TRIBUTES have been paid to a popular St Genevieve's High School teacher who was laid to rest on Monday
51-year-old Aidan McAleese passed away on Friday following a battle with cancer.
Hailing from the Moy in Co Tyrone, Aidan settled in Crumlin having taken up a post as French teacher at St Genevieve's 28 years ago.
He went on to teach Business Studies and became head of the department, which flourished under his exceptional leadership.
Though an integral part of the West Belfast and Crumlin communities, Aidan was proud to come from the Moy, where he served An Mhaigh Tír na nÓg GAC as both a player and a coach. He famously led the club's Under-16 footballers to league and championship titles in 1994.
Despite his love for Gaelic games, he was as avid soccer fan and member of the West Belfast Spurs Supporters' Club with whom he travelled to White Hart Lane for matches.
After being diagnosed with cancer last year, Mr McAleese retired from St Genevieve's on June 30 this year.
Paying tribute, St Genevieve's Principal Jackie Bartley described the "overwhelming" impact Aidan McAleese had on his pupils and colleagues, who had a "great love for him".
"He was an amazing character, he was full of life and vitality, and he brought such happiness into our school," she said.
"He was always laughing and having a joke, but he was such a wonderful teacher, and a fabulous leader in his department. His colleagues in Business and IT are devastated, as we all are."
Ms Bartley told how Mr McAleese "set the highest of standards" for his pupils who "had such respect for him".
As well as being "a wonderful professional", he was also "full of wit" and "craic".
"Everybody had good craic with him, especially on a Friday – every Friday was like Aidan McAleese Day in the staff room," Ms Bartley said.
"My office is just across from the staff room, and the roaring and laughing and banter was amazing".
John Brennan, Chair of the West Belfast Spurs Supporters' Club, said Aidan was the "heart and soul" of their trips to London.
"From the minute we met up at the airport to the minute we left the airport he was the heart and soul of everything," he said.
"He could strike up a conversation with absolutely anyone he met. We saw, as his friends, on trains and buses in London where he would end up having a conversation with the people beside him. By the end of the conversation he would know their wife or their husband and the kids. He was just one of those people you could leave in a room of strangers and if you went back later he would know everybody in there."
He added: "Trips to White Hart Lane will be very different without him."
Requiem Mass for Mr McAleese took place at Mater Dei Church in Crumlin, where An Mhaigh GAC members formed a guard of honour outside.
In a statement, the club said: "Sad as it was, this morning’s funeral was a wonderful and fitting send-off for a really genuine, good person and loyal Gael who touched and brightened the lives of so many people. Aidan was a friendly, warm-hearted man who contributed much to his community and put a smile on so many of our faces. Any meeting or conversation with Aidan was always a pleasure and he will be sorely missed.
"To his wife Anne, daughters Anna and Éirinn, mother May, brother Peter, sisters Maria and Patricia and the entire McAleese and McGleenan family circle, we at the club extend our sincerest sympathy."
Aidan McAleese was laid to rest in St James' Cemetery, Aldergrove.
