Mourners pay tribute to two political figures

Former taoiseach Brian Cowen and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin were among hundreds of mourners who gathered yesterday to pay tribute at the funeral of former minister Noel Davern, who died suddenly at the weekend.

The small country church on the hillside at Powerstown, outside Clonmel, was packed for the funeral Mass, while many more gathered outside in the driving wind and rain and heard tributes to the veteran politician who spent 32 years in the Dáil, served as education minister under Charles Haughey, and as minister of state for agriculture under Bertie Ahern.

Retired minister Michael Smith, who was first elected to the Dáil at the same time as Noel Davern, delivered a graveside oration in which he described the former TD, minister, MEP, and councillor as a man with a “rapport with people which he enjoyed and they enjoyed”, and as someone who loved to help people.