Tributes flood in as renowned horse breeder laid to rest

DICK FORRISTAL'S violent death was the worst kind imaginable, more than 1,000 mourners were told yesterday at the funeral of the well known Co Waterford horse breeder.

A touching homily at the Church of the Holy Cross in Tramore was delivered by the 66-year-old's close friend and former parish priest, Monsignor John Shine.

"Deaths are so different, aren't they," the monsignor said. "They come to all of us all in such different ways. Some are more terrible than others. The brutal way in which Dick's life was taken from him was the worst of all. He was a man who should still be with us.

Mr Forristal was a well known horse breeder and his horse, Blue Corrig, was scheduled to race in the Galway Festival.

His body was discovered in his home at Carrigavantry Stud near Tramore last Thursday.

He had earlier attended the funeral of Tara Whelan, 17, who was killed in a bomb blast in Turkey. A preliminary post-mortem examination showed he was stabbed to death.

Msr Shine said the tributes paid to Mr Forristal showed just what a great character he was. He said much has been heard, seen and read about his friend since his death.

"The wonderful thing about all that has been said about him is that it is true. We didn't have to invent anything to say about him.

"You didn't have to wonder about what would be said about Dick. What was even more wonderful was that everybody was saying the same thing, which confirmed the truth about him. He was a kind man, an obliging man. An inoffensive man and a good neighbour to everyone. That was Dick."

He added that he was turning the pages of a newspaper this week and saw the headline "Death of a gentleman". He said before he even began to read the text, he knew it was an article about Dick Forristal.

The monsignor said a phrase framed on the wall of his own bedroom could easily become Mr Forristal's epitaph. It reads: "When through one man a little more kindness and goodness and a little more love and truth has come into the world, then that man's life has had meaning."

Mr Forristal's coffin, which was draped in his yellow and white stable colours, was brought to the cemetery and placed in the Forristal family grave alongside the remains of his parents.