‘May Ventry sod rest lightly on this noble warrior and angels bear him to God’s happy playing field’
From every corner of Ireland they came to pay tribute to a man who grew to epitomise all that is best in Kerry football — passion, skill, and toughness.
From near came the teammates of the ’70s and ’80s, that incomparable side that won eight All-Ireland titles. From nearer still came his club teammates from An Gaeltacht, and together they formed a guard of honour as the coffin was brought the short distance from Páidí’s family home in Ard a’ Bhothair to the stone-cut Séipéal Caitlíona Naofa.
From far came Paddy Cullen, Jimmy Keaveney, and Anton O’Toole, members of the Dublin team of the ’70s that all of Kerry, but Páidí in particular, loved to beat.
The Taoiseach and the President were represented by their aides-de-comp, with Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte, former taoiseach Brian Cowen, and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin also among the mourners.
Mostly, however, this was Páidí’s constituency, the plain men and women of Ireland.
Inside, the pews were packed, which meant that hundreds had to stand outside and listen to the broadcast as renowned commentator and Dingle native Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh got proceedings under way. Even in the increasingly bitter cold and the rising wind, nobody left, nobody complained.
The funeral was conducted for the most part through Irish, the language Páidí had grown up speaking and loved. Starting with his daughter Neasa’s recitation of The Blind Man At Croke Park, a favourite of Páidí’s written by Valentia Islander Liam MacGabhann, and continuing through a succession of speakers, this was celebration more than lamentation.
A man of boundless energy and bonhomie, Páidí wouldn’t have countenanced anything else and, premature though his death was, it was probably best summed up in the homily by his great friend, Fr Kieran O’Brien.
“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years,” he said before ending on another quote, this one from Rudyard Kipling’s If: “If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings — nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much.”
When the formalities were over, as many times before he was shouldered by his own, but this was for the last time.
Teenage son Pádraig Óg was between his cousins Darragh and Fergal on one side. Two of Páidí’s nephews, Tomás and Marc, along with brother-in-law Stephen Fahy, were on the other.
He was walked to the graveyard with wife Máire, daughters Neasa and Siún. Former county board chairman Seán Walsh gave the oration. “May the Ventry sod rest lightly on this noble warrior and may the angels bear him gently to God’s happy playing field,” he said.
A send-off fit for a king.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
