THE funeral of Pat Dooris, a lifelong resident of Enniskillen, took place earlier this month, with mourners hearing that the 81-year-old was a great ‘people person’ with a warm and genuine heart.
Requiem Mass for the Cornagrade Road pensioner was held in St Michael’s Church on Friday, February 6, following his passing at the South West Acute Hospital after a short illness just a few days earlier.
During the service, Monsignor Peter O’Reilly said that despite beginning life with limitations that ‘might have crushed someone else’, Pat never allowed such drawbacks to stand in his way or define who he was.
“Born with a speech impediment and asthmatic from childhood, unable to take on paid employment in a world where work defines so much of identity and belonging. In those days there was less by way of education for children like Pat,” Monsignor O’Reilly told mourners.
“By worldly standards he might have been written off, expected to fade quietly into the background.
“But that’s not what happened. His parents Phil and Kathleen did wonderful work not allowing Pat to fall back into himself. not allowing him to be closed in.
“Pat himself choose to live with that steady perspective. Not giving suffering the final word, not allowing obstacles to have ultimate power.
“Pat’s gift was not just that he overcame his limitations but that he never allowed them to close his heart. Pat became a friend to everyone. He spoke to everyone, he made conversation with everyone.”
He added that Mr Dooris had provided ‘quiet and graceful’ service to the Parish over decades, delivering the Parish Messenger, promoting the Parish draw with up to 50 members a week, distributing the Parish envelopes and Trocaire boxes, and taking up the collection at Mass on Sundays.
Monsignor O’Reilly stated that as well as running errands for neighbours within his own community, Pat also offered a warm welcome to people who had come from afar to start new lives in Enniskillen.
“His neighbours knew they could rely on him to go fetch the milk and bread and the staff in Martin Rooney’s shop across the road, if they hadn’t seem him a day they might be wondering where he was,” he said.
“But this goes a bit deeper than tasks. Pat’s welcome was for everyone including new families who came to work here from parts of the world we had never heard of back then, at a time when such a welcome made a big difference. He spoke to parents and children alike offering connection, belonging and recognition.
“When Pat is spoken of by people you hear words like gentle, generous, open to all, non judgemental. You could sum it up by saying that Pat loved people.”
Monsignor O’Reilly added that even when the family was touched by a tragic personal loss, Pat maintained his dignity and compassion due to his simple but unwavering faith.
“That same faith shaped how he carried personal loss. His sister Sister Kathleen of the Sisters of Mercy died young in the prime of life,” said Monsignor O’Reilly.
“It was a profound loss for the family and a grief that never really disappears. But Pat carried that loss with the same quiet trust that marked everything else in his life.
“He didn’t harden, he continued to show kindness and believe in goodness.”
Mr Dooris is survived by his brother Brian, sisters Olive, Tracy, Pam and Freda, sister-in-law Patsy, brother-in-law Barry, his nieces and nephews.
He is predeceased by his sister, Sister Kathleen and his parents Phil and Kathleen Dooris.
His Month’s Mind Mass will be held in St Michael’s Church in Enniskillen on Saturday, March 7, at 6pm.
