Thousands bid fond farewell to Westport’s Seán Staunton

Thousands bid fond farewell  to Westport’s SeΡn Staunton


Neill O’Neill and Edwin McGreal

‘THE father of the Westport community’ was one of many ways that SeΡn Staunton has been described following his death at the age of 72 last Saturday morning.
Those words were spoken by his close friend Fr Charlie McDonnell in St Mary’s Parish Church in Westport yesterday (Monday) — a church and a town to which SeΡn remained devoted all his life.
A former editor of The Mayo News and Westport councillor for almost four decades, SeΡn Staunton had been ill for the last year and a half. In recent months that illness had intensified, finally taking him from a world and life he loved dearly last Saturday morning shortly after 8am, in his home at Knockfin, Westport, surrounded by those who were closest to his heart.
His wife Sal, daughters Reine, Leone and Sarah, along with their husbands Francis, Brían and Malcolm, SeΡn’s five grandchildren and two surviving brothers Laurence (Lol) and Eamonn, had been almost constantly by his side in recent weeks and months. Huge crowds called to the family home over the weekend and to St Mary’s Church yesterday to pay respects and say a final farewell to a man who had given selflessly to his town and community throughout his life.

Noble decent man
Welcoming the congregation, Fr Karl Burns described SeΡn as a noble, decent man, whose affirmation and love everybody deeply appreciated.
“We all sought his advice at times, he was humble but had great charisma and was aware of his own place in the world,” he said.
Chief celebrant of the Mass was Fr Charlie McDonnell, SeΡn’s close confidant. He was joined by over 20 fellow priests, including Fr Ger Burns, a first cousin of the Staunton family, who had returned from the USA for the funeral, and Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary.

Family man
In his homily, Fr McDonnell spoke powerfully and freely about his friend and the impact he had on so many people in the community and beyond. He began with SeΡn’s final moments in the glow of the rising sun.
“The rising sun has significance for Christians, it is a symbol of the risen, death is over. At 8.10am last Saturday morning, with the tremendous humility and dignity with which he lived his life, and just before the rising sun, SeΡn slipped away, home to his Lord. I came out of his house and looked up at Croagh Patrick and the sun was shining on one cloud on top of it and I wondered if it was SeΡn’s transfiguring occurring on the holy mountain overlooking our parish.”
Fr McDonnell described SeΡn as a holy man, whose heart was captured by a Galway girl and stated that Sal helped in so many ways in her role as the ‘ultimate editor’. He spoke of the love and affection the couple shared for each other and that which SeΡn held for his three daughters, Reine, Leone and Sarah.
“SeΡn loved Christmas time, he lived its essence — love, generosity, goodness — and to see the love of his family for him and the interaction he had with his grandchildren, it was obvious that they had a special place in his heart.”
Turning to his brothers, Laurence and Eamonn, Fr McDonnell said that it all began for SeΡn in number 13 McNeela Terrace at Westport Quay, with his parents and six brothers.
“You have known his love and friendship since the start,” he said, adding: “When SeΡn’s health had began deteriorating, he told us how his funeral Mass was going to be conducted, who was to do what and what was not to be done. I was warned not be eulogising today, but it is warranted.”

Community service
“SeΡn’s was a life of service. He was a father to the town in so many ways and he transcended politics in so many ways. Compassion, generosity, goodness, love - those were some of his traits. He was good to Westport, but nobody will ever know just how much, as he reached out to so many people. People wore a path to his house for advice, and it didn’t matter what colour your politics was.
“SeΡn wanted no accolades, his was a life of service. Many say he will be irreplaceable, maybe he will, but he taught so much to so many, he mentored so many, in journalism, politics, community and church life, that the hope is these traits will live on, in some way, in the many people he helped over the years. He was intensely loyal, to his politics, his colleagues, his church and his community, and had an ability to hold conversations in confidence, which was one of his great hallmarks.
“We wondered what made him tick. Family was a large part of that. He was a man who was so thoughtful, he made an impact on his medical staff, people were thanked wherever he was, and his family also have these traits, the way they looked after SeΡn was evidence of this.”

Faith
Fr McDonnell went on to speak of SeΡn’s deep faith, something which readied him for his passing, though he lamented leaving his loved ones behind.
“One thing that I was privileged to see was the way the Eucharist empowered him, he received every day he could. If there was such a thing, SeΡn was a poster boy for the Eucharist,” he said to smiles around the church.
“He died with tremendous dignity, and when he spoke to the Lord there was intimacy on SeΡn’s face. Of all the things that were ever smuggled into a hospital, we had to bring in the Eucharist, even when he was having nil by mouth. It meant a lot to him, it was food for the journey home to the Lord, his Lord, as it had been on his journey through life.
“There is a lot we can learn from SeΡn and how he treated people. He was ready for death. We give thanks for his life, his goodness, his love and all he meant to us in so many ways. May his gentle, nobel, dignified soul now rest in peace,” he concluded.

‘Humility and dignity’
Speaking at the end of the funeral Mass, Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, referred to the service as ‘a very devotional and dignified funeral Mass for SeΡn Staunton’.
“SeΡn brought great dignity to every area of life which was privileged to have been in contact with him,” he said.
First and foremost he referred to SeΡn as a ‘devoted’ husband to Sal and a ‘loving’ father to Reine, Leone and Sarah, before speaking about the imprint SeΡn left in the wider world.
“Whether in politics, journalism or the church, SeΡn enriched them all with his integrity, his dignity and wise counsel. SeΡn worked energetically for a society of truth and life, holiness and grace, a society for justice, love and peace,” said Dr Neary.
Dr Neary singled out SeΡn Staunton’s ‘involvement in and support for so many areas of church life’ such as vocations, the diocesan magazine and Catholic education, to name but three.
“These rendered him imminently suitable to be conferred as a Knight of St Sylvester [a Papal honour], an honour which he bore very gently and with great humility and dignity.”
He concluded by saying that the archdiocese was ‘very fortunate’ to have SeΡn Staunton as the first Chairperson of its Diocesan Pastoral Council, and he thanked the Staunton family for being so generous in sharing SeΡn’s ‘exceptional gifts’ with the church.

Final journey home
SeΡn’s daughters and grandchildren participated in his funeral Mass, while guards of honour were provided by his colleagues, past and present, from The Mayo News; the Fianna FΡil party; Mayo County Council and the former Westport Town Council. The students and staff from the Sacred Heart School, of which SeΡn was the first lay chair of the Board of Management, lined Bridge Street from top to bottom in a poignant and unprecedented tribute.
The cortege passed his childhood home at Westport Quay and his home at Knockfin before he was laid to rest in the nearby Aughavale Cemetery.
SeΡn is survived by his wife, Sal; daughters, Reine Staunton, Leone Munnelly and Sarah Billington; sons-in-law, Francis Sheehan, Brían Munnelly and Malcolm Billington; grandchildren, David McDonnell, Luke and Sorcha Munnelly and Lottie and Rosie Billington and brothers, Laurence and Eamonn.

Elsewhere mayonews.ie
SeΡn Staunton, community man with a broad vision
‘Spartacus in a sports-jacket’
Memories of a great man