The Late Monsignor John Patrick Drury The funeral has taking place In Miltown Malbay of Monsignor John Patrick Drury. In his late sixties, he was a noted GAA footballer in his youth and played with the Clare minor team which was beaten by Louth in the All-Ireland final in 1953. He was also on the Clare minor team which beat Cork in the Munster final the previous year. Just three weeks after the 1953 All Ireland, he was a member of the Miltown Malbay team which beat Ennis Faughs in the county senior football championship final. The game was played in Miltown Malbay and a 17 years old John Drury scored the only goal and winning score for the local side from a free. He was educated in Miltown Malbay and afterwards in St Flannan's where he also made a name for himself as a footballer. He went on to be selected on the Munster Colleges senior football team which was a rare honour for Clare players during those years. One of his closest friends was Clare GAA supremo Noel Walsh with whom he was a member of the Miltown Malbay Swimming and Life Saving Club which won a provincial life saving title. They were life guards at the White Strand beach. Surprisingly enough he played little GAA football after 1953. When he concluded his secondary education he went to work in Dublin with one of his sisters. Patricia, in the Wills Tobacco Company. In Dublin he played with Bective Rangers RFC. He got a late vocation in his late 20's and after his ordination went on missionary work in Peru and afterwards in the Diocese of Northampton in England. He retired home three years ago and since then has been an assistant priest in Archdiocese of Tuam, working in Castlebar. In the past while he has been living in Tuam where another sister, Mary, is married to Brian Mahon, who was captain of the Galway minor football team which won an All Ireland title in 1952. Monsignor Drury was born in Birkenhead in England where his father was a medical doctor. However, when he died at a young age, his wife, the former Olive Wilson, returned to live in her native Miltown Malbay with her son John who was only four years of age. Monsignor Drury's remains were removed from a local funeral home to the church of the Holy Rosary, Castlebar. Requiem mass was celebrated in Miltown Malbay church, with burial in the church grounds. The deceased, who was a first cousin of footballers Mickey Wilson and the late Jimmy O'Neill, is survived by his sisters Mary and Paddy (Patricia), aunt Ena, brother-in-law Brian, nephews, nieces, grandnieces, grandnephews and cousins. Courtesy of the Clare Champion 29th July 2005 Tweet

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