Margaret Dunigan, 75, is laid to rest at Sacred Heart

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — A requiem Mass for Margaret Dunigan was celebrated Tuesday, Dec. 19, at Sacred Heart Church.
Dunigan, who held many honorary civic titles, served on the Bloomfield Township Council 2002-2007 and 2010-2013. She died Dec. 13 at the age of 75.

Delivering the homily was Bishop Paul Bootkoski, retired from the Archdiocese of Metuchen. Bootkoski, whose first parish assignment was as parochial vicar at Sacred Heart Church, said he had a long friendship with Dunigan and knew her when they were both young.
“She probably died of a broken heart over her son who died in a freak accident,” he said.
Dunigan’s son, Kevin, 48, died Aug. 11.

He remembered Dunigan as a family woman with five daughters and one son.
“We look at our lives and try to make sense of it,” Bootkoski said. “Jesus lived his life, suffered, died and rose.”
He said that Dunigan’s Irish heritage also meant a great deal to her.

“She wore her heritage on her collar and not on her sleeve,” he said.
It was conveyed to him, Bootkoski said, that Dunigan never got over her son’s death. He said this was also true of Mary, the mother of Christ, who suffered over his early death. This past Thanksgiving holiday was extremely difficult for Dunigan, he said.
“God knew she was suffering and called her home,” Bootkoski said. “God said that Christmas would be too difficult for her and brought her to him.”

In this way, he said, God made it possible for mother and son to be reunited for a Christmas meal.
In a telephone interview earlier this week, former Mayor Raymond McCarthy recalled Dunigan whom he knew since the mid-’80s when their daughters played high school sports. She was also the chairwoman of the Bloomfield Democratic Committee, in 2001, when he decided to run for mayor. “I asked her who she wanted for mayor and she said ‘You, if you want’ and I did,” McCarthy said.

He had recently spoken to her over the phone and said that during their friendship, if they did not speak with each other two or three times a day, one of them was either sick or out of the country.

“It wasn’t that everyone liked her; everyone loved her,” he said.
The last time they spoke, it was about her son.
“She grieved so much over him,” McCarthy said.

During the conversation, Dunigan told him that she had to hang up. She promised to call back but never did.
“I had a dream about her the night she passed away,” McCarthy said. “She was a big part of my life.”

Both Donigan and McCarthy served on the council together. On Dec. 9, 2013, they gave their farewell addresses. Dunigan broke into tears as she was about to speak.

“I hope I did something good over the past nine years,” she said.
She served three terms on the council. Her one election defeat was the 2007 Democratic primary. She lost by four votes, but would not contest the results.

Robert Ruane, who knew Dunigan for 58 years — since they worked in the John Kennedy presidential campaign together — served with her on the Bloomfield council. Ruane said she did not contest the primary results because that would have been sour grapes.
“Peggy wasn’t that type of person,” he said following the requiem Mass. “You’re respected for your character. She came back and won.”
In concluding her 2013 council farewell address, Dunigan repeated something she had said before in the chamber.
“Fight like hell in the house,” she said. “But when you’re outside, you’re family.”