The death has occurred of Anna Maher (née Ryan) Jerpoint West, Thomastown, Kilkenny

Died on June 2, 2024

The death has taken place of Anna Maher (née Ryan), Jerpoint West, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, peacefully, in the care of the staff of Kilkenny Care Centre, Newpark, Kilkenny, 2nd June 2024.

Predeceased by her mother Eileen, sister Mary, grandchild Kyle, grandmother Maggie Ryan, uncles Neddy and Martin, aunts Mary, Kathleen and Peggy, cousin Maura.

Sadly missed by her loving husband Jim, sons Paul and Peter, grandchildren Jaegar, Lauren, Reis, Shauna and Jordan, great-grandchildren Jenson and Myla, daughters-in-law Debbie and Sharon, brothers and sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews, extended family and great neighbours and friends.

MAY ANNA REST IN PEACE

Reposing in the Mercy Side Chapel, Church of the Assumption, Thomastown, from 5.30pm to 7pm on Monday, pausing for Vigil prayers at 6.30pm. Requiem Mass on Tuesday at 11am in the Church of the Assumption, Thomastown, followed by burial in St Mary’s New Cemetery, Thomastown.

Anna’s funeral Mass can be viewed online at https://thomastownparish.ie/webcam/

A message of sympathy can be left by using the Condolence option below. Family flowers only please, donations to the friends of St Columba’s hospital. A donation box will be provided.

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Reflection

“The sun will be darkened.” How does Pope Francis say we can help bring light back to the darkened sun? And what can we learn from the fig tree?
Dear brothers and sisters, that is the word that makes hope blossom in the world and relieves the suffering of the poor: tenderness. Compassion that leads you to tenderness. We need to overcome our self-absorption, interior rigidity, which is the temptation nowadays, that of the “restorationists”, who want a Church completely orderly, completely rigid: this is not of the Holy Spirit.
We have to overcome this, in order to make hope blossom amid this rigidity. It is up to us to overcome the temptation to be concerned only about our own problems; we need to grow tender before the tragedies of our world, to share its pain. Like the tender leaves of a tree, we are called to absorb the pollution all around us and turn it into goodness.
It is useless to keep talking about problems, to argue and to be scandalized – all of us can do that. What we need to do is imitate the leaves that daily, imperceptibly, turn dirty air into clean air. Jesus wants us to be “converters” of goodness: people who breathe the same heavy air as everyone else, but respond to evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21). People who act: by breaking bread with the hungry, working for justice, lifting up the poor and restoring their dignity. As the Samaritan did.
Pope Francis