Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

This page is in memory of my brother Peter, who passed away on 19th August 2011 at the tender age of 44. He was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer) in November 2010 and over the next 9 months didn't complain once about his illness, he was a very brave man.

The following is Peter's eulogy from the funeral service on 23rd August 2011.

Peter Brian Armstrong was born in Larne in 1967, the second son to Brian and Betty. David was 2 years older and Julie 3 years younger.  Growing up in Whitehead, all three children attended Whitehead Primary School, right beside the family home.

Julie fondly remembers at age 5 playing a game with Peter called "in the Army now" where he would build an obstacle course with chairs and cushions in the hall through which Julie would crawl while Peter sang "we're in the Army now"

David and Peter joined the Boys Brigade and Julie was in the Brownies, where they enjoyed the various activities provided.
Although Peter was never renowned for particularly sustained, energetic physical activity, during his time in the Boys Brigade he did play two or three games of football before deciding to hang up his boots early in his career. This was due to his instant and opposite reaction to Jimmy Bulbs, the officer who organised the football team, yelling at him from the touchline " get your hands out of your bloody pockets and stop watching the daisies grow!". This is only possible when you are wearing 80s style school rugby shorts - which actually did have decent sized pockets in them.

Early family holidays were spent in Scotland and England, basically wherever the British Open Golf Tournament was being held, as Brian was a very keen and accomplished golfer. These were happy times and they saw many of the great golfers from the 70s and 80s in action. Peter once sported a t-shirt which exclaimed "Lee Trevino Rules". It looked great with his blue pin stripe parallel trousers of the time.

David and Peter indulged in the usual rough and tumble games that brothers got up to when growing up, and enjoyed messing about on bikes and hanging about with friends in Whitehead. There used to be some old railway carriages on the tracks beside Whitehead football pitch. One day when playing on these Peter managed to fall head first off the roof of a carriage and land on his head which resulted in a few stitches.

Peter followed David's move to Carrickfergus Grammar School in 1979. Julie followed a few years later after a detour via Larne Grammar. Omelette, as he was briefly known in the 80s, was easily the most talented in Art Class and was usually responsible for a lot of the artwork required to illustrate the various articles in the yearly school magazine. Something he undertook with ease, originality and skill.

In 1992 Peter stood up at David and Mel's wedding and delivered an incredibly original, witty and downright hilarious best man's speech. It was a graphic masterpiece, various life-size cutouts of David's head with different hairstyles through the years. I'm sure those of you who were there can attest to its brilliance.
This was one of Peter's greatest skills. A creative ability which had begun in Carrick Grammar and was honed during a degree course in Art College in Belfast.
Peter worked as a graphic designer for an advertising agency in Belfast for a number of years before going freelance. Whether it was a corporate logo, a brochure, a band poster, flyer, business card or a sign for the side of a van, you can always recognise a Peter Armstrong design. A good example is the Translink logo. His designs have a bold, contemporary simplicity, a style of their own, and if you had the pleasure of working with him you'd note the meticulous attention to detail Peter put into every project. That he was a very artistic bloke and talented Graphic Designer is well known by all here today and there are many who have benefitted from the originality of thought and the creativity he possessed so naturally - on many occasions for little or no reward.
His life and his gift have very sadly been cut short, but the imagination and skill he has left behind will be treasured in the form of his photographs, "special" photo-shopped photos and the personally crafted and ever so witty cards he seemed to produce so effortlessly for birthdays, Christmas, etc.

Peter's enjoyment of a good old fashioned fancy dress party was evident in how much effort he put into making costumes of some originality, rather than rentals from Elliots. Who could forget the chainsaw embedded in his head or the Frank Zappa costume from the last party he attended?

