8:36am Saturday 14th July 2007
TEACHER Jim McCaffrey got the send-off he would have wanted as Morris men performed at his funeral yesterday.
Mr McCaffrey, 60, of Gilesgate, Durham City, died in Newcastle's Freeman Hospital last Saturday, July 7, of complications related to diabetes. He had been an enthusiast of English folk dancing for many years.
As his coffin was carried into the city's St Cuthbert's Roman Catholic Church for a Requiem Mass, members of Kern Morris and Richmondshire Morris formed a guard of honour.
There was also dancing in the aisles during the service to the accompaniment of a jig played by two musicians.
"He will be greatly missed by his family and friends, but we wanted it to be a celebration of his life. We knew that dad would want his funeral to be a celebration rather than something sad,'' said his daughter Jennifer.
"He wasn't one to moan about things. He wanted to celebrate and make the most of what he had.''
Mr McCaffrey, who also leaves a widow, Eileen, and son, Duncan, established Kern Morris with his wife - it was unusual in being a team for men and women - and had been a member of the Richmondshire team.
He was head of a special education unit at Derwentside College in Consett. After he took early retirement, he returned to teaching as an education officer at the Fulling Mill Museum of Archaeology in Durham.
He also helped to establish the Chinese Association North-East Region and its Chinese school.
He was a real ale enthusiast and a member of the Durham branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra). He was chairman of the branch in the 1990s and helped organise its beer festival.
Miss McCaffrey said: "He was a fantastic man who loved Durham, the North-East and his real ale. He also loved Morris dancing and all things folk.''
The service was followed by cremation at Durham Crematorium, and a wake at Grey College, Durham University.
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