|
|
Ray Gleeson remembered
02.09.10
|
Sad passing of popular
history teacher
BUNCRANA has been saddened by the death of retired
secondary school teacher Ray Gleeson. Mr Gleeson,
who was 64, died late last week following a short
illness.
He joined the staff of Scoil Mhuire, Convent of
Mercy, as a history teacher in September 1972 and
went on to teach hundreds of students over the next
three decades.
His great ability to impart the broad and weighty
subject of history was marked by a witty touch that
often helped students recall events for exams by
their association to a funny story told to them in
his class.
Former colleague Séamas MacAodha yesterday said he
and the late teacher became very good friends at the
school in the 1980s. |
"Ray loved
conversation, discussion and debate. As was said at
his funeral on Sunday, his lessons were often
idiosyncratic but they were always wholehearted,"
said Mr MacAodha. "He was mad about history and he
had his own way of doing things."
The son of a Garda, Ray Gleeson and his three
siblings moved around the county but were raised
mainly in Letterkenny. Mr MacAodha said Ray liked
nothing better than to visit his mother Nóra's
native Carrick, in the south west Donegal Gaeltacht.
"He had a great sense of belonging down there," he
said.
Mr Gleeson was instrumental in |
 |
|
The late Ray Gleeson |
setting up the
Lifeskills programme in the 1990s at Scoil Mhuire
where he was also an assistant principal. He was
married to Mary and the couple lived in Porthaw Glen
with their four children.
There was a large attendance at his Requiem Mass in
St Mary's Oratory, Buncrana, on Sunday where pupils,
teachers and past teachers formed a guard of honour
in his memory.
Cremation took place yesterday at 1pm in Roselawn
Crematorium, Belfast. Ray Gleeson is survived by his
wife Mary, his grown-up children, Jennifer, Paul,
Ruth and Eoghan, his mother Nóra (94) and his
siblings, Sean, Jimmy and Marie. |
|
