Country star Daniel O’Donnell put on a special performance this morning at the funeral of his beloved friend and Letterkenny legend, Sally Blake.
The Ard O’Donnell woman, who rubbed shoulders with the stars and was a pillar of the community, passed away peacefully at the local Archview Lodge Nursing Home on Tuesday. Many figures from the entertainment industry were present today for her final farewell.
Sally (pictured above at her home courtesy of the Sally Blake Collection) worked initially in Kelly’s Hardware Store after leaving school but then started as a clerical officer with the ESB, a job she would remain in for 33 years.
But it was her time spent outside of the offices at Port Road and elsewhere for which she will be remembered. A driving force behind the Letterkenny Folk Festival, her energy was electric and loved nothing better than to boast about Letterkenny and her native Donegal.
Hundreds packed into St Eunan’s Cathedral where they heard Monsignor Kevin Gillespie describe her as a ‘storied woman of this parish’ and someone who was ‘Letterkenny through and through.”
Daniel O’Donnell sang beautiful and powerful renditions of ‘Here I am, Lord’, ‘A Mhuire Mháthair’ (Ave Maria) and ‘Beyond the Rainbow’s End’ for his longtime friend and confidant.
Monsignor Gillespie told mourners ‘her likes we will never see again’.
He said he thoroughly enjoyed the video interview by Kieran Cunninghan which was published on Donegal Daily on the day of her passing.
“It brought alive her lively mind and incredible recall of people and events, such a treasure trove for any historian,” Msgr Gillespie said.
“In talking to Sally on any given day, you could walk through the history of the town. Apart from her undaunted personality, Sally had a mind that stored and catalogued information of all kinds. A walk through her house was a walk through history with its walls adorned with pictures and paintings.”
After a short stint at Charles Kelly’s hardware store, she spent 33 years at the local ESB office.
“It was there she first met a youth of 16 years looking for a job and Daniel (O’Donnell) went on to be a great friend and sang beautifully here today. It was poignant to see that old ESB building torn down in recent days to make way for a modern community and business hub. Sally would have no doubt approved.”
He said Sally certainly made a significant contribution to the development of Letterkenny as a member of the Letterkenny Urban District Council (UDC).
Her life, Msgr Gillespie added, took her to unlikely places across the world to visit her friends in the missions and to the luxury of her friend Bernard Lafferty in Los Angeles. However, she was a woman of simple and certain faith who loved the cathedral and all its beauty and life.
“She also donated a statue of Our Lady which now stands at the altar of the cathedral. For Sally, the Lord Jesus was perhaps her greatest friend of all. She was far from flawless, and none of us are, and her reunion with Jesus will surely be of the kind of an easy and unforgotten relationship. No matter where she went, and whom she had known, the same seat was offered to everyone in her Ard O’Donnell home.”
Daniel sang ‘O Lord My God’ as Sally’s remains were taken from the cathedral. She was laid to rest afterwards in Conwal Cemetery.
Predeceased by her parents Michael (Micky) and Mollie (Larkin), remembered by her family, John, Michael, Alec (Kay) Limerick, nephews Michael (Mary) Leitrim, Paul (Emily) U.K., nieces Breid (Australia), Marie (Rob) Limerick and Karen (Shane) Limerick, relatives, loyal visitors, neighbours and many friends.
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