‘A great tree has fallen” were the words sent by one well-wisher to Máire McCarron’s family upon her recent death.
It captured perfectly the towering nature of her life; her love for her family and the many friends she had in the many things she did.
Máire McCarron (née Beauchamp) was born in Dublin in 1921 and baptised in St Mary’s Church, Haddington Road, where her funeral Mass was celebrated on September 19th last. This was the parish in which she spent much of her life, living as she did with her mother, aunt and three brothers on Wellington Road after her father died when she was young. It was from that house that she attended Sacred Heart School on Leeson Street and later travelled to Belgium to attend finishing school; narrowly escaping Paris at the start of the second World War, she would return to this house years later with her husband Oliver McCarron,
She and Oliver were teenage sweethearts before marrying in their twenties. Oliver, an architect, then designed and built the family home in Shankill, a beautiful modern house with a large garden. Oliver, who pre-deceased Máire in 2010, and her were a wonderfully close couple who had a warm and encompassing welcome for all their friends at their vividly remembered parties. They brought three children into the world – Dermot, Eddie and Fiona – and their family were very much the centre of their lives and they were, in time, blessed with grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Besides raising three great children, Máire loved swimming and playing golf on the fairways of Foxrock Golf Club. Similarly, Oliver and she enjoyed many days and evenings in the Stephen’s Green Club with the many friends they easily made.
Máire had a great sense of fun and often saw the humour in everyday life. Of the many tales which could be told there is the one of Oliver kneeling to say his nightly prayers and her exhorting him to come to bed. In reply he said “But I’m praying for you Máire!” to which she said “Well if that’s the case then you can stay there!”
She was religious, had a deep faith and was friendly with clergy from all denominations, such as Fr Crowe and the former Church of Ireland archbishop of Dublin Donald Caird and his wife Nancy.
She was still very active in her later years and she attended the Royal Hospital Day Centre and also the Mary Aikenhead Centre in Donnybrook where she participated in dances and helped put on plays. Right until the end she was interested in all the people around her in Blackrock Hospice, remembering the names of all those who helped her and having a kind word for them all. She died there with her family around her. Hers was a life well lived and as was said in the second reading at her funeral, from the Book of Revelation, “Happy are those who die in the Lord ... now they can rest forever after their work, since their good deeds go with them”.
Máire McCarron’s good deeds have not just gone with her but will remain in the hearts of all who knew and loved her.