Bishop Eamonn Casey 1927-2017: A life lived to its fullest but famous for one thing

The arc of Eamonn Casey’s life had many highlights, all of which are aptly recalled in the wake of his death.

But nothing his did — not his standing in the doorway of San Salvador cathedral helping others to safety with no regard for his own, nor his leading the faithful in their joyful celebration of the arrival of Pope John Paul II — had the seismic effect of the news that he’d had an affair with an American divorcee with whom he had fathered a son.

“It was a bit like ‘Where were you when Kennedy was shot’?” said his good friend Fr Dermot McCarthy yesterday.