Standing room only for removal

IT was Garret’s FitzGerald’s express wish that his funeral take place in Donnybrook Church, though it would have taken a building several times its size to hold all who wanted to bid him farewell.

In a poignant sign that Garret was aware of his failing health, he outlined his wishes to local parish priest Fr Martin Clarke at a social gathering a few months ago.

There was standing room only in the packed church on Dublin’s southside on Saturday evening as more than 1,000 mourners gathered for the removal of his remains from the Mansion House where an estimated 20,000 people had earlier filed past his coffin.

Many others stood outside in a downpour as the six army officers carried the coffin into the church, the tricolour draped over it shimmering with rain.

President Mary McAleese and her husband Dr Martin McAleese, and Taoiseach Enda Kenny, were in the congregation along with Garret’s family to hear Fr Clarke welcome the remains of one of his best-known and best-loved parishioners.

“We are gathered to pay tribute to an extraordinary Irishman, someone who has enriched so many lives, someone who has enriched the lives of this country,” he said.

Fr Clarke spoke of the historic week past and how Garret had played such an important part in making it possible.

“This past week has been extraordinary for our country, a week in which we experienced great joy and celebration on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Ireland, but also great sorrow because of the loss of Garret FitzGerald.

“The queen’s visit clearly was a resounding success. She was made really welcome by the vast majority of our people. It marked a watershed in Anglo-Irish relations and one of the great high points in the week was in Dublin Castle on Wednesday night and the wonderful speeches from our President Mary McAleese and Queen Elizabeth.

“But within hours of that landmark occasion in Dublin Castle, Garret FitzGerald was called by God. As many commentators and observers have said, there was a certain significance in that because of Garret’s commitment to peace-making and all that he achieved when in political office, particularly around the Anglo-Irish Agreement. It made the Good Friday Agreement possible and laid foundations for the wonderful peace which we now enjoy on this island.”

He described the former taoiseach as being passionate in his commitment to peace, having a hunger and thirst for what is right and having a gentleness in all he said and did.”

With reference to his renowned ability for argument and oration, he said: “Many words, many superlatives have been used to describe him and perhaps, unlike Garret himself, we are beginning to run out of words — something that would never happen to him.”

Fr Clarke extended the congregation’s sympathies to the FitzGerald family, noting that while their loss was very public, their grief was intensely private. He hoped they took comfort from knowing he was being reunited with his beloved wife Joan who died in 1999.