Kenny leads emotional tribute to Fine Gael TD McFadden
He remembered the 51-year-old Fine Gael TD, who passed away on Tuesday following a two-year battle with motor neurone disease, as a “person of immense courage, dignity, and integrity”.
“We have lost a beautiful woman with a beautiful mind and a beautiful heart,” Mr Kenny told mourners at Coosan Cemetery in Athlone.
“She was a privilege to have known and I know I speak for you all when I say that she will be waiting for you all further on up the road.
“I sat with Nicky just a few days before her final diagnosis and that young woman talked to me about her fears, her anxieties, of entering into a tunnel from which there was no escape.
“And yet, before the end of the conversation, her courage shone through that she would deal with this in the way that she dealt with it. She was a person of immense courage, dignity, and integrity in the face of a debilitating ailment.”
President Michael D Higgins, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin were all in attendance at the funeral Mass at the Church of Our Lady, Queen of Peace in Coosan.
They were joined by around 1,000 mourners, scores of politicians of all political hues, and almost the entire Cabinet.
The coffin of Ms McFadden, a mother of two, was draped in a Tricolour when it arrived at the Church for midday Mass, which was concelebrated by Bishop John Kirby and retired Bishop Colm O’Reilly.
In his homily, Fr Declan Shannon said: “Nicky did many deeds of kindness and goodness, decency and generosity, that many of us may never know about, but God knows.
“Those who knew her as a councillor, as a senator, or as a TD will remember the woman with a big heart who possessed that special gift of making you feel that you were the only person in the world that mattered.
“Her children Caren and Eoin recall their fun-loving mother; they remember their childhood days when she taught them how to bake, leaving a trail of flour in their wake.”
Ms McFadden’s daughter Caren thanked the family and friends. “Eoin and I are so grateful to have a mother who was vivacious, generous, glamorous, selfless, and wise. It may sound extraordinary but it is true: She loved everyone she met, and so she loved every one of you.”
Fine Gael politicians, led by Mr Kenny, accompanied Ms McFadden’s remains through driving rain as they travelled to Coosan Cemetery, around 1km from the church, where Ms McFadden was laid to rest next to her mother Kitty and father Brendan.
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