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.