Adare bids final farewell to beloved ‘lordy’

HE mixed in circles with the rich and the famous but Lord Thady Dunraven was far from being a “Lord of the Manor” in his beloved Adare.

Actors Peter Ustinov and Jeremy Irons were among his friends, but the locals lovingly referred to him as “lordy”, his funeral service was told yesterday.

More than 500 mourners packed St Nicholas Church in the Co Limerick heritage village where close friend Benjamin Jellett said although Lord Dunraven knew the famous, there was nothing he liked more than talking to trainer Tom O’Connor about the price of greyhounds.

“There was no upstairs, downstairs, there was only down stairs,” said Mr Jellett.

He also recalled Lord Dunraven’s tireless campaign for those confined to wheelchairs.

Lord Dunraven, 71, who was stricken with polio at the age of 15, was for over 20 years president of the Irish Wheelchair Association.

Mr Jellettt said: “He also loved, while down in Kerry in Derrynane, to get Bill Healy to take him out on his boat Civeen to pull up a lobster pot, optimist that he was. That what it was all about for Thady — the stripping back of the minutiae of every day life and its complications, and boy did life throw some complications at Thady; seeing life’s simple purity and grinning at the discovery.”

Mourners were led at the funeral service by Lady Geraldine Dunraven, her daughter Ana Johnson and her husband Duncan.

Guards of honour were formed by children from the local Church of Ireland primary school along with members of both Adare Manor Golf Club and Derrynane Inshore Rescue Service where Lord Dunraven had a holiday home and where he provided the Kerry crew with their boat house.

Former rectors of Adare present included Archdeacon Robert Warren, Rector of Tralee and Dean Maurice Sirr, Dean of Limerick; Catholic clergy included, Bishop John Fleming of the Diocese of Killala, who is a native of Co Limerick, Bro Mark Hederman, Abbot of Glenstal and Fr Joseph Noonan, PP, Adare.

Rev Stan Evans, priest in charge of Adare Parish, who led the funeral service, described Lord Dunraven as an incredible man who never asked ‘why, why me’ having been stricken by polio. “Through his suffering he was alerted to the suffering of others,” he said.

He suggested the marriage of Thady and Gerdaline would make one of the most fantastic love story pictures of our time.

Rev Evans said: “The love Geraldine and Thady had for each other left an indelible impression on all who knew them. This was a sacrificial love.”

Lady Dunraven, addressing the mourners, recalled the many doctors, nurses and carers who had tended to her husband over the years since he was stricken with polio on October 12, 1956.

Since they got married in 1969, she said their love had been everlasting.

Lord Dunraven had many successes with racehorses and greyhounds and achieved a life long ambition in 2005 when he nominated the winner of the Irish Cup, Castle Pines. Many figures from Irish racing present included Johnny Harrington, Sonia Rogers, Edward O’Grady and Tommy Stack.