'Truly a master with horses' - Waterford's Joan O'Mahony laid to rest
Joan O'Mahony blazed her own trail, both on and off the riding school at Kilotteran.
Joan O'Mahony was laid to rest on Sunday, August 10, after a Requiem Mass at Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Butlerstown.
Monsignor Pat Fitzgerald presided over the Requiem Mass. He began proceedings: “We’re here to celebrate Joan’s life, to give thanks to God for her unique character and personality, her journey and adventure in life and all she meant to her nearest and dearest and all that she has been in this community as well.
"We gather as a community to say farewell to this woman who was a household name in these parts for many years."
Fr Fitzgerald spoke about how in 1965, Joan, along with her sisters Helen and Bride, set up the Kilotteran Equitation Centre riding school. Fr Fitzgerald said of the sisters: "They made a great success of this venture. But it was Joan's name most identified with it and perhaps appropriately because Joan was, by all accounts, truly a a master with horses."
He continued: "With all the celebrated skills of the horse-whisperer, she had a deep, natural empathy with the animals, enormous respect for them and they seemed to reciprocate."
The Mass heard how Joan's riding school featured 'happily in the lives of many generations of people around here, especially children and young people."
Fr Fitzgerald said: "Riding for the Disabled in Waterford's Special Olympics were particularly welcome guests at the centre."
Joan is sadly missed by her loving sister Bride (Power), brother Neil, brothers-in-law Anthony Deevy and Gene Power, sister-in-law Anne O’Mahony, nephews John, Mark, Finbarr, Owen, Brian, Connor and Paul, niece Helen-Alice, grand-nephews, grand-nieces, extended family, relatives, neighbours and friends, especially Suzanne and all at Kilotteran Equitation Centre.
On her death notice on rip.ie, donations were welcomed for the charity Riding for the Disabled Ireland (RDAI), which provides therapeutic horse riding and carriage driving for people with physical and intellectual disabilities across Ireland.
