The parish of Lorrha lost one its most faithful sons with the passing after a short illness in St. Kieran's Nursing home Rathcabbin on Saturday May 7th, of Michael O'Meara, Blakefield, Lorrha. The news of his death was received with a lot of sadness in the parish of Lorrha. Born on January 15th 1924, he was the second oldest of a family of three. Mary Jo his sister married Martin Kennedy, Lisduff, Aglish and his brother Bill sadly died in 1971 at the young age of 45. Mick was a highly respected member of the community and farmed in Blakefield all his life. He played hurling for Lorrha for many years and won two North Senior Championship medals, 1948 and 1956. A very skillful hurler, he played at wing forward, and at corner forward on occasions. A great and accurate free taker, he was given the title 'Blakefield' from the townsland where he was born so as to disguingish him from the other O'Meara families in the community.
Mick was a wealth of knowledge on Tipperary ad Lorrha hurling from the early 1940's up to recently. He would love to chat about all the games he played in, Borrisokane in particular against Kilruane, Roscrea etc and if any Lorrha player got injured and who was responsible for same. When he retired from playing, he was a selector on many Lorrha teams and gave a huge amount of his time to the club. He umpired with the late Hubie Hogan for many years and also with his great friend Sean O'Meara. Later in life, both their paths were to cross at they took up residency in St. Kieran's Nursing home where they were joined every Sunday evening by a visitor, Len Gaynor and what followed was a better programme than The Sunday Game on RTE as Sean, Mick and Len would discuss every game that was played on that day. Whenever Lorrha played a game, the results were quickly relayed to Mick as it was an important part of his life. His visits to Egans and the great chats he enjoyed with the late John Joe and Eva which often went long into the night, will be fondly remembered. He became known at that particular time as 'Hickey' after the well known GAA reporter J.D. Hickey who worked for the Irish Independent. No matter what conversation you had with Mick, he would invariably revert back to talk about Lorrha hurling winter or summer. It was a pleasure to have known Mick a gentleman on and off the field and we known he will be keeping a close eye on Lorrha to see if we can win that elusive County final as it would make him so proud. He will indeed be missed by all who knew and came in contact with him.
His remains were removed from his home and escorted by members of Lorrha GAA club who formed a guard of honour as they arrived at St. Ruadhan's Church Lorrha on Monday May 9th and after funeral Mass there the following day, burial took place in the adjoining cemetery where Mick's friend Paddy O'Meara gave the graveside oration.
Sympathy is extended to his nieces, Olive, Barry and family, Peg, Barbara, nephews, Pat, Martin, Michael, grand-nieces, grandnephews, great-grand-nieces, great-grand-nephews, relatives, neighbours and friends on their great loss.

May he rest in peace.
Courtesy of the Midland Tribune
19th May 2011 Tweet

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