Peter was also a great lover of music. This interest began in the late 70s with David and Peter's initial musical obsessions with Elvis and ABBA. David was an Elvis fan and Peter inexplicably was a huge fan of ABBA. Julie's Prince obsession came a few years later. He then started exploring mum and dad's vinyl collection and found he liked music by the Beatles and David Bowie. David remembers showing some friends how thick and strong an original 78 pressing of Bill Hailey and the Comets' Rock Around The Clock was, compared to the modern records of the day and managed to snap it in half. Every time he subsequently told this story Peter shook his head and rolled his eyes in dismay, and quite rightly so.
From that starting point the boys began listening to bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, ACDC and Motörhead, and in 1982 they went, with a few friends, to Belfast to see their first gig. Motorhead live in Maysfield Leisure Centre. They were the loudest band in the world at the time and the tickets were three pounds fifty.
That was it, they were hooked and through the years went to see many memorable gigs, Santana at Slane Castle, Pink Floyd in Wembley Stadium, King Crimson in the Royal Albert Hall and to celebrate Peter's 40th in 2007 a crowd of them went to the ATP festival in Minehead, a fantastic weekend it was too. Over the years Peter discovered and came to appreciate all kinds of different music from post-rock through punk and indie to hip hop, although some of the more aggressive stuff David tried to play to him was dismissed by Peter as "more shouty rubbish". Well they couldn't be expected to agree on everything. A particular highlight was a gig they went to with Julie in Belfast by the hip hop band Blackilicious.
Peter loved discovering new music and he took great pleasure in making compilation CDs to give to friends. He also enjoyed making music and loved a good jam session, usually turning up for a party with a djembe, congas or some other weird and wonderful percussion instrument. For a few years it was very easy to buy birthday and christmas presents for Peter, basically until the supply of different ethnic percussion instruments available in the Earthworks shop in Belfast was exhausted.
With all this talk of music It wouldn't be right if we didn't play a tune or two. The first of these is a track that David and Peter saw live at a gig in the Mandela Hall in Belfast in October 2003. It was a fantastic gig by a band Peter saw live a few times and David remembers the first notes of this song being played and Peter turning to him with a look of joy and awe, he loved this track. This is Hunted by a Freak off the album Happy Songs for Happy People by the Scottish band Mogwai.

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The second song is by a band Peter and some friends went to see in Dublin. He was also lucky enough to see the guitar and piano playing lead singer do a solo gig in Belfast and meet up with him for a few drinks afterwards. Howe Gelb is the singer and his band is called Giant Sand, one of Peter's all time favourite bands. This is a beautiful song called Chunk of Coal from Giant Sand's latest album Blurry Blue Mountain. David bought this for Peter last Christmas. in June Peter told David how much he like it. This is the last album Peter listened to.

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Peter was a big fan of movies. This was probably due to being taken to the cinema from an early age by mum and dad. Brian was a keen movie goer. During a holiday to Edinburgh the family enjoyed the first Superman film so much that they stayed in their seats until the next showing to watch the movie again.
Peter loved a well directed film with a good story but also enjoyed a leave-your-brain-at-the-door blockbuster when he was in the mood. If he didn't like a movie he invariably reviewed it as being "the worst film I've ever seen in my life". He must have had 40 or 50 worst films he'd ever seen in his life.
Peter loved the work of French director Jean Pierre Jeunet. Films like Delicatessen, Amelie and City of Lost Children were so creative, amusing and beautiful to watch that it appealed to the designer in him. He could relate to the creative process.
The last piece of music we are going to hear today is a classical piece from an opera by Pietro Mascagni. It's called Cavalleria Rusticana and with Peter's love of great films it's appropriate that this is the theme music for the Martin Scorcese classic Raging Bull. This is a piece of music for reflection and I'd like you all to think of Peter during it.

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In the last few years Peter enjoyed some great weekends at the Northwest 200 motorcycle races and through his dogged determination he made it to this year's race in May. Even though he was very ill at this stage and the event was a bit of a wash out, he really enjoyed being there and it meant a lot to all the others who were there as it was the last time they were able to do something together as mates.
Peter was a wonderful son, brother, brother-in- law, uncle and friend-to-many and he will be sorely missed.

The family would like to take this opportunity to thank the various medical staff for their help in making Peter as comfortable as possible in the last few days and weeks but especially Jane, Peter's partner, whose strength, love and devotion in caring for Peter throughout his illness made the unbearable a lot more bearable.

All donations will go to AMMF, the only UK registered cholangiocarcinoma charity.

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Thank you very much.

David