Christmas and the New Year are a time for celebration and future planning, but for many, it’s also bittersweet as we remember those who are no longer with us and take time to cherish those fleeting family moments.
The 2025 season was a memorable one for Michael Bannon, for all that Rory McIlroy achieved on the golf course. But the year will also be tinged with sadness for him and his family following the sad passing of his mother, Maura, on December 16.
Seeing our children grow up happy and healthy is all any parent could wish for, and gentle parental encouragement is often at the heart of our great sporting success stories.
Where would McIlroy be without the support of his parents, Gerry and Rosie? Or Pádraig Harrington without his late father Paddy, who sowed the seeds of a golfing love affair for him at Stackstown?
Where would Paul McGinley be without the guidance of his late father, Michael Snr?
On Friday, he will lay his father to rest alongside his late mother Julia at Kilmashogue Cemetery in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains, just a stone’s throw from Grange, where he learned to plot his way through the trees and hone the ball-shaping skills that made him a top-20-in-the-world player and Ryder Cup legend.
Michael Snr passed away on December 28 after a long battle with dementia, but his love of golf, GAA, and his native Donegal lives on in his children, Paul, Mary, Karen, Michael, and Suzanne, and his many grandchildren.
A former captain and president of Dunfanaghy Golf Club in his native county, where Paul unveiled the McGinley Academy in 2024, Mick McGinley was a significant figure in Irish golf.
According to Michael McHugh in the Donegal Democrat in 1996, he was born in Main Street, Dunfanaghy, where his parents owned a shop, and was a boarder in St Eunan’s College, where Gaelic football played a major part in his life.
