The funeral for Michael “Mickey” Looby took place on Saturday afternoon in his home parish of Boherlahan.
He tragically lost his life in a house fire in Boherlahan on August 6. Gardaí and emergency services attended the scene of the fatal fire at his residence in Boherlahan on Wednesday morning. He was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.
Michael (Mickey) was the beloved son of the late Michael and Ellen and brother of the late Edmund (Ned) and John (Jackie). He is deeply regretted by his beloved wife Theresa and the Murtagh family, sister Hannah, Eileen Óg, Mary, Kathleen, Bernadette and Winnie, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, relatives, neighbours and many friends.
On Saturday morning, mourners gathered from various parts of the country and county to bid their final farewell to Mickey.
Boherlahan parish priest, Fr Michael Mullaney, began the Mass saying: “We gather here, still in disbelief, still reeling, still struggling to come to terms with the suddenness of Mickey’s death and to come to terms with the tragic circumstances in which he died and coming so soon after burying his brother Jackie, only two weeks ago.”
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He continued: “Mickey was quite unassuming, a solid character, a likeable character, with still so much to do, we would have wish for Mickey the extra years, the golden years of his life he so richly deserved.
“Mickey travelled to almost every country in Europe and to every corner of Ireland during his ESB career and on his hunt for tractors, trucks, balers and machine parts. Yet, despite all these national and international journeys and travels, he was deeply rooted in a love for the people and the parish of Boherlahan.
“Mickey was steeped in the rhythms of country life, the threshing, the plowing, the vintage tractors, his small square. These simple things brought him so much joy and satisfaction and while in some ways, these were hobbies for a man who was enjoying life and what he just liked to do, he used them to help and meet neighbors and friends to do jobs here in the parish. Especially in these busy summer days where silage and baling is all over the countryside, and the countryside is humming with tractors and balers, which I imagine were just pure music to his ears.
“He could talk machinery in a way some people talk sport with the same passion detail and deep knowledge of history and pedigree. Massey Fergusons in his agriculture work, or Scania trucks in his ESB heavy haulage days, where he got his nickname, as you know. For Mickey, these were not just machines, they were his world. From the tractors and the fields to the trucks of the road. He knew their stories, their quirks, their value, and if Mickey set his heart on something, he had to have it.
“He also once had a thing for motorbikes in his younger days, apart from being what I believe a good hurler, a keen hurler, and a cross country runner, he was also a bit of a daredevil, or some of us of a certain age might call the Evil Knievel above Boherlahan. Now, some of this could be legend, I’m not sure.
“He had a Honda 50 and was always up for a challenge and once he rode the wall with this Honda 50 on Ardmayle bridge and lived to tell the tale. It’s also said, and I think this is more legend than fact, that he even drove that Honda 50 motorbike along the wall between the church and Bianconi Chapel. I hope he didn’t wake up the parish priest.
“Someone told me that after the damage of storm last year, he was called out of retirement for the ESB up to Donegal, or the west of Ireland, I can’t remember, because none of the youngsters had the skill or the nerve or the patience to do the hard jobs where he saw no danger or problem. Someone said he once described rescuing a lorry from a hopelessly stuck spot, he said you needed a lorry in front to pull it and another lorry at the back to push it and in his own wit, he said, you’d need to be fairly drunk to do it.
“He was a very good worker, and as someone has said, he was as reliable as the dawn to get up for work.”
Many tributes have been paid in the community in the days since his passing, with some as follows:
Cllr Roger Kennedy said: “He was a native of Ballinree. He worked with the ESB for his long career. He was retired for the last number of years. My extended sympathies to his family and his extended family. He buried a brother last week. His brother died in Rathcoole, Co Dublin last week. He’s survived by six sisters.
“He was a quiet man. Very sociable. Very interested and involved in machinery, particularly vintage machinery, and very involved with Dualla Ploughing Society. He was a good community man, he used to come down most weekends from Dublin, but he’d be always down when there was anything on.”
Cllr Declan Burgess said that Michael’s loss came as a great shock to the community.
He said: “It’s a very tragic passing of a well-known local man, and it’s very sad indeed, you know, for his family here in Cashel, and indeed Boherlahan as well, and Dualla. Very sad for them all, given the tragedy. But I suppose as a local Councillor, I want to thank the residents in the Ballinree area for their work on the scene and getting the emergency services out there, I’d like to thank the fire brigade in Cashel and the team around, for the work that they did, it was a real tragedy, and certainly created a big shock in the locality once news broke, so my thoughts are with the Looby family at this time, it’s a very sad occasion when anyone dies, but especially when it’s such a sad passing like this.
“I’d have known Mick fairly well, I’d meet him fairly regularly when he used to come into Cashel, and indeed when I was out in Boherlahan. I’d know his family as well. You’d meet him often, you know? Mick was a big character, people knew him quite well, you know, he’d have been about quite often. That’s why it’s such a big shock, for people in the Boherlahan, Dualla, and Cashel areas.”
Michael’s funeral was followed by burial in Ballinure Cemetery.
May he Rest in Peace.
