Hutch family bid farewell to ‘Neddy’ with 'simple and unshowy' funeral service
Compared to the ostentation of David Byrne’s funeral on Monday, their farewell to Edward, Neddy as he was known, was as simple and unshowy as possible in the circumstances.
His timber coffin was carried to Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Sean McDermott St, around the corner from his sister’s house where he had been waked, the taxi sign from the roof of his cab perched on top.
His hearse was lined with a few elegant bouquets, the more elaborate displays restricted to floral arrangements spelling the words ‘Grandad’ and ‘Gentleman’.
His chief mourners, who needed just three limos compared to the convoy of 10 at the Byrne extravaganza, wore their own clothes, a shared cloak of sadness their only uniform.
However, the circumstances of Neddy Hutch’s sendoff were all too obvious, from the Garda helicopter that hovered above to the heavy armed presence on the approach roads and around the church grounds.
It took eagle eyes to spot his brother, Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, in the crowd, disguised in a long grey wig, his collar turned up high, his baseball cap pulled down low, and his fate in the hands of the Garda sharpshooters should the feared attempt on his life materialise. A long way off normality then.
However, the family, through their local priest, Fr Richard Ebejer, felt it worth repeating a plea they made at the funeral of Neddy’s murdered nephew, Gary Hutch, in the same church last October, for there to be no more bloodshed.
“This is what the family had asked for, right from the very beginning, that there will be no retaliation,” he said. “It was a request that unfortunately has not been respected, with the result that now more families are in bereavement. The family now calls on everyone for this cycle of violence to stop, and to stop now.”
Fr Ebejer, who also presided at the funeral of Gary Hutch, whose death marked the start of the escalation in violence, made his own personal appeal for an end to the killings.
“We are all aware of the circumstances of Neddy’s death, circumstances that have spiralled out of control, that have left families grieving in shock and pain, that have shocked the whole nation,” he said of the nine bullets Neddy took in revenge for Byrne’s death.
“All vengeful violence is to be condemned in the strongest terms, wherever it comes from. Nobody deserves to die in the way that Neddy died.”
It was the way Neddy lived that dominated the ceremony, where the chief mourners were his partner Margaret, sons Edward, Gavin, and Ross, his many siblings, and his extended family. Another son, Alan, was denied leave from prison to attend, and a fifth, Christopher, died in 2003.
A slideshow of snapshots captured him posing proudly at first communions, relaxing on family holidays, cradling newborn grandchildren. It ended with photos of himself and Christopher, and the poignant message: “Father and son, reunited at last.”
His grandchildren read the prayers and brought gifts to the altar including his taxi sign and a bottle of Corona beer. The songs chosen for him were unashamedly sentimental, made popular by the likes of Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, and The Hollies:
‘I Finally Found Someone’, ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’, ‘We Don’t Say Goodbye’, ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’.
The congregation heard from his colleagues in the taxi business who spoke of a good-natured, big-hearted man. “If Neddy couldn’t do you a good turn, he certainly wouldn’t do you a bad turn,” said a long-time friend and fellow driver.
He loved a prank and there was laughter as his mischief was recalled, such as the time he, allegedly it was stressed, left raw fish in a new driver’s car and feigned innocence as the driver battled the smell in his vehicle.
“There’s something fishy going on,” he said, until the penny finally dropped.
Before deregulation, when taxi plates had a high value, he put up ads of a plate for sale, delighting in opening his boot to prospective buyers and showing them a dinner plate.
After being set up for embarrassment when a driver convinced a woman he knew to confront Neddy publicly, hysterically demanding her fictional maintenance payments, Neddy set up four drivers for a lambasting when he booked them for an address at five in the morning for a fictional fare to Leitrim, with instructions to honk their horns loudly to wake the occupants.
Tit for tat in the taxi business means something far more innocent than in the world of gangland.
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