Ursula Lennon: mother of ex-Celtic manager Neil Lennon 'radiated kindness and love', mourners in Lurgan are told

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Lurgan woman Ursula Lennon was “a self-less earth angel” full of love, compassion, respect, friendship and nurture, mourners were told during her funeral on Friday.

Her son, former Celtic manager and ex-Northern Ireland international Neil Lennon, was among those who gathered for Requiem Mass at St Paul’s Church in his former home town.

In a moving tribute which received considerable applause in the church, Orla – Mrs Lennon’s eldest child – said the highly respected Hawthorne Avenue resident “never saw her own beautiful presence and how it graced all our lives”.

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She told how the first sympathy message she received after her mother’s death simply said: ‘There isn’t anyone as good a person as your mum’.

Former Northern Ireland player and Celtic manager Neil Lennon at his mother's funeral in Lurgan on Friday morning. Picture: PacemakerFormer Northern Ireland player and Celtic manager Neil Lennon at his mother's funeral in Lurgan on Friday morning. Picture: Pacemaker
Former Northern Ireland player and Celtic manager Neil Lennon at his mother's funeral in Lurgan on Friday morning. Picture: Pacemaker

"That just sums it up. She was a gentle, a kind self-less earth angel.

"Some people in life seem to carry a light within them. They look like they are lit up from within and when we are in their company you feel the warmth of that presence. They radiate kindness and love, they make you feel happy and safe, they brighten your day, they make the world a better place. My mum was one of those people,” Orla said.

"The hundreds of posts on Facebook, the texts, the messages agree with me – 45,000 ‘likes’ on the Celtic tribute makes her more popular in Scotland than our Neil.”

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Mourners were told how Mrs Lennon would often anonymously make financial gifts to people she felt needed help.

Neil Lennon's parents Gerald and Ulsula pictured in 2000 in their Lurgan home going through the scrapbooks they collected on Neil's career. Picture: PacemakerNeil Lennon's parents Gerald and Ulsula pictured in 2000 in their Lurgan home going through the scrapbooks they collected on Neil's career. Picture: Pacemaker
Neil Lennon's parents Gerald and Ulsula pictured in 2000 in their Lurgan home going through the scrapbooks they collected on Neil's career. Picture: Pacemaker

"In later years when Neil became famous for ‘something’ and was sending money home regularly, mummy used to fill envelopes with money and go out at night and put them through letterboxes of people she thought were struggling to make ends meet. She would write on on it ‘From a friend’,” Orla revealed.

She said her mother “couldn’t say a bad word about anyone, she could never be impolite, she could never be disrespectful.

"She had no grand title, she had no manor house but my mum was a lady. She had a very strong sense of family values and an iron-clad resoluteness of family duty. She was a natural care giver.”

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Mourners heard how Mrs Lennon was the unflinching “family anchor, solid, dependable, stabilising but always under the surface”.

Orla spoke of how tradition was important to her mother.

“We were Sunday mass-goers, October rosaries, fasting and Trocaire boxes at Lent, the TV off if visitors arrived, channels changed at the first sign of anything inappropriate, picnics in the summer, always books and board games at Christmas because mum loved word puzzles, crosswords and things like Wordle and Lingo.”

Mourners heard that Mrs Lennon was always full of praise and supportive of others.

"She was never shy with compliments. She could make you feel 10 feet high with her praise and admiration although she could never acknowledge her own achievements,” said Orla. “Going through her things I found a little quotation that she had folded and tucked up in a top drawer, ripped from a calendar one year. ‘A woman looks at all the things her contemporaries have achieved and she feels she has failed. Until she sees her good, kind, sensible, loving children and knows that that is success enough for any lifetime’.”

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She went on to share how Mrs Lennon would always say she was never really good at anything except shorthand.

"But truthfully our mummy was great at many things, she was just short on confidence. She was a fantastic knitter, we were permanently dressed in handknit jumpers as children, sometimes the same one went from me to Neil to Jane to Aileen, didn’t matter if you were a boy or girl, everybody had the same jumper until it was worn out.

"She was a fabulous singer and she performed with Lurgan Operatic Society and she kept up her singing scales for years.”

Orla shared that the one thing her mother admitted being proud of was earning her silver Fáinne.

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“She was truly proud of it but never wore it because she didn’t want to seem like a show-off or be boastful.

"She never thought much of her academic creditials, but by God she had a PhD in humility.”

Mourners were told that Mrs Lennon wasn’t just good at things she learned but “was brilliant at the things that matter most in life”.

"She was a star student in love, compassion, respect, friendship and nuture,” Orla said, revealing how her mother would take hours to complete the 20-minute walk from her home into Lurgan town centre because she “had a word for everyone”.

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"She never forgot a name or circumstance, she had genuine concern for everyone.

“She had an open heart and an open house for everyone, but her darling Gerald was always her number one. She was devoted to him for 56 years and it only compounds our grief that our wee daddy can’t be here as chief mourner today. He is too ill to process what has happened and he will be spared the pain of ever knowing what happened to mummy after they kissed goodbye on July 16 - mummy’s final gift to him.”

Orla shared that Mrs Lennon was due to be discharged from Navan hospital after having a successful knee replacement operation when she suffered a heart attack. She was in intensive care for 10 days, receiving the best medical care and being “the best known patient in the hospital”. Sadly, despite being scheduled for bypass surgery, “a second heart attack came and took her before that was possible”.

Orla thanked staff at the Navan and Mater hospitals for their “exceptional” level of care and to funeral directors McAlinden and Murtagh for bringing her mother home “with such dignity and grace”.

"She was, is loved and we were blessed to have her. We just hope we turn out half as good,” she concluded.

A private committal service for Mrs Lennon will take place at a later date.

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