the Midlands.
In what turned out to be a very emotional morning at the Irish Parachute Club in Clonbullogue on Sunday morning last, June 6, Keeva Abbott, Paddy Connors and John Sampson bravely took to the skies to finally complete a skydive which had been postponed on two previous occasions due to Covid restrictions.
The massive fundraising effort was organised by the local Seir Kieran GAA Club in Clareen to honour the memory of club stalwart and well-known referee Kevin Abbott, who passed away from pancreatic cancer last November at the young age of 46, and Lusmagh native, Rosaleen Connors, who lost her cancer battle in August of last year.
Kevin Abbott, who worked as a milkman, was one of the most popular referees in Offaly, and was a very valued member of the Seir Kieran GAA Club for many years. He was also a very popular member of the local community and his untimely death robbed his heartbroken wife, Donna, and his family of four, of a loving husband and father.
It was the late Kevin Abbott’s refeering colleague and friend, John Sampson, who came up with the idea of organising a skydive to raise funds for a Midlands Hospice, and he was joined in the event by Kevin’s eldest daughter, Keeva, and also by another Seir Kieran Club stalwart, Paddy Connors, who lost his beloved wife, Rosaleen, to cancer on August 29 last year.
The late Rosaleen Connors, who was a mother of four and was predeceased by her daughter, Melissa, was a member of one of Offaly GAA's most well-known families, the Troys of Lusmagh, and was a sister of All-Ireland winners John and Jim.
Speaking to the Offaly Independent after last weekend’s skydive, an emotional Seir Kieran GAA Club vice-chairman, Aidan O’Neill, described it as being “bittersweet.” As a lifelong friend of Kevin Abbott, Aidan said the day was “a huge success” but he added that there was “something very final about it, and it was very, very emotional for everybody.”
The members of the Seir Kieran GAA Club and everybody from the South Offaly GAA community, as well as the bereaved families, poured their “heart and soul” into the fundraising effort to ensure that the vital facility of a Midlands Hospice becomes a reality, but Aidan O’ Neill said there was “an air of finality” once the skydive was completed, and it was “hard to describe” the depth of emotion that everyone felt afterwards, and is still feeling, in the local community.
To add to the poignancy surrounding the whole event, one of the organisers who helped with all the publicity, including the poster to advertise the skydive, and who took pictures of the three participants, Martin McCarthy, also passed away before the skydive took place.
“We have no doubt that Martin, Kevin and Rosaleen were with the three brave skydivers, Keeva, Paddy and John on Sunday morning last, and it would be a very fitting memory to all of them if the Midlands get its own Hospice,” said Aidan O’Neill.
The GAA club vice-chairman thanked everyone who helped to make the skydive such a successful event, and said the entire GAA community, particularly in South Offaly should be “immensely proud” of the work they had put into the fundraising effort.
“I suppose we are all feeling very emotional at the moment, but out of such sadness it is very important to get the message across that the Midlands really needs its own Hospice, and we are delighted that we have been able to play some small part in making that happen through the bravery of Keeva, Paddy and John and the generosity of the local community,” said Aidan O’Neill.