One of Kerry’s best known and most successful builders was today laid to rest following Requiem Mass in the church that he built in Killarney.
Ned O’Shea, who passed away last Saturday after a brief illness, was the contractor chosen to build the Church of the Resurrection on Park Road close on 30 years ago.
Today at the funeral Mass, Killarney Parish Administrator Fr Kieran O’Brien read the same Gospel that was chosen when the church was consecrated and officially opened on Easter Sunday morning in 1994.
The Gospel, from Matthew, features the declaration: ‘And on this rock, I will build my church’.
Fr O’Brien remembered that the first Mass in the distinctive circular-plan, double-height stone-clad church was a very special and momentous occasion.
He said since 1994, so many people have visited the Church of the Resurrection to pray and they found great solace and peace there.
“People have attended Mass here every day, so many people have received the sacraments and prayed the stations and it is so fitting that it is from here this morning that we are celebrating Ned’s Requiem Mass,” he said.
Fr O’Brien described Ned O’Shea as a great motivator, an inspirational figure who was interested in people and will be remembered as great employer.
His busy construction firm was responsible for the development of several housing estates, shopping centres, hotels, retail premises, apartment blocks and public buildings over many years.
He lived in Tralee – where his company offices are based – for many years but he moved to Killarney close on 30 years ago.
Born in 1938, one of 15 children and originally from Keel, Castlemaine, Ned was a fine footballer, winning a county championship medal with Mid Kerry and playing with the Kerry juniors and, later in life, he travelled the country to attend many inter-county games.
Ned, who lived in Lackabane Village in Fossa, was one of the most established builders in the county and earned a reputation for completing quality projects on time and on budget.
Predeceased by his parents, James and Hannah, his son Patrick and his siblings Bridget, Tom, Billy, Kitty and, very recently, Rosaleen, he is sadly missed by his partner Kathleen (Cummins), his children James, Mary and Michael and their mother Eileen.
He is further survived by Kathleen’s children Terry and Marie, his grandchildren, his siblings Dora Barton, Beth O’Shea, Joan Murphy, Mary Cleary, Peggy Coulter, Paddy, Denny, Norrie and Ann, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, extended family, relatives, his work colleagues in Ned O’Shea and Sons and his many great friends.
Ned was laid to rest in Aghadoe Lawn Cemetery, Killarney.
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