Tag Archives: John Grimes

THE twin communities of Ballina and Killaloe were united in mourning this week following the sudden death of well known community activist, John Grimes. John (71), who was married to his wife, Betty for 45 years,  passed away suddenly in University Hospital Limerick last week. The former chairman of the Féile Brian Boru Committee was brought from his home on Main Street Killaloe on Wednesday morning to St Flannan’s Church. As a result the Main Street and The Green was blocked to traffic between 10:30am and 11am. After the Funeral Mass, the cortege turned up St Flannan’s Road, turning right into Courthouse Lane passing the house where John grew up. It then turned left on to Cross Roads before travelling to Relig Lua for his burial. Speaking at his Funeral Mass on Wednesday, his son, Jonathan, said his father always knew what was important in life – family, friends and community. “Dad lived a life with was guided by love …

THE DEATH of the last surviving member of the Kennedy family has evoked memories of the time she opened a well known cultural festival in Killaloe. Jean Kennedy Smith, the last surviving sibling of President John F. Kennedy and a former United States of America ambassador to Ireland, who died last week, officially launched Féile Brian Ború in the mid nineties. Ms Smith was the eighth of nine children born to Joseph P and Rose Kennedy, and she tragically outlived several of them by decades. Her siblings included older brother Joseph Kennedy Junior, killed in action during the Second World War; Kathleen “Kick’ Kennedy, who died in a 1948 plane crash; the president, assassinated in 1963 and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, murdered in 1968. Senator Edward Kennedy, the youngest of the Kennedy siblings, died of brain cancer in August 2009, the same month their sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver died. Michael Durack, who was involved with the Killaloe Writers, presented the …