8 October 2009 Edition

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Fógraí bháis: Susie Loughran

BY ÁINE CARSON

SUSIE Loughran (51) lived in Clowney Street, Beechmount, in Belfast, all her life. She was the only girl of five children born to her parents Patsy and Billy McShane.
Her first job was on the assembly line of the Grundig Factory in Dunmurry.  
An active member of the Republican Movement, she and Paul Loughran, from Amcomri Street, began their relationship in 1974.  
Describing her, Paul said:
“She had a really bubbly personality. She was outgoing and a good laugh. She liked meeting people and would have went out of her way to do you a good turn.”
They were going out for a few months when Paul went to Long Kesh.
He was released and the couple had their first daughter at the beginning of the Hunger Strikes.
They were married in St Matthias’s Chapel, Glen Road, in 1982 and had three more children.
Not wanting to stray too far from her family, Susie and Paul lived next-door to her parents.
Paul took up a job as a ‘black taxi’ driver until the late 1980s, when he went back to Long Kesh for his part in defending Andersonstown when armed British corporals drove erratically into a republican funeral.
“Anything we needed in the jail, Susie smuggled it in without question. She brought the berets for the colour parties and drink at Christmas.”
Susie started working as a home-help.
“She cared for all the people she home-helped. She didn’t just clean their houses, she went back later on after her shift ended to check in on them to see if they were alright.”

KNEW EVERYONE
In between working, rearing the kids and coming to the jail every week she looked after her father and brothers because her mother, Patsy (52), died. Then her brother, Liam McShane (42), died suddenly from diabetes.  
“She didn’t go out much but she went to the hairdressers every Saturday morning with her friends to catch up.  
“She knew everyone and everything that was happening in Beechmount. If she went to the shop down the street, she was gone for about two hours because she always stopped and talked.
“When she died last week, everyone was in shock. She had gallstones but died of cancer; she didn’t know she had it.  
“There were queues of people for three nights trying to get into the house to say their goodbyes.  “She was that well-known, we filled four large bags with Mass cards.”

‘CLASSIC’ FAREWELL
At 8am on Saturday morning, hundreds of mourners followed Susie’s Tricolour-draped coffin from Clowney Street to St Paul’s Church, Falls Road.
Her former work colleagues stood outside the church in their uniforms as a guard of honour.
Family friend Fr Matt Wallace gave a humorous account of Susie’s life and brought comfort to her heartbroken family and friends.
At the end of the funeral Mass, Susie’s and Paul’s wedding song, Classic by Adrian Gurvitz, was played. She was cremated at Roselawn.
She is survived by her husband Paul, daughters Paula, Julieanne, Michelle, son Gerard and grandchildren Casey and Brooke.

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland