THERE was great sadness in the Abbeyknockmoy and Monivea area last week at the passing of Kevin Flaherty (68) from Carrowmore, Abbert, after a brave battle with illness over the past year or so.

Affectionately known to one and all as ‘Bruce’ or ‘Brucey’ – he was a lifetime Liverpool supporter and a great fan of ‘keeper Bruce Grobbelaar – Kevin (Thomas) was a farmer, footballer and a legendary name around building sites in Galway for decades.

A raconteur, who loved his few pints of Guinness and a chat or robust debate about politics (Fianna Fáil was in the DNA!), farming or football, he was, to use a country expression, ‘a fine cut of a man’, renowned for his strength at farm work and in performing a range of tasks on the many building sites that he worked in.

He loved the summer season and especially the trips to the bog for the saving of the turf when the stretch was in the evenings as May approached, and he gloried in his few pints on the way home when the deeds of the day would be recalled and how many yards were still left to be footed.

Kevin won a county junior football medal with Monivea-Abbey in 1985 when they defeated Spiddal in the final, lining out at midfield along with his partner through many battles, Malachy Mannion, the latter doing most of his work at ground level while Bruce did the fielding!

A shrewd 25 card player – Kevin loved ‘a game of nine’ or even ‘a good six’ – but partners or opponents would often get a not-so-gentle reminder from him ‘if the game was let out’ because of ‘a bad trumping’ or someone ‘losing the count’.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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