Tragic clergyman suffered ‘utterly unendurable’ health conditions

Church of Ireland minister Rev Canon Mark Watson died suddenly at his home on the Drumgoon Road in Maguiresbridge on Monday.

Mourners at Christ Church in Maguiresbridge heard how the rector of Maguiresbridge and Derrybrusk parishes – a father-of-two – had “suffered a number of the most horrible, demoralising illnesses,” over the last 18 months.

Bishop of Clogher, Right Rev John McDowell said: “Those of us who knew him were full of admiration for the courage and determination and cheerfulness with which he faced them. During all this time his appetite for work was entirely unabated. He would drag himself to his duties and the fulfilment of his vocation regardless.

“But the particular condition he suffered from over the past while was utterly unendurable.”

Rev McDowell said that only the tragic clergyman’s wife Rona, and sons Samuel and Peter, are fully aware “of just how deadly and destructive” his condition was.

“Day by day Mark was being ground between the agonising millstones of life’s bitterest experiences; of desperate uncertainty and utter despair. It is only those who know very little of such trials, or who have been sheltered from life’s most devastating experiences, whose confidence comes from never having had their self-confidence shaken, who would have the temerity to pass a judgement,” Rev McDowell added.

Praising his church colleague, Rev McDowell went on to say: “Mark Watson was a big man. A big family man. A big presence in the parishes where he served. A big influence in the many organisations to which he belonged. A big contributor to the communities he lived in. He was a life enhancer.”

Canon Watson was a former chaplain in both the Orange Order and Royal Black Institution.