Thanksgiving for a generous, inspirational life

STUART MANGAN’S final journey home from London to Fermoy reached its halfway point yesterday, when the 26-year-old’s remains arrived for a thanksgiving Mass in south Co Dublin.

His parents, Brian and Una and his three brothers, Keith, John and Barry, along with a vast extended family of Mangans and Harpers, figures from the financial, banking and sports worlds and a host of young friends, filled the parish church of St Therese in Mount Merrion “to give thanks to the Lord for Stuart’s life”, in the words of celebrant, Fr Denis Quinn.

“Some go the long way home, others cross the field,” said Fr Quinn, quoting an inscription on a Scottish soldier’s war grave, “and Stuart crossed the field on Friday”.

The active life, grace and inspirational legacy of the young man who suffered a devastating spinal injury in a rugby accident in London 16 months ago, were represented in the offertory gifts, which included a rugby ball, a bottle of champagne, a golf club, a riding hat, a travel book and a bouquet of flowers symbolising his love of travel, languages, sport, celebration and the natural world, as well as a wrist band and a CD of Munster rugby supporters’ songs, to represent the unstinting work and generosity of those who worked to raise funds for the Stuart Mangan trust.

In his eulogy, Stuarts father Brian remembered the gift of a rugby ball under the Christmas tree. “Stuart got what he wanted that Christmas. He really loved rugby . . . He never blamed anybody for what happened, just said it was an unfortunate accident and that he was going to make the most of what he was left with . . . He loved Ireland’s Grand Slam and he thoroughly enjoyed the Lions’ matches and he wouldn’t hear of watching them in the house but had to go out, to somewhere with a big screen and where there would be whole rugby community around him.”

Stuart had had “a very peaceful death”, he said, after a full week, that included the races at Goodwood, a charity cricket match and a day working on a documentary with the BBC.

He spoke of the support and generosity of so many after that “dreadful accident in London”, when he and Una were “whizzed” through hospital wards and quickly very aware of their Irishness, since around every corner was an Irish nurse, doctor or orderly. But when Stuart was moved to Stanmore, a hospital specialising in spinal injuries, they then found people from every corner of the world, “and we came to realise we were all just one big family. And all you’ve got to do to join is to want to be a part of it”.

He told stories about Stuart’s own generosity and noted that Stuart “had had plenty of time to think about life and death” in those 16 months in the London apartment. “He made an express wish that if he slipped away that he would like to see as much of him as possible go towards helping others.”

Yesterday the results of that generosity were bearing fruit. There had been a call to say that his liver donation has saved a person’s life, that two people had received his kidneys and one was already up and walking around.

Stuart’s last e-mail on Wednesday night was to Dr Gary McDarby in UCD, full of plans for projects he wanted to develop, such as “tank-like mobility” and a “360 degree swivel” for wheelchairs and light bionic arms.

Among those who gathered were figures from the rugby world including IRFU president John Callaghan; Ollie Campbell, Hugo MacNeill, Mick Fitzpatrick, Leo Cullen, Paul Wallace, Joe Brady, Finbarr Crowley, Pat Fitzgerald, John Hussey and John Redmond. Also there were Tony Garry, chief executive of Davy’s stockbrokers, and jockey Ruby Walsh.