Mourners have been told that the widower of a Co Tyrone woman who was murdered 20 years ago “has been reunited with his wife”.
A Requiem Mass for Michael Harron took place in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Strabane yesterday two days after he died at Altnagelvin Hospital.
Fr Declan Boland said the 86-year-old “remained true to his Christian ideals” despite the pain and suffering he endured after his wife Attracta Harron was battered to death.
The 65-year-old librarian was found in a makeshift grave near a riverbank outside Sion Mills four months after she went missing in December 2003 when walking home from Mass in Lifford, Co Donegal.
“Michael was a man whose faith was as sturdy as it was deep,” he said.
“Michael didn’t need to go looking for his crosses, they came to him.
“Losing Attracta in the most appalling and cruellest of circumstances would have felled a lesser person.”
The priest added that Mr Harron exemplified “a life well and fully lived until the very end”, describing him as “a real child of God”.
“Sometimes it’s hard to believe that God has a plan for our lives when we go through difficult times in life, which Michael did. But he was loyal to the core,” he said.
Fr Boland told of how Mr Harron, who was a daily Mass-goer and a father-of five, was also passionate about the history and architectural design of the church where he found the comfort he needed to “face the trials of life”.
“Michael, I’m certain, in the depths of his pain, was brought to a deeper faith,” he added.
In 2006, Mrs Harron’s killer, Trevor Hamilton, initially received a whole-life term which was later reduced on appeal to 35 years in prison.
Fr Boland prayed for grieving family members “who are broken” as he told those gathered: “Michael is back with Attracta who was so tragically taken from us 20 years ago.”
He recalled his own memories of the couple attending church as he thanked mourners who had travelled from across Northern Ireland and further afield to pay their respects.
“This church was such an immense love of his,” Fr Boland said.
“Every day he was here with Attracta. It was here that he was nurtured.”
Michael Harron whose wife Attracta, was murdered by Trevor Hamilton
Loved ones gave biblical readings and one of Mr Harron’s daughters wept as she sang a hymn.
“We pray for Michael who has been reunited with his wife Attracta,” said one of his seven grandchildren.
“May the Lord bring them into the light of his presence.”
Fr Boland said Mr Harron’s death, which came shortly after a family reunion, is a solemn reminder of “the fragility of life”.
“How proud he was when they gathered together.
“It’s as if the circle was complete, that what he wanted had been accomplished.”
The priest hailed Mr Harron’s passion for teaching and learning which gave rise to his “authoritative and detailed” book about the Convent of Mercy in Strabane, which provided education to neglected and abandoned girls after it opened in 1868.
“Michael was blessed with a formidable intellect, his brain was always active,” Fr Boland said.
“He was a voracious reader who had a keen interest in the arts, history, politics and current affairs. But he lived for his family and his grandchildren, he just adored them.”
Photos of his grandchildren were left on the altar alongside a laptop which he used for research. His love of travel was represented by a baseball cap from abroad.
The poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats was recited before Mr Harron’s coffin was carried from the church.
His remains were taken to St Patrick’s Cemetery in Murlog, Lifford, where he was laid to rest beside his wife.