Angela Madden (64) died at the end of the summer after a long battle with illness.
Born and reared on the shores of Lough Neagh, she attended St Mary's Primary School and St Mary's Grammar School in Magherafelt. She went on to graduate from Queen's University in 1980 with a degree in Anthropology and later completed a Masters in Ethnomusicology, her thesis focusing on the Irish lilting tradition.
Angela was passionate about poetry, prose, film and music, and enjoyed the role of critic, analysing and parsing a a recently-seen play or movie. She worked as an administrator for the Ulster Orchestra and later the Northern Health Trust and made many friends in both workplaces.
Her job with the orchestra involved travel abroad which, as a keen observer of other cultures, she enjoyed tremendously. She experienced many memorable holidays in France, the US and Canada but her deepest love was for the Scottish Highlands and, thankfully, she was able to spend her last summer holiday there in 2022.
Angela was a reserved but confident individual who was both aware of and proud of her roots. She was at her most content among her kindly neighbours in her native Cargin and Toomebridge and her home on the Lough Shore brought her great happiness - reminding her of the lines in 'At Toomebridge' by local poet Séamus Heaney:
Where the flat water
Came pouring over the weir out of Lough Neagh
As if it had reached an edge of flat earth
And fallen shining into the continuous
Present of the Bann
Angela devotedly nursed her mother at the family home through her last days and when she herself fell ill she was to experience the same loving care from her own family.
Her pithy, witty observations on life, the world and politics, which brightened up the lives of her friends, will be sorely missed. But that is how she will be remembered: vibrant, clever and laughing.
Angela is survived by her sister, the novelist Deirdre Madden and her brother-in-law, the poet Harry Clifton and by her many aunts, uncles and cousins, including the McKavanagh clann of Belfast.
