Never is the inequality of life more apparent than when the good die too soon. Catherine Sheehan (Katie) died on February 6th after a short illness that took everyone by surprise. While friends railed that someone so full of life and so much loved should be struck down, Catherine maintained her irrepressible sense of humour and natural grace to the end, cracking jokes even as the light was fading. Her family, who minded her lovingly and guarded her privacy, are devastated.
Fittingly, she was given time before she died to fulfil her lifetime ambition to become a fully-fledged journalist. Catherine was a staff member of The Irish Times for a couple of decades, holding down the often stressful job of newsroom secretary for much of that time. In recent years she travelled to UCD four evenings a week, ending up with an honours degree in English and history.
Catherine was the most generous sharer of photocopies and essays in that inaugural modular degree year. A master's degree in journalism at Dublin City University was the icing on the cake that led to a job on the Irish Times website, ireland.com. But it was simply as a person that Catherine's star shone the brightest. She was Dublin born and bred and every inch a lady. Elegant, gutsy, determined and with a heart as big as a lion's, she never did anything to excess - except for mothering her four children (Stephen, Dara, Ann and David), working, playing golf, and reading. She was also a passionate gardener who wouldn't allow anyone else to cut the perfectly even front hedge of the family home in Killiney.
She was an accomplished sportswoman. She played hockey for Miss Meredith's School as a teenager and won major showjumping tournaments at the Royal Dublin Society Horse Show. Later, she was on the Dublin tennis team that trounced Belfast in 1962, winning both her mixed doubles and ladies' doubles games. She kept fit throughout her life, regularly visiting a gym near the office and walking on Killiney beach at weekends.
Although her father, the well-known Chatham Street butcher Mick Byrne, was captain of Hermitage Golf club, it wasn't until she met her husband Sean that Catherine took up the game in earnest. True to form, she whittled her handicap at Elm Park down to seven in record time. A great match player in life as well as golf, Catherine shunned crowds in favour of one-to-one communication. She was "best friend" to many - someone to whom you would automatically turn in a crisis, knowing you could trust her. She was always elegantly turned out and very conscious of keeping fit. She would have appreciated the lavender scattered on her casket and the stylishly dressed friends who turned up in their hundreds for the funeral service on February 8th. The beautiful period house on Shanganagh Terrace was filled to capacity on that day and her family looked after the mourners with the standard of hospitality Catherine would have approved of.
Cheers, Katie, old and true friend. Without you life stretches bleak.
K.McM